Day: December 21, 2012

Last Shooting Post

I was gonna let this subject lie around and give all my conserv friends the space to rant and rage……I listened to the much hyped response from LaPierre of the NRA and could not let this go without a bit of press from me……

Like I said….I was not going to comment any further…..but after the speech……I shook my head and started salivating…..

Here’s a sampling of the reaction to today’s speech by NRA exec Wayne LaPierre, who blamed video games, movies, and the media for creating a culture of violence and called for armed guards in every school:

New York Daily News: “For all that advocates of sensible gun-safety measures have said in the past seven days, nothing did more to discredit the merchants of weapons of death than their own chief advocate’s callous rant.” LaPierre “just shot himself in the foot.”

Erika Johnsen, Hot Air: The armed-guard idea is probably too expensive, but “I am completely on board with the sentiment that this immediate reaction against all types of guns is ridiculous, and the very idea of merely declaring schools to be ‘gun-free zones’ as the best method of protecting our children is utter folly.”

Matt Gertz, Media Matters: Columbine had an armed guard.

Rachel Maddow, via tweet: “The NRA has rickrolled the whole country into watching just another standard Wayne LaPierre stump speech saying we need more guns.”

Matthew Yglesias, Slate: Putting an armed officer in every school would cost at least $5.4 billion a year, based on an average salary of $55,000.

Mashable notes that NRA-related hashtags sprang up quickly and rounds up some notable ones here.

The conservative Daily Caller says that the NRA may not like reporters, but the feeling is mutual based on tweets from journalists during the speech. Examples here.

The NRA set up a website for its “National School Shield” here.

This is just unbelievable…..Sorry….but LaPierre’s comments were a joke…….why?  Where will the cash come from to pay these “guards”?  Communities are lacking funds for basic services then where will it come from?  His comment was a joke because it was all about the sale of more guns than trying to find real solutions to the problem……..BTW…..NO ONE IS COMING FOR YOUR GUNS!  Stop using that tired old lie!

The Last Post On The “Fiscal Cliff”

Today is the day!  21Dec12, From the time you read this until midnight we have to wait and see…..will we or won’t we?  Until then….life goes on………..

GOP Plan B is a BUST!

This whole thing, the fiscal cliff thing, is just so damn silly that it is beyond funny…….I want to just grab these douche bags and slap them silly……..I am a political and economic nerd….I just cannot go without watch and reading and writing about the goddamn silly shit our elected officials do and say…….and the fiscal cliff debate is just that damn silly…….for one…the GOP in the House has spent a couple of days putting together a bill for a vote that has NO chance of becoming law…….and then there is the total waste of time sprinting to the mics to crap on the oppositions offers……..what is going on?

Here we go…..

“Fiscal cliff” is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect.

Among the laws set to change at midnight on December 31, 2012, are the end of last year’s temporary payroll tax cuts (resulting in a 2% tax increase for workers), the end of certain tax breaks for businesses, shifts in the alternative minimum tax that would take a larger bite, the end of the tax cuts from 2001-2003, and the beginning of taxes related to President Obama’s health care law. At the same time, the spending cuts agreed upon as part of the debt ceiling deal of 2011 will begin to go into effect. According to Barron’s, over 1,000 government programs – including the defense budget and Medicare are in line for “deep, automatic cuts.”

In dealing with the fiscal cliff, U.S. lawmakers have a choice among three options, none of which are particularly attractive:

  • They can let the current policy scheduled for the beginning of 2013 – which features a number of tax increases and spending cuts that are expected to weigh heavily on growth and possibly drive the economy back into a recession – go into effect. The plus side: the deficit, as a percentage of GDP, would be cut in half.
  • They can cancel some or all of the scheduled tax increases and spending cuts, which would add to the deficit and increase the odds that the United States could face a crisis similar to that which is occurring in Europe. The flip side of this, of course, is that the United States’ debt will continue to grow.
  • They could take a middle course, opting for an approach that would address the budget issues to a limited extent, but that would have a more modest impact on growth.

Just what will the effects be if a compromise is not reached?

If the current laws slated for 2013 go into effect, the impact on the economy would be dramatic. While the combination of higher taxes and spending cuts would reduce the deficit by an estimated $560 billion, the CBO estimates that the policies set to go into effect would cut gross domestic product (GDP) by four percentage points in 2013, sending the economy into a recession (i.e., negative growth). At the same time, it predicts unemployment would rise by almost a full percentage point, with a loss of about two million jobs. A Wall St. Journal article from May 16, 2012 estimates the following impact in dollar terms: “In all, according to an analysis by J.P. Morgan economist Michael Feroli, $280 billion would be pulled out of the economy by the sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts; $125 billion from the expiration of the Obama payroll-tax holiday; $40 billion from the expiration of emergency unemployment benefits; and $98 billion from Budget Control Act spending cuts. In all, the tax increases and spending cuts make up about 3.5% of GDP, with the Bush tax cuts making up about half of that, according to the J.P. Morgan report.” Amid an already-fragile recovery and elevated unemployment, the economy is not in a position to avoid this type of shock.

Okay, all that said….what is really going on in Washington?

It is not good…there is NO willingness to compromise…….what they are doing is setting the stage so that they can blame someone else for their lack of serious negotiations……they are NOT serious about finding a solution or a compromise….they are only playing political chess…..the game is played for the camera…..the game is being played for political points….there is NO solution left……all serious prospects have been given and rejected by the players themselves.

What we are witnessing now is positioning to win the spin sweepstakes….and I cannot wait for the noise from both sides to start…..and I shall tell each of them just what a pack of MORONS they are…….You elected these dipshits….you can fix your screw up…….but you will not….you will just go about defending these morons and their games…….and in the end….the country gets screwed and people suffer……..

Merry Christmas!