PAUL RAHE: Michigan Seems Like A Dream To Me Now. “In November, Barack Obama won the state handily, and Debbie Stabenow was re-elected to the Senate without any difficulty at all. In the same election, two conservative justices on the Michigan Supreme Court were re-elected, and a third conservative very nearly won a seat on the court that was being vacated by a liberal Democrat. Moreover, the left made a valiant attempt to secure the passage of a series of referenda designed to entrench union privilege in the state constitution, and they lost on each and every measure. What is one to make of this? . . . The unions and the Democratic machine associated with them have also destroyed Detroit. it was once the fourth largest city in the United States; it was once the nation’s wealthiest city per capita. Now the median price of a house is $10,000, and, where there were once two million residents, there are now fewer than seven hundred thousand. The state is changing character. In the last decade, it has lost 10-15% of its population. . . . It could also be the case that — with Washington deadlocked — the real action over the next four years will be at the state level. In 2012, the Republicans lost the national election. But, at the same time, they garnered in 2010 and 2012 a strength at the state and local level that they have not seen as a party since the 1920s. The fact that the Republicans in Michigan have just passed right-to-work legislation is proof that the Tea-Party impulse is by no means dead. The year 2012 may be remembered not as the year in which the latest wave of Progressivism triumphed. It may be remembered as a year in which the Republican resurgence hit a minor bump in the road. Stay tuned.”
Archive for 2012
December 10, 2012
#WARONQUADRUPEDS: Ohio Democrat Makes Bestiality Jokes; Humane Society Official Not Amused. On the other hand, the Humane Society is obviously a bunch of zoophobic bigots.
ROGER SIMON AND SHERYL LONGIN’S Walter Duranty play, The Party Line, is finally shipping from Amazon in paperback.
It’s also available on Kindle.
CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Week Five — In Which We Slog.
IN THE MAIL: From Adrian Murray, Common Ground America.
THE NARRATIVE CHANGES AS POLITICS REQUIRE: Opponents of the Bush tax cuts have done a silent flip-flop on whether those cuts helped the middle class. “Why a silent flip-flop, instead of overt? Because the explanation is a bit uncomfortable: calling the Bush cuts ‘tax cuts for the rich’ was a rhetorical goldmine in support of a political message. It was a terse, persuasive slogan, pithier than the truth that the Bush policy was actually progressive tax cuts for all taxpayers; recasting it as ‘tax cuts for the rich’ was therefore more effective at helping the Left win elections. Fair enough; that’s politics. The Left outfoxed its tax-cutting opponents by employing better rhetoric. But now, in late 2012, the political message must shift, because the looming expiration of the Bush tax policy is a real financial threat to the middle class — and therefore a political threat to any politician who fails to defend the middle class.”
ED DRISCOLL: Back and to the Left: Springtime for Oliver Stone. “You know, not many people knew about it, but the Fuhrer vas a terrific dancer.”
STOCKING STUFFERS FOR BIG LABOR.
THE ULTIMATE REASON TO SWITCH TO E-BOOKS: Bedbugs!
So buy a Kindle!
Say, did I mention you can get $50 off on a Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ today?
UPDATE: Reader Frank McDonough has kind words for Amazon’s customer service:
I bought an 8.9″ Kindle through Amazon yesterday morning, and saw your post this morning about the sale today. I contacted Amazon and, although they don’t have a post-buy price guarantee, they agreed to make an exception because of how soon it went on sale after my purchase and they gave me a $50 refund on my purchase!
Good for them!
STUDY: Beer May Have Anti-Viral Properties. I don’t know how good the science is here — but why take chances?
THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Space-time waves may be hiding in dead star pulses.
AT AMAZON, the Big Denim Sale.
Also, today only: Save $50 on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9.
Plus, 12 Days, 12 Deals: 75% off or more on bestselling books.
NICHOLAS JOHNSON: Gun Control’s Racist Origins.
MICHAEL BARONE: Soul-Crushing Dependency.
“This is painful for a liberal to admit,” writes liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, “but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in soul-crushing dependency.”
Kristof is writing from Breathitt County, Ky., deep in the Appalachian mountains, about mothers whose Supplemental Security Income benefits will decrease if their children learn to read. Kristof notes that 55% of children qualifying for SSI benefits do so because of “fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation,” far more than four decades ago when SSI was just a new program.
Evidently SSI administrators decided to be more generous to parents of such children. But, as Kristof notes, giving parents an incentive to keep children from learning to read works against the children’s long-term interest.
Kristof’s column makes a point similar to that in my De. 2 Examiner column on the vast rise in people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance payments. As with SSI, one imagines that those responsible for extending benefits to those not previously eligible did so out of a sense of generosity. But as I noted, “there is also a human cost. Consider the plight of someone who at some level knows he can work but decides to collect disability payments instead. That person is not likely to ever seek work again, especially if the sluggish recovery turns out to be the new normal. He may be gleeful that he was able to game the system or just grimly determined to get what he can in a tough situation. But he will not be able to get the satisfaction of earned success from honest work that contributes something to society and the economy.” Generosity that produces “soul-crushing dependency” is not really generosity.
No, it’s not about generosity. It’s about power. They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.
SUPPORT FRACKING, FOR GAIA’S SAKE. “America’s carbon dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. . . . All of that was achieved without government direction — and in the face of considerable environmental resistance. Now the world’s worst CO emitter, China — which gets 80 percent of its electricity from coal — has taken up fracking, too. China’s natural gas reserves are 50 percent bigger than America’s. If climate change is the worst danger facing the planet, as some environmentalists contend, then Chinese fracking should be good news. But most environmentalists hate fracking.”
I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who tell me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.
IT’S FROM BEFORE THE ELECTION, but the Epilogue from Mark Levin’s Ameritopia remains worth reading.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF VALERIE JARRETT?
LARRY LESSIG: Why We Need A Democratic Tea Party.
DEMOCRATS AND TAX HIKES: Giving It To Them Good And Hard. “We Republicans might also want to reconsider our blind opposition to estate taxes. Presently there are many huge trusts, including the Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, and multi-billion dollar college endowments. Many of these organizations do good work, but most now bankroll left-wing groups and causes while they pay their executives huge salaries. Ordinarily, the Democrats would loudly oppose allowing the wealthy to continue influencing U.S. policy even after they are in the grave, but they fall silent because so many of these foundations may have started as conservative organizations but now firmly veer to the Left. Thus, it might behoove Republicans to see whether these foundations, which frequently support bigger and more expensive government, might want to support larger government by paying their fair share of taxes as well.” Plus many other ideas for “targeted” tax increases.
Pass ’em in the House, send ’em to the Senate, and then make popcorn.