Nuclear Politics

The threat of nuclear war has never been greater than it is today. During the height of the cold war, we were much further away from the possibility, because we could count on the Soviets (Russians) to act rationally. Not so with the jokers pictured here. Both Iran and North Korea appear to be moving steadily towards a limited nuclear capability, that is, the ability to put a nuclear warhead on a medium range missile. There is little that America can do to stop this directly.

However, we need to prepare for the eventuality of their use by these madmen. Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying "Nothing more wonderfully concentrates a man's mind than the sure knowledge he is to be hanged in the morning." We need to use this fact to our advantage. It is little known nor appreciated that until Iran possesses nuclear weapons, the U.S. is forbidden by treaty from using nukes against them. This came up in the Iraq war, where some people thought we would respond with nukes if Saddam used chemical or biological weapons. We would not have, because Iraq was a signatory on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and we did not know if they possessed nuclear weapons. North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty, so they are a different case. The differing status of the two nations calls for different approaches to dealing with their ambitions.

First Iran. It is a blessing in disguise that Ahmedinejad won or stole the Iranian election. Iran is really run by the mullahs, and the policy to obtain nukes was not about to change, no matter who won, but now no one can argue about the basic nature of the regime, unless your a Daily Kook. Further, Ahmedinejad hasn't had quite enough time to fully wreck the Iranian economy with his socialist policies. Ultimately, only the people of Iran can through off the yoke of Islamic Socialism. Our approach to Iran needs to be non-provocative, so that we don't feed the propaganda machine of the regime. I know that they will manufacture propaganda, like the good fascists they are, but Iranians are surprisingly able to obtain other sources of news, from Persian language stations in LA for example. Our non-provacative stance will help. But we need to make clear to the people of Iran the true consequences of the path their leadership has put on them on. Right now, they are free from the threat of nuclear retaliation; when the mullahs launch a nuke missile, they face the possibilty of death due to very high temperatures. I think the trajectory of the current regime is inexorably downward, as the young and middle class especially loathe the lack of freedom in the Islamic paradise.

North Korea is a whole different problem. We can never expect the people to rise up, they are starving and can barely perform the basic functions of life. Further, they have no knowledge of the outside world. However, Kim Jong Il plays his little games at the sufferance of China. Right now, it amuses them to watch him threaten the hated Japanese. However, we need to make clear to the Chinese the inherent instability of the situation and our resolve to respond with nukes if the Norks use theirs. Such a retaliation would bring nuclear warheads and fallout uncomfortably close to the Chinese border. I don't think they are going to be too happy with that outcome once they think it through. The other way to influence Kim Jong Il is to remove his access to hard currency. Kim clearly enjoys the finer things that the West produces, so denying him hard currency hits him where he lives. For a while, the U.S. had an effective policy to limit North Korea's criminal enterprises of counterfeiting, cigarettes and currency, drug traficking and sales of missiles. Bringing back this policy and making it explicitly linked to Kim standing down from weaponizing plutonium is also required.

Will any of this work? I am not sure, but I believe a pre-emptive strike is off the table for now, so these are the options available.

Edward Whitacre Knows Nothing About Cars

"Big" Ed Whitacre said he's ready to learn about cars and the auto industry today. Before the advent of Bailout Nation, this might have been a problem. Why is that, you might ask? Because, Ed is the new Chair of Government or is it General Motors. From the news:

“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.”

Hey Dude, stop worrying about cars, you only need to worry about your shareholder in chief. I'm sure Ed's prior experience at AT&T with its constant interactions with the courts, the Congress and regulatory apparatus makes him the perfect fit for the new GM. Just don't expect any ideas about how to build better cars.

Maybe There's Hope Yet

In the news today, Justice Ginsburg issued an order staying the sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat. Whether this means the whole SCOTUS will hear the case is unknown. Most likely, the Justice wanted more time to study the issues before the scheduled sale mooted the case.

Dean had previously blogged about how teacher's police' pension funds were getting the shaft on this cramdown from Obama, in apparent violation of the rule of law, in this case bankruptcy law. However, the state pension funds in Indiana, unlike private firms that Obama can put the muscle on, appealed all the way to the Supremes.

I thought I would cruise over to Daily Kos, to see if any bile was being served up on this issue, despite the fact that Ginsburg is one of the most liberal justices on the court. I wasn't disappointed, some idiot claiming to be Libertarian Friend, was accusing Rush of wishing to make everyone share in the misery of the Chrysler bankruptcy, and was railing against the ruling, arguing that it was in the "public interest." I saw an opportunity to engage in terms that might resonate with the lefties. Here's what my what left wing Doppleganger had to say:

Why can't we judge this case on it's merits under the law? The plaintiffs are public pension funds, teachers and police if I remember correctly, not some whacko right wing nut jobs. To trash pension fund claims just because of the right wing is the worst kind of ad-hominem ill-logic.

We rightly trashed the Bushies for abusing power and ignoring the constitution in the name of fighting the "war on terror." Even if this bankruptcy was decided in the "public interest" that doesn't mean the constitution or the law were followed. I thought we were more principled than that.

(My apologies, I adopt a certain style when I comment on DailyKos and MyDD.) Imagine my shock when this line of reasoning got some traction. There were of course, moronic counterattacks ("the real plaintif is Murcouck" huh?), but more than one person agreed with the position that the rule of law mattered. I was pleasantly surprised at my new plus four rating for arguing for the rule of law on Daily Kos, which of course is Rush's, Dean's and I'm sure, KT's position on the issue as well.

Maybe there's hope yet. You can read the whole thing here. Click on comments and search for BDaddyL to see the responses.

Weekend Music Chill

One of my favorite 80s bands was Oingo Boingo. Our sub, the Guitarro, made "Dead Man's Party" our unofficial breakaway song, but I always liked this number better.

Crony Capitalism

Over at BwD, Dean riffed off the "Busy Not Running GM" theme with some choice words about Barney Frank getting into the act. Dean correctly labels this a new era in "crony capitalism." In the comments, 'Dawg pointed out that Congressman Murtha has really gone above and beyond in the crony and capitalism departments, with your money, of course. 'Dawg, thanks for pointing us to this ABC report.



As you may know, Murtha is also having some problems with how defense contractors obtained earmark spending on defense, including his nephew. So here's to you John Murtha, the croniest of cronies, may you spend some quality time here, wearing some of these stylish fashions.

Your (Local) Tax Dollars at Work

So here's a nice little gig, if you can swing it. Charlene Tressler, was until recently, the Commissioner of San Diego County's First 5 Commission. These commissions were set up to distribute Prop 10 largess to favored constituencies around the state,... sorry, I meant to say to save the children with tobacco tax money. On top of her busy schedule running the commission, she also ran a charity and a preschool, making her the perfect kind of person to be looking out for the welfare of San Diego's wee ones. In fact, she was so awesome that the First 5 Commission paid out $8.3 million in grants to her organizations. Hooray, the children are SAVED!

For once, our local paper is breaking a story of interest. Charlene wasn't the only one on the commission doing well by doing good. Turns out that being on the advisory committe was better than a paying gig and that $67 million (or 44% of all grants) over three years was paid out to members of the commission's advisory committee. I'd like to be giving that kind of advice myself.

Just like the gun turn-in program detailed below, local government shows itself to be just as brilliant at conflicts of interest and lunacy as the feds. And who pays for this madness? The typically low income folks who still purchase cigarettes legally.

Pray for the President's Safety

Mrs. Daddy and I feel strongly moved by the Holy Spirit, we believe, to pray for the safety of President Barack Obama while he gives his speech in Cairo on Thursday. Whatever your faith, we ask you to join us in praying for the safety of our President.

Busy Not Running GM

What we are not doing -- what I have no interest in doing -- is running GM.

So says the captain of industry pictured here. In the quoted Wall Street Journal article, Obama reassures the mayor of Detroit, that GM headquarters won't be moving to nearby Warren, MI. Because it would be bad for GM's profitability? Hardly, because this is all about what's good for Detroit, not GM, or good for the UAW, not GM, or any body else politically connected, but not GM.

A small, but telling first example of the politicization of this industry that Dean and KT have already been warning us about.

Meanwhile, all may not be roses for the administration's disregard for the rule of law in bankruptcy court. A group of Indiana pension funds have won a hearing with the 2nd circuit court of appeals to prevent the sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat. As Dean pointed out earlier, and is conveniently left out of the WaPo article, these funds represent teachers and police officers, whose unions probably contributed to Obama's election.

I am adding GM to my list of products I don't buy on principle, right up there with French beer. Although I have purchased Dodge minivans in the past, no more, but that is also a practical decision over their pathetic decline in quality.

Keeping Our Streets Safe?

The esteemed mayor of Los Angeles, is keeping the streets of LA safe in between intimate moments with TV anchors, by sponsoring the buy back of guns, and getting them off the streets. The big headline from last month was "L.A. gun buyback nets 1,700 weapons, including grenade launcher." Wow, so what happens when you can get $100 bucks in coupons from Ralph's for any firearm you turn in. I liberated the following quote out of an email from Pop.

I got a call from a friend who is a big time sportsman. Makes his living outfitting hunting trips, teaching firearms courses, etc. He wanted to know how he could best use four $100 Ralph’s gift cards; give them to the church to give to the needy, use them to buy groceries for the poor pantry or what? I asked him where he got the cards and he said that LA had a “Make the streets safer” campaign. If you turned in a firearm of the proper category, no questions asked, they would give you a $100 Ralph’s card. So he and his buddies rounded 11 totally useless weapons, 8 of which were in the right category for redemption, took them to LA and came home with the 8 gift cards. All of the weapons were good only for scrap metal. One worst had been found in a trash heap on an abandoned farm in Chino. You could not see down the barrel for corrosion. $100 may seem like a lot of money for a piece of scrap metal but not to a mayor could tell his constituents how many guns that he had removed from the streets of LA and how they were safer tonight because his actions. God bless you, mayor. We need more public servants like you.

Carbon Conservativism

Conservatives and Libertarians are losing credibility by arguing that man made sources are not responsible for global warming. While I appreciate that the left has seized on the issue in order to seize our income and control of the economy, arguing against the underlying science is a long term losing proposition. Further, having done nothing about the issue when they controlled the Congress and the Presidency, the Republicans have paved the way for Henry Waxman's hair-brained, reward-your-buddies scheme that will actually do little to nothing to solve the problem. For scathing critiques of Waxman-Hartley also see the Reason article and Economist article.

First, I want to examine a little of the science. It is established fact that greenhouse gases, CO2, water vapor, ozone and methane, exist and cause the surface temperature of the earth to be about 57 deg F warmer than if they were not present. Hooray, it would be mighty cold without them. I worked the equations to determine this difference in a college level physics class well before the current debate. Further, the concentration of CO2 is increasing steadily and is now about 37% higher than a century ago, so it is not too far a stretch to believe that this will cause a warming of the earth's atmosphere. How much? Perhaps one degree Celsius. However, we continue to increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.



The historical record of the last million years has been dominated by ice ages, with relatively brief warming periods that occur on a 100,000 year cycle. We are currently in such a warming period, called the holocene that started about 10,000 years ago. During the warming period, the rise in carbon dioxide levels generally lagged the rise in temperature by 800 to 1100 years. While this proves that historically, CO2 did not cause the initial increase in temperatures, it is hypothesized that the rising carbon dioxide levels, released from warmer oceans, due to lower CO2 solubility created a positive feedback effect that caused temperatures to rise quickly.

Today, we appear to be in a historically anomalous time. The interglacial period has lasted almost as long as any for the last million years, so it is an open question as to whether the increased carbon dioxide will be overwhelmed by the natural forces that seem to be cooling the earth over the longer haul. More importantly, the surface temperatures of the earth have been very stable during the holocene; this very predictability has contributed to economic development. The argument on the left is that because we are dependent on temperature stability for our current economic structures, it would be disastrous to allow anthropegenic (man-made) global warming to upset the balance.

However, the balance is likely to be upset anyway, and it seems that the Waxman's proposal is to wreck the economy to in order to save it. However, because the main source of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels, which is associated with air pollution, it would still seem prudent to reduce carbon emissions in a way that does the least damage to the wealth of the planet, for the very reason that this wealth will be needed to adapt to climate changes that have probably become unstoppable for the time being. Because I believe in the power of deregulation and free markets to effect change, the proposal that makes the most sense is to phase in a carbon tax and offset the revenue with an equal phased reduction of the income tax. This has the advantage of not choosing favorites with respect to which alternative sources of non-carbonated energy should be used and minimizing the impact to the economy. Because it doesn't raise revenues nor reward favored groups, Democrats will never go for it. Republicans, you suck too, for not putting this in place when you had the chance. Now, we are all going to suffer.

I will post more on this topic at a later date.

I am calling out 'Dawg to comment. Other posters are welcome as well.

I leave you with a quote from Reason: "Man-made climate change may be a huge problem, but cap-and-trade proponents need to stop pretending that the solution will cost virtually nothing while producing more jobs than it destroys."

Obama Memo to Hecklers: I'm Popular, You're Not, So Shut Up Already

Concerned that hecklers are reminding the public that Obama has actually attempted to take a stand on some positions, Rahm Emmanuel has drafted a memo to would-be hecklers at future Obama speaking events. TLT has obtained a leaked copy on a memo that offers insight on the thinking of the new administration. Some quotes:

"Both the POTUS and the TOTUS must be seen at all times as the impartial and wise judges of all they survey. Reminding the audience of their actual position on abortion, for instance, distracts from the key message of Obama as head of a worldwide reunification movement, in which he constantly asks 'Why can't we all just get along?'"

Addressing potential hecklers, "You must remember that President Obama is very popular, and you are not. You should go home because you lack popular support on abortion for instance."
"You should consider that if your name becomes known, Democrat minions in state government will investigate you and lackeys in the press will smear you."
"As you know, Obama is the first black President. Publicly disagreeing with him will cause many to think you are racist, and if they don't, liberal bloggers will remind them that you are."

Third Party Payer and Prayer

Over the weekend, I was making a few calls to recent visitors to our church. One woman, a nurse named Anne asked for prayer for Melissa, an 18 year old. Melissa had been in and out of her large HMO's doctor's offices with pain in multiple parts of her body for the last nine months. (Just call this HMO K.) Finally, she was able to be seen at UCSD Medical Center and was told she has bone cancer that has spread throughout her body. They sent her home to die. Anne asks for prayer, because Melissa has no faith and is afraid of dying. Please join me in praying for her.

It also turns out that the doctors at K thought she was a teen hypochondriac trying to get pain meds. I am not alleging that she could have been saved by earlier treatment, but it seems to me that when doctors and hospitals are not being paid by the patient, we start to distort the relationship. The patients often seek treatments that might not if it was their own money. HMOs, in an effort to keep treatment affordable, erect barriers to obtaining specialty care. There are certainly enough horror stories about HMOs for us to see the worst effect of this phenomenom.

But rather than cast blame on HMOs or patients for that matter, I think we should reconsider third party payer for health care and insurance. Wouldn't we all be better served if the patient was the one with the power to decide how their health care dollars get spent and had an incentive to limit their own treatment because they would receive some cash back? Something to consider as we debate health care "reform." As discussed at Carpe Diem, health care costs for cosmetic surgey have been contained, because insurance doesn't cover this.

I know the left will object that some people will die because they can't afford treatment, but that is what catastrophic caps are for. As for the rest of the debate, I don't care what the left will say, the relationship is better and therefore the care will be better when the patient is truly seen as the customer.

Kim Outwits Obama - UN Outraged

UN High Commissioner for Intellectual Fairness, Clive Smith-Graves expressed outrage today at Kim Jong Il's punking of Barack Obama with his latest underground nuke test. "We strive for fairness in these battle of wits," explained the commissioner, "it's certainly beyond the pale for Kim to be engaged in such mental fisticuffs against an overmatched opponent." Only days before the test, the Obama administration was reportedly relaxed over the prospect of such a test. "I tell ya, they sucker punched us," said Rahm "Mickey" Emmanuel, Obama's handler. "Who'd a thunk that Kim saying he was going to conduct a test was any kind of warning. I tell ya, Obama has the talent to become a good fighter, but instead of that he's becoming a legbreaker to some cheap, second rate loanshark." When asked which loanshark he had in mind, Emmanuel declined to comment.

Smith-Graves explained that there are good reasons for UN rules for these sorts of affairs. "Allowing battles of wits to get out of hand can lead to real violence. It's like the class valedictorean teasing the schoolyard bully that he can't do his sums; the bully ends up breaking our hero's nose. I think we all have lived through this kind of situation," he sniffed. Asked what action the UN would be taking, Smith-Graves responded, "You know, the usual, feigned outrage, empty resolutions and private toasts that the U.S. has once again received it's well deserved comeuppance."

Hiatus

Friends and Readers,
As you have already noticed, I have not blogged in a while and was getting pretty inconsistent. I find that my heart isn't into blogging of late and the guilt I feel over not blogging only makes me feel worse. Additionally, this administration is proving far more rotten and vile than I had imagined, thank you George Bush for setting this up, and my anger and outrage can only last so long before it exhausts me. Finally, I have taken on some personal responsibilities that I find challenging.

As a consequence, I am going to give blogging a break. If and when I feel ready to start again, I will ask KT and Dean to let you know via their blogs. Thank you to those who have been reading and commenting, I hope my attitude improves soon.

B-Daddy

Weekend Music Chill

For no particular reason, other than I have been listening to exceptionally "smooth" music lately, I wanted to put up Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music doing "More Than This." And hey, who doesn't like 80's music, except Pops of course. If anybody understands the Christian iconography at the start of the video, please comment.

Saving Newspapers

Dean has been commenting about the demise of newspapers here and here. I must admit, I share Dean's fondness for them. It's easier to read them while eating breakfast (and less sloppy) than sitting in front of my computer or scrolling the Blackberry. Government cash is only going to kill the newspaper industry, so I thought I would present a different business model, so they can be saved.

Newspapers have some strengths they should play to. First, they have an unparalleled knowledge of the local community. Second, if they haven't squandered it, they have a reputation for even-handedness in reporting. Finally, and much overlooked, they have a low cost distribution network.

So what's to be done? First, to cut costs, they need to jettison the foreign bureaus and anything else where they can't be be number one or two. Second, they can't compete with the free ads offered by Craigslist and The Reader online, so don't try. Instead they should offer their ads for free on line.

I know what you're thinking, where does the money come from? First, if classified advertisers also want their ad in print, then they get charged, but it is going to be the same ad as offered on line to keep costs down. Second, their traditional source of print ads from businesses will remain, but probably continue to decline. But the key to further revenue streams is to emulate Google and Facebook.

I think that newspapers can successfully compete with Craigslist because Craigslist has failed to monetize their operation, so a monetized operation can probably deliver a better product. Craigslist only charges for a few categories of ads. Newspapers could offer targeted ads based on viewer searches and page views of other ads, advertising on top of advertising, but it already works. Just like Google delivers ads targeted based on user search so can the newspapers. They will probably even want to outsource the technology provisioning to Google, at least initially. Although I would be personally wary of Google's business practices, their failure to prevent click fraud being my chief concern.

Next, subscribers would get online accounts, to go with home delivery, that will allow them to receive coupons or other bargains they can't get anywhere else, to incentivize on line use. Developing a knowledge of consumer preferences from the subscriber base will allow the newspapers to deliver targeted free samples or coupons to their readership. This is intended to emulate the way Facebook delivers ads based on your interests and seems to make good money doing so. This is also something no else can do as cheaply as newspapers and plays to one of their strengths, in distribution. To my knowledge, the only targeted physical advertising today goes through the mail system. Seems like competing with post office shouldn't be too tough, especially with more in depth customer knowledge.

This plan is just a broad outline, and as simple as it appears, I doubt that most newspapers will do anything about it. For some reason, practitioners in dying industries tend to stop innovating and circle the wagons. I hope for a better outcome, so that's my two cents.

More Spending, More Debt

The Senate passed Obama's budget 55-43 today. After eight years of spending excess under Bush, the Democrats are going piling in for seconds thirds and fourths. This will certainly solve our long term problems:

The Obama budget would borrow an estimated $9.3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, doubling the public debt as a share of the nation's output from 41 percent to 82 percent. The budget calls for nearly $4 trillion in deficits over the next five years.

So where will all this cash come from? KT has been all over this. There are really only two sources left, the Chinese and printing it. The Chinese have indicated they aren't happy with us debasing their investment, so count them out.

As America's biggest creditor, Beijing is now worried about its over-investment in U.S. Treasury debts. "We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S.," Premier Wen Jiabao said last month. "Of course, we are concerned about the safety of our assets." He called on the Obama administration to "maintain its good credit, honor its promises and guarantee the safety of China's assets."

Stand by for inflation, hopefully sooner than later, so we can turn out Obama like a one term Carter type Presidency that we deserved for electing such an unprepared fool.

Punkin' Europe

The fabulous (or not) sculpture, titled Entropa, pictured at right was commissioned by the Czech Republic to commemorate the occasion of taking over the rotating Presidency of the EU. Since my readership is probably not comprised of trendy hipsters of the art scene, this requires some explanation. The sculptor, David Černý, created this 8 ton masterpiece as a sort of unassembled model kit, with each piece representing a member state of the EU. He purportedly brought together 27 artists, one from each member state, to assemble this erection, unveiled in January of this year.

Some of my favorite representations:
The Netherlands - submerged in the sea, with minarets poking up out of the water.
France - with a sign that tranlates "strike" (GRÈVE) is blank because "as a result of the global and local politicial, economic and cultural situation" the artist is on strike.
Romania is a Dracula style theme park.
Bulgaria is depicted as a Turkish style toilet.
And for Dean, Sweden is a large Ikea style furniture self assembly box containing Gripen fighter planes.

Later, Černý admitted that there were no other artists and returned the $50,000 commission he had received. He also covered up the Turkish toilet.

H/T Reason magazine.

Anti-Capitalist Protesters at G20 Summit?

The headline from the Daily Mail reads "Protesters storm RBS office as thousands of anti-capitalists ransack the City in G20 riot." My question: What makes them so sure? And I mean both the protesters and The Mail. I defy you to show me a capitalist at the G20 summit. So what are these a**hats protesting?

On the subject of who is the capitalist, see the G20 web site for membership and let me know if you find a capitalist country listed.

I'd much prefer to hang with protesters with a sense of humor. At least those guys know they are anti-socialist. Which begs the question, if anti-socialist and anti-capitalist protesters have the same object of their ire, who is right?

Bumper Sticker of the Day

I couldn't find a picture of the bumper sticker, except on this T-shirt. You can buy great products like this at zazzle.com.

Regretting It

Headline from WSJ: Government Forces Out Wagoner at GM. Betcha he's REALLY regretting that private jet trip to DC to beg for stimulus pork. He would have been better off filing for bankruptcy, at least he might still have a job. The look on his face says it all.

Meanwhile, we have to ask, "How do Obama's early economic moves differ in any significant way from the way Hugo Chavez started his regime?"

On the bright side, I just don't see many more execs running to DC to beg for a bail out. Could be wrong, will keep you posted.

Unsung Hero - T.R.M. Howard

In the fight against tyranny and injustice, there are scores of unsung heroes. I would like to introduce my readers to one of them, Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a doctor and entrepreneur who preceded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the struggle for civil rights in America. Hat tip to Damon W. Root and Reason magazine for reviewing his recently published biography, book cover at right. (I have not read the book, but I recommend you at least read the full review.) Unlike the communists who were infiltrating the civil rights movement of the era, Dr. Howard believed in economic empowerment and political equality as the way ahead for black Americans. After founding the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), he became nationally famous for his efforts to find the killers of a black man who allegedly had the temerity to whistle at a white women. After the discovery of Emmet Till's body, he promised there would be "hell to pay in Mississippi." From his Wikipedia entry:

Howard moved into the national limelight as never before after the murder of Emmett Till in August 1955 and the trial of his killers, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant in September. He was heavily involved in the search for evidence and gave over his home to be a “black command center” for witnesses and journalists.

Unfortunately, the white jury acquitted the killers, thinking that the black man. From the book:

Quite simply, [the jury] regarded killing a black male for insulting a white woman as not serious enough to merit the prescribed punishment.

But because of the publicity generated by Dr. Howard, the Till case helped launch the civil rights movement. Further, Dr. Howard understood the connection between economic rights and personal liberty.

In 1954, when segregationists started pressuring banks and retailers to freeze civil rights activists’ credit, Howard convinced the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as various black churches and other affected groups, to deposit their money in the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Memphis (where Howard was a board member), allowing African Americans to flex some of their growing economic muscle in the fight against Jim Crow.

Howard also understood the relationship between tyranny and gun control and kept his household protected from white supremacists with a submachine gun and a pistol in his waistband. The first gun control laws in America were actually imposed in the post-Reconstruction South, where they were tied to rolling back the rights that blacks had been granted as an outcome of the Civil War and the 14th and 15th amendments. (As an aside, many odious pieces of the liberal orthodoxy; gun control, prevailing wage laws and discriminatory policies towards private schools, for examples, have their origins in racist and bigoted motives.)

Finally I leave you with two of my favorite quotes from the good doctor:

He wished “one bomb could be fashioned that would blow every Communist in America right back to Russia where they belong.”

“There is not a thing wrong with Mississippi today that real Jeffersonian democracy and the religion of Jesus Christ cannot solve.”

And the country for that matter. Amen to that doctor.

Blog Shame

One of my favorite authors John Eldredge, also has a blog. Like me, he is a little erratic in posting regularly. I was looking over his site today and found this:

I know I’m not the faithful blogger. Life sweeps in, sweeps me away, and I forget. Then, I have SO many flippin stories to tell of so many ways God is working I don’t know which one to share. My brain overloads. Two (or three) weeks go by and blog shame begins to set in, making it even harder to blog.

I don't know if that is exactly my problem, but I do know that blogging seems to emotionally exhausting at times and I just let it slide. My thanks to Dean, 'Dawg and KT for encouraging me to get posting again. Dean suggested that the Freedom Coalition Agenda needs an environmental plank. I agree. I was thinking of staring with the following quote: "...the largest polluter in the United States is: the United States government." Wouldn't mind hearing what you think.

Health Care Quandary

Fellow blogger and all around great guy, Dean, has quoted me in today's blog post about the coming Obamacare debacle we are facing. He further objects to Obama floating a proposal to reverse his position from the campaign and tax health care benefits from employers. Let there be no doubt, the signs are all around us that this administration intends to bring socialism into health care as perhaps its highest priority. One of the trial balloons being floated by Team Barry is to tax employer health plans to provide some of the funding to pave the way for the full government take over of the health care system. As much as I loathe any further government intrusion into health care, the economic purist in me sees the logic of taxing this benefit as follows.

Not taxing this benefit amounts to a subsidy of insurance plans. Further, the more gold plated the plan the greater the tax-subsidy. This was the thinking of the McCain team when they looked at the issue. From the NYT article:

They, like other proponents, cite evidence that tax-free benefits encourage what Mr. McCain called “gold-plated” policies, resulting in inefficient and costly demands for health care and pressure on employers to hold down workers’ pay as insurance expenses rise. And, they say, the policy discriminates against those — many of whom are low-income workers — who do not have employer-provided coverage.

Further, much of what ails the provisioning of health care stems from two related phenomena, third party payer and lack of tranparency. To solve these problems, Americans need to pay more for their health care out of pocket, so they have some "skin in the game." This will bring market pressure to bear to rate health care providers and cause them to bill in ways that real people, as opposed to insurance accountants can understand. I fully sympathize that people struggling to make ends meet would have a hard time with such a proposal. This is why I think that catastrophic caps should be encouraged. For example, the individual pays out of pocket until total expenses hit, say $3000, and then the insurance kicks in to pay the rest. Too help incenctivize such a system, the employee would keep the difference below $3000, but pay taxes on it.

Such a system will change behavior and cause people to shop around for health care. I guarantee it would drive down health care costs. Believe it or not, we already have such a system in place for part of the health care industry. Professor Perry, at Carpe Diem, has a fascinating article about how the cost of cosmetic surgery has fallen over time, even as procedures have improved.

BUT, and it's a big BUT, much like my own, as long as Obama is touting taxing health benefits to pay for socialized medicine, No Sale! Just like McCain proposed, but the media ignored, any such taxing of benefits must be offset by a reduction in the income tax so that government doesn't grow as a result.

Obama backs pet projects and signs spending bill

Yep, that's the headline from the AP story on the stimulus porkage. So Obama breaks another promise, this time to end earmarks, yawn. But he has the chutzpah to actually defend the whole thing. And, in his never ending quest to be seen as Bush III, Obama also issued a "signing statement." From the same AP article:

On another potentially controversial matter, the president also issued a "signing statement" with the bill, saying several of its provisions raised constitutional concerns and would be taken merely as suggestions. He has criticized President George W. Bush for often using such statements to claim the right to ignore portions of new laws, and on Monday he said his administration wouldn't follow those issued by Bush unless authorized by the new attorney general.

I need to take a quick break to see how this is playing over at Daily Kos, where vituperative criticisms of signing statements were logged during the Bush years.

OK, I'm back and admit to being somewhat shocked. First, most of the Daily Kooks have chosen to ignore the whole "signing statement" imbroglio. However, I found two interesting articles. The first, pretty much lambastes Obama for a heap of constitutional violations including the signing statement. Pretty amazing, but of course that post is not popular with the readers. The second article, states that Obama's position on signing statements is different from Bush's. This article asserts that unlike Bush, Obama's signing statements only indicate the potential for a constitutional concern. However, no evidence is supplied that Bush issued statements for any different reason.

A little historical context on the whole thing is available at Wikipedia, of course. Key facts: Signing statements have been around since James Monroe. Their use has accelerated over the last generation. George Bush was not a pioneer in their use, but certainly engendered more controversy by the way he used them.

In B-Daddy's opinion, the practice undermines the constitution. If the President thinks a provision of a law is unconstitutional, he needs to veto the whole thing.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Will that slow down the pace of legislation? You betcha. Is that a bad thing? No way!

And of course the left is generally hypocritical in their hysterical criticism of Bush over this and their silence or acquiesence when Obama does it.

Card Check - Again.

It's day 50 of the Obama administration and we're seeing a spate of socialist ideas put forward. The latest abomination is called Card Check. Tom Harkin called a press conference today to announce introduction of this odious piece of legislation designed to make it easier to intimidate workers into joining unions. For many years, the United States has been a leading proponent of freedom world wide, emphasizing that unions should be allowed secret ballots around the world. But for some reason that's not good enough for our home grown Stalinist wanna-bes like Harkin. From the linked article:

Democrats respond that secret ballots play into the hands of corporate anti-labor campaigns because secret-ballot elections cost more and are more time consuming for unions who must often compete with companies with deeper pockets.

Here's a pop quiz: What do you call a regime that changes the rules of elections until it gets the results it wants? A dictatorship. Essentially the Democrat argument is that since unions haven't been winning elections, the rules should be changed, and hey who needs elections anyway, when we know the result that we want. This move was certainly predictable and predicted.

Weekend Music Chill

Mrs. Daddy's Mom is an Australian war bride. She is a beautiful women, like her daughter, so I am naturally partial to things Australian. This weekend's featured band from "down under" showed the world that Christian music could rock with their immensely popular hit "Shine." So this weekend we bring you a little thunder from down under, with the Newsboys performing "He Reigns.

Obama to Congress: "Go Shopping"

Play the YouTube embed to hear Obama criticize Bush for telling Americans to go shopping after 9/11. Today we are faced with a crisis of our own making. But Obama is keeping up his theme of continuing the Bush policies by encouraging some shopping of his own. Unfortunately, Obama is telling congressional Democrats to do the shopping, so we're unlikely to pick up any swag that we might enjoy, like that ipod I shelled out five bucks trying to win from my nephew's school fund-raiser raffle. This from Maureen Dowd no less:

"In one of his disturbing spells of passivity, President Obama decided not to fight Congress and live up to his own no-earmark pledge from the campaign."

From the same article, here is a partial list of democrat goodies:

• $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York. “quick peel me a grape,” McCain twittered.

• $1.7 million for a honey bee factory in Weslaco, Tex.

• $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa.

• $1 million for Mormon cricket control in Utah. “Is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?” McCain tweeted.

• $819,000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama.

• $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi.

For a second, I misread that last one as "beer management" and was wondering why the heck they needed to manage beers for those rednecks, they seemed to do fine on their own. But then I saw it was beaver management and it all made sense.

McCain let rip on tweeter over this pokulus and Obama breaking another promise; good for him. Turns out he can use technology after all.

Americans With No Abilities Act

Road Dawg, frequent commenter and overall loose canon alerted me to the following news article, which I am publishing totally without permission, so be careful what you send me.



President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress are considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said California Senator Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing."

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S employer of Persons of Inability.

Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%). Under The Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'
'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint , Michigan , due to her inability to remember 'rightey tightey, lefty loosey.' 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Gertz added. With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), "As a Senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so."

Of course it's all satire. I believe it was lifted from a 1999 article in The Onion, but updated with today's political names. Sadly, it seems even more likely to pass today.

At Least We Can Have Some Music

As you can see, I haven't posted in a while. Between my on line class, travel for work and family priorities there hasn't been much time. But I also admit that the trend line of the current administration has been very discouraging, and I haven't been able to muster the creativity to respond with wit. I think wit is important, because Obama's demeanor don't lend themselves to accusations of radicalism, even if that is what he is actually peddling. Consequently, we need humor and satire to make our points effectively. (This is one reason Iowahawk is on the feed at right.)

Additionally, I have wanted to be more original in my postings, and not just repeat the libertarian/conservative views you can read elsewhere. That has proved a challenge, but I promise to eventually get back at it.

In the meantime, we can at least have some music. I've posted an update on a tune Pops played from time to time. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of the "modern" version.

Weekend Music Chill

As a youngster, I pretty much flunked church. (I was also expelled from kindergarten, but that's a story for another day.) During services I would fidget, goof-off, fall asleep and say the liturgy with strange accents. I'm not proud of my shenanigans, but Lutheran services were pretty tough on youngsters. Now I love getting to church; part of the reason is that the music really speaks to my heart as well as helping me express my worship of God. So for my weekend music, here is Ron Kenoly with one of my favorite worship songs.

More Hate From the Green Movement

The young man pictured at left is Bakouma Kpatekatola, from the West African nation of Togo. Tragically he has died of malaria since this picture was taken. Togo is one of the African nations that has succumbed to environmental fanaticism and banned indoor residual spraying of DDT, an effective method of killing malaria carrying mosquitos. Iowahawk has the whole story here.

The Coming Carbon Thugocracy Update

During the campaign, I predicted that if Obama won, he would use the EPA to back door Congressional lawmaking and get the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emmisions. From an October article in the WSJ:

In an interview last week with Bloomberg, Mr. Grumet said that come January the Environmental Protection Agency "would initiate those rulemakings" that classify carbon as a dangerous pollutant under current clean air laws. That move would impose new regulation and taxes across the entire economy, something that is usually the purview of Congress. Mr. Grumet warned that "in the absence of Congressional action" 18 months after Mr. Obama's inauguration, the EPA would move ahead with its own unilateral carbon crackdown anyway.

So guess what happened? From the NYT article today:

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

Unlike the earlier proposal, this effort does not seem to propose the blatantly unconstitutional proposal to have the EPA impose a tax on carbon emissions. The administration is trying not to tread on Congressional toes in other ways as well. Lisa P. Jackson is the new EPA administrator. From the same article:

The finding and proposed regulations would be issued in sequence, with ample opportunity for public comment and not in a sudden burst of regulatory muscle-flexing, Ms. Jackson said. The regulations would work in concert with any legislation and not supplant it, she added.

The article also points out the likelihood of lawsuits that would dramatically draw out the implementation. But I say, bring it on! I would love to see this case in front of the Supreme Court, with the AGW crowd (that's anthropogenic global warming) having to defend their pseudo-science. American Thinker has pointed to the total hysteria on the other side, with little proof that man is (a) causing global warming and (b) that global warming is actually harmful. I think this last bit is the trickiest part for the chicken-little crowd. Just because the earth heats up, life is not necessarily harmed. In fact, increased carbon dioxide and warmth might help biodiversity. If that could be shown, then the tree huggers should be encouraging us to by that Hummer.

But of course, it really isn't about saving the planet is it? It's about wresting control over the lives of individuals to establish a socialist utopia where the intellectuals rule and rid us of our benighted ways. But the dirty little secret of that dream is that thugs with guns always end up ruling, not the so-called enlightened intellectuals.

This is a threat to freedom. It is one more warning, as if we needed one, that Obama is on a crusade to secure socialism in America, just like someone else who just won an election.

Commenting at Daily Kos

Give him credit, the partisan attack dog pictured at left has built one of the most successful blog sites in American politics, left, right or otherwise. I am referring of course, to Markos Moulitsas, proprietor of Daily Kos. I periodically read his blog and occasionally comment, but more as a social experiment than in the expectation of changing hearts and minds. I keep ratcheting up the extremism of my comments in the hopes that they will recognize the parody, so far to no avail. My latest comments actually earned me ratings as an excellent commenter from the Daily Kos crowd.

So I need some help. Read my comments and some replies below and let me know if the Daily Kos commenters have such a lack of irony that I will never get through or should I change tactics.

First the context. Kos (Markos Moulitsas) posted as how Obama's desire for bipartisanship had been a PR disaster on the stimulus package:

Yeah, I know there were those who thought that Obama's obsession with "bipartisanship" was some sort of clever master plan to outflank Republicans or something, but in reality, the obsession with getting Republican votes ended up detracting from the selling of the stimulus itself to the American people.

My comments follow. (You can read the whole thing in context at the link above. You can find my left wing doppleganger by clicking "View Comments" and page searching for BDaddyL. Not very original, but when I picked it, I was in a hurry to comment, kind of like Pop's Datsun joke.)

Why Can't We Just Start Jailing Republicans? by BDaddyL

How does the Republican party differ from a criminal conspiracy under the RICO act? They just act to repay key donors and have a revolving door between government, lobbyists and recipients of their favors. They have lost all rights to have a voice in government. If that doesn't qualify as a criminal syndicate, I don't know what does. With leading rethugs in jail (let's start with Rush Limbug) we can enforce the policies this country needs without all this crap about bipartisanship.

In fairness, despite my good ratings for this post, I think I may have finally hit a nerve. Here is jqb's response:

This is still a democracy, not a fascistic state. People aren't guilty just because some label applies to them -- you can only convict individuals who have been proven to have participated in an illegal conspiracy.

However, one commenter (Troubador) had no moral issue. His response:

Because it would look bad by Troubador.
Sorry, reality is a lot of work.

But I note that no one ever challenges my premise that Republicans are basically criminals. So what do you think, is it worthwhile to influence the debate on the other side by parodying their extremism or should I let it go? (Some days it's too much fun.) I look forward to your comments.

Stimulus Passes

I am sure that you read or heard that the stimulus monstrosity passed both Houses and is headed to the President for signature. I am just horrified because:

1. The stimulus will not actually help the economy recover. It's impact is too delayed. The wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly and by the time any of the spending hits the street the economy will already be growing.

2. That said, the increased debt will slow or choke off the recovery. As the recovery gains steam, government borrowing will crowd out private investment and lead to inflation. (Gold prices were up close to 4% this week.)

3. Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of this package. Bloggers and talk radio put the spotlight on the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research" which was a first step to rationing health care and limiting treatments based on cost. That provision was watered down to $1.1 billion to study comparative treatment cost effectiveness. But since no one seems to have read the whole thing, what else is buried that threatens our liberty?

4. Republicans did not even attempt a filibuster. Opposing this bill required dramatic action, but the GOP was unable to get their act together in opposition.

5. The Buy American provisions in the bill will only invite trade retaliation, which historically, have been very harmful to economic recovery.

I am upset and very down about what this means for our future. Sorry.

Book Review: The Shack

I keep a list of books I've been reading or have read on the right side of the blog, but have never shared my thoughts on any of them. (I have not finished all of them, either.) Momma Daddy recently asked me about The Shack by William P. Young. I know this book was very popular but has by now "jumped the shark," but I wanted to add my voice to the commentary.

I found the book to be a compelling read. The events in affecting main character, Mack, are horrifying. It is the very nature of those events that makes his subsequent encounters with God all the more compelling. His questions for God are the tough questions we all have wanted to ask. The author doesn't always have God answer directly, which is very realistic, if you think of Job's conversations. Ultimately, this book served to remind me of some basic Christian truths. God loves us, he has a plan not just for us, but for the world, and we have a role to play in his plan.

There are some rumors that this is not a "Christian Book." I am certain this is not true. The mystery of the Trinity is captured as well as any human author can capture it. Accepting Jesus as both God and man are core to Christian belief, and Young does not stray from that view. I think the criticism comes from a couple of scenes that have a "new age" feel to them, but there is nothing in those scenes that fundamentally contradicts basic Christian truth.

For me personally, I was very uplifted by this book. It helped remind me of God's love and goodness, with which I personally struggle. In my view, the first sin occurred not when Eve bit into the fruit; but when she listened to the serpent and doubted God's goodness. It is important to our faith to remember that as well. To quote from the book, God is particularly fond of you.

Can Anyone Do Math Anymore?

Today's pretty diagram is brought to you courtesy of your local municipal government here in Enron-by-the-Bay and the regional government. According to the local fishwrap:

Houston-based Jacobs Consultancy, which so far has earned $3.2 million to analyze Lindbergh Field for the Sanders group, said many of the improvements could be funded through landing fees and other airport revenues.

Being in the airport consulting business seems like a great racket. The work is steady, no one really looks hard at you produce, then they just do it again next year.

OK, so how much would this lovely plan cost? It turns out that they quote a cost of a mere $5 to $12 billion. However, in my experience, whenever you have a quote like this, you take the high estimate and triple it and now you're getting close. But hey, there's lots of tourists passing under Charles Lindbergh's visage to pay for this right? Sure are. Turns out, the port authority is estimating that upwards of 20 million passengers per year will be using our airport over the next twenty years.

Now class, it's time to do some math. Don't worry, Professor B-Daddy will step you through the lesson. First, we'll be a little generous and say the project comes in at only $25 billion. How long before we demand the next airport upgrade? Twenty years? OK. How many passengers will we get? 20 x 25 million = 500 million. Wow, that's a lot of passengers. But our bill is $25 billion. $25 billion/500 million passengers = $50 per passenger. That's right, this little ol' improvement will cost an average of $50 per ticket. Southwest Airlines has some fares for less than that. That doesn't even count the interest on the bonds that would have to be issued, which only makes the math worse.

The article talks about landing fees and getting someone else to pay for this, but the bottom line is that no matter who pays, that's mighty expensive and the taxpayer money could be put to better use.

What Ails Us

In these times of financial stress, I submit that we know what's wrong, but we won't face up to our issues. The most difficult things in life to change are both simple and hard. Losing fat weight is a great example. It is simple; eat fewer calories and exercise more; and it is hard, because I am like so many people that I can't seem get it done.

So what's wrong?
1. We don't save enough collectively. Economic growth is tied very closely to the rate of savings. We thought we could defy this particular law by using Chinese savings to finance our growth. Hasn't turned out too well. Meanwhile the government tax code favors debt over saving. But don't be fooled, mere incentives won't fix this, people's bad habits have to change.

2. Our education system isn't serving our needs. In a global economy, the only way to maintain hourly wage rates is to move up the skills ladder. It is folly to expect that low skill jobs will continue to pay high wages forever, when billions of Asians are waiting for the opportunity to do that sort of work. If our workers want to be paid more they must be able to do more. But our education system does not provide sufficient grounding in statistical methods for one example, to allow high school graduates to be effective at using six sigma methodology to improve process control. But we somehow expect the current system to come up with the breakthrough that will improve education. Meanwhile, new methods, such as charter schools are actively fought by entrenched forces. Even the big charities aren't giving money to educational experimentation. But there is another dirty secret, parental involvement in encouraging educational excellence is key. But, some pockets of our culture have come to disdain educational achievement.

3. We expect our government to know best how to direct investment, but this always fails when swimming against economic forces. We tried to push home ownership rates to above market and only managed to wreck that market. In a mostly free economy, government is never going to be powerful enough, wise enough, to direct an outcome that the free market would not provide. The tragedy is that every misdirected dollar is a dollar that doesn't go to a more productive use. What makes this hard to fix? We get addicted to the sweet stuff. Are you a homeowner? Wouldn't elimination of the mortgage interest tax deduction hurt; wouldn't you complain? But that very deduction misallocates resources to home ownership. A big deal? Maybe not, until you add up every corporate welfare subsidy (more ethanol anyone?) and realize how much of the economy is tied in non-productive subsidies.

But more fundamentally, we seem to have lost the sense of morality and civic duty that acted as a compass in year's past. We used to save much more, respect education much more, and believe in making our own way much more. What happened? I submit that the loss of respect for religion is part of the root cause, but I wonder what you think.

Stimulus Can Kill You - No REALLY! (Hint: It's not the pork)

Over at American Thinker, Douglas O'Brien points out one of the more pernicious impacts of language in the stimulus bill, designed to kill Americans who need expensive medical treatment so they won't be a burden on the economy. Amazingly, the little piece of legislation was dreamt up by uber-rich guy and tax cheat, Tom Daschle (and former Health Generallisimo wanna-be), who apparently can afford any health treatment he darn well wants.

Puttin' a Damper on Those Bailout Requests

President Obama, in a move that I fully applaud, and was anticipated by George Will last year (see last paragraph of link), capped executive pay at firms receiving bail out money at a paltry half million per year. Why do I applaud such a blatantly anti-capitalist piece of symbolism and political theater? Well, I think the government is going to have a hard time giving away all that TARP jack if it hurts executive's personal bottom line. (Click here to apply yourself, if you think you can stand limiting your salary.)

Dean also saw the writing on this particular wall, commenting on how the mere threat of losing the corporate jet was already dissuading executives from porking out on federal largesse. How are they going to react to the loss of 7 or 8 figures off their personal paychecks. Some of these guys personal mortgages probably top the half million number.

As an aside, I had the good fortune to listen to Marshal Goldsmith yesterday, a great speaker. He discussed the motivating power of money and how he uses it in his executive coaching practice. He remarked that his client base consisted primarily of rich old men. "You would think they wouldn't mind losing small amounts of money, right? Well, you would be WRONG." He uses small fines in the $5 to $20 dollar per incident to get these executives to change bad behavior. If $5 bucks a crack can motivate investment bankers and Fortune 500 CEOs, what you think Obama's plan is going to do?

So good luck to the Prez and the new tax collector-in-chief in disbursing the rest of the bailout money. If you'll excuse me now, I've got an application to submit; I think I can squeak by on the $500K and the line seems a lot shorter now.

Creating a Climate of Fear

Dean has some great insight on the stimulus porkage over at BwD. One of his many great points is that the Democrats are doing exactly what they always accuse Republicans of, namely, creating a climate of fear. Meanwhile, Professor Perry, at Carpe Diem, has posted a number of articles showing how the recession is a) not as bad as portrayed in the media and b) will be over before stimulus can make it worse. (By the way, reading Carpe Diem every day is like taking a class in applied economics, I highly recommend it, especially in these uncertain times.)

Meanwhile, Democrat spokesperson below has a tough time defending the pork in this package.

This Could be Illegal Updated Video

In Colorado at least, if that BBQ raised more than $200 for a political cause, such as a local ballot proposition. Sometimes the worst tyranny is local. Colorado has some of the most draconian campaign finance "reform" laws in the nation. Their main effect is to stifle the free expression of grass roots political organizations. We're also seeing their use in California to intimidate backers of Proposition 8, but that's a post for another day. Watch the video below to see how Becky Clark got sued for putting up yard signs to oppose a local annexation.

UPDATE - Dean pointed problems with the video, so I found code that worked.












H/T: Institute for Justice

Fruits of Labor and Loss

Dean here. Iraqis went to the polls yesterday to vote for local representatives aimed at creating provincial councils that will control municipal budgets and have the power to hire and fire people.

There was a noticeable lack of violence with tight security including a driving ban in most of the country to prevent suicide bombing.

Nationwide, turnout varied: Some provinces hovered around 60 percent, with Basra, a Shiite-dominated region in the south, still lower at about 50 percent.

There was also some confusion in various areas as to where it was people were supposed to vote and there were reports of people being turned away because their names were not on the voter rolls.

Sound like anywhere else you know?

But a U.N. election observer, Said Arikat, described the election in mostly positive terms. “By and large, the rules were followed.”

Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. official in Iraq, said, “This is a good day for Iraq's democracy.”

Long may the men and women of Iraq be able to argue and haggle over hanging chads, disenfranchisement and voting irregularities.

And God Bless the men and women of this and other coutries' armed forces who made what seemed an impossibility 6 years ago, a reality.