Sure, Tom

Another underestimation.

No plan? Once we eradicate the plague of Progressivism, we will move forward. And the progressives have been successful how? By giving away taxpayer money in the form of welfare, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, Obamacare? Stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund?

Pretty clear to me what doesn't work. We would maintain the status quo why?

Tom Friedman can Bite Me.

Milwaukee Poverty

From the Department of Tourism: "Milwaukee - We're the new Detroit".

I predicted this several years ago. But you will have to search these pages; I'm not feeling up to it today.

David Olson For Assembly

I know David quite well. He was my intern a couple years ago. He will always do what is right, not what is expedient. If you live in his district, get out and help him.

Grayson: Despicable Liar

What Alan Grayson claims:




What Webster actually said:





Alan Grayson is a despicable excuse for a human being.

War, It Is

Matthew Iglesias wants Leftists to "Go to War" over healthcare. He wants to do it for the children.

Just another story about the perverse way American health care is financed. If you're old, you're taken care of by Medicare. If you're very poor, you're taken care of by Medicaid. If you're middle class, however, you're stuck with a system that works great—unless you get sick or lose your job. It's a system that makes a joke of the idea of insurance, which is precisely that it's supposed to come rescue people who suffer bad luck.

It's always the same argument: People just suffer from bad luck, so the government has to take care of them, provide a "social safety net". The children suffer unnecessarily. Medicare and Medicaid exist so the government should do more of the same.

In a word, "NO". The high cost of healthcare is attributable, in part anyway to government. Medicare and Medicaid do not fully reimburse costs. Hospitals are required to treat patients via the ER regardless of ability to pay. Burdensome paperwork requires an army of bureaucrats (insurance paperwork is no less burdensome, but that, too stems from Federal requirements).

I know...I don't care about the poor, the children, the sick and the old.....or polar bears, puppies and butterflies. Actually, I do care. But I care more about my children and grandchildren, my stepfather, my in-laws, and my 92 year-old neighbor. Government has shown their inability to make healthcare more affordable. They need to get out of the business.

Here's the deal: If you are in Medicare or older than, say....55, you will continue to have fully funded Medicare if you like. If you are younger than 55, you will not have a Medicare option. Medicaid is phased out over 10 years. "Catastrophic Care" insurance made available through insurers (and it already exists) is a low-cost way of making sure healthcare is available when needed. Congress enacts tort reform. Done. See that was easy.

War? The Left will lose. They are bullies who run away when punched in the nose.

Ponzi and SSI

PolitiFact really blew this one.

Of COURSE Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. From the PolitiFact story:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offers a simple definition: "A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors."

Social Security has been raided by both parties to make the deficit look better for about 30 years now.

On one level, that sounds like Social Security, which uses taxes on today’s wage earners to fund the retirement checks of millions of Americans. But remember: The SEC also notes that a Ponzi is an "investment fraud."

Are funds not "invested" with the government? And here is Johnson's mistake:

Johnson’s campaign manager, Juston Johnson, said neither he nor his boss is "saying the Social Security Administration is a fraud" -- pointing out the candidate wants to fix the system. Asked why the candidate used Madoff’s name, if it wasn’t meant to imply criminal wrongdoing, the spokesman declined to answer.

I don't think SSA itself is fraudulent, but the American people have certainly been defrauded. Criminally. By the Federal Government. Johnson should say so. Funds have been "invested" with the government, used for other purposes BY the government and no longer occupy the account. That's fraud.

New Chrysler Logo

H/T: Hot Air via RealDebate

Here it is. Follow the other links to see why.

Don't Pledge It, Do It

Much has been mad of the "Pledge to America" and I thought I would throw in my $0.02 (now worth $0.002 and counting). This document is 48 pages of "stuff". Those signing on to the Pledge need to understand that WTP are saying WTF. The GOP has been part of the problem for the last 100 years. Republicans have their share of elites and progressives like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and until they are weeded out, the GOP is just Democrat-lite. I will remind my four readers that without Collins and Snowe, Obamacare never makes it out of committee. The GOP needs to start with its own house.

Some comments:

• Obamacare "Repeal and Replace"? There is no "Replace". Get out of the Healthcare field. Repeal the damn thing, enact tort reform and pretty much done. I'd love to see all government-run healthcare programs disappear, but that won't happen. Odd as it might sound, people did not go without healthcare before the government stuck their nose into it

• On reducing the size of government. "Net hiring freeze"? That ain't workin' for me. I want to see departments required to reduce their workforce by 20% across-the-board. The Private Sector requires it, the Public Sector should as well. Some will retire, others need to be fired anyway and the rest can be given "lovely parting gifts" and sent off to find a real job. EPA needs to be reined in. Energy Department and Education Department should be considered for disbanding. They provide no value. Schools continue to fail and energy policy is worse than non-existent. See? That wasn't so hard.
  

• I like the idea of Constitutional Authority citation in each bill. For too many years, unconstitutional laws have been put in place because it was never challenged in court. If it isn't challenged, it stays.

• "One-at-a-time" legislation sounds good, but there will be unforseen consequences (there always are). On the other hand, how much more legislation can possibly be needed?

• National Security. The first priority is to secure the border. The second is to enforce immigration laws and deport illegals. The legislation needs to be written in such a way that the Leftist "Amnesty First" bunch can't clog the courts. Fact is, these people are here illegally. They have no Rights according to our Constitution. Anchor babies? Here's the deal: The child is an American citizen. It stays here. You go home and don't come back. You made the choice knowing the facts and thinking you could stay here. Yeah....no. Also, be sure National Interest is really at stake before going to war. If the facts seem incontrovertible, check them again. And again.

This is all well and good, but in the end, you better freakin' do it or we will throw your sorry asses out too.

Why Not Food Equality?

Health Bill Puts US on Path to Equality? If healthcare is a right, why not food? Give everyone a card from which they can purchase only the food the government says they are allowed to buy. Why not housing? The government provides everyone with a home based on their "need". What about transportation? Why not energy? Do you see where I am headed here? At what point does this end? At what point do we stop with the "equality of result"?

Jill: If you still stop by, tell me. Why not food? Why not a home? Those are every bit as important in life as healthcare. I promise you someone without food will die much sooner than someone without healthcare.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Sunspots and (alleged) AGW

The Beer: I had a very nice IPA today.

The Bicycle: 70 at Maywood today. Wet early, but dried out nicely and was really a very nice ride.

The VRWC: This can't be good news.

I'm Awake!

Is it really this hard to figure out? Bob Schrum continues to think we are a bunch of Rubes. Tuesday didn't mean anything to him? The polls don't mean anything to him? The Town Hall meetings? The school board meetings? Anything? And it's not just Schrum. It's Krugman...and Baghdad Bob Gibbs....and even Krauthammer (Chuck..."The Buckley Rule"? You aren't serious)...and GOP "leaders".

The country has drifted far to the left since I was a child. It is the fault of both parties. It is the fault of us. The vast majority of this country still believes in Liberty, Self-reliance, Small Government, Local Control. But we've been asleep at the wheel for 50 years. We've been busy with kids and careers and mortgages and all those other things that come into life. We let people without our values become powerful. We allowed them to collude with Wall Street and the Unions and the automakers and the mortagage brokers and the banks and who-knows-who-else. We allowed them to encroach slowly upon our lives. The people elected in 2008 thought they had license to take the "Giant Leap Forward" to nanny-state European-style socialism. It was like hitting us with an ice cold bucket of water. We woke up. We aren't going back to sleep.

So, believe what you want. The Conservative Majority is here to send you packing. And if our candidates don't do what we have elected them to do, We will fire them, too.

Margaret Carlson? Really?

The Beer: Getting pretty thin. I'm drinking Ephemere, which is quite good.

The Bicycle: Maywood on Saturday. Enough pledges that I can ride free AND get a cool t-shirt. Awesome.

The VRWC: So, Margaret Carlson doesn't think much of Christine O'Donnell's "competence". I wonder what she thought of Joe Biden's plagarism? What did she think of many members of the Obama Administration not paying their taxes?

I can assure Ms. Carlson that TEA Party candidates are no worse than the people we have to deal with now.

For Carl Paladino to be labeled a "wackadoo" by the New York Daily News would seem to me to be a badge of honor.

This is NOT the GOP of Ronaldus Magnusus. It is the GOP of the RINOs like the Bushes and McConnell.

So there.

GOP vs. "Insurgents Candidates"

So, Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer don't like Sharon Angle or Christine O'Donnell? Too bad. The GOP needs to be kissing our Conservative, TEA-Partying asses. We are busy saving them from 40 years in the wilderness. We sucked it up and voted for their RINO clowns throughout my lifetime. It's time for the GOP to grow a pair and back the insurgents. Want to win? Or are you just more Big Government assholes? We are not going away.

Fear and Loathing on the Left

Even Jill has resorted to name calling and epithets. How afraid they must be of the coming Conservative tsunami. They are apparently afraid we will take away that taxpayer tit they've been sucking on for so long.

Answer? "Yes, we can". And we will.

Andy Stern in WaPo

The Beer: If you are headed to Martifest this weekend, check out the homebrews.

The Bicycle: Ready for 70 at Maywood.

The VRWC:

How to make jobs?

Let's start at the beginning: Job Sharing. In theory, it sounds good enough, but there are plenty of jobs currently unfilled. Generally, they are low-pay, zero benefits, but they exist. Bring unemployment compensation back from 99 weeks and quit extending it and people will go back to work. Further, who's job are you going to share? Someone who is already employed full time? So I should drop my pay be 50% to put someone else back to work? I assure you if I were on the other side of the unemployment fence, I wouldn't force that on someone already employed. And cost? Will this plan require the employer to provide the same benefits to both job-sharers? Raise the cost to thee employer and they will cut more heads.

Infrastructure Bank: How about changing the tax laws that drive capital off-shore. Failure to do that will only drive more capital off, not in. The coming capital gains tax increase will hurt....badly. Fundung infrastructure jobs with this money will have the same effect as ARRA. Big Fat Zero.

Youth Employment Programs: It is true that many youth cannot find jobs. But anecdotally, there are those in the 18-24 range who are happily living off unemployment and spending the summer partying, waiting for the unemployment to run out. There is nothing that stimulates the desire to work like an empty stomach.

Andy Stern is a best, a Statist and worst, a Marxist. His math is fuzzy: Total $130.5 billion 11.8 million jobs. Net Cost to Taxpayers = $0. This smacks of "somethin' for nothin'." A better choice is to extend the Bush tax cuts, bring unemployment insurance back to a reasonable time frame and get rid of Obamacare. You will see unemployment plummet and the economy take off. Andy Stern's plan is more of the same. And you know how insanity is defined.

"Working Families"

I just caught the Jeff-Plale-Badger-Care-Working-Families-Do-It-For-The-Children commercial. Really set me off. The inference, not just here, but by all these Democrat candidates is that "working families" only encompasses those who are "in need". If you "have", you aren't a member of this "working families" category.

Jeff and the rest of the Democrats can bite me. I work for a living. I'm a working family. Rich people work for a living. Nearly all of them got there because they worked hard, took risks and were rewarded. They didn't win some kind of lottery, they didn't marry the widow of the Heinz food guy (oh...was I talking about a Democrat?).

I am as tired as I can be of Democrat and Leftist class warfare. I'm not putting up with it anymore and I'm calling them on it. I'm not putting up with the President referring to the GZ Mosque telling us we are all one people and should not be pitting one against another and in the next breath talking about "tax breaks for the rich" like the rich are screwing everyone else. The only ones screwing you are the Leftists and Progressives. If you don't believe that you are on another planet. Why is business leaving Wisconsin? Progressive policies. Why are you taxed to the max in places like Milwaukee County? Progressive policies. Why is the US in such a non-competitive position with the rest of the world? Progressive policies. How do you fix all this? Get rid of Progressivism. It's killing the middle class.

EPA Tyranny

The tyrannical Environmental Protection Agency is going to force Cap and Tax on you whether you like it or not. And if you don't like it, you won't be able to tell them.

From the Federal Register yesterday (this is a ton of stuff):

[Federal Register: September 7, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 172)] [Proposed Rules]                [Page 54292] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr07se10-6]                           ======================================================================== Proposed Rules                                                 Federal Register ________________________________________________________________________  This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of  the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these  notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in  the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.  ========================================================================    [[Page 54292]]    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY  40 CFR Part 52  [EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0107; FRL-9197-2] RIN 2060-AQ45    Action To Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention  of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas  Emissions: Federal Implementation Plan

(Deeka's note:  EPA WILL regulate greenhouse gases)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  ACTION: Notice of public hearing; correction.  -----------------------------------------------------------------------  SUMMARY: In this document, EPA is making a correction to the Action to  Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention of Significant  Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Federal  Implementation Plan; Public Hearing to be held on September 14, 2010  (published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2010, 75 FR 52916). We  inadvertently within the summary section of the document stated that  the hearing will be held in Arlington, VA. This document corrects the  location to Washington, DC.  ADDRESSES: Public Hearing: The September 14, 2010 hearing will be held  at the EPA Ariel Rios East building, Room 1153, 1301 Constitution  Avenue, Washington, DC 20460. The public hearing will convene at 9 a.m.  (eastern standard time) and continue until the later of 6 p.m. or 1  hour after the last registered speaker has spoken. The EPA will make  every effort to accommodate all speakers that arrive and register. A  lunch break is scheduled from 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m. Because this  hearing is being held at U.S. Government facilities, individuals  planning to attend the hearing should be prepared to show valid picture  identification to the security staff in order to gain access to the  meeting room. In addition, you will need to obtain a property pass for  any personal belongings you bring with you. Upon leaving the building,  you will be required to return this property pass to the security desk.

  No large signs will be allowed in the building, cameras may only be  used outside of the building, and demonstrations will not be allowed on  Federal property for security reasons. 

(Deeka's note: You will NOT be heard.  Period. The great OZ has spoken)

The EPA Web Site for the  rulemaking, which includes the proposal and information about the  public hearing, can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/nsr.     Docket: The EPA has established a docket for this action under  Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0107. All documents in the docket are  listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the  index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., confidential  business information or other information whose disclosure is  restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted  material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly  available docket materials are available either electronically in  http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center  EPA/DC, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington,  DC. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday  through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the  Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the  EPA Docket Center is (202) 566-1742. The EPA Web Site for the  rulemaking, which includes the proposal and information about the  public hearing, can be found at http://www.epa.gov/nsr.  FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pamela Long, U.S. EPA, Office of Air  Quality Planning and Standards, Air Quality Policy Division, C504-03,  Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number (919) 541-0641, e- mail address: long.pam@epa.gov.      Dated: August 31, 2010. Mary Henigin, Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. [FR Doc. C1-2010-22208 Filed 9-3-10; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560-50-P

Now, we can argue whether or not EPA has this authority (they don't) and whether or not GHG is a danger to human health (it's not). But for EPA to say there shall be no protests? I may have to go protest just because they said I can't.

They Wanted A New Vietnam in Iraq

Looks like the Left might get it. When we bailed on South Vietnam ("Vietnamization" it was called), the North immediately started attacking. I see the same happening in Iraq. Artificial timeline. Early withdrawal, claiming our ally was "ready". If something doesn't change, expect a disaster in Iraq within the next year.

Insanity

The Beer: Had a Labor Day Weekend soiree with friends and family, including very much beer. A 12-pack went to my brother for a charity event next weekend.

The Bicycle: 42 with the Boyz yesterday and a light day (if at all) today. Maywood on the 18th.

The VRWC: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Here is a great example.

The government just spent trillions of dollars on these types of projects, many of which have not been completed. They have provided no long-term jobs and have failed to move the economy forward. Now he thinks a mere $50 Billion will do the job?

Insane.

CNN Advocates Federal Government Treason

No agenda by the people who wrote this.

But they are dead wrong. For Obama to report this "infraction" to the UN Commission on Human Rights, chaired at one time or another by those paragons of human rights Iran and Libya is farcical. The failure of the Federal Government to enforce borders has caused Arizona to enforce its own border using a law nearly identical to the (unenforced) Federal immigration laws.

But really...nothing to see here....just move along you teabagging morons.

Rebecca Kleefisch for Lt. Governor

I was a little skeptical when I first met Rebecca Kleefisch. She came off more as a cheerleader-type than a serious candidate. Over the last year (roughly), she has really matured. I know I have only about 3 readers, but I strongly recommend Rebecca as the Conservative candidate for Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor. Oh...and I love this commercial.

www.rebeccaforreal.com

How DID Obama Become Unpopular?

The Beer: I have four right now, but I'm finding if I keg, it goes faster. Not that it's a bad thing.

The Bicycle: Getting ready for Maywood. Beautiful day today. I should go for about 40 today and 50 on Sunday.

The VRWC: This is only part of the story. Yes, he's unpopular by any measure. But he was divisive right out-of-the-box. The Chosen One was either hugely popular or hugely unpopular from his first day on the campaign. His "cult of personality" mesmerized many. But at the same time, he lost people at every stop.

• When he told Joe-the-Plumber he would "spread the wealth", he lost anyone who works for a living and recognized what that meant.
• He lost many with his "bitter clingers" comment.
• He lost the "National Security" folks when he said he would talk with our enemies without preconditions.
• He lost those of us who believe in American Exceptionalism when he said he believed in "American Exceptionalism in the same way Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism".
• We who understand energy fell away when The Chosen One said he would bankrupt anyone who tried to build a coal-fired power plant and that under his plan, energy prices would "necessarily skyrocket".
• His clear arrogance at the Convention turned many off and confirmed what many others already believed.

After he was elected, he continued to alienate not only those who did not support him in the election, but also many of his supporters.

• While former President Bush was extremely gracious during the transition, The Won bashed him and has continues to blame Bush nearly 2 years into the Obama presidency.
• Obama's "apology tour" drained his support further, as did his claims to the effect, "well, we might just have to do with less".
• The disasterous attempt to close Gitmo and equally stupid idea to try KSM and the boyz in NYC made things worse.

• Many of us said the "Stimulus" was a lousy idea. It was.
• "Obamacare"...need I see more?

There are a large number of other examples I suppose I could put in here, but they all fall in the same category: "I know better than you".

Nobody likes to hear that.