Category Archives: Politics & News

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Labor Day? Really?

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On this day named for Laborers on which we do not Work, it is worth noting that politicians do not create jobs, no matter what they say.

The Van Jones brouhaha is about jobs.

Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality and Van Jones’s boss said in a weekend statement, “Over the last six months, he has been a strong voice for creating 21st-century jobs…”

Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.

On her site speaker.gov, Nancy Pelosi (D – CA) writes about the final G.R.A.F.T. Act, “This legislation will jumpstart our economy, create and save 3.5 million jobs.” She uses the phrase “create jobs” or “create really really outstanding jobs” 41 times

Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.

The site michigan.gov trumpets that, “Thanks to Governor Granholm’s 21st Century Jobs Fund, this new economy is actually taking shape… The first round of awards has already provided funding to 67 companies and projects, creating thousands of jobs…”

Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.

Michigan is closer to the truth. Politicians give away OPM to businesses that create jobs. “OPM” is “Other People’s Money,” something politicians think they have an infinite supply of and that We the [Other] People know is running out.

It is Labor Day and we are not laboring. Politicians will create no jobs today, either, but they will walk in parades and pretend they have.

Dead Elephants

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Q: How do you make a dead elephant float?
A: You take a dead elephant, two tons of chocolate ice-cream, a ton of bananas…

We know you can’t make a dead elephant float without bacterial action but any number of Rabid Righties thought a death scare was the way to derail ObamaCare.

Gundersen Lutheran in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, is a pioneer in the medical trend to make sure patients get the end of life they want. The hospital has been trying to force Medicare to pay the docs when they help patients with that planning. H.R. 3200 incorporated it.

Sarah Palin made that into the “Death Panels” in H.R. 3200 and it has been a rallying cry against any kind of health care reform ever since.

“It’s really distressing,” hospital official Bud Hammes told MSNBC. “These things need to be addressed.”

When you spread false information, you give up the right to thwap the other guy for propagating falsehoods.

My friend Dino sent around the Windfall Tax on Retirement Income rant a couple of days ago.

Dean “Dino” Russell is a roofer in the middle Keys where I reside. Dancing about on roofs all his life has made him the most physically fit man in the Home Depot; it also gives him an overview of life. He is the third-most conservative man I know.

“What’s neat about this is the way Snopes dismisses it with a series of rhetorical tributaries and sly spins and then tosses in billionaire Warren Buffet as a strawman. Snopes is right that Pelosi probably did not say these exact words–even though they are in quotes,” he wrote, “but that is not the point. The point is that she demonstrates it daily in her actions from the floor and prolly implied it directly in her rhetoric.”

“Pelosi probably did not say these exact words,” he wrote. “That is not the point…”

Sorry, Dino, but that is exactly the point.

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi is anything but and she has proven that over and over. Unfortunately, Dino has joined her club. Prevaricating, obfuscating, misdirecting, diverting, and pretending all add up to lying. When Liberals lie to advance their cause, it makes them liars and gives us ammunition to use against them. When Conservatives lie because they think it is for a good cause, it makes them liars, too.

Lying not only gives the other guy ammunition to use against you, it makes it impossible to believe or respect the liar.

Q: Why do ducks have flat feet?
A: From stamping out forest fires.

Q: Why do elephants have flat feet?
A: From stamping out flaming ducks.

I’ve always hoped I was the elephant but days like this I feel like a sitting duck.

Retirement Brouhaha

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Blogs, an online petition, and an email making the rounds claim that “Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it” because they voted their own benefit plan into effect. “When they retire,” the email claims, “they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments…”

And, of course, it is free to them.

“OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!”

On the other hand, the email claims, we ordinary folk “would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley’s benefits!”

Wrong. Interesting but wrong.

It is simply not true that Congressmen do not pay into the Social Security fund. Public Law 98-21 of 1983 required Social Security coverage for federal civilian employees. They have paid into the fund since 1984 just as most every American employee does. That means, in addition to any other retirement benefits, they get Social Security, too! (There are exceptions. Congress Critters who had participated in CSRS could elect to stay in that plan in addition receiving Social Security or elect a plan that integrates CSRS and Social Security.)

The 2009 salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. Leaders of the House and Senate receive a higher salary than rank-and-file members.

It is also not true that Congress Critters “paid nothing in on any kind of retirement.” They must contribute 1.3% of their salary to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System and 6.2% in Social Security taxes up to the current $106,800 salary cap.

Snopes reports that “It is not true that Congressmen ‘continue to draw their same pay, until they die.'” Many factors go into the size of their pensions but “by law [that pension] cannot exceed 80% of their salary at the time of their retirement.”

Congress Critters are eligible for a pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service. The average annual Congressional pension is $60,972 in 2009 but the most a rank-and-file member could get is $139,200. Seems like it is in their best interests to stay in office until they die.

I understand why people want to join this club. I’m not sure I understand why we pay so much to put them there.

If I spent my life as a bum, why can’t I afford to retire now?

Vermont Police to Curb Profiling

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For the past three years, a “blue ribbon” committee of Vermonters has studied the possibility of racial profiling by police officers in this state.

Hello? Vermont is, of course, the least diverse state in the Union. The Census Bureau reports that 2008 population of the state is about 621,000, up from 609,000 nine years ago. The population breaks down as 96.4% white and 0.9% black which means that if one non-white person is ticketed, it must be profiling. The community group Uncommon Alliance raised the concerns about racial profiling.

The committee report says Vermont minorities believe they are the victims of pervasive racial profiling by police on traffic stops. The report also shows there is absolutely no data anywhere that support the idea. None.

The Vermont state police say they do investigate about ten racial profiling complaints out of thousands of traffic stops each year.

Reminder: The report shows there is absolutely no data anywhere that support the perceived profiling. None.

Law enforcement leaders have chosen “pro-active responses.”

Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Tom Tremblay said, “We recognize that law enforcement in Vermont needs to address the perception and/or the reality of racial profiling.”

Reminder: The report also shows there is absolutely no data anywhere that support the perceived profiling. None.

Police will create yet another new data collection system and document each person’s race, gender and age at traffic stops. We can expect video cameras in all police cruisers as well as more anti-racial-bias training for cops.

Meanwhile, pigs are a Vermont tradition at county fairs but kids won’t chase any pigs at the Caledonia County Fair in Lyndonville this year. “No swine at the fair,” said Richard Lawrence. It turns out the public could be afraid of pigs because people think the pigs could spread the flu. (The fact is that pigs should fear the people, not the other way around.)

Fair officials say they know that pigs are not spreading the H1N1 virus but they banned them anyway. State and county fairs came to life to promote science and agriculture.

The Fair made its decision “not based on sound science but based on public perception,” Vermont state veterinarian Dr. Kristin Haas told WCAX TV. “In this instance we have an example of a pretty big difference between the two.”

As an aside, a federal program later this month will focus exclusively on drunk driving. By women.

News reports show a host of community forums on profiling will begin Wednesday.

Reminder: The report shows there is absolutely no data anywhere that support the perceived profiling. None.

Don’t confuse me with the facts. It is crucial that we sacrifice truth and dignity on the altar of the politically correct. And left-leaning public perception.

Throw Cash at It

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My friend Lido (“Lee”) Bruhl is a true believer in universal health care. He continues to campaign for a single payer system. “And yet we still have all these vehement protests that our health care system is fine just the way it is,” he said this morning.

Not from me. I vehemently protest that ObamaCare will take a health care system that delivers decent care for way too much money and turn it it to a system that delivers lesser care for way more than way too much money.

Lee took a new tack. “The US already spends more on health care than most other nations, but it gets less,” he said.

Semi-true. Here’s another one: The US already spends more on primary and secondary education than most other nations, but it gets less. And this: The US spent more “stimulus money” on job creation than any other nation, but it got fewer jobs created.

A better question to examine is this: Why do we as a nation throw so much cash at problems and get such a (relatively) poor return?