Puzzled?

Newt Gingrich has claimed that he has been exonerated on all the charges relating to the 1,300 page Congressional ethics investigation document (see: Think Progress).  If this were the case, then I must ask ... why did he resign his Speakership, pay a $300,000 fine, and depart Congress?

It would seem to me that, as feisty as Newt is, he would have and should have stood his ground.  But he didn't ... and this, to me, is compelling.

Hill and Dale

Let's look beyond this far-eastern fire drill of the Republican primary ... to this fall when the election is in full swing.  Many believe that, if the GOP has gotten its act together by then, The Barry might well have to switch horses and put Hillary Clinton on his ticket as his Veep ... retiring Biden to that stud farm called the State Department.  This move would be to bolster his re-election chances with "the devil you know" popularity of Hillary ... attracting those voters who believe she was denied her crown last time around.

Now, apart from the fact that she has bluntly stated multiple times that she is done with politics, Hillary might well be tempted with such an offer ... as it could present a greased slide into the White House in 2016.  And, besides, to my continued amazement, most media pundits believe that she has done a bang-up job at Foggy Bottom.  So, I think a quick review of her record there is now in order:

- The State Department recently put the kibosh on the Keystone pipeline from Canada (see: Falling Keystone)
- We reopened our embassy in Syria last spring just in time to watch Assad slaughter his people.  We may now be embarrassed into reclosing it (see: The Cable Story)
- We totally botched the Egyptian uprisings last spring (see: The Gong Show)
- We sat on our hands when the Iranian street rose up against their oppressive regime in 2009
- Our troop pullout from Iraq has been a clumsy mess, leaving this country to slip back into secular warfare
- Our relations with Pakistan are at the breaking point
- Iran is about ready to produce its first atomic weapon and the United States has stated no coherent strategy to deal with this contingency
- In general, we appeared to be bystanders in the Arab spring
- We seem to be quite timid when dealing with China and its many military and economic threats
- The Euro-zone bogey man is afoot and the United States is hiding under the covers

Need I go on any further?  (There's lots more.)  Yes, one could say that most of these failings are Obama-inspired, but where was Hillary when these decisions were made?  Yes, she has been good at the optics ... willing to travel to these hot spots, pose for pictures, and utter some platitudes, but she has not put forward any overarching policies of her own to deal with the world's turmoil.  ("Reset" is hardly an overarching strategy ... I don't even know what it means.) To me, she appears to shrink from these challenges.  And, God forbid, Biden tries to fill her shoes.  He clearly would screw things up even more ... even if the "San Francisco Giants" win the Super Bowl.

Hell Hath No Fury ...

Like a woman scorned.  Newt Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, has unloaded on Newt in an ABC interview to be aired tonight after the debates (see: Washington Post Story) and two days before the South Carolina primary.  Apparently, this scorned woman drops at least one bomb on Newt saying that he requested, after many years of their marriage, that they should have an "open relationship" (each partner would be free to have other love partners).

I don't want to beat a dead horse ... nor do I want to seem to be endorsing Newt Gingrich's candidacy, but would this be a prime-time, network "news" story if it involved either of the Clintons ... particularly prior to their running for office?  (This is obviously a rhetorical question.)

DEN left a comment that freezes things on this blog (perhaps Google is trying to tell me something).  Anyway here it is:

I think the timing of this "news" is very suspect, and also Marianne is a skank, who knew he was a cheater because she was giving him lewinskis when he was married to #1. Most Gingrich fans will ignore this info (just as I did when you railed about Clinton's dalliences.)

Fewer Happy Returns

Mitt Romney was asked again in the South Carolina debate Monday night if and when he will release his income tax returns.  He indicated that, sometime in April after he has filed his 2011 taxes, he might consider such a move.  The question then presents itself -- why not also disclose his prior years?

My guess is that Mitt had been using the "carried interest" section of the tax code in years past (the same methodology that Warren Buffet uses to pay a lower tax rate ... around 15% ... than his secretary), and he plans quietly to abandon this practice in 2011.  He also hopes that showing his 2011 returns without this gimmick will satisfy for his critics.  Guess again Mitt!  If you have used this loophole in the past, it surely will come out (Obama's people do have access to your tax records) ... and probably just before the election ... as an October surprise.

So my suggestion to you Mitt is ... reveal everything now and put it behind you.  Say that, even though you (and Warren Buffet) have used this tax loophole, you now believe it to be improper and you will work for its repeal.  And, to show your sincerity, you will not use it for your 2011 tax filings, and, in the future, you plan on paying the normal statutory rate, not the carried interest rate (and maybe even urge Warren Buffet to do the same).

It might hurt your image for a while, but I don't think it will cost you the election.

Afterthought: Mitt Romney was on this AM's news saying (late last night) that his effective tax rate was close to 15% since most of his income has been from capital gains.  This suggests to me that he has indeed been using the "carried interest" methodology in his tax filings.  Now, as a result, our generally financially-illiterate media is starting the drumbeat against our lower 15% capital-gains rate.  If the fact that private equity firms and hedge funds have been, in my opinion, abusing "carried interest" to lower their taxes ... causes our equally-naive Congress to abolish a lower capital gains rate, then this would be a great tragedy.  They then would be doing what is best described as "pissing in the soup."  Please Congress, just eliminate the carried-interest tax loophole.

Ananomous posted a comment that appears to freeze things on this blog and, although I don't concur with it, I will post it here:

Nicholas Kristof writing in NYT recently: "President Obama is pushing to close this loophole. The White House estimates that this would raise $20 billion over a decade. But Congressional Republicans walked out of budget talks rather than discuss raising revenues from measures such as this one."

My comment in reply is:

Kristof worded this salvo very cleverly (I think it's called weasel worded) ... implying that the Republicans are great defenders of "measures such as this one." I strongly suspect it was mainly other things that they had objected to.  But still, I hope the Republicans do realize the political folly in defending "carried interest" tax treatments.

DEN posted the following comment (that also freezes things):

I am not against a 15% tax on investment income (i.e.,dividends). But I do object to the Fund Managers' characterization of their compensation for work as "investment" income which avoids paying the payroll taxes for SS and Medicare.

Great Idea ...

Wrong person.  The Barry, in an election-year U-turn is proposing measures that would make our federal government leaner and meaner.  See: Earthlink Article.  Three measures he has proposed are:

1) merging six major trade and commerce agencies into one and eliminating the Commerce Department, 2) tax incentives to bring jobs back to the U.S., and 3) eliminating corporate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas (does this include G.E.?).

Now this would be a giant HOORAY if Obama's track record indicated that he was trustworthy on such matters.  Unfortunately, he pulled a trillion dollar scam on the American people with the stimulus package in 2009 that did little more than siphon federal tax dollars into public service unions and produced very few "shovel-ready jobs" as promised.  So one has to look sideways at this new proposal and expect that, if Congress were to approve it as is (note the corporate tax increases ... most every large company has foreign affiliates), Administration magicians would find some way to augment the Democrat re-election war chest with more resources.

Or, if Congress were not to endorse this pig-in-a-poke proposal, then The Barry would have one more bullet-point to decry in his re-election campaign ... which seems to be pointing toward his running against a "do-nothing" Congress.  So the U.S. legislature is boxed in and will probably have to pass such a measure.  But, the House of Representatives should take this opportunity to expand this law even further into significant government downsizing and include so many caveats that Obama can't find his way into reversing its effect.  Then, if Harry Reid does Obama's dirty work and kills this proposal in the Senate (more do-nothing evidence) ... or, if The Barry wouldn't ink such a measure, then the real purpose of this election-year grandstanding would be revealed ... which, hopefully, would then be communicated to the American public (ha ha).

Capitalism on Trial

Isn't it funny and, yes, a little frightening that Republican candidates for President like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry can make blatant anti-capitalism statements for their own seeming political gain?  (See details at: Newt's Attack and Perry's Attack.)  Fortunately it doesn't seem to have so far worked ... but this is just the beginning of a full-frontal assault on our free-enterprise system that is bound to occur once the presumptive Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, is chosen.  He and Bain Capital, the private equity firm he once ran, will be made the poster children of this onslaught.  This belligerency is what the Occupiers represented this past summer and fall ... and the surprising sympathy that they received among many media types and left-leaning pols was a omen of what is to come in this fall's election season.

The liberals in the United States have for generations been eating away at the foundations of capitalism ... often funded from the profits gained from the very system they despise.  This is despite formidable evidence that capitalism is a wealth generating engine nonpareil and that its many alternatives are not.  Just the contrast that is evident in China where merely a soupçon of capitalism has unleashed mighty forces that are propelling this former denier of property rights into an economic powerhouse ... should be enough to convince the Occupiers that their nihilism is futile.  But no ... the current economic stagnation in the United States, has inflamed the juices of these anarchists.  They would pull down the economic structure of this country around their heads without any thought-through idea of what to build in its stead.

Yes, capitalism does develop some warts from time to time (trusts, insider trading, creative accounting, carried interest, crony capitalism, etc.) but these have, can, or should be easily remedied.  And many politicians, unfortunately including Gingrich and Perry, but more predictably including Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama are more than willing to capitalize on this current anti-capitalist fervor to gain or retain their place at that feeding trough called "big government."

Saturday Night Dead

Lorne Michaels's Saturday night "comedy" show (Saturday Night Live or SNL) has had quite an impact on Presidential elections.  Effectively it killed Gerald Ford's prospects in 1977 when Chevy Chase continually depected him as a clumsy, bumbling fool.  (Side note: my wife worked part-time at NBC during this period and it was generally understood that Chevy Chase was an arrogant a-hole.)  Then, in the 2008 election, Tina Fey went a long way in destroying John McCain's campaign with her depiction of Sarah Palin as a provincial boob (excuse the expression) with "I can see Russia from my front porch."  (Many voters actually believed that the Alaskan Rogue Elephant had said that ... she hadn't.)

Now, that Mitt Romney seems to have wrapped up the Republican nomination, can we now expect that lefty hatchetman, Mr. Michaels, to try once again to enter the voting booths across the country in November and pull the levers by proxy for The Barry?  The answer is, of course.  The real question is, how will he do this?  My prediction is that it will be by either pointing out Mitt's seeming stiffness, his putting his dog's crate on the roof of his car, or his "ruthlessness" as a 1%-er while running Bain capital.  Maybe ... and probably ... all three ... possibly even some others too.  Also expect the "comedy" writers on The Late Show, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to do much of the same ... often with a sly vengence.

Wouldn't it be great if somehow Dave Letterman, Lorne Michaels, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart could also be continuously and savagely rediculed on network and cable television?  Unfortunately, it will only happen in my dreams ...

Alphabet Soup

How would you like a free cellphone, no activation fee, no annual contract, and 250 free voice minutes per month?  There is yet another government program for U.S. indigent people called Assurance Wireless which is administered by Virgin Wireless (a British company.)  This program entitlement is sponsored through the Universal Service Fund (USF), yet another vote-buying perk given by our Congress to "assure" its members even greater perpetuity (see: Universal Service Fund).  If you are not indigent but merely indignant and want to learn more, please visit the Assurance Wireless Website. Here is a quote from this website regarding Massachusetts residents with an alphabet soup of qualifying programs:

You may qualify for Assurance Wireless if you participate in any of the following government programs: 1) MassHealth or Medicaid Food Stamps/SNAP; 2) Supplemental Security Income (SSI); 3) Low- Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); 4) Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC); 5) Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) [and for] Individuals or Families Living in Tribal Lands Only: 6) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) General Assistance Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); 7) Head Start Program [HSP] (under income qualifying eligibility provision only); [and finally] 8) National School Lunch Program [NSLP] (free meals program only)

It would be easy for one to pay over $35 per month ($420 per year) for such a cellphone service.  Is there no end to largess that is lavished upon those who have found their way back into our welfare system?  Apparently, Bill Clinton, his Presidential successors, and our 535 members of Congress have found even more creative ways to "fix welfare" and "not end welfare as we know it."

Masking Things

In late October, 2009 the White House held an extravagant Halloween ball which featured a Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland Tea Party ... full of famous Hollywood characters (see: New York Post Article).  This party was then purposefully masked from the American public's view.  To me, it wasn't such a big deal that the Obama's treated their girls to such a Cecil B. DeMille production.  But what was such a big deal was that the American press actively participated in the suppression of the news of this bash at the White House's request ... and it's taken this long to be revealed.

Now, I am extremely curious ... what other friendly cover-up conspiracies has our media participated in during the Obama's reign in office?

The Granite State

Arnie Arnesen, a failed political hack from the Granite State, New Hampshire, (see: Wikipedia Entry) was just on talk radio here in Boston this morning ... and she said that, if students in New Hampshire weren't on their winter break, Ron Paul would do much better in tomorrow's Republican primary.  I found this a curious statement, so I went to Google and only found Colby-Sawyer to be a New Hampshire college that might still be on winter break.  There could be a few others, but the scheduling information on many of the other New Hampshire colleges is a little sparse on the Internet.

But this brings me back to that old bone I like to chew on ... why do students, who don't really live where they go to college, get to cast their ballots there (see: Representation without Taxation)?  They don't pay taxes there ... even the colleges they attend do not pay taxes there.  (And, besides I strongly suspect that many of them also absentee-vote in their home-town elections.)  Doesn't this liberal push-through rule amount to representation without taxation?  I truly believe that it does.  If these students actually live year-round in or around their college town and pay taxes there, then I have no problem with their also voting there.  But, if not, then they should only be allowed to cast absentee ballots in their real home towns.  Or maybe we should hold national elections in mid-summer?

I realize that I am a hard-hearted martinet ... but big-D democracy does require a little big-D discipline.

Rolls of Fat

China is now leading the world in the purchase of Rolls Royces ... surpassing the United States for the first time (see Wall Street Journal Story).  Perhaps the Occupiers should pitch their tents in Tiananmen Square since this clearly is where the 1%-ers now reside?

(Tip o' the hat to Terry.)

Butter for Guns

For those of you who voted for Barack Obama three years ago, he promised that he would take this country in a new direction ... and he very clearly has.  Just when the Chinese are deploying missiles which can take out our aircraft carriers from 1,800 miles away (see: Washington Times Story), The Barry and his hand puppet, Leon Panetta, are cutting $500 billion out of our Defense Department budget ("guns") over the next ten years (Jimmy Carter redux).  These are not cuts from projected spending (called "baseline-budget" cuts), but these are real cuts ... that go far beyond the cutting of fat and means the atrophying of our military muscle.

Now contrast this with the fact that the Obama administration is poised to ask for another $1.2 trillion increase in the U.S. debt ceiling  (see: Wall Street Journal Story) ... only five short months after the debt ceiling was raised by $2.1 trillion this past August (see: Bloomberg Story) ... an increase that was implied to last the United States Treasury through this year's elections.  Since we are now totally out of Iraq militarily, these debt ceiling increases are clearly and mainly meant to cover the cost of Obama's vast social-program spending and government expansions (known as "butter").

My spider senses are even beginning to suggest that Obama is now trying to rush through many of his radical structural changes to our government ... in anticipation of his being booted from office this coming fall.  So, the question that now presents itself is: Over the next ten years or so, is the United States going first to expire from the hardening of its arteries from all this social-spending butter ... or be forced to kneel and lick the scaly feet of the Dragon of the East due to our lack of the necessary military might?

Eeny, Meeny, Miny ...

A commenter on my previous blog suggests that Rick Santorum might make an interesting choice for Vice President once Mitt Romney locks up the Republican nomination for President ... possibly after the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.  I have previously suggested that Marco Rubio might be the best choice for Veep ... while others have championed Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey.  As a consequence I think it might be worthwhile to investigate the pluses and minuses of each of these possibilities:

Rick Santorum -- Pluses: could solidify the Republican base for the ticket by attracting Evangelicals and social conservatives; appeals to Reagan Democrats with his blue-collar family background; Senate experience; might secure Pennsylvania's electoral votes.  Minuses: his stances on abortions, contraceptives, and gay marriages; no management experience; his last large election loss

Marco Rubio -- Pluses: could appeal to Hispanics due to his heritage; probably would secure Florida's electoral votes; is a tried and true conservative; Senate experience; his physical appearance.  Minuses: might not appeal to Mexican-Americans; still a bit of a political neophyte; no management experience

Chris Christie -- Pluses: knows how to reach across party lines to achieve consensus; strong management experience; avid fiscal conservative; combative style; might bring New Jersey's electoral votes into the Republican column; appeals to independents.  Minuses: his physical appearance; not a social conservative

Moe -- Plus: would be better than Biden

Inoculation Time

The conventional wisdom (whatever that means) says that Newt Gingrich (and maybe Rick Santorum) will now be coming after Mitt Romney with both gun barrels blazing in the ensuing Presidential race.  This media narrative results from the supposed effective negative ads that Romney's Super-PACs ran against Newt in Iowa.  Such attacks are believed to have sunk Newt's caucus chances there.  And Newt is just vindictive enough to try to turn the tables on Romney and spend every dime he can raise or borrow to slime this now-seeming frontrunner.

I think Mitt Romney should welcome this Gingrich vitriol and respond quickly to each and every charge (i.e., his dog riding on the car roof, Bain Capital layoffs in the companies it took over, Romneycare, etc.)  In effect, the more that Newt, Santorum, et alia throw at Mitt, the less negative surprises that The Barry will have to spend his billion-dollar war chest on ... when (and if) Mitt is his opponent when the real race begins  in the late summer.  (This theory is based on the assumption that voters will tire of hearing the same charges over and over again.)  This political tactic is know as "inoculation" and has been used effectively, particularly by Bill Clinton, in past elections.

But the important caveat is that Romney must respond quickly to all of these brickbats with convincing ripostes.  If he lets them stand and fester, then he will indeed be in deep sneakers.

As you may have guessed, I still believe that a Predident Romney is our best chance for curing our in extremis nation.

A Nutcracker of a Different Sort

In yesterday's New York Times Magazine there was this question in "The Ethicist" column from Edith Palmer of Brooklyn (where else):

I was excited to take my granddaughter, Rachel, to see a local production of "The Nutcracker."  But this season, the production was being underwritten in large part by David Koch, a billionaire who supports numerous political causes that I think harm our nation ... I'm sure my granddaughter would liked to see the show, but rather than validate this patron's actions and beliefs, I boycotted it.  Should those who feel as I do have joined me?

Ariel Kaminer's response, in short was "[You go girl], it's not [Rachel's] fault that Tchaikovsky makes strange bedfellows."  Read the entire misguided inanity here.  This seems a perfect example of "cutting off your nose to spite your face" (a tip o' the hat to Sissy for this analogy.)

Now the Koch (pronounced "Coke") brothers are a prime target of the left for their donations to right-wing causes.  These attacks are for the most part unfounded (see: Powerline Comments and follow the links therein.)  And the NY Times has been in the forefront in many of these scurrilous attacks (probably why this silly letter made it into this even sillier column.)  Should Edith Palmer (from Brooklyn) deny her granddaughter any loving affections because of her own soft-headed political bent?  Come on  ... does anyone think that the views of any political faction (even if thought-of as loony) could creep into a ballet dedicated to childhood fantasy?  Ooops, I forgot about Michael Moore ... but then he wouldn't part with a nickel of his own millions unless it was spent on his own indulgences.

Nostradamus and Me

That famous seer, Nostradamus, has a set of dire predictions for 2012 ... see his Grim News.  Although I do not partake of hallucinogenics nor gaze into a bowl of shimmering mercury (or was it water?), I, along with my friends and family, also make annual predictions as part of our New Year's Eve festivities.  Mine are not quite so dour.  For what its worth, here they are::

• China’s economy will weaken significantly … resulting in much civil unrest
• At least one country will leave the EuroZone
• A third party candidate will run for President … almost assuring Obama’s re-election
• Massive student-loan meltdown. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill.
• China will annex more territory … possibly part of Mongolia
• Jimmy Carter will attend Hugo Chavez’s funeral
• Another Solyndra-like green-energy scandal in the Obama Energy Dept.
• The Iran “navy” will be destroyed trying to stop shipping through the Strait of Hormuz
• Hillary Clinton will replace Joe Biden on the Obama ticket
• Israel will attack Iran … destroying many nuclear facilities
• It’s Green Bay vs. Patriots in Super Bowl. Green Bay wins.
• Inflation finally bites … up 5%
• The Occupiers will re-emerge with the warm weather … resulting in meaningless bloodshed
• At least one state will go bankrupt. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill.

Leadership Vacuum

The United States's President is luxuriating in a Hawaiian vacation ... by my count his fourth escape from the cloak of leadership in the last 12 months.  Russia's Putin seems to spend most of his time showing the world how manly he is ... as opposed to solving his nation's problems.  Japan has had 6 Prime Ministers in the last 5 years.  The Middle East is shucking leaders like they were oysters at a seaside clambake.  And it's not like the world doesn't have problems to solve ... the Euro monetary crisis, Iranian belligerence, the meteoric rise of Islamic extremism, the aging populations throughout Europe, a festering worldwide energy crisis, the American government's crushing debt burden, etc., etc.

Too often it seems to me that poobahs around the world covet the benefits of leadership while avoiding the responsibilities therein.  And the $64,000 question is: why this leadership vacuum?  Perhaps it is the mindset that resulted from the ending of the Cold War, "problems solved, time to party?"  Perhaps it has been a hiatus in leadership examples to be emulated?  After all, the Reagan/Thatcher template occurred almost twenty-five years ago ... outside of the cognitive lifespan of much of the world's population.  And, in the interim, we have learned that it was just fine to receive sexual favors in the oval office from a White House intern.  Reality television has demonstrated that life is nothing but a charade wrapped around a lottery.  "Optics" have taken the place of substance in the role of government.  And, as we recently found out in the FICA tax reduction skirmish in the U.S. Congress, bad politics now always seems to trump good policy.

Must we devolve into another worldwide calamity to reawaken our leadership juices?  As we enter this New Year, I am afraid that my short prediction is "probably."

Cosmic Silence

One of my favorite columnists, Charles Krauthammer, has written a thoughtful lament concerning the apparent lack of other sapient civilizations in the universe (see: National Review Article) or at least, if there are such extraterrestials (E.T.s), why we don't hear from them?   Basically, he states that, as we continue to find exo-planets within the habitable zone of "nearby" stars but are yet to see or hear any evidence of any life thereon, this suggests that "advanced civilizations destroy themselves."

I have a slightly different take.  Yes, I do believe, like many renowned scientists, that the laws of probability suggest that there are perhaps many billions (maybe even trillions) of other stars with planets that could and should support life.  However, when one unwinds the spans of time and distances involved in our universe, to me it is not surprising that we have not heard sapient coded message from afar.

Let me explain my logic:

- The universe is approximately 13 billion years old and our earth is about 1/10 of that age ... all back-end loaded.  I would imagine that many of these other theorized exo-planets are either yet to be ... or have been burnt to a crisp when their suns became red giants. Let's estimate that this culling percentage is 50%.  So automatically these billions of stars with habitable exo-planets is cut in half. 

- Now, sapient life on our earth has existed for perhaps only a million years ... or 1/13,000 of this earth's existence and scientific advancement sufficient to understand our time and place in the universe has existed for, at most, 100 years ... or 1/130,000,000 of this planets existence.  Let us (optimistically) imagine that this enlightenment age on earth will last for another 13,000 years.  This would result in a sapient window for our planet to be about 1/1,000,000 (one-millionth) of its total existence ... which fraction I suggest should then apply to other exo-planets.  Now these potential billions of habitable exo-planets with enlightened intelligent life is now reduced by 1/2,000,000 (1/2 x 1/1,000,000).

- As for distance spans, our universe is estimated to be 46 billion light years wide.  Now, no communication can travel faster than the speed of light, so assuming that sapient communications was or will be sent out from another exo-planet during our current and predicted future enlightenment age, it must originate within a bubble of 13,000 light years from Earth.  This reduces the number of habitable exo-planets from which we might ever receive a message by another factor of 3.5 million (13 thousand/46 billion).  Or such potential messages from habitable exo-planets with enlightened intelligent life are reduced by a factor of seven trillion (1/2,000,000 x 1/3,500,000)..  Now, assuming we want to get this message within the next 100 years, we then must multiply this fraction by 1/130 (100/13,000) ... resulting in a reduction of the number of eligible communicating exo-planets contacting us within the next 100 years by 910 trillion ... quite a bit larger than even the number of the estimated exo-planets.

-  So, my conclusion is that, even if my calculations are off by one or two orders of magnitude, it is very unlikely that there is an exo-planet from which we might receive an intelligent coded message sometime within the next hundred years.  That is assuming (and this is a huge assumption) that such an exo-planet has a power source large enough to radiate this coded message out over the vast distances of intergalactic space.  This required power source has been estimated to be as large as the energy coming from our sun.  Soooo ... I highly doubt that E.T. will be calling home anytime soon ... and that Charles Krauthammer should find solace in the assumption that our "civilization" could well last for at least another few thousand years without his doom-and-gloom conclusion being justified.

A Dangerous Chess Game

Iran is saber rattling again ... threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz if stricter economic sanctions are imposed upon it by the European Union (see: Reuters Story).  Of course, the United States would not permit such a belligerent action (unless The Barry was distracted by a Hawaiian wagyu-beef luau) and would blow the Iranian navy, speedboats and all, into Davy Jones's locker.

Nevertheless, it is curious why Iran would exhibit such rhetoric bluster close on the heels of its equally lunatic take-over of the British embassy a few short weeks ago (see: TheWeek Article).  Not that such moon-howlings are alien to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  (as sanctioned by the Iranian Ayatollahs) ... he has repeatedly threatened to obliterate Israel once Iran is in possession of atomic weaponry.

The question becomes why such taunting of the West is now escalating?  I can see three possible reasons:

1) The United States has recently pulled all of its troops out of Iraq.  Iran's throwing up of all this gorilla dust makes it look more imposing in the eyes of the Shiite Iraqis and thus increases its sphere of influence on its erstwhile enemy neighbor.

2) Iran's "elections" are due to occur in March.  There is no doubt as to the expected results of this sham balloting.  However, if Iran can get the nationalistic juices flowing among its younger people, there might be less chance of the kind of rioting that occurred after the last phony election over two years ago.  (Also, the capture of the U.S. drone aircraft a few weeks ago ... see: Cyber Warfare ...  may have been partially directed toward this very same end.)

3) Iran is suspected to be getting very close to actually producing atomic weapons and their ability to deliver them on long-range missiles.  A potential naval clash in the Strait of Hormuz could serve as a smoke screen, helping to distract the wimpy West from the far more existential threat of a nuclear Holocaust in this area.

So Iran is once again playing its foolish chess game --- a few black pieces against the full contingent of white chessmen.  One rash move on the part of any of its Revolutionary Guards could cause explosive repercussions ... such as Israel taking out much of Iran's nuclear capabilities and, maybe even, the United States obliterating that captured drone in the process (like we should have weeks ago.)

Comment on the Iowa Caucuses

Happy Kwanzaa

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa ... in fact it is the 45th anniversary of the creation of this special day meant to celebrate African-American culture.  To read more about the ceremonies and the rationales of this special day. (I eschew the word "holiday" since its derivation is "holy day" ... which Kwanzaa is not meant to be) go to this: Wikipedia Entry.

Now I could be wrong, but I think that the Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza's father, Frank, creates the equally ersatz "holiday," Festivus, was a tongue-in-cheek parody of Kwanzaa by the Seinfeld writers (mainly Daniel O'Keefe who therein memorialized his father's February, 1966 invention ... see another: Wikipedia Entry.  I also find it interesting that Festivus ... "for the rest of us" ... was conceived just a few short months after Kwanzaa was first celebrated.)

So, since it is now seems acceptable to invent special days to put forward one's personal agenda, I also intend to follow suit and propose celebrating Hirsute Day on February 12th.  Basically, on this day, I ask that we celebrate facial hair (such as Abraham Lincoln's beard and my moustache.)  I have chosen the 12th of February since Lincoln has been otherwise de-memorialized with the generic "President's Day" and this then will be my way to re-remember him.

Now, for the traditions of Hirsute Day:
- No celebrant is supposed to shave or get a haircut after January 1st ... this includes any observing women.

- The images which are worshiped on Hirsute Day (besides Lincoln and myself) are Sasquatch (Big Foot) and the Abominable Snowman (Yeti).  Multiple pictures of these heroes are placed on helium balloons and floated around the celebration room.

- The people who are condemned on this day are King C. Gillette, Jacob Schick, and any person with a shaved head (egs., Bruce Willis, Howie Mandel, and Sineed O'Connor).  Images of these people are placed at the center of dartboards and peppered with darts by the celebrants.  Any errant dart which bursts a revered helium balloon causes its thrower to be banished from future festivities for five years.

- Other festival traditions of Hirsute Day consist of wearing a hair shirt, performing monkey-like grooming ceremonies on the other celebrants' over-grown shrubbery, and eating butterscotch sundies (without the use of hot wet washcloths or Handi-Wipes).  At the end of the day, everyone stands in a circle, holding hands, and sings all the lyrics from the musical, Hair.  (See Hair Lyrics.)  This takes about three hours, after which everyone is quite angry and many start setting their neighbors' hair on fire (a permissible ceremonial ending ... consequently gaily decorated fire extinguishers are scattered around the room).

Christmas Joy ...

Is hearing my granddaughter sing the Gloria duet in the church choir loft on Christmas eve.

Down We Go

Nixon had the good sense not to contest the 1960 election when it was pretty clear that Texas and Illinois  had been stolen for J.F.K. by L.B.J. and Mayor Daley (in Chicago).  He thought that it would besmirch the election process and this would create future problems.  Al Gore was not so patriotic when, in 2000, he lost in Florida and fought tooth and nail to overturn the results there.  Whether or not you believe that the Supreme Court gave this election to Bush 43, it seems clear that there were sufficient shenanigans on the part of Democrats to suggest that they had tried mightily to subvert the election process.  (It is suspected by many that punch-card ballots were gang-punched for Gore by Democrat inside operatives ... and this is how the hanging chads occurred at the bottom of each stack of punch cards.  Funny how none of the Bush 43 ballots had these same hanging chads?)

I think the resentment rising out of this Supreme Court decision has created a mindset among many Democrats that it is OK to take any questionable measure to insure that your candidate wins.  Witness how it has been recently revealed that one of the major duties of the "community organizers,"  ACORN, was election malfeasance.  I also suggest that Harry Reid's last victory in Nevada and Al Franken's drawn-out dog fight win in Minnesota might well be specific examples of voter fraud.  Now, we see that our Attorney General, Eric Holder, appears to be steering the ship of state into this maelstrom to try to insure a victory for The Barry next year.  See the details of his questionable actions here and here.

To me, it is very disturbing that there are people (mostly Liberals) who believe that a voter does not have to prove his/her identity in order to cast a ballot ... while they are required to do so for something as simple as buying a six-pack of beer.  And the accelerating trend toward motor-voter registrations and massive absentee ballot casting, again IMHO, may cause the election process in this country to become as corrupt as it was in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and how it currently seems to be in Russia.  I think I can hear a number of our august founding fathers gyrating in their sepulchers.

John Boehner's Breakfast

Apparently (cynical) politics trumps (good) policy once again ...

My Way or the ...



A highway somewhere in Nevada


A smirking President Obama and his pugalistic wing man, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have responded to John Boehner's phone call to the White House in which he asked The Barry to send his economic advisors over to the House of Representatives to negotiate an end to the impasse over extending the payroll tax reduction for a full year ... see Boehner's Call. 

I think the technical translation for the Democrat reply was "pound sand!"  If Obama has to stay in the White House over Christmas and, maybe even New Years, the American people will start wailing, nashing their teeth and covering their heads with ashes from the Yule log.   The U.S. populus will then consult with Oprah, Dr. Phil and Joy Behar as to what they should do.  Need I tell you what their unified advice would then be?

OK, I'll enlighten you ... to a "whoop, whoop, whooping" audience, it will be "Take the Obama Turnpike straight to Penury!"

Stonewalling

Who is stonewalling in Washington?  Most media political pundits believe that the House Republicans have already lost this squabble over the continuation of the payroll tax reduction.  They have rejected the Senate's proposal for just a two month extension to U.S. employee's FICA tax reduction ... and, instead, are insisting that the Senate return to Washington and sit down with them in a Conference Committee to work out a compromise with the bill that the House had already passed. 

Harry Reid has once again saved The Barry from exercising any true Presidential leadership by flipping John Boehner off as he climbed aboard his jet to Nevada.  If you are not familiar with the details of this brouhaha, see: The NY Times' Take.  Meanwhile, back at the White House, Obama is playing the martyr as he stays ensconced there while the rest of his family is rollicking in the Aloha State's surf.  He has sworn not to follow them there until this bill has become law ... and he has already lost four days on the Kailua, Oahu links ... see: The White House's Site.  Funny how he can go from one of the four best Presidents this country has ever had to being a whimpering, simpering child ... all within a few short days.

Now, I usually make urine-poor political decisions, but I am greedily glad that Eric Cantor and John Boehner are playing Grinches in this case ... even if their only win turns out to be keeping the President stewing in his own "Holiday" juices for a few more days.  I just hope that the political cost is not too great for them.

Nefarious Acts

Snidely Whiplash

It seems almost daily that the Obama administration tries to pull off some Chicago-style dastardly act.  Currently it is by not promoting from within the Bureau of Labor Statistics and thus politicizing this erstwhile noble institution (upon which I have repeatedly relied in the past to point out how unemployment numbers have been misrepresented by the higher-up Obama jamokes).  See: PJ Media Exclusive.  Is there no act of subterfuge that these nefarious blaggards will not stoop to?

CAUTION!

If it came down to a election contest between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama, I would without hesitation pull the "R" lever ... since I believe that four more years of The Barry would probably damage this country almost beyond repair.  However, I would prefer Mitt Romney instead of Newt Gingrich for no other reason than I believe that he can and will heal our economy.  At the moment all other considerations pale by comparison in my mind.

But recently Gingrich said that he would give the $1.4 million dollars back to Freddie Mac (money he got for his giving it "historical perspective" shortly before the sub-prime mortgage crisis) if Romney would give back the money that Bain Capital (Romney's former venture capital firm) got  from “bankrupting companies and laying off employees.”  Now, I have dealt with a few venture capitalists in my life time and I can't imagine that any of them has ever made an investment with the objective of bankrupting the company they just gave their money to.

This is nonsensical Newt.  So please stop playing fast and loose with such pejorative utterances (you too, Mitt).  And, if you do get the nomination, please erect a "Caution, Slow Down" sign between your fertile brain and your voice box.

"Just the Facts Ma'am"

Jack Webb

As is often said, there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics ... particularly when uttered by politicians.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz, (D, Florida and Chairman of the Democrat National Committee) recently justified this aphorism when she said that unemployment had not gone up under Obama (see: Schultz Spins).  So, I have gone back to my source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to see if this were the case. The actual series (A-1) facts (see BLS.gov) are reprised below.

To update from my previous Fact Check, when The Barry took office the civilian non-institutional population (CN-IP) of the United States was 232.6 million and the seasonally-adjusted number of people employed was 142.2 million (after the shock of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in late 2008). As of the end of November, 2011, the civilian non-institutional population was 240.4 million (up 7.8 million) whereas the equivalent employment number was 140.6 million (down 1.6 million). More interestingly, the percentage of the CN-IP that had jobs when The Barry took office was 61.1%; whereas today it is 58.5% (down 2.6 percentage points.) 

Or, if the employed percentage of the CN-IP had stayed the same as when Obama took office, then this country's employed labor force would total 146.9 million jobs ... up 6.3 million jobs. To fully recover from the shock of the sub-prime mortgage crisis (a loss of 3.0 million jobs as of January, 2009), President Obama's economic cabal would have had to cause allow 9.3 million jobs to be created ... let alone give  permit us any true job growth.

So, as we used to say when I was much younger dude, Debbie Wasserman Shwartz appears to be blowing smoke up our collective arses.

Addendum:  Don't forget that, to figure the grand total job creation shortfall under Obama, you need to add his actual jobs decline of 1.6 million to the above 6.3 million normative figure to get a 7.9 million deficit ... or a 10.9 million shortfall if one factors in the sub-prime job losses under Bush (again, before any true job growth.)

Tempo

This blog is written by an old fogey ... by necessity ... for young people may well not notice nor care about the increasing tempo of everyday life.  Much how Charlie Chaplin noted the frenetic pace of activity 75 years ago in his movie Modern Times, I too am feeling that the clock has been sped up dramatically.  Whereas Chaplin's culprit was mechanization, my bogyman is computerization.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)  As an example of this time compression, there is something called Rapid Rescore that allows real estate agents to use modern technology to upgrade potential buyers' credit ratings (temporarily) so that they can qualify for a mortgage on a home they probably can't afford (see: Rapid Rescore).  This was one of the basic bricks in the outhouse that brought the sub-prime mortgage miasma onto our economy ... but, even more suprisingly, it still exists!  Yikes!

Also, now day traders (mostly hedge funds) use ultra-fast computers to uncover price movements in the stock markets, commodity markets, and currency pits that foretell other price changes and, in milliseconds, take advantage of this information to make a small profit (see: High Frequency Trading).  But adding up hundreds and thousands of small profits makes (sometimes) big profits.  These traders have been using faster and faster computers to win out over the others doing the same thing.  And now the NASDAQ stock exchange is allowing certain traders to move their computers into the same building as its computers that resolve NASDAQ trades. This shorter and therefore much faster speed-of-light communications cuts even more time off these trading delays.  (We're now talking microseconds, if not nanoseconds, of competitive advantage.)

Is this fair?  Probably not ... but that is not the thrust of this narrative.  What I am trying to point out is that the tempo of everyday life is increasing to the point where much of the important things and, yes, even the aesthetic nuances of life are lost.  Even fast thinkers and/or glib talkers seem to have an edge in the media or politics ... how about Rush Limbaugh, Ron Blagojevich, David Letterman, John Stewart, Newt Gingrich, James Carville, etc.?  This suggests that the overdrive living pace today is affecting people's media preferences and performances.  And this faster tempo is often driven by the technologies we surround ourselves with ... Twitter, FaceBook, et alia.  Do I really need to know that cousin Clyde just saw Clint Eastwood walking through LAX ... or that sister Susan's gerbil just had gerbilettes?  Not really. 

And so this increased speed is also cluttering up our lives with data noise which I think is crowding out the more meaningful information that everyone should know.  Have you ever watched any episodes of "Jay [Leno] Walking"?  The factual stupidity of the average American is dumbfounding ... and yet we encourage everyone to get out and vote.  Are we nuts?

Yes, there is no holding back this tide of technology.  But just realizing what is happening to us is a small step forward.  And I hope that this critique might encourage others to understand better these fast-paced circumstances ... and take a little more time to think through your reactions ... particularly in response to more methodical minds and vocalizers (such as Mitt Romney.)  Remember, the laconic Will Rogers was a superstar even during the Roaring Twenties.

Strained Metaphors

Obama has a penchant for casting long, strained, and often silly metaphors to paint a pitiable picture of his Presidency:

I- describe us…as…I'm the captain and they're the crew on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no matter how well we're steering the ship, if the boat's rocking back and forth and people are getting sick and…they're being buffeted by the winds and the rain and…at a certain point-- if you're asking, "Are you enjoying the ride right now?" Folks are going to say, "No." And are they going to say, "Do you think the captain's good—doing a good job?" People are going say, "You know what? A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point." And I don't control the weather. Obama, coming up soon on 60 Minutes

Obama compared the country to a car Republicans drove into a ditch, "a deep ditch, muddy and hot, with lots of bugs." Democrats, Obama said, including him and Oregon's congressional Democrats, piled into the ditch and began pushing the car out. "We look up and Republicans are just standing there watching. We say, 'come on down and help''' Obama said. "But they just stand there and say 'you're not pushing hard enough. Finally, we get the car out of the ditch and the Republicans tap us on the shoulder—they want the car," Obama continued. "But we tell them you can't have the keys because you don't know how to drive." Then in his best laugh line of the night, Obama observed, "if you want to go forward in a car, you put it in 'D'; if you want to go backward, you put it in 'R.'" from the Willamette Week, 12/9/10

…We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we've done. But even though we've answered these concerns, I suspect there will be some who will try to move the goal posts one more time. They said we need to triple the border patrol. Or now they’ll say we need to quadruple the border patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat! They'll never be satisfied, and I understand that. That's politics. But the truth is the measures we've put in place are getting results.  Obama in El Paso, Texas

Mr. Obama also tried out a cleaning metaphor, accusing Republicans of acting like fussy supervisors who refuse to lift a finger to help the crew.  “We’ve got our mops and our brooms out here, and were cleaning stuff out and they’re sitting there saying, ‘Hold the broom better; that’s not how you mop.’ Don’t tell me how to mop! Pick up a mop! Do some work on behalf of the American people to solve some of these problems.’’ from the New York Times, 5/13/2010

.

Such dewy drivel might play well to his adoring audiences, but now I think I understand why The Barry never wrote nor published anything when he was the Editor of The Harvard Law Review.

Free Markets Suck!

President Obama revealed a little more of himself than possibly his teleprompter writers intended on Tuesday when he spoke in Osawatomie, Kansas.  In essence he launched a backhanded attack on capitalism with "the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you can from whomever you can" (see: Speech Text around the bottom of page one).  This rhetorical flourish is clearly meant to imply that capitalism is, in fact, a free license to steal ... and the baby is now floating down the gutter along with the dirty bathwater. 

Interestingly enough, the New York Times neglected to mention this key dogmatic pronouncement in its write-up of this event (see: NY Times's Take).  Actually The Barry has said quite similar things in the past ... in particular at the Cooper Union in early 2010 ...  which went mostly ignored, I think, because he was still on his honeymoon with the American people (see: The Daily Kos Story). Now, I and many others on the right believe that this statement overtly manifests the key core value that Obama brought into the White House ... which had been taught to him on his anarchist mother's knee and reenforced by his many radical friends -- that capitalism is the source of all the world's evil.

And, despite his Elvis-like-intonings to the contrary, he also seems to view as anathema that bulwark of capitalism, the middle class.  He, after all, had signed his name to the Black Value System when he joined Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church which overtly states that "middleclassness" is to be eschewed (see: Black Value System Text, item #8).  (One could say, with tongue-in-cheek that, being the President of the United States, he clearly does live up to that disavowal.)  In essence his subtle but steady tilting toward Marxism seems to be the "change' he "hoped" to achieve when elected ... and he is doing a pretty good job of it ... by keeping the U.S. economy on life support and then by stirring the class-warfare cauldron with a vigor that would have been envied even by Norman Thomas.

Political Correctness Gone Ape

The Obama administration has reclassified the Ft. Hood massacre as "workplace violence" ... see: Ft. Hood Reclassification.  Yes, and then Treblinka and Auschwitz were just "retraining centers."

Cyber Warfare

RQ-170 drone aircraft

Recently, the United States lost its software "leash" to a drone aircraft over Afghanistan and it ostensibly (crash?) landed in nearby Iran.  This was an ultra-modern stealth drone, the RQ-170, which is now going to be reverse engineered by the Iranians, the Russians, or, more likely, the Chinese (see: A Lost Drone).  How did this happen?  I strongly suspect this is one of the latest manifestations of cyber warfare.  Was this in retaliation for the United States (or Israel) cyber attacking the Iranian centrifuges (making them spin out of control) that are being used to purify uranium for its atomic weapons?  I suspect so.

We have known for some time that the software controlling our drones has been hacked into (probably by the Chinese ... see: A Drone Virus) and, yet, we let this top-secret drone fly apparently without a backup self-destruct override if it were crippled by a cyber attack.  This is similar to the counter-espionage sloppiness we exhibited in the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound in Pakistan.  Here a stealth helicopter had to be left behind with critical parts not destroyed, again to be reverse engineered by the Chinese.  We have even had a minor cyber attack on a water treatment plant here in the United States which may have serious implications for more egregious future events (see: Hacked Water Treatment Plant).

Now, I am far from being an expert on cyber security, but I did work for a few years in the late 1970's at a Data General research center in North Carolina where a hack-proof computer (the FHP) was being developed ... and, as it turned out, too many years ahead of its time.  And I do know that, given the huge strides that have been made in the miniaturization and speed of computer chips since then, we surely should have been able to develop a super-secure computer/software combo.  The question is ... why haven't we?

6 More Questions ...

For Liberals (including that uber-Liberal in the White House)::

1) Why, while championing infrastructure spending, would you put the kibosh on the Keystone XL Pipeline?

2) Exactly how will extending unemployment insurance beyond 99 weeks ever create even one job?

3) Why, since the Social Security System is on the fiscal ropes, should we extend any cuts to FICA taxes?

4) What does the U.S. do when Iran finally has the A-bomb and is about to (or does) use it on Israel?

5) Should the U.S. contribute even one dime to the bailout of the Euro (including through the IMF)?

6) What does the U.S. do if the relative peace in Iraq starts to unravel soon after we exit there?

Juxtaposition XXX

Republican's Barney Frank

Democrat's Newt Gingrich

Acknowledgment: Thanks for this idea goes to my wife, Jeanette.

The Long Knives

An assegai

W.C. Fields, as Egbert Souse' in The Bank Dick, claimed that the antagonist bank robber had attacked him with a long knife, an “assegai."  Fields loved to use strange-sounding words like this one (including such others as "Lompoc" and "Petaluma"), but claiming he was attacked by a long knife in this classic movie made him an accidental hero. 

However, I have been increasingly perplexed by the assegais that are being wielded by almost everyone in the media these days ... to reduce the ranks of potential Republican heroes, the aspirants to the Presidency.  First Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, then Herman Cain and now Newt Gingrich and yes, even Mitt Romney are being sliced up by the press for any verbal gaffs and/or minor character flaws.  It's as though those media personae want to make their bones by taking down the current Republican front runner in the Presidential sweepstakes.

Thinking back to the last Presidential election, I can remember dozens of Obama's verbal gaffs and, not minor, but major character flaws that were glossed over by these same members of the fourth estate.  Such media inconsistencies have always perplexed me.  It's as though there is a subconscious narrative written in the stars that is then followed throughout the campaign by these too-often-pompous talking heads.  Some call this a double standard, but, to me, it is much more insidious and puzzling than this.  How does this happen?  Why can politics become a blood sport one day while, at other times, candidates seem to be adoringly carried on sedan chairs into office? 

This morning on Morning Joe, Mitt Romney was being savaged for expressing his private displeasure to Brett Baier of Fox News's Special Report for his tough interviewing technique. To me this is a mere bagatelle. Actually, this MSNBC morning show had previously become one that I looked forward to watching. Now, its seems to be nothing more than a pissing contest ... besmirching each favored Republican candidate in turn with clever pejoratives, snorts, and sideways scowls. As a result, I have started to switch more often to Imus in the Morning (gasp!!)