July 31, 2009

The Recession Is Over. Right?

Well, not so much.

GDP came out this morning and there's only one word for it: Ugly.
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2009, (that is, from the first quarter to the second), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 6.4 percent.


And while 1% drop doesn't sound all that bad, the problem is that virtually all of this change came from government spending.  Further, while the feds can continue to just print money and issue debt (as long as the Chinese let us, that is), the states have pretty much crapped-out - meaning there's one less spigot (or 50, actually) to be tapped going forward.

Read Denninger's column for the details - consumer spending in Q2 was down (up in Q1) as were both durable and non-durable goods (both were up in Q1).

Gold and sliver are spiking, the dollar is getting hammered, and yet equities appear to be taking the continued deterioration in the economy in stride.

So, are you willing to bet that the equities markets are right?  Or do you trust your own lying eyes?

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July 30, 2009

Popcorn time

Yum - I just love the smell of blue-on-blue violence in the morning.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent half of Wednesday finalizing a deal with the Blue Dogs — and the other half quelling a brewing rebellion among progressives who think conservatives have hijacked health care reform.

And I wish you JOY! in your attempts at cat-herding, Speaker McBotox.
Two months ago, most of the 80-plus members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus signed a pledge that they would oppose any health care bill that didn’t contain a bona fide public option that would compete with private insurers.

In other words, a substantial plurality of the party that runs Washington these days won't sign-on to any "reform" that doesn't contain the private-health-insurance-killing "public" option.

But this isn't about the government taking-over healthcare, right Obambi?

Riiiiiiiight.

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July 27, 2009

Best... Rant... EVAH!

Moron Pundit is a more-or-less regular poster at doubleplusundead, but was also blogging solo for some time.

This, the last post at MP, is a gem.

A great read.  A great vent.

Bravo.

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July 23, 2009

This is so totally awesome I'm swiping it wholesale

I'd like to clarify something that some people seemed to be confused about.

Health care is not a right. (Neither is education, or food, or housing, or a job.)

How can I be so sure?

Anything that requires the labor of someone else cannot be a universal human right.

It's just so blessedly simple, really.  Please do read the whole thing.

H/T.

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Way to go, Mr. Post-Racial

So the President of the United States, in his latest televised prime-time intrusion into our lives, was offered the perfect opportunity to show to us what life in a post-racial America would be like.  He was, as we all know by know, offered the opportunity to comment on the case of "Skip" Gates, as he's known by His Teleprompterness.

Now, he could have said something along the lines of "You know, it's unfortunate, but let's wait for all the facts to come out and be calm and keep Hope alive blah blah blah" and, you know, actually shown that he is capable of being the racial-healer and Light-Worker he was sold to us as.

Instead, he took the opportunity to demonstrate his ignorance of the facts of the case and to publicly bitch-slap the Police Department of the City of Cambridge, MA.

Obviously this is evidence of that first-class temperament the idiot-cons were claiming we were going to see on display daily were we smart enough to listen to them and elect this inexperienced Chicago machine-pol to the highest elected office in the Land.

Brilliant, indeed.
more...

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July 22, 2009

The question that is begged

I posed this first in response to Loren's great TMR piece on Euthanasia as a means of Healthcare Cost Reduction - but I believe the question is begged to the point that I ought repeat herein...

Let's propose a hypothetical, assuming that the House and Senate are unsuccessful in their attempts to exempt themselves from this craptacular screw-job...

Under ObamaCare, what do you think are the odds that Teddy Kennedy would actually, legally and above board qualify for the advanced cancer treatments he's getting today?

I'd lay those odds at "slim to none, and slim just left town".

More likely, the representative from ObamaCare, LLC would simply tell him to take a pill.

Pretty much all you need to know about how this pretty much makes everyone miserable except the liberals who demand that everyone be equally miserable.

Ah, it would appear that someone beat me to the begging!

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Bobby Jindal is a really smart guy.

And he shows-off some of that brilliance here.  If I could reprint the whole thing here legally I would.

I quibble with nits in Gov. Jindal's approach, but his is so far superior to that currently, and blessedly, stalled in Congress it would be painfully unfair to compare them.

Memo to the GOP - take this and run with it, as fast as you can, to anyone who will listen.

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July 21, 2009

The lessons of history.

They have a way of - how is it put? - repeating themselves.

Nearing the end of my read of "The Forgotten Man" I can only marvel at the sense of Deja Vu I have these days.

Oh, and President HooBama?  I am so stealing that!

OT: Reading Denninger is, by far, the best economics course you're ever going to get, anywhere, anytime.  And it's free.

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And speaking of Her Smugness...

I have to admit that I very much enjoyed watching her get bitch-slapped here.

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you.

Oh, and it gets better.  So, deliciously better.  Do read the whole thing.

H/T: Top Headlines at AoSHQ.

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July 11, 2009

I really wish the WSJ would fire Peggy Noonan

Seriously, I don't know how many more times I can be called stupid by someone who gushingly, orgasmically, pushed The Vapid One down our throats and not snap.

I get the message, Peggy.  You wrote speeches for ReaganTM and so therefore you think your opinion on matters of politics matters more than, say, mine.  Good for you.

But remember - when it came to the 2008 election, I was right (and I wasn't alone by a long shot) and you were flat, busted wrong.

So given the Epic Fail! your guy has subjected us all to perhaps you might want to consider dialing-back a bit on the smugness, mm-kay?

To cleanse the pallate, may I suggest a boner-worthy takedown of Peggy's latest bout with serial condescension courtesy of Doctor Zero.

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July 09, 2009

Stay classy, welfare pimps.

Yes Californians, no matter how broke you are, no matter how you can't afford it, according to the welfare pimps Kids Will DieTM unless you agree to fork-over more of your hard-earned cashola to feed the state welfare beast.

Liberals == Pure, freaking evil.

H/T to Sean at doubleplusundead.

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July 08, 2009

More MA Politics

Charlie Baker is after Coupe Deval's head too, it seems.

Republican Charlie Baker, the well-financed CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, has jumped into a quickly swelling 2010 gubernatorial race only two days after Treasurer Timothy Cahill said he decided to switch political parties.

My suspicion is that Baker probably becomes the front-runner for the GOP side over Christy Mihos - who seems to be pinning his entire political future on a yet to be put before the voters "Proposition One".

All I know is that it's nice to see a primary on the GOP side, for a change.  If for no other reason than that it reminds us that there are at least 3 non-Democrats left in the freaking Commonwealth.

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Somewhere, Dick Cheney is laughing.

Well, they said if I voted for McMaverick that I'd end-up with a President who would hold detainees indefinitely.  Looks like "they" were right!

The Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.

Pity that I can't hear The Dark Lord's laughter over the sound of all those lefty heads exploding all across Cambridge and San Francisco.

So moonbats, when are you going to fire-up your rent-a-mob protest machines over this latest OUTRAGETM?

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July 07, 2009

I don't usually talk MA Politics here.

But this is just a little too good to pass up.

Jumping the Democrat Party line and joining the ranks of unenrolled voters, Treasurer Timothy Cahill is positioned to take on Gov. Deval Patrick without a primary battle in which the sitting governor would enjoy the power of incumbency.

Cahill’s anticipated move also allows his to become the independent voice in the race - beholden to no party - and appeal to fiscal conservatives, Beacon Hill observers said.

Clearly Cahill doesn't seem to think the MA GOP has anything to offer him - a wise assessment (and besides, it appears that Christy Mihos has the socially liberal Republican market pretty much sewn-up already) and that he, a non-liberal on fiscal policies, has no chance against Gov. Spendy Free-Money McSpender among the commie-heavy Democrat Primary electorate - also a wise assessment.

more...

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July 06, 2009

Because I'm feeling nostalgic today.

It's always cold inside the icehouse.

Though the rivers never freeze...

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No Nukes!

Because Barry sez so.  Oh Joy - release the Unicorns!

To which, I can't do better than Blazer in reply...

Obama will see himself as a worldly uber-intellectual who will enlighten the Russians and will thaw the tensions that have arisen during the Bush years.

The Russians will take one look across the room at the empty suit with the smirk on his face and realize they are negotiating with an utter fool.

Except to add the observation that The Unicorn Prince does seem to have no trouble whatever in kissing-up to leftist thugs.

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July 04, 2009

I'd very much like to comment on the Sarah Palin resignation saga.

The thing is though, Mark Steyn pretty much said everything I wanted to say.

And then Alex pretty much hit this one long out of the park along the same lines.

So all I'm left to say is that Sarah Palin's departure from the national political stage is a huge loss for the GOP and the nation.  For the left?  Yeah, they got another scalp - and I hope they choke on it.  I hope it burns through their intestines and blows-through their bunghole on the way out.

And I sincerely hope David Letterman has the shiite beat out of him sooner rather than later.  I hope he's kicked sharply in his shriveled-up nuts and beaten to within an inch of his sick, vapid, waste of a life.  And then beaten some more - just for kicks.

But other than that, I really don't have any strong feelings on the matter.

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