Crude Oil Train Derails, Spills Oil All Over Sen. Hagan's Re-election Campaign

Another train carrying crude oil has derailed and blown up.

No need to rehash this, shipping oil by rail is substantially more dangerous than via pipeline.  Of course, the greens don't want oil shipped at all, they don't want it removed from the ground in the first place.  Unfortunately for them, their dreams are not going to happen, the way we live today requires oil.  Once we realize that, we then have to make the decision to transport oil in the safest and most responsible way.  For political reasons, we have chosen not to do that.

BTW, that train blew up in Lynchburg, VA, which isn't too far from North Carolina, where Senator Kay Hagan is fighting for her political life, trying to convince voters there that she isn't a tool of  the Obama agenda.  This could make her campaign alot more difficult.

Looking Back in Laughter: In 2010, Al Hunt Is Lovin' Obama's Foreign Policy Team

Hey, I just unearthed this from the NBfPB archives.  What a find.

In 2010, Al Hunt, an in the tank Obama sycophant Journolist if there ever was one, admitted that Obama's economic policy team was performing badly.  But not to worry, his foreign policy team was crackerjack awesome.  That was a perfectly fine-tuned message because as Obama's domestic agenda sputtered and failed the press needed to turn elsewhere to chronicle "wins" and undergird the narrative of competency.  So as Obama turned to foreign policy, the press turned with him.  Well, here we are in 2014 and it is universally understood that the Lightworker's foreign policy lies in tatters.  In fact, it is so disastrous that his undistinguished economic record is starting to look good again by comparison.   That is not a high bar, but it is what it is.

What's my point?  Easy, it is this.  Don't listen to Al Hunt.

Wow: Andy Cuomo Is Called Out

Holy Moley.

You've heard about the New York governor's race from me before, and recently as well.

Cuomo is a legendary scorched-Earth, cynical SOB of the Clinton cadre.  Well, he recently sent Al Sharpton out as his errand boy to land a classic Democrat racialist low-blow against his challenger Rob Astorino.

Rob is having none of it.  In American politics there is tough talk and there is tough talk.  This is how it is done.

I will upload the video when I can…but, seriously, it is worth your time to click through.

The Sterling Thing: Two Unconventional Takes

You can always count on NBfPB for your unconventional take on race relations, because we are not cowed by the victimology police.  So here is a quick take on the Donald Sterling thing, aside from the fact that it is small potatoes as an issue in the world today.

Two points.

1)  The NBA decision was cowardly.  That's fine, I don't expect courageousness out of an institution setup like the NBA; they have an enormous stakeholder interest in the black community (fans, players, coaches, staff), they have a wet-behind-the-ears commissioner who is in no position to make courageous calls, and, frankly, they've wanted to get rid of Sterling who has been a long-standing embarrassment.  I get it, Donald Sterling is a pig and he is hardly the hill to die on in order to stand on principle.  Still, he did nothing illegal, there is no evidence he acted discriminatorily.  Even repulsive views are protected under the First Amendment.  A person's private thoughts are beyond the reach of sanction outside of society's opprobrium, and Sterling certainly has garnered plenty of that.  The NBA played the role of the thought police here.  I never expected courageousness out of the NBA, but that doesn't change the judgement - it was a cowardly decision from an institution structurally setup to make nothing other than cowardly decisions.  That's life.

2)  Blacks need to do better.  Yup, you read that right.  Blacks need to be more responsible members of the pluralistic society in which we live.  In short, they can't call for scalps at every little jot and tittle in the racial life of America.  Save the outrage for the truly outrageous.  And quit it with answering idiocy with more idiocy.  Specifically, I'm thinking of Larry Johnson.  The civil rights movement has bastardized the message of Dr. King and it has set race relations back decades, and LJ's comments represent the same kind of crap.  Dr. King fought for integration into society and color-blindness.  Don't go demanding segregation again, but only on your terms.  It cedes the moral ground the civil rights movement was founded on, it's rent-seeking, and it's just dumb.  You want a black-only basketball league?  Really?  No you don't, because it'll be nothing more than a glorified CYA league - it'll be worthless in contrast to the multi-billion dollar juggernaut that is the NBA.  (See above, Silver acted to preserve the good thing that you all - black and white together - have going.)  So, when an atrocious scumbag like Sterling is proven to be exactly what we've all always known he was (and happy to play along), spare us the outrage.  Save it for when we encounter real racism.  Then your outrage will be appropriate and needed.  What is REAL racism?  This.

Little Bit O' Vindication

One of my favorite diatribes against a clueles public official was aimed at former Australian Finance Minister Wayne Swan, who I might add is truly a fool. 

No worries, as they say, the Aussies have since shown the good sense to bounce the Labour Party, and Mr. Swan is once again a backbencher (a position loftier than he deserves, but so be it).

But, just a bit of a follow-up on the crazy mess that the likes of Mr. Swan foisted on the undeserving Aussies, which caused them to bounce these bufoons.

Twice as many civil servants than mining workers were hired in Australia’s 10-year resources boom, enlarging the bureaucracy and inflating public spending. Cutting back is now a priority for a government seeking budget savings.

In the 10 years through June 2013, 375,000 public sector workers were taken on compared with 173,200 mining workers, according to government data compiled by Bloomberg. Even as the mining boom boosted growth and tax receipts, the ballooning government wages bill added to strains on the budget and helped push sovereign debt to a record A$318 billion ($294 billion).

Two bureaucrats for every miner.  Excellent going Mr. Swan. 

Fortunately, the ship is being righted.

Ahead of its May 13 budget, Tony Abbott’s seven-month-old government has pledged 12,000 civil service cuts and commissioned a panel to audit public spending that’s due to deliver recommendations tomorrow.

First Canada, now the Aussies.  There is hope for us yet here in the US.

Eyes On The Ball, People...

I can't believe this is what we're obsessing over as the world turns in a more dangerous direction.

Murder, mayhem and authoritarian revanchism are on the march, and we're up in arms because a man everyone knew was a scumbag has been conspicuously proven thus by his skanky ex-girlfriend.

...and then there is this, the metaphorical place to where our beloved constitutional republic has been brought by an ammoral, power-mad cabal of elitist morons.  America should feel very dirty today, like the morning after when you realize you did something you really, really shouldn't have done.

The Fed's Nonchalance Is Scary

So the Case-Shiller index is out today and it looks like housing prices are way up.  Scott Grannis has a handy-dandy chart as well as a warning that housing prices, via "circuitous route," filter into CPI (inflation).



It is also worth noting that gas prices are up significantly this year.  Housing, fuel ...what else that people don't have any need for is getting more expensive?  That's right, food!

Housing, fuel and food all getting more expensive, but the Fed doesn't see any inflation, in fact they see the opposite.  An on that score, I wish I had thought of this to say...

“We occasionally worry about asteroids hitting the earth, or a major solar storm that could bring down the power grid for a long period of time and result in the deaths of millions of people,” according to the letter. “Either scenario is more likely to happen than the deflation that evidently keeps the world’s central bankers up nights.”

Yeah, Quit Yer Bitchin'

Much, much, MUCH more of this needs to go on.

I've been doing it.

I refuse to hear the bitching of the naïve, the moronic, the rubish or the sinister who helped get us into this mess.

90% of the media deserves this treatment and elitist phony-ass "conservatives" like Brooks should be high on the list for your lack of interest in their current complaints.

Reporter to Obama: State Your Policy; Obama: Why the Rush to War?

This little kerfuffle is a great window into the mind of the Lightworker and low ebb to which he has brought our country, and this post over at LI has the goods.

It is the equivalent of the cops coming to your house and saying "We'd like to ask you a few questions about Joe Blow" and you say "Well, I had nothing to do with his disappearance".

??? 2016

More buzz for my preferred candidate for 2016...?

Forget Christie and Jeb and Rand and Huckarino.  Pence = Real Dealeo

Andy Cuomo Says: "It's Good To Be the King"

On Internet forums, t-shirts, bumper stickers, billboards and yard signs all over the state of New York, Andy Cuomo is unflatteringly portrayed as a dictator and/or a jerk.  So, it might be less than brilliant to say something like this...

“It’s not a legal question. The Moreland Commission was my commission,” Cuomo said. “It’s my commission. My subpoena power, my Moreland Commission. I can appoint it, I can disband it. I appoint you, I can un-appoint you tomorrow.

“So, interference? It’s my commission. I can’t ‘interfere’ with it, because it is mine. It is controlled by me.”

Dictator much?  Jerk much?

Yup and yup.

Unfortunately historically here in New York, when faced with replacing d**kheads like Cuomo, we've never really had much of a positive alternative to replace them with (see Pataki, George).  Sometimes that's OK, you get addition by subtraction.  But this time around we do have a good alternative.  This is not just a "get rid of the jerk" election, we can actually do that while making a positive step.

* For those who don't know, the Moreland Commission was setup to explore ethics reforms (note:  Albany is widely known to be one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional legislatures in the country) and for Cuomo it is a fig leaf to make it look like he doesn't like the way Albany works.

Alot of "Amnesty Deal This Summer" Talk Portends What Exactly?

So, here is the lay of the land.  Obama is a lame duck, Democrats are looking extraordinarily weak going into campaign season for the midterm elections.  Republicans are riven internally into two camps on immigration, which for simplification purposes we'll call "pro-amnesty Hispanic outreach" vs. "why reward law-breaking, guaranteed future Democrat voters?"

Now we're hearing noises from both Republicans and Democrats that an "amnesty" type deal is coming.  We know that Democrats want to use immigration reform to get more Democratic voters.  Question:  Why would Republicans, facing better prospects after November, hand Obama and the Democrats a much desired victory that will hurt Republicans at the ballot box in the future?

Why indeed?  There are a few possibilities.

1) Republicans are titanically stupid.  This is a distinct possibility.

2) Republicans are calculating that doing a deal will blunt Hispanic turnout in November and allow them to claim they are "bi-partisan" and grab some street cred with Hispanics going into the midterms.  This is not much better than #1.

3) Republicans are acting cooperative and looking bi-partisan and pro-amnesty/immigration, but will run out the clock and be oh-so-miffed that they couldn't get something agreed to, but they tried.  This isn't all that smart, but it isn't criminally stupid either.

4) Republicans can maneuver Dems into a bad deal that blunts the Dems' play for more Dem voters but that gets Republicans credit for being pro-immigration.  This is smarter but implausible.

5)  Republicans are going to attempt to do a combo of 3 and 4 but ultimately wait until after November when they can do a much more favorable deal to position themselves well with Hispanics for 2016 but not have to hand Dems millions of new voters.  This is the smartest plan, and I hope is what all the talk is portending.  But I am not optimistic.

John Kerry Approves of Himself

In response to a minor kerfuffle of his own making (the "apartheid state" comment), John Kerry has said this...

"I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone..."

Well, we know from statements that they've made that the Israelis pretty much just want John Kerry to go away.  Puts me on mind of that famous C.S. Lewis quote, which is always worth reprising.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. "

The West's "peace process" is clearly a tyranny and John Kerry persists with being a profound pain in the ass with the approval of his own conscience.

Another Merger Comes Out of the Crappy Corporate Tax Code

Last week it was GE's bid for Alstom that highlighted the ongoing idiocy of the US corporate tax code.  This week it is Pfizer and AstraZeneca.  You make crappy policy you get crappy results.

Hey, we've been as anti-business in this country the past few years as we've been in two generations.  We don't deserve corporate domiciles.  These are global instittions, they can go where governments don't put a stick in their eyes.

California Loses Toyota HQ

Ouch.  Texas has stolen Toyota's North American HQ and the jobs that come with it.  This comes a few years after Tennessee stole Nissan's HQ.  I guess being the cultural capital of cool and "car culture" doesn't trump the crazy, anti-business climate in the Golden State.  This is fresh off the loss of Occidental Petroleum, which was less surprising, but still painful.

Hey, remember when California even lost the HQ of a shipping company to land-locked Arizona?  Ouch.

Rick Perry was recently up here in New York state selling the great business climate to long-suffering New York corporations.  He's doing something right, that's for sure.  At the very least, he knows an easy mark.

Ouch

As far as political symbolism goes, I can't think of crappier symbolism for a presidential administration. 

Who let this girl embarass Mrs. Lightworker like this?  Someone in the West Wing is getting fired.

General Electric, Irrationally Rational or Rationally Irrational?

GE is said to be buying France's Alstom for $13 billion. 

Two things. 

First, GE is buying this foreign company because the tax code incentivizes them to keep their cash abroad and never bring it home to invest here.  Totally rational.

Second, they must be really desperate if they are buying a French company.  Totally irrational.

GE Set to Face Long Arm of French State in Potential Alstom Bid

Maybe Jeff Immelt should have talked to this guy. 

Oh wait, he was too busy sucking up to the Lightworker and foisting ObamaCare on America.  Oh wait, Jeff, how is that working out?

Good Guys With Guns Are Winning

Global acts of piracy continue to fall and have hit a seven-year low, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

A total of 49 incidents were recorded around the world in the first quarter of 2014, a level not seen since 2007 when there were 41 reported attacks.

Naval forces and armed guards continue to keep a lid on incidents off Somalia which accounted for just five of the total, the same number as the first quarter of last year, and no successful hijackings.

Well, at least good guys property owners with guns are winning. I think they are good guys, they've spent tens of millions of dollars for these vessels that bring us all sorts of things that we can't grow or make on our own and allow us to send things that we grow and make to other people, making all our lives better.  Surely, Thomas Piketty would disapprove, but to deal with all the shit that is required to buy, insure, crew, operate, and keep vessels from getting pirated, most ship owners make more than the median salary.

BTW, notice no jibberish about "root causes".  Last I checked, poverty/political stability in Somalia had not been cured.  But piracy is down.  Funny that.

Never a Crackpot With a D Next to Their Name...

Conservatives Open Their Hearts to Crackpots

Apr 24, 2014 2:43 PM EDT

By Francis Wilkinson         

Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. Sarah Palin. George Zimmerman. "Bette in Spokane." Cliven Bundy. Every few months or so, conservatives elevate a new Everyman or Everywoman to embody their crusade.

I have a simple question for the likes of Francis Wilkinson. 

Are any of the following people what you would consider a crackpot? 

1) Alan Grayson, 2) Wendy Davis 3) Bradley Manning 4) Sandra Fluke 5) Howard Dean 6) Leland Yee 7) Marion Barry (whoops sorry, he's a crackhead) Al Franken 8) Rod Blagojevich

I'll stop there in the interests of time.  Any of them? 

Nation of Cowards Tells Holder to Beat It

I like this story for a lot of reasons.  First, it highlights what I blogged about earlier, how the Feds are going to be received in Oklahoma if a Cliven Bundy-esque BLM escapade comes to the Red River.

Second, Eric Holder giving a commencement address to police academy cadets has a deliciously laughable irony and makes for all sorts of fun games to play.  Imagine his speech to cadets...

"You get the bad guys off the streets, and I'll put 'em back!"

or the potential media coverage...

"Man who thinks we are a nation of cowards, ducks out of appearance in Okla."

Did Cliven Bundy Echo a Nobel Economist...??? Yes.

So, elites are attempting to decimate what little standing they feel Cliven Bundy has left with America using their preferred method...accusations of racism.

Now, let's preface this with the fact that I agree with Hinderaker that Bundy does not deserve our sympathy from a legal perspective, but from, well, something else, and I agree with VDH, that it might be a case where I'd rather be wrong with Bundy than right with the BLM.

So, all that said, here is what Bundy said...

“That’s exactly what I said. I said I’m wondering if they’re better off under government subsidy, and their young women are having the abortions and their young men are in jail, and their older women and their children are standing, sitting out on the cement porch without nothing to do, you know, I’m wondering: Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were slaves, and they was able to have their family structure together, and the chickens and garden, and the people had something to do? And so, in my mind I’m wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the subsidies. I’m wondering. That’s what. And the statement was right. I am wondering.”

Which is inelegant and arguably superficially shocking, but it is the exact same argument made in a path-breaking book by a Nobel prize winning economist, Time on the Cross.

I mentioned Time on the Cross before.

I had a professor in college who got in hot water because he talked about the themes of Time on the Cross (and this was in the 1980s, he'd run up the flagpole by his genitals today).

Bundy's comments may be shocking to some, but this discussion is neither new nor crackpot, as the NYTimes's piece (and this predictable piece) is intended to have you believe.

#LifeIsGoodfortheOnePercentinObama'sAmerica

Life is good for the 1% in Obama's America.

Like I keep telling people, as do many others, income inequality is an outcome - a desired outcome - of Democratic Party policies.

Aside:  Thomas Piketty would be very displeased.  These houses on the beach are "terrifying."

Double Awesomeness Out of Steve Wynn

Good for Steve Wynn.

Lese majeste is still not a crime in the USA, at least not yet anyway.  (Not a crime in the legal sense, although it's certainly punishable.)

...and doubly good for Wynn for his excellent put down of Clooney.  Treat these guys as what they are, court jesters.

Politics 2014: Lefties In Full Throat Over Marginal Issues

Lefties continue to pound away at issues of very little concern to most Americans.  Income inequality is the new black for our petty tyrant class although most Americans would rather have a job or a chance at a job versus scalping rich people.

And, of course, there is global warming climate change.  I've long said that global warming climate change is dead from a policy perspective because of several factors:
1)  the world's biggest  "emitter," the Chinese, don't believe and/or don't care
2)  the world's richest country, the US, doesn't believe
3)  and the world's biggest believer, Europe, is broke
4)  many smaller and/or emerging countries are betting their futures on fossil fuels (i.e. Brazil, Angola, Mexico)

Still, the lefties are pretty heated up about it. 

It is almost sad to see them get so riled up in the face of so much contrary reality.  OK, not really.

Um, the 1980s Are Calling...

U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland on Wednesday as part of a wave of U.S. troops heading to shore up America's Eastern European allies in the face of Russian meddling in Ukraine.

If the 80s are calling, could we get leaders like Reagan, Thatcher, John Paul II, and Walesa back?  And Democrats like Moynihan, while we're at it?

The Mulally Sweepstakes

I've been a big booster of Alan Mulally in the past.  And now he is devolving out of his role at Ford, and there is a clear presumption that he's moving on to the next thing.

Immediately I thought GE (or General Electric as it is known to us old-timers), and this Bloomberg article is on the same wave length.  Immelt's tenure has been underwhelming given the glow on him from winning the post-Jack Welch beauty contest.

But there is another strong call, and I am going to make it...

Berkshire Hathaway.  Alan will be the new Warren.

Donny Baseball Nominates...

As an obsessive political observer, this small segment is great news.  Why?  Because this is my front runner for the GOP's 2016 nod to take on HRC.

I've always been a big fan, was thrilled that he was elected governor of his state, because that is the odds-on stepping stone to the White House.  He's ALL gravitas and he looks and talks like what Americans have traditionally understood to be presidential material before we started brain-farting.  He represents a reassuring return to normalcy that I think the nation craves.

Click through, see who it is.

And let's hope his profile is up up and away.

Elections Have Consequences

This should come as no surprise...

They voted for free shit, sorry, "social justice" over opportunity. 

How do you stay on top cashing checks from the government? 

You don't.  Ergo...

The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

Left-Wing Penis Envy

Have you ever noticed that the preponderance of the truly hard core left-wing bigotry and petty totalitarianism in higher education emanates from the crappiest of schools?

Here is the latest from...Eastern Connecticut State.  I never knew there was such a place and I've lived in these here parts for 40 plus years.

I think these unhinged types are trying to one-up the somewhat softer (but still crazy) gentry liberalism of the more elite institutions (which in ECSU's case is nearly all of them).

Similar thoughts have been thunk.

Robert Half Economy: The Ongoing Genius of Obamanomics (JK)

I have long talked about the "Robert Half Economy" that the Obamacrats have foisted on us.

Unfortunately, it is still a big problem.

For Americans who can't find jobs, the booming demand for temp workers has been a path out of unemployment, but now many fear it's a dead-end route.

Marketing Wisdom

Lesson for Google, et al.  Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary (sometimes with some merit), if Americans don't like where you are taking them, they simply won't go. 

This is happening with ObamaCare, but it is more obvious in other realms, such as transportation.  Notice all those Segways that people are tooling around town on?  I didn't think so.  CitiBike in NYC is flailing.  Light rail sytems are wildly unpopular.  Americans like travelling around in cars, and they have steadfastly rejected the best laid plans of their betters to get them out of their cars.

If Americans don't want to be surveilled and have their any twitch algorithmed into a sales pitch, they won't.  Give them enormously productive and/or fun tools that they never dreamed of, yes, they'll flock to you.  Abuse your customer relationahip with them and act like you own them, you're toast.

Classic (and Depressing) Liberal Mush from a Mushy Liberal

Thanks to the Powerline guys I watched this absolutely stunning display of liberal mush in the person of Nick Kristoff. 

I normally try to avoid as much of the Scarsdale liberal's output as possible, but sometimes it is unavoidable.  Here it is instructive.

Ukraine needs "hugs" from the US?  Taylor Swift will ultimately defeat Putinism?  Really? 

Well, maybe.  Potentially, after decades of dictatorship, hardship and misery, a yearning for freedom and a desire to join with a prosperous and free West can spur a people to throw off their shackles.  It has been done before, but in the meantime a generation or two of said unfortunate peoples' lives are sacrificed to waiting out the dictators.  And sometimes these dictators never go away.

This is the foreign policy of the putatively caring side of political spectrum?  Sacrifice a generation or two of whole peoples' freedom, dignity, and humanity (and lose their creativity to the world) hoping that something like pop music will defeat tanks and guns??  Really?  Why are these people not laughed at, rather than paid lavishly to proffer such gibberish?

BLM Would Be Foolish to Pull Same Sh*t In Texas or Oklahoma

Post the Cliven Bundy episode in Nevada, Drudge keeps us informed (or inflamed, don't know) about possibly the Feds next "land management" activity that might require SWAT teams.  And, what do you know...of the places where potential merde could go down, Oklahoma makes the list.

All I can say is "Uh oh".  I know a little bit whereof I speak in regards to the Sooner State.  In fact I have warned before that it would not be wise to invade Oklahoma, and trust me, if it's the Feds, it will be viewed as an invasion.

Not that Nevadans aren't tough and all, but Texas and Oklahoma are different animals altogether.  BLM would not fare well in a dust up in those parts. 

Then again, Texas and Oklahoma don't have shady Senators the likes of Harry Reid, so maybe there is absolutely nothing to any of this Drudge reporting.

Who Could Have Predicted Doctors Won't See ObamaCare Enrollees?

Obamacare enrollees can't get in to see doctors.

I predicted this a while ago (more here).

Well, Duh...?

Don't like the rich getting richer while the middle class stagnates?

Well, then stop voting for Democrats...(more here and here and here)

Unions Vs. Greens Update

I told you back in 2009, that ultimately the labor unions would back oil and gas extraction (fracking) and related infrastructure (pipelines) in opposition to the greens.  And I told you that ultimately, the unions will win.

The first has come to pass, the second, not yet, but soon.

Federal Judge Whacks Minnesota Emissions Law

Greenies in Minnesota were not content enough to try and cap their own emissions, they tried (like any liberal, according to the William F. Buckley definition) to limited the emissions of the booming, new energy colossus next door, North Dakota.

The courts have just said "nice try."

Part of Minnesota’s 2007 Next Generation Energy Act, a law intended to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, unconstitutionally regulates out-of state energy producers, a U.S. judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in St. Paul issued an order today prohibiting Minnesota officials from enforcing the part of the law making it illegal to import power from large, new plants in other states that would add to Minnesota’s carbon dioxide emissions.

If states were to adopt its own unique regulations, the integrated market for energy in the country would come to a “grinding halt,” Richard Nelson wrote.

Commerce Clause and all that, I assume.

BanBossy Is Bunk

Check out Christina Sommers's video.

Oh and BTW...
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Fiscal Update, CBO Weighs In

So I've been highlighting an optimistic take on the federal fiscal deficit that is not from a clueless and/or in the tank Obamabot (those are easy to find).  See here and here.

I have conceded that Grannis's take is probably more informed than mine, although I remain firm in my view that it is not the deficit but the debt that needs our focus, and that there the news remains terribly, awfully bad.

Well, the CBO has weighed in on the Lightworker's budget and IBD has the reportage.

President Obama's budget adds $6.6 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Thursday.

That estimate is significantly worse than the $4.9 trillion in deficits predicted by the White House. The CBO used its own less rosy estimates of the economy to complete the analysis. 

So, Dear Leader's budget was only $1.7 trillion too rosy.  Shocker.  Read more for the gory details, but basically we are structurally spending $400-800 billion a year of money we don't have and we'll be taking the debt to 75% of GDP handily, precisely the levels that have gotten our quasi-socialist European friends into their current messes.

On top of all that new debt though, will be vastly higher interest payments as the Fed tapers and gets out of the interest rate manipulation business (we hope).  So, the debt scenario continues to look bad, we are running the risk of a debt crack up.  The good news, is that when you hit the wall, you are forced to make the choices you should have made all along, and small government will be a necessity rather than a option.  So, all us knuckle-dragging, right-wing nutters who would like to see more modesty in our government, like for instance a Bureau of Land Management that isn't armed to the teeth so that they can commandeer grazing cattle, should take heart.  When the day of the fiscal crack-up comes, there will be no money for a BLM, let alone a highly militarized one.

As If To Prove the Point

Dear Leader is giving a news conference right now talking about how:

- Lots of people are signing up for ObamaCare
- Medicare spending has slowed due to the law
- Repealing ObamaCare would increase the deficit
- What Russia is doing is bad for Russia

…all of which is misleading or patently false, so I can't help but think of this, which just hit the inter webs yesterday…

How much do Americans trust President Obama? Not much,according to a Fox News poll. 

Sixty-one percent of respondents in the poll released Thursday said Obama lies at least some of the time on important issues. An additional 20 percent said he lies every now and then. 

Only 15 percent believe the president is completely truthful.

Summer of Recovery?

Doubtful.

What is certain though, is that America's favorite summer pastime - grilling and eating delicious animal flesh is going to be more expensive. 

Oh well, we'll just have to grilled up some shrimp instead.  Wait.  OK, pork then, yummy pork.  Oops.

Hope and change, Baby!

Ankle Bracelet Wearing Sex Offenders Do Some Murdering

Don't worry, the authorities will protect you.

"Murder, rape suspects wore GPS ankle bracelets during crime spree"

Hey, now would be a good time for a refresher course on the case law precedents regarding the government's duty to protect you - short answer, there is no such duty.

“… a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.”

That is from Warren v. District of Columbia (1981).  BTW, don't ever read the details of that case over a bowl of Cheerios or any foodstuffs for that matter.  Oh, and for fun, how about another, related case.  This one is McKee v. City of Rockwall.

 There is no constitutional violation when the "most that can be said of ... state functionaries ... is that they stood by and did nothing when suspicious circumstances dictated a more active role."

Municipal Bond Market to Detroit: Yeah, That's What I Thought...

Kevin Orr, Detroit's liquidator bankruptcy administrator, received enormous pressure to try to screw Detroit's bond holders from unions and many others, which I am sure included the Obama administration.  This would have had an catastrophic impact upon the municipal bond market. 

The $3.7 TRILLION municipal bond market.  The municipal bond market, without which nearly every city and state in America would cease to function.

Well, Orr gave it a shot.  Predictably the muni bond market won.

Detroit’s proposed 74 cent recovery rate on general-obligation debt, almost five times more than its last offer, has sent yields to the lowest in 10 months and signals a broader rally in local government securities.

Notice what I bolded...five times!  When in life is a second offer ever five times the first offer?  Yeah, hardly ever.

The muni market has shown some muscle.  So, when is the Treasury market going to throw its weight around?

Millionaire Needs $25K Per Month to Contemplate Income Inequality

Hey, remember when John Edwards joined a hedge fund to learn about poverty (yes, it happened, I kid you not!).

Times have changed from those decadent days of rapacious hypocrisy, right?

Um, er...

Hey, I've got a new saying, "I'll believe that income inequality is a problem, when the people telling me it's a problem, start acting like it's a problem."  (OK, that's not really all that new.)

The Seed Corn of Tyranny Is Everywhere

Just three examples, because, well, no one has time to go through it all.

So Lois Lerner was trying to get the Justice Department to go after conservative/Tea Party groups exercising their First Amendment rights, Tim Geithner threatened the Chairman of McGraw-Hill (owner of Standard & Poor's) over its downgrade of US debt, and an armed-to-the-teeth Bureau of Land Management mobilizes over cattle or tortoises or something...

...and you don't think we are living under a gangsterized government?  We've been cowed too long into refraining from calling like it is (otherwise we are wing-nuts, right?) but how much more evidence do we need before we realize that Obama and his ilk are the seed corn of tyranny.  When what they want clashes with your rights, your rights seem to lose.

Let's get with the program, they will enslave us all if they could, and they're trying.

Inflating Away

Hey, remember all those times I said that inflation was coming.  First, was the "crapify" and then would come the outright prices increases.

Yup.

Food prices increased 0.4% after posting a similar jump in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. That's the largest monthly increase since September 2011. Beef, pork, poultry, eggs and milk have had the most dramatic price hikes as drought, a virus outbreak and rising exports have thinned U.S. supplies.

Of course, high level economics teaches us to ignore certain categories of prices as very few of us eat food, drive cars or require shelter.  That is why the Fed focusing its energy on crafting capital rules for insurers. 

Back to sleep.

I'm Pretty Sure Mike Bloomberg Is Not a Theologian

Two things Mr. Bloomberg:
1) I'm pretty sure God has little interest in human attitudes toward firearms
2) ...

- All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble

- But those who think themselves great shall be disappointed and humbled; and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.

- This is the one I esteem: He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.
- Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

- Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall

I'm sure the New York Times see not one bit of irony or dissonance in any of this...

P.S.  I' pretty sure a $50 million check and a "reorganization" does not a grass-roots movement make.

P.P.S.  All this talk of heaven and yet there is this: He added: “We’ve got to make them afraid of us.”

Shocking News

From a liberal or "radical progressive" as she terms herself...

Conservatives aren't evil or stupid, quite the opposite.

Don't believe it.  The wives, husbands, families and friends we've managed to attract and the work we do in our communities are all a Trojan Horse facade to get us power so we can keep brown people down and eat the children of the poor.

Bloomberg Hides Blue v. Red State Economic Disparity

So check out this headline:

"Tight Job Market in U.S. Cities Prompts Higher Pay"

Sounds awesome right?  So, if you are a struggling millenial in New York, Chicago, LA or Boston, this is good news, right?

Maybe not.  If you read the article, it's basically about Texas and maybe a few other states like North Dakota and Louisiana.  Savvy readers will note that these are energy states.  So the article is basically saying that oil states are booming, but the title says "cities."  And the cities argument is a little thin...

Forty-nine, or 13 percent, of the 372 metro areas reported jobless rates below 5 percent that month, the most for February since 2008, two months after the start of the recession. The lowest was 2.8 percent in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, Louisiana, because of offshore-oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

13%?  Houma, LA?  Finally, Bloomberg helpfully gives us a map.  The map is hardly heartening to "city" folk.  It shows, broadly, California and Illinois are still disasters, the northeast is meh and places like super-cool and super blue urban Oregon are struggling big time. 

Contrast that with the soutwest (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri) and the deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina). 

On the evidence, the reality is clear and the story ought to be "Blue state are struggling, Red states doing much better."  Nope, just "cities" are doing better.

Do we think this is a typical example of micro-bias at Al Hunt's Bloomberg News to give struggling millenials hope and to try to convince people that Obamanomics is turning the corner?

Russia Invades...?

Bloomberg is reporting that troops from Russia's 45th Airborne division have entered Ukraine territory. So, Putin has fomented a little unrest, Ukraine deploys troops to counter separtist shenanigans (phony and/or real) and Vlad has the excuse he needs. I'm sure he figured out that the time was now after he got off the phone with Obama...

Update On the Deficit Front

Recently I highlighted the counterpoint to my fiscal pessimism.  Well, I'm back to highlight Scott Grannis's latest update.  Grannis is upbeat on the fiscal situation.  First is his attribution of the cause - gridlock.  Yes, beauteous, magnificent gridlock, the kind of which we fervently hoped for and worked hard to achieve in the 2010 elections.  That was the "shellacking" that changed everything.  We all have our gripes with Boehner and "establishment Republicans" yadayada, but Grannis's take is the proof...Republicans have done a pretty darned good job of keeping growth in government spending at bay despite the Obamacrats fervent desires to the contrary.

This rather extraordinary achievement was not due to any of his {Obama} initiatives, however. As the chart above shows, the big reduction in the deficit has been the by-product of flat to declining spending in recent years and multi-year increase in tax revenues. Most of the reduction in spending can be credited to a deadlocked Congress (which has ignored Obama's repeated requests for ever-rising spending), and to declining costs for social safety nets (mainly unemployment insurance, which still remains unusually high).

Second, the restraint in federal spending is a boon to the economy, based on supply-side logic

Then, as now, a huge decline in government spending failed—despite the warnings of Keynesian-trained economists—to generate a depression, and failed to send the unemployment rate skyrocketing. Supply-siders, in contrast, have an answer for what happened that makes sense: when the government controls fewer of the economy's resources, the private sector has more room in which to practice that in which it uniquely excels: entrepreneurship, cost-cutting, risk-taking, and productivity gains.

So, the news is upbeat, but remember this is a deficit analysis, not a debt analysis.  I retain my pessimism on the debt front.  We are still running structural deficits, albeit small as per Grannis, and and our debt is dangerously close to being unpayable as it is.  Furthermore, we are rapidly bonding long hidden liabilities that have lurked in our entitlement programs.  We will need Grannis optimistic trajectory to hold for many years into the future to make the debt picture look brighter and reduce the risks associated with a debt crisis.

Hashtag Liberals Always Screw It Up

Two stories.

 1- The IRS's Dallas office was a pro-Obama propaganda outfit. One employee is accused by investigators of telling a caller that Republicans will "set women back 40 years."

 2 - More women are becoming stay at home moms because they can't find jobs.

Just to be clear the Dems have been running things since 2006...

I've talked about the Dems' remarkable feats before...

Oh, and how about those iconic liberal cities that suck for minorities...(hint: they are not designed to be good for minorities)

RIP, Jim Flaherty

Yes, NBfPB can achieve such geekdom that we mourn the loss, or at least acknowlege the loss, of a former Finance Minister.

Although this Bloomberg article is peppered with off-base assetions and contradictory logic aimed at calling Flaherty's tenure into question, there can be no doubt as to Canada's fiscal prudence and good example for the world in how to not go stupid-ass, belly up.  And Flaherty was instrumental.

God speed, Jim Flaherty.

A Rant: Dumb Sluts vs. Little Boys

Gosh bloody darn it!  

I'm the father of a football-crazy 10 year old boy and his hero-du-jour is Colin Kaepernick, who replaced Jameis Winston last week or last month (I can't keep up).  {Hey, I'm sorry, I've tried to get the kid to idolize Friedrich Hayek, Pope John Paul II, Alexander Hamilton, Margaret Thatcher and a host of others, but gimme a break, he's f**king 10...it's no sale.  Call me a bad parent, whatever}  Anyway, the kid spends his limited computer time trying to study and admire the football field exploits of these athletes, and all he seems to read about is jilted, vindictive, ignorant sluts.

Ugh.  Here is the latest semi-prurient non-story.  Let's sum up:  1) I banged him at least once already, 2) I went to his hotel room to drink booze and smoke pot, 3) I woke up naked and not knowing what happened, 4) I file a police report...

Good God!

Listen,  I bow to no one in my concern for young women's safety, well-being, and protection from predatory men (I'm a father of two precious and beautiful princesses, after all), but puhleeeeeze, ladies.  Grow up.  Wake up. Make some goddam decent choices in your miserable lives.

But, at the end of the day...if you are incapable of any bloody common sense, after you've made a series of idiotic choices...

Please, shut up!

You are crushing the dreams of millions of little boys by unfairly painting their temporary heroes as rapist pigs. 

Let's go after the real miscreants, let's lock the actual sexual abusers up and throw away the keys, but let's not teach our boys that the default mode of famous people is criminal sexuality when it's not. 

So here is my plea...grow up dumb, slutty football hoes!  You are ruining childhood for little boys.

UPDATE:  Apologies for the formatting.  This new browser (I uninstalled Firefox!) is not taking to Blogger very well...

Eric Holder Asks...

Q:  "...what attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”
A:  Um, one that has been held in contempt...the only one ever...


Reminder - 17 House Democrats voted to hold our embarassment of an AG in contempt...

Curse and Glory of Federalism

In this one blog post is summed up both the genius and pitfalls of our federalist system.

MOVE TO TENNESSEE. NO INCOME TAX, AND OUR ESTATE TAX WILL BE GONE IN 2016. Wealthy New Yorkers Face 164% Estate Tax Rate. But only if you promise not to vote for the same kind of bullshit policies that ruined New York once you get here.

Make things nice and livable and the doofi that screwed up their home states - via stupidity or lack of vigilance or both - can move in and proceed to screw up your state.  That's how, for example, North Carolina got the likes of Bev Perdue who wanted to cancel elections.  Cary, after all, is the Consolidated Area of Relocated Yankees.


Somehow the people who move never see that the high taxes, crappy schools, crime and poor job market are a result of how they vote and they keep voting that way after they've fled all those things.

Energy Guru: Talk of Global Approaches to Energy Is Ridiculous

So, I've been saying that global warming is dead - from a policy perspective - for many reasons, one of which is that the rest of the world either doesn't believe the West or just doesn't care.

The WSJ has an interview with energy guru Vaclav Smil (I've been following Smil for over 10 years, which makes me way cooler than you).  Here is one apropos tidbit...

MR. BALL: Is there a big energy transition going on now?

MR. SMIL: There is and there isn't. Have you ever heard about Russians wanting to have more wind turbines and more solar? Have you had Turks being terribly interested about any of these things? Have you had people in Indonesia worrying about putting up more solar? There are hundreds of millions of people around this planet, and their leaders, who couldn't care less.

 

Yup.

 

And, well, there are the Chinese

 

MR. BALL: What you've essentially described is that nothing fundamental is happening. Am I wrong about that?

MR. SMIL: It is and it isn't. Look at the Chinese example. They are building all these wind capacities and solar capacities, but in the past eight years they added one billion tons of coal production. It took the good old U.S. 150 years to gear it up to one billion tons. And they want to add another one billion tons of coal in the next six years. So it doesn't matter how many wind turbines are built.

 

The Chinese don't care, as I've said, but nor should they.

Funny How That Works

Hey, no way?!

The doctor that managed to scam extract $21 million out of Medicare for calendar year 2013 is the same guy that bankrolls scumbag NJ Senator Bob Menendez and took him on those, um, er, "off-shore drilling expeditions". 

Small world.

Shocker: Trifecta of Fools, Looking Foolish

Just a reminder, I said that Kerry, Hagel, Lew represented a unique triumvirate of ineptitude that was indicative of Dear Leader's poor judgment as well as his deep and fatal flaw.

Kerry has topped the charts with a new #fail everyday it seems.  Hagel is catching up.  I'm sure Lew will not be too far behind.

Enjoy Your America, Rubes

So here are two apparently conflicting stories.  First, the SEC is a Constitution-trampling, due process rogue.  Second, the SEC is a bunch of panty-waists too timid to go after powerful miscreants.

Which is it?  Both!

Rich and powerful?  Well, then you get a pass provided you've greased the skids of various and sundry political careers.  One of the peons?  Then the government will use all of its power to squash you, your rights be damned.

You wanted big government, America.  You got it.

Patriarchy at Yale Running Roughshod Over Female Self-Determination

Looks like racism, sexism and several other isms rolled into one here.

Whatever happened to resisting the oppressive patriarchy telling women how their bodies should look based on their sexist view of the female form?  What happened to not letting this horrible male-dominated society dictate your view of yourself and stifling your own conception of self?

Huh?

Orwellian Media

The Instapundit with more subtle brilliance.

In Venezuela, you CAN'T say things like "food shortages" if you are the media.

In the US, you WON'T say things like "Leeland Yee" if you are the media.

The commonality is the powers-that-be are thinking if it isn't said, it doesn't exist...or maybe the rubes won't notice.

CBS Is All Class

NCAA Final on CBS.

Maybe I missed the big George W. Bush sighting earlier, but the camera just showed George W. Bush, Tony Romo, and Jason Witten in a skybox at the JerryDome and Jim Nantz says "There's Tony Romo and Jason Witten."  Back to the game.

Classy Jim.  Classy.

Signs Of ... What Exactly I Don't Know

Wow.  I have a bit of a history talking about what would otherwise be the batty notion of household products - Tide detergent in this case - acting as a sort of currency.  It all started innocently enough.

But over at Carpe Diem, we've come a long way.  Teaser photo...yes, those are anti-theft devices on Tide.

Tax Rant

Ya' know I love reading stories this and this just as I'm about to write a big ass six figure check to the government.  Especially since 47% 43% (that awful Mitt Romney was WRONG, it's only 43%, not 47%) of my fellow citizens don't pay squat.

It's enough to go on a rant.  I'll outsource my rant to this guy.

A Shout-out to Those Who Will Enjoy My Money

Just filed my income tax returns.

I am not happy.

My money will be going to fund the superstate and its many transgressions. My money will be going to people I don't like or mostly don't know. It will help pay for illegal aliens to go to school; pay for food stamp programs to be advertised in Mexico; fund abortion clinics and leftwing public broadcasting; provide guns to drug cartels; suppress dissent at home; listen to every phone call made in America; and, of course, to pay for six out of seven persons now allegedly enrolled in Obamacare.

And, yes, I am paying for Michelle "Toned Arms" Obama to go on vacation in Spain, Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, and China. That's on me. Blame me. Go ahead. My wife does. My wife wants to go on vacation to Spain, but she can't because I have to pay for Michelle's vacation.

I am delighted to pay for our armed services and for the procurement of the meanest, and baddest weapon systems, but this other stuff . . . no, I am not.

Final parting thought.  Take it from me, us 1%ers (or 2%ers, or 4%ers, it's different every year) would be happy to pay our totally unfair share if the mediocrities, incompetents, and power-mad dickheads in government didn't waste, steal, lose, misplace and otherwise wipe their asses with our money.  Greed has nothing to do with it.  I can light my money on fire at home.

Racism, Straight Up

While being interviewed by Late Night host Seth Meyers, NBC analyst Bob Costas bet athletes cannot be trusted with guns.

According to Politico, Costas said there is a "gun culture" and referenced "dozens if not hundreds of sorry incidents" tied to athletes and guns that took place prior to his initial 2012 NFL halftime speech on gun control.  

C'mon Bob, just say it, you think less of black people...

The Thought Police Strike Again

Apparently if you don't hold the accepted views - the non-accepted view being one that has undergirded every society on the planet for all recorded history - you can't hold certain jobs.

Why don't we just say so on the job application? ...  would go something like this... "Seeking technology CEO, must have executive leadership experience, proven track record of managing large, innovative organization...must support gay marriage..."

For the record, I support gay marriage, but I don't attribute opposition to gay marriage to bias or hatred. And I support cake baking freedom.

Obama to College Students: Get Fired Up For Hourly Pay! WOO-HOO!

Obama pitches higher minimum wage to students.

Speaking to a crowd of mostly students yesterday at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Obama made his appeal on economic grounds.

“Raising the minimum wage is not going to solve all of our economic challenges,” Obama said. “But here’s one thing we do believe: Nobody who works full-time should be raising their family in poverty.” 

This is supposed to fire them up?  Minimum wage?  They are going to college and they're gonna be jazzed to know they could earn a slightly higher minimum wage?  Really?

I guess "Dream Big" isn't what it used to be.

UPDATE:  I was going to analyze how Obama could find himself in this position, but ran short of time.  I have a theory that politicians have a set of doctrinaire positions and a set of loyal supporters and they assume that all supporters support all positions, or for some reason they feel they can espouse any of their doctrinaire positions to any of their supporters.  This is an example, and this is why you see Democrats talking about immigration reform in front adoring labor union audiences.  These head-scratchers are more understandable when you internalize the idea of preaching any approved message to any adoring choir, even if there is an overt, and awkward, disconnect.  Jonah Goldberg gets to this a bit in this piece.

Galston Scratches His Deep, Pondering, Earnest Brow in Wonder Why There Aren't More Jobs

It's been several months now since William Galston has taken the reins as The Wednesday Token Liberal Columnist at the WSJ (the seat previously occupied by Al Hunt, before he went on to turn Bloomberg News into a Journolist Hackfest, and Thomas Frank before he faded into obscurity).

Galston started off innocuously before getting the confidence to really let fly some lefty intellectual bile.  Here is it worth noting that Galston went after economist Tyler Cowen (inexplicably and unfairly, IMO) and Cowen was recently attacked in his classroom with pepper spray...all I have to say is "Stop Inciting the Hate, Mr. Galston!"

After that parlay, Galston has mostly gone back to anodyne mush, but it is time for another deeper look into how it is going, and yesterday's column is a good opportunity because it is typical of his approach.  The quick and dirty summary is this - corporations are making great profits but not hiring people, which seems dreadful to Galston.  Galston tosses out the stats, laments it all, and (in predictable lefty formulaic order) calls for a "conversation."  (I know what you are thinking, 'Awesome, another one of those productive, open, wide-ranging, tolerant and good faith conversations with lefties!!')

That's it.  There is truly nothing remarkable in this column, but it does showcase a classic Galston aspect - it goes the whole length without mentioning the single most relevant factor to his topic.  As I was reading through, I kept asking myself, 'When is he gonna mention Obamacare?'  Alas, he mentions it once, at the end, only to say that it is a preoccupation of Republicans' tactical approach.  Republicans have been saying that ObamaCare is a job killer for ages now.  The jobs situation is terrible, Galston's very lament.  Wouldn't that be a reasonable tidbit to include in his column, and/or  subject matter for this earnest 'conversation' he yearns for?  If I told you X is going to happen because of Y, and it then X happens and you really don't like X, shouldn't we discuss Y?

For Galston and his ilk, the answer is "Nope."  At least with Galston, it's "Nope, not right now, I am too busy thinking REALLY hard."  With others on the left, it's more like "Nope, the debate is over."

UPDATE:  Oh, I totally forgot to mention that I predicted and explained (many times) exactly the situation Galston decries a loooonnngggggggggg time ago.  But keep scratching that brow Bill...

No Way to Candy (Crowley)-Coat It Anymore

Hmmm, How not to candy-coat this...?

Lying Sacks of Shit.  Aided and abetted by a party-organ media in order to lie to the country to keep their man in power.

That's it.  Full Stop.  You bought it America.  Enjoy.

Whoever Proposes This Has My Vote

The EPA ought to be shut down.  It's a rogue agency that is a threat to American's lives and liberty.

More Orwellian Bullshit from Lightworker Administration

"Inappropriate criteria"

Orwellian Bullshit is this administration's singular talent.

High Frequency Trading

So, HFT is the story of the moment.  As someone in the biz - as an institutionalish investor - maybe I can add my three cents.

Cent #1 - Are we being front-run?  Abso-f**king-lutely.  Beyond debate.

Cent #2 - Do I care?  No.  See here for most of the reasons why.

Cent #3 - What is the biggest danger/risk for capital markets here?  We've given Eric Schneiderman something to do.  Can only end badly.

Science

The elitists will scoff, of course, but this is the small-bore version of why 30 years from now we'll be talking about how global warming science turned out to be wrong.

Obama Admin Mistakes Bread Lines for iPhone Queues

Brilliant commentary by James Taranto.  In economics, different kinds of lines mean different things, and that makes all the difference.

But it was the line photos that we found arresting. And it’s clear McGuinness was advancing a White House line. Press secretary Jay Carney opened his daily briefing yesterday with the following gasconade: “As you can see by the lines around the country this weekend, we are seeing a surge in enrollment.”
The first thing we thought of when we saw the pictures was the photos we’ve recently seen on Twitter of Venezuelans waiting in bread lines. Waiting in line to purchase necessities is a characteristic not of a prosperous free society but of command economies under repressive regimes. Closer to home, one doubts even the Transportation Security Administration would be so tone-deaf as to advertise long airport lines as an indication it’s doing a great job.
So what in the world could the White House have been thinking? Here’s a guess: They look at the ObamaCare lines and think not of communist subjects queuing up for bread or toilet paper, or Americans for driver’s licenses, but something more like the lines of consumers eager to be the first to get the new iPhone or the latest Harry Potter book. Affluent people often wait in line for things about which they have a particular enthusiasm–or for special experiences, like an amusement park ride, concert or meal at a favorite restaurant.
One obvious difference is that whereas the iPhone and Harry Potter queuers are eager to get the new thing first, the ObamaCare ones are presumably anxious not to miss the deadline (even if it’s not rigorously enforced). ObamaCare lines might have been impressive if they’d begun to form in the last days of September. At the end of open enrollment, the White House boast is akin to the IRS’s citing a “surge” in filing of tax returns two weeks from now as evidence that the income tax system is popular and well designed.

(HT Instapundit, although he doesn't need my traffic)

Gays, Genes and Lefties Who Proclaim Fealty to Science

I thought lefties were into science and all.  Back to that in a minute.

Apparently there is a kerfuffle because Ezra Klein hired a gay guy who is not sufficiently or appropriately (can't tell, and don't want to) gay.  Deroy Murdock has some skinny.

“Judging from the reaction, you might have thought Ezra had hired Rick Santorum,” wrote columnist Andrew Sullivan. As Robert Stacy McCain details on The American Spectator’s website, Ambrosino has become a heretic for not echoing the liberal “gay = DNA” incantation. 

Why is this important?  Because it is.  Here is why.

The gay-rights movement advances the “born gay” hypothesis. If gays pop out of wombs that way, the argument goes, equality will cascade forth like Iguazú. If being gay is a choice, however, the public and politicians will respond: “Eeeeeeeeew, gross! Shut up and get back in the closet!” Bye-bye, gay marriage. Hello again, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Murdock points out a few reasons for gays to not want to toe that line, good points too, but this is what I want to know - how can homosexuality be genetic and evolution be true?  Except for the small number of homosexuals who procreate before fully embracing a homosexual lifestyle and those who conceive through modern fertility science, homosexuals do not pass down their geteric line.  All told, homosexuals certainly do not achieve replacement rate procreation.  If you believe in evolution, the "gay gene" would disappear over time.  So which is it?

Lefties To Go Nuts In 3, 2, 1...

McCutcheon V. FEC.  5-4.

Their heads are exploding as we speak, I may not be able to go outside and get lunch here in the Big Apple for fear of cranial matter splattering.

Expect more Koch brothers/death of democracy gibberish from the left.  Although, this will likely give lefties a fundraising shot in the arm.  Funny how that works - cash flooding in to their coffers as cash flooding in to others' coffers kills off democracy...

Where Are the Embarassed Liberals? Not Pushing Their Luck Before 2016.

Roger Simon ruminates on something I've certainly noticed.  The fawning bots of yore have gone MIA...

So why are these normally voluble people suddenly doing a disappearing act? (I’m not talking about the politicians and pundits.  They’re being paid to move their mouths.)  It’s pretty obvious.

They are bewildered and embarrassed.  Some are even ashamed of themselves, not that they will readily admit it.  The man who was their hero has now been unmasked in every direction as the worst president since the Civil War and possibly earlier. Not only is he a cheesy liar, everything he has done, domestic and foreign, has failed, sometimes to extraordinary degrees. The domestic part is bad enough, but at least that might be reparable.  The foreign is another matter.  The world is spinning out of control.  Who knows where that will end?

Hence, the silence.

Some sort of a God.  The Lightworker.  Smartest President Ever. Nobel Peace Prize Silliness.

All of it the deepest sort of phony baloney bullshit idiocy.  And all of it, loudly propounded by tens of millions of our fellow citizens.  But where are they now?  Right where they were five years ago, just quieter.

And you know where they'll be in 2016?  Pulling the same act all over again for Hillary.  Because it's all marketing.  They've got a program that is a big nothing sandwich (tax more, give people more free shit, eat the seed corn of a brighter future every day all day to buy votes) and so they have to market the package, because there's nothing inside the wrapper.  They'll say our transformative utopia-bringer was Hillary all along, they got it wrong with Obama, but they totally have it right now, America, honest.

Trust me, they'll be back, as loud and as obnoxious and as full of shit and phony salesmanship as they were in 2008 and 2012.  Trust me, the silence is just because they know they'd be pushing their luck too far between now and then.

Government At Work

Phone-sex for the deaf?

Well, it fits a pattern...birth control for nuns, mammograms for men...

ObamaCare or Food?

Wow.  Bad press from New York media?

(H/T Legal Insurrection)

Yellen Goes Off-Script

Um, Janet Yellen is not sticking to the narrative of an awesome Obama economy...

"The recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans, and it also looks that way in some economic statistics."

Whoops.  No "Recovery Summer"?

UPDATE:  Holy Sh*t.  Is Yellen going to keep rates low until heroin users and larcenists can get jobs??  This is  very dangerous territory to be mixing monetary policy with the standard sob-story emotionalism of politics.  Zoinks.

Huh?

I'm confused, but I'm pre-coffee.  Someone please tell me this is satire.