Put me Squarely in Texas's Column

The Essence and Future of Texas vs. California Newgeography.com

First, Texans on average believe in laissez-faire markets with an emphasis on individual responsibility. Since the '80s, California’s policy-makers have favored central planning solutions and a reliance on a government social safety net. This unrelenting commitment to big government has led to a huge tax burden and triggered a mass exodus of jobs. The Trends Editors examined the resulting migration in “Voting with Our Feet,” in the April 2008 issue of Trends.

Second, Californians have largely treated environmentalism as a “religious sacrament” rather than as one component among many in maximizing people's quality of life. As we explained in “The Road Ahead for Housing,” in the June 2009 issue of Trends, environmentally-based land-use restriction centered in California played a huge role in inflating the recent housing bubble. Similarly, an unwillingness to manage ecology proactively for man’s benefit has been behind the recent epidemic of wildfires.

Third, California has placed “ethnic diversity” above “assimilation,” while Texas has done the opposite. “Identity politics” has created psychological ghettos that have prevented many of California’s diverse ethnic groups and subcultures from integrating fully into the mainstream. Texas, on the other hand, has proactively encouraged all the state’s residents to join the mainstream.

Fourth, beyond taxes, diversity, and the environment, Texas has focused on streamlining the regulatory and litigation burden on its residents. Meanwhile, California’s government has attempted to use regulation and litigation to transfer wealth from its creators to various special-interest constituencies.

GOP could do worse than this guy, and probably will

I guess I'm wondering at this point, with alternatives like Thune, Jindal, Huckabee, Pawlenty; Why do so many in the GOP seem so intent on following Romney and Palin?????

'Regular guy' Thune is hot commodity in GOP circles - CNN.com

With just 40 Republicans in the Senate now, Thune insists that there is
still a diversity of GOP views -- but one that he argues must be
expanded.
"We want to see more people joining our party," Thune
said.
"We've got to be able to accept the fact that a senator from the
Northeast, for example, from the New England states, isn't going to be the same
as a senator from the South."
In a leadership made up mostly of veteran
senators from the South, 47-year-old Thune brings youth and what he calls the
prairie sensibilities he learned growing up in small town South Dakota.

Schakowsy Will Vote Against Bill with Stupak

Schakowsy Will Vote Against Bill with Stupak

Posted using ShareThis

Dems in Blue Seats Who Voted Against Choice

Dems in Blue Seats Who Voted Against Choice

Posted using ShareThis

Good Luck in the Senate, Health Care Reformers -- You'll need it!!

Democrats have no margin for error -- they control exactly 60 seats in the 100-member Senate. Some moderate Democrats have rebelled at Reid's plan to include a new government-run insurance program, known as the "public option," in the bill.
Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, renewed his promise on Sunday to help Republicans block a final vote if the bill contains the government-run insurance option backed by Senate liberals.
"If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," Lieberman said on "Fox News Sunday.


Healthcare measure faces tough path in Senate U.S. Reuters

Republican-leaning pollster is, as we have known for a long time, completely fraudulent

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right

A very cool guide to the House Blue Dogs

Wild Cards: A CQ Guide to the Blue Dog Coalition

Wishful Thinking, KOS

Right, KOS, because you would never start a civil war with moderate / conservative Dems, right? What a Joke!!!

With Scozzafava’s de facto ouster from the GOP, moderate Republicans are
now included in the movement conservatives’ enemies list, which already includes
African-Americans, gays, immigrants, Latinos, single women, urbanites,
non-Christians, Northeasterners, Hollywood, San Francisco, Chicago and
Massachusetts.
Forget a “big tent”; a pup tent would likely be too spacious
for what’s left of the so-called Republican “coalition.”
Ultimately, whether
Hoffman wins or loses is irrelevant — Democrats don’t need the extra seat, and
it’ll likely be eliminated in post-census redistricting anyway. The tarring and
feathering of Scozzafava is far more significant — emboldened conservative
activists have their first trophy victory in their jihad against the Republican
establishment, and are hungry to beat non-ideologue Republicans across the
country. Senate candidates Mark Kirk in Illinois and Rob Simmons in Connecticut
may be electable statewide because of their moderate history, but that’s
irrelevant to activists who’d rather purge than win elections. So Kirk is
running from his record, while Simmons is pathetically carrying a teabag around
to curry favor with conservatives. It remains to be seen if such empty gestures
will mollify angry teabaggers.




The GOP’s civil war - TheHill.com

Mr. Deeds for Governor - washingtonpost.com

Mr. Deeds for Governor - washingtonpost.com
From the article....

There are plenty of reasons why Mr. Deeds is the better choice for governor
in the Nov. 3 election. He has stood with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the incumbent,
and his predecessor, now-Sen. Mark R. Warner, in support of the sane fiscal and
budgetary choices that have made the state one of the best-governed and most
business-friendly in the nation. Mr. McDonnell has generally spurned those
policies, most notably by opposing Mr. Warner's landmark tax package in 2004,
which attracted bipartisan support as it boosted public safety and education and
protected the state's finances. Mr. Deeds has compiled a moderate record on
divisive social issues that reflects Virginia's status as a centrist swing
state. Mr. McDonnell has staked out the intolerant terrain on his party's right
wing, fighting a culture war that seized his imagination as a law student in the
Reagan era.

let-the-red-states-secede.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

let-the-red-states-secede.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Intersting article, however I bet there is a lot of right-leaning spin here. I am looking forward to fact-checking this article.

RealClearPolitics - High Price of ObamaCare

RealClearPolitics - High Price of ObamaCare

Will a young, healthy, childless individual or couple buy health insurance costing 7.5 percent of their income, as required by Obama's health legislation? Not until they get sick. Then they can always buy the insurance, and the Obama bill requires the insurance companies to give it to them. And if the premiums come to more than 7.5 percent of their income because they are now sick, no problem. Obama will subsidize it.
Instead, young, healthy, childless people will likely opt to pay the $1,000 fine (aka slap on the wrist) mandated in the bill. After all, even if they make as little as $50,000 a year, the fine is a lot cheaper than 7.5 percent of their income (or $3,500 a year)!

Could? Could?!?!?!?!?!

Public plan debate could pit Democrat vs. Democrat - Yahoo! Finance

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to consider whether the government should offer its own insurance plan for the middle class in competition with private carriers. A public option is the top goal for liberals, but it has no Republican support and moderate Democrats say the Senate will never go along.
So Tuesday's debate is expected to pit Democratic liberals against moderates.
Although the public plan isn't expected to get a majority of the panel, supporters say at least they'll know where everybody stands.
Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is already in the hot seat -- accused of being lukewarm, if not downright hostile, to the government option.
Two liberal groups are launching a hard-hitting television and Internet ad featuring a young father from Montana. Bing Perrine, 26, in need of a heart operation, uninsured and deeply in debt, looks straight into the camera and asks Baucus, "Whose side are you on?"

Attention Mr. President: Here is How to be a fiscally Responsible Democrat

Deeds pledges to walk tight fiscal line - Washington Times

Fiscal conservatism for Virginia has been a sound course that must be maintained at time when the state is grappling with pockets of double-digit unemployment and the federal debt is ballooning, said Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate told The Washington Times in an interview that Virginia's attitude toward business and the requirement to keep the budget balanced have put the state in a comparatively good position. At the same time, he said, he sees improving education and transportation infrastructure and not job creation as the state's primary role in helping fuel prosperity.
"I think it's paid off for us to be fiscally conservative and frugal, a relatively low-service state. It is part of the reason why we continue to be named the best state for business in the country," Mr. Deeds said Saturday while driving between campaign stops in Bedford and Roanoke.

Endorsement: Ohio Governor

Massachusetts Blue Dog is pleased to endorse John Kasich (R-OH) for governor of Ohio



John Kasich for Governor of Ohio Biography

While Ohio’s problems are daunting, I believe they are fixable – but only by creating a business environment that rewards investment and increases wages. With forward-thinking, solutions- oriented leadership, we can transform Ohio into a model of job creation and economic vitality that other states will want to follow. To succeed we must:

lower taxes – Create a tax climate that allows Ohio to compete with other states to attract new businesses, foster job creation, and keep our precious, existing jobs here

make government more efficient and effective – Skinny-down state bureaucracy to ensure taxpayers are getting their money’s worth, and reform state government into a 21st century partner with Ohio's job creators – not one that punishes business with outdated or unnecessary regulation;

transform our education system – Help our kids achieve, compete and succeed to meet the workforce demands of tomorrow’s economy

end the influence of special interests – Build common-sense solutions to our problems and kick out those who, for too long, have kept us from fixing all that is wrong in our state

US may extend real estate tax credit

Time For a Compromise?

Here is my proposal:

Extend the $7,500 credit through 2010 for couples making up to $250,000.

Deal?

Senator John Isakson, a Georgia Republican, said yesterday he is “talking
to everybody and anybody’’ in an effort to drum up support for a bill that would
extend the program through the end of 2010, almost double the credit to $15,000,
and remove restrictions that prohibit individuals who already own homes or earn
$75,000 ($150,000 for couples) from receiving the tax break. The bill, first
introduced in June, failed in a 47-to-50 Senate vote last month.

Tom Harkin is Delusional

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin predicted today that a health-care reform bill would pass Congress before Christmas, with Republican votes.
Speaking in Indianola at his annual Steak Fry fundraiser, Harkin also declared that the legislation would “have a strong public option.”
Establishing government-run insurance plans that Americans would have the option of buying has been one of the most controversial aspects of the health-care reform bills before Congress.


There is no way that anything with a "Public Option" is going to pass the Senate. Period.

Two Key Senate Votes Come Out Against Public Option

Snowe, Collins Will Not Back Public Option -- Political Wire

More proof that the "public option" is all but dead
comes from the two senators Democrats hoped might side with them in supporting
the measure in a health care reform bill.Sen.
Olympia Snowe (R-ME) said President Obama "should take it off the table" since
it would "give real momentum to building consensus," reports The Hill.Meanwhile, Sen. Susan
Collins (R-ME) said she would not even support a "trigger" option in any
legislation, meaning a provision to delay a public option and allow health insurance companies to lower costs
on their own, according to the Washington Post.

This is pretty much the death knell for the public option

Bob McDonnell Should not have a f***ing shot at becoming Governor of Virginia

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Bob McDonnell, the normally-disciplined Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, mistakenly blurted out the F-bomb during a live radio interview on Friday.
Appearing on Washington-area radio station WTOP, McDonnell was sparring with host Mark Plotkin on the topic of transportation funding.
Plotkin asked if McDonnell would consider an increase in the state gasoline tax to help fund the transportation budget. McDonnell said no, and uttered the expletive during his response.
"So no tax will be raised during your four-year term?," Plotkin asked.
McDonnell answered: "I'm going to find other ways to be able to fund transportation. I've outlined twleve f—ing funding mechanisms that are creative, that are entrepreneurial."

Mr. Perfect Gets More Perfect All The Time

Mitt Romney is constantly working at making sure that all the right people like....no, adore....him.

The Long-Distance Runner - The Boston Globe

During his long presidential campaign, Romney -- the reformed Massachusetts moderate with the salesman’s too-perfect touch -- had struggled to earn a welcome into a conservative movement whose members were often suspicious of his motives. The plastic sleeves in the binder held the good news to emerge from his experience trying to win them over: typed or handwritten confirmation that hard work and collegiality meant something in politics.

With nearly metronomic precision, Romney seems to emerge monthly from the cuckoo clock he has constructed for his exile. Each time, he delivers a speech with a carefully calibrated new critique of the Democratic regime, and then retreats back to a lower-profile schedule of fund-raisers, Op-Eds, and diligent networking among Republicans nationwide.

Romney’s schedule is a testament to his measure and caution as he has worked to stay in front of crucial conservative constituencies and away from unnecessary squabbling on news shows. “He’s not a talking head, and he doesn’t want to be critic-in-chief,” says spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. Romney turns down 95 percent of the media requests he receives and has refused to cooperate with what he calls “Romney-in-exile” profiles, including this one. “He is not a candidate, he is a private citizen,” says Fehrnstrom. “He does not want to invite or encourage speculation about 2012.”


When [Eric]Cantor unveiled his National Council for a New America, perhaps the most concerted of the efforts within the party to rebrand the Republican agenda, he had Romney by his side for the early May photo op. At a suburban Virginia pizzeria, Romney and former Florida governor Jeb Bush were perched on wooden stools as two of Cantor’s five “national experts”: a tableau of a smart, good-natured party in search of a common-sense future. The group’s founding documents promised “a conversation with America that seeks to remove ideological filters” on issues like health care, education, energy, national security, and economic issues. There was no mention of immigration, abortion, judges, or gay rights, and Republican leaders most popular with religious conservatives -- Palin and Huckabee, in particular -- were glaringly not included.
“He’s someone who is solutions-oriented. He’s about results, it’s about deliverables. He says: Let’s put a goal out there,” Cantor says of Romney. “So much of what our party needs right now is the respect that we can implement our conservative vision.”

As Romney advisers mined their 2008 experience for potential 2012 lessons, several rued the fact that he had been introduced nationally as an ideological purist and not as a businesslike pragmatist. Instead, his campaign focused too intently on winning over Iowa’s evangelical voters, for whom Romney’s Mormonism had likely been an insurmountable hurdle, aides concluded after the election. “If you’re looking for a mistake we made, we should have made [the campaign] more about competence,” says Ron Kaufman, a lobbyist and former White House official who advises Romney. “If a Republican can win in 2012, it will be because competence matters.”

So now, Mitt Romney is like Mike Dukakis -- "It's not about ideology, it's about competence."

Good luck with that, Mittens!!!

Labor Unions are Out of Favor this Labor Day

This Gallup Poll presents some really bad numbers for the union bosses.....

Labor Unions See Sharp Slide in U.S. Public Support#1#1

The percentage saying unions mostly hurt the companies where workers are organized has risen from 39% in 2006 to 46% in the latest poll. As a result, Americans are now evenly divided over whether unions mostly help or mostly hurt these companies, whereas in all previous measures the balance of opinion was positive.

Gallup finds organized labor taking a significant image hit in the past year. While 66% of Americans continue to believe unions are beneficial to their own members, a slight majority now say unions hurt the nation's economy. More broadly, fewer than half of Americans -- 48%, an all-time low -- approve of labor unions, down from 59% a year ago.

Joe Kennedy opts out of Senate race

Joseph Kennedy will not run for Senate - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe

Joseph P. Kennedy II announced today that he will not seek the Senate seat
held by his uncle, a move likely to end the Kennedy family's half century of
political dominance in Massachusetts and entice several other candidates to jump
into the race.

Kennedy's decision not to run opens the door for several candidates who had
been hesitant to run against a Kennedy for the state's first open Senate seat in
25 years. Several other Democrats may now join the race, including U.S.
Representatives Michael Capuano and John Tierney and former U.S. Representative
Martin Meehan.

The lone Democrat to officially launch her candidacy is state Attorney
General Martha Coakley. US Representative Stephen Lynch, also a Democrat, has
taken out nomination papers, but has said he must weigh family matters before
deciding whether to run.

On the Republican side, Canton Selectman Bob Burr is the only candidate
to officially enter the race. State representative Scott Brown, a Republican
from Wrentham, is also weighing a run. Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling,
who is an independent but has campaigned for Republican President George W. Bush
and Senator John McCain of Arizona, has also expressed interest. Republican
Kerry Healey, the former lieutenant governor, said
on Sunday night that she would not run.

Kennedy's decision leaves the field wide open

Chuck Grassley Gone Wild

I was on the verge of adding Sen. Grassley to my list of 2010 Senate endorsements. I really was. But then 2 things happened. First, he up and went all Socialist on me by endorsing ObamaCare. Second, this...............

The Washington Monthly

Speaking on Fox News last night, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) claimed that
health care reform should not happen because it doesn't enjoy "bipartisan"
support, adding that a bill cannot be bipartisan unless it garners "somewhere
between 75 and 80 votes." [...]
Hatch is hardly the only conservative
senator to float a 75-80 vote supermajority requirement for health reform. Sen.
Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is currently blocking attempts to fix the health care
system, told the Washington Post that "[w]e ought to be focusing on getting 80
votes."

Having said that, have you seen the Dem running against him? The guy has a few screws loose.

OK, it's official: 2010 IA Senate Endorsement: None.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!!!!!!!!!!!

PolitiFact Amnesty, amnesty, amnesty, amnesty!

During a testy exchange in the Jan. 5, 2008, debate, John McCain accused
Mitt Romney of mischaracterizing his stand on immigration by calling it
"amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
Romney sternly replied, "I don't describe
your plan as amnesty in my ad. I don't call it amnesty."
This denial earns
Romney a Pants on Fire ruling because two ads he released in recent days use
that exact language. The only thing possibly saving the former Massachusetts
governor is that the ads feature other people using the controversial word, not
Romney himself.
In a Romney ad called "Remember" launched on Jan. 3, a group
of New Hampshire residents praise McCain's military experience and record of
public service, then tick off grievances with McCain's positions on taxes and
immigration. One, identified as Collett Hill, says of McCain, "He wrote the
amnesty bill that America rejected."
A second Romney spot called "Twists"
released Jan. 4 opens with an eight-year-old clip of McCain accusing George W.
Bush of twisting the truth during the 2000 presidential campaign. An announcer
then enumerates reasons McCain was wrong then, and why he's not as conservative
as Romney. Among the reasons cited, "Higher taxes, amnesty for illegals."

Glenn Beck is a Loudmouth Gasbag

Glenn, dude, stop hyper-ventilating. Please. It doesn't do anyone any good. I could start blogging about how I hate person X or Group Y and my ratings would skyrocket, too!

My reputation, however, is more important to me than my ratings.

As Glenn Beck returns to the air Monday, following a long-planned
vacation, the Fox News star still has to deal with an advertiser boycott
that’s grown by about a dozen companies since
last week, according to the Associated Press. The AP’s David Bauder, citing
African-American online activist organization ColorOfChange.org, reports today that
33 companies “directed that their commercials not air on Beck’s show.”
The
ColorOfChange boycott began shortly after Beck
called Obama “a racist” on Fox & Friends, adding that the president
“has
a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Beck makes
controversial and provocative remarks on his own Fox show, too, such as
recently
joking about poisoning Nancy
Pelosi. So it’s not surprising that advertisers might be concerned about
being associated with Beck’s show—that’s despite that fact that it’s been a
rating smash at 5 p.m.

Beck boycott continues; will advertisers drop commentary shows? - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com

Sorry to say, but Huckabee might be correct here....

Huckabee: Evangelicals more supportive of Israel than Jews - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

"One of the things I find most interesting is that generally Evangelicals
are so much more supportive of Israel than the American Jewish community,"
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, said.

D-Kos's Failed attempt at Spin

OK, so according to D-Kos's OWN POLL, Montana is split on the public option. (In reality, this means probably that they are opposed by about 58-42)

So how on Earth does Baucus "Fail to represent his state"???


Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Do you approve or disapprove of Senator Max Baucus' actions on health care?

Approve Disapprove Not sure

All 42 44 14
Dem 34 55 11
Rep 49 38 13
Ind 41 42 17

Do you favor or oppose creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase?

Favor Oppose Not sure

All 47 43 10
Dem 78 15 7
Rep 23 66 11
Ind 48 41 11

Chris Christie for NJ Governor

Massachusetts Blue Dog is pleased to endorse Chris Christie (R-NJ) for Governor of New Jersey


Chris Christie for New Jersey Governor

Creigh Deeds for Governor

In the first of 2 2009 Governors Campaigns, Massachusetts Blue Dog is please to endorse Creigh Deeds (D - VA)

The Bush White House politicizing the War on Terror??? I'm Shocked!!!

Ridge: Bush officials sought to raise terror alert before '04 vote - CNN.com

Sadly, I cannot even attempt to feign surprise at this......

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he successfully
countered an effort by senior Bush administration officials to raise the
nation's terror alert level in the days before the 2004 presidential vote.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
strongly advocated raising the security threat level to "orange" -- even though
Ridge believed a threatening message "should not be the sole reason to elevate
the threat level."
The former Pennsylvania governor also writes that he saw
no reason for the move, which he now calls a bad idea, because additional
security precautions had already been taken in advance of the election.

It's the Map, Stupid!!!

How can anyone at the White House say with a straight face that s/he didn't see this coming?????



RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Amateur Hour at the White House

As you can see, coastal liberals dominate the leadership positions.
California has six of the 24 leadership positions I have delineated. Another
seven are located roughly within the megapolis that stretches from Washington,
D.C. to Boston. Meanwhile, those marginal members are clustered in the South and
the Border States, with a few sprinkled across the Great Plains and then into
Arizona.

This is a stark visual representation of the divide within the
Democratic Party. We can clearly see the source of the problem. Liberal leaders
from the coasts were given wide latitude by the White House to write these bills
- and, unsurprisingly, they delivered products their fellow liberals love (or at
least like). But the moderate and conservative Democrats - whose votes are
needed for passage yet who run the risk of defeat next fall should the broad
middle of the country sour on the reform efforts - weren't fully consulted, and
don't like the bills. Hence, the internal friction - which corresponds pretty
well with age-old sectional divisions in the party (more on that in a moment).

For the months between November and January, we were treated to endless
comparisons of Obama to the great presidents of the days of yore. One of them
was Franklin Roosevelt. Question: who stopped the New Deal dead in its tracks
after 1938? It wasn't the Republicans alone. It was Southern Democrats working
in alliance with the Republicans. Who are the marginal members standing between
Obama and a health care bill...Southern Democrats! Generally speaking, the
internal cleavage within the Democratic Party (North v. South; left v. right) is
really one of the most significant features of the political landscape since at
least the Great Depression. After eighty some years and dozens of failed
attempts at liberal reforms, there is no excuse for a President not to
anticipate it rearing its head again.

N-O -- No! Two Words: Rod Blagojevich

The governor should NOT name a replacement in the case of Kennedy's absence. As a matter of fact, I would support an amendment to the Federal Constitution prohibiting governors from filling vacancies in Congress.

Kennedy, looking ahead, urges a quick filling of Senate seat - The Boston Globe

You guys want no bill? Then there will be no bill

Liberals revolt over public option - Jonathan Martin and Carrie Budoff Brown - POLITICO.com

I'm actually quite pleased with this -- no bill is MUCH better than a bad bill.


The White House’s signal that it’s willing to back off support for a public health insurance option has sent congressional liberals into full revolt, bluntly warning the administration that no legislation will pass without a government-run plan.

A group of left-leaning House Democrats tells POLITICO that a bill without a public option simply won’t win enough votes in their caucus — a sentiment that raises fresh questions about the prospects to enact sweeping health care reform this year.
“A bill without a public option won’t pass the House,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), a member of Energy & Commerce Health subcommittee. “Not only are they weakening their proposal, but they are also weakening their hand. This is legislative subtraction by subtraction.”

Privately, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus sent the same message to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said Sunday that a public plan is “not the essential element” of comprehensive reform.
“To take the public option off the table would be a grave error; passage in the House of Representatives depends upon inclusion of it,” wrote Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) in a letter to Sebelius on Monday.Read more:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26203.html#ixzz0OaGD4kla

Palin CRUSHED by Obama in Marist matchup

Go ahead GOP....nominate her....really........


2012 Presidental Election_Obama_Palin.htm

Obama a drag on Deeds among Virginia independents

Here Washington Post (washingtonpost.com) is some more bad news for Creigh Deeds, as if he needed any. This poll is another indication that Deeds' problem in Virginia is not Deeds, but rather Obama.

The Disasta from Alaska Strikes Again....

You know, when someone is so adept at embarrassing herself, I almost hesitate to pile on.........

Almost......

This is from Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, April 2008:

Donklephant » Blog Archive » Palin Endorsed End-Of-Life Counseling As Alaska Governor

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of
the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and
medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and
to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these
important healthcare decisions. [...]
WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of
Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing
homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement
communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide
clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well
as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and
efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens
with advance directives.
WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in
Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have
endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the
importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance
directives.

SarahPAC - Sarah Palin's Official PAC

OK, Just for laughs and giggles, I went to visit this site.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing on it -- no issues statements, no agendas, just broad statements about America's best days being ahead and supporting the Republican Party.

Don't waste your time -- there's nothing here.


SarahPAC - Sarah Palin's Official PAC

Sebelius Says Public Option Not Essential -- Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

I would, uuuhhhh, go a few steps further....


There should be NO public option!!!


Sebelius Says Public Option Not Essential -- Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

I thought that the good people of New Hampshire were smarter than this.....

Romney Way out Front among New Hampshire Republicans : Now! Hampshire

Looks like Palin and Huckabee split the social conservatives.....in NH, anyways,


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads four other Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire in an exclusive Now Hampshire/Populus Research poll to be released on Wednesday.
Romney, who came in second in the 2008 New Hampshire presidential primary, leads all potential candidates with just over 50-percent of Republicans saying they would vote for him if the primary were held today.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are neck-and-neck with almost 17-percent each. Newt Gingrich earned roughly 13-percent. While Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is supported by 2.7-percent of the Granite State Republicans.
The poll was conducted exclusively for NowHampshire.com by Populus Research of Alexandria, Va. Between August 10th and 11th among 403 likely Republican primary voters. The poll carries a margin of error of 5%.

MA Blue Dog College Football Preseason Top 25 - 1-15

Here are the rankings.....

16 - 25 to follow

1. Florida -- Tebow returns to the defending National Champs
2. Oklahoma -- Gets Texas at home this year
3. Ohio State -- Gets USC at home this year
4. Virginia Tech
5. Alabama
6. Texas
7. LSU
8. USC
9. Mississippi
10. Georgia
11. Oklahoma State
12. Penn State
13. Georgia Tech
14. Texas Christian
15. Cal

President shifts focus to renting, not owning - The Boston Globe

I guess that I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, home ownership does benefit communities by giving people vested interests. On the other hand, part of the reason for the housing crisis was that we had too many mortgages being given to people who were not worthy of credit. Perhaps this approach makes sense right now given the tight credit markets.

Hey!! I have a novel idea --- How about the idea of the governemnt GETTING OUT of housing???????


President shifts focus to renting, not owning - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration, in a major shift on housing policy, is abandoning George W. Bush’s vision of creating an “ownership society’’ and instead plans to pump $4.25 billion of economic stimulus money into creating tens of thousands of federally subsidized rental units in American cities.

The idea is to pay for the construction of low-rise rental apartment buildings and town houses, as well as the purchase of foreclosed homes that can be refurbished and rented to low- and moderate-income families at affordable rates.


Analysts say the approach takes a wrecking ball to Bush’s heavy emphasis on encouraging homeownership as a way to create national wealth and provide upward mobility for low- and working-class families, especially minorities. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan’s recalibration of federal housing policy, they said, shows that the Obama White House has acknowledged that not everyone can or should own a home.
In addition to an ideological shift, the move is a practical response to skyrocketing foreclosure rates, tight credit, and the economic crisis.
“I’ve always said the American dream should be a home - not homeownership,’’ said Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and one of the earliest critics of the Bush administration’s push to put mortgages in the hands of low- and moderate-income people.

General Election Numbers for MA-Governor

This is NOT good news for Deval....or Baker, either


More bad poll numbers for Patrick - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe



The good news for Patrick is the poll shows that he runs even with GOP candidate Charles D. Baker and state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, the former Democrat now plotting a potential independent candidacy, in a three-way general election race. Baker gets 19 percent, Patrick 20 percent, and Cahill, 20 percent.
If Cahill doesn't run -- although his associates say he is planning an announcement around Sept 10 -- Baker and Patrick run almost even in a two-way race, the Republican getting 35 percent and the governor getting 32 percent. If Christy Mihos were the GOP nominee, the poll indicates, he would get 16 percent, and Patrick and Cahill would get 24 percent each.

Consider the Source....

Daily Kos CA Governor's Poll


This poll SEEMS to be skewed left. So lets go back to RCP and look at D-Kos's track record during the election........


Here are the trendlines for the DKos poll from 9/11/08 through Election Day:


http://www.dailykos.com/trendlines

KOS had Obama ahead by 10 or more points for almost 4 weeks straight (10/1 - 10/26)

Now, lets look at the comparable RCP average for that time period:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

For the comparable time period for the RCP Average, Obama NEVER got higher than +8. It was, a couple days, from the chart as low as 5 1/2 or 6.

DKos might know liberalism, but he does NOT know polling

A new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll shows the California gubernatorial race very competitive on both sides.In the Democratic primary, Jerry Brown (D) leads Gavin Newsom (D), 29% to 20%.In the Republican primary, Meg Whitman (R) leads with 24%, followed by Tom Campbell (R) at 19% and Steve Poinzner (R) at 9%.In general election match ups, Brown beats Whitman, 42% to 36%, and tops Campbell, 43% to 35%. However, with Newsom as the Democratic nominee, the match ups are statistical ties.

If I'm Meg Whitman tonight, and I see this poll, I'm feeling PRETTY good.

The GOP Could Do MUCH Worse than this Guy......

The American Spectator : On the Road with Tim Pawlenty

Though Pawlenty’s actions are paving the way -- or at least leaving an opening -- for a run for president, some pundits are already brushing him off because he’s too "vanilla" to occupy such a position. Couple this with his relative anonymity, and some doubt the hockey-playing, marathon-running son of a truck driver has what it takes to build rapport with an already weary GOP, much less undecided voters.
Despite his lack of magnetism, his track record as a conservative governor in a purple state is impressive. At the end of this last legislative session, Pawlenty demanded his Democrat-controlled legislature balance the budget or he would. Not only had Democrats passed budget bills that left a $3 billion gap in income and expenditures, but they wanted to increase taxes on their fellow Minnesotans on everything from alcohol and music downloads, including income taxes for every bracket.
Pawlenty outwitted his big-spending legislators and exercised an obscure law on the books that enabled him to remove any state spending for which funding doesn’t exist. In Pawlenty’s last major achievement as governor, he balanced the budget and finally removed Minnesota from the dreaded list of top ten most highly-taxed states. Talk about going out with a bang.

In fact, a recent SurveyUSA poll said 34% of Minnesotans now identify themselves as Republicans, the largest percentage since 2005, where 35% did. While some credit the shift to Obama’s disastrous healthcare plan, it makes as much sense that after two terms of Tim Pawlenty, his constituents finally see the advantage of conservative ideals put into action.

Pawlenty’s already touting his achievements and taking his candid conservatism on the road. He recently told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Obama was “scamming the American people” with his healthcare plan. In this op-ed in the Washington Post last week, Pawlenty picked apart the President’s plan and encouraged Democrats in Congress to look to the way he reformed healthcare the conservative way in Minnesota. Such straight talk is customary to the Minnesotans he represents; Pawlenty is more Everyman than elitist. Such unpretentious manners may prove appealing to some audiences, especially by 2012, when the sparkling, uber-exclusivity of Obama’s image cannot rescue his failing policies.

Is Pawlenty conservative enough? While he tends to hold a tough line on taxes, he shows on a softer side on issues like mass transit, education, and the environment (especially global warming). He favored a 75-cent cigarette tax -- he claimed, with the agreement of the Minnesota court system, that it was a "user fee" -- and even advocated a statewide smoking ban. And Pawlenty overrode his normal free-market tendencies to support the importation of price-controlled prescription drugs from Canada.

Health Care TownHalls prompting Backlash against Anti-Obama protestors

New poll highlights health care attitudes - USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON — The raucous protests at congressional town hall meetings have succeeded in fueling opposition to proposed health care bills among some Americans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — particularly the independents who tend to be at the center of political debates.

In a survey of 1,000 adults taken Tuesday, 34% say the sometimes heated protests at sessions held by members of Congress have made them more sympathetic to the protesters' views; 21% say they are less sympathetic.

Independents by 2-1, 35%-16%, say they are more sympathetic to the protesters now.

The findings are bad news for President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders, who have scrambled to respond to town halls marked by aggressive questions and noisy demonstrations by those opposed to plans to overhaul the health care system.

HEALTH CARE DEBATE: Obama battles health care 'chatter'
The hometown sessions have grabbed public attention: seven in 10 polled say they're following news about them very or somewhat closely.

"They're having an effect because they're an important part of the conversation about what is happening with health care," says pollster David Winston, an adviser to Republican congressional leaders.

Democrat Jim Kessler, a Capitol Hill veteran now at the think tank Third Way, questions whether the effect would last.

Among key findings:

• A 57% majority of those surveyed, including 6 in 10 independents, say a major factor behind the protests are concerns that average citizens had well before the meetings took place; 48% say efforts by activists to create organized opposition to the health care bills are a major factor.

• There's some tolerance for noisy disputes at town hall meetings. By 51%-41%, those surveyed say individuals making "angry attacks" on a health care bill reflected "democracy in action" rather than "abuse of democracy." However, by 59%-33% they say "shouting down supporters" of a health care bill was an abuse of democracy.

On that question, unlike most of the others, there isn't much of a partisan divide: 69% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans agree.

The Iowa Republican previews 2012

An Early look at the 2012 caucuses

Their breakdown for IA is as follows:

1. Huckabee
2. Palin
3. Romney
4. Gingrich
5. Pawlenty

Pawlenty seems to me to be the sleeper here as the TOP 4 are all from the "social conservative" wing of the GOP.

Palin at 2?????? Really????????

Corzine, Deeds Turn Back The Clock

Virginia and New Jersey appear poised to elect GOP governors

National Journal Online - Corzine, Deeds Turn Back The Clock

Barack Obama's victory in 2008 was about change, but it was just as much a change from George W. Bush as it was change to Obama. Nine months later, listen to Democrats up for election and it's as if nothing changed at all.
There isn't much "Yes We Can" or even "Hope" coming from the two Democrats running for governor this year. New Jersey incumbent Jon Corzine is busy trying to link GOP opponent Chris Christie to Bush. In Virginia, Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds calls his opponent, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell, "Backwards Bob" for his conservative positions on abortion and birth control.
The "fierce urgency of now," it seems, has been replaced by the "fierce fear of then."
Corzine is eager to campaign with Obama and featured the president's recent visit to New Jersey on his behalf in a TV ad. While voters in New Jersey like Obama, they don't like Corzine. At all. Corzine's only hope of victory is to make sure Christie is even more disliked. How do you do that? Find someone even less popular than Corzine in New Jersey -- like, say, George W. Bush.

Byron York Flunks Economics

This guy is one of those Republicans who wears horn-rimmed glasses and does NOT make much sense.

So, because unemployment saw a TINY decline in July 1992 means that President Bush was no longer responsinble for the prior 18 months?????

There is a reason why President Clinton won in a LANDSLIDE in 1992.

The Economy, Stupid!!!!!!!

Times touts economic momentum, recovery; in 1992, not so much Washington Examiner

The front page of the New York Times is filled with hope about the nation's economic situation. The lead story, "Job Losses Slow, Signaling Momentum for a Recovery," reporting a decline in the unemployment rate from 9.5 percent in June to 9.4 percent in July, begins by declaring that, "The most heartening employment report since last summer suggested on Friday that a recovery was under way -- and perhaps gathering steam.""Employers are no longer in a panic," one expert tells the Times. The paper reports that Obama administration officials "credited the stimulus package" for the improvement, and "some said" job losses would be far worse had the $787 billion stimulus not been passed. The paper quotes President Obama saying his administration has "rescued our economy from catastrophe."Put that together with earlier data that the economy shrank at a one percent annual rate in the second quarter, and the Times reports that the news has "convinced many forecasters that when the history of the Great Recession is written, these summer months will be the big turning point, when the economy started to grow again." Of course, there's some "unsettling information" in the new economic data, but overall, the message of the Times story is: Good news -- the recovery is underway.

The Times hasn't always been so optimistic when it comes to one-tenth-of-a-point declines in the unemployment rate. On this very day in 1992, in the midst of the presidential campaign between George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the government also reported that the unemployment rate ticked downward by one tenth of a point, and the Times' treatment was far more restrained."Jobless Rate Dips a Notch to 7.7% in Mixed Showing," was the front-page headline of the August 8, 1992 Times. "The nation's jobless rate improved marginally last month, edging down to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent," the Times reported. "But the improvement was not enough to signal a stronger economic recovery or to help President Bush as he heads into the Republican National Convention." Even though the number of jobs actually went up in July 1992 (as opposed to the decline of 247,000 jobs in July 2009), the 1992 Times reported that the economic news "gave no suggestion that the economic recovery was breaking out of its painfully slow pace or, more important, that the job growth was picking up enough to push the unemployment rate down significantly before the election in November." Pollster Peter Hart told the paper that, "There couldn't be worse political news for George Bush."Under the sub-headline "Stagnant Period Seen," the Times reported that "most forecasters" predicted "more of the same: an economy that is just muddling along." The Times looked deep into the data to find "disappointing" numbers everywhere; many of the new jobs were in the service sector, there weren't enough construction jobs, some of the improvement was the result of a government program. (The Times appeared less enthusiastic about government stimulus back then.)

As it turned out, the one-tenth-of-a-point drop in the unemployment rate in July 1992 signaled the end of the increase in the jobless rate. Of course, the Times' editors and writers didn’t know that then, and they stressed the negative aspects of the economic news. But they don't know what's going to happen now, either, and they're filled with hope. Quite a difference.

-Byron York

York acts as if July of 1992 was the ONLY month during President Bush's tenure during which unemployment was high. HOWEVER, the tale of the tape shows a MUCH different picture:

Rockland, MA News

I am usually not a fan of Fox News (Unfair and Unbalanced), however they hit the nail of this story on the head.

Mom, vets protest inverted flag

ROCKLAND - Veterans groups and the mother of a Marine killed in Iraq say the owner of a used car lot in Rockland is being disrespectful by flying the U.S. flag upside down.
But Kevin McGee of McGee Used Car Annex tells The Enterprise of Brockton an upside down flag is a legitimate sign of distress that he's using because the town has revoked his business license.
Maureen O'Haire, whose son Walter O'Haire was killed in Iraq in 2007, lives across the street from the lot and told selectmen she was outraged to see the flag flying upside down.
Former Marine Angelo Triantaffelow, speaking on behalf of the local VFW and American Legion, called McGee's protest "wrong."
Police say there is nothing they can do because McGee's stand is constitutionally protected.

I am never going to do business with McGee Used Car Annex.

Mapping a possible Deval Patrick vs. Tim Cahill primary in 2010

CommonWealth Unbound: Mapping a possible Deval Patrick vs. Tim Cahill primary in 2010




So, basically, here is Commonwealth Unbound's preview of a Cahill vs. Deval matchup. And what does it show? Basically, Deval carries the socially liberal western part of the state, the North Shore, plus Boston and it's immediate suburbs. Plus Provincetown and Truro. Cahill carries central MA and the South Shore. So what can we tell from this? Well, let's compare the 2008 Hillary vs. Obama map, shown above the Cahill / Deval map. Does it look like Deval might be in trouble? I would say, yes, very much so.





This would be a very close contest. I would rate it as a tossup.

Now, let's look at the top-level numbers from the 2008 presidential primary. Demographically, Massachusetts SHOULD have been an Obama-friendly state. Why? (Thanks FiveThirtyEight)

Massachusetts is the MOST liberal state in the union. It is the most-educated state, with the 4th-highest per capita income. It also has the 11th-highest Starbucks - WalMart ratio. All of these factors should have accrued to Obama's benefit in this state.

So why didn't they? I'm glad you asked. Two factors stand out; first, MA has the 2nd highest Catholic population in the country. Catholics voted for Hillary 64-33. White Catholics voted for Hillary 67-31. Catholics accounted for 45% of the total vote according to MSNBC's exit poll. Second, Massachusetts has the third lowest proportion of men in the country. Women voted for Hillary 62-36.



Interesting. For all of the state's reputation for being progressive and enlightened, it appears, at least, that gender and religion played huge roles in the Massachusetts primary.

So what does this have to do with the Deval - Cahill matchup? This: I would rate the Cahill-Patrick race as a tossup: Cahill would basically end up with Hillary's numbers minus the gender gap.

Coming Attractions on Massachusetts Blue Dog

• College Football Preseason Top 25
• Health Care Reform -- The Individual Mandate as the only good alternative
• Massachusetts Demographic Profile / Review
• 2009 Gubenatorial Endorsements
• 2010 Endorsements -- Senate and Gubenatorial Races
• 2012 GOP Presidential Field Preview

The Private Option | The Next Right

The Private Option The Next Right

Face it, universal health care folks, your arguments just don't hold water.

Democrats argue that a Public Option won't crowd out private health
insurance. It will just give them "healthy" competition. I'm
skeptical, in large part because the government can and will simply legislate
away the normal aspects of competition (the need to balance the books, to make
cost/benefit calculations, and to negotiate on price/quality, rather than on
"...or else we'll regulate you into submission"). Policies designed to
keep down health care spending will not survive against politicians up for
reelection.
The people responsible for Trillion dollar deficits are
unlikely to usher in an era of health care spending restraint.
Other
Democrats have just come right out and acknowledged that a public
option would eventually crowd out private health insurance.

A public insurance plan able to use Medicare's
bargaining power to secure deep discounts for its customers and ensure the
maximum possible network would be cheaper and more efficient than private
insurers. Over time, this increased efficiency would make the plan more
attractive because it could offer more coverage for less money. As consumers
recognized this fact, they would increasingly migrate towards the plan, and the
public insurer would become, if not a de facto single payer system, something
close to it. The public insurer, in this scenario, is a game changer. [...]
Insurers, predictably, howled that a public insurer with access to Medicare's
market power would put them out of business. (Generally speaking, liberals
agreed with that.)
Still other Democrats have pointed to the education system
as an example of universal coverage with private alternatives. On Twitter, Pandagon's Jesse Taylor argued that a Public Option
wouldn't affect private insurance...
What healthcare choice can you exercise
right now that a.) would be gone under a public option and b.) couldn't be taken
away currently?
Politicians who make this argument should be confronted with
this question: What school choice can you exercise right now that would be gone
if we had vouchers and school choice for everybody?

Drudge Does Finance? Not Quite

www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/08/economic-headlines-you-wont-see-on-The-Drudge-Reprt.html


-- Job losses slowed to 247,000, their lowest total since a year ago, beating expectations by roughly 100,000.
-- The unemployment rate actually *declined* to 9.4 percent from 9.5percent.
-- May and June job loss estimates have been revised *downward*.
-- Hourly earnings improved.
-- The average workweek lengthened, particularly in manufacturing.
-- The manufacturing sector added jobs on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
-- The NASDAQ will open today about 33 percent higher than when Obama took office.

Of course, not all of this accrues to Obama's credit. However, when I hear that Obama is "going to ruin the economy", I beg to differ.

Cash for Clunkers

OK, the fact that Congress under-estimated what the demand for Cash-for-Clunkers was going to be doesn't mean that it's a bad program. It means that Congress is bad at price discovery. Jesus, I could have told everyone that six months ago and saved the taxpayers $1 billion. Do politicians know economics??? Nope.

Still, having said that, I don't know why everyone is piling on here. I mean, aren't there bigger problems in the country right now? Such as the impact of eight years of supply side trickle down economics??

OK, I tried to get the chart here, I couldn't do it. Basically, at the end of the week for Jan 16, 2001, the S&P 500 was at 1,342.54. After 8 years of Trickle-Down Supply-Side (TDSS) policies, the S&P 500 was, at the end of the week for Jan 12, 2009, at 850.12. Excellent showing, GOP, way to go......Oh, BTW, I almost said Supply-Side Trickle Down instead of Trickle-Down Supply Side here, however the last 3 letters of that acronym would be...well....you know.............

Still, Barone does make a very good point about healthcare at the end of this article, i.e. I wonder how badly Congress is going to screw that up???

Bottom line: For a Republican who wears horn-rimmed glasses, this guy isn't that much of a loser.

How
much cash for a clunker? Congress had no clue Washington Examiner

Government is not very good at price discovery. That’s one lesson, I
think, of the cash for clunkers program. Whoever set the rebate at $3,500 and
$4,500 (let’s average it to $4,000 for illustrative That calculation proved to
be hilariously wrong. Washington
Post media reporter Howard Kurtz asks the question, “Also, isn’t is apparent
that the $4,500 payments forpurposes) evidently calculated that 250,000 car
owners would trade in their vehicles
for new
cars that get at least four miles per gallon more between July and November.
older gas-guzzlers was extremely generous? That’s a huge chunk of change to spur
people who probably would have bought a new
car anyway.”

So Congress needed to set the rebate at somewhere between $25 and
$100,000, and not surprisingly it got the number wrong. Markets are good at
price discovery; government isn’t. If the House bill adding $2 billion in
stimulus funds to the cash for clunkers program passes the Senate, the
government will spend $3 billion for 750,000 trade-ins. If Congress had set the
rebate at $1,333 instead of $4,000, it might well have had to spend only $1
billion for the same number of trade-ins. In which case Congress will have spent
an extra $2 billion for no good reason. Note that I am assuming that it’s a good
idea to spend government money to induce such trade-ins or subsidize those which
would have occurred without any rebate.

My sense is that voters had got this kind of thing figured out. Pollster
Scott Rasmussen reports that voters opposed cash for clunkers by a 54%-35%
margin and that now they oppose spending additional money by an almost identical
54%-33% margin. Why should we let Congress which couldn’t design an
intelligent cash for clunkers program redesign the health care system which
comprises one-sixth of our economy? It’s a very good question which members of
Congress are already hearing from their constituents.

Pajamas Media » How Many Obama Voters Feel Let Down?

Pajamas Media » How Many Obama Voters Feel Let Down?

Key Excerpt:

Fiscal conservatives who bought the spiel that he’d go
line by line through the budget have seen the most fiscally irresponsible
president ever. After a $787B pork-filled stimulus, a supplemental spending
measure with 9,000 earmarks, a $3.5 trillion budget, and a trillion dollar
health care plan, Obama has managed to exceed the worst predictions of his
critics. And now at least some of his advisors are letting on that his promise not to hike taxes on 95% of taxpayers is going to be cast aside. After all, the deficit is now so huge
we must plug the gap, right? (Robert Gibbs said Obama would never raise taxes on the middle class – well, except for those cigarette and energy
taxes.)
Then there are the good government types who fancied a new era of
transparency and lobbyist-free government. Well, not quite. We have had the long
list of tax cheats and the lobbyists who needed ethics waivers
to squeeze through the revolving door. Again and again — whether on the stimulus
plan or on cap and trade — gargantuan legislation has been rushed through
without public scrutiny. Well, if the public figured out what was on some of
those thousands of pages, they might have objected.

Do I feel let down by this? Yes. Has some of it been an extraordinary response to extraordinary times? Yes. But has all of it? Absolutely not. The administration needs to step back from the fiscal precipice.

On Externalities, Health Care, and Beer Summits

OK, so here goes. Does anyone remember Hillary's campaign stop at a townie bar in rural West Virginia? You know, the one where, good uber beer-Democrat that she is, she was downing shots? God, I can't find the link. Man, I would have given my right arm to be at that event. Can you imagine? Doing shots with Hill?? I would, uhhh, not be getting up early the next morning, I don't think.

Maybe it was Pennsylvania. Ahhh!!! Yes, here it is:

Anyways, I got to thinking. Why would anyone question why the Vice President would be at the Beer Summit? I mean, it's Joey B., for Christ's sake. It wouldn't really be a Beer Summit without him.

Come to think of it, I think that the Beer Summit should be a widely implemented practice (A best practice, if you will) thoughout Corporate America. I think that colleagues should hold weekly, no, thrice-weekly, Beer Summits. This would improve employee morale, and thereby improve productivity. I'm being serious. There's no miscommunication, rivalry, or even hatred that a couple cold ones can't cure. Hell, I'll even pick up the tab for the pretzels.

So....What is an externality, you ask? Let's say that my brother is a resident of the state of Ohio. And in the state of Ohio there exists a car manufacturer about 25 miles downstream from where my brother lives. I happen to live in the Great, Good, and Benevolent Commonwealth of Virginia (Where on Earth else would I live?) I decide to buy a car from the Ohio manufacturer. So, I give the car company $25,000 and the car company gives me a car. Done. Right?

Not exactly. As a result of the manufacturing of that car, chemical waste makes it's way in to the stream and makes its way down to my brother's neighborhood. In addition, the air pollution emitted from the car company's smokestacks spreads throughout the neighboring counties. Those aspects of the transaction have a negative impact on my brother. But why should my brother be impacted by the transaction at all when he was not a party to it in the first place? Well, according to the basic tenets of capitalism, he shouldn't be. (And don't you dare tell me that he can pack up and move. Follow that argument down the path a couple steps. Pretty soon, nobody has any place to live).

What I have just described is called an externality. There will always be externalities associated with many, many, many economic activities. And that, my friends, is why no country in the world will ever have a 100% capitalist, perfectly free market. Look it up in the Index of Economic Feedom. Such a thing does not exist. Nor has it ever existed. Sorry, my RLC (Republican, Libertatarian, Conservative) Friends. It's just never gonna happen.

So, what does all of this have to do with Health Care? Well, besides the fact that the consumption of hard liquor does serious damage to one's liver (this means you, Hillary!), I will attempt to provide that answer in my next post.

Enjoy your beers.

Somebody Needs a Reality Slap!!

I guess this guy didn't see how the stock market went up yesterday on the news of this program's success.....Oooops!!!!!


Is Somebody Lying About “Cash for Clunkers”? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com


The numbers just don’t seem to add up.
The “Cash for Clunkers” program gives roughly a $4,000 subsidy when a person trades in a clunker for a new car that gets better gas mileage.
Congress set aside $1 billion to fund the program. If all of that money was going to pay these subsidies, there would be enough money to pay for 250,000 clunkers.
The program went into place on July 24th. One week later, the program was said to be out of money.
In 2006, before the current ills of the automakers, the average number of new cars sold in a week in the United States was 125,000.
So if you believe the numbers, sales involving clunkers as trade-ins last week represented more than two times the weekly sales of new vehicles when the industry was healthy.
Maybe that is possible, but something just does not smell right to me, especially because at the start of the week no one seemed to be worried that the Clunkers program would run out of money (especially not me!), so there was no reason to rush out and take advantage of it.

The President's New 'Best Friends'

Obama's New 'Best Friends' - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

Fifty percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s health-care
efforts to date, compared to 44 percent who approve—echoing the 55 percent who
disapprove of Obama’s handling of the federal deficit

.......

This should be a wakeup call for both the Obama administration and
congressional Democrats. But the only people who seem to be listening
are the Blue Dog Democrats, and a small bipartisan group of Senate
centrists.
Attacked as villains by liberals and accused of slowing down the
legislation’s passage, they are the unsung heroes of health-care reform. They
are not trying to kill Obama’s initiative; they are trying to save
it.

........

They may be the only ones in Washington taking President Obama at his word
that any health-care plan must be deficit neutral. House Democrats took a hit
when the Congressional Budget Office announced that the liberal plan would add
billions of new annual costs to the current system. Congressman Charles Rangel’s
(D-NY) proposed surcharge tax on top earners likewise ran counter to desired
narratives when it became evident that it meant the top combined tax rate in
states like New York and California could approach 60 percent, feeding into
Republican campaign-era claims about Obama’s incipient socialism. Centrists helped kill the surcharge and expanded the number of small
businesses that would be exempted from providing compulsory coverage. And a
proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Board would establish a bipartisan
framework to recommend "entitlement" overhaul savings that would be presented to
the president directly, helping achieve the promised deficit
reduction.+


But perhaps the most significant contribution of this centrist
coalition to the health-care debate might be the replacement of the
controversial “public option” with a nonprofit private cooperative plan, based
on American models that have existed at the community level for decades. This
simple switch would single-handedly defang conservative fear-mongering about the
national socialization of health
care. It would likewise achieve many of the practical goals
of the public option, without acquiescing to the larger ideological goal
advanced by liberals. This should be considered a clear win-win
proposition.

.......With a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate and a
256-seat majority in the House, it's no wonder that some liberal Democrats want
to flex their legislative muscle with a partisan bill that ignores the need to
reach out to the center. But they would be giving into the same hyper-partisan
temptations that led to the repudiation of Tom DeLay’s conservative Congress. It
might be emotionally satisfying, but it's bad long-term
politics.
They should also be chastened by a look at American
history. Every major entitlement expansion or overhaul in the past enjoyed broad
bipartisan support. FDR’s Social Security Act earned the support of 81 House
Republicans and 16 GOP senators. LBJ’s expansions in 1965 had the support of 70
House Republicans and 16 Senate Republicans. Even the Newt Gingrich-led 1996
Welfare reform enjoyed the support of 101 Democratic votes.
To have as
historically significant and difficult a piece of legislation as health-care
reform pass only along party lines would not only undercut Obama’s centrist
appeals, it would constitute a considerable long-term practical obstacle to the
legislation’s implementation. It would make health-care reform a lasting
political division.

Surprising Numbers From Gallup

Political Party Affiliation: 30 States Blue, 4 Red in 2009 So Far

Bottom Line
Since Obama was inaugurated, not much has changed in the political party landscape at the state level -- the Democratic Party continues to hold a solid advantage in party identification in most states and in the nation as a whole. While the size of the Democratic advantage at the national level shrunk in recent months, this has been due to an increase in independent identification rather than an increase in Republican support. That finding is echoed here given that the total number of solid and leaning Republican states remains unchanged from last year. While the Republican Party is still able to compete in elections if they enjoy greater turnout from their supporters or greater support for its candidates from independent voters, the deck is clearly stacked in the Democratic Party's favor for now.

End of the Line for Dems in VA?

This is a shame -- Deeds would be a good governor. However, swing voters, and there are a lot of them in a swing state like Virginia, are not real happy with the Dems in Washington right now.



RealClearPolitics - Fall Eyes on Virginia

Virginia will be the center of political attention this fall, thanks to the first statewide election in a battleground state since the 2008 presidential election.
"Here we go again," said Larry Larsen, an independent voter accustomed to national attention for Virginia races.

November's gubernatorial race matches former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a Republican, and state Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat.
A SurveyUSA poll last week gave McDonnell a 15-point lead. RealClearPolitics shows McDonnell up 6.3 points, based on aggregate polling data.
"If McDonnell were to win this, the message it sends back to Washington is to slow down," said John Morrison, a Deeds supporter.
Morrison last week was planning a fundraiser for Deeds while taking orders at Piccadilly Print Shop, which he has owned for more than 25 years.
Larsen, a stockbroker and father of six, leans Republican. His issues hinge on the economy: "My income is not what it was last year, and right now it seems that none of the spending solutions are working."

Virginia and New Jersey will hand a report card of sorts to President Obama and the Democrat Congress with their governor's races this fall. Both are leaning Republican, but in politics, anything can change.

Virginia has not had many Republican governors over the past 50 years. This election may interrupt that record.