THE LAST LIBERAL STANDING

Political Parties are NOT Your Friends

2012-05-26T12:59:00.001-05:00

The primary GOAL and perhaps the only goal of both the Republicans and the Democrats is to increase their power. That means getting more members into positions of power and responsibility. It might be by getting members elected to office or it might be by getting members appointed or even hired into key positions of power.

The GOAL of parties IS NOT to improve your life, improve the economy, increase our security or help you out. Those are occasionally means to an end! And the END GAME is to increase their power and control.

If the Republicans REALLY WANTED to accomplish any of their stated objectives they would stop their relentless pattern of obstructionism and seek common ground with the Democrats. Likewise, if President Obama REALLY wanted to reach his goals he would cease his relentless campaigning and compromise with Republicans.

Why doesn't this happen? Because the GOAL is to get more members elected. President Obama is considerably more interested in getting reelected than in helping Americans. So he very falsely claims Republicans stand in the way of issue "A" or proposition "B" because he wants the issues to aid his reelection.

Occasionally politicians actually speak the truth. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell made that mistake when he honestly said his main goal was to "defeat President Obama," His Number One Priority wasn't reviving the economy or putting people back to work, it was to defeat the President four years in the future!!

My advice to my fellow Liberals (and to Conservatives, too), is to relentlessly work to achieve your goals. Look for pathways to success. That will OFTEN lead you to support, work with and even elect a member of the opposite party. More often it will lead you to look for solutions outside of government.

Think outside the box. Be driven by your principles and not guided by the false promises of one candidate or another.

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue: Gay Marriage Ban is “Bad for Business”

2012-05-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

It seems to me that North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue is framing the Gay Marriage issue in terms that most Republicans and most conservatives will understand. Such a ban is "Bad for Business." It will hurt North Carolina's image and hurt tourism. It "hurts our brand."

As I noted in my previous blog entry, "Call Me Maybe," the public, especially the younger generation, is accepting of gays, lesbians and the alternative lifestyles involved. But our political elders still want to exploit the issue for political gain. In this case the foolish North Carolina Legislature is using an unnecessary Constitutional Amendment as a wedge issue. I;m hoing the voters in North Carolina are wise enough to reject this amendment.

Please read the entire POLITICO Story here: N.C. Gov: Gay marriage ban ’hurts our brand’

As I pass out "Kudos" I would be remiss not to congratulate Vice President Joe Biden for being unusually candid and remarkably brave in facing the gay marriage issue head on. It's a path both President Barack Obama and Republican Candidate Mitt Romney are afraid to take. Both are constantly waffling on the issues of gay rights.

If you read the POLITICO story above you'll note even Governor Perdue is waffling a bit. I think she would find her approval rating would actually go up f she were clear on the issue.

Also read B. Daniel Blatt's excellent essay on the North Carolina Amendment from a GAY CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN'S perspective: The conservative case against North Carolina’s Amendment One

Call Me Maybe

2012-05-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

National Public Radio's Morning Edition made an interesting observation this morning, an observation that I think is quite correct. If you read (or listen to) the entire, rather lengthy, essay the bottom line is that most of the younger generation is really OK with the fact that Gay and Lesbian peers inhabit their world. Far from fear and loathing, there is acceptance, humor and genuine affection.

While Ann Powers, the author of the essay Dudes Act Like A Lady: 'Call Me Maybe' Takes Over YouTube doesn't take the observation a step further, but I will. The biggest obsticle standing in the way of acceptance of gay marriage or at least full recognized rights for gays, lesbians and transgender people is grandstanding politcians in search of polarizing issues and emotional votes.

I urge you to follow the link above and read the entire essay. And for starters in your education into the younger generation, just watch the wonderful video below. At over 50 million views, it's one of the most popular videos out there today.

The Children are our Future

2012-04-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

I know this has already gone VIRAL and therefore you've already seen it. Let's face it, when MSN Trending Now posts it you're too late.

But I'm so impressed with Frans Hofmeester's work here (and his beautiful daughter), that I felt I had to post it. I hope you'll watch it again. Turn the volume up, too. The background music is beautiful.

As I watched it here I realized that, without saying a single word, it is a stunning political statement. And the beauty of this video is that it make a compelling statement for most any cause, left or right.

Of course we need to save the planet for our children. And every child deserve love, food, family and warmth.

And who could watch this video and not see it make a strong "pro-life" statement, as well.

I don't want to hijack Frans Hofmeester's video or his daughter. It possesses many universal truths.

The children are our future.

After All These Years, Hilary Rosen is Still a Tone Deaf Hack

2012-04-14T18:32:00.000-05:00

My history with today's top name in the news:

I need to rebuild and restore the links to the original THE WIZARD, FKAP website archives. My original webpage collection was started long before the term blog ever existed, but included a regular essay under the title The Existential Blues. All the essays and files still exist and are still on-line. I'll get the links restored and embedded in the right hand column as soon as possible.

When those link appear, you'll find I've written to and about Hilary Rosen since the early 1990's. As the head of the Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA) she is the subject of many of my earliest essays. She has always been a tone deaf hack and in her official RIAA position, she almost single-handedly destroyed the entire music industry. She fought legal digital downloads with a single-minded (closed minded) zeal that was breath-taking to behold. If you wanted to sue Grandma for an illegal download, Hilary was your gal!

She seems incapable of independent thought, and functions mostly as an agent who does the bidding of her masters, currently the Democratic Party National Committee (DNC).

That Hilary Rosen is currently employed by CNN is an embarrassment to journalism.

Today, Hilary Rosen is in the headlines through her foolish comment about Ann Romney. Here is a summary of the latest Rosen disaster from the AP Newswires:

The multimedia furor erupted Wednesday night when Rosen said on CNN that Ann Romney, whose husband is worth millions, never had to work to pay the bills and should not be her husband's surrogate on women and the economy. "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life," Rosen said. "She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing."

The backlash was brutal and swift.

David Axelrod, Obama's top campaign strategist, tweeted that Rosen's comments were "inappropriate and offensive." The president's campaign manager, Jim Messina, said Rosen should apologize. And the Democratic National Committee downplayed any connection to Rosen or her firm.

Although I've written in these spaces that the Republican "war on women" doesn't actually exist, Democrats and President Obama had successfully used this fabricated issue and had gained a virtually insurmountable lean among women voters.

Hilary Rosen single-handedly turned the tide and gave the issue back to the Republicans on a silver platter. That she then tripled down on her ill advised statement, assuring that the public forgot, if not forgave, Rush Limbaugh, was stunning to behold.

Republican comments were unnecessary. We are watching a train wreck in progress.

Her apologies, two so far, were ever worse. Hilary Rosen doesn't understand the public or the issues involved. The Democrats need to drop her like the hot potato she has become. So does CNN.

We Care About Trayvon Martin's Murder Because It's So Rare

2012-04-02T17:30:00.001-05:00

We're still looking for justice for Trayvon Martin. As well we should. His death is at once both tragic and horrific.

And exceedingly rare.

If you watch television you might think there is an absolute epidemic of whites murdering blacks without so much as a single arrest and even a passing glance from law enforcement.

Alas, there is a greater and more horrific truth. There is an epidemic of young teen and early twenty year old black men being murdered in cold blood! About 4,000 were murdered in the last 12 months! It's a real and horrific epidemic.

The problem is almost all die at the hands of other black teen and twenty something year old men.

Young black men comprise only about seven percent of the population, yet account for a whopping 50 percent of the murder victims.

Without "Googling" can you name a single one of them other than Trayvon Martin? No cheating. You have 4,000 from which to chose. Name one.

Now tell me we don't have a serious problem here in the United States than NO ONE IS WILLING TO ADDRESS.

The Silence of the Lambs

2012-03-29T14:34:00.000-05:00

Above is a Photo-shopped image of George Zimmerman

being used by the @killzimmerman account on Twitter

I'd like to believe that everyone wants justice for Trayvon Martin. His death at the hands of George Zimmerman (in the photo-shopped picture above) is tragic and very possibly criminal. I hope a thorough investigation is possible, but I'm beginning to have my doubts. The problem isn't the Federal and State judicial system which is working hard (if belatedly) to provide answers, it's the mob violence being championed by the leaders on the left.

I find what's happening on the "left" side of the political spectrum here in the United States to be upsetting, even distressing. People I thought shared the values of justice, honesty, fairness, restraint, kindness, cooperation and dialogue have become an American Taliban, fundamentalists demanding everyone hold their narrow minded bigoted views or face certain annihilation.

That many of these people call themselves "Liberal" is a tragic joke. A joke that as of today is no longer funny.

These people are a disgrace to liberalism. They are, in fact, a disgrace to the human race.

The list starts with virtually every so-called journalist and on-air personalities on MSNBC. It extends to the bastions of the liberal blogosphere with The Huffington Post and Daily Kos and flows down stream to the tens of thousands on Twitter and Facebook who are demanding the death of George Zimmerman without benefit of an investigation or a trial. The New Black Panther Party has placed a ONE MILLION DOLLAR bounty on Zimmerman's head., dead or alive.

You'll find no condemnation or even mild criticism of this action anywhere in the left media or blogosphere. The same folks who spent weeks condemning Sarah Palin for using "cross hairs" on a political map, don't think the call for vigilante justice against Zimmerman is ever worth a sentence in their blogs. It isn't worth one minute of their valuable air time on television.

And if Zimmerman is killed, these same so-called liberal pundits will rush to the defense of the perpetrator, blaming the "system" for it's failure to bring swift justice for young Trayvon.

Curiously, these same liberal activists will protest by the thousands outside a prison to protest the execution of a convicted murderer, but they're happy to cheer lead the murder someone who hasn't had the benefit of a trial.

One Twitter user has adopted the name @killzimmerman and spews hate and death threats 24 hours a day. Twitter, which routinely shuts down accounts for minor infractions of it's terms of use, hasn't touched this account, let alone shut it down.

A Twitter thread using the hashtag #killzimmerman has thousands of entries, most demanding Zimmerman's death.

The media, especially MSNBC are deathly silent. They not only don't care, they are actively rooting for violence, especially Reverend Al Sharpton.

And what I've written here is just the tip of the iceberg. The coordinated effort to silence all who disagree with them is massive, well funded and frightening. More on that in a future post.

Paul Ryan, Washington DC's Lone Adult

2012-03-20T18:40:00.001-05:00

Over on the Democratic Party side of Washington, DC there was rejoicing in a new PPP Poll that showed when the public was made aware of Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney's arguable mistreatment of his dog Seamus, over 28 years ago, Romney's approval rating tanked.

Seriously, my Liberal and Progressive friends on Tiwtter are simply giddy with excitement. Leave it to Mitt Romney's dog to sniff out a path to Obama's victory.

Our future is now safe.

Meanwhile, on planet Earth, Representative Paul Ryan has prepared and proposed the most realistic, bold and brilliant budget in the last 20 years. To do what Ryan has done takes thought, analysis, honesty and courage. And no polling.

Ryan will be savaged by Democrats who deserve no place in government, cowards and liars, manipulators and pollsters who will not only allow our country to fail, but will ride Seamuss into the very gates of hell.

One does not need to agree with Ryan's every idea, but he should be held in high regard for discussing the real issues of our economy and our exploding debt.

Democrats have failed to produce a budget for three years and they've already signaled that will fail to do so again. It's so much easier to criticize than to propose ideas and stand behind them. And that's the Democrat plan.

Here are just a few lines from the Washington Post Story linked here and above:

House Republicans laid down a bold but risky election-year marker Tuesday, unveiling a budget proposal that aims to tame the national debt by reshaping Medicare and cutting deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and other programs for the poor, while reshuffling the tax code to sharply lower rates.

Congressional Republicans plan to use the document to demonstrate their willingness to tackle the nation’s difficult fiscal problems head-on. They argue that restraining future borrowing is a moral imperative and that entitlement programs for the elderly and the poor must be redrawn both to reduce red ink and to ensure that federal benefits continue to be available.

The proposal, authored by Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), calls for spending cuts and tax changes that would put the nation on course to wipe out deficits and balance the budget by 2040. The national debt would continue to rise but would shrink to the historic norm as a percentage of an expanding economy.

Wag the Dog

2012-03-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

As I say at the top of every page of this blog, stick to your principles and NOT political parties which manipulate facts in order to increase their vote count, and ultimately, their power.

One of the biggest , most used, tricks of political parties is to create a false story to detract from a real one. Right now Gas Prices and a still faltering economy are not good for Democrats or President Obama.

So what to do?

Well, thanks to a very minor amount of blabber mouth slut-shouting help from Rush Limbaugh, Democrats have created an entire non-existent "War on Women." Curiously, Republicans, most women and virtually all independents haven't fallen for the ruse. I'm slightly surprised. The public is so often easily misled.

Ahhhh.... but Progressives? They've fallen for the ploy hook, line and sinker. They've fired up their virtual presses and launched their vast army of followers into the Twittersphere.

To keep the progressive armies fully motivated, Senator Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats have set up a Kabuki Theater around another completely false meme: Republicans are now supposedly against the very "Violence Against Women Act" they originally passed and have overwhelmingly supported for two renewals.

Here's how Harry is manipulating a false story:

The Democrats quietly and secretly included four new “poison pill” provisions into this years proposed renewal. These odd "poison pills" were never in the act before. These provisions have nothing to do with violence against women or the Act itself, but instead deal with Immigration and an massive increase in Visa’s, Budget Office Accounting (loosens rules in a time of budget deficits???) and funding of third party providers.

ONCE AGAIN LET ME EMPHASIZE NOT ONE OF THESE WEIRD PROVISIONS HAS EVER BEEN IN THE BILL BEFORE. But they're there now, ugly and festering.

Next Harry Reid sets up a demand for a very quick quick vote with limited debate and absolutely no amendments – no chance to remove or modify the poison pills. WHY? Reid knows that the very deliberative Senate, with its 60 vote threshold, will NEVER pass any bill under these circumstances.

Here's the fun part! Harry Reid DOES NOT WANT THIS RUBE GOLDBERG OF A BILL TO PASS. But he does want to force the Republicans to be the bad guys and vote against the bill just so he can CLAIM (completely falsely) that Republicans are against VAWA.

Later, after all the stupid political posturing is over, Reid will allow the real bill to come before the Senate and it will pass with the overwhelming support from Republicans it has ALWAYS enjoyed.

This is not an anti-Democratic Party rant. Historically, Republicans have played the same game. It's often called Legislative sausage making.

What bothers me is that so many folks believe the false meme and repeat it, never once bothering to learn the facts.

When did "Yes We Can" become "It's All Sarah Palin's Fault?"

2012-03-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

Here's the newest Obama Fund Raising ad.

I can't find an ounce of Hope anywhere in it.

Nor can I find an ounce of courage or a modicum of integrity.

Hope and Change has given way to slander and blame.

The War On Conservative Women

2012-03-07T14:15:00.000-06:00

STORY ONE: Michelle Malkin: The war on conservative women

STORY TWO: B. Daniel Blatt: Where was liberal outrage when female Republicans were slurred?

I have no problem with outrage or passion. I rarely condemn hate speech, as is obvious from my last two blog entries. Instead I've been merely pointing out that one side's "hate speech" is often the other side's "careful analysis of the facts" or "instructive discourse."

What has me upset is the selective call for civil discourse from the left when they are by far the worst purveyors of horrific, outrageous and slanderous hate speech. In my experience the right is often measured, logical and fair in their criticism, refraining from hyperbole.

Let me be clear. Rush Limbaugh was guilty of extreme over-the-top slander and hyperbole, but he is the exception. But I've not condemned Limbaugh and I've not condemned Ed Schultz and I've not condemned Bill Maher. They all have points they were attempting to make.

By the way, Maher took to Twitter yesterday to defend Rush Limbaugh. Kudos to Bill Maher for that. You can follow Maher on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/billmaher

But, if you dare to read them, the two above referenced articles will make your skin crawl. The decumented hate speech by well known, major Liberal, Progressive and Democratic personalities is stunning. And it's simply never condemned.

I'm outraged by President Obama's press conference yesterday where he used his daughters as justification to attack Rush Limbaugh then, later in the same press conference, had the gall to say he “didn’t want to get into the business of arbitrating” language and civility. This, of course, prevented the reporter from asking the obvious follow-up question, "Will you condemn similar hate speech on the left?"

I'm a Democrat and a pretty far left liberal. The chances of my voting for President Obama in 2012 are damned near close to zero.

The One Thing Absolutely No One Wants: "More Civilized Public Discourse"

2012-03-06T17:17:00.002-06:00

The Rush Limbaugh Controversy rages on and on and on. If you've lived under a rock for the last few weeks, Limbaugh called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a slut, among other things. See my previous blog post if you'd like more information.

Right now the Progressives and Liberals seem to have the upper hand. The brilliantly orchestrated advertiser boycott is working and at least 13 advertisers and two radio stations have jumped off the Limbaugh ship. Limbaugh has been forced to apologize. And while the conservative loyalists are attempting to bail water, the progressives have hit Limbaugh with a broadside torpedo.

Again and again and again and again we heard President Obama, Limbaugh's departing advertisers, Democratic Party operatives and pundits,television hosts and even comics all exclaim, "All that we want is a more civilized public discourse!"

This is, of course, pure unadulterated BULLSHIT! No a single one of them wants "more civilized discourse." They just want to cower their opponents and, if possible, silence them. They would be pleased if their opponents were civil, as long as their allies were as vile, hateful and uncivil as ever.

My PROOF? I dare you to find a single person, advertiser, corporate entity, pundit, commentator or comic that is condemning the hate speech coming from his or her side of the aisle. Find me one that condemns both sides equally. Don't worry, you're not going to find one, because their isn't one!

Today, in another of this episode's most bizarre moments, President Obama inserted his two daughters into his attack on Rush Limbaugh. Below are the quotes from The Hill Briefing Room story this afternoon:

President Obama said he called Sandra Fluke, the college student at the center of the latest Rush Limbaugh controversy, after thinking about how his own daughters would have handled the criticism.

“I thought about Malia and Sasha,” Obama said Tuesday at a news conference. “And one of the things I want them … to be able to do is speak their minds in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names when they’re being good citizens.

I want to tread lightly here and carefully respect both Malia and Sasha. But the President's comments raise a serious question. Is it possible that while he wouldn't want Limbaugh to his beautiful daughters "sluts," it would be perfectly OK if Bill Maher called them "T***s" or "C***s?" I only make this assumption because President Obama has yet to even mention these misogynistic slurs from his million dollar campaign donor. Limbaugh's slurs were mild compared to Maher's.

But certainly President Obama isn't alone is his one sided outrage. David Friend, CEO of Carbonite(r) actually set the stage for President Obama when he, too, invoked his two daughters as a reason he cancelled advertising of the Rush Limbaugh Show. Here is his statement (from an interesting essay on this issue on Red State):

"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse."

Gosh! And look. Friend used the patented "more civilized public discourse" excuse, too! Wow! He's covered all the bases!

Except for the base called "truth." Friend missed that one. For many years Friend has made heavy political donations for President Obama's election and re-election campaigns. Curiously he was and remains a heavy advertiser of the Ed Schultz Show. Schultz, if you remember, was suspended by MSNBC and forced to apologize for calling Laura Ingram a "slut," the exact term Limbaugh used to refer to Fluke. Friend, exactly like everyone else, is only offended when his political opponents use vile speech. He's super cool OK when his allies use the identical speech.

This works on both sides of the aisle. No one in politics has been the subject of more hate speech than Michelle Bachmann. Amazingly Bachmann appeared on MSNBC this morning and was grilled relentlessly as to why she won't condemn Limbaugh's hate speech. Bachmann correctly pointed out that no one had ever been the victim of more hate speech than she has, BUT, she still refused to condemn Limbaugh. The MSNBC announcer certainly never apologized for the hate spewed from her network associates, either. STALEMATE.

Here's where I stand. Either it's wrong 100% of the time or it's not. I don't like today's hate speech, but I've never said speech should be censored. I'm from the school that says you can and should argue the points, but I don't think you should ever silence the critics.

In other words, I don't need the pig to get out of the mud, but I feel no need to climb in there with him.

The Cesspool of Hate and Hypocrisy

2012-03-02T17:41:00.000-06:00

STORY ONE: Larry Doyle - The Jesus Eating Cult of Rick Santorum
STORY TWO: Michelle Malkin - Devastating: Andrew Breitbart R.I.P.
STORY THREE: White House enters controversy over Limbaugh comments on Georgetown student

The top link above STORY ONE takes you to an op-ed essay in The Huffington Post by Larry Doyle, a work he now claims is satire. I had intended to write today's blog entry entirely about the strange logic and blatant hypocrisy of Doyle's hate filled screed.

But then Andrew Breitbart died and any small point I might have wanted to make about hate speech on the Internet exploded in my face. In fact Breitbart's death created a nuclear explosion of hatred in the blogosphere and the Twitterverse. My small essay was reduced to radioactive dust.

Just when I couldn't imagine the discourse becoming any more toxic, enter Rush Limbaugh with his laser guided venom filled missiles lighting the ionosphere. Mere Bloggers and Twitters are no match for El Rushbo, whose "talent is on loan from God." I know that's true because Rush said so.

Just how powerful was Rush's poisonous attack? So toxic the President of the United States himself felt compelled to weigh in and condemn El Rushbo. Thank you President Obama for making the point I wanted to make.

Why am I thanking President Obama? Not for defending Georgetown student Sandra Fluke, who, in fact, never needed any defense. But instead for providing the highest example of our hypocrisy toward hate speech.

Obama proved the point I wanted to make: HATE SPEECH IS ONLY HATE SPEECH WHEN IT COMES FROM THE OTHER SIDE. President Obama condemns Rush Limbaugh who called Sandra Fluke a "slut."

ANDREW BREITBART & BILL MAHER LOOKED
REMARKABLY ALIKE. COULD THEY HAVE BEEN TWINS?

However, there is one man on earth who is consistently more vile, more vulgar and much more of a misogynist than even Rush Limbaugh and that's Bill Maher. Maher's famous televised attacks last year attacking Sarah Palin went far beyond the mild term of "slut," preferring to use the words "dumb Twat" and "Cunt" instead. Maher doubled down, refusing to apologize for his remarks and upped the anti to make even more vile comments.

Did President Obama condemn Maher? Did Obama call Sarah Palin and give her his sympathies for the rough nature of political debate in this country? Nope. Instead Obama happily accepted a $1,000,000.00 (one million dollars) donation from Maher.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT MOST FOLKS CAN ONLY SEE HATE SPEECH WHEN IT'S SPRINGS FROM THE OPPOSITION. THEY NEVER SEEM TO RECOGNIZE IT ON THEIR SIDE OF THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, EVEN IF IT SPRINGS FROM THEIR OWN PEN, KEYBOARD OR MOUTH.

In STORY ONE above, Doyle writes one of the most disgusting essays every written about any religion in order to teach conservatives a lesson that they should respect Islam. It's a lot like a father who beats the living crap out of his son in order to teach him not to be a bully. As we say on Twitter, #EpicFail.

And in STORY TWO Malkin illustrates how folks condemn Breitbart's "hate speech" by using even more vile and disgusting hate speech themselves. If they really hated Andrew Breitbart's hate speech, why did the imitate it so precisely?

And finally from STORY THREE: President Obama, if you really hate the lowering of civil discourse, why can you only ever seem to condemn it in your opponents, yet accept huge donations from serial haters on your side of the political spectrum?

__________________________________________________________

ADDENDUM 3/4/2012: As my friend Lee pointed out (see his comments to this post), Rush Limbaugh has apologized to his listeners and to Sandra Fluke. It must be noted that Rush has been under intense pressure from a left wing campaign to boycott all his advertisers. As of this morning seven advertisers have cancelled their sponsorship of Limbaugh's program.

I have edited my original blog entry to correctly reflect these recent developments. I also plan a follow-up post on this issue, especially in reference to Carbonite, one of Limbaugh's ex-advertisers.

Obama's Bone Headed Tax Strategy

2012-02-22T10:43:00.000-06:00

STORY ONE: Obama Plans to Triple Dividend Tax Rate to nearly 50%

STORY TWO: Britain's 50p Tax Rate Hike Backfires - Revenue's Drop Dramatically

While Republicans Mitt Romney and especially Rick Santorum attempt to hand President Obama his reelection on a silver platter, President Obama continues his tone deaf and strangely self destructive approach to governing with a massive proposed tax hike that would hit vulnerable senior citizens hardest. And, history clearly shows, it's a plan that will not work or raise revenues for the government.

As all my Twitter friends are saying, "WTF!!!" (I'm sure they mean "Win the Future." Yeah, that's it.)

Been there, done that. By raising Dividend Tax to an insane rate without also raising Capital Gains Tax, companies simply stop issuing dividends and instead plow the same money into stock repurchase plans, effectively turning the returns into Capital Gains. The graph to the right shows the actual history of this effect in reverse. Once we dropped the dividend tax rate in 2002, dividends increased dramatically as did tax revenue.

In STORY TWO above, we also see this type of tax increase in the "rich" also always backfires, driving investment, earnings, citizenship and tax revenues downward. Instead of raising revenue, Great Britain has learned such tax rate increases actually reduce revenue. There is plenty of historical evidence in the United States that proves the same thing.

Now (and I'm bracing for the attacks I will receive), we are actually harming the country more by totally exempting 50% of Americans from paying any income tax at all and reducing further their contributions to social security and medicare. All of this is a plan to fail.

Today's it's hard to see how President Obama can lose in November, but he certainly is working to find a way.

P.S. No matter what the pundits are saying today, the gas price increases are absolutely killing the economy. I'm on the front line and I can see it clearly. Remember, you heard it here first.

Mitt Romney Can't Win

2012-02-19T08:28:00.000-06:00

TODAY'S ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY BY THOMAS BEAUMONT: Intensity question for Romney stirs doubt for fall

MY BLOG ENTRY OF NOVEMBER 18, 2011: Why Mitt Can't Win

I'm not sure what the Republicans can do at this point. For reasons that will forever be a mystery, genuinely viable, electable Republicans never entered the primaries this year, leaving the field to Romney and the seven dwarfs. Newt Gingrich? Herman Cain? Michele Bachmann? You'd think somebody would have looked at this field and the weakened Barack Obama and literally JUMPED into the race. Alas, no.

I like the current front runner, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania as a person, though I disagree with many of his positions. I think he is a genuinely good man and it might actually be nice to have a good man as President. But his far right wing social conservative positions make him unelectable.

So we're left with the consoling fact: President Obama's on-the-job training has been painful, but he is getting the hang of this President thing.

The Growing Layers of Failure

2012-02-18T13:21:00.000-06:00

The irony is so thick here it could be used as mortar to cement bricks.

STORY ONE (via National Public Radio): Kansas City's Failed Schools Leave Students Behind

STORY TWO (via The Blaze): North Carolina Food Police Replaces Nutritious Homemade Lunches with Deep Fried Processed Chicken Nuggets

PHOTO BY TOM BULLOCK OF NPR

The tragedy in Kansas City schools in story ONE above is simply heartbreaking. The Kansas City failure is a story of a revolving door of administrators, an incompetent school board, middle class flight to private schools and suburban districts, and a teachers union deeply invested in a system that assures failure. Scott Simon of NPR will continue this series next Saturday and I hope you will all tune in or visit the NPR Website.

I've written often here that Government does absolutely nothing well. There are some things that only Government can do, the military is the most often mentioned example. But even then the waste, incompetence, the inefficiencies and corruption is staggering.

I'm guessing next week, Scott Simon will at least mention the state is considering Charter Schools or even privatizing the entire failed Kansas City School System. This is exactly what should happen.

Meanwhile, via story TWO above, we have our government taking on another task that it will mismanage completely. The well meaning North Carolina Legislature wanted to make sure children in the pre-kindergarten program had the proper nutrition to help them prepare for school. Unfortunately, they only created a bureaucracy of food police following bureaucratic guidelines without even a modicum of logic or intelligence.

So we have nameless inspectors not allowing children to eat a homemade meat and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat bun with fruit and fruit juice and instead forcing the child to eat in the school cafeteria. Because the inspector is only "doing his job" he has no idea what the school cafeteria lunch actually is. His job is to simply inspect the homemade lunch to be certain it has two fruits and vegetables. He doesn't care his actions forced the child to eat deep fried processed chicken nuggets with white bread and milk and ABSOLUTELY NO VEGETABLES!!!.

Somewhere along the line the mission of schools to teach got lost and their new mission is monitor homemade lunches.

As Liberals we should not ever be invested in the process, but only in the results. By definition Liberals should think outside the box, love alternatives and innovation. We should not be invested in methodology of the past. We should always strive for new, groundbreaking solutions. It's time we realized that government is virtually never the solution.

Our goals and dreams must never change, but we must be willing to follow new paths toward achieving those goals.

My Valentine's Gift to You All

2012-02-14T07:51:00.001-06:00

Emma Wallace is a treasure.
Delight in her whimsy.
Read her blog.
Buy her CD's.
Wrap yourself in her music.

Til the Thames Freezes Over, Part Three

2012-01-31T05:00:00.000-06:00

There is a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy out there determined to PROVE ME RIGHT about everything I've written over the last three days. I don't like writing about any topic for three days. Hell, I'd love not to visit this topic ever again. If only the Church of the Holy Global Warming would let it be.

If any of you didn't read my two previous blog entries, here are direct links:
Til the Thames Freezes Over
Til the Thames Freezes Over, Part Two

For those of you who just want to cut to the chase, my point these last two days is that the Global Warming Zealots (who may or may not be correct in their science and beliefs) will tolerate NO DISAGREEMENT with their orthodoxy. Just like the early Christian Church, the Afgan Taliban and other tight religious orthodoxies, they persecute, hound and attempt to destroy anyone who dares to disagree with their version of the facts.

Their next victims will be any local television weathermen who might not follow the Global Warming Script to the letter. Firing will be the minimum punsihment, stoning is not out of the question.

Here's today's latest example, courtesy of Doug Powers over at Michelle Malkin:

Global Warmists Seek to Flush Out ‘Denier’ Meteorologists

The ultimate goal is to clone Al Gore to serve as a weatherman at every local television station so he can offer the patented Hypocrite-Cast® nightly, but that can’t happen if there are still global warming deniers allowed on the air:

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.
“Our goal is nothing short of changing how the entire profession of meteorology tackles the issue of climate change,” the group explains on their website. “We’ll empower everyday people to make sure meteorologists understand that their viewers are counting on them to get this story right, and that those who continue to shirk their professional responsibility will be held accountable.”
According to the Washington Post, the reason for the campaign can be found in a 2010 George Mason University surveys, which found that 63% of television weathermen think that global warming is a product of natural causes, while 31% believe it is from human activity.
So far, the campaign has identified 55 “deniers” in the meteorologist community and are looking for more. They define “deniers” as “anyone who expressly refutes the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change: that it is real, largely caused by humans, and already having profound impacts on our world.”

This seems incredibly counter-productive, because the more successful they are in adding names to the ever-growing meteorologist denier list, the faster the notion of “scientific consensus” goes out the window.

An additional version of this story is also available on The Daily Caller: Global warming activists seek to purge ‘deniers’ among local weathermen

Til the Thames Freezes Over, Part Two

2012-01-30T09:21:00.001-06:00

This will come as a horrible shock to the Global Warming Zealots

and others throughout time who sought to stifle scientific inquiry,

but the earth is spherical, revolves around the sun

and is not the center of the universe.

Global Warming may be occurring. After all, it would hardly be the first time in earth's long history that warming has occurred. Cooling cycled have occurred, too. What is interesting is that man has almost always coped better with these cycles in the past than we are today. We've moved north, moved south, planted different crops, hunted different game, stored fuel, changed lifestyles. And we did it slowly and in perfect rhythm with our wonderful planet.

But not today. Today, we have turned climate change into a powerful religious orthodoxy, with priests, bishops and even false gods. And God help you if you cross these powerful servants of the holy writ.

No sooner than yesterday's controversy reared it's ugly head (see my original blog post, yesterday) than we get news of a mini-revolt with the scientific community over the exact same issues. It's magnificently documented in The Wall Street Journal article quoted below:

No Need to Panic About Global Warming

There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action

Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article:

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

----- Significant additional data follows ------- Read the entire article for complete information ------

SIGNED: Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris; J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting; Jan Breslow, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University; Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society; Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences; William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton; Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.; William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT; James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University; Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences; Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne; Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator; Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service; Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva.

Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE in The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

The problem is politicization of the scientific community has made discussion and even investigation into climate change nearly impossible. Anyone who disagrees with the orthodoxy loses their job, is unable to get funding for research and become a pariah in both the scientific and political community.

There is so much we need to do to protect the earth and improve the environment, much of it in perfect harmony with the goals of the Global Warming zealots. Third world destruction of the vast forests needs to slow or stop. Pollution in Bejing is fatal for many of its residents. I could go on and on.

What we should NOT do is stifle scientific investigation or lock away adversaries as the religious zealots did with Galileo so many years ago.

Til The Thames Freezes Over

2012-01-29T16:58:00.000-06:00

Years from now the politicization of the Global Warming Debate will be the topic of great books. Not that anybody will read them or pay attention to their lessons. But this last ten years of Global Warming Hysteria will be compared to the religious persecution of Galileo and Copericus.

The problem is that science once again took the back set to power, profit and politics. Former Vice President Al Gore will likely become the major villain in this low point in advancement of science, as he should well be. By making science the pawn of politics he has made it impossible for legitimate scientific debate to even happen. Opponents to the Sacred Scripture of Global Warming lost their jobs, were hounded into silence and had the careers destroyed.

As evidence mounts that Global Warming IS NOT occurring and, in fact, we are already in a major cooling cycle, climate priests are changing their scripture to read "climate change," perhaps the most stupid acknowledgement of a truth as old as the earth itself. If one thing has happened over the last 8 million years, the climate has changed..... over and often.

There is much we can, should do, and even must do to improve life on earth for all its peoples and its environment. False hysteria for political power accomplishes nothing except destroy science itself.

From today's U.K. Daily Mail:

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)

Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

A painting, dated 1684, by Abraham Hondius depicts one of many
frost fairs on the River Thames during the mini ice age

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

Be SURE to read the entire article (it's quite long and detailed) here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming--Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html#ixzz1ktGrC8WD

Bait a Hook

2012-01-27T09:00:00.001-06:00

Nothin' like a little fishin' to rest and relax.

Every now and then I need to jump over to my Radio Station hobby and play a little music or put up a music video for you all to enjoy. I certianly hope every one of you listens to WIZARD RADIO. There's a widget over on the upper right side of this blog for easy access.

My only "political" thought for today is that I read virtually all the blogs written by folks who comment here. And I follow over three hundred fine politically orientated folks on Twitter, both Left and Right. All too often too many of us jump to quick and occasionally stupid conclusions about our (supposed) opposition. On Twitter people can get especially mean spirited.

This video might be a good lesson for us about jumping to conclusions about other people. I love that old saying... When you ASSUME... you just make an ASS out of U and ME.

Have fun and have a great day!

Blackout

2012-01-18T11:24:00.000-06:00

Tragically, SOPA and PIPA are not characters from Grimm's Fairly Tales, although their potential to harm rivals the most evil characters the Grimm Brothers ever imagined.

In reality SOPA and PIPA are the acronyms for the two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate designed in Machiavellian fashion by panicked Hollywood moguls to protect their stranglehold on the creative arts. Their highly paid minions in Congress will claim that SOPA (short for the "Stop Online Piracy Act") and PIPA (short for "Protect Intellectual Property Act") are merely modest efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites. However, it's not about protecting copyrights at all, it's actually about control, protecting profits and, ultimately, censorship.

SOPA and PIPA are designed in a way that infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Both acts criminalize the act of providing links, the very backbone of the Internet. Hence, if I link, however innocently, to a site that host stolen copyrighted content (like YouTube, for example), my blog site might be closed down.

Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia.

GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the public interest in the digital realm, has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.

Am I Kidding? ....errr, No

2011-12-19T18:21:00.000-06:00

The Silly Super Committee Blame Game

2011-11-22T13:23:00.001-06:00

Thank God Joe Scarborough gets it, because I swear not one other commentator, left or right, sees the truth of the Super Committee's failure. For today's politicians, it's all the blame game.

Joe Scarborough said, in part:

“Blaming Grover Norquist for this collapse is the lamest Democratic fiction since the Tonkin Gulf incident [used to justify American intervention in Vietnam]. Like LBJ said a couple of years later, they were shooting at ghosts or whales, and yet that was his excuse to go into Vietnam.

"Grover Norquist, for anybody that works in Washington, D.C., understands that, like a lot of people in Washington, he’s got his own point of view. But Grover holds no magical power over anybody. … He’s not really a powerful guy. His idea may be powerful to conservatives, but he in of himself is not a powerful guy.”

“Democrats have the president of the United States, right? They’ve got the United States Senate — the world’s most deliberative body, the upper chamber. What else do they call them? America’s most exclusive club. They haven’t produced a budget in over 900 days."

"The president of the United States, a Democrat, appoints a commission to take care of the debt. And then he ignores everything that commission says."

"Anybody today trying to blame Grover Norquist or to suggest that Grover Norquist is somehow more powerful than the president of the United States and the United States Senate, which everybody in Washington knows runs Washington. It’s not the House. It is the upper chamber. And the Democrats own it. They are close to a monopoly of Washington, D.C., but to blame this on Grover Norquist is laughable.”

"This is a straw man to end all straw men. Grover Norquist has been a straw man. Republicans haven’t even been in charge of the House of Representatives for a year. It’s as if 2009 and 2010 and the massive deficits that were accumulated then didn’t even exist. But, again, I’m blaming both sides today. Both sides have their feet in ideological cement. But Grover Norquist is a straw man."

"These same Democrats that said that George W. Bush abused the powers of office and, ‘Oh, the executive branch had become too powerful,’ are now suggesting Barack Obama, who, by the way, has been completely AWOL on this issue, is powerless? A man who put a debt commission in — he put Simpson/Bowles together and then completely threw them under the bus."

"Mika, you and I, if I ever come back, then I’ll shut up, we have to get Senate Democrats on this program and start asking them exactly why, in the midst of America’s greatest budgetary crisis in 235 years, they have refused, stubbornly, to produce a budget for over 900 days.”

“The president of the United States is still president of the United States. Democrats still control the United States Senate. Grover Norquist’s idea may be a strong one. Grover Norquist has absolutely no power in Washington, D.C. other than the idea he carries. And I am so surprised that Democrats really believe that the presidency is as weak as they believe it is now. That this president couldn’t step forward and show at least a little bit of leadership. He has been AWOL since he and [House Speaker John] Boehner failed on the debt ceiling. He better engage quickly or else we’re going the way of Europe.”

The above is an abridged transcript of Scarborough's comments taken from Jeff Poor's excellent article in The Daily Caller. Read it all here: Scarborough scolds MSNBC colleagues: Stop blaming Grover Norquist

Why Mitt Can't Win

2011-11-18T14:40:00.001-06:00

This is a really short post prompted by the new POLL showing the Newt Gringrich is about to pass Mitt Romney even n the "firewall" state of New Hampshire. Here is the link: Poll: Gingrich, Romney in Dead Heat in N.H.

Here's Mitt's problem in a nutshell. The Mitt Romney who was the excellent governor of Massachusetts could have won easily. I would certainly have chosen him over Barack Obama and so would many others. He was the perfect Republican, intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate and honest. He could have easily overcome the few issues where he didn't match the far right wing of the Republican Party.

But that Mitt isn't running. Instead he reinvented himself into the far right wing Romney. His problem is that nobody believes him. Those who appreciated the bravery of the original Romney feel betrayed he has so easily abandoned his principles. And far right conservatives just think he's full of shit.

His only support comes because the liberal media keeps telling Republicans, desperate for a victory, that Mitt's the only candidate who can beat Obama. But there is no passion there. Hell, there's no there, there. Mitt would go down to defeat in a pattern similar to John McCain.

Republican's have no enthusiasm for Romney. There will be no grass roots effort. The election will be boring with everyone from both sides staying at home.

Now, I'm on record saying nobody currently running can beat Obama, so it hardly matters. Newt, Mitt, Herman, Rick... they'll all go down to defeat.

I've often said that a candidates ability to hold to his principles matter more to me that party or even political positions. With that standard it's not possible for me to vote for Mitt.