The misguided way of Liberalism and how it could lead to the end of the USA

[clover]

The State of California is really a state of mind...not a State in the literal sense

[rykat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaNNvRxQ40w&feature=related

 

[ragman]

Here is a good explanation of the Greek dilemma and where Greece is going.  Are we headed down the same path?  Not yet but our government is trying.  

Give GreeceA Going Away Present, But Go It Must

The rate at which things are deteriorating in Greece now officially exceeds the rate at whichdesperate Eurocrats weave new fantasies as they try to keep Greece on theeuro. The just-announced bailout will be no different.

As other European governments advance their latest schemeto soak their own taxpayers and fleece holders of Greek debt—while theyfail to stop crazed Greek anarchists, communists, and unionists from burningdown their own cities—a voice of reason pierces the fog offering the only wayforward.

Too bad no one will listen.

Hans-Werner Sinn, German supply-side economist andPresident of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, lays it out in a crisp800-word interview in Spiegel Online.I’ve read a lot of nonsense about how fantastical Rube Goldberg mechanisms canhelp save the euro, save the bondholders, save the bankers, save thepoliticians, and save the people of Greece. But it cannot be done. Hereis why.

Greeks consume more than they produce. This has been goingon since Germanyput the whole country on the dole after the euro was created, and there isnothing Greeks have enjoyed more than living it up on the dole. They are a veryproud people, though, so they don’t call it the dole. They call it governmentemployment—and woe to any politician that takes away their “right” to a no-showjob!

The Greek government, which created this free flow ofmoney by selling idiotic bankers sovereign bonds that are never going to berepaid, continues to slide deeper into debt faster than the rate at which thosedebts can be serviced. The so-called “austerity” programs the Greek Parliamentkeeps passing at the behest of its German paymasters are only making thingsworse, as the already sclerotic economy implodes, along with tax collectionsthat never amounted to much anyway, given the Greek penchant for tax evasion.

Now those same idiotic bankers, along with the French andGerman politicians they control, are conspiring with the Greek government topretend they can fix the problem by forcing private bondholders to“voluntarily” swap one set of worthless bonds for another set of worthlessbonds, without acknowledging a default that in a sane world would be all butinevitable.

The reason for this urgency? Private holders of theseworthless bonds also hold hundreds of billions in insurance that would have tobe paid to them should those bonds fail. And who are the sellers of theseinsurance policies? Why, the same idiotic bankers who control the French andGerman politicians!

The circus is now in its final act, complete withbreathless announcements of eleventh-hour deals that will stave off disasteruntil the next eleventh-hour deal. Meanwhile, our own Timothy Geithner,Secretary of the Treasury, is doing everything in his power to keep the wholemess from blowing up before his boss stands for reelection. Après moi ledeluge.

It won’t work. There is no way to keep the wheels fromfalling off before November. The next shoe to drop will be the refusal by someprivate bondholders to go along with the latest deal, followed by the Greekgovernment passing a retroactive law trying to force them, followed by chaos onthe streets and in the world markets.

It’s time for Greek leaders to end the pain and honestlyface reality like the men they claim to be. Stand before the world, standbefore your people, stand before the bankers, and repeat the immortal wordsthat Otter spoke to Flounder: “You f**ked up… you trusted us! Tear up thosebonds we sold you, they are worthless. Kick us out of the euro, we deserve it.”Then they need to find those old drachma plates and start over.

Once that is settled, the Greek people have to take theirmedicine. As Hans-Werner Sinn points out, in order to be competitive in globalmarkets and start producing more than they consume, every Greek needs to take a30% pay cut.

This cannot happen if pay is measured in euros. Greeklabor unions will commit national suicide before they accept a pay cut. So theyhave to be paid in drachmas—wheelbarrows full of them, so many drachmas thatunion leaders can boast to their members that they are getting pay raises!

Only until the value of the drachma drops low enough foreveryone in the country to actually get paid a wage commensurate with theamount of value they are producing will the situation start to stabilize.

If France,Germany,the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank really want tohelp, they can give the Greek government one last going away present: a €100billion gift to allow the Greek government to capitalize Greek banks longenough to bridge through the transition. In return, the EU can avert a civilwar on its front steps.

There is no other way out. It will have to happen sooneror later. Prolonging the agony benefits no one—not even the politicians hopingto fake it long enough to get reelected.

Greece isdead. Long live Greece.

[clover]

"The tea party’s advent helped make it so, pushing GOP members of Congress in a “right-wing thrust” that is “as extreme as we have seen,” said Theda Skocpol, a Harvard political scientist and the author, with colleague Vanessa Williamson, of a new book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.
Poole agrees. As does Bell. “I agree with the Left,” Bell says. “Social conservativism is keeping polarization alive. And it is keeping the Left from succeeding.”
“Republicans are the insurgent outliers,” Mann says. “They are ideologically extreme and opposed to compromise on principle.” Some tea party members “are prepared to take everything down, like kamikazes,” he says. “It’s the goddamndest thing.”
And so the cure to our polarized politics, if (unlike Bell) you think we need one, will probably have to come from the Right.
In his policy prescriptions, and his political strategy, Paul Ryan thinks bold and big. “We owe the country a very clear choice,” he says. “The gridlock is as bad as it’s ever been. We need the American people to break it.”
“We owe them an alternative,” he says, defending Republican obstructionism. “We owe them an articulate vision and plan; then, let them pick. If we have that kind of election—an affirming election—I feel that’s the best chance to break this logjam.
“And if we win an affirming election like that, then I believe we will have the moral authority and obligation to act on it,” he says. In part because Democrats are not quite so polarized as Republicans, “I believe that there is a consensus to be had.”
But what if Obama wins, or the Democrats defeat the Republicans in the battle for the House and Senate? Will Ryan recognize that his foes have won their own affirming election? Will he bow to their demands that tax rates for the wealthy be raised, and that solutions to the fiscal crisis include more revenue?
Not a chance. “You can’t solve the budget problem by raising taxes,” he replies. That would be heretical.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/divided-we-stand-20120223

So much for the mandate of the people.....it's only a mandate if a Republican gets elected

[ragman]

Cut health care for the active military and give to the terrorists.  Makes sense for this administration.  

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/02/28/guantanamo-bay-detainees-to-receive-750000-soccer-field/

Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Receive $750,000 Soccer Field

 by America Live Posted in: Guantanamo Bay, Soccer    

Accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay will be getting a brand new $750,000 soccer field. This news comes the same day that the Pentagon is talking about where to cut billions of dollars from the defense budget. Chief Intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported from Guantanamo Bay with more on this story.

She said earlier today after going out to the detention camp, she saw that Camp 4, which is the outdoor camp, had been shut down. She explained that it was very popular with the detainees because it allowed them to play soccer and basketball outside. All those detainees have now been moved over to Camp 6, where she found a major renovation underway.

The soccer field was signed off in April of last year and expected to be completed this spring. Catherine said the detainees at Camp 6 will now have three recreation centers: the existing inside and outside facilities, and by spring the new one that is being called the super recreation center.

She described it, telling Megyn Kelly that it’s about half the size of an American football field. In addition, it has some interesting specifications, including trails so that the detainees can travel from the indoor detention center to the outdoor field without being escorted by U.S. military personnel.

On the tour, Catherine was told that one of the reasons they wanted to build a soccer field was because in encourages detainees to follow the rules and they also felt it was in keeping with the number of detainees who like communal style living.

She said officials weren’t able to answer who signed off on this project, especially with the amount money involved, whether that was a local decision at Guantanamo Bay or approved in Washington D.C.

[clover]

just a pittance compared to the oil company subsidies that your party won't cut from the budget

I thought you were going to go off over the fact that in 2008 Obamabush said he was going to close Guantanimo

[ragman]

just a pittance compared to the oil company subsidies that your party won't cut from the budget

I thought you were going to go off over the fact that in 2008 Ambush said he was going to close Guantanimo

The new plan is to close it after the new soccer field is completed.  The company that got the noncompetitive bid has some of his biggest union backers in it and closing it before they get theirs out of it is just out of the question 

[clover]

I guess we'll never get a straight response to the question as to why it's OK to subsidize highly profitable businesses, cater to special interests.....spend trillions fighting foreign wars....re-vitalizing those countries with American tax dollars...............yet not one dollar for doing the same thing for Americans will ever be approved by the Republican congress.  Oh yeah...I forgot...we need to crush the unions, and destroy the middle class.  You guys have a GREAT platform..........I'd be embarrassed.

[ragman]

Mike, a quick answer which you have heard from me many times before. 

"why it's OK to subsidize highly profitable businesses"
ans.  They create the jobs.  They also supply the energy which is the blood supply for everything that is American. 

"cater to special interests"
ans. Because we all cater to special interest, our interest.  The Dems cater to the unions, is that not a special interest?

"spend trillions fighting foreign wars....re-vitalizing those countries with American tax dollars"
ans.  To protect our interests worldwide.  Is does not work to become isolationist and it just so happens that we are the only country who can do the job to prevent complete chaos in the world.

"yet not one dollar for doing the same thing for Americans will ever be approved by the Republican congress"
ans. not so.  Creating jobs helps the American people.  The repubs. voted in Prescription coverage for one.  (they shouldn't
have, in my opinion)

Sorry, can't play right now or I would have given you a 12 page answer.   

[ragman]

RIP you fought a good fight. 

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
by Larry Solov

With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
 
Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.
 
We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.
 
Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.
 
Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:
 

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.
 
Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.
 
Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

[clover]

Mike, a quick answer which you have heard from me many times before. 

"why it's OK to subsidize highly profitable businesses"
ans.  They create the jobs.  They also supply the energy which is the blood supply for everything that is American. 

"cater to special interests"
ans. Because we all cater to special interest, our interest.  The Dems cater to the unions, is that not a special interest?

"spend trillions fighting foreign wars....re-vitalizing those countries with American tax dollars"
ans.  To protect our interests worldwide.  Is does not work to become isolationist and it just so happens that we are the only country who can do the job to prevent complete chaos in the world.

"yet not one dollar for doing the same thing for Americans will ever be approved by the Republican congress"
ans. not so.  Creating jobs helps the American people.  The repubs. voted in Prescription coverage for one.  (they shouldn't
have, in my opinion)

Sorry, can't play right now or I would have given you a 12 page answer.   

The wealthy deserve tax breaks, subsidies and low interest loans because they're "job creators".  Get real....they create jobs in foreign countries.
the middle class and lower class don't deserve shit because ....well just because.  what utter hypocrisy.

Welfare for the rich.   

Whose interest are we protecting in Iraq and Afghanistan?  Big oil in the western oil fields of Iraq and 3 trillion in minerals in Afghanistan.  We paid trillions to destroy Iraq and then rebuild it, and the same in Afghanistan.  We'll eventually retreat to our borders where there hasn't been a truly successful terrorist attack since 2001 and live happily ever after.

We'll continue to give welfare to the rich and starve the poor............and those on the right will call that "trickle down"

[ragman]

Here is letter posted as a comment on the subject of Government Motors and specifically Chevy Volts.  I think this letter sums it up pretty well.   

You people in the government are f-ing morons!

February 24, 2012

Dear President Obama,

Some day soon if I’m running across the national mall shouting “Wolverines!” carrying an empty gas can looking for some of that “Obama Algae,” at least you can’t say you weren’t warned.  This nations 15 Trillion dollar economy is entirely dependent on the creation, refining, distribution, and consumption of natural resources like coal, oil, and natural gas.  Each one of these components intermingle in a dance of price, supply, quantity, and demand.  There existence and availability is constantly perturbed by people of your ideological ilk that threaten these companies with onerous taxation and nationalization; up to and including, through direct threats and/or intrusive regulation.  A gallon of gasoline should be considered a national hero.  It provides us freedom of movement, and the ability to move about a great nation with a level of convenience only known to modern humanity.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when a nation as vital as ours is to a stable and advancing world is; relies on a portion of the world wracked with insanity, like the middle east is and will always be, we are committing an act of insanity ourselves.  We even set up a federal department to fix this situation, which of course, they have made far worse.  We have all of the resources we need here to become self sufficient.  We have the oil, we have the natural gas, we have the coal, we have nuclear power; but more then that we have the can do American ingenuity and positive spirit that has been and will always be our greatest weapon in defeating any adversary or national challenge.   

Your administration has squandered billions on chasing the unicorn of the liberal free lunch, often referred to as “renewable energy.”  One only needs to watch “Mr. Wizards World” to realize the foolishness in this pursuit on a national scale.  I could build you a solar powered car, with a rechargeable battery, and then if I could find a human the size of Luke Skywalker action figure it would work just fine.  Just so long as it never left the driveway.  In reality, electric cars can’t work because of size and weight.  If we abandoned the safety features of these cars they would work, and people buy motorcycles so why would they not buy those electric cars?  I’ll tell you why.  Because you look like a dork in one.  On a motorcycle you look cool.  But If you want an electric car it can be done, and somebody will buy it.  But it can’t be done with crony capitalism, lawsuit city, and federal regulation, plus Ralph Nader in the passenger seat!

So you keep droning on about it’s not my fault.  It’s not my fault we invaded Libya.  It’s not my fault that we have destabilized Egypt who is possession of M1 Abrams tanks and F-16’s.  It’s not my fault that tax receipts are falling.  It’s not my fault that good Americans can’t find work.  It’s not my fault that I’ve not done what had to be done to get this economy moving.  It’s not my fault that I’ve so mismanaged NASA that we can’t even launch a capsule with an American in it without paying a gangster like Putin the vig.  It’s not my fault that guns have been given to the worst of the worst because my attorney general ok’d the dumbest idea since the Edsel.  Its not my fault that this war for one side of the same muslim/arab coin is lining up for a mushroom cloud.  Would you like me to continue?  Because I’m ready willing and able to do so.

“We the People” have taken enough blame from the likes of you.  In short order, we are going to drive to those polls and register our firm displeasure.  Even if we can’t afford the gasoline to get there.

Respectfully,

Joe Doakes

[ragman]

Now the old favorite of boggymen and a good article about this.  This administration would like to increase taxes and increase regulation with the final result of putting them basically out of business.   But some of the sheep will follow with smiles on their faces.   

Four Wind Energy Firms Got $2.6 Billion in Grants

The Obama administration has consistently promoted subsidies for “clean” energy technologies like wind and solar while charging that the oil and gas industry benefits from excessive taxpayer support.

But in fact subsidies for the oil and gas sector aren’t all that large when compared to the amount of energy being produced, while the “green” economy is not creating large numbers of jobs, according to a new report by Robert Bryce, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

President Barack Obama’s budget proclaims: “We should not devote scarce resources to subsidizing the use of fossil fuels produced by some of the largest, most profitable companies in the world. That is why the Budget eliminates inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to address the threat of climate change.”

The reference to the “largest, most profitable companies” reflects the administration’s antipathy toward the hydrocarbon sector, Bryce asserts.

Apple Inc. has a market capitalization of $475 billion and a profit margin of 25.8 percent. Meanwhile, BP, the biggest producer of domestic oil, has a market capitalization of $147 billion and a profit margin of 6.8 percent.

Apple is three times as large and nearly four times as profitable as BP. Apple has virtually no manufacturing jobs in the United States and imports nearly everything from China. Meanwhile the domestic oil industry last year exported about 1 billion barrels of crude oil and refined products.

The administration shows no such antipathy toward the “clean” energy industry. In fact, between 2009 and late 2011, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the administration handed out $2.6 billion in tax-free grants to just four companies, all them board members of the American Wind Energy Association, Bryce discloses.

Two of those firms are foreign-owned — the Spanish energy company Iberdrola, which got $1 billion in grants, and German giant E.ON, which received $542 million.

A third firm, Terra-Gen, is building a wind farm in California that will create only about 50 permanent jobs — that works out to around $9 million per job.

The oil and gas industry, on the other hand, received “subsidies and support” totaling $2.82 billion, and that was spread among the 14,000 oil and gas companies operating in the United States.

The report notes that domestic oil production is now increasing, natural gas production is surging, driving down prices, and over the past five years about 158,000 new oil and gas jobs have been created, many of them high-paying.

Bryce concludes: “The Obama administration continues to vilify the very industry that’s helping spur eco¬nomic growth. America doesn’t need more slogans about ‘clean’ energy. It needs more cheap, abundant, reliable energy.”

[ragman]

Now after talking about unilaterally getting rid of 80% of our Nuclear Warheads, hear is the latest.    

Obama mulls giving Moscow data on missile defense
Tue, Mar 6 2012
By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - The Obama administration disclosed on Tuesday that it is considering sharing some classified U.S. data as part of an effort to allay Russian concerns about a controversial antimissile shield.

The administration is continuing negotiations begun under former President George W. Bush on a defense technical cooperation agreement with Moscow that could include limited classified data, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Brad Roberts told a House of Representatives' Armed Services subcommittee.

He gave no details on the sort of data that might be shared under such an agreement.

Russia strongly opposes the U.S.-engineered bulwark being built in and around Europe against ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like Iran.

Moscow fears that such a shield could grow strong enough over time to undermine Moscow's own nuclear deterrent force and has threatened to deploy missiles of its own as a counter.

"We're not the first administration to seek coooperation on missile defense," Roberts, who is responsible for nuclear and missile defense policy, told the subcommittee on strategic forces.

Nor is the administration the first "to believe that cooperation could be well-served by some limited sharing of classified information of a certain kind if the proper rules were in place to do that," he said in reply to questions from Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican.

"The Bush administration headed down precisely the same path," Roberts said.

"We're making no progress" in persuading Russia to drop its opposition, despite the willingness to consider sharing certain sensitive data, he added.

The Obama administration is pursuing this cooperation because it would be in the security interests of the United States, NATO and Russia by strengthening the defensive capabilities of both NATO and Russia, Roberts said.

Under any such agreement, NATO would be responsible for the defense of its member states and Russia would be responsible for the defense of Russia, Roberts added in written testimony.

Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said he had no knowledge of any move to share with Moscow any classified information on the U.S. technology used to knock out target missiles.

"I never received a request to release classified information to the Russians," he told the panel, testifying alongside Roberts.

Panel chairman Michael Turner said last November that he would oppose any Obama administration effort to provide Russia information on the so-called burnout velocity of Raytheon Co Standard Missile-3 interceptors, a key part of the layered defense.

"The House Armed Services Committee will vigorously resist such compromise of U.S. missile defense capabilities," he said in a speech last November.

Republicans who control the panel will back legislation that would bar the administration from transferring classified missile defense technology to Russia as part of any negotiations or for any other purpose, a congressional staff member said.

Now how about if giving this info the Russians it allows them to find a way to overcome this defensive system?  What the hell is the goal of this administration?  Putin was just elected and he certainly is not a friend of freedom and democracy.  He gloats about stealing past Nuclear secrets from us.  This country is in big trouble.     Memo to Numbnuts, Russia is not now and probably will not be in the near future a friend of the Western World.  Disarming the system that has probably prevented an all out war and giving up secrets about our National Defense is probably not too good an idea. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/22/us-russia-putin-bomb-idUSTRE81L22H20120222

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW | Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:04pm EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world's sole atomic power, in comments reflecting his vision of Russia as a counterweight to U.S. power.

Spies with suitcases full of data helped the Soviet Union build its atomic bomb, he told military commanders.

"You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.

"The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!"

Putin's remarks referred to the dawn of the Cold War more than half a century ago, but they echoed a message he has made loud and clear more recently: that the United States needs to be restrained, and Russia is the country to do it.

[ragman]

Bye, bye Dennis.  The Dem who beat him in the primary is a moderate who sometimes votes with conservative on stem cell and abortion issues for instance.  Is the USA slowly coming to their senses?   

By Paul Kane, Published: March 6
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), the two-time presidential candidate and icon of the antiwar left, suffered a bruising primary defeat Tuesday as a new Republican-drawn congressional map threatened to end the career of one of the most colorful figures in Congress.

With most attention focused on the state’s GOP presidential primary battle, and no Democratic primary for president, Kucinich was left in a low-turnout race in a newly drawn district against his once-close ally, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).