Dennis the Peasant Waves Adios
This morning, Serr8d brought the news in comments. So, we've lost Dennis the Peasant and Jules Crittenden, two of my faves, this year. As for why, I hope he doesn't mind my reproducing his whole post:
I'll be closing down Dennis the Peasant sometime between now and New Year's.
I've been doing DtP for six years, and the fact of the matter is simply that it is now time to move on. This due primarily to the growth of the two businesses I own (or partially own). They now require much more time and attention than they've been getting in the past. As this relates to cash accumulating in my pockets, I consider said development to be a Good Thing.
Beyond that, it's time for me to face up to the fact that the political blogosphere is a near complete bore.
Obama’s Man in Honduras: WikiLeaks
Every time we revisit this, I get angry.
What should be of concern, though, is the ambassador’s words that Zelaya is not an ideologue, thinking that USA can manipulate him. That is either ignorant, or misleading. Zelaya was bought by South American interests, most likely Hugo Chávez, already in his election campaign. This bribery continued with the so-called ALBA “loans”, in a process that in most every country would have made the president guilty of high treason. Furthermore, he said explicitly that he obeyed Chávez second only to God (“Después de Dios, ¡Chávez!”). If Llorens was ignorant about this, it is not good. If he is protecting Zelaya (or someone else), it is even less good.
Having seen now what Chávez did once his democratic cover was blown, introducing a full-blown dictatorship by similar methods as Hitler once did, I don’t think anybody can argue that the defense of democracy in Honduras was too rash, too determined. It was appropriate. Unfortunately Venezuela is in a different position, the judiciary already having been completely compromised, and the legislative as well, so a repeat is not possible. The best hope for Venezuela is a popular uprising and that the security forces remain passive while the people throw out the dictator quite literally.
Gaia requires you renounce your freedom:
People who resist the state controlling every aspect of their existence will be forced to live in squalid ghettos while the rest of the population will be tightly controlled in high-tech prison cities – that’s the future envisaged by eco-fascists who are exploiting the contrived global warming fraud to openly flaunt their plan for the total enslavement of mankind.
Facism with a smiley face!
Peter Welch’s Legislative Gambit on HCR
From the local liberal rag, Seven Days:
In a passionate seven-and-a-half minute plea to colleagues on the House Rules Committee, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) asked the new Republican leadership to allow up-or-down votes on key aspects of the sweeping health care reform.
Welch is spearheading a campaign to allow the new Congress to vote on individual aspects of health care reform measures, in an effort to preserve:
• The elimination of lifetime limits on care;
• Coverage of individuals up to 26 on their parents’ health care plans;
• A ban on discrimination against those with preexisting conditions; and,
• Free preventive care for seniors.To date, 65 House members have signed onto Welch's push to allow these items to be voted on separately from the entire piece of health care reform legislation. Welch took his plea directly to the House Rules Committee, which establishes the guidelines for how each piece of legislation is voted on and debated.
In his introduction, Welch congratulated Republicans on their November victory. "Now the question, now the challenge is whether you can govern responsibly. This is going to set the template for the entire 112th Congress," said Welch.
Noting that the GOP ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, Welch asked where they would find $230 billion in cuts given that repealing parts of the health care reform legislation is estimated to add $230 billion back to the federal deficit, according to the impartial Congressional Budget Office.
Hey, how about this? Bring in the CBO, and ask them under what set of assumptions HCR is supposed to "save $230 billion," and whether or not those assumptions are valid. Then, go through the bill line by line, and vote on each piece.
Remember when the HCR negotiations were going to be held on C-SPAN? Well, maybe this time, people can find out what's in the bill, bit by bit. It is what it is: an enormous monstrosity of government regulation and intervention that can't be cherry picked. It exists in aggregate. If the Democrats agree with the Republicans that it needs reforming, maybe the time to do that would have been before the CBO scores were grotesquely gamed and it was crammed down.
In other places, Democrats are saying that the Republicans ought to determine what the effects of HCR are. That's interesting, considering we needed to pass it in order to find out what was in it--kind of like a shit-filled pinata at a kid's birthday party. So far, we are in a position to note that it's raising the cost of coverage, and that key advocates, such as unions, are asking for exemptions.
Stacy's take on the same story.
Friday Morning Follies, 1-7-10
Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun doesn't feel like sharing her tax returns.
Sign this petition to help repeal ObamaCare. Signatures will be presented to the Senators supposedly representing you.
Christian persecution: Muslim-dominant states proudly claim 8 of top 10 spots.
ZOMG! Incoming House wingnuts wasting $1.1 million reciting outdated document that they treat with religious fervor (and are "sworn to uphold")! Ace has a great post on this:
What you're supposed to think: Several things. If you just read the headline, you're supposed to think those sneaky Republicans are hypocrites and liars for saying they love the Constitution when they're deliberately omitting parts of it that they don't like, reading a false Constitution, one that probably also says something like Article 3: Jesus is King.
If you read beyond the headline, and realize how fucking stupid an article this is, you are then supposed to rescue the article from its own dishonest headline by realizing the Constitution can be changed!!111eleventy!, despite what those Bible-thumping shotgun-pumping cousin-humping Christers think, and so we shouldn't be worried about further changes, and in fact also shouldn't bother reading it in the House at all, because hey, it can change, so what's it mean? Nothing! Why bother reading something that doesn't mean anything?! That's silly, that's what that is.
(You are specifically not supposed to notice the changed parts of the Constitution were changed according to the precise mechanism authorized within the Constitution (the amendment process), which makes these changes actually solemn, constitutional ones, and therefore have a different character than the "let's make shit up as we go" changes urged by liberals.)
Considering that the Pelosi-led House of the 111th added about $3.7 billion per day to our debt, that's . . . well, it can't be hypocrisy to a liberal, can it?
Pelosi’s weird fall from power paints a troubling picture of the Democrat minority in the coming years. Their politics have always been delusional, and they’ve always been able to count on voters who are not, shall we say, picky about facts or logic. (Remember when they were trying to claim ObamaCare would actually reduce the deficit?)
Yeah, even I remember that, because they were doing it again, yesterday.
Ann Coulter: Investigate This!
SALMAN Taseer, governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, was murdered in Pakistan. His killer was wearing the uniform of the police. His killer fired 27 bullets into Mr Taseer. His killer is Constable Mumtaz Qadri. He is 26. To many he is a hero. So far 36 policemen have been arrested.
After the murder, Qadri uttered:
“He got the death sentence for insulting the Prophet.”
Mr Taseer had spoken out in support of Asia Bibi. She’s the Christian woman who served water to Muslim women. (More on her here.) They refused to drink water touched by an infidel. A row ensued. A local leader sentenced Babi to death for, allegedly, insulting the Prophet.
This is in accordance with the Namoos-e-Risalat Act. The act states that anyone who insults Mohammed must be sentenced to death by hanging. And this includes insulting anyone called Mohammed – Mohammed Hanif recalls a tale of a doctor being charged for chucking the business card of a salesman called Mohammed into a bin.
Cordoba Initiative: Jihad Comes to Spain
Explosive dildo of revenge: is it the worst gift ever? Now, if they combined a dildo and a taser . . . that would BE something.
Krauthammer on Constitutionalism.
Well, duh. Who wants to boink a weepy chick?
Sexy Geek Contest: Ace of Spades Losing Badly
Wired is holding its annual Sexiest Geeks contest. So far, cuddly Ewok Ace of Spades is losing badly, with 18 ups to 36 downs.
C'mon, people. He waxes his bikini line for you, doesn't he?
Breathe Easy
With apologies to Mark Twain, today featured a good nap, spoiled.
For those who have been waiting with bated breath, you may now relax. The surgery is over, and hopefully successful. I won't know for sure about its success until I'm further along in the physical therapy that's to follow, but for now; being home in my own bed on the night of surgery is a sign of success that I'll take.
Quick summary, for those interested (the rest of you can just stop reading now, it won't bother me, I promise): A year ago when I was officiating a basketball game, I planted my right foot to turn around and run the "other way" when I felt my knee pop. I continued to officiate the season, hoping it would get better with post-season rest. It never really did. In July, I woke up on vacation one morning unable to stand. Initial diagnosis was a torn meniscus.
Initial diagnosis was wrong.
Physical therapist said he thought it was the iliotibial (IT) band. He was partly right. The IT band was apparently so tight it was pulling the patella to the outside, and had over time bruised a lot of the cartilage under the patella. They scoped the knee, and detached the IT band from the patella, which will allow the patella to return to its natural position.
A common cause of this tightening, apparently (the physical therapist never mentioned it), is over-pronation of the feet; which I definitely have. So long term, after PT is complete, it seems I'm going to need to get some sort of inserts for my shoes to counteract the negative effects of the over-pronation.
I'm sure the extra weight I've carried for several years didn't help, either.
Now, as my medical knowledge is always limited to what is going on in my life, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
A Bit Touchy. Or, Stepping On Meep’s Better Post Below
In Meep's outstanding post this morning, she puts forth the following argument:
double-dipping, spiking, and other misbehavior is making it less and less likely that taxpayers will care as to the state of the pensions. ...people are becoming more aware of what people are being paid for this job and they do see how leisurely that job is being fulfilled. ...people are getting an idea of what’s involved in a public job, and then they find out the recompense for it, and they do get a bit touchy. When they’re the ones paying for it. And asked to pay for it well after the service is performed and no longer providing benefit.
"a bit touchy"
I about spit my coffee when I read that. Having become an avid reader of Meep's Number Crunching, I have experienced a couple things:
1) this subject, while I never found it unworthy, has come to enchant me
2) this subject, which used to simply piss me off, has really come to stoke the passions of my lower-self
I know Meep is only being as simpatico as possible to readers when she uses a phrase like "a bit touchy." The subject matter is such that even a rookie's reading between the lines is enough to make the blood begin to boil for those of us not at the trough.
But nowadays, I can honestly say that "a bit touchy" doesn't even begin to describe how many of us in the private sector actually feel.
I am not one to envy another man's stuff. His position in life. His creature comforts. In fact, a good gauge to discerning whether Envy is one of the deadly sins you can count among your very own is to ask yourself the following question: if a friend of yours won the lottery, would you begrudge their good fortune or would you be able to be truly happy for them?
Likewise, I am not really tied to stuff... achieving financially in order to have a Mercedes... just doesn't really bother me to know I can't and likely won't ever be able to. This, by the way, is likely part of my woes. I just don't feel the need for stuff.
My point is that the more obvious motivations one could point to as causes for the crescendo-ing of intense hostility toward Public Employees just don't cover it for me.
If we assume that there are many others like me who are blessed enough not to be enslaved by the Envy and/or Gluttoney monkeys (though trust me, I struggle mightily with several of the other Deadly Sins), from where does the intensity of resentment originate?
Thoughts?
Obama: against raising the debt ceiling before he was for it
At least, you know, if one believes the Senatorial record:
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
Why yes they do indeed Mr. Obama. Which is why they wonder about the public hyperventilation of your Economic advisor and fellow Chicagoan Austin Goolsbee over the weekend:
Top White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee warned Sunday that a congressional failure to rise the nation's debt limit early this year would be "catastrophic."
"It pains me that we would even be talking about this," Goolsbee told ABC's "This Week."
"This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not something to toy with. … If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic.
"We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default. … This would be lumping us in with a series of countries through history that I don't think we would want to be lumped in with."
Not a game...Not something we should be toying with...Not something we should even be discussing...Funny how the perspective of so many Democrats that strongly opposed raising the debt ceilings in the past has suddenly changed now that Mr. Obama is in the Oval Office.
But according to outgoing mouthpiece Robert Gibbs, it's not really a change of perspective at all. No indeed. You see, in 2006 Obama the great thought the occasion of the debt ceiling increase vote to be a useful, teachable moment:
Asked about that quote – and vote — today, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that it was important that “based on the outcome of that vote…the full faith and credit was not in doubt.”
Then-Sen. Obama used the vote “to make a point about needing to get serious about fiscal discipline….His vote was not necessarily needed on that.”
So brief apologia aside, Gibbs is admitting that Obama was merely posturing in 2006, and not really voting based on principle; he was seeding the ground in advance of his campaign. Such...integrity. Such...brilliance. What...judgement. How...post-partisan of him. I wish I could have asked Gibbs, as a follow up, just how many other positions, past and present, is the President palavering on about just to make a point. But that might seem harsh in an instance where AllahP notes, in his inimitable snarky way, that we should be giving Gibbs credit for actually coming clean:
Give Gibbs credit for honesty on this one, though. The One took plenty of votes during his brief layover in the Senate that were aimed squarely at polishing his record for a presidential run down the road. The one on the debt ceiling was aimed at centrists; the votes against Roberts and Alito were aimed at his base. And sometimes, when he couldn’t decide whom to pander to, he just voted present as he’s wont to do.
Like in 2007 and 2008, when he didn't bother to vote either way on measures to raise the debt ceiling. I guess the grand teachable moment had passed, or, you know, the Democrats were in control of Congress at that point. Which, I guess affords us the benefit of wisdom gained in hindsight through consideration of those particular "teachable moments".
Now I might be tempted to characterize these postures, or perhaps a more apt description would be poses, as brazen displays of cynicism or hypocrisy that in and of themselves would derail any attempt by the President to renew his favorite taglines regarding CHANGE! and A NEW! KIND OF POLITICS!, but being considerate of my fellow Americans on the port side of the political spectrum I will demure; because doing so seems to make their heads explode and their tongues waggle with excuses and euphamisms.
Just as NPR's Mara Liason's did last night on Fox News' panel on their evening Special Report when Dr Krauthammer explicitly called Obama out because of the HYPOCRISY ! He could barely finish the words of his sentance when she jumped right in insisting that the President was neither being cynical nor hypocritical, but that his opinion had evolved on the subject-he had simply changed his mind ...
Oh. That's all. Completely understandable, Mara...
Funny though, how he's changed his mind on so many of the same issues that he railed so strongly against during the 2008 campaign; how his administration has retained the policies of EEEEEEVVVVOLLLLL BOOOOOOOOOOSH! He's changed his mind on closing GITMO (thank God!). He's changed his mind on the the near criminality of drone missile attacks on terrorists. He's changed his mind on the what he had characterized as privacy invading wiretaps. I could go on; he's changed his mind on a lot of issues...
And it seems that so have a lot of liberals, like Mara, who no longer see anything wrong with things that used to fuel their perpetual OUTRAGE!
Hypocrisy? Partisanship? No. They've changed their minds...
Explanation of my Attitude
And this is not going to be much of an explanation. And not be of much importance.
[an interlude: there's this teenage girl behind me, or maybe she's 20. I don't know. The first thing I heard her say to the guy she was with: "I am not a ho." Needless to say, her nattering is distracting. Dammit, why can you not text the guy sitting right next to you? What's the matter with kids these days?]
People may not understand my attitude when it comes to public finance, public pensions, etc. I most definitely have some very political opinions. But I don't talk about most of them. Because, like assholes, everybody has got one. Any person can set up a blog and tell you their opinion. They can tell you of the shouldas and what people deserve and yadda yadda yadda.
That is not my interest.
My interest is telling people what is happening and what is likely to happen. This is how I get into arguments - not because I necessarily disagree with people as to what =should= be the case. It's because I think they are very wrong about the reality and the likelihoods. I got in deep shit by pointing out some very unwelcome observations when I was in high school [not that I cared]. I continue to be seen as a shit-stirrer, but I'm neither stirring the shit nor am I the person who put the shit there. I'm the one saying "Guys, that shit stinks. It's going to smell even more as time goes on."
So, when it comes to public pensions, it's not that I think these things should not be paid. It's that I think that they won't be paid in certain cases, for certain reasons. People have been leaving copy-n-paste articles in the comments on my posts, and they are not necessarily false. Yes, the pensions are being pissed away on corruption and debt payments and all sorts of stuff. But hoping for future taxpayers to cover it is not a plan. Playing the lottery is not a plan. Sure, ya never know, but the probabilities are not good.
I am trying to warn people that promises that have been made, but there has been no planning to prepare for, will not be kept. No one will wave a wand and =poof= the money is magically there. A country can't play the lottery and think it will cover all the goodies it wants with a non-infinitesimal probability. Maybe some are counting on TEOTWAWKI to happen, so that these promises are forgotten. Some play math games, pretending that "Yay, in the long run, the money will be there!" in the face of declining populations and taxpayer cashflows where the public employee salary and benefits are too sweet.
This is not about what people deserve, though the stories of double-dipping, spiking, and other misbehavior is making it less and less likely that taxpayers will care as to the state of the pensions. Because they won't pay for them.
[Teenager: "Does this haircut make me look older? Do I look like a 12-year-old?" Dear Lord, let this chick get off at White Plains.]
Someone sent me a link with stories of NYC Sanitation Workers comments saying they didn't slack off, they were under-staffed. You know, that's believable just as the other stories. The issue is that people are becoming more aware of what people are being paid for this job and they do see how leisurely that job is being fulfilled. This is not like my work, socked away in a cubicle in a back office. In a previous position, if I screwed up, no one would have known for at least 20 years.
The problem is that people are getting an idea of what's involved in a public job, and then they find out the recompense for it, and they do get a bit touchy. When they're the ones paying for it. And asked to pay for it well after the service is performed and no longer providing benefit. At least when I watch Paint Your Wagon, I'm not asked 20 years later to contribute to Clint Eastwood's pension payments.
In any case, it's pointless to get mad at me about these things. I'm trying to tell you what's going on, and what's likely to go on.
[The chatty chick is not getting off til a couple stops before me! =weep=]
For those in a public pension plan themselves, I think they should be asking hard questions of the pension trustees and not thinking that 80% fundedness is a good thing. It's not. I think there will be clawbacks at best in many public pension plans, and total dropping of retiree health coverage in lots of places [whether or not Obamacare is here to stay]. Think about your BATNA (business-school speak for what you're willing to settle for. Because y'all might have to settle, depending on the state of your pension plans.)
For those holding public bonds, ignore those ratings, don't count on bond insurance, and do not think the feds will bail you out; take a good, hard look at the finances of the entity you're holding bonds for. If those cashflows can't support all its obligations, you may be looking at a haircut. You may be looking at a bond default. Or your investment may be entirely eaten away by inflation and higher interest rates.
Taxpayers, you will get stuck with at least some of the bill, and there are consequences to bankruptcy of a municipality or a state defaulting on its bonds. Not all states and municipalities are profligate. But you have a responsibility to keep an eye on your government budgets. You may have less influence at the federal level, or even state, but you can get started at the level of your town or city. Local elections are actually the most crucial and the ones you should be mosst involved in, though people are more apt to vote in Presidential elections. Get to know your officials, get to know what's going on. This is your self-interest as a taxpayer. If you don't do this, you only have yourself to blame.
For politicians, learn an honest trade. Because even if it's not your fault, people are going to blame you when the shit hits the fan, and you will not be able to keep your current job. And being able to escape before said feces hits the propeller might be too late for many. Daley got out just in time.
Taking Suggestions
I'm going to be taking a week off of work, starting tomorrow, for the surgery and recovery (arthroscopic knee surgery). I'm now taking suggestions for my pending Netflix binge.
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