Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.

This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the functions of government -- and threatens to do so again today, when dialogue would be more valuable than ever.

Starting in the 1960s, the original neoconservative critics such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan expressed distress about the breakdown of inner-city families, only to be maligned as racist and ignored for decades -- until appalling statistics forced critics to recognize their views as relevant. Long-standing conservative concerns over the perils of long-term welfare dependency were similarly villainized as insincere and mean-spirited -- until public opinion insisted they be addressed by a Democratic president and a Republican Congress in the 1996 welfare reform law. But in the meantime, welfare policies that discouraged work, marriage and the development of skills remained in place, with devastating effects.

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A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77.

He had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.

In 1974, Murtha became the first combat veteran of the Vietnam War elected to Congress. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as a leader of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending. But frustration over the Iraq war led him to call for an immediate pullout of U.S. troops in 2005.

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Barak Obama was elected with no executive experience. The left was convinced that after some OJT would turn out fine. They were wrong.

President Barack Obama has left Democrats as confused as ever over how the White House plans to deliver a health care reform bill this year, following two weeks of inconsistent statements, negligible hands-on involvement and a sudden shift to a jobs-first message. Democrats on Capitol Hill and beyond say they have no clear understanding of the White House strategy – or even whether there is one – and are growing impatient with Obama’s reluctance to guide them toward a legislative solution.

…And some Democrats feel that every time they look to White House for clarity, they hear something different, as though the strategy is whatever the president or his top advisers said that day.

Experience matters and Pres. Obama has shown that he has the attention span of a puppy let loose in PetSmart.

In 2012 can we try to elect someone that has run something at some time in their life?

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Does anyone remember President Bush's attempts to fix Social Security? If you do you should remember that Democrats said that nothing was wrong with Social Security. The lied!

A report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.

It would have been a lot simpler to fix the system years ago, when we could have used Social Security's cash surpluses to buy non-Treasury securities, such as government-backed mortgage bonds or high-grade corporates that would have helped cover future cash shortfalls. Now it's too late.

Even though an economic recovery might produce some small, fleeting cash surpluses, Social Security's days of being flush are over.

To be sure -- three of the most dangerous words in journalism -- the current Social Security cash deficits aren't all that big, given that Social Security is a $700 billion program this year, and that the government expects to borrow about $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2010 to cover its other obligations, about the same as it borrowed in fiscal 2009.

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How to Lower Health Costs without Rationing Care

To make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and portable — without increasing government control, jeopardizing the quality of care, or breaking the bank:

1. Cut costs by preventing runaway malpractice lawsuits. Relieve doctors from having to practice costly defensive medicine, by capping noneconomic and punitive damages, while continuing to allow unlimited economic damages to compensate for financial loss. (No increase in government spending. Savings: $53 billion to the federal government, and billions in additional savings to private citizens.*)

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Every now and again I am reminded of things that hold people back.

Thursday morning I got an email about some work. I emailed the head hunter back and it sounded good so I went for it. We hashed out the details and I set up a phone interview for 9AM Friday morning. The phone interview went well and the client would like me to be in site next week to kick off the project.

This job is through a temp firm so I have to jump through all of their hoops even though I already do work for another division of this client (a Fortune 500 corporation). So I stopped by the office with my passport. I authorized a background check and took a drug test Friday afternoon. I called my insurance guy and had the firm added to my O&E policy, I scanned and emailed my articles of incorporation and set up direct deposit for the corporate account. This was all done by Friday at 5;00 PM and I'll be working (and billing) my new client my the middle of next week.

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A recent Gallup poll underscores a fact that we have been proclaiming for years: Liberals think Government is better at running your life than you are.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/125645/Socialism-Viewed-Positively-Americans.aspx



It is so much easier to delegate your personal responsibility to the collective.  Thank God the majority of Americans prefer freedom to serfdom.
I do have to ask, who are the 20% of Conservatives who have a "positive image" of Socialism?  John McCain, is that you?  Stop calling yourself conservative, please.  You are lying to yoursleves and the world.

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After getting caught is multiple frauds to aquire millions in academic grants; U.N. climate chief Rajendra Pachaurideath wishes death on those who figured out his hussle. 

SHUTUP!

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Funny the way that works. I guess unemployment benefits are running out on a whole bunch of people. They call these poor schmucks "discouraged workers" because they are no longer on the unemployment rolls.

But hey, for the democrats what's important is that the story at the Strib says; "Unemployment rate drops to 9.7%". "The outlook for jobs became a bit less bleak". Woohoo! Good times baby! The stimulus is working! Happy days are here again. In fact the stimulus worked so good; let's have another!

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Why do liberals hate Israel and love, love, love Cuba?  They jump up and down like the proverbial poo-flinging monkey and cry about "Palestinians" being oppressed, and applaud little boys named Elian being sent at gunpoint back into slavery.

Why do they condemn a vital democracy that is surrounded by theocratic regimes?  What is it about dictators like Hugo Chavez that sends a thrill down their legs?   I have made many excursions into analyzing the perverse thought processes of the liberal mind, and there always seems to be one common thread.

Liberals really hate America.

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Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.

Last November, after Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander authored an op-ed in a local paper defending their opposition to a Franken amendment, Franken confronted both men on the floor — and grew particularly irritated with Corker.

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What's for lunch?

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Not very well if you ask me. Below is my estimate of unemployement in the fall and in the fall of 2012. I just copied Obama's curve but I didn't return it to 5%.

I think our new base will be above 6%.

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Arthur Laffer gives an interview to Donald Lambro at HUMAN EVENTS.
The supply side economist that conservatives highly respect gives a grim prediction for the future under Obama and the democrats.

The famed economist, whose supply-side, tax-cutting policies enacted by President Reagan in 1981 put the economy on a record-breaking, 25-year economic trajectory of growth and prosperity, is telling Americans not to be lulled by sporadic signs of growth this year, because the economy is headed for a sharper decline next year when tax rates are expected to jump sharply, sending the economy into a new tailspin.
“It will make the decline in U.S. output from 2010 to 2011 worse than the decline in output in 2008 and 2009 which will catastrophic,” Laffer said in an interview with HUMAN EVENTS.
(...)
“Obama is a fine, very impressive person. He really is. Unfortunately, everything that he is doing in economics is exactly wrong. He is a crappy president,” Laffer said.
“Whenever a country is in the throes of spending too much and raising taxes, it’s a fiscal catastrophe in the making and this is what is happening now,” he said.

Laffer says 2010 will seem like the recovery is in swing, but it'll be a mirage.

“In anticipation of known tax increases the economy will shift income and output from 2011 -- the higher tax year -- into 2010 -- the lower tax year. As a result of this income shift, 2010 will look a lot better than it should, and 2011 will be a train wreck,” he predicts.
“GDP growth in 2010 will be some 3 to 4 percent higher than it otherwise should be, thus green shoots,” he said. “The transfer of income from 2011 into 2010 will not only make 2010 [economic growth] higher than it otherwise would be, it will also make 2011 [economic growth] 3 and 4 percent lower than it otherwise should be because people have shifted income out of 2011 into 2010.”
“The effect of the shift in income on GDP growth in 2010, however, is going to be fairly substantial, but when the U.S. economy comes to 2011, the train’s going to come off the tracks.”
But the tax picture also will grow darker this year as the country heads into the midterm elections, Laffer said. “In 2010 the U.S. will have a payroll tax rate increase, an estate tax increase and income tax increases. There’s also a tax increase coming in 2010 on carried interest. This rate will rise from its current level of 15 percent to 35 percent, and then it will rise again in 2011.”

As always read it all cause it's Arthur Laffer, and you don't wanna miss his wisdom.

Dig that bunker deep, fill it with guns food and gold, then keep your head down, it's gonna be ugly. Resurface in time for that 2012 electoral tsunami. The only upside to this national pain will be the repudiation of leftist/Marxist/progressive/liberal policies for a generation, much the same way Jimmah Carter did in his day.

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The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.

The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks.

The number of people continuing to claim benefits was unchanged at 4.6 million. That data lags initial claims by a week.

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Not even Anti-Stribs all-time favorite body part is safe from evil Muslim terrorists.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123758

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up.
Stuffing a bomb under their nutsack is one thing, but when they go after boobs they're walking on the fighting side of this American.

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Last weekend I watched the movie Surrogates, with Bruce Willis.  Surrogates is an action film, as most of Bruce Willis' films are, but this one has a strong morality play written in.

It is essentially boilerplate sci-fi, with the big corporation building androids that people "control from the comfort and safety of their homes".  Even Willis, his partner and the other FBI agents utilize these machines for their daily activities.  Throw in the first homicide in years, and you have the substance of the plot.

There are "reservations" throughout the US, where people who object to this technology live in the expected squalor.  They object to people hiding in their homes, strapped into "stim chairs", operating machines instead of living actual lives.   And they are the lynchpin of the morality play.

I've been trying to define exactly what is so repulsive about this entire premise, and finding it difficult to do so.  On the one hand, this technology could help the disabled experience things they never could.  Bart, for example, could go to a nude beach (via his surrogate, of course), and not have women around him gagging.  But the technology becomes a kind of drug, and everyone is addicted to it.

Safety.  Security.  Beauty.  A fantasy life that needs no other effort than to sit in a chair and direct your surrogate.  It is a seductive idea.  A perfect society with all of the ugliness hidden away, masked by an engineered veneer.  A great and horrible vision.

Everyone who knows me can already guess my personal opinion of this idea, so I'll not belabor it.  I'm interested in what others think.

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