a question for the Tea Party: when?

I realize that you are in the midst of a political jujitsu match with the President over budget cuts for the current fiscal year via the Continuing Resolution, and his threat to veto it, shut down government, and make you take the blame. However, it seems that even you are afraid to tackle the on-coming freight train: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security (MMSS).

My question: when are you going to cut these very expensive, very popular programs? Items such as discretionary spending and welfare are simple line items in the federal budget that you can change. MMSS, however, happen automatically, and cutting them requires that you entirely redesign the programs themselves, along with a gaggle of new legislation.

Right now, you are only dealing with the discretionary items. Surely you understand that MMSS are a bigger fiscal threat than the rest of the budget put together? Do your words of Constitution and limited government mean anything? If so, do not these principles also apply to MMSS just as well as to PBS, Amtrak, and earmarks? Yes, I know: your popularity ratings will get clobbered if you try. Do you believe in your principles deeply enough to take the risk?

This is Obama’s budget (in trillions)

MMSS = $1.7
Defense + veteran benefits = $0.9
Welfare = $0.6
discretionary = $0.5
Interest = $0.2

OK, the shortfall is $1.6 trillion. Even if you totally eliminate all welfare and discretionary spending, you will still be $0.5 trillion short of a balanced budget. So, guess where the rest has to come from?

Three Cheers for Gov. Walker

The good governor of Wisconsin is waging what is surely the first of many such battles against labor unions in state capitols across our nation.

In particular, his steadfast stance highlights several important points:
** to cut state budgets, concentrate on cutting civil service wages and fringe benefits, not cutting programs
**civil service fringe benefits (health insurance, retirement) are just as big a financial burden as wages
**civil service wages are being determined by labor unions rather than taxpayers and voters

CORRECTING THE RECORD
Another aspect is that pro-union forces are not telling the whole truth. The Wisconsin proposal is to eliminate labor union bargaining only for fringe benefits; they can still negotiate for wages.

The final chapter has yet to be written. Nevertheless, I wish the governor and state legislature good luck in their battle.

Islam is Misogynist

For those who do not have their 10+ volume copy of the Oxford English Dictionary handy, the word means ‘a woman-hater’.

No, I did not come to this conclusion from the gang rape of a female American TV reporter at the hands of a large, angry, male mob of Muslims in Egypt. My opinion comes directly from the Qur’an.

I quote from 2 different English translations of Surah 2:223.
version 1:

Your wives are a tilth for you. Go, then, into your tilth as you will.

Version 2:

Your wives are as a tilth for you; so approach your tilth when or how you will.

‘Tilth’ is a rather odd word that I had to look up. It refers to agricultural land, i.e. dirt for plowing and planting crops; it can also refer to the labor required to cultivate said dirt, as in tilling your fields. I am sure that the Arabic word is more nuanced than that, but I get the general idea.

Misogynist indeed.
Funny: we have not heard from NOW or the President or the UN commission for whatever-whatever yet about this (perhaps the Prez is more worried about an ‘assault’ on labor unions than one on the dignity of an American female; he is AWOL on this one, as he consistently refuses to criticize or punish either Muslims or Islamic countries).

Mrs. First Lady, please have a seat

You are simply the President’s wife.

You are not a Congressman, Senator, Advisor, Counselor, or even Federal employee.
Being the First Lady does not give you the power or Constitutional right to craft legislation or government policy. If you wish to start your own charity, do the fundraising, and distribute the proceeds to those in need, I shall applaud. If you wish to raise funds for breast pumps, and give them to poor mothers who cannot afford them, then good for you.

But, please, have a seat Mrs. First Lady.

Al Qaeda + Berkeley City Council = nonsense

Well, here are the latest antics of the Berkeley Zoo. They have invited terrorists released from Gitmo to live in my backyard. Yes, I know: it is a serious security threat, kinda like begging someone to put a landmine into the neighborhood park.

But seriously: the Berkeley Zoo has done this sort of thing many times before. They know that it has zero practical effect. However, ‘sending a message’ or ‘showing solidarity’ is more important, so we get this kind of useless proclamation specifically designed to make the headlines.

It is just another PR stunt, sort of like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum, so I would suggest you not give them the satisfaction by simply ignoring it.

Yes, they defeated the measure, but the same applies to that Pvt. Manning/WikiLeaks guy thing, which did pass

Obama vs The Tea Party - the $60 billion line in the sand

The first barroom brawl is nigh. The TP wants to cut $60 billion from the current federal budget, while the Prez has threatened his first veto.

The $$$ might seem puny compared to a budget that is $3.7 trillion, representing barely 2%. However, this is a rare act of chutzpah, since cutting the budget via a continuing resolution is unheard of on Capitol Hill.

I am delighted that the TP seems to be the driving force in Congress (at the moment, anyway). Question: who will blink first when these 2 forces go toe-to-toe?

Obama budget is a big joke, but not very funny

Here is what POTUS just tossed out:
Income = $2.1 trillion
Spending = $3.7 trillion
Deficit = $1.6 trillion

He proudly crowed that his budget saves $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Uh-huh: that is rather like spending $25,000 on a new car and proclaiming that you just reduced your household spending $5,000 because the car was on sale. Only in Washington does this nonsense hold up as logical.

See, he is technically correct, but over those ten years he will spend $15 trillion that he does not have. C’mon: the US government gets over $2 trillion in taxes every year: that really ought to be enough money to run the government. I have a better idea: balance the budget and we will save $1.5 trillion right away.

See, the worst part about the federal budget deficit: they represent tax increases for our children and grandchildren.

Governer Moonbeam is back

Those of you who are not an old fogey like me probably have no knowledge of Jerry Brown (yes, the same one as the current governor) the governor of California a couple of decades ago (he had more hair back then, not to mention Linda Rondstadt as his GF). His administration was so wacky, that he rightfully earned the moniker 'Governor Moonbeam'. It was largely under his governorship that the Golden State gained a reputation as the 'hippie' state and the 'left coast'.

Viewing his current antics regarding the state budget deficit, I hope you have gained an understanding of what Californians went through the last this goofball ran our state. The deficit is $25B. He is going to split it in half: 12 will be raised by cuts (largely smoke and mirrors, which is one of the few things Moonbeam is good at), and the rest by a special election in June to raise taxes. If this tax increase is voted down (and it will be), he will: close state parks, lay off prison guards and CHP officers, close DMV offices, and shut down the school lunch program. He will then cry alligator tears, pointing to conservatives (who have virtually no power or influence in the Golden State) saying: 'see, see, what those nasty, evil Republicans have done?'

Course, these draconian measures will only raise a puny portion of the deficit. Note carefully that he is not laying off interior bureaucrats (many of whom earn 6 figures) or cutting their pay, nor demanding wage concesssions from teachers' unions. Naturally, these things he will not touch: they are the main cause of the deficit, and they are also the source of Moonbeam's power. In the end, he will insist: the only solution is raising your taxes, whether you like it or not. Now, the importance of Prop 13 comes into play.

Have no fear: if this gambit fails, and it probably will, he has many more such rabbits up his sleeve, some of which will cause to you laugh so hard that you will fall out of your chair. Stay tuned for further merriment.

Egypt is a Muslim revolt, not a democratic uprising

The media coverage of the riots in Egypt is disturbing. The mainstream media is depicting said events as a natural thing in a natural evolution from a benign, American-backed dictatorship (Mubarek is president-for-life, whatever that means) on the onward march to democracy.

This is simply not true.


It started out as food riot, protesting high prices and scarcity. This is caused by the environmental wackos insisting on renewable fuels, like farmers growing corn for fuel ethanol rather than wheat for a hungry world. Yes, I am looking at you, Albert Gore Jr.

The continuous nature of the riots is being egged on by the Muslim Brotherhood. Besides Mubarek and his son, there are numerous political parties with small percentages of backing from the populace, but the largest by far is the MB, and they stand to gain most from a revolution.

If the MB rings like tin on your ears: they are the ones responsible for the creation of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda. If things go the way they want, Egypt will become another Islamic theocracy like Iran, replete with Sharia law.

I realize that Mubarek is not an angel. However, like the Shah of Iran, he has kept the peace between disparate religious factions (there is a terrible war where Muslims try to kill a substantial population of Coptic Christians to the point where it has become a game amongst followers of Mohammed). He has been our ally, and done his best to keep peace in the Middle East and even kept the peace with Israel. Obama administration attempts to shove him out of office has echoes of the US assassination of the President of South Vietnam in the midst of a war (the worst foreign policy mistake in history, right behind the Carter administration decision to oust the Shah of Iran).

It is difficult to believe that the end result of the current unrest in Egypt will result in more, rather than less, freedom and liberty for Egyptian Christians.