Good riddance.

"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committeeÂ’s deadline," the two chairmen of the panel, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), said in a joint statement.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the supercommittee member who authored the GOP's deficit-reduction proposal rejected by Democrats on the special panel, said the groupl had "an extraordinary opportunity" to create "millions of jobs through a reformed tax system and put our government on a path to fiscal sanity by cutting spending."

"Unfortunately," he said, "this opportunity has been wasted."

Meh, it was never an opportunity. Obama and Senate Democrats are working off a mandate from the 2008 elections, the House GOP from the 2010 midterms. The American people sent a mixed message (one of the most liberal presidents ever and a tea party inspired House), that you'd get this result was foreseeable and predictable.

Only the American people can sort this out and they will next year.

Now the race is on to pin the blame for the failure of this process and attempts to disarm the automatic cut triggers. Those triggers by the way don't kick in until 2013, so there's plenty of time to deal with that.

The big lesson to take away from this...don't ever trust these kinds of committee. Don't let them pawn things off on others and out of sight where we can beat on them.

Remember when the debt ceiling deal was cut and this committee was born? John Boehner sold the deal saying the deal, "Requires baseline to be current law, effectively making it impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes." Yeah, the GOP offered hundreds of billions in additional taxes.

At the time, an idiotic blogger pointed out that there was no way Boehner could promise that and taxes were likely very much going to be on the table.

Idiot blogger 1- Speaker of the House 0.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:25 PM | Comments (342)
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Oh, you thought it was over? Not so fast.

The New Yorker is running a profile on Kalle Lasn, the man credited with starting this "youth of America movement" known as Occupy Wall Street.

Lasn is sixty-nine years old and lives with his wife on a five-acre farm outside Vancouver. He has thinning white hair and the small eyes of a bulldog. In a lilting voice, he speaks of “a dark age coming for humanity” and of “killing capitalism,” alternating gusts of passion with gentle laughter. He has learned not to let premonitions of apocalypse spoil his good mood.

So, the guy behind this "youthful" and "American" movement is old and Canadian? Here are his thoughts on Bloomberg evicting his useful idiots last week:

The police had established a strict media cordon, blocking access from nearby streets. “It was a military-style operation,” he said. These words made Lasn think of the bloody uprising in Syria. He quickly decided that the apparent end of Zuccotti was not a tragedy but the latest in a series of crisis-driven opportunities, what he calls “revolutionary moments,” akin to the slapping of a Tunisian fruit vender. “I just can’t believe how stupid Bloomberg can be!” he said to me later that day. “This means escalation. A raising of the stakes. It’s one step closer to, you know, a revolution.”

I sure hope this revolution isn't violent and bloody. They're radical leftists, so we should be fine.

Lasn and White quickly hammered out a post-Zuccotti plan. White would draft a new memorandum, suggesting that Phase I—signs, meetings, camps, marches—was now over. Phase II would involve a swarming strategy of “surprise attacks against business as usual,” with the potential to be “more intense and visceral, depending on how the Bloombergs of the world react.” White could hear the excitement in Lasn’s voice. Even as Lasn vented about the morning’s counterrevolution, he was doing what he could not to splash.

Kill capitalism. Revolutionary moments. Escalation. Surprise attacks. More intense. Visceral.

We're not out of the woods yet, folks.

Update (from Slublog): Their next plan of attack -- Occupy Black Friday.

The website encourages occupation or simple boycotting of retailers. The group cites a connection between fourth quarter profits for retailers, credit card usage and the stock market as being the source for the protests on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Â…

In addition to encouraging site visitors to not spend money on Friday, the website encourages occupation, and “Occupy” protesters typically have featured sit-ins, on-site camping, slogan cheering and sign-waving as their modes of protest.

Disrupting holiday shopping oughta win them some converts.

Posted by: JohnE. at 11:46 AM | Comments (528)
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So Steve Hayward of AEI wrote a piece on Modernizing Conservatism which, at its core, makes the case that the Reagan Revolution failed and the entitlement state is here to stay. Get used to it and start negotiating. An excerpt:

“Which brings us to the third major political fact of our age: the welfare state, or entitlement state, is here to stay. It is a central feature of modernity itself. We are simply not going back to a system of "rugged individualism" in a minimalist "night watchman" state; there is not even a plurality in favor of this position.”

It's already linked on the sidebar, but Ace asked me to share my response to Hayward with you all, which is over at Ricochet.

There is no statesmanly compromise to be made on entitlement reform. The choice has to be made. We will take a path toward top-down bureaucratic rationing or we will empower the consumer to make decisions for themselves. Paul Ryan recognizes that those who see some middle path are crawling off a cliff after a mirage.

Hayward offers nothing here, ultimately, but capitulation, judgment from on high for those who stubbornly refuse to wave the white flag. How infuriating it is when people do not know they are beaten. It is time to cut our losses. It is time to make a deal. It is time to negotiate surrender. Be reasonable. But who is being reasonable here, and who is being delusional?

rdbrewer had a great response via email to one aspect - I give credit to Hayward for not being entirely wrong about the starve-the-beast strategy of the Reagan years being a failure, but my view is that it's a failure because of the lavish overspending of both parties.

"But who was starving the beast? That wasn't a Republican strategy. Reagan's lower taxes caused revenues to skyrocket. But Tip O'Neill spent all of that and more. The beast began to starve because Democrats brought in a bigger beast."

Annotated depiction of total government spending per capita in constant dollars to give you a visual aid. more...

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 10:03 AM | Comments (253)
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It was filmed in Daraa, Syria, in May of 2011. When the people of Syria took to the streets to demand their rights, they were asking for the basic right to speak freely, to assemble peaceably, to choose their own leaders through free and fair elections, and to shape their own destinies. Their very existence together on the streets of Syria's cities was an act of defiance to the Assad regime, and this video shows how that regime reacts to acts of defiance. It gives an unblinking look at the dead and the dying.

Some people draw parallels to the Arab Spring, Tahrir Square in Cairo and the streets of Daraa and Homs, to the Occupy movement. I frankly don't see the parallels at all: the people of the Arab dictatorships are doing the only thing they can to struggle out from under dictatorships that have maintained power through murder and torture, whereas there are many purposeful and effective actions available to citizens of Western democracies beyond forming encampments that give rudimentary form to inchoate rage. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 AM | Comments (79)
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Their new plan is to not pay their debts, which, frankly, I sort of think was already their plan, before Occupy, before Zucotti, before they sent out their first resumes.

But now they have a website for it.

The "plan" is that they have a group pledge sheet, and they all promise to stop paying their loans as soon as one million people sign the pledge. (That is, they all begin not paying simultaneously, one million strong, though, as I mentioned, I have a feeling there are a lot of people who are already on this plan, sans pledge.)

The campaign is calling for several reforms of higher education, including free public colleges, no-interest loans, greater transparency at private and for-profit colleges and complete forgiveness of all existing student debt.

Let me get this straight: Their demand is that financial institutions forgive the debt, or else they vow they won't pay it?

What's in it for banks, then? Either way, the Occupiers are not paying the debt, right? Why not at least impose the penalties on them?

I'm beginning to think this whole Occupy movement isn't very well thought out.

Posted by: Ace at 08:50 AM | Comments (211)
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Any plan that got seven votes would at least go to Congress for consideration on a fast-track basis (no amendments, no blocking it, etc.).

So any plan only need to have one vote from the opposite party to succeed.

Note well that Joe Manchin is talking tough about Obama's lack of leadership, while nevertheless voting exactly the way Obama wants him to.

This is what infuriates me about people. And, here, the people of West Virginia. They like to think of themselves as conservatives. They want a conservative politician (they think).

And what do they do? They vote for a Democrat who sings a nice song without realizing, or even considering, "Gee, on every tough vote Manchin is going to vote with the liberals, because that's what they all do."

So Red State (or Light Red-Purple State) Dummies continue to do this, forever and ever, thinking, I guess, "This time, our Democratic Senator will really stick with us rather than vote the way his caucus tells him."

Note this doesn't happen most of the time with Republicans -- Senators Snowe and Collins, and McCain and Graham, are eager to bow to liberal pressure on tough votes, for example.

But sure Red Staters, this time the "conservative" Democrat (and you know he's a conservative because he drives a pick-up truck during campaign season and he talks up his shotgun hunting) will vote with the conservatives rather than the ideological party he actually chose to affiliate himself with.

Manchin keeps on doing this -- talkin' like a common sense conservative for his gullible supporters, then, surprise surprise, voting the liberal Democratic Party line whenever John Kerry tells him to.

Posted by: Ace at 08:16 AM | Comments (105)
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Good God.

Victim One, the first known alleged victim of abuse by former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, had to leave his school in the middle of his senior year because of bullying, his counselor said Sunday.

Officials at Central Mountain High School in Clinton County werenÂ’t providing guidance for fellow students, who were reacting badly about Joe PaternoÂ’s firing and blaming the 17-year-old, said Mike Gillum, the psychologist helping his family. Those officials were unavailable for comment this weekend.

The name-calling and verbal threats were just too much, he said.

Sometimes I think the world is doomed, and then sometimes, that thought contents me.

I hope Penn State football suffers from a lack of interest from recruits, and is mediocre to poor for ten years.

These people -- and I know there are plenty of good Penn Staters -- but these particular people need some karma.

It's just football, for the love of god. For half of Penn State's fans it's not even really their football team, just a local team that's on TV.

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 AM | Comments (175)
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Like we usual do, the Anchoress and I are exchanging Thanksgiving recipes, and we're both on the hunt for good ones in the comments (hint, hint). Last year, I had a squash stuffing recipe that I'd found in the comments the year before. She had Italian rainbow cookies.

This year Elizabeth is offering roasted parsnips and apples, which works as a side-dish or a salad. Actually, this kind of easy-to-reheat dish is really helpful when you're juggling a half-dozen sides for Thanksgiving dinner.

This year I've been a little distracted watching my nieces while we await the arrival of my nephew (born Friday, home from the hospital yesterday!) so I kept it simple (with thanks to my mother for the idea). more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:24 AM | Comments (157)
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Given that every article written urging Obama to drop his reelection bid could be said, in some small way, to increase the agitation for such a maneuver, this could be headlined,

Pressure Builds For Obama To End His Presidency

which is how the NYT would write a similar headline for an unpopular Republican president.

Silly? Who knows. Our distracted, depressive president's heart isn't in this.

Caddell and Schoen want Hillary substituted for President No Mas.

If President Obama were to withdraw, he would put great pressure on the Republicans to come to the table and negotiate—especially if the president singularly focused in the way we have suggested on the economy, job creation, and debt and deficit reduction. By taking himself out of the campaign, he would change the dynamic from who is more to blame—George W. Bush or Barack Obama?—to a more constructive dialogue about our nation's future.

Even though Mrs. Clinton has expressed no interest in running, and we have no information to suggest that she is running any sort of stealth campaign, it is clear that she commands majority support throughout the country. A CNN/ORC poll released in late September had Mrs. Clinton's approval rating at an all-time high of 69%—even better than when she was the nation's first lady. Meanwhile, a Time Magazine poll shows that Mrs. Clinton is favored over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 17 points (55%-38%), and Texas Gov. Rick Perry by 26 points (58%-32%).

But this is about more than electoral politics. Not only is Mrs. Clinton better positioned to win in 2012 than Mr. Obama, but she is better positioned to govern if she does. Given her strong public support, she has the ability to step above partisan politics, reach out to Republicans, change the dialogue, and break the gridlock in Washington.

That would be an interesting play, catching us a little off-guard, as we chose our nominee with the belief we'd be in a very favorable election cycle, given the weakness of the incumbent's record, only to find out the incumbent won't be obliging us.

Still a lower-probability thing, I think, and I actually even credit this as a a genuine non-trivial possibility. Obama would have to be sure he'd lose before his best ego-preserving move became dropping out. Otherwise his ego would insist he try to become a two-termer, even though his heart really just wants some well-paid NGO sinecure where he gets validated by his dwindling number of fans on college campuses every couple of weeks.

Posted by: Ace at 05:58 AM | Comments (145)
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I don't think he's "turned" on him. He would still walk on his knees over broken glass for the honor of cutting his own throat to give his master a warm footbath.

Still, he's disappointed, and acknowledging that Obama's got problems, among them (as he notes) a complete lack of any sort of agenda, a lack of any kind of winning campaign theme ("is this as good as it gets," Matthews asks of Obama's presidency), and a lack of interest in and aptidude for the position (Obama is a shut-in, kinda).

Speaking of pop culturally relevant, it's telling that Matthews cannot get over JFK, as just about every criticism is a direct comparison to JFK. ("There's no moon program, no Peace Corps" under Obama, he says.)

You know, given that we're probably not going to be ga-ga in love with our nominee-- at least one advantage is that we won't be turning into blubbering jilted wrecks like Matthews over his college hero crush.

Posted by: Ace at 05:33 AM | Comments (105)
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