Wasting Time With Alex
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The gravy train is gonna cost us more than they told us..
In the age of “Hope and Change” deficits no longer matter it seems. This even as a Tax Policy Center released a
detailed 40 page report of the key tax proposals in President Obama’s 2011 budget, and if you look at their numbers they are projecting a whopping $4.9 trillion shortfall, which eclipses the $1.1 trillion claimed by the Obama people. Here is the killer quote:
The budget assumes a baseline in which the 2001-2003 tax cuts are permanent (including the estate tax at its 2009 level), the exemption in the alternative minimum tax (AMT) is permanently indexed for inflation from its 2009 level, and that temporary expansions of refundability of the child tax credit and of the earned income credit are permanent. Those provisions would reduce revenues by $3.8 trillion over the 2010-2020 period. TPC’s analysis measures the impact of the tax proposals not against the administration baseline but rather against a current law baseline that assumes the 2001-2003 tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011 and that the AMT exemption maintains its permanent level. Against that baseline, the administration’s tax proposals would cause much greater revenue losses than official budget estimates show [$4.9 trillion v. $1.1 trillion].
For those that are numerically challenged, this means that the difference between all the goodies that the collectivists want to farm out reported in this analysis and the tax intake of Uncle Sam in this business hostile environment are going to leave us with an unbelievable additional $4.9 trillion in new debt. Of course, knowing the way collectivists operate, they will simply raise taxes - and likely also spending - and then be flabbergasted when we end up with something close to a $7 trillion gap.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • All Things Government • Economics • News • Liberal Media • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
ACORN news.
There is some good news out there - other than the AGW climategate scandal finally ending the death grip the AGW cultists had on the issue, and finally allowing real science to take a look at this issue which will sooner than later kill the AGW cult - and that is that the donkey crime syndicate ACORN is going through tough times and giving up on its national structure. Now, I am not stupid enough to think this is end of these bastards, and would not be surprised that all this leads to is a rebirth under a different name with the exact same agenda and criminal behavior to push that agenda to follow, but in the short term it means a victory for the people that actually do have a problem with this kind of special interest group, masquerading as a community organization intended to help people, pushing a destructive agenda that favors the politicians that enact that agenda. If they are going to just lay low and come back again to do more of the same, there is an election this year after all, I recommend they use the name “Donkey Mafia”. Feel free to suggest your own names as well.
All Things Government • News • Liberal Media • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Monday, February 22, 2010
Yet another one bites the dust…
So now it looks like the drastically rising oceans, the apocalyptic end game the AGW church has warned us would happen if we refused to accept the collectivist government takeover of our freedoms and cash, was also, erm, exaggerated?
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings. The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.
At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study ”strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results”. The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.
Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea level could rise more. Martin Vermeer of the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published a study in Decemberthat projected a rise of 0.75m to 1.9m by 2100.
OK, so now we are told that they are unsure of the rise. That’s bull of course because what was likely found is that they have no science to prove this idiotic claim. So now even the threat of Waterworld is gone? No melting glaciers, no disappearing North Pole or ice in the Himalayas, no oceans rising… WTF? What’s left? What’s the impending catstrophe that should scare us all into letting them take away our freedoms and cash in return for, well nothing but an overarching government that has control of every aspects of our lives by limiting our access to energy and controlling our purchase power?
All the fear mongering we used to say was bunk and based on bunk science, is now proven as bunk. That’s why it was retracted. Asked to prove with science their claims, one by one, they are being retracted, or drastically revised, to a point that the end result is a statistical insignificance. And yet, the defenders of the AGW cult are still hard at work trying to make not only like they still have the science behind them, but that the onus is on the “deniers” to disprove the AGW claims, even though now it is a given that the underlying data, methodology, and the projected damage all are outright falsehoods or exaggerations. Even worse, people are starting to see that the real big money influences were not from the people that the AGW cultists demonized, but by the very priests of the AGW cult, which have all made millions, and stood to make billions more, scamming us all.
If the AGW watermelon cultists had any sense, they would drop this lost cause and go invent the next big lie they are going to glom on to try and convince us to let them create their global wealth redistributing collectivist government for the elites by. Of course they will not. They will continue to try and lie & bluff their way through this – after all, they have a complacent and willing media that has so far ignored the scandalous behavior by them – and in the process make sure we all know this is a fanatical cult based more on faith than any kind of science.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • Science & Technology • Energy • Global Warming • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Doubling down..
Well, as I suspected, the Obama Administration’s plan to revive the bloated and vile government takeover of healthcare money and decision making, isn’t about fixing the differences and actually fixing healthcare at all, because the WH strategy is to double down on the same crap. If you needed more proof that these leftist elitists think we are all morons and not smart enough to make our own choices, look at this. After the Scott Brown loss in MA, and the obvious looming disasters at the polls in the elections this coming November, you would figure that the collectivist would figure out they over played their hand and that the people didn’t want any more of the destructive stuff they have given us for the last year. You would expect them to work on getting the economy going and getting people employed. Instead they are using smoke and mirrors and hoping their partners in the MSM can make the republicans out like the bad guys without any ideas of their own. Talk about projection, huh? To me it is not clear that the democrat agenda is to pass this behemoth in order to so drastically shift the balance of those that work for a living vs. those that vote for a living in their favor that they are willing to take the hit for another decade or two, if it then buys them perpetual power. Of course, at this rate, there will not be much of a country in even a decade worth ruling, but then again, marxists think they can make it better when they never, ever, have done anything but the opposite. Don’t let the freak show that is going to come out of DC distract you. These collectivists are dangerous.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • All Things Government • Healthcare Reform • Economics • News • Liberal Media • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Greeks mad at Germans for not bailing them out..
I can’t believe the many levels of irony wrapped up in the Greek anger at the German refusal to bail the m out. Literally class warfare at its best! The poor Greek are now angry at the rich and well off Germans for not feeling obligated to save them from decades of their own mistakes, mismanagement, and misfortunes. And this is going on in collectivist Europe! Greece is broke, but because it is part of the EU, it can’t simply use the old standby of the pre EU days, and devalue its currency. So the other EU states demanded austerity measures. Germany’s leaders which just recently upped the retirement age from 65 to 67, in large part to address the unsustainable costs of the nanny state and the looming fiscal disaster, simply decided that handing the Greeks, whom can retire at 61 and were refusing to even go along and only promising (one that they would not keep I bet) to do something around 2015 by going to the hard age of 63, a wad of cash was not going to be well received by the German voters, and decided to put their foot down. And that pissed of the Greeks.
The Greeks feel that the greedy damned Germans don’t want to do their civic duty and pony up cash. Conversely the Germans are pissed that the lazy Greeks just want to make them pay for their sweet life. You have the Greeks – whom aren’t very well known for any kind of work ethic and love to party – angry at the Germans for not wanting to subsidize their ride. Where have we seen this before? I mean, is this hilarity or what? This kind of economic model was doomed from the start, but the evil ones are the ones that do not feel obligated to part with the fruits of their labor for whatever sad story the other side wants to use to keep the cushy life. If we were not heading the same way, this would be classic comedy. As for the future of the EU? My guess is the Euro goes bye-bye soonish. The Greeks are not interested in changing the way things are. The better off Euroepean countries are drawing the line because if they do this for Greece now they will have to do it for Portugal, Spain, Ireland, maybe Italy, and sooner than later Greece again. The end result is the same though: sooner than later the golden goose dies off, or cuts off the parasites feasting on it.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Another drop in the bucket
While I do not want to belittle the fact that Obama is pushing for nuclear energy, I find the much touted news that he is pushing for 2 new nuke plants is just a token - one that they can easily take away later when they have gotten what they want: more massive and horribly destructive taxes on all of us - and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It’s a joke. And insult. The Chinese are building over 120 new reactors in the next decade. That’s commitment to nuclear energy. 2 Plants are not going to add any significant power to the already desperate energy situation we face. Especially since my bet is that they will pull the plug on them anyway later, just like they did with Yucca Mountain. I hope the republicans see through this slight of hand and do not buck on their stance to kill that “Cap and Tax” bill. Remember that when government controls energy through prices they can control the peasants…
Blogging • Insane Stuff • News • Liberal Media • The Left • Science & Technology • Global Warming • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Monday, February 15, 2010
How much more humane!
Liberals were up in arms about the “evils” of the Bush administration, especially in regards to the efforts tied to GWoT. Evil American troops were ordered by Darth Vader to capture those downtrodden guys that are mad at capitalist America - explains why so many on the left empathizes with these guys, huh? – and stick them in those nasty “torture camps” like Club Gitmo. But because they were so successful at selling that idiotic meme, they painted themselves into a corner. Reversing course now brings with it the risk of looking like the idiots they actually are. Admitting that the holding facilities, while not a perfect solution, were the best option where no good one existed, simply is too painful. So instead of capturing them, since now that the leftists are in charge they can’t simply demand we “cut & run” because when the next attack happens we will all know to blame them and their idiocy for it, we are only left with the option of killing more terrorists. Case in point:
When a window of opportunity opened to strike the leader of al-Qaeda in East Africa last September, U.S. Special Operations forces prepared several options. They could obliterate his vehicle with an airstrike as he drove through southern Somalia. Or they could fire from helicopters that could land at the scene to confirm the kill. Or they could try to take him alive.
The White House authorized the second option. On the morning of Sept. 14, helicopters flying from a U.S. ship off the Somali coast blew up a car carrying Saleh Ali Nabhan. While several hovered overhead, one set down long enough for troops to scoop up enough of the remains for DNA verification. Moments later, the helicopters were headed back to the ship.
Now don’t get me wrong: most, if not all, of these bastards need a good killing. There are no compromises to be reached with them. It is us or them. They are not going to sit down with us and talk it out. Using drones to pop them when we can is a necessary step in curtailing their operations. But the largely unspoken fact is that since we aren’t willing to just wipe out everyone that lives in the swamps where these cockroaches are bred – thankfully so – we remain limited in our capability and responses. Our most important weapon, believe it or not, is intelligence. If we know what they are doing, hopefully, we can work against them. Thwart their efforts. Difficult under the best of circumstances, and even harder when you have these idiots in charge as the panty bomber proved. Sure Big Sis Napoletano will tell you the system worked, but we all know we got lucky there.
There is a big problem with this intelligence gathering strategy, as the article itself points out. No, it isn’t that we make more terrorists when we are aggressive and kill terrorists like the leftist idiots would like you to believe: it is that we are not gathering as much intel as we could because we are trying to avoid capturing terrorists. All because back when Bush was in charge, their BDS didn’t let these leftist tools see the difficult choices and options, leading them to denounce any and everything that was done by that administrations as not just bad but criminal. That stupidity has literally left them with no options of where to put prisoners now that they are in charge. Not unless they want to show how farcical and stupid their objections were in the first place. Nobody wants these bastards because they are real dangerous. They demonized Gitmo and are now looking like they were talking out of their rear ends when the promise to close it by went bye, and they are now left with no end in sight. So we are left with no options. If we are in the dark about what the enemy is doing, it makes it easier for them to do it.
So now, not only have we been forced to be more brutal – we now just kill – we are leaving a big intelligence gap that will come back to bite us in the wake of this all. But Bush was the cowboy moron….
Blogging • Insane Stuff • Conflicts & Wars • War on Terror • Axis-of-Evil • Homeland Security • News • Liberal Media • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Job creation 101..
When Obama and crew saw the all but taken for granted Kennedy seat in blue state Massachusetts go republican, for the first time in almost 5 decades, over the abysmal economic situation, the terrible unemployment situation, the out of control government spending, the ridiculous stimuluspatronage bill, the record setting debt expansions, from people that ran on the previous administration’s lack of deficit spending discipline no less, only to then tack on in 1 year more than all the previous 8 years, and not to forget the ludicrous government takeover of 1/5th of the economy masquerading as healthcare reform, which the democrats continue to try and push for despite the fact that over 60% of the public is against it, and immediately tried to make like they suddenly cared about anything other than the massive expansion of government and introducing more marxism writ large, by pretending they had shifted their focus on jobs, I pointed out that all we would get was more of the same. I bet people that there would be a costly multi billion dollar government plan that would do nothing but create more government jobs and dig the debt hole deeper. I was lambasted for being negative, even accused of the usual bull. You know, you are a racist, and so on. Looks like I am yet again being vindicated. Now, I know that the collectivists writing this are coming at it from a different angle, but the facts remain the same:
WASHINGTON – It’s a bipartisan jobs bill that would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory and placate Republicans with tax cuts at the same time. But it has a problem: It won’t create many jobs. Even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation’s centerpiece — a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers — would work only on the margins.
As for the bill’s effectiveness, tax experts and business leaders said companies are unlikely to hire workers just to receive a tax break. Before businesses start hiring, they need increased demand for their products, more work for their employees and more revenue to pay those workers.
The reason this bill will do nothing is that it is just way too little, way too late. This administration is considered the most hostile one ever to the private sector for a reason. And that private sector sees this “jobs bill” for what it really is: fluff. Obama is promising them some meaningless tax cuts to take on huge risks. And that’s precisely what hiring new people is under this administration, These morons are destroying the private sector, directly and indirectly, with their reckless and ridiculous fiscal policies, and everyone, but especially small business owners, are just hunkering down and praying this stuff blows over sooner than later. How much of an incentive is a tax break of any kind, when you are looking at drastic cost increases – from the healthcare bill to other stupid anti-business regulations that seem to be the only thing these collectivists like – that dwarf that break? The answer is none at all. What Obama and the democrats are doing parallels mobsters promising to pay for your nose job, to help you look decent again, after they get done breaking every bone in your body. Nobody is going to buy that.
Rys, of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the credit could speed hiring once employers need more workers. But, he said, NFIB members aren’t seeing many signs of improvement.
And that’s the problem. We are being told things are getting better when they are not. Couple that with the private sector not trusting the crooks in DC, and you can see why whatever moneys these morons allocate for job creation will simply result in a faster growth in deficit spending and debt and yield no jobs for anyone but government bureaucrats.
All Things Government • Healthcare Reform • Economics • News • Liberal Media • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
If a private company did..
This, the government would screw them over. What’s the “this” in this case?
The Department of Health Care Services said Monday it has breached the privacy of 49,352 people who receive adult day-care services from the state. The department said that letters it mailed a week ago to 49,352 Medi-Cal beneficiaries wrongly included each patient’s Social Security number on their address labels. The department said the security incident took place Feb. 1, but it was only told about it on Thursday. It started to notify the 49,352 beneficiaries about the problem over the weekend.
I worked in the health insurance industry and such a mistake by a private company could cost them as much as $250K per incident. How are the bureaucrats in Cali reacting to their gross incompetence?
“At this point, there is no evidence that unauthorized parties have acquired or accessed beneficiary personal information,” the department said in a prepared statement. DHCS officials said they regretted the breach, which has so far cost the state $50,000. It blamed itself and a private vendor for the problem mailings.
These people will be lucky if they get a free credit report, and considering Cali’s financial situation, I would not be surprised the state tries to make money of this mistake. Of course, the big lesson here is that these are the people that the left wants you to believe will do a better job running our healthcare too. I am sure they can also pawn the blame off on some unamed “vendor” when they hose us over.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • All Things Government • Economics • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Friday, February 05, 2010
The domino effect
Yesterday I discussed the fate of Greece and the collectivist culture that took over nad has gotten them where they are today. Today I will tackle the next likely domino, Portugal. d
Portugal moved towards a political crisis on Thursday night as its finance minister appealed to opposition parties not to defeat the minority Socialist government over a regional finance bill that he said would undermine the country’s international credibility. In a televised address, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said opposition proposals to allow the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores to increase their debt would have “grave consequences for Portugal’s public accounts” and send “the worst possible message” to financial markets. Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said opposition proposals to allow the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores to increase their debt would send ‘the worst possible message’ to financial markets.
His warning came as Portuguese bonds and shares came under fire for the second day running as concerns over sovereign debt spread from Greece to other high-deficit countries in the eurozone. The Lisbon stock market fell almost 5 per cent on Thursday, the biggest daily fall since November 2008, and bond yields rose to new highs amid doubts over the ability of Portugal to consolidate its public accounts. The cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default also rose to a record high.
Like the economy of Greece, that of Portugal is living on borrowed time. The same problems that are threatening to bring down Greece are doing the same in Portugal. Only unlike the current socialist Greek government that has realized the fit has hit the shan, and is doing something to try and delay the inevitable, the current socialist government of Portugal is being accused of manufacturing a crisis to prevent their parliament, which is dominated by a coalition that actually wants to make change of direction and avoid the inevitable and complete collapse of the Portuguese house of cards, from doing anything.
The world is watching and reacting to the Greek and Portuguese meltdown going on. And I am sure that what is happening here in the US is influencing the run as well.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • All Things Government • Economics • News • The Left • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Thursday, February 04, 2010
As Greece goes….
So the Greeks are pissed at their government and on a war path, and threatening more strikes because they do not like the bitter pill decades of communist and/or socialist economics is now forcing them to swallow.
Greek tax collectors and customs officers walked off the job on Thursday, kicking off a spate of strikes against government austerity cuts designed to halt a financial crisis caused by massive debt. Both groups embarked on a two-day walkout ahead of industrial action called by civil servants, doctors and Communist-backed workers on February 10 and a general strike called by Greece’s main umbrella union on February 24.
“We have already made sacrifices and will accept no more cuts,” the chairman of the customs officers’ union Argyris Sakellaropoulos told Flash Radio. The unions are on the warpath over a government austerity programme that they say has progressively become harsher under pressure from the European Union and market speculation that has hurt Greek finances and rattled the euro.
Anyway, for those that don’t know the issues facing the Greeks, it is one that Obama and democrats are hard at work recreating here. The country has been in love with collectivism for decades now and has lived large on borrowed cash and time. Over generous benefit packages, unrealistically low retirement ages, social spending run amok, people that are always ready to party but absent when it is time to work, and a system that can virtually be paralyzed by ultra powerful unions that can make the country grind to a screeching halt, have reduced the Greek economy to a joke. The country suffers from a staggering debt, but because it is part of the EU they can’t just devaluate the currency yet again, as it had done in the past, and pretend all is well. The Greek government has to take drastic & painful measures precisely because it waited until the last possible moment to admit that the pace of the existing scheme was unsustainable.
Greece’s debt stands at more than 294 billion euros ($412 billion), its 12.7-percent deficit is well beyond EU limits of three percent of output for eurozone members and it suffered a triple downgrade of its sovereign debt in December. The government hopes to economise over a billion euros ($1.4 billion) from benefit cuts and operational cost reductions in the public sector. Overall, Athens aims to save over 10.3 billion euros ($14.3 billion) this year with improved tax collection, state cost cuts and reduced arms spending to bring the public deficit to 2.8 percent of output by 2012. The programme also seeks to stabilise Greece’s debt burden—one of the highest in the eurozone—and reduce it to 117.7 percent of GDP by 2012.
Simply put, the socialist experiment has reached the inevitable conclusion - the proverbial brick wall - in Greece, and the house of cards is imploding. Those that have lived high on the hog however, don’t want the free ride to end. The unbelievable part in all of this is that these harsh measures are being initiated by a avowed socialist. Many say that it is all too little, too late. The place is simply now dysfunctional and not willing to do what it takes to even get out of the hole they are in. This same story is also repeating itself in other Eurozone countries like Portugal and Spain – whom had been actually making progress under Aznar a while back before electing Zapatero who literally destroyed all the positive reforms – and even France and Germany are wondering how bad things are going to get. The writing is on the wall.Sooner or later the “free ride” comes to an end.
Blogging • Insane Stuff • All Things Government • Economics • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink