Redacted material seems to connect Obama to Blago

Its been a few days, and this story isn't getting any traction. That bothers me, because the story would seem to connect the president to the scandal with Blagojevich.

Yes, I understand that is exactly what Blago is trying to do. But what the article suggests is that Blago is not entirely wrong... that there were efforts made by the Obama administration to deal with Blago in his effort to sell a senate seat.

I hope the media will follow up on this soon.

The GAO warning us of financial disaster

The GAO isn't exactly a radical organization. They are one of the few parts of government that I tend to trust, because their entire job is to keep an eye on the rest of government.
They recently wrote this, with my emphasis in red:

The economic recession and the federal government’s unprecedented actions intended to stabilize the financial markets and to promote economic recovery have significantly affected the federal government’s financial condition. The resulting substantial investments and increases in liabilities, net operating cost, the unified budget deficit, and debt held by the public are reported in the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2009. Because the valuation of these assets and liabilities is based on assumptions and estimates that are inherently subject to substantial uncertainty arising from the uniqueness of certain transactions and the likelihood of future changes in general economic, regulatory, and market conditions, actual results may be materially different from the reported amounts. Further, the ultimate cost of these actions and their impact on the federal government’s financial condition will not be known for some time.
More significantly, the federal government faces long-term challenges resulting from
large and growing structural deficits that are driven primarily by rising health care costs and known demographic trends. This unsustainable path must be addressed soon by policymakers. The longer actions are delayed, the more difficult adjustments are likely to become.

Its really important that we listen to what they are saying. This is the treasury department sending up a flare. Please don't ignore it.

Why is our president such an asshole?

Real Clear Politics has a video from CNN, of Obama saying this.

"I do believe, at a certain point, you've made enough money"

What a complete jag.

More Tea Party Polls

What would happen to the earth if the NY Times suggested that Tea Party members were, you know, smart?

I'm just suggesting that maybe that volcano wasn't about to erupt on its own:

A New York Times/CBS News poll of backers of the emerging Tea Party movement shows that its supporters are more affluent and better educated than the general public.

What?
Better educated?
How'd that happen?

Tea Party members tend to be married more often, retired, and are conservative. They are more likely to vote and own guns. They prefer civil unions over gay marriage. A clear majority like Glenn Beck and GWB. They think that the economy is very bad and getting worse.

76% want congress to work on reducing the deficit.
85% do not believe that the government should require everyone to have health insurance.
88% disapprove of the job that Obama is doing.
91% disapprove of the way that he's handling the economy.
93% disapprove of how he's handling health care.

...and 92% of Tea Party members believe that we are headed towards socialism.

Read the full report. Its pretty comprehensive.

"Proud" taxpayer?

Have you ever been "proud" to pay your car payments?
How about when your mortgage comes due? Do you feel "proud" then?

Say Hello to Gail Collins, who thinks that we need to be "proud" every time we pay taxes:

Paying a lot of taxes should be a badge of honor. It proves you made it into the league of big money-makers, not to mention the fact that you’re supporting the upkeep of the Grand Canyon. If the I.R.S. had been doing its marketing properly, little kids would dream of growing up to become really big taxpayers.

Gail is clearly the type of person who claps every time after signing a check and cheers "Yay!" Her entire column is about how we don't realize how little taxes we are paying, and how if we knew how little we were paying, we'd be happy.

Gail is in that rare, bold category of denial where she should be wearing a helmet. She believes that if she doesn't see the tax, then it doesn't exist or affect her. I'm sure Gail wonders, quietly, what all of those extra charges are on her cell phone bill. Or why she has to pay extra fees on her electric bill. I'm pretty sure she doesn't grasp how many invisible taxes we all pay.

Because if she did... she would be cheering and clapping constantly.

Tea Party Activists, and race

I was at the Tea Party in Chicago.

One of the more fascinating things to me was walking around and listening to what the press was asking Tea Party members. One lady was interviewing a couple when she tried to get them to 'admit' that race was a factor in the protests. She started out by asking them if they thought that race was a factor. They shook their head 'no' and looked confused. The reporter pointed to the crowd around them, and said "look around, you don't think that there is a racial aspect at work here?"

Sidenote: I took journalism classes in college. I know the difference between finding the story and creating one. Finding the story is when you ask the right questions and get to the heart of the matter. Creating a story is when you ask leading questions to get the answer you want, that will match your storyline.
When you create a story, you'll use phrases like "Don't you think..." or "Wouldn't you agree..."
Finding a story involves open ended questions like "What do you think?", or even "Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?"

Anyway, with all of this in mind, I saw this story in Reason, and I had to link to it. Its about the Tea Party and race.

More "extremist" painting

This time, it was former president Clinton trying to do it... making allusions that compared the Tea Party movement with Tim McVeigh:

"What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that we should reduce our passion for the positions we hold - but that the words we use really do matter, because there's this vast echo chamber, and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike," he said.

"One of the things that the conservatives have always brought to the table in America is a reminder that no law can replace personal responsibility. And the more power you have and the more influence you have, the more responsibility you have."

Clinton made the remarks at events sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund on the upcoming anniversary of the bombing.

He mentioned the rancorous fight over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Passage of the law elicited threats against some lawmakers.

Words have meaning.
Check.
The more influence you have, the more responsibility you have.
Check.
Of course, you were the same guy who used a 22 year old intern to cheat on his wife when he was President of the United States. I still remember how you let your entire staff call her nutty and tell us that Monica was obsessed with you. That wasn't irresponsible of you in the slightest.
But thanks for reminding us that "words have meaning", guy who the phrase "it all depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is". Because when you used that phrase, it felt to me like you were trying to make sure that words didn't mean anything.

I'm sure that you no longer cheat on your wife, and that you have given your daughter the best example of what kind of a husband she should be looking for.

Look, this is simple: you don't take responsibility lectures from a guy who basically defined irresponsible behavior in the 90s.
There's a simple reason that the left is trying to paint the Tea Party movement as extremist: they are getting clobbered in the polls by the criticism that is hitting the mark.

When the LA Times headlines a story "Myth Busting Polls", and gives the following information:

The Tea Party adherents broke down 28% independent, 17% Democrat and only 57% Republican.

Then you are in trouble. That means that almost a fifth of your base is joining the tea party movement. That's huge. And its why Markos and the president are trying to discredit it.

Markos continues to be an asshat

In the running for asshat of the week, DailyKos founder and rabble rouser Markos Moulitsas. Markos was being interviewed by lord God king asshat and recent defender of everything government, Keith Olbermann, when he said this.

Just a week or two ago, Democrats said that it was Republicans who were throwing around the Hitler comparisons. But this week, there is no doubt that its Democrats who are accusing Republicans of being genocidal.

I guess that post-health-care-bill polling hit that they are taking is getting to them. The only way that democrats know how to react to being called an extremist is to say, "no, you're an extremist!"

The asshat who created "Crash The Tea Party"

I'm completely for counter protesting.

I think when its done well, its one of the finest art forms around. No one in the world has done this better then the Protest Warriors. What they did was brilliant. They would go into left-wing protests with signs that would take their dumb ideas to the logical extreme to show how dumb they were.

Here is a sampling of their signs.
The big thing about Protest Warriors that I loved was that it was always clear who they were. It was brilliant satire, and not at all subtle.

Compare that to Jason Levin.
Jason is a media teacher at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton. Big surprise there. Jason is the guy who started crashtheteaparty.org
Now as I said, I'm big on counter protesting. But this is what he wanted to do, according to the Fox News story:

Levin has said he would seek to embarrass Tea Partiers by attending their rallies dressed as Adolf Hitler, carrying signs bearing racist, sexist and anti-gay epithets and acting as offensively as possible -- anything short of throwing punches.

Embarrass them how???

Jason, let's just see if I can follow your hypothetical Ralph Wiggum choo-choo train of thought here. You felt so strongly that the Tea Party was racist, sexist, and homophobe, that you wanted to be as offensive as possible to embarrass them...?

But... if they are racist and sexist... why would they be embarrassed?
Wouldn't they just be, you know, happy to see a racist sign? Heck, if they were racist, would you have to bring signs that were racist? Would you have to bring your own signs? Couldn't you just borrow one of theirs?
Its this type of 'logic' that drives me nuts about the left. In absence of racism, the left decided to bring racism along to... paint... the... Tea Party members... as... racist.

Uh huh.
Jason, at any time did you stop to think about what you were doing? Did it ever occur to you that if you needed to bring racist signs, then maybe you were wrong about the Tea Party members? That maybe, possibly, bringing racist signs said more about you then about them?

Congratulations, Jason. You get my asshat award for the week.

Americans prefer Hillary to Barack

You have to lean pretty far left in order to get this to happen. According to the LA Times , via CNN:

And a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll has just revealed that even today Americans like that other Democrat more and dislike that other Democrat less than they do the incumbent Democratic president.

Click here if you want to see the complete breakdown.

Florida doctor 'refuses' Obama patients

I'm writing this to make sure people get the story right.
On the door of his office, Jack Cassell, a urologist, put this sign:

If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.

The left has since gone nuts about this one doctor putting that sign on his door. So its important to note what the original article said about the doctor:

Cassell told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday he wasn't questioning patients or refusing care, because that would be unethical.

If you notice that a member of the left calls him names, and accuses him of violating his oath, please point that out to them.

A round up of polls on Health Care and the Tea Party

According to CBS news, most Americans are still against the health care bill:

More Americans now disapprove of the legislation, and many expect their costs to rise and the quality of their care to worsen; few expect the reforms to help them.

I guess when you shove a bill through, it makes people skeptical.

Fifty-three percent of Americans say they disapprove of the new reforms, including 39 percent who say they disapprove strongly. In the days before the bill passed the House, 37 percent said they approved and 48 percent disapproved.

I think this is great. It means that people are paying attention. Now we need to get more people to pay attention.
Most important to me about the poll:

Even though the president and Democratic leaders have repeatedly pointed out that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office called the reform package a deficit-reducer, six in 10 Americans still think the new health care reforms will increase the budget deficit. Just 13 percent think the reforms will decrease the deficit and another 15 percent expect no effect.

I believe that means that pretty much the only people who don't believe that the health care bill will add to the deficit are democrats.
Which would explain this poll by Rasmussen:

Following the passage of the health care bill, 53% now say they trust Republicans on the issue of health care. Thirty-seven percent (37%) place their trust in Democrats.

Again... that just might have something to do with the democrats pushing the bill through so hard. It might also explain why in a generic poll, Republicans have gained considerably:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, up from 46% last week, while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent, down a point from the previous survey.

The news gets even better.
Gallup recently did a profile to find out who Tea Party members were. They found out that they were more likely to be male, and slightly less likely to be lower income. But then the real news comes out:

In several other respects, however -- their age, educational background, employment status, and race -- Tea Partiers are quite representative of the public at large.

Please go to the Gallup site for their breakdown. Its worth reading if you want to see who Tea Party members are. The most interesting fact for me is that while 40% of the general population has an unfavorable view of Tea Party members, 63% of liberals have an unfavorable opinion.

Finally, the one poll that puts it all in perspective. The best poll, ever, from Rasmussen:

On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.

Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly feel closer to the Tea Party and most Democrats say that their views are more like Obama’s. Among voters not affiliated with either major political party, 50% say they’re closer to the Tea Party while 38% side with the President.

This isn't the way that the president thought it would be, I'm certain.

Representative Cleaver refuses to discuss "spitting" incident

You may remember Emanuel Cleaver. He's the representative who claimed that someone spit on him the day that the Democrats shoved the Health Care takeover through the house.

Well, now it appears as though Cleaver doesn't want to talk about the incident.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that they can't find videos of anyone yelling racial epithets?

Howard Dean, on redistributing wealth with health care bill

I don't know what is more frightening. When they deny it, or when they admit it.
Howard Dean admits that the health care bill is about redistributing wealth.

He's a big fucking deal among Democrats

Whenever democrats tell me that we 'narrowly' averted VP Palin, I remind them that we currently have VP Biden.

However, Democrats seem to love having incompetent gaffe-laden people on their side. So much so, that they sell t-shirts with their gaffes on them as fund raising devices.

Health Insurance companies make bad victims

I can't take credit for that statement. Its the theme of an article by Rick Neuman, in a brilliantly written article:

Overall, the profit margin for health insurance companies was a modest 3.4 percent over the past year, according to data provided by Morningstar. That ranks 87th out of 215 industries and slightly above the median of 2.2 percent. By this measure, the most profitable industry over the past year has been beverages, with a 25.9 percent profit margin. Right behind that were healthcare real-estate trusts (firms that are basically the landlords for hospitals and healthcare facilities) and application-software (think Windows). The worst performer was copper, with a profit margin of minus 56.6 percent.

What I love about it is that Rick lets the air out of the whole idea that heatlh insurance companies are robbing us blind compared to other companies.
Unfortunately, this article (written in August of 2009) did not fall neatly into the narrative, so it was blithely ignored by the administration and the democrats following it.

Honest, I love D & D, which is why I posted this

I'm a huge fan of the game Dungeons and Dragons. I lived it from pretty much 15 years of my life.
I also like porn. Really, no kidding.

Anyway, despite that, I still think that this is a bad idea. Getting porn stars to play D&D.

Forget for a second that D&D is only entertaining for those who are playing it. Watching it, is like watching golf on television. Its dull and pointless.

What this idea is missing is the reason why we watch porn stars.
-And it isn't because we think that they are fascinating people.
Having said that, I'd still love to meet Sasha some day.

Paul Krugman makes fun of death panels, then explains why they are needed

I'm sure that if you hear the extended interview, this would make a lot more sense.
Right?

Obama extends Patriot Act/ wiretapping

Its almost comical. From the LA Times:

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

* Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

* Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

* Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

This is bipartisanship, right? When he accepts the things that Democrats hated... up until he got into office?

Wouldn't it be weird if Obama broke another promise?

Like if he decided to drill for oil?

No. That wouldn't happen. He wouldn't do something like that.

Oh brother:

On Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility in Washington, DC, President Obama will announce that his administration will allow the lease sale to go forward for oil and gas exploration 50 miles off of the Virginia coast -- the first new sales of offshore oil and gas in the Atlantic in more than two decades.

Scott Brown: "The Healthcare Fight Is Not Over"

Scott Brown tries to remind the Democrats, gently, how he got elected:

Everywhere I go, people ask me what can be done about this now — after the president has signed it into law, and Nancy Pelosi and others are taking their victory laps.

I don't think he's lying about that. I know that there are a bunch of Republicans in my life who are trying to figure out ways to dodge this craptastic bill. Its what happens when people who hate business try to take over businesses.

Heritage: 10 disasters of Obamacare

This is what the Heritage Foundation is great at... math.
One example:

2. Bending the Cost Curve in the Wrong Direction.
The provisions of the legislation aimed at reducing health care spending are reactionary, addressing the symptoms rather than the root causes of growth in spending.[3] Instead of reducing spending in health care, the bill will increase overall health spending in the U.S. by $222 billion between now and 2019.[4]

Read the full thing. Its full of some common sense.

2/3rd of the US thinks that the health care takeover is too costly

From USA Today:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Apparently, math scores in the US are better then what I thought.

Obama decides to be more confrontational

Because, apparently, he thinks that he hasn't been confrontational enough.
According to the Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress.

He tried searching for compromise.
Does anyone remember any point where Obama suggested a middle point that he could meet the Republicans on? Just saying that you want to compromise isn't the same as compromising.

Will health care costs go up?

USA Today asks this question:

The White House has long argued that pilot projects and demonstration programs stuffed into the legislation will produce far more in long-term savings than anyone can promise today. The Congressional Budget Office can't prove much of those savings will materialize, so it doesn't count them in its balance sheets.