Friday, December 10, 2010

deficit


From: <larry.r.trout

'But the big gun was the economic warning from Mr. Summers, the soon-departing director of the White House National Economic Council.

"Failure to pass this bill in the next couple weeks would materially increase the risk that the economy would stall out and we would have a double-dip" recession, Mr. Summers told reporters at a briefing. '

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/us/politics/09cong.html?_r=1

I hate to say it, but if our deficit is going to be 1.5 trillion next year. I believe we should let the Bush tax cuts expire. This would bring in $321 billion more from the lower and middle clase and $41 billion nire from earners over $250k.

I would be O.K. with this if we were really going to cut federal spending also, to the tune of about $800 billion. I don't believe it can be done by targeting, because affected constitutancies will fight tooth and nail. I believe we either need to set spending, on everything but welfare and unemployment insurance, at 2008 levels or cut every federal item by 20%.

Part of me says this will cause the economy to get worse as Summers says above, but I don't think we can keep borrowing at the rate we are.

Again, getting outlays back to 2008 levels is a good start -- and an ambitious one: It amounts to $850 billion in cuts

Then there are departments and agencies that Obama fattened up, raising outlays by $337 billion (over the 2008 levels):..

Giveaways to individuals can also be cut. Last year, the feds paid out $292 billion in "refundable tax credits"

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/first_roll_back_bam_spending_hikes_j8bZAF6SYMycVSV1rNnUFK#ixzz174O318ST

 




--
Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Friday, December 3, 2010

No More Illegal Alien Waivers

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin120310.php3

Balanced Budget Amendment

We should have a constitutional amendment that says that the federal budget cannot increase from one year to the next if the budget was not balanced in the previous year.   There should be some sort of oversight by the courts to make sure that this is enforced.  It should be possible to override by a 60% vote in both houses.

 

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Death From 10,000 Feet

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/12/02/death_from_10000_feet_108117.html

South Korea spy chief says more attacks likely

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40449265/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Bradley Manning: Poster Boy For 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40325

Bailing Out The World

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40328

Will Carter Be Obama's Special Envoy On Korean Crisis?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40324

The Littlest Victims of Obamacare

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40332

Senate GOP Sells Out National Security for Tax Cuts

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40329

Sent from my iPhone

The Blue Bloodbath

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40326

The Hammer And The Post

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40302

‘America Must Assimilate Again’

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40308

Thank God Ronald Reagan Was a Conservative

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40306

The Blue Bloodbath

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40326

A unified Korea would be closely allied to the US. That's why China won't support it – Telegraph Blogs

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/praveenswami/100066148/a-unified-korea-would-be-closely-allied-to-the-us-thats-why-china-wont-support-it/

Monday, November 22, 2010

Ways to Come to Grips With America's Fiscal Mess

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40138

The Left Breaks Upon The Rock Of Palin - HUMAN EVENTS

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40140

Democratic Consultants "Totally Unimpressed"

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40111

Oklahoma Sharia Ban in Court - HUMAN EVENTS

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40136

The trap of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705316.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Obama’s Former Commerce Secretary Nominee: U.S. Economy is on “Unsustainable Track”

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/21/obama-s-former-commerce-secretary-nominee-us-economy-unsustainable-track-1?test=latestnews

Hillary Clinton Says She Won’t Run Again for Elective Office - Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-21/hillary-clinton-says-she-won-t-run-again-for-elective-office.html

Friday, November 19, 2010

Fwd: QE


Jimmy Carter did the same thing and we ended up with bad inflation...


Begin forwarded message:

From: larry.r.trout

'Quantitative easing is sometimes colloquially described as "printing money" although in reality the money is simply shifted to member bank dollar deposits from financial instruments…[

The first step is for the bank to "borrow" from the member bank reserve accounts, creating a depository liability.[4] It can then use these funds to buy investments like government bonds from financial firms such as banks, insurance companies and pension funds,[1] in a process known as "monetising the debt". The net impact on the central bank balance sheet is zero…

How

      1. The national bank declares an extremely low rate of interest, for example 0.5%.

      2. The national bank credits its own bank account with money created from 'thin air', probably just by adding to a number on its computer.

      3. The newly created money is then used for buying government bonds from financial firms such as banks, insurance companies and pension funds. '

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Wow! Walter Williams on the Civil War.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns110310.php3

... but there is nothing in the constitution that would allow
succession. In fact, the constitution has a clause for dealing with
rebellion.

Abraham Lincoln said this in his inaugural address ...

"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now
formidably attempted.

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the
Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is
implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national
governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a
provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and
the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it
except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an
association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made
it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but
does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition
that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the
history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the
Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association
in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the
then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in
1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the
Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union."

But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the
States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the
Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity."

Monday, November 15, 2010

Deficit reduction and the printing press

It is bad when the Europeans are lecturing us about fiscal responsibility…

 

From: Cindy Trout

 

 ' After five largely harmonious meetings in the past two years to deal with the most severe downturn since the Depression, major disputes broke out between Washington and China, Britain, Germany and Brazil.

Each rejected core elements of Mr. Obama's strategy of stimulating growth before focusing on deficit reduction. Several major nations continued to accuse the Federal Reserve of deliberately devaluing the dollar last week in an effort to put the costs of America's competitive troubles on trading partners, rather than taking politically tough measures to rein in spending at home.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/business/global/12group.html?src=me

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hanoi'd with Jane

http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp

I find this interesting read.  There is probably a find line between protest and betraying your country.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Oil Substitutes

From: Trout, Larry

 

 ‘At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out 90 years before replacement technologies are ready, says a new University of California, Davis, study based on stock market expectations.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101109095322.htm

 

Duh, but the price will rise as the supply begins to dwindle, then the pace will pickup for replacements.

They also base their results on long-term investment trends.

Another reason long term investment is low in replacements, is because investors believe either the end of oil predictions could be off by anywhere from 50 to 150 years, and hence dangerous investments.

 

They also could be worried that government will outlaw oil in the united states  J

If cap in trade had gone into effect this year, their investments would have been worth zip.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Fed


From: larry.r.trout@

'FOX Business' top legal analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, notes that "the Supreme Court has never ruled on the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve, believe it or not. But the lower federal courts that have addressed the issue have found it to be constitutional by employing the argument that Congress can enter into a contract with private entities to perform governmental services; and that is what it has done with the private bankers who own and operate and profit greatly from the Fed."

Fox Business news director Ray Hennessey notes that in 1952, Rep. John Wright Patman of Texas, who was head of what was then called the House Committee on Banking and Currency, crystallized the argument, saying, "In the United States we have, in effect, two governments. We have the duly constituted Government. Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution."

The U.S. central bank grudgingly bought U.S. debt during the Great Depression under pressure from Congress to battle deflation—a playbook Bernanke is following now.

Between 1926 and 1929, the Fed bought $1.7 billion in US debt, but then ramped that up from $729 million to $1.8 billion in 1933, averaging $2.4 billion in purchases every year after that until 1941.'

While these moves helped lower interest costs corporate debt "and appeared to arrest the decline in prices and economic activity," Bernanke said. "Fed officials remained ambivalent about their policy of monetary expansion. Some viewed the Depression as the necessary purging of financial excesses built up during the 1920s..slowing the economic collapse by easing monetary policy only delayed the inevitable adjustment."

The Fed also bought U.S. debt in the 1940s to keep interest rates low after World War II, a move some economists say helped usher in the post-war economic boom.

And back in the 1970s, it was Congress that pressured the Fed into adding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities to its portfolio in order to help develop the market for those mortgage-backed securities. That was unpopular with the Fed at the time too.'

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/11/09/fed-breaking-law/

Friday, November 5, 2010

FW: health care

From: David

 

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/05/why-healthcare-reform-will-survive.html

Larry Elder

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder110410.php3

Fwd: health care

To David and Larry,

The argument from yesterday is that we don't really have a free choice now – largely because of government policies, so the proposed solution is to take away all free choice.  I am suggesting that we haven't tried a system with free choice.  If we had, the market would bring down costs making medical care more affordable.

This is how liberalism works:  it takes away some of our freedom making the situation worse, and then tells us that the government is the only solution to the problem, resulting in even less freedom.  Repeat this often enough and you end up in a very miserable state.

I am sure that David does not believe that the free market can provide affordable services for the poor.   Not everything will be affordable, but I believe that those with the most desperate need could be helped by private charity.

Since we can't really get back to a free system from where we are at, I am suggesting that a system of health savings accounts will move us in a free market direction, because people will have to make choices about cost versus benefit and it will introduce price competition.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Human rights violations


'When the United Nations Human Rights Council, a conclave of 47 nations that includes such notorious human rights violators as China, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia, meets in Geneva on Friday, its attentions will be focused on the human rights failings of a country called the United States.

It will hear, among other things, that the U.S. discriminates against Muslims, that its police are barbaric and that it has been holding political prisoners behind bars for years.

Those allegations, and many more, will come from Americans themselves — especially from a stridently critical network of U.S. organizations whose input dominates the U.N. digest of submissions from "civil society" that are part of the council's background reading.'

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/04/united-nations-human-rights-council/?test=latestnews

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Universal Coverage

From: Coffey, John R

 

I had this idea that we could take all the money companies and the government spend now on healthcare and give every single person the country a medical savings account.  Everybody would get an equal amount, whatever that would be, except at first we might have to give more for seniors who would lose Medicare.

 

People can spend the account as they see fit on medical care/insurance/preventative care/nursing home care.   I would disallow using it for medical marijuana.

 

They can invest the account as they see fit.  When people reach retirement age, they could use a fraction of the account as income.

 

I also think that we should eliminate the income ceiling on how much people contribute to SS/Medicare.

 

John Coffey

 

 

From: Trout, Larry

 

This is a similar solution that JP and I finally agreed on with a modifier.

People would use their tax free HSAs for most medical expenses by price shopping.

Tax free insurance premiums would be paid by people for insurance covering unexpected severe health events, maybe costing more than 12,000 a year.

Insurance companies liability would be limited to maybe 50,000 or 60,0000  a year.

The Federal government would step in above this, essentially offering and a extreme high deductibility insurance to all citizens for free, protecting from extreme events and chronic conditions.

 

The 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index

http://www.prosperity.com/

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Obama Underappreciation Syndrome

What are the real powers of the federal government?

  1. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_powers_of_the_federal_government_according_to_the_Constitution
  2. http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php
James Madison said: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined." (Federalist Papers #45)   The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people (Amendment X of the Bill of Rights).

We can't spend our way to prosperity.

"Last week, the Cato Institute ran a full-page newspaper ad signed by more than 200 economists, including Nobel laureates stating:
"We the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's 'lost decade' in the 1990s ... Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

-- John Stossel.   "We can't spend our way to prosperity"

Spending money for infrastructure

"Spending money for infrastructure is another time-consuming way of dealing with what is called an immediate crisis.   Infrastructure takes forever to plan, debate, and go through all sorts of hearings and adjudications, before getting approval to build from all the regulatory agencies involved."

"Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire."

"If you cut taxes tomorrow, people would have more money in their next paycheck, ...


-- Thomas Sowell "What are they buying?"

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

National Debt Up $3 Trillion on Obama's Watch

Call me a crazy, but I think that a balance budget would benefit the country.   We would need major cuts but even bigger tax increases.

 

John Coffey

 

From: Trout, Larry R

National Debt Up $3 Trillion on Obama's Watch

New numbers posted today on the Treasury Department website show the National Debt has increased by more than $3 trillion since President Obama took office.

The National Debt stood at $10.626 trillion the day Mr. Obama was inaugurated. The Bureau of Public Debt reported today that the National Debt had hit an all time high of $13.665 trillion.

The Debt increased $4.9 trillion during President Bush's two terms. The Administration has projected the National Debt will soar in Mr. Obama's fourth year in office to nearly $16.5-trillion in 2012. That's more than 100 percent of the value of the nation's economy and $5.9-trillion above what it was his first day on the job.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019931-503544.html

 

Monday, October 18, 2010

Alice in Wonderland

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1010/ahlert.php3

Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement

 "Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses."



Best wishes,

John Coffey

Sent from my iPhone

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Not Your Average Joe

-- On Obama: "Nor has he said anything memorable -- not even a single aphorism over this long campaign. And the title of his book 'The Audacity of Hope' -- what on earth does that mean? He is always hinting at a substance that is never disclosed to us. He seems to live by raising vague aspirations he never fulfills." 

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39309

Monday, September 27, 2010

Cambodia

From: larry.r.trout@

'What the Khmer Rouge brought to Cambodia was in fact real Communism. There was no radical distinction, either conceptually or concretely, between the rule of the Khmer Rouge and that of Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism, or the North Korean regime. All Communist regimes follow strangely similar trajectories, barely colored by local traditions. In every case, these regimes seek to make a blank slate of the past and to forge a new humanity. In every case, the "rich," intellectuals, and skeptics wind up exterminated. The Khmer Rouge rounded up urban and rural populations in agricultural communities based on precedents both Russian (the Kolkhozy) and Chinese (the popular communes), and they acted for the same ideological reasons and with the same result: famine. There is no such thing as real Communism without massacre, torture, concentration camps, gulags, or laogai. And if there has never been any such thing, then we must conclude that there could be no other outcome: Communist ideology leads necessarily to mass violence, because the masses do not want real Communism. This is as true in the rice fields of Cambodia as in the plains of Ukraine or under Cuban palms.'

Friday, September 24, 2010

The Daily Star - Opinion Articles - It's official, the Great Recession is over, but ...

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=119660#axzz10USOIzH5

Tough Questions for Obama About ObamaCare - Merrill Matthews - Right Directions - Forbes

http://blogs.forbes.com/merrillmatthews/2010/09/22/tough-questions-for-obama-about-obamacare/?boxes=opinionschannellatest

How Privileged Democrats Pay for Their Houses

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39137

White House Tries to Discredit Forbes Magazine Over Obama Cover Story

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39136

poor substitute for the Contract With America

http://content.eaglepub.com/?kdtXpOUH-PcjJe11FyaSljedsuhqASgFk

Tea Party Impacts GOP ‘Pledge To America’ - HUMAN EVENTS

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39135

H.R. 5028 Could Collapse the Housing Market


From:
ryan.w.mergenthal

According to HousingWire, the bill would grant the right to homeowners entering foreclosure to occupy their homes for up to five years, making fair-market rent payments, determined by an independent appraiser, to the lender. The CEPR says this would give homeowners important "security" since they would not be "thrown out on the streets." CEPR cites the cost savings to "homeowners" who would be able to rent their homes rather than face evictions and have to rent on the open market.

_____________________________________________
From: Trout, Larry 

Why would they be worried about renting on the open market, if they will pay fair market value?


From: ryan.w.mergenthal@

For one, it forces foreclosures off the market for five yearsso I imagine the price for non-foreclosures will go up in the mean time as the supply of available homes for sale decreases.  I imagine there are some costs associated with maintaining a property's compliance with rental lawsbut rent money is basically free cash for the mortgage holder that doesn't pay into any equity for the renter.

I imagine it's the real estate brokers that would be more affected by this than the banks.


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Walked out

From: larry.r.trout

'In his speech to the annual General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said it was mostly U.S. government officials who believed a terrorist group was behind the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon.

Another theory, he said, was "that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime."

"The majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view," Ahmadinejad told the 192-nation assembly.

The U.S. and several European delegations left shortly after Ahmadinejad made the remarks.'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39331594/ns/world_news/

Iran

From: larry.r.trout

'Ahmadinejad's speech also ought to make us reflect on how poorly secularized Westerners encounter men of faith, especially those who believe profoundly in a "clash of civilizations" (as Khamenei and Ahmadinejad do). President Barack Obama came into office believing that the principal problem between the United States and Iran was George W. Bush. This view was shared by a wide swath of the foreign policy establishment. Senior officials in the Bush State Department who thought that Khamenei really, truly wanted better relations with the United States differ little from the Obama crowd, who hoped that their boss would have a magic touch with the supreme leader, who responded to Obama's early felicitous outreach by referring to America as "Satan Incarnate."

Even among Iran devotees, who follow the country in its native language, there was an astonishing naivete or, to put it another, politer way, a determined hopefulness about where U.S.-Iranian relations could go.
 Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations, who briefly served in the Obama administration, deserves praise for announcing clearly what few among the more liberal Iran cognoscenti have been willing to do: the debate is over. Iran under KhameneI remains a highly ideological state. Engagement as envisioned by Obama and so many others was an (appealing) illusion.'

http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/77855/why-ahmadinejad-acts-the-way-he-does-the-un-iran-obama

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Preexisting conditions

From: larry.r.trout

'Major health insurance companies in California and other states have decided to stop selling policies for children rather than comply with a new federal healthcare law that bars them from rejecting youngsters with preexisting medical conditions.'

Obligated to give citizenship

From: larry.r.trout

'Obama's aunt says US obligated to make her citizen

Aunt Zeituni still lives in public housing and collects $700 monthly disability'

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlOeNCgJvuyKzZv_V8kDfYOigYXwD9ICDN1G0

'Despite what's she's been given, Zeituni Onyango said flatly that she owes this country nothing in return. "But, it's given you so much?" Elias asked. "So? It's a free country under God," was her terse response.'

http://wbztv.com/local/obama.aunt.Zeituni.2.1924422.html

Monday, September 20, 2010

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=1

Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water

Didn't know but not surprised.

From: "Allan

You may already know this ,but I thought it was pretty wild.

http://www.survival-spot.com/survival-blog/collecting-rainwater-now-illegal-in-many-states-as-big-government-claims-ownership-over-our-water/#more-5756

Mexico

'EVERY 100 years, Mexico seems to have a rendezvous with violence. As
the country gathers on Wednesday night for the ceremony of the "grito"
— the call to arms that began the war for independence from Spain — we
are enduring another violent crisis, albeit one that differs greatly
from those of a century and two centuries ago.

In 1810 and 1910, revolutions erupted that lasted 10 years or more and
were so destructive that both times it took decades for the country to
re-establish its previous levels of peace and progress. Both episodes
furthered Mexico's political development, however, and our collective
memory centers on these two dates that have taken on such symmetrical
and mythical significance.

In 2010, Mexico is again convulsed with violence, though the size and
scope of today's conflict does not even remotely approach that of 1810
or 1910. This war is unfolding within and between gangs of criminals,
who commit violent acts that are fueled only by a competitive lust for
money. This is strikingly different from the revolutions of 1810 or
1910, which were clashes of ideals. '

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/opinion/15krauze.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Where has the oil gone

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0727/Gulf-oil-spill-Where-has-the-oil-gone

Senate Passes $612B Defense Bill

http://www.puppetgov.com/2008/09/19/senate-passes-612b-defense-bill/

Fwd: Blago

You know, I almost felt sorry for the guy.  Politicians are corrupt.
Why is that news?   I am sure that there are back-room deals happening
all the time.   The people who hung him out to dry are probably more
corrupt than he is.
I do think it is good to expose it.

Best wishes,
John Coffey

On Aug 12, 2010, at 10:18 AM, larry.r.trout wrote:

'Jurors who have spent the last 11 days deliberating in the corruption
trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have been able to listen
to more than 100 excerpts of wiretap tapes, look through any notes
they took during testimony and refer to some 120 pages of jury
instructions.

All of that, though, may not have been enough to prevent them from
becoming deadlocked.'

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQzzfJgU11ljyZElHhClLPy89z3wD9HHUG5O0

I thought a unanamous decision was only needed for death penalty cases…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hung_jury

Deficit

"For my part, I don't want to hear another conservative pundit call
for more tax cuts until there's a closure of the gap between what
Washington takes in and what it promises and spends. If that day never
comes, well, someone has to pay for the party.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin stands out as the rare Republican willing
to challenge the Democrats' "culture of dependency" by proposing
painful cuts on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending. He,
at least, is willing to tell the middle class that entitlement
spending is "unsustainable." Ryan is the adult in this room."

'As David Walker, head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former
U.S. controller, told the San Francisco Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead
last week, "If you eliminated all the Bush tax cuts, if you withdrew
from Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, if you eliminated foreign aid, and
if you eliminated all spending associated with congressional earmarks
— the populist things — it's about 15 percent of the problem."'

http://jewishworldreview.com/0810/saunders081610.php3

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Fwd: Cost of Government Day

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <larry.r.trout

Spice and How to Make Pot Butter

> Never heard of "Spice" but it was on the radio on two different
> stations tonight.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabis
>
I heard that they were trying to make this stuff illegal in Utah
county.    Apparently it is real popular.

All the news stories about Spice got me curious...

I found the first video on this page to be really amusing, not that I
would ever do anything like this.   If I were taking chemo I would
consider it...

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-pot-butter

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fwd: Cartoonist in hiding


From: larry.r.trout@
Date: September 16, 2010 12:41:22 PM MDT
To:
Subject: Cartoonist in hiding

'An American cartoonist whose satirical work inspired the controversial "Everybody Draw Mohammed Page" on Facebook has gone into hiding, the newspaper which published her comics said Wednesday.

Molly Norris, of Seattle, Washington, has moved and changed her name following a call for her assassination by US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, The Seattle Weekly said.

"You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week," the newspaper said. "That's because there is no more Molly."

"The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, 'going ghost': moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity.

"She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program -- except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab," the newspaper said.

Norris drew a cartoon in April to protest the decision by the US television channel Comedy Central to cancel an episode of the popular show "South Park" over its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit

In her cartoon, Norris satirically proposed May 20 as an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day."…

In July, an English-language Al-Qaeda magazine, "Inspire," in an article attributed to Awlaki, the radical Yemeni cleric, said Norris "should be taken as a prime target of assassination."'

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gsevvhMY7G4oPXClCvfyl0FUW7DQ

Instead of just putting her in hiding, they should have found a look-alike and setup a sting to catch anyone threatening her life.

US adds 3.8 million more to ranks of the poor as poverty rate jumps

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0916/US-adds-3.8-million-more-to-ranks-of-the-poor-as-poverty-rate-jumps

Repealing the ban on the common light bulb

http://www.redstate.com/rep_joe_barton/2010/09/16/repealing-the-ban-on-the-common-light-bulb/

Jim DeMint raises $174K for Christine O'Donnell

"Republicans shouldn't give up on any race this year because there's an awakening taking place all across America as people reaffirm their support for America's founding principles," DeMint added. "They're not as concerned with which party is in power or who gets committee chairmanships. They simply want to elect new leaders who will fight for balanced budgets, constitutional limits, and individual liberty."




Harry Reid's Illegal Alien Student Bailout

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39046

Signs of the Failure of the Times

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39049

Trifle with the government? Just ask Jacob Maged

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091505090.html

Why It's Time for the Tea Party

"In part it is a rising up of those who truly believe America is imperiled and truly mean to save her."

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Progressives Against Progress by Fred Siegel, City Journal Summer 2010

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_3_american-liberalism.html

Fwd: France



From: larry.r.trout
Date: September 14, 2010 8:55:06 AM MDT
To:
Subject: France

'The European Commission will have no choice but to start a legal action against France for its expulsion of Roma, Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Tuesday.

"I am personally convinced that the commission will have no choice," Reding said during a press conference.

"I intend to recommend to [European Commission] President Barroso fast track infringement procedure, so we lose no time," she said, calling France's expulsion of these people a "disgrace." '

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100914-703768.html

How dare the French throw illegal immigrants out of their own country :-)

Fwd: 1rst provision repeal vote today

Begin forwarded message:

From: larry.r.trout@
Date: September 14, 2010 11:19:20 AM MDT
Subject:
1rst provision repeal vote today

'You might not have seen it reported, but the Senate will vote this morning on whether to repeal part of ObamaCare that it passed only months ago. The White House is opposed, but this fight is likely to be the first of many as Americans discover—as Nancy Pelosi once famously predicted—what's in the bill.

The Senate will vote on amendments to the White House small business bill that would rescind an ObamaCare mandate that companies track and submit to the IRS all business-to-business transactions over $600 annually. Democrats tucked the 1099 reporting footnote into the bill to raise an estimated $17.1 billion, part of the effort to claim that ObamaCare reduces the deficit by $100 billion or so. '

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703897204575488272691514074.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Monday, September 13, 2010

Obama’s Backdoor Amnesty

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38968

Fwd: Krugman attacks China



From: l.robert.updike@
Date: September 13, 2010 9:50:58 AM MDT
To: "Trout, Larry R @ CSW-SLC" <larry.r.trout@
Subject: RE: Krugman attacks China

Simple solution.

Tell the PRC that we will make up any trade deficit with them by selling
additional arms to the ROC.

-----Original Message-----
From: Trout, Larry 
CSW-SLC
Subject: Krugman attacks China

I didn't expect to see this from Krugman...
'You see, senior American policy figures have repeatedly balked at doing
anything about Chinese currency manipulation, at least in part out of
fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current
environment, Chinese purchases of our bonds don't help us - they hurt
us. The Japanese understand that. Why don't we?

Some background: If discussion of Chinese currency policy seems
confusing, it's only because many people don't want to face up to the
stark, simple reality - namely, that China is deliberately keeping its
currency artificially weak.

The consequences of this policy are also stark and simple: in effect,
China is taxing imports while subsidizing exports, feeding a huge trade
surplus. You may see claims that China's trade surplus has nothing to do
with its currency policy; if so, that would be a first in world economic
history. An undervalued currency always promotes trade surpluses, and
China is no different.

And in a depressed world economy, any country running an artificial
trade surplus is depriving other nations of much-needed sales and jobs.
Again, anyone who asserts otherwise is claiming that China is somehow
exempt from the economic logic that has always applied to everyone
else.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/opinion/13krugman.html_r=2&ref=global

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Obama's Desperate Search for Sound Economic Policy | The Heritage Foundation

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/09/obamas-desperate-search-for-effective-stimulus

Op-Ed Contributor - Four Deformations of the Apocalypse - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=2

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: How to Win the Clash of Civilizations - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703426004575338471355710184.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

The end of books

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/greenberg081810.php3

Debra J. Saunders

http://jewishworldreview.com/0810/saunders081610.php3

The myth of the Social Security system's financial shortfall - Page 3 - Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/08/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20100808/3

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Fwd: 1937


From: larry.r.trout@L-3com.com
Date: September 7, 2010 1:37:04 PM EDT
To: <john2001plus@gmail.com>
Subject: 1937


The one problem that I have with the deflation argument is that we are on a different money system today.  Not only has the money supply tripled over the last 10 years, but if deflation becomes a real threat, and it won't, the treasury can and will print money.  Let's hope they pay off some of our debt if they do.  -JC