Quote Of The Week from California

From Columnist Burt Prelutsky:

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close.

When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one.

There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'.

The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

HT to blogger buddy James Shott at Observations

What do Che Guevara and Saddam Hussein Have in Common?

Che Guevara:  T-Shirt Salesman to the Tards 

"Why do we have a picture of Che Guevara in this house?" Mrs. Silverfiddle demanded of me when I got home from work Friday.

"Because it's part of my Latin America memorabilia collection," I answered weakly.  I also have a postcard with a Hitler stamp on it that I got while in Germany, but I would no sooner wear a Hitler T-shirt than I would one with El Che on it.

It's been hanging on the wall for years, why all the fuss now?  My wife had been watching Glenn Beck's program on history's little known facts.  Although never a fan of Guevara, she had not realized just what a twisted murderer he was, and I caught the brunt of it.

In case you missed Glenn's show like I did, Nick Gillespie lays down the truth about The T Shirt Salesman to the Tards in his Reason Magazine article, Exorcising Che...

If his younger admirers study the historical Che--the one reputed to have declared "I feel my nostrils dilate savoring the acrid smell of gunpowder and blood of the enemy"--they will understand that Che's original influence was indeed tragic, not just for Cubans but for many others as well.

And they just might skip the farce phase, out of deference to the many victims of the butcher of La Cabaña.

My wife, reasonable woman she is, backed off, but I can tell she still doesn't like it.  The Che poster stays, as does the jacket from Noriega's defunct defense forces, the Argentinian Mauser and the Afghan Scimitar.

Want more truth about Che?  Humberto Fontova brings it in bloody black and white... 

From Quieting Corporations to Banning Books

President Obama is angry at the Supreme Court for upholding free speech

"the government maintained that the Constitution allows the government to ban distribution of books"

The Washington Post reminds us that the ACLU fought on the winning side of this decision.  Why?  Maybe it was the specter of government book banning.  Maybe this will convince the angry anti-corporatist liberals that there's more to this than meets the eye...

Implicit in its briefs but laid bare at oral argument, the government maintained that the Constitution allows the government to ban distribution of books over Amazon's Kindle; to prohibit a union from hiring a writer to author a book titled, "Why Working Americans Should Support the Obama Agenda"; and to prohibit Simon & Schuster from publishing, or Barnes & Noble from selling, a book containing even one line of advocacy for or against a candidate for public office.

As David Barry would say, "I am not making this up."
The Court said "no," and the only shocking thing about the decision is that the four liberal justices said "yes."
 
The next time you download a book on Kindle, buy a Michael Moore screed at Barnes & Noble, or order up a political movie from video on demand, remember that it is the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United that guarantees you the right to do so. (WSJ - Bradley A. Smith)

Modern-day legislation is an embarrassing congeries of capricious fiats and clawing usurpations.  The Supreme Court just knocked one down.  

Lady Liberty won this one, but we must remain vigilant.  The progressives' Long March will continue, this time with more louder propaganda!.

Steve Chapman also has good commentary on this

The Left's Invented Rights

It is easy to declare a new "right."  The challenge is paying for it.  For every "right" declared by an enlightened progressive, some other party has a duty to provide it

Consider the invented rights of modern-day leftists: 

Right to food, housing, healthcare, to violate internationally recognized borders, a "living wage" (whatever that is).

Now look at the rights mentioned by the founders: 

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, free press, free speech, free worship.  Even the Bill of Rights is not so much a list of what you are entitled to as it is a an admonishment to the Federal Government stating what it must refrain from doing to you.

Liberal "Rights" Cost Money, God-Given Ones Do Not

See the difference?  The founders did not draw up a contract that binds the government and taxpayers to give you anything.  Your government and your fellow man owe you nothing but to leave you alone to your lawful pursuits.  Your rights, given to you by God and guaranteed under the constitution, cost me nothing.

Liberals Have it Bass-Akwards (as usual)

Liberals have stood this concept upon its head:  Government must be left alone to do whatever it pleases in pursuit of what it thinks the populace needs.  Rights don't come from some invisible, unfair meany in the heavens, they come from government!

I'm tired of progressive do-gooders trying to erase every ill and wipe away every tear with my money.

If you want to guarantee those who refuse to work three squares and a roof over their heads, great!  Start a charity and collect voluntary contributions.  There are enough soft-headed people in this country that you could probably make a go of it.

Life's not fair!  I'll never make as much money playing the fiddle as Charlie Daniels

A good government doesn't guarantee you decent housing and a good job.  It provides an even playing field where you can go as far as your own efforts and initiative take you.  Picking favorites and wasting taxpayer money on chimeric programs narrows that field and fills it with potholes.

The referees are now tripping some players while pushing others over the goal line.

Salon - Economic Rights

Can We Please Start Letting Crises Go To Waste Again?

Will Wilkerson longs for the good old days when a crisis was just something to solve, not an excuse for another trillion dollar government enterprise.  He's really down on Former President Bush, but I agree with his larger point, which could simply be put as "Enough Already!"

The Aughts began in crisis when the second plane hit the second tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Bush administration, loath to let a serious crisis go to waste, managed to parlay the nation's alarm and credulity into an ill-conceived invasion of an entirely unrelated country, wasting over a trillion dollars and many tens of thousands of lives, all while losing control of the fight in Afghanistan and failing utterly to bring down Osama bin Laden.  (The Week - Will Wilkerson)

He accuses Obama of the same crime:

Bush's botched attempts to capitalize on crisis—the ugly aftermath to which Obama is heir—might have made an alert leader wary. But instead, Obama set up shop in the Oval Office and proceeded immediately to use crisis as (Emanuel's words again) "an opportunity to do things you'd think you could not do."  

Similarly, the Obama administration could have focused narrowly on getting the economy back on its feet, on getting the unemployed back to work, but it didn’t. Instead, it has followed Bush’s lead, pushing its most ardently desired policies through the window of crisis. A prolonged economic quagmire may be our reward.

A "Marriage of Incompetence and Craven Opportunism"

This marriage of incompetence and craven opportunism is so much in the familiar spirit of the age that one must conclude that the age itself remains unchanged.

Nostalgia for Bush

Critics foreign and domestic are suffering wistful nostalgia for the Cowboy from Texas

Love him or hate him, at least you knew where he stood.  Others may have quibbled over the moral standards he set, but at least the standards were clear.

Europe in a Dither
Why?  Because America is supposed to be the publicly reviled bad cop.  That scary cop who will beat the crap out of you when the ACLU lawyers ain't around, then deny it all in court. 

Our president is not supposed to run around the world coddling bad guys, cosying up to troublemakers and currying favor with emerging powers.  He's supposed to be brass knuckling the bad guys and taking public scoldings from finger-wagging Europeans who privately egg him on because they are too cowardly to take care of things themselves.

Castigate us publicly, but thank us privately, that's the dysfunctional dynamic between us and Europe.  Well, now the bad cop is playing global social worker while little Hugo and crazy Mahmoud go wilding on the Jews and threaten to burn down the neighborhood.

Democrats miss The Decider as well 
The object of their hatred gone, the nutroots turned on Obama.  Their pent-up anger simmered and seethed for almost a year, building like a swollen red pustule until finally it exploded all over their messiah.  Note to future saviors:  If you're gonna promise socialist salvation, you better bring it.

Dems actually have to govern now, and they answered the challenge by setting up a Soviet Style Politburo, but the wall is falling and the proletariat ain't cooperating.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and chaos loves ambiguity 
President Bush provided moral clarity.  President Obama promises hope and change.  The O is empty, and Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts are filling the void. 

BS may get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Our Bloated Bureaucracy

It's not just the politicians, it's the government employees and their union-protected gold plated benefit plans.  Steve Greenhut details how government workers are cashing in at the expense of private sector tax payers.

Above Average Pay

According to a 2007 analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Asbury Park Press, “the average federal worker made $59,864 in 2005, compared with the average salary of $40,505 in the private sector.” Across comparable jobs, the federal government paid higher salaries than the private sector three times out of four, the paper found.

Gold-Plated Pension Plan
Here is what is breaking the states:

Public pensions have swollen to unrecognizable proportions during the last decade. In June 2005, BusinessWeek reported that “more than 14 million public servants and 6 million retirees are owed $2.37 trillion by more than 2,000 different states, cities and agencies,” numbers that have risen since then.

State and local pension payouts, the magazine found, had increased 50 percent in just five years.

He goes on to detail how many pension plans allow a worker to retire at 50 after 30 years and collect 90% of final salary, or over $60,000/year. 

In contrast, an E-9 with 30 years in the military retires at around $55,000 annually.  But that is the top-end exception.  Less than 5% of enlisted folks retire that good.  Most get out at E-6 to E-8 with less than 30 years, so these men and women who risked their lives for their country are looking at $25K-$35K per year, or about half of what the average desk-bound bureaucrat gets.

Government employment has grown three times as fast as the general population

The United States had 2.3 state and local government employees per 100 citizens in 1946 and has 6.5 state and local government employees per 100 citizens now.

Government now consumes almost half of the national income

In 1947, Hodges writes, 78 percent of the national income went to the private sector, 16 percent to the federal sector, and 6 percent to the state and local government sector.

Now 54 percent of the economy is private, 28 percent goes to the feds, and 18 percent goes to state and local governments. The trend lines are ominous.

If you didn't just gasp, go back and read that again.  From 1947 to now, government payroll's share of national income has doubled from 22% to 46%!

Government is necessary, and it takes people to man it, but how much is too much?  I think we've passed that point.