E-Ramblings

Facts don't matter to Palin haters

2009-11-18T21:35:00.001-05:00

Ask most people on the right on why they don’t like our Dear Leader and most will be able to articulate specific policy issues they disagree with. OK, often they sum it up with “He’s a Socialist,” but when pressed, they can cite actual policies and give details.

Ask a typical hater of Gov. Sarah Palin why they don’t like her, and most can, at best, deliver quotes made by Tina Fey, and try to attribute them to Gov. Palin. If you press them for details, they tend to get angry and often blame you for attempting to insert reality into their irrational hatred that makes them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Proud ignorance is sadly a common feature of Obama supporters.

Originally published at the Urbin Report

A few simple questions

2009-11-09T11:38:00.002-05:00

I found this list of questions on flickr.

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent over a million dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 8 months -- so you'll have three years and one month to come up with an answer (November 2012)

Taxs found so far in the 1900+ page democrat "heath care" bill

2009-10-30T16:33:00.002-04:00

If you thought Health Care was expensive now, just wait until it is "free."
Here is a list of the new taxes you will be paying found so far:

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Morning Quote

2009-10-15T11:55:00.000-04:00

From the comments in a Daily Telegraph article:

“How is it that when Righties quote Lefties, they have video, audio, and notarized confirmation from the Pope, but when Lefties ‘quote’ Righties, they have Wiki entries contributed by ‘Cobra’?”

Damn You John Ringo! Damn You!

2009-10-02T09:22:00.001-04:00

First off, ya…I’m a big fan of John Ringo’s books, and he’s written a lot of them. I’ve been reading the Sluggy Freelance comic, which gets a lot of references in his books, even longer and I’m a long time Schlock Mercenary fan too.

I took a peek at the leaked advanced chapters for his next book, Live Free or Die, over at Buckley’s site (ya, that Buckley) and Ringo explains in the forward that this book is “sort of playing about” in the Schlock Mercenary universe, but back when the galactic civilization first made contact with Earth.

Now to highlight what an evil being John Ringo is (something he freely and perhaps just a bit too gleefully admits), this book won’t be released until February 2010. Oh…Baen will have an e-ARC version available earlier, which could be mind for about the cost of the hardcover that won’t be out for another four months.

Ok, so both John Ringo and Baen Books are EVIL! I say that with the highest level of respect for their grasp of the capitalistic system.

While I’m here, I’ll put in a good word for Baen’s ebook sales. No DRM (i.e. the copy ‘protection’ crap that assumes that their paying customers are thieves), available in multiple formats, and when new books are released in hardcover, you can pick up the e-book version, direct from Baen, for usually $6. If that is still too much for you, check out what they have on the net for free! If you haven’t read of any of John Ringo’s books, you can read seven of his book for free.

Originally posted at the Urbin Report.

NewsBusted! September 22, 20091

2009-09-22T23:55:00.001-04:00

Down The Memory Hole?

2009-09-09T07:44:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I posted a link to news story to the RWING mailing list and the first paragraph of the story about a detail of Die Grosse Null's plan for destroying the health of Americans.

"Americans would be fined up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance under a plan that circulated in Congress on Tuesday as divisions among Democrats undercut President Barack Obama's effort to regain traction on his health care overhaul."

Are we now on a plantation? Or is the Chicago Democrat setting up a protection racket?

This morning when I clicked on the link I found that the story had been changed. The subject of the original first paragraph had been moved down the page and rewritten.

"One provision would fine families up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance, essentially requiring that everyone have medical coverage, much like the case with car insurance. Obama rejected a mandate, and fines, during his presidential campaign."

Oh, they were only thinking about it, but they decided not to do it. (Or have they?)

They should not have been thinking about it at all.

What do they, both in our so-called government and in the mainstream media, think we are? A bunch of mindless animals?

I'll update this story as circumstances require.

_

You can't spell Oligarch without the Czars

2009-08-31T08:56:00.001-04:00

In Memoriam

2009-08-29T22:39:00.002-04:00

40 years after her senseless and tragic death, Remembering Mary Jo Kopechne.

The Green Enron

2009-08-21T11:21:00.003-04:00

Massive scandal over in Europe over "Cap & Trade" style "Carbon Offset Credit" trading.

Reported ties to organized crime as Euro-criminals follow in Al Gore's footsteps.

A new meme cropping up...

2009-08-05T10:58:00.003-04:00

Liberal Media Screams Hysterically About Depiction of President as The Joker.

Whiny hypocritical bitches.

Originally posted at No Moss Here.

Oh yea, Professor Reynolds was right.

Apparently, this should required viewing by the facility of Harvard University

2009-07-24T14:59:00.004-04:00

This is an Educational Video by Chris Rock that should be required viewing by Harvard University Professors.

While the white, middle class, cop is getting pronounced guilty of racism by our Dear Leader on national TV, the rich Harvard University professor is relaxing at his other home on Martha's Vineyard.

Where is Code Pink?

2009-07-21T09:47:00.004-04:00

Our Dear Leader's administration has announced that it plans on increasing the size of the US Army by "22,000 soldiers to help meet the needs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan..."

Where is Code Pink? Why are they not protesting this? Could it be that they really aren't a non-partisan group only interest in "world peace?"

Code Pink's silence in this matter speaks volumes about their actual, extremist far left, agenda.

Friday B-Movie Pick: The Running Man

2009-07-17T10:08:00.000-04:00

The Running Man

An Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1997. California in 2017 has become a police state in the wake of the world's economy's total collapse. The hero is wrong accused and tossed in a brutal prison along with Yaphet Kotto's character, who is there for teaching kids about the Constitution of the United States of America. Ya, I know, it sounds like where America is heading under the reign of our Dear Leader. Besides that, it's a fun film with added bonuses like Jesse Ventura, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mick Fleetwood, and great performance by Richard Dawson. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, From the Starsky and Hutch TV show, and choreography by Paula Abdul.

Friday B-Movie Archive.

Obama’s Dismal Failure

2009-07-15T07:48:00.001-04:00

The democrat's "stimulus" bill has been proven to be what it was labeled when it was rammed through congress and down the throats of the American people, a "porkulus" bill. It was supposed to boost the economy, but has had the predictable, opposite effect.

House Republicans, attempting to regain the mantel of fiscal responsibility after screwing that pooch, point out the failure of the democrats porkulus sceme

“The report we got from the Department of Transportation is dated July 3rd,” said Mica at the Capitol Hill press conference. “It indicates how much money of the $48 billion [allocated to the Transportation Department] they have control over has gone out -- that’s $523 million – 1 percent, approximately 1 percent. And the top 10 states of unemployment, our leading states, including the District of Columbia, only $83 million has gone out to those states.”

“This stimulus package was sold to the country as being an infrastructure bill,” said Rep. John ‘Jimmy’ Duncan (R-Tenn.), “and yet only somewhere between 7 and 8 percent of it was aimed at or provided for infrastructure in the first place.”
...
“Remember, the stimulus promised 3.5 million jobs was being created, and yet 2 million jobs – additional lost jobs – have been lost. Dismal failure.”

“The stimulus promised,” said Diaz-Balart, “and we were told that in the budget committee and we were told that publicly by the administration, that unemployment would not go above 8 percent if that stimulus passed. Look at the numbers now.”

Of course the democrat's porkulus bill isn't helping the economy. That isn't what it was intended to do. The goal of the Obama administration is not to fix the economy, but to fundamentally change the role of government in the United States of America.

Originally posted at the Urbin Report

US President Praised for saving lives in Africa

2009-07-12T17:21:00.003-04:00

Our Dear Leader visited Africa and had to deal with the locals praising former US President George W. Bush for his work in helping the people of Africa. Not the governments, mostly corrupt, but the people.

Our Dear Leader's legacy so far is screwing the pooch on what should have been an economic recovery and nominating a woman to the Supreme Court who makes racist statements that would have made George Wallace blush.

Ace correctly calls the difference between the Right & Left

2009-07-08T07:56:00.002-04:00

Here is the money quote from really good rant.

...let us not forget an important factor: Conservativism was the no-bullshit party. If you were a liberal, there’s a whole list of pieties you were required to loudly proclaim your belief in, even if you didn’t believe them at all.

Red meat bad, green power good, everyone on welfare is a deserving soul who is out of work through no fault whatsoever of his own, and, in fact, it’s really the productive members of society who are to blame for their ills, when you think of it.

You know the litany.

Conservatives, on the other hand, had — for a while — a fairly open and dynamic and vigorous exchange of ideas, in which some ideas might be wrong, some ideas might be crazy, but few ideas were actually forbidden.

Go read the whole thing.

John Bergstrom Doesn't Play Well With Others

2009-07-08T06:40:00.003-04:00

There are days that I think that we need a new party.

Which is how I got involved with the Libertarians two decades ago.
_

Presidential Comparisons

2009-07-05T09:28:00.003-04:00

Liberal democrat reporter Helen Thomas say Barack Hussein Obama is worse than Nixon in his attempts to control the press.

Our Dear Leader is also out to prove that he wants to be worse than Jimmy Carter.

Quote of the Day

2009-07-02T00:29:00.001-04:00

One must admit, though, that socialist dogma is even more effective than ale in causing one “to see the world as the world’s not.” After all, no matter how much alcohol one consumes, one will eventually sober up…

Yup, true words from AuricTech. Suggested by Leslie Bates, who has an interesting, and frighteningly sobering, prediction concerning our Dear Leader and his distaste for actual democracy.

I thought the rest of the world was supposed to love us once BHO was elected.

2009-06-24T15:15:00.002-04:00

It seems that the show tune singing madman in charge of Communist North Korea didn't get the memo.

Perhaps Hans Blix should write a strongly worded letter.

A Suggestion For Democrats

2009-06-20T12:16:00.002-04:00

Normally I'm not in the habit of making suggestions to Democrats (apart from "drop dead" and "go to Hell"), but I think I will today.

If you're going to point a finger at a bad guy and accuse him of doing bad things it really, really, really helps if you don't have the blood of innocents on your own hands.

According to Michael Ledeen, the supreme witch doctor of the theocratic stockyard of Iran has made this very point:

Even inside the U.S., one is amazed, during the time of the administration of these very Democrats, the Democratic Party in America, the time of the presidency of the husband of this so-called “lady” who expresses her opinions, 80, 80 something people who were a part of the Davudi sect, were burnt alive; there’s no room for denying this. These “excellencies” did this deed; it was these very Democrats…the Davudi sect which they themselves call BRANCH DAVIDIANS. For some unknown reason, these people incurred the wrath of American and inside a house…they went over there and besieged the place and whatever they did, they didn’t come out and so they ended up setting the house on fire and 80 something men, women and children burned alive! You think you know something about human rights?!

We have to remember that authority is based on knowledge. Moral authority is founded on the knowledge of moral law, something that Democrats have daily demonstrated their ignorance of.

What are your questions on this block of instruction?
_

Morning Round Up Post

2009-06-19T09:58:00.003-04:00

It's over at the Urbin Report.

Plus!

Whining is not leadership

Glenn Beck’s new Book

Share & Enjoy.

The Doctor's Daughter really is the Doctor's Daughter

2009-06-15T09:34:00.002-04:00

Odd bit of SciFi trivia I hadn't picked up on. Georgia Moffett, who played Jenny, the cloned daughter of the 10th Doctor, David Tenant, is the daughter of Peter Davison, who played the 5th Doctor. Keeping in the trend, Moffett's best friend in school was the daughter of Colin Baker, the 6th Doctor.