Morning Must Reads: Firewall

What did I miss?

Glenn Beck, upstaged again by a guy with video editing software and a mouse.

(h/t apr2563)

If it’s not good news, it’s definitely not good news for the incumbents.

“Senior citizens who depend on Social Security may go a second year without a raise.

It would be just the second year without an increase since 1975, when Congress first adopted cost of living adjustments (COLA).

The bad news is expected to be made official Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases inflation estimates for September, The Associated Press reported yesterday.

With 58.7 million potential voters receiving Social Security benefits, the no-COLA announcement could spell more bad news for the ruling party. Raises are based on the Consumer Price Index and not set by Congress.

‘It’s not the congressional Democrats’ fault, but that’s the way politics works,” said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. ‘A lot of people will feel hostile about it.’”

Reading too much into a book.

“One of the Red State clowns:

Mainstream U.S. newspapers have not covered the book throwing incident, as they did the shoe thrown at President Bush, but CBS offers a video report which you can watch here.

It is not clear what the book was, where it came from in the crowd or why it was thrown at Obama. Perhaps it was an attempt to imply Obama should be punished for his efforts to lurch the country far to the left with government-controlled health care and his cap and tax energy plan which he admits is designed to bankrupt the coal industry.

Reality:

[...]According to Secret Service spokesperson, Ed Donovan, the person involved was an overzealous author who just wanted to toss his book into the president’s reading list.

“He was an over exuberant person who wrote a book that he wanted the president to read,” Donovan told CNN.

“After mortgage meltdown, Barney Frank gets another chance to remake housing finance”
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Now this would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. Here is a Congressman who through his arrogance believed he knew better than anyone else the financial strengths of Fannie and Freddie. He idly sat by and watched these companies defrauded by Democratic political hacks (Raines and Johnson).
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No the firms are in receivership and the taxpayer is quite possibly in the hook for trillions of dollars and WaPo runs the above headline. With Frank’s only admission, “I may have been late in recognizing a problem”. Seriously? Late? How about compounding the problem!
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Imagine this was a Republican Congressman. Or putting former Lehman, Bear Stearns or Merril’s chair in charge of Financial Re-Regulation,. The howling would be non-stop with (Fill in you favorite) utting the fox in charge of the hen house, Willie Sutton in charge of banks or Bill Clinton in charge of interns.

There seems to be no end to the shamelessness and arrogance of the left. Hopefully the voters of Massachusetts come to their senses.

If they push their fingers in their ears any further, they’ll be able to scratch their temporal lobes.

“Just for the record, when the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences last reviewed the data this spring, it concluded: “A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems.” Not only William Hague but such other prominent European conservatives as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have embraced that widespread scientific conviction and supported vigorous action.

Indeed, it is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says that although other parties may contain pockets of climate skepticism, there is ‘no party-wide view like this anywhere in the world that I am aware of.’

It will be difficult for the world to move meaningfully against climate disruption if the United States does not. And it will be almost impossible for the U.S. to act if one party not only rejects the most common solution proposed for the problem (cap-and-trade) but repudiates even the idea that there is a problem to be solved. “

Next time you take a road trip, Joe, please take Halperin with you...

(…and leave him at some rest stop in the middle of nowhere.)

“Announcing that the president ‘is being politically crushed in a vise,’ Mark Halperin delivers an extraordinarily condescending scolding in Time this week. The interesting part is that Halperin’s obituary for Obama, penned on behalf of Washington, D.C. “elites” who all know the president is cooked, comes in the wake of Obama’s polling rebound last week. [...]

But this one to me seemed just bizarre:

Throughout the year, we have been treated to Obama-led attacks on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Joe Barton (for his odd apology to BP), John Boehner (for seeking the speakership — or was it something about an ant?) and Fox News (for everything). Suitable Democratic targets in some cases, perhaps, but not worth the time of a busy Commander in Chief.

That’s right, Obama, in the eyes of media elites like Halperin, is not allowed to fight back against his political opponents. Why? Because it’s unseemly. Apparently it’s not that unseemly when his opponents accuse him of being a racist and a Nazi and tyrant and a liar and a terrorist-sympathizer and foreign-born. It’s unseemly when Obama answers his critics. It’s unseemly when he defends himself.

This is really just astonishing. Media elites like Halperin have been witness to the most unhinged and hateful and sustained attack on a sitting president in modern American history. Their take-away after nearly two years of this hate-fest? It’s Obama’s fault. And worse, it’s his fault when he defends himself.”

Some days are diamonds | some days are stones

“In a statement, Shelby said he just doesn’t care: “While the Nobel Prize for Economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.”

That’s true, of course; the Nobel committee is not responsible for determining who’s qualified to serve. But it’s worth emphasizing a little detail Shelby may have forgotten — that responsibility rests with the U.S. Senate, not one conservative member.

Diamond’s nomination has been pending since April, and in case Shelby’s forgotten, we’re facing some difficult economic times and could use a functioning Fed. The nomination has cleared committee, is ready for a floor vote, and if Shelby opposes Diamond, he can vote against him.”

Here is your tax dollars at work. While scrams and stamps their feet about everyone else lying they are not only complicit in this case they encouraged it.
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If anyone needs further proof that the government should never be involved in private business, this is it.

GM Lied: Chevy Volt is Not a True EV

“While the Chevy Volt holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short-term,” according to the March 30 report by President Barack Obama’s auto task force.
The administration’s concerns about the Volt were offset by its belief that GM needs cleaner, fuel-efficient vehicles to succeed in the long term, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the task force’s deliberations are private. GM’s problems may mean the company won’t meet its timetables for producing and selling the Volt though, the person said.
The automaker said yesterday it still plans to deliver the vehicle to showrooms in November 2010, as planned.
GM has committed about $1 billion to develop the Volt, which the Detroit automaker is banking on to leapfrog Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius, the industry’s best-selling hybrid electric vehicle. GM said in March it was adding staff to the Volt program even as it cuts 10,000 salaried workers this year to keep $13.4 billion in U.S. loans

2010 Midterms: Season of the Schizophrenic Voter.

“The poll finds Republicans in an anomalous position — poised to make political gains while the party and its policies are unpopular. That stands in contrast to midterm elections in 1994 and 2006, when the insurgent party gained congressional control after polls showed voter attitudes tilting toward them.

In the Bloomberg Poll, nearly half of likely voters — 49 percent — said they had an unfavorable view of the Republicans. Democrats have a narrow advantage on favorability, 47 percent to 45 percent.

In October 1994, the month before Republicans won enough seats to gain control of both the U.S. House and Senate, their party had a 7 percentage point advantage in positive ratings among registered voters, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In October 2006, before Democrats retook control of both chambers, a NBC/Journal poll showed their party with a sizable popularity advantage over Republicans.”

“Just for the record, when the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences last reviewed the data this spring”
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Was this before or after the original data was destroyed?
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“CRU’s revelation “a totally new element” that “violates basic scientific principles, and “throws even more doubt” on the claims of global warming alarmists.”
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“In mid-August the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) disclosed that it had destroyed the raw data for its global surface temperature data set because of an alleged lack of storage space. The CRU data have been the basis for several of the major international studies that claim we face a global warming crisis.”

Thank you. My sentiments exactly.

David Weigel on the Tea Party’s suspicion that they’re being used.

“There was nothing to dissuade them in Richmond, at an event co-sponsored by 33 local Tea Party groups. Dick Morris, the former adviser to Bill Clinton turned Republican enthusiasm-peddler, appeared at the conference to announce that Republicans were leading in 10 Senate races, and if the party wanted it badly enough, it could win 100 House seats. He rattled off the names of the Democrats to beat in Virginia’s competitive races, but the crowd’s reaction revealed where their emotions were.

‘You can beat Tom Perriello!’ said Morris. There was an eruption of boos—evidence of the deep unpopularity of the cherubic freshman House member representing Charlottesville and chunks of southern Virginia, who had voted for most of President Obama’s agenda. Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party group that co-sponsored the conference, has anti-Perriello literature at its table.

“And the man who’s going to beat him is Robert Hurt!” said Morris. The cheers for that were much, much quieter. Hurt, a state senator whom Tea Partiers tried desperately to beat in the primary, generates next to no enthusiasm among conservatives, who fear he’ll sell them out. (Many miss Virgil Goode, the man Perriello beat, who appears at the conference to say that billions of dollars can be cut from the budget ‘if you don’t mind making some people mad.’) While Hurt is not at the conference, some of the other establishment-backed candidates are. They aren’t as popular as the guys with no chance.”

You missed this:

“There were was no detonator found with the eight blocks of C-4, weighing 1.24 pounds each, so there was no way for the explosives to go off, Kelly noted. But the “potent” material — the same kind used in the 2005 terrorist bombings in London — could have packed a powerful kick. Each block was reportedly equivalent to 10 grenades and powerful enough to blow up a car.”

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/in-the-bag/

Rortybomb continues (and concludes?) its “Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies” series.

“If more than 0.01% (!) of mortgage notes weren’t properly transferred, the trust can force the sponsor (in this case, Goldman Sachs) to repurchase the bad mortgages. And this is just one contract for one part of the ~$2.6 trillion dollar mortgage backed securities market. How’s that for systemic risk? Especially if this is found to be widespread….

Looking at the documents you see that the smart guys who created these mortgage-backed securities put large poison pills into them to try and prevent the kind of note fraud we are currently experiencing as a country. They took the policing and legal recourse (and legal ability to cover their ass) very seriously on this issue. So seriously they can force repurchases of this bad debt.

So don’t believe the hype of anyone who says these are just technicalities; the people who wrote the contract didn’t believe they were.”

But the news at Government Motors gets better but see if you find in the MSM. WHile the left continues to bash anyone who states, and correctly, the cause of the decline of manufacturing in this country has been the excessive wage and benefit demands of the unions. Now with the blessing of the WH and the UAW we see what conservative have been saying for decades, the UAW contracts are unsustainable. Lo & behold what is happening since they are in the driver’s seat (no pun intended) they can’t blame failure of the company on anyone but themselves.
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It is interesting instead of an across the board cut its the younger workers taking the hit. They in affect take a 2-punch, lower wages for the sins of the past and the huge burden of unfunded liabilities in the automaker both the result of those with more seniority.

The bulletin, circulated by UAW activist Wendy Thompson via e-mail, was obtained by The Detroit News on Friday.
Local 5960 member Juan Gonzales confirmed plans for a demonstration seeking repeal of the two-tier wage agreement, under which about 60 percent of the workers will be paid $28 an hour, while others with less experience could earn $14. The bulletin asks participants to bring picket signs and petitions.
The rally reflects divisions in the labor movement. UAW leaders want to save as many jobs as they can and insist they are protecting workers’ wages.
Some workers fear the UAW is creating a loophole that will eventually force lower pay on veteran workers and want to protect the higher-paying position
if Ford or another major UAW shop had even proposed something like this, politicians would have been running to microphones in droves to denounce management greed and worker oppression, and that the news coverage would be national in scope.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101009/AUTO01/10090309#ixzz129EdjfMA

The Other Klein makes the case for infrastructure investment.

“Lots of stimulus programs can create jobs. But infrastructure investment creates the right jobs, for the right people, doing the right things — and at the right time. Or, to say it more clearly, infrastructure investment creates middle-class jobs for workers in a sector with high unemployment and it puts them to work doing something that we actually need done at a moment when doing it is cheaper than it ever will be again.[...]

And then there are all the other arguments you’ve heard me make. Raw materials are cheap. Labor — due to the high unemployment rate — is cheap. Borrowing money is cheaper than at any time since the 1950s. And this is one sector where the normal deficit objections simply don’t apply. ‘You run a deficit both when you borrow money and when you defer maintenance that needs to be done,’ Larry Summers told me. ‘Either way, you’re imposing a cost on future generations.’ Not spending a dollar on infrastructure repairs today means we’ll have to spend it tomorrow — and by that time, it will cost more than a dollar. More so than anything else I can think of in the economy, infrastructure investment is win-win-win-win, and I’m not certain I’ve tacked enough ‘wins’ on there.”

Not sure which category this fits; “the do as I say not as I do” or “facts we don’t need no stinkin facts”
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In another desperate screed by the Obama administration they have stooped to scare-mongering tactics without a whiff of evidence only innuendo (theirs). Even many liberal outlets are ashamed of Obama’s rants, especially since by hos own campaign admissions they did what they are claiming the COC is doing.
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No shame, no proof just sleazy desperation!

Democrats, from President Barack Obama on down, are trying to turn an evidence-free allegation into a major campaign theme, claiming that foreign corporations are “stealing our democracy” with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s a claim with little basis in fact.
• The Democratic National Committee released a TV ad over the weekend claiming: “It appears they’ve even taken secret foreign money to influence our elections.”
• President Obama said last week that “one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign sources.”
• The liberal group MoveOn.org is claiming, without any qualification, that “[f]oreign corporations are funding some of the $75 million the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending to defeat Democrats.”
The chamber says it does receive money from foreign sources, but that it amounts to only a small fraction of the chamber’s $200 million budget. The chamber says none of the foreign money is used in its ads, and no evidence has been produced to show otherwise. Federal Election Commission opinions state that organizations taking in foreign money may make political donations legally, so long as they have “a reasonable accounting method” to keep foreign money separate and have enough money from U.S. sources to cover the donations.

“And that the public cares not only about what is said in an election but about who is saying it.”

There are of course good reasons to limit foreign money in the electoral process—it’s just that none of them are compatible with the Supreme Court’s First Amendment absolutism. Unlike American citizens, foreign individuals, governments, and associations are unlikely to have allegiance to the United States. A foreign entity may even have military or economic interests adverse to the United States. Foreign individuals or groups could support candidates to curry favor, or at the least, to secure preferential access to elected officials. Even putting aside the possibility of corruption and the sale of access, would we really want the close and intense battle for a majority in the House of Representatives to be influenced by money from a foreign government, corporation, or millionaire? The answer is obviously no, whether you sit on the Democratic or Republican side of the aisle. And foreign spending on U.S. elections could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

In fact, the case against foreign spending on elections is so clear that I have a hard time believing that the Supreme Court would actually strike down the ban on foreign spending. The justices would find some way to distinguish the foreign spending from U.S. corporate spending, even if the solution only makes campaign finance law even more incoherent. At bottom, such a ruling would have to recognize, at least implicitly, that when it comes to our elections, more speech is not always better. The identity of the speaker does matter. And that the public cares not only about what is said in an election but about who is saying it. These are all defensible principles. They also are nowhere to be found in Citizens United.

Thx apr & grapy. Crazyman actually commented on the D Duck remix? As another famous ‘toon character would say, what a maroon.

Hilarious.
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If you haven’t read Sean Wilentz’s piece on Beck and the Birchers, it’s worth a look — if only to understand why Rusty and the other Beck Patriot Police here latch onto their particular pet issues.
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http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/18/101018fa_fact_wilentz

Shoes, books…hey, ‘long as it ain’t wrenches or tire irons.

First liberals ran the manufacturing companies into the ground now they are working on bankrupting city, state and local governments. Add all of these liabilities up along with Fannie and Freddie and the rich are going to have to get a second job. Of course even if they pay all of their income in taxes it won’t begin to cover these gaps. Maybe once Barney Frank fixes Fannie and Freddie he can leap over City Hall and fix the pension problem. Doubtful since the only answer is to re-work (Read:reduce) the benefit system and increase criteria for full payouts.

Big US cities could be squeezed by unfunded public pensions as they and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, a study to be released on Tuesday shows.
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The gap at the municipal level would be in addition to $3,000 billion in unfunded liabilities already estimated for state-run pensions, according to research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester.
Current pension assets for plans sponsored by Philadelphia can only pay for promised benefits through 2015, while Boston and Chicago would deplete their existing funds by 2019.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39626759

Compassionate Conservatism™
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“Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal–yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are “born gay” and can never change. This–and not society’s disapproval–may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.”
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I guess the Christian thing to do is to blame the victim.
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http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/10/christian_compassion_requires_the_truth_about_harms_of_homosexuality.html
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(Side Note: The Washington Post published this hate-filled homophobic rant on National Coming Out Day. I’ve never been happier that I canceled my sub years ago.)

With so many players and competing interests, I wonder how this is going to end.

“A framework of tariffs and subsidies introduced by the U.S. Energy Tax Act of 1978 has long bolstered the American ethanol industry, helping to increase demand while keeping foreign competitors out.

But these tariffs are due to expire Dec. 31 and other countries are lobbying hard to get into the U.S. market — particularly Brazil, the world’s largest producer of sugar cane ethanol, which stands to be the biggest beneficiary if the tariffs are allowed to end. “

“without a whiff of evidence ”
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Here ya go:
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http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/09/nyt-wp-on-chamber/
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“Most of the Chamber’s foreign sources of funds come from large multi-national corporations which are headquartered abroad, like BP and Siemens. Direct contributions from foreign firms also are accepted under the auspices of the Chamber’s “Business Councils” located in various foreign countries. “

“rich are going to have to get a second job”
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No, they won’t. The top tier tax rate is at one of the lowest points its been at since we started collecting taxes.
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http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213
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Rhetoric all ya got today, Freepy?

Will Bunch on “the big lie of saving the children and grandchildren”

Here’s the thing: Of course, Tea Party activists are “genuinely concerned for their children and grandchildren” — anyone with a pulse wants a better world for their loved ones who come after them. The tragedy is that their genuine concerns are being played — manipulated by the high-def hucksters like Beck and Palin who’ve become multi-millionaires through fact-free appeals to fearful Americans and by billionaires like the Koch brothers who have a self-serving agenda.

With a radical agenda that aims to bring to a standstill not just government spending but two centuries of can-do American initiative, the Tea Party Movement — and what may be an unstoppable tsunami of voter despair on Nov. 2 — aims, unwittingly, to usher in a sad era of national decline. In fact, the children and grandchildren of the Tea Partiers (and the rest of us, unfortunately) would attend crumbling schools that lag increasingly behind other industrialized and emerging nations, assuming their school bus can even make it through traffic-clogged highways. Unable to find jobs, many will instead enlist to fight new wars overseas for the world’s shrinking oil supply, while savvier nations reap the benefits of alternative energy.

Consider the new darling of the anti-Obama backlash, macho division — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who even aced out Palin over the weekend at a straw poll of the Virginia Tea Party. Just a couple of days before, the tough-talking Christie offered a powerful symbol of the right wing’s just-say-no-to-everything approach to running America, when he singlehandedly took steps to kill a multi-billion dollar new rail tunnel under the Hudson River that would greatly expand and improve mass transit in our largest metropolis. His radical approach could save New Jersey millions of dollars in the short-sighted short-run — or it might not — but there is little doubt that Christie will whack future economic growth that might bring in millions in new tax dollars, if the Tea Party crowd would simply allow it to take place. (Meanwhile, China — whose supplanting of the United States as the world’s economic powerhouse is a major source of Tea Party concern, and understandably so — is building a high-speed rail system likely to put this country to shame.)

All of which means that even if our “children and grandchildren” are fortunate enough to get a job in Manhattan in 2020, they may not be able to get there. But what kind of vision did you expect from Christie, who came into office proposing $450 million in state aid cuts to public schools — that would be “children and grandchildren,” if I’m not mistaken — and turned around and vetoed a tax on very adult, successful millionaires that would have brought in $637 million.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bunch/palin-beck-the-tea-party_b_758899.html

Protecting our wealthiest from the horror of more taxes, while allowing our infrastructure to crumble and the middle class to shrink further.

It’s even more pathetic in the context of Obama’s approval numbers improving recently .
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_10052010.html?sid=ST2010100500023
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I’m convinced that Mark Halperin doesn’t follow the news.

Good link, thanks.

In his opening remarks, McCain also thanked Fox News for its strong support of Republican causes, endorsing Fox as “the best place to get your news.”

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Has a Democratic politician ever given a public endorsement to a news network? At what point will the rest of the media admit that Fox News is anything but a blatantly unbiased support organization for the Republican Party.
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http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/12/mccain-tea-party-fox/

Meh. Meant to say “Fox News is anything but a blatantly biased support organization for the Republican Party.”
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I needs an edit feature…

Brutal and effective new ad in the Florida governor’s race:
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“Lots of stimulus programs can create jobs. But infrastructure investment creates the right jobs, for the right people, doing the right things — and at the right time.”
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So the first stimulus that wasted over $800 billion dollars was a failure and a waste of money. Or was it just a lie to re-distribute wealth to political allies? Were we not sold that there were a ton of shovel ready jobs? The only shovel that was ready was the one liberals were using to jam the first package down our throats under “you can’t let a crisis go to waste”. And the shovel load of crap about unemployment not going above 8% with that stimulus package. All of this leads to the questions if you were wrong then why are you right now or maybe more correctly “don’t just stand there spend money and may it look like you are doing something”
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“And then there are all the other arguments you’ve heard me make. Raw materials are cheap. Labor — due to the high unemployment rate — is cheap.”
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Raw material cheap? Aggregates were up 6% in 2009 while ready mix concrete was up 3%. Asphalt cost were down 2% mostly due to input costs (oil). Average domestic oil prices fell form $91.48 in 2008 to 53.48 in 2009 and now hover at $70.67. It is likely asphalt costs will rise as well. It is hardly a reasonable assumption that costs that are going up are cheap.And certainly not on a historical basis. The CA Crude Oil Price index that Caltrans uses to compensate contractors for road construction stood at 188.2 in Jan 2009 and stands at 424.1 in Oct. Somehow that doesn’t jive with cheap.
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Labor cheap? That’s funny. With the restoration of the Davis-Bacon Act which uses the highest prevailing rate (union wages) costs for the construction of everything has gone up. Projects regardless of bids have costs forced up do to this. So labor is not cheap, there are no market forces which would naturally push labor costs down at work–only regulation.
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Highway construction costs have risen overall for the following reasons:

Localized material shortages for specific construction products (There goes that cheap material theory again)
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Regulatory restrictions, such as environmental permits for plants and quarries (Causing material shortages)
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What is cheap is the rhetoric by arrogant know-it-alls like Erza Klein as he continues to fill us with the wealth of his worldly wisdom he gained in his 26 years on this planet. In reality he has done nothing but work as a political hack and journolist!
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Think Progress? Seriously? No vested interest with these folks.
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This paragraph from your link tells the story:

“Both the Times and the Post articles fail to appreciate the scope of the Chamber’s foreign sources of funding, focusing instead too narrowly on independently-run, foreign-based “AmChams.” The Times casually disregards our report as part of a “Washington spin cycle” (which apparently also involves the New York Times editorial board).”
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Mass conspiracy against Thin Progress—-by the liberal press. But I would be curious to see if they run the same “analysis” on SEIU and unions who are set up the same way. Yeah right! Obama has now shut his mouth because he knows if the Repubs control the House his campaign funding will get the spotlight it didn’t get in 2008.

Lets leave alone the argument of the First Amendment and look at other foreign influences. How different is using international laws form countries that have vested interests in this country. Is the left contradicting itself again when they say its ok to use foreign influence to control judicial decisions but its horrible that they may “endorse a point of view. Let’s keep in mind that legal decision are law and an elections puts one person in a seat with checks and balances fro 2 other branches.

Justice Ginsburg comes out strongly in favor of the Court’s use of foreign and international law materials to interpret U.S. law, including the Constitution.

Ginsberg
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The International Judge, Judge Sotomayor says it is worthwhile to “learn from foreign law and the international community when interpreting our Constitution…” She also says it is important to “learn from international courts and from their male and female judges about the process of judging and the factors outside of the law that influence our decisions

MoronMom: Just add up the pension liabilities, SS and Medicare for the next 20 years and see at 100% of their tax rate the shortage that will exist.

The left is under the delusion that high income earners will just willingly continue to pay for the entitlement mentality.

“Protecting our wealthiest from the horror of more taxes, while allowing our infrastructure to crumble and the middle class to shrink further”
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More red herrings from the left to spend money. Here is a report from the AP on the first stimulus”

Ten months into President Barack Obama’s first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.
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Construction spending would be a key part of the Jobs for Main Street Act, a $75 billion second stimulus to revive the nation’s lethargic unemployment rate and improve the dismal job market for construction workers. The House approved the bill 217-212 last month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., worked the floor for an hour; the Senate is expected to consider it later in January.

AP’s analysis, which was reviewed by independent economists at five universities, showed that strategy hasn’t affected unemployment rates so far. And there’s concern it won’t work the second time.
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Then state and local government re-direct spending .
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“The GAO, for example, found that states offset roughly half of the increases in federal highway grants between 1982 and 2002 by reducing their own spending, and that the rate of substitution increased during the 1980s. ”
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ANd reduced infrastructure is not a new issue and the rich are not the culprit.
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“Clinton’s five-year budget projection reveals a sobering outlook for the nation’s cities and towns in terms of infrastructure investment: there will be a net cut. With discretionary spending capped in the federal budget, but entitlement programs providing direct assistance to individuals growing, more and more federal assistance bypasses state and local governments and goes directly to citizens for non-physical investment purposes. ”
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Despite all of the whining and gnashing of teeth over infrastructure spending what is clear is it won’t be a cure all for any economic woes. And the real budget issue is that its not the rich paying enough taxes, its the general trend of entitlement spending and pet projects. When the Feds which has been collecting gasoline taxes forever under the guise of infrastructure spending and allocate it to the states, they in turn cut back the state spending on infrastructure (not to balance the budget) but to spend elsewhere. The states have also been collecting tolls and gasoline taxes for ever under the same guise of rebuilding infrastructure. Instead of fixing highways and bridges we get bike paths and road signs telling us its the stimulus spending.
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“Has a Democratic politician ever given a public endorsement to a news network?”
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No because the endorsements would be longer than the speech

Or hand granades. But this is bookgate and the’ liberal’ media must cover it.

freeinpa,
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While you sit on your melting ice cube pretending that it ain’t so you can of course keep repeating the same nonsense that has been debunked over and over. Ignoring it doesn’t make it less true.

The only thing de-bunked is the “:everybody agrees”.

The Academy affirming work without the original data flies in the face of every research protocol. That doesn’t even include the actual errors that have been made. Now the sun cycle seems to have produced some results contrary to the :”decided science”.

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This like everything else points out that just because liberals keep repeating it don’t make it so

As I said – you can keep on repeating stuff that has been debunked but it doesn’t make it so. You can even turn around what I say and repeat it back.
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You can’t show us the facts, only repeat what we and others have already proven to be utterly fact free and false.
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You might have a leg to stand on when you actually prove something but since you can’t, nor seem interest in I can only conclude that you’re not interested in truth, facts or anything. Only in your side, facts, truth and everything else be damned.
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BTW – this is not left vs right – us vs them. it’s about right and wrong, false or true. The difference? You figure it out.
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Myth of Canadians Large Use of US Medical Care
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http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/phantoms-in-the-snow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheIncidentalEconomist+%28The+Incidental+Economist+%28Posts%29%29
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This is for earljr who insists that Canadians are rushing to America for medical treatment. He claims his own hospital treated 100s last year.
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The link takes you to an article called “Phantoms in the Snow”. There is a pie chart that illustrates the miniscule use of American medical treatment by Canadians.
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1. They surveyed border facilities in MI, NY, WA.
80% saw fewer than 1 Canadian per month.
40% saw none in prior year.
80% of the reasons for services was emergencies.
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2. Survey America’s best hospitals. Only 1 saw more than 60 in one year. The treatment was both elective and emergency.
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3. 18,000 participated in the National Population Health Survey. Of those 18,000 only 90 received health care in the US, 20 of them electively.
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The author is not denying that some Canadians come to America for specific elective care, but the idea they come in large numbers is a myth.

“So the first stimulus that wasted over $800 billion dollars was a failure and a waste of money.”

Was it the entire $800 billion a failure and a waste of money? Or just the 40% or so that consisted of tax cuts?

Agreed, but it was in MMR on Monday….

Kevin, Wilentz piece is right on. Having lived through the apex of Birch Society influence, I never thought it would return.
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My father-in-law was the campaign manager for US Rep Catherine May from Yakima. Although they weren’t Birchers, like today’s Reps, they encouraged Bircher involvement in May’s campaign. I met many of them at dinners, etc.
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Being liberal in Yakima is like being an atheist at a evangelical revival. One evening they were sitting around the dinner table clucking about racial intermarriage. I clutched my husband’s knee under the table and stated if I wasn’t already married, I would set my sites on Harry Belafonte. Gasp ensued. Table cleared.
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The Birchers were everywhere. When I went into teacher training I had to take a loyalty oath. The Birchers wanted to audio tape classroom instruction to see that it was properly patriotic. They sponsored billboards all over Eastern Washington demanding the removal of Earl Warren as Supreme Court Chief Justice.
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I am currently reading Dana Milbank’s (I know, but his book is very interesting) book on Beck. Birchers certainly are an influence. They are dangerous demigougues and so is he.

It is unfortunate that the dems will be blamed. As a SS recipient, when I see the horrendous poverty in this country, I am not going to complain about not receiving a COLA.

I read on some site today that the Republican denial of climate change, when so many countries and scientists accept the fact, is like having an international meeting on whether the earth is round or flat, and all agree it is round except for the Rep led contingent from America that insists it is flat.

Watching Fiorina’s ad, the music led me to believe the “demon sheep” were back. I was right, one appeared at the end and her name by coincidence was Fiorina.

Oh grape-crush, your suggestion is perfect.

If I ever went to an event with Dick Morris, I would bring along an exorcist.

Maybe some garlic, a vial of holy water, and a crucifix. And, for extra protection some scented room spray and sanitizer.

I honestly don’t understand why Time has hired and continues to employ an obvious partisan hack like Mark Halperin. Worse, an immature, incompetent partisan hack who publishes a photoshopped picture of a female congressperson — Democratic, of course — with semen in her hair under the Time banner. I cannot think of another major news magazine employing such a creature on the left or the right in the 30 or so years I’ve been reading them.
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It’s like CNN hiring an obvious partisan d-bag blogger like Erick Erickson as a news analy — oh. Never mind.
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What is that I keep hearing about “liberal media” again?

And a warning to all women: If Dick Morris is in the room, for God’s sake keep your shoes on!

Oh, yes. Protect your toes!

If Morris suggests playing “This Little Piggy”, get out the pepper spray.

grape,

Obama wanted to send SS recipients a check (I think $250) to make up for the lack of a COL increase, and put a little money in spenders’ hands.
It didn’t go anywhere in Congress.
BTW, does anybody remember Bush II’s sending out checks to millions of us Americans to “stimulate” the economy?
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apr,

I agree. I can do without it. Similar situation 8-10 years ago here in California: there was a surplus in some state program or other, so the Governor gave in to the “no tax” critics, and authorised a give-back to CA taxpayers of some piddling amount, like $20 apiece, via a check mailed to us all. The state treasurer said that would be silly, that sending a paper check would be a waste of money; better to either program the “rebate” as a deduction on state tax returns, or just divert the $millions to the general fund to partially offset the expected budget deficit.
I agreed with the treasurer, but my opinion didn’t count. The governor mailed the checks anyway; I cashed my little check and put it in the bank. When the next year’s budget came in with a $multi-billion deficit, the legislature cut social service programs and borrowed a bunch of money to “balance” it.
As far as I was concerned the “rebate” money and the processing it took to mail it to us could have saved the state’s taxpayers a lot of money that went to Wall Street firms in the form of interest on the money they lent the state.

apr,

Fiorina is running a black & white commercial now, with a somber-toned voiceover, that sort of predicts that the reelection of Boxer will result in the continued & final destruction of American society – and California voters can only stop this Armadeddon by voting for Carly.

And I stand by that statement, april. I did a mitral valve replacement this morning on woman from Regina, Saskatchewan. She came to us because it was going to take another six months through the Canadian health care system and her discomfort level precluded her waiting that long. You and your progressive friends are SO anxious to dismantle our health delivery system and you have NO idea what you are in store for. Long wait times, being assigned a doctor AND hospital and a significant decline in the overall quality of your care. This is what you want? Well the majority of Americans vehemently disagree with you and you can credit Obamacare as one of the major reasons your political persuasion is so much OUT of favor right now.

24.1 – earl,
Maybe you can explain, then, why so many Americans are going overseas for affordable health care?

“With this surgical sojourn, his first trip outside the U.S., Miller joined the swelling ranks of medical tourists. As word has spread about the high-quality care and cut-rate surgery available in such countries as India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, a growing stream of uninsured and underinsured Americans are boarding planes not for the typical face-lift or tummy tuck but for discount hip replacements and sophisticated heart surgeries. Bumrungrad alone, according to CEO Curtis Schroeder, saw its stream of American patients climb to 55,000 last year, a 30% rise. Three-quarters of them flew in from the U.S.; 83% came for noncosmetic treatments. Meanwhile, India’s trade in international patients is increasing at the same rate.”
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1196429,00.html