From the Wall Street Journal:

…If the Democrats’ millionaire surtax were to happen—and were added to other tax increases already enacted last year and other leading tax hike ideas on the table this year—this could leave the U.S. with a combined federal and state top tax rate on earnings of 62%. That’s more than double the highest federal marginal rate of 28% when President Reagan left office in 1989. Welcome back to the 1970s…

Our Democrats will, as usual, try to sell this as a tax on The Rich – this will be to convince people that they are going after Bill Gates and other bazillionaires. The truth is a bit different – naturally, because Democrats can’t do anything without lying about it. If they really wanted to tax The Rich, they’d propose not an income tax, but a wealth tax. They would impose an annual surcharge of 1% on all cash, stocks and bonds in excess of $5 million dollars. Then they’d be going after the wealth of Bill Gates…but also after the wealth of George Soros. And thus Democrats will never do that – they’ll never, that is, do anything to harm the wealth of the fat cat liberal financial sharks who donate heavily to the Democrat party.

If the Democrats got their way, these taxes allegedly on The Rich would actually fall most heavily on the middle class. And not just any, old part of the middle class but that part of the middle class which is the best educated, most enterprising and most useful to the American economy. If you want to state the truth, then the Democrats propose to protect the super rich while punishing the most hard working and productive part of our citizenry. And that is what we GOPers must make clear – and my plan, as stated a while ago, is to propose in Congress that surcharge on wealth…see how far it gets and when it goes down to flaming defeat, we’ll be able to educate the American people on how big a lie it is when Democrats say they want to “make the rich pay their fair share”.

It is time to call them out – to show the American people that the Democrats are just part of a corrupt Ruling Class with no other interest than personal power and wealth. They suck up the wealth of the most productive citizens so that they can live fat without having to work for a living. That is the true class war we’re having – and their side is winning it because we have failed to demonstrate to the American people just how false the Democrats are. But we can change it, if we but try – if we just have the courage to really box them in and force them to defend the most indefensible part of their program.

Will we do that? Sure, if we find the right person to lead us in to 2012…if we find a fighter who doesn’t care about hurt feelings or getting re-elected. Time will tell if we find such a person….but I think that person is out there, and I think I know who it is…

From CNBC:

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes dropped far more than expected in April to touch a seven-month low, a trade group said on Friday, dealing a blow to hopes of a recovery in the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index dropped 11.6 percent to 81.9 in April, the lowest since September…

And it was, you guessed it, “unexpected”…but I really do wonder, by whom? I mean, I’m not some real estate genius, but I figured it out that the likely outcome of all that has happened is continued recession in the housing market. It isn’t rocket science…but the “experts” were predicting a 1% drop. They were only off by a factor of 11 or so.

Housing won’t get better until the backlog of “shadow inventory” is cleared out and our economy starts to significantly create wealth, again. As long as the government and banks are playing mess-around with the backlog and as long as taxes and regulations remain anti-growth, this will not improve. To nutshell it, as long as Obama is in the White House and Bernanke is at the Federal Reserve, the economy will not improve to the point where the housing market will recover.

Once again have a busy weekend coming up – I’ll try to get some good stuff up for you all later, but meanwhile enjoy the chance to rant about whatever comes to mind.

Yes, they can! From Central Coast News:

On Wednesday, Soquel High School suspended at least two students. The students say it’s because of allegations, they’re part of a white supremacist group.

“All the girls wore pink, all the sports guys wore tank tops,” says Soquel High Senior Mikey Donnelly. “We were all going to wear white so that was the plan. Just wear white t-shirts to identify ourselves and look back and say that was our group of friends right there.”

Soquel High Senior Mikey Donnelly wore a white t-shirt for his senior class photo Tuesday. About 10 of his friends did the same. That decision may seem harmless. But Soquel High suspended Donnelly for three days because of it.

Donnelly said the school told him people were offended and intimidated by his group, claiming they’re a white supremacist gang…

One of the “white supremacists” is Asian…and, yes, he was suspended.

First off, even if the kids were part of a white supremacist gang, we’re not supposed to be punishing people for expressing opinions – even and especially if they are opinions we disagree with.

Secondly, the first time I saw gang colors was when I went to junior high school – that was back in 1977. I got used to seeing the “uniform” of a hispanic street gang, seeing gang graffiti and even used to being attacked by a roving band of junior-league thugs (as did a friend of mine). Political correctness even way back then prevented the school authorities from doing the logical things…but now all of a sudden we’re after the first obscure sign of something which may possibly at some point if a lot of things come together work out to be a the start of a gang-like group? No, I don’t think so – I’ll bet dollars to donuts that genuine gang emblems can be found on some of the kids in that school and no one does anything.

This is what liberalism brings – craven cowardice coupled with a refusal to think. Suppose someone did go to the school authorities and say they were offended by the kids in the white shirts…someone with some guts would have tossed the complainers out of the office; someone with the ability to think would realize that such complaints weren’t about the kids in the shirts, but an attempt to gain political muscle on the part of the complainers. No one things, no one has any courage…and so kids who weren’t doing anything illegal or immoral are suspended.

Liberalism must be crushed. It must be done away with, once and for all. It is a poison – a world view based upon lies and sustained by lies. It is incompatible with American ideals. It has to go – and if it takes a revolution to do it, then that is ultimately what we’ll have to do.

HAT TIP: The Other McCain

Good move by our side – from the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Senate Republicans late Thursday declared victory in their effort to use a procedural maneuver to thwart the president from making any recess appointments during Congress’ Memorial Day break.

Congressional aides say the Senate will not go on a formal recess but instead will technically stay in session, making it highly unlikely that the president would use his constitutional power to make appointments while the Senate is on break…

This is good for two reasons:

1. While Obama is appointing, for the most part, a group of corrupt, leftist hacks to fill his Administration positions, he reserves his kookiest and most corrupt for “czar” and recess appointments. We’re avoiding the worst of the worst by doing this.

2. We have to press the Democrats to vote on as much of the Obama agenda as possible. Nothing would please Reid more than to not hold a single vote between now and election day, 2012…any vote he takes he’ll either have to see his side rejecting Obama or going along with an increasingly unpopular President. The more votes, the better the advantage for us.

So, don’t get too discouraged out there, GOPers…we do have some pretty good guys and gals in the House and Senate these days. Not nearly as many as we need, but we can correct that next year…meanwhile, some good work is getting done.

The thinking is that her tour means, for sure, she’s getting in…and there is, indeed, a good chance of it. But one must not be too hasty – it is always vital to remember that Sarah Palin is one of the smartest people in politics these days…it remains to be seen if she Reaganesque in her abilities, but she tends to leave all Democrats, most MSMers and quite a lot of GOPers in the dust.

Personally, I think this tour is a bit of a rope-a-dope – the MSM will breathlessly report on her, Democrats will go back in to attack mode, the more dim bulb, RINO part of the GOP will fire up the sneers…and then she’ll end her tour and do nothing…for a while. Back in to her Spring retreat to review the tour and the message and then make the final call about getting in to the race.

The key for Sarah Palin is timing – her name recognition is 100% among GOPers and nearly that among everyone else. She doesn’t need to introduce herself – but she does need to not be the Sarah Palin of 2008, just as Reagan in 1980 couldn’t just be a repeat of Reagan ’76. For a politician it is a matter of finding that element which turns a spark in to a conflagration. It can’t be just manufactured, it has to be coaxed and massaged in to existence. My bet is that Palin is best off announcing as late as possible – late enough, indeed, to make a loss in Iowa unimportant (it takes a lot of retail politics to win Iowa…I don’t think Palin can do it because anywhere she goes she’ll be thronged by the MSM and a host of fans as well as a band of haters…she’d never get the chance to really do Iowa politics; it is lesser known candidates who can use Iowa as a springboard, as Carter did in 1976). If she announces late after being out of the public eye for a couple months, it becomes a dramatic, late-breaking story…the kind of thing which can immediately build up momentum and allow her to do well in New Hampshire and win in South Carolina.

But, what do I know? We’ll see how it comes out…

From Politico:

The budget proposal released by the White House back in February didn’t win a single vote in the Senate on Wednesday— the final tally was 0-97. Senate Republicans pushed for the vote as a counterpoint to the defeat of Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan…

I mean, come on – not a single Democrat would get out there and vote for it. Why? Because no one wants to be on record in favor of that as 2012 approaches. Shows how entirely bogus the Obama budget really is…such a nauseating pile of dog poop that not even Democrats will vote for it.

And from the bottom of the deck – from McClatchy:

House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, on Wednesday blamed most of President Barack Obama’s political problems on racism…

…”You know, I’m 70 years old,” he said. “And I can tell you; people don’t like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is, the president’s problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin.”…

Which is proof positive that even 70 years isn’t enough to grow an ounce of sense if you are determined to be ignorant. Though, in Clyburn’s defense, maybe his advancing age is clouding his judgment?

I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that this is just a foretaste of what is to come – the Democrats will go all in for 2012. They will leave no stone unturned and no gutter untraveled in order to re-elect President Obama. They’ve already lost the House and will almost certainly lose the Senate next year – holding on to the White House is the only way liberal Democrats can keep themselves and their cronies on the government-funded gravy train.

So, just get ready for it – and remember this the next time some liberal tells you we need a new tone in politics.

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From Zero Hedge:

“A ‘91-style meltdown is almost inevitable.” So says Alexei Moiseev, chief economist at VTB Capital, the investment-banking arm of Russia’s second-largest lender, discussing the imminent economic catastrophe that is sure to engulf Belarus following the surprise devaluation of the country’s currency by over 50%, which we announced on Monday. “Unless Belarus heeds Russia’s call for mass privatization of state assets, it is headed for “hyperinflation, massive un- and under-employment, and a shutdown of production” Moiseev concludes. Ah: “privatization” as Greece is about to learn, the lovely word that describes a fire sale of assets to one’s creditors, courtesy of a “globalized” new world order…

Belarus is a small player in both the European and global economy, but some times just a pebble starts an avalanche. We’ll see where this winds up – but all Belarus did was greatly accelerate what the Federal Reserve is doing to us: devaluing our currency so that Big Government and well-connected Crony Capitalists can keep going. There is actually a bit more honesty in Belarus’ actions than in ours – they are pretty much openly stealing the peoples’ money, while our guys are still trying to sell us on the notion that high food and fuel prices are worth it if we can can just keep insolvent banks afloat.

We need a currency no one can manipulate – a currency which can’t be devalued by government decree, nor by central bank printing. I favor a return to gold, but the fundamental thing is to have a currency with a fixed value, based upon tangible assets. It isn’t that money is important – it is that the value of what we do must be maintained. If my labor produces for me $20 in wealth today, then that $20 must be mine today, tomorrow and 50 years from now until I decide to expend it. It must not be that a central banker can flip a switch and turn my $20 of wealth in to $15.

From Bloomberg:

Orders for U.S. durable goods dropped more than forecast in April, reflecting a slump in aircraft demand and disruptions in supplies of auto parts stemming from the earthquake in Japan.

The 3.6 percent decrease in bookings for goods meant to last at least three years was the biggest since October and followed a 4.4 percent surge in March that was larger than previously estimated, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington. Economists projected a 2.5 percent April decline, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey…

So, once again it is “unexpected”. There is a lot of blame being laid on Japan here, but as Mish points out, things are slowing down everywhere, and Japan isn’t responsible for all of that. I don’t think we can point to one thing and say, “there’s the culprit”. There are so many fundamental flaws in the global economy – with over-indebtedness leading the pack – that everything is at fault. Even the supposed good news we get spoon fed by government and MSM can often reflect an underlying bit of bad news (so, high stock prices – good news! – actually reflect rising inflationary pressures).

The global economy is conking out – and that is because the engine of economic growth is the United States (for all the talk of China rising to replace us, most people don’t realize that the per capita GDP of China isn’t even a tenth of the US…it would take about 3 billion Chinese to make up for what we do in the world; and there’s only about half that number). Because we don’t produce as much wealth as we should the rest of the world is floundering – everywhere you peek at global economic statistics you see ever more problems…housing bubbles popping, inflation wiping out wealth, energy shortages, etc, etc, etc. Until we clear the decks and get back to work, the best we can hope for is a stagnant global economy. At worst, we’ll slide right in to Depression.