Saturday, July 10, 2010

Blue State Recipes of 'Higher Taxes, Less Fiscal Responsibility' Pay Dividends as Cali, New York and Illinois Near Collapse

Detect a theme in the following local news stories?

California tax revenue slides again


California’s cash balance is “stable today, but could be short-lived,” after dipping $54.6 million — or 0.5 percent — in June, compared to the governor’s May revision... Larger-than-anticipated declines in corporate taxes and sales-tax revenue offset the $333 million, or 6.1 percent, increase in person income tax revenue, State Controller John Chiang said in a news release Friday. Corporate taxes declined $156 million, while sales-tax revenue fell $153 million, or down 7.5 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

“The governor and Legislature’s lack of urgency in adopting an honest budget could pave the way to a completely avoidable cash crisis later this year,” Chiang said... The state’s $9.9 billion budget deficit cash deficit is being covered by internal borrowing.

Illinois wrestles with $13 billion deficit


[Gov.] Quinn’s announce[d] late last week that he was cutting state spending by $1 billion as he wrestles with one of the worst state budget deficits in the country. State legislators wrapped up their session earlier this year, leaving Quinn with a $13 billion deficit to resolve... [A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that, among Illinois residents,]:

-- 71 percent say the country is in a recession, and 46 percent say the economy is getting worse.
-- 55 percent want to repeal President Obama’s health care plan.
-- 51 percent disagree with the Justice Department’s decision to challenge Arizona’s new immigration law.
-- 27 percent view Gov. Quinn “very unfavorably.” (Is that all?)

New York Budget Late, Stuck in Neutral


The state's budget is now 101 days late, New York's leaders have ceased negotiating with each other and fresh revenue problems could be on the horizon in two months...

The state could face new cash problems in September and Gov. David Paterson may withhold $2 billion in school aid in order to cover costs, his office said...

...A controversial plan to allow the state and local governments to essentially borrow from the pension fund also remains an issue, as does creating a contingency fund in case up to $1 billion in federal Medicaid money isn't sent to the state...

The theme, my friends, is these states -- despite uniform Democrat control for decade upon decade -- can't even come up with budgets.

Yet their answer to every situation is more government: more taxes, more borrowing, more fiscal irresponsibility, more kicking the can down the road.

IF YOU DON'T VOTE IN 2010 -- and vote out every Democrat you possibly can -- we'll soon see similar catastrophes at the federal level. It's either 2010 for fiscal responsibility or -- it's over.



The Towering Financial Acumen of the Left -- Spittled-laced Balloon Juice insists Rich Must Get Poorer to Make Things Gooder

Like clockwork, the Obama sycophants in legacy media publish the same, tired story they run every year about this time.

The gap between the wealthiest Americans and middle- and working-class Americans has more than tripled in the past three decades, according to a June 25 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

New data show that the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest parts of the population in 2007 was the highest it’s been in 80 years, while the share of income going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level ever.

The CBPP report attributes the widening of this gap partly to Bush Administration tax cuts, which primarily benefited the wealthy...

[Ed: Gee, that's a unique theme]

Of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts taxpayers received through 2008, high-income households received by far the largest — not only in amount but also as a percentage of income — which shifted the concentration of after-tax income toward the top of the spectrum.

And the economic illiterates running the socialist blogs -- like John Cole at Balloon Juice -- insist that the rich get poorer. Because that way, they'll hire fewer people, quit plowing money into startups and capital investments, and otherwise stimulate the economy.

In all seriousness, what I do not understand is why don’t people realize this is unsustainable? How do people expect the economy to grow when 3/4 ofthe [sic] nation is too broke to buy anything?

Considering 20% of the country is either unemployed or under-employed, perhaps jobs might help.

Gee, I wonder who creates jobs? Would that be the entrepreneurs, wealthy investors, risk-taking business owners -- all of whom, by definition, must have capital to spare in order to freaking hire people? You know, these leftists are so damn dumb I'm astounded they're able to survive driving to the grocery store.

Consider the following two gentlemen, two of the detestable wealthy contributing to this awful disparity -- since they possess tens of billions of dollars between them.

The Incredible Wealth of Page and Brin


Eleven years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were students at Stanford. They were then members of Obama's oppressed "poor".

Just nine years later, Page and Brin were worth a combined $36 billion as the founders of Google.

What the Left's economic illiterates can't or won't understand is that wealth disparity is wonderful. It allowed Page and Brin to create, achieve, construct a company from whole cloth, employ thousands and produce hundreds of other millionaires.

Now, of course, they're among the vile rich.

Take more money from the business owners, you get less venture capital, less investment, less business growth and -- ultimately -- more malaise.

Gee, Johnny, that's not too hard to understand, is it?

You see, what's important is not wealth disparity, it's the ability to move between economic classes that makes America unique. Of the top ten wealthiest members of the Forbes 400, six are self-made billionaires.

But, gee, they made too much money, hired far too many people, and contributed way too much to the advancement of society.

Perhaps one day Johnny Cole can take an econ class, so he can figure out all of this incredibly difficult stuff. In the mean time, weep for the poor drones and lemmings who read -- and believe -- this brand of runny excrement.


Update: 'The Government Needs Money'


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Andrew Cuomo: Architect of Ruin

One of the "masterminds" who served a critical -- yet largely unpublicized -- role in the recent economic meltdown is a man named Andrew Cuomo.

Curiously, not only is this man not a laughingstock (or, better yet, serving in federal lockup), he's a mainstream Democrat politician running for the governorship of New York.

Flashback to 1997, when President Bill Clinton named Andrew Cuomo, a man without any significant real estate or financial experience, the youngest head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in history.

Photo Caption o' the Day

MOTUS:

Someone needs to spend a little less time at the golf course and a little more time on the bench.


Larwyn's Linx: Riots Without Cause; Beating Barbara Boxer

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Riots Without Cause: City Journal
Beating Barbara Boxer: Hewitt
Obama Attacks Angle: She's 'Too Extreme': GWP

The racist rules of O's Justice Dept.: Malkin
New Black Panther Party President Admits Voter Intimidation: Driscoll
Rep. Etheridge: You Better Ask “Who Is Dr. Berwick?”: RFC

Economy

America: Empire 'On the Edge of Chaos' and Collapse: AT
'MEChA Boy' Raúl Grijalva Tries to Save Face: RWN
Squandering the Stimulus: AT

Unions Violating Disclosure Rules: RWN
Obama and Keynes, Hayek and Laffer: Wolf Howling
Snap! O's agents asking illegals for their papers!: RWN

Climate & Energy

Raising Arizona: WUWT
China's New 'Carbon Offsets': Red Ink
Aliens Cause Global Warming: Crichton's Caltech Lecture: WUWT

Media

Whitewashing black racism; Shabazz: “Prepare for war”: Malkin
Bill Kristol Must Resign: Coulter
Immigration, racism and the left: Kimball

The NAACP's Second-Class Citizens: Jackson
NBC Reporter Discovers New Immigration Law Causing Illegals to Leave Arizona : NewsBusters
CNN's Cafferty on the Largest Tax Hike in U.S. History: January 2011: BlogProf

World

Russia Moves into Obama’s Foreign Policy Vacuum: FirstThoughts
Measuring Risk of Recidivism Among Detainees - Or Not: AT
The Hidden Costs of Jew-Baiting in England: PJM

Column One: Fit for 'The New York Times': JPost
Doing the Jobs Americans Won’t Do… Illegal Alien Muslim Torches Marietta Mosque: GWP
Saved so he can grow up to kill: TAB

SciTech

ComScore: Android grows US smartphone market share as all others decline: Engadget
Apple Needs an Attitude Adjustment: MarketWatch
Muslim Science Fiction: Post

Cornucopia

Wankers: Then and Now: AT
Let them call @CleanHouse: Fausta
Website posts recording of racist Gibson rant: Yahoo!

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sharron Angle for U.S. Senate: Help Defeat Harry Reid!


Friday, July 09, 2010

Beware the Democrat who claims he has discovered the free market

By Victor the Contractor

Much has been written about the Obama Presidency -- and the impact it has on politics in the United States and abroad. Nine or ten figures of capital was spent winning his election, from selling the idea of a return to ethics or his plain promise that his would be the most open governance in history.

President Obama was going to throw open the doors to the legislative process and even bring cameras into the negotiations for health care reform. A huge gamble was taken by the Democrat Party, in that setting such open and lofty goals would be enough to win the election and that there would be enough momentum to govern and reshape the political landscape in their desired image.

Well, I have some bad news.

The White House has failed in its bid to keep the hearts and minds it so enthusiastically courted during the last election. Pledging to govern with an open mind and a televised process is all well and good until the swearing in ceremony, and then the rubber meets the road. Or in GM and Chrysler's case, the (unwanted) rubber sits in the showroom while the American people pay for a hundred thousand union members to pretend to manufacture automobiles of questionable quality.

In fact, this Presidency has been the antithesis of open. Nobody knows what is going on in the White House, least of all its principal occupant and his cabinet. From day one there has been an 'invisibility cloak' thrown over the Congress and the White House, both in terms of access to the process of governance and the legislation.

President Obama has established a Kremlin-like leadership style. He dictates from on high and has a complete disdain for criticism -- or even questions concerning his rationale. His is the affectation of the royal, who decrees and answers to no one.

His Executive Orders are now being challenged in court. And with each loss in court, he is inexorably losing fungible political power. No matter what political bent to which you aspire, a loss in court over an Executive Order is a loss in the public court of opinion.

And the first loss is the most shocking because most expected the courts to side with his vision of the world. A rebuke by the courts shows him to be human, fallible and perhaps even an outsider. Perhaps he is a man who won election but as of yet is untested in the role of leader. And the courts will be no pushover when the President chooses to enact extra-constitutional authority.

This man-child has used his 'Audacity of Hope' spiel to set up a Kangaroo Kingdom of sorts, where he decrees -- and the press trumpets -- his success. No matter that his policies are dooming the economy or that his lack of savvy exposes a Marxist agenda at every turn.

As a President he looks like a monumental failure already, allusions to the inglorious Carter presidency not withstanding. Mr. Obama has no plan to govern; he possesses only an agenda of nationalization and socialization, the likes of which America has never before seen. What a pity for those who actually believed in his flowery prose and evocative dream weaving! So desperate were the Democrats to have a modern JFK that they settled for a well spoken but incompetent SOB.

Leadership guffaws:

• President Obama said that the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was obviously picking a fight with a police officer. No matter that the officer was investigating a possible home invasion 911 call. Ignorance of the details did not stop the President from offering illumination into his skewed worldview. As CINC, he should have known better.

• "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort." Was that an effort to improve his golf game? He later claimed to have convened a special group to oversee the disaster. Why no one had heard of this group for 60 days... and why they waited to months act was anyone's guess. And are we talking about oil or the economy here? Does it really matter?

• The White House's tax-and-spend programs are bankrupting the country even as their economists decry capitalism and proclaim the failure of a market-based economy. Curiously, they ignore a 14 trillion dollar debt and a two trillion dollar budget deficit for fiscal 2010. But we have to spend our way out of the recession with China's money, don't we? The Democrats' strategy? Buying the unions and hapless Progressives: $50 million. Buying the unemployed and the illegal vote: $2 billion. A four trillion dollar budget while taking $2.3 trillion: priceless.

• The agonizingly moronic lawsuit against Arizona for trying to help ICE do its job is a blatant effort to legalize illegal aliens. Or, as a caller to Rush Limbaugh's program called them: "Undocumented Democrats". Their transparent project to add to Democratic voter rolls adds a particularly distasteful aspect to this proceeding. That the President's 'Justice' Department is suing to sideline a law they are charged with enforcing is beyond hypocritical. It leads one to believe that his ends justify any means. This is a new low for even Obama.

• The now-forgotten Health Care Reform Act saps a trifling $650 an employee in its first year from businesses with more than 50 workers. That "fine" balloons as the years pass to $2000-per-worker. I've been reading the numbers -- and there are too many new taxes to mention here. Suffice it to say that this bill is a candy store for the Government... and the spending will be legendary! That 85% of our citizens don't want this pig-in-a-poke is of no consequence to the rabidly socialist White House and compliant Congress. This bill alone could cause an economic depression!

• The Cap and Tax bill reminds many of the tortuous Carter Presidency, where a man in over his head tried to govern with the advice of fools and the enthusiasm of a funeral procession. Nobody could depress consumption like President Carter. And his speeches were greeted with immediate stock market losses (look it up!). Much like our present 'Pretender-in-Chief', Carter tried to cap our production, our consumption and every other aspect of our commerce. These steps will stunt any recovery and lock in our effective double-digit unemployment rate.

• The Spendthrift ethos of the White House may cause a Depression. In 1933 our Government defaulted on our bonds. We hit a reset button for debt. I understand that action caused a worldwide debt default and a deeper depression. I read that only the Netherlands repaid its notes -- and only as a point of honor. With a $14 trillion dollar debt, and a deficit that is swelling monthly, we can not afford to authorize unlimited stimulus bills that just put off the inevitable collapse of the economy. Do not be fooled, the residential and commercial real estate markets are still in critical condition. With a third of new mortgages taken out as refinancing and something like a third of housing sales being sold by the banks we are not out of the woods yet. And commercial real estate has not felt the brunt of the foreclosures yet as banks are putting off those proceedings indefinitely to forestall a collapse in that industry as well. Add to that a 9.7% level of (official) unemployment and you have the makings for stagflation and a repeat of the backing and filling of the economy like we experienced in the 1970's. Economies grow through consumption, not Government spending, welfare checks or unemployment extensions. Spending programs, especially on 'shovel ready programs' which are in reality just addendums to existing bloated budgets just drive up our debt. What you sew, you reap. And we are sewing a deep Depression in this country. We shall reap the whirlwind.

I truly hope that this article is instructive. We can't keep legislating our rights away and expect to prosper. If we allow this growth of government to continue unchecked we will have a welfare state -- and all of the blight and rationing that accompany it. Even the planners of the Health Care Reform Act admit that rationing will be the order of the day. They rationalize their plans: they say it will be more fair than an insurance company. But when has any government run any business efficiently? Name me one, if you can! Even the Post Office is going for another two-cent increase per letter. So much for streamlining.

Beware the Democrat who claims he has found the religion of the free market!

We must sweep Congress clean of the spendthrifts this November! Anyone who voted for Health Care Reform or "Stimulus" should be afraid. Very afraid.

--Victor The Contractor

 
 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Tea Party activist -- and would reject the divisive rhetoric of Barack Obama and Eric Holder

I can say with conviction that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Tea Party activist.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination...

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned... So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

...Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

...But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back... ...I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

...I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

...This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He believed in a color-blind society.

And one other thing: Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.

As all color-blind citizens of these United States are -- and must be.


The Timeless Wisdom of Bob "Sour Grapes" Inglis: Teabaggers Dividing America, Could Result in Car-Bombs and Beheadings

Congressman Bob Inglis lost his GOP primary bid in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago, guaranteeing he would not serve a seventh term. And instead of dealing with the loss in a magnanimous way, the sore loser started spewing the typical RINO crap.

NewsBusters transcribed several of his most outrageous statements, including this classic:

It's a real concern, because I think what we're doing is dividing the country into partisan camps that really look a lot like Shia and Sunni... It's very difficult to come together to find solutions.

A quick check of the records led me to the following statistics that confirm Inglis' metaphor:

  Deaths caused by Sunni-Shia sectarian violence since 2001: 11,328
  Deaths caused by conservatives defending the Constitution since 2001: 0

Good riddance, nimrod.

And should Lindsey Graham not get a six-week refresher course in the Constitution, this could be a preview of 2014's coming attractions.


Larwyn's Linx: 10 Steps to Winning the War Against Socialism

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

10 Steps to Winning the War Against Socialism: GWP
Lawlessness at the DOJ: Adams
Reid Campaign Evading Campaign Finance Laws?: LegalIns

Tea-Bagging Leftists Plan a Riot in Oakland: Zombie
Did Robin Carnahan Defy Federal Law?: Dana Show
Your NAACP at work: Gladney 'not black enough' to protect: GWP

Economy

President Pitching Wedge: 'Absolutely Clear' Economy Looking Up!: Ace
Obama on Jobs: Barry bashes Bush, Strawmen: NiceDeb
Pelosi places Dem reelection hopes on... ObamaCare: RWN

Another sign: Unions losing their old allies: RWN
Dems seek help for their piggy-bank: Hill
Mapping the Economy's 'Man-cession': Blumer

Climate & Energy

The Greenhouse Protection Racket: PJM
Michael Mann Speaks: Nelson
Climategate Whitewash is Good News: CRU brand still toxic: Telegraph

Administration takes a beating on drilling moratorium: BMW
Green Economics and the Void of Desire: Doc Zero
KY miners strike back at Ashley Judd: Malkin

Media

Minister King Samir Shabazz Revisited: GoV
Arizona's Constitutional War Powers: AT
Gibbs mocks conservative reporter, White House reporters amused: Hot Air

Was the Pro-Terrorist CNN Journalist a Victim of ‘a Social Media Drive-By Shooting?’: Driscoll
Morris: Make Obama Own the Double Dip: Ace
Sam Besserman vs. the Universe: Ace

Fish Wrap Of Record Goes All Constitutiony Over Arizona Lawsuit: RWN
Comment o' the Day: Surber
When Social Chaos Breaks Out: Crittenden

World

More Cracks in the Mullahs' Regime: Ledeen
Gitmo Transfers: Not Risk Free: WklyStd
Spies Like Putin: Glazov

Women and children die first: AT
China to count abortions as carbon offsets to sell back to US; EU, UN erupt in applause: BlogProf
British ObamaCare update: Wife succeeds in getting proper care for husband--after going on hunger strike: Marathon

Obama: Israelis suspicious of me because of my middle name: IBA
Al Qaeda bodyguard and accountant pleads guilty before military commission: LWJ
Insurgency: Mexican Schools Teach Bullet-Dodging: Dollard

SciTech

Vast Canyon of Gas and Dust — Progressive Progress Report: GoV
Why would you still wear a watch?: Hyperquake
And the outreach begins: BrutHon

Cornucopia

"Today was a nuclear bomb..." said Paul Goydos, who shot a 59 today at the John Deere Classic: Althouse
One American's Poem: R&R
Only Israel: Denny

Images: AdClassix
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Ohio Project

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Hey, Kids Living in the Gulf: Now You Can Have Some Summer Fun, Too!

The February 1940 issue of Modern Mechanix offers some great advice for kids living in the Gulf. Why let a bumbling, inexperienced President ruin your summer?

The Table-top Oil Refinery™ lets anyone, even those of modest intelligence (i.e., Democrats), enjoy the chemicals washing up onto the Gulf shoreline courtesy of the Obama administration.

Remember: you can get all of the raw material free from your local beach!


Idea: Bob D.