Second Look at "Healthy, Weathy and Wise"

Amid all the debate over ObamaCare, I routinely see and hear the notion that Republicans, Romney especially, have no plan as an alternative to ObamaCare.  This is bogus.  (First, a return to the staus-quo ante is much preferable to ObamaCare as it is a monstrously destructive and authoritarian law.)  Romney's chief economic advisor (and the man who will guide economic policy for the nation should Romney win the election) wrote a little book on pro-market healthcare reform years ago. I pointed out his book and his healthcare ideas on this blog in 2006!!  Alas, 2006 was the year that the eletorate decided that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would be the best stewards of our future.  Whoops.  So, these ideas never saw the light of day, but they've been there all along.  Alas, with the nation craving for an alternate solution in the wake of yesterday's SCOTUS decision, what do you know, Hubbard and his co-authors are on the Op-Ed pages of the WSJ today with exactly the ideas they have for healthcare reform first enumerated in their little book.

UPDATE: The original link to the book is dead.  Here is some background on the book and here is more.

Airbus in Alabama

Stop the presses!

Rapacious, anti-union aerospace company wants to build airplanes in a "right to work state!!   Get me President Obama!  Get me the National Labor Relations Board!  We must tackle this injustice, we must right this wrong!  How dare they build airplanes where they choose and not where we think they should!

Will Money Surge to Obama As He Stumbles?

So back during the golden age of Romney Angst, I posited that once Romney secured the nomination and showed a little bit of that organizational skill that made him successful in business, his chances of beating Obama would look alot better and the campaign money would flow in.

Well, I failed to apply the inverse of this theory - that as Obama stumbled and his chances at re-election eroded the campaign cash would dry up or otherwise get harder to come by.  (Why did I not see this?  Don't know, but maybe it has something to do with Obama being the smartest President ever and a Lightworker and all...)   Well, it's a little hard to parse but I think this is happening (although I still think that the word has gone out from the Clintonites to donors to keep their money from Obama).  It definitely looks like Dear Leader's fundraising is lagging if not struggling.  If his chances continue to slip, this will get worse.  This doesn't help.  Forget about the SCOTUS and ObamaCare or Eric Holder, when the dean of conventional wisdom political punditry says your going to have a hard time, that doesn't make people want to dig deep into their wallets.

Trust me folks, the wave is building and the crash is coming.  Expect more rats to leave the ship like this.

So Long DWS?

I have chronicled the wonderful gift for Republicans that is DNC Chairwoman Debbie Whatshername Schultz, for example here and here.  Well, it looks like the Dems can no longer afford this gift that keeps on giving to Republicans, DWS's head appears to be on the chopping block at the DNC.  I don't doubt it, first of all she's appalling and on the merits, they should bounce her.  Second, she's Obama's hand-picked gal and since the Clintonites are in the middle of taking back the party and easing the Lightworker into retirement, why would anyone expect a vestige of America's experiment with Lightworking to persist? 

Europe's Sacred Cows That Need Slaughtering

Europe, as most know, is in a bad way right now.  Europe's problems have been building for years so they are unlikely to be resolved quickly, but more than that they are unlikely to be resolved because the only realistic solution run counter to four of Europe's most cherished sacred cows, or I should say the European elite's sacred cows.

1)  The Euro Itself - the common currency has many well documented flaws and it was judged to be unworkable in the long term before it was even initiated.  The principal set of flaws obviously are the productivity gap among European nations, the wide range of fiscal behaviors across the continent, and the differences in the economic models of the countries in the zone.  It is unclear that the Euro can ever work, even if governments didn't engage in profligate fiscal policy and the banking system was healthy.  Which leads us...

2) The Social Democratic Welfare State - there simply is no future for countries that work ever shorter weeks as part of ever shorter careers.  The developing world wants to be rich too and they will out-work and out-compete lazy developed countries in time.  Productivity is a relentless force, if you are not standing still, you are falling behind.  Furthermore, spending enormous sums of money, more money than you have, to subsidize the falling behind will accelerate the process.

3) Champion Banks - European nations protect their leading banks and use them to advance the elite's broader agenda.  Everyone knows that banks buy the government bonds that enable the welfare state and support nationalistic industrial policy.  If JP Morgan bought Societe General, for example, this game would quickly come to an end, but that is how these banks can mostly painlessly be saved.  European banks need capital, and foreign banks could come in with oodles of capital and fix things pretty quick, but Euro elites s can't conceive of ceding control of their banks and couldn't bear the thought of taking orders from New York or London or Beijing.

4) Green Energy - climate change and all the windmill-tilting silliness that has emanated from a belief in it is destroying Europe.  First, it's enormously expensive when they desperately need the money and can't afford such frivolity.  Second, it makes European economies uncompetitive, which undermines society as a whole.  Unless you have an unassailable competitive advantage in something, like say the Germans have which engineering and manufacturing, higher energy costs will drive most of your business away in time.

Maybe one or two of these sacred cows can lumber on and Europe can right itself, but certainly not all.  Europe is going to have to slaughter a couple of these if not all of them if it is to recover.

UPDATE:  In a move that puts me in mind of Christopher Walken demanding "more cowbell", the EuroGeniuses have just thrown a 130 billion euro slab of Keynesian stimulus over the transom.  This is dumb, of course, and will do nothing.  So why bother?  Merkel has been under pressure to loosen the purse strings on the German taxpayers' wallets and the big meeting in Rome today was a chance for the other three Euro doofuses to gang up on her to that effect.  With this paltry concession, which will likely be financed disproportionately by Germany, Merkel can say she's on board and helping when she really probably told MontiRajoyHollande to go suck a bratwurst.  The leadership vacuum in problem beset Europe remains, the leadership for Germany remains stalwart.

Peas In a Pod

The appropriate color-blind interpretation of this news is:
"Despicable human being endorses despicable human being."

Anna Schwartz, RIP

Anna Schwartz has died at 96. 

Ignore the Polls: Obama Will Shortly Implode

While I predicted that Obama would meltdown almost on the day that he took office, we sit on the cusp of his re-election battle and he has stubbornly hung on to stay in contention, at least superficially.  So I am making another prediction, actually more of an update, I guess, to my original meltdown trajectory.  So here goes.  The Obama presidency/campaign/phenomenon will shortly implode.  Yes, "implode", as in spectacularly fail and wind up in ruins.

Let's rattle off the short version of the case: the Lightworker has made terrible decision after terrible decision just as his opponent has emerged, one of the very few bright spots in the economy is slowing down (the other bright spot he dare not mention), his fundraising is sputtering, we stand on the precipice of his signature achievement getting slapped down by the SCOTUS, and the world looks a mess and the US is impotent on the world stage.  Furthermore, the biggest dog in the pack is undermining him, Democrats are talking about skipping the Convention (think about that, it is the biggest shindig in the political universe, the temporary epicenter of power, and career-minded politicians are staying away???), his core political base has just suffered a defeat more terrifying than they could have imagined even two years ago, and the MSM, which has been the one element holding the Obama presidency aloft, is starting to go wobbly.  One more setback and the MSM might just bail altogether and seek to preserve what measly quantum is left of their credibility and self-respect.  Oh, and did I mention that Obama has picked a fight with a 2000 year old institution that would have likely supported him or been neutral but is now actively fighting his policies??

I don't care what the polls say, Obama is hanging by a thread and that thread is fraying.  Soon it will break and ...well...he falls, and falls far, as all lifted up on the phony air of unreality must do.

Urban Bike Share Programs Are Dumb

Via Mark Perry, I see that ReasonTV has a little video report on DC's version of the worldwide idiocy of urban "bike share" programs.  Check out the video.  We're actually getting our own version of this trendy stupidity here in the Big Apple real soon.  As Reason points out, these programs are mostly for rich, educated white people so that they can feel good about themselves in thinking that they are doing something good for the planet (which they are not, global warming is phony and even if it wasn't phony, the rest of the world simply doesn't care so your peddling is instantly dwarfed and negated by millions of Chinese that want heated homes and they don't care if it comes from burning shitloads of coal).  On top of that basic flawed premise, these programs don't work out so well in reality.  At least in New York it appears that the government isn't on the hook for too much money, they've got suckers like Citibank to foot the bill, although I'm sure Citibank will only stick around for so long and the taxpayers will eventually pick up the tab.

Tidbit from the Annals of Government Genius

Translation of what is to follow:  "Government sinks close to $1 million into renovating a house in gang-infested neighborhood and wonders why it won't sell."

A federal program to buy and renovate foreclosed homes on Westchester County’s worst blocks was supposed to breathe life into dying neighborhoods, but officials are now struggling to sell some of the new housing.

Westchester County received $7.3 million in federal recovery funds to buy 12 foreclosed or abandoned properties in Mount Vernon, Peekskill and Yonkers. In one case the county allocated up to $942,000 in federal and state funds to fix up and market a three-family home in Yonkers surrounded by conditions that would scare most potential homebuyers.  “It’s extremely difficult for us to resell those properties, particularly in Yonkers. There’s just no interest whatsoever,” Norma Drummond, county deputy planning commissioner, told the Board of Legislators’ Government Operations Committee last month. “In some cases it’s the neighborhood. Even though we’ve invested in this one property, the rest of the neighborhood hasn’t improved enough.”

Drummond told legislators the toughest sell is 31 Oak St. in Yonkers, a three-family home in which the county invested up to $862,000 to buy and renovate, plus $80,000 in state funds to make it more affordable to a buyer who then would rent the other two units. Oak Street’s undesirability was underscored April 21 when Mayor Mike Spano came to the intersection of Oak and Elm streets to announce enhanced police patrols in the area after a series of shootings and stabbings.

There are so many things wrong with this.  First, the neighborhood is a shithole, so nobody in the government has heard of the saying "location, location, location."  Second, they pumped close to $1 million into a structure that probably wasn't worth more than $100,000.

So the government is engaging in real estate investment and doing a piss poor job of it too. Shocking.  This was that awesome stimulus money too.

Morgan Freeman Is a Great Actor, Clueless Political Analyst

This couldn't be further from the truth, we're in a hell of a lot of trouble if we re-elect Obama.  We're in a hell of alot of trouble now after just 3.5 years of him.

Making Sense of Obama's Bailout of Holder

The NRA is already pretty fired up about defeating Obama, it is their number #1 priority.  From what I see and hear they see it as close to the most important thing they've ever done.  They are already hard at work and this gambit from Obama to grant Eric Holder executive privilege over Fast & Furious is gasoline on the fire.

It is fairly clear to knowledgeable observers that the federal government was supplying weapons to Mexican drug cartels for one of two purposes, either to give one cartel an advantage over rival cartels or (possibly and) to exacerbate gun violence in an attempt to impose stricter gun control laws in the U.S.  (It is this latter possibility which is more likely and precisely what has the NRA fired up - they see a second Obama term as a lock for aggressive regulatory gun control.)  Until now, it has been Eric Holder taking the public beatings and twisting in the wind.  Obama has had the opportunity for some time now to throw Holder under the bus to garner some good government bona fides.  Not only did not cashier Holder, Obama, with this move, has adopted the controversy as his own.  The Lightworker has bailed out Holder and taken on every liability for himself - the liability of a potentially deeply cynical ploy that has left murder and mayhem in its wake, the liability of government secretiveness, the liability of government ineptitude, etc. Why Obama would want to own all this is puzzling.

Now, Holder will face a contempt vote anyway, the documents will not be forthcoming giving a new set of fresh legs to the controversy for Obama's foes to pound him over, and Obama has attached his name to something that threatens to further his reputation as cynical, secretive and disdainful.  The only calculus that justifies this move is that the documents are so incendiary that they must be shielded at all costs.  Either that or Obama is just pretty stupid or doesn't care.

Beyond all that, does Obama think that these documents won't come out?  These documents are now prized gold that a number of media outfits are now keen to find leaked to them.  Might there be a Clintonite loyalist in the DOJ that just might leak these docs?

Bloomberg Poll a Wishful Thinking Outlier?

Well, we all know who Bloomberg News is rooting for and actively helping, but does this well-documented bias extend to its polling methodologies?  53-40 Obama over Romney?  Huh?  Other polling outfits don't even come close to that.  Furthermore, where do they get this "Romney can't connect with average voters stuff.  Maybe he can't but Obama of the infamous Anna Wintour fundraising gambit can?  Or maybe they just polled people at the Anna Wintour fundraiser...?

UPDATE:  And sure enough, the poll has glaring flaws. 

Bloomberg In Bizarre Swipe at Republicans...of 1932

Please tell me what is the point of this story:

Republicans Ignore Depression, Brawl Over Booze

It has exactly no current affairs relevance; it is, literally, a story about politics in the 1930s.  Actually when I read it, I thought that Bloomberg got the parties confused because, after all, it is the Democrats who are giving untoward special focus on boozing it up.  No such luck, it's just a gratuitous reach back into the past some eighty years in order to concoct some copy that bashes Republicans over prevailing poor economic conditions.  Hmm, why would that be valuable if you are a media organization in the tank for Obama??  And to think that this little tidbit was given a slice of the precious little real estate available on Bloomberg's homepage.  It's not like there are other big economic issues to talk about...

Hmmmmmmmm

Een tur est ting

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/07/12 -- Fortress Paper Ltd. ("Fortress Paper" or the "Corporation") (TSX: FTP), announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Landqart AG, a leading manufacturer of banknote and security papers, has had a material banknote order reinstated. This order was unexpectedly suspended in the fourth quarter of 2011 which negatively impacted the financial results of Landqart's operations in the first half of 2012.

So, who precisely needs a crapload of banknote paper...

Economic Reality Sinks In in Albany?

I said that New York state cannot thumb their nose at economic reality and keep fracking at bay forever

Meanwhile Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio (and North Carolina soon) are establishing early footholds in the fracking-reliant natural gas exploration industry while New York declares themselves out of the game. Pennsylvania is already garnering the jobs and tax revenue that naturally flows from openness to energy development.

Here is my prediction, several years from now, New York will cease this silliness and declare that it is open to fracking...

Now we have this:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is considering a plan that would allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing near the Pennsylvania border, according to a report in The New York Times.

After offering up two of the worst economic development ideas recently, might this be a bow to reality and a turn for Cuomo toward good sense?  We shall see.

My Cold Shower Is Looking Spot On.

With Mitt Romney moving into a slight lead in the polls in Wisconsin (!), it might be a good time to revisit my analysis of the not-to-distant conventional wisdom that Obama was a lock for re-election.

I'm Here to Cold Shower the CW on 2012

We are going to start seeing a ton of this kind of article, about how Obama is going to win in 2012 (here is another). I think these are reasonable analyses and I don't dispute the power of incumbency; I surely don't dispute that the slobbering love affair of the MSM/EJM with Dear Leader is going to kick into overdrive; and I don't dispute the idea that Republicans can screw up their chances. And of course, we never know what things will look like two years down the road. However, let me posit a few items that I've mentioned before but that are worth revisiting and combining.

- Obama will run with unemployment at/near 10% and gas over $4. While not a lock, these are highly probable. The economy is recovering but not fast enough to add the number of jobs needed to help Obama politically. Jobs creators are justifiably cautious and the only shift has been in Obama's rhetoric; the nasty, job-killing stuff he has foisted on the economy is still fully operational down in the inner workings of the economy. Even if unemployment moderates a bit, it is a virtual certainty that it will be higher than when he took office. Not good. Gas will be over $4 and food prices will be higher and rising (either explicitly so or stealthily so). These are core pocketbook problems that Americans have historically taken out on incumbent Presidents.

- Many Americans are still spitting mad at the MSM/EJM for their despicable performance in the 2008 campaign, a performance which continues today, and the thicker they lay it on, the more they slobber over Obama, the more grossed out it will make regular Americans and the more it will galvanize an anti-Obama coalition. The media will conduct Act II of its slobbering love affair from a vastly diminshed position in American society, with vastly reduced influence, this time around.

- The stakes are so high. If we re-elect Obama, we live with ObamaCare forever and we get more "wise Latina" entho-racial progressive victimology crap placed onto the High Court. Americans like continuity, but they have their limits.

- The world will look a mess, further revealing what a non-entity at best, a provocateur through his weakness at worst, Obama is on the world stage.

- His coalition is gone. And, Dear Leader may excite his base, but you can bet your keister that the other side's base will be damned excited too.

- ObamaCare will continue to backfire. Premiums will rise, doctors will refuse Medicare, drug prices will go up, among many other adverse developments. And we may even see the SCOTUS declare major portions of it unconstitutional. Under that scenario are we really going to re-elect the guy whose signature achievement proves to be a legally out-of-bounds, economic flop?

This is from January of 2011 mind you.  Much of this is now showing up in the polling and is the emerging conventional wisdom of the punditry.  But I heed the Good Professor's warning...don't get cocky kid.

4th Quarter and Team Obama Is a Bunch of Scrubs

I have blogged at length about one of Obama's core problems - he's only got B-Teamers (at best, really many of these people are C-Teamers or worse) surrounding him, doing the actual job of governing. 

 One of the structural flaws that he had coming in to his Presidency was a shallow political base. As a newby, he didn't have the deep networks and connections to draw the top talent to his side; he only had the ability to draw party loyalists who do what they do for the party, not for him. As he proves damaging to the party, these folks will not sign up to resurrect the great Obama experiment, which is a major problem for him. He is going to need top class talent to resurrect his presidency. Where is he going to find these people? Where are the All-stars going to come from? Answer: He's not gonna get them. Is he really going to turn things around dramatically in 20 months with a bunch of B-teamers? Doubtful.

Take this for example, this woman is a sure-fire D-Teamer.  Obama's biggest weakness is the economy and yet he can't find anybody who can come within miles of qualified to be Commerce Secretary while Bryson recuperates?

Hydrocarbon Cornucopia

Major natural gas discovery off of Mozambique.

"We estimate this new complex, which is located entirely within the Offshore Area 1 block, holds 10 to 30-plus trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of incremental recoverable natural gas resources," said Daniels.

This is an absolute shitload of gas.  Couple finds like this with the fracking revolution going on here in the U.S. and the world is looking more and more awash in clean-burning natural gas.

Clintonism vs. Obamaism

This Thomas Lifson article at the American Thinker lays out exactly what I've been saying about the Clintons vs. Obama.  The only difference is that I've been predicting it and tracking it for over a year.

MSM Catching on to Stagflation?

Are the mainstream financial/business media catching on to what I've been saying for some time now...stagflation.  It's Fox though, I wouldn't hold my breath for CNN to join in.

#DoingJustFine

Love it...#doingjustfine is already a popular hashtag on twitter.  Yes, indeed, doing just fine...like these Kentucky coal mines.

And can you hear the collective "Gee, thanks, genius" coming from Europe after the Lightworker urged them to take decisive action.  Ah, that's it!  Decisive action!  Why didn't we think of that?!?!

UPDATE:  To be fair, if the Lightworker had just put the word "relatively" before "fine", he'd have been accurate, because he was discussing the private sector relative to the public sector.  As we know, the public sector is self-destructing.  So, yes, compared to the cities, states, and federal government groaning under the weight of too much debt and unfunded liabilities that can't and won't be met, the private sector is doing OK because it is, in the aggregate, hanging on.  That is hardly an inspiring message.  Still, that is not what Lightworker said, so he deserves all the ridicule he gets. 

Under the Bus with Obama

This whole series of links from the Good Professor echo what I said way back when..."what is the Democrats' threshold of pain"?

UPDATE:  I bow to no one in my admiration for the blogging over at Powerline, but for the second time in a week, Heyward is suggesting that Bubba Big Dog Clinton is trying to steer either the tone or content of the Obama campaign/policy machine.  Huh?  Do we need to revisit the utter destruction that Obama is visiting upon the Democratic party from the New Jersey gubernatorial election straight through to Scott Walker?  They've lost numerous important elections, their donor base is drying up, and the media is even showing signs of going wobbly on the Lightworker.  He's alienated independents, fired up the Republican base like no one else could do, and even disillusioned radical liberals.  And yet Bubba is trying to influence tone?  Puhleeze.  Bubba is taking back the steering wheel.  He is intent on purging Obamaism from the Democratic Party and it starts with purging Obama.

The Money Game

I have maintained for a long time now that Romney's campaign fundraising would be formidable.  I took a small bow last month and made this prediction:

So, Romney's fundraising is kicking in as I told you it would.  I predict that next month's report on fundraising will show continued improvement.

 It showed continued improvement alright...

According to a news release from the Mitt Romney campaign, the Romney/RNC partnership outraised Obama by nearly $17 million in its first full month of operation

Does the Stock Market Want Obama Re-Elected? Answer: Probably Not

Mark Perry's Carpe Diem is one of my favorite blogs, although from time to time he puts up a head-scratcher of a post.  Today is a case in point with a post about the stock market's predictive value leading up to presidential elections. Naturally, if you read carefully, the post tells you that the indicative period in the stock market is from July to October.  Great, so why post this now?  Also, you have to read carefully to understand that Perry isn't interpreting anything, but this post is nonetheless misleading because of the strong impression it gives that the stock market wants President Obama to be re-elected, which is achieved mostly by virtue of the graph and the tight relationship it illustrates.

This meme is definitely floating around and it really bugs me.  So let's get this straight folks, the stock market does not want Obama to be re-elected.  You absolutely cannot make this analysis with two data sets, you probably can't even make that analysis with any number of data sets.  Anecdotally, I can tell you, being in this whole stock market gig for a decade, that nobody makes the argument that an Obama second term is a priori good for the stock market, as in an identifiable impetus of stock market returns.  That said, nobody precludes stock market returns as a possibility in a hypothetical Obama second term and nobody thinks an Obama defeat is necessary for good performance from stocks.  However, the conventional wisdom is more or less one of two opinions: 1) an Obama re-election is likely to be accompanied by Republican gains in the Congress, thereby ensuring either gridlock or more balanced policy-making, which would probably be good for stocks or 2) a good economy helps stocks and Obama can't/won't be good for the economy, so a Romney win is better for stocks.

However, if you are impressed with simplistic two-data set analysis or if you desperately want a counter-argument to those who might take Perry's graph and argue that the stock market wants Obama to be re-elected, I can help you out. In the graph below, I've plotted the S&P 500 Index since Obama's inauguration date along with Gallup's daily tracking of his approval rating.  For your assistance, I've added trend lines and for shits and giggles I've also added a little vertical line to demarcate a little something that happened in November 2010.  So if your looking for a pretty solid relationship, look no further - from day one Obama's approval has been heading in one direction and the stock market has been heading in another. 

More "Austerity" Blather from CNBC

CNBC continues its awful coverage of the European sovereign crisis.  In an article on Greece running out of money, there is this small, wildly nutty tidbit:

Prolonged austerity is making it harder, not easier, for governments like Greece to become self-reliant again.

This is unadulterated poppycock.  Austerity is a million miles from Greece.  It is an utterly discredited model and bankrupt system that has made Greece unable to become self-reliant.  Greece's continuing relative profligacy is just hastening the implosion of the country.  Greece is a voracious, all-devouring sinkhole, no amount of continued assistance will stabilize it or set it on any type of reasonably stable course.   Austerity, which has yet to be seen, is coming...not by virtue of any political choice, but by physics - cold, hard, reality.

Bubba Is Not Playing Small Ball

Well, Bubba is making quite a splash and the MSM and the paid punditry simply can't miss this any more.  Welcome to the party folks.  Over at Powerline, Steven Heyward has some amusing and spot-on commentary on Bubba's political aura:

"Unlike Cory Booker, Harold Ford, and other lesser Democrats, you can’t leash the Big Dog. Even though he hasn’t been on the hustings for several years and arguably flopped in South Carolina in 2008 on behalf of Hillary, Big Dog Clinton doesn’t make many political mistakes.  Even his B-game is impressive."

Yet, despite his accurate insight, Heyward attributes small ball motivations to Bubba's sabotage of the Lightworker.

"First, perhaps this is merely payback for besting Hillary in 2008 ...Second, a variation of the first theory is that the Big Dog wants to kill off any chance of Hillary replacing Biden on the ticket, thinking this would also tarnish her chances in 2016 if she agreed to this desperation measure.  ...
Third, and my favorite theory, is that Clinton knows that Obama’s class warfare strategy is a loser, and is making his comments deliberately to force Obama to change course while he still has time."

I think this gives Big Dog Bubba too little credit.  This isn't about Hillary and influencing Obama's policy stance.  As I have stated, Barack Obama is only renting the Democratic Party and Bubba & Co intend to do nothing less than full scale reclamation by evicting the tenant, cancelling the lease, and seizing control of the asset anew.  Throw in massive ego with an eye to a place in history and you have the Big Dog playing the Big Game.

My Little Conspiracy Theory Is Now Conventional Wisdom

A little self-back pat here dear readers.  Remember, I posited in early 2011 that the Clintonite machine was poised to take back the Democratic Party that Obama was renting and that Bubba & co. would sabotage the Lightworker.  If you don't remember...

Starting here.  Elaborating here.  Analyzing still further here.  Expanding upon here. Fleshing out here. Updating here. Adding to here. Tracking developments here.  Picking up subtle clues here.  Summing recently up here.  (you get the point, but you can search "Clintonite" on this blog for much much more...)

This is now conventional wisdom.

Also, folks I called the Obama Unravel in February 2009 (!!!), days after he took office.  Here is the pattern.  Not getting cocky, but it's looking awfully familiar to me...to wit Maureen Dowd??

Brace For It: Truly Despicable, Evil Human to Infect Congress

Wow.  I guess in the back of my mind I knew it would happen.  First some background.  For anybody who doesn't know New York politics, we Empire Staters are cursed with two of the most despicable and vile politicians to be found anywhere - this guy and this guy, both truly loathsome in their own special way.  Well, turns out one them - the worse of the two fittingly - is going to Washington D.C.

A danger to the republic doesn't even begin to describe it...brace for impact.

UPDATE:  Told ya'.

New Study Says What We've Known for Decades, Minimum Wage Laws Drive Up Costs

Shocker.  "Prevailing wage" laws, the left's new and improved high-octane minimum wage law concept, drive up costs for public projects and sap taxpayer resources that could be used for other things.  The report is obviously flawed since it comes from that notorious right-wing swamp...um, er...Columbia University...huh?

A new study examining the effect of prevailing-wage laws, which set a minimum salary for construction workers on public projects, concludes that they drive up the cost of taxpayer-funded projects in New York state by as much as 30%.

The report from Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate, to be released on Tuesday, wades into a thorny debate over the laws, which in New York mandate that trade workers on public projects be paid on par with existing labor agreements.

The study is inconvenient as unions are salivating over a gusher of money set to flow from Andy Cuomo.

The study comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed to spend $16 billion a year on infrastructure through his New York Works program. The use of prevailing wages would tack $3 billion annually onto that plan, the study says.

It's not like the Empire State couldn't use $3 billion for this and that while still building what it wants to build (like an unneeded convention center in Queens, b/c visitors come to NYC to go to Queens...)

Here's my favorite part:

Critics of the study said Ms. Vitullo-Martin erred by simply comparing union and nonunion workers and ignoring the benefits they say trade unions offer, including better-trained workers and managers

Yeah, all those extra benefits like no-show jobs, over-billing, and general all-round corruption.

"Didn't Even Use Al 140 Characters"

Mickey Kaus is more devastating in his PS and PPS today than most bloggers are ever.  I am reminded of the Jack Palantz character in City Slickers:

P.S.:  As far as I can tell–and I watched it twice–the CBS Evening News did not bury it’s story on tomorrow’s crucial election. They didn’t run it at all. Nothing. Zip. And they say the liberal MSM is downplaying the recall in anticipation of a likely Walker victory. It’s as if Dan Rather were still alive. …  Scott Pelley did find time to report that there were no people killed by tornadoes–which I guess couldn’t have been held for a day. You never know when someone will be killed by a tornado, and then CBS would lose the story. … Pelley also featured a longish piece on the emergence of a “core of young cool royals” in the U.K. . But not uncool elected geeks in the Heartland. …
P.P.S.: Obama has now decisively intervened in the race, with a tweet. … He didn’t even use all 140 characters. … It’s an effort so self-protective and wussy it may come to stand for the President’s ineffectuality. Next he’ll tweet his opposition to Assad. …

On Twitter

BTW all...on twitter now...@Donny__Baseball

N.B.  that's two underscores

One More Reason Roger Goodell Is Awesome

Union busting.

More Than An "Oops" Really

His flame-out notwithstanding, Rick Perry has it exactly right.  Although I prefer "brain fart".  Oops is when you knock over a beverage.  Brain fart cannot be written off as a muscle spasm or not looking or being distracted.  Brain fart is a profound, albeit temporary, loss of all cognition, judgement and discernment with more than trivial consequences.

Jobs Data: Still the "Robert Half" Economy

Mark Perry breaks down the jobs report of last Friday that rocked markets and the Obama campaign.  I note the robustness of temporary hires.  You heard it here first folks when I dubbed this, over a year ago, the Robert Half Economy.

...going the full Galt may not be justified. But going the full Milton ain't justified either, after all we are still living with the spectre of the regulatory blobs of ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, Obama's EPA is in overdrive trying to raise our energy costs, and the rule of law is still being flouted from on high. So how does one make a halting, tentative commitment to the prospect of better times? Hire temps. If Obamacare survives judicial muster (or if Kath Sebelius is ordered to just implement it anyway) or if the economy shows signs of weakness or if another regulatory push seems like it's making traction, as a business operator you'll want to have the flexibility to ratchet back your commitment in a hurry. With temp workers, you just say "bye-bye", no difficult firing procedures, no wrongful termination lawsuits, no pension obligations, no union goons protesting layoffs. Easy peasy Japanesey. Thus, we are now Going Robert Half.

UPDATE:  Also from Mark Perry, severe price differences for certain medical procedures based on method of payment.  What did I say about "cash-on-the-barrel healthcare"?

Docs Have Their Own "Doc Fix"

It's called "Cash, Visa, Mastercard or American Express." The warnings were there. It was basic logic and common sense. I was just one among many who said it would happen - and it is happening, doctors are bolting Medicare in massive numbers. Stay tuned because soon we'll be hearing the same thing about any insurance coverage that comes out of the exchanges tied to Obamacare. Doctors will not provide life saving care for plumbers' wages.

Bubba Knifes Obama's Bain Crap

Well, dear readers (all 15 of you), I'm back from a not-so-relaxing week of vacation in which I was largely unaware of the news.  But I did pick up a little tidbit about Bill Clinton putting the stake into the heart of Obama's anti-Bain campaign tactic.  I've been saying it and saying it as Clinton surrogates have been pricking this balloon for weeks, but now the Grand Poobah has spoken - dead and buried.  While the Lightworker has Mitt Romney to fear slightly (his campaign strategy and tactics are surprising skeptics as an unexpectedly good combination of  aggressiveness and nimbleness), he has The Bubba to fear all the more.  Stay tuned for more overt Clintonite sabotage of HopenchangeNeedsMoreTime.

Think of this imagery...

I know there must be a scene in some movie somewhere in which the protagonist is running through some gauntlet, like a jungle or something, and getting pelted with darts that, as they accumulate, sap his strength. Ultimately our hero emerges into a clearing only to collapse from the multiple wounds at which point a large dark figure, the mastermind, emerges from just off-stage to finish off our protagonist with a final knife plunge, ensuring and taking credit for the finality of the protagonist's demise. The doomed, dart-ridden hero here is the Lightworker himself and the dark figure is Bubba sticking the knife in once and for all. Cut to black.

UPDATE:  Even Fineman gets it.