That's a Slushop.

Tightening His Belt: Obama the Coupon-Cutter.

Posted by: Ace at 10:38 AM | Comments (82)
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Proposed at Big Hollywood.

Seems true. I've often thought this was 75% at the root of Hollywood liberalism.

[T]he A, B, C, and D list is 80% comprised of people who feel deep in their soul that they havenÂ’t really earned all they have.

And deep in their soul, that does something to people. When you look in the mirror and feel you havenÂ’t earned what you have, you feel guilty, more than that, you feel like a poodle. You feel like a kept poodle, coiffed and coddled and carried, without any satisfaction of having truly earned your success.
ThatÂ’s a problem.

...

Which brings me back to Janeane.

Read her bio.

...

Let me be clear: Janeane is correct to be liberal. She hasnÂ’t earned her money. If you havenÂ’t earned your money, be liberalÂ… with your money.

...

So IÂ’m proposing a Celebrity Windfall TaxÂ… It should be easy to pass. Actors, Authors, Painters, Poets, TV Newsmen, and Athletes shall pay double. They have fun jobs, fun jobs that arenÂ’t hard work. They make windfall profits. LetÂ’s tax the shit out of them.

Very true. People in unconventional careers often have no earthly idea why they're successful and someone else isn't. It's either some weird, unteachable advantage they possess -- natural talent, good looks, incredible athletic prowess -- or pure luck or a combination of both. It's never something tangible they can point to -- going to business school three nights a week while already holding a 60+ hour a week job, risking their family's money in a start-up business they then work 100 hours a week at, etc. -- and say "Right there, that work is the reason I got ahead."

It's always this mystical whim of fortune. No wonder they feel guilty.

But, being insatiable narcissists, of course they generalize -- or universalize, really -- from their own narrow experience and assume that everyone who's had some success owes it to simple chance and fate alone, whether inborn talent or just catching a lucky break.

Thanks to JayA.

And While You're There: An Iraq vet declares war on Hollywood.

Thanks to Pat Dollard for that.

Posted by: Ace at 10:27 AM | Comments (75)
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"We're not in this to make money." Heh.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (16)
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"I won," he miscalculated.

Forty-two percent (42%) of the nationÂ’s likely voters now support the presidentÂ’s plan, roughly one-third of which is tax cuts with the rest new government spending. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 39% are opposed to it and 19% are undecided. Liberal voters overwhelmingly support the plan while conservatives are strongly opposed.
Last week, support for the PresidentÂ’s plan was at 45% and opposition at 34%.

...

Over the course of the past week, there has been little change in the views of either Republicans or Democrats towards the legislation. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Democrats support the plan along with just 18% of Republicans. Both those figures are up just a single point from the previous poll.

However, support among unaffiliated voters has fallen. A week ago, unaffiliateds were evenly divided on the plan, with 37% in favor and 36% opposed. Now, 50% of unaffiliated voters oppose the plan while only 27% favor it.

The Democrats were out of the White House long enough the public began to forget why they had long mistrusted them. They're being reminded.

Needless to say, full steam ahead on Republicans finally acting like Republicans. The polling is good political news, obviously. People tend to become invested in their opinions, so if a lot of independents currently feel that the "stimulus" is a waste of money and won't help the economy much and might hurt it, they will be resistant to changing that opinion when the economy recovers, as it of course will (at least at some point). Obama's going to have a hard time persuading them that resodding The Mall did the trick.

Republicans can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh? Okay. How about Democrats can't just listen to Robert Reich and Paul Krugman?

I had mixed feelings on Republicans proposing their own alternative -- hey, the Democrats usually didn't, preferring simply to snipe, so why break tradition? But they did, and they seem pleased with their work:

House Republicans have proposed an alternative that leaders say would create 6.2 million jobs for only $478 billion.

"What Member can't go back his or her District and explain: Rather than voting for a bloated bill, ... I voted for an alternative that would create twice the jobs at half the cost, and faster?" a House Republican leadership aide said. "That's why we didn't lose a single Republican and picked up 11 Democrats."

Here's Obama's counteroffensive:

Pushing back against the unanimous House Republican vote against President Obama’s stimulus plan, the White House plans to release state-by-state job figures “so we can put a number on what folks voted for an against,” an administration aide said.

“It’s clear the Republicans who voted against the stimulus represent constituents who will be stunned to learn their member of Congress voted against [saving or] creating 4 million jobs,” the aide said.

Not really all that effective. The public already knows we're in an economic catastrophe to rival the Great Depression (!!11!!!ELEVENTY!!!). This is known. This is baked into the cake.

What is not known is whether the Reid-Pelosi-Obama Budget Blowout Bonanza will help or hurt. Simply underscoring the dimensions of the greatest financial crisis of almost one hundred years does not do anything to advance the argument that the Reid-Pelosi-Obama plan is better.

I don't know the figures -- but with a trillion dollars to play with, what kind of a temporary break could the government give to businesses as far as their contribution towards the payroll tax? What percentage? It seems to me that if we want to create (or "preserve") jobs, jobs, jobs it might be smart to do so fairly directly by reducing the costs of hiring or keeping workers, at least for a few years.

Both items ripped from the headlines. Of Hot Air, of course.

Welfare for Illegal Aliens? Why Not? How does this help Michelle Obama's children?

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (59)
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He is addressing the Illinois State Senate now.

Will he resign or just quote poetry for awhile?

Either way, we won't have him to kick around for much longer and that's a shame.

Meanwhile the Lt. Governor is warming up in the wings.

The Bible is ready. The oath has been prepared. The lieutenant governor and his family are on their way to Springfield. And the current governor's belongings are boxed up and waiting to be picked up at the Executive Mansion.

"I definitely plan to be in Springfield and I will be ready," Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. Quinn said he has been careful not to be "presumptuous" over the last seven weeks as the Legislature has marched toward today's expected impeachment and removal from office of Gov. Blagojevich.

Update: Nope, doesn't look like he's resigning. He says after his talk he hopes the Senate will reconsider it's position on not allowing him to call witnesses.

He's wrapped up. Basically he said he did nothing wrong and it's an unfair process that did not allow his witnesses. If he's done anything wrong, it's just caring too darn much.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:07 AM | Comments (59)
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Some, in this case, being President Obama. The noted advocate of sacrifice to protect the planet from the scourge of global warming simply can't be bothered to change his own habits.

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.

Predictably, the media isn't pointing out the obvious contrast between what Obama says and what Obama does. Sure, we pick on Carter for good reason, but at least he had the decency to wear a sweater.

Posted by: Slublog at 07:43 AM | Comments (149)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:35 AM | Comments (61)
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Note on “Overnight Open Thread.” Please read: I tacked a long piece about the nature of the nightly open thread below the fold. There were a number of questions and comments that needed clearing up. If there’s anything not answered there, send questions to the tipline.

That said, since last night was about “lame fictional weapons,” why not link a slideshow to Discovery Channel’s 3rd season of Future Weapons? I give the thread 10 comments before somebody sneers “it’s old.” Ignore them like you’d ignore the spelling/grammar Nazis.

The slideshow is mostly about small arms, but #14 has LOLcat all over it, as in: “We can haz ur entrails spillzd all over da road?” To get a description of the weapon for each slide, hover your pointer at the bottom of the pic, but above the tab. But like last night, there’s another glaring omission to the list: The PS-52 Laser-Sighted Slingshot. According to the manufacturer:

”This slingshot has a laser-pointer integrated into its frame. The manufacturer guarantees that it's dangerous to 250 feet, and can hit beer cans or filthy city pigeons at 50 feet.”

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:25 PM | Comments (77)
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The Starborg Collective-- You will be assimilated finally halted, but quite deep into Federation Space, partly by the economic downturn, partly because there are now six Starbucks for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

Starbucks Corp. announced Wednesday that fiscal first quarter profit fell 69 percent as revenue dipped. The company also plans to close more stores, eliminating up to 6,000 jobs.

The coffee chain operator posted fiscal first quarter earnings of $64.3 million or 9 cents a share, much lower than the $208.1 million or 28 cents a share earned in the same period the year before.

Starbucks took a $75.5 million restructuring charge in the quarter for costs related to store closures. Excluding those costs the company earned 16 cents a share.

Revenue fell as well, down 6 percent to $2.62 billion from $2.77 billion last year. Same-store sales dipped as well, down 9 percent in the quarter.

The results were short of analyst estimates for earnings of 17 cents a share on $2.7 billion in revenue.

The company said it will close an additional 300 underperforming stores to go along with the 600 previously announced.

I take a lot of shots at Starbucks. I don't mean to take one here, really when I say that for the thousandth time, a franchise caught a bit of a craze and overexpanded too much and too quickly.

I'm just surprised it took this long, and that they had, quite literally, some blocks in which competing Starbucks faced each other from across the street.

Posted by: Ace at 07:23 PM | Comments (151)
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Equality for all.

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

You just know some idiot is going to do this on April 15th and get nailed for it.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:49 PM | Comments (77)
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