Month: December 2009

2009 Anal-ocity Nominees

Inkwell Institute

This is one of my favorite parts of having my blog, Info ink….we pick the most anal statements of the year and ask our readers to vote on the one that they think is the most anal of the group.  We then award our annual award the Assie, to the winner.

Last year, 2009, was a great year for those people and their anal statements…….We at the Inkwell Institute poured over the Anal-ocity post to come up with the  most anal statements.

It was a difficult choice because so many have said so much that was anal, but we have put together the ones we thought would be the best of the worst…..

1–“I hope he fails”  Limbaugh on Pres. Obama

2–Radio talk show host Bill Cunningham out of Cincinnati said on his show, “The poor are not that way because they lack money, but rather they lack values, ethics and morals.”

3–“The Quran is perfect just the way it is, that’s why it is only written in Islamic.”……Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

4–“There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus,” said James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley.

5–“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression, He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”  Rep. Steve Austria (R-OH).

6–“placing a bible over an erect penis before intercourse is the only guaranteed way to prevent the spread of Aids.”  Pope Benedict

7–“People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?”  Miami Democratic senator Larcenia Bullard

8–“I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people,”  Micele Bachmann (R-MN) on volunteerism….

9–“We can’t return to a bubble-and-bust, borrow-and-spend economy based on maxed-out credit cards, over-leveraged banks, and financial profits that were only real on paper,”  Pres. Obama said at a fundraiser in May 09….

10-“If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death, that’s correct.”  said by baptist preacher Wylie Drake when asked if he wanted Obama to die.

11-“I am not a quitter, I am a fighter”  Sarah Palin when she announced that she was resigning as governor.

12-“we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery”  from a proclamation authored by Oklahoma state representative Sally Kerns.

Over the years I have tried to give my readers a voice in the world and I would like to thank ALL my readers and commenters…I do appreciate your participation in Info Ink.  Please read over the nominees and vote for the most anal statement of the past year, 2009.  Thanks again hopefully 2010 will be another good year for us bloggers.

13–Finally, this one is from Fox’s O’Reilly when an interview with a judge on the upcoming terrorists trials in NYC….he was told that the trials were within the bounds of the US Constitution and  O’Reilly replied:  ‘I don’t care about the Constitution.’

The New Finance Bill

Once again I bow to the wisdom of the AP….they do it so much better than the rest of us…..I will post the entire report:

Q. Who does it affect?

A. Financial institutions, both banks and nonbanks; homeowners, borrowers and credit card holders; insurance companies; hedge funds; traders in complex derivatives; and securities rating companies.

Q. How would it avoid another Wall Street crisis?

A. It creates a Financial Services Oversight Council made up of the Treasury secretary, the Federal Reserve chairman and heads of regulatory agencies. The council would monitor the financial markets to watch for potential threats to financial system. It would identify firms and activities that should be subject to heightened standards, including requirements that they place more money in their reserves. Companies would have to plan for their own demise, detailing how they would be dismantled if they fail. The government could dismantle even healthy firms if they are considered a grave risk to the economy.

Q. Who would pay for a failing firm?

A. Failing banks are dissolved now by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The legislation proposes that the costs of large nonbank institutions that fail first be paid for by shareholders and creditors. Even secured creditors would have to take a hit, losing up to 10 percent of their security. If the failure still has damaging financial repercussions, the FDIC would tap a special $150 billion fund paid for by large institutions with $50 billion in assets or more, or hedge funds with at least $10 billion in assets.

Q. What are consumers likely to see?

A. The legislation creates a Consumer Finance Protection Agency that would oversee consumer lending — mortgages, credit cards, payday loans and terms on savings accounts. It would take consumer regulation and enforcement powers away from bank regulators. Under current law, states cannot supersede federal consumer laws, but the legislation would permit states in some instances to impose tougher consumer laws on financial institutions. Banks could escape state laws by claiming they “materially” impair the business of banking. Several industries would be exempt from CFPA oversight, including retailers, auto dealers, lawyers and accountants.

Q. What else does it do?

A. It brings the unregulated $600 trillion derivatives market under government oversight. Derivatives are complex financial instruments, such as credit default swaps, blamed for accelerating the Wall Street panic last year. Some companies that use them to hedge against risk from new requirements in the overhaul legislation would get exceptions. Hedge funds, which operated in shadow financial markets, would have to be registered with the government.

Q. What about those executive salaries?

A. Company shareholders would get a nonbinding vote on the pay of top executives. Federal banking regulators would have to approve compensation practices, though not actual pay, at banks and bank holding companies.

Once again the AP did a masterful job of explaining the bill as simply as possible making it understandable to anyone willing to read and learn…..

The Cost Of Health Care

I would like to say before I start that the AP is a genius….I am gonna post their entire article….why?….most people do not want to click as often as you would think….I would like to thank them for their expert analysis…..

THE ISSUE: How much do Americans who have employer-sponsored health insurance pay in premiums? What do their employers pay? Would that change if the system is overhauled?

THE POLITICS: Health care costs have been increasing. For Americans and the businesses that insure most of them, that translates into higher insurance premiums. The average premium cost for employer-provided insurance has doubled since 2000. These days, coverage for an individual with employer-provided insurance costs on average $4,824 a year, with the employee paying $779 of that amount, according to a 2009 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust. For a family plan, the premium is $13,375 with the employee paying $3,515. Under current law, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that in 2016 average premiums for employer-based insurance will rise to about $7,500 for a single policy and about $19,000 for a family policy.

WHAT IT MEANS: Numerous factors will affect the cost of insurance under proposed health care bills, making their impact hard to predict. But President Barack Obama has vowed to lower the cost of health care. The legislation would set up exchanges where companies would compete for customers. It also would provide subsidies for lower-income people.

There you have what the bill as proposed will cost you if it is not changed in the process….read it and weep…….Good plan and is a FAR cry from the stuff dreams were made of……Progressives lose again….now are you not glad you voted the way you did…..

Is The US Moving Toward Isolationism?

Inkwell Institute

First of all….do you understand what isolationism is?

Isolationism is a foreign policy which combines a non-interventionist military policy and a political policy of economic nationalism (protectionism). In other words, it asserts both of the following:Non-interventionism – Political rulers should avoid entangling alliances with other nations and avoid all wars not related to direct territorial self-defense.

Protectionism – There should be legal barriers to control trade and cultural exchange with people in other states.

Now we have an understanding of the topic…….but does the US seem to be moving in that direction?

In a recent Pew Poll the following results were recorded:

a plurality of Americans — 49 percent — think the US should “mind its own business internationally.”. Not surprising that the country is turning inward during tough economic times, but this is still a dramatic number.Matched only by this: for the first time a plurality of Americans — 44 percent — see China as the world’s leading economic power. Only 27 percent name the U.S.

Read the rest of the Pew findings HERE.

The early history of the US was full of the sentiments isolationism:

Proponents of non-interventionism distinguish their polices from isolationism through their advoacy of more open national relations and free trade. Examples of supporters of non-interventionism are Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both favored nonintervention in European Wars while maintaining free trade.  (Thanx to wiki for the info)

The US was NEVER fully isolated….we have always involved ourselves in other countries affair…..but in a public face we were isolationists….all that public BS came to an end first with our involvement in WW1 and finally was eliminated as a public face with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US has been nosed in to the world ever since.

But today it appears that the American people are embracing the idea of isolationism a little at a time…the recession is making Americans worry about their personal economy…..they are starting to think that all revenue needs to be used here in this country….that wars and our foreign policy are using up funds that could save Main Street from a total collapse….

As the job situation gets worse and prolonged the more Americans are saying that we should mind our own business and let the rest of the world take care of themselves…..

Another part of the whole isolationism thing is protectionism…..I recently wrote on this phenom before….basically it is a return to “buy American”.  As jobs are lost the call for protectionism gets louder and louder….some see it as a way to protect what few jobs are left in this country…….as the situation on Main Street gets worse the calls for more of an isolation posture will grow louder.

As a side note…..I have always supported the idea of using American revenue here at home first and then if there is any left over then let the world ask for our help….charity begins at home….and the United States is home.

Sista Sarah Tackles The Climate

No matter how one tries to ignore the obvious….you just cannot….not when it attacks you mentally every waking moment of every day…..our Sista Sarah is just such a venue…..just when you thought there was a lull in the amazing story of Sista Sarah….she drags you back in….yelling and screaming……No matter how hard one tries to let that story or chapter die….it is not physically possible for it to die……

The saga begins in the early hours of 8 Dec 09 when our heroine said:

that President Obama “boycott” an international conference on climate change underway in Copenhagen, because some hacked e-mails questioning the ethics of some scientists at a university in Great Britain have given the obstinate opposition to the concept of global warming.

We all know that she thinks that climate change is a made up story and went so far as to call Gore on it in an op-ed in the WaPo when she said the climate change was like “gravity.  It exists”.

Gore to Palin:

“The north polar ice cap has been there for 3 million years, the size of the continental United States, and it is disappearing before our very eyes. What do the skeptics think is causing that? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that we are putting 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere here every 24 hours and that these consequences have been predicted for decades by the scientists?”

To which Palin tweeted:

“amazing 2 see Al Gore’s denial of the controversy–it’s like denying gravity”

Okay the media game of tag….the gotcha of politics……and then Laura Ingraham of FOX News brought up the prospect of a debate between Palin and Gore…..to which the reply was:

Oh my goodness. You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum. Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I’ll get clobbered because, you know, they don’t want to listen to the facts. They don’t want to listen to some reasonable voices in this. And that was proven with the publication of this op-ed, where they kind of got all we-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers of changing weather patterns and climate conditions. Trying to make the issue into something that it is not.

So far that is the story…..it is she said…he said…..and the prospect of a debate on the issue of climate change is not an option…..well, we could have the debate but it would have to be by Sista Sarah’s rules….meaning that she can go off topic whenever she wanted but her opponent could not.

Personally, I would enjoy the debate and I think it would either make or break Sista Sarah in the process…..but of course….no matter what she does the people that love her will continue to do so and vice versa…..you betcha!

Is The GOP Massaging The Tea Party?

It would seem that the GOP has seen the latest poll on the popularity with the people.

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.

Oh damn!  They had better find a way to change the thinking of the American conservatives……along comes Sen. DeMint of South Carolina…..

“The GOP leadership needs to stand up for mainstream American principles,” says DeMint. The best way to do that, he says, is to “look to the great candidates we can support like Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Chuck DeVore, and now Michael Williams. They’re exciting, principled candidates who have all stood up to the Republican party.”

“We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party,” adds DeMint. “If we do that, we can stand up and create the biggest tent of all.”

As was posted in the past….the GOP has a “purity” list for the candidates it will support and those candidates are in line with the Teabaggers (Ha…there is that word again)….if they keep to the “purity” test thing the tent will get smaller and smaller….and it will look like that little car full of clowns we see at the circus…..

It sounds like the GOP is running scared for the up coming 2010 election…they are deathly afraid that they will lose ALL hope of a majority in Congress…..all the rhetoric about polls not being that important is pure crap!  The GOP has seen the writing on the wall and they are worried that it is NOT in their handwriting…..

A New Path To Bi-Partisanship

In case you are wondering…..Hell is in the process of freezing over!

That is the buzz word for Washington….Dems say they are trying to form an alliance with the Right….the Right accuses the Dems of NOT working in a bi-partisan way…..bi-partisanship….will it ever change?

Well, a quick answer is yes…it will…..I know…How can I say that with all the polarization in the nation’s capital?

Hebert and Cappiello of the AP have reported:

Senators trying to craft bipartisan climate legislation offered a revised proposal Thursday that would add incentives for building nuclear power plants and open the way for expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation’s coastlines in hopes of attracting wider support.The new framework for a Senate climate bill would ease back requirements for early reductions of greenhouse gases. It calls for cuts in the range of 17 percent by 2020, instead of 20 percent, similar to reductions already approved by the House and what Obama will call for at an international climate conference in Copenhagen.

The senators said the bill would include tax credits and a substantial increase in government loan guarantees for building nuclear reactors as well as some streamlining of the reactor permitting process. Currently loan guarantees for new reactors — which can cost $9 billion or more each — are limited to a total of $18.5 billion, and even those have yet to be awarded by the Energy Department.

The framework provided only a broad view of what a compromise bill would include with details to emerge early next year. But it reflects a widespread view that the climate bill that advanced out of committee in early November would need to be significantly revised for any hope of getting bipartisan support from at least 60 senators.

Are the Dems this desperate that they will water down an important bill just so they can say it was bi-partisan?  Or is it just an attempt to make the delegates think that the Washington crowd is serious about climate change?  Once again there are the ever present tax breaks….that seems to be the standard answer for all the country’s problems….tax breaks and the sun will shine again……personally, I think all this is pure manure!

A new path to bi-partisanship?  Why not?  The majority has been a limp penis so far….why take your Viagra now?  God forbid that the people doing the most damage to the climate should have to pay to repair it….hell that would be down right Un-American!

Make The Bastards Pay!

We have all heard the yelling coming from Main Street….sometimes loudly……the banks took taxpayer money, by the billions, now they are somewhat solid they want to pay the same group that caused the meltdown,  millions in bonuses….so they get bailed out for making crappy decisions and now they want their reward for doing so…..and now the ones that still owe TARP money are scrambling around trying to find money to pay back the loans so that they too can avoid any governmental interference in their bllod money, in the form of bonuses…..

There has been many in Congress that say that it is not right that they get a reward and of course their are those that think all is cool with it and that they should get the bonuses……there is tap dancing in Washington to try and make these thieves suffer a bit….you know the way they forced all of us to suffer…..

The UK has an excellent idea…….

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Wednesday that the government will impose a 50% charge on bankers’ bonuses worth more than GBP25,000 to be borne by the employer, responding to increasingly sour public sentiment toward the banking sector.Laying out plans for borrowing and spending in his pre-budget report, Darling said that the bonus measure would apply to all U.K. banks and building societies, and foreign banks with branches or subsidiaries in the U.K. The measure starts today and will end April 5.

The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority announced new rules on pay in August that require banks to defer the bulk of bonus payments for staff over several years and link those deferred payments to the future performance of the bank and the employee’s division within it.

Apparently this is not such a bad idea….why?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is considering a tax on 2009 banker bonuses exceeding 27,000 euros ($39,800), following the U.K. government’s introduction of a similar levy, said two French government officials. French banks would pay the charge, though the rate hasn’t been set, said the officials, who declined to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the press.

An aide to Sarkozy said he expects other governments to be pressured by public opinion to follow suit. Germany has no plans to follow Brown and Sarkozy’s bonus tax, a government official said on condition of anonymity today.

Now there is a novel idea….maybe the US should consider it….what is the novel idea?  Governments that are pressured by public opinion….too bad that is not the case in the US…..our system is that whoever pays the best for Congress members gets the voice…..

Congress this year unsuccessfully considered a 90 percent tax on bonuses at companies that received more than $5 billion in aid after retention pay for employees of American International Group Inc. sparked a public furor. The House passed the measure, while the Senate retreated when President Barack Obama said the U.S. shouldn’t “govern out of anger” and AIG employees promised to repay their bonuses.

(Thanks to Bloomberg and nasdaq.com for some of the content)

I see what the President means….why should we expect the thieves of Wall Street to be held responsible for their actions….a silly concept….huh?

Tax Incentives?

For as long as I can remember in the political arena, tax incentives have been a buzz word to try and convince people that something is being done that will help whatever the situation is at the time….

The more things change, the more they stay the same…..someone somewhere made that line famous…..Obama’s new job proposals is the same line that has been talked about for generations….that is about all it generated ….talk!

President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed a tax incentive for small businesses that add workers, even as Congress struggles to figure out how such an idea would work.

Obama’s other tax proposals were more familiar to lawmakers. He proposed extensions and enhancements of several tax breaks that were part of the economic stimulus package passed in February, including enhanced tax write-offs for companies that buy new equipment.

Obama also proposed eliminating capital gains taxes on small business stock, if it is purchased in 2010 and held for at least five years, expanding a tax break enacted in the stimulus package.

The Repub response to the proposal was a predictable as winter…….they hated everything the Prez said about jobs creation….and I mean EVERYTHING!  But their ideas sound familiar also……

–Give small businesses a tax deduction equal to 20% of their income.

–Let small businesses band together in associations to buy health insurance more cheaply.

–Curb civil lawsuits.

–Lower individual income tax rates.

–Expand health savings accounts, which are being squeezed in some of the current health-care reform proposals.

–Increase businesses’ ability to recover current losses by refiling prior tax returns.

Basically they are saying…….Cut regulations. Freeze spending. Cut taxes. No new taxes…..oh God forbid let us not leave out the old reliable…tort reform….there you have the Repubs answer to the current problem of NO jobs….Sorry, Batman….but that whole line of ideas is tired and antiquated……as a matter of fact it sounds very familiar to their health reform ideas….basically, the answers are the same regardless of the issue….one size fits all…..

But is this the big answer to a huge problem?

Repubs On Jobs Creation

FLASH!  Zip!  Bang!

We have heard all the big ideas from the President and his boyz….he will put America back to work with the use of the left over TARP funds…..but what about the Repubs?  Do they have any ideas on how to end the rising tide of unemployment?

Ask and thou shalt receive……

Yesterday the Repubs in Congress offered up their plan for the creation of jobs…..(may I have a drum roll please)……..and their plan is………

Republican lawmakers Wednesday presented President Barack Obama with their plan to tackle unemployment, proposing a freeze on tax hikes until the jobless rate falls below five percent.

The plan also calls for more domestic production of energy, including oil, as well as corporate tax cuts intended to encourage firms to repatriate earnings collected abroad and the approval of pending free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Tax cuts?  Approval of free trade agreements?  Wait!

The GOP is becoming more pathetic as each week goes by…..tax cuts?  That is their answer for a failing economy, the health crisis and now jobs…..it is tired and a proven failure…….oh then, we have the approval of free trade agreements…..think about that for a moment…… (insert pause of contemplation)…….. did not the out sourcing of American jobs overseas basically begin with the NAFTA debacle?  How many jobs did that piece of manure save or create in the US?

I cannot figure out why it takes Repubs so long to come up with a statement on any given issue……seeing how they have the same idea no matter the situation….TAX CUTS!  Maybe they, the Repubs, should spend less time playing golf or slinging insults at the opposition and try to come up with a REAL plan to save jobs……Just a thought……