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Hurricane Irene – Perry Check-in It’s not Goodnight Irene Yet

Posted by on 27 August 2011, 8:45 pm
It’s been raining here in beautiful Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, for a few hours now, but it isn’t a hard rain. My darling bride (of 32 years, 3 months and 8 days) just got home from work and she said it was just like driving through a regular rain storm.
Three homes in Perry’s hometown of Lewes, Delaware, were damaged by a tornado spawned by Irene, but there were no injuries. York still had power and internet service as of 2026, but he’s closer to the hurricane than I am, so he might see more severe weather. And our friend Johannes Magnus lives in Virginia Beach; he’s already been hit, but we don’t have any word on how he fared. I’m sure he doesn’t have power or internet right now.
NWS Philadelphia, PA
Point Forecast: Jim Thorpe PA
40.89°N 75.74°W		 Mobile Weather Information | En Español
Last Update: 6:32 pm EDT Aug 27, 2011
Forecast Valid: 9pm EDT Aug 27, 2011-6pm EDT Sep 3, 2011
Forecast at a Glance
Tonight

Trop. Storm Conditions Possible
Trop. Storm
Conditions
Possible
Lo 68 °F		 Sunday

Trop. Storm Conditions Possible
Trop. Storm
Conditions
Possible
Hi 71 °F		 Sunday
Night
Decreasing Clouds
Decreasing
Clouds
Lo 51 °F		 Monday

Sunny
Sunny

Hi 75 °F
 Monday
Night
Mostly Clear
Mostly
Clear
Lo 54 °F		 Tuesday

Sunny
Sunny

Hi 78 °F
 Tuesday
Night
Partly Cloudy
Partly
Cloudy
Lo 55 °F		 Wednesday

Mostly Sunny
Mostly
Sunny
Hi 78 °F		 Wednesday
Night
Partly Cloudy
Partly
Cloudy
Lo 56 °F
I brought in the umbrella for the back porch table, and the chairs that might blow away; I used a bungee cord to fasten the garbage cans to the fence. While it’s always possible we could get some damage here, it’s not terribly likely. I’m just concerned that I might have to go through Sunday with no electricity, no internet or no cable. That would be horrible!
Filed under Real life.
26 Comments

I’m sure that this is just a coincidence!

Posted by on 27 August 2011, 12:02 pm

Sometimes the stories on America Online can be a bit overhyped — is that a redundancy? — but I looked through this story, The 10 States Where No One Wants to Buy a New Home. You can look through the Gallery, to see the reasons, but, looking at the list, one thing jumped out at me:

  1. Rhode Island Rhode Island Rhode Island
  2. West Virginia West Virginia West Virginia
  3. Illinois Illinois Illinois
  4. Michigan Michigan Michigan
  5. Connecticut Connecticut Connecticut
  6. Ohio Ohio Ohio
  7. Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts
  8. New York New York New York
  9. Maine Maine Maine
  10. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Pennsylvania

I’m sure you can guess what the color codes mean: the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Presidential elections, and whether the state was carried by the Republican or Democratic candidate. And with the notable exception of West Virginia, one of our poorest states, and one in which the land itself makes homebuilding much more difficult than normal, what I noted was a rather marked tendency toward a more Democratic Party, more liberal posture.

Of course, I’m sure it was all just a coincidence.
____________________________
Update: While referring to this graph, in writing this comment, I noticed another “Top Ten” list of “states”, the top ten states in job creation:

  1. Texas Texas Texas
  2. Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana
  3. North Dakota North Dakota North Dakota
  4. District of Columbia District of Columbia District of Columbia
  5. Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma
  6. Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska
  7. Alaska Alaska Alaska
  8. Wyoming Wyoming Wyoming
  9. South Dakota South Dakota South Dakota
  10. New York New York New York

Yup, another coincidence!
____________________________
Cross posted on Truth Before Dishonor.

Filed under Economics.
17 Comments

Shocker: Second Quarter GDP Revised Downward

Posted by on 26 August 2011, 8:04 pm

Okay, that’s not a shocker to anyone who’s actually paying attention. It wasn’t even a shocker to the supposedly expert economists upon which America’s Leftists depend — this time. But, while those “experts” expected a downward revision to 1.1 percent growth, the downward revision came in at an even more anemic 1.0 percent growth. And that after the Q1 GDP was revised downward to a flat-line 0.4 percent growth.

Ed Morrissey notes:

The change mainly came from inventories, which the previous estimate overshot. Real final sales of domestic goods — GDP less inventory adjustments — remained at 1.2%, making it a rare quarter in the last two years where this measure outstripped the topline GDP growth rate. Most of the GDP reports have been amped up by inventory expansions. Another bright spot is a revision in consumer spending, which increased 0.4% rather than the initial 0.1% estimate. However, exports got downgraded to a 3.1% increase from an initial estimate of 6.0%. [emphasis mine]

The radical Leftist Perry (who runs the laughably named Bridging the Gap blogsite), has made numerous claims that businesses aren’t producing or expanding because they want Barack Obama to lose his re-election bid. In Perry’s mind, businesses hate Obama more than they like their own bottom lines. But let’s continue to examine Perry’s delusion, shall we? According to Perry, Conservatives hate Obama because he’s black and we’re raaaaacists. So we want Obama to fail because we’re raaaaacists. And businesses are refusing to expand and hire because they hate Obama. So, that means all these businesses are raaaaacists. Which of course means the radical Leftist Perry doesn’t even have to engage his brain to think. (Barack Obama is 50 percent Caucasian and less than 50 percent black. My grandson is 50 percent black and less than 50 percent Caucasian.)

Let’s look at the facts, shall we? “Most of the GDP reports have been amped up by inventory expansions.” That means businesses have been producing more product in the US than they have been able to sell for most of the quarters since the recession began. Businesses have laid off large numbers of people but still have been outproducing demand. Despite all the layoffs and closures, businesses cannot sell everything they produce as it is. It would be foolish for businesses to expand in that environment. If a business cannot sell what it produces, the business needs to reduce its production, not expand it.

An overproduction (despite a spate of layoffs) can be acceptable and harmless in the short-run. Once purchases return to levels greater than production, the amassed inventory can be dwindled down to normal size again without the need for overtime or a too-quickly expanded work-force. But the longer a business overproduces demand, the more harm comes to the business. Doubly so in some states, which still levy an inventory tax on all the goods the business has warehoused.

Since most quarterly GDP numbers have been inflated by businesses outpacing demand and building up inventory, and some states levy an inventory tax, it would behoove businesses in those states to go on another spate of layoffs to reduce their tax burden and remain profitable, or at least lose less money. And since most quarterly GDP numbers have been inflated by businesses outpacing demand and building up inventory, the radical Leftist Perry’s claims that businesses are refusing to expand because they hate Obama is a verifiably false conspiracy theory.

Oh, by the way, third quarter GDP prospects appear no better than the first 6 months. It seems over-taxing and over-regulating and budget-busting spending does exactly what Conservatives said it does, and exactly the opposite of what radical Leftists like Perry (and the useless Paul Krugman) claim.
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Cross-Post

Filed under Business, Conspiracies, Cult of Personality, Culture and Society, Democratic Party, Economics, Federal Budget, Lunacy From The Left, Media Bias, Messiah Complex, Obama's Destruction of America, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, President Obama, Stimulus Failure, Taxation. Tagged , , , ,
57 Comments

You know, when we had kids, no one ever told me that they’d grow up and leave home!

Posted by on 26 August 2011, 6:00 am

Well, daddy’s baby girl is leaving home, matriculating at York College today. It’s a smaller school, but York is very highly rated as both a good buy and providing a first class education:

“A First Class Education at a Price You Can Afford” according to Barron’s Best Buys in College Education

York College is also:

  • ranked among only 198 “Best Buys in Higher Education” by Barron’s Best Buys in College Education
  • ranked #13 among the “Best Regional Colleges in the North” by U.S.News Best Colleges
  • ranked among the top third of “100 Colleges Worth Considering” by The Washington Post
  • included in the Princeton Review’s Best Northeastern Colleges
  • among 284 colleges and universities committed to help low-income, first-generation students according to College Access & Opportunity Guide
  • among the top 15 percent of colleges, universities, and trade schools embracing America’s veterans as students according to militaryfriendlyschools.com

Naturally, I’m more worried about her leaving for college than I was when she left for basic training! Fortunately, York is very military friendly, because she’ll already miss a day of classes on Friday, September 9th, because she has to report to her Army reserve unit at 1100, for a three-day weekend drill.

Filed under Real life.
3 Comments

Economics 101: If you raise taxes, they will leave

Posted by on 25 August 2011, 7:29 pm

Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) has presided over the state with the greatest job growth since the start of the recession, and almost half of all American jobs since June of 2009. President Obama and the Democratic partisans will do everything that they can to diminish the Texas record, telling us that the figures are phoney, that the jobs created weren’t good ones, that if there were jobs created, Governor Perry had nothing to do with it, &c, &c, &c.

Well, there has been a state which has followed the economic prescriptions of our friends on the left, and increased taxes. How has that worked out for them?

Jeff Carter

Jeff Carter

Obama’s Illinois Imploding

I don’t know if you saw this with all the news yesterday. Illinois lost 89,000 jobs since enacting the largest tax increase in the history of the state, as reported by the Illinois Policy Institute.

It was the largest job loss of any state in the nation.

Democrats will blame it on a poor economy. The truth is, higher taxes change behavior. Combine that with the fact that Illinois pols have given tax waivers to some large companies. John Deere ($JD), Motorola Mobility ($MOT, $GOOG), Sears, and others have gotten roll backs on the tax. So, like most tax levies it falls on small businesses and medium size companies.

Motorola Mobility promised to hire people for the tax rollback. Now that they have been purchased by Google, that promise goes out the window. Say goodbye to those jobs.

There is no doubt, other companies are exploring a move from Illinois. Recall that the Democratically controlled Illinois legislature didn’t just raise the corporate income tax, but they killed internet businesses too.

One major company, $CME, that actually has to pay it’s taxes said on the latest earnings call that they have had discussions with other states. I wouldn’t blame CME one bit for leaving. They can increase their earnings 9% simply by moving. I am one shareholder that endorses the move.

Hat tip to Gretchen for the article. But what has happened in the Land of Lincoln was not exactly difficult to predict. Duffy noted, on his site,:

Even Illinois which is Democrat down to dogcatcher is facing reality. Motorola is threatening to leave the state. The taxes are too high and the cost of doing business has made staying untenable. So what did Illinois do? They offered $100MM in tax breaks. One Hundred Million Dollars not to leave.

They have been forced to face the reality that they can only bleed so much from corporations before they leave. Motorola is not a small outfit and moving is going to be expensive. That said, I don’t think they’re bluffing. They’ve run the numbers and staying long term isn’t prudent.

Similarly, Sears the icon of Illinois is pulling up stakes. Think of what it says that the company with the most iconic tower in the midwest is thinking of leaving Illinois. How bad is the business climate? So bad, they’re considering New Jersey. They are also considering Texas which is unsurprising to anyone who’s been paying attention.

John Hitchcock said, explicitly, last March:

So the Democrat legislators already added another layer of taxes this year, and that added layer of taxes will decimate some Illinois businesses and send some Illinois businesses out of state. Yes, Illinois is busily butchering the goose that laid the golden egg, having already killed it.

And even earlier, last January:

Will businesses leave the state because of this? Yes. Will other businesses which cannot leave fail because of this final straw? Yes. Will The New York Times ever understand it’s not a revenue problem but rather a spending problem? No, of course not.

And I wrote, also last January:

Either the people of Illinois will wind up having to pay more money for the same goods — after having lost 2% of their net pay to taxes — or the companies which don’t believe they can raise prices will have lower profits, and at least some people will lose their jobs; actually, it’ll probably work out to some of both.

Now, some of our friends on the left disagreed that raising taxes was a bad idea. Our Kiwi Kommenter wrote:

Why are productive people fleeing the Pyrite State? With a marginal tax rate of 9.55% over $47,055 of income, you are talking thrice the income tax rate in Pennsylvania.

Well then – tax businesses. If they flee, that just opens uop a niche for other people to sell to the people of the State.

Wonder just how that’s working for the people of Illinois? Look at Mr Carter’s chart again: despite the recession, the number of people who were employed in Illinois was growing, right up until the time that the lame-duck Democratic legislature increased taxes. Now, it would be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy to state that the tax increase was the cause of the loss of jobs, but it certainly could have been, and it seems that the predictions made by the conservatives here were the ones which turned out right.
_____________________________
Cross-posted on Truth Before Dishonor.

Filed under Economics, I told you so!, Solutions from the Left, Taxation.
7 Comments

Leftist Class Envy (Commandment Ten Violation)

Posted by on 25 August 2011, 3:26 pm

I worked eight years for a manufacturing firm that had both hourly employees and piece-rate employees. The top hourly employees could expect to earn 25,000 a year plus any overtime, whereas the top piece-rate employees were earning as much as 40,000 a year plus overtime.

There was a lady who worked hourly who had been there for five years, so she was at the top of the hourly pay-scale. She was very offended that she was earning 12 dollars an hour while other employees were earning as much as 20 dollars an hour (me, for one). Her solution: Cut the pay of the top earners so theirs would be closer to hers. Understand, cutting the top would not add a dime to her pay, but she thought it only fair that the top not get paid as much since she didn’t.

She could’ve bid onto a piece-rate job, but she did not want that job. There was no hourly rate, unless equipment was broken. All the money had to be made by actually producing product. And at 14 to 23 cents per piece for the vast majority of the product (4 to 8 cents per piece of pipe, more for other items), it was very hard, demanding, fast-paced work to get up to 20 dollars per hour working piece-rate. And rating out her product that she was paid hourly for, her actual piece-rate would have been well below 10 an hour instead of the 12 an hour she earned.

She didn’t want to do what it took to earn the higher pay; she just wanted to take that higher pay away from those who did earn it. And yes, it was much more important to her that the top get chopped than the bottom like her (remember, she was the top hourly rate, not the bottom like she had in her mind) get more. After all, it was only fair to violate the Tenth Commandment and be envious of the pay of other Union members in the same Union shop.

And that’s how it is with the American Leftist agenda. They are all about cutting the top and violating the Tenth Commandment. They aren’t, in actuality, about raising the bottom. “There’s a point when you’ve made enough money” has absolutely nothing with raising the bottom and absolutely everything with cutting down the top and the Envy of Your Neighbor’s Possessions. Where were all the stories about the suffering, starving, poor Americans when Bill Clinton was President? Where are all those stories now? They only show up when a Republican is President. It’s not really about raising the bottom; it’s all about maintaining a victim class that will permanently vote Democrat and advancing the violation of the Tenth Commandment.

And like that woman who was actually the top of her classification and not the bottom, the American Left and their Class Envy are also at the top of the World Poverty classification. Bill Whittle shows very clearly that America’s poor aren’t all that poor.

And most of America’s poor are better off than Europe’s, Africa’s, Asia’s middle class. How did America’s poor become so well-off? Traditional American values, which run afoul of American Leftists’ values. A strong work ethic, a belief that if you work hard enough and smart enough, there is no limit to what you can achieve or have. But the Left, both in the US and in the world (see United Nations) absolutely believe there is a point where you can make or have too much, a most definite limit.

Over 3 billion people would absolutely love to be “poor” like America’s poor. But the world’s Leftist Elite are more interested in pushing Class Envy, being envious of and jealous of their neighbor’s possessions, than in actually lifting up the condition of the world’s poor.
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Filed under Christianity, Communism, Culture and Society, Democratic Party, Disdain For The Public, Economics, Express Bus To Socialism, Freedom from Reality, Lack Of Responsibility and Morals, Loss of Liberty, Lunacy From The Left, March To Socialism, Media Bias, No Journalistic Standards, Obama's Destruction of America, Or Punish By Tax, Personal Responsibility, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politically Incorrect, Politics, Solutions By PROGRESSIVES, Solutions from Socialists, Solutions from the Left, Taxation, TEA Party, Things That Destroy Enterprise, United Nations. Tagged , , , , ,
8 Comments

They never learn

Posted by on 25 August 2011, 2:26 pm

From the Local section of :


Green Beret claim threatens David Oh campaign


By Bob Warner, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

City Council candidate David Oh is struggling with allegations that he embellished his military record, threatening his campaign in a race in which he was considered a front-runner just a week ago.

The Philadelphia Daily News reported Friday that Oh’s former commanding officer disputed Oh’s claim that he had been an officer in an Army Special Forces unit and was a former Green Beret.

Oh immediately contested the story, promising “an official response” within days. But the controversy has festered for nearly a week without an official statement.

Oh, who admits having misleading references on his campaign website, called The Inquirer on Tuesday to read a statement in which he apologizes to the public and the Green Berets “for any confusion or misimpression I created.” He offered to return campaign contributions to anyone wanting money back.

But before finishing the statement, he said it still needed changes and promised to call back with a final version. On Wednesday, he failed to return repeated calls.

Sadly, Mr Oh is a Republican. :(

But it ought to be a lesson to anyone seeking public office: if you have exaggerated or outright lied on your résumé or campaign literature or website, it will be discovered. It might take a while, and, in Mr Oh’s case, he has made the claim that he was a Special Forces officer in campaigns since 2003.

The Philadelphia Daily News has the story of Mr Oh’s lame apology. If he has any sense of honor left, he’ll drop out of the campaign, immediately.

Mr Oh is simply the latest in a series of politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, who have created false personae for their campaigns and their times in office which are simply dishonest. It seems like most of the time, it’s sexual foibles, such as good, honest, married Republicans trolling for same-sex “fun,” or crusading Democratic prosecutors busting prostitutes, and then getting caught with expensive call girls. Was it really worth it for former Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) to send e-mail pictures of his little weiner to strange women over the internet? Was it really worth it for former Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) to be taking a “wide stance” in a public restroom?

This stuff just doesn’t stay secret. Nobody can control everything, and when you are a politician, there are always people who won’t like you and who will look for the lies.

And some of them are very open about it. One guy in Texas, a Ron Paul supporter, placed this ad in the Austin Chronicle. (Hat tip to ALa, who has a “Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry” poll on her site.) Well, at least he’s honest about what he’s trying to do, trying to find some disqualifying information on Governor Perry. (The ad sponsor, Robert Morrow, would really be happy if he found evidence that Mr Perry has had sex with a man.)

Governor Perry has been through such accusations before, but no evidence has ever surfaced; he’s got to know that if he has been dipping the nib in the wrong inkwell, it’s going to come out.

Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC), then running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, thought that he could get away with having an affair, knowing that the professional media wouldn’t check, because they cover for liberal Democrats, but it still came out, thanks to The National Enquirer. Republican candidates can’t count on the professional media’s bias for Democrats giving them any cover, so they had better make sure they are staying on the straight (pun intended) and narrow.

And, for the record, I have never had sex with Rick Perry.

Filed under 2012 Election, Politics, Rick Perry.
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In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, by Dick Cheney

Posted by on 24 August 2011, 8:39 pm

I’ll be ordering former Vice President Richard Cheney’s book In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir shortly; if you want to read the book, and order it through Amazon.com by clicking on either the image in this post, the link under the title, or the I Recommend widget in the sidebar, CSPT receives a small commission. :)

I’ve seen some of the teaser articles for the book, and, of course, everyone wants to know if Mr Cheney trashed his boss, former President George W Bush. I’ll have a review for you after I’ve read it. The book will be released on August 30th, so it’ll be over a week before I receive it.

I am, of course, pleased that, after contributing to the livelihoods of Al Gore and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton by buying their books — I shall say ten Hail Marys, in Latin, as my penance — I have contributed to the retirement income of former President Bush by buying his book, and will now be contributing to another great American, former Vice President Cheney.

Filed under Eric's Book and Movie Reviews.
46 Comments
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