All posts by Chief

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First Hat in the Ring

Tim Pawlenty becomes first Republican to launch Presidential campaign

Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor has become the first bona fide Republican candidate to launch a campaign for the party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Mr Pawlenty has methodically moved toward a national campaign since announcing in 2009 that he would not seek a third term. Struggling for name recognition against better-known probable opponents, Mr Pawlenty announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee, which in recent times has served as the signal for entering a primary campaign.

Chief’s first reaction: ho-hum.

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If this ain’t broke…what is?

Somebody needs to slap Michael Moore upside the head with a serious cluebat for crying that we had LOTS of money to spend!

Maybe we WILL have lots more dollars if we keep the presses rolling, just like the Germans had lots more Reichsbank Marks in the twenties:


50,000,000 Mark note, Sept. 1923, which was already only small change:
1st November 1923 1 pound of bread cost 3 billion, 1 pound of meat 36 billion, 1 glass of beer: 4 billion.”

Mandatory Spending to Exceed all Federal Revenues — 50 Years Ahead of Schedule

…if national defense, interstate highways, national parks, homeland security, and all other discretionary programs somehow became absolutely free, we’d still have a budget deficit. The White House Office of Management and Budget projects that in the current fiscal year (2011), mandatory spending alone will exceed all federal receipts. So even if we didn’t spend a single cent on discretionary programs, we still wouldn’t be able to balance our budget this year — let alone pay off any of the $14 trillion in debt that we have already accumulated.

And the administration and the Congressional Democrats Donkey Congs cry about attempting to cut a measley $61B out of a trillion+ package, for a whopping 4% (or less) cut? Give me a break!

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Slavery? Really?

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compares NFL owners’ treatment of players to ‘modern-day slavery’ in an online interview

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compared NFL owners’ treatment of players to “modern-day slavery,” according to an online interview published Tuesday by Yahoo! Sports.

Yahoo’s Doug Farrar, who conducted the interview Friday with Peterson, removed that comment from the story later Tuesday, explaining on Twitter that he wants to give Peterson the chance to provide context.

Peterson, who is known to be thoughtful when speaking with the local media in Minnesota, is in Africa with other NFL players on a goodwill trip and unavailable for immediate comment.

One is tempted to note that it’s one of the Vikings saying something so stupid…but I’ll skip the cheap shot…

NFL owners and players couldn’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement last week after more than two weeks of federal mediation. Shortly before the players union NFL decertified, Peterson spoke to Yahoo to promote a recent appearance on the online reality show “Double Take.” The NFL declared a lockout when the CBA expired.

“The players are getting robbed. They are,” Peterson told Yahoo. “The owners are making so much money off of us to begin with. I don’t know that I want to quote myself on that.”

If someone were robbing ME, I would at least stay away from them henceforth.

When discussing other players feeling the same way, Peterson said: “It’s modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money. … The owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it’s how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, ‘Hey, without us, there’s no football.’ “

OK. Call an spade a spade here. He says he can understand the owners wanting to make money…because he is concerned with exactly the same thing. So what…but don’t resort to the level of hyperbole that labels one of the most remunerative occupations as being slavery:

Peterson is set to make $10.72 million in base salary in 2011.

Poor baby! How can he survive on that sharecropper-style starvation pay!

On the same page was the following poll:
Do you agree with Peterson’s comparison of NFL owners’ treatment of players to “modern-day slavery?”
Total Votes = 2282
Yes. 2.453 %
No. 96.18 %
I don’t know. 1.358 %
The Chief concurs.

Contrary to Peterson’s assertion…no one is standing there with a whip forcing him to accept that $10.72M paycheck. This IS the US of A, and the 13th Amendment IS enforced. If he doesn’t like the NFL, he’s free to get a real job, in the real world, assuming he can qualify for one.

No sympathy. At all. Sorry.

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A Boy and his Dog

Dead soldier Liam Tasker and Army dog return home

Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, was shot dead while on patrol in Helmand province.

L/Cpl Tasker, who was called a “rising star” by Army chiefs, was shot by Taliban snipers and Theo died of a seizure shortly after his master.

The ashes of the 26-year-old’s dog Theo will be flown home on the same plane.

This really touches me. Otherwise, words fail.

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Wisconsin Unions, Donks Lose Fight

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining

The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber’s missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.

The piece goes on to report on the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth of the usual collection of unions, and their at times thuggish activists and supporters.

Oh, the cruelty of it all! They will now be restricted in their bargaining rights and reduced to the status of another large group of oppressed and beaten down public employees: US federal workers. Oh cruel world!

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Calling a Spade, a Spade

The Chief recently finished reading and doing a critical historical review of a book by journalist Nicholas Lemann titled The Promised Land, which included among other things a detailed account of political maneuvering of Byzantine complexity involved with the invention and implementation of the so-called War on Poverty of the 60’s and 70’s. Lemann’s examination happened to focus particularly on the effects of this on the social and political condition of Chicago.

In spite of Saul Alinsky proteges being given healthy doses of Federal funds for their “Community Action Organizations”, the expected miraculous transformation of ghetto conditions failed to materialize….People didn’t hang around to enjoy and develop their ghetto neighborhoods: they beat feet out of there as soon as they possibly could escape to better areas. So much for social engineering!

It’s interesting to note some of the Chicago problems detailed by Lemann are currently being showcased in The Chicago Code, a new Fox cop show set in Chicago.

All of this taken together with the current and continuing exchange of ideas and people between the administration and Chicago (most recently with B.O.’s former Chief of Staff moving into the office in Chicago City Hall formerly occupied by Mayor Daley), brings to mind an interesting set of coincidences to consider.

Overall, it ain’t a pretty picture, but the scene reinforces the recent description of the administrative status-quo:

Bachmann Stands by ‘Gangster Government’ Description

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) refused Sunday to retreat from her characterization of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

The House Tea Party Caucus founder said, “I don’t take back my statement on gangster government,” a phrase she used at a tea party gathering in April. “I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt,” she said during her appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Chief concurs.

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B.O. Pro-Arab Energy Policy

Interior appeals oil drilling ruling

B. Hussein Obama’s Interior Department is pursuing policies that are greatly benefiting mid-east oil suppliers, and that will conincidently and inevitably result in continuting increasees in the prices that will be paid by Americans for any and all poil-based commodities, starting with gasoline, and including all plastics, synthetic fibers, and most chemical and pharmaceutical feed stocks. But hey, it’s for your own good…and too bad if you’re too stupid to appreciate the favor. (F— you if you can’t take a joke!)

The Obama administration late Friday appealed a judge’s orders directing the Interior Department to act on several Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling permits.

The appeal is the latest salvo in the ongoing fight over the speed with which Interior is – or isn’t – letting oil drillers get back to work after last year’s BP oil spill.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had hinted the appeal was coming at a Senate hearing Wednesday. “The judge in this particular case in my view is wrong,” Salazar said. “And we will argue the case because I don’t believe that the court has the jurisdiction to basically tell the Department of Interior what my administrative responsibilities are.”

He added, “the policy we have in mind is unmistakingly [sic] clear: We are moving forward with the development of oil and gas” production.”

BS! Total BS!

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Poor Situational Awareness, or What?

Frankfurt Airport Shooting an Act of Islamic Terror, European Officials Say
Suspect, 21, Accused of Killing Two U.S. Servicemen in Germany; Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ During Attack

Having been mugged by reality enough times, the Euros, in spite of political correctness, are getting the point:

Authorities in Europe are calling the shooting at a Frankfurt, Germany, airport that claimed the lives of two U.S. servicemen an act of Islamic terrorism, though U.S. investigators said it is too soon to tell.

Too soon to tell? If one starts shooting at US troops while shouting the jihadi battle cry, what else is needed, besides a willingness to actually engage in thought? This is commented on more fully:

Obama’s state of Islamic denial
Note to Barack: ‘Allahu akbar’ is a Muslim war cry

U.S. troops are gunned down by a shooter who screams “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire. Official statements are rushed out: The perpetrator was a lone wolf; his motive was unclear; there are no links to terrorism. Sound familiar? It should, because when Islam is the cause of American tragedy, President Obama hides his head in the sand.

Methinks this commentator is too generous in his description of B.O.’s stance. The Chief would say that at best, his head is somewhere else where the sun doesn’t shine.

…the White House still obstinately refuses to discuss the jihadist motives of the terrorists involved. [emphasis added]

The Obama administration’s knee-jerk instinct to deny reality in hopes it will go away is clearly not working. How many Americans have to die before Mr. Obama at long last admits the nature of the Islamist threat that killed them?

Or, to think the unthinkable, does B.O. have a higher loyalty than to the United States that dictates his feckless and pusillanimous response to the state of war that has been declared against us by the international Islamist movement?

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FCC Regs Rejection Pending

First, the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee is acting to undo the FCC’s sidestep around the courts to impose so-called “net neutrality” rules.

House Panel to Vote on ‘Disapproving’ Net Neutrality

The congressional assault on network neutrality regulations adopted by the Democratic-led Federal Communications Commission in December continues Wednesday, when the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee votes on a “resolution of disapproval” designed to derail the requirements, which prohibit the blocking or degrading of online competitors.

So, what’s so bad about this? Imagine you build a railroad, so you can make some money delivering freight to the locations along your line. A would-be competitor decides this is unfair, since his delivery via truck is much more expensive, and not as efficient. So…should he be given the right to use YOUR line to deliver HIS freight, with exactly the same cost and priority as you do? That could be called “freight neutrality”…sort of reminds me of something out of Atlas Shrugged, when stated in those terms.’

When put in terms of the interned, it becomes “Net Neutrality”, additional regulation of the most free and open part of the economy, which will inevitably result in degradation of the net, as elaborated on by House Speaker Boehner commenting on the same issue, as well as the problem of the ballooning national debt:

Boehner rips bid to regulate Internet
Debt likened to Sputnik threat

House Speaker John A. Boehner lashed out against efforts to regulate Internet traffic before an audience of evangelical Christian media leaders and pointedly responded to President Obama by comparing the challenge of the burgeoning national debt to the Sputnik-era space race.

In a speech to religious broadcasters that received a sustained ovation at his conclusion, he said free expression is under attack by a power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or a television studio.

“We see this threat in how the FCC is creeping further into the free market by trying to regulate the Internet,” Mr. Boehner said. “The last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades,”

Sounds about right, as does this:

But, the Ohio Republican warned, one threat “dwarfs others in terms of the danger it poses to freedom and our children’s future.”

“You may recall President Obama, in his State of the Union address, talking about a ‘Sputnik moment,’ the moment that shocks our generation into getting serious. In my view, America’s ‘Sputnik moment’ is our shocking national debt,” he said.

Boehner also commented on another fundamental communication issue that has been under some discussion recently:

Mr. Boehner also inveighed against any effort to reinstate the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” whose 1987 elimination led to the rise of a vibrant talk-radio industry.

“Our new majority is committed to seeing that the government does not reinstate the Fairness Doctrine,” he said.

Mr. Boehner said Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon Republican, “has teamed up with another former broadcaster, Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana, to introduce legislation to help keep the airwaves free. I expect the House to act on this measure as well.”

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Mideast Mismanagement

Untested & unready
B.O., Hill both inept on Mideast

Can you say “poor situational awareness”?

“It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep,” it began. “But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world.

“Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world . . . Who do you want answering the phone?”

Now we know the answer: neither of the above.

Unfortunately, the current administration is proving to be as incompetent in the Middle East as was that of Jimmy “Peanut” Carter. It’s hard to decide which was worse…Carter had that ultimate example of fecklessness that was the Iran hostage crisis, but on the positive side, he DID deserve some propers for the Camp David Accords. B.O. on the other hand has not YET had a disaster on the scale of the hostages, but then too, he hasn’t accomplished anything worth while, either.

One can only hope that as the Egyptian situation settles out that the Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t get power and cancel the treaty that resulted from the Camp David meetings.

No negative result of B.O.’s foreign policy activities would be too much of a surprise at this point.

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S138 Tabled, Hopefully to R.I.P.

SB 138 is designed to implement something described as a method of selecting the President of the US by popular vote via a weirdly designed mechanism to by-pass amending  the Constitution.

The rationale for this is to be more “democratic”.   Humbug!

There were, and are sound reasons NOT to run our national system as a democracy.  I noted comments earlier on this from Madville Times, as well as on SD Politics, but was distracted from commenting byvarious  meteorological and mechanical events.  It is NOT fun to work on machines without a heated environment when the weather is what the weather was, but I digress.

My own feeling is that this sort of thing is not particularly of benefit.  The constitutional system was designed to be a non-democratic federal republic.  The stake-holders were the states, as well as the people.  The states had their place at the federal table by selecting the senators in the state legislators. (Personally, I think the 17th Amendment is well worth repealing, not that I expect to ever see it happen.)   The people had their input via the directly elected representatives.  The electoral college was a scheme to prevent the more populous states from automatically running rough-shod over the smaller states in the selection of the president.

The most frequently heard complaint about the current electoral college is that it can allow a failure in the Divine Commandment of Vox Populi, Vox Deus, as occurred most recently in 1980, and in a few cases before.  So what?  We survived the experience in good order.  The last time I checked last November the republic was still functional!

I have real trouble seeing how a popularization of the presidential vote can be of any benefit to small states.  I note that Cory cites an example of enabling concentration of funds in the large cities as being a possible GOP advantage, but frankly I don’t see it.  It doesn’t matter HOW much the GOP spends in L.A., Boston, New York, ‘Frisco, etc….they are probably not going to do very well, at least in the inner cities.  (The last time I visited the old home town of St. Louis, 24 of 28 city aldermen were of the Donkey persuasion.)  What would be more likely to happen with a popular vote scheme would be for the Donks to ignore the core cities, and rural areas, and pump THEIR funds into the suburbs to swing enough votes to make a difference.  The GOP would of necessity be forced into the same pattern to avoid being totally swamped.  In both cases, places like ND, SD, WY, MT, etc. would become virtually invisible in presidential elections if the prize automatically went to the pop-vote winner, which could be swung relatively easily by the larger urban areas.  (Farm vote?  We don’t need no steenkin’ farm vote!)

And the problem with that is…?  What is the guarantee to prevent a “democratic” majority for selecting an individual or party with a dedication to running rough over a minority’s interests, up to and including their right to do things like worship, or even live, to cite a couple of commonly denied things.  It behooves one who genuflects before the altar of democracy to recall that such luminaries of humanitarian civilization as Mussolini, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, or even Slobodan Milosevich were all elected!  Also, the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip more recently selected the wanna-be genocidalists of Hamas as their favored rulers.  But hey, that’s all OK if it’s “democratic”, right?

Wrong!  That’s why the designers of our republic’s constitution wisely (IMHO) hobbled the free-exercise of democracy.

(By the way, with the news as it’s been lately, it might be worth recalling just why they denied the vote to the District of Columbia.  It’s the same reason that D.C.’s street plot had all those circles with radiating streets:  cannon strategically placed could easily sweep the streets of rioters! (Look up the effects of the Roman and Byzantine mobs on their imperial politics.)

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Bang! You’re dead!

In the “first-person shooter” computer game series Doom, the ultimate weapon is tagged as the BFG (Big F—–‘ Gun). This may not be QUITE the BFG, but it’s close enough for government work.  Of course the Army, not picking up on the perfectly good BFG label calls the weapon the 25mm weapon the “XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System.  That’s a bit much for the troops at the pointy end, who have given their own label: “The Punisher”.  It fits.

‘Punisher’ gets its first battlefield tests

The XM25 has changed the battlefield with only 55 rounds, and earned a new name among soldiers. They call it “the Punisher.”

Since its first contact Dec. 3, the XM25 has been in nine engagements with two units at different locations, officials said. Specifically, it has disrupted two insurgent attacks on observation posts, taken out two PKM machine gun positions and destroyed four ambush sites.

The key is the targeting system and the “air-burst” capability:

The XM25 has a target acquisition system that calculates range with the push of a button. The data is transferred to an electronic fuse, enabling the 25mm round to explode over the target and rain shell fragments on the enemy.

That’s gotta smart! Hmmmm. Something like that would be really handy come goose season…then again, maybe not, there probably wouldn’t be enough goose left afterwords. Oh well.

H/T to The Blaze.

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News Digest Snapshot Comments

A series of different things going on currently…some related, some not.

Firstly, at the time of T.A.R.P. and the rest of the financial bailouts, we were repeatedly warned by all of the Washington establishment that this was essential in order to prevent a total, and irreparable financial meltdown. But what if the bailouts had never taken place?…

Iceland did not bail out the banks or the bank investors and its economy is thriving, proving that the the US-Irish model of bailing out the banks with taxpayer money was harmful unless you were a wealthy bank investor

What was the ultimate effect?

Today, Iceland is recovering. The three new banks had combined profit of $309 million in the first nine months of 2010. GDP grew for the first time in two years in the third quarter, by 1.2 percent, inflation is down to 1.8 percent and the cost of insuring government debt has tumbled 80 percent. Stores in Reykjavik were filled with Christmas shoppers in early December, and bank branches were crowded with customers.

Meanwhile, there are items relating to the B.O. administration is engaging in apparently betrayal and/or mistreatment of allies and friends abroad:

ITEM:
The American betrayal
Op-ed: Obama’s abandonment of Mubarak shows Israel cannot count on US at times of crisis

…there is one more thing we can learn from the events in Egypt, aside from the fragility of the region we inhabit, and it is something that’s not easy to digest: The Western world’s and mostly America’s treachery. We learned that the way they abandoned President Mubarak and gave him the cold shoulder can happen to us too. Or in other words, we cannot count on the Americans at a time of crisis.

ITEM:
WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal to be signed by President Barack Obama next week.

After his returning the Churchill bust, snubbing Brit leaders, including the Queen, one gets the idea that B.O. REALLY does not like Britain.Along with this, the upside-down policy orientation of B.O. is further illustrated by policies that refuse to recognize those who are our enemies:

Failures by FBI, Pentagon contributed to Ft. Hood massacre, report says

The FBI and the Pentagon are responsible for a “string of failures” in the way they attempted to track a disgruntled Army major in the years before he allegedly opened fire at a crowded Ft. Hood, Texas, deployment center in the worst domestic terror ambush since the attacks of September 2001, two key Senate leaders concluded Thursday.

In addition, Army supervisors repeatedly referred to Maj. Nidal Hasan as a “ticking time bomb,” and FBI agents and the military knew he had become radicalized under the influence of a violent Islamist extremist. Yet the agents never arrested him, and his military superiors never disciplined or furloughed him out of the Army.

In an apparent triumph of political correctness no action was taken lest it offer offense to Islam. The Chief’s response would have been to s–tcan Hasan, and f’em if they can’t take the joke.

Meanwhile, there is also THIS particular bit of craziness:

China Maneuvers for U.S. Defense Contracts

The maker of China’s new stealth fighter jet has teamed up with a tiny, unprofitable California company to try to launch bids for U.S. defense contracts, possibly including one to supply Chinese helicopters to replace the aging Marine One fleet used by the president, according to people involved in the partnership.

Fortunately this one looks to be beyond the reach of even B.O.’s aspirations for playing kissy-face with the ChiComs:

Any Chinese bids for this or another contract under discussion would be certain to meet intense political resistance and would appear to have very little chance of success given mounting U.S. concern about China’s military power and long-term strategic goals, and the often-prohibitive opposition in the past to Chinese attempts to enter other strategic U.S. sectors, such as energy and telecommunications

UNforunately, they may be back for another attempt:

…the two companies have also been discussing putting forward AVIC’s new L-15 trainer jet as a candidate to replace the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of Northrop T-38s, which entered service 50 years ago and on which American fighter pilots learn skills such as how to fly at supersonic speeds.

That contract is expected to be one of the most lucrative military aviation contracts this decade, with the U.S. likely to buy about 400 and other allied countries about 600 more as the jet will become the standard for training pilots to fly the U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a really bad feeling about the US becoming dependent on the ChiComs for maintaining our military? Sheeesh!

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The Taxman Cometh: Governor’s got the right idea, legislature not so hot!

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
[1 Tucker 248 (N.Y. Surr., 1966)]

With a number of tax increase proposals on the table up at Pierre, one wonders whether they actually paid attention to the most notable trend in the last election: the widespread feeling that government at most levels is all too willing to meet any actual or perceived need and/or shortage with a tax increase to meet the self-defined necessity.

The Chief has a budget of his own. When there seems to be a limitation on the availability of disposable income, something’s got to change. Inevitably, what changes is the elimination of desired spending (since I don’t own a printing press like the Federal Reserve does, nor do I have the ability to arbitrarily raise income by a legislative action.

As a result, any number of additional needs, including (but not limited to) a new pickup, several fine firearms of various calibers, some much-needed improvement in the technical capabilities of my HAM radio station installation, just to name a few things. Unfortunately, the income to acquire these wonderful things doesn’t seem to be there, due to the circumstances and vicissitudes of life, so priorities come into play, and such mundane items as food, propane, electricity for example trump the new truck, etc. C’est la vie.

Far too long, the legislative branches of government at all levels have grown accustomed to the idea that the needs of the government deserve a priority in all things that they, in their infinite wisdom deem to be important (certainly things that are more important than the insignificant desires of the citizenry to presume to manage their own money. This attitude has pretty much directly led to the unspeakably obscene federal deficits and debt, as well as the near (and impending) bankruptcy of some state and local governments.

Fortunately, South Dakota is not in that sort of position yet. We have been blessed to have been spared the worst effects of the current, and, despite D.C. cheerleader propaganda to the contrary, continuing economic distress. With the national economic reality catching up to the state, the revenue stream to Pierre is down, and the legislature starts immediately moves to keep the budget in line by raising taxes, rather than cutting spending to keep a budgetary balance.

This is not to deny that budget cuts, deferred spending, or even (shudder) cancellation of wanted spending are pleasant, but when needs must, the devil drives.

South Dakota finds itself with two points of view regarding the prioritizations involved in government finance, and the underlying assumptions that often are present: like the one that assumes that the current structure and composition of governmental agencies of all types is absolutely essential to the continued existence of the state. It MUST be essential, right? Otherwise past legislatures would have never set them up the way they are, right? So shut up and smile while you pay your taxes!

Any honest observer of the last election cycle HAS to note the reaction to the assumption that government (at all levels) must continue to grow, can never be cut, and is morally entitled by legislative fiat to seize however much of the citizens’ wealth it deems necessary to accomplish their aims. In the current SD setting, there are apparently is a financial dichotomy forming between those in the legislature and elsewhere who seek to continue (to some extent at leat) spending as usual, and on the other hand the Governor.

Firstly, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW GOOD THE STATE’S PROGRAMS, AGENCIES, ETC. (including Education at all levels) ARE…if the money isn’t there, it isn’t there, and can’t be spent. If there is a contingency fund (which there is), it should be left for some emergency need…and shouldn’t be used just to kick the legislative ball down the road for one more year…with the problem only postponed. Sort of like a sinner’s prayer: “Help me Lord to turn away from my sins, but not quite yet.” The stable, and more realistic solution is that of the governor, as reported:
Daugaard: We don’t have any money to give

Gov. Dennis Daugaard defended his proposed budget in a tour of South Dakota communities last week, saying he slashed expenses for every department because the state “can’t give money we don’t have.”

Daugaard sat down with the Enterprise last week prior to giving a speech in Brookings. The governor described in detail his plan to cover an estimated $127 million structural deficit in one year with a proposed 10 percent spending reduction throughout state government.

His budget proposal includes cuts in state aid to school districts and reimbursements to those who provide services to Medicaid patients, both of which would have a significant impact in Moody County [and elsewhere]

Daugaard says he won’t raise taxes and is opposed to using reserves for operating expenses. He’s also pledged to veto any budget this year that doesn’t eliminate the deficit.

On the other hand, legislators are talking about (so far) nine tax increase measures. Even temporary increases are problematic, since a later simple act all too often makes them permanent. With the declines in disposable income than many in the state are experiencing from inflation (check your HyVee receipts, and gasoline costs for examples), and increasing taxes (at all levels), it shouldn’t be too much to expect that the legislature would get the picture, and realize that it’s not time to be raising taxes to continue currently unaffordable spending.

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything that you have. — Barry Goldwater

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Real Witch Hunting!

The Witch Hunts of Gaza, Literally

Hamas leaders are committed to a systematic ”witch hunt” and 150 women were arrested in 2010 in Gaza for having made recourse to witchcraft of some sort. During a symposium held in recent days in Gaza, it was stated that in the eyes of Hamas, the activities of these women represent a real social danger, also because they risk ”breaking up families,” causing divorce and frittering away of money. Sometimes their activities also have criminal repercussions. One awareness campaign against ”the witches” was launched using large posters in mosques, universities and public offices frequented by women.

These are the people that some expect and demand that Israel and/or the USA should negotiate with? Really?

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Dangerous Egyptian Unraveling

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood eyes unity gov’t without Mubarak

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group,is in talks with other anti-government figures to form a national unity government without President Hosni Mubarak, a group official told DPA on Sunday.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned from running for elections for parliament, some movement members have presented candidacy for parliament as independents.

This would NOT good for the U.S., indeed or for Western Civilization itself:

The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a “Civilization-Jihadist” process with all the word means. The Ikhwan [M.B.] must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who choose to slack. [This description was in a Dallas Morning News piece by Rod Dreher, but is apparently no longer accessible there.]

For a bit more up to date explanation and treatment go here. This link includes an instructive look at one of the previously noted apologists ostriches.

Administration mouthpieces, and others who are currently downplaying any threat from the Muslim Brotherhood, either have a severe case of poor situational awareness, or some other agenda than the national interest and survival of United States constitutional principles.

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Court Whacks Obamacare

Judge strikes down healthcare reform law

The 26 state suit against B.O.’s version of a National Health Service prevails in it’s initial court test presumably on the way to a SCOTUS hearing (sooner or later).

A federal judge in Florida struck down President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare overhaul as unconstitutional on Monday in the biggest legal challenge yet to federal authority to enact the law.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the reform law’s so-called individual mandate went too far in requiring that Americans start buying health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty.

“Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void,” he wrote, “This has been a difficult decision to reach and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications.”

Referring to a key provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Vinson sided with governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans, in declaring the Obama healthcare reform unconstitutional.

What makes this even sweeter is the fact that the decision was based to some extent on B.O.’s own comments. Hoist on his own petard!

Judge uses Obama’s words against him

In ruling against President Obama‘s health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama‘s own position from the 2008 campaign against him, when the then-Illinois senator argued there were other ways to achieve reform short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of his 78-page ruling Monday.

Once the principle of forcing behavior (whether buying health insurance, or anything else) is established, there is, of necessity no remaining legal restraint on the power of the state to compel ANY behavior in any other areas that attract the attention of our would-be progressive masters.  Perhaps, for example, to satisfy the 1st Lady’s concern for proper nutrition there could be a federal law mandating that everyone eat their vegetables, or that pedestrians must wear crash-helmets for their own safety, or whatever else the nanny-state advocates can dream up to protect us from ourselves.

This sort of crap is NOT the proper role of  our Constitutional government.

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Truth or Consequences

Just last week didn’t we have assurance from Harry Reid that everything is fine with Social Security. Really.

Now, a few days later we get this:

Social Security now seen to run permanent deficits+

Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in bleaker-than-previous estimates.

The massive retirement program has been suffering from the effects of the struggling economy for several years. It first went into deficit last year but had been projected to post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into the red in 2016

This year alone, Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in retirement, disability and survivors’ benefits than it collects in payroll taxes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.

The most charitable thing to conclude is that Reid has a severe case of poor situational awareness. More realistically, he’s finally and irrevocably moved beyond any bounds of truth, and is not worthy of any credibility.

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Administration Targets Jobs

It becomes more clear just how the administration is focusing on jobs: jobs are in the cross-hairs and are targeted for destruction, to say nothing about reducing energy availability at the same time, thus killing two birds with one stone.

New rules would cut thousands of coal jobs

The Obama administration’s own experts estimate their proposal for protecting streams from coal mining would eliminate thousands of jobs and slash production across much of the country, according to a government document obtained by the Associated Press.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement document says the agency’s preferred rules would impose standards for water quality and restrictions on mining methods that would affect the quality or quantity of streams near coal mines. The rules are supposed to replace George W. Bush-era regulations that set up buffer zones around streams and were aimed chiefly at mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia….

OSM’s proposal — part of a draft environmental impact statement — would affect coal mines from Louisiana to Alaska.

The office, a branch of the Interior Department, estimated that the protections would trim coal production to the point that an estimated 7,000 of the nation’s 80,600 coal-mining jobs would be lost. Production would decrease or stay flat in 22 states…

To add a bit of additional perspective, half of the US supply of electricity is coal based. Sort of hard to recharge the new Chevy Volt autos if there’s less electricity available! Regulators working at cross-purposes? According to the lib-progs isn’t government supposed to be MORE efficient at management? Never mind….if we’re rational, we already know the answer to THAT…and “it ain’t that pretty at all”…but I digress.

The National Mining Association blasted the proposal, saying OSM is vastly underestimating the economic impact.

“OSM’s preferred alternative will destroy tens of thousands of coal-related jobs across the country from Appalachia to Alaska and Illinois to Texas with no demonstrated benefit to the environment,” the trade group said. “OSM’s own analysis provides a very conservative estimate of jobs that will be eliminated, incomes that will be lost and state revenues that will be foregone at both surface and underground coal mining operations.”

OK, you know the envirowackos say that’s just the big corporations trying to defend their turf…the impact won’t REALLY be that bad, would it? But wait, the states aren’t too thrilled with D.O.I./OSM either:

They blasted the proposal as “nonsensical and difficult to follow” in a Nov. 26 letter to OSM Director Joe Pizarchik. The letter was signed by officials from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

“Neither the environmental impact statement nor the administrative record that OSM has developed over 30-plus years of regulation … justify the sweeping changes that they’re proposing to make,” West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection official Thomas Clarke told AP on Wednesday.

As your electric rates continue to increase, due to the inexorable operation of supply (decreasing) and demand (increasing), give thanks to the administration for it’s energy and employment reduction plans.

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SOTU Snapshot Reaction

A part of  John von Neumann‘s diverse contributions to knowledge is the proposition that information is significant to the extent that it is unusual.

By that standard, B.O.’s second SOTU address has very little real significance, except to serve as a political stalking horse  for multiple factions that both oppose and support him.

Apparently the Chief’s evaluation is shared to some extent, by MSNBC !?

Personally, I much preferred the answer from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

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MO Assassination Attempt in the News…or not!

You no doubt saw all the lead stories on this assassination attempt last year, but somehow the Chief missed it. Must be that the perp didn’t come in the “right” category to attract the attention of the “responsible” media…apparently at any level outside of the immediate local area.

Left wing climate of hate and assassination

Successful propaganda is composed of equal parts deception and suppression, and the apparatchiks in the mainstream media are much better at the latter.

They may have erred in pushing the Arizona assassination attempt beyond its ideological limits last week, but they succeeded brilliantly a few months earlier in suppressing news of a nearly lethal attempt by a genuine leftist.

The attempt was directed at the Governor of Missouri:

In September 2010 Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was scheduled to speak at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City.

At some point, wearing black clothes and a bullet-proof vest, 22 year-old Casey Brezik bolted out of a classroom, knife in hand, and slashed the throat of a dean. As he would later admit, he confused the dean with Nixon.

At least this chucklehead was clearly operating with dead sparkplugs in his mental engine…to the extent that he was too impaired to figure out how to operate a knife.

Hmmmm….he used a knife. that’s probably at least part reason why there was no coverage…no gun involved to use to flog the gun control dead horse yet again, but to make it even less interesting to the alleged journalists, the perp was a self-demonstrated anarcho-lefty radical, demonstrated by both his words and actions.

…Brezik seems to have inhaled just about every noxious vapor in the left-wing miasma: environmental extremism, radical Islam, anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism and Christophobia, among others.

In his “About Me” box on Facebook, Brezik listed as his favorite quotation one from progressive poster boy, Che Guevara. The quote begins “Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism” and gets more belligerent from there.

On his wall postings, Brezik ranted, “How are we the radical(s) (left) to confront the NEW RIGHT, if we avoid confrontation all together?”

As good as his word, Brezik’s marched on Toronto in June 2010 to protest the G20 Summit, where he was arrested, charged, and deported. “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” he boasted.

Not exactly a tea-party conservative, and hence not worth journalistic notice: nothing to see here folks…move along and go back home…American Idol is about to come on again anyway.

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Donks: Shut Up or Put Up!

Here’s a thought for Dusty Harry and the rest of the Senate Donks:

House GOP dares Senate to vote on a bill to repeal ‘Obamacare’

House Republicans already are looking past Wednesday’s expected vote to repeal Democrats’ health care law, going so far as to dare Senate Democrats to bring the bill up for a vote in their chamber.

“If Harry Reid is so confident that the repeal vote should die in the Senate then he should bring it up for a vote if he’s so confident he’s got the votes,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters, laying down a challenge to Mr. Reid, the Nevada Democrat who controls the Senate schedule.

Uf the Senate votes it down, c’est la vie…that’s politics…but one starts to wonder whether or not Reid is really confident that his own partisans, especially those up for election in 2012 will hang tough. Either way, the outcome of a Senate vote would be instructive on one level or another.

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Made in the USA

Well, at any rate, made with American technology!

China used downed U.S. fighter to develop first stealth jet

China was able to build its first stealth bomber using technology gleaned from a downed U.S. fighter, it has been claimed. Beijing unveiled its state-of-the-art jet – the Chengdu J-20 – earlier this month. Military officials say it is likely the Chinese were able to develop the stealth technology from parts of an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

I know that imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery…but in this case it would be better if that honor could have been avoided.

The PRC is the new USSR as far as the US is concerned.

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BLOGNOTE

Blogging has been a bit sparse lately.

Frankly much of what’s going on has seemed to be a case of the same old same old, with the usual suspects….but eventually the level of idiocy out there becomes so inflated that the Chief is once again driven to contribute to puncturing it to some small extent at least.

So, into the breach once more….

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Death and Taxes…

Family charged ‘death tax’ for baby who lived one hour

…an application of on aphorism about the inevitability of death and taxes. In this case only living one hour is not an excuse for dodging the taxman.

Olivia Clark lived for only one hour. Doctors didn’t even expect her to survive birth. Now her family has a hard time understanding why the King County Medical Examiner has to review her death and charge $50.

“With Olivia, there was so much love in that room and we knew it was going to be such a short time,” says her grandmother, Diana Clark. “That was probably the most joyous hour that I’ve experienced.”

Her grandparents say Olivia was polycystic and, as a result, her lungs never developed. So, her short life was a miracle….

“There was a little line on there near the bottom of the bill that said ‘King county death tax: $50.’ And we looked at that, and looked at that and looked at each other and said ‘what is that?’ Couldn’t believe that a little girl that lived for an hour has to pay a $50 tax,” said Larry.

Brings to mind a bit of old Beatles music:

Don’t ask me what I want it for,
If you don’t want to pay some more.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Now my advice for those who die,
Declare the pennies on your eyes.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

— George Harrison

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Enviro Believe it or Not

One would be much safer following the latter of the two possibilities noted above:

Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts

1. Within a few years “children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” Snowfall will be “a very rare and exciting event.” Dr. David Viner, senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, interviewed by the UK Independent, March 20, 2000.

Hmmm. Just finished shoveling some of the “very rare and exciting event”. According to the local forecast I’ll get a chance to do so on Thursday, and again the following Sunday. OK. I know that Viner is a Brit…but wait…they’ve been getting hammered with snow the last few years over there too.

2. “[By] 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots…[By 1996] The Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide black blizzard of prairie topsoil will stop traffic on interstates, strip paint from houses and shut down computers.” Michael Oppenheimer, published in “Dead Heat,” St. Martin’s Press, 1990.

Was down at Fremont, NE on the Platte river last summer. Seemed to be a fair amount of boating going on. Haven’t seen a new dust bowl either.

3. “Arctic specialist Bernt Balchen says a general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the polar ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000.” Christian Science Monitor, June 8, 1972.

Somebody must have forgot to tell the “Ice Road Truckers”

4. “Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010.” Associated Press, May 15, 1989.

Not by a long shot…try 0.7 deg F

5. “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.” Life magazine, January 1970.

Would you believe 3-5% then, less now since air quality has been greatly improved.

6. “If present trends continue, the world will be … eleven degrees colder by the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.” Kenneth E.F. Watt, in “Earth Day,” 1970.

More believable for January in South Dakota, but doesn’t this sort of clash with some of the other predictions about polar ice, etc?

7. “By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people … If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” Ehrlich, Speech at British Institute For Biology, September 1971.

Good thing for Erlich he isn’t a gambler!

8. “In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish.” Ehrlich, speech during Earth Day, 1970

Someone forgot to tell the fish.

Meanwhile, these same folks are STILL predicting disasters that, like the object of the cryptozoological search programs, never quite live up to their objectives…and they are STILL believed?  Who’d have thunk it!

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Rumors of war…

Thought this was instructive, even though the Chief reserves the right to take other content on this site with a grain of salt:
Next Year’s Wars
The 16 brewing conflicts to watch for in 2011:

• Cote d’Ivoire
• Colombia
• Zimbabwe
• Iraq
• Venezuela
• Sudan
• Mexico
• Guatemala
• Haiti
• Tajikistan
• Pakistan
• Somalia
• Lebanon
• Nigeria
• Guinea
• Democratic Republic of the Congo

See the linked article for the gory or potentially gory details.

Uh…where’s North Korea?

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Enough Already!

With the inevitable and welcome distractions of the Christmas-New Year’s season, and the same-old same-old political tactics of the Donkey Party’s Lame Ruptured Duck session, it’s been hard to generate enthusiasm for posting about the recent run-of-the-mill political news.

Finally, the most recent Sunday Day-by-Day webtoon strip concisely and thoroughly summed up my attitude, starting with the observation of one of the characters that

“…I’m really, REALLY TIRED OF BEING LECTURED TO BY:
• racists like Sharpton on racism
• thieves like Sherrie Sherrod on what is fair
• communists like Van Jones on “power to the people”
• liars like Bill Clinton on honesty
• the MSM and ‘Journolist’ pundits on journalism
• spenders like Obama on having ‘skin in the game’ as he blows millions on his personal vacations
• illegal aliens on American citizenship
• spend-crazy Keynesians on economic growth
• academics on real-world scenarios
• snobs in the beltway on civility
• idealogues like Eric Holder on ‘justice’
• the Democratic Party on American values
• feminists on what men should be
• Pat Robertson and religious activists on what/should be
• incompetents like Obama on, frankly, ANY subject other than redistribution of our wealth
• power-mad billionaires like Soros on anything to do with the word ‘freedom’
• RINOs on outreach and compromise [RINO = Republicans In Name Only]
• people who twist language to mean everything and nothing
• incompetents like 99% of this administration and congress on competency

Hear, hear! Couldn’t agree more!

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Eyeball to Eyeball on $$ Bill – Donks Blink!

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill

Democrats controlling the Senate have abandoned a 1,924-page catchall spending measure that’s laced with homestate pet projects known as earmarks and that would have provided another $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nevada Democrat Harry Reid gave up on the nearly $1.3 trillion bill after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for the bill pulled back their support.

GOP leader Mitch McConnell threw his weight against the bill in recent days, saying it was in his words “unbelievable” that Democrats would try to muscle through in just a few days legislation that usually takes months to debate.

Reid said he would work with McConnell to produce a short-term funding bill to keep the government running into early next year.

This came after McConnell offered a 1 page continuing resolution in place of Dusty Harry’s $1.3T fiscal cluster-____:

McConnell: Dems Using “Christmas Break As An Inducement” To Pass Omnibus

See the linked video for McConnell’s statement on this.

“I would hope that it would make sense on a bipartisan basis, this one-page continuing resolution on Feb 18th as an alternative to this 2,000-page monstrosity that spends a half a billion dollars a page,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

One would like to say that Dusty Harry Reid finally accidentally stumbled across a figment of reason, but more realistically he caught a vision of gathering pitchforks and torches, and came to a belated realization of what it was that happened on the first Tuesday of last month.

This HAD to happen…otherwise the whole next year’s budget, including funding of Obamacare would have been locked in, and seriously handicapped the reform efforts of the incoming Congress, thus effectively overturning the whole point of the last election’s results.

Merry Christmas!