More trouble in Democrat-land:

Longtime Democratic strategist Pat Caddell on Wednesday blasted the Obama White House for creating “a world in which there is no dissent,” following his banishment from Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for Senate.

Caddell, in a phone interview with The Daily Caller, doubled down on the comments he made in November that he said public sector employee unions in Colorado used as leverage to get him tossed from the Romanoff campaign.

“What I said about Andy Stern and the SEIU? Sure, they’re thugs,” said Caddell, a former adviser to President Jimmy Carter, who until Monday* had an informal advising role with the primary challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Caddell said he does not fault Romanoff, a former state House speaker, for cutting ties with him after his remarks from November — in which he called the Service Employee Union International (SEIU) “thugs” and said the goal of the environmental movement is to “deconstruct capitalism” — were made public.

But Caddell said the comments were pushed into the public spotlight by the state chapters of the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, who called on the Romanoff campaign to get rid of him or risk losing any chance of getting labor’s endorsement.

They really are starting to eat their own. The Unions demand no dissent. The pro-abortion fanatics demand no dissent. On and on it goes – only slaves to the powerful are permitted in the Democrat party, it would seem.

I think it really comes down to the fact that they think they really won in a positive sense in 2008 – that they won because people wanted liberal Democrats, as opposed to not wanting President Bush and the GOP (and now, of course, more and more people long for the Bush Administration). Democrats had a really solid chance of gaining a lot of power for a long time – but they would have had to govern from the center. This seems an impossible task.

Why is that? Because the Democrats allowed kook leftists to hijack the party. Once Michael Moore was invited to the party any chance of reasonableness or compromise became impossible – when you honor a liar because his lies make you feel good about your absurd hatred of someone, then you are very far gone.

Can they come back to the center? There is still a window of opportunity – but its small and closing fast. As things are heading right now, even an improved economy won’t help the Democrats in November (especially given that any “improvement” will be smoke and mirrors having no discernible effect on the day to day lives of non-government Americans). Only a complete shift away from the left will do the trick…and now we hear that Obamacare might be forced through via reconciliation; not the thing you’d be hearing if Democrats were awake to their peril.

When “tax the rich” meets reality:

More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest.

Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report found wealthy households in New Jersey were leaving for other states — mainly Florida, Pennsylvania and New York — at a faster rate than they were being replaced.

“The wealth is not being replaced,” said John Havens, who directed the study. “It’s above and beyond the general trend that is affecting the rest of the northeast.”

This was not always the case. The study – the first on interstate wealth migration in the country — noted the state actually saw an influx of $98 billion in the five years preceding 2004. The exodus of wealth, then, local experts and economists concluded, was a reaction to a series of changes in the state’s tax structure — including increases in the income, sales, property and “millionaire” taxes.

The real rich will always find a way around taxes – they’ll either lobby the government to grant loopholes, or they’ll hide their money overseas. Meanwhile, those who are prosperous and yet find themselves to be “the rich” as liberals go ever lower on the income scale for tax increases, just move to jurisdictions with lower tax burdens. While my State of Nevada is quite in the economic dumps right now, we still benefit from a huge amount of wealth which decamped from California as that State went on a tax and spending spree (Arizona, Utah and Oregon have also benefited from California’s economic suicide).

Taxes there must be, but taxes should never be implemented to make things “fair” or to redistribute wealth – such taxes actually end up hurting the poor the worst as opportunities for advancement dry up as money hides from the tax man. Taxes should always be geared towards a combination of revenue maximization coupled with encouragement of wealth creation – they should be simple, non-burdensome and everyone who earns a penny or has any wealth at all should pay something, even if its quite small (no true citizen can be excused from the burden of government unless physically incapable of earning money).

As liberalism has worked in practical effects, it has become a “soak the poor” scam – the rich are fine, the middle class is burdened and the poor “progressively” have their chances of advancement curtailed. We can’t make the law philanthropic – a desire to help has to come from within, not from the tax code, or any other legal code. Tax for the necessities of government, and leave the rest to the generosity and good sense of the people. Trying to do otherwise just makes a mess – as we can now see with blinding clarity in New Jersey.

This story caught my eye:

Atlanta Progressive News has parted ways with long-serving senior staff writer Jonathan Springston. Apparently, Springston’s affinity for fact-based reporting clashed with Cardinale’s vision.

And, no, that’s not sarcasm.

In an e-mail statement, editor Matthew Cardinale says Springston was asked to leave APN last week “because he held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News.”

Initially I thought this was a hoax – some sort of parody of liberalism. But, its not. Now, Matthew Cardinale apparently thought the matter over and realized that denying objective reality would make him – and his publication – a laughingstock. So, he revised and extended his remarks in a long article:

..Now, the first way we know that there is no such thing as objective media is that we have no evidence, no examples, of objective media outlets. (if you find one, let us know right away!)

Every publication has an editorial perspective which shapes and constrains the way its reporters cover the news, which in turn affects the way its readers view reality…

Which is a reasonable view – the only thing which bugs me about the MSM is that they don’t admit their bias. Cardinale claims its a conservative bias, as a lot of “progressives” do when the MSM shies away from the more lunatic opinions of the left (you know, things like claims that Bush knew about 9/11 beforehand, and such), but such a claim is just laughable for anyone who is not of the far left. Be that as it may, the bias is there – difference between APN and CNN (or, indeed, between Blogs for Victory and CNN) is that the one admits the bias, the other doesn’t.

But here is the crux of the matter:

…I want to clarify- this is not the same as saying there are not facts. Everyone can look at the Grady situation and see that there are dialysis patients, that they are undocumented, that the clinic has closed, etc. (Yes, there are facts within a socially constructed, inter-subjective reality; not quite objective facts.)…

Which is, in the end, an assertion that there are no facts, at all. This is the strangest thing we see on the left – and it simply must stem from the observation that leftist views do not match up to reality. Rather than admit to error in view, the leftist asserts errors in reality – which doesn’t really exist, and if we can just get some progressives in there we’ll make it all better. We’ll leave aside the fact that if there is no objective reality then there is nothing wrong and no need to change – and thus no need for progressives; but making such a comment is a bit of a downer to our liberal friends, so we’ll leave it alone.

It amazes me what people will do to retain an intellectual conceit about themselves. For pity’s sake, just admit there is reality and some times you don’t like it.

If this is true, then 2010 will be the best year I’ve ever seen in politics:

Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a “push/pull” strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?)

Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort.

Go ahead, make my day! And if you really want to help out, you can try to shove Obamacare through via reconciliation.

Whom the gods would destroy…

Liberals, get a clue – you can’t smear us in to defeat again. That was a one-off thing peculiar to the circumstances surrounding the last two years of the Bush Administration. The people are wise to your scam – they aren’t buying it now, they won’t buy it if you double down. But, by all means: have at it. The more the left attacks the American grass roots, the stronger the grass roots become. Keep it up and what could be a good year for the GOP will be a spectacular year.

This whole revolution thing is catching on everywhere:

Calling for new tribal leadership and a break from the federal government, founders of the first Crow Indian Tea Party movement rallied Monday in Hardin.

Leading the new Crow Nation Tea Party was Adrian Bird Sr., a former tribal chairman candidate who recently filed a civil complaint against the Crow executive branch alleging malfeasance for mismanaging tribal funds.

Bird, his wife, Lavanna, and fellow Tea Party founder Karmelita Plains Bull Martin are seeking to impeach the tribe’s four executives and take the Indian government in a different direction.

“We want them out of there because they are mismanaging tribal funds,” Bird said. “We need to get the people together.”

The revolution grows in popularity – except on the left. The funny thing is, the leftists like to think of themselves as revolutionaries. That they are mind-numbed serfs of their liberal masters never occurs to them.

Anyways – the entire edifice of power in America is crumbling. The people are awake and are shaking off the corrupt elites who have fastened themselves upon the body politic. Curiously enough, it was Obama’s “hope and change” mantra which ushered this in – of course, he was faking it, but the people took him at his word; and now it is his own leftist base which is about to be routed.

Welcome to Lent. Time to give up a bit, and give a bit more:

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart,

with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments,

and return to the LORD, your God.

For gracious and merciful is he,

slow to anger, rich in kindness,

and relenting in punishment.

Perhaps he will again relent

and leave behind him a blessing,

Offerings and libations

for the LORD, your God. – Joel 2:12-14

Even for non-Christians out there, it is good for one small part of the year – the next 40 days – to give up something and/or to go the extra mile for others. We really weren’t built to have lavish lives – a calm modesty and enough is enough is more what we’re geared for. Lent allows us a chance to do just that.

Just a small dose of humility can go a long way…

Yeah, just what we need – people to talk up deficit reduction and then issue a report no one will read or act upon. Good idea, Barry!

President Obama will sign an executive order Thursday creating a fiscal commission aimed at addressing the budget deficit.

The commission is expected to be headed by Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming. It will lack the power to bind Congress to up-or-down votes on deficit reduction measures that a similar commission, rejected by the Senate last month, would have had.

We don’t need more policy-wonk talk shops, Mr. President. We need action. Here’s something you can do – how about an immediate, 25% reduction in non-defense/law enforcement government salaries? It would go like this:

“Due to the economic crisis and in light of our overwhelming debt, all government employees who are not active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, or armed law enforcement personnel, will immediately have their base pay reduced by 25%. People with complaints should be advised that we could have cut salary by firing 1/4 of the work force, so suck it up.”

That would be a wise decision. It would be a courageous decision. It would be a decision which has immediate, practical benefit to the American people. It would make you a hero to the overwhelming majority of Americans. Heck, at a stroke you might ensure your re-election…

But we know the President won’t do it – because he lacks the courage and the imagination to take such a step.

They’ve been building factories with no orders, commercial space with no takers and cities with no residents – all on money created out of thin air and then force-fed through the economy via easy lending terms. The wind has been sown:

Pressures mount as China attempts to walk a fine line between overheating and an economic bust accompanied by massive social unrest.

Elsewhere, central bankers assume the global economy is in recovery. In reality, the global economy is in another speculative binge fueled by reckless global stimulus, with China at the head of the pack.

Meanwhile, global imbalances grow with most eyes on Greece and Spain. Let’s not forget the massive property bubbles in Australia and Canada, and massive speculation in China. In the US, cities and states are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Something is brewing alright. That something is “trouble”, and not just for China.

The crash, when it comes, will be quite spectacular. Sooner or later – and very likely sooner rather than later – the bubble will burst, and all the money the western economies have invested in China will vanish like a puff of smoke…and, dear people, for many major, global banks, China has been the one bright spot on the balance sheet.

This will get rather messy.

UPDATE: Don’t anyone say you weren’t warned

Foreigners cut Treasury stakes; rates could rise

Foreign demand for short-term Treasurys tumbles, led by China; chance of higher rates looms”

So much for us becoming a party of toothless, southern knuckldraggers:

The state’s loneliest Republicans – those who languish in the navy blue regions from Northampton to Nantucket – are shaking off their years-long malaise and rebuilding a political machine in the land of Birkenstocks and Priuses.

“People are coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘We’ve been Republicans in hiding and now we want to be out and help,’ ” said Jeffrey Hopkins, chairman of the City Republican Committee in the old Democratic union stronghold of Fall River.

In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in his Senate campaign versus Martha Coakley, a surge in interest in the GOP has come from longtime Republicans, independents, Tea Party activists and even Democrats, dazzling many organizers.

Early interest, of course, does not a resurgent party make – but each journey really does begin with the first step. Electing Senator Brown was Step One.

The plain fact of the matter is that the Democrats obtained their pow in 2006 and 2008 by flat out lying about themselves and, of course, a relentless campaign of slander against President Bush…they threw so much garbage at him that in the public mind, some of it stuck…and given the way the Congressional GOP blew it, our defeat was pretty much inevitable. But that doesn’t change the fundamental fact that only via lies were Democrats able to obtain their majority and elect Obama. The lies have now been exposed.

They ran centrist and are governing leftist. They figured that they could continually bamboozle the people until they got a solid majority completely dependent upon government, and then they’d be in forever. Didn’t work out that way – by means of the New Media grafted upon the innate distrust of government among Americans, the Democrats have been stymied.

Now comes the really hard part – hitting them with so much truth that they are wrecked as a party for a generation. Of course, key to this is doing as much as we can to clear out our own political barnacles. Most of them have already gone but we must be wary as 2010 advances that we don’t replace old RINOs with new RINOs.

We can do this – we can take our country back and return it to the Founder’s vision. If we work hard. If we keep the faith. If we remain true to what we profess.

News Flash: Guys dig good looking women. Who knew?

News Flash, II: Treating adolescents like human beings rather than as sex-crazed beasts tends to encourage sexual morality. Son of a gun, abstinence education works! Once again, who knew?

Atheist brings asinine case to court, seeks to ban even a “moment of silence” in school.

French banker says the Euro is toast. Me: not so sure. Lots of global banksters have a lot of money tied up in Euros…until they can safely bail out and stick regular folks with the bill, the Euro will remain.

How to get rich: work for government. I think that, once upon a time, I talked up this issue.

Economic recovery? If you believe there is one, then I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Ideas to cut the budget: Eliminate the 12th grade? The idea has merit – I mean, seriously, unless you were definitely headed to college, what did that 12th year of school do for you?