How should the late congressman John P. Murtha be remembered in bronze?
Ironically? Sarcastically? Scornfully??
Should it be with a smile or a furrowed brow? With the look of lawmaker worried about legislation or a veteran politician on the campaign trail? Should a hand be contemplatively placed in one pocket or outstretched to greet a voter? Hands up and cuffed?
Don't forget to include thirty pieces of silver in one of the hands.
Those are the kinds of decisions that face organizers of a campaign in Johnstown to raise $150,000 to commission a statue of Murtha, who as the longtime chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending was one of the most powerful lawmakers of the past half-century. How about in a torn Marine Corps uniform, stripped of decorations, with a broken sword at his feet?
How about a hand outstretched in a Lobbyists pocket?
How about as the congressional equivalent of a WWII propaganda poster Jap?
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
11/10/2010 9:55 Comments ||
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#3
I vote they make it bigger, and fancier, and encompassing all the meanings that the great man himself encompassed in his long career. Make two -- a model and a full-size version, the first for his home town, the second in front of the state capitol building. Buy a pretty piece of ground at each site to hold the thing, and surround it with benches and flower boxes that the passers by might take a bit or rest while they contemplate the Great Man.
After all, every penny spent on this travesty is money unavailable for more nefarious purposes.
[Iran Press TV] US President Barack B.O. Obama has warned that the country's high unemployment rate is becoming "a new normal," and that the situation is out of his control. I can remember back to the Carter administration, when the nation's problems were too big and complex to be handled, so we might as well vote for Jimmy rather than risk a Reagan administration. Those problems were the "new normal," too.
In an interview with CBS News on Monday, President B.O. said that getting accustomed to an unemployment rate of nearly ten percent is a danger to the US economy. Then cut taxes and favor industry rather than smother anybody with capital and favor monopoly financial institutions.
The US president also made an effort to shirk the responsibility of the country's economic woes by calling the situation as "out of his control." Then step down and let somebody else have a shot.
"You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you're held responsible for everything, but you don't always have control of everything, right?" the US president told the 60 minutes show. "So really it's not my fault. It's... ummm... somebody else's fault."
The latest data shows the jobless rate in the US remained at 9.6 percent for a third consecutive month in October. This is while the US Labor Department announced a 20,000 increase in initial claims for unemployment benefits last month. The new claims pushed up the number of seasonally adjusted benefit claims to 457,000 in October. The US Labor Department has also announced that almost 15 million Americans currently collect unemployment benefits.
Experts are of the opinion that the outlook for the rest of the year is likely to remain bleak.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, Mr President, the people that make jobs that support your huge and massive government do not know what you are leashing them with.
The larger a government, the smaller the workforce to support it. It is just a blatant historical fact.
For every dollar you spend, there is one less working in the REAL economy. Government is not economy - Never is. EVER. It is a bubble of temporary employment that becomes permanent through beuaro. In other words, an aristocracy or a party members country. That does not fix anything other than bloated salaries and lots of vacation time to those that do not contribute to GDP.
GDP is needed to fund all of your short sighted populist policies. Most of which are redundant and charitable already.
When you refuse to balance the budget, monetize the debt, and take a vacation every month - you just do not seem to be learning about what is really going on in the country for which you are to "Preside".
Look that word up; Preside.
Also, this "Quantative easing" will make everything on this planet more expensive right when you plan to raise taxes.
Also, oil makes everything from the dashboard of your fancy limo to the Queens Ipod. Keep your "green" agenda up and see what happens to the economy next year when oil prices, food prices, all prices go up.
Most people would not vote to bash the ship into the iceberg if they were on the titanic, but they did that when they voted for you.
#3
Hello;
"Experts are of the opinion that the outlook for the rest of the year is likely to remain bleak".
Will worsen period. Freight has dropped off already. We are in a coma. Free America from the chains of regulation. Let the energy and drive of Capitalism pull us out of this constipation. This goes back to Stalin. He was told what would pull his country out of his economic winter and the poor fellow was dead a couple of months later. O's next step will be to use the military, police, cameras, drones and secret service to control the American people.
#5
GDP is needed to fund all of your short sighted populist policies.
GDP includes government spending which does not, of course, directly fund what government does. If you sum government spending at all levels plus imposed regulatory costs you'll find that what government does plus what it forces the people to do under duress accounts for something in the neighborhood of two-thirds of our GDP already. Pretty insidious that irresponsible federal borrowing pumps GDP as does eventually ruinous quantitative easing, the flurry of activity created by massive regulatory compliance efforts, etc.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/10/2010 7:59 Comments ||
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#7
Freight has dropped off already.
Dale, I walk along the Mississippi River levee 2-3 times a week. I was surprised to see considerably more river traffic lately than I was seeing during the summer. No idea what is on the barges & ships (if anything), but they're moving, at least locally.
#8
Simple short term fix: renew the Bush tax cuts, all of them, allow indexing of capital gains against the CPI and cut the rate to 10%, and suspend Obamacare (pending repeal).
#9
I know a shipping broker in Singapore and he says rates have fallen steadily in recent months to the worst they have been, excepting a couple of months immediately after the GFC.
This says economic conditions continue to deteriorate globally.
Freight rates are a reasonably good forward indicator of economic activity.
#10
Do not bail out the states that are broke. Go to them and tell them they are going to have to tell the public unions--no more boodle. Tell them to ease regulations that strangle business. Give long-term tax breaks to businesses for locating in these states. Get rid of capital gains taxes. Find ways to keep businesses in America. Tell these states to compete with other states for business and jobs. Be business friendly instead of treating it like your enemy. Keep the Washington bureaucracy from creating such a financial mess such as the sub-prime loan debacle.
Quit meddling. Make government smaller since the current bloated version is unmanageable. There will be plenty of jobs. Our debt to GNP ought to be down around 30% or less rather than the 90+ percent that it is.
#11
I walk along the Mississippi River levee 2-3 times a week. I was surprised to see considerably more river traffic lately than I was seeing during the summer.
Seasonal variation due to grain harvest perhaps? A good bit of midwestern grain destined for export moves down the Mississippi.
#15
My OTR trucker friend says his company has parked more of their rigs than he's seen for years, has cut back on replacing drivers who leave, and that the truck stops he's used to are not nearly as busy as they once were. (I asked him to keep track of this since the downturn began in 2007.) His "workplace" spans the center of the USA & excludes the coasts. Barge traffic is just one element of gauging business activity. The level of taxes withheld from wage earners and the level of sales taxed by states are two other important gauges.
I don't see how anything the government does can improve employment much in less than 5 years due to the severity of the economic contraction. The very first effect of 'making government smaller', necessary though it is, will be to increase unemployment by turning out superfluous gov't workers. Giving the financial and real estate industries what they deserve (think bankruptcy and a blizzard of subpoenas) will also tend to increase unemployment there. The massive amount of bad debt in these 2 industries alone will strangle the economy, as will the totally predictable spike in cost of our oil imports due to the Fed's money printing. The GOP and the Tea Partiers will inherit the opprobrium for this problem by 2012, whether they deserve it or not.
Also, a fine way to track true economy is watching the money spent, and gross types of material in landfill. When landfill and recycle centers are empty, you know something is wrong.
Watch your local trash dump. it's the easiest indicator. If you do not consume, you do not discard.
#17
Watch your local trash dump. it's the easiest indicator. If you do not consume, you do not discard.
Also the decline in sales tax revenue on a city, county and state level. We watched in Colorado as all three reported a 25-30% drop in revenue in'09 while the unemployment was "only" 8% and the feds were saying that things weren't as bad as we feared.
Well, when people don't have money, they don't buy. They don't buy, things don't get made, etc, etc. Nothing at the end at the landfill and recycle plant then at the end of the day.
As soon as all of those pick up and sustain, I'll know the depression is over. Otherwise, no matter what the people in charge say, we are still hurting.
#18
It started WAY before 2007, if you discount the growth in debt from GDP, then you get the real economic growth...
There hasn't been any for years, you've been using credit to create an illusion to hide the damage caused by sales and employment and investment taxes.
#19
"GOP and the Tea Partiers will inherit the opprobrium for this problem by 2012, whether they deserve it or not".
Yes, that is why we must act now. We are a consumer nation or at least have been. England wants to put the unemployed to work. Let people keep what they earn and they will spend. Putting money in gold and hording it as the Romans did will retard growth. They still are finding money buried at digs in Italy.Regan did it we can do it.
#21
Having worked all my life as an engineer in manufacturing, I have watched the pernicious effects of taxes and regulation. The only functions that have grown in my company over the last 15 years are HR and HS&E, both driven by government. 30% corporate "income" taxes don't help, either. So cutting taxes and regulation would be a big help.
But another big question is what happens when 'entitlements' are cut? And 'let me be clear,' (in the words of dear leader) they are going to be cut one way or the other.
#22
And that's the delicate balancing act that's needed .... not only cutting spending but restoring competitive jobs. While US consumers were borrowing like there was no tomorrow, mimicking the gummint, they did so with dollars that were over-valued compared to our actual industrial competitiveness.
Bernanke and the Fed are betting/hoping that a sufficiently cheap dollar will spark more US exports and fewer imports from places like China, which holds so many $$$ in good part due to their own currency manipulation discipline in the face of our addictive behavior. If it works, it will take years .... and I don't think we have years.
Digging ourselves out of the hole we put ourselves in is going to be long and painful.
It's not like we weren't warned. The National Acadamies reported in 2005 on the failure of US leaders and industry to address competitiveness, and issued an updated warning again this year. Free download available here
#24
BTW, it is kind of healthy to have people to not trust the government to be daddy. It will be painful for awhile, but they will find their calling. Lots of smart people out there and many lend a hand when unkle temple of doom is not breathing down their necks.
Government is not GOD, nor your Father, nor your Mother. It is a security agency to keep you all from being killed by nefarious idiots in foreign lands and a place that hire police and firemen to keep you - from burning in your house or in crime.
With the money they steal from us and waste, we could run our own lives - which was original intention.
Go live in Europe if you like that shit better. They fled to here but if you like big brother, go THERE.
Cut all government to the bone here you can. or live like a banana republic forever.
Why play Jesus to everyone - especially if you have no idea of what it is HE says?
Go back to guts, glory, work, pain, and LIFE instead of trying to make an incubator that will be run over with a train.
You trust yourselves better than you do government, and after-all, we are Americans.
There's been a lot of controversy about the expense of and use of military aircraft to get Speakers of the House around in recent years -- especially when Nancy Pelosi asked for an upgrade (and because she's a she). That is apparently about to end. Presumptive Speaker Boehner just told reporters he's flown commercial for 20 years and will continue to do so as Speaker. There is a time and a place for a private flight, like to a potentially hostile nation, a group of congressmen in a emergency flight and still working out bill details, etc., but for routine flights home there is no reason they can't go commercial. At the very least, it makes it look like the new Republicans are sympathetic with the pain the average American is going through at the moment.
#2
And thank you, Lord for enticing the Queen who led her party to destruction in only 2 years to run again for House minority leadership. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
The Interior Department's inspector general says the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts supported the idea of the administration's six-month ban on new drilling. I don't know about everyone else, but that strikes me as completely ILLEGAL. Perhaps the new House will take a look ...
The inspector general says the editing changes resulted "in the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer reviewed." But it hadn't been. The scientists were only asked to review new safety measures for offshore drilling.
"There was no intent to mislead the public," said Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who also recommended in the May 27 safety report that a moratorium be placed on deepwater oil and gas exploration. "The decision to impose a temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling was made by the secretary, following consultation with colleagues including the White House." Bullshit ... especially the White House ...
The inspector general's report, which was originally requested by Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and Rep. Steve Scalise in June, said the administration did not violate federal rules because the executive summary did not say the experts approved the recommendations and the department offered a formal apology and had publicly clarified the nature of the expert review. Way to push your radical agenda on the rest of us by LYING, CHEATING and THEFT. With energy costs rising and the US relying on more and more forgein sources of energy from hostile governments, this is pretty close to treason as you can get without fully turning coat.
#5
this could make a permanent Republican lock on the gulf coast (oil exploration-dependent) states, that have been hit so hard by the shutdown. Dig deep, Darrell!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/10/2010 22:29 Comments ||
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#6
As I recall, the scientists and experts protested loudly when the report was issued, claiming they did not either support the ban.
So yes, there was a clear intent to mislead the public, among others.
No, wait, come back. This is only a thought exercise. There's no patchouli or granola involved. Honest.
Okay, now think about it: two years after it seemed a new era of (liberal) hope and change had swept the nation, your ideology was soundly rejected by the American people. Surely it is now time to take a breather, carefully study the election results and ask yourself what message the American people were trying to send.
Or, you could lash out at someone you hate and embark on a petty campaign against their latest venture.
It's one thing if Fox News gives Sarah Palin a platform. But when Discovery Communications home to the Discovery Channel, the "Planet Earth" series, the Science Channel, Animal Planet, and TreeHugger.com gives a show to Sarah Palin, it undercuts everything the Discovery brand has come to represent.
Anti-environmentalism has no place in the Discovery Communications lineup. Demand that the company cancel "Sarah Palin's Alaska" before it airs.
Even now, two years after the presidential election, Palin still possesses the power to drive lefties into paroxysms of spittle-flecked rage. It is something to behold. At the link is a petition. Where they want your thoughts. You know, if you've got the time or inclination.
Just saying....
Posted by: Mike ||
11/10/2010 12:56 ||
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#1
For the record, I like Sara but have reservations about her ability to be a national leader.
That being said however, she is the best I have ever seen at running interference against the left.
#2
I don't know that I would vote for her as president in 2012, but I truly, truly appreciate how she drives the professional Left absolutely mad. It's a gift ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/10/2010 13:17 Comments ||
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#3
In football terms:
I have doubts about her abilities as a quarterback, but she has proven herself as a fullback by blocking hard as a lead back, opening holes for teammates, protecting the QB, running well, breaking tackles and making the tough yards despite getting hit hard.
Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar ||
11/10/2010 14:02 Comments ||
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#4
What's with the PC waffling guys?
DV: , I like Sara but have reservations about her ability to be a national leader.
Why the "but"? I have reservations about EVERYONE's ability to ba a national leader, BUT, her head and heart seem to be in the right place and I know of nothing in her past that concerns me other than lack of experience.
SW: I don't know that I would vote for her as president in 2012, but ...
Again with the BUT! Who says you have to decide now? Is there ANY Dimocrap that you would prefer to Sarah? If not, let's see how it goes.
NIATOB: have doubts about her abilities as a quarterback, but AYAB!!!! (and yet another but) Exactly what are your doubts that they are so worrysome that you have to bring them out like a Republican at an ACLU conference?
I think that she's orders of magnitude better equipped than what we've got and probably almost that much better than any of the standard issue Republican gray beard weasles. Let's just cheer her on and see what the next year brings, hmmm?
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
11/10/2010 14:44 Comments ||
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Sarah seems to be pretty damn good right where she is. Sometimes its more powerful and effective to be in a position of Influence than direct control.
I can easily see her as a Secretary (Interior or Homeland Security, Energy, EPA...)
I'll probably vote for her in a Primary and for President. But I'm hoping for something even better.
She has your friends on the left's number...she drives them nuts. They just have a hissy fit at the mention of her name. Prozak sales in SFO go through the roof any time she is on television.
Karl,
Those nutjobs and wingnuts on the left are not friends of mine. They are dangerous out of control single issue loons who would sign a surrender treaty with Andorra rather than break a sweat at anything except typing on their myspace page.
Not PC waffling, just the truth. She is too polarizing for leadership and I have doubts about her ability to get the other side to work with her and compromise more in her favor. There are things she has said that makes me go, "Really Sarah, Really?"
But, I think she is a very strong and talented spokeswoman and does a spectacular job of keeping the attention on her rather than on what the other Republicans are doing.
So, if she was the Republican choice for President would I vote for her? YES!
If she was one of the choices on a primary ballot would I vote for her? Most likely not. Unless the ballot was full of McCains.
#9
the ballot will be full of McCains ie. Romny, Huckleberry, Gingrich, and she is better known than Pawlenty, Demint, Barbour etc.... She will be a viable force and because she is polarizing will get a lot of people off the fence.
#10
She is the closest Rush has come to having a successor in the New Media. She is a fine wine and will continue to gain power as she matures. Running prematurely and losing would snuff her light out far too soon. Better a kingmaker than a king, for her.
#12
I agree NS. She has found her niche and it ain't in the political fields. It is to bring a new conservative voice to the land and to keep driving the liberals bat-shit crazy.
#14
patchouli and hippie chicks... mmm.... fond memories....
Sorry... I just had to say it....
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/10/2010 20:22 Comments ||
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#15
I would like to see Sarah take the GOP chairman job. She's dynamite as a fundraiser and has shown good instincts on whom to support. She also drives the left nuts which is just a bonus.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
US President 
The Interior Department's inspector general says the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts supported the idea of the administration's six-month ban on new drilling.
