Anagram:Big Dead Kim Jong Il/Bald Mike Doing Jig

    

Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin doing the Hokey Pokey

   Rumors have been flying for the last 24 hours that “Dear Leader” North Korea’s leader is dead.  The fact that North Korea has ordered its diplomats to remain on standby for an important announcement has only fueled these fires all the more.   I wouldn’t mind. From what I’ve heard, the man is something of a world class asshole.  Plus, it gives me reason to use this really excellent anagram for the title of my Blog, and have this fancy schmancy pic of two world leaders looking like they’re doing the hokey friggin pokey!

       Nice! (I also had a backup Anagram: Add Jog In, Glib Mike)

    Onto Other News…

      Ben Bernanke has said that he backs a second stimulus package, citing weak economic growth.  Now, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but I might have to think about taking him out back and putting a bullet in him and making a duffle bag out of him.  I would not mind the money coming in, but I would have to ask a few question, like where is the money coming from?  I don’t have a deep enough understanding of economics to know exactly how they would finance this giving free money to the people, but the one thing i don’t want to do is spend tomorrow’s money today.   I say that because one thing i heard about the last stimulus package is that the money is simply being pulled from the next fiscal years taxes.  Never followed up on that so I don’t know, but you know how rumors start.  I NEED next years tax check, not a shell of the thing. 

     A short opinion piece Up Next….

     I’ve heard people call Barack Obama’s economic plan socialist, but to me it looks better than John McCain’s plan.   It seems to me that the main reason for the rancor and the name calling from the right on this issue is based on the fact that the rich will get taxed more than the poor if Obama gets in.  But with the vast majority of the country not rich at this point, you do have to look at exactly who is doing the fingerpointing here.  John McCain and Sarah Plain and corporate America would stand to pay more taxes under the Obama plan, and they say that is unfair, but who are these people expecting to pay the bills? The Poor? They can’t. THEY’RE POOR.  There is a massive amount of debt built up in this country and there is a simple two pronged solution to it.  Decrease the size of government, and increase taxes somewhere along the line. With our debt near the legally established debt ceiling, (bet you didn’t know there was one until the current financial mess came around, did ya?) something has to be done to pare down the debt. 

        I’m not saying that John McCain doesn’t have a plan to do it.  He does.  I just don’t believe his plan will work.  Across the board tax breaks do not pay for things, they take away resources the government needs to function.  Which means pare down government, but McCain’s plan their is a little harsh.  He has said he’d have a spending freeze on all but Defense and Veteran Affairs, and added entitlements on for the third debate.   But that means talking about a massive across the board cut of a great many programs, many of which are necessary.  Think about it this way.  Total cost of running the government next year is projected to be $3,100,000,000,000, and John McCain wants to guarantee only $566,000,000,000 of it, That would mean a total cut of over 2.5 Trillion dollars. 

       Now I’m Joe small government, and that sounds on the face of it like a great thing.  But that completely cuts funding to The department of education, Homeland security, Labor, Justice, Transportation, small business,and a host of other agencies.  Are you crazy, John, or just stupid?  Think of all the jobs lost due to a spending freeze like that!  The government has over 19 million employees in total, with some 11,000,000 in the federal government alone. How many would be without a job if these budgets were slashed the way McCain is proposing?  Do you WANT another great depression?  If you’re going to cut down the size of the government juggernaut, you’ve got to do it slowly enough to let those affected by it’s downsizing find other means of livelihood, not just dump millions of people on the street like that.

    It is not feasible.  That simple.  He may be able to pare things down, but, simply due to weight of government itself, he would be stuck with the vast majority of programs he says he wants to slash.  You can’t just bust out the hatchet and slash the way McCain has spoken of.  It just doesn’t work.

       With all that said, John McCain seems to be making something of a comeback in the polls.  He has cut the lead Barack Obama has in the poll average at Real clear politics, what was a 7+ point lead is now at 5%, well within striking distance of John McCain and the Bradley effect. 

     Ouch.

     A video and then I am done.

      Part II of the Will and Willie podcast from two weeks ago. Good stuff, from Will Durst and Willie Brown.

      

       quick note: I changed the caption on the picture, I liked the hokey pokey reference better than the macarena reference.

        I am outta here.  Phillies in 6.

Today’s Nuggets, from Newspeak: Good government is that which delivers the citizen from the risk of being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently – one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified and more agreeable undertakings.  H.L. Mencken

When I meet a government which says to me, “Your money or your life,” why should I be in haste to give it my money?   Henry David Thoreau