Why I am voting for Romney

Romney was not my first choice. Hell, I do not even think he was my second choice. Then my first and second choices decided they were not going to run for President this year, so here we are.

Then I started reading about him. His story is impressive. Gave away his massive inheritance, ran a state, saved the Olympics and started a wildly successful company.

Then you read a little deeper and he is really impressive. He has a record of doing things that would probably  lead directly to canonization if he had a different letter after his name.

He is a good person who cares about the less fortunate in ways other than just other people's taxes.

There are a lot of specifics that I like about Romney's plan.

I love his energy policy, approving the Keystone pipeline and reaping the benefits of the millions of jobs and cheaper power that makes every purchase made by every household more affordable. I love that moves in this direction will not only be a massive economic boom but will greatly weaken petro-sponsors of anti-American and Western thought throughout the world. Plus no more wind energy, because when you have the chance to invest in an inefficient method of harvesting power than requires 100% redundancy, why not spend billions of tax dollars on it? Right?

Education reform. This is massive, taking control of the schools away from the teachers unions and putting it in the hands of parents and teachers. Spending more money on better teachers rather than siphoning it off to fund Democrat campaigns, union officials and massive administrative bloat.

Slashing corporate taxes to bring more companies to our shores simplifying the tax code foe individuals and small business makes far too much sense not to happen.

All these are positive things, but basically window dressing. I am wildly patriotic and care desperately about this country. I am the grandson of a plumber and the great grandson of a goatherd. My Dad was the first from his family to go to an Ivy League school. I want kids one day and I want to be live the American Dream and provide for them an opportunity to be more successful than me. The debt that Obama is running up is a clear and present danger to that prospect. I am old enough to remember a Presidential candidate saying that adding 4 trillion to debt in 8 years was "unpatriotic" He has not responded with a request to comment on 6 trillion in 4 years.

And, from the horses mouth, there is no plan whatsoever to address this

This is fiscal child abuse. Whereas Romney and Ryan have proposals to address this, Obama's plan involves more "investment" in the "Jobs of the Future" because he has such a great track record.

Spending like this, over a trillion in deficit spending a year, is reducing the future available to my unborn kids. This is unacceptable and the main reason I will be voting for Mitt Romney.

I am old enough to remember

When anemic economic growth was a bad thing for an incumbent

h/t James Taranto

Two Papers in One!--II

• "President Bush smiled when he learned this week that economic growth during the third quarter reached a surprising 2.7 percent, almost twice the previous rate. But his smile shouldn't be broad. The new figure almost certainly exaggerates the health of the economy, which continues to creep along at a painfully slow pace. Even the 2.7 figure is half the normal rate of recovery and not enough to bring down unemployment."--editorial, New York Times, Oct. 29, 1992
• "The slow pace of the nation's economic recovery has picked up a bit lately. In the third quarter, the economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent, beating expectations and the dismal 1.3 percent growth in the second quarter. Over the past year, the growth rate has been 2.3 percent. At that pace, there's enough momentum to keep unemployment, currently 7.8 percent, from getting much worse."--editorial, New York Times, Oct. 27, 2012

This, combined with networks allegedly sitting on emails that contain the "Stand Down" orders from the White House and audio from the SEALs, who ignored orders and risked their lives to save the consulate staff, crying for air support and help and being denied is just laughable. 

NYT and WaPo ran Abu Ghraib on the front page every day, painting Bush with the same brush as the idiots who were mistreating prisoners non-stop. How many front page headlines have been dedicated to Benghazi?

Honestly, I think this is a huge issue. Even if Obama wins, after he is impeached for Benghazi then we are stuck with Biden as President. I certainly am old enough to remember how an unqualified, erratic and mentally unstable person should reflect poorly upon the top of the ticket.

They told me...

if I voted for Mccain/Palin we'd get "eye candy" who struggled with middle school math concepts

AND THEY WERE RIGHT

On helping kids with homework and whether he struggles with any subjects, Obama says "the math stuff I was fine with, up until 7th grade."

Too good not to steal

h/t Jim Treacher

read the whole thing

What is the big deal about Benghazi anyway?

“Come on, you guys. It’s only an American ambassador and three other Americans who served their country, murdered by Islamic terrorists on the anniversary of 9/11. In a country our president invaded unilaterally and, arguably, illegally. And our government only ignored the copious warnings of an impending terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi, and actually reduced security there, despite the since-murdered ambassador’s entreaties. And our president has only been lying about it for over a month because it reflects very badly on his self-evidently disastrous foreign policy. It’s not like it was a hotel break-in.”

Austerity for thee

The two biggest climate warriors I know have pretty strong views. One worked for the Climate Exchange that tried to get off the ground in Chicago and one is a non-profit lawyer.

One wanted laws against SUVs for soccer moms and the other was violently opposed to Keystone Pipeline. He accused me of "spouting right wing talking points" and being "completely uninformed" about the facts of the matter. When I asked him to inform me we had a very cordial and friendly discussion. My point was this.

The oil that is being extracted from the Canadian oil sands will be refined and used. This is just a fact. Our choices, as I saw it, were:

1.) Transport by pipeline to America. Refine and distribute here

2.) Sell internationally, most likely to China

My argument was that pipeline transportation is far more secure than piping to coast, loading on to oil tankers, trans-ocean shipment, offload, and pipe to refineries. EVEN IF nothing happens to harm the environment through those (unnecessary) steps, the standards for pollution in oil refineries are astronomically higher here than in China. Aside from the obvious economic boon to us with this high paying, blue collar jobs that will be created, environmentally it seems like the Keystone option is a HUGE winner for the environment. He hoped that first nation groups would all agree to stop the drilling and refining to happen. Meanwhile, in the real world, this oil is being shipped to China.

This oil could be used to fuel his car when he drives up to Wisconsin every other weekend to go mountain biking.

The SUV zealot also happens to be the most widely traveled person that I know. He has been to every continent and is always in the process of planning his next trip. Why should Soccer Moms change what they want to do when he is not canceling his globe trotting in the eyes of this crisis? Why does he know better than them what is judicious and right? Maybe she is carpooling and is actually saving the planet by taking 5 kids in one trip rather than separate cars? Maybe she feels safer with more metal between her kids and the road? Maybe it is none of our business? Maybe these high minded technocrats do not know what is best for everyone else?

DOE Secretary Stephen Chu rhapsodized about European gas prices as they forced people to drive less. Obama said that electricity prices would "necessarily skyrocket" under his plan and that we cannot "Drive our SUVs or keep our houses at 70 degrees"

Energy is the biggest regressive tax around. Every regulation, closed oil well and mandated alternative energy minimums increase the cost of everything bought or sold in the entire country. Poor people lack the cushion that these better off liberals have in their budgets to make up for every trip to the the grocery store and gas station cost  incrementally more. They do not have that luxury. And these are the ones that beat their chests about how people could only vote for Republicans because they hate poor people and minorities.

I like this take by from Indiana Jones

I will start treating this like a crisis when the people who lecture me about it start acting like it is

Party of Wall Street

The picture that should prevent Obama from being re-elected

From the last debate

OBAMA: Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules. That’s been his philosophy in the private sector, that’s been his philosophy as governor, that’s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.

This is a great talking point that I would like to explore. It has populist appeals that tug on the heartstrings. Everyone likes to root for the underdog, the scrappy hockey team with the disgraced lawyer/former hockey star coach looking for redemption against the cake-eating Hawks.

I get it, and it sounds great. The problem is that is a crock of bull.

For those of you who do not know, the man warmly embracing Obama above is Jon Corzine. Former Goldman exec and Governor of New Jersey. Let's get some background on him from our President and Vice President, so I cannot be accused of putting words in their mouths.

According to Biden, literally the first person we called on financial advice.

Helped craft Obama's stimulus

One more time, this time with Megyn Kelly

Why is this a big deal?

Because Jon Corzine is a bigger crook than Bernie Madoff.

Madoff operated an investment vehicle as a Ponzi scheme. While this is dishonest, everyone investing, including my great-uncle who invested his mesothelioma settlement with him, knew that there are inherent risks with any investment. Madoff lied and was a criminal but any time you give your money to other people to invest you have to know there is a non zero chance that things could go horribly wrong.

MF Global, in addition to taking positions on their own behalf, was a clearing house for other, smaller trading shops, hedge funds and private investors. This means they hold cash or securities as collateral and work between trading shops and the exchanges to assure the execution, confirmation,  and settlement of trades. So the money that these people had on account with MF was not there for Corzine and others to make bets with, only to allow them to trade on their own account.

Corzine dipped in to that money when his massive bets started going South. So in addition to losing all the money his firm had on available to invest, he also lost millions of which he had no right to even touch.

But he walks free, continuing to bundle for Obama. This class warrior, opponent of corporate excess, rule-breaking and greed does not really square with the fact that Obama has raised more money from Wall Street than Romney.

I wonder what the price of Corzine's get-out-of-jail free card was? $500,000? A million? Maybe it helps that MF Global was a client of AG Eric Holder's law firm? God knows the DOJ is not busy going after Fast and Furious info so one would think that they have plenty of time. Maybe the other murky connections between MF, Holder and the Obama campaign prevent action.

How Obama can harp on people playing by "a different set of rules" after his biggest campaign bundlers and contributors seem to get massive sweetheart green energy loans, subverted bankruptcy laws and immunity from criminal prosecution in fraud cases over a BILLION blows my mind

Everyone should watch this

I would vote for this guy for President

Amateur Hour

Biden is either completely dishonest or completely delusional.

He outright lied about his votes on Iraq and Afghanistan. He blamed the "Great Recession" on "two wars put on a credit card" and tax cuts for the wealthy. Constantly labeling them the "Bush Tax Cuts."

First, this graph

As you can see, the deficits were declining under Bush, even with these two wars that got near unanimous bi-partisan approval, including votes from Biden and Hillary.

Second, Obama extended those Bush tax cuts saying "you don't raise taxes in a recession." So now it seems like he owns these tax cuts.

The most damning thing that Biden was less than honest about last night was Libya. This is a country where troops were sent without Congressional approval (remember when Bush shredded the Constitution?). We were dragged in to a country to depose a tyrant who had voluntarily surrendered his nuclear program. Then once we are there, there are cables detailing threats and asking for security forces to not be withdrawn that were either rejected or ignored. A request for a DC-10 to be stationed there for rapid evacuation was similarly not fulfilled.

Biden says the administration did not know these requests were made. There is blood on someones hands

It is deja-vu all over again...

Eric Holder did not know the specifics of Fast and Furious, he never read those memos

Stephen Chu did not know about the questions surrounding the viability of Solyndra's business model

Who is in charge? Who is responsible? Where are the adults? At some point the lack of leadership at DOJ, DOE and State dept has to reflect poorly upon the chief executive. That is before we even address the hair plugged buffoon who he put a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Two things

I may be biased as I am a huge fan of FNL but this Romney's campaign slogan appeals to me FAR more than Obama's "GM is alive, Bin Laden is Dead!" rallying cry

Let's break down Obama's claim in 2 parts

GM is alive

Well sure, as much as someone on an Iron Lung is alive. This is a classic example of a false choice. Obama casts himself as a White Knight, riding in to save American automakers who, without his help, would have shut their plants forever and never made a car again. Without his timely intervention, another car would never have been made in the United States.

This is pure bullshit. 

Everyone reading this blog (all 15 of you, Hi Mom!) have flown on bankrupt airlines. People, businesses, cities and states go bankrupt on a regular basis. This happens, it is part of capitalism  People take risks, make choices, they do not always pay off. Bankruptcy is not a death sentence, is a process where productive assets, people and companies are freed from the burden of debts that cannot be covered.

Were GM allowed to go through an orderly, legal bankruptcy, the $56 an hour labor and outrageous legacy costs would have been addressed and they could compete with foreign manufacturers level ground. Instead, the people with legal rights to be first in line were screwed in favor of the UAW (who understand a thing or two about investment, their campaign donations to Dem campaigns return more than any hedge fund I have ever heard of). So now rather than a leaner, more efficient GM standing alone and making cars that people want we have a tax payer financed zombie that exists primarily to provide health care to tens of thousands of UAW retirees that has a small subsidy that makes cars that no one wants and occasionally combust.

I hate the TARP but the banks have largely repaid what they were loaned, the majority of the outstanding money comes from the auto industry. So we, the taxpayers, are invested in a company that has twice the labor costs of their competitors. I am not a doctor, but that does not seem like a good bet

Bin Laden is Dead (foreign policy)

I give Obama all the credit he deserves for killing Bin Laden. Well done and thank you.

There are two things that, in my eyes, completely rule Obama out for re-election. And I would love to hear from Flany or Gleck respond to how their God-King deserves their vote in this light. That is if my overwhelming racism can be overcome to merit a response.

Fast and Furious

Death Toll 300+ in Mexico and 2 Border Control agents and counting

Guns given to known cartel members to be tracked and followed up the chain to followed up the chain to find the bigger fish. Evidently this brilliant plan lacked proper surveillance on the guns and inter-departmental communication as one of the targets was an informant for another agency and consequently untouchable. 

Oh and the border agent that was killed was mandated to use non-lethal (read as bean-bag) rounds while they were knowingly handing assault rifles to cartel hit men.

Holder Lied! Mexicans and Brian Terry Died!

Gleck, remind me, what was the body-count from Watergate?

Libya

So tell me if I am missing something here

Obama leads an undeclared war without congressional approval (War of choice! Hey Liberals check me on this but Bush got Congressional approval for Iraq and Afghanistan right?)

This war is to depose a leader who voluntarily gave up his nuclear program right?

At a compound in Benghazi, a known Al Qeada strongold, had security that totaled to local militia, locks and keys

The Ambassador and embassy staff had requests for additional security denied

My fault, that was not asking for additional security, it was ASKING TO NOT TO REMOVE THE GUARDS THEY HAD

Obama knew about the attack with 90 minutes and went to bed without sending Marines. Went to bed while Stephens was still unaccounted for

He then went to Vegas for a star studded fundraiser the next day?

Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jay Carney and Susan Rice say that this was some sort of spontaneous movie review

So Obama gets us into a undeclared war, his administration refuses requests for additional security and gets 4 brave Americans killed. Then lies about the circumstances.

I think whoever denied the requests for additional security should be sent to Libya.

Flany, remind me, what was the body count from Watergate?

Failed policies of the past!!!

I hear this rhetoric constantly...

A vote for Romney is a vote to return us to the failed policies of the past...

The policies that got us in to this mess...

Turn the clock back to the failed ideas of the past...

What specific policies are they talking about?

From what I gather they must be referring to the Bush tax cuts, which the Obama Campaign and the media (but I repeat myself) blame for the economic crisis.

I am unclear as to how Obama can blame these tax cuts after he extended them. I do not know how he can blame these tax cuts after saying this. Or from the fact that tax revenues actually increased.

Regulation? The straw man that liberals love to ANNIHILATE is that conservatives hate regulation, police firefighters, consumer protection etc etc. They paint small-government conservatives as some so of anarchist/extreme libertarian bogeyman that would prefer some sort of Mad Max Beyond Thunder-dome free for all

awesome

Just because I think we are over regulated and over litigious does not mean I prefer Lord of the Flies. It is akin to my weight, I could stand so lose some, but my target weight is not exactly zero.

I realize this must test well with low information voters, but where is the beef?

Then he says the private sector is "doing fine" and our unemployment stems from the drastic cuts in public employees? Well those numbers seem to be flawed also.

I understand Obama has no record of his own to vote on, aside from passing an unpopular healthcare bill through legislative tricks that had to be re written from the Supreme Court Bench, but come on

Can you believe those damn Right Wingers?

http://deadspin.com/5941348/they-wont-magically-turn-you-into-a-lustful-cockmonster-chris-kluwe-explains-gay-marriage-to-the-politician-who-is-offended-by-an-nfl-player-supporting-it

This link is NSFW for language and just pretty funny in general.

Basically Brendon Ayanbadejo, a player for the Ravens expressed thoughtful, coherent support for gay marriage and Emmett C. Burns Jr a Maryland state delegate wrote a letter to the Ravens encouraging them to "inhibit such expressions from your employee."

The internet went wild. You can read the comments on the site, which are also NSFW but this was all over. People were condemning the infringement upon First Amendment rights, the bullying of a private citizen by an elected official and, especially, the intolerance and hateful nature of the Religious Right and Republicans in general.

Sadly, Burns is a Democrat. Oops.

CPS Fools

I do not understand how teachers think they deserve a raise. Average teacher comp in Chicago is $74K plus pension and health care for 9 months of work a year. Average family income in Chicago is just north of $30K.

This is a system that has a 40% dropout rate and 94% of those that graduate and go on to the Chicago Community College system need to take remedial classes to get them up to college freshman competency. Seems like they deserve a raise right?




Case in point.

Honestly, this was one of the things that I was hopeful about from an Obama Presidency. He made some very encouraging noises during his campaign about supporting school choice and increased teacher accountability but sadly toed the line of the teachers unions and killed the DC scholars program. If he were a conservative there would probably be stories about how much he must hate poor Black kids to deny them the chance to go to good schools like the one his daughters go to. I think school choice (I thought being pro-choice was good!) is one of the biggest home run issues for conservatives and not just for the fact that breaking the teachers unions deprives Democrats of one of their biggest sources of campaign contributions.

I also do not understand the rationale of clogging up the entire Loop to make a point. This happens during the illegal immigrant marches too, and it blows my mind. You think the best way to win people over to your cause is by making it impossible for the people who are working, whose tax dollars you are trying to hoover up, to go home, get lunch or go about their business in any kind of efficient manner.

Tolerant, Open Minded Liberals

If you ask a Conservative what they believe in you will get a variety of answers. Pick a few major points from fiscal conservatism, social warriors, self reliance, small government and whatever the hell Ron Paul supporters say. Maybe say something that how the government does nothing well or without corruption, inefficiency or graft and thus should any expansion beyond protecting our God-given rights, national defense and a social safety net should be approached with caution. That no matter how many Ivy League degrees they stack in Washington a centrally planned economy is doomed to failure.

If you ask a liberal, in my experience, you typically get a blend between some sort of social justice mantra and a purported devotion to pragmatism. That they lack ideology and are dedicated to results. They are uncomfortable with the idea of American Exceptionalism and the moral relativism with which they regard the viewpoints of other cultures is pervasive. Who are we to say anything about genital mutilation or the stoning of gays in the Middle East, the bananas thrown at Black soccer players in Europe or the organ harvesting from the Falun Gong in China? Their culture, their viewpoints should not be condemned by our narrow, Western, Judeo-Christian morals.

I am left to wonder why people who profess to be so open minded, even handed, scientific and pragmatic in their methods react in such a viscerally nasty way to people that have a different view of the government's role in society and life. 

3 Personal examples, quotes from people who I consider smart who happen to be liberal. Note the tolerance of people with different points of view and the open minded nature.

"I do not know why people are not making a bigger deal of how weird it is that Romney is a Mormon"

I, personally, would welcome a relative discussion of the churches attended by our respective Presidential candidates. Speaking of intolerance, Obama's pastor, who married him and baptized his children.

"Looking at the RNC you would think that the only ingredient in the American Melting Pot is milk....." followed by referring to Mia Love as a "token" African American. 

Why not just go ahead and call her an Uncle Tom? This is even from someone who called me all excited when Ryan was nominated because it was going to be an election of ideas and he thought the Democrats had the high ground there. I guess he took a dump on the high ground.

and this, in a twitter conversation re: fiscal policy and spending (yes I am an idiot for trying to have any substantive conversation on twitter, thank you)

"just be straight-up. It's bc anti-programs viewed as helping undeserving poor/other."

So conservatives who want to cut spending because we understand math just do not want to help the undeserving poor/other. Because we hate them. QED

I understand they disagree with me, well within their rights. Why do conservatives who think the spending trajectory of Illinois, California, Greece, Spain and drunken syphilitic sailors in general is not sustainable because of Math get accused of being Klan members? 

I mean, not like real Klan members, like, say a Democratic Senator for 40 years, just people who hate poor people and minorities.

To be clear, I have had long discussions about politics, economics, soccer and women with one or all of these three people at various points I disagree with them on almost everything, but I think they are smart, and I do not think any of them are evil or hateful, I merely think they are wrong. This is not like being lectured by a 22 year old socialist who lives off of his wealthy mom, they are well read and educated, I just have fundamental disagreements with them in the way to solve the problems that face our country. 

The fact that I and people who believe as I do are immediately labelled as racist is, pardon my french, fucking bullshit. This is MSNBC schlock rivaling Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow or Martin Bashir, when presented with facts and evidence that rupture his precious, fragile world view he only has two responses, first is Blaming Bush and second is declaring anyone who says that his Emperor has No Clothes is a filthy, hateful racist. We did not have the money to pay for our entitlements before Obama added another massive one. Saying we cannot spend like this is as racist and intolerant as saying "When this plane runs out of gas, it will crash into the ground in a fiery inferno." 

Even Lefty Jon Stewart is over crap like this.

Honestly, I am excited about this election. I think that people get the government they deserve. I can understand people voting for Obama after the Bush years and liking everything he represented but he has been an embarrassment. With the VP pick, we are going to get an election of ideas. I love that Paul Ryan is one of the only politicians on either side of the aisle that talks to voters like adults about the debt and entitlement issues that we face.  You can disagree with his methods, I am not enamored with every facet of his plan, but he earnestly is trying to solve the problem. I love the fact that Obama sends tax cheat Geithner to actually say this out loud and on the record:

“You are right to say we’re not coming before you today to say ‘we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.’  What we do know is, we don’t like yours.”

I think that defines this election. Turbo Tax Expert Obama Goldman Sachs crony saying that while they have no plan to address the economy or debt.

I am not going to make any promises about being better about blogging because I do not want to lie to the 4 people that actually read this. I will promise to try though

I am the Worst

Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know, I have not been writing anything. I have not been able to get excited about this election. I am going to hold my nose and vote for whoever is not Obama.

I will try and do better but this gorgeous weather is really going to make that a difficult proposition.

As a Giants fan I was happy for the Bears getting Brandon Marshall. I thought the price was great and almost every single one of Marshall's multiple personalities thrived with Cutler in Denver. I was happy for all of my long suffering friends who support the Bears through thick and thin.

Now I hope they lose every game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nrqUHEj-Zw&feature=player_embedded

Two things. One, Lovie Smith, shut up. I do not want to hear lectures on politics from someone who hired Mike Martz and cannot comprehend the NFL challenge rules.

Second, what would the outcry be if someone started an organization "White Americans for whatever average candidate the GOP nominates in November"

Why are we told that opposition to Obama is racist after he got 43% of white voters in 08 and McCain got 4% the black vote?

Third, the Balkanization of politics is gross.

Fourth, great job spending that trillion Barry

I am back!

New Years Resolution is to post at least once a week.

This is what is on the top of my head today

SOPA



I, for one, cannot wait for the #OccupyWallStreet crowd and every one of my liberal friends who post crap like this on facebook and twitter respond to the Corporate Political Speech going on today to protest SOPA by Google, Wikipedia and Reddit today.

No?

Nothing?

So their principles are really just matters of convenience to be dropped whenever it is expedient to their point of view?

There is an analogy here between the virulent anti-war Left and their silence in the expansion of drone killings, targeted killing of Americans, waging undeclared wars in Africa without congressional approval, the 10 year anniversary of Gitmo etc etc etc but I have been away from blogging for so long that I need to warm up a little bit before getting there.

To be clear I am completely against SOPA and agree with the points that these companies are making and have real problems with drone attacks and undeclared wars I just think the mercurial convictions of liberals are interesting.

KEYSTONE XL


Well, I would like to thank the administration for one thing, keeping the word Keystone in the news as much as possible as it calls to mind one of my all time favorite commercials

This blows my mind. This is a slam dunk for Obama. He signs this, he creates hundreds of thousands of high paying, blue collar, union jobs with the stroke of a pen. He cuts down on oil imports, he lowers the cost of domestic energy with is one of the biggest regressive taxes that I come to mind and stops China from signing a deal to get this oil. In an election that will hinge completely on the economy and jobs the appeasement of the loony environmental lobby seems to be insane. I love that Obama is providing this club to bludgeon him with come November but this is just bad for the country.

Fun environmental loony question of the day

What Killed more people last year?

BP oil spill
Fukushima meltdown
Organic sprouts in Germany

2012


Puke. I looooove nominally identifying with such a stupid party. I will hold my nose and vote for Romney. Why the crap can we not get a good candidate like Ryan, Christie, Daniels or Rubio?

Occupy Chicago!!

I took a walk down to the CBOT yesterday to check out the protest. I was ready to despise the hippie losers with their misspelled signs and misguided slogans but when I got down there I just felt bad for them. There was a forlorn drum circle and (by my count) 37 protesters.

37. On a gorgeous day with the sun out. The crowd doubled every time the light on Lasalle said "Don't Walk"

My favorite sign that I saw was "Educated. Multi-Lingual. Moving to China."

I offered to help pack but the protester of ambiguous sex was not interested.

I then walked a block away to the farmers market and bought some local cheese. It was delicious.

The people with the wacky "Give peace a chance" and "War never solved anything" (except for ending slavery, fascism, communism, or tyranny I assume he forgot to write) were smelly and beyond parody. The drum circle was mostly vacant. The people wandering in an out of the CBOT were just smirking and rolling their eyes. No one was taking them seriously aside from themselves.

Putting aside their most ridiculous demands like the blanket forgiveness of all debt, a $20 living wage regardless of employment, completely open borders everywhere and the trillions they want for green energy and infrastructure, we can get to issues where I find a lot of common ground with them.

End Crony Capitalism. End the Bailout Culture. End Too Big Too Fail.

These are signs that I have seen word for word at Tea Party rallies. These are ideas that I have espoused on this blog and sentiments that I think have a ton of traction across the country. The issue here is the chicken or the egg. I think that crony capitalism, bailouts and the idea of "too big too fail" stem from a government that is too large, powerful and intertwined with business. Incentives were skewed, the free market was perverted and the taxpayers got screwed. The implied guarantee of FRE and FNM, the bailout of the UAW in the form of the big 3, Solyndra, the Stimulus and the TARP in general are not facets of capitalism or a free market economy. They are examples of the "Tyranny of Pull" expounded by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged. The targeted gifts to campaign bundlers in the case of Solyndra, public sector unions (Stimulus), private sector unions (Big 3) and the financial sector (TARP FRE FNM) who gave more money to Obama than any candidate in any campaign ever just proves that I should not be looking for a new job, I should just give money to Obama's re-election campaign so I can be taken care of in the future.

These cretins are complaining about money in politics when the vast majority of them voted for the only candidate ever to turn down public financing. The candidate who is now targeting a BILLION dollars of donations for his re-election campaign. The candidate who received more money from Wall Street, K street and BP than any other candidate ever. They are beating the drum to pass a financial reform act that is named Dodd-Frank, which is beyond parody. Dodd was a "Friend of Mozillo" up to his eyebrows in CFC slime, donations and favors. Barney Frank's boyfriend was on the board of FRE and Frank himself talked about rolling the dice more in the direction of subprime loans. How are these people not in jail, let alone still in office and writing laws to save us? This is like the internet scammers that write viruses than infect your computer then charge you to fix it.

My solution here is less centralized government. Less power in Washington, less opportunity for these people to screw things up. They should not be choosing winners and losers in the economy, they should not be guaranteeing loans for campaign bundlers, giving billions to selected constituencies like the UAW or SEIU, sending guns to Mexico, bailing out banks that Maxine Waters' husband is invested in, or funding studies on the affect of cocaine on the social lives of monkeys. Slash the size of the government to protecting our rights, maintaining our borders, roads, foreign relations and a safety net for those who cannot take care of themselves.

Fast and Furious

Not only of my top movie franchises (In specific, non-random order 1. Die Hard 2. Indiana Jones 3. Star Wars IV-VI 4. Fast and Furious 5. Back to the Future 6. Mighty Ducks I-II) but my current favorite government scandal that gets no coverage.

Here is a more comprehensive synopsis than I am going to provide, read the whole thing

Basically the idea of the program was to allow gun sales to suspected or known cartel members and track them up the chain to find bigger fish. Over 2000 guns were involved, with some sold personally by ATF agents whose complaints and objections were ignored by their superiors. The death toll includes at least one Border Control agent and according to Mexican authorities literally hundreds more people.

Let that sink in, the administration, in a program sponsored by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Stimulus, knowingly put guns in the hands of cartel killers. This lead to deaths on both sides of the border. This is something that bothers me 100x more than Troy Davis being executed but it barely registers on the national news radar.

What was the objective? Why are we violating the sovereignty of a neighbor and putting our officers and civilians at risk? What is the end game that merits this strategy? What benefit do we derive from this?

Since the observation and surveillance techniques successfully followed zero guns and lead to zero high ranking cartel arrests, we are left with the following options.

1. Complete incompetence
2. A different motive

Even someone with as little faith in the governments ability to do anything efficiently and well as I do would have a hard time believing that 2000 guns would be knowingly given to cartel warriors accidentally. So what would the other motive be? As I see it there are two options

1. Playing realpolitik between the Cartels
2. Influencing the debate on gun control in the states

If this was an operation designed to arm the Sinaloa Cartel against the Zetas who are becoming the most powerful institution in Mexico, legitimate or otherwise, it is still a disaster. Even if they were trying to counterbalance the Zetas why use American retail gun dealers? Why not buy guns internationally or use the thousands of guns taken from the field in Afghanistan or Iraq? At the very least, the sourcing the guns from the  American stores when it would be cleaner and more covert to do it from elsewhere seems to be done with an eye on tilting the debate on the second amendment here.

Now Holder is being investigated for perjury for his supposed ignorance of the program in Congressional testimonies earlier this year. Could not happen to a nicer guy.

Reagan was almost impeached for Iran Contra, documents coming forward are indicating more Administration knowledge than previously indicated. This is worse. I am beside myself that this does not get more coverage.

Happy Birthday Barry!

What kind of out of touch plutocrat would throw himself a celebrity laden, $35,000 a plate birthday party the day the market takes it in the shorts? The same one that rants about "fairness" and corporate jets and people having "too much money." 

I can only imagine what the media say if it was a conservative doing something like this.

Further, I will agree to be called a "terrorist" about threatening default if liberals agree to be called Pedophiles for the way they are absolutely screwing my kids and grandkids with their insane spending and astronomical debt.  Deal?

Spending

Ask liberals what president they like and Clinton will be at the top of the list. Go from there and ask that, in those halcyon days of the Clinton Administration if we were grossly underserved by our government. If people were dying in the streets for want of food or medicine, if our children were being taught off of stone tablets in water damaged class rooms. They will say no. What is their rationale for saying that even now, when we are spending 2x what we were spending back then, that any cuts are draconian and will, according to Pelsoi, ruin "Life as we know it on Earth?"

Fiscal year 2001: $1.86 trillion
Fiscal year 2002: $2.01 trillion
Fiscal year 2003: $2.16 trillion
Fiscal year 2004: $2.29 trillion
Fiscal year 2005: $2.47 trillion
Fiscal year 2006: $2.66 trillion
Fiscal year 2007: $2.73 trillion
Fiscal year 2008: $2.98 trillion
Fiscal year 2009: $3.52 trillion
Fiscal year 2010: $3.46 trillion
Fiscal year 2011 (estimate): $3.82 trillion

The question is what will be enough? We have doubled spending and all we want to talk about are more "investments" and "savings in the tax code." There are no brakes on this bus. They will never be able to tax and spend enough.

Now on the subject of "new revenue" we are told by Barney Frank that there are "a lot of Rich people we can tax" but is he right? If we taxed the top 1% of earners, those evil millionaires and billionaires and corporate jet owners (we all know that Obama signed a stimulus bill written by Reid and Pelosi that contained the jet tax break right? I feel this needs to be stressed) at 100%, just confiscated all of their earnings it would only yield $938 billion. So with out $1.65 trillion deficit this year would still not be covered. 

I was talking to an Obama supporter last week and we were discussing the Republican field for 2012. She was giddy about the lack of a big name or obvious strong challenger but my feeling is that the toughest opponent that Barry is going to face in 2012 will not be any of the Republican challengers but Math. These figures are, to use an awesome liberal buzzword, unsustainable.  

These debt conversations are sickening. We should be talking about cutting entire departments rather than rounding error level cuts this year with totally awesome promises for cuts in the out years. There should be a 10% AT LEAST cut of every department even after we slash Education, Interior, Education and HUD but we are quibbling over 30 billion here and there. We borrow more than that in 10 days. This deal saves what the government borrow while I was body surfing at the Jersey Shore with my family. This is insulting to anyone who understands math and I cannot understand why the discussion is framed in these terms. I wish there was an adult in Washington over then Paul Ryan. I would buy that man a $300 bottle of wine.

Education

The debt ceiling debate is a joke, it is a debate between awful and gross. The current GOP plan seems to give a trillion dollar credit card in return for minuscule cuts this year with tons of totally awesome promises to cut more than that in the "out years." Sweet. I totally trust politicians on both sides to honor that.  

Anyway, this post is about education.  Not public primary or secondary, which is an abomination created by the two header monster of government control and public sector unions that deserves a post of its own, but college education. Specifically, why we are, the taxpayers, are subsidizing millions of kids for billions of dollars to go to school, study bullshit and not graduate. The debate over the budget will constantly descend into Mrs. Lovejoy screaming about how this is robbing children of the chance to go to college, which is, as we are told by people who work for colleges, the only way to get ahead in the world.  Bullshit.  I paid $500 to a plumber yesterday for 2.5 hours of work, there are other ways to make money.

What is the purpose of a college education?  To prepare students for life? To enrich their personal experience? To train students for a career? To chase loose women and drink cold beers?

Honestly, if I am not paying for it, I could not think of a way I would care less if someone went to school and abused whatever substances while studying underwater basket weaving and never graduated ever.  However, since my tax dollars are spent on it, I tend to care a lot. 

I am not heartless or a Social Darwinist, I think that high achieving students should have the opportunity to get an education and succeed and maximize their potential.  Great-grandson of goatherds and grandson of a plumber, I am the American Dream and would never begrudge others the same.  I just think there need to be stipulations attached to the funding.

 I had a long conversation with one of my best friends about this. This is an exceptionally smart guy who happens to be a socialist (seems like oil and water to me too folks).  He said, and I am paraphrasing, that "Education should be a right. I would want to live in a State where education is a priority and people can study whatever they want at minimal personal expense." I agreed completely that in a perfect world that would be awesome just like free unicorns and double rainbows for all, but we live in a world with limits and debt ceilings.  I see the funding of education as an investment. If my cash is on the line I want to see a return for society as a whole. Why should I work hard to pay taxes to fund the education of someone who wants to get 3 degrees because they love studying and do not want to work? That system in not sustainable at all. There is no incentive to actually work and do things when you can just continue to live the dream in a fluffy academic world for life (Right Obama?).

If a smart kid wants to study hard math, science, medicine or engineering I am totally on board.  I would add business degrees that are heavy in econ finance and math, expressly forbid marketing or marketing, and I am sure there are others that I am leaving out but you get the idea.  You are smart, capable and want to study something like this, awesome. There is a linear route to getting a good job and paying taxes that will repay what your degree cost. Go to the best school you can get into and godspeed. There is a clear return on investment. When we hear these sob stories that "I have 250K of student loan debt and I am a teacher/barista/social worker" it is hard to drum up a lot of sympathy. You know what you want to do, you know the range of salaries from what you want to do, why would you choose a school/career combination that will lead to debilitating debt with a job that will not allow you to repay it? I am not saying that these are not worthy majors or careers, but go to in state public schools. These are realities, it is just math.

I am not being an asshole, I plan on sending my kids to school and I will have a similar talk with them.  I will tell them to take something that will get them a job and aside from that take whatever you want.  I took the bare minimum courses to get my Finance degree (plus they gave me an International Business degree for not soiling myself in any important classes over 4 years, only requirement I could observe) and had a blast taking classes that interested me outside of my major. I had time to minor in Spanish and Classics along with taking every Tennis and Racquetball class offered by WashU (Renaissance man, I know). I also had a great time.

Bottom line when people say we need everyone to go to college they are lying. We send too many kids to college who are not prepared to be students. 43% of people who go to college do not graduate withing 6 years (Hey Andrew you made it!). This is a joke. We need to send more kids to trade schools and apprenticeship programs because college is not for everyone, and the kids that are going need to be studying more useful things.