PolifrogBlog

There is no free in liberty.


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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Those Rosy Economic Predictions From the CBO...

polifrog



But what of that Keynesian pump and that multiplier thing?


TownHall:
CBO also projected the jobless rate would rise to 8.9 percent by the end of 2012, and to 9.2 percent in 2013.

If the CBO estimate is correct, it would mean that the United States recorded a deficit of more than $1 trillion for every year of Obama’s first term. The deficit was $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. The largest deficit recorded before that was $458 billion in 2008.

Good thing the CBO does not rely on optimism.

The higher unemployment numbers are due to lower economic growth than previously estimated. Gross domestic product for 2011 is now estimated to have grown 1.6 percent in 2011, down from the 2.3 percent forecast in August. CBO a year ago had predicted 3.1 percent growth for 2011. The outlook for 2012 has also worsened. GDP is forecast to grow only 2 percent this year, compared to a previous estimate of 2.7 percent.

Oh...

Permanent Keynes, permanent deficits, permanent malaise ... Keynesian depression.






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A Bit of Ginger Between the Politics?

polifrog



A 5 year old and corporate branding.


Via EdCone.





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There is a Creepy Dude Supporting Romney...

polifrog



If I were Romney I would not want this sort of support.




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Obama's Radical Effort to Push Religion From the Public Square...

polifrog





On Jan 20, the Obama administration announced that even religious based hospitals, universities and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients.

Why?

The answer is short. The Obama administration wishes to displace religious organizations in every and all possible public areas by forcing religious organizations to be faced with the choice of crossing governance, crossing their faith, or bowing out of the areas of our public square that are effected by this decision.

If the religious are to stay true to their faith and stay true to government they will ultimately be forced to retreat from engaging with their own society under this decision.

Although it is not only through hospitals, universities, and charities that religions expose themselves to those who may not be exposed to them, it is one that the statists among us wish to end. Statists understand that the marginalization of religion grows dependency on governance.

What we are witnessing with the introduction of this regulation is our atheocratic state in action. What is atheocracy? If is, of course, the opposite of theocracy. Just as there are theocratic states like Iran, there athocratic states like N. Korea and China.

Unfortunately each type of governance claims its own form of piety as a pretense for non pious rule.

That piety may come in different forms, such as religious piety (theocracy) or duty bound piety (atheocracy). Whereas the former’s power is circumscribed by the religion that empowers those who rule via a religious citizenry, the latter enjoys no such restraint, as duty bound piety is piety toward self.

The truer danger, then, is the atheocratic regime which is bounded by no wrong. History points to this. Pick your theocracy then pick your athocracy and compare the suffering under each. Based on sheer number of dead no theocracy can match the accomplishments of the atheocratic regimes of China, Russia, Nazi Germany, or N. Korea.

Does that make a theocracy desirable? No. But it is preferable to the atheocratic rejection of all religion.

There is a third way.

It is one that requires no false piety, as it is a choice that does not adopt a single religion for empowerment and it is a choice that does not reject all religion leaving only self in the form of duty from which rule is empowered.

That third way, secularism, is the inclusion of all the various religions or the lack thereof as legitimate voices informing a representative democracy.

Our nation originally chose option three, but unfortunately that third way requires a degree of tolerance the intolerant atheists and leftists among us find intolerable and it is they who are slowly forcing us toward the greatest threat to liberty, an atheocracy.





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Posted Before, Posted Again -- T12...

polifrog



Tea Party 2012:








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2.8 GDP -- So, That Keynesian Pump is Working...

polifrog




Well, if the Keynesian "pump" is a debt pump, yeah.

Keynes pumped the US into the Great Depression, it pumped Japan into its lost decade (or two) and now it is again pumping us into depression.

NYPost:

And that meager 2.8 percent annual growth really isn’t what it seems to be.
That’s because 75 percent of that 2.8 percent growth involved businesses restocking inventories. Who says? The Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which released this data.

So people like you and me weren’t really buying all that stuff in the last months of 2011. It was businesses buying stuff and putting it on their shelves in hopes that people would soon come along and buy it from them.

...

Let me explain: The government comes up with a figure on how much it thinks the economy grew, or shrunk. Friday’s figure was a first estimate for the fourth quarter, so most of the numbers used in the calculation are only guesstimates anyway. (But that’s for a different story.)

The government then takes that growth figure, subtracts the rate of inflation and comes up with the real growth it reports in its press release.

So, in other words, if inflation is rising it reduces the rate of actual, after inflation, growth — which is the figure that Washington reports.

In Friday’s number the government used 0.4 percent as the rate of inflation. Zero. Point. Four. Percent.

In which country is inflation that low? Certainly not in America. Absolutely not in the last four months of 2011.

The consumer price index, which is put out by the US Census Bureau, had prices up 3 percent for the year.




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Did Mitt Romney Say at a Florida Rally, I Will Cut Government Waste and Use it to Pay for ObamaCare?

polifrog



Nah. What I hear:

There's a lot of waste ... There's a lot of waste in the department of defense like the rest of government. I'm going to go after that waste. I'm not go use that waste and use it to pay for ObamaCare. I'm going to take that waste to use it help modernize our Navy and out Airforce...








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Monday, January 30, 2012

New Momentum for Newt in Florida with Men ... and Latinos?

polifrog




It may be that Santorum bruised Romney on the RomneyCare attack, but more likely Romney went too dirty for too long on Newt.

Romney 36%
Newt 31%

NewsMax:

Towery noted that his poll showed a surge for Romney on Wednesday, with him leading Gingrich by 8 points. The InsiderAdvantage poll was among the first to show Romney's resurgence after his dismal showing in the S. Carolina primary.

...

"The trend is favoring Gingrich," Towery said, noting that while Romney's lead was still outside the margin of error of 3.8 percent, "It's not by much."

And most interestingly:

As for Florida's important Latino vote, InsiderAdvantage has Gingrich beating Romney by a large margin, leading 42 percent to 29 percent.





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Romney Riding the Committal Middle...

polifrog



Flipper, flipper...





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Ferris Lives - CRV

polifrog








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There is Much to Like in Santorum...

polifrog



...beyond reducing the left to inside joke adolescent giggles every time his name is mentioned.

Michelle Malkin:

Rick Santorum opposed TARP.

He didn’t cave when Chicken Littles in Washington invoked a manufactured crisis in 2008. He didn’t follow the pro-bailout GOP crowd — including Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — and he didn’t have to obfuscate or rationalize his position then or now, like Rick Perry and Herman Cain did. He also opposed the auto bailout, Freddie and Fannie bailout, and porkulus bills.

Santorum opposed individual health care mandates — clearly and forcefully — as far back as his 1994 U.S. Senate run. He has launched the most cogent, forceful fusillade against both Romney and Gingrich for their muddied, pro-individual health care mandate waters.

He voted against cap and trade in 2003, voted yes to drilling in ANWR, and unlike Romney and Gingrich, Santorum has never dabbled with eco-radicals like John Holdren, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi. He hasn’t written any “Contracts with the Earth.”

Santorum is strong on border security, national security, and defense. Mitt the Flip-Flopper and Open Borders-Pandering Newt have been far less trustworthy on immigration enforcement.

Santorum is an eloquent spokesperson for the culture of life. He has been savaged and ridiculed by leftist elites for upholding traditional family values — not just in word, but in deed.

I suspect she would have gone Newt if it appeared he might be winning Florida. As it is...

And I don't blame her.





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On the Matter of a Potential Romney Running Mate -- Allen West?

polifrog



Who would best counter Romney's ObamaCare weakness? And who would best help him pickup those most disaffected by his campaign thus far?

Not Christie. Possibly Ryan. Marco Rubio seems okay.

Could Allen West's being drawn out of his district by his own party be preparation for such a pick? I don't know the advantages for the local conservatives in such a redrawing, but the loss of one district could easily mean a gain of two others. Additionally, West does not appear to be complaining over the matter. On a less related note, being a military man West would, I believe, respect the concept of serving as VP prior to running for president himself.




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An Ignored Story is A Difficult Story to Follow...

polifrog



Cindy Simpson:
I had just witnessed an historic hearing that actually discussed the eligibility of the sitting president of the United States to run for a second term. The president had been subpoenaed to appear, and instead of his attorney respectfully following protocol to have that subpoena recalled, both Obama and his attorney, Michael Jablonski, simply failed to show up at all or offer any defense whatsoever.

Isn't there a headline in there somewhere?

...

It is disconcerting to see that the president, whose primary duty is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, has turned his back on the rule of law of one of those states. Especially, as Sunny uncomfortably reminded us, since this is the same president who routinely sidesteps the law or places himself above it.

Even more troubling is the fact that the mainstream media not only seems to approve -- but they fail to report it at all.

Obama's absence speaks more to the importance and legitimacy than it does to the unimportance or illegitimacy of these very real  questions.





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More Smile File Sadness...

polifrog












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Sunday, January 29, 2012

What Is Worse Than Having Obama in Office if One of Your Primary Goals is the End of ObamaCare?

polifrog



Romney as president. Oh, he is vastly better than Obama in most areas, but in the one issue that matters most, the one that will eventually destroy the last vestiges of individual liberty in our nation, ObamaCare, Romney is worse than Obama.

The reason Romney is worse than Obama is that Obama is the face of ObamaCare.  Assuming a Romney win this fall, that face will be gone and with it any sense of urgency in fighting ObamaCare, but with Romney we only get only the illusion that he is fighting ObamaCare. Everything he has said to this point defines him as ObamaCare's savior.  Romney's own words:

So how does Romney present the image of an ObamaCare fighter while doing nothing of the sort?  He answered that question in Florida Debate 2:
If I were president, day one, I will take action to repeal ObamaCare.
"Take action." And that is as far as it would go.  He did not say he would sign a bill that ended ObamaCare because he would not.  He prefers to "take action" without end which in DC parlance means 'I will put on a dog and pony show for the dumb masses.'

Given the money that will be sloshing around Washington due to ObamaCare many in our rogue Republican establishment wish to protect their access to the river of dollars that will increasingly flow through DC and they want to protect that access to money  from countervailing citizen desire.

And Romney is their man:








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Romney Certainly Exudes "Used Car Dealer" to Me, Not Only Looking the Part, But Playing the Part......

polifrog



LegalInsurrection:

As reported by Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed (h/t HotAir):

“It not about winning here anymore,” one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. “It’s about destroying Gingrich — and it’s working.”

Humiliation, not mere electoral defeat, appears to be the goal. Much as among warring communities in the Middle East and the Balkans, Romney supporters even have sought to deprive Newt of his own history.

...

I’ve been struggling to come up with a good analogy. Perhaps this works. I’ve dealt with many businessmen who just can’t leave the last nickel on the table; they not only have to get a favorable deal, they have to get a deal which humiliates those on the other side of the transaction.

I don’t know if Mitt Romney was the type of businessman who could not leave the last nickel on the table. But that is the way he is running his campaign.

And we will all pay the price for it.





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So the Sun Warms the Earth and its Output Influences Temperature?

polifrog




Dailymail:
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

...

According to a paper issued last week by the Met Office, there is a 92 per cent chance that both Cycle 25 and those taking place in the following decades will be as weak as, or weaker than, the ‘Dalton minimum’ of 1790 to 1830. In this period, named after the meteorologist John Dalton, average temperatures in parts of Europe fell by 2C.

However, it is also possible that the new solar energy slump could be as deep as the ‘Maunder minimum’ (after astronomer Edward Maunder), between 1645 and 1715 in the coldest part of the ‘Little Ice Age’ when, as well as the Thames frost fairs, the canals of Holland froze solid.








Now let's compare to this:



Who'd a thunk it? The sun drives climate...




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How Does A Man Who Supports the Individual Mandate Help Us Kill ObamaCare?

polifrog


He doesn't. He Defends it.







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Rep. Allen West Rejecting our Leftist Enslavers...

polifrog




HuffPost:
"We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, (audience boos) and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table," West said. "Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."

Following cheers, West added, "Yeah I said 'hell.'"







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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Establishment Vs. The Tea Party...

polifrog




I am still looking for my own words to describe the events of late last week, but I am currently still locked in shrill mode.

Fortunately, Professor Jacobson is not:

There was a backlash on Thursday and Friday among talk radio hosts and a variety of people who were in a first hand position to observe Newt’s interaction with Reagan, culminating in Sarah Palin’s Facebook post on Friday afternoon denouncing the neo-Stalinist attempt to rewrite history.

That the attack on Newt’s Reagan bona fides came from someone who openly ran against Reaganism and against the conservative agenda in 1994 was an irony lost only on the pro-Romney Republican establishment and media.

Romney’s attacks on Newt’s late 1990s ethics charge also were distinctly from the left, echoing the talking points of anti-conservative Democrats like Nancy Pelosi. It took people like Byron York and Mark Levin to expose the truth that the charges were part of a Democratic Party vendetta, and that substantively Newt did nothing wrong and was vindicated.

But mostly, the Republican establishment and conservative media who howled...




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Establishment Conservative Romeny and His Big Media Allies Possibly Collude to Silence Newt...

polifrog



Fox News
:


The pro-Newt Gingrich PAC "Winning Our Future" claims that "at least six" stations in Florida have -- as of Thursday -- been telling the group they need more documentation to run their ads.

"Stations all across Florida started to pull spots asking for fact checking," said Gregg Phillips, managing director of Winning Our Future, who accused the outlets of being "lazy" and suggested they were part of a coordinated effort across Florida to derail Newt Gingrich.





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Huckabee Lies About His Own Intent in an Attempt to Damage Newt...

polifrog




Via the good work of Legal Insurrection:


Mike Huckabee claims that Newt is using a clip from Huckabee in 2008 out of context because Huckabee was not referring to Mitt Romney, but in fact Huckabee obviously was referring to Romney.

Huckabee's accusation:

Former GOP presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee “would love for” Newt Gingrich to pull a political campaign ad that features a comment he made during the 2008 campaign that appears to slam Mitt Romney for being “dishonest.”

“I know Newt Gingrich at the end of the ad says I approved this message, well let me just say, I didn’t approve that message,” Huckabee said in an interview Friday on Fox News.

The former governor of Arkansas said his words were “taken out of context” and were also ” deceptive” because he was not referring to Romney, one of his 2008 primary rivals.

As Jacobson shows with Huckbee's own words, the deception is Huckabee's. Huckabee is a liar:




Huckabee is a shill for establishment conservatives attempting to protect ObamaCare and the power and influence they derive from it. They want Romney because he fundamentally supports ObamaCare and considers it something we "should not get angry about".

Huckabee should be embarrassed and apologize.




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Romney, Card Carrying Member of the Conservative Establishment, Has Joined the Mainstream Media's False Newt Narrative...

polifrog



The History, the reality:



Rogue conservative establishment elitist, Mitt Romney, fully joins the Mainstream Media and Democrats in a false narrative to sully Newt's campaign:


Shame on Romney.
We don't want your ObamaCare.




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Witnessing American Exceptionalism and Obama's Leadership Toward American Mediocrity...

polifrog




He's extremely  good.




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Our Rogue Conservative Establishment Want You to Forget ...

polifrog



How else can anyone read the push for Romney amid the leftest styled Stalin-esque  character assassination of Newt.

Remember...






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Friday, January 27, 2012

Romney: Parental Consent Not Necessary for Abortion...

polifrog





It seems Romney believes only select  people are deserving of liberty:





H/T Joe Guarino

Santorum has a much more rational view of abortion -- that it infringes on the rights of the unborn.  Of course, as a man who understands that ObamaCare is something to worth getting angry at.




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Posts Brought to You With no Help from Drudge...

polifrog




Drudge has taken the  rogue conservative establishment under his media wing.  As a result I have not visited Drudge today and refuse to so going forward for an undetermined period.  Considering the low turnover at Drudge, I doubt I will notice the loss.

However, I have been curious as to whether  his siding with the rogue conservative establishment has had a negative  impact on Drudge page views.

Despite no planing ... It has:

In a stunning rebuke to his hidden advocacy for liberal Republican Willard Romney yesterday, Matt Drudge's groundbreaking Drudge Report website lost two million readers yesterday.

This was after Drudge posted ten anti-Newt Gingrich stories yesterday morning, getting up to 14 later in the day. (Kristinn Tayor at FreeRepublic).


The Drudge Report saw a drop in traffic yesterday of two million hits in the wake of proprietor Matt Drudge's two-day attack on Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Drudge started his attack on Gingrich Wednesday evening with a banner headline accusing Gingrich of insulting former President Ronald Reagan. Drudge carried on the attack all through Thursday, at one time having fourteen anti-Newt headlines at once.

The assault on Gingrich prompted many supporters to announce they were swearing off the Drudge Report with some saying they would stop using it as their home page.

According to statistics posted by the Drudge Report, the site's hits on Wednesday, January 26, were 33, 807, 227.

Yesterday the hits, as published today on the Drudge Report, were down a full two million to 31, 802, 534.





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Romney Will Not Defend Us From ObamaCare -- ObamaCare "is nothing to get angry about"...

polifrog








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Sarah Palin Knows Palinization When She Sees it --- Even When Coming From the Right....

polifrog




Sara Palin on FaceBook:

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.

...

What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on.



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Santorum Defends the Liberty of the Unborn...

polifrog



An unborn human that child not only has a right to live, but is entitled to government protection of his or her liberty from infringement.

Via iOwnTheWorld:


But the logic is lost on Piers Morgan, as he can't see past his own prejudices.





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Kirk Cameron: Monumental Trailer...

polifrog




Regaining our history will most definitely be a monumental task.

But as I look around, I’m left with a sinking feeling that America is losing her way. Big time. The soul of our country is sick, and history shows me we are headed for disaster if we don’t change course now.

Warning: not for the Progressive faint of heart...



H/T Joe Guarino for the heads up on this trailer...





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It is a Sad Day -- I am Linking Kos Over Anything From Our Rogue Conservative Establishment...

polifrog



Kos --- The Jed Report:

Today, National Review stepped it up a notch and actually claims Newt Gingrich "repeatedly insulted" Ronald Reagan.

The thing that makes these attacks so absurd is that they are being made on behalf of Mitt Romney, who wasn't a Republican when Ronald Reagan was president and specifically said in his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign that he was not seeking public office to support either Reagan or George H.W. Bush. Romney ended up getting trounced by 17 points.

Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, was busy leading Republicans to their first victory in forty years in the House. And the following year, Nancy Reagan credited him with taking up the mantle of conservatism, saying Barry Goldwater had passed it to Ronald Reagan, and that Ronald Reagan had passed it to Newt Gingrich.






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We Failed to Protect the Internet ---The SOPA Blackout was a Waste -- MegaUpload...

polifrog




Jeffery Tucker:
Last week’s violent government attack on the hugely popular site Megaupload — the U.S. government arresting Belgian citizens in New Zealand, of all places, and stealing at gunpoint servers bank accounts and property — has sent shock waves through the entire digital world.

The first shock was the realization that the gigantic protest against legislative moves (SOPA and PIPA) that would smash the Internet turned out to be superfluous. The thing everyone wanted to prevent is already here. SOPA turns out not to be the unwelcome snake in the garden of free information. The snakes have already taken over the garden and are hanging from every tree.

...

The attack on Megaupload takes all of this to a different level. This was not some wholly surreptitious, sketchy institution that was trying to get around the law. It was already becoming a legitimate service for launching careers in music and art generally. It seemed to be doing exactly what we expect in the digital age. It was reinventing an old model for new times through innovation in production, delivery and profit sharing.

As I wrote before, this was most likely why the old-line industry came after them. It was not the illegal activities, but their legal ones that made them a target. The moguls do not want change.
They crushed the competition.





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The Palinization of Newt is an Ugly Thing....

polifrog



TheRightScoop



iOwnTheWorld:


Update--
Linked by EBL.  Thanks.




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Deficit by Debate Dishonesty...

polifrog










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The Truth is That The US Beats Europe in Rail Efficiency by Not Wasting it on the Inefficiency of Moving People......

polifrog




Our nation is more efficient and cleaner when we trust our markets. When we do not and let others convince us of our needs then we subject ourselves to the inefficiencies of personal and political bias. It is why so many believe the lie that it is more efficient to move people by rail that by other modes of transportation. We are being convinced of a lie.

Warren Meyer:
The US rail system, unlike nearly every other system in the world, was built (mostly) by private individuals with private capital. It is operated privately, and runs without taxpayer subsidies. And, it is by far the greatest rail system in the world. It has by far the cheapest rates in the world (1/2 of China’s, 1/8 of Germany’s). But here is the real key: it is almost all freight.

As a percentage, far more freight moves in the US by rail (vs. truck) than almost any other country in the world. Europe and Japan are not even close. Specifically, about 40% of US freight moves by rail, vs. just 10% or so in Europe and less than 5% in Japan. As a result, far more of European and Japanese freight jams up the highways in trucks than in the United States. For example, the percentage of freight that hits the roads in Japan is nearly double that of the US.

You see, passenger rail is sexy and pretty and visible. You can build grand stations and entertain visiting dignitaries on your high-speed trains. This is why statist governments have invested so much in passenger rail — not to be more efficient, but to awe their citizens and foreign observers.

But there is little efficiency improvement in moving passengers by rail vs. other modes. Most of the energy consumed goes into hauling not the passengers themselves, but the weight of increasingly plush rail cars. Trains have to be really, really full all the time to make for a net energy savings for high-speed rail vs. cars or even planes, and they seldom are full. I had a lovely trip on the high speed rail last summer between London and Paris and back through the Chunnel — especially nice because my son and I had the rail car entirely to ourselves both ways.

The real rail efficiency comes from moving freight. As compared to passenger rail, more of the total energy budget is used moving the actual freight rather than the cars themselves. Freight is far more efficient to move by rail than by road, but only the US moves a substantial amount of its freight by rail. One reason for this is that freight and high-speed passenger traffic have a variety of problems sharing the same rails, so systems that are optimized for one tend to struggle serving the other.





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Romney Is Here to Defend ObamaCare - "It's not worth Getting Angry About"...

polifrog



It damn well is worthy of anger. And I thank Santorum for finally bringing ObamaCare, the number one issue, after countless debates, to a debate. Not even Newt seemed willing to do that.



Mitt Romney's position regarding ObamaCare sorely needed this pounding and we the voters needed to see it.

It was about damn time. Thank you, Santorum.




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Mark Levin On Our Rogue Conservative Establishment...

polifrog




I was there, I saw it, I lived it. Don't lie to me about Newt:

“I’m going to tell you something. Newt Gingrich was the former Republican Speaker of the House, the first Republican Speaker of the House in almost half a century, and he was fighting the Democrats and to win the House of Representatives before most of the people writing on the Internet about him and trashing him and going with talking points from other campaigns were old enough to wipe themselves,” Levin said. “[W]e can certainly criticize Newt Gingrich, but do not count me among those who are going to destroy the man. I saw that attempt already by the hard-left Democrats led by [Michigan Rep.] David Bonior.” …

“I’m supposed to sit here, read all this crap on the Internet, listen to purported Reaganites and others tell me that he didn’t do these things?” Levin said. “I was there. I lived it. I saw it. Or let me put it this way — Newt Gingrich, if he does nothing else, did more for the conservative movement and to stop the liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives than virtually everybody today who’s criticizing him.”









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Fire Wall -- Vote Pump...

polifrog









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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Don't Believe Romney On ObamaCare...

polifrog




Florida Debate II, Romeny:
If I were president, day one, I will take action to repeal ObamaCare.

Politicians regularly "take action" that is never intended to bear fruit. Romney can not be trusted to kill ObamaCare. He is a firewall for the entrenched conservative elites already feeding or planning to feed off ObamaCare graft.





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The Reality That is Newt Vs. The Drudge

polifrog




There is the reality of Newt:


Reagan Nat’l Security Advisor Bud McFarlane:




Reagan Economist Authur Laffer:
“The purpose of economic policy is growth, jobs, and prosperity,” supply-side founder Art Laffer told me Wednesday. As such, Laffer has endorsed Newt Gingrich and the Gingrich 15 percent flat-tax plan, which includes the 12.5 percent corporate-tax reform. “It’s nothing against the other candidates,” Laffer said. “But Newt’s plan is right, and therefore endorsing him is the right thing to do.”


Reagan WH political director Jeffrey Lord:
Quite to the contrary of the Romney message, Newt Gingrich was in fact one of Reagan's Young Lieutenants.

One of the best.


Reagan Policy Analyst Peter Ferrara:
Having served President Reagan in the White House Office of Policy Development in the early 1980s, I can say the comprehensive conservatism and breadth of this South Carolina victory speech is quintessentially Reagan.


Reagan media consultant Richard Quinn:
Richard Quinn, Huntsman's top South Carolina strategist who worked for John McCain in 2008, is endorsing Gingrich along with his son Rick, a state senator who had also endorsed Huntsman. The senior Quinn had also worked as an adviser to Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, an aspect of his resume Gingrich may soon highlight.


Reagan’s Speechwriting Dir. Bently Elliott:
Newt Gingrich was an early foot-soldier for Ronald Reagan. He was inspired by Reagan’s charisma, convictions and leadership. He supported Reagan in 1976 and witnessed the attacks by the Ford campaign to tar Ronald Reagan, the conservative, as unstable and dangerous. Sound familiar? Newt was also among the small band of conservatives, led by Jack Kemp in the late 1970s, who saw the tremendous potential for growth in Art Laffer’s supply-side economics. When President Reagan embraced the Kemp-Roth tax cut, Newt Gingrich was on the frontlines working to pass the legislation.


Reagan’s older son Michael Reagan:
Michael Reagan, President Ronald Reagan's adopted son, has endosed the former Speaker of the House, because Gingrich, "exemplifies the conservative principles my father championed: strong national defense, lower taxes and smaller government." "Newt understands that we must reject and fundamentally change the course that Barack Obama has set for America. Newt is our only chance in 2012 to contrast a Reagan conservative with Obama's European styled socialism," Reagan wrote in a statement. Reagan describes Gingrich as having changed Washington in the 90's with his Contract with America, and the ability to do that again now.


Reagan’s beloved wife Nancy:




Then there is the Drudge:




Major H/Ts to Legal Insurrection and iOwnTheWorld.





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Why is Romney So Humble With His Moral Choice to Invest?

polifrog




Romney has been under attack for his nearly 15% tax rate, a tax rate based almost entirely on capital gains. Many citizens pay income at a higher rate that is based on income. The suggestion is that Romney is in some fashion immoral for not doing his fair share.

The reality is that the 15% he currently pays in taxes is the rate he pays in addition to what everyone else pays. Like everyone else he too suffers from income taxes, only his are in form of corporate income taxes which, as an aside, is an off shoot of viewing corporations as people. Like Buffet, much of Romney's taxes are taken at the corporate level at a rate of 35% to 40% and do not directly show up in his personal tax returns. However, they most definitely show up as lowered returns in his portfolio of investments and in his various business prospectuses. Hence, corporate taxes are reflected in his personal tax returns as lower investment income than what otherwise might have been.

But that is dry. There is a moral story here.

In this case taxes function as a penalty for a given choice. Romney made the moral choice of investing in our collective future despite the fact that he is penalized for that choice at a higher rate than he would have been had he chosen consumerism and spent his money.

Frankly, those who choose to spend their income rather than invest their income are playing an immoral game of tax avoidance, as they avoid the 15% tax on investing. Of course, not all individuals have a choice in this matter but of those who do, government sides with those who choose personal gluttony over investing in our future by punishing investment.

Thus, Romney's investments represent personal spending sacrificed for the greater good, and in a fair world his capital gains rate would be zero considering the fact that before any capital gains are realized he has paid a 35% corporate tax ... corporate taxes generated in the first instance by the very fact that he chose to invest rather than to spend.

Again, Romney has the moral high ground here, from paying more in taxes in both rate and total than most others in America to foregoing consumption in favor of investing in our communal future despite being punished for it in every instance.

And in the context of SOTU "fairness": where is the fairness in that?





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No More Miller...

polifrog




Brad Miller's immoral vote in favor ObamaCare was the impetus behind my "getting involved". Now he is gone.


You're welcome.


Miller has represented the 13th Congressional District which stretches across the northern counties from the Triangle to the Triad since 2002. The district includes all of Caswell and parts of Guilford and Rockingham Counties.






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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Yosemite in Time Lapse...

polifrog




Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.







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A Supreme Court Docket Primer on Uncommon Knowledge...

polifrog



Growing up I never contemplated hearing discussions in which conservatism and libertarianism were the assumption. I not only still find it refreshing, but stunning that such discussion now take place.


Via powerline:








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Wandering Through the Political Marketplace...

polifrog


Althouse:
Maybe Wisconsinites just like incumbents. Seriously, what's going on there? We've got Obama 8 points ahead of the supposedly kind of moderate Romney, yet the supposedly staunchly conservative Walker is beating all the potential Democratic opponents?

Looking through to the full results — PDF — it's interesting that on the right direction/wrong track question, 70% of the respondents think the country is on the wrong track (24% say "right direction"), but when the same question is asked about Wisconsin, 50% say "right direction," and 46% say "wrong track."


There is a demand for something and it ain't more liberal cowbell.



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Is Mitt Romney the Establishment's Firewall Against Bills to End ObamaCare? (Bumped)

polifrog



Updated and Bumped for the Norm Coleman quotes below from The Hill.

The Hill:
Mitt Romney adviser Norm Coleman, a former senator from Minnesota, predicted the GOP won't repeal the Democrats' healthcare reform law even if a Republican candidate defeats President Obama this November.

"You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president," Coleman told BioCentury This Week television in an interview that aired on Sunday. "You can't whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what's been done."
===================

I certainly don't know if he is or not, but given the money involved with ObamaCare it is plausible to believe that many in the Republican establishment want their troughs protected from countervailing citizen desire.

At any rate the following ad from Newt does little to squelch the notion...






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Blue Skies, Everything is Blue Skies -- According to the SOTU...

polifrog




iOwnTheWorld.com









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CATO Institute Responds To Obama's SOTU...

polifrog









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Failure Begets Repetition in Idiologs Like Obama...

polifrog


How is this stuff so quickly made?





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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Most Absurd Drivel From the SOTU...

polifrog



Obama:
I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed-- the government should do for people only what they can not do better by themselves and no more.


Is the man entirely unaware that he now a has a record?



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It Seems Obama Believes NC is Worth Battling Over...

polifrog



A bit of name dropping going on in the SOTU. Raleigh, Charlotte, CPCC.

Expect to be badgered in the coming year.




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Is Mitt Romney the Establishment's Firewall Against Bills to End ObamaCare?

polifrog



I certainly don't know if he is or not, but given the money involved with ObamaCare it is plausible to believe that many in the Republican establishment want their troughs protected from countervailing citizen desire.

At any rate the following ad from Newt does little to squelch the notion...






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What Newt Learned Last Night...

polifrog



Newt via The Hill:

“I wish in retrospect I had protested when Brian Williams took [the crowd] out of it because I think it’s wrong,” he said. “I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”





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Monday, January 23, 2012

No Nuclear Newt...

polifrog



The debate tonight in Florida was boring. NBC's imploring the audience to refrain from applause did not help matters....not that it a mattered.

The source of most, if not all, of the fun at the recent Republican debates has been Newt's willingness to take on the presumptive arbiters of morality in media. First there was Juan Williams who claimed most Americans viewed the work ethic as insulting then ABC which open a presidential debate with a question concerning accusations made by Newt's wife.

Nothing similar occurred in Florida. Newt turned it off. He could have responded with ovation garnering theatrics in response to jabs from both Santorum and Romney. He did not.

There was no nuclear Newt because there is no "volatile Newt".

Simply put Newt, with his repeated dust offs when provoked, is proving that he is a man in control.




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Material Gains, Vanishing Leads -- Newt 41% Romney 32% Florida.....

polifrog



Rasmussen


Less than two weeks ago, Mitt Romney had a 22-point lead in Florida, but that’s ancient history in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Following his big win in South Carolina on Saturday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now is on top in Florida by nine.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Florida Republican Primary Voters, taken Sunday evening, finds Gingrich earning 41% of the vote with Romney in second at 32%. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum runs third with 11%, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul attracts support from eight percent (8%).




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Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Conservative Base is Inserting a Spine Into the Conservative Party and Newt is a Part of That...

polifrog




American Thinker:


The math is clear. While negative ads can be effective if run in huge numbers -- as in Iowa -- what the voters are craving in the debates and on the stump is someone who can look liberals squarely in the eye and tell them why we are right and they are wrong. The American conservative base has had to put up with being called stupid, racist, greedy and unfair for decades by not only the Democrats but the vast majority of the media. The pent up frustration of these decades is magnified by the fact that George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain would not or perhaps could not confront this.

....

The roar is passion. The roar is intensity. The roar is pent up frustration. The roar, put another way, is the national mood of conservatives. It is a roar that will demand a fighter. It will demand that those who want our votes must not cower in the face of the liberal template. If fact, it is a roar that demands that we do not accept any liberal templates.

That's why Newt has gotten all the roars, and why he has vaulted into serious contention only days after being written off. Anyone else who wants the roar should heed the lesson. The roar comes only at the expense of liberals and liberalism. You won't get the roar attacking others on the stage.





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But He Can't Bring Himself to Say Tea Party...

polifrog



Erick Erickson from email:

Newt Gingrich’s rise has a lot to do with Newt Gingrich’s debate performance. But it has just as much to do with a party base in revolt against its thought and party leaders in Washington, DC. The base is revolting because they swept the GOP back into relevance in Washington just under two years ago and they have been thanked with contempt ever since.

Adding insult to injury, the party and thought leaders now try to foist on the base a milquetoast moderate from Massachusetts. Newt Gingrich can thank Mitt Romney and more for the second look he is getting. Base hostility will now be exacerbated by Mitt Romney’s backers now undoubtedly making a conscious effort to prop up Rick Santorum to shut down Newt Gingrich.

I tend to think of a Erick as having been absorbed by the gentry conservative contingent. This bit of truth speaks otherwise.




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Newt Takes On Obama Over Keystone Pipeline...

polifrog



Newt:

I want America to become so energy independent that no American president ever again bows to the Saudi king.

...

An American president who can create a Chinese-Canadian partnership is truly a danger to this country.






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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Too Much of a Good Thing...

polifrog


Tatler:

One other thing. Romney annoyed people in South Carolina. His robo calls, from the vaunted “organization,” annoyed voters to no end. I watched someone get 5 calls in one night, many from Chris Christie. Another person is getting them in Germany in the middle of the night on her cell phone. Sometimes organization and money backfires.



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It's Newt ... Has The Tea Party Finally Found Their Candidate?

polifrog


Well, they have in SC...

AP:

Newt Gingrich stormed toward an upset over Mitt Romney Saturday night in the South Carolina primary.

That's according to exit polls, which showed the former House speaker ahead of the former Massachusetts governor overall. Gingrich was leading by a wide margin among the state's conservatives, tea party supporters and born-again Christians.

As for who the The Party will support in subsequent states ... who knows. After this past week they only have four to choose from and Buddy Roemer.



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First Democrats Break the System Then They Nationalize it...

polifrog




Gonzalo:
And when you break it down per person per year? The French spend less than one-sixth what the United States spends—yet live longer, and have a lower infant mortality rate

These are the facts—and they are undisputed.

So! One of two things is going on: Either the French—as a people—are simply better than Americans; made of finer stuff; simply superior physical specimens.

Or . . .


Big Pharma, Big Med and Big Insurance are stealing from the American people every last bit of money they can get their hands on, while the Federal government refuses—out of incompetence, stupidity or corruption—to do anything about this rampant, blatant theft.

Too harsh, you say? Well, next time you go bankrupt from your medical bills, tell me again if I’m being too harsh. Because if you go bankrupt in America, there’s a 60% chance it will be because of medical bills. And if you do go bankrupt because of medical expenses? There’s a 40% chance you actually did have medical insurance—yet went bankrupt anyway! (Source here)





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Friday, January 20, 2012

No Delay for NC Primary...

polifrog



In a turn of good news for NC influence in national matters...

PilotOnline:

A three-judge panel has refused to delay North Carolina's May 8 primary while a court considers a lawsuit over Republican-drawn boundaries for legislative and congressional districts.



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SOPA and PIPA Fail for Now...

polifrog



And they fail with no help from the party of the people actually, you know, listening to and responding to the citizenry.

Even Reid only managed a begrudging punt.

“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act,” Reid said in a statement.


As was the case with ObamaCare, only one party has shown it is responsive to the concerns of the citizenry while the other proves again and again it is bound by corporate coin.




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Thursday, January 19, 2012

SC Primary Roundup...

polifrog






Three polls put Newt ahead of Romney in SC:
  •  Insider Advantage .......Newt 32, Romney 29
  •  Rasmussen..................Newt 33, Romney 31
  •  PPP..............................Newt 34, Romney 28



Rick Perry drops out and gives his support to Newt.



A recount finds that Romney lost in Iowa and that Santorum won by around 30 votes.  Unfortunately for Santorum the result was that Romney was able to steel valuable momentum from him  coming out of Iowa.  This should weaken Romney, albeit immeasurably, in SC, but then Romney's supposed win in SC was immeasurable as well.



All good news for Newt, right? Nah.





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SOPA, PIPA Prove Republicans Hear the People While Democrats Hear Only Industry Coin...

polifrog




What has the fallout from yesterday's anti SOPA and PIPA push been? 

Ars Technica:
The newly-opposed Senators are skewed strongly to the Republican side of the aisle. An Ars Technica survey of Senators' positions on PIPA turned up only two Democrats, Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who announced their opposition on Wednesday. The other 11 Senators who announced their opposition on Wednesday were all Republicans. These 13 join a handful of others, including Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who have already announced their opposition.

Unsurprising.




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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SC Poll - Insider Advantage - Newt 32%, Romney 29%...

polifrog



This puts Newt and Romney within the margin of error for the lead, Newt edge.


SavannaNow:

Gingrich reversed the momentum of Mitt Romney who had an expanding lead in the same poll Sunday night.

Gingrich’s 32 percent to Romney’s 29 puts the two inside the poll’s 3.8 percent margin of error, but the 11-point lead Romney held in the Sunday evening survey has evaporated.


It would be interesting if the Tea Party were to coalesce behind Newt despite Beck's vehement disapproval.





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Corporations Challenge SOPA Under the Good Graces of Citizens United...

polifrog



So, where is the 'no free speech for corporations' crowd during this moment when Google and the like are doing the heavy lifting against SOPA?

Are they duplicitous bastards or bastards without vision?

I'd wager that the answer is both...



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Where Were the SOPA Haters During ObamaCare?

polifrog




I believe the failure of SOPA is that there were too few free items raining toward the masses to garner needed support. The crafters of SOPA seem to have forgotten that it is much easier for the citizenry to trade away liberty when free stuff comes their way in return.

The lack of liberal support for SOPA relative to their generous support for ObamaCare suggests that there wasn't enough of a payoff to cover the liberty lost to win their liberal support.

Being that SOPA is likely to return in some form, I think it wise to consider how much free stuff might be required to turn liberal SOPA hate into something that resembles their ObamaCare love.



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Is Bureaucracy Your Friend?

polifrog


This defender of bureaucrats would like you to think so,

The MPAA selected Dodd as its new head lobbyist chairman and CEO last year. Now Dodd is taking aim at Wikipedia, Google, and other websites involved in today’s protest against the SOPA/PIPA internet censorship legislation pending in Congress:

“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.

United Liberty

Okay, whatever...

Santelli calls for consistancy from the Googles and the Wikis of the world straight through to ObamaCare.







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There is No Free in Liberty -- Mark Levin's 'Ameritopia'...

polifrog



Mark Levin with Cavuto:






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Witness the Power Of a Fully Operational Supernational Socialist Bubble Collapsing ...

polifrog




Theodore Dalrymple--

On Belgium:
Belgium’s inability to form a central government would not matter so much if the country did not need to reduce its public spending. Though Belgium is the largest per-capita exporter of goods and services in the world and has healthy private savings, it also has a large and growing public debt—nearly 100 percent of GDP—and an annual budget deficit of more than 5 percent. With growth negligible and government bond yields rising in a currency (the euro) that the Belgians cannot inflate, retrenchment is essential, but the Walloons and the Flemish cannot agree on how to do it. The Walloons want higher taxes to maintain the current arrangements; the Flemish want lower taxes and reduced spending to promote long-term growth. The result is a stalemate. Wallonia and Flanders are like a married couple who no longer can live together but find divorce impossible because of difficulties over the settlement.

On Ireland:
Yet when the crisis hit and the government had to cut public-sector salaries drastically and pursue other austerity measures—friends of mine who live in Ireland have lost a fifth to a quarter of their wages—hardly a word of complaint ensued. Most people seemed to understand that the seven fat—indeed, grossly obese—years simply had to be followed by the seven lean. The relation of the previous excess to the present hardship was obvious to everyone, and the population sought no scapegoats, even if, correctly, it blamed the politicians and bankers more than it blamed itself.

The Irish did take the first opportunity to vote the government out of office; Fianna Fáil, the dominant political party since Irish independence in 1921, found itself humiliated at the polls. But in recognizing the painful fact that the guilt of others does not constitute one’s own innocence, the Irish set the world an example. Since the crash, successive Irish governments have had the determination to fight to retain their low corporate tax, called “predatory” by the other Europeans. (It is symptomatic of Europe’s sickness that refraining from government seizure of money is now deemed by its political class to be predation.) The Irish economy may thus be poised for a quicker recovery.

On Greece:
Greece was another matter. The government, also relying on euro-based good credit, borrowed simply to bolster its public sector. When this differently constructed pyramid collapsed, the population’s chief object became warding off change—ensuring, that is, that it continued to receive more than it earned and consume more than it produced. Yes, the government was corrupt; yes, foreign bankers lent irresponsibly. But did Greeks really not know that tax evasion was standard practice in their country, and by no means only among the elite; that much of the employment in the public sector was bogus make-work; that retirement conditions superior to those in Germany were unearned and unsustainable; and that their political and administrative class was composed of liars and cheats? Blaming the Germans—the Nazi stereotype emerged quickly, once European subsidies were reduced—became a convenient way to avoid self-examination.

On Germany:
For a time, the euro did seem to serve German interests, allowing countries to buy German goods that they might not otherwise have been able to buy. Meanwhile, Germany, with a determination not shown by other European countries, reduced payroll taxes and barely increased wages, having previously established a powerful manufacturing base. Savings rose, and Germany became the China of Europe. Now it has the problem of what to do with its trade surplus, larger than the trade deficits of France, Italy, and Spain combined.

On Europe:
In short, the incontinent spending of many European governments, which awarded whole populations unearned benefits at the expense of generations to come, has—along with a megalomaniacal currency union—produced a crisis not merely economic but social, political, and even civilizational. The European Union that was supposed to put an end to war on the continent has resuscitated antagonisms that might end in bellicosity, if not in outright war. And the European Project stands revealed as what any sensible person could have seen it always was: something akin to the construction of a massive, post-Tito Yugoslavia.






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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

There is no free in liberty...

polifrog


The Tragic Humor of Utopianists:







(H/T) International Liberty

There is no free,
Only liberty.


Heh.

Googled "There is no free, in liberty", "There is no free in liberty" as well as "There is no free, only liberty" and got no results in each case. Seems unlikely, but I suppose they're mine.



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Rent Controls - Kelo...




Rent control is a foreign concept to me, but then to a lesser extent so was the question that lead to the Kelo decision.

The Supreme Court may soon decide the constitutionality of rent controls in New York City.

New York Post:

Harmon’s arguments are compelling. Consider: The Fifth Amendment says that nobody can be “deprived of . . . property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”

Rent regulations deprive Harmon of his property. These laws aren’t like zoning laws, under which Harmon wouldn’t be able to build a munitions factory on his home, a perfectly reasonable restriction. Instead, Harmon can’t use much of his own property for any purpose. He’s a trespasser in his own brownstone. If he doesn’t want to renew a tenant’s lease, it’s tough luck. In fact, Harmon has spent $30,000 in fees trying — so far unsuccessfully — to vacate one apartment so that his grandchild can live there. Because tenants in the two other regulated apartments are (like Harmon) older than 62, if he wants “their” space, he has to find them similar apartments at the same or lower price in the same neighborhood.

The fact that Harmon must renew leases over and over is a violation, too, of the Constitution’s contracts clause. Rent regulation compels Harmon to sign his name to a piece of paper every year, whether he wants to or not.






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Just When You Begin To Forget the Newt Attraction...

polifrog



...he defends the work ethic:

Monday, January 16, 2012

Increasing Revenue Via Increasing Debt Without First Increasing Productivity...

polifrog




H/T Guarino:




I believe it is important to note the difference between an increase in productive capacity and an increase in revenue.  The additional job would serve to increase revenue by way of increased productivity.

What is the government parallel to increasing revenue by way of increasing productivity? There isn't one.  Increasing  taxes lowers productivity while having questionable revenue results.  And while  increasing revenue by way of debt is does unquestionably raise revenue, it does leave us with a diminished future.

And, of course, in the end the fellow gets his increase in revenue without first doing the hard work of increasing productivity. 

No education or home for the little girl...



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On An Appropriate Day to Remember Those Racist Democrats...

polifrog






HolyCoast:

Yes, he was a registered Republican who led most of his battles against Democrat politicians in the South - governors, mayors, and sheriffs, Democrats all, who tried to stop blacks from enjoying the full benefits of their citizenship in the United States. Democrats were the party of racism and segregation in those days...and still are today if you look at how their policies have destroyed the black family and minority neighborhoods. It's not Republicans trying to keep black families dependent on the government.
H/T Via Politics et al


(Below) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957. They met on Capitol Hill for a discussion of ways to overcome Democrat opposition to the Republican civil rights agenda.




The power of myth is best exposed by truth.



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On That Debt...

polifrog




At least some of Krugman's fans have questions or one...



So that brings us to our big question for Prof. Krugman:

Why isn't today fundamentally different from post-World War 2 in key ways that make the comforting post-WW2 analogy flawed?

Namely:
  • Today there are massive consumer debts that didn't exist after World War 2
  • Today there are massive European debts that didn't exist after World War 2
  • Today there is massive global manufacturing over-capacity, whereas after WW2 much of the world's capacity had been destroyed (and needed to be rebuilt)
  • Today, there are (fewer) massive lending programs like the Marshall Plan with which we loaned customers money with which to buy our products (Admittedly, the Fed and ECB are trying their damndest, but as you point out, they're pushing on a string).
If Prof. Krugman can explain why none of these differences matter, we'll be more persuaded that the U.S. won't be completely screwed by its huge debt load.
In the meantime, although we support the idea of a huge infrastructure spending program, we're worried.






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Paul Krugman's (Alan Krueger's) Sleight of Hand In Denying Intergenerational Income Mobility...

polifrog



So, how does one argue with a drab statistic that we can all wrap our minds around like 80% of millionaires being first generation as a measure of America's high degree of intergenerational income mobility? Or, for that matter, its inverse - the 1 in 18 chance an individual from a non millionaire family has of becoming a millionaire?

How does one deny this sort of data?

Paul Krugman
:

Below is what he dubs the Great Gatsby Curve. On the horizontal axis is the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality. On the vertical axis is the intergenerational elasticity of income — how much a 1 percent rise in your father’s income affects your expected income; the higher this number, the lower is social mobility.


Misdirection -- Don't count the number of 1st generation millionaires and compare that to the total. Look, instead, at how a parent's higher income affects, not their children's income, but their children's expected income and then compare that to the "Gini Coefficient", a measure of inequality, and call the result a measure of intergenerational income mobility or immobility.

So what does a measure of "how much a 1 percent rise in your father’s income affects your expected income" really show?

It shows how much children benefit (relative to their peers) from wealthy parentage. It ignores that those children may be less wealthy than their parents, and that their children may be less wealthy than them -- the real question of intergenerational income mobility.

Knowing that Krueger measures, not intergenerational changes in wealth, but the degree to which children benefit relative to their peers from wealthy parentage, if we turn to the linked chart that compares nations we see that children benefit less from parentage in generally more statist countries (listed low/left on the chart) and benefit more from parentage in generally less statist nations (listed high/right on the graph).

Krugman says more about statist governments breaking the bonds of family than it does about intergenerational income of which it says nothing.

H/T Andrew Brod




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