Pop quiz, hot shot.

Listen to Daniel Hannan's speech.  Find three things 'wrong' with it.

Post them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BujuEpGmKMg

Questions for an elected representative...

If I could ask (and actually get honest replies) an elected politician these questions...whoa.

• Once upon a time (actually seems like a fairy tale) an individual could develop a good or service, go forth and sell it to those who were willing and able to buy it.  It was effectively stream-lined, fast, uncomplicated.  TODAY, an individual to do the same must apply for a license, or a permit at multiple levels of gov't, be worried about the EPA and any environmental issues (even if he is a sole proprietor house painter), has to worry about unfair labor practices and NLRB if he had to fire a lazy or absent employee, and state equivalent, has to worry about safety issues and fines from OSHA and MIOSHA even if it is only him up on the ladder expecting no one else to be responsible for him...  WHY DO WE MAKE IT SO HARD TO DO ECONOMIC ACTIVITY?  Study after study indicates these 'hurdles' of national, state and local gov'ts place before those who wish to buy and sell, limits this activity, and INCREASES structural unemployment.  If the State of Michigan's gov't really wanted the employment rate to increase, for economic activity to swell, wouldn't it reduce these requirements all too many businesses are not even aware that they're in violation of?
• Why do you deny students a better education?  How can you deny the fact that there is a vast surplus of teachers, implying that their salaries are way higher than what the market can bear?  Isn't it true that the cost of education would be much less and students would have more choices of classes and courses?  That class sizes would be smaller and there would be more teachers to teach?
• Why do you make children go to school, thereby absolving them of any responsibility for their own lives as it seems you are telling them what to do at every turn? (truancy)
• Why do you perpetuate an education system that squashes like a bug, any shred of curiosity about stuff (used to be that was what fueled 'science')?  
• Why cannot parents choose for themselves what to study and for how long?  If homeschooling is your answer, then why do families have to pay for schools they don't use?  Every two cents on the dollar spent in Michigan goes to the sales tax supporting schools.  Why do you make the childless widow next-door pay for schools?
• It used to be I could save $ and take out deposits without worry.  Now the bank and I are required to report to several bureaucracies.  Why?
• How can you deny the fact that an income tax violates the privacy and business of the individual?  This tax makes for one's privacy to be forcefully exposed to any gov't auditor, and for the individual being audited to be assumed guilty and having to prove one's own innocence.  Is this consistent with the freedoms fought for in the Revolutionary War and 'guaranteed' in the U.S. Constitution?
• Isn't it true that you are an elected representative, basically equivalent to one of us winning a vote to be homecoming king?  How are you as an individual, more qualified to pass judgment and make laws that apply to us?  
• Our election system does not bring the cream to the top, in that it doesn't provide that the representatives have an extra measure of wisdom or experience than any other individual lucky enough to use propaganda to persuade others to vote for him.  How is it that you feel more qualified to govern me than an individual who believes he was placed in power by God (Divine Right of Kings) and is thereby responsible to Him for governing the people?  Wouldn't a man responsible to God do a more compassionate job than a man beholden to simply getting the most votes every two years?
• Why can't people be allowed by our nanny-state to be more responsible for themselves, and make their own decisions?  A man riding a snowmobile recently had an accident, but a very minor one.  He refused any assistance, yet others called 911, and the cop determined that the person was drinking.  He damaged nothing other than his own sled, so what crime has he actually committed against others?  
• If one's potential to commit a crime is a crime, where is the end?  What limits this incursion into freedom?  Will we all be subjects in a "Minority Report" society?
• Why can't motorcyclists be allowed to ride without a helmet?  Why cannot drivers and passengers be allowed not to wear seatbelts?  Who said society is responsible for them?  Can't they be responsible for themselves, and be allowed to pay for their own decisions, or reap the rewards of taking risks (entrepreneurship)?
• Who says you are my keeper?  Will I ever be allowed to grow up and take care of myself?  Who says the gov't knows best about me eating french fries or red meat?  If I want to smoke, and the smoke doesn't bother anyone else, why does the gov't feel it necessary to insert itself telling me where I can, or have to pay a 'sin' tax?  
• Will I be a Toys-r-Us kid all my life because of the cradle-to-grave nanny state?  When do I get to grow up and be an adult?  LEAVE ME ALONE!

Here are some 'vanilla' queries...

• Is it true that it is a great accomplishment to sponsor a bill that becomes a law?
• What is necessary (cutting deals with other reps, etc.) to get that sponsored bill moving along?
• Are committee chairs truly more powerful than most other reps?  
• How do you 'reach across the aisle' to gain more support for your bill?
• How do you gather support for your bill in the other house/chamber?
• In your experience, how many bills with three or fewer sponsors do in the legislative process? 
• Are you familiar with the State Constitution?  When was the current Constitution made?  (answer is 1963)
• Are you familiar with the U.S. Constitution?  How applicable is it to Michigan or local gov'ts?
• Do the Bill of Rights apply to local and state gov'ts?
• If so, do all Bill of Rights apply equally?  Why not?  Which amendment is more important?
• Regarding the Constitution of the State of Michigan, why is it so detailed compared to the US Constitution?
• Does it imply a lack of trust on the part of the voter toward the legislature and governor's office?
• Then (because he'll deny it) why is it so detailed and limiting the power of the state gov't?
• Why does the Michigan Constitution allow for referenda?  Isn't that a method for the citizen to bypass a tyrannical legislature, like the example of the implementation of the Concealed Carry Pistol law?

Fairness, 'fair share' and other myths...

Reading this article brings to mind Freidrich A. Hayek, wonder what he'd say about this push by the leader of the gov't on 'fairness'...

Stephen Moore does a nice job listing the way 'fairness' is defined by deeds, by actions, by 'doing'.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206980068367936.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Baseline Budgeting and YOU and the Feds and the Media and the...

Rush is right.  In so many ways... http://download.premiereradio.net/guest/rushlimb/pdf/baselinebudgeting2.pdf

Baseline Services Budgeting process is a very slick manner of pulling the wool over well intentioned Americans.  When the CBO has to 'score' a bill on an assumed increase of a given % every year, anytime the projected expenditures fall below that assumed %, it is called a CUT even though it is a REAL INCREASE in spending.

Example, say that the HHS baseline is an increase of 10% a year, regardless of how much is actually spent or how much is brought into the national gov't by taxes and such.  Totally an arbitrary number.  IF the 'wascawy wepubwicans' (we won't miss you much, Barney Frank!) were to propose a budget for HHS of an increase of 4%, it would be deemed a 6% cut.  Spending would increase by 4% over what is spend THIS year, but the media, a certain political party and other liberal leaning types would scream about 'cuts'.

WHAT CAN WE DO?!?  Guess what?  The House of Representatives actually DID pass a bill to eliminate this monkey-business.  Care to bet what will happen to it in the Senate with Harry Reid et al? http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/208527-house-passes-second-gop-budget-reform-bill

"Marriage, What is Ma..." Whoops, meant, "Unemployment, What is Unemployment?"

Everyone is crooning and swaying over the 'great' unemployment numbers released Friday by BLS.  Apparently we had a net gain in jobs by 243,000.  Wow, a quarter million more people are working than the month before!

Wait...whoa...hmmm...  If one looks at the B-1 table, it would appear that we actually LOST over two and a half million jobs, that's 2,689,000 fewer people working.  I guess to the gov't, they are just retail schlubs and get swept under the carpet of 'seasonally adjusted'.  Wonder if they get unemployment checks when they're not unemployed?

So mathematically, Two Million, Nine Hundred and Thirty Two Thousand people are out of work from December to January.  Nice.  All Hail the Supreme Leader, Barack Hussein Obama!


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

The Genocide of Black/African-Americans continues unabashed...

When most of the babies aborted are 'black' or 'African-American' by %, what are we to conclude when the freakin' Mayor of New York City also contributes major buckage to the destruction of 'unwanted' black babies?!?

There will be a reckoning.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-komen-backlash-20120203,0,693195.story

Whattup when costs exceed benefits?

OK...the awesome, totally unbiased BLS has released the productivity v labor unit costs...(see below)  

4th quarter productivity increased at an annualized 0.7%, while unit labor costs increased at 1.2% 4th quarter.

For the increases between 4th 2010 and 4th 2011, productivity increased only 0.5% (lower!) and costs 1.3% (higher).

So, the 4th quarter trended toward a smaller gap between a small increase in productivity (benefit) and unit labor costs (cost).  So...MB is less than MC.  Will that help or hurt the increase in real GDP?  Will that hurt or help the increase in our real economy?  Will employment increase faster than the rate of inflation?

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm

Congressional Budget Office, more than a gaggle of pocket-protected, pointy-headed economists?

The CBO, the 'unbiased' pen of predictors, the corral of brainiacs that predict the future economy thereby allowing for the anticipation of tax revenues and fiscal expenditures of the National (excuse me, you likely know it as 'Federal') government, paint a rosy scenario.  Economic troubles are past us.  Hoorah!  Huzzuh!

Wait...

This is only true based on the assumptions they make.  When you dig deeper (as Tyler Durden and others listed below demonstrate) you discover that what the CBO foists upon us may be closer to the 'product' hauled out of corrals and pens with front-loading Bobcats than to the actual truth.  "Unbiased" yet politically advantageous for a certain political party and its candidate seeking re-election?  Hmmm...

In economic forecasting, as with meteorology (weather) forecasting, models are made based on past observations.  The model 'crunches' the past data to see if the predicted result matches the actual weather experienced.  Economic models also are 'vetted' in this manner.  Guess what?  Take predictions and the assumptions used by the CBO over the past decade on economic growth, and...dang.  Not too good.

IF the CBO were bookies at the casinos in Vegas, they'd likely be 'disappeared' in the desert for being so wrong.

http://www.cbo.gov/  All the truth that's fit to print...not.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cbo-taxes-will-shoot-more-30-percent-over-next-2-years

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/01/31/economic-projections-and-key-numbers-from-cbo-budget-report/?mod=google_news_blog

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/latest-congressional-budget-outlook-2012-2022-released