Revenue Lost?

When the liberals consider any effort to reduce taxes, they commonly argue that the act would result in a condition whereby there would revenue lost. Fred Thompson had the best response to that. He said the revenue would not be lost. It would be in his pocket. Amen.

A revolt in liberalville??

It is hard to know what to make of this article in the New York Times which seems to have taken a hard look at Hillary's actual involvement in Bill's administration and just how much actual "experience" she has. Her detractors have long scoffed at her claim of preparedness based on living in the same house as President Clinton. If the Times is now moving to disparage her claims, this sorry excuse of a paper may be laying the ground to move away from her and support Obama. It gets curiouser and curiouser.

Merry Christmas to All

The Candidates

For the benefit of almost nobody, here is the BestView on the leading candidates for the presidency. I wish I was sufficiently gifted with the written word to convey my lack of enthusiasm for this election.

1. Hillary is maybe the one dem which might not be as bad as one fears, but that is only because she is one who is rightly feared so widely. There is just no way to stomach her on the TV every day. I am praying, but would it help if I begged?

2. Obama is a liberal and would be a liberal if elected, but of all the dems, he would probably be the preferred one. A dangerous blank slate on foreign matters.

3. Edwards would be a disaster. This ambitious phony makes Hillary look moderate and must be defeated. Again I beg.

4. Giuliani is almost a prototypical New York politician. He is basically a liberal and ethically challenged.

5. Romney is a little too shifty for my taste. Again, here is a northeast liberal who will flop back on some of his flips if elected, I think. Better than Giuliani, but mainly because of higher morals and character.

6. McCain is maddening if you consider his absolutely absurd positions on taxes, campaign finance, and tendency to crawl in bed with liberals in the Senate. I would hold nose to vote for him if nominated. It is also reported that he is basically a jerk.

7. Huckabee might be as liberal as Hillary. There is no way to evaluate him on foreign policy since he probably hasn't even thought about the subject yet. I am also inclined to think if someone is smart, honest, religious, etc, one need not mention it....repeatedly.

8. Ron Paul is the most interesting candidate of them all. He is absolutely solid on some of his domestic philosophy, but none of what he believes would ever come to be....such as scrapping the income tax without offsetting it except by budget cuts. No Department of Education, Energy, Housing, etc. ? O.K. with me, but not gonna happen. His foreign policy is even more radical. This will supposedly be a "change election", but not that great a change.

All the pundits say this is going to be a dem year and that is the most favorable factor for the republicans. If the experts are all correct, however, an Obama/McCain contest is about as good as it is likely to get. The veep pick of both will be crucial. Obama needs someone like McCain on the ticket with him (say Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia) and McCain needs a running mate who is clearly qualified to be President and also appealing to the conservative base (say another Georgian who was once Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich).

Amazing Football Season

This has been a fun college football season--primarily because of the many upsets. It started early when little Appalachian State beat number 5 rated Michigan. This was the first time a Division II team beat a nationally ranked opponent.

One of my favorite upsets was the win by Louisiana-Monroe over Alabama. The coach at Alabama, Nick Saban, had just come from the Miami Dolphins with a pay package which paid him $4 million a year. He makes as much in 2 weeks as the Louisiana-Monroe coach makes in a year. You gotta love it.

You gotta read the fine print

When Congress passed the energy bill a few days ago (that Bush gushed over and quickly signed) most of the emphasis was on how delighted everyone was that the CAFE standards were increased. These dictate how many miles per gallon cars are to deliver at some time in the future. These glad tidings are suspect since it has been shown that the last such increase put us in a situation where we simply drove more miles in cars which are less safe. The same thing can be expected from this latest increase.

Another little problem has to do with Congress deciding that we need to do away with the incandescent light bulb which Edison invented and has served us well. Now we have politicians which have decided that the bulb uses too much electricity. Ergo, we need to do away with them and go to the compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). These cost about $5.00 compared to maybe $0.75 on a comparable bulb. This added cost is not really the problem, however, since each CFL contains about 5 milligrams of mercury. The same loopy liberals who are worried about some specious threat from global warming seem willing to expose consumers to mercury hazards when a bulb breaks in someone's home.

Brandy Bridges in Prospect, Maine broke one and called the state Poison Control hotline to see how she should clean it up. The short version of the story is that the Department of Environmental Protection said it would cost at least $2,000 to clean it up in her daughter's bedroom. Doesn't that sound like a typical government solution to a dubious problem?

AMT and Pay-Go

Leave it to George Will to explain the loopy dems position on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

In January, with much preening, House Democrats embraced "paygo," the pay-as-you-go rule that any tax cut must be "paid for" by compensatory tax increases or revenue cuts. In December, Democrats abandoned it because of the alternative minimum tax.

The AMT was enacted in 1969 as an indignation gesture aimed at fewer than 200 rich people who managed, legally, to owe no taxes. But the enactors neglected to index the AMT against inflation, so this year it would have been a $50 billion bite out of 23 million taxpayers. The House voted to repeal it and pay for repeal with a $50 billion tax increase. Senate Republicans argued that no Congress ever intended the AMT to collect, or ever will allow it to collect, such large sums from such a large number of Americans. Therefore, paygo would siphon $50 billion to compensate for a fictitious $50 billion. The Senate voted 88-5 to not collect the AMT this year, the House acquiesced and paygo evaporated.

Senator Reid evaluates democrat performance

RAY SUAREZ: Well, at the beginning of this year, the Democrats returned to the majority after 12 years in the minority. You and Speaker Pelosi announced a very ambitious agenda. Now that one year has passed and you look back, how has it gone?

SEN. HARRY REID: Well, we’ve been able to accomplish quite a bit, but not very much, certainly not as much as I wanted to. I’m kind of frustrated, like the American people.

And the loony libs say Bush doesn't make sense.

Person of Year

It is interesting to read and hear TV comment on Time's selection of who they thought should be accorded this recognition. Even though the criteria are their own and well described, many fail to understand what is behind or meant by the selection. None of this seems to me to deserve all the scrutiny and if someone like Fox News is not happy with Time's POY, they are certainly free to name their own. Same with the various newspapers who have commented negatively on Putin and his selection.

Election Advice

If Obama can get Hillary to cackle a few more times, the nomination is his.

Bad day?

A sad situation

I was talking to someone this weekend who made a comment that was entirely consistent with his lifetime of political positioning, but it disappointed me none the less. My concern is not so much that his opinion differed from mine, but it was obvious that he had not studied the subject and had no basis for his conclusion other than political knee-jerkiness. That got me to thinking about how dismal our future is in this country. The basic problem as I have so often said is the education system which guarantees that our young people will not be equipped to discern solutions to problems which arise. To take two examples, we can start with global warming. Few of the citizens in this country have the understanding of science that is required to separate out the drivel in the press from the scientific layers which must be examined to evaluate the phenomenon correctly. This leaves our citizens open to the manipulation of the liberals who will take advantage of this sad fact.

Another example is the so-called Fair Tax. If you want to really understand this proposal, you need to seriously consider a number of factors and the implications of each on the whole. It is not easy to do. After considerable reading on the subject, I have concluded that it has several problems which our politicians will never address, but the system on the whole would be better than the income tax fiasco we have now. The very first and most basic problem our voters and politicians would have to come to grips with is the concept of imbedded taxes. As a nation, we are simply not smart enough to comprehend this simple economic fact. So, the demagogues (established politicians) will prevail.

I know one is supposed to accept the collective wisdom of the American electorate and the concept that we should encourage everyone to vote, but I don't. The average voter is not wise and the more people who vote the less likely we are to elect people who deserve election. That is called an elitist opinion and I plead guilty.

Vulgar abortion pictures

This article in American Thinker reports on an incident in Atlanta where a pro-life group with a truck having pictures of aborted babies on 3 sides was arrested and charged with "the display of obscene and vulgar images to persons under age 14". As a Georgian, I am opposed to such a law in the abstract since I don't want our policemen making a decision like this based on their own interpretation of what is "obscene and vulgar". As to the specifics of the case, I am completely unable to see how anyone can see an aborted fetus as anything other the tragedy it is. It is not the picture that is obscene and the victim of the crime will never see the pictures or age 14.

Fortunately, an explanation of the First Amendment resulted in a rapid dismissal of the charges in this case.

Senatorial Malaise

Senate Democrats yesterday bowed to Republicans and stripped a proposed tax increase for oil companies from a broad energy bill, clearing the way for passage of the measure that includes the first increase in vehicle gas-mileage standards in 32 years. When they are not able to raise taxes on someone, these loony liberals are truly morose. BestView is equally as sad that this sham of a bill does nothing to increase our supply of non-imported oil.

A religion of peace?

Muhammad Parvez, a 57 year old father in Toronto, has been charged with attacking and killing his 16 year old daughter. The beating seems to have been prompted by ongoing clothing/culture disputes. Aqsa Parvez, a 11th grader at Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga, wanted to dress "Western" and resented having to wear her hijab. Apparently having her hair exposed warranted her brutal death...

Prediction

Read this article and then file away my brilliant prediction. If they find anything amiss, it will be attributed to racism.

It is Bush's fault

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Bush “is impossible — and has been for seven years — to deal with.”
Reid sought to portray senior White House adviser Ed Gillespie as an incarnation of Karl Rove and a mastermind of intransigence.

What has the Senate Majority Leader so frustrated? Well, the main problem seems to be that Bush is responsible for the House and Senate dems not being able to agree on a way to pass legislation that funds the government. The House wants to raise taxes and the Senate won't let them. Some dems want to just reduce spending by cutting off earmarks and none of the phony politicians (from either party) want to do that. Too draconian. The far left wants to insist on PAYGO which was passed when the dems took over Congress to be sure that the Bush tax cuts could never be allowed to stand beyond their designated life. More moderate dems are not so rigid. Blue dog dems elected in 2004 are feeling the heat of coming re-election and want to be viewed as financially responsible, so they have to cling to PAYGO since this sounds like it is sensible.

Bottom line the inability of the dems to come to some sort of agreement is Bush's fault except this article seems to highlight internal conflict more openly.

My favorite Senator again

A man of principles is standing up in Washington. Story here.

Umami

There is a recent article in the Wall Street Journal describing a culinary art-form which is based on a taste receptor which responds to glutamate. This was long recognized by Asians and explains their wide-spread use of MSG in cooking. This is a somewhat discredited substance which many feel gives them headaches and allergies. Umami (pronounced oo-MA-me) seeks to take advantage of foods which have an ability to satisfy the glutamate taste receptors, without using MSG. Examples given in the article help explain my own food preferences, so I am a big fan of umami. One of the best sources of foods which ramp up foods via umami is parmesan cheese. Others are mushrooms, wine, soy sauce, ketchup and other forms of tomatos, and grilling. This must be why I buy a lot of Worchestershire sauce and chefs around the country continually experiment with combinations which taste better through glutamate.

A test

Here is a test question that should not present too much of a challenge, but my days of active testing are way behind me. I am undoubtedly rusty. Read this article describing corruption involving the wife of the governor of Illinois. Now for the question, the answer to which is not given in the article. To which political party does the governor belong?

Free money ???

T. Boone Pickens offered a cool $1,000,000.00 to anyone who could offer proof that anything the Swift Boat Vets said about John Kerry during the 2004 campaign was not true. This included journalists or Kerry himself. As indicted here, nobody seems to want the money.

The congressional squeeze

It is really getting to be humorous watching the pathetic dems trying to navigate the tricky waters in Congress. First, they have overtaxed constituents in New York and other big liberal states who will be hit with large extra taxes if the AMT is not modified. They could do this, but they want to raise taxes on the wealthy hedge fund operators and these people are big contributors to Senator Schumer and other fat-cats in the dem party. As a result they are frozen in limbo at a time when if something isn't done, the IRS can't even print forms for reporting and this would delay the tax refunds for the middle class who depend on them as if Christmas presents. In fact, they often need them to pay for Christmas. Hard to keep everyone happy and bash Bush at the same time.

Prediction

When it comes to going out on a cold night to caucus for someone in Iowa, it takes at least one of three things. First, organization by the candidate, "street money" and busing in of participants, and finally fervor for the candidate. We will see all of the above on January 3, 2008, but I predict the fervor factor for Ron Paul will surprise folks.

Funny or Pathetic?

Read all of this in the Opinion Journal.

This is from a press release Hillary put out:

At an event in Boston this evening, Senator Obama claimed for the second time today that he is "not running to fulfill some long held plans" to be elected President, contradicting statements his friends, family, staff and teachers have all made about him. . . .

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07]

Mrs. Clinton is attacking Obama for something he wrote in kindergarten.

Are liberals turning on Hillary?

Even her old buddy Robert Reich is unhappy with Hillary.

A Review

If there is some sensible way to decrease the amount of oil we have to import---like drilling wells in the U.S.---------great

If there are proposals to reduce pollution like mercury in the water or sulfur compounds in the air--------great

If you think you can reduce your "carbon footprint" (a euphemism for CO2) and have any effect on the earth's temperature decades from now----------you are an idiot.

Perks for Geeks

The poor slaves working at Google in Mountain View, California have to get by on top rank salaries, but in addition, they have 17 food venues on site at which they can eat any or all of three meals a day at no cost. They can even take guests and none of them can pay either. They can even go in for snacks any time day or night. Other perks include free dry cleaning, free birthday massages, special parking places for the pregnant and so on. Must be pretty easy to recruit there.