Monday, February 16, 2009

what Th'...?


The always entertaining Wall Street Journal, in their manner of Magical Thinking, now manages to assert that "President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form." (Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'), and yet, as California nears 'financial Armageddon,' governor warns; the WSJ appears to be Missing In Action or, perhaps, inaction is the operative word. Seems to me that "Armageddon" is at least as fearsome a vision as "Catastrophe". Moreso when we look at the images of the politicians making the claims. Of course, Gov. Schwarzenegger won office by promising to Restore Fiscal Responsibility - a goal the WSJ deems praisworthy. Especially in a Republican. As a Tax-And-Spend Radical-Liberal-Democrat, President Obama is automatically Unsuited For Office, and is relegated to the category of Catastrophe. While the (Republican) Governor gets an Automatic Pass.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Success!


Having been so successful in opposing every effort to restore the United States of America to a viable state, it seems the Republican Party owes a debt of gratitude to Eric Cantor (R -Va).
Yes, as it says in the New York Times, "...Mr. Cantor succeeded again on Friday in denying the White House the support of a single House Republican : In Gingrich Mold, a New Voice for Solid Resistance in G.O.P.
With many more such successes, it seems likely that the G.O.P.'s sledgehammer approach to redesigning the government - described by Rep. Cantor as "its bedrock value — smaller government" (a value which has never been actually utilised by any Republican President) - will indeed succeed: in rendering the government completely non-viable, that is. Ignore what's right for the actual people of the actual USA; think only about what's best calculated to Return The G.O.P. to power. Now, the United States is not about to disappear from the scene. It will endure. Much as the Roman Empire continued to exist. In different places, with different governments and different social systems. It seems to me to be most likely that the United States of the near future will look a lot like what is today most often described as "The Flyover States." With a Western States of America bounding it on the west (obviously), and a United States of New England on the northeast. And the rising seas of global warming marching up the middle (the Mississippi Valley) and shrinking the Island of Florida to a swamp of its former self. Yes; the G.O.P. is laboring greatly to fashion for itself, and for all of us, what we might well call a Pyrric Victory.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Are They Morons?


... Or Do They Think We Are?
Before during and after the debates and the re-de-and-rere-structuring of the Stimulus Package, the cadre (or coven) of newly minted "fiscal guardians" was taking up as much bandwidth as it could get, claiming that government spending (Out-Of-Control Government Spending, that is) will do nothing to create jobs.
"Tax Cuts - That's The Way To Unleash Business"

Well. Do they take us for Idiots? Give the rich folk the money and they'll use it to build businesses. Build a new Automobile Factory, I shouldn't wonder...
On the other hand, they claim, spending money on the Smithsonian Institute (a particular target of the faux-jes'plain'folk) won't create any jobs at all! Trying to invoke an image of unpaid docents unpainting the walls with unpaint using unpaint brushes. Unpaid plumbers (just try to find one of those!) unfixing the plumbing. All the un-construction workers un-repairing the building using un-materials. Fantastic! I think the folk who have focussed on money to the exclusion of any notice of the actual, real, physical universe have No Idea what goes into the creation of that mysterious thing called Infrastructure. They seem to think infrastructure is that thing that gets reported and tabulated and plotted in the WSJ. Hey Guys! Think "Roads"; think "Bridges"; think "Running Water"; think "Electricity"; think... Oh, forgetit!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Stimulate Me!


The Stimulus Package, so called because it stimulates Republicans to utter even more absurd statements than usual, has now been well and truly emasculated, so it's vote-ready in the Senate, and will be improved out of all recognizeability in a soon-to-appear-in-a-cable-teevee-show-near-you House-Senate Conference. The part that most stimulates me is the part where I can get a tax break for buying a new car! Any reasonable person, looking at the cars passing by on the street, might well conclude that there's already enough cars to go around. In fact there are More Cars in the United States today than there are people licensed to drive them. Therefore, what we need is more cars... It's the same reasoning as the tax break intended to increase Home Ownership, only different.
The way the Stimulus Bill has been bashed and bent seems like a rather desperate attempt to stem the changes already well underway, caused by the impossibility of continuing to endlessly increase the overconsumption of finite resources. It contains lots and lots of provisions to "Restore The Economy" to the status quo ante - rampant overconsumption fuelled by increasing debt. This is what is known as "Wealth Creation". All based on the twin ideas that the Rich Don't Have Enough Money, while the Poor Don't Have Enough Debt. That radical-liberal idea of a Green Economy has been summarily tossed overboard it seems. Future Fear has won out. Business Will Be As Usual 'Til Further Notice it seems. One had briefly hoped that rather than "Limiting Government", we might have set about "Limiting Consumption". Maybe Next Time.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Tone Deaf


Israel will be going to the polls in a general election on Tuesday. There are lots of undecided voters (according to polls - I have no vaguest idea how accurate polls are there), but the general assumption is that the next Prime Minister is going to be Benyamin Netanyahu, or Bibi, as he likes to be called. It makes him seem more like a kindly old uncle rather than the murderous thug he really is. He's campaigning on a promise to "Get Rid Of Hamas", but he doesn't say how he plans to do that. Hamas, meanwhile, is campaigning heavily for Bibi, aware that he's their best hope of maintaining their grip on Gaza. They know that a few inflammatory statements, some flag-waving demonstrators, and as many rockets as they can manage to light off will persuade the remarkably tone deaf Israeli voters to vote against any sensible candidate and go for the one who promises the most violent response. The bombs, bullets, and rockets haven't worked so far, so they're bound to start working soon, is apparently the assumption. Much like that chilling phrase in one of the seemingly infinite string of "The Bourne ..." movies, where a CIA Station Chief says "We Keep Killing Them 'Til We Win." Meanwhile, the Palestinians, easy prey for Arabs and Jews alike, aren't going anywhere. They're far too valuable as a fuse for the powderkeg of the (un)Holy Land; that poor bloodsoaked territory so favored (so it is said) by Almighty God, who wants His People (whoever they are!) to kill every other one of His People (whoever they are).

Friday, February 06, 2009

Taxes!


There seems to be a lot of enjoyment on the part of some people (particularly those who bloviate on Talk Radio (I include Fox News Teevee in this category), who think that Democrats should all pay their Income Taxes. I agree, of course; I wonder, though, how many people do you know who can fill out a 1040 plus its many wierd and wonderful appendages without error? It's easy to laugh if you have only used a 1040EZ, but if you've had to traverse the minefields to be found in the More-Than-A-Thousand-Forms available Here, perhaps you know that errors are pretty much guaranteed. Or, perhaps, we can call them "Honest Mistakes". Unless they're made by prospective Presidential Appointees. Heck; I have difficulty even following the 1040EZ, or the 1040S, or whatever it's called these days; you know, the form for those of us who don't actually have any of those preferred-tax-treatment "finacial instruments".
I'm reminded that Ronald Reagan got busted for failure to pay California State Income Taxes - when he was Governor of California! He paid the taxes (plus penalties & interest), was forgiven, and went on to become President of the United States, where he did his level best to destroy the progressive tax system.
It's taken a few decades, but the seeds sown by Reagan appear to have borne fruit at last. Instead of Tax-And-Spend, which led to a long period of -admittedly intermittent- prosperity; we have now arrived at Don't-Tax-But-Spend-Anyway, which will lead to a permanent state of poverty for most, but lots of prosperity for the few.
It's George W. Bush's Ownership Society redux.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Just What We Needed


An improved way for stalkers to track us!
Yes, folks, now you (or anyone) can follow your children - to see that they're safe, or to track them down. Want to take a long lunch? Your boss will know! Want to leave your abusive spouse? He (she) will know just where you are. Why do we think stuff like this is a Good Idea?
This is what I call Technology-Run-Amok.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

The Party of "NO"


The Staunch Defenders in the Party of Fiscal Responsibility hewed to the party line, voting unanimously against the new President's stimulus package, declaring it to be lacking in tax cuts for the wealthy. How, they ask, can rich people lend money to poor people as long as they're saddled with the wealth-destroying taxes imposed by the irresponsible policies of the discredited President Clinton's economic plan? No, it's just as they suspected; President Obama had no true intention of acting in a bipartisan way. Continuing the Tax-Cut-And-Spend policies of the "Fairly Successful" President Bush (William Kristol,Weekly Standard), that is. Unanimously declaring themselves the Caretakers of Small Government.
The good news in all this: The President can stop wasting time and effort trying to be collegial toward the Rebublicans in Congress. If House Minority Leader John Boehner had feigned some degree of bipartisanship, he could later have blamed the Democrats for Politics-As-Usual, when the President was eventually forced to throw some juicy partisan red meat to the more carnivorous among the House Democratic Caucus. Instead, we can return to the dysfunctional system we've been heir to since Ronald Reagan claimed that Government is the problem, not the solution, and proceeded to prove his assertion.