Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLVIII

In Michael Goodwin's most recent column ("Chickens come home to roost for Obama") he quotes Mario Cuomo on the difference in campaigning and governing: "You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose."

Goodwin then offers this pearl:

Obama hasn’t figured out the difference. Even more alarming, he shows no signs of trying to learn. In the ways of the world, he remains a know-it-all rookie.

Others Say Smart Stuff, Too (Five Years Ago!)

Sarah Palin has been the butt of much abuse and criticism since her introduction to the national political scene as John McCain's running mate in 2008. Most of the criticism is undeserved. Ignorant boobs even continue to accuse her of saying she could see Russia from her house -- a quote actually made by Tina Fey (as Palin) in a SNL bit.


What Palin did say regarding Russia, however, was documented in Foreign Policy magazine in 2008. The title of the article says it all: "Russia Might Invade Ukraine if Obama Wins, Palin Warns."

Now here it is, just over five years into Barack Obama's term in office, and headlines everywhere scream about the international crisis as Russia prepares to invade the Ukraine. 

Now, let's sit back and wait for the apologies.

Andrew Klavan on the Tea Party

Klavan's take is the closest I've ever read to my own position on the Tea Party vis-à-vis the Republican establishment.

"Purity or Strategy: The Debate We Need to Have"

O the Emperor

The Laffer Curve Explained

Because Liberals always argue out of ignorance, it's simple to logically defeat them simply by having information. (Note: At that point they fall back on screaming, swearing and name-calling. Since they can't defend their positions with logic, they scream, swear, and name-call a lot.)

When it comes to taxation, Liberals/Democrats always want more, no matter how much we're already taxed. Because of the Laffer curve, their ideological aim is to punish rather than to actually increase revenue.

Here it is explained by an expert.

One picture is worth...

The Labor Force Participation Rate measures the percentage of the working-age population who is either 1) employed; or 2) in the government system as looking for work. It does not measure those who have given up looking for work. That means, of course, that millions of discouraged workers without jobs are not officially counted as unemployed, even though they are in fact "unemployed." 

Paradoxically, the more unemployed people who quit looking for work, the lower the official government unemployment rate. 

Here, then, is the historic trend of the LFPR since Barack Obama took office. See if you notice a trend.

Labor Force Participation Rate since January, 2009

And this is why the unemployment rate under Barack Obama has managed to stay under ten percent, despite there being ten million more Americans without jobs than when he took office. (Today's false number, 6.6%)

Who said that?

On government assistance:
#1: "We must find ways of returning far more of our dependent people to independence."
On business and government assistance:
#2: "The capitalists who make the investments, the managers who manage it, and the workers who produce it-have got to be concerned about these taxeaters"
#3: "The days of the dole in our country are numbered."

Who said these awful things? Was it some extremist right-wing Republican wing nut?

Why no. #1 was President John Kennedy in his "Special Message to Congress on Public Welfare Programs" February 1, 1962
#2 was President Lyndon Johnson in his "Remarks to the Members of the International Labor Press Association" April 27, 1964
#3 was also LBJ, in his "Remarks Upon Signing the Economic Opportunity Act" August 20, 1964.

My point is to illustrate how much the Democrat party has swerved over the last fifty years. When Republicans talk about helping poor people, it's with the same idea as JFK and LBJ -- help them get away from dependence on government. Today's Democrats consider "help" as making it easier for poor people to become and remain dependent on government. 

That's the fundamental difference between the two parties, their vision of America.

Thanks, Obama

One picture is worth a thousand words. The Labor Force Participation Rate since January, 2003. Barack Obama took office in January, 2009. Notice a trend? Yet the latest report has unemployment decreasing. Government numbers are funny things.

Notice a trend?

Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLVII

From Victor Davis Hansen ("The Orphaned Middle Class"):

The problem with Obamacare is that its well-connected and influential supporters -- pet businesses, unions and congressional insiders -- have already won exemption from it. 

Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLVI

From Frank J. Fleming, on governmental gridlock:

Right now, politicians have the power to suddenly decide to tax us all at 100% and then spend the money replacing all of our roads with a high-speed rail system. What keeps them from doing that? Common sense? Come on, look at the morons we have in government — Congress is filled with idiots who couldn’t run a lemonade stand and who have grand visions to transform the nation. No, the only thing stopping them is that they’re divided into two parties who viscerally hate each other.

The Lap Dogs Become Attack Dogs

White House ventriloquist dummy Jay Carney suffers the wrath of the White House press corps over their lack of access, and manipulation of the news by the Obama administration.

Great news for Obama

The unemployment rate for November actually hit 7.0%, great news for Obama, because it's been a year since it's been that low. Even better is that the Labor Force Participation Rate, which affects the unemployment rate, ticked up to 63.0%. (The LFPR counts those in the workforce. Not in the workforce, you can't be counted as unemployed, whether you're working or not.)

As I've detailed often before, Obama has benefited from a drastic drop in the number of people who are counted in the workforce. It has kept his "official" government-reported unemployment rate below ten percent, even though millions of more people are not working than when he took office. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's what the LFPR has done under Obama:

Labor Force Participation Rate since January 2009

Now. Since some people will think Obama's drop in workforce participation is just a continuation of an ongoing trend, here's the LFPR for the last ten years.

Labor Force Participation Rate since 2003

Flat for several years, with a decline beginning in January 2009 that accelerated and continues to this day, giving Obama an artificially low unemployment rate that makes all the headlines.

Congratulations. If you've read this far, then you've seen something the majority of Americans have no clue about.

Obamacare,the hard sell

The Weekly Standard has a story detailing the adventures of members of "nonpartisan" Enroll America (a huge percentage of which are former Obama campaign staffers) as they try to give members of a Florida neighborhood information on Obamacare. "Hard Sell: Going door-to-door for Obamacare" finishes up with a seminar to help 100 people navigate the Obamacare website to enroll for insurance. (Spoiler alert: After three hours none of them are able to enroll.)

Worth reading to see the crumbling cogs in this Rube Goldberg machine.

Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLV

The Hoover Institution's Richard Epstein, writing about "Obamacare's Death Spiral":

"The tragedy remains that it is far easier to force people out of healthcare plans that they want than it is to enroll them in healthcare plans that they don’t."

Others say smart stuff, too - Part XLIV

Jack Kerwick citing Michael Oakeshott in his column "The Future of the Conservative Movement":

Conservatives have always preferred changes that are slight to those that are vast, changes that are necessary to those that are not, and changes that are gradual to those that are radical. Changes that are “fundamentally transformative” siphon the life out of a society by severing its present from its past.

How Obamacare Fails (but Democrats win)

Wouldn't it be nice...

More Gridlock, Please

Obama: "more flexibility"

What in the world