This is Saturday morning February 11, 2012. It’s the anniversary of course of when we bought our green Chevy back in 1963 and the same day the Beatles recorded eleven songs, ten of which were used for their first album. Tina Louise of Gilligan’s Island is 78 today so she was a mature woman at the time. Today is the 33rd anniversary of the revolution in Iran in 1979 when the Ayatolah came to power, and today the Beatles performed in Washington DC in 1964. I got up at ten to six and made coffee and turned on KNX 1070 radio. I listened to the President’s weekly address. We had Raison Bran for breakfast and eventually a fried egg and plain toast. Our table was served at two minutes to eight which has to be a lateness record. I listened to the Republican response on KNX without first going out for a smoke. It was the same old clap trap. Nobody asks why if cutting taxes reduces the deficit why deficets rose rose under Ronald Reagan. How does cutting taxes for billionaires put spending money in an unemployed or under-employed person? The Republican didn’t bother to answer the question at hand, which was put to him by the President about when the Republicans were going to get around to extending the payroll tax cut without political games. Congress is already at an 11% rating and the republicans seem bent on lowering that. As for all this alleged budget balancing done by Republican governors, we don’t know how much of that was from Union busting or raiding the pensions of employees. In other words, the Republicans are offering nothing. I have not yet heard of any employment stimulation bill that has been proposed by the republicans.
There are of course potential pitfalls for this economy. Some say the Iranian crisis could get worse. But what if it doesn't but improves? Some say the crisis in Greece could get worse. But what if it improves? They are predicting stagnent unemployment figures for this year of 2012. But what if they are wrong? And evidence already suggest that these doom and gloomsters are already wrong. Suppose the balance of trade with China improves? And there is strong evidence that it will this year. Suppose congress passes some of the measures for small business and domestic industries the President actually wants passed? There is no logical evidence to suppose that the Republicans will not pass these measures and yet knowing their inherent irrationality you can never be sure. Suppose the American people decide to just get smarter and to make a real effort to "buy American", and there is evidence to suggest that they will. Suppose the Republicans can't find ANY candidate they all like before their convention. And there is growing evidence that they wont. Suppose of losing the senate, the Democrats hold the senate and make dramatic gains in the House? You must remember that while the Presidents approval numbers languist at 48% that Congress itself is around 11% approval of the American people. California has all these contingency plans for cutting more government programs, and yet they just announced Lottery revenues are way up. There has been a basic change in perception from three months ago in terms of what is economically Fair or not in this country. Suppose the Republican tea party message just isn't "selling" any more? Certainly the people will soon be able to see through all these Orwellian quotes of the tea party right listed above. They can figure out that we aren't headed into hyper-inflation in the next few months due to skyrocketing interest rates, since interest rates remain at record lows. People know how to spot things that "just aren't So". That's why evangelists have such a bad reputation in most of the country. They are seen as charletons and frankly, less trustworthy than used care salesmen, who are actually pretty straightforward and honest these days. The tea party right will never answer certain simple direct questions when posed to them by progressives. They can't tell you why it's relivent whether our side of the Talliban controls a certain mountain pass clear on the other side of the world. They can't tell you what is so "bad!" about Latino culture. They can't tell you why all of their "secret sources" that they use to the exclusion of the rest of media reality- - are so valuable that they deserve ours and their undying trust- - even if daily they make fools out of themselves. All they say say with any credibility is that this President is a poor leader, and in this I have to agree. The President on an almost daily basis allows his opponents to walk all over him and just why he allows this to go on is a mystery. Certainly if he used some of the perks at his disposal, he would- - with the sheer power of his Office alone crush his enemies into irrelivent ovlivion. The "authors" of the tea party never had moral credentials to begin with. A lot of them were professed atheists of a most A Moral sort. Yet they use Christian morality as a come-on to push through their anti American agenda of making America just another cog in some Corporate New World Order ruled by the Koch Brothers.
We really do live in a world of market forces and supply and demand. And there is a lot more "Supply" out there of entertainment- - too much to be able to sustain the millions of dollars they claim as privelege for their "Uniqueness". This isn't the 1930's any more and we don't live in Kansas. We have become quite sophisticated and mass entertainment is no longer a novelty that you can charge premium prices for. I guess Randy Rhodes would say something like "media entertainment is like male sperm. There will never be a short supply of it, or an inability to get it any time you want". But more often than not it's the Publishing companies that get greedy more so than the artists themselves. Trying to Police this nightmare of poliferation (from their point of view) would prove a nightmare if one were going to really do it. And the number of "collateral abuses" of an over-bearing law would far outweigh the benefits. Now they want to copyright our food by "genetically engineering" it, such that sees have a one time use sunset clause and the next batch of sees for the following year is useless. There will be enough of these sort of corporate abuses going on, as there are in the drug industry already, that we don't need to encourage them by enacting stringent new piracy laws.
We would be amis if we didn't note that horrible suicide murder of a father of his two young sons last Sunday. He was suspected of his wife's mysterious disappearence and new evidence was recently found against him. So in response he took his two sons, Charlie 7, and Braden 5 ( ) and locked them in the house telling them "I have a surprise for you". Some lady neighbor dialed 911 and said she feared for the lives of the boys. Eight minutes elapsed before a police car was dispatched. The father torched the house with gasoline and the resultent explosion killed both him and his kids. It's been my belief for a long time that the hottest places in hell are reserved for parents who kill their small kids, particularly in a murder-suicide like this. Unfortunately that police dispatcher could not be psychic. Who would have guessed? Now they are starting to use these small police helocopter drone cameras that wherr around like some Sci Fi movie. My only question is whether, if you aim a laser at one, you are guilty of a crime or merely "protecting your privacy" rights. I guess if technology is going to come, we can't stop it.
The Syria violence situation has been really bad for weeks and has been particularly bad this past week. Now John Mc Cain has suggested that the United States take certain steps to help end the violence and I think that's a pretty good idea. Even the wife of Assad has backed him up in all of his violence, such that many of her fans think she betrayed them. Now this conflict is spreading into other mideastern countries such as Lebanon, with both parties taking sides. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how Israel might be adversely affected if this violence spreads and becomes general throughout the mideast. I think the smartest thing we can do is to follow the advice of people like John Mc Cain and Newt Gingrich and nip this thing in the bud now before it gets any worse. If Russia and China object- - what are they going to do? The two nations are pretty much isolated in the world on this particular issue, which sees the vast majority of the Islamic community on the side of the Syrian people and opposed to Assad's conduct.
Alzheimers is an ailment which is becoming progressively under-funded as research dollars shrink steadily. Yet they say in the next 35 years ago, the number of sufferers from Alzheimers wil almost triple. Now they have sophisticated tests to catch the onset of this disease at an early stage, but it is still not soon enough because generally this disease is not reversable. I'm not worried about getting it, and people in my family tree don't seem to have the gene. There is a lot of other people out there who do. Who have loved ones suffering from it. They call it "the disease that keeps on taking" because it not only robs a person of their body but of their mind and the precious relationships they have with loved ones. I cannot even imagine how heart breaking it would be to go through an experiance like this with a loved one. I think it's a "sellable" item that Obama could even get this Republican congress to do something about.
It seems everybody wants to have a water dragon in China. No, that is not the latest pet fad, but rather this year on the calendar. And don't worry, if you should miss it, there's another one rolling around in another sixty years. Jeremy Lin is apparently a media sensation that has only been famous for a couple of weeks or so or since he joined the New York Nicks of the NBA. At least that's what they are telling us. Before this he just drifted around the NBA being cut from teams. He still sleeps on his brother's couch and one time security guards questioned who he was in a stadium, not knowing he played for the NBA. I don't know. I guess every dog has his day and his fifteen minutes of fame. We'll see how this one pans out.
There are of course potential pitfalls for this economy. Some say the Iranian crisis could get worse. But what if it doesn't but improves? Some say the crisis in Greece could get worse. But what if it improves? They are predicting stagnent unemployment figures for this year of 2012. But what if they are wrong? And evidence already suggest that these doom and gloomsters are already wrong. Suppose the balance of trade with China improves? And there is strong evidence that it will this year. Suppose congress passes some of the measures for small business and domestic industries the President actually wants passed? There is no logical evidence to suppose that the Republicans will not pass these measures and yet knowing their inherent irrationality you can never be sure. Suppose the American people decide to just get smarter and to make a real effort to "buy American", and there is evidence to suggest that they will. Suppose the Republicans can't find ANY candidate they all like before their convention. And there is growing evidence that they wont. Suppose of losing the senate, the Democrats hold the senate and make dramatic gains in the House? You must remember that while the Presidents approval numbers languist at 48% that Congress itself is around 11% approval of the American people. California has all these contingency plans for cutting more government programs, and yet they just announced Lottery revenues are way up. There has been a basic change in perception from three months ago in terms of what is economically Fair or not in this country. Suppose the Republican tea party message just isn't "selling" any more? Certainly the people will soon be able to see through all these Orwellian quotes of the tea party right listed above. They can figure out that we aren't headed into hyper-inflation in the next few months due to skyrocketing interest rates, since interest rates remain at record lows. People know how to spot things that "just aren't So". That's why evangelists have such a bad reputation in most of the country. They are seen as charletons and frankly, less trustworthy than used care salesmen, who are actually pretty straightforward and honest these days. The tea party right will never answer certain simple direct questions when posed to them by progressives. They can't tell you why it's relivent whether our side of the Talliban controls a certain mountain pass clear on the other side of the world. They can't tell you what is so "bad!" about Latino culture. They can't tell you why all of their "secret sources" that they use to the exclusion of the rest of media reality- - are so valuable that they deserve ours and their undying trust- - even if daily they make fools out of themselves. All they say say with any credibility is that this President is a poor leader, and in this I have to agree. The President on an almost daily basis allows his opponents to walk all over him and just why he allows this to go on is a mystery. Certainly if he used some of the perks at his disposal, he would- - with the sheer power of his Office alone crush his enemies into irrelivent ovlivion. The "authors" of the tea party never had moral credentials to begin with. A lot of them were professed atheists of a most A Moral sort. Yet they use Christian morality as a come-on to push through their anti American agenda of making America just another cog in some Corporate New World Order ruled by the Koch Brothers.
We really do live in a world of market forces and supply and demand. And there is a lot more "Supply" out there of entertainment- - too much to be able to sustain the millions of dollars they claim as privelege for their "Uniqueness". This isn't the 1930's any more and we don't live in Kansas. We have become quite sophisticated and mass entertainment is no longer a novelty that you can charge premium prices for. I guess Randy Rhodes would say something like "media entertainment is like male sperm. There will never be a short supply of it, or an inability to get it any time you want". But more often than not it's the Publishing companies that get greedy more so than the artists themselves. Trying to Police this nightmare of poliferation (from their point of view) would prove a nightmare if one were going to really do it. And the number of "collateral abuses" of an over-bearing law would far outweigh the benefits. Now they want to copyright our food by "genetically engineering" it, such that sees have a one time use sunset clause and the next batch of sees for the following year is useless. There will be enough of these sort of corporate abuses going on, as there are in the drug industry already, that we don't need to encourage them by enacting stringent new piracy laws.
We would be amis if we didn't note that horrible suicide murder of a father of his two young sons last Sunday. He was suspected of his wife's mysterious disappearence and new evidence was recently found against him. So in response he took his two sons, Charlie 7, and Braden 5 ( ) and locked them in the house telling them "I have a surprise for you". Some lady neighbor dialed 911 and said she feared for the lives of the boys. Eight minutes elapsed before a police car was dispatched. The father torched the house with gasoline and the resultent explosion killed both him and his kids. It's been my belief for a long time that the hottest places in hell are reserved for parents who kill their small kids, particularly in a murder-suicide like this. Unfortunately that police dispatcher could not be psychic. Who would have guessed? Now they are starting to use these small police helocopter drone cameras that wherr around like some Sci Fi movie. My only question is whether, if you aim a laser at one, you are guilty of a crime or merely "protecting your privacy" rights. I guess if technology is going to come, we can't stop it.
The Syria violence situation has been really bad for weeks and has been particularly bad this past week. Now John Mc Cain has suggested that the United States take certain steps to help end the violence and I think that's a pretty good idea. Even the wife of Assad has backed him up in all of his violence, such that many of her fans think she betrayed them. Now this conflict is spreading into other mideastern countries such as Lebanon, with both parties taking sides. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how Israel might be adversely affected if this violence spreads and becomes general throughout the mideast. I think the smartest thing we can do is to follow the advice of people like John Mc Cain and Newt Gingrich and nip this thing in the bud now before it gets any worse. If Russia and China object- - what are they going to do? The two nations are pretty much isolated in the world on this particular issue, which sees the vast majority of the Islamic community on the side of the Syrian people and opposed to Assad's conduct.
Alzheimers is an ailment which is becoming progressively under-funded as research dollars shrink steadily. Yet they say in the next 35 years ago, the number of sufferers from Alzheimers wil almost triple. Now they have sophisticated tests to catch the onset of this disease at an early stage, but it is still not soon enough because generally this disease is not reversable. I'm not worried about getting it, and people in my family tree don't seem to have the gene. There is a lot of other people out there who do. Who have loved ones suffering from it. They call it "the disease that keeps on taking" because it not only robs a person of their body but of their mind and the precious relationships they have with loved ones. I cannot even imagine how heart breaking it would be to go through an experiance like this with a loved one. I think it's a "sellable" item that Obama could even get this Republican congress to do something about.
It seems everybody wants to have a water dragon in China. No, that is not the latest pet fad, but rather this year on the calendar. And don't worry, if you should miss it, there's another one rolling around in another sixty years. Jeremy Lin is apparently a media sensation that has only been famous for a couple of weeks or so or since he joined the New York Nicks of the NBA. At least that's what they are telling us. Before this he just drifted around the NBA being cut from teams. He still sleeps on his brother's couch and one time security guards questioned who he was in a stadium, not knowing he played for the NBA. I don't know. I guess every dog has his day and his fifteen minutes of fame. We'll see how this one pans out.
WASHINGTON -- Presumed GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has won a straw poll of Republican voters at the American Conservative Union's annual CPAC conference in Washington. Romney received 38 percent of Saturday's vote on the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, followed by Rick Santorum, who garnered 31 percent. The win is likely to soothe concerns that Romney cannot shore up backing from conservatives wary of his past change of position on abortion and his onetime support for an individual health care mandate.
Romney told a packed audience here during remarks Friday that he is "severely conservative," while Santorum urged attendees not to choose a GOP nominee who cannot excite the conservative base.
"We always talk about how we are going to get the moderates," Santorum said in a clear reference to Romney. "Why would an undecided voter, vote for a candidate of a party that the party's not excited about?"
One-time Romney "alternative" hopeful Newt Gingrich came in third place with 15 percent of the straw poll vote. Rep. Ron Paul won just 12 percent support.
Some 3,408 people voted in the straw poll, the second-highest number to participate in the poll.
Paul has won the poll for the last two years, but he did not participate in this year's conference.
The Texas congressman's past victories prompted organizers to change the format for the poll, doing away with paper ballots and offering online voting for participants.
The American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, also commissioned a national poll of 600 self-identified conservatives reached by telephone this Tuesday and Wednesday.
The s
vrvey showed Romney clocking in in first place with 27 percent, followed closely by Santorum at 25 percent. Third-place finisher Gingrich garnered 20 percent support in the national poll.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was the top choice for vice president among straw poll participants, while he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Romney backer, tied at 15 percent among the national poll respondents.
"This is the first time ever in 25 years that we've ever done a corollary survey that asks the same exact questions," ACU pollster Tony Fabrizio told reporters during a press conference before the release of the results.
The margin of error for the national poll was plus-minus 4 percent.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was the top choice for vice president among straw poll participants, while he and New Jersey governor and Romney backer Chris Christie tied at 15 percent among the national poll respondents.
We were going to quote
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BLOG
but I changed my mind on that
