The White House apparently thought seriously about scrapping the entire $500 million Healthcare.gov
Sunday, December 01, 2013
The Beta Tester
The White House apparently thought seriously about scrapping the entire $500 million Healthcare.gov
The Fed Must Inflate to Prevent the System From Imploding
The Fed is busy doing everything in its considerable power to get credit (that is, debt) growing again so that we can get back to what it considers to be “normal.”
But the problem is that the recent past was not normal. You may have already seen this next chart. It shows total debt in the U.S. as a percent of GDP:
Somewhere right around 1980, things really changed, and debt began climbing far faster than GDP. And that, right there, is the long and the short of why any attempt to continue the behavior that got us to this point is certain to fail.
It is simply not possible to grow your debts faster than your income forever. However, that’s been the practice since 1980, and current politicians and Federal Reserve officials developed their opinions about “how the world works” during the 33-year period between 1980 and 2013.
Put bluntly, they want to get us back on that same track, and as soon as possible. The reason? Because every major power center, be that in D.C. or on Wall Street, tuned their thinking, systems, and sense of entitlement, during that period. And, frankly, a huge number of financial firms and political careers will melt away if and when that credit expansion finally stops. And stop it will; that’s just a mathematical certainty.
Total Credit Market Debt (TCMD) is a measure of all the various forms of debt in the U.S. That includes corporate, state, federal, and household borrowing. So student loans are in there, as are auto loans, mortgages, and municipal and federal debt. It’s pretty much everything debt-related. What it does not include, though, are any unfunded obligations, entitlements, or other types of liabilities. So the Social Security shortfalls are not in there, nor are the underfunded pensions at the state or corporate levels. TCMD is just debt, plain and simple.
As you can see in this next chart, since 1970, TCMD has been growing almost exponentially.
That tiny little wiggle happened in 2008-2009, and it apparently nearly brought down the entire global financial system. That little deviation was practically too much all on its own for the markets to handle.
Now debts are climbing again at a quite nice pace. That’s mainly due to the Fed monetizing U.S. federal debt just to keep things patched together. As an aside, based on this chart, we’d expect the Fed to not end their QE efforts until and unless households and corporations once more engage in robust borrowing. The system apparently needs borrowing to keep growing exponentially, or it risks collapse.
One could ask why credit can’t just keep growing. But there are many reasons to believe that the future will not resemble the past. Let’s start in 1980, when credit growth really took off. This period also happens to be the happy time that the Fed is trying (desperately) to recreate. Between 1980 and 2013, total credit grew by an astonishing 8 percent per year, compounded. I say “astonishing” because anything growing by 8 percent per year will fully double every 9 years. So let’s run the math experiment and ask what will happen if the Fed is successful and total credit grows for the next 30 years at exactly the same rate it did over the prior 30. That’s all. This is nothing fancy, and it is simply the same rate of growth that everybody got accustomed to while they were figuring out “how the world works.”
What happens to the current $57 trillion in TCMD as it advances by 8 percent per year for 30 years? It mushrooms into a silly number: $573 trillion. That is, an 8 percent growth paradigm gives us a 10-fold increase in total credit in just 30 years:
For perspective, the GDP of the entire globe was just $85 trillion in 2012. Even if we advance global GDP by some hefty number, like 4 percent per year for the next 30 years, under an 8 percent growth regime, U.S. credit would be twice as large as global GDP in 2043.
If that comparison didn’t do it for you, then just ask yourself: Why, exactly, would U.S. corporations, households, and government borrow more than $500 trillion over the next 30 years?
So perhaps the situation moderates a bit, and instead of growing at 8 percent, credit market debt grows at just half that rate. So what happens if credit just grows by 4 percent per year? That gets us to $185 trillion, or another $128 trillion higher than today — a more than 3x increase. Again: for what will we borrow (only) $128 trillion for, over the next 30 years?
When I run these numbers, I am entirely confident that the rate of growth in debt between 1980 and 2013 will not be recreated between 2013 and 2043. But, I’ve been assuming that dollars remain valuable. If dollars were to lose 90 percent or more of their value (say, perhaps due to our central bank creating too many of them), then it’s entirely possible to achieve any sorts of fantastical numbers one wishes to see.
For the Fed to achieve anything even close to the historical rate of credit growth, the dollar will have to lose a lot of value. This may in fact be the Fed’s grand plan, and it’s entirely about keeping the financial system primed with sufficient new credit to prevent it from imploding.
Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News
THE AWESOME EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT: White House Considered Scrapping $500MM Healthcare.gov Site
Now I'm no computer expert, but that doesn't appear to be what you would call, eh, a working website.
Donald Douglas, writing at American Power, highlights one of the most shocking revelations from today's ludicrous talk shows.
Folks are talking about Obama advisor David Plouffe's psycho statement that the ObamaCare website will be working well in 2017. Jeez, right after Obama leaves office. Talk about leaving a steaming pile behind for your successor. Twitchy has that, "‘In denial at this point’: David Plouffe says Obamacare will work ‘really well’ by 2017..."
.@davidplouffe: #Obamacare Will 'Work Really Well' By 2017. http://t.co/un5r2faUgM #ThisWeek
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 1, 2013
Watch it [here]. But pay attention to the opening segment, where Stepanopoulos reports that, "at one point the White House considered scrapping the site and starting all over again." This is the big story of the day, and it's being underreported amid the David Plouffe clown show and the state-media Orwellianism on the other Sunday shows (Emanuel Ezekiel and Ezra Klein provided the WTF analysis team on "Meet the Press"). That the White House seriously considered shutting down Healthcare.gov is the monumental concession of Democrat incompetence and Republican clairvoyance. It's the equivalent of folding your cards, of packing up and going home. A complete and utter defeat for the administration's marquee policy initiative, foreign or domestic. ObamaCare is the president's brand, and it's a loss leader.
The New York Times has it buried deep down in this report:
WASHINGTON — As a small coterie of grim-faced advisers shuffled into the Oval Office on the evening of Oct. 15, President Obama’s chief domestic accomplishment was falling apart 24 miles away, at a bustling high-tech data center in suburban Virginia.Panic is the key word here. Read the full report at the Times. And note how much fun Althouse has with the story, "'Inside the West Wing, where junior researchers monitor Twitter and other social media, officials knew the political controversy had moved beyond the broken website'."
HealthCare.gov, the $630 million online insurance marketplace, was a disaster after it went live on Oct. 1, with a roster of engineering repairs that would eventually swell to more than 600 items. The private contractors who built it were pointing fingers at one another. And inside the White House, after initially saying too much traffic was to blame, Mr. Obama’s closest confidants had few good answers...
Publicly, Mr. Obama had said “interest way exceeded expectations, and that’s the good news.” But in a meeting in Mr. McDonough’s office that first weekend after the start, someone asked the question on everyone’s mind: Should we just take the website down altogether for a time so it can be fixed?
While the website is the centerpiece of ObamaCare (because its "back end" operations form the lynchpin of this Democrat-socialist health rationing system), it's just the tip of the iceberg for political recriminations, both current and forthcoming. Millions have lost their coverage on the individual health insurance market --- prompting utter fear and desperation among Congressional Democrats facing reelection next year --- but as we get deeper into the rollout next year, when insurance companies start notifying business of policy cancellations, and when employers start dumping tens of millions of workers onto the crappy cookie-cutter ClusterCare programs, all hell is indeed going to break loose, and George Will so accurately predicts.
A half a billion dollars of our money was thrown away on this P.O.S. website?
And they were ready to scrap it?
Who was fired? Who was disciplined?
And this was just the website: the actual Obamacare disaster hasn't even truly begun. What happens to the 129 million Americans who have lost or will lose their insurance?
Here's a helpful hint for John Boehner: you took 40 phony votes on repealing Obamacare.
Now take a real vote. Force Democrats in the House to make a stand.
Repeal this monstrosity and put as much pressure on the Senate Democrats as they can withstand.
Crispy Creme Comix
Well, if the "Architect" said it, it must be true.
Old Soviet Jokes Become Our New Reality
I have seen the future and ran away.
At first the move to America from the former USSR made me feel as though I had made a jump in time, from the stagnant depraved past into a distant dynamic future.
There was an abundance of commonly available futuristic contraptions, machines, and appliances that made everyday existence easier and more enjoyable. Less obvious but just as exciting was the media's openness: I no longer needed to read between the lines to know what was happening.
Most importantly, there was honesty, dignity, and respect in relations among people.
Today I'm feeling like a time traveler again.
Only this time the productive, honest and self-reliant America is vanishing in the past, as we are quickly approaching the all too familiar future.
It is the future of equal poverty, one-party rule, media mooching, government looting, bureaucratic corruption, rigged elections, underground literature, half-whispered jokes, and the useful habit of looking over your shoulder.
It was nice living in America before it changed the course and followed Obama's direction "Forward," which, according to my compass, is pointing backward.
All of a sudden I find myself playing the role of a comrade from the future, helping my new compatriots to navigate the quagmire ahead of us.
Karl Rove Komix
Hat tip: Stilton Jarlsberg.
Larwyn's Linx: New website, same lousy ObamaCare
Nation
New website, same lousy ObamaCare: Silvio Canto, Jr.Old, liberal Democrat: Vote Republican — Save the Country: Arnold Trebach
The War on Women Drags On: Jazz Shaw
GOP doctors go for Congress amid ObamaCare fiasco: Alexandra Jaffe, Hill
Punch Me: Democrats preparing for more bad news: John Dickerson, Slate
Democrats worry leaders in denial on Obamacare: Alex Isenstadt, Politico
NYT Wants Military Pay on the Chopping Block: William Teach
The 2016 Presidential Candidate That No One is Talking About: Dean Garrison
Man Builds Gun With Materials Bought AFTER Airport Security: VictoryGirls
Economy
Crime rate plunges after city dumps unionized police: Thomas LifsonThere’s Time to Stop the Next Big Boondoggle: Debra Saunders
What If Buying Coffee Was Like Buying ObamaCare?: Tammy Bruce
Scandal Central
FBI purged jihadi Qur'an verses from training materials: Robert SpencerObamas visit illegal immigrant protesters: ‘We’re very proud of you’: RWN
Obama: We’re Investigating My Own Obliviousness On Obamacare Site: WZ
Climate & Energy
U.N. Repudiates Global Warming: Douglas HerzMedia
FLOTUS at the Barbara Walters Improv: Barack ‘keeps his promises’: Michelle MalkinEverything Seemingly is Spinning Out of Control: Ed Driscoll
Tomorrow Will Be “Dancing With The Obamacare Stars”: Prepare For Lots Of Spinning!: Mark Horne
Reporter tells MSNBC Obama administration ‘most hostile to the media . . . in US history’: BPR
Kanye West Hates Jewish People: Ed Driscoll
Barbara Walters silent as first lady says Obama ‘keeps his promises’: BPR
Manufacturing Intolerance: Daniel Greenfield
Obama’s Lips Are Moving, He’s Lying: Sara Noble
Jezebel Writer Wishes Gov Walker Died In Car Wreck, Apologizes: WZ
World
What part of “Death to America” do they not understand?: DiogenesMissile Warheads in Jamaica: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
‘Secret talks with Iran led Obama to shelve strike on Syria’: Times of Israel
Iran Demands US Apologize and Give Them More Money as They Enrich: Sara Noble
Temple Mount closed after Jews and Muslims clash: Lazar Berman
Now I love these guys for two reasons: Sondrak
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Google’s 200 ranking factors: The complete list [infographic]: AlltopThe Dismantling of POTS: bold move or grave error?: Slashdot
Inhaled Stem Cells Might Replace Lost Neurons: Caitlin Shure
Cornucopia
The Ballad of Kiwi Gardner: Sam Laird, MashableHanging With the Mall Rats; Waiting for the Doors to Open: MOTUS
Paul Walker: His life of 'Fast and Furious' cars: Chris Woodyard, USA Today
Image: Wired Space Photo of the Day
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Matt Bevin for Senator in Kentucky
QOTD: "The Senate is where the most dramatic changes could occur if a GOP wave develops next year.
In 2010, Republicans gained six Senate seats including two states that Sen. John McCain carried in 2008 (Arkansas and North Dakota) and four states that then-Sen. Obama won (Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin). The only Democrat to win a Senate race in a McCain state in 2010 was Joe Manchin III in West Virginia. A six-seat takeover wasn’t enough for a majority in 2010 but would be enough next year.
Democrats have demonstrated their ability to win close Senate races in the past. But it’s worth noting that the party won six races last cycle with 51 percent of the vote or less in what was likely a more favorable environment than 2014. Incumbent Sen. Jon Tester was re-elected with 48.6 percent in Montana and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown won with 51 percent. Open seat Democratic candidates such as New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin won with 51 percent, and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp just cracked 50 percent.
Readers beware, this is not a projection. It’s too early for that. But Democrats ought not simply dismiss out of hand that 2014 could be another bad year — even a very bad year — for their party." --Nathan L. Gonzales, "Open Your Mind to the Possibility of Another Midterm Mess for Democrats"
Saturday, November 30, 2013
RADICAL: MIT Scientists Invent Brand New Form of 3-D Printing
3-D printing has become the rallying cause for a rising generation of designers, engineers, and architects. There seems to be few limits to what the technology can do or what range of products it can spawn, from lampshades to lunar bases. Amid all the hype, however, it’s easy to neglect one key factor: Printing capabilities are directly wedded to the size of one’s printer...
...MIT-based researchers and instructors Marcelo Coelho and Skylar Tibbits teamed up to tackle this very problem... The solution is breathtakingly simple. By merely folding the object you want to print, you can jig it to fit into a small-scale printer... [they use] a dense cluster of thin but sturdy polymer links packaged in a three-dimensional puzzle that can be intuitively assembled.
...The chains are programmed with multidirectional notches, so that they can be latched together at right angles. Assembly is quick because each chain can only bend in the way it's designed to, thus removing a large obstacle that plagues most 3-D-printing ventures. The final product, then, will look exactly as it does on your computer screen but will be structurally sound enough to stand on its own in physical space. In the process, Tibbits suggests, scale becomes virtually, if not entirely, irrelevant...
Please don't tell any Democrats about this innovative new technology, because if they find out about it, I'm betting they'll invent 12 new ways to tax it.
Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.
THE DUPLICITOUS CHRIS CHRISTIE: Man Who Refused to Oppose Obamacare Now Says It Was ‘A Train Wreck Anybody Could’ve Seen Coming’
New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie slammed Obamacare as a “train wreck” in comments made at a Jersey radio station on November 25.
...Christie was asked why he didn’t join in on the state side and create a state exchange for Obamacare in New Jersey.
“This is just an awful law that made no sense and that’s why I didn’t get into a state exchange. And no, I have absolutely no regrets. In fact, I’m really glad that the train wreck’s not mine, it’s his,” the Governor said of Obama’s signature healthcare law.
Christie went on to slam the President as an example of someone who has never run anything in his life.
“This is a disaster. And it’s a train wreck that anybody who’s managed anything, ever in their lives could have seen coming.”
Governor Christie also said that the whole Obamacare program is a “failure.”
Christie's comments are, at best, disingenuous.
This is a man who wouldn't lift a finger to fight Obamacare, as Mark Levin observed at the time.
It costs nothing for the taxpayers of NJ to join the other states challenging Obamacare. All he needs to do is add his name on behalf of NJ to the other states. He didn't take the lead and now he won't bring up the rear. And just because Corzine ducked doesn't mean he has to. For all the loud bravado, on this hugely important issue he's a wimp. While others are doing all they can to kill Obamacare, spending the time and effort in federal court trying to protect the citizens of their states, Christie does nothing...
...Keep in mind that Obamacare creates massive new expenses for states via Medicaid. It's fiscally irresponsible for Christie to sit on his butt and do nothin. Is this what they mean by frank talk? Maybe his supporters inside the beltway can help us better understand while they're touting him for president.
I can't wait for the 2016 election season to heat up.
Then we can hear the nation's biggest electoral loser of 2012 -- Karl "2% Victory Rate" Rove -- whine that Christie is "the only one who can win".
Which will be as accurate as his predictions about Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Larwyn's Linx: Surrender in Geneva; The Problem of Selfishness
Nation
Surrender in Geneva: Mark SteynThe Problem of Selfishness: Kevin D. Williamson
The Crisis of the Obama Cult: R.S. McCain
Hard Sell: Going door-to-door for Obamacare: Matt Labash
Another Glitch: Seven-Year-Old With Cancer Loses Coverage: MB
Gun-Control Supporters Say Momentum Quietly Building: Bill Straub
Obama and the EU push Genocide: James Lewis
The Real Weak Link In ObamaCare? You And Your Stupid Brain: Ace
Historic: Obama Hits Record Low of 34% Approval in Ohio, 61% Disapproval: JWF
Honest Polls: Americans Reject Immigration Reform, Amnesty: Joe Guzzardi
Origination Clause: ObamaCare's a Good Amendment to Die Hard: Daniel Smyth
Interest at state level in amending U.S. Constitution: Idaho Reporter
Economy
Homeless for the Holidays or Improving the Odds: MOTUSUnions, “Walmart Strikers” Using Local DMV To Organize?: WZ
Health insurance company advertises by goofing on Obamacare: Hot Air
Scandal Central
Cancer Patient Tells Truth About Losing Insurance, Then Gets Audited: Victory GirlsBarack Obama’s (and the Democrats’) war on the scourge of piano teacher nonprofits: Moe Lane
Obamacare Is Killing A Mother With Multiple Sclerosis: Mark Horne
Climate & Energy
It’s Never To Early To Link “Climate Change” And Christmas: RWNMedia
Perhaps It’s Time to Ask Again, ‘What Does a Social Disaster Sound Like?’: R.S. McCainSeven Phony Hate Crimes Trumpeted By The Media: John Hawkins
Media Ignores Murder Conviction of Duke Rape Accuser: Elisha Krauss
Allen West weighs in on Obamacare going dark tonight: Scoop
If I Wanted a King, I’d Move to Jordan Where They Have a Good King: Sara Noble
Black Friday gun deals abound: This Ain't Hell
World
Marine murders in Afghanistan underscore abhorrent ROE: Allen WestObama: “The Taliban are Not Our Enemies and We Don’t Want to Fight Them.”: Daniel Greenfield
Krauthammer: Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq: BPR
‘US freed top Iranian scientist as part of secret talks ahead of Geneva deal’: Mitch Ginsburg
Netanyahu defies Obama’s request to ‘take a breather’ from Iran deal criticism: Janeen Capizola
Is the Game Lost?: David Solway
Maryland: Mega mosque project raising money with terror-linked cleric: Creeping
Sharia law coming to a swimming pool near you: Michele Hickford
Canada: totalitarianism masks itself as concern for our health: MB
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Apple’s iPad comes out a big winner on Black Friday: Dean Takahashi, VentureBeatPebble arrives on Amazon for $148.99: Verge
This Is Why 4D Printing Is Cool: Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo
Cornucopia
The Twelve Days of ObamaCare: CubeThanksgiving Leftovers: Hopenchange
Size Comparison - Science Fiction spaceships: Dirk Loechel
Image: TheBlackSphere
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Matt Bevin for Senator in Kentucky
QOTD: "In Geneva, the participants came to the talks with different goals: The Americans and Europeans wanted an agreement; the Iranians wanted nukes. Each party got what it came for. Before the deal, the mullahs’ existing facilities were said to be within four to seven weeks of nuclear “breakout”; under the new constraints, they’ll be eight to nine weeks from breakout. In return, they get formal international recognition of their enrichment program, and the gutting of sanctions — and everything they already have is, as they say over at Obamacare, grandfathered in.
Many pundits reached for the obvious appeasement analogies, but Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal argued that Geneva is actually worse than Munich. In 1938, facing a German seizure of the Sudetenland, the French and British prime ministers were negotiating with Berlin from a position of profound military weakness: It’s easy to despise Chamberlain with the benefit of hindsight, less easy to give an honest answer as to what one would have done differently playing a weak hand across the table from Hitler 75 years ago. This time round, a superpower and its allies accounting for over 50 percent of the planet’s military spending was facing a militarily insignificant country with a ruined economy and no more than two to three months’ worth of hard currency — and they gave it everything it wanted. " --Mark Steyn
Friday, November 29, 2013
DON'T LET THEM CHANGE THE SUBJECT: Seven Lies and Seven Liars of Obamacare
Seven lies from seven Democrats about ObamaCare, just so you don't forget the matter at hand.
When you're as desperate as Barack Obama is right now - with your approval ratings plunging and people no longer even finding you to be an honest person - you're willing to try almost anything to make people focus their minds on something else. Well, I should qualify: That's what you do if your priority is your own political viability. If you're a real leader, you man up and solve the problem. But we don't have a real leader. We have Barack Obama.
So he is desperately trying to change the subject from ObamaCare to just about anything else. As Dan wrote this morning, he sent John Kerry off to get a deal with Iran at any cost so the two of them could wave the piece of paper and pretend they had accomplished something. At the same time, they are once again pushing an amnesty bill that they hope will lock in illegals as loyal Democrat voters fix the immigration system.But none of these are serious policy initiatives. Their purpose is simply to change the subject from ObamaCare, which is quickly turning into a political crisis of historical proportions for the Democratic Party. And we're not going to let them do it. We're not going to let them make you forget that Democrats lied through their teeth about letting you keep your policy, about your premiums going down, about letting you keep your doctor and your hospital, about what the whole thing would cost . . . I could go on, but you get the idea. So in the spirit of refreshing your memory, I herewith present seven lies from seven Democrats, at least one of whom thinks she should be the next president.
I think you know what to do with these:
1. Max Baucus
"If you like what you have you can keep it."
2. Harry Reid
"Those fortunate enough to have health insurance will be able to keep theirs."
3. Mark Begich
"If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of (inaudible), you keep it"
4. Mary Landrieu
“While those individuals who like the coverage they already have will be able to keep their current plan. This is a very accurate description of this bill before us - The Patient Protection and Affordability Act. It's very accurate."
5. Hillary Clinton
"You keep the insurance you have if you like it."
6. Nancy Pelosi
"If you like what you have and you want to keep it, you have the choice to do that."
7. Barack Obama
“If you like your health care plan you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period."
Liars. Every single one of them. The only conceivable defense against this charge would be for them to say that they trusted Obama, and if that's what the did, they're fools. But I don't buy it. They're all liars, and that should never be forgotten, especially not at a time when the president is so desprately trying to change the subject to anything else.
Follow Herman Cain at CainTV.com
CHARTS - ALL 50 STATES ARE MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN EVER: Race-, Gender-, Ethnicity-panderers hardest hit
Recently on this blog, Larry Bartels drew attention to an astonishing fact: the public is as conservative as it has been in 50 years. To highlight this point, Professor Bartels presented the public’s policy mood — James Stimson’s measure of public support for government programs—from 1950 to 2012. In a recent article, Julianna Koch and I generated measures of policy mood for each state from the 1950s to 2010 (our measures our here). What we found is that the conservative opinion shift Professor Bartels highlighted repeats itself in every state.
The figure below presents one illustration of this pattern. Here we compare the policy mood in each state in the early 1960s (hollow dots) and in the early 2000s (solid dots). Higher values indicate a more conservative policy mood. In each instance, the solid dot is to the right of the hollow dot, suggesting that the public’s policy mood has moved in a conservative direction in every state...
...Surprised by this uniform shift across states, we examined two questions about government that the American National Election Study asked in the early 1960s and 2000s. Because we were dealing with much smaller sample sizes, we analyzed regions instead of states. Again, the data suggest that all regions of the country have shifted in a conservative direction.
The first question, reported in the left panel of the figure below, asked whether the government in Washington should see to it that every person has a job and a good standard of living or whether the government should let each person get ahead on their own. The fact that the solid dots (2002) are to the right of the hollow dots (1964) supports the view that all regions of the country became more conservative. Interestingly, in 1964, the South appears to have been the most supportive of the liberal response (the government should ensure a job and a good standard of living). The second question, reported in the right panel, asked whether or not the government in Washington was getting too powerful. Across all regions, we again see opinion has shifted to the right.
Importantly, the public has not moved in a conservative direction in all issue areas. For example, support for same-sex marriage has been increasing across all states. It is also worth noting that our findings on the 1960s and 2000s hides important shifts in policy mood between these periods, such as increased policy liberalism during the 1980s. However, when it comes to support of government programs, the net conservative shift is clear...
This the kind of data that drives me nuts. The Republican establishment keeps insisting that we nominate "centrists" who are "the only one[s] who can win". Karl Rove got his guy in 2008 in John McCain. Karl Rove got his guy in 2012 in Mitt Romney.
Now these same geniuses -- John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Rove among them -- insist that only by pandering to different ethnic groups can the GOP succeed. Their latest push is a hugely unpopular Amnesty bill.
They are either ignorant or lying.
According to Pew Research (PDF), the percentage of Hispanics voting Republican in presidential elections has always traded in a very narrow range.
Instead of pandering to different segments of the American population, why don't we nominate a confident, articulate candidate with truly conservative values?
Wouldn't people of all races, religions and ethnicities find the principles of liberty, private property, and economic opportunity incredibly attractive? Yes, of course they would: blacks, Hispanics, whites, Asians, you name the segment, every open-minded American would gravitate to an eloquent candidate with conservative, free-market principles in his or her blood.
Instead of nominating conservatives, Rove and his claque of losers keep pushing "moderates". Unfortunately, GOP "centrists" aren't differentiated enough from the progressive Democrats to energize conservatives and the Reagan Democrats.
Now Rove is pushing a new set of moderates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, both of whom appear to support Amnesty.
In 2012, Rove's American Crossroads fundraising operation won less than two (2) percent of the races it invested in.
Why would we listen to losers like these? I, for one, reject their pablum unconditionally.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
The Hoover Myth
My friend and AEI colleague Nick Schulz has done something I don't have the intestinal fortitude to do: Read John Judis's New Republic cover story on the economy. Apparently Judis believes he's cornered Mitt Romney on the Achilles heel of Romney's -- and the GOP's -- economic agenda. Judis confronted Romney and asked
him:
I want to ask you something about history. You know, when Herbert Hoover had to face a financial crisis and then unemployment, his strategy was to balance the budget and cut spending, and that made things worse. When Roosevelt came in, unemployment was twenty-five and went to fourteen percent by 1937. With deficits. Aren't you repeating the Hoover mistake?
Ah, the "Hoover Mistake," capitalized for your eternal reifying pleasure.
If you ever doubt that liberal historians have imbibed the partisan talking points of the New Deal, you need look no further than the maligned figure of Herbert Hoover. Judis's characterization is simply what "everyone knows" to be true about Hoover's response to the Depression of 1929. I say "the Depression" and not "the Great Depression" because it took FDR, the Tony the Tiger of liberalism, to make it Grrrrrrrrrrreaaat!The problem is that almost everything "everybody knows" about Hoover is wrong. This creates a real challenge for conservatives and libertarians because while Hoover the man was very impressive, Hoover the Progressive Republican was, well, a Progressive Republican. As anyone who's read Liberal Fascism should remember, Hoover was all-in on Wilson's war socialism, serving as national food administrator; he considered "supper . . . one of the worst pieces of extravagance that we have in this country." He promulgated the Little American's Promise, a pledge card every child was expected to sign:
At table I'll not leave a scrap
Of food upon my plate.
And I'll not eat between meals but
For supper time I'll wait.
I make that promise that I'll do
My honest, earnest part
In helping my America
With all my loyal heart.
For kids who couldn't read yet, he offered them a nursery rhyme:
Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn!
The cook's using wheat where she ought to use corn
And terrible famine our country will sweep,
If the cooks and the housewives remain fast asleep!
Go wake them! Go wake them! It's now up to you!
Be a loyal American, Little Boy Blue!
Hoover was such a card-carrying Progressive, guess who considered running on his ticket as vice president in 1920? Wilson's toady at the Navy Department, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
But none of that matters. Hoover was a crazy, heartless libertarian, don't you know anything?! I mean, just look at what a spendthrift he was during the Great Depression! Hoover mistake, Hoover mistake, Hoover mistake! I'm not listening to you!
Well, if you tell a certain breed of libertarian that Hoover was a budget-balancing fiscal tightwad, you'll get punched in the face, at least figuratively. Here's Tim Taylor:
Hoover's budget strategy over his term of office was not to balance the budget. The budget ran a small deficit of -.6% of GDP in 1931, followed by a much larger deficits of 4.0% of GDP in 1932 and 4.5% of GDP in fiscal year 1933 (which, as Judis points out at a different point in his discussion, started in June 1932 and was thus mostly completed before Roosevelt took office in 1933).
Let me say it clearly: Hoover didn't cut spending. In nominal terms, federal government spending went from $3.3 billion in 1930 to $4.6 billion in 1933. As Taylor notes, given the price deflation that came with the crash, the real federal outlays nearly tripled from 3.4 percent of GDP in 1930 to 8.0 percent of GDP in FY 1933.
In the spring of 1930, the New York Times said of Hoover's efforts, "No one in his place could have done more" and "very few of his predecessors could have done as much."
But, hey, maybe Hoover's reputation as a spendthrift of Jack Fowlerian proportions (Jack, as you should know, is the head suit here at NR; he'd object but he's busy searching for a 10 percent off at Arby's coupon I told him was in the corner of a round room) is derived from his effort to cast himself as a responsible steward of the public fisc. Er, no. Here's Hoover defending his record in his acceptance speech at the 1932 convention as he prepared to run for another
term:
Two courses were open to us. We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead, we met the situation with proposals to private business and to the Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic. We put that program in action. Our measures have repelled these attacks of fear and panic . . . We have used the credit of the Government to aid and protect our institutions, both public and private. We have provided methods and assurances that none suffer from hunger or cold amongst our people. We have instituted measures to assist our farmers and our homeowners. We have created vast agencies for employment.
Perhaps because I am so cynical, I'm no longer shocked that liberal historians and Democratic politicians still cling to the Hoover myth, but what is amazing to me is how liberal economists who swear they are empiricists and fact-finders propagate it as well. Paul Krugman is constantly invoking the Hoover myth. So is Brad DeLong, who has driven many decent students of economic history to the point of sputtering rage with his insistence that Hoover was a "liquidationist."
The Hoover myth endures for a simple reason -- it has to. Because otherwise the FDR myth will tip over.
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Will the West withstand the Obama presidency?
I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. – Barack Hussein Obama, Cairo, 2009
For anyone who understands that the US Constitution is not a Sharia-compliant document –neither in letter nor in spirit – it should be alarmingly apparent that the Obama-incumbency is a dramatic and disturbing point of inflection in the history of America and its “Western” allies. By “Western” I mean countries whose political practices and societal norms are rooted in Judeo- Christian foundations in a cultural rather than in any religious sense.
The devil is not in the details
One does not have to be an expert in Islamic history or culture, or be familiar with the details of Koranic verse or Hadithic texts to realize that Obama’s characterization of the alleged affinity between America and Islam is entirely detached from any reality on the ground–particularly with regard to the matters he enumerates in the preceding excerpt from his 2009 Cairo speech.
All one has to do is follow the daily news that routinely convey reports of the Hobbesian horrors that flared across Syria, Libya, Egypt and other Arab countries once the Leviathan “cap” of tyranny, holding these bestial impulses in check, was “uncorked.”
Worse, in some parts of the Muslim world, blood curdling atrocities have become so commonplace they hardly make the news at all.
For when it comes to issues such as justice, progress, tolerance and respect for societal and/or religious diversity, a yawning chasm divides America from Islam. Indeed, American society, as a product of the values embodied in the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian values it draws on; and Islamic society as a product of Sharia and the Muslim values it draws on, are irreconcilably exclusive and antithetically opposed to one another.
No amount of convoluted scholarly debate on the intricacies of Islamic scriptures or benign interpretations of their “real” significance, can change the gruesome facts that prevail throughout Muslim-majority societies – from West Africa to East Asia.
Larwyn's Linx: Ten Thanksgivings Ago
Nation
Ten Thanksgivings Ago: Black FiveThe Obama who Stole Thanksgiving: Daniel Greenfield
"Well-regulated": David Hardy
Obama finds a way to ruin Thanksgiving: Cal Thomas
Thanks for the Heritage: Protein Wisdom
Spread the Word: Western Rifles
Communist Party USA: protect Obamacare by crying “Racism!”: John Hawkins
Krauthammer mocks ‘creepy,’ Soviet-like Obamacare Thanksgiving ad: BPR
Hillary Backers Begin to Realize She the Truth: Daniel Greenfield
Economy
America’s Coastal Royalty: Victor Davis HansonBroken Families Dragging Down Growth: Michael Barone
Nuclear Response to Harry Reid’s Nuclear Option: CFP
Scandal Central
The Vindictive Totalitarian Hand of the Obama Regime: iOTWIssa accuses Obama IRS appointee of ‘deliberate’ distortion: BPR
An outbreak of lawlessness: Krauthammer
The IRS Continues to Punish Obama’s Enemies: Nice Deb
Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited: Daniel Greenfield
NYC alarms with notice: ‘Immediately surrender your rifle’: Times
Climate & Energy
Environmentalism Is the New Racism: Daniel GreenfieldAs temperatures drop, talk of ‘global cooling’ heats up: Twitchy
Media
Why Reporters in the U.S. Now Need Protection: Paul Steiger, ProPublicaMSNBC Just Proved They Take Direct Orders from Barack Obama: TruthRevolt
The Nadir of Hackery: R.S. McCain
WW2 Navajo Code Talkers Appear in Redskins Jackets; Liberal Heads Explode: Daniel Greenfield
Thank You, Senator Cruz: William A. Jacobson
RUSH: Communism Today, In Large Part, Is The Democrat Party.: Daily Rushbo
Is It Too Soon To Say “I Told You So”?: Ann Coulter
Larry Elder: Media Ignoring Knockout Game Due to Racial Implications: Albert Merrick
These Wild Claims By The President Suggest He May Not Be Sane: Allison Martinez
World
WHAT? Obama Tells Netanyahu To Shut Up About the Iran “Deal”: Minority ReportDem: Obama 'fear-mongering' on Iran: Blake Neff, The Hill
Irish Citizens Rise Up Against Islamic Invasion: Rick Wells
Don’t forget to give thanks to our troops on Thanksgiving [photos]: Twitchy
A Vastly Changed Middle East: Caroline Glick
Hatin’ on the drones: This Ain't Hell
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
The Mystery Is Resolved: GIFs, Crazy People and All That Malarkey: Vitaly Friedman, SmashingIs your TV spying on YOU?: Guy Adams, Daily Mail
Ever want to be invisible? It could happen soon in America, unless Canada beats us to it.: Ben Terris
Cornucopia
The Best Quotes of Cardinal Arinze: The Young ApostleHappy Thanksgiving email For Friends and Family: MOTUS
Shoppers gone wild: Black Friday fights at Walmart, Best Buy, and malls: Twitchy
Image: Inflation, Shortages, and Social Democracy in Venezuela
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: JOIN ME IN FIRING MITCH McCONNELL!
QOTD:
Followed obama's advice to discuss #obamacare during turkey dinner. Family consensus was obama is worst Pres in US history. @DrMartyFox
— Don Fryer (@Donfryer) November 29, 2013Thursday, November 28, 2013
After Undermining Efforts to De-fund Obamacare, GOP Establishment Ready to Jam Amnesty Down Our Throats
Is immigration reform dead?
"No, immigration reform is going to happen," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House Republican whip, told CBS's Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation."
"But it's going to happen in a step-by-step method. And I will tell you, the president came out and supported that the other day." ...
...The current immigration system is "broken" and "needs to be fixed," McCarthy said on Sunday. "Forty-two percent of everyone that's here illegally came here legally," he said, a reference to people who overstayed their visas. "We need to fix this system."
President Obama has said "there's no reason why we can't get this done before the end of the year."
What's driving Amnesty? Here's a hint: it starts with the letter M and ends with the letter Y. And has cash in the middle.
After decades of political quietism during which Silicon Valley entrepreneurs expressed libertarian sentiments but mostly voted Democratic and funded Democratic candidates who shared their elite-class social and political views, Silicon Valley has finally mobilized—for immigration expansion. In April Mark Zuckerberg, with help from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist John Doerr, launched FWD.us, a $25 million-and-counting lobbying group aimed at lawmakers in both political parties. FWD.us, unlike other pro-immigration groups, isn’t much interested in amnesty for illegal immigrants or easier border-crossing for lettuce-pickers. Its chief interest is in expanding the H-1B work visa program for “highly skilled” workers that’s mostly used by tech employers to hire temporary guest-workers from foreign countries, usually from East and South Asia….
...The anti-H-1B faction has a response to that: statistics. One of them, from an April 24 briefing paper produced by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, is that only one out of every two U.S. college graduates with a degree in engineering or computer and information science is hired into those fields, despite a doubling of the number of homegrown computer-science graduates between 1998 and 2004. Others argue that employers mostly don’t use H-1B workers to fill “best and brightest” jobs, but, rather, relatively low-paying routine programming positions, and that the most avid users of the visas are India-based outsourcing companies that use the visas to provide a few months of U.S. training for their employees, who then return to India.
Most damning of all is that, despite persistent claims of tech-worker shortages, programmer salaries overall have inched only slightly higher from what they were 20 years ago: from $60,000 a year to about $75,000 a year in 2012 dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Engineers fare somewhat better: The average annual starting salary at top valley employers such as Google is about $100,000, with the median for experienced engineers at about $150,000...
Put simply, the oligarchs in Silicon Valley are spending millions lobbying Congress to import cheaper technology talent. They don't want to pay American wages, they want to pay Indian (or Chinese, or wherever) wages here in the states.
As for McCarthy, Cantor, Boehner, Karl Rove and the rest of the GOP Old Guard? They want some o' that Silicon Valley Cash!
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is, as usual, on top of the imminent debacle:
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions wants wealthy CEOs to butt out of immigration policy.
“America is not an oligarchy… A Republic must answer to the people,” Sessions said today, in a direct response to President Barack Obama’s latest effort to get wealthy California CEOs to increase their support for his unpopular push for increased immigration... “Congressional leaders must forcefully reject the notion, evidently accepted by the president, that a small cadre of CEOs can tailor the nation’s entire immigration policy to suit their narrow interests..."
...Obama has been working with top CEOs since summer to push the Senate’s immigration expansion that would welcome 30 million immigrants, plus millions of temporary guest workers, over the next decade...
The push is being supported by numerous billionaires, including New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg... Since 2007, progressive and business groups have spent more than $1.5 billion on advocacy and lobbying to pass an immigration bill, despite massive unemployment, stalled salaries and negative polls. Other business groups have been pressured by the federal government and progressives to provide rhetorical support for the push.
So once again I ask Karl Rove:
Say, @KarlRove - next time you're on @FoxNews please show us on your whiteboard how the @GOP wins without the conservative base. Schmuck.
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 1, 2013I give thanks for many things in this great country, but the Republican crony capitalists ain't among them.
Larwyn's Linx: I'm sure a few tweets from Sandra Fluke on contraceptives will right this boat
Nation
I'm sure a few tweets from Sandra Fluke on contraceptives will right this boat: AceNYT frontpage illustrates how bad Obamacare: David Freddoso
Gibbs: Uhm, Yeah, I Guess Obamacare Gots Death Panels: TruthRevolt
Dangerously Effective: Dems Panic Over GOP Obamacare Attacks: JWF
The Hotline's Senate Race Rankings: Democrats on Defense : National Journal
Colorado anti-gun state Sen. Evie Hudak (D) abruptly resigns her seat: Moe Lane
SF Protesters to Obama: Please Be a Dictator!: Zombie
Jimmy Tarlau: Communist Nutjob Runs in Maryland: NoisyRm
Astroturfed Marxists Call for an Obama Dictatorship: NoisyRm
The Future That Never Comes: Daniel Greenfield
Sorry for Being Right All the Time About Your Stupid Law: Stephen Green
Obama Calls Conservatives “Tea Baggers” In Letter To Texas Teacher: WZ
Economy
Obama Voters: He “Gives Me Stuff” And I Don’t Have To Work: John HawkinsObamacare axes cheap health insurance for another 90,000 in NJ: WyBlog
What Doomed Detroit: Ed Driscoll
Scandal Central
The greatest politician in world history: Cold FuryCOUP D'ETAT AMERICAN STYLE: Stormbringer
The Bad-Faith Presidency: Rich Lowry
Americans Demand Holder’s Impeachment: Tom Hinchey
Dem to Obama: Don't fix Iran's airplanes: Julian Pecquet, The Hill
Knockout Game Victim: 'Whole Group of Kids Laughed': Breitbart
Climate & Energy
EPA preparing to unleash deluge of new regulations: DCThe Consensus is DEAD: 48% of Meteorologists Don't Believe in Man-made Global Warming: Lid
Green Energy Dishonor Roll: MB
Media
CNN and MSNBC Lose Almost Half Their Viewers in One Year: NBThe Protocols of The Elders of Huffington Post : TruthRevolt
Joan Walsh Knows More About African-American History Than the Average White Person: Ace
Is the Obama White House photo policy reminiscent of Soviet propaganda?: Hot Air
NYTimes Bids Farewell to Traditional Family: MRC
This year, invite a “turkey” TO dinner instead of FOR dinner: MOTUS
Health Expert: ‘Halperin Was Right The First Time’ – Politifact ‘Completely Wrong’ on IPAB: Nice Deb
Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low in Ohio: Tom Bevan, RCP
How To Talk To Your Socialist Aunt About ObamaCare On Thanksgiving: Glob
World
The White House and Iran Can't Agree on What It Is They Agreed On: AceIran president: We won, enrichment will never stop: DC
Iran Announces Development of Ballistic Missile Technology: Adam Kredo, WFB
Illegal Alien Mob of 100 People Attacks Border Control. Mexican Authorities Let Them Go.: RWN
Snowden: Government Tracks Individuals’ Online Activities to Embarrass Them: Patterico
Oh, Shiny Pony!: SDA
Rules of engagement: The Virginian
New rules of engagement a death trap for US troops in Afghanistan: BPR
How Green Was My Afghanistan: SDA
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
The Esoteric Symbols Behind User Interfaces, Explained: FastcodesignA snapshot of one minute on the internet, today and in 2012: Leo Mirani, Quartz
Second Solar System Like Ours Discovered: UniverseTodady
Cornucopia
Ezra Klein, Perplexed Again: AceThe Day I Laughed Until I Cried: Life in the Backwoods
The machine gun everyone wants for Christmas: BPR
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: WANT TO FIRE MITCH McCONNELL? HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP
QOTD: "It truly is insidious, I think, this devotion to cause such that one would seriously -- earnestly! -- urge others to fight with family in order to advance a political goal. It's not just about the casual denigration of the family in favor of the Real Family, which is of course like-minded socialists in the Progressive Cult. It is that, but it's not just that. It's also this idea that a person's highest aspiration is to be... A telemarketer. Or, as there's nothing "tele-" about picking fights with your family in face-to-face meetings, an epimarketer, then. There is a terribly strange notion affecting the country, chiefly on the left but sometimes on the right, that man's highest calling is to be a Public Relations Account Manager." --Ace
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
LEVIN: Uhm, History Tells Us That a President Does NOT Need to Have Been a Governor
Lincoln is considered our greatest, if not our second greatest president by most. He was never a governor. He was never a senator. He was an extraordinary man, and he was a public man, and people knew much about him. The Lincoln-Douglas debates -- and those weren't the only debates! He gave some magnificent speeches too. But again, all that aside. My point is to categorize and say we have to have a person who's served as governor because they make executive decisions. Okay great.
And that'll be the strength of that candidate, should that candidate run. But thats not the test. The test is to get the right person. And the right person will make mostly the right decisions. Take a measure of the person. So if you have somebody who has been a governor, or just a garden variety Republican. Whether they're a big-government Republican or a RINO. I don't care if they've been a governor or not. I'm not interested. They have to come to the office or seek the office with a certain set of a principles and value that we share. Someone who is intelligent, confident, and articulate and knowledgeable, and has a capacity for the office. They've been governor, great. If they haven't, fine.
Also: After Obama, Democrats will never, ever, ever, ever be able to say that a GOP candidate doesn't have enough "experience" to serve as president. What a bunch of laughingstocks these people are.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
IT BEGINS: New York Gun Confiscation Letters Arrive
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Robert Farago, writing at The Truth About Guns:
[New York] requires people to register, sell or transfer (out of state) “assault rifles” and “high capacity” magazines. Many Empire State gun and standard capacity ammunition magazine owners have complied. Many have not. So, at some point, the State’s gonna go get ‘em. People on both sides of the law enforcement divide will die and the s will hit the fan. Meanwhile, there it is: the reason why expanded background checks, indeed all background checks and any type of registration, set the stage for confiscation. And tyranny.
The Constitution is written in what we normal folks call "Plain English".
It was designed to be read by all citizens at the time of the founding, so that they could read, understand, and ratify it. The Constitution -- no matter what temporary politicians, activist judges and other leftists may tell you -- is the highest law in the land.
The Constitution protects your rights, no matter what the Statists, the Marxists and the Progressives tell you.
Molon Labe.
Hat tip: BadBlue Guns

























