Who won? Rest assured, it sure as hell wasn't you

I've got news for you all, friends. There are no longer Democrats and Republicans but you have probably realized that for a while. There is an establishment political class in Washington D.C. and then there's the rest of us saps out here in the hustings.


They merely continued the status quo with this deal to temporarily raise the debt ceiling and covered their own rear ends with it because apparently not many people want to clue into the reality that being 17T in the hole ain't such a hot idea. It would appear that the majority of Americans are cool with generational rape where we spend money we don't have and are completely fine with sticking our children and our children's children with the price tag of our own spending folly and now, yet another entitlement program we can't afford.


Frankly, we're glad we have people there like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul who will stand up to the establishment within their own party and be willing to take on President Dronestrike when he thinks he can simply brush aside the 4th amendment and no one bats an eye because we just all assume he's ultimately benevolent and wise enough to be trusted regarding who he can wack without any due process or oversight.


Simple life lessons such as personal responsibility and only purchasing things you can afford... stuff that you learned growing up if you had parent(s) that were worth a damn, are viewed as "extremist" positions by the political class of Washington D.C. So be it.



So, bravo, status quo. You won again. Kicking the can down the road until February when we can do this all over again.


.

An affront to rodents everywhere

Last week, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), chief architect of ObamaCare, said he feared the implementation of ObamaCare would be a "trainwreck". And this week, in the ultimate /drops mic maneuver, Baucus said he would not be running for re-election in 2014. Peace out, Senator.

And in other totally related news....


It's been said that rats are the first to sense a sinking ship. In this case, then, we would be giving rats a bad name by comparison because only now is Congress coming around to the fact that the healthcare law they voted for is a steaming pile of crap.

The very people that put together the hopelessly byzantine, unworkable and unsustainable Affordable Healthcare Act (aka ObamaCare) are now frantically trying to exempt themselves and their staff from that which they championed and that for which they voted.

Though these folks aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, neither are they stupid. They knew. They knew what a disaster this thing was going to be even as they were foisting it upon the rest of us. What else explains solid Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate that still required bribes, backroom arm-twisting and mid-night Christmas Eve votes in order to get it through.

And now, when reality is about to crack them upside the head with a two by four, they are all looking to bail out.


From Politico:

Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.

The talks - which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers - are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.

A source close to the talks says: "Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done."

Funny. We recall that being the general sentiment and strategy to get ObamaCare passed in the first place.



Back to the article:

Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office.


Democrats, in particular, would take a public hammering as the traditional boosters of Obamacare. Republicans would undoubtedly attempt to shred them over any attempt to escape coverage by it, unless Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) give Democrats cover by backing it.

There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn't revised, could lead to a "brain drain" on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.

The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer - in this case, the federal government. If not, aides and lawmakers in both parties fear that staffers - especially low-paid junior aides - could be hit with thousands of dollars in new health care costs, prompting them to seek jobs elsewhere. Older, more senior staffers could also retire or jump to the private sector rather than face a big financial penalty.

We also recall being told it would be the young and elderly that would benefit most from ObamaCare. It's always a revelation when people find out that reality doesn't square with the snake oil sales pitch.

Plus, lawmakers - especially those with long careers in public service and smaller bank accounts - are also concerned about the hit to their own wallets.

Plus..! Cry us a river. Color us cynical but we remain skeptical that any public servant with "long careers" will be too concerned with their own wallets unless they were just too stupid to carve out a golden parachute for themselves during all those years in D.C.



More:

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is worried about the provision. The No. 2 House Democrat has personally raised the issue with Boehner and other party leaders, sources said.

"Mr. Hoyer is looking at this policy, like all other policies in the Affordable Care Act, to ensure they're being implemented in a way that's workable for everyone, including members and staff," said Katie Grant, Hoyer's communications director.

Congress' approach to implementing ObamaCare reminds us of how we approached final exams back at Seminary. The biggest difference being, of course, our panicked running around at 11 at night looking for the "pony" exam from last semester didn't screw over an entire nation. In fact, Congress hopes that their flailing in the wee hours will result in a passing grade even after blowing off the exam.

What more evidence does one need that ObamaCare was negotiated and legislated in bad faith? And what more evidence does one need that the entire Washington D.C. governing apparatus is a corrupt and illegitimate cabal.

For those of you out there that continue to vote in favor of "Free S#it", this is what it results in. Elected representatives giving you exactly what you want and having the sense to know what a bad deal it is and exercising the most basic self-preservation instincts by exempting themselves from the negative consequences of what you have asked/voted for.

If you read nothing else today...

... make sure you check out the WaPo interview of Eric Schmidt, Executive chairman of Google in the wake of his testimony before Congress.


On the nature of his testimony:

So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. Okay? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer. I mean, it’s fine. It’s their job. But it’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to…lower than free? You see what I’m saying?

On regulation:

Washington—having spent a lot of time there, I grew up there and have spent a lot of time there recently—is largely defined by detailed analytical views and policy choices that are not very good. You know, each policy choice has a winner and a loser, right? Somebody’s ox is getting gored. They’re complex arguments: They’re economic and political and social, and everyone has an opinion on those. Here, the arguments are, how do we make something that affects a million people? How do we change the economics of an industry?

And one of the consequences of regulation is regulation prohibits real innovation, because the regulation essentially defines a path to follow—which by definition has a bias to the current outcome, because it’s a path for the current outcome.

And the answer to regulation with respect to Washington not screwing things up:

You’re asking it the way an engineer asks. It’s not an answer, it’s a journey. If it were an answer, then after we had done our thing and told everyone to leave us alone, they would have left us alone. That’s not how Washington works. That’s not how government works. It’s naïve, on our part. So the modern model is that we spend a lot of time trying to make sure the government understands how large the contribution is that technology has made to the GDP of the country. One of our quotes: Fifteen percent of the GDP growth has been due to the two-and-a-half percent of the economy that’s IT. In other words, don’t screw that up.

On rent seeking:

Let me give you a counter example. Now there are startups in Washington. And these startups have the interesting property that they’re founded by people who were policymakers, let’s say in telecommunications. They’re very clever people, and they’ve figured out a way in regulation to discriminate, to find a new satellite spectrum or a new frequency or whatever. They immediately hired a whole bunch of lobbyists. They raised some money to do that. And they’re trying to innovate through the regulation. So that’s what passes for innovation in Washington. And again, God bless them. But they have a political strategy to get their particular legislation and niche approved. That’s unheard of here.

And the counter concept to that:

The conclusion that we came to [as far back as when I was at Sun Microsystems] is that there are two kinds of lobbying. And this, I think, is grossly unfair but kind of true. There’s the kind of lobbying where you pay an ex-senator to get the current senator to write a sentence into a bill, and there’s no confusion as to what this is about. You are representing your corporate interest. It’s specific to your company. In Washington, for example, you can pay an ex-person $50,000 to arrange a meeting to get that process, to get those five sentences written in this bill, and so forth and so on.

The punch line is, we concluded that we didn’t want to do that as industry, and certainly not at Sun. We wanted to lobby based on ideas. And as far as I know, every company that I’ve worked with—and I was part of the Business Software Alliance and all these other groups—we all sort of agree with this. There’s a line that we’re not willing to cross. So what we do from a leadership perspective, at least in terms of political leadership, is we talk about ideas. And inevitably what happens is everyone says ‘yes,’ yet inevitably on the Hill you have an older gentleman or lady.

On immigration with respect to the tech sector:

A classic example is H-1B visas. Now, the following arguments are so obvious, it’s hard for me to believe that anyone would believe that they’re false. These industries are full of very smart people. There are very smart people who don’t live in America. They come to America, we educate them at the best universities, they are smarter than I am, and then we kick them out. If they stayed in the country, let’s just review: They would create jobs, pay taxes, have high incomes, pay more taxes than the average American, and generally increase the GDP of the country. I hope my argument is clear, and if it isn’t I’ll start screaming about it. It’s the stupidest policy the government has with respect to high tech. So you have this conversation and people say “yes,” and you say, ”This is the single thing that you can do that will lead to innovation occurring in our country, and the future economic wealth of our country.” And then they don’t act.

Check out the rest of the interview at the link above.

Photo image of the day

With respect to the earthquake that rocked the mid-Atlantic seaboard yesterday, we understand the skittish-ness that accompanied the tremor what with the 10 year anniversary of 9-11 approaching and their general unfamiliarity with earthquakes in general. Even still, us Southern Californians couldn't help but be somewhat bemused by the general freak-out that ensued.



Having said that, we scoured the interwebs to see what sort of pictures we could dredge up that depicted the devastation that the earthquake visited upon that region and the following is what we found:


... please brace yourself. It ain't pretty...

And tweets too...

Krugman says it wasn't big enough.

As all of DC leaves work at the same time, the United States experiences a brief economic recovery.

H/T: Instapundit

Two worlds... two sets of rules

A thought or two regarding local, state and federal book-keeping:

The Congress that passed Sarbanes-Oxley concluded that the only way to ensure transparency in corporate numbers was to require corporate officers to certify that their numbers were correct. The penalties for falsely certifying are substantial -- fines of as much as $5 million, and up to 20 years in prison -- on the theory that the fear of personal liability will reduce the incentive to exaggerate future revenue or conceal future liabilities.

By contrast, congressional appropriators and federal agency heads, are under no similar constraints. True, the government does have its own accounting principles. But nobody faces liability if the numbers are off. Nobody has skin in the game.

Consequently, if we need Sarbanes-Oxley (as its supporters still insist) to give us reassurance that we can believe corporate America’s numbers, ought we not to have something similar (as Peterson among others has argued) to reassure us that we can believe the numbers coming out of Washington?

Well, there's skin in the game, alright, but only in the sense of not being allowed back into the Puzzle Palaces of D.C., Sacramento, San Diego, etc. where you get to make up the rules as opposed to not having to worry about serving hard time as a result of any misbehaving in the private sector.

To wit: How is it that GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities) "Fannie Mae" and/or "Freddie Mac" have not replaced "Enron" in our cultural lexicon for criminal financial malfeasance?

Guess Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't fit on a bumper sticker.

Video clip of the day

Nick Gillespie of Reason.com and sans leather jacket gives about as good a summation of the debt ceiling debate as we have seen/read and helps partially explain why we haven't spent much time on it here at Beers with Demo.

Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate Is Full of Malarkey

1. August 2nd is a phony deadline. We are currently on double-secret probation.

2. Reaching a debt limit is not the same as defaulting.

3. Legislating in panic is no way to run a country. See also: Obamacare.

Oil and natural gas everywhere but nary a drop to be retrieved

An energy policy that could only be created in Washington: obstruct American producers and import from foreign countries.

We lack the political will and resolve to go after energy setting below our very feet but we're fine with letting China with its miserable environmental record effectively corner the market on rare earths and we're dandy with giving Brazil a $50 billion loan guarantee to drill off their coast.

Yep, only in Washington.

Thinking two steps ahead?

Our blog buddy, Harrison, over at Capitol Commentary has some thoughts on the Weiner scandal and included in the post is a quote from former Washington Post editorial page editor Meg Greenfield from her book on Washington D.C.:

Political/governmental Washington is psychologically fenced off from the larger community within which it makes its home, free — like irresponsible youth — of all but the minimal obligations of citizenship to that community, and absorbed to the exclusion of all else in its own eccentric aims and competitions.

(emphasis, ours)



We believe this describes what we like to call the West Potomac Virus which seems to afflict every pol we send to Washington. Or as Harrison put it: it's (Washington D.C.) like a big high school.


As for Weiner himself, we think this is brilliant career move. As an uber-liberal from a Brooklyn-Queens congressional district, his national brand probably wasn't going far beyond snarking at Megyn Kelley on Fox News but this... this?


He’ll take the obligatory time off, enter "rehab" and then perform the necessary mea culpas on the talk-show circuit as the deep well-spring of American graciousness and forgiveness will allow his image rehabilitation to take root. Following a speaking tour and/or some guest-hosting on MSNBC, he will be primed to re-enter the political arena with his cred burnished as an “experienced” politician who has suffered and survived the meat grinder that is D.C./New York political scene and his brand will be transformed into a “seasoned and learned elder” of the Democratic Party all by the age of 49!


You see, unseemly sex scandals just aren't what they used to be. Does anyone even remember Eliot Spitzer as Client #9 anymore? Or as the person Kathleen Parker couldn't stand when they shared the set together on CNN's ParkerSpitzer
and which she left just a couple of months ago. Talk about an endorsement.

And how about the grand poo-bah of sex scandals, Big Sexy himself, Bill Clinton? You're thinking Monica Lewinsky, right? Un-uh. He's become the administration's go-to guy for truly sticky international pickles. Got a problem out on the peninsula? Not a problem - send Billy Jeff. Lewinsky, not so much - try Laura Ling.


So don't feel too bad for Congresman Weiner. Getting caught behaving badly is almost a necessary rite of passage anymore for career advancement in politics. Yep, brilliant career move.

Video clip of the day

So, some folks were arrested back in 2008 for peacefully dancing at the Jefferson Memorial. This was followed up by a flash-mob dance this past Saturday to commemorate the arrest. Watch the video below and Reason.tv's accounting of the matter below the video.

One week ago, May 28, 2011, RT correspondent and former U.S. Corporal Adam Kokesh and four other participants began a flash mob-silent dance at the Jefferson Memorial to commemorate the arrest of Brooke Oberwetter for quietly dancing in the memorial on Jefferson's birthday in 2008. The park police responded by punching, body slamming, and arresting Kokesh and the others.

Today, June 4, Kokesh and Code Pink has initiated another flash dance this time pulling almost 100 more people through press coverage, Facebook, and word of mouth. The memorial was soon shut down before the event ended with the police slowly forcing everyone to leave. No arrests were made. Reason.tv’s Joshua Swain was there to report.

Color us torn. Except for the apparent police brutality part. We watched the video before reading the written account above and couldn't help but notice more than a whiff of frivolity and lameness about the whole thing which was confirmed when we read the words "Code Pink".

While we do appreciate the ungovernable spirit being displayed, we thought it somewhat inappropriate. If you've ever been to D.C., then you know of the grandeur and solemnity possessed of these monuments and know also how wonderful it is to wander around the, say, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, reading the inscriptions on the walls and then reflecting on the meaning of the same... in peace without being disturbed by a bunch of hippie wanna-bes.

Then again, in the spirit of pursuing life, liberty and happiness... and Jefferson, perhaps this truly was a WWTJD moment.

What do you all think?

Yes, they are

The Compton Unified School District looked like an ideal target to an organization created to help parents force dramatic reforms at poorly performing schools.

For many years, the troubled school system of 26,000 students south of downtown Los Angeles has had campuses with low test scores, distracted management, a poor reputation and, its critics say, hostility to change. It also has parents dissatisfied enough with their children's education to take on the local bureaucracy.

On Tuesday, those factors came together as 85 adults and children arrived at Compton's district headquarters to present a petition signed by 62% of parents at McKinley Elementary, one of the state's worst-performing schools. The petition requires the district to turn management of McKinley over to a charter school company. Charters are independently operated public schools.

Organizers say the effort is the first to use California's new "parent-trigger" law, under which a majority of parents can force a school to shut down, replace its staff or convert to a charter.

Compton Unified has no recourse under California law, state officials said, even though McKinley's test scores have risen significantly the last two years and steadily over the last six. The school's two-year 77-point rise on the state's Academic Performance Index is among the highest in California.

Critics have characterized the parent trigger as an overly blunt, sometimes counterproductive instrument. But the effect, say supporters, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is to put children and parents ahead of employees and interest groups.

"Giving power to the parents — this is what this is all about," Schwarzenegger said in a conference call Tuesday with reporters. The governor applauded the McKinley effort and described as "unacceptable" the education some children in the state receive. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan also praised the developments in Compton.

At district headquarters, parents chanted "Yes, we can!" as Karen Frison, acting superintendent of Compton schools, accepted the petition. Telling the group she would "do what is required by law," she declined to answer questions. (Her predecessor was recently fired over allegedly improper use of district credit cards.)

We have blogged previously about the charter school effort up in Compton and Los Angeles and with specific respect to Locke High School (home to our favorite American League slugger, Eddie Murray, while growing up) and the opposition they faced by the teachers' union and the bureaucracy.

Here is a sampling of what we wrote when Locke went charter:

This is nothing short of astounding. If the L.A. political structure, the very picture of statist conformist thinking can commit to this bold maneuver there is no telling what future possibilities are in store. Then again, maybe this speaks to the abject wretchedness of the L.A. schools that the school board essentially threw up its hands as if saying, “well, nothing else has worked”. A victory, no matter.

We also would like to note (again) how the Republicans are letting a golden opportunity slip away by not getting out in front of this growing movement. We are advised non-stop by political players and pundits that the party needs to quit being so white and that it needs to reach out to minorities. OK. Sure. But when the strategy is revealed as to how “we” Republicans are to go about doing it, it inevitably leads to embracing amnesty for illegal aliens. That’s the big idea?

To be fair to our Republican friends, it has dawned on us that it's kind of tough to be a vanguard in this movement when you don't have any boots on the ground, or perhaps, more accurately, you are not even a presence in the area.

Our desire to see the G.O.P. lead the way in the school choice/charter/voucher movement fight is blunted by the fact that these battles are taking place most significantly in the heavily-unionized areas of the north-east, rust belt and Los Angeles that are dominated by Democratic politics. It's blue on blue violence and we are pleased to see the less-statist side of this battle is prevailing.

Absent a ground game, perhaps the Republicans can take this national by having the House, in the next session, introduce legislation that would restart the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program for students in the nation's capital and which was allowed to die on the vine by the current Congress.

The G.O.P.-led Congress is going to have an awful lot on their plate come next January but this would be simply the right thing to do politically, pragmatically and morally.

Goody... more "civility" or something.

Though it didn't fare too well the first time around, it looks like liberal William A. Galston and um, conservative, David Frum are cranking up Son of The Coffee Party.

On Dec. 13, more than 1,000 citizens from the 50 states will convene in New York to change the odds. They are founding a movement - No Labels. Among them will be Democrats, Republicans and independents who are proud of their political affiliations and have no intention of abandoning them. A single concern brings them together: the hyper-polarization of our politics that thwarts an adult conversation about our common future. A single goal unites them: to expand the space within which citizens and elected officials can conduct that conversation without fear of social or political retribution.

And just what will The Coffee Party Pt. II aim to accomplish?

Over the next 12 months, No Labels plans to organize citizens' groups in every state and congressional district. Among other activities, these citizens will carefully monitor the conduct of their elected representatives. They will highlight those officials who reach across the aisle to help solve the country's problems and criticize those who do not. They will call out politicians whose rhetoric exacerbates those problems, and they will establish lines that no one should cross. Politicians, media personalities and opinion leaders who recklessly demonize their opponents should be on notice that they can no longer do so with impunity.

So, by this calculus, it is implied that a Republican Congressmen who does not vote for the DREAM Act in this congressional session is somehow a less-than-worthy pol because he is clearly thwarting the will of the public. And to be fair (and civil, because that's just the type we are around here) a Democratic congressmen who does not reach across the aisle to defund portions of ObamaCare in the next Congressional session when the Republicans have the majority is somehow not serving the interests of this country as defined by No Labels.

While we're at it, we'd like to get an operational definition of "rhetoric that exacerbates the problem"? Who within No Labels gets to vote on what qualifies and what doesn't?

And who should their first call-out be? How about the meanie who wrote this?

What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a résumé as thin as Palin’s would flirt with a presidential run? It makes the political biography of Barack Obama look more like Winston Churchill’s, despite the fact that the 44th president breezed into the Oval Office as little more than a glorified state senator.

That would be Joe Scarborough. Member: No Labels.

Revolving doors

Peter Orszag is headed to Citi.

Rumors swirled that the former White House budget director will join the worldwide bank Citigroup.

Bloomberg first reported Mr. Orszag is close to taking an investment banking job at Citigroup, where his former mentor Bob Rubin served as an executive and board member.

Citi declined to comment on the rumors.

The move is the latest for Mr. Orszag who left the White House earlier this year. The Financial Times reported that Mr. Orszag will was likely to be offered a position dealing with clients and top government officials rather than running a business.

(italics, ours)

Yeah, no kidding - would you let this guy anywhere near a business enterprise?

Considering the revolving door between Wall St. and the levers of power in D.C., we suppose we wouldn't be so opposed to crony capitalism and this American economic fascism, if the people involved weren't so god-awful at what they do.

Hipster irony is dead

A National Mall full of white middle-class disillusioned Obama supporters would beg to differ.

Reason.tv was on the scene at the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally yesterday in Washington D.C. and this is their report.




Wonder how Stewart feels about being a tool of the left? The expllcit intent by Stewart to make his event apolitical was betrayed by the explicit intent of those that attended.

Can't imagine Dem leadership was very enthused with timing of the rally either as we imagine at least a few of these folks would be hitting the phones and/or the pavement for (D) candidates back home instead of participating in this mass exercise in meta-navel gazing.

Nihilism: catch the fever

Not your typical Saturday on the Mall

With respect to the Restoring Honor rally in Washington D.C. on Saturday, who's up for a little Doc Smack?:

We dishonor ourselves when we tolerate the use of our fighting men and women as pawns in a political game. As long as they stand in harm’s way, we should accept no insult or slander against them. Robust criticism of the policy makers who declare and end hostilities is fair and welcome… but there is a line between politicians and soldiers, and it is easily visible to honorable people. We should have nothing but contempt for the likes of Code Pink. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin’s political career should have ended the day after he compared our service members to Nazis. There is no place for such creatures in the Congress of a nation that answers the dedication and sacrifice of its veterans with love and respect. In a rough economy with an uncertain future, Beck’s rally raised $5.5 million to help the families of special-operations soldiers killed in battle. That is a strong step in the right direction.

And this:

We dishonor ourselves when we deny the possibility of progress to embrace tribal hatreds. Race and feminist hustlers peddle a message that says the vast majority of people cannot be trusted to show common decency to minorities and women. We’ve had enough of this toxic superstition. Precious lives have been wasted, and ended, because there is power and profit to be gained in pretending the Civil Rights Act happened yesterday, and slavery ended the day before that. Where is the honor In shrieking that people who disagree with your politics are “interchangeable with the KKK?” An ideology so weak that it must resort to these underhanded tactics is garbage unfit for the intellectual consumption of a proud people. Those who are foolish enough to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears, and consume that garbage, will rediscover their honor after they find their self-respect.

Most crucially, we dishonor ourselves when we forget we “have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King,” as Sarah Palin said at the Restoring Honor rally. We remain the proud inheritors of a revolutionary philosophy, the children of vision and industry. We have not diminished into timid weaklings, unworthy of the trust of our ruling class. Our land is still abundant, and filled with parents who want to make a better life for their children. Why should we listen to assurances that our future will be one of decline, where children hear their parents mourn better times from distant memory? Why should we accept that ten percent and more of our population must remain unemployed forever? Why should we excuse the failure of an incompetent Administration by believing we became helpless and destitute in just a few short years, and are now obliged to provide limitless resources to our caretakers?

Here's Reason.tv's take on what went down on Saturday:



So just what was it?

How about a multi-faith/no faith country class tent revival meeting?

You just don't know what's good for you

They've got the House, Senate, Oval Office and by every measure, the media and yet Joey B. whines never mindful of the high irony content of what he's saying.

W.C. Varones has more here and who also reminds us that the ruling class thinks that the ruling class is doing a damn fine job.

If you do find any between the seat cushions let us know

An Obama administration official’s spin on the possibility of a Scott Brown victory today in Massachusetts and how it will affect their uphill climb in achieving their legislative agenda:

“The painstaking campaign for change over two years in 2007 and 2008 has become a painstaking effort in the White House, too,” the official said. “The old habits of Washington aren’t going away easy.”

Pathetic. Honestly, it’s stomach turning.

Speaking of old habits, let’s remember this d-bag’s boss, the one who promised an unprecedented degree of transparency, not even just one week ago cut a deal behind closed doors that would exempt labor unions and government workers from the 40% excise tax on their “Cadillac” health plans to help pay for Obamacare. That’s right – the man who said that healthcare reform was all about equality and for that we’ll be picking up Big Labor and Nebraska’s portion of the tab.

And this guy’s boss is the same man who promised to usher in a new era of unity and post-partisanship but to the contrary has embarked on campaigns to attack news organizations and demonize the financial sector making Wall St. the fall guy for our current (and soon-to-be double-dip) recession, a problem created more by his administration’s actions than any other entity.

This would also be the same guy that promised “no more business as usual” yet orchestrated the firing of the CEO of Chrysler and led a cramdown bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, strong-arming and threatening character smears of secured creditors to accept terms favorable only to the unions. Now, never having seen that before, we guess we could classify that as “no more business as usual”.

We gotta ask: “What change?” Seriously, what fundamental change to how politics is done in D.C. has there been? Seems to us that this is Washington and good ol’-fashioned machine politics but on Human Growth Hormones.

Damn, if that dude isn’t right. Guess old habits do die hard in that town, afterall.

Choice for thee but not for ye.

You think these two moms would like an opportunity to have their children sit next to Sasha and Malia Obama in school?


We realize there are some other pressing legislative matters currently but the Republicans have traditionally done an outstanding job of punting on the issue of school choice/vouchers, an issue, unlike pandering on immigration reform, can make real inroads with minorities.

Having said that we give all the credit in the world to the Democrats who have been active of late on the school voucher front by hosing over Washington D.C. schoolchildren by killing Washington D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship program in a recent spending bill.

When the teachers’ union cracks the whip, the Democrats make the trip.

B-Daddy has more here.

And some more of our thoughts on school choice and vouchers, here.

Your Sunday-before Christmas cheer video clip.

Overzealous plain-clothes D.C. cop vs. multi-racial entitlement crowd who think it's cool to throw snow balls at passing vehicles.

Who ya got?

Perhaps because of our absolute unfamiliarity with the white stuff, this whole scene is bizarre. Seriously, what's the protocol for a once-a-decade snow storm?

Road Trip!

Greetings, Racists! The Tea Party movement went on the road this weekend to D.C. while the President got out of Dodge to rally support of healthcare in Minneapolis.

Check out time-lapse photography as the protest makes its way towards the Capitol.



Nice wrap-up of event here with photos.

Best parts:
1: That there were so many people already overflowing Freedom Plaza into the streets that the march just “started itself” 2.5hrs early.

2: When we got to the Capitol, and they were announcing that the didn’t have a permit for the mall, and everyone needed to come in on the lawn. And the crowd chanted back “WE OWN THE MALL!”. Permit or not, it didn’t matter, we filled the roads all the way back to the Washington Monument!

Freedom plaza at 9am was overflowing, and the river of people down Pennsylvania did not stop flowing for 3 hours and filled the front of the capital and down the mall…

And then this from Matt Welch of Reason.com

* Of the people I ended up talking to, the general vibe was that they were conservative, and then either Republican, formerly Republican, or independent. Every single one had unkind words to say about George W. Bush's spending and governing record, though none had protested him. None expressed trust in Republicans, and most preferred a "throw-all-the-bums-out" strategy. All but one did not care about Obama's birth certificate controversy, and those I asked thought it was foolish to bring guns to political gatherings.

* People had traveled from North Carolina, Alabama, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and Washington state.

* The view on Obama and his administration ranged from a "heading in the wrong direction" vibe to a "we're not gonna take it much longer" edge.

Video clip of the day

Last month, a group of anti-government extremist types gathered in the nation’s capitol to protest Federal intervention into matters of personal choice. Their struggle is documented in a reason.tv clip below.



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