Monday, February 28, 2011

Quote of the day




“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”



KT explains why this quote generally attributed to Albert Einstein and the concept therein is lost on some people in Wisconsin, here.


Totally related: Back around 1980, Johnny Carson, in his monologue dropped this gem: "Scientists have developed a powerful new weapon that kills people but leaves buildings standing - it's called the 17% interest rate".

Pension actuarians... not laughing.

Video clip of the day

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.


Justice Department declares ObamaCare unconstitutional

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!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Frequent White House visitor comes out of two year coma




As Porkulus turned 2 years old a week and a half ago, how else do you explain the following?




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

The complete lack of self-awareness is stunning as it's unfathomable to us that these people don't realize they have been essentially saying the same thing for two years now with no real favorable impact to the economy.

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 $256 billion for inftrastructure sounds familiar to regular readers of this blog it should because it's a dollar figure just $30 billion shy of the pork-laden $286 billion Highway Bill signed into law by President Bush just 6 years ago.

Here's what Bush said about it at the signing ceremony back in 2005:

"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."

So, obviously it's not a Democrat/Republican thing as infrastructure upgrades/employment-boosting via Keynesian economics talking points get issued to both sides of the aisle as well as to the union bosses.

Need to learn some new lyrics, fellas, as people may get wise to you wanting to spend money we don't have on boondoggles like high-speed rail and shovel-ready projects that just aren't that shovel-ready.

Link of the day

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.

Iowahawk has more at the link above.

Outside of P.J. O'Rourke, we can't think of a political satirist/humourist who splits our sides as consistently as does Iowahawk.

We're assuming they do have indoor plumbing



Leslie of Temple of Mut and Dawn Wildman of Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition are representing at the American Policy Summit at the Phoenix Convention Center which apparently is not "hot" so Leslie has resorted to phoning-in reports.

Some notes:

- Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) did not get the warm reception he thought he was going to receive when he attempted to tout the $61 billion in cuts after the House Republicans were promising $80 billion of the same. Lusty booing ensues.

- Freshman Congressman David Schweirkert (R-AZ) received a warm reception, apologized for this broken campaign promise of sorts and railed against raising the debt ceiling.

- Walter Hudson of Fightin' Words was on hand to speak as well. Though topics of discussion and coordination efforts ran far and wide, Leslie reported that conference attendees were focused and engaged in the goings on in Wisconsin.




H/T: Our cell phone, Leslie's cell phone, a boosted felt tip pin and an empty back page of our road atlas.


Saturday, February 26, 2011

About this whole Mitch Daniels dust-up...




At first blush, we could understand but after closer inspection, we're not really getting the general freak-out on the right over Indiana governor Mitch "the Knife" Daniels' refusal to pursue Right To Work laws in this year's legislative agenda.

Here's his brief but entirely sensible response to his critics.


Executive summary: There's plenty I'm pursuing that is going to be tough enough to accomplish (see: fleeing Democratic lawmakers) without piling on with RTW.


Our own take: What might fit other states like Wisconsin may not fit states like Indiana. The fact of the matter is that the entitlement reform revolution will have to be in degrees. Any sort of purity test is doomed to counter-productivity. Everyone needs to just chill.

Quickies: the fleebagger edition





A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye next week.



First, Wisconsin and now in Indiana, Democratic lawmakers are forcing a government shutdown by turning tail and heading out of state rather than, you know, doing the job they have been paid to do by the taxpayers of their state. Elections do have consequenses and for the citizens of Wisconsin and Indiana, these consequenses mean, instead of having to face some legislative unpleasantries, certain lawmakers behave like abject cowards and abdicate their duties and responsibilities to the people they serve.

You don't even have to support Scott Walker or his public employee union reforms to recognize the disgraceful actions of these fleebaggers. This notion of "negotiating" is complete non-sense. The Democrats got their asses handed to them in November, turning over majorities of state legislatures to the Republicans and their response, their big idea, is to get out of Dodge all the while bitching and moaning about "preserving the balance of power". If all this apparently unbearable legislation is indeed so horrible, run on that assumption in 2012 and throw the Republicans out of office and then try to balance the budget.

Ah, that felt good.





Some more of that "new civility" the liberal-Left tells us we all must abide by.
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.

Now that DADT has been repealed what are the Ivys objecting to now as justification for banning ROTC from their campuses? The military ban on transgenders? Oh, for cryin' out loud.

Can we now just cut through all the bullshit and acknowledge that the Ivys simply hate the military? Hey, it's cool.

Incidentally...

Despite Columbia being a private university, we understand they still receive federal funding. How quickly can we put an end to that?





When you lose Evan Thomas:
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.



George Will On Wisconsin and its two principals.

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.




Penicillin or leeches?
If multiculturalism is so swell, what ever became of multimedicinalism?
KT has more on the subject, here.




It's not too late. There's still time to repent and reform but the early returns are starting to roll in and it doesn't look promising:

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?


Stay tuned.

Oh, and we know a handful of folks born on the cusp in the late 50s and early 60s, technically boomers, who consider themselves, culturally-speaking, Gen-Xers who want absolutely nothing to do with the boomer generation and stigma for that matter.

Damn hippies.





Shut up, they explained.

Peter Wehner on Wisconsin, Big Media and its double standard when it comes to that whole civility thing.
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.




B-Daddy reviews Avery Brewing Salvation Ale. Now, we don't want to give anything away but we wouldn't send you over there if he thought it was a crappy beer, right?



Leslie is heading to Arizona and will be phoning in reports.




Hey, wait... here's more of that civility thing we've been hearing about.

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.

It's obvious these "political observers" have been doing a piss-poor job of stopping any of it.

With respect to Capuano, at a certain point, these people just become caricatures of themselves.



And finally...

Jonah Goldberg eulogizes his brother.

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?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Radio KBwD is on the air





We are expecting some rain here in the San Diego area this weekend (yep, Storm Watch 2011!). And what better way to prepare for it than to put on something bitter-sweet from some morose young lads from the old country.



Ladies and Gentlemen, from Manchester, England, it's The Smiths performing "Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before".
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Throw out that retirement calculator - help is on the way!




The current economic climate and general cultural apathy is making saving for retirement quite the unseemly proposition. Let Secular Apostate count the ways:




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.


Alas, to counter these apparent obstacles, he presents “7 Benefits Of Retiring at 52 When Someone Else Pays For It”.

Check it out, here.

You really need to bookmark SA and make him one of your appointed stops in your rounds of the interwebs.

Sarah sez




One in a series that takes a look at some of the zany and madcap things said by Sarah Palin.

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Woops. Not Sarah Palin.


Because spelling and foreign policy is, like, hard.


H/T: Gatway Pundit



Related: B-Daddy on L-i-b-y-a and voting present.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

This man will now vet your religious convictions



Like the Sun rising in the East, Rick Reilly wades, inevitably , into the Iowa-highschooler-won't-wrestle-girl-because-of-his-religious-beliefs dust-up and dispenses the usual Rick Reilly ass-hattery we used to endure from time to time before we stopped reading his overbearing sanctimonious crap altogether.

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?

So, Reilly has established himself as arbiter of what people can and cannot believe and act or not act depending upon that belief. Good to know.

And what a ridiculous straw man. No one is getting poked. The young man is refraining from activity not engaging in obviously anti-social behavior as justified by God. To take this ridiculous strawman to its deserving ridiculous end, the wrestler, one Joel Northrup, is refusing to poke the elderly with sharp sticks.

Given Reilly's logic, he should probably think that refusing to eat bacon is wrong-headed as well. Bacon's awesome. Why would anyone refuse to eat such a delightful meat? Because God or Allah told them so? In this age, don't we know better?


Perhaps Reilly should be taking to task athletes' refusals to play on certain religious holidays, a predicament that has faced Jewish baseball players like Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg and Shawn Green (Koufax refused to pitch Game 1 of the '65 World Series against the Twins as it fell on Yom Kippur. Don Drysdale got the start instead but gave up seven runs in 2-2/3 innings prompting Drysdale to quip "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too").

But no, Reilly chooses instead to ridicule some Christian kid (home-schooled, no less) living in fly-over country. Nothing like a soft target, eh, Rick?


What a testament to the deplorable state of sports journalism that this clown is only 3 National Sportswriter of the Year awards (11) behind the greatest sportswriter of all-time, the late, great, Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. Murray once wrote of the Boston Celtic point guard legend, Bob Cousy, "He led the fast break like the lead kid out the door on the last day of school." Reilly prays to the sportswriting gods he could turn a phrase like that. Just once.

Good lord, Reilly is a tool.

And the winner is....




A recent poll by Gallup put Ronald Reagan at the top of the heap of greatest American presidents. Here's the top 10:

Ronald Reagan -- 19%

Abraham Lincoln -- 14%

Bill Clinton -- 13%

John F. Kennedy -- 11%

George Washington -- 10%

Franklin Roosevelt -- 8%

Barack Obama -- 5%

Theodore Roosevelt -- 3%

Harry Truman -- 3%

George W. Bush -- 2%


As shameless Reagan acolytes, even we were more than a little embarrassed by the fact that our boy bested both Washington and Lincoln.

Sarah Palin took some very undeserved grief for naming Washington as the greatest/most important President as she was entirely correct. "Pedestrian" was the general charge levied at her if we remember correctly. Because, you know, we all get enough Washington in grade school, right? As if an emphasis on the foundations of this nation and the men responsible for it in the 5th grade is evidence of a lack of intellectual rigor. As if cherry trees and crossing the Delaware are but part of an American mythology... if kids these days are even learning about cherry trees and crossing the Delaware.

Without Washington, the President and
the general, none of this happens. None of it. With respect to who is your own greatest president, you are entitled to think otherwise but you would be wrong*.

Recall perhaps the most important thing Washington ever did for this country and indeed for the advancement of democracy was what he did not do: he did not seek a third term, stepping down after his second thus ensuring that Western civilization's grand experiment would not start off with a third world-like President-for-life.



* Needlessly confrontational but confrontational just the same.

Links of the day




Our own Leslie of Temple of Mut was on KUSI yesterday, breaking down the public union debate in Wisconsin. Check it out, here.


And details plus video of rally yesterday in Kearny Mesa in support of the tax payers of Wisconsin, here.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

MAXED OUT: Hop this way.




Max is back and in a much better mood after he was able to get a thing or two off his chest in last week's installment of MAXED OUT. After all, how long can one remain angry when one is talking about beer?




Welcome back my fermented friends. I have been thinking all week about what to write for this week's edition when it occurred to me: Not everyone out there may be as well versed in the craft of brewing as myself. Huh, how 'bout that! So today I'm gonna be takin' y'all on a little adventure I like to call "BREWING 101" while mainly focusing on my personal favorite flower, the hop.

OK, quick question: What would you say is the main ingredient in beer? Don't worry, I'll give you a minute...... That's right my little geniuses, it's WATER! Beer is comprised of about 95% water, so next time you go into a bar and ask for a glass of water, don't be so surprised when the barkeep gives you a funny look. The other two primary ingredients are your starch sources (or malts) & a flavoring component, usually being hops. Now there are a million different starch sources you can use and hundreds of different hop varietals, so I won't be getting into that specifically but I did want to drop some knowledge on you about hops in general.

The Hop plant, or Humulus Lupulus (how cool is that name?), is actually a flower and a cousin of Cannabis, or WEED! The female species is the one that blossoms into a flower and is the one that we use in beer. There are many functions of hops in beer but two in particular are going to be the topic of discussion today: flavor and preservation. The hops are used to cut the sweetness of the malts as the hops are more bitter and floral. So often times you will hear me calling a beer piney, or zesty, a reference to the hop notes in the beer. There is actually a chart that quantifies the amount of hops in a beer called the IBUs in a beer or International Bitterness Units. But the amount of hops in a beer really has no bearing on the overall ABV or alcohol by volume. That's all up to our good friends the Malt family! Thank you Malt family, you've been helping ugly people get laid for centuries!

Now, the preservation of the beer is another big reason why we hop our beers. Did you know that beer is pretty much the harvesting of bacteria for consumption? I mean, quite literally that's what it is. And hops are natural antibiotics which helps keep the bacteria from running wild. You've all heard of an IPA before, right? Well, often people mistakenly call it an Indian Pale Ale, thinking that it had something to do with the American Indians. It actually means India Pale Ale, as in dots, not feathers. What happened was, when those bloody Brits were traversing to and from India, the sailors had to get their drink on, so what did they do? They jam-packed their beer with hops to keep it fresher longer. That's why IPAs are typically going to be the hoppiest beers around and therefore more piney, citrusy, aromatic, and are most likely going to be higher on the IBUs. And therefore DELICIOUS!

Whew! Well, my head is kinda spinning from blabbing about beer so I think I'm going to keep today's lecture short and sweet. Thanks for putting up with my gas-baggery and, as always, feel free to comment in the section below, on Facebook, or at maxamilliondollars@gmail.com.

Until next time, have a drink for me.

And now for something a little different



Forgive us this brief nod to a time when we thought we were going to be a sports-oriented blog as suggested by the Figurehead above and also an orientation to which the majority of you wish we would have stayed.



To our San Diego St. Aztec basketball fan friends who feel slighted that the team did not move up from their #6 spot in the AP poll after 4 teams above them lost this past weekend: quit whining and enjoy the ride.

The Aztecs, currently 27-1, are having unarguably their best season ever so why not just sit back and take in the sights... and get ready for the biggest regular season game in the program's history Saturday as the team has a chance to avenge their lone loss with a home tilt against BYU, themselves ranked right behind State in the AP poll and being the recipient of 2 first place votes while the Aztecs did not receive any. Ha! Looks like that East Coast bias crests and then ebbs in the Wasatch Range.

Seriously though, if you watched their last three games you might understand how it is that the AP voters were reluctant to move up St. We're confident that all the AP voters probably have not seen State play and "bias", however you want to measure it, probably had a lot to do with voter reluctance to move upward a largely unknown quantity over knowns like Texas, Kansas, Pitt and Ohio State who all lost this past weekend.

But having seen this team play of late, we would be reluctant ourselves to move St. up from the #6 spot. To wit, in its last three games, St. has managed just one field goal over the last 8-10 minutes in each of those games. It's a double-edged sword: on one hand it's a testament to playing great defense, knocking down clutch free throws and displaying the mental fortitude to grind out wins against quality opponents (two of which were on the road). On the other hand, it points to a serious shortcoming with respect to this team's inability to create easy shots for itself.


D.J. Gay (whose name, you can imagine, generated some rather unfortunate results in a Google image search) is a fine, fine point guard who manages the game efficiently and takes care of the rock with impeccable care but averaging just over 3 assists a game he does not create well off the dribble to set up his teammates for easy looks. Each trip down the floor on the offensive end, particularly in the home stretch of games, becomes a grind where just getting a decent look at the bucket and not turning over the ball causing an easy run-out by the other team becomes a moral victory of sorts.

Now, don't get us wrong - we're not hating. But we've observed this game for many years and what we see in front of us is blatantly obvious. We, along with seemingly the rest of San Diego, have bought in and we'll be rooting for State as we have been all along and we would love to be proven wrong but the inability to create easy looks in the half court set is just the sort of thing that could bite State in the rear come tournament time.

Relish this year, gang, because 27-1 and a #6 ranking hasn't ever made any stops in these parts over the years.



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.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Finally....the Mean People Suck set get their own foundation

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.

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.).

(italics, ours)

For cryin' out loud, even the President who cannot make a firm stand on anything, said that there was no linkage between the lack of civil discourse and the wacko gunman. No matter.


Here's the two big cheeses - let's hear what they have to say:

"Our country needs a setting for political debate that is both frank and civil," Bush said in a statement.

Clinton said in a statement that the new institute "can elevate the tone of dialogue in our country."
Eh... what?

Being civil is essential to elevating the dialog in this country because right now things aren't very civil and that's bad so that's why the elevation of the civil tone in the political arena that will be brought about by this even newer civility will.... blah, blah, blah, blah.


We would rather shove hot pokers in our eyes than have to sit through just 10 minutes of this drivel.



Well, if they're serious about their charter, vision statement, mission statement or whatever they decide to come up with, we know exactly where their first stop should be.









Don't count on it. Remember gang, all this talk of civility is just the poltical class's polite way of telling you to shut the hell up.


(photo courtesy Left Coast Rebel)

Smack of the day

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"

SLOB Update

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.

Read more about Charles Caesar's totally excellent adventure on local KPBS, here.

You and 10 others like Planned Parenthood

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.

It's probably a good indicator of just how popular statist policy positions are with the general public, especially after they receive a good airing, that the ruling class feels compelled to manufacture or at least attempt to manufacture a completely bogus cyber-consensus.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Wisconsin, Bargaining Rights and SEIU Tactics

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.

Representative Lee would like to share some things she knows about ObamaCare

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.

Playin' hooky: Wisconsin style

It's come to this...

... but weren't you almost expecting it?


Doctors handing out sick chits to truant teachers in Madison.

A little street theater via Ann Althouse who has been all over the Wisconsin situation. Click at the link and scroll.




And this from Pundit Press:


(if embed no worky, please go to the link)




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."

Wondering just how down for the cause Oriel and the other doctors are going to be when their asses are hauled before the state's medical review board for this fraudulent behavior.

Programming Alert




We've given the staff the day off for this Presidents' Day so blogging will be light and/or farmed out to more capable hands.

Depending on the scenery we may share some photos later on of our mini-roadie today to San Diego's outback.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Then they came for the who?

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 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.
Walker also had a gentle admonition that perhaps the President ought to worry about his own debt problem.



And this is what they must mean when they talk about the "new civility".

Some sage advice via the President

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

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Quickies: the Wisconsin edition






A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.






This must have been what he meant when he spoke of being "post-partisan" and doing away with divisiveness in American politics.

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.

Quick show of hands: Does anyone recall a President injecting himself this forcefully and completely into a state matter?





"Shut up", he explained...
Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC equates cartoon caricatures to racism... and bores everyone into a coma in 6 short minutes while doing so.





And now a curious defense of abortion in the battle to defund Planned Parenthood:

Abortion advocates said if Planned Parenthood loses its place at the government trough that women would be hurt.

"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.”

(italics, ours)

Tens of thousands of college students now ponder their options.

The fact that public opinion has been slowly turning against abortion over the decades is borne out by the "logic" presented by Moore.





And where Andrew Sullivan will soon be questioning the fatherhood of Sasha and Malia:

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.




When you lose the Washington Post:

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.




You've all probably heard about the Iowa highschool wrestler who refused to wrestle a female opponent:

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.

First of all, how the hell is the fact that the kid is home-schooled relevant to this article, whatsoever.

Secondly, the article zeroes in on the kid's faith as being the reason for his refusal to wrestle the girl but to the exclusion of why are boys wrestling girls in the first place?

Sure, we suppose that every boy in Iowa has full knowledge he may eventually face a female wrestler when he signs up for the team as a freshman but what are we missing? Intimate and violent contact that would get your ass thrown in jail in polite company is now sanctioned behavior because the girl is wearing a singlet. Totally awkward.

For the record, California and a handful of other states have seperate girls wrestling.





Leslie at Temple of Mut has a great round-up of Wisconsin-related news as well as some Lord of the Rings analogies.


Check it out, here.



OK, gang - that's it for now as we're out the door to watch the San Diego St. game (vs. Air Force) with some friends. We may check back in later.

Video clip of the day

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.



The athleticism and ferocity reminds us of a young Shawn "Spidey" Kemp.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Radio KBwD is on the air




We we're saving this song for the back half of a covers competition but then realized that the original was simply atrocious so we went with the sequel exclusively (sorry, Bob) for this week's KBwD feature.


That peculiar West Coast trait of turning vocal harmonies a' la The Beach Boys and The Mamas and the Papas into massive hooks is certainly on display here.


Ladies and Gentlemen, from Los Angeles, California, it's The Byrds performing, "All I Really Want to Do".
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Biggest boondoggle ever update




Alternate post title: When you lose the Washington Post



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.

Yes, things are tough all over so please note it's "contributes" and not "causes". "Contributes" on your tax dime and by legislative fiat, we might add.

This must be some more of that "new civility" they're talking about

Via Instapundit:

A little red meat in the morning? Don't worry - it's dinner time somewhere on this planet.





Plus... dominos?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Term of the day

... but first, this is what a tax-payer-funded protest looks like.






And now for the term: Abdicate


1: to cast off : discard
2: to relinquish (as sovereign power) formally



Thousands of teachers, calling in sick, have descended upon the state capitol of Wisconsin (some dragging their students along) to protest the pension and collective bargaining reforms being sought by Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, in order to help close the state's $3.6 billion budget shortfall. There's a slight problem, however, as the Wisconsin state Senate needs 60% for a quorom in order to hold a vote to pass this legislation and the 14 Democratic state senators have flown the coop over state lines, bringing the Senate one body short of the required amount (there are 19 Republican Senators).

Democratic State Senators who protested the budget repair bill by leaving the state have been found.

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."
(italics, ours)

You better believe there are some jurisdictional issues you'd be dealing with, champ, as you would be escorted back to the capitol building by the Seargent at Arms to do what the tax-payers of Wisconsin are paying you to do even if it just meant sitting on your hands during the vote.

And no, Larson, you are not standing with the people of Wisconsin, you are standing next to the people of Illinois.

The people of Wisconsin spoke loud and clear in November voting in Scott Walker who made no mystery of the fact he intended to reform public employee union benefits packages.

For some background on just what it is the governor is asking the teachers' union to concede go over to B-Daddy's place who adds this:

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.


This is it, people. Since the President, himself, has abdicated a leadership role with respect to unsustainable future obligations, it's going to get started at the state level and ground zero is the capitol building at Madison.

As we speak, thousands of union goons are descending upon Madison and are doing what it is union goons do like "protesting" in front of Walker's house.

The battle is joined - let's get it on!

Video clip of the day

Here's New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday addressing the subject of Social Security reform.









As one can readily see, entitlement spending makes up the lion's share of the budget and until meaningful Social Security and Medicare reform are addressed, we're all just nibbling at the margins to negligible effect.

The President abdicated any real leadership in his budget proposal to that end so it's going to have to fall to the party that tried to address it six years ago and got clobbered for their troubles. To be fair, it was President Bush who offered up some modest proposals like privatizing up to 10% of one's Social Security account which was viewed as a violation of some sacred public trust by the left and very tepidly even by many in his own party.

Christie says time's are different. Maybe they are. We have seen now the Greece fires raging in Europe and the imminent implosions of state budgets stateside because of unsustainable future obligations. We need leadership but we also need to accept the pain that will be required to set ourselves on a sustainable path.


H/T: Hot Air and Left Coast Rebel

Getting Derailed?




Now, we all know that ethanol is perhaps the greatest tax-payer-funded boondoggle of all-time but when all is said and done the high-speed rail projects both here in California and the nationwide system proposed by the President and championed by Vice President Joe "Choo-choo" Biden may be spoken of in similar reverential tones.

However, attempting to avoid that fate are some folks like the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, who is rejecting federal money for a rail project linking Orlando and Tampa, stating quite simply that Florida can't afford the federal government's largesse.

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. #

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.
(italics, ours)

Passenger revenue only covers 1/6th of the Tri-Rail budget? Yikes.

Historic cost overruns associated with high-speed rail projects, over-inflated rider projections and the potential of being left holding the bag if the project turned sour made this one a no-brainer for the governor.

This nod to fiscal sanity must be catching as the governors of both Ohio and Wisconsin have cancelled high-speed rail projects in those states.

Our blog-buddy, Harrison at Capitol Commentary has some thoughts on the matter as well, here.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

MAXED OUT: Makin' Enemies




If it's a Wednesday, it must mean it's time to let our boy do his thing. You are advised to proceed with caution, however, as Max is in a foul mood. We'll let him explain.



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.





(ed. note: Sierra Nevada was our gateway beer into ales and Pliny the Elder was that for IPAs as we fell in love with the stuff upon first sip. Though we still enjoy Pliny, the ensuing years have afforded us the opportunity to get into many more outstanding IPAs. A such, we have come around to Max's general conclusions both on the taste and its unwarranted popularity.)

Is that a threat or a promise?

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)

Thanks, guys... that made this decision that much easier. After all our bitching and complaining, all it took to start drawing more of that black sticky stuff out of the ground was just a few decades of statist-fueled Sacramento incompetence.

"Insensitive" is the new "sexual assault"

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.

Nothing "new" about that from that particular neck of the woods, rather we were referring to this tool, a fellow at NYU.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

All you need is some decent acoustics

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.

Foreign policy schmolicy

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.

Hartman submits that a foreign policy is necessary if the tea party wants to be taken seriously as a player which is complete non-sense as the tea party is already a player as it provided the passion and energy to swing 63 House seats to the GOP side while quite possibly limiting gains in the Senate to six seats (a grudging admission to which we have been slow to admit).

What Hartman isn't saying but we believe he is implying is lacking a foreign policy prohibits the tea party from being a third party, which, at this time would be the absolute wrong course of action. Leveraging influence within if not taking over outright portions of an established political entity with its party infrastructure already in place remains the best way to achieve the objectives as laid out in the 3rd paragraph above.

We already have our hands full with how to handle social issues, we don't need to completely gum up the works with being at each others' throats over foreign policy.

Headline of the Day

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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...?





Monday, February 14, 2011

Getting ahead of things?

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.