All Foam, No Beer

Cluster68 Comments

Current speculation is that it is Pawlenty as the VP, who wasn’t my first choice, but a good choice nonetheless. He is a two term Governor from a very blue state, will wipe the floor with Biden in the debate, is qualified to be President on day one, and while he is the only “DC outsider” amongst the serious contenders, he does bring a mixed record as Governor of Minnesota. I did have concerns with his initial support of Cap & Trade although he did back away from that position, liberals call it evolving, and I do respect a politician who will admit when they are wrong, but other than that, Pawlenty is pretty solid on every other issue. He did govern conservatively and left the State of Minnesota with a surplus. His free-market position on Health Care is the right position to take and it does depart from that of Romney’s Mass. plan, but keep in mind, the health care plan in Mass. was largely driven by the Democratically controlled legislature in that state. He also has the right position on tax reform, is strong on defense, and has some good ideas on Welfare reform, so all in all, Pawlenty is a conservative I could get behind.

However, my first choice is still Rubio, in that I believe Rubio does represent the future, is very conservative, is extremely articulate, has a certain panache, and would rally an Hispanic base, but he is young and Romney may not feel that he could step into the Presidency if needed on day one. And keep in mind, the Democrats nominated a less experienced Senator in 2008, who did win and as we all know, that didn’t turn out so well, so I will get behind Pawlenty if in fact that is who Romney selects. Besides, Pawlenty did just come out with one of the best lines on Obama that I have heard in a while – all foam, no beer.

Who do you like?

Open Thread

Cluster63 Comments

Lot’s going on folks including:

– Iran’s support of Assad, will this be enough to allow him to keep power?

– Jimmy Carter to speak in support of Obama at the convention. Help or hinderance?

– Romney considering Gen. Patraeus as VP? Good move or not? In fact, the VP selection is expected soon – who do you like and why?

And last but not least, this little surprise regarding Obama’s time at Columbia. Or was he actually there?

Or anything else that’s on your mind. Keep it clean and civil.

 

 

Common Sense

Cluster64 Comments

In honor of Thomas Paine, “these are the times that try men’s souls”, I can honestly say that my soul has been tried. The political climate we find ourselves in is surreal, and born of partisan hackery and ignorance. Last week, Harry Reid stated probably the most despicable  statement ever uttered on the Senate Floor, yet the media and ignorant liberals let it go by without question due to their hyper partisanship and ignorance. I say ignorance because of the fact that we do have an IRS and Justice Department charged with vetting and validating tax returns, and if you think someone of Romney’s prominence escaped the eye of those two government watchdogs, you’re sorely lacking in common sense. Combine that with the fact that Romney does not prepare his own taxes, he has highly paid and highly qualified CPA firms compile his returns. CPA firms who are also audited frequently, so to suggest that this highly moral man not only evaded taxes for a number of years but also avoided the scrutiny of the IRS, is just insane. Yet, it goes largely unquestioned, and the burden of proof becomes Romney’s . Let’s also throw in our dear President, who has lectured all of us on several occasions on the importance of civility, and you can imagine why many of our souls have been tried over the last three years. The disingenuous and arrogance emanating from our current crop of liberals is distasteful to say the least.

I am reminded of another one of Paine’s great quotes – “Time makes more converts than reason”, and that is a fact that Democrats bank on. Liberals know that a lie repeated often enough will resonate with the ignorant, and the liberal base is ignorant, make no mistake about that. But the quote from Paine that struck me the most was this:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

This is an incredibly profound statement. Paine is speaking to the sense of community driven not by government, but by the individual, both in charity and accomplishment. We desperately need to get back to that place where government is administered at the most local level possible, as defined by our Constitution, where individual charity nurtures those in need, and where individual accomplishment is applauded, not scolded. The ever growing bureaucracy in Washington DC is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Can you guess which President stated that?

OUTRAGE!!!!

Leo Pusateri74 Comments
I hear that there are catcalls from everywhere in the left wing fever swamp to pull broadcast licenses. Death threats have been left on the answering machines of corporate officers, and “99 %ers” have been camped out on their lawns.  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are leading the charge with their bullhorns, calling for JUSTIIIICE!!

Wait– You mean it wasn’t Fox and Rupert Murchoch that did this? You mean it was NBC that did this?

Never mind–move along…nothing to see here.

NBC Stumbles Into PC Trap | Power Line
Is NBC raaaciiist? They’re getting hammered right now for the juxtaposition of their coverage of Gabby Douglas’s gold medal in gymnastics and a network spot promoting an upcoming NBC show. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving…

Adam Smith, Chick Fil A and How Hatred Makes You Stupid

Mark Noonan72 Comments

I was unaware of it until just a short while ago, but it seems that during “Chick Fil A Appreciation Day” a man named Adam Smith (yes, the irony is flabbergasting)  made a video of himself berating the random Chick Fil A employee he confronted after ordering a cup of water.  What first struck me about the story was just how monumentally stupid you’d have to be to do something like that.  At most, you’d have to figure your strongest effect would be to make a hard-working person’s day lousy – along with having to deal with all the actual work and,  of course, the genuine customers who make demands which can run from the difficult to the impossible, here comes a guy who wants to rant and rave at you for the positions held by a senior, corporate boss you’ve probably never met.  Additionally, there is the chance that if you wanted to go off on a rant like that then the person you’re ranting to might actually be someone on your side:  people don’t carry their views on signs tacked to their heads…for all this dunderhead knew the person he confronted could have ended up not just being in favor of gay marriage, but also actually gay…and maybe even hoping to get married.  What possible good effect could you hope to have by doing it?

But now it turns out that the video Smith posted and which went viral has resulted in his being fired:

An executive at a medical manufacturing firm lost his job after a YouTube video of him verbally ambushing a young employee at a Tucson Chick-fil-A went viral.

Adam Smith, formerly chief financial officer at Vante, stepped down after the video – which Smith shot and uploaded himself -caused embarrassment to the company…

So, Smith is now unemployed in addition to being revealed as an idiot.  As someone who has suffered because of the expression of speech (long time readers will remember that I’ve been stalked, my car has been vandalized, I’m pretty sure my computer has been hacked – and along with threats of violence, I also had one person try to post a picture of my house on the ‘net…turns out it was a house belonging to a different Mark Noonan) I do feel bad for Smith losing his job and I hope his employer reconsiders the move.  But I also hope that Smith and everyone else learns a lesson:  there is no need to get nasty about politics.  It really isn’t the be all and end all of existence.  To build yourself up to such a level of hate that you are doing monumentally stupid things – as Smith did – is just bizarre.

Relax.  Take it easy.  For me, it is pretty simple – God wins and as I’m trying to walk with God, I’ll be ok, in the long run.  If you don’t believe in God then it can get a bit more tricky…but, still, you’re not going to live forever on this earth.  When you’re dead will it matter if you managed to get off a rant on some random person?  What is the point of being a jerk?  What do you get out of it?  A sense of superiority?  Is it really that much of a rush?  That much a salve to your pride?  For goodness sakes, take a pill – have a glass of wine; go watch the sun set.  But don’t go off on a rant.  Stupid.

Unemployment at 8.3%

Mark Noonan22 Comments

So, how is that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?  41 months at 8% or higher unemployment.  And with 150,000 dropping out of the labor force, you know that the real unemployment rate is much, much higher than the official number.

The BLS, apparently working hard for Obama’s re-election, decided that with unemployment rising they’d better give the MSM something else to talk about – certainly don’t want them talking about the massive number of people out of work.  Better to have them talk about the number of jobs being created!  So, they just made up some numbers to make it look like the number of jobs went up.  From Zero Hedge:

Happy (about) the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US “added” 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an “adjusted” rise? Simple: the BLS “added” 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition … for a July NFP print in the past decade…But wait, there’s more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs “added”, 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging.

I’m a little bit surprised at this much brass on the part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics – all economic indicators in July were lousy:  there wasn’t the slightest indicator that we were actually adding jobs…and here they come up, straight faced, and try to tell us not only that the economy created jobs, but created them faster than in June, when things were better than in July.  But putting out that number – even with 16 million people out of work – allows Obama and his Democrats to keep up the meme of “jobs are being created” thanks to the stimulus.  That meme – which is the only positive thing Obama has – would be permanently finished if we had a jobs print in negative territory.  Now we know:  until after November 6th, no matter what is really happening, the BLS will not put out a negative number…even if actual jobs losses will be in the 200,000 range, they’ll just fudge it until they get a positive number.

Fine and dandy – we know that Obama’s hope for re-election revolves around lying about himself and lying about Romney.  The jobs report is the “lie about Obama” part, the latest fracas over Romney’s tax returns (set aloft by Harry Reid, who also seems to have some unanswered questions about his own past which have been floated just as credibly as the tax charge) is the “lie about Romney” part of it.  We’ll see if it works – the idea is to turn off independents, depress Republicans and fire up Democrats as Obama’s only hope is a narrow win in a low-turnout race which allows him to cobble together 270 electoral votes.  If it works, then it works – but it only works if Obama can fool the people.  He managed it in 2008; I don’t think he’ll be able to do it in 2012 (much harder to fool people by scaring them than to fool them by making nice).

In the end, I expect that reality will defeat Obama – he and his minions can lie all they want but the people know what they are going through.  I don’t know about you out there – maybe you’re all rich – but as for me it has been quite a lot of cutting back.  My shirts, for instance, are bought at Goodwill these days…and I’ve found in conversation that I’m not remotely alone among my friends determined to bargain shop or do without.  Things are rough; people fear the future; and for me and mine we’re actually far better off than many millions of people who were suckered by Obama in 2008 and now know the reality.  After all the hype and lies I think that on November 6th the real people of the United States who have been living in the Obama Recession will show up to vote – and we’ll have a new President on January 20th.

Are we going to let this stand?

Cluster64 Comments

In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel.

Ahmadinejad is a despicable little man with a healthy inferiority complex and of whom poses a serious threat to world peace and stability. Obama missed a huge opportunity in 2009, which unfortunately resulted in Neda’s death, and chose to side with the tyrannical despot, rather than stand with the student uprising and with freedom. Couple that with Obama inspiring the Arab Spring, which hasn’t turned out well, and you start to get an idea of why Ahmadinejad feels so emboldened.

It’s time once again that we assert American power, stand strong for individual liberty and freedom, and put these tyrants back on notice that their misogynistic and oppressive days are over.

Government Waste

Cluster4 Comments

Let’s keep this in mind the next time you hear the liberal media scream on and on about firing teachers, police, and fire personel every time some conservative wants to reign in government spending. Liberals are very good at messaging, but horrible at governing, and it seems as though every other election cycle, the general electorate forgets that little fact. Sure, you’re going to hear how well things were during the Clinton years, and they are not all wrong, but don’t forget that Clinton had a Republican Senate and House, led by Newt Gingrich who forced Clinton to abandon Hillary Care, balance the budget, and implement welfare reform. To Clinton’s credit, he moved to the center and won reelection, of course Clinton was much more of a savvy politician than is Obama, who is probably one of the most hardened far left ideologues in the Democratic ranks.

We can do so much better folks, and while I do wish Romney had more conservative bona fides, I do think that having a CEO as President at this time may serve us very well. If anyone can navigate the haze and the maze of a bloated, wasteful bureaucracy it is Romney. Then if he chooses Marco Rubio as VP, we will have a full fledged, young staunch conservative to lead us into the future, but it all starts by electing Romney this November. Let’s see that that happens.

Culture Does Matter

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From NRO’s The Corner:

During my recent trip to Israel, I had suggested that the choices a society makes about its culture play a role in creating prosperity, and that the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by it. In some quarters, that comment became the subject of controversy.

But what exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture? In the case of the United States, it is a particular kind of culture that has made us the greatest economic power in the history of the earth. Many significant features come to mind: our work ethic, our appreciation for education, our willingness to take risks, our commitment to honor and oath, our family orientation, our devotion to a purpose greater than ourselves, our patriotism. But one feature of our culture that propels the American economy stands out above all others: freedom. The American economy is fueled by freedom. Free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality…

Read the rest of it here.  Romney is completely correct – is the the culture of barbarism which prevents the Palestinians from enjoying a better life.  Give up the terrorism, give up the “death to Israel” nonsense and get rid of the kleptocrats who run the place and the Palestinians will swiftly be as prosperous as the Israelis.  It is up to the Palestinians – they have to decide what kind of life they want to live.  The world waits – you can be sure of it that the United States, alone, would pour untold billions in to the West Bank and Gaza.  Make the West Bank and Gaza a free market enclave like Hong Kong used to be and in 20 years you wouldn’t recognize the place…and you’d have Israelis asking real nice if they can join in (Israel does have a lot of success, but they still over-tax and over-regulate a bit; a leftover from the socialist days of the past).

Things can change.  People can change.  But they have to want to – and as an aside, all you liberals out there who are supporting the current Palestinian regime:  you’re part of the problem.  You’re propping up the very people who ensure endless war, endless oppression and endless poverty for the Palestinian people.

UPDATE:  Yet another reason to vote for Romney – our recovery weakest in all the world since 1970.