On Whistle-Blowers

I guess that they're only heroic when the implicate (and/or make trouble for) Republicans.

Facts Pertaining to Fast and Furious

1) Not only did the ATF allow guns to be sold to straw purchasers, they totally encouraged it. And we know this because of the emails that were sent by concerned gun dealers to ATF supervisor, David Voth, his reassuring responses to these emails, and the fact that the ATF even went as far at to VIDEOTAPE THESE PURCHASES.............2) Katherine Eban, the woman who wrote this now infamous Fortune Magazine piece, is a Democrat, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, a frequent contributor to progressive magazines, and a regular spinner for Mr. Obama on MSNBC.............3) The ATF has admitted that they engaged in gun-walking and the acting director had to resign because of it.............4) There have been MANY whistle-blowers who've spoken out on Fast and Furious. Mr. Dodson just happens to be the only one who has decided to take it public.............5) Thousands of guns go to Mexico via the State department every year through legal sales.............6) Only 20-36% (depending on the study) of all guns in Mexico can be ever traced back to the United States, not the "over 90%" figure that the Obama administration has cited. Most of the guns in Mexico in fact are purchased via the black market from Russia, China, South America, and from Mexican soldiers who've defected.............7) Eban lied about the ATF not having the capacity to track guns. Ten million dollars from the stimulus package alone was available and Eban even went as far as to debunk herself. She said that the ATF didn't have a data base for tracking these weapons and a couple of pages later claimed that the ATF had tracked the weapons in the Terry killing back to Fast and Furious (duh!).............8) Fast and Furious is the name that the ATF itself came up with. Sharyl Attkisson from CBS News, Darrell Issa, and conservative bloggers had absolutely nothing to do with naming it.............9) Eban claims to have interviewed some 40 people, but in the text of her "story" she quotes only one retired IRS agent and Voth.............10) Eban goes out of her way to smear the whistle-blowers and resurrect Voth.............11) There was no attempt by ATF to interdict the sold weapons. None.............12) Emails from Mr. Voth show that the ATF and DOJ both had full knowledge of what was going on in Phoenix.............13) The reason that there was "no evidence" was because the ATF refused to put the straw buyers under surveillance, didn't use tracking devices on the guns, and kept the Mexican authorities completely in the dark.............14) ATF agents in Mexico repeatedly asked the people in Phoenix to stop the program because of the bloodshed and the fact that the cartels were snapping up so may of the weapons.............15) According to CBS News's investigation, the approval for Operation Fast and Furious went all the way up to the Justice Department.............16) The rationale for Fast and Furious (again, according to CBS News) was basically to see where the guns showed up, make a strong case, and then attempt to take down a major cartel (not, as the Republicans have paranoiacally hypothesized, to strengthen gun laws).............17) Eban claims that it was Dodson who allowed the guns walk (this after she says that there wasn't any gun-walking). The fellow was fingering himself, apparently.............18) If is wasn't for whistle-blowers like Dodson, we would have never found out about Fast and Furious and it would probably still be in effect.............19) Chairman Issa claims that there are wire-taps which implicate the DOJ and Attorney General Holder specifically. Maybe he's bluffing, but maybe he isn't.

On Republicans from the Past and Whether They Would be Accepted by Today's Republican Party

1) Dwight Eisenhower - no.......2) Jerry Ford - no.......3) Howard Baker - no.......4) Lowell Weicker - hell no!......5) Ed Brooke - no.......6) Jacob Javits - no.......7) Stewart McKinney - no.......8) Nelson Rockefeller - no.......9) Richard Schweiker - no.......10) Alan Simpson - no.......11) John Heinz - no.......12) William Cohen - no.......13) Jim Jeffords - no.......14) Warren Rudman - no.......15) William Weld - no.......16) Margaret Chase Smith - no.......17) Nancy Kassebaum - no.......18) John Danforth - no.......19) John Anderson - no.......20) Millicent Fenwick - no.......21) Harold Stassen - no.......22) Wendell Willkie - no.......23) Thomas Kean - no.......24) Fiorello La Guardia - no.......25) Jim Leach - no.......26) Mark Hatfield - no.......27) John Chaffee - no.......28) Bob Packwood - no (and, no, not because of his groping of women).......29) Christie Todd Whitman - no.......30) Chuck Percy - no.......31) Chuck Hagel - no.......32) George H.W. Bush - no.......33) Tom Ridge - no.......34) John Lindsay - no.......35) Ronald Reagan - maybe.......36) Bob Dole - maybe not.......37) Barry Goldwater - no (a liberal on social issues, he would have been driven to the libertarian side).

And the Moral of the Story ISSSSSSSSS.........

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be Presidents who appoint their bestest buddies to be Attorneys General....or cowboys....or douche-bags.

On the Odds of Former Florida Congressman, Alan Grayson, Ever Being Elected President of the United States

They're about the same as a transvestite orangutan parachuting out of the sky with the winning lottery ticket, a 6-pack of Bud Light, the secret formula for Coca Cola, and key information as to the whereabouts of Amelia Earhart.

To All of Those Who Said that the Muslim Brotherhood Would Never Come to Power in Egypt

What say you now?

Note to Rachel Maddow 3

I think that you may have totally jumped the shark on this one, dude; trying to blame Operation Fast and Furious on the Bush administration. I mean, come on, man! Anybody who even knows a little about this story knows that it was hatched solely by the Obama administration (or at least by the ATF during his tenure) and that, while, yes, there may have been a similar program during the Bush years, the two plans weren't even remotely identical...................................................................................................a) Operation Wide Receiver (the Bush initiative) wasn't even a quarter the size of Fast and Furious. b) Operation Wide Receiver wasn't even a gun-walking policy (a policy that had NEVER once been utilized prior to Obama). It was a controlled delivery policy (a plan in which the ATF attempted to keep track of each and every weapon)  in which a lot of the guns had radio tracking devices and in which few of them ever made it all the way to Mexico. c) Operation Wide Receiver was conducted with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Mexican government. Operation Fast and Furious, not so much. d) Operation Wide Receiver was shut down the very first instant that any of the guns fell off the grid. Operation Fast and Furious was only shut down when two of the guns showed up at the murder scene of Brian Terry. And e) the body count. Far more Mexican citizens have been annihilated by Fast and Furious (between 200 and 300 it is estimated)......................................................................................................I mean, I know that you're a hard-core partisan Democrat and all but you're really starting to act a lot like Hannity lately. Please, dude, knock it off.

Channeling Some Idiot at the ATF

Hey guys, I got a great idea. Let's let 2,000 extraordinarily powerful weapons, each of which is single-handedly capable of bringing down an Apache helicopter, walk into Mexico and into the hands of some of the most ruthless human beings on the face of the planet, and let's do it absent any knowledge and consent of the Mexican authorities. Yeah, huh? What do you think?

Note to Cable Network Program Coordinators

Ix-nay on the umpteenth pawn program. Methinks that we have a plethora of them already.

On Eric Holder Versus Darrell Issa

I'll take "Two Unsavory Individuals That I'd Prefer Not to Have to Choose Between" for a 1,000, Alex.

On the Menendez Brothers

I'd have convicted them simply for trading in that Alfa Romeo.

Howard Cosell is Spinning in His Grave

Is there a more corrupt sport on this planet than boxing? Manny Pacquiao landed close to 100 more punches (most of them "power punches") than this Bradley character and virtually every boxing expert at ringside had Pacquiao winning 10-11 rounds and, still, STILL, Bradley comes away with the split decision? Seriously?...................................................................................One of the theories that's been floating around is the two judges who voted for Bradley were in their 70s and possibly senile (they brain-farted their way through the hour, essentially). Another possibility, of course, is that the fight was rigged, and that the only reason that they gave it to Bradley was to orchestrate an even more lucrative rematch down the road. Whatever it is, it thoroughly stinks and makes me think even less of the sport than I did before.

Note to Cambridge MA Mayor, Henrietta Davis

Look, I get it. You're trying to do the right thing by limiting the size of sugary drinks in your city. But, come on, lady, think about it here. Even leaving aside the civil liberties component of it (and the fact that people can still order 2-3 small sodas instead of a kinger), has it just not dawned on you that the Boston subway comes straight into Cambridge, and that people in Cambridge can utilize that subway to get whatever it is that they want over in bean town? I mean, I know that politicians never as a rule tend to consider beyond the first step and all but this one was kind of staring you right in the frigging face.

On Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, and Brad Paisley

I couldn't name you a single song by the three of them combined.

Note to Rachel Maddow 2

Dude, I have a suggestion for you. The next time that you do one of your "infrastructure spending is the greatest thing since sliced bread" propaganda promos, instead of standing in front of the Hoover Dam (ya' notice how I said, Hoover Dam, and not FDR Dam?) or something decent like that, you stand in front of one of those highways to nowhere that Senator Byrd or Senator Stevens ripped off the United States taxpayer for. You know, for a little additional context and perspective.

A Butch-League Presentation - Some Final Thoughts

The way that I see it, folks, Ms. Maddow either committed journalistic malpractice on an astounding scale (by not reading the entire memo and ignoring the fine print), or she lied. Those are quite literally the only two possibilities here. This whole idiotic notion that factcheck.org and outsidethebeltway.com are somehow lying about Maddow simply because they're mad at her is patently absurd. The woman/her operation was busted and the egg on her face is obvious. Damned obvious. Not that the partisan stooges will ever stop spinning for her, mind you.

EEOCDUMB

I really want my colleagues to try and wrap their brains around this one. The EEOC has taken it upon themselves to sue the Old Dominion Trucking Company for the discriminatory action of, get this, taking an avowed alcoholic off the highways. Alcoholism is a disease, they say, and, because of that, you cannot discriminate against people who possess it (never minding, of course, the fact that this same "discrimination" could potentially save torrents of lives down the road - no pun intended)..................................................................................And Old Dominion didn't even fire the guy. They simply gave him another job that doesn't require the putting of other people's lives at stake. I mean, yes, it was in fact a pay cut and all, but at least it was a job and to have these bureaucratic stooges down in Washington quite literally harass a responsible business like this is about as close to proof-positive as you can get that this country is effing screwed.

Channeling Bill O'Reilly, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, "Fox and Friends", Etc.

"Bromides! Get your bromides! Step right up!"

A National Disgrace 2

One of the convicts that former Mississippi governor, Haley Barbour, pardoned was a three time DUI offender, who, as a consequence of this pardon, promptly committed vehicular homicide while fully intoxicated (the victim being a teenage girl who's own life was just beginning to come together). The fact that we apparently still have a political system in which Presidents and Governors in this country can pardon miscreants such as this (and, please, keep in mind here, a pardon wipes the slate entirely clean) is really something that needs to be addressed and quickly.....Sorry, I can't even look at him.

Note to Bill O'Reilly, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, "Fox and Friends", Etc.

MORE COWBELL!!

A Butch-League Presentation 2

Not only, folks, is Rachel Maddow a bald-faced liar, she's a doltish one as well. I mean, just look at the frigging numbers, for Christ. Even if there WAS a 121 million dollar surplus in Wisconsin for 2011 (there wasn't, there was a 137 million dollar deficit - Ms. Maddow either didn't read the entire memo or did and then tried to pull a fast one), the most that the deficit would have been with Governor Walker's tax cuts (never minding, of course, that the tax cuts weren't going to be taking place until 2012 - yet another Maddow lie) would have been 19 million (121 - 140). Even frigging Maddow herself eventually started using the 137 million dollar deficit number. I mean, seriously, duh!!

On These Two SOBs

I'll take "Stark Raving Mad, Foaming at the Mouth, Partisan, Underhanded/Dunderheaded, and Dastardly Lunatics" for 800, Alex.

Grading the Presidents of My Lifetime - Redux

I've done this at least once before but I wanted to do it again, not looking back to what I had previously stated.......Eisenhower = B+.......Kennedy = A-.......Johnson = C-.......Nixon = F.......Ford = B.......Carter = C- (only because of the Camp David Accords, otherwise a D).......Reagan = B-.......Bush 1 = B (higher than Reagan, go figure).......Clinton = B+ (if not for Monica and Yasser, possibly an A-).......Bush 2 = D.......Obama thus far = C. Let the arguments and hyperbole begin.

Math 101 - A Rachel Maddow Tutorial

121 - 170 (outstanding Medicare obligations) - 21 (outstanding corrections obligations) - 58 (loss due to a tax reciprocity deal that preceded Mr. Walker) - 9 (outstanding miscellaneous) = -137. In the words of my all-time favorite cartoon character, Super Snooper, "Ah, that's elementary, Blab."

On the Idiocy of the 1% Versus 99% Construct

a) It presumes homogeneity and permanence and clearly their isn't any. More than half of the people in the top 1% in 1996 were out of it by 2005 and that group as a whole (the actual human beings, I'm saying, and not the category, 1%) saw their income drop a full 26%. Couple that with the huge variability that exists within these groups (the 99%ers, for example, would include a 50 year-old hospital administrator making $170,000 a year and a 19 year-old fry-cook making minimum wage at McDonald's) and the absurdity becomes even more heightened.............b) It presumes that all of our problems can be solved by simply raising taxes on the wealthy. The fact of the matter is that even if we taxed everything over $250,000 a year at 100%, we would still have a deficit (never mind the negative effect that it would have on the economy - individuals generally spend their money more constructively and intelligently than the government) and that doesn't even take into account all of the other spending that lunatics like Krugman want to foist upon us. It's absurd.............c) It totally ignores, or at least skews, many of the other other issues that are presently hampering us. It doesn't, for example, address the fact that the American public school system is currently being rammed into the ground by a hugely bureaucratic, monopolistic, and recalcitrant pair of teacher's unions, or the fact that African-American illegitimacy is 4 times what it was 70 years ago, even though the African-American poverty rate was 4 times GREATER 70 years ago.............And d) have you actually seen some of these people (the guy who Hannity interviewed made Hannity look like Karl Popper). Not that the Tea-Partiers are necessarily some of the sharper tools in the shed, either, mind you, but at least they seemingly bathe.

A Butch-League Presentation

Rachel Maddow lied about Governor Walker last year, and it was a whopper.............a) She claimed that Governor Walker inherited a budget surplus for fiscal year 2011. He did not. He inherited (after you deducted the outstanding obligations) a 137 million dollar deficit and a two year budget gap following that of 3.6 BILLION.............b) She claimed that Mr. Walker's 140 million dollars in tax cuts would have created a budget deficit in 2011. They would not have. The tax cuts were not set to take effect to 2012. Yes, they would have added to the shortfall for 2012-2014. But they only would have increased it from 3.6 billion to 3.74 billion.............c) She claimed that Governor Walker's tax cuts were largely a giveaway to the wealthy. They predominantly were not. Yes, a lot of them went to businesses but they were targeted for job creation and businesses of every stripe were eligible. That, and 47 million of the 140 million went to individuals so that they could deduct their personal health savings accounts (something that a lot of other states have also been doing).........................................................................................Look, I'm not saying that this Walker guy is any sort of hero or anything. I actually have some mixed feelings about him myself (while I essentially agree with him that public sector workers shouldn't be allowed to collectively bargain/stick it up the poop-shoot of the taxpayer, I also found the fellow to be more than a little heavy-handed at times). But to so blatantly misrepresent the facts the way that this Maddow character did is unfortunate and decidedly disgusting, I think

Brian Terry RIP

In a just universe, Attorney General Holder would be forced to look at this picture every night before he goes to bed. Not that it would necessarily cause him any sleeplessness, mind you....

Baltics 1 Socialist Europeans 0

Estonia is one of the few European countries that actually DID austerity. And apparently it DID work (as much as we can determine casualty in matters such as this). a) Their growth rate is currently 7.6%. b) They also have a budget surplus. c) Their debt to GDP ratio is a scant 6%. d) They currently have an A+ credit rating from Fitch. e) They're currently ranked 24th (2 slots ahead of Switzerland) in the "Ease of Doing Business" rankings of the World Bank. Now, is everything perfect in Estonia? Of course not. But when you compare it to the mess in England, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, it looks like they're doing pretty damn good to me. 

Niall Ferguson on President Obama's "Strategic Vision"

"I'm not George W. Bush. Love me."

One Good Woman

CBS News's, Sharyl Attkisson, is one of the few mainstream reporters currently investigating "Operation Fast and Furious". And, according to Attkisson at least, it hasn't always been an easy assignment. This, in that, not only have the administration and Justice Department been less than forthcoming, she has also been verbally accosted in her quest to get key answers....Yeah, huh? So much for this administration being a "transparent" one.

On Steve Nash 2

And nobody, NOBODY, has ever been as good at making their teammates better. The year before Mr. Nash came to the Suns, they were a sorrowful 29-53 team. The first year with Nash (and, yes, he was basically their only acquisition), they skyrocketed to 62-20, a 33 victory increase. Apart from Larry Bird's initial year with the Celtics, I can't for the life of me think of a player who has had such an immediate impact. Again, it's just too damn bad that the fellow doesn't have a ring.

On Steve Nash

With the possible exception of Michelle Pfeiffer, nobody's aging better. The fellow shot 54% from the field (an absolutely unbelievable figure from a guard), 89% from the foul-line, and was second in the league in assists at 10.7 per game. And he's STILL one of the fastest players in the league - foul-line to foul-line. It's just too bad that the dude's never won a title....Hey, maybe next year if the Suns can somehow sign Dwight Howard....or the real Superman.

Note to Paul Ryan

 Dude, those loopholes that you're planning on doing away with as a part of your overall budget plan (this, in an effort to supposedly offset the reduction in tax rates) - I really suggest that you do it, sooner rather than later. I mean, seriously, as long as you leave that aspect of your proposal blank, the far-left will absolutely excoriate you ("more and more tax breaks going to the wealthy, yada yada"). Not that I'm necessarily some sort of public relations expert, mind you, but, dude, a little common sense here, no?

On Anderson Cooper Losing to Ed Schultz in the Ratings

I'll take "That's a Sad Commentary on America" for 200, Alex.

Now THIS....Is a War Criminal

Not only is Mr. Assad engaging in wholesale slaughter and ethnic cleansing, his regime is now engaged in the killing and torture of defenseless children (their only sin being that their parents have spoken out against the government). If I had an Uzi/open shot, I would blow his brains out and patiently wait for God to thank me for it later.

Analyais of Mass Confusion

I've always been kind of suspicious of people who do total 180s. Whether it's people like Jerry Rubin and David Horowitz who go from hard-core left to hard-core right or people like Arianna Huffington and David Brock who go from hard-core right to hard-core left, it always seem exceedingly pathetic (people feeling the need to grab onto some sort of ordered and ideologically driven universe) to me. And that's exactly why I kind of get a queasy feeling over this Scott Ritter fellow. The dude went from being absolutely certain that Saddam Hussein had WMD....to being absolutely certain that he didn't - all in the span of a couple of months. And there was nothing in terms of an explanation, either. Strange, very strange...........................................................................................And, no, I haven't changed my mind about the Iraq War. I still think that we had Saddam relatively bottled up and that his presence (or at least the presence of the Ba'athist regime) in the region was possibly a slight net-plus. But the fact there was at least some ambiguity on WMD after 9/11 (a time in which literally everybody wanted to prevent it from happening again) prompts me to want to see both sides here. That and the fact that Hussein attempted genocide on the Iraqi Kurds also makes for a compelling humanitarian argument (Hussein made Gadaffi look like a frigging camp counselor)...................................................................................................I still say that the best eventuality for Iraq would have been to blow Hussein and his sons to smithereens and then try and push for a far more sane member of the Ba'athist Party to take over. That way we would have eliminated one of the biggest mass murderers of the 20th century and still retained a Sunni buffer against Iran. But, hey, what's totally done is done, right?

Whistling Gay-Marriage Dixie

A lot of people think that President Obama may have hurt himself in states like Virginia and North Carolina with this whole gay-marriage issue. And, while he probably has to a certain extent, I really don't think that it has to be a permanent problem. I truly think that if the Obama folks stress MORE the fact that, while he himself now believes that gays should be allowed to marry, he also still believes that it should be left up to the states. States rights - it's still an extremely big thing down south and, if in fact that's the angle that administration uses, the damage in the end could very well be minimal.....................................................................................Another way that Mr. Obama could help himself in states like North Carolina and Virginia would be to approve the Keystone Pipeline in its entirety. Energy independence/procurement is a huge issue with many independents and if the President starts to show a real commitment in this regard, that will absolutely help him as well....And the fact that he's probably going to do it after the election anyway and, really, where in the hell is his base going to go?

Journalistic Triage, Anyone?

While Bill O'Reilly and Ed Schultz are busy doing political "commentary", Anderson Cooper has been covering the wholesale slaughter of defenseless women and children in Syria. It's good to see that we still have at least a few fair and non-agenda-driven professionals out there. Here's to hoping that it stays that way.

Exceedingly

What would be my answer to the question, "So, how wealthy do you think that you'd be if you had 10-spot for every time that wd typed the words, George Bush war criminal, into a search engine?"

The Road to Hell is Also Paved With Stupidity 3

In an effort to sell more electric cars and promote their "green agenda", the government has been offering taxpayers a $4,200 to $7,500 tax deduction toward the purchase of one of these vehicles. And, while, yes, there has in fact been SOME success (sales for the Chevy Volt are up, for instance), YET AGAIN, the side effects have also been palpable (bizarre might actually be a more apt descriptor)..................................................................................Get this. It seems that amongst the electric vehicles which met the government's criteria were golf carts. Yeah, that's right, folks, it seem that (predominantly) rich people were able to buy a new golf cart (average cost, $8,000) and, after taking the allowable deduction, only had to pay a couple of thousand for it, some people actually being able to secure one FOR FREE (the "Golf Cart Man" in Florida was offering a deal in which you could purchase an $8,000 golf car, take the tax break, lease it back at $100 a month for 27 months, and then you could either keep the golf cart or sell it back for $2,000 - a $2,000 profit!!!)! I mean, is that an abject waste of taxpayers' dollars or what?

Austerity - What Austerity?

 Look at this frigging chart, folks. What in the hell is Mr. Krugman talking about? The spending in ALL of these European countries is still ABOVE what it was prior to the recession and there hasn't been any reduction at in in England and France. Maybe Mr. Krugman needs to tell the truth here and admit that the major chunk of this so-called European austerity program is tax hikes, and that maybe it's that that's bringing the recovery to a halt. Not that I'll be holding my breath for that to happen, obviously.

Nelson Mandela 1993, Lech Walesa 1983, Andrei Sakharov 1975, Martin Luther King 1964, Albert Schweitzer 1952

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who, in your opinion, are some of the BEST Nobel Peace Prize winners?"

Yasser Arafat 1994

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who, in your opinion, is the least deserving Nobel Peace Prize winner?"

The Road to Hell is Also Paved With Stupidity 2

 The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 was a bipartisan piece of legislation that was as lauded as anything that Washington's ever put forth. Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly persona here as well. a) The cost to businesses through compliance and the plethora of frivolous law-suits has been astronomical (doctors are required to have interpreters for deaf patients even though the cost of hiring one for an office visit is frequently 3-4 times the reimbursement rate offered, for example) and b) the end result has actually been one of the employment rate for disabled people going DOWN (employers calculating the odds of a law suit being greater if in fact you actually hire a disabled person - http://ideas.repec.org/p/har/wpaper/0008.html - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_4_46/ai_73848278/  ). Not that we can ever expect the government to admit any of this reality, of course, but wouldn't it also be nice if they eventually sat down and fixed some of this stuff? I mean, seriously.

The Road to Hell is Also Paved With Stupidity

Back in 2007, the United States Congress voted to do away with the special exemption for American Samoa regarding the minimum wage (raising it 50 cents a year until it matched the mainland). Why shouldn't the people of Samoa benefit from such a wondrous policy, evidently was the reasoning here. The only problem is that Chicken of the Sea, one of the biggest employers on the island, decided to move their operation to a highly automated and much more efficient plant in Georgia, leaving well over a thousand Samoans (directly - indirectly, the effects were much more devastating) unemployed and even more dependent on the government. Thank you benevolent paper-pushers in Washington D.C........................................................................................P.S. Starkist, now the largest employer on American Samoa (which, prior to this legislation, had one of the highest standards of living in the South Pacific), is also thinking of relocating to the mainland. When it rains (legislation), it pours (or should I say, poors?).

On CEO Salaries

The way that I see it, people, mega CEO salaries are kind of like earmarks. Yes, they're exceedingly unseemly/aggravating, but in the larger scope of things they're also exceedingly insignificant. Please, hear me out........................................................................................The average CEO salary for the Fortune 500 companies was a shade under 10 million a year last year. Yes, that's a lot but, taken in their entirety, that's only about 5 billion a year; 5 billion a year out of a 15 TRILLION dollar a year economy. That's a total drop in the bucket.  I mean, think about it here. These frigging blankety blanks could probably work for zero and it might not even register, especially now - now that we're also looking at full-fledged high-tech and global economy..........................................................................................And even that 10 million dollar a year average salary is misleading. This, in that when you also include in the data all of the smaller and average sized companies out there, the average CEO salary in this country dwindles all the way down to $167,280 a year (this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and salarylist.com). Yes, still a pretty decent sum but not in any way disgusting............................................................................................Now, as to whether or not these Fortune 500 CEOs are overpaid, don't know/couldn't tell you. You'd probably have to go on a case by case basis to determine that. My suspicion is that, just like with any profession, you're going to find some that are overpaid and some that are underpaid. Not, mind you, that any of us have the expertise to be certain about it.................................................................................................P.S. Just for the record, I would tax these CEOs at 40% on everything over $400,000 AND limit their mortgage interest deduction AND do away with their special consideration for capital gains. You know, just in case that there might be some partisan paranoiac stooges out there who might be tempted to lie and say that I always favor the wealthy.

A Challenge

Please, name me one elected Democratic official or mainstream liberal talking-head who ever opposed the Afghanistan War during its early stages (the first 4-5 years or so). One. ONE. I think that what you're far more likely to uncover is a bunch of liberal politicians and pundits who didn't think that Mr. Bush was operating vigorously ENOUGH in that particular theater. But, please, feel free the need to prove me incorrect here...............................................................................................And, yes, to be totally fair, one could also throw out this very same challenge to Republicans. This, in that you also have screechmeisters such as Ann Coulter saying that they now oppose the Afghanistan War as well (this, when they never opened their mouth one iota when it was Bush who was doing the nation-building). But, still/and, in my opinion, it's the far-left that has been far more hypocritical on this one.

The Weakest Links 3

Goober (Pyles).

Thomas Sowell on Central Planning 2

"More usually, there is an assumption that some especially prescient third parties can determine which special occupations really meet society's needs and therefore should be subsidized through compulsory extractions from the taxpayers. Such arbitrary choices, made by third parties who pay no price for being wrong, are considered to be either economically or morally superior to choices made by people who pay their own money for what they want and thereby determine which products, industries, and occupations will be remunerated to what extent."............Man, do I ever love the way that this fellow writes; the way that he mixes logic, dispassion, and derision so masterfully. Here's to hoping that even a fraction of it can penetrate those calloused skulls of the progressives on the left.

Survey Question - Was FDR a War Criminal?

This, for his having routinely targeted major population centers in Japan throughout WW2 (areas with quite literally zero military or strategic value).............I personally say no. We were fighting for the future of Western Civilization and FDR was trying to break the will of the Japanese people (not that bombing is always a strategy that works, mind you - it certainly backfired big in Vietnam).

Thinking Outside the Wage

Those on the left love the minimum wage and always seem to want to raise it. Those on the right quite frequently feel the exact opposite (some even going as far as to want to abolish it). Might I propose to my colleagues a compromise of sorts. Yes, we do away with the minimum wage, completely. But then we replace it with a form of negative income tax, possibly along the lines of what Milton Friedman first suggested. That way we a) allow the market to set the true value of labor and b) are still able to care for those citizens less fortunate. We already have a form of it in the Earned Income Tax Credit and, if we simply reinforced it and provided it in the form of monthly stipends (as opposed to it simply coming in one lump sum), it would more than likely be sufficient............................................................................................Yes, I understand that there perhaps could be a downside to it. Some employers may in fact be temped to low-ball workers thinking that the government will pick up the slack. But the fact that most U.S. workers already make well in excess of the current minimum wage makes me think that this factor probably wouldn't be much of an issue. Hell, if anything, it will probably help to employ our younger workers at a much faster clip; their entry into the labor force not having as much of a barrier to it, etc. (the current black male teenage unemployment rate currently hovering around 50%).

Covering Their Eyes and Ears as Well as Their Asses, Apparently

Back in September of 2002, every member of the House and Senate was granted full access to the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq and WMD. It was a 92 page document and was fully loaded with doubts, ambiguities, and disagreements with Mr. Bush's assertions. The problem? Well, according to Thomas Ricks's stellar book, "Fiasco", not even a handful of these Congressman and Senators even bothered to read the 5-page summary of it. Nope, folks, these individuals apparently didn't have the time nor the inclination..........................................................................................As for the true bottom-line here - 77 U.S. Senators, 48 Republicans and 29 Democrats, shamelessly and moronically concocted to give a decidedly untested U.S. President what was essentially a blank check. The Republicans - they did it because they wanted to support a Republican President and the Democrats did it because they wanted to seem just as strong on defense/terrorism (especially after a lot of them had already "guessed" wrong on the previous Gulf War). And the way that the whole vote got totally rammed through as if it were simply yet another appropriations bill - Senator Byrd wanting to get it out of the way as soon as possible so it wouldn't be hanging over their heads on election day - that was probably the most disgusting component of all, I'm thinking. Bunch of dumb shits.

Thomas Sowell on CEOs and CEO Salaries

"Would anyone say that the pay of an airline pilot comes at the expense of the passengers or of the airline's stockholders, when both are better off as a result if the services rendered? Would anyone even imagine that one pilot is as good as another when it comes to flying a commercial jet airliner with hundreds of people on board, so that getting some crop-duster pilot at lower pay to fly the jet would make the stockholders and the passengers better off? Yet that is the kind of reasoning, or lack of reasoning, that is often applied when discussing the pay of corporate CEOs - and virtually no one else in any other field, including professional athletes and entertainers who earn similar or higher incomes. Perhaps the most fallacious assumption of all is that third parties with neither experience nor expertise can make better decisions, on the basis of their emotional reactions, than the decisions of those who have both the experience and expertise, as well as a stake in the results."

Some thoughts on Bush and Hussein

The way that I see it, folks, Mr. Bush's biggest mistake wasn't getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Hussein was a homicidal maniac who literally tried to exterminate an entire frigging ethnic group (the Iraqi Kurds). Removing that individual from the face of the earth was in fact a noble thing. Where Mr. Bush rather screwed up, in my opinion, was in the deBa'athification of the Iraqi government. Mr. Hussein, as bad of a son of a bitch as he was, had essentially become our only buffer in that region against what was a burgeoning Shia crescent. If we had quickly been able to annihilate Mr. Hussein and then replaced him with somebody relatively sane like a Tariq Aziz, that, folks, might have been the optimum eventuality....Hindsight is 20/20, though.

On the "LBJ Wasn't a Liar" Line

a) LBJ promises the American people that he will not send troops to Vietnam.......b) LBJ orders the provocative action of sending military vessels to the Gulf of Tonkin in an effort to collect electronic information and bombard North Vietnamese radar installations.......c) LBJ utilizes a sketchy and questionable report of a couple of errant torpedoes that DO NO DAMAGE as  pretext to mount what was a 600,000 troop land invasion of Vietnam.......d) LBJ lies REPEATEDLY to the American public as to the war's progress, constantly saying that everything was going swimmingly well WHEN IT WASN'T. The fact that anyone would even attempt to defend this individual is chilling.

And in THIS CORNER!!

Little Joe in "Bonanza" - NEVER LOST A FISTFIGHT. Joe Mannix in "Mannix" - NEVER LOST A FISTFIGHT. Nick Barkley in "The Big Valley" - NEVER LOST A FISTFIGHT. Dan Tanna in "Vegas" - NEVER LOST A FISTFIGHT. And it wasn't as if these frigging assholes never took a major shot. They oft-times absorbed a TON of punishment. They were just able to withstand it and it was always, ALWAYS, the other asshole who got KO'd. Can you all say, unrealistic?............................................................................................I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen any of these MMA spectacles but there is literally no such thing as an undefeated fighter (at least not one with 10 or more bouts under their belts). To think that this Little Joe character could plow through dozens of opponents (a lot of them outweighing him decidedly) and come through completely undefeated is lunacy. I mean, my God, even frigging Joe Louis lost...eventually.

On Me and George W. Bush

I never voted for Bush. I never supported Bush. I never supported the Iraq War. I never supported the nation-building/counter-insurgency enterprises in Afghanistan. I've consistently criticized Mr. Bush's foreign policy. When letter-grading the Presidents of my lifetime, I gave Mr. Bush a D. I have consistently admitted that Mr. Bush is a "bottom 10" President. Only in the warped mind of a far left lunatic like wd would a person such as me (whose only sin relative to this topic is to say that I do not think that Mr. Bush is a war criminal) ever, EVER, even remotely be seen as a "supporter of Bush". Period, end of discussion.