Author: Mark Noonan

How Liberals See It

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Cenk Uygur wrote a piece over at HuffPo about how Obama and Co just won’t get out there and fight…that Team Obama thinks they are winning and thus just don’t answer the GOP blow for blow.  For those of us who have been watching Obama serially insult and attack us since he became President, this attitude comes as a surprise…what do the liberals want Obama to do?  Shoot us?

Uygur’s opinion is applauded and repeated by many liberals in the comments, but other liberals are countering the argument with a plea for patience.  Obama, you see, had dropped in his lap more challenges than any other President.  Civil War?  World War Two?  Oh, puhleesse!  Give me a break…that’s nothing!  Think about what Obama was faced with:  a recession!  My goodness, man, can anything be more challenging than that?  And then look at all that cruel obstructionism from the GOP…for crying out loud, in the face of the beaten down, dispirited GOP all Obama had was absolute command of Congress and the slavish devotion of the MSM.  It is a wonder that Obama survived at all!

Interspersed are, naturally, the accusations that we’re all racists and that corporations and billionaires control us (one wonders if any liberal has ever asked what George Soros does for a living?).  It is really rather sad; pathetic, really.  It is people who simply don’t know…they were fed a fairy tale about what that wicked,  mean Chimpy McSmirk BusHitler was up to…and then they were told that Obama was The One who will make it all better.  Now that the fairy tale has entered reality and reality doesn’t measure up, they are just floundering around, looking for excuses or getting petulant that The One hasn’t delivered.

These are not people who are set for victory next year…from Obama on down liberals are just out of their depth.  We’re going to beat them like a drum – not easily because ignorant as they are, they’ll still have a billion dollars to spend and a nasty streak a mile wide, but we’re going to beat them.

How to Reform Education

Mark Noonan44 Comments

The geniuses of the left have come up with a way to improve education – from Yahoo News:

How would the nation’s school system be different if teachers were paid like engineers?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proposed last month that a significant boost in teacher salaries could transform public schools for the better by luring the country’s brightest college graduates into the profession.

Teachers should be paid a starting salary of $60,000, Duncan said, with the opportunity to make up to $150,000 a year…

Yeah, that’ll fix it.  The only problem we have with education is that we’re not spending enough money on it.  If we just “invest” a bit more, all will be well.

The truth is that we spend plenty of money on education – in fact, probably many times more than we need to.  But the funds are misapplied because the education system – from pre-school through graduate school – is not geared towards providing education for kids, but for providing well paid positions for incompetents.  Fundamental to this are teacher’s unions and tenure.  Get rid of the unions and tenure, and you’ll fix education within, at most, two or three years.  There will no longer be protection for idiocy, and so the natural common sense of humanity will start to take hold.

To be sure, a lot of other particular bits of reform spring to mind – such as, why do we provide loans, grants and scholarships for kids to become lawyers?  We have more than enough lawyers in the United States – but not nearly enough engineers and doctors.  So, cancel all loans, grants and scholarships for law degrees and re-direct the funds to medicine and engineering.  But that is in the details – and such reforms will always be stymied because of the main things wrong with education:  unions and tenure.  Unions and tenured educators don’t want their place at the trough disturbed and so strangle every effort at reform…while on the other hand they are always quick to come up with their own “reform” efforts which invariably demand more money for the worthless education system we already have.

George Will called the events in Wisconsin the “Waterloo” of the left…it may well have been.  Unions were taken head on and defeated…and the people of Wisconsin are already seeing the improvements in government finance, the Wisconsin economy and Wisconsin education.  Here’s the real kicker – there is more money in the Wisconsin education budget for hiring and paying teachers, now that the unions are cut out of the loop.   Once the word starts to get out that getting rid of the unions is just about a silver bullet, more and more unions will be got rid of.  It will snowball.

Eventually we can start educating the kids, again…and that will do more than anything else to restore American greatness.

The Democrat Plan: Smear and Fear

Mark Noonan7 Comments

From The Hill:

President Obama is struggling in the polls against would-be Republican challengers because voters don’t know the GOP contenders well enough yet, a top White House official said Thursday.

Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer expressed confidence that Obama would perform better against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or Texas Gov. Rick Perry once Americans familiarize themselves with those GOP presidential candidates.

“My guess is that a significant portion of the people polled, the American people, don’t know what Mitt Romney’s economic plan is yet,” Pfeiffer said on MSNBC. “I’m confident they will know that he supports Cut, Cap and Balance, which would essentially end Medicare, end Social Security.”…

The only way to figure that Cut, Cap and Balance would end Medicare or Social Security is to lie about Cut, Cap and Balance.  As it turns out, flat out, bald-faced lies don’t seem to be a difficult proposition for Democrats.  And if your man can’t run on his record while his opponents have ideas that play well with the public then you have two alternatives:  either gracefully surrender, or lie like a rug about your opponents.

Rely on it:  from now until election day there will be an increasing crescendo of fear and smear tactics from the Democrats – to hear them talk about it, the GOP plan will be to kick granny off social security, kick sick people out of hospitals, kick kids out of school and bring back Jim Crow laws…all so we can give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Democrats are not doing this to win support – one thing about popularity is that once it is lost it is very hard to get back.  The chances of Obama winning enthusiastic support from people who backed him in 2008 but have soured on him in 2011 are very small – unless some gigantic event entirely outside his control allows Obama to shine, there is little chance that the disenchanted will come back.  Democrats are doing this to fire up their base and dispirit independents.  But running a nasty, dishonest and slanderous campaign, Democrats hope to fire up the mindless rank-and-file left (who will actually believe the GOP wants to be all that nasty) while making politics so vile that independents stay home in droves…Democrats then count on their registration advantage and ground game to out-turnout the GOP on election day.

A party with a sense of honor wouldn’t do this – a party whose leaders cared more for America than their own power and wealth would run on their record and let the American people decide.  Of course, a decent, honorable party like that holding the Democrats’ current record would be crushed at the polls.  For the Democrat leaders, there is no upside to that.  They want to win – and this is the only way they can possibly win.  The bad news for them is that it won’t work.

I think that the Democrats’ primary problem in 2012 is that they have already been so nasty and slanderous since 2001 that the people have tuned them out.  When an Andre Carson claims that the TEA Party wants to lynch black Americans, it is considered outrageous and disgusting, but it is also considered par for the course.  People expect Democrats to act like that but don’t allow it to affect behavior.  There is a chance that when Democrats really pour on the filth it will work as Democrats hope, but my view is that it will just steel the hearts of both GOPers and independents to have done with the Democrats…to chastise them so severely that they may even learn their lesson and rethink their policies and tactics.

But get ready for it – they will be as nasty and disgusting as they can be.  They will lie about us.  They will insult us.  They will use the crudest appeals to liberal racism. They will send minions out to disrupt our events.  They will use false-flag tactics…liberal activists presenting themselves as conservatives and TEA Partiers mouthing racist sentiments.  They will give marching orders to the MSM and so the MSM will gang up on us and highlight every slander as if it were true, while hiding the truth about the left.  It will be a long and very difficult campaign.

And we’re going to win.

Turks Expel Israeli Ambassador

Mark Noonan17 Comments

From the Washington Post:

Turkey said Friday that it was expelling the Israeli ambassador and suspending military agreements with Israel, signaling a deepening rift between the former strategic allies in the aftermath of last year’s deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish ship leading an aid flotilla to Gaza.

The crisis with Turkey comes as Israel faces strained relations with another longtime regional ally, Egypt, over a deadly border incident last month, and it raises the prospect of Israel’s increasing isolation in the region at a time of tumultuous change.

Turkey announced its move ahead of the publication of a U.N. report that found that while Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, its commandos had used “excessive and unreasonable” force when they boarded the vessel, the Mavi Marmara, and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists…

That report is bound to be nothing more than another bit of UN Israel-bashing.  “Excessive and unreasonable” is a subjective judgment and, at the end of the day, Israel wouldn’t have had to use any force, at all, if the flotilla people had simply obeyed the law.  You go to break a blockade and you’re engaging in an act of war…Israel could have just torpedoed the flotilla and still would have been within the law.

But Turkey is taking this bogus incident as an excuse to expel the Israeli ambassador, and that means something.  Turkey, increasingly Islamist, is breaking its ties with Israel and lining on the side of the Jihadists.  This is a watershed moment – it is the end of any large, powerful Moslem nation even making an effort to be Western and civilized.  We can now expect increased pressure on Iraq to toe the Islamist line, especially if any sort of Moslem Brotherhood government emerges in Egypt.  We’re back to 1967 in middle eastern affairs but with a much more virulent strain of anti-Israel and anti-US sentiment in the area.

Our response should be to cut off all military ties with both Turkey and Egypt and refuse both nations any aid.  If we can keep Iraq in our camp that would be great…and we should offer strong inducements to the Iraqis to partner with us, lest they be swallowed up by Turkey, Iran or a combination of both.  But we have to be prepared for Iraq to cut ties with us, as well…they are placed in a difficult position and may decide that it is better to get along with everyone than count on an increasingly distant and distracted United States.

It could be that wiser heads will prevail and all this will blow over – but if the Islamic world really wants to fight, then there’s not much we can do about it, except to fight them.

President Zero

Mark Noonan24 Comments

From MSNBC:

…Nonfarm payrolls were unchanged last month, the Labor Department said Friday. It was the first time since 1945 that the government has reported a net monthly job change of zero. The August payrolls report was the worst since September 2010, while nonfarm employment for June and July was revised to show 58,000 fewer jobs…

…Despite the lack of employment growth, the jobless rate held steady at 9.1 percent in August…

He promised us that his stimulus would keep unemployment below 8%.  That, really, is all that needs be said – by his own standards, he has failed.

Will Unemployment Increase?

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Lance Roberts over at Zero Hedge thinks so:

Unemployment is potentially set to rise sharply in the coming months.  That is a pretty bold claim on the surface and one that flies in the face of both mainstream economists, and the White House which is about to unveil a new “jobs plan”.

Let’s take a quick look at some numbers:  8, 160, 400, 350, 12 and 5.  There have only been 8 weeks out of last 160 weeks that unemployment claims have been below 400 thousand claims.   In normal circumstances we are worried about recessions when claims are rising above 350 thousand claims.   Furthermore, jobless claims tend to plunge below 350 thousand a week within 12 months after the end of a recession.  Currently we are still holding above 400 thousand claims after more than two full years since the recession statistically ended…

But what about “5”?  He gets to that – the STA Composite Employment Index.  When it gets to “5” or less, it is a solid indicator of a recession.  Right now, it is at “5”.

But even without that, anyone with eyes to see knows that the economy is in bad shape – the mere fact that we’re sitting on 400,000+ plus claims for unemployment week after week after week shows that we are, at best, treading water…and more likely we’re slowly losing ground, in spite of all the new jobs the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims we’re creating (of course, it must be noted that then the BLS says “X” jobs were created in month “Y” it is really no more than a guess…and it will be about a year before we know how many really were created in month “Y”…and if BLS guesses wrong…).  Along with the jobs picture, every metric of economic activity has been pathetic for a “recovery” period…and they are all trending towards worse.  Even when some statistic comes in higher than expected, it is not high enough to indicate a robust economy.

It remains to be seen whether or not Bernanke will print up a bag of money to keep us out of official recession through the 2012 election – I think it would be disastrous, and may not even give us fake “growth”.  But he may try it – the Ruling Class is worried about a political revolution in the United States next year and will pull out all the stops to ensure that Obama is re-elected.  Or, failing that, that the eventual GOPer is wedded to the current system.  These people don’t care if America is going to heck in a handbasket…all they care is that they remain rich and in charge.

Brace yourselves – we’re going to have to deal from now through election day with a bad economy and an exceptionally nasty, political fight.  We will win – and win rather big, I think – but it will take every last ounce of effort we can muster.  As for me, I’m excited about the prospect and looking forward to the battle…it will be honorable, it will be fun and it will change America.

 

Battle for NY-9 Neck and Neck

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Not the sort of news the Democrats want to hear:

A new Republican-commissioned poll showed the race to replace ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) in New York’s 9th district to be a dead heat.

A McLaughlin & Associates poll of 300 likely voters found 42 percent would vote for state Assemblyman David Weprin (D) while 42 percent said they would vote for retired businessman Bob Turner (R).

Sixteen percent of those polled said they were undecided with less than two weeks to go before the Sept. 13 special election. The poll was conducted for Turner’s campaign…

There is a gigantic Democrat registration advantage in the 9th…so that it is even close is astounding.  It probably isn’t helping matters for the Democrats that Weprin hadn’t the foggiest notion of the national debt when asked the other day…proof that Democrats have just put up a loyal hack who will do what he’s told and is expected to easily win a heavily Democrat district.  There is a monumental contempt for the people in this – and it must be kept in mind that this contempt is being shown by Democrat leaders for Democrat voters.  They really do expect that the “D” after Weprin’s name will do the trick.

It’d be nice if Turner wins, but if he even comes within 5 it will amount to a crushing loss for the Democrats…the sort of small indicator which shows that things are going in a very different way.

Best of luck to Turner – let’s give Obama and his Democrats a big scare as they crawl in to 2012.

His Majesty is Not Amused

Mark Noonan4 Comments

Seems like His Majesty, Barry I, isn’t all that happy his speech on jobs was postponed – from Politico:

It seemed like a trivial matter: On Wednesday, House Republicans forced the president to delay his speech to a joint session of Congress by one day.

Who cares? The White House cares. Very much.

“It is a big deal that the House said ‘no’ to the president from our end,” a White House source with intimate knowledge of what took place between the House and the president told me Thursday. “This confirms what we all know: They will do anything in the House to muck us up.”

On Wednesday, the White House staff did not know exactly what President Barack Obama was going to say in his major jobs speech, but it knew exactly where and when he was going to say it…

This is a sign of a floundering White House…they are not only mad about something as trivial as this, but they are letting people know they are mad.  The White House cooked up a plan and, darn it, Congress didn’t meekly go along with it!  The nerve!

Leaving aside the fact that the Congress is not at the beck and call of the President, it speaks volumes about the Obama Administration that they didn’t clear the date in advance with Speaker Boehner.  This shows that they just presume that obedience is automatic…that at the end of the day everyone will defer to The One.  While Obama has lost his luster with the public, it seems that for himself and his closest advisers, the rules of 2008 still apply…and when it is time for the Prophet to speak, everyone else is supposed to tremble and obey.

I’ve got one piece of advice to Obama and his crew – get used to this.  Its not that we disrespect the office of the President, but that we’re not about to follow the Obama script.  Obama is one player among many – certainly an important piece of the puzzle, but in no way does he rule the roost.  And, as an aside, if Obama and his cronies hadn’t so continually insulted us and lied about us, things would be different.

 

 

Applied Liberalism

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Liberal, Democrat governor; liberal, Democrat legislature; tax hikes…and what do you get?  From the Illinois Policy Institute:

In a trend that continues to worsen, more Illinoisans found themselves unemployed in the month of July.

Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report. After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.

Illinois started to create jobs as the national economy began to recover. But just when Illinois’s economy seemed to be turning around, lawmakers passed record tax increases in January of this year. Since then, Illinois’s employment numbers have done nothing but decline…

This is entirely unsurprising – in fact, it was predicted in many quarters.  Why on earth should business expand or even remain in Illinois if they are to be taxed higher than elsewhere?  Do you liberals out there really think that higher taxes are just so much water off the business duck’s back?  I mean, seriously – tell us:  did you really expect that things would get better after a tax hike?

Over in Wisconsin the conservative, Republican governor and legislature took the opposite course – and it is paying off in jobs growth.  Anyone want to bet that some of those new, Wisconsin jobs are old, Illinois jobs?  Not like its all that far to move.  This isn’t rocket science – make something more expensive and there will be less of it being used…Illinois made having employees more expensive, so less employees are being used.

As I’ve said before, the dichotomy between the States being governed by liberalism and those by conservatism will be immensely instructive for a generation of Americans.  In practical application, the people are seeing the results.  Those States with the most liberalism are doing worse than those States with the most conservatism…and as time goes on, this will merely become more pronounced…and when the next election rolls around, I think we’ll see some startling results in the liberal States.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Paved With Good Intentions

Mark Noonan6 Comments

You know the destination – from Strategy Page:

Complaints from the Congo are growing about the U.S. legislation intended to stop illegal mineral sales. The Dodd-Frank bill (also called the Obama Law) has a clause that prohibits the sale of so-called conflict minerals may have been well-intentioned but it was not well-thought out. Rather than run the risk of buying any minerals that might have been smuggled from the Congo, many major mining companies are simply refusing to buy minerals from central Africa. The result is a de facto embargo. There are few buyers for Congo’s valuable minerals, especially tantalum and tungsten which have many hi-tech uses. This has damaged the Congo’s economy, because the nation relies on mineral exports. According to some sources, China, which does not have to meet Dodd-Frank standards, is snapping up many minerals at very cheap prices.

Which, then, will eventually find their way in to products used by Americans because we import so much from China…and there is no way to separate out that bit of mineral inside your electronic gadget which was obtained in the Congo.  We have very much shot ourselves in the foot…as well as shot the poor people of the Congo, while at the same time given even more power and wealth to our enemies in China.  Good job, well-intentioned sob-sisters.

God gave us reason and He expect us to use it.  In a rather confusing world where there is always conflict, we are supposed to thread our way carefully.  Before we take a step we should be thinking about what may come after – will it have the effect we want?  If it does, will it also have some bad effects?  Will the good effects equal or outweigh the bad?  It is hard to get people to look even an inch in to the future…but it must be done.  If we go off half-cocked an allow emotion to rule our decisions, then we are bound to get it wrong…emotions have their place, but only as a spur to action…the action, itself, must always be in accord with the best reason we can muster.

We want to ensure that evil people do not profit off the sweat of poor, working people.  That is an admirable goal…a completely Christian goal.  But before we take an action designed to thwart evil we’d better be sure that it (a) thwarts evil and (b) doesn’t cause even more problems for the poor people we’re trying to help.  Some poor man in the Congo who breaks his back mining the goods of the earth deserves first priority on the benefit of those goods…how are we to get the benefit to him?  By cutting him off?  By making his primary customer the People’s Republic of China?  Come on, think clearly!

Perhaps instead of cutting off the Congolese mineral exports to the United States we should, instead, have put a tariff on it and plowed the proceeds back into to efforts to improve the lot of the miners?  Give them some schools and hospitals?  Just an idea…something to think about; and thinking is what we most need in the world…and it is what we have so little of these days.

I realize that thinking can be hard work – I further realize that the more we think, the less liberalism we’ll have.  This is why liberals are so opposed to thought and so insistent upon adherence to a party line.  Start thinking about what we want and what steps might get us there and all of a sudden there’s not much room for appeals to raw emotions which lead to stupid, counter-productive policies.  And just where would liberalism be then?  But I do believe it is a risk worth taking – we can become a rational world again.  We can recover the traditions of the Judeo-Christian West and start to think, and apply human reason to the problems of human life.  It has been done in the past, and it can be done again…just takes a little bit of courage.