It's all theater but I guess it's necessary theater.

The 10-year spending plan released Tuesday by Rep. Paul Ryan is virtually identical to last yearÂ’s GOP budget: It would defund President ObamaÂ’s health-care initiative, end guaranteed Medicare coverage for future retirees and sharply restrain spending on the poor, college students and federal workers.

The one big new development: Ryan’s latest blueprint would balance the budget, producing a small surplus in 2023 — a goal achieved not primarily through deeper spending cuts, but by the addition of more than $3.2 trillion in new tax revenue.

As Dean Clancy, FreedomWorks' healthcare guy points out, it's a bit of shell game.

Ryan's new budget assumes full repeal of ObamaCare but quietly keeps the same amount of money as raised by ObamaCare's tax hikes. Hmm.

— Dean Clancy (@DeanClancy) March 12, 2013

So the GOP continues to oppose ObamaCare but has embraced the ObamaCare tax hikes they've spent years saying will kill the economy.

Clancy also points out that Ryan budget will grow the government at 3.4% per year as opposed to the current projection of 5% per year. A-It still grows government and B-Cutting the rate of growth 1.6% per year is beyond what's politically possible at the moment.

DOOM.

Democrats meanwhile have released their own budget blueprint. It doesn't even pretend to balance, nor does it hide the tax hikes.

But the tax figure could present a problem for a handful of red-state Democrats up for reelection who Republicans will undoubtedly say are supporting a $1 trillion tax hike if they back the plan.

Nevertheless, Democratic leaders believe the Murray plan will allow their party to show a major contrast with Rep. Paul RyanÂ’s budget and its calls for a significant overhaul of Medicare. And they expect to have the support of at least 50 Democrats on the floor to ensure they would be able to pass the first budget out of the Senate in four years.

The Murray plan would not balance the budget in a 10-year timeframe like the Ryan proposal would. But Murray’s 50-50 split between taxes and spending is supposed to be consistent with Obama’s call for a “balanced” approach for deficit reduction, something they argue voters largely support rather than the cuts-only approach backed by Republicans. Obama plans to unveil his budget plan after Congress begins to debate the competing proposals, something that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said would “drop a bomb” on the budget process.

I don't blame Ryan for coming up with gimmicks to balance the budget in 10 years. The whole notion is a gimmick Boehner promised this as a sop to the right after caving on the fiscal cliff temporary debt ceiling hike.

Politically, it's kind of a meh for the GOP. I mean they did run on this last year and if memory serves, it didn't go well. Now you can chose to believe the ideas are popular (and lots of folks will point to polls showing they are) but when actually put the voters it didn't work that way. Maybe Romney was just that unlikable. Personally I think it's both.

Don't get me wrong, the Democrat's plan won't be popular (unless they convince people the taxes will only fall on the "rich", aka...someone else) but it doesn't even pretend to solve the deficit/debt problems.

Nothing is going to happen while Obama is in office to deal with entitlements. That's just a fact. I wish the GOP had come up with a new and different approach to dealing with the problem but there isn't one. It's just math.

People will keep telling pollsters they want these problems solved but when it comes to voting they will send people to DC who will support more spending (which is what the voters really want) that will only make it worse.

In the meantime, the burning will continue apace.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:36 AM | Comments (260)
Post contains 659 words, total size 5 kb.

Roasting a duck can be messy, but it is definitely worth the trouble.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:07 AM | Comments (150)
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

• Obama's Cabinet Is Whiter Than An Aaron Sorkin Production
  
• Feinstein Urges Obama To Follow Clinton's Lead On Gun Control
  
• The GOP Plan To Balance The Budget In 10 Years
  
• A Species Facing Extinction
  
• Mostly Peaceful Brooklyn Youths Riot After Vigil For Gangbanger
  
• The Falkland Island Referendum On Staying British Wins With 99.8% Of The Vote
  
• The Cronyism Candidate
  
• In China, What You Don't Know Can Kill You
  
• China's Shale Boom Still A Long Way Off
  
• House Republican Discipline Falling Apart
  
• Hackers Go After Government Officials
  
• The Great Gatsby To Open At The Cannes Film Festival
  
• The Evolution Of Guns
  
• Charter Schools Surging In Massachusetts
  
• Even The Federal Government Is Demanding Pension Reform In Illinois
  
• Ted Cruz Still Fighting Against Obamacare
  
• Gov't Advertises Nearly 2,600 News Jobs Since Sequestration
  

Sorry I'm late but sequestration, daylight saving time, ATMs, the Japanese Earthquake, headwinds, etc.

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:44 AM | Comments (210)
Post contains 154 words, total size 3 kb.

Happy Tuesday, mush-heads.

Apparently, the yoots were rioting in Brooklyn last night.

Instapundit writes in USAToday about the idiocy of school policies concerning guns and things that are not guns but that administrators have fits of hysteria about because they are stupid people with forebrains the size and density of olive pits.

Politico draws a line between Obama's sequester Chicken Little-ism last month and his Administration's current problems.

Conclave starts today. Actually, I think it started while we were sleeping.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:41 AM | Comments (279)
Post contains 88 words, total size 1 kb.

Malaysia: The Jewel of Asia

It occurred to me as the fiscal quarter draws to a close that I've never talked about Malaysia on the ONT.

Which is a shame because it truly is a wonderful country - blessed with beautiful landscapes, friendly people and abundant resources, as well an enlightened moderate Muslim government.

With borders stretching from Thailand all the way down to Indonesia its 127,000 sq. miles encompass both rain forest-covered mountains and beautiful pristine beaches. Lifestyle-wise it offers the best of relaxed tropical living along with the fast paced bustle of the city life and rapidly expanding industry in the Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru regions.

And with unrestrictive labor laws, flexible regulation and a GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years it's quickly become the go-to location for business investment in Asia.

Culturally Malaysia is a boiling melting-pot of races and religions where most ethnic groups live together in peace and harmony under a modern sharia-influenced legal system. And thanks to this ethnic diversity it enjoys an amazing array of art and crafts from traditional batik to modern textiles and batik as well as hundreds of colorful festivals where the locals enthusiastically pray and recite verses.

For foodies it's a gastronomical paradise with cuisine influenced by the Arab, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Javanese, and Somalian cultures. And socially the Malaysians are a very relaxed and friendly people and open to visitors of most major religions.

While officially a Muslim state Malaysia seems to have found a unique middle way in being true to Islam while guaranteeing some rights to religious minorities - and the Malaysian national motto 'Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu' ("Unity Is Strength" ) reflects these values. The esteemed Prime Minister Najib Alibaba Razak explains their success this way:

"We have always taken the position that Islam is an integral part of public policy in Malaysia. By doing so, we have taken the wind from the sails of the extremists. There is no contradiction between being moderate and being Muslim,"

..."Being moderate, taking the middle path, is fundamental to Islam. It is one of the pillars of Islam. Muslims have rights, but it's also enshrined in the teachings of Islam to safeguard non-Muslims in your midst. It's wrong for Muslims to even be unkind to non-Muslims. We would no more harm a non-believer than kill a fly without cause."

With beaches, culture, a growing economy, and a harmonious, moderate Islamic society Malaysia truly is the the jewel of Asia.

And with the monsoon rains almost over why not book your journey to Malaysia now!

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:23 PM | Comments (886)
Post contains 1527 words, total size 19 kb.

I don't know. I'm an idiot.

Try Yahoo Group ID # 36384 Password is still paulanka, which I likely messed up too.

I don't do this for a living.

Just. Whatever.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:54 AM | Comments (47)
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

Nailed it. Gif, video and awful CAC graphic below.

more...

Posted by: CAC at 05:34 PM | Comments (83)
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

Interesting.

This is a tough one for me. Obviously Bruce Carroll would be much better for the country and our progeny, but, on the other hand, then he'd be moving up ahead of me in status.

Can I support this? Is it so wrong just to root for all of your enemies, and your friends, to fail? Is that asking too much?

I'm just kidding of course. I don't root for my friends to fail. That would be terrible. I only root for my enemies to fail.

I root for my friends to struggle.

That Joke... is All Me, except for the whole idea of it.

Andy Breckman, a producer of the Monk show (maybe the creator?), began his podcast with this benediction:

Dear Lord

May My Show Succeed
And May The Shows of My Friends Fail
And Yet May I Still Be Perceived

As a Team Player

Amen.

Posted by: Ace at 04:31 PM | Comments (166)
Post contains 175 words, total size 1 kb.

It's a principle of law that laws restricting right to free expression must be viewpoint neutral and can only regulate time, place, and manner of that expression.

Furthermore, it's not just the law itself which must be viewpoint-neutral -- the application of the law must be viewpoint-neutral as well. Thus a law which discriminates against some viewpoints might be struck down for being facially discriminatory-- its own words betray its intent to burden a particular viewpoint -- or discriminatory as applied -- the law itself seemed neutral on its face, but when cops and prosecutors actually enforce the law, they tend to only enforce it against a specific viewpoint.

My point here is just to note that people can pretend at neutrality, talking up a facially neutral law or principle, while in fact using that principle to discriminate like the Devil by only applying the restrictive law (or principle) to attack types of speech they don't like.

The media loves announcing "Neutral" Storylines and pushing them. They get to appear as crusaders, but, critically, as neutral, non-partisan crusaders, because the principle they're championing, or the law they're agitating for, is "neutral" on its face. They can claim they're acting in favor of a nonpartisan objective, while actually fighting like hell for a completely partisan one.

Case in point: The media and supposedly "non-partisan" groups like Common Cause (actually bought-and-paid-for liberal front operations to give a "nonpartisan" veneer to liberal politicking) say that Big Money in Politics is bad.

Well, that sounds neutral, doesn't it? They're not favoring a particular party in claiming that; there's Big Money on the left as well as on the right. Presumably they're against all of it; that's what makes this neutral. Right?

Not right. The principle is only enforced against the right. It may appear neutral; it's designed to appear that way, to fool the rubes. In fact it's as partisan as Pelosi.

Here's a couple of data points that bear serious thought this week by transparency advocates celebrating Sunshine Week and by everybody else who cares about protecting and preserving a free and independent press:

1,130 - Number of results for search term "Koch Brothers" on The New York Times web site.

64 - Number of results for search term "The Tides Foundation" [a left-wing political agitation Big Money donor] on The New York Times web site.

...

Similar results appear from the same searches on The Washington Post web site, which turns up 277 links to the Koch Brothers and 11 for Tides. And on the New Yorker web site, Koch Brothers generated 35 links and none for Tides.

The contrast was even more dramatic on the Common Cause site, where the Koch Brothers were linked 4,560 times versus one for Tides.

What do these search results tell us? Only that it appears the Koch Brothers are of vastly heightened interest to two of America's greatest daily newspapers and to the dean of campaign finance reform advocacy organizations than is the Tides Foundation.

Now, who contributes more money to political causes? Ahhh, you know. Of course you know.

So here's a better question: How many times more money does Tides donate than the Koch Brothers' foundations?

a) 150% as much

b) Twice as much

c) Three times as much

d) Five times as much

The Joe Bloggs answers for this question are anything less than "five times as much."

Now, given that Tides Foundation, a leftwing group founded by radicals is donating five times as much as the Koch Brothers, we'd expect at least as many mentions of Tides, right?

But of course not. Tides is permitted to operate in secret, with scarcely a mention; the Koch Brothers have the Scare Campaign ginned up against them.

The "Neutral" goal here is a lie. The agitation is not to drive Big Money out of politics.

It's about stopping money from supporting conservative initiatives and candidates only. Soros & Ilk are to be excepted from the law. After all, Soros and Tides aren't really even funding "politics" -- they're just funding Common Sense Practical Solutions (TM).

I wrote about these false non-Neutral Storylines before. Check it out, if you like.

Posted by: Ace at 03:37 PM | Comments (96)
Post contains 716 words, total size 5 kb.

So you got a tight fake Facebook identity -- good. But is that fake account really protecting you as much as you think it does? Apparently not if you're one of those people addicted to hitting that "like" button.

...This study demonstrates the degree to which relatively basic digital records of human behavior can be used to automatically and accurately estimate a wide range of personal attributes that people would typically assume to be private...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:18 PM | Comments (107)
Post contains 271 words, total size 2 kb.