We're going to nominate this guy? Really?

Behold this profile in cowardice.

Campaigning in Ohio today, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stopped by a Republican Party phone-bank making calls in support of Gov. John Kasich's government union reform referendum, but refused to endorse the actual referendum. CNN's Peter Hamby called the scene an "incredible moment in politics."

Kasich already signed his government union reforms into law in March of this year, not long after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker won his battle against government unions. But Democrats, with the help from the AFL-CIO, placed a referendum on next week's ballot Issue 2, that would repeal the new law. A vote for the referendum would keep the law, a vote against would repeal.

Romney's spokesperson says he thinks voters should decide the matter without outside interference.

Actually, it turns out, he explicitly supported the measure before he decided not to say anything about it.

Forget the flip flopping. This is just pathetic. if he doesn't think outsiders should get involved why go to the phone bank at all? Oh right, he wants people to think he supports it but wants to be able to say he didn't. That makes "leading from behind" seem downright courageous.

Is the GOP really going to nominate someone so cowardly he won't take a clear stand on one of the top issues of the day for conservative voters? Well, unless Perry can forcefully, articulately and effectively sell and defend his economic plan, it seems so.

One problem Mitt has is that some folks may vote for him in the general (if he gets there) because it's about Anyone But Obama. But the question has been, will people volunteer for him and do the other things that help put a candidate over the top. Why would Republicans in Ohio who are working their butts fighting the good fight here come out and work for a guy who won't support them?

(Note: Ace posted this for me but I had reworked some of the post after putting it in draft. I reposted it to reflect my final version)

Posted by: DrewM at 11:26 AM | Comments (501)
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Some context: If Rick Perry is sounding like he's a little desperate, he is. A new CBS poll puts him in fifth place, after Cain (25%), Romney (21%), Newt Gingrich (10%), and the Candidate With Simplistic Conspiracy-Theory-Infulenced Answers for Complicated Questions(8%). (Dear Representative Paul: We had recessions and depressions and bubbles and busts with the gold standard and before the Fed. Please explain how that can be, since the One Big Thing you know (you think) about economics is that manipulation of fiat money is the principal cause of such things.)

Perry clocks in at 6%, which isn't top tier. In fact, it's falling out of the second tier, too.

Of course, all is not lost for Perry. This primary is like the weather: If you like it, don't worry. It'll change soon enough. If Cain can rise and fall and rise again, maybe Perry can too.

So he's decided to go after Romney.

Perry has brought on board a new group of media consultants known for their brass-knuckled tactics and sharp read on the GOP base. Joe Allbaugh, a former top aide to President George W. Bush, added major national heft to the Perry team by signing on as a senior adviser.

It all adds up to a course correction that may give Perry his best shot at getting back into contention with Romney, the sometime GOP front-runner whom Perry attacked forcefully in last weekÂ’s Nevada GOP debate.

Expect plenty more where that came from, say strategists familiar with PerryÂ’s growing team.

“The Perry folks are undergoing a reboot of sorts after last week’s debate, where they are moving to make this a two-man race,” said conservative strategist Keith Appell, who worked on Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign with brand-new Perry advisers Tony Fabrizio, Curt Anderson and Nelson Warfield.

Appell predicted the fresh blood would help the Texan wage a more focused and aggressive campaign.

“They are all kindred spirits with the Perry people in that they are all Washington outsiders who aren’t afraid to take on the establishment,” Appell said. “It will soon be Mitt Romney’s turn to feel like a piñata.”

Also possibly a sign of desperation: Perry's floating the birth certificate issue.

He's not committing to it, but he's either 1, courting the cadre of voters who are determined to be proven right on the question (even if they're not), or 2, which I suspect, he actually doesn't know much about it and honestly heard Donald Trump express doubts about the long form birth certificate's authenticity. Like most people, he hasn't actually done much investigating himself, so takes the judgment of others to be a proxy for actual evidence.

One of my big theories about politics is that it's better to be trusted on an issue than to have to prove one's bona fides by making strident claims about one's beliefs.

If a candidate is simply trusted as a true blue social con, and doesn't have to fill his resume with tough-sounding rhetoric about ending abortion, he's a better candidate for the general election. Essentially he has the best of both worlds -- he placates the right while not leaving much of a paper trail that will turn independents against him.

I thought when Perry entered the race, with his front-runner status secure and all the momentum in the world, he was that kind of candidate. He didn't have to go hard after constituencies, because the main constituencies he needed to win the primary already tended to trust him as one of their own.

However, he's not that candidate anymore. Like any second or third tier candidate, he's going to have to claw his way back up by appealing to specific constituencies. And those appeals will be used against him later in the general election (assuming he wins the nomination).

In other words, whether he wins or loses the primary, I think he's a weaker general election candidate than he was two months ago.

But virtually everyone in the primaries is weak in one way or another, I suppose.

Romney may be a decent general election candidate. And what would he do if he won? Not support John Kasich's budget reforms in Ohio, it turns out. (DrewM's got an upcoming post about this.)

But someone has to win the nomination.

So we're in a process now of choosing who seems the weakest and/or who offends us the least.

I suppose I'll just have to content myself with voting for Not Obama, whoever that Not Obama candidate turns out to be.

Posted by: Ace at 10:18 AM | Comments (342)
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Jack Murtha is now dead (and may Hell take him) but his legacy of graft lives on.

Last weekÂ’s release of FBI documents finally put in writing what nobody had ever said on the record: The FBI suspected that former Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and lobbyists close to him were running a scheme to funnel earmarks to sham companies and nonprofits to benefit the lawmakerÂ’s friends and former staffers.

The corruption didn't die with Murtha, because his longtime staffer Mark Critz took over the graft position. And it seems extraordinarily unlikely that he could have worked so long for the corrupt Congressman without knowing about the scheme to divert taxpayer money to friends of Murtha's (who would then kick Murtha back his vig).

Furthermore, we need to know why the FBI opened, but then closed, so many investigations into this bloated shitbag of theft.

They were always interested in Murtha's dealings. But they apparently closed every investigation without bringing charges.

Or at least not charges against Murtha.

n 2009, the Justice Department filed charges against Coherent CEO Richard Ianieri, alleging that he had used money from the Mobile Gateway project to buy products unrelated to the contract from several companies, including KSA clients VidiaFusion and Gensym.

VidiaFusion had no website, no telephone number and no email address. The address listed for VidiaFusion on the lobbying registration form submitted by KSA is a condominium building in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Florida secretary of state has no record of a company called VidiaFusion. The government charged that Ianieri paid VidiaFusion $274,660 for “software” that was unrelated to the Gateway project and was never used.

Ianieri also transferred $300,000 to Gensym, another KSA client, which was passing funding through to a subcontractor called Applied Technology. The FBI described Applied Technology as “an example of a KSA-created business that acquired federal earmarks and has no legitimate purpose.”

The FBI records indicate two KSA lobbyists were on the Applied Technology payroll, though their names have been redacted.

Ianieri pleaded guilty to filing false purchase orders and accepting a kickback from another company close to Murtha, Kuchera Defense Systems, and was sentenced to a fine and probation.

Coherent did deliver to the Air Force a vehicle-based communications system envisioned in the original “Mobile Gateway” earmark.

Mark OÂ’Hair, an Air Force contracting official who oversaw the Gateway contracts, and contractor Richard Schaller, who was paid by Ianieri, both went to jail for their roles in the scheme, but nobody else was ever charged. There is no evidence that the FBI conducted a serious probe of who in MurthaÂ’s office might have known about the bogus earmarks.

Roll Call reported in March 2010 that KSA had folded. Stalder and other KSA lobbyists appear to have created a new firm called Edge Solutions, but the phone number at that office is now disconnected and emails sent to Edge Solutions went unanswered.

Who told them to lay off?

The insidious thing about corrupt bastards like Murtha is that, due to their power, they wind up corrupting so many around them.

We need a reckoning. The FBI needs to know that "But he's an important Congressman!" is not an adequate excuse for laying down on an investigation.

Posted by: Ace at 08:55 AM | Comments (195)
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* THE VERY EXISTENCE OF OWS HAD BEEN IN JEOPARDY DUE TO AGGRAVATED PERCUSSION:

OWS is over after Tuesday:

Friends, mediation with the drummers has been called off. It has gone on for more than 2 weeks and it has reached a dead end. The drummers formed a working group called Pulse and agreed to 2 hrs/day at times during the mediation, and more recently that changed to 4 hrs/day. It's my feeling that we may have a fighting chance with the community board if we could indeed limit drumming and loud instrumentation to 12-2pm and 4-6pm, however that isn't what's happening.

Last night the drumming was near continuous until 10:30pm at night. Today it began again at 11am. The drummers are fighting amongst themselves, there is no cohesive group. There is one assemblage called Pulse that organized most of the drummers into a group and went to GA for formal recognition and with a proposal.

Unfortunately there is one individual who is NOT a drummer but who claims to speak for the drummers who has been a deeply disruptive force, attacking the drumming rep during the GA and derailing his proposal, disrupting the community board meeting, as well as the OWS community relations meeting. She has also created strife and divisions within the POC caucus, calling many members who are not 'on her side' "Uncle Tom", "the 1%", "Barbie" "not Palestinian enough" "Wall Street politicians" "not black enough" "sell-outs", etc. People have been documenting her disruptions, and her campaign of misinformation, and instigations. She also has a documented history online of defamatory, divisive and disruptive behavior within the LGBT (esp. transgender) communities. Her disruptions have made it hard to have constructive conversations and productive resolutions to conflicts in a variety of forums in the past several days.

* BUT NOW, "CRISIS AVERTED:"

UPDATE (12:44 AM): Crisis averted: tonight at the General Assembly, the working group of drummers, Pulse, in a spirit of conciliation and generosity, brought forward a proposal to limit their drumming from 12 to 2 and 4 to 6 PM only. The proposal had been worked out through weeks of mediation with the direct action working group. It was considered a first step toward showing the community board that the community in Zuccotti Park can regulate itself. The proposal was approved by consensus by the General Assembly, with applause and rejoicing on all sides. One of our observers said there hadnÂ’t been such happiness and relief since the victory over eviction.

Because this crisis obviously affects us all, and has world-shattering implications, I am going the extra step and reaching out to the party who I believe calls people "Uncle Toms" and "not Palestinian enough" to get his/her side of the story. (I think it's easy enough to guess this person's identity based on other articles, but until I have confirmation for this, I'm holding off naming him/her.)

Important Question: Are Poisonous Drummers Endgangering OWS Movement? And some more questions and comments about the crisis:

We, the 99%, object to 1% controlling the financial system. Should will let a tiny minority of drummers dictate noise levels that affect everyoneÂ’s ability to speak and our continued ability to stay in the park?

What if we wanted to read poetry or play acoustic guitar in the space that the drummers occupy?

...

One of the ways the US “tortured” prisoners in Guantanamo was by playing music so loud the prisoners were unable to sleep. So, what is the volume at which drumming ceases to be non-violent and cause sleep deprivation?

...

The drummers are reinforced by people watching them and dancing. Should we organize flash mobs to show our disapproval of the drummers with the non-verbal signs that are practiced in General Assembly?

With one or two exceptions it is impossible to speak to any of the drummers.

Rational discourse with the drummers has failed, there is no point in attempting to talk to them, as opposed to using body language in a non-violent and non-aggressive manner, while still showing our disapproval.

"Rational discourse with the drummers has failed." Comedy gold, as Mike Flynn from Big Government says.

Posted by: Ace at 08:12 AM | Comments (226)
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Already in progress.

He wrote up the broad strokes of the plan in the Wall Street Journal. Interestingly, the flat tax will be an option offered to filers; they can chose the flat rate tax or the current tax code.

He'd reduce the corporate tax rate down to 20% but not zero percent. I don't like plans that call for a zero percent rate.

He'd also reduce the rate for repatriation of US dollars held overseas down to 5.25% for a short period of time to bring those dollars back home. (And, by the way, also collect taxes on them.) Up to a trillion dollars are currently held overseas by Americans, and are parked there because the taxes for repatriation are too high.

He just noted in his speech a detail not mentioned in the WSJ -- he proposes to bring back the (optional) individual retirement account idea championed by Bush in 2005.

Posted by: Ace at 07:23 AM | Comments (275)
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Last week, Jason Mattera of Human Events challenged Sheriff Joe on his claim that opposing Obama's second stimulus will lead to rape, murder and general mayhem.

Now Slow Joe has his revenge, his office went whining to the Senate's press association.

Joe BidenÂ’s office has complained to the Senate press gallery about a confrontation the vice president had with a conservative journalist last week on Capitol Hill.

Biden aides asked whether Senate rules were broken in the wake of the contentious exchange between the vice president and the reporter.

...

BidenÂ’s office has also contacted the standing committee of correspondents, which oversees the gallery, regarding whether Mattera broke the rules by ambushing him.

Heather Rothman, the chairwoman of the galleryÂ’s standing committee, said the matter is under review.

Mattera defended his question by pointing out if he asked the question the way the MBM would have, Biden wouldn't have answered.

I don't know what the rules are in the area where Biden was or even exactly what Mattera said that was supposedly misleading but as always when the substance cuts against a liberal, the focus is on process.

And just how fallacious was Biden's original statement? Even the hacktastic "fact checker" at the Washington Post called if "absurd".

Related enough, via Jim Geraghty's "Morning Jolt"...did the White House punish the Washington Post for failing to toe the party line on Obama's mortgage plan?

Most thin skinned administration ever.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:20 AM | Comments (38)
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Over at Instapundit, I saw this little blurb about Poet LLC, the largest producer of ethanol in our country. Once again, the claim is that we're "just a couple of years" away from the magical cellulosic ethanol (ethanol from cellulose sources like wood chips, corn residue, and switchgrass rather than from corn or another sugar-rich source like sugarcane or sugarbeets), and that their Iowa plant will be online and producing 25 million gallons per year in 2013.

Just for a moment, let's assume that ethanol is a good idea. Let's also assume that the heavy subsidies that these new plants are asking for are not going to prop up a non-viable business model. I've got three problems with cellulosic ethanol. Actually, it's probably more than three, but let's focus on the first three for now, shall we? more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 06:20 AM | Comments (162)
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Capitalism and civilization go hand in hand. Destroy one, and you destroy the other. It goes without saying that the OWS idiots don't understand the whirlwind they'd release if capitalism fell according to their wishes -- they are creatures of the capitalist state, after all, hothouse orchids who disdain the soil that gave them birth.

Obama: sowing the seeds of a new credit crisis.

Bammer’s latest scheme to jump-start the housing recovery. I use the word “scheme” because I no longer think that the Obama administration actually has a plan for anything. Obama isn’t trying to solve the problem at hand, but he wants to appear to be solving it.

Tomorrow is a big day for the various Eurozone nations as they struggle to come up with a strategy to address the debt crisis now threatening to crush them. I have a feeling that we'll get more of what they've been shoveling out all along: lots of words and grand ideas but no realistic plan of action.

Every time the Europeans put out one Eurozone fire, another one flares up.

A Eurozone fire that is still burning: Greece. 100,000 protesters gathered in Athens to protest the austerity-driven cuts imposed by the government. These protests, plus the strikes that have immobilized the country, tends to undercut the Greek message that austerity will carry the day. It's becoming apparent that the citizens simply will not stand for it.

Never forget: Teh Krugman really isnÂ’t all that bright.

[W]hatever the likes of Ron Paul may believe, money creation isnÂ’t inflationary in a depressed economy.

A personal note about inflation and deflation fears: Americans fear deflation more than inflation because our most traumatic economic experience (so far) was the Great Depression, which was a deflationary event. But in other countries, the fear is of inflation -- in Germany, for example, where the Weimar-era hyperinflation was the traumatic event. If our comfort with inflation is unwarranted, so is our atavistic terror of deflation: some deflation in the wake of an asset bubble is not only inevitable, it is necessary for the economy to recover. Trying to re-inflate the bubble by inflating the currency just buys bigger trouble later on.

Is “The Bulldozer Scheme” is simply another aspect of Bastiat’s “broken window” fallacy? In most cases, yes, but I’d be willing to consider that in certain instances, it would probably make sense to raze foreclosed housing stock and realize the loss. But I would view this approach is a very special-case exception, rather than the rule. Oversupply and overproduction is a signature trait of this downturn compared to previous downturns, and it in part explains why our recovery has been so slow: all those assets have to find an equilibrium price-level, but that means that someone has to realize the loss. Government subsidies and mandated cramdowns ultimately just displace the loss from the banks and homeowners to the taxpayers.

The essential problem with AmericaÂ’s housing market (and with SpainÂ’s, and IrelandÂ’s as well) is that there are too many houses and too few people who can afford them. ItÂ’s oversupply, again. The answer is not to establish price-controls on housing (which is all that government-mandated mortgage cramdowns are) -- the answer is to let the housing market find its own equilibrium. Most people who are in over their heads housing-wise are not in a little bit of trouble; they are in a whole lot of trouble, and wonÂ’t be able to afford the mortgage even with a cramdown.

One of the reasons I despise tax policy is that it so rarely turns on the utilitarian aspects of taxes and instead focuses on political and social issues (a tax “rewards” one group or “punishes” another). Liberals fret about how “progressive” a tax regime is because their main concern is that the wealthy pay more than the poor; conservatives fret about “punishing success” by taxing the creators and makers higher than the cheats and deadbeats. The problem is that the word “fair” is interpreted differently depending on where you stand in the ideological spectrum: to me, “fair” means that I pay the same tax rate for my place in this Republic as any other citizen; to a liberal, I suspect that “fair” involves overtones of social justice and victim-hood and so on. But regardless of where you come down on taxation, I think it is important that every person pay at least some amount of taxes, just to provide a reminder that government isn’t free -- and that the more government you have, the more it costs.

The employment picture in the short to medium term doesn’t look so hot, but you already knew that. We’re in for a tough decade or so. Also note the “aggregate demand” canard that I inveighed against yesterday: as on-point as some of Tarullo’s observations about what our employment problems are, he is a Keynesian in blood and bone and his solutions would only worsen the situation.

This widening inequality has been described as the result of a broader trend toward "occupational polarization."4 This theory posits that the diffusion of computer-related technologies, the related automation of routine work, and an increased capability for firms to move their activities offshore have combined to concentrate job creation in the poles of either high-skill, high-wage employment or low-skill, low-wage work. The high-skill occupations increasingly require at least a bachelor's degree. Demand has shifted away from traditional middle-class occupations. The kinds of workers who would have been employed in a traditional manufacturing or administrative job now often end up in lower-paying jobs.

Larry Summers: Keynesian to the end.

The central irony of a financial crisis is that while it is caused by too much confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending, it can be resolved only with more confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending.

First, and perhaps most fundamentally, credit standards for those seeking to buy homes are too high and too rigorous. The characteristics of the average successful applicant in 2004 would make that applicant among the most risky today. The pattern should be the opposite, given that the odds of a further 35 percent decline in house prices are much lower than they were at past bubble valuations.

Netflix gets a pimp-slap from the invisible hand.

more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:36 AM | Comments (255)
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Pickle you, kumquat!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:49 AM | Comments (135)
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Scrooge McDuck On The Occupiers

Okay this is supposed to be a snarky jab against the so-called 1% for violating the social compact or some such. But in fact McDuck is correct:

If you want your own treasure, get out there and plunder it yourself.

And his offer to loan you the equipment in exchange for 90% of the profits is actually a fairly good deal for treasure hunting. If it's a bust, you're only out your labor and don't incur any debt. And if it's a hit, then even with 10% you'll probably make enough to buy your own equipment for the next project.

And where did the whole 1% meme start anyhow?

Well Lee Stranahan traces it back to a 2006 documentary called what else, 'The One Percent'.

That dates back to 2006 or so with a documentary called The One Percent that was put together by a rich, white inherited-wealth millionaire named Jamie Johnson. One of the heirs to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, guilty rich boy Johnson currently fights the man by writing a column called The One Percent for the revolutionary periodical Vanity Fair. His first film was called Born Rich and that about sums the Johnson oeuvre.

Meanwhile most Americans are finding the whole Occupy thing a big meh. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:31 PM | Comments (605)
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