Thursday, September 22, 2011

Why the $16 muffin is no joke - CNN.com

Why the $16 muffin is no joke - CNN.com:

government waste is no joke, and is perpetrated by all parties and more candidates than you would think.

Matt Welch, who wrote this CNN article, is editor-in-Chief for Reason magazine, a libertarian magazine.

"As long as we believe that government is good at creating jobs and stimulating the economy, we're going to be stuffed by much more than just $16 muffins."
Welch

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Social Security -- Are you kidding me? - CNN.com

Social Security -- Are you kidding me? - CNN.com:


"It's all a game, and election after election, we keep getting played."

Granderson does not trust the government, and does not trust he will benefit from social security.

He is prudent and smart. Nice article.

Monday, September 19, 2011

U.S. Rep. Requests Special Counsel In Solyndra Loan : NPR

U.S. Rep. Requests Special Counsel In Solyndra Loan : NPR:

great post. corporatism again. subsidies and the government choosing winners and losers will always, in the long run, end this way. With failure and a 500m loss. A private bank wouldn't loan them 500m for a reason. Politicians are not better suited to determine the future of profitable clean energy.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

What should the White House do? Panic! - CNN.com

What should the White House do? Panic! - CNN.com:

Carville in this article kindof has a point. President Obama seems to just be giving a never ending cycle of speeches and more of the same as the economy hemorrhages. I may not agree with Carville on policy or ideology, but I agree with him on a need for action to disrupt the lull of inaction and complacency.

His basic initiative for President Obama; Fire, indict, Fight. People should be fired, (Bernanke and Geithner come to mind). The economy is worse than it was 4 years ago when Bush left the Presidency and the President spent unprecedented money (along with Bush) to restart the economy. As the bailout and Tarp programs become more looked at, we realize mistakes were made, and corporatism reared its ugly head as friends were bailed out and the politically detached (Lehman) was left to suffer.

The Attorney General should take white collar crime seriously, just because you are rich and have connections in a company does not mean you should be safe from the law.

Obama should fight, although I'm pretty sure Ill disagree with whatever he would fight for.

Monday, September 12, 2011

5 interesting observations regarding Ron Paul in CNN/ORC poll

The poll, taken between Sept 9th and 11th, interviewed 1,038 Adult Americans.

The link to the poll findings is here, http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/09/11/rel15a.pdf

The results without Sarah Palin:
Perry:      32%
Romney:  21%
Paul:        13%
Bachmann: 7%
Gingrich:    7%

There are some interesting tendencies with Ron Paul supporters.

1. Tea Party does not support Paul


When Sarah Palin is included in race, Ron Paul has 12% support. Yet, of those people who consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, only 8% believe Paul is the best candidate. There were no results for people opposed to the Tea Party. This is very surprising and also quite disheartening for Paul supporters. The Tea Party may not really be a Tea Party, but just a more conservative/religious wing of the Republican party. The Cato Institute did a study on the Tea Party, I may break that down in the future. Ron Paul was the tea party before the tea party existed, yet the tea party does not support him! This is like turning away from your founders, an ironic move for the framer-friendly tea party to do.

2. People really do not think Paul can win, even if they like him the most.

Only 4% believed Paul was the most likely to win, despite being favored by 13%. Both Palin & Cain were viewed as more likely to win, the fact that the first is a space-cadet and not in the race, and the latter is a pizza-man radio host does not bode well for the optimism Paul is instilling in people about his chances.

3. Bachmann is more likeable than Paul!

WTF. How is Bachmann more likeable than Paul. Bachmann was found to be the most likeable candidate by 11%, Paul by 7%. Perhaps this is a result of Paul being so different from the other candidates that he often must ardently fight for his beliefs where discussion amongst other candidates is more amiable (generally) with similar political leanings with immaterial nuanced differences (so they may seem unique and give you an impression of choice).

Also, 25% found Perry the most likeable, because what is not likeable about a man who does not struggle with the decision to execute prisoners.

4. Poorer people (less than 50k year) are more supportive of Paul


I do not know why this is the case, although I am pleased to hear it. Perhaps those people who are richer are those who have been benefited by the status quo, and therefore would not benefit by changing that to a more competitive model. If I worked as a doctor or as a lawyer (hopefully soon) or as an owner of a taxicab service and medallions I would be opposed to Paul and free markets, If I were a taxi driver, if I were a paralegal, I would support Paul. [Do you get why?]

5. Independents highly support Paul


19% of independents support Paul (as opposed to 13% of general populace according to poll). Republicans are the least supportive and conservatives are fairly supportive. Perry is the only candidate with more independent support, at 23%.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Poll finds USA the "coolest" nation in world, Belgium Last

Poll: World still thinks Americans are 'coolest' - US news - Life - msnbc.com:

America is the coolest, that is obvious, anyone can tell you that. poll of like 30k people and the clear winner was the good ole USofA.

Surprised Canada beat Belgium though.

I feel like Pres.Obama should tout this recent poll as evidence of the country turning around for the better, or perhaps as a consolation prize.

I can see the Presidential Debate for 2012 right now:
Republican Presidential hopeful: Obama has overseen an economy with spiraling debt and high unemployment.

Pres. Obama: Perhaps true, but under my reign we are COOOOOL!


GOP Debate at Reagan Library on 9.7.11, disjointed thoughts

I missed the debate, I thought it was Thursday. So shit happens, but from the recaps and articles I've read here are some random disjointed thoughts.

Bachmann:
All she does is regurgitate talking points. When Fox news hosted the debate (might have been the S. Carolina debate) they explicitly asked for candid answers and to avoid one-liners, Bachmann's first answer was an obvious one-liner. She is extremely religious and I do not trust her to separate church and state and I find her fiery personality a detriment and impediment to being an effective President. I'm glad her relevance is waning.

______________________

Here is a good quote from Jonathan Chait (NPR: How Rick Perry Won The Debate) on why Perry beat Romney in the debate despite media holding otherwise...

“Yet Perry, stylistically, ruled the roost. The media seems to consider Romney the winner. Pardon the condescension, but they're not thinking like Republican base voters. Romney approaches every question as if he is in an actual debate, trying to provide the most intellectually compelling answer available, within the bounds of political expediency. Perry treats questions as interruptions. What scientists do you trust on climate change? I don't want to risk the economy. Are you taking a radical position on social security? We can have reasons or we can have results. His total liberation from the constraints of reason give Perry a chance to represent the Republican id in a way Romney simply cannot match.”


I agree with the statement above, reading the transcript, it appears that Romney acknowledged there are many factors that go into job growth other than who is governor. The only reason Romney used logic over an appeal to emotion of course is because it was politically beneficial to help undermine TX's job growth and Perry's platform.

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Ron Paul Quote:

WILLIAMS:  Well, 30 seconds more for devil’s advocate here, because
would you then put it on the drug companies to say, “No, we’re bringing
this to market, trust us, it’s a fantastic drug”?  All the pilots in the
sky, to add to their responsibilities, their own air traffic control, in
an organic way?

PAUL:  What I said is, theoretically, you could — it could be
privatized, but who ends up doing the regulations on the drugs?  They do
as much harm as good.  They don’t take good care of us.  Who gets — who
gets to write the regulations?  The bureaucrats write the regulations,
but who writes the laws?  The lobbyists have control, so lobbyists from
the drug industry has control of writing the regulations, so you turn it
over to the bureaucracy.

But you would have private institutions that could become credible.
And, I mean, do we need the federal government to tell us whether we buy
a safe car?  I say the consumers of America are smart enough to decide
what kind of car they can buy and whether it’s safe or not, and they
don’t need the federal government hounding them and putting so much
regulations on that our car industry has gone overseas.

WILLIAMS:  Congressman, thank you.

If we moved away from the FDA regulating the release of drugs, drugs which save people’s lives but are not approved would save millions more lives, the FDA does more harm than good. People are not dumb, they will not buy a non-FDA approved drug, or an untested drug, for a normal sickness or non-severe no-alternatives disease, they will choose a safer proven drug. But the FDA has an incentive to be overly safe, that is their job, they fail if a drug is released and is harmful, they succeed if they hold a drug in testing for 8 years to make sure it’s safe.

________________________________

Paul scares me though in that as a President he would have to compromise, and I am not sure if he could, his principles would be put to the test. It is heartening to hear him say "we live in a society where we have been adapted [to accept regulation of the marketplace], and you can't just drop it all at once, but you can transition away from it." Boo-ya.