Michigan puts on a nice show in the fall.
Sunday Morning Fall Colors
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Monthly Archives: October 2010
Proving Einstein Correct: Liberal Democrats Want More Stimulus Spending Expecting A Different Result
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
Via the NYT:
But his living standards slowly crumbled along with Japan’s overall economy. First, he was forced to reduce trips abroad and then eliminate them. Then he traded the Mercedes for a cheaper domestic model. Last year, he sold his condo — for a third of what he paid for it, and for less than what he still owed on the mortgage he took out 17 years ago.
“Japan used to be so flashy and upbeat, but now everyone must live in a dark and subdued way,” said Masato, 49, who asked that his full name not be used because he still cannot repay the $110,000 that he owes on the mortgage.
Few nations in recent history have seen such a striking reversal of economic fortune as Japan. The original Asian success story, Japan rode one of the great speculative stock and property bubbles of all time in the 1980s to become the first Asian country to challenge the long dominance of the West.
But the bubbles popped in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Japan fell into a slow but relentless decline that neither enormous budget deficits nor a flood of easy money has reversed. For nearly a generation now, the nation has been trapped in low growth and a corrosive downward spiral of prices, known as deflation, in the process shriveling from an economic Godzilla to little more than an afterthought in the global economy.
The continued stimulus spending by the Japanese government has crushed their economy. And of course, Liberal Democrats in our government are calling for even more spending:
“The federal government has provided a couple hundred billions dollars in additional stimulus beyond the Recovery Act stimulus we put in place a year and a half ago,” Zandi said. “In my view the recovery needs more help.”
“We have two trillion or so dollars of unaddressed infrastructure needs,” Tyson said. “You want to start with something really big? Start with developing a high-speed rail system . . . [or] modernizing our air control traffic system, for goodness sake. These are things we want to do anyway.”
Tyson, who is a key economic adviser to President Obama, said the issue of the national debt, which the Republicans are ratcheting up as a key economic problem, is not important at all at the moment. The immediate need, she said, is to create jobs.
Aside from the simple fact that jobs cannot be ‘created’ by taking money out of the productive part of the economy (or worse devalue our currency by ‘creating’ more of it) and giving it to another. Stimulus spending didn’t work during the Great Depression and it didn’t work in Japan.
Why are Liberal Democrats claiming it will work now?
Almost every nation rejected Obama’s plan for massive government spending, and they are in better shape for it. Furthermore, the global economy would be in even better shape if the largest economy in the world was growing again and not pursuing flawed Keynesian economic models.
Funny Global Warming T-Shirts
I ran across a site called ShamRX that has very funny global warming t-shirts. Here are two examples:
Saturday Morning Quick Hits: The Retro Computer Edition
I’m pretty much windows free running Ubuntu 10.10 and have been really happy with it. But, it is really interesting to look at an example of an early example of the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Of course Microsoft (or Apple) did not invent the GUI. Xerox did.
Nothing like trying to buy votes: Pelosi Proposes Seniors Subsidy to ‘Replace’ the 2011 Social Security COLA
Finding Stuff Online: 20 Years of Innovative Search Engines
Active Duty Military Troops Training to Run Local Communities
More rent-a-mobs for the left: Oprah Pays For Stewart/Colbert Audience to Attend Rally
Trying to “buck up” the Democrat base: Polls That Do Not Include Cellphone Users Tilt Toward Republicans, Study Says - Of course the study doesn’t discuss how the sampling 50% Democrat, 30% Republican and 20% Independent (Democrats who don’t want to identify themselves as D’s) tilts the polls as well.
DNC Accusing GOP of Standard Democrat Tactics
So, here we are. The Democrats are the one’s that have been caught in intimidation efforts, and have conveniently left off the hook by the DOJ. However, the accusations here are simply the start. You see; Tea Party folks are not likely to do that at all, so the left will have to MAKE it happen. Just as they engaged in false flag during the Tea Party rallies, they may also do it on Election Day. They’ll get a couple of Gadsden flag tee shirts, put them on some Move On or Organizing for America useful idiots, and have them harass voters at the polls. And look, a Think Progress useful idiot with a camera! What a coincidence! I know, it hypothetical, but it does match prior practice from the left.
The Private Sector Expects Results
Keith Richards: How I Wish
Main Offender is one of my all time favorite CD’s (CD’s…I’m so old school).
Michigan Politics Round Up
The Detroit Free Press (Detroit more liberal paper) is endorsing all the Democrat retreads including John Dingle who has been feeding at the tax payer trough since 1955. According to the Freep:
Democrat John Dingell, dean of the U.S. House and third-longest serving member in the history of Congress, is running hard at 84 for his 29th term. Certainly he has slowed some, but Dingell remains the auto industry’s most formidable defender in Washington and proudly realized a decades-long dream with enactment of the Obama health care legislation, of which he was the prime sponsor.
The successful effort of House Democratic leaders to oust Dingell from an important committee chairmanship indicates he remains very much his own person in Congress, committed to a Michigan-focused agenda that includes clean-energy jobs and closing tax loopholes that make it appealing for U.S. manufacturers to send work overseas.
Attempting to end Dingell’s career is Republican nominee Rob Steele, 52, a cardiologist from Ann Arbor and founder of a medical practice that now has 36 physicians and 300 employees. Steele has embraced the Tea Party movement and its call for lower taxes and limited government.
Michigan still needs the clout that JOHN DINGELL can bring to an issue in Washington.
Imagine where Michigan would be without the ‘clout’ of John Dingle.
I think most people can do without John Dingle and Democrats working to control us.
In the Secretary of State Race, Republican Ruth Johnson is leading Democrat Jocelyn Benson by 6 points.
Johnson should be leading by more. Who wants a George Soros backed former community organizer running our states elections?
Lastly, the angry Liberal columnist Susan J. Demas is worried about 2012 because, if Republicans retain the Michigan Senate, capture the State House and the Governorship (with the squishy- yet at the same time supposedly tough nerd as our Governor) Republicans will be in good shape redistricting our States reduced number of Congressional districts:
Another big reason Republicans are pulling out all the stops this year is that the always-fun redistricting process starts in 2011. That’s when congressional and state legislative districts have to be divvied up based on population numbers from the 2010 census.
Contrary to popular belief, Michigan is still growing, just at a negligible rate, especially compared to states in the South and Southwest. So we are certain to lose one of our 15 congressional seats, whereas states like Georgia and Texas will gain some of the 435 slots. But National Conference of State Legislatures analysts don’t believe Michigan is in danger of losing two.
The political battle lies in how the districts are drawn. Naturally, Republicans and Democrats alike want to shape seats that are as favorable to their parties as possible. The redistricting process goes through the Legislature, so if one party controls both chambers all the better. The governor technically isn’t a big factor, but having GOP control over both legislative and executive branches can’t hurt.
“It is the great passion play of American politics,” Ginsberg grinned. “There’s emotion,the raw power is high. We get really jazzed up about the magic andvoodoo we can do. And we’re glad to perpetrate the myth.”
Right now, Republicans look assured to keep the Senate and the House is a tossup. The Democrats’ last hope is to maintain their 4-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which usually has to intervene and rule on the redistricting plan.
Did I mention Ms. Demas has a raging case of Palin Derangement Syndrome?
Republicans could crown Sarah Palin their presidential nominee, even though just 44 percent think she’s qualified (and an embarrassing 22 percent overall).
At this point, I believe that Ms. Demas is incapable of write a single column without taking a swipe at Sarah Palin.
Global Warming: Its Not Easy Keeping The Facts Straight When You Make Them Up As You Go Along
The NYT Green Blog is in a tizzy over the fact 52% of Americans receiving an ‘F’ in Yale Universities global warming (or is it climate change- they are always changing the problem) survey.
Researchers said that the results “reflect the unorganized and sometimes contradictory fragments of information Americans have absorbed from the mass media and other sources.”
It is really hard keeping the facts straight when you make them up as you go along.
I’m not alone in saying the Global Warming movement is a scam. Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara Harold Lewis recently said ‘Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life.’
After being a member of the American Physical Society for 67 years, Dr. Lewis takes the APS to task over their participation in the global warming hoax in his scathing resignation letter.
Excerpts of Dr. Lewis resignation letter:
How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.
It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.
Dr. Lewis is just getting warmed up:
2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.
3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.
Dr. Lewis goes on to detail several events where he tried to bring science into the discussion but was shut out and he concludes with the fact that global warming is about money:
Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.
Be sure to read the letter in its entirety.
The EPA & Lisa P. Jackson’s Magical Mystery Tour
The EPA and Obama Administration are not shying away from their Environmental Justice agenda.
Via the EPA:
SAN FRANCISCO — On Saturday, October 16th, President Obama’s pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, along with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, will host a press conference and town hall meeting in Oakland following a day-long environmental justice tour. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus representing Los Angeles, Compton, Long Beach, Carson, Oakland, and many of California’s ethnically diverse congressional districts will participate in a historic Environmental Justice Tour in Oakland.
The tour will include a stop at a site recognized by EPA as one of the most toxic in the nation; a town hall meeting with environmental advocates and leaders; and a stop at an urban food cooperative fighting to combat inner-city food deserts. The tour will provide a unique opportunity to discuss key issues, view developing success stories and get a first hand look at ongoing challenges on the path to environmental justice for Californian communities.
Oakland is the 4th stop on the joint EPA-CBC Environmental Justice Tour, with leaders visiting several areas throughout the country to highlight environmental justice challenges faced by Americans in all communities.
While the United States is hemorrhaging jobs, racking up massive amounts of debt and all Obama and his crew are worrying about are Food deserts (created by liberal policies) and Environmental Justice (leveraging environmental laws and regulations to achieve economic redistribution).
*View the balance of the EPA’s announcement and agenda (PDF) here.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: The Recovery Graphs
Saw this at Heritage.org:
Via Heritage:
At this stage of the Reagan recovery from the last deep recession in the early 1980s, the economy had created almost 4 million jobs, or 6 million jobs when adjusting for the size of the labor force. In contrast, under Obama the economy has lost nearly a half million jobs since the recovery began; the growth rate remains stuck around 1 percent; and the economy is sufficiently weak that the Federal Reserve is about to embark on yet another round of quantitative easing to fend off deflation.
Getting To Know Your Michigan Candidates: Denise Langford Morris (D) for Michigan Supreme Court
Social Justice:
Here, it is typically associated with left wing or socialist analyses, policies and prescriptions. For example, poverty is caused by unbridled capitalism; the solution is to heavily regulate markets, or ban them outright. Racism and sexism account for the relative plight of racial minorities and women; laws should be passed prohibiting their exercise. Greater reliance on government is required as the solution of all sorts of social problems. The planet is in great danger from environmental despoliation, due to an unjustified reliance on private property rights. Taxes are too low; they should be raised. Charity is an insult to the poor, who must obtain more revenues by right, not condescension. Diversity is the sine qua non of the fair society. Discrimination is one of the greatest evils to have ever beset mankind. Use of terminology such as “mankind” is sexist, and constitutes hate speech.
If you want to understand Democrat candidate for the Michigan Supreme Court, Ms. Denise Langford Morris, you need to understand Social Justice and the Justice Caucus:
The Justice Caucus Mission is to promote the cause of progressive democracy within the Democratic Party, in government and in the legal profession. Progressive democracy recognizes that all human endeavor, including the exercise of legal power, though continually changing, must guarantee social and economic justice, civil rights, integrity and fairness. The Justice Caucus seeks to promote these values by participating in the nomination and election of progressive people of integrity, fairness and competence for judicial and other public offices, and by encouraging the exercise of these values in our government and the legal profession.
And you need to know that she is NOT A FEDERALIST, and she has no FEDERALIST VALUES!
If Conservatives stay home November 2nd we will get Michigan Supreme Court Justices that have no Federalist values and are big on ‘social justice.’