All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

DOS the WikiLeak Website

If the U.S. really wanted to shut down the WikiLeaks site, it merely needs to run a Denial-of-Service attack, which is done all the time by quack hackers and ne're-do-wells in the computing universe. It is the stuff of elementary programming and it's only real requirement are a large number of personal computers. That being the case you have to ask yourself why it is not being done. A simple declaration from the President could make it happen so the only believable answer is that there are those in the Administration, the State Department and our National Security apparatus who secretly support the WikiLeaks endeavor. The American people should know who they are, so we can tell them where to go.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Stop the Obama Tax Increase

Letting the Bush tax cuts expire is an Obama tax increase no matter how they try to dress the pig. This was thenewnarrative's first tweet today. It was inspired by a news story that noted the Democratic House and Senate have not yet considered extending the so-called Bush Tax Cuts. However this view is meant to imply that if taxes are increased it will be Bush's fault, which has been the typical Obama strategy on most thorny issues since he was elected. It has been a great fallback position for every Obama failure and shortcoming. It would be the ultimate coup to blame an Obama tax increase on George W. Bush. Obviously his supporters in the mainstream media and press want to assist him in that goal. The American people must remember it was a Democratic filibuster than put the sun setting provision in the original tax cut bill. The Republicans were forced to compromise. Now as the time for ending the tax cuts approaches there is widespread agreement it will hurt the economy and be the largest income tax increase in the history of the nation. Stop the Obama tax increase.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Global Warming Unvarnished

In order to get rich one has to burn coal, oil or gas. That is the conclusion of Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist and member of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He said climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection. The goal of "climate policy is redistributing the world's wealth," he said. During the IPCC convention in Switzerland, Edenhoffer unveiled a study that demonstrated a correlation between the production of greenhouse gas emissions and the growth of the world economy. "So far economic growth has gone hand in hand with the growth of greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "One percent growth means one percent more emissions." Only one conclusion can be drawn from this speech. The goal of climate policy is to slow the growth of the world's economy and as an unintended consequence everyone's standard of living will be reduced. While this may not to be terrible in developed nations, emerging nations will suffer greatly. The growth of all nations will be retarded and wealthy nations will be unable to provide support to poor ones. The choice is clear. Climate change has not only been proved to be poor science, but it is also proving to be an inferior economic and political policy as well. Until alternative forms of energy are more plentiful, reliable and less expensive, our failure to use fossil fuel is not only foolish, but economically untenable for the future of the planet. If you have any doubt you can read all this at
http://thegwpf.org/ipcc-news/1877-ipcc-official-climate-policy-is-redistributing-the-worlds-wealth.html

Monday, November 22, 2010

Al Gore and Arnold Speak Truth to Power

Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks "climate gate" was a setback. Al Gore finally comes to the realization that using ethanol for fuel was a mistake. Just last week the Chicago Futures Market reported it is considering a shut down of its carbon trading desk. These are all signs that America is beginning to come to its senses on the entire climate catastrophe concept. There is no catastrophe taking place. People have been taking cruises to Alaska for at least 50 years to watch the glaciers melt. Using that annual event as a prop to support a theory designed to make money has finally been exposed. The simple fact than ethanol requires more energy to create than it provides is reason enough not to use it for fuel. Considering it has driven up the price of food for people and livestock substantially is another reason. After years of supporting ethanol in the Congress Al Gore finally realizes it’s a mistake. It should be clear by now to all but the most obtuse individuals that the warming and cooling of the planet is a natural process and while humans are smart to discover and use clean energy it only makes sense when the energy being used is more efficient than our current sources of power. This is not the case for the current crop of alternatives including wind, solar and battery-power. None of these energy-producing methods are as efficient as fossil fuel. The one source that is as efficient requires extensive and complicated systems to use it: nuclear power. Even coal, the most polluting fuel is more efficient than any of the so-called progressive alternatives. Now it is up the U.S. Congress to reign in the environmental fanatics at the EPA at both the federal and state level. America’s economy must be allowed to recover so it can have the resources to continue the search for cleaner, more efficient energy.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Are You What's Wrong with America?

You know what's wrong with America? You! That's the damn problem. All you do is complain about taxes and fees. So what if the government adds a surcharge to everything you buy and every service you use. You don't like all those little extra charges on your phone bill. Stop using your phone. You don't like being treated like a suicide bomber when you go to the airport. Stop flying. You don't like having to buy health insurance. When you get sick just stay home. What's that? You don't like paying half of your wages in taxes. Are you kidding? Your lucky we don't take it all and make you walk to work.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Rangel Should be Expelled

When I heard Charlie Rangel's response to his conviction I almost lost it. When I heard he may only get a reprimand and not be expelled I did lose it. You have got to be kidding? He misused multiple rent-stabilized apartments while people without homes paid full price. He neglected to report outside income and income on his villa in the Dominican Republic. He was convicted of eleven counts of breaking ethics rules. He walked out of his own hearing and then blamed the ethics committee of not letting him defend himself. Ethics Committee members should find a way to put off Rangel's punishment until the new Congress convenes in January so he can be expelled and disgraced in the manner in which he deserves. Rangel's abuse of the public trust is disgusting and unforgivable. He deserves to be drummed out of the Congress for his transgressions. Charlie Rangel has committed the greatest crime of all. He took the trust of his constituents and all the American people and treated it badly.

Baby Steps to a Balanced Budget

This is the first real choice the new Republican majority will have in the House to affect next year's budget. As noted in a previous column the Republicans have a great opportunity to put the country's budget on the right track, but only if they recognize that opportunity does not come until the new Congress is convened in January. All pronouncements about reducing spending, cutting programs, streamlining regulations and reducing the national debt should be holstered and replaced with the development of a political strategy that can bring those many goals to fruition. Currently not one of the thirteen appropriations bills required to run the government has been passed by the current Democratic Congress. As a result the current Congress is likely to use the Omnibus bill option, which adds a percentage to all of last year's spending and is passed by both bodies and signed by the President. The other option is to operate by Continuing Resolution, which continues current funding for short periods of time and requires re-authorization. The Republicans should go for this second option. They have the votes in the Senate to stop the Omnibus bill and force the Congress to use a continuing resolution. This puts them in a position to offer up new appropriations bills based on previous budgets or entirely new budgets with the cuts they want to achieve. This strategy permits them to put the onus to support cuts on the Democratic Senate and the President.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Paul Ryan: You have been given a great gift

"George - You have been given a great gift. A chance to see what the world would be like if you had never been born." - Clarence to George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.

From 2006 until now incoming Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has similarly been given a great gift; a chance to see what the Federal budget could be like without conservative stewardship. During the Bush years the Republicans drifted away from the budget principles they had begun in 1994. They became the fat cats and let it get away in 2006 when they lost the Congress and then the Presidency. Since then Democrats have added $3.5 trillion to the national debt with the exception of TARP, which they can still blame 0n Bush. Many department budgets have doubled since 2008, not to mention the new spending items in the 2009 budget and 2010 budgets. The voters have given the Republicans a huge victory and opportunity to put the country on the right track. They must reduce taxes and reduce spending. Then they must begin to peel back regulation so entrepreneurs can create jobs and put Americans back to work.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

America Salutes Its Veterans

On this Veteran's Day we salute the men and women who serve throughout the world and we pay homage to those who have given their lives in the defense of our country and the principles of our nation.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

What’s Wrong with the Harley-Davidson Deal?

President Obama has identified the Harley-Davidson deal as a great one for America that will increase jobs in our country. In fact it will result in new jobs in India and result in no decrease in the current tariff India’s consumers pay on fully assembled motorcycles from the U.S. For the average India consumer the import tariff imposed on Harley-Davidson motorcycles doubles the cost. Rather than convince the Indian government to reduce their tariff in support of lowering trade barriers the Obama solution is help Harley open a production facility in India that create jobs for the Indian economy and does nothing to reduce the existing trade barrier for American goods in the Indian market. It’s hard to see how this is a win-win for America. It’s just another example of poor negotiating by Obama’s trade team. People often complain about call-centers for American products being located in India. How will they feel when their Harley-Davidson motorcycles come from India too?

Friday, November 5, 2010

Let's Compromise

In the thrill of victory Democrats say “We won the election.” In the jaws of defeat they say “Let’s compromise.” It is entirely laughable to listen to President Obama say he’s willing to compromise in the face of a two-year lockout of Republican ideas. It is almost incomprehensible that Obama could think the resounding defeat of Democrats is only a repudiation of them, and not a repudiation of the President’s major policy accomplishments and poor management skills. He has failed to navigate the nation out of its economic doldrums and his policy accomplishments are all designed to increase costs and discourage job creation. The President is still convinced that he has not communicated well enough, when he has communicated perfectly. The problem is not what he is saying about his policy choices, but the policies themselves. His willingness to talk with Republicans to test their willingness to compromise is a charade. It is just a replay of the last two years. Saying one thing and doing something else. It’s not a forgone conclusion that a foreign trip will help him see more clearly. Americans can only hope.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Where’s my Purple Ink?

More important than last night’s astounding victory in the U.S. House of Representatives is the trashing of the electoral system. In New York, where mechanical voting machines have been replaced with electronically-scanned paper ballots, voting took a step back to the early 1900's. I was ready to ask for purple ink like the citizens of Iraq. If politicians really wanted a cheat proof voting system it could be easily designed using the online banking system and the U.S. Postal Service. But that isn't want machine politicians want. In machine politics manipulating the vote is a common practice and is done using fraudulent registrations, absentee ballots, provisional ballots and outright submission of incorrect statistical results, or if you prefer, lying about the numbers: It easy to see why the voting process is flawed. For national and state-wide elections there must be a uniform system for the way votes are acquired and tallied. This can be done using the Post Office, and the nationwide ATM system. Data is locally collected. Except for the process of registering voters, local precincts have no further interaction with the voter. Registered voters are given a unique number on a credit card blank that they can insert into any ATM kiosk and vote. Votes are collected electronically with no human interaction. Every voter is given a paper record of their vote, that is then collected by a national clearing house. The results are relayed back to the precinct. This is oversimplified for brevity but the concept in not difficult. Going back to paper ballots is not the solution we are looking for. We want voting options that are easy to use, understandable and trustworthy.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Why Tina Brown’s Obama Plan Will Fail

Daily Beast editor Tina Brown thinks that a good public relations plan and pretending to like the public and big business will remedy all of Obama’s woes and put him back in the good graces of the American people. You know the ones she means: the stupid ones in flyover country. Those in the progressive intellectual class will realize it’s a rouse, but in general the dimly-lit, bible-clutching, gun-bearing Americans wouldn’t be the wiser. For example, Brown says “I’d like the President to stop being so high-minded about avoiding corny symbolic theatrics and start playing to win. The absurd myth, for instance, that he's really a Muslim would be easier to knock out if he strode from the White House every Sunday with a big old Gutenberg Bible and marched his family—with the first daughters in adorable Sunday best—to the nearest Episcopalian church.” For Ms. Brown’s information Obama does play to win. His orchestrated events with its hand-picked audiences, well-placed cheering squads and phony fainting epidemics are the height of corny symbolic theatrics designed to fool the American people into thinking he is some kind of miracle worker who can transform the world with a wave of his hand. A little aside on the Muslim thing: it was Obama who wrote that the Muslim “call to prayer” was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard. In the Audacity of Hope he wrote: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” In my view marching around Washington on Sunday morning with an over-sized Bible will not fool anyone. Also, TB is wrong on several counts: Obama has not ended torture; he just has other people do it (The Rendition Program). We are not out of Iraq and won’t be for several more years. Health care has not been extended beyond giving additional benefits to people who already have insurance. Those without it will still be waiting for several years before they get it. The claim that he prevented another Great Depression is pure speculation and based on wishful thinking, not economic reality. Finally, TB overlooks the main reasons why Obama’s policies have failed. His policies are designed to change America, not fix it. His economic policies have failed to jumpstart the economy. His foreign policy has made the world more volatile. His domestic policy choices are designed to redistribute the wealth of America’s productive citizens and give it to those he perceives as his constituents. TB may think it’s a simple as “the President has forgotten to bring the people along,” but the truth is Americans don't want the ride that is being offered.