Emergencies, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. That said, Obama has been lookin' particularly stupid of late.
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I know this is gettin' old, Gentle Reader, and I know for a fact you prolly don't give a big rat's ass about MY weather. But there's this:
Full disclosure: I chose the reporting location that always overstates the case for effect. This station is usually above the reported temp at Cannon Airplane Patch by five degrees or so, but this time it's at least ten. Our real temp at 1200 hrs was 101 degrees with five percent relative humidity. These triple digit temps are beginning to get a bit old but it beats the HELL outta this shit.
Yeah... you'll believe anything if you bought into that hopey-changey stuff. How's that workin' out for ya, if ya DID buy into it?
We're back in P-Ville after an uneventful trip back home to Texas. I can hear you now, Gentle Reader, when you say "Home? What's with this 'home' stuff, Buck?" I always get a feelin' of minor elation when I cross the state line into Texas and that's really a weird kinda thang, seein' as how I'm a Texan in name only. What I mean by that is I carry a Texas driver's license, I keep Texas plates on my vehicles, and my "home of record" is in Livingston... a tiny lil burg about two hours north o' Houston. But have I ever LIVED there? No...
Some day I'm gonna pull the trigger and become a New Mexican. I've been thinkin' about that for at least four years now and I just can't bring myself to do it. It has sumthin' to do with that feelin' I get drivin' across the state line. Well, there's that and the fact I pay no state income tax. Naw, it couldn't be the taxes now, could it?
The Silly Season is almost upon us, what with potential GOP candidates declaring their intentions left and right these days. Just this past weekend... and today, if you wanna include Monday as the weekend as I do, because I CAN... two much talked-about possible candidates declared their non-candidacies: Huckabee and Trump. I put both these announcements in the "good" category as neither man would have received my support and one of them has my contempt ("You're FIRED!"). The field narrows accordingly and that's a pretty good thing.
I said there was all sorts of stuff coming from left and right field, didn't I? Well, there's this from LEFT field:
Says Andrew Stiles of NRO, “Newt Gingrich’s appearance on ‘Meet the Press’ today could leave some wondering which party’s nomination he is running for.” DrewM at Ace’s site thinks it’s yet another illustration of Newt’s loose-cannon lack of message discipline, but I can’t believe that; he surely must have considered how this will play in the primaries, especially after the pounding Romney just took on the right for his health-care speech. What’s his strategy? Maybe he’s decided his shot at the nomination is so long that his only chance is by Mediscaring seniors, who famously turn out in high numbers at the polls, into backing him. Paul Ryan’s budget has played remarkably well with the 65+ crowd thus far, but an AP poll taken late last year, before he introduced his plan, found even Republican seniors opposed privatizing Medicare to the tune of 71 percent. If professional Smart Guy Newt Gingrich is now warning them that Ryan’s gone too far, their jitters about reform may make them inclined to believe him. It’s desperate, but since he’s not going to win with support from the GOP’s right, why not pander to its left? I just hope he’s prepared for the relentless beating he’ll rightly take in conservative media for kneecapping Ryan at a moment when deficit hawks are frantic to move national opinion on entitlement reform via a unified party message. He’s handed the left a campaign commercial here and they’re already using it.
Oh, Newt. Now you've gone and done it, Buddy. Here I was... all set to put one of your campaign badges in my sidebar and you go and blow it. It's beyond "blow it," actually, waaay beyond. I could forgive your various personal indiscretions and could even look the other way when you sat on that sofa with The Wicked Witch of the West, coz I've yet to find ANY politician with whom I agree completely. But you screwed da pooch with your comments about Ryan's plan (I, too, am "over 65" and I approve of Young Mr. Ryan). Bad mistake, Newt, BAD mistake. And now my vote is back up for grabs.
J-20 Back in the Air: The Chinese J-20 stealth fighter has reportedly returned to flight testing, completing a publicly witnessed flight in recent days that was much longer than its first reported flight back in January. Britain's Daily Mailreported Tuesday that a J-20 aircraft took to the skies this past weekend from an airfield in Chengdu in southcentral China in a flight meant to coincide with the 60th anniversary of China's aviation industry. It cited a report in a Chinese Communist Party-owned tabloid that included alleged new J-20 photos. US officials have said they were not surprised when China unveiled the J-20 late last year. However, they have acknowledged that the J-20's emergence has shown that China may be making progress in the design of advanced combat aircraft more quickly than the United States had anticipated. (See also Reuters report and Navy Intel Assesses the J-20 from the Daily Report archives.)
Keeping Orbital Operations Safe: The Air Force's Phased Array Warning System radars, known as Pave PAWS, earlier this month played an important role in preventing the evacuation of the International Space Station. Data from their monitoring of a roughly six-inch chunk of debris on a near-collision course with the station allowed the station's three-member crew to remain on board and not have to leave out of safety concerns using Russia's Soyuz capsule. With the help of Pave PAWS tracking data, the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., determined that the debris piece would harmlessly pass by ISS on April 5, much to the crew's relief. The Pave PAWS radars are located at Beale AFB, Calif., and Cape Cod AFS, Mass. The piece of debris causing this scare resulted from China's irresponsible shootdown of a Chinese weather satellite in January 2007. (Cape Cod report via Diana Barth)
Ah, yes. The Chinese. They hold trillions of our debt and STILL have enough money to develop fifth-generation fighters and anti-satellite weapons. As for us? Barack The Magnificent wants to cut $400 billion out of the DoD budget and build choo-choo trains. Liberals love trains, yanno. But fighters? Not so much.
I have to admit I fell asleep during the second intermission of the Hawks-Canucks game, as the outcome was decided by then. But I woke up in time to catch the very end of that game and stayed awake for El-Eh - San Jose. The Kings jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and increased their lead to 4-0 at the beginning of the second; it looked like it was all over but for sobbing Sharks. Heh. Wrong! The Sharks began to systematically tear down the Kings' castle in a determined goal-by-goal effort, chipping away in a onesie-twosie manner to tie it up in the very last seconds of the second period. The game went into OT, given the totally defensive, goal-free nature of the third. The Sharks won it by a 6-5 score three and a half minutes into the OT, capping off an incredible comeback. You don't often see a team fight its way back from a 4-0 deficit to win... and you don't often see 20 goals scored in only two games, come to think on it. But you saw that sorta thang last night. And it was good!
Speaking of good... the Beloved Wings can end the Feral Dogs' season over in Phoenix tonight, assuming said Feral Dogs aren't too inspired by Chicago's last-gasp heroics in their potential elimination Game Four. Anything can happen, of course, but it's pretty safe to say the Dogs ain't the Hawks. We shall see what we see at 2230 hrs (ET) this evening.
I love Charlie Rose's show and I think I may have mentioned this a time or two in these pages. I DO have an issue with Ol' Charlie, though... I think he should allow embedding certain segments of his show, if only in the interest of a better informed public. Last night's show was one such, seein' as how Mr. Rose had Jack Lew,The One's budget director; Representative Paul Ryan (who needs no introduction in these pages); and Steven Pearlstein, a WaPo columnist for the full hour. The best thing about Mr. Rose's show is he goes beyond sound-bites, indulging in lengthy discussion with his guests... which obviously brings clarity to the issue at hand. It's great good stuff and one of the best shows on my teevee (and yours, too... assuming you watch).
The topic last evening was The One's budget speech yesterday, as you might gather from the guest list. Mr. Lew's performance was predictably apologetic, and that's bein' kind... bullshit bein' a much more descriptive word. Mr. Ryan, OTOH, pulled no punches and called it as he sees it. It should come as no surprise my view coincides with Rep. Ryan's view... who basically said "The President has no plan. All he has is a speech." And... wonder of wonders... Mr. Pearlstein came down HARD on Obama, so much so that I was mildly shocked.
All that said... I found this lil clip on the Tube of You. Skip forward to about the 41 second mark, wherein Mr. Ryan begins his comments. Or watch the whole thing... it's up to you.
Like it? If so, I'd recommend you hie yerfineself off to Charlie Rose's site and watch the whole thing (today the segment begins once you hit the site; alternatively you can click on "last night" or search for April 13th, if you go after today). The show is broken up into three segments so you're not forced to swallow all of Mr. Lew's crap. Representative Ryan's comments are keepers, and he is deadly serious... as opposed to our UNserious president, of course.
Return of the Fireballs: Officials with the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon AFB, N.M., have activated the 522nd Special Operations Squadron. "We will commit ourselves to excellence, be dedicated and courageous, and we will always, lead the way," said Lt. Col. Paul Pendleton, who took command of the reformed unit, whose history dates back to World War II. The 522nd SOS will be USAF's first unit assigned the MC-130J Combat Shadow II, which is due to begin operations in 2012. The unit's role will be covert infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of special forces in hostile and denied regions. Pendleton received the unit's laurelled guidon from 27th Special Operations Group acting commander Col. Charles Myers during the April 7 stand-up ceremony. The 522nd, known as the Fireballs, was one of the most decorated air units during World War II. (Cannon report by A1C Jette Carr)
We always run news items from Cannon Airplane Patch... that's one of our responsibilities as a Local Retread Air Force blogger, yanno? SN1 spent some time with the Fireballs, if memory serves. That was when they were flying Lawn Darts, tho.
The way The One is acting about these miniscule budget cuts just cracks me up. Speaking of Teh Funny... The people who run the FeverSwampblogs are having serious splodey head attacks... which is sorta fun to watch, especially in the comments... for a short while, anyhoo. The One sure ain't their favorite guy at the moment. Who'd a thunk it?
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The nice lady from American Home Patient Services dropped by this morning to perform annual service on my oxygen machine, which involves changing out a couple of filters and checking the output to make sure the machine is doin' what it's supposed to do... which it is. I also found out the machine has an odometer of sorts, in the form of an hour meter. Liz (the nice lady) read the meter and said... "It looks like you're using the machine every night!" "Well, yeah... isn't that what the doctor ordered?" sez I. "You'd be surprised," sez she... "I find some machines with three hours or less on 'em when I do the annual service call."
I suppose stupidity knows no bounds... yet I admit I WAS surprised. Go figger.
The playoffs begin Wednesday and the NHL has announced the schedule for the games themselves but not the teevee schedule (yet). Some fans will miss some games during the first round, given the fact that there will be at least two games being played simultaneously every night during the quarter-finals and only one network (Versus) broadcasting the playoffs during weeknights. As an example, both Washington - New York and Detroit - Phoenix play at 1900 hrs this Wednesday night and I'm betting Versus chooses the Ovechkin game for national teevee. Why? Because of the ultra-hyped Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry and the fact Ovechkin has more name recognition with the hoi polloi than any three Dee-troit or Phoenix players outside of their home markets. Speaking of markets, there's also the fact Noo Yawk City will have more eyeballs on the playoffs than Phoenix and Dee-troit combined and it's all about the money, innit?
The teevee situation would REALLY suck for YrHmblScrb if our first round opponent were anyone other than Phoenix. But Comcast rides to my rescue, given the odd fact my local cable franchise gives us Fox Sports Arizona as the "local" sports network of choice. THEIR choice, I should add. The corporate mentality apparently doesn't recognize the fact we're about nine miles west of the Tejas border and sports fans in P-Ville wear Dallas Cowboys jerseys, Stars sweaters, and such. But Hey! I'M grateful for their cluelessness, at any rate. There's also another answer, and one I've been considering for about three years now: NHL Center Ice. But inertia is strong and I am lazy... in that I would have to switch teevee providers (cable to satellite) coz Comcast, once again, doesn't offer the Center Ice package in my area... mostly because there ain't no hockey fans on The High Plains of New Mexico. Or sumthin' like that.
So, here we are... the Most Wonderful Time O' the Year begins Wednesday and we are ready for at least five hours of hockey every single night for about 12 days, then a game every night for another ten or 20 days, then a game every other night for a week or so, and then the parade down Woodward Avenue in June, if the hockey gods smile upon us and the Wings are sufficiently motivated and healthy.
One final note... this is also the time o' year when blog traffic falls off the cliff. But that's OK; I can live with that. I have my priorities aligned correctly... screw the rest of ya. <=== that's a cigar.
Update: Well, I was wrong. Imagine that!
VERSUS: Playoff coverage begins on VERSUS with a tripleheader this Wednesday night, the first night of the postseason. The Red Wings host the Coyotes in Game 1 of their series at 7 p.m. ET followed by the conclusion of the Capitals hosting the Rangers (joined in progress). VERSUS’ Wednesday night coverage concludes with the West’s No. 1 Vancouver Canucks hosting the defending Stanley Cup champion No. 8 Chicago Blackhawks at 10 p.m. ET.
I'm thinkin' mebbe there's a conflict between Versus, who does NOT have exclusive broadcast rights during the first round, and some other provider. But Hey! I get what **I** want and that's what matters within the walls of El Casa Móvil De Pennington. More teevee details here.
Yet another reason to hate on grandstanding politicians: Fox News canceled Red Eye last night in order to re-run their "live" coverage of the budget "crisis," said coverage being at least two hours old. At 0300 hrs (ET)! Which begs the question: who the fuck CARES about old news, especially compared to Red Eye, especially at 0300 hrs? If you're some sort of serious policy wonk or political junkie you already knew what went down two or three hours previous and if you're a run o' the mill pot head you don't give a big rat's ass (full disclosure: I lean more to the pot head side of that continuum). In either case you're certainly pissed that Red Eye wasn't on...
And don't get me started on the statements issued by ALL concerned once they reached agreement on yet another continuing resolution in order to discuss DRAFT reductions on a budget that should have been enacted no later than LAST SEPTEMBER. "Historic," my ass. Obama really has a low opinion of America if he expects us to believe that shit... or any of his shit, when ya get right down to it.
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Now that we're in the proper mood... there's this:
This is something like our fourth or fifth consecutive day of (relatively) high winds... high enough that I can neither put my awning down nor sit outside comfortably during the day's MOST important hour. It's gonna stay like this all weekend, too, From the NWS in ABQ:
.. High wind watch remains in effect from 9 PM MDT this evening through Sunday afternoon...
A High Wind Warning remains in effect until 9 PM MDT this evening. A high wind watch remains in effect from 9 PM MDT this evening through Sunday afternoon.
* Location... along and east of the Central Mountain chain.
* Winds... southwest 35 to 45 mph with gusts up to 60 or 65 mph. Direction will shift to a westerly component between midnight and 9 am MDT on Sunday.
* Timing... winds will continue strong across the region... with the strongest gusts late this afternoon. Winds may diminish at times tonight... but will redevelop during the daytime hours on Sunday.
Oh, well. It's Spring... what the Hell was I expecting?
Representative Ryan gets it. The easiest way to understand whether Ryan is right or wrong is to look at who opposes what he's tryin' to do, and how hard. We're talkin' about the usual suspects here... Pelosi and Van Hollen (the Dems' simpering mouthpiece, of late), just to name two. Both Pelosi and Van Hollen have come out with their same tired ol' moans and groans about budget reform and deficit reduction in the last week... words to the effect the mean ol' GOP is after the children and our Seniors. And fucking Democrats have the unmitigated GALL to rant about "special interests."
The current sideshow about shutting down the gub'mint over whether we should legislate either a paltry 30 billion dollars or a slightly less paltry 60 billion dollars worth of current expenditure reductions is just a warm up for the REAL fight that's gonna go down during the run-up to 2012. We all need to fasten our seat belts and get ready for some serious political histrionics from the donkeys, coz it's gonna get real rough out there. One hopes the serious adults... like Rep. Ryan... will be able to make their case to the American public and prevail in the budget war, but one should also NEVER underestimate the power of demagoguery. The Dems excel at the latter and it works all too often.
... plus c'est la même chose. I've mentioned in passing that I'm reading Mark Twain's Autobiography, albeit reading slowly... very slowly... almost to a point where "reading at it" would be more accurate. It's not that the book isn't entertaining (it is), or that the prose is inaccessible (it's not), or any of the myriad reasons one has for not plowing through a book in a couple o' sittings. I did put Twain aside in favor of Clancy a while back, but that was when I was in the weeds of the academic notes. We've since moved to Twain proper and the reading is easy. But I'm a lot slower than I used to be, in almost any life-category you'd care to mention. It is what it is.
We digress. The post title refers to this lil excerpt I ran across yesterday:
We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one—the one we use—which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we came by it.
Look at it in politics. Look at the candidates whom we loathe, one year, and are afraid to vote against the next; whom we cover with unimaginable filth, one year, and fall down on the public platform and worship, the next—and keep on doing it until the habitual shutting of our eyes to last year’s evidences brings us presently to a sincere and stupid belief in this year’s.
Look at the tyranny of party—at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty—a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes—and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits; and all the while, their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible-texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master. If we would learn what the human race really is, at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.
That bit o' wisdom was written at the turn of the 20th century... say around 1901, or thereabouts... in an unpublished article Twain wrote for The Atlantic, but published in its entirety in his memoirs. There is a lot more in this vein and I could quote from the piece from now until the cows come home. Twain was an Independent rather than a registered Republican or Democrat, and waxes eloquently about voting for the man rather than the party, claiming he never once voted a straight party ticket. That's pretty good advice, no matter what era you live in. But it's Twain's larger point about humanity's worst aspects being on display at election time that interests me. I find it fascinating that the more things change, the more they remain the same. It has been ever so.
The image comes from a generic Google image search. I chose Twain with a cigar for obvious reasons, that being the only thing we have in common.
Jokes, he argues, were a vital communication tool for President Reagan "because he could illustrate points with them." Mr. Johnson adopts a remarkable vocal impression of America's 40th president and delivers an example: "You know, he said, 'I'm not too worried about the deficit. It's big enough to take care of itself.'" Recovering from his own laughter, he adds: "Of course, that's an excellent one-liner, but it's also a perfectly valid economic point." Then his expression grows serious again and he concludes: "You don't get that from Obama. He talks in paragraphs."
Well. I don't think Mr. Reagan would say the same thing about our current deficit, which is big enough to destroy us. It might do just that, despite Mr. Obama's paragraphs on the subject.
The post title of "back to bid'niz as usual" refers to my Obama the Brewmaster post which just MIGHT be the only time time I've said something nice about our sitting president. But... about the above passage... here's a lil bit of the back-story:
His concern with the human dimension of history is reflected as well in his attitude toward humor, the subject of another recent book, "Humorists." "The older I get," he tells me, "the more important I think it is to stress jokes." Which is another reason he loves America. "One of the great contributions that America has made to civilization," he deadpans, "is the one-liner." The one-liner, he says, was "invented, or at any rate brought to the forefront, by Benjamin Franklin." Mark Twain's were the "greatest of all."
And then there was Ronald Reagan. "Mr. Reagan had thousands of one-liners." Here a grin spreads across Mr. Johnson's face: "That's what made him a great president."
I'm being checked-out at Wally-World a few minutes ago and I've got the usual load o' crap... a half dozen eggs, a pound o' bacon, loaf o' bread, bag o' salad, three limes, a couple of frozen entrees, 12-pack of Sam Adams, yadda, yadda... ya know, the usual. Sweet Young Thang looks at me and sez...
"You're single, aren't ya?"
"Well, yeah," sez I. ""What gave ya the first clue?"
"You're really fuckin' ugly," sez she.
Badda-da-boomp. She really wasn't a Sweet Young Thang, she was a fat 'n' frumpy old broad who visibly turned up her nose as she scanned my beer. Which reminded me of that old joke...
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What's up with this? Last week I got a love note from DoD... the Defense Finance and Accounting folks, to be exact... notifying me that federal withholding increased and my USAF retirement check would be lighter by 32 Yankee Dollars this month and forever, or until the next COLA kicks in. Didn't The One tell me I should be thanking him for lowering my taxes? Did he LIE to me? How is that possible?
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Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack is gonna be mostly country blues... and we'll begin with this:
This is yet another tune that makes us go waaay back... back to when I was caught up in a dead-end love affair. This song was the first single off the first MTB album released in 1973, which is egg-zactly when my heart was ripped out of my chest and stomped on... hard. "That woman" really did a number on me so the song was fuel for many a late-night "cryin' in my beer" sessions. The song stayed with me and STILL evokes some bittersweet memories of Former Happy Days, Part One. Hell, Part Two... as well.
"Can't You See" remains one of the best country blues tunes EVER recorded. That's my (not so) humble opinion but I realize YMMV, Gentle Reader.
The federal deficit is obscene but the states are in worse shape... which is no big secret to anyone who's been paying even the slightest bit of attention. While California and New York garner the most attention as the poster children for the states' fiscal woes, things blew up yesterday in Wisconsin. From the WSJ:
MADISON, Wis.—Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an effort to torpedo a closely watched vote on what would be the nation's first major overhaul of union laws in years, as government workers flooded the statehouse for a third day seeking to block passage of the bill.
Surrounded by thousands of tightly packed protesters, including teachers who had been encouraged by union leaders to show up in force, state senators gathered around 11 a.m. to vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective-bargaining rights for most state employees. The governor's proposal, part of a bill aimed at overcoming a $137 million deficit in the current budget and a projected $3.6 billion hole in the next two years, would allow collective bargaining on wages, but not pensions and health care. Workers would be required to pay more for both. And raises would be limited to the inflation rate, unless voters approved steeper boosts.
All that sounds pretty reasonable to me... and there's more detail at the link... but not to the public employees unions, most specifically the teachers unions, who are engaged in Academy Award level histrionics worthy of a "Best Performance By Spoiled Brats" Oscar, if there were such a thing. And they're doing so on the taxpayers dime, too, and that's the most sickening part of the whole thing. The WSJ, again:
The drama disrupted schools across the state, as thousands of teachers called in sick to attend the protests. Public schools were closed in Madison, La Crosse, Racine and Wausau.
Patrick Gasper, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the state's education agency, said he didn't have a statewide tally of closures among the state's 424 school districts, which educate 872,000 students. But he said, "They're all over."
He added that some districts could have to add days at the end of the year to meet state requirements for days and hours of instruction. School officials in Milwaukee said missing work without a valid excuse would "leave teachers open to disciplinary action."
"Disciplinary action" prolly means a letter of reprimand or a similar slap on the wrist. I'm thinking wholesale firings, a la Reagan/PATCO would be more appropriate, but that's just me. I read elsewhere that an estimated 60% of the teachers in some Wisconsin districts called in sick in order to attend the protests. That is nothing short of despicable and speaks to the self-serving nature of teachers unions. But, Hey. They're entitled, not to mention privileged. Check out these figures:
In May 2009, preschool teachers in Wisconsin earned an average salary of $23,460, elementary school teachers earned $51,240, and secondary school teachers earned $49,400. (2) Education and experience level also make a difference in teacher salaries: secondary school teachers in the 90th wage percentile earned $69,550, while the entry-level teacher salary is generally in the $30,000s. (3)
Geographic location is another significant reason for variation in Wisconsin teaching salaries. Areas that have a higher cost of living often pay correspondingly higher salaries. Below are average annual earnings for secondary school teachers in five of the largest metropolitan areas in the state: (4)
Green Bay: $55,110
Kenosha: $68,400
Madison: $50,770
Milwaukee: $54,620
Racine: $49,710
I got those numbers from Wisconsin Teaching Salaries, via a link from Michelle Malkin. That's pretty good money for folks who only work nine or nine and a half months out of any given year and receive benefits in excess of what private sector employees receive, yet they turn out by the thousands to protest. On school time, no less.
Just briefly: note the civil tone of the protesters (the image I used above is NOT from the WSJ). A lot's been said about THAT, and I'm one of mebbe thousands of bloggers on the right to post this:
So, yeah... fixing our fiscal situation is gonna be very, very difficult if this is any indication of the sort of resistance the states will face. And you KNOW it is. Unions, especially public-sector unions, have most definitely outlived their usefulness and have turned into left-wing organizations who have a "Fuck you, I got mine and I'm gonna keep it" attitude. Who'd a thunk it?
NOone likes it. The usual source is mostly about The One's ridiculous efforts at deficit reduction, kicking the can down the road, yadda, yadda. Here's one such:
My favorite, tho, is this one:
The most amazing thing (to me, anyhoo) about Obama's budget is the fact he completely ignored the Simpson-Bowles recommendations. That was HIS commission and he basically said "thanks, but no thanks." It's hard to take Obama seriously on the subject of the deficit, even for the most Hopey-Changey among us. Those of us on the right who never really took him seriously about any-damned-thing could just shrug our shoulders and say "Well, what did you expect?" But the deficit is an existential crisis, the sort of "make or break" issue that threatens the very life of the republic. I was hoping... excuse the expression... for something better than what we got.
Reading budgets ain't my cuppa and by that I mean the actual document itself. I'll leave that to the wonks, thank ya. But I have read a lot of reaction and analysis to/on the budget and there ain't much "there" there. I'll put up one brief quote from the WSJ and then I'll go:
This $3.73 trillion budget does a Cee Lo Green ("Forget You," as cleaned up for the Grammys) to the voter mandate in November to control spending. It leaves every hard decision to the new House Republican majority. And it ignores almost entirely the recommendations of Mr. Obama's own deficit commission. No wonder the commission's Democratic co-chairman, Erskine Bowles, said Monday that this budget goes "nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare." And he's an ally.
How unserious is this budget? Although the White House trumpets $2.18 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, those savings are so far off in the magical "out years" that you can barely see them from here. More than 95% of the savings would happen after Mr. Obama's first term in the White House is over, and almost two-thirds of the promised deficit reduction would arrive after 2016. Pretending to cut deficits by pushing all real cuts into the future is Budget Flimflam 101.
That pretty much sums it up. Hope 'n' Change, my ass.
Watch the whole thing. Really. It's 21 minutes of truth, justice, and the American Way; I do not exaggerate. Those of us "of a certain age" experienced Mr. Reagan personally and we and the nation benefited a great deal from his policies and politics, as did the rest of the world, most notably Russians and Eastern Europeans. Mr. Reagan has a lot say about that in this speech, among many other things... including the state of America as he left it, which was one whole WHOLE helluva lot better than he found it.
I can't help but compare and contrast this speech with the speeches I've heard The One deliver... and The One comes off a distant second. Obama isn't even in the same universe as Reagan but you knew that, Gentle Reader. That said... I AM looking forward to The One's farewell speech in January of 2013. I'll have the popcorn ready.
h/t to Occasional Reader Rob, who sent the vid to me in an e-mail. This was the best 21 minutes of my day so far.
From the usual source, which is mostly about sputnik moments and deficits today. But we aren't in the mood to flog dead draft animals.We're in this sorta mood:
But it's too early for Happy Hour. Mebbe a lil Kahlua in my coffee...
