This from Phillip Klein over at the American Spectator:

On Thursday, the California High Speed Rail Authority board unanimously approved the 65-mile “train to nowhere” that would link two tiny towns at a cost of $4.15 billion, all because the state didn’t want to lose $2 billion in federal stimulus funds.

The rail line would connect two central California towns, Borden and Corcoran, with a combined population of 25,000…

…to sum up, a state that’s broke is spending billions of dollars on a project that benefits a tiny percentage of people, so that it doesn’t lose billions of dollars in payments from a country that’s broke…

I’m a fan of high speed rail. I’d like to have us re-work our entire rail system for high speed. I think the speed up of the movement of goods would be a long-term net economic benefit to the whole economy – and I think that high speed rail would be able to capture at least a portion of travel which currently goes by air. But you don’t do it this way.

You don’t do it with government subsidy, other than whatever government action is needed to clear the right of way for the rail lines, themselves. When you do it with government, you get absurd things like starting the project by connecting a couple tiny towns. How about a high speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, instead? That would make too much sense, I guess. It is just additionally stupid when you realize that the government – State and federal – will really be spending money ultimately borrowed from China and such places in order to fund a project which will do nothing to get us out of our current mess.

An asinine government ruled by a corrupt Ruling Class continues to head for the cliff. And its getting really, really close, now.

So, how’s that economic recovery thing working out for you, Americans?

The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in November and the unemployment rate rose, dashing hopes that the recovery is gaining momentum…

…The jobless rate, obtained from a separate household survey, unexpectedly rose to 9.8%, the highest level since April.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast payrolls would rise by 144,000 and that the unemployment rate would remain unchanged at 9.6%…

That is because most economists – trained to believe that Keynesian theory is correct – are functionally idiots when it comes to economics. You don’t get economic growth by printing and borrowing money and then spending it like mad. You get growth when people work hard, save their money and carefully invest it for the long term. Any economic theory which does other than encourage hard work, savings and careful investment is someone trying to run a con – trying, that is, to steal things from those who have real wealth.

We can get out of this – but not until those in charge change their ways, or are replaced by people with common sense.

We’ve become rather barbaric of late – and I think we can fix it.

Limbaugh on the RINOs/Ruling Class types against Palin.

Proving it takes all kinds to make a world, someone is willing to speak up for printing money as an economic cure. I disagree in the comments.

Will the British cops arrest Assange? I doubt it – I figure he’s going to skate.

Well, we were warned: “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” – Matthew 10:22. Seems that Christians are the most persecuted religion on the world.

Adm. Mullen: Don’t want to serve with openly gay service members? Then you can get out. Some how, I don’t think that we should replaced “don’t ask, don’t tell” with “pound sand, if you don’t like it”. I think the Admiral has made an error here – essentially insulting those in the armed forces who are apprehensive about this proposed policy change. I’m sympathetic to the idea of allowing openly gay people to serve (with reservations long noted) – but this isn’t the way to do it, Admiral.

Iowahawk strikes back at Assange.

Legal Insurrection notes:

…Without the enthusiasm of Palin supporters the Republican Party is nothing moving into 2012.

The campaign troops who will be in the field, on the telephones and at the fundraisers in 2012 will be the same troops who fought the 2010 campaign war. And those troops weren’t carrying Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee, or Newt Gingrich signs.

That doesn’t mean Palin gets the nomination just because she wants it, or that she is presumptive, or that her supporters constitute a majority of the Party.

It does mean that the Republican nominee cannot win against Barack Obama without the enthusiasm and support of Palin supporters…

This is where Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment kicks in – what is really meant by “thou shall not speak ill of your fellow Republican”. If someone wants to attack Palin, they’d better do it on policy and/or resume’ issues. Don’t do it by saying “she’s not ready” or “she can’t win”, that is.

It is, of course, hard to attack Palin on policy – for the most part, she’s entirely in line with the majority of the GOP on matters of taxation, spending, Constitutional issues, etc. You can attack her on policy only by going more liberal, which will kill you with GOP primary voters, or by going more conservative, which may kill you with moderates in November. To really get past Palin, a GOPer will have to demonstrate how he can better implement what Palin supporters want – but that is hard to do unless you, yourself, have been a governor for some time longer than Palin was, and can point to a solid record of accomplishment without any skeletons in the closet.

But if you want to be the Republican nominee for President and you aren’t Sarah Palin, you’d better figure it out – because if you don’t have Sarah Palin’s enthusiastic backing (and thus the backing of her legion of supporters), you can’t beat Obama. Trying to knock her out by saying she’s a dunce or just not ready for prime time will only turn off Palin supporters.

This is why I figure that only Christie or Daniels can defeat Palin – and Christie has already made some Palin supporters mad with his sly dig at Palin’s credibility as a candidate (though, of course, Christie still asserts he won’t run – so, no harm, no foul). Jindal also has an outside chance, if he decides to go for it in 2012 (though I think he’ll wait until 2016 – if we lose in 2012 – or 2020; he goes for re-election next year, will probably be thumpingly re-elected and that carries him through to 2015). Only a successful governor can bring to the table more than Palin does – and if that governor can both argue against Palin while also showing respect for Palin and her supporters, he’ll have a good shot at it.

Main thing – don’t cross the Mama Grizzly. Don’t fall for the MSM narrative. Don’t let the Ruling Class types – who are scared spitless of Palin – convince you to denigrate her abilities or her impact. Meet her as the awesome, elemental political force she is and argue your case – that is the only way to do it.

From Reuters:

A bipartisan deal to vote on dueling tax packages fell apart late on Thursday and the Democratic Senate leader will instead set votes on his party’s plans to extend only some Bush-era tax cuts, an aide said…

The MSM report, naturally, goes on to blame Republicans for the impasse. But over at NRO’s The Corner there’s Sen. Harkin (D-IA) asserting that if Obama caves on taxes for those making over $250,000, he’ll be in trouble in 2012. In other words, Democrats might be in an internal impasse – not wanting to be responsible for a big tax hike, but also not willing to challenge their own left wing base on the issue.

We’ll see how this plays out.

From Rasmussen:

In November, 36.0% of American Adults identified themselves as Republicans; 34.7% considered themselves Democrats, and 29.3% were not affiliated with either major party. That’s the largest number of Republicans since February 2005 and the first time ever that Rasmussen Reports polling has found more people identifying as Republicans than Democrats…

Don’t bank on this, by the way – polls of party affiliation are subject to rapid and wide changes. But, still, remarkable at this is the first time in 6 years of polling that Rasmussen came up with more GOPers than Democrats among American adults.

If we don’t screw up – and if Obama just stays Obama – then we might be on to something long term here.

We’ll call this the Hard Work, Savings and Careful Investment Act of 2011. Herewith my economic cure-all:

1. If a business enterprise makes a tangible product (anything; a basket of fruit, a hammer, a thermo-nuclear bomb – as long as it is a tangible product), the profits are tax free. If your business provides a service rather than a product, you get taxed.

2. Each dollar saved results in a 25 cent reduction in your tax bill. Whatever your federal tax bill is, if you save you can cut it down. You have your savings account statement as of January 1st and December 31st – for each dollar that is there on December 31st over the amount of dollars you had on January 1st, you get 25 cents off your taxes. Save $10,000.00, get $2,500.00 off your tax bill.

3. Capital gains on investments held for more than one year – tax free. On investments held 6 months to a year – 5% tax. On investments held more than a month but less than 6 – 10% tax. On investments held less than one month – 20% tax. On investments held less than one week – 40% tax. On investments held less than one day – 80% tax.

Now, we’d still need to get our government spending under control – if we don’t get ourselves at least substantially towards a balanced budget by 2015, we’re sunk…we’ll have to default. In fact, even in the best of worlds, things may get so bad that we can’t pay our government debts (if the world spirals in to another really bad financial crisis, there might not be anyone out there with money to lend, you dig?). But, outside of that, we do need policies which will spur wealth creation and thus help us greatly towards that balanced budget, as well as increasing American economic well being. We also need a sound currency – gold backed would be best, but backed by some hard asset is a necessity.

The three steps I’ve outlined above are the silver bullet – you can add to them, you can modify them a bit but the basics are a requirement: Make it attractive to start or expand enterprises which make, mine or grow things. Make it attractive for people to save money (you can add to this a tax benefit for next debt reduction, if you really want to press this issue). Make it attractive for investors to get in to things for the long haul rather than the short term killing. Presto! We now are back to a rational economy and we’ll thus get wealth creation.

Don’t get me wrong – this is the cure all, but curing the disease of a century will not happen over night. We’ll be a while digging out of the hole. Under the best of circumstances, I don’t expect America to be fully recovered until my grand-daughters are graduated from college, married and have a couple kids of their own (they are less than 5 years old, right now).

The only thing which creates any wealth, at all, is hard work. Making things, mining things and growing things. The only way to provide funds to invest in making, mining and growing things is to have a pool of savings to draw upon. The only way we can ensure that investment funds are properly allocated is to screw the speculators and reward the careful investors. Any economy which is not geared towards rewarding hard work, savings and careful investment is an irrational economy and doomed to ultimate collapse. This is simple common sense – you’ve read this, and you know it. You might quibble with this or that emphasis of mine, but I defy anyone to seriously argue that borrowing money for get-rich-quick schemes is superior to work, savings and investment.

None of this precludes any particular species of government expenditure except in that you can’t have government expenditure in favor of one business or industry over another (no subsidies for “green energy” – unless, that is, you want to subsidize all energy companies, equally; better, of course, to just stay out of it). You can lavish money on welfare, if you like (and as long as you can otherwise balance the budget), and still not screw up this plan (though, of course, if you go with this plan you’ll swiftly find the need for welfare dropping). Anyone with any sense – right, left or center – can sign on to this.

Now, this is not an easy solution – a whole bunch of special interests will have to be chucked aside and some laws and regulations which work as restraint of trade (most notably such absurdities as “Davis-Bacon”, but that is just one of a hundred) will have to be repealed. It is not an easy solution – but it is a simple solutions; and the simple solution (though always very hard) is always the correct solution. Life is only complex for those running a con – for honest men and women, its a lot more straightforward.

Now, will we ever show the courage to be sensible? Time will tell on that.

Entirely unsurprising news – from the AP:

The Obama administration will maintain a long-standing oil drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida after considering loosening it before the BP spill, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Just a month before the spill started in April, the Obama administration had announced plans to allow drilling in the eastern portion of the Gulf as part of the management plan for the Outer Continental Shelf…

In actuality, the noises Obama made about allowing more offshore drilling were nothing more than a gambit to get GOP support for “cap and trade”. By dangling a bit of common sense in front of GOPers, Obama hope to get some to sign on to the idiocy of cap and trade. Well, now that cap and trade is likely dead as a doornail, there is no more need to please GOPers on energy matters – but plenty of need to placate a restive left, and no easier way to do that than banning the one, sure measure to swiftly decrease our dependence on foreign oil – you know, producing more of our own.

The cynicism and dishonesty of President Obama becomes more manifest all the time. We’ve got ourselves a President who is just going to keep grinding along in his own, leftist groove and never give a darn about what effect its having. If Obama wants it, then it’s good – so goes Obama thinking, and anyone who contradicts is just entirely out of bounds (racist, you know?).

People were hoping that the worst which will happen under Obama is Carter II…I think that hope is fading away and that Carter may be redeemed and no longer be rated our worst President, ever, by 2012.

Almost makes 2010 worth it, all by itself. From Politico:

The House Democrats’ prized global warming committee died quietly on Wednesday.

It was four years old.

Created in 2007 by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to draw attention to the causes and effects of climate change, the committee didn’t have much of a chance to survive the upcoming Republican takeover. Wednesday, the axe fell…

The only purpose of the committee was to press forward “cap and trade” taxes and provide slush funds for favored, liberal environmental pressure groups. Oh, and to provide yet another Democrat with the title of “Chairman”. In love with the world, Democrat prize power, prestige…and the empty vanity of titles.

This is a symbolic gesture, of course – the tiniest of down payments on the reform of government. But, still, it warms the heart that, at the least, this massive hoax and boondoggle won’t have a committee in Congress.

Suspected it from the start, and now we’ve got proof – the Financial Times is reporting that foreign banks were among the largest beneficiaries of federal bail out cash. What this means, fellow American taxpayers, is that our liabilities were increased in order to prevent banks like Barclay’s from going under.

In the end, of course, it won’t work – the Federal Reserve admits to funneling $3.3 trillion in to domestic and foreign banks (I’ll bet its more than that) and the banks are still insolvent (through “extend and pretend” they are prevented from going in to bankruptcy – but broke they are). In fact, the entire financial system of the world is wrecked – and can’t be fixed because there is too much debt chasing too little wealth.

The only questions we have are:

How long can they keep it up before it completely falls apart?

Which nation will be first to default?

You can’t borrow and spend your way to wealth – only hard work, savings and careful investment can do that. There are no quick fixes – what we’ve been doing for nearly a century now (really, since the end of the First World War) is going for one quick fix after another. More fiat money, more usury, more taxation, more regulation…more of everything except common sense. The bill has now come due – we can put it off by taking out what amounts to a national pay day loan, but we can’t stop it from happening.

Just get ready for it – save as much as you can, and hope to goodness that we don’t have to go through a bit of hyper-inflation on the way to the poor house (I don’t think we will, but some rather sharp observers think there is a chance of it).