A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
Wayne Gretzky
Lightning Round
- Remember when all those boorish Hollywood threatened to leave the country if Bush was elected? It turns out that things are not so great under the Wonderful World of Obama. Over the past year up to 1800 citizens have voluntarily given up their citizenship--nearly 8 times the number that left in Bush's last year in office. It isn't directly due to the admittedly incompetent leadership of Barack Obama, although clearly his policies have contributed to the problem. A lot of it has to do with the ever-expanding reach of the federal bureaucrats and threats of prosecution for failing to respond in a timely manner to escalating demands on paperwork and meddling in personal financial affairs (including some citizens whom may not even be aware of their citizenship or the bureaucratic demands and have lived abroad for most of their lives). Certainly taxes have something to do with it, particularly with the economically successful whom Obama has repeatedly targeted in class warfare speeches.
- The millionaire tax hike vote in the US Senate failed to reach cloture (to cut off a filibuster) largely along party lines. Obama gave his "we're entitled to pick a millionaire's pocket" rhetoric Everyone points at polls showing approval for a millionaire's tax, and Majority Leader Reid promised to bring up the same vote tied to payment to popular spending proposals (e.g., college tuition subsidies). But, as CNBC notes, "the measure would have raised just $47 billion over a decade, a smidgen of the $7 trillion in federal deficits expected during that time." This vote was largely symbolic; the Democrats think it will help them in the fall election. I think they are WRONG: I think everyone might be willing to pay their fair share (not what Obama calls "fair", which is to target winners and losers, an intrinsically divisive campaign), but everyone would likely agree that the government must learn to live within its budget before coming to the people as a last resort.
- I'm increasingly worried about the situation in Europe,where the bash lash against austerity measures particularly in the French and Greek elections threatens to put the demagogues back in power. The right/center incumbent Sarkozy is in the battle of his political life, a few percentage points behind Socialist Hollande, whom is seen as the highly probably victor in an expected runoff. Hollande, who I already disdain and I've never met the man, sounds like an Obama wannabe. I found this characterization amusing: "Hollande comes through as a rather vapid person. He has never had government experience and his partner of 20 years, Ségolène Royal, Sarkozy’s challenger at the 2007 elections, said, after he left her for a younger woman, that she could not remember any remarkable thing he did.. It was calculated all the promises in the Socialist manifesto will cost more than €20 billion and yet he inexplicably promised a balanced budget by 2017.." Okay, we already know how this game is going to play out, right? He's going to complain how big a mess he inherited from Sarkozy. It's enough to get Obama....very excited. I expect Chancellor Merkel will find Hollande's ascension to the Presidency a very negative sign. I wonder how long the Germans can afford to continue to prop up an ailing euro and failing European economies where the chickens have come to roost after decades of spendthrift ways.
- Bizarre election polls. I subscribe to CNN alerts, and they send out an email alert anytime they have a favorable poll on Obama! So in the strange world of polls where Obama's approval ratings continue to fluctuate around the mid 40's (i.e., Rasmussen and Gallup), CNN has Obama with a 9-point lead over Romney--while Rasmussen and Gallup show Romney up by 2 or 3 points. Probably the most interesting contrast is that Reuters has the Dems up by a point in the generic Congressional vote while Rasmussen has the GOP up by 10.
- Bill Cosby: STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR BO! You know, besides his obvious entertainment talents (I thought in terms of all the black sitcoms, his Huxtables TV family was a change for the better: two attractive professional parents of color, kids with issues any white family in the suburbs could relate to: it was almost a harbinger of things to come with Obama in the White House), I cheered on Bill's tough talk message to the minority communities.
I've basically refrained from commenting when an entertainer like Samuel Jackson was dismissive of Obama, angry that he didn't put Joe Hill (R-SC) in his place after the notorious "you lie!" incident. (No, Obama can do things like bash the Supreme Court at a State of the Union address, constantly mak excuses, finger-point and criticize people (e.g., Bush) behind their backs, and makes apologies to American critics, but Mr. Jackson knows his priorities.) I hardly expect any entertainer of color to seriously criticize the first black President, but I didn't expect Cosby, whom boasts of his education doctorate, to parrot Obama's fairly pathetic excuses and talking points.
I lost a lot of respect for Cosby in listening to his MTP interview with David Gregory when Cosby started Bush bashing, talking about Bush inheriting a surplus (yes, not by Clinton's doing, but a GOP House which stopped Clinton's spending plans in their tracks). The fact is that Bush inherited a longer recession at the beginning of his Presidency and the end of his Presidency than Obama has--the recession had turned the corner just 5 months into his Presidency. And Bush also had to deal with 9/11 and the financial scandals (Enron, Tyco, etc.). His buying into the so-called obstructionism, that GOP opposition was based on politics instead of principle, is dead wrong on its face--the Tea Party started when the Dems started talking about bailing out people with home mortgages whom didn't even have a conventional down payment on their properties. We saw the deficit literally double or triple in size without Obama even once asking for all the American people to sacrifice (just the upper 1%) or the government to live within his means. Cosby then goes on to compare Obama to Sisyphus: give me a break! Obama never put out a bill on his own, because he knew it would fail and would damage him politically; it's understandable, but spare me the profile in courage bit! The only thing the guy knows to do is to how to spend other people's money. We have the lowest labor participation rate in 3 decades, an unprecedented number of long-time unemployed nearly 3 years into an Obama "recovery". He didn't even support the findings of his own bipartisan debt reduction committee, the findings of which were supported by every Senator on the committee of both parties (except one Dem)--when everyone knows it's hard for Senators to agree on almost anything--and Obama knowingly squanders the opportunity. He rammed two major bills down the GOP's throat rather than negotiate a generous win-win compromise. And Bill should know better than to pretend that Obama was anywhere near being qualified to be President, just 2 years in the Senate with no accomplishments, administrative experience or policy expertise to speak of.
I don't mind other people disagreeing with me; I'm used to it. Bill Cosby and I would probably simply agree to disagree. But what I would expect, as another former member of the education profession, is some honest straight talk and balanced appraisal from him , not simply taking predictable talking points from the Obama White House....
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Rolling Stones, "It's All Over Now"
