As an alum of one of the fine Pittsburgh universities I read with glee wunderkind Luke Ravenstahl’s desire to tax tuition in order to make the burden of city services “more fair.”  He has a point - when I lived in the city years ago I remember an amazing stat about something like a third of the property in the city limits having a tax-exempt status.  Lots of universities and churches, and I believe homes of the elderly are included.  As a result, property taxes in the city are insane for workers.  (We looked at a house in Squirrel Hill and we thought there was an extra zero on the estimated tax bill.)

Why should I be gleeful?  One of the chief reasons why the very rich and very young are liberal is because they don’t have skin in the game like the rest of us in the middle.  Any move to tax college students, however misguided, is a good thing for us.  Perhaps students will rethink their approach to taxes.  Perhaps they’ll think twice about using taxes as a solution.  Perhaps their activism will be blunted a little and even reversed.  Many of us fear the taxation tipping point where a majority of voters no longer pay taxes.  This reverses that trend a little.

Unfortunately I’m not hopeful.  Tuition taxes, like many other expenses, will get rolled into loans and aid packages.  Costs that aren’t palpable don’t have the same impact as those that are.  When I worked for a small company the CEO had a rule to sign every check personally so they could maintain a pulse on cash flow.  We know that college and healthcare costs have inflated like crazy in recent years.  I suspect this is due to the lack of clarity and the absent pain of reaching into one’s pocket and pulling out greenbacks.

I posted the news story about the UK woman who had to deliver her baby on the street because the ambulance wouldn’t pick her up on my Facebook page.  A healthcare debate ensued.  The last post is below and I wanted to share for grins:

“I’m starting to think that conservatives are the biggest p$%^@s on the planet, because their thoughts are guided by fear. It was the post 9-11 fear that kept George W. Bush in office to screw up our country to levels that we may never recover from.  Now the conservatives are fear-mongering on the health care, making people afraid of change that is clearly designed to improve the current state of affairs.

I’m not saying the new system will solve everything, but our current state is lousy, and stands to be improved.  Its a shame that so many people are afraid to make improvements because they fear change.

I’m done discussing health care with those who are moral cowards.  Waste of my time.”

When you get a response like this does it mean you won the argument?  If so, is it a knockout or TKO?  Do all arguments with a liberal have to end with an ad hominem argument?  Is this the Saul Alinsky effect?

As a stockholder of the Simon Property Group I am shocked to read this story from outside of Charlotte, NC.  A kiosk owner, Loren Spivack, who sells pro-conservative and anti-Obama materials at his “Free Market Warrior” store, will not have his lease renewed after 2 whole letters were sent in complaint to the mall company.

I was also surprised to read that the owner of the group, Mel Simon, is a big Democratic fundraiser and Obama supporter.  Indeed, a quick Google of “Mel Simon Obama” linked to HuffPo that shows his contributions to Dick Lugar, Al Franken, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC.

This is key because the matter was brought up by one clueless UNCC graduate who wrote a letter and complained.  Surely her patronage wasn’t an issue so much as Mel Simon catching wind of something afoot in his mall.

This foolish UNCC graduate, Jennifer Ibanez, apparently thinks that criticizing Obama and the liberal agenda amounts to “support [of] ideas such as racisms, sexism, and even slavery.”  Of course the mainstream media report makes verbatim mentions of slogans found at the kiosk, none of which amount to the charges listed above.  Jennifer Ibanez needs to ask UNCC for a refund because she’s clearly not educated.  Apparently, just saying “Impeach Obama” harkens back to the days of plantations and Jim Crow.

Unfortunately the news story did not leverage the photos that the kiosk owner provided demonstrating how Concord Mills mall sells materials that are critical of conservatives.   In their words “Spivack sent Newschannel 36 pictures of several t-shirts and banners from novelty stores at the mall that were so crude we’ve chosen not to share them.”  I think we can imagine what these materials are about since we’ve had to endure “Buck Fush” type t-shirts and bumper stickers for many years now.

I would recommend that unless Mel Simon changes directions and supports fair and balanced speech by either reversing his decision or banning anti-conservative speech, that we do the following:

1. Spread the word far and wide of Simon’s action

2. Sell stock in Simon Property Group (stock ticker SPG)

3. Do not patronize the Simon Property Group owned stores and properties.  Good news is that there is likely a SPG property near you since they own hundreds of malls.  Bad news is you probably don’t know it.  Check out this handy tool to see where they are.  Type in a a zip code and you get a listing of any property within 100 miles.  You will be surprised.

It’s pretty sad when you read about a Catholic priest and are just so RELIEVED that he got caught with a woman.  This, of course, being on the heels of the Archbishop Weakland announcement that he’s gay.  It doesn’t help that Weakland got sacked for being embroiled in a gay sex scandal.  It doesn’t help that Weakland moved around pedophilic priest-predators in the dioscese.  This act represented his weakness on pedophile priests who stole the lives of young children, and in the process, wrecking the church for people like me who now won’t set foot in a parish.

Now I understand why I am relieved a priest got caught with a woman.  Heck, let them get married.  If the church can’t watch these guys, maybe their wives can.  Or at least kicka$$ nuns like the one in the movie “Doubt.”

I’m floored that so many Republicans in the house voted for a 90% tax on bonuses paid out by companies who took bailouts.  Where are our principles?  We know the other side has no principles but why do we join them in such a low place?

Look, a 90% tax is a 90% tax.  We don’t know the terms and conditions of the bonuses.  We don’t know the purpose of the contracts, or what AIG receives in return for such largess.  Frankly, we shouldn’t be concerning ourselves with what a private firm and its employees consent to, no more than we interfere with what consenting adults do.  Populism and petty outrage are no excuses to throw principles out of the boat, especially when the anger is largely directed at the wrong things and the wrong people.

This situation has been clearly created by the government, not private institutions.  The government chose to tinker with the free market in the form of easy money for sub-prime borrowers, which added the gasoline to the fire.  Government chose to not let these idiot firms fail.  And now government leaders gets riled up over the consequences their actions generated because they chose - say it with me - to ABANDON THEIR PRINCIPLES IN THE FIRST PLACE!  Government should have no role in bailing out firms that fail or in driving social goals through financial games.

And the other aspect that simply a$$es me up is the sense that somehow a bailout dollar flows from the government into the cost center that funds the outrage <i>du jour.</i>  This is simply getting ridiculous.  These costs existed before the outlay of cash.  Why aren’t we outraged at the outlay of cash for government spending?  We KNOW those dollars come from us, whereas the AIG dollars consist of their operating cash, the money they raise from capital markets, assets, and lots of other things.  Frankly, AIG could sell a unit or some assets and say THOSE dollars went to bonuses.  However, Nancy Pelosi STILL have Air Force jets, 100% taxpayer funded (and probably more expensive than the private equivalent), standing by awaiting her beck and call to fly her to whatever planet she came from.

But the conversation itself is ridiculous.

The Republican Party is abandoning its principles.  Worse yet, I don’t think elected Republicans on the whole even KNOW what their principles are!  I really don’t!  I think they <i>think</i> they know their principles, but I suspect most of them are on Ronald Reagan autopilot.  Instead of asking “What Would Reagan Do” they should be asking “What is the Right Thing to Do?”

A little less outrage, and a little more thought, please.

Borrowing from an old joke about the European Union, Jindal’s poor performance in the Obama response but great performance on TV the following day inspired me.  (Let me know how well it holds up or add to it!)

In a Perfect World….

The punditry/interviews are handled by Bobby Jindal,

The speeches are done by Sarah Palin,

The principles are championed by Newt Gingrich,

and it’s all financed by Mitt Romney.

In the Worst Case:

The punditry/interviews are handled by Sarah Palin,

The speeches are done by Bobby Jindal,

The principles are championed by Mitt Romney,

and it’s all financed by Newt Gingrich.

(I don’t know if that last one works)

You have to laugh at the irony of this story from the Consumerist.  Turns out that the Obama collector coins sold on TV by Montel WIlliams are a huge ripoff.  All the consumer gets is money with Obama stickers applied on the face.

Isn’t this the perfect metaphor for the Obama Presidency.  Obama was sold to us by celebrities.  When you finally get it you immediately realize that it’s not what you expected; you were deceived into buying a cheap fake.

Add your own metaphors here.

Promoted from the diaries because I needed a chuckle and you might too. And Tankertodd is on the money with this. Water boarding has nothing on “It’s a Small World”. –Erick

I had to chuckle when reading this story about Disney Nerd outrage after hearing that Disney is updating the “It’s a Small World Ride” at Disney World.

I chuckle because I took a vacation to Disney World in December and I still want the hour of my life I spent at that ride back from the Grim Reaper.

To emulate Roger Ebert’s greatest review ever, I hated this ride.  Hated hated hated hated it.  As a Disney shareholder, I think it is in Disney’s fiduciary duty to destroy this ride and put up something more worthwhile.  Elderly transport device (ETD) parking or a pretzel stand are some examples.  I am shocked that these Dis-Nerds would complain that Disney is attempting to make the ride relevant to today’s world since it is simply irrelevant in its current form.

I’ve seen better animatronics on “Mythbusters.”  The style is the worst of the 60’s.  Beehive hairdos are less dated than this ride.  The over-optimism obscures the current world today.  I had to wonder how many of the cultures featured in the ride would be happy to throw tomatoes at the Americans gliding by their displays if given the chance.  And I was trying to recall what element of Disney magic was present when I looked up at the ceiling and saw ordinary officespace tiling.  Very odd.

And the song!  The song the song the song!  Give me an hour of William Hung first.

This ride is so bad I fully expect there to be a provision in the porkulus package to fund studies on how to build more shining examples of this nauseating tripe.  At least under President McCain we would spend the money to learn how we could turn this into a psychological weapon.  The thought of developing a portable version of this ride at Gitmo makes me pine for days before we elected Obama.  I’m sure the ride doesn’t fall under the new definition of torture (although I still don’t know what that is.)

A great way to connect the debate on this proposed $900B spending bill is to ask people what they would do with their own finances.

“If times are tight for you, do you address the problem by spending more or less money?”

Judging from the state of the economy, I’d safely say people are spending less money, hence all these layoffs.  Fewer people are buying goods and services, so excess capacity gets cut out.  Fewer calls, fewer call agents.

The only exception to this rule is if the money is going to be spent with the expectation that it will help you solve your money tightness problem.  Things like going back to school or investing in new capital are examples.  Spending must be justified.  And we know in the household that the bar is high.  You really GOT to make your case.

So why don’t these rules apply to Congress?

Top Ten Good Things about an Obama Presidency

-Democrats are now 100% accountable and we get to hold them accountable. Iran. Iraq. Bin Laden. North Korea. The Economy. All Democrat problems to solve.

-Four years of “I told you so” privileges with friends and neighbors.

-Sniping from the backbench isn’t exactly leadership but it’s fun.

-Before you marry the good girl you got to date the slutty one and get that out of the way. Obama is our equivalent.

-The conservative agenda would have gone nowhere under McCain. Liberalism’s pendulum was in full ascendancy. Liberalism is the nation’s itch requiring a scratch. After 28 years of center-right politics it was due to happen.

• The media gets to relearn how to eat its own. This is important if conservatism is to have a chance in the next election. The Press clearly won this for Obama.

• Conservatism needs to learn how to educate the American people. Letting the Bush Admin get bashed, resorting to anti-rich arguments, and not retorting to attacks on “trickle-down” was indicative that our side’s narrative on economics sucks really, really bad.

• Obama’s election wipes out the argument for affirmative action. If we can elect a black president I think racism has been effectively mitigated.

• We still will likely hold filibuster power in the Senate.

• Sarah Palin gets a chance to bolster her record in Alaska before running in 2012. As Thatcher saved Great Britain from socialism, so too will Palin save us from socialism.

In the race to concede, Peggy Noonan seems to want to throw in the towel. How nauseating.

The race isn’t over. We know the polls are wrong. We know Obama represents such a large departure from American politics that his election would be akin to electing an ultra-conservative fire and brimstone preacher. How she can think this is over is beyond me. Perhaps she’s trying to get in some compliments before the election is over so she can point to them when the Thought Police start checking up on folks.

I’m glad Peggy Noonan isn’t an elected official. She certainly doesn’t have the mettle of a Teddy Roosevelt, an FDR, or a Ronald Reagan. She writes fairly well, though. I wouldn’t expect her to help defend our Republic though. Sad. We need more people willing to put it all on the line and take to the hills if necessary.

I think we’re all afraid to call Obama a Communist, but I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility. Reading all about these famous liberals and especially this Jane Fonda quote, I can’t help thinking that Obama’s socialism is all part of a new communist movement:

I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that someday we would someday become communists. - Jane Fonda, 1970, Address to Michigan State University

If the liberals weren’t so enthralled at eliminating conservative voices through a “fairness doctrine” I would not be so worried. What is the difference between Vladimir Putin putting newspapers out of business and the Democrats forcing Rush Limbaugh off the air. None.

If Americans weren’t so ignorant about the horrors of communism, I would not be worried. Communism killed more than Fascism but how many Joseph Stalin movies have you seen? Bet you’ve seen plenty on Hitler though. If Americans weren’t so modest about ending the Cold War and defeating communism, I would not be worried. We couldn’t move on from that one fast enough.

Communism is on the rise. Our Constitution could be in jeopardy. Let’s end it now before it gets ugly. And let’s speak out and educate Americans while they still have a free press and free vote.

Sorry for the poor quality of my diary, but let’s face it: right now a regular Joe’s diary has about the same chance of being read on Redstate as Bob Barr has of being elected President. I need to goose my stats!

Just got this via email from a buddie:

So, Sarah Palin’s advisors decide that it is time for her to meet a bunch of serious world leaders. They head to Europe, where, first up, she has an appointment with the Pope. The Pope and some of his Cardinals invite her for a boat ride on the Tiber. As they are sitting in the gondola talking, a wind starts up and blows the Pope’s hat into the water. Palin looks around and realizes that no one is going to do anything about it, so she calmy rises, takes off her her high heels, and steps off the side of the boat. Instead of diving into the water, however, she walks across it, to the hat, picks it up and walks back across the water to the boat. She climbs in, hands the Pope his hat and continues discussing whatever it was they had been talking about. The Cardinals are open mouthed in astonishment at what they have just seen. The news media, in nearby boats are busy discussing among themselves how to report it. Headlines the next day at the New York Times, The Washington Post and the networks all blare: New Revelation: Sarah Palin Can’t Swim.

Here it is:

• Chips Ahoy cookie; - Peanut Butter; - M&Ms

Flip over the cookie. Spread the peanut butter. Place M&Ms in the peanut butter. Enjoy.

I like to use 7 M&Ms, to represent the average number of signatures ACORN gathers from one person in a voter registration drive. Or alternatively the number of felonies the typical ACORN worker has on their record.

Can someone confirm or refute this claim??

President Carter worked throughout the campaign to secure their release, including launching an ill-fated rescue mission in April 1980 that killed eight U.S. servicemen. Critics say the Reagan team was so concerned that Carter would gain a boost by winning their release just before the election, that his campaign manager and others negotiated privately with the Iranians to ensure that did not happen.

If this is true, this is important to know. If this is not true, this is important to highlight, spotlight, debunk, and pillory the Associated Press for communicating without backup.

Feel free to answer my question here, please!

I have to agree that Obama won the economic debate last night. McCain should have won handily on foreign policy - that was no contest, and Obama only had to be credible in the end. Given the current situation, the economic trumps all else as we start to see the effects trickle down to Main Street. What does McCain need to do?

(1) McCain needs to confront credible Obama’s 95% tax cut rhetoric. If he doesn’t debunk this, he needs to explain why taxing the rich more is a bad idea. Recalling Senator Mitchell and the yacht industry would be bold.

(2) McCain needs to explain that this bailout isn’t the final verdict on Bush Policy, but rather Democratic lending policy. Is this connection isn’t made - if we cede that this downturn is the result of Bush and trickle-down, great damage will be done long-term. This must be challenged aggressively. We’re in this pickle because of easy money to sketchy homeowners - precisely the policy that Democrats to this moment want to pursue even further. Until this chicken comes home to roost, nothing is resolved.

(3) McCain needs to be bold and assert that Bush’s policies are the right ones, and that income distribution doesn’t work for Europe. If it did why don’t we see Europe as the land of opportunity instead of the United States?

Last night I drove the minivan with the kids in search of gas. I looked in 4 municipalities in 2 counties. I passed 12 gas stations. Not one had fuel. None. This is insane. Tonight my wife called gas stations to see who had fuel. Talk about funny accents. One guy commented that he couldn’t understand my wife’s accent, which is funnier since she has no accent. (Perhaps if she was from the south he would have understood her.)

Tonight, the same situation: no gas at any gas stations, except Wal-Mart’s operation. We passed it and it looked like a Soviet supermarket. Lines so long I suspect passers-by got in line just because. The word was that there was a two-hour wait. And for you economists, there was no price increase, and no limit on your purchase, so no incentive for people to take just what you need.

Read More →

I don’t know why the McCain campaign isn’t fighting back against the MSM smears yet. Good thing Brit Hume is willing to do the job for the campaign.

The bill Obama supported explicitly permits education on sexually transmitted diseases for kindergartners. It doesn’t get plainer than this:

But it appears those critics have not read the bill, which Obama backed as an Illinois state senator in 2003. It says curriculum in “any of grades K-12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.”

Obama supports San Francisco Values, and as President with a Democratic Congress we would get those values shoved down our throats. Plain and simple.

Open Secrets reports that Barack Obama took in the third-highest amount of PAC money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 1989 through 2008.

This is quite an accomplishment given the fact that Obama has only been in the Senate since 2005, or 16% of that period of time. (The two who did better were Kerry and Dodd.)

This is pertinent because whomever gets elected will have to finish the job of reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Who would you trust with this job? Someone who has taken the 3rd highest amount of PAC money, or a reformer who has a long record of saying no to special interests?

Let’s not get caught up in tales of lipstick and sexism. Let’s focus on what the Federal Government urgently needs - REFORM - and determine who is best to deliver it.

This case sticks out as a phenomenal example of the insanity which is Department of Defense procurement.

It’s not good enough that someone found the exact matching marble to replace a cracked piece at our nation’s most revered monument. It’s not enough that the person is willing to donate the piece to the government. It’s not even enough that the replacement piece has sat uninstalled since 2003. But the gall is that the government insists on a costly process to seek bids and procure replacement marble.

This is DISGRACEFUL.

I have a classmate who consults with DoD procurement and he noted the extreme amount of process duplication. As an employee at a major for-profit company that knows how to pinch a penny, I have seen waste in our procurement. So if there’s waste in my outfit, I can only imagine the staggering waste in the Pentagon. This must end.

Only McCain can reform the military. McCain/Palin have no fear of the Pentagon’s sacred cows. Any implied argument about being “against the troops” will fall flat on McCain - unless your idea of troops is 200,000 procurement officers in the DoD.