Selasa, 11 September 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

Clearing the Browser Tabs – Take a Stiff Belt of Courage, Conservatives!

Posted: 10 Sep 2012 01:41 PM PDT

Building a lasting political majority does not happen in one election cycle, especially when you start in a very distant second place. The Maryland Republican Party should remember that, or it will always be a national joke. They can start by talking to Dan Bongino, who has a few words we on the right ought to remember well over the next two months.

There is no way in the world we conservatives ought to allow Mitt Romney to lose this election, not in a year when one out of every five people can’t find enough work to pay the bills. The progressive spin machine is whirling faster than a south Atlantic hurricane but it still can’t blow President Obama to anything even remotely resembling a clear lead. The President’s campaign is slowly crumbling and his overblown faith in his own skills has kept him from assembling a team competent enough to stop it.

And now, links!
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Sabtu, 08 September 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

The Recovery that Isn’t

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 12:10 PM PDT

The White House has good news for us today. The economy is getting better, thanks to Barack Obama’s brilliant policies and, if we give him another four years, he’ll do even better!

While there is more work that remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007…

Today's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector establishments added 103,000 jobs last month, and overall non-farm payroll employment rose by 96,000. The economy has now added private sector jobs for 30 straight months, for a total of 4.6 million jobs during that period.

The household survey showed that the unemployment rate declined from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent in August.

I am just a blogger, not a highly-credentialed and well-paid economics adviser, but I know that the word “recovery” means that whatever malady you have is getting better, yes? One could assume that this jobs report would be better than the last one, or at least that this year would be better than the year before.

That’s not happening. Jim Pethokoukis skimmed some of the numbers the White House didn’t mention and they don’t show an economy in recovery at all. In fact, they show an economy that’s wobbling like a tired duck flying behind a 767.

Since the start of the year, job growth has averaged 139,000 per month vs. an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.

In other words, we created 14,000 fewer jobs per month this year than we did last year.

- While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, it was due to a big drop in the labor force participation rate (the share of Americans with a job or looking for one). If fewer Americans hadn't given up looking for work, the unemployment rate would have risen.

– Reuters notes that the participation rate is now at its lowest level since September 1981.

– If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%.

– If the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate would be 8.4%.

I want to stop here for a moment. The Civilian Labor Participation Rate measures the percentage of people in the job market out of the total of all the people who could be in the market. So if you’re able-bodied, of working age, and a civilian and you’ve given up looking for work, you’re out of the market. We want a bigger number here — as close to 100 percent as we can get. Right now, the participation rate is 63.5 percent. The rate has dropped like a rock since Barack Obama was inaugurated, even though the recession he likes to blame for all his woes ended in 2009.

To put this drop into perspective, the last time the participation rate was this low, Ronald Reagan has just taken office, the Space Shuttle Columbia made its first-ever launch, and the BBC gave the first public demonstration of the compact disc. it was a BeeGees album.

Jimmy Carter didn’t do this badly.

So what happened last month is 96,000 people who wanted work found work while 368,000 people who wanted work gave up hope and stopped looking. The labor pool today is a little smaller while the participation rate dropped by a proportionally larger amount. That makes the unemployment number look not quite as bad even though it really means our economy is weaker than it was the month before. Make sense?

Did I mention weaker than the month before?

The Labor Department also said that 41,000 fewer jobs were created in June and July than previously reported. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised from 64,000 to 45,000, and the change for July was revised from 163,000 to 141,000.

To simplify, we actually created fewer jobs in June and July than we thought we did, which makes our August number even worse because it will likely be revised downward, too. But here is the worst number of all.

Each month, The Hamilton Project examines the "jobs gap" — the number of jobs that the U.S. economy needs to create in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while also absorbing the people who enter the labor force each month. If we added 96,000 jobs every month, we would not close the jobs gap until after 2025…

Thirteen years. That’s how long it will take us to get back to where we were before the recession if we follow the genius plans Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats have put into motion over the past four years. And make no mistake, his plans for the next four years are conceptually the same as the ones we’ve seen since 2009: raise taxes on everyone but especially “the rich”, make government bigger, and “invest” in infrastructure that grows the bank accounts of union bosses and campaign contributors (Happy Birthday Solyndra Bankruptcy!). There is no world in which any of those policies will let our business owners hire more people, give more raises, build more buildings, or buy more equipment. So here we are.

The White House did hedge its bets though. We shouldn’t focus on one month’s numbers, because the economy is volatile and blah blah blah context blah blah stuff we don’t know but they do because they’re smart…

As the Administration stresses every month, the monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.

And that’s impressive. Truly. Economies are complex. They have tens of millions of moving parts. It is difficult for anyone to get a truly solid reading on our economic situation from a single month’s unemployment report. No one is smart enough to mange such an immense and complex machine because…wait. Did I just sound like Hayek there? Hmm!

Well, anyhow, the White House’s team of economic super geniuses would have impressed me more with that caveat if they hadn’t made the same excuse every month for the past 30. If you’re keeping score, Barack Obama has been President for 44 months, which gives him a very impressive Excuse Average of .818. That’s All-Star level right there.

If only he were that good at economics.

 

 
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Rabu, 05 September 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

Welcome to the Democratic National Convention, America. Now Remember Who You Belong To!

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 09:44 PM PDT

I’ve said before the unofficial motto of the Democratic Party the past few decades could be summed up in Benito Mussolini’s famous definition of totalitarianism, “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”. Tonight, the video that opened the Democratic National Convention proved that once and for all.

Here is a snippet from that video, which features the line that would make Il Duce’s chest burst with pride — “The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To”

No interpretation of that statement is true. We are not the government. The Constitution does not begin with the words “We, the Government of the United States”. Abraham Lincoln did not speak of “a government of the people, by the people, to which all the people belong”. Washington, DC does not own us nor does it have any claim over any part of our lives but the ones we grant it. Government exists because we free people, who hold rights the government did not grant and thus has no rightful power to take away, allow it to exist. We may change it at any time we want. We may tear it down with our own hands if it pleases us to do so because government — the structure by which we decide how to order our free society — belongs to us. Each of us, individually, owns it by dint of our citizenship and our Creator-granted rights.

I know the Democrats do not want this to be so. You often see left-wing pundits squawking about how a tax cut “costs” the government, as if our government is a feudal lord who graciously allows us to keep a few crumbs of hard-earned bread. That’s not only wrong; it is flatly un-American.

You probably already know that on the same day the Democrats worshiped around the altar of Big Nanny Government, our national debt broke $16 trillion dollars. Our elected officials in Washington have thrown a big party, complete with a $2 million intern, a travel budget that would choke a Fortune 500 company, and (quite literally) the fatted pig. They have thrown money at bad idea after bad idea in amounts that would make Scrooge McDuck blush and they can’t even explain how their programs work in straight, unvarnished English.

The message this week in Charlotte is clear. Government is America and Americans belong to the government. To nail that message down over the next few days, the Democrats have lined up an impressively familiar array of government officials to tell us just how awesome they are. Of the 81 convention speakers listed this past weekend on the DNC web site, 76 are current or former government officials, people running for government office, or people who make their living shilling for more government. Here is the breakdown (excluding President Obama and Vice President Biden):

  • 2 Presidents
  • 7 Senators
  • 27 Members of the House of Representatives
  • 13 Governors
  • 4 State Officials
  • 9 Mayors
  • 6 Cabinet Secretaries (including the head of the Small Business Administration)
  • 3 Candidates
  • 5 Professional Activists

Of the remaining five, two are celebrities (and one of those, Eva Longoria, is a Obama campaign co-chair). That is the lineup of career bureaucrats and professional leeches who want you to believe that you belong to them, that your life ought to be subject to their whims, that your judgement is inferior to theirs. You can buy what they’re selling, sure. Just know that you’ll pay plenty and get back only what’s left after they take care of their rich union boss buddies and campaign contributors.

Or, you know, you could take your country and your life out of their hands and control it the way God and the Founders intended. It’s entirely up to you.

jkljl
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Selasa, 04 September 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

The Delivery Presents – Tunes and Terror and Not a Hint of Politics (with @RealityBlurs and @mark_scudder)

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 06:54 AM PDT

I believe Episode 162 is the first show in which I didn’t hit on politics at all, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Quite honestly, I’ve had my fill of politics for a while (not a good sign since we’re still two months from Election Day). Never fear, though, faithful listeners, for I had a couple of the guests on the show you’ll truly enjoy, even if we didn’t talk about conventions and polls and attack ads and Paul Ryan’s pecs.

Mark Scudder is a musician who has done something exceptional — recorded an entire album online in full view of anyone who wanted to watch and give their input. The result, “The Solution is the Problem” is pretty darned good. If you’re tired of auto-tuned pop-tarts, dancers who only occasionally remember to sing, and overproduced sample-fests, Mark’s music will hit the spot.

In the second half, I was delighted to have game designer, author, and new friend Sean Preston of Reality Blurs on the show. We talked about his new role-playing game tremulus, what it’s like to launch a Kickstarter, what makes a game fun for people who have never played an RPG before in their lives, and why we love scary stories so very much.

Dig in and enjoy! And if you have a few bucks to spare over the next couple or few weeks, pick up what Mark’s album and pledge for Sean’s game.

The Delivery - Episode 162

R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan — An Actor Who Made Small Roles Big

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 06:21 PM PDT

AP reported earlier this evening that actor Michael Clarke Duncan is dead at the age of 54. He was rushed to the hospital last month after he suffered a heart attack and spent a couple of weeks in the ICU before doctors moved him to a regular room. He was a huge man — almost 6 1/2 feet tall and about 300 pounds — who had converted to a vegetarian lifestyle a couple or three years ago. I’ve not seen any information about whether his size or weight contributed to his heart attack or whether it was one of those unfortunate events that happen to we frail human beings.

I’m genuinely sad to read of Duncan’s death. There are few actors who make the movies they are in better and Duncan was one of them, though he never stole a flick again the way he did as John Coffey in The Green Mile. He was the bright spot in such forgettable movies as Armageddon, The Scorpion King, The Whole Nine Yards, Sin City, Talledega Nights, and Planet of the Apes. He lent his voice to a number of animated movies like Brother Bear and Kung-Fu Panda, and made a host of guest appearances on over a dozen television shows as well. What I liked most, though, is that he seemed like a man who thoroughly enjoyed his life without resorting to the sort of arrogant crapweaselry we see all too often from successful actors. He was a celebrity who I never saw flaunt his fame and I admired that.

Perhaps that humility came from his life before acting. He quit college and took work digging ditches and bouncing at bars to care for his sick mother. The bar experience led to bodyguard gigs in Los Angeles, which paid his bills while he looked for acting jobs. AFter the death of Notorious B.I.G., Duncan decided to go all-out as an actor and got a few roles as — what else? — a bouncer. Eventually, though, he got his big chance in The Green Mile and turned that performance into a career of which any actor would be proud.

My condolences to his family, his fiancee, and those who knew him and held him dear.

Clearing the Browser Tabs – Lying Liars and their Cozy Campaign Coverage

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:06 PM PDT

Because I am by nature a cynical man I am not often surprised when I read about the underhanded tactics our Dear Lightbringer and his lapdogs in the media have used to against Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. I have said before that I believe Mitt Romney is a weak candidate, the latest in a long string of squishy “moderates” whose basic political philosophies are “make things slightly less bad” and “don’t scare the Republican power-brokers”. On the other hand, neither of them are inveterate liars nor are they rank political opportunists who will say anything to anyone for a vote or two.

What we’ve seen from the Obama campaign recently has been a textbook case of political projection. The President has tried to slap his most glaring faults — the inability to keep a promise, the penchant for rhetoric that soars so high is actually leaves the real world, and an unshakeable belief in a failed ideology — on Romney and Ryan. His media lapdogs have certainly done their part to help the President along and the strain, apparently, is taking its toll and it may not be long before the lapdogs turn on their master.

Oh, they won’t turn on him as a pack before Election Day, but if he loses? Bet on it.

And now, links!

 
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Senin, 27 Agustus 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

Dear Romney Campaign, Make with the “D’awwwww” Stories, Please!

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 06:38 PM PDT

Andrew Ferguson, one of the best writers on either the right or left, has an interesting piece on the dearth of books about Mitt Romney and why that’s hurting him with voters thus far. The takeaway is Mitt Romney is a genuinely good guy, has always been one, and hardly anyone knows it.

I assumed I was missing something and resolved to dive into the Romney literature, which I soon discovered should post a disclaimer, like a motel pool: NO DIVING. By my count the literature includes one good book, The Real Romney, by two reporters from the Boston Globe. That's the same Globe with the leftward tilt to its axis and a legendary anti-Romney animus—which lends authority to their largely favorable portrait. The flattering details of Romney's life were so numerous and unavoidable that the authors, dammit, had no choice but to include them.

I understand that Mitt Romney is a humble man. He doesn’t like to blow his own horn, although if he did, he’d have little time to do much else. He’s a good man who gives generously and at a moment’s notice and he has taught every one of his sons to be the same kind of man not by talk but by example. He’s the sort of role model many of us crave when we see the infantile movie stars, petulant athletes, and cry-baby politicians who talk a good game about helping the needy but rarely lend more than their voices to the cause.

Mitt Romney has spent his entire life taking care of his business and bragging about it not at all. Unlike President Obama, he didn’t write two books about how awesome and different he is, though his Mormon faith is more different and interesting to mainstream America then whatever the President has cobbled together out of soggy fortune cookie platitudes, “God damn America” yelps, and Bible misquotes. The story of how he and his wife Ann met, fell in love, and raised a family through a considerable amount of hardship would make Al Gore’s Love Story seem like a cheap paperback novel. The tales of how he and Ann raised so many good sons would light up the front page of any mommy-blog like The Stir.

His humility is a good thing, but not for a politician and certainly not for a candidate for the position of leader of the free world. At some point, Mitt Romney has to get these stories out, not in a “hey look how awesomely humble I am” way, but in a “the tall tales the President’s been telling about how I want to grind gays, women, and the poor into a life-sustaining paste is bunk” way. Thus far, his campaign has kept those stories under wraps, which, as Moe Lane most eloquently points out, is not exactly the smartest political thing to do.

Mitt Romney has been spending his entire damn life wandering around and doing kind things for people.  AND HE NEVER [EXPLETIVE DELETED] TALKS ABOUT IT.  AND HIS CAMPAIGN STAFF NEVER [EXPLETIVE DELETED] TALKS ABOUT IT, EITHER.  Getting these stories out of them is like pulling teeth.  I mean.  Geez.  The guy once saved a freaking family of six from drowning, and I only found out about it third-hand.

The worst part?  This modesty is all very Christian of Mitt Romney, so you feel bad about getting annoyed about it.

Actually, I don’t feel bad. I feel pretty darned good about my annoyance. Mitt Romney may be setting high score in Xtreme Mormoning, but he’s not running for Mormon Champion. He’s running for President of the United States and, by God, heartwarming stories about how the candidate does selfless things for no thanks at all is a huge freaking Bonus Multiplier. Voters like competence, sure, but they absolutely love stories that make them go “awwwwwwwwwww”. Mitt Romney’s life is packed full of those stories. Take this one, for instance.

Almost every personal detail about Romney I found endearing. But my slowly softening opinion went instantly to goo when The Real Romney unfolded an account of his endless kindnesses—unbidden, unsung, and utterly gratuitous. "It seems that everyone who has known him has a tale of his altruism," the authors write. I was struck by the story of a Mormon family called (unfortunately) Nixon. In the 1990s a car wreck rendered two of their boys quadriplegics. Drained financially from extraordinary expenses, Mr. Nixon got a call from Romney, whom he barely knew, asking if he could stop by on Christmas Eve. When the day came, all the Romneys arrived bearing presents, including a VCR and a new sound system the Romney boys set up.

Heartwarming, huh? Mitt Romney and Family Save Christmas? Well, the story isn’t over. Not only did the Romney’s show up with armloads of awesome gifts, not only did they hang around to set up the brand-new sound system, they…well, look.

Later Romney told Nixon that he could take care of the children's college tuition, which in the end proved unnecessary. "I knew how busy he was," Nixon told the authors. "He was actually teaching his boys, saying, 'This is what we do. We do this as a family.' "

Read that one again. The Romneys offered to pay those two boys’ college tuition bills. We’re not talking about a couple thousand dollars here. That’s serious money, even if the boys went to an inexpensive state school. That story should have been out there weeks ago to hammer at Barack Obama’s huge “likeability” advantage. Take a look at the latest Gallup Poll, in which Obama holds a 54-31 advantage overall and a 52-36 advantage on the “”Cares about the needs of people like you” question. Do you really think the President would be 23 points more likeable if a few “Mitt Romney Saves Christmas, A Puppy, and College” stories had come out over the past two months? I sure as heck don’t. We know Barack Obama would have those stories out there if any of them existed, but they aren’t there. Mitt Romney could fill a shelf with them. So lets hear them.

I’m not saying Romney’s people need to start printing up brag sheets or handing out The Big Book of Mitt Romney’s D’awwwww Moments. I am saying sometimes things leak out of a campaign. Staffers talk. They tell stories around reporters. Sometimes they tell stories to reporters, complete with things like names and dates and places about which a reporter could follow-up. Sometimes they say a word or two, totally on background you understand, to bloggers they know are handy with the research skills. What I’m saying is a skilled campaign operator has ways. Yeah, sure, when they hit the national media, we’ll all know they were intentional leaks, but so what? That’s how the political game is played. Campaigns leak things they don’t want to say themselves (or have Stephanie Cutter, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the Priorities USA PAC say them, but Romney doesn’t have those people, does he?). That the Romney campaign, which has more than its share of skilled campaign operators, is not leaking any of these stories means that someone way up at the top is making an enormous mistake and it could cost them the election. I very much hope they correct that and get a few more of those stories into the hearts and minds of voters. They don’t need to write a book, but surely if they leaked enough stories for someone else to write it, that would help, yes?

 
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Minggu, 26 Agustus 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

R.I.P. Neal Armstrong: Nerd, Pilot, Explorer, Big Damn Hero.

Posted: 25 Aug 2012 01:45 PM PDT

In 1961, President John Kennedy delivered a challenge to the nation: put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, Neal Armstrong became that man as he stepped onto the surface of the moon. Armstrong died today, at the age of 82, of complications from “cardiovascular procedures”, likely related to his heart surgery weeks ago. We remember him today as a hero, who took the stick of the lunar lander and brought the craft to a safe landing after the on-board computer picked a boulder-strewn field in which to land, but he was a great deal more than that. He was a superlative pilot who spent years testing aircraft and may have saved the entire space program during the Gemini 8 flight. He was also an Alpha Geek who eschewed the spotlight and simply did brilliant, diligent work. He once told the National Press Club, “I am, and ever will be, a white-sock, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer…and I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession”.

I think we’ve largely forgotten how momentous the lunar landing was. Take a look at this video and watch how choked up Walter Cronkite got at the moment Armstrong says “Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed” (the 1:45 mark)

“Oh, boy”, indeed. Just after that, you’ll hear Armstrong tell Houston how he had to take manual control of the craft in order to land it safely. That’s Big Damn Heroes stuff right there.

Twitter has a couple of mighty fine tributes to Armstrong this afternoon. I wanted to share two of the best with you.


Neil Armstrong, RIP. He embodied the American virtues of courage, modesty, and excellence at his craft. Godspeed.
about 1 hour ago via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite
@TheRickWilson
Rick Wilson


I’d be in favor of a state funeral for the first person to set foot on another rock in space.
about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@EWErickson
Erick Erickson

His family released a statement this afternoon. I think their closing request is a good one for all of us to honor.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

Godspeed, Mr. Armstrong.
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:

Sabtu, 25 Agustus 2012

Clipping blog

Clipping blog

The Delivery Presents – Nuggets for the Social Media Ninjas (And Medicare with Ben!)

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 07:31 PM PDT

I felt like making a little change in Episode 161, so I pushed the politics to the back half of the show. This week, that means the show will finish with a nice meaty discussion of health care reform with one of the smartest guys on the planet on the subject, Ben Domenech (Heartland Institute, The Transom, Coffee and Markets, Assorted Other Awesomeness). I know what you’re thinking. It’ll be boring, right? Numbers and arcane regulations and more numbers and….NO! That is now how The Delivery rolls. Check it out for yourself. It’s not like any other discussion of Medicare you’ve ever heard.

Before that, though, I kicked around some ideas about how you can use social media to get what you want done without having to learn everything all at once. I’ll give you one hint: engage with people in a couple or three places and make those places your own. Okay, that’s a bit more than a hint, but listen in anyhow. I dropped a few choice nuggets of good information you might want to pick up and sample for yourself.

The Delivery - Episode 161
Diposting oleh di Tidak ada komentar:
Langganan: Postingan (Atom)