The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Debt Slavery Is THE Issue

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 25 Comments

by Smitty (via Uncoverage)

Uncoverage posts a startling article by ChuckDeVore.com that shows:

According to Moody’s, the average state per capita debt of the 28 Obama states is $1,728 while the average debt in the 22 McCain states is less than half, at $749. This information alone says a lot about voters and their attitude towards government and debt. Voters with a propensity to elect politicians who burden future generations who can’t yet vote with huge debts voted for Obama while fiscally responsible voters generally voted for McCain.

Fiscal security is the only thing more important than border security. Social issues? What are they but distractors?

Hot Air comes at this point from the CA Prop 8 vantage, quoting a CA Republican Party chair:

“This election needs to revolve around five issues: taxes, spending, the economy, jobs and debt,” said Ron Nehring, chairman of the California Republican Party. “That doesn’t mean that other issues aren’t important — they are important — but the first issue on the minds of people is the economy.”

Things are so bad, that even the Queen of Cluelessness is starting to catch on that there may be some trouble a-brewin’:

The country I was born into was a country that had existed steadily, for almost two centuries, as a nation in which everyone thought—wherever they were from, whatever their circumstances—that their children would have better lives than they did. That was what kept people pulling their boots on in the morning after the first weary pause: My kids will have it better. They’ll be richer or more educated, they’ll have a better job or a better house, they’ll take a step up in terms of rank, class or status. America always claimed to be, and meant to be, a nation that made little of class. But America is human. “The richest family in town,” they said, admiringly. Read Booth Tarkington on turn-of-the-last-century Indiana. It’s all about trying to rise.

Parents now fear something has stopped. They think they lived through the great abundance, a time of historic growth in wealth and material enjoyment. They got it, and they enjoyed it, and their kids did, too: a lot of toys in that age, a lot of Xboxes and iPhones. (Who is the most self-punishing person in America right now? The person who didn’t do well during the abundance.) But they look around, follow the political stories and debates, and deep down they think their children will live in a more limited country, that jobs won’t be made at a great enough pace, that taxes—too many people in the cart, not enough pulling it—will dishearten them, that the effects of 30 years of a low, sad culture will leave the whole country messed up. And then there is the world: nuts with nukes, etc.

Keep thinking, Peggy–you may beat Paul Krugman (h/t Insty) in the race to enlightenment. Past the finish line sit the Founding Fathers, who, in their pre-Industrial Revolution wisdom, saw that liberty was the goal.

Here is a great straight-to-YouTube Trifecta:

This Trifecta episode is a great tactical point, but, for all that, we have to understand that this November is a mere down-payment. Stand by. The new blood will get sworn into office, and discover just How Completely Frobnicated the whole situation is. If the leadership feels We The People have their back, there may, potentially, be some whacking of the Federal hydra in the 112th Congress. Historically, the professionals get accepted into the Ruling Class, and get their Sith Lord makeover.

If we merely light up a maduro and congratulate ourselves on the successful group blogger-bation, by 2012, the Tea Party energy will be the political equivalent of Springsteen’s Glory Days, and the Lindsey Graham and John McCain clones will continue to make patriotic noises while treating the Constitution with the affection afforded a urinal cake.

Remember, this hairball has been a century in the making, and will, at bare minimum, require a decade of your best effort just to get that hydra chopped down to something reasonably un-lethal. Incumbency is the enemy. We The People can either rule, or enjoy slavery.

Right on time, courtesy of the excellent No Sheeples Here, we have I Want Your Money:

Set against the backdrop of today’s headline – 67% of Americans don’t approve of Obama’s economic policies, the film takes a provocative look at our deeply depressed economy using the words and actions of Presidents Reagan and Obama and shows the marked contrast between Reaganomics and Obamanomics. The film contrasts two views of the role that the federal government should play in our daily lives using the words and actions of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you; the other believes that the elite in Washington know how to best allocate your wealth. One champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one’s lot in life and even daring to dream and build big. The other holds that there is no end to the “good” the government can do by taking and spending other peoples’ money in an ever-burgeoning list of programs. The documentary film I Want Your Money exposes the high cost in lost freedom and in lost opportunity to support a Leviathan-like bureaucratic state.

This could be good. I hope the film exposes the fact that the Federal Reserve is close to, if not the root of, all this evil. While it may be a stretch to End the Fed outright, and perhaps savvy politics for the GOP to be keeping a low profile about Paul Ryan, the GOP needs to quit being coy and step up to the Federalist plate now, now, now.

Category: Weimar America

It’s Smaller If You Pound The Number Down To £250,000

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 10 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Drudge)

She went to the Villa Padierna Hotel a for a chilla after she read Codevilla.

Spare the outrage. Elections have consequences. Pretty much everyone, through omission or commission, supported the 2008 election outcome. So pony up, ye bizatchez, and consider what we’re doing about this in three months and 27 months.

Category: Barack Obama

Karen Handel: ‘She’s No Nikki Haley’

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 22 Comments

So says my friend Orit Sklar, referring to Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel. Orit is supporting the rival campaign of Nathan Deal. The GOP primary is Tuesday and the latest poll shows the race a dead heat. Orit is quoted in an Associated Press article about the campaign:

Critics say Handel is trying to have it both ways, hammering Deal for alleged ethical lapses and then crying sexism over a release from his campaign that labeled his female supporters “real women.”
“There is some real hypocrisy,” said Orit Sklar, a 25-year-old Deal backer from Alpharetta, who had been a Fulton County organizer for another Republican candidate, Eric Johnson.
Sklar said that as a conservative woman she’s been feeling “some pressure to view the Republican runoff in terms of identity – in terms of gender – rather than issues.”
“But I frankly think what Karen Handel is doing is unbecoming for someone who wants to be our governor,” Sklar said.

My friend Erick Erickson of Red State is backing Handel, who also got the endorsement of Sarah Palin. However, Orit is a protégé of the legendary Phil Kent and any friend of Phil’s is a friend of mine. Therefore, the choice is clear:

NATHAN DEAL for GEORGIA GOVERNOR

Category: Georgia

Lindsey Graham Sadly Abdicated His Elected Responsibility

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 17 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Doug at Malkin)

Per CNSNews:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Jesus’s Golden Rule inspired him to vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court and suggested it would be a good thing for his Senate colleagues to also ponder Jesus’s words as they prepared to vote on Kagan.

What an insufferable twit! By the standard of the Golden Rule, we’re all theologically equivalent. Lindsey should, by this logic, be proud to confirm Lyndon LaRouche, should the POTUS, in some pique, see fit to nominate the gentleman.

“It is divine in its orientation, and it is probably something that would serve us all well if we thought about it at moments such as this,” Sen. Graham said on the Senate floor, as he pointed his colleagues to the Golden Rule and counseled them to look to the wisdom of “somebody far wiser than I am” as they cast their votes on Kagan.

You see, Senator Graham, the confirmation process is about getting people in place who understand and support the Federal Constitution. Starting from the document and its ideals, and moving on a path towards Elena Kagan, you should have realized that there was a “Bridge Out” sign on the road.
Maybe the people of your state hold you in some regard, but some asbestos knickers might be a good investment before you’re up for re-election.

More at:
The Lonely Conservative
Hot Air
Dan Riehl, an anti-bow tie bigot.

Update: Still more Graham affection at:
Carol’s Closet

Category: South Carolina

What These Dudes Said

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 21 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Big Government)

Wow, these dudes make sense:The notion that the government, especially the federal government, should involve itself in marriage may need to be reviewed. I should not be imposing on these gentlemen to support my hyper-conservative views on baptism, and I appreciate that they are not asking me to justify their private practices.

The meaning of the word ‘marriage’ is as invariant as ‘illegal’. The notion that some prefix ‘marriage’ in their effort to render a constant symbol somehow mutable is tiring, tiring, tiring. Also, a distraction from actual threats to liberty.

So, kudos to these fellows for taking what is likely to prove the all-around least-worst compromise to the whole situation: spending less time minding each others’ business.

Category: Gays

The Future of Conservatism

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 3 Comments

I’m at the Young America’s Foundation National Conservative Student Conference, where YAF vice president Patrick X. Coyle explains everything:

Will have further updates, but you can follow the conference on Twitter at #NCSC10, and there is also a live Webcast.

UPDATE: Now a few photos from the conference:

A young conservative activist takes notes on a lecture by Princeton University Professor Robert George.

Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar talk to Professor George after his lecture.

Patrick Coyle is all about the Twitter.

UPDATE II: How cool is a YAF conference? Well, while I was sitting here uploading the photos above, I looked up and . . .

Frank Donatelli and Stephen Moore. Just hangin’ out. Pretty cool.

UPDATE III: I was unsuccessful in persuading Kate Obenshain to don the famous fedora, alas:

UPDATE IV: Wow, what a coincidence that I should run into a fellow Atlanta native here at the YAF conference:

Sarah Perkins, an alumna of Fulton County’s Westlake High, with Alyssa Cordova of the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute. Sarah is now attending Smith College (an elite “Seven Sisters” school), and told me that her dad went to school with Herman Cain. How cool is that, huh?

Category: Conservatism 101, Education, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, Video

‘Humble and Polite’ Bloggers?

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 29 Comments

Diana Adams lists “22 Traits of Successful and Happy Bloggers,” including this:

Humble and Polite – Humility and politeness go a long way in blogging and in life. Smart and savvy bloggers know this.

I dunno. Arrogant and obnoxious have worked pretty well for me. We await commentary from mild-mannered Dan Riehl and the unfailingly courteous Ace of Spades. However, Ms. Adams offers much advice that is genuinely helpful:

Authentic and Honest – It’s important for your readers to see you as an authentic and honest human being. You lose credibility when you fake it.

Exactly. I’m authentically arrogant and honestly obnoxious, so that probably explains why it works.

And dibs on the “Diana Adams bikini” Google bomb.

Category: Blogging

Recovery Summer: U.S. Now Losing Jobs

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | 5 Comments

The New York Times writes a confusing lede, but ultimately can’t hide the bad news:

With the American economic recovery hanging in the balance, private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, up from a downwardly revised 31,000 in June but below the consensus forecast of 90,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.5 percent.
Over all, the nation lost 131,000 jobs last month, but those losses came as 143,000 Census Bureau workers left their temporary posts, the Labor Department said. June’s number was revised dramatically downward to a total loss of 221,000 jobs. The agency originally reported that the nation lost 125,000 jobs in June.
Figures released last week confirmed that the United States economy slowed in the spring, and the Department of Labor’s monthly statistical snapshot of hiring pointed toward a stall in hiring this summer, as employers failed to add jobs at the rate they were earlier this year.

As of this writing, a few minutes before the opening bell, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are trading -80.

UPDATE: A better lede from Reuters:

Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.

As of 9:50 a.m. ET, DJIA was sagging down 40 points, and I should point out the possibility that it may actually post a net gain today. I credit Rush Limbaugh with having been the first person I heard explain this: Wall Street values stocks on the basis of companies’ potential for profit. Rising unemployment is bad news for Main Street, but the fact that companies are laying off workers can be good news on Wall Street, if lower payrolls mean higher profits.

An ill omen? Christine Romer, one of the more sober and honest economists in the administration, is resigning as chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “Spend more time with her family,” yada, yada — there’s got to be more to it than that, of course. I predict she’ll soon produce a book, Coked-Up Stimulus Monkeys: How the Obama Administration Is Fiscally Raping Your Grandchildren.

Another omen of looming fiscal disaster:

The government has apparently decided, in its infinite wisdom, that what the American economy really needs is more homebuyers with no equity.

Megan McArdle explains why that’s a bad idea, if you don’t already understand.

UPDATE II: Closing in on 11 a.m. ET now, with the Dow down about 140. So far it doesn’t look like “Black Friday.” Meanwhile, Republicans are getting in their licks:

“Today’s disappointing jobs report falls short of where we need to be,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, in a statement put out less than seven minutes after the Labor Department released the jobs report. “The policies originating from this White House are creating an environment of uncertainty and fear for business people and employees, preventing investment and hiring.” . . .
“How many more times do families and small businesses have to ask ‘where are the jobs’ before President Obama changes course?” House Minority Leader John Boehner asked . . .

Beyond politics, the real question is whether the wrong-headedness of the Democrats’ neo-Keynesian policy has bought us the dreaded “double-dip” recession:

The figures come in the same week that the Commerce Department reported consumer spending in the US remained flat in June.
Households in the US continue to be squeezed amid higher unemployment. . . .
There have been fears about the strength of the US economic recovery, particularly as the country continues to grapple with high unemployment.
Higher unemployment and a slowdown in manufacturing have sparked fears of a “double-dip” recession in the world’s largest economy.

Vindication for a pessimist is always bittersweet, but I’ve been saying it December 2008: It Won’t Work.

Category: Economics
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