California Skanking

California: The Lindsay Lohan of States

“ Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You're the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it. [WSJ]

More?  YOU WANT MORE? okay “ After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We'd feel sorry for you if you didn't constantly flip us the bird. Instead, we're making bets on how long it will be before your next meltdown. Oh, wait—you're already melting down. You've racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn't include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you'll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years. Your government's run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they're not taxing or spending, they're creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren't for your sunny climate. Which may explain why you're so obsessed with climate change. If your climate changes, no one, including your Hollywood friends, would tolerate you anymore. So you've created a law to tax carbon emissions—no matter that it will kill jobs.  [still more ... ] ” To sum up: A consensus that congress should refuse to give so much as a farthing to bail CA out of it's coming meltdown.

Obama guard can't take it?

Dyin' here boss Security cop guarding Obamatons shoots self... Laurel & Hardy in India I can't breathe

Frequent Flyer Scrip

Fur Hat Proposal: Pay off the National Debt with Frequent Flyer Miles

Straight Flush

Rove Elephant Kills Five!

Circle of Stupid: How the NRSC and Karl Rove Cost the GOP as Many as Five Senate Seats

“ The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent $3 million in the week before the election on the ill-fated campaign of Carly Fiorina, despite polling that showed her trailing by 9 points to the tiny Marxist Barbara Boxer (Fiorina ended up losing by… 9.8%). In the mean time, Ken Buck lost by a tiny margin in Colorado; Nevada’s Sharron Angle lost by a similar narrow vote total, Dino Rossi was edged by Patty Murray in Washington, 27,000 votes swung the election against Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and and Joe Miller is hanging by a thread in Alaska.     In Alaska, the final results may not be known for some time, but the NRSC’s final ads actually ended up helping Lisa Murkowski in her write-in campaign against GOP nominee Joe Miller. Instead of attacking Murkowski — the candidate who most threatened the party’s nominee — the NRSC instead took aim at Democrat Scott McAdams, who had no chance of winning. Any support they drove from McAdams was far more likely to go to Murkowski than to Miller — meaning the NRSC effort probably did more harm than good for Miller’s campaign. In other words, the NRSC’s idiocy — combined with outrageous remarks by Karl Rove on national television — likely doomed four or five true conservative candidates to extinction.  [... Hot Air]

All I have is a vacuum

Also - "A Borrowed Saw Cuts Anything" Dick Kramer

A soldier's lament

Why I quit... Desert Storm vet explains decision to leave Air Force after 22 years

“ You’ve elected officials who, for partisan points, spoke openly that the “…war is lost.” I happened to be in a dining facility in Baghdad that day, filled with the (mostly) young faces of (mostly) Army men and women. CNN was on the TVs, and things got very quiet when this elected official continued on, railing that the mission that some of these very people were here to do, had “…failed.”

Maj. Banzet gets very specific, and I'm certain he speaks for, not just the vast majority if military families, but the rest of us too.   Even when we're at the mall, we think of you. You elected officials who continually defame and berate military members ... You elected officials that promised to take property from some Americans, and give it to you, merely because they had more than you did ... You elect officials who openly embrace illegal activity; but they don’t have to live with the consequences. You elect officials who are openly racist, decrying that “White folks’ greed drives a world in need…” and that their own grandmother was a “…typical white person. The Justice Department is now apparently, under sworn testimony, the Department of Racial Payback ... “ My oath was this: “I, Mike, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”  I took that oath seriously. But you have responsibilities, too. You should take them seriously. [...] ” Tom Mann

The Fun Continues - Redistricting

“There's really no gentle way to say this  so I'm just going to be blunt:....”

That opener, coming as it does from the WaPost, means FUN  FOR US! (Your fun may differ)

“ ... what's really bad for President Obama and his party is the likely impact of the 2010 Census and ensuing House of Representatives reapportionment on the distribution of votes in the 2012 Electoral College. We can talk all day about whether a majority of voters would support Obama for re-election or not, but what really counts in presidential elections is the Electoral College. Each state's electoral vote equals its number of representatives in the House plus two, for its Senate delegation. And since the U.S. population continues to flow South and West, reapportionment will probably add House seats in red states and subtract them in blue states. Thus, the Census looks like a setback for Democratic chances to win the 270 electoral votes necessary to become president. Texas, which has voted Republican in 9 of the last 10 elections will gain 4 electoral votes, according to projections from preliminary Census data by Polidata.com. The other gainers -- one vote each -- include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah. All of these states have voted for the GOP candidate in at least 7 of the last 10 elections. To be sure, Florida and Nevada have been more up for grabs of late: Obama carried both in 2008. But [...]

Michelle Dear Gawd

No. Words.

tip: follow the link

PostSecrets

PostSecrets

Juice said this brought a tear to her eye.  But she's a girl. Say, how about them Bears?

Laffer Reprised

I thought this a good time to reprise this post from September 2009 (and included in my "Defining Articles" list below.

Today'$  Laffer "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

Art Laffer's excellent column in today's WSJ  (Taxes, Depression, and Our Current Troubles ) set me in motion.  Excellent because Laffer has an ability to distill weighty economic theory down to a simple, easily digestible syrup.  While recognizing that I hardly qualify to sneer at anybody's intelligence quotient, there are two areas where I most certainly do.  Anybody promoting the notion of man caused climate change, or anybody claiming that Reagan's adherence to Laffer Curve principles was a disaster,  is too freaking stupid Inbreeding  to be taken seriously on any matter.  These three short videos are guaranteed to confer upon the viewer a better understanding of tax policy than possessed by any elected Democrat in the nation .  Period.  Even watching  the first 3 minutes of  L1  may suffice.  Watch, and enjoy hilarity like this from L3: “ Here's a real-world example. Back in 1989, I worked for Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon. As the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, he sent a letter to the JCT, asking how much tax revenue would be raised if the government confiscated every penny of income about $200,000. What did the JCT say? On your screen, you can see Senator Packwood's November 14 floor statement in the Congressional Record. As the Senator explained, the JCT estimated that this 100 percent tax rate would collect $104 billion in 1989, rising to $299 billion in 1993. And when Senator Packwood asked the bureaucrats whether this was realistic, they gave him the same revenue estimate, but included a footnote stating "that these estimated taxes do not account for any behavioral response." This is sort of like the fiscal equivalent of "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" (Laffer 3) ”  Laffer 1 - 8 minutes Laffer 2 - 7 minutes Laffer 3 - 7 minutes

"Hallelujah!" Random Act of Culture

A Random Act of Culture Breaks Out

Jodi

Thank you for your past service, but ...

Segue California Rep. Jerry Lewis

“ I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University. William F. Buckley, Jr.

Patrick O'Connor's masterfully understated bitch-slap of  legacy GOP posterboy Rep. Jerry Lewis should, I hope, be enough to banish him to third chair in the new House orchestra. “ Some Republicans will go to great lengths to prove they’ve heard the clarion call to rein in federal spending. California Rep. Jerry Lewis, anxious to regain the chairmanship of the powerful House Appropriations Committee when Republicans return to the majority next year, embraced a bid by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, his conservative nemesis, to join the panel that dictates federal spending. Messrs. Flake and Lewis once fought over money for a swimming pool in the Californian’s district. During the Republicans’ last stint in the majority, the two regularly sparred over earmarks. But Mr. Lewis, who has since embraced a ban on those member-directed projects, needs to bolster his bona fides with fiscal conservatives to reclaim the job he held when Republicans were bounced from power in 2006, in part, for steep increases in federal spending. Mr. Lewis needs a waiver to circumvent House Republican rules that prevent lawmakers from serving more than six years atop a committee. [....  Rep. Lewis Seeks to Prove Fiscal-Conservative Cred]