Think I Was Joking?

Nancy Pelosi said: "[w]e won the election. We wrote the bill."

Let's have another look at the description of "pork," the shape and texture of the spending that is going to put our kids in hock:

$50 million of Nat'l Endowment for the Arts -- lots of "jobs" there.
$1 billion for Amtrack -- so they can just lose it?
$2 billion for child care subsidies -- wonder which party the beneficiaries of this vote for?
$400 million for global warming research -- if you listen to Gore, its already too late.
$2.4 billion for carbon capture project -- but only demonstration projects, the spending still to come.
$650 million for analog/digital conversion coupons. Guess to which constituents that goes? Why you sitting home watching gameshows, Oprah and Ellen, anyway? Not working? Oh no, that's right, you need to TiVo it.
$600 million so the U.S. government can buy new cars. Why? are last year's too old? Is this an indirect GM-giveaway? A sop to the UAW ... getting closer.... Do you know that Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on new cars?
$66 billion on education -- and "no recipient ... shall use such funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary school." Ok, that's a political statement if there ever was one: only public school teachers will be hired using these funds -- members of the Teacher's Union. Mr. Obama, why do your kids go to private school? And the rest of Congress and Senate -- and members of Cabinet?
$252 billion on "income transfer payments." Huh? That is not stimulus -- there are no jobs here, it is theft: taking money from taxpayers to give to those earning nothing at all. $81 billion to medicaid; $36 billion for wider unemployment benefits; $20 billion for food stamps; and $81 billion for for the earned income credit -- money for people who do not pay taxes.

Where's the jobs? Where's the stimulus to get America working and producing goods and services here? Where's the long-term tax payer getting any incentive?

The Wall Street Journal calculates that onle 12 cents in every dollar of this spending bill "can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus," and even little of that will help jump start the economy.

So, with the exception of two pin-heads from Maine and Arlen Spector, no Republican has voted for this. And why should they? They had absolutely no hand in the drafting of it. The GOP was prevented from even attending the sessions.

Did I forget $7 billion in public housing? $30 billion in Cobra extension? $1 billion in nutrition programs? This is Democrat porn: absolutely everything to every greedy, grasping do-nothing hand out there that happens to vote left.

So the Democrats wrote the bill .... The fingerprints on this fiasco, this collosal grab of wealth is Democrat. So too will the failure be. It makes me physically nauseous to know my kids will have to pay for this and there is almost nothing I can do about it.

Mr Obama: you promised transparency. Why are these sessions closed from viewing? Why is TV not allowed into the drafting sessions? You promised bi-partisanship. That amounted to begging Republicans to sign onto something which they had ZERO input to. You promised common sense would return to Washington. Pork is common sense? You promised to lead ... and yet you let Pelosi write this scab of a bill?

And now Senator Harkin wants to bring back the "fairness doctrine." And fairly ONLY apply it to talk radio. Why might that be? Because the print and TV media are in the tank for your causes, and talk radio is the only independent source of debate in the United States? Because you want to muzzle free speech? Your transparent posturings would make Pravda look like the model of journalistic integrity. You make me puke. And for this we have fought for 250 years -- the beacon of hope and freedom? Speaking of Jefferson and Franklin ... when ever you happen to pass from this plane of existence to the next and meet up with these gentlemen, Mr. Harkin, I'd avoid them if I were you. You see, they will have a bone to pick with you ... and you, obviously, will not have the courage to stand up to them.

Weasel.

Democracy's catch-22j

The "J" is for Jefferson. As in Thomas J. TJ was keen on mob rule -- the majority forcing the minority to acquiesce. Don't get the thread wrong, TJ was in favor of the rule of the majority and felt it should always govern ... "or give law." It was Ben Franklin who warned about the "tyranny of the ballot box," although other sources attribute this to Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831. It really doesn't matter.

The difference was in who could vote back then. Franklin was worried about the oppression of minorities and the imposition of a rule of law governed solely by those who were able to vote. Women, then, were right out of it. As were all forms of blacks, hispanics and other minorities ... the Irish, Chinese and others. Voting was for people who controlled the country already and who produced goods and services: white men. TJ though this was only fair and just, although certain of his later writings and reported speech tends to temper this view. Franklin mistrusted the regime that this presented.

Why talk about this now? Because we adhere to Jefferson's ideal and Franklin's warning has never been so important: this is because democracy is finally in a position to fail us. Previously, the shortcomings of democracy mean that laws were enacted to protect those who could not protect themselves -- out of civility, humanity or some other passion. But it was the strong -- largely economically -- who took pity on the weak. Democracy in the American fashion worked -- because those administering it ... worked. We, as a nation, were "all in it together." Sink or swim.

This, in the last election, has changed. The tyranny is upon us. Obama's people have enacted health care legislation without discussion, without debate or any other form of oversight. And as we saw from FDR's New Deal, you cannot undo government handouts. Once in place, they are there to stay, unless circumstances render them irrelevant. What's the big deal about Health Care? It is a symptom of more: the $900 billion in pork -- heck call it an even trillion, as we don't know the final bill yet. In that leviathan pork tab, over $4 billion (that is correct) is going to community stabilization -- previously reserved to states to squander, it is now available directly to not-for-profit organization. Let's be clear about this: this is a pay-off from the Democrats to the community organizations that got them elected. These people committed massive voter fraud to get them elected and when paid off, will continue to skew the electoral process. In effect, Pelosi, Reid and Obama are paying for the future organization that will keep them in power. It is not far different from Red Guards in China.

Only 3% THREE PERCENT of this bill will go to infrastructure spending. $250 billion to "transfer payments" ... giving from those who pay taxes to those who don't. $136 billion ot 32 new government programs. $250 billion more to local and state governments -- to squander in their own pork stew. And another quick handout of $500-$1000 to everyone, whether they work or not -- and likely if they are American citizens or here legally ... or not.

So?

We have reached the point where the majority can AND IS simply voting to take whatever they can get their hands on and giving it to themselves. Confiscation. Pure and simple. You see, in Jefferson's time, those who could vote also paid for the operation of the country: we made it, we get to vote on how it is spent. Not very "fair" in one sense, but very practical to be sure. Since those who made the money mostly worked very hard to do so, they were naturally disinclined to lavish wads of it on project and programs with little possible return to themselves or the overall benefit of the security of the nation.

Those of us who pay taxes feel the same. Do I give a rat's posterior if some school program in California wants to teach its pupils that an "alternative lifestyle" is ok? I would not spend one dime on it. Nor, if I am honest, on probably 95% of the programs in this country. I would like to see more spent on infrastructure. I don't want to spend more on raising health care thresholds. I do want to see alternative energy sources developed. I don't want to spend money raising the food stamp family maximum for families 4 generations into welfare. Not a dime. Nothing.

Which brings us to something almost unthinkable: secession from the nation. There exists the possibility -- maybe even probability -- of the nation being torn apart by this democratic theft (I purposely leave that word amibigous). The "blue states" and "blue" areas are largely urban America, and largely confined to the East Coast, urban areas in the Mid-West and the looney Left Coast. Folks around the rest of the country vote differently -- although not all are tax payers, just the vast majority. Those not paying taxes are overwhelmingly centered on the cities -- blue territory.

That Russian who predicted a geographic split of the U.S. didn't understand the possible drivers of a split: it is not ethnicity per se, but the split between doers and workers from those who don't. And that split is largely a political split -- not to say that there are not those who defy the generalization. Take Massachusetts for example: almost everyone is a Liberal Democrat. Really! But there are Republicans and Republican governors have been elected ... but not since the vote machine of the inner cities has shown its muscle. Most elected posts in Massachusetts show an unopposed Democrat on the ballot.

What might happen is this: the tax paying rest of the country will simply cease to play the game. Who are you going to send in to enforce the payment? The troops? Do you think that they are Red State or Blue State? Do you think that they will support Pelosi's gang? Local Sheriffs? They have to be elected ... locally. Are you going to assemble a "people's army" from the cities to go out and quel rebellion? The though makes me choke with mirth -- who is going to lead them? And how are they going to avoid getting their asses shot off: try going to Montana to get some rancher to pay you ... or "Live Free or Die."

There was a swing vote in this last election, some 10% who could have gone either way. That is the margin of sanity. If they fail to move back to common sense "Yes, you can" then we are toast. Give Pelosi and gang enough time, then every illegal alien will be able to vote too, and any GOP votes will be hanging chads. They are playing for keeps this time.

Sensible people need to do the same.

Mr. Frank ... a real Barney.

So Mr. Frank and his band of morons (set loose by the Obama revolution) want to cap executive pay at $500K for TARP recipients. On the face of it, that sounds good -- get back at those fat cats who made the mess. But Mr. Frank and his low income housing cronies made the mess, and that fat cats that enabled him are largely golfing in Florida with their parachutes.

At some point, you have got to agree that CEOs get paid too much ... hundreds of millions IS insane, and more money that you can really spend -- but if they are not worth it, they get fired ... at least by responsible boards of directors. The problem here is that boards of directors are larely stuffed with cronies of the CEO -- and will vote anything: they do so because they are CEOs of other companies and want the same consideration when their pay packet comes to the table.

Eliminate that crap and you go a long way to ensuring accountability. But to arbitrarily state that $500K is enough for everyone is just stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. If we limit the income to $500K -- Geithner suggests that it should be so for ALL companies -- we take away all incentive to work like a maniac to get ahead. And that sounds like communism, and we all know how well that works. If you limit income to $500K, say goodbye to Cadillac (if it somehow survives), Mercedes and Bentley. Say goodbye to second houses. Adios to yachts and expensive vacations ... in other words, all that the mean little weenies in Cambridge say is unfair -- and that they are unwilling to work hard enough to get. The impulse Mr. Frank is riding (for votes) is an emotional one, populist and wrong.

If we kiss off McMansions, Mercs, Escalades and houses in Vail, we also kiss off the industries spawned to build and support those. People have that lifestyle have a "burn rate" that would make you eyes water. That burn rate provides millions of jobs in the United States -- millions of jobs that would not have alternatives since we outsourced all of our manufacturing to Asia and other places. It is a classic cutting off of the nose to spite the face, and Barney Frank -- and by extension the Obama administration, being ostensibly the same party -- appear stupid enough to do it.

Is this a step in the direction of a wealth tax? Make over $500K and just hand it over to Barney Frank? Want to see capable people the country in hordes? This slippery slope will create a mass emigration of those who pay taxes -- the 55% of us who do. And the top 10% which pays 68% of all taxes? They will be looking for an exit. The top 1% that pays 37% of ALL federal taxes? They will leave. Guaranteed. If you limit their income to $500K WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT THE 1% WILL GET THE MONEY TO PAY THEIR TAXES?

Mr. Frank, you Geithner, Pelosi and Reid are idiots. Pure and simple.