Indeed they do.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Big Fat Friday Free For All
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Renovation Progress
We are getting there....slowly but surely. And it is turning out more beautiful than I had imagined.
Efficient White House Scheduling
The President kills two birds with one stone today, as he hosts the Women's NBA champs and participates in an "LGBT" Pride event
Shared Sacrifice = Soak the Rich, Increase Taxes on Business
This is going to be an interesting summer. Clearly, we are headed toward some kind of epic budget impasse, driven by the need to raise the debt ceiling (something acknowledged by most in both parties) and the Republican desire to use that need as a lever to gain spending cuts.
Into the fray step Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn with a plan to cut $600B in Medicare spending in the next decade, in no small part by raising the Medicare age to 67 from its current 65.
Democratic reaction was predictable. Here is Madame (Former) Speaker Pelosi: “It is unfair to ask seniors to get less in benefits and wait longer to get onto Medicare — all while Republicans back tax breaks for big oil and corporations that ship American jobs overseas,” Pelosi said. Yawn.
We have come to a lamentable place in the evolution of this country when a political party cannot bring itself to cut benefits for people who aren't even receiving them yet, or to delay benefits for people who do not qualify for them.
Every time I hear Pelosi talk about "tax breaks for big oil", I want to see statistics on the profit margins for companies operating in and near her district--you know, San Fran, Silicon Valley.....where margins DWARF those earned by the oil companies.
Into the fray step Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn with a plan to cut $600B in Medicare spending in the next decade, in no small part by raising the Medicare age to 67 from its current 65.
Democratic reaction was predictable. Here is Madame (Former) Speaker Pelosi: “It is unfair to ask seniors to get less in benefits and wait longer to get onto Medicare — all while Republicans back tax breaks for big oil and corporations that ship American jobs overseas,” Pelosi said. Yawn.
We have come to a lamentable place in the evolution of this country when a political party cannot bring itself to cut benefits for people who aren't even receiving them yet, or to delay benefits for people who do not qualify for them.
Every time I hear Pelosi talk about "tax breaks for big oil", I want to see statistics on the profit margins for companies operating in and near her district--you know, San Fran, Silicon Valley.....where margins DWARF those earned by the oil companies.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Gay Marriage in New York
In the first act of the Democratic primary season for 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a gay-marriage equality bill actually passed by both chambers of the state legislature (not imposed by the courts). Bully for New York for moving this through the political sphere rather than the judicial. Clearly, this is not a dead issue nationally, though.
Meanwhile, our Evolver-in-Chief continues to meander on the issue.
My thoughts? I've provided them many times here on the CW. Government has no place in marriage, gay or straight. Marriage should be a socio-religious issue with no legal emoluments flowing from one's marital status.
Meanwhile, our Evolver-in-Chief continues to meander on the issue.
My thoughts? I've provided them many times here on the CW. Government has no place in marriage, gay or straight. Marriage should be a socio-religious issue with no legal emoluments flowing from one's marital status.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Some Thoughts on The War Powers Act
I've got a post up at Information Dissemination in which I lay out some thoughts on the War Powers Act. The back and forth in the commentary is worth reading.
The Budget Talks Break Down
Word is that the Republicans have flown the coop on Joe Biden's debt confab, and that they are now "demanding" to meet with the President on the subject. While highlighting the President's distance from the process is helpful, the Republicans are playing this wrong. Don't "demand" anything. Wait them out. Make the President "demand" a meeting with you. Remember--he's got more to lose than you do.
Everything seems to revolve around Republicans' stand on taxes--that is, no tax increase will make it through the House, so don't even consider one. Here are two tax increases I'm willing to support:
1. The "Super-rich" tax. This would be 3% surcharge on all income--or capital gains--realized over the amount of $10M in any one year. Several facets of this tax appeal to me. The first is that it treats capital gains like income, which i believe it ought to be in the regular tax code. Secondly, my Spidey senses tell me that it will disproportionately impact liberals and Democrats, or at least those who are so rich that they have the luxury and time to "care" about issues like social justice, poverty, the environment, and public eduction without ever giving a crap about the consequences of their largess.
2. The creation of a "1% bracket". What does that mean? It means that the very first thing one would do on a tax return is figure out what 1% of one's taxable income is. That figure would then be THE FLOOR. Everyone earning a wage would AT LEAST pay 1% of their income to the continuing operations of a government from which they draw continuing succor and from which they continue to demand an increasing flow of benefits.
VP Biden had this bit of fatuity for our listening pleasure:
“The only way to make sure we begin to live within our means is by coming together behind a balanced approach that finds real savings across the budget — including domestic spending, defense spending, mandatory spending, and loopholes in the tax code,” Biden said in a statement. “We all need to make sacrifices, and that includes the most fortunate among us.”
All of us, Mr. Vice President? All of us? Then stop weeding out "the middle class" from consideration. Stop fencing off the elderly. If there truly is to be shared sacrifice then LET IT BE SHARED. This notion that we can get what we need by simply soaking the rich is loony.
Everything seems to revolve around Republicans' stand on taxes--that is, no tax increase will make it through the House, so don't even consider one. Here are two tax increases I'm willing to support:
1. The "Super-rich" tax. This would be 3% surcharge on all income--or capital gains--realized over the amount of $10M in any one year. Several facets of this tax appeal to me. The first is that it treats capital gains like income, which i believe it ought to be in the regular tax code. Secondly, my Spidey senses tell me that it will disproportionately impact liberals and Democrats, or at least those who are so rich that they have the luxury and time to "care" about issues like social justice, poverty, the environment, and public eduction without ever giving a crap about the consequences of their largess.
2. The creation of a "1% bracket". What does that mean? It means that the very first thing one would do on a tax return is figure out what 1% of one's taxable income is. That figure would then be THE FLOOR. Everyone earning a wage would AT LEAST pay 1% of their income to the continuing operations of a government from which they draw continuing succor and from which they continue to demand an increasing flow of benefits.
VP Biden had this bit of fatuity for our listening pleasure:
“The only way to make sure we begin to live within our means is by coming together behind a balanced approach that finds real savings across the budget — including domestic spending, defense spending, mandatory spending, and loopholes in the tax code,” Biden said in a statement. “We all need to make sacrifices, and that includes the most fortunate among us.”
All of us, Mr. Vice President? All of us? Then stop weeding out "the middle class" from consideration. Stop fencing off the elderly. If there truly is to be shared sacrifice then LET IT BE SHARED. This notion that we can get what we need by simply soaking the rich is loony.
Big Fat Friday Free For All
Well folks, not quite as fat as usual a BFFFFA...weighed in at 181.8 today, down just over 13 pounds.
So what's on your minds, folks? Afghanistan pull out too slow for you? Collapse of Joe Biden's debt talks got you down? Share people, share!
So what's on your minds, folks? Afghanistan pull out too slow for you? Collapse of Joe Biden's debt talks got you down? Share people, share!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Terror Attack Broken Up in Seattle--Any Guesses as to the Religion of the Perps?
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| Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, formerly known as Joe Davis |
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The President and Afghanistan
Tonight, the President will go on television to put the final touches on Bob Woodward's next book inform the American public about the direction of his Afghanistan policy. Rumor is that he will "stay true to his word" and begin the drawdown this summer, in a manner that suggests 10,000 troops will return home by year's end (out of over 30,000 "surged" by the President last year).
I am glad that the President will stay true to his word, but I would prefer that he not hunt and peck around the margins. It is time to wrap things up on the Afghanistan COIN front, to recognize that Karzai is not a stable partner, and that our interests there are primarily in killing terrorists and not in creating a stable democracy.
Faster, please.
I am glad that the President will stay true to his word, but I would prefer that he not hunt and peck around the margins. It is time to wrap things up on the Afghanistan COIN front, to recognize that Karzai is not a stable partner, and that our interests there are primarily in killing terrorists and not in creating a stable democracy.
Faster, please.
Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) Makes Republicans Case on Raising Debt Limit
Senator Kent Conrad is--not without reason--known on the Hill as a man who knows his way around budgets. He is an adult on budget issues, and he takes our nation's debt seriously--very seriously. Some on our side of the aisle would be repelled by some remedies Conrad pushes--but in the main, he strikes a fairly good balance between budget cutting and tax increasing.
He's coming out swinging now (not running for re-election, natch), pushing the Vice President and his debt control confab to cut deeper--not $2T but at least $4T. In the course of his activities, he has fairly well articulated support for the strategy most Republicans advocate vis-a-vis the debt ceiling. The President and his people would prefer a clean raise to the debt ceiling--claiming that making a rise contingent upon spending cuts (as desired by Republicans) hazards financial markets and "plays politics" with the fiscal reputation of the United States. Republicans disagree, recognizing that absent the debt ceiling cudgel, there would be little incentive on the Dems side to actually DO anything about debt. Into the discussion steps Kent Conrad in this morning's WaPost: "But Conrad argued that all incentive will be lost once the debt ceiling is raised.
“If they reach an agreement and that passes and the debt limit then does not have to be dealt with until after next year’s election, there will be very little appetite here to come back and do what really has to be done to get our financial house in order,” he said."
Now that we all agree on that--let's start to cut some spending, shall we?
He's coming out swinging now (not running for re-election, natch), pushing the Vice President and his debt control confab to cut deeper--not $2T but at least $4T. In the course of his activities, he has fairly well articulated support for the strategy most Republicans advocate vis-a-vis the debt ceiling. The President and his people would prefer a clean raise to the debt ceiling--claiming that making a rise contingent upon spending cuts (as desired by Republicans) hazards financial markets and "plays politics" with the fiscal reputation of the United States. Republicans disagree, recognizing that absent the debt ceiling cudgel, there would be little incentive on the Dems side to actually DO anything about debt. Into the discussion steps Kent Conrad in this morning's WaPost: "But Conrad argued that all incentive will be lost once the debt ceiling is raised.
“If they reach an agreement and that passes and the debt limit then does not have to be dealt with until after next year’s election, there will be very little appetite here to come back and do what really has to be done to get our financial house in order,” he said."
Now that we all agree on that--let's start to cut some spending, shall we?
Monday, June 20, 2011
Why is there a Miss USA Contest?
I enjoy the site of a beautiful woman as much as the next guy--ok, maybe a little more than the next guy--but news this morning of the crowning of a new "Miss USA" awakens in me a long-festering bit of wonder. Why, in this day of female empowerment, do we still have "beauty pageants"? Are they not simply the human equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show? Some may think that they exist as a vestigial hangover from times of more open male oppression--but c'mon folks--men don't even watch these shows (outside of a sideways glance at the swimsuit "competition").
I guess the answer to my question is easy--freedom. We have the freedom in this country to do largely as we please, and if enough people want to do what you want to do, well then you can get it on television. I suppose the real question I should have asked is why does anyone care about beauty contests?
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| Miss California won the swimsuit competition and the crown |
A New Blog To Sample
A friend of Brother Tom has started a blog--The View from Erik Travels' World--and it is off to a great start. Erik is an MD who has traveled the world administering medicine through NGO's to the world's needy and war-torn. If there's a s***hole he hasn't been to, I don't know what it is.
I've never met the guy, but we've exchanged a number of incredibly interesting Facebook chats.
Erik's writing is raw and gritty, but it comes from the point of view of a guy who has earned the right to have a bit of a jaundiced view. He's a Buddhist who recognizes the value of both guns and money. I see in him a "save the world" liberal who now and again realizes that some of the world isn't worth saving, and some of the world doesn't want our saving.
This won't be every reader of the CW's cup of tea, but some of you will see great things in this blog's beginning. I do.
I've never met the guy, but we've exchanged a number of incredibly interesting Facebook chats.
Erik's writing is raw and gritty, but it comes from the point of view of a guy who has earned the right to have a bit of a jaundiced view. He's a Buddhist who recognizes the value of both guns and money. I see in him a "save the world" liberal who now and again realizes that some of the world isn't worth saving, and some of the world doesn't want our saving.
This won't be every reader of the CW's cup of tea, but some of you will see great things in this blog's beginning. I do.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Target Workers Vote NO to Job Destruction and Extortion
Pleasant piece of news out of a Long Island, NY Target store Friday.
United Food and Commercial Workers union President, Bruce Both, saw Target employees'137-85 rejection of his union as proof that these sweat shop workers (you've seen the horrible conditions in a Target store haven't you?) needed him to continue their fight:
Uhm, Mr. Both, it's pronounced "the Soviet dream" and if the workers knew they could be protected from you and your pipe-wielding thugs, you wouldn't have even gotten the measly 38% yes vote that you did get.
Look, you and your extortionist dues collectors don't get it, but it appears most of the free Americans who are, in fact, living the American dream fortunately DO get it: unions = destruction of profitable employers and less personal freedom. Turns out most Americans still cherish the ability to make our own decisions and reject the notion that government and/or union "officials," who take our earnings through threat of violence, can make those decisions better than we can--especially when it comes to matters such as our own health care and our own jobs.
So here's some advice for every last one of you unionistas--go to Venezuela--they LOVE your thinking down there. Brother Hugo is raising the minimum wage again--to contend with 25% inflation. Pretty much a foregone conclusion that doing so will jack what is already the highest inflation in the developed world up another 5-10%. And the poor, who keep buying this pile of socialist BS, get poorer, just as everywhere this "experiment" gets reattempted.
United Food and Commercial Workers union President, Bruce Both, saw Target employees'137-85 rejection of his union as proof that these sweat shop workers (you've seen the horrible conditions in a Target store haven't you?) needed him to continue their fight:
"Target did everything they could to deny these workers a chance at the American dream," he said. "However, the workers’ pursuit of a better life and the ability to house and feed their families is proving more powerful. These workers are not backing down from this fight. They are demanding another election. They are demanding a fair election. They are demanding justice and they are prepared to fight for it."
Uhm, Mr. Both, it's pronounced "the Soviet dream" and if the workers knew they could be protected from you and your pipe-wielding thugs, you wouldn't have even gotten the measly 38% yes vote that you did get.
Look, you and your extortionist dues collectors don't get it, but it appears most of the free Americans who are, in fact, living the American dream fortunately DO get it: unions = destruction of profitable employers and less personal freedom. Turns out most Americans still cherish the ability to make our own decisions and reject the notion that government and/or union "officials," who take our earnings through threat of violence, can make those decisions better than we can--especially when it comes to matters such as our own health care and our own jobs.
So here's some advice for every last one of you unionistas--go to Venezuela--they LOVE your thinking down there. Brother Hugo is raising the minimum wage again--to contend with 25% inflation. Pretty much a foregone conclusion that doing so will jack what is already the highest inflation in the developed world up another 5-10%. And the poor, who keep buying this pile of socialist BS, get poorer, just as everywhere this "experiment" gets reattempted.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Big Fat Friday Free For All
Posted from the road, with all the Kittens. What are you thinking about today? Any bitching to get off your chest? Let your whine flag fly!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Out of Town--Blog Slowdown
I'll be working from early morn tomorrow, then off for a few days. Blogging will be light or nonexistent from me until Sunday night. Be well, all.
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