I just bought Amity Shlaes “The Forgotten Man”. This book joins the large amount of scholarship that refutes the myth that FDR’s New Deal helped alleviate the depression. In fact, many economists admit now that the Big Government “trickle up” policies of the New Deal actually prolonged the Depression.
Much like Obama’s Big Government plans will harm our economy. More on that in the future.
However, there is an opening quote which is a perfect summation of liberal ideology….
Another big spending, pork laden bill has been passed by Congress. This has become routine for the last year! And, once again, a few (16) extremist Republicans have defected and joined liberal Democrats to vote for Big Government.
The bill is the $410 billion “Omnibus Bill” which will provide federal government funding for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in October. Didn’t they just get almost $800 billion? But, never mind….
It provides another illustration of the “ideology” of the Left – though they claim to have no ideology.
“I have heard a lot of talk about we ought to do a tax cut…If you put a tax cut into the hands of either a business or an individual today, there is no guarantee they are going to invest their money…in the United States. They are free to go to invest anywhere they want, if they choose to invest…The fact is none of those people are guaranteed to invest that money in any of the new projects that we are. So government, yes government, has the ability to be able to make a decision that the private sector won’t necessarily make today.” (emphasis added)
– Senator Kerry, Feb. 6th, Senate Floor during Stimulus Bill debate.
I am glad that I have an “ideology” that believes that individuals will make better decisions than an incompetent Big Government. The Left’s “ideology” seems rather loony to me.
How is he better than Obama? Well, aside from the fact that he didn’t say “um…. uh…” every couple of seconds, the speech is actually substantive. He told us what conservatism is – 1) Respect for the Constitution, 2) Respect for life, 3) Less government and 4) Personal responsibility. That about sums it up.
That beats any Barry speech, all of which can be summed up by saying “We need to spend more and we need to stop spending so much! Hope, change, change change hope changehope hopechange!”
Of course, since the kid is obviously pro-life, that means he must be a brain-dead knuckledragging idiot – at least, according to the left. Here in the real world, however, his intellect is probably at the genius level if not close to it. Have you ever seen a 13-year-old speak like that? I know I haven’t!
After scouring the internet in search of information about Friday’s Santelli-inspired tea party in downtown Pittsburgh in order to protest against Lord Barry’s latest plan to flush a few more billion dollars down the toilet for no good reason, all I could find is a thread on a message board in which someone claimed that about 35 – 40 people showed up.
Is that accurate? Who knows? I doubt any newspapers or other “mainstream” media covered this event. It’s just too bad that Cindy Sheehan wasn’t among the protesters so that coverage of the protest could be above the fold on the front page of the New York Times.
I grabbed Bill Russell’s attention for a good minute or so and he confirmed to me that he is running in 2010 with Peg Luksik as his campaign manager.
When I found Russell, he was on the phone with Luksik. Russell was not prepared to make any statements about whether Luksik was running for office, but grinned and told me to stay tuned.
At the annual PA-centric breakfast (awesome!), another potential Senate candidate I had not previously heard was mentioned – Bill Scranton. I didn’t get any vibe as to how serious that name was.
In other news from the breakfast, David Keene indicated that CPAC will be moving to a larger venue next year. Which is really good because I’m sick of tripping over students and not getting into events.
Back a few months ago I posted pictures from the Reading Terminal Market in
Philly. This was taken at the Farmer’s Market in Reading, across from
the Fairgrounds Mall.
This is a segment of the old Schuylkill Canal that linked the anthracite
coal region to Philadelphia. In the early nineteenth century it was one
of the busiest waterways in the land. Now it just sits, frozen over.
Here’s what put the canal out of business. The railroad, which ran parallel to the waterway about twenty yards away. Now it lies quiet too, the rails
rusted over.
I’ve been experimenting with vertical composition lately. This is just a
barren field along Rte. #895. I like the washed-out color and the lone
tree.
This is another field along the same road. This time I ramped up the
contrast to emphasize the difference between the horizontal
strips of ground.
Alex, Diana Irey ran against Jack Murtha in 2006. She is one of my favorite politicians.
Of course, seeing what the left did to SARAH, I would fear for the lies and smears which Obama and his allies would spread against Irey in their various efforts to ruin her good name in order to help elect (fill in the blank) Democrat.
As much as I like Irey, I fear that the media would do to her just as they did to Rick Santorum, making it impossible for her to win a statewide election. Irey is extremely pro-life, and of course that’s why the Democratic Party would find it necessary to destroy her.
Impressed as I was with the CPAC opening salvo by John Bolton’s mustache, (accompanied as is usually the case by Amb. John Bolton), by far the most thought provoking event I attended Thursday was “Building the Conservative Hispanic Coalition”.
Barack Obama (and the Left generally) talk about talking about race. But at CPAC, the Republican party was actually talking about matters of race and ethnicity.
And the whole spectrum of debate took place right before my eyes – the good, the bad, and the ugly. (There was some yelling.) Even the good conversation was a little rough around the edges. The three panelists,(Mario H. Lopez, Hispanic Leadership Fund ; Danny Vargas, Repub Nat’l Hispanic Assembly ; Mario Diaz, Concerned Women for America), were generally constructive. Unfortunately the moderator Richard Nadler set a provocative tone from the start. (more…)
Thurs AM breakfast crew: When discussing Bobby Jindal’s response to Obama’s non-SOTU, a certain bearded, white-haired individual (who shall otherwise go unidentified) referred to Jindal as a “f*****g p*ssy”. When another breakfast nosher asked for clarification, I offered that Jindal has a small physical stature and a comparatively weak speaking voice. Our beareded friend then reiterated his assessment. Hilarity ensued.
No wifi except for Omni guests? And paid at that?
Limited internet access… Would be nice to be able to plug in some place rather than use the public terminals… “Blogger’s Row” seems almost antiquated, odd as that may seem… half the people there probably have blogs and want access. Despite being among thousands of fellow conservatives I felt completely disconnected from the world.
I wonder if Obama was thinking conservatives would be distracted during CPAC when he launched his mondo-omnibus bill.
Leadership Inst – Why did I bother to pre-register if I was going to have to fill out another registration like anybody else and was turned away anyway because the event was full?
In general, #rebuild and two-point-oh events were over-capacity. CPAC definitely underestimated demand for certain events. Though there was one event I wanted to skip out of as it was essentially a self-love fest for the youngsters (and the promised “brainstorming session” was limited to filling out some idea cards at the end). Unfortunately I was unable to get out of the room because several long tables and a horde of people blocked the entry/exit, and I missed out on another event.
I think the Omni doesn’t have sufficient capacity for CPAC. If there was a line for an event the whole area was virtually shut down. One would come accross a line in the middle of a hallway and not have any particular idea which event the line was for.
Tania and I decided that Battlestar Galactica should be a viable topic for occasional Water Cooler posts. (Hey, if it’s good enough for NRO/Corner…) So on that note, I’ve decided that the Obama administration are all cylons — They have a plan. It is, however, poorly defined and subject to change, just like in the Ron Moore BSG universe.
The other day I noted that PA GOP Chaiman Gleason and RNC Chairman Steele didn’t exactly guarantee that Senator Specter would be supported in his re-election bid.
I wondered if the Senate Republicans would have gotten the message.
when she asked his thoughts on Michael Steele’s suggestion that the RNC might not support the re-election of Senators Snowe, Collins and Specter, given their votes for the Obama-Reid-Pelosi Debt Spending Plan. McConnell first threw cold water on the idea – saying that he would support the re-election of his Senate GOP colleagues. Then he predicted that Arlen Specter would be a more dependable vote in the future, saying:
On most issues going forward, I expect that among those three, we’ll have the support of the Senator seeking re-election in 2010. I think you’ll see that in particular on votes on the president’s budget.
There was no follow-up, so make of it what you will. It’s unclear to me whether this is an indication that Specter has given some private assurance(s), or just a statement that Senate Democrats are moving too far Left for even Arlen Specter.
Apologies for not posting earlier, but the Omni Shoreham does not have good internet in my hotel room that’s free, and I have to blog from the lobby. So that is where I am now, people-watching and waiting for Ron Paul and Mitt Romney at 4. I’m on my Dell Mini, and uploading pictures will be annoying, so I’ll upload the few pictures I have been taking at some future time, probably post-conference. The short summary of what I’ve seen thus far is that conservatism in Americais far from dead. The speakers have all been excellent, and the speaker hall has been packed. When Newt spoke at noon, the hall had no seats left, and people were watching the speech on TVs from other rooms. I heard that CPAC has roughly 9000 attendees this year, and the Omni has always been really busy and full with CPAC attendees. Thus far I have not really seen many signs of official campaigning here, other than the Draft Palin grassroots group. I skipped Huck’s speech yesterday for a Capitol tour with Judd Gregg’s staff, but I will pay close attention to Mitt’s speech for an indication of his plans.
BTW, I got my hands on a nice large poster of Palin from YAF that is sure to turn some people that I know back in NH shades of red or green once I hang it in my room.
Zombie @ Zomblog went to a Ayers / Dohrn event in San Francisco lately.
He took pictures and video.
Here’s a snippet about the event.
they focus exclusively on their current obsessions: Introducing Marxist thought into schools, and closing down the prison system. However, almost no one who goes to see Ayers and Dohrn gives a damn about hearing monotonous lectures on these particular topics: instead, their fans idolize them because of their violent revolutionary past. So at these events, the audience (as in this case) is full of far-far-far-left radicals who came in order to hear overheated revolutionary rhetoric. But instead, what they get is a boring professorial monologue. If Ayers and Dohrn were nothing more than your run-of-the-mill leftist professors, no one would go to their appearances. They’re coasting on their violent reputation, while at the same time trying to distance themselves from it.
to Millersville University next month. The university has asked the anti-terrorism task force, paid for by your taxes, to provide security.The police are not amused.
On Oct. 1, after a critical vote on a $700 billion financial industry bailout package, Sen. Arlen Specter issued a two-paragraph statement explaining why he “reluctantly” voted, along with 73 colleagues, for the measure.
Before the year was over, a Delaware-based bank holding company that counts the senator’s wife as a nearly decade-long director got a $45.2 million infusion from the bill.
The financial firm was Bancorp Inc., with operations in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Joan Specter has been a director of the firm or its predecessors since 1999, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Asked Tuesday for comment, Specter spokeswoman Kate Kelly issued a brief statement denying that the senator had any role in securing money for the financial institution.
“Arlen Specter did not lobby TARP (the Treasury Department) or anyone else on behalf of Bancorp. The Treasury Department made the awards based on its own criteria,” she wrote in an e-mail.
She noted that Specter, a Republican, later voted against releasing an additional $350 billion to Treasury “because of the program’s ineffectiveness and lack of oversight/transparency.”
Kelly said Bancorp did not contact or lobby Specter.
In related news, conservative Republican #34234 is being asked to run against Senator Specter in the primary.
One strategist said of the close-door meeting the conservative group was particularly impressed that when Irey went up against Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Johnstown, in the 2006 midterm primaries, she was able to raise between $300 to $400K online.
If you aren’t reading or re-reading classic books, you’re missing out on some great insight into what’s going on in the world today. That’s right, classic books offer great insight into how we got to where we are, what’s going on, and what’s going to happen.
Today I highlight Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Buy it and more importantly, read it. The book was published in 1776 by Smith, who is often deemed the father of modern economics. If you think Ayn Rand was visionary with her assessments, then you’ll be blown away by Smith. Smith, along with other Scottish enlightenment authors and thinkers, was an advocate for the pursuit of self-interest because, he argued, that if a person fulfills their own needs, it benefits everyone else because that man doesn’t become a drag on everyone else. He also argued against mercantilism saying that government regulation in favor of one producer over another increases the cost of a product or service, which means that the consumer ends of paying more, which ends up causing more hardship to the consumer and hence the society as a whole. In other words, whenever government acts in the interest of the public by regulating something, it actually has an effect of harming it’s citizens by making them spend more for a product or service, thus reducing the wealth of a nation.
If our politicians would only read or listen to even a portion of this book, it would lead us out of this economic situation much faster.
The fallacy of our current policy of government action trying to fix our economic situation is as illogical and insane as someone being arrogant enough to think that we need to do something to stop coldness in winter, or stop winter itself. You can’t because it is uncomfortable – winter is a part of the natural cycle of the seasons. You can’t control the seasons – just like you can’t control the ebb and flow of economic cycles – you can get out of the way so that the corrections happen faster or get in the way and make the corrections last longer and more painful.
