“Personally, I’d like to see government so small that nobody would notice if it went on holiday for a month. You can’t do that while the entire career structure of journalists and politicians depends on them expanding the scope of politics more and more.”
That sounds like change I could believe in.
Right wing hate mob at a Texas healthcare town hall. I went to a Tea Party in Gilbert on July 4th and it was about like the hate mob in the video.
I was watching some guy at one of the recent town halls ask President O how he was planning on paying for the healthcare plans. O talked about all the savings that could be found by cleaning up the way things are done and then the last third of the money came down to increasing the taxes of those deadbeat rich guys who make over $250,000 a year. He even volunteered his piece of the pie. It sounded so … reasonable … except when you try to think of any huge government undertaking that has ever run on budget, or even close. Let’s see, we have Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, the prescription drug benefit, the military budget, Afghanistan, Iraq, among a few off the top of my head. And then the other day O contrasted UPS and FedEx with the USPS.
"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems."
Holy cow!
You know, there are things that could be fixed with health care like portability. There is no reason that health insurance should be tied to a job, just make COBRA last indefinitely. In other words, if you have coverage in a group there is no reason that you should have to drop your insurance just because you change or lose a job. Insurance should be able to be bought across state lines. There need to be limits on lawsuits. Krauthammer has some good ideas as do others.
What has to end is the idea that healthcare is a right that the government should provide. I mean really, where will it end? gas for your car, food on your table, a table, a house, a college education, a high-paying job, a good looking wife …. I mean really, where will it end?
That was the headline in this AP story, followed by:
“The Labor Department's report Friday showed that the unemployment rate dropped a notch to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent the previous month. Together with slight increases in the average workweek and wages, the new figures suggested the economy is in a transition from recession to recovery.“
Unfortunately if you read down a bit there are these little nuggets:
“If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included the unemployment rate would have been 16.3 percent in July. All told, 14.5 million were out of work in July.
Job-seekers are finding it harder to get work because there are so few openings. A record 4.97 million people had been unemployed six months or longer in July. And the average length of unemployment grew to 25.1 weeks, also a record.”
So: “A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in June.”
We lose a quarter million jobs, which is going backwards isn’t it? And that is good because the ship is sinking slower? And a lot of people have just given up looking so they don’t count in the 9.4%? I’m not understanding what strong data is referred to in the headline.
What would the headline have been if George Bush were still President?
What we are seeing is it. The stock market continues to rise, good for those who still have money in it and a job or are able to survive on reduced hours, bad for those who don’t have a job and are cleaning out what money they have saved. But why does it happen? The economy is in a recession so sales are bad and companies lay off people. Because companies are cutting costs they are able to show a profit therefore their stock goes up.
The sad thing is that the economy could rebound quickly if the Democrats were more interested in growth policies than they are in expanding the government. If cap and trade, the healthcare reform, and energy policy (support for wind and solar but the exclusion of nuclear, coal, and oil) are shelved (in other words if Obama, Pelosi, and Reid fail) the economy will quickly turn around. If not, get ready for much worse unemployment and extended stagnation.
The bright spot is that Americans are beginning to understand the choice.
When I’m dragging myself out of bed during the school year I almost always ask myself, “Where would you rather be and what would you rather be doing?” So today I did that. I would rather be visiting the Grand Canyon and having lunch on the ski slopes in Flagstaff. The scenery was surreal. Judge for yourself.
I decided to approach the Mogollon Rim the back way by as much dirt road as possible so I took the Apache Trail through Fish Creek Canyon past Roosevelt Dam (and Lake) connected with Highway 188 then Highway 288 which has sections of blacktop and dirt through Young all the way to the top of the rim to Highway 260.
I took the Rim Road all the way from Highway 260 to Highway 87, approximately 50 more mile of dirt. Cell phone service was very spotty so after a quick call to Vicki it was off to Clint’s Wells for some fuel and as it turns out the only place to go to make a cell call.
About 10 miles of highway and 5 miles of Fr95 gets you to the Kinder Crossing turn off. Another mile of dirt and the trail starts. I decided to camp at the trail head since the road ended in a steep canyon.
On the trip back the KLR was loaded like something from the Grapes of Wrath (except for the mattress). Controlled burns caused thick smoke to move in at the whim of the wind sometimes making a road almost undrivable. As soon as I came off of the hill outside of Sunflower the heat from the desert hit me in the face like a frying pan full of grease. I arrived in Fountain Hills at 8:58 am; it was 108. What a contrast from the cool on the rim!
The vacuum in international leadership could be the best thing that ever happened. With the US stuck in the mud with Big O the rest of the world (those who have a survival instinct) can accomplish what we can’t, bring down North Korea and Iran. Both regimes live on a tightrope, oppressed people surrounded by relative freedom. All it would take is a nudge.
Caroline Glick writes:
“Unfortunately, whereas in the 1980s the leaders of the Free World were committed to winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union by securing the freedom of those who lived under Communism's jackboot, today, led by Obama, the Free World behaves as though the Berlin Wall fell of its own devices. The will of free men and women risking everything to oppose tyranny had nothing to do with it, we are told. If we care about peace, we should appease the likes of Ahmadinejad and Kim, not bring them down.
On Tuesday, an insect wrecked Ahmadinejad's victory speech. As he bragged that Iranian democracy is a role model for the world, a large moth zoomed around him, breaking his train of thought. Ahmadinejad was brought low before his people by a moth he couldn't swat.
If a bug could humiliate Ahmadinejad in what was supposed to be his moment of triumph, surely the willing nations of the world - or even just Israel - together with the brave Iranian people can bring him down. It would certainly be more cost effective than trying to negotiate a deal with a nuclear-armed mullocracy.
And certainly the South Koreans and the Japanese can feed the starving North Koreans and free them from the bondage of their monstrous regime. Doing so would be vastly less expensive than living under the shadow of Pyongyang's nuclear-armed psycho-regime.
Just because the US is currently on vacation from its role as leader of the Free World doesn't mean that other free people cannot do the right thing.”
These results reflect the “stimulus”, Government Motors, the House of Representatives passing “cap and trade”, and anticipation by business owners of what lies ahead. Wait till you see what happens when the Senate actually passes cap and trade and the destruction really begins. That and the healthcare debt “fix” should really make those lines jump!
One of the guys that Vicki went to high school with sent her an email the other day about a ride that Harley sponsors. She forwarded it to me because, as most people know, any excuse to ride is a good one. We met at the Shell station by highway 87 and Shea. There were a wide variety of bikes in our little group and, for me, a chance to make new friends. It was an interesting group to ride with; they had various law enforcement backgrounds. Most were retired.
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We had a chance to get out of the valley heat and enter what always feels like a new dimension, higher altitudes, same state. The rain started just as we pulled in to the Mormon Lake Lodge. After lunch the heavy rain cleared and we headed to Flagstaff to refuel and then took the steep curvy road down Oak Creek canyon.
Dale, Vicki’s classmate(in the orange above), said he would keep me in the loop for other rides. Sounds good, very good!
Here’s the full article.
But solar power has few downsides, except for one thing: the cost. The combination of soaring electric prices and state subsidies are giving solar a new jump.
In the wake of the last energy crisis of the 1970s solar energy looked like the next big thing. So big that Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House. But Dan Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California in Berkeley, says the panels weren’t up very long.
Ronald Reagan came in, the price of oil fell and he promptly ripped them off.
And then he eliminated a federal tax credit on solar. The fledgling solar industry went into deep hibernation.
But that could change.
The state incentives and federal incentives cut the cost of the installation in half. And it comes down to there’s less than a ten year payback on a piece of hardware that has at least a 30 year lifespan so it makes a lot of sense.
But even with incentives the costs are still high. An average installation costs about $43,000. Connecticut’s rebate cuts that in half. And eliminates the sales tax. Municipalities don’t charge property tax on the systems. And until the end of the year there’s a federal tax credit of up to $2000. But Lise Dondy says government incentives are critically important.
This technology is not cost competitive and without these incentives we’d go back to nothing because they are still too costly .
Connecticut’s three-year $36 million rebate program is paid for by ratepayers. Lise Dondy says rebate programs like this need reliable funding.
Some states they’ve launched a program with great fanfare, put out a lot of money and had to halt it because they ran out of money. So our program is smaller. We don’t have as much money by any means as a state like California or New Jersey, but so far we have been able to be consistent and to keep the growing installer community busy.
And there you have, ladies and gentlemen, the ‘70s all over again. We have an artificial energy “crisis” followed by a “fix” paid for by you and me, again. If it was too expensive in the ‘70s and it’s still too expensive 30 years later after a period of “deep hibernation” when they could have figured out how to make it cost effective, why didn’t they? What evidence is there that as long as “reliable funding” is available it will ever become self-sustaining?
Here is a modern rah rah article from The Atlantic propping up Silicon Valley pushing for what will turn out to be a replay of '70s.
There is something un-American about Obama. He seems to have no heritage and no history that I can recognize. Even the American blacks used the phrase that he was not “down for the struggle”. He is Marxist (socialist), autocratic, and European; but at the same time shows no respect for Europe. Anything cultural he sees as a “false choice” and therefore, of no importance. He is out of place in any culturally American setting and seems more aligned with Robert Mugabe than Martin Luther King, Jr. His father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., was born in a small Kenyan town, educated at Harvard, employed in Kenya’s post colonial government, was married to three women (two Americans and one Kenyan), yet died a desolate man.
I found an article at the American Thinker that seems to fill in some of the pieces. This author is a naturalized citizen (a true African-American) from Nigeria and a member of the Ibo tribe who thinks she sees enough to connect the dots. It makes some sense to me but I would like a second or third opinion.
According to the big O’s supporter, Warren Buffet, the economy is “in a shambles this year and probably well beyond”, foreclosures are at an all-time high, unemployment is getting there and our geniuses in Congress are poised to pass the largest tax increase in American history known as cap and trade. Buffett repeated his criticism of "cap and trade" as a method to control pollution, saying it would be a huge, regressive tax. Another problem “fixed”.
Once they fix the planet they will be freed up to fix healthcare to the tune of another trillion or so we don’t have. Aint it great!
As we watch whatever unfolds in Iran, remember that here in America last year we came within one vote on a Supreme Court decision from erasing our right to own weapons. Consider why “the people” of these other countries put up with what they did and in some cases still do; and ask yourself why those in power always want to disarm “the people”.
And where is our leadership? I do miss Bush 2 and Reagan. We have Obama standing ready to dialog with this Axis of Evil government in Tehran, moving antimissile ships to Hawaii in anticipation of a launch by North Korea, while simultaneously cancelling our antimissile programs and agreements with our allies in Eastern Europe. This is exactly why he shouldn’t be where he is.
Now he will have something he personally can apologize to the world for.
UPDATE: Ahmadinejad says U.S., Britain 'will not be placed in the circle of friendship' with Iran due to stance on election….
Can it get any worse? I can’t stop laughing. What? We won’t be invited to Mamood’s birthday party? That big nuke deal (North Korea 2) is down the drain!
UPDATE 2:
Those who defend President Obama's evenhandedness in the early days of the Iranian revolution should read this statement from the office of Mir Hossein Mousavi:
From the Office of Mr. Mir Hossein MousaviTo the President of the USA, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
In the name of the Iranian people, we want you to know that when you recently made the statement "Achmadinejad or Mousavi? Two of a kind," we consider this as a grave and deep insult, not just to Mr. Mousavi but especially against the judgment of the Iranian people, against our moral conviction and intelligence, especially those of the young generation that comprises a population of 31 million.
It is a specially grave insult for those who are now fighting for democracy and freedom, and an unwarranted gift and even praise for Mr. Khamenei, whose security forces are now killing peaceful Iranians in the streets of every major city in the country.
Your statement misled the people of the world. It was no doubt inspired by your hope for dialogue with this regime, but you cannot possibly believe in promises from a regime that lies to its own people and then kills them when they demand the promises be kept.
By such statements, your administration and you discourage the Iranian people, who believe and trust in the values of democracy and freedom. We are pleased to see that you have condemned the regime's murderous violence, and we look forward to stronger support for the rightful struggle of the Iranian people against the actions of a regime that is your enemy as well as ours
UPDATE 3: A note from Christopher Hitchens to President Obama
Want to take a noninterventionist position? All right, then, take a noninterventionist position. This would mean not referring to Khamenei in fawning tones as the supreme leader and not calling Iran itself by the tyrannical title of "the Islamic republic." But be aware that nothing will stop the theocrats from slandering you for interfering anyway. Also try to bear in mind that one day you will have to face the young Iranian democrats who risked their all in the battle and explain to them just what you were doing when they were being beaten and gassed. (Hint: Don't make your sole reference to Iranian dictatorship an allusion to a British-organized coup in 1953; the mullahs think that it proves their main point, and this generation has more immediate enemies to confront.)
There is then the larger question of the Iranian theocracy and its continual, arrogant intervention in our affairs: its export of violence and cruelty and lies to Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq and its unashamed defiance of the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the nontrivial matter of nuclear weapons. I am sure that I was as impressed as anybody by our president's decision to quote Martin Luther King—rather late in the week—on the arc of justice and the way in which it eventually bends. It was just that in a time of crisis and urgency he was citing the wrong King text (the right one is to be found in the "Letter From a Birmingham Jail". "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea."), and it was also as if he were speaking as the president of Iceland or Uruguay rather than as president of these United States. Coexistence with a nuclearized, fascistic theocracy in Iran is impossible even in the short run. The mullahs understand this with perfect clarity. Why can't we?
UPDATE 4: U.S. Takes Back July 4 Invitations to Iranians because no one RSVP’d (Maybe it was the Hebrew National hotdogs on the menu.)
I don’t know how to evaluate the results.
Obama’s Cairo Speech:
A. moved the Iranian people into Ahmadinejad’s corner after “robust debate”
B. made the election only a landslide instead of a blowout after “robust debate”
C. proved that in a “democracy” of this type the people don’t matter after “robust debate”
So I guess we’ll have to wait until the next election to see progress in the Middle East. If there is a Middle East.
Consider what Ronald Reagan said when Poland’s government was crushing their opposition.
There aren’t enough, but we’re working on it.
Howard’s new Honda.
Return from a Sunday morning ride.
The next generation.
