Soak the Rich?

Actually we already are and in fact the Federal Government is basically paid for by the top 5%.

And if more than few take their taxes elsewhere we are screwed e.g. France.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:01 PM | Comments (732)
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US govt source 1
US govt source 2
US govt source 3

• 70,000+ NICS (instant check) rejections/yr


• 4,000+/yr deemed a violation of law and referred for prosecution


• Under 200/yr actually prosecuted

Prosecutions have DECLINED under Obama too.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:10 PM | Comments (322)
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Why would anyone think Reid and Obama want a deal? They are on the verge of total victory.

The GOP's only messaging argument is, the Democrats are meanies.

Mitch McConnell has a brillialnt idea! Call Joe Bidden for help.

McConnell came to the Senate floor and announced he’d reached out directly to the White House for help shortly after Democratic aides said negotiations between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Reid (D-Nev.) had suffered a “major setback.”

Reid said he was stepping back from the talks to allow McConnell and Biden to work.

In his floor remarks, McConnell said he had delivered his latest offer to Democrats shortly after 7 p.m. on Saturday but had not yet received a response. Now, he said, he was appealing directly to Biden.

This is just sad. Remember the Reid-McConnell talks were the result of the Friday session at the White House. Last I checked, Biden is part of the administration, if Obama wanted to be involved he wouldn't have dumped it on Reid and McConnell.

If Reid can't work out a deal with McConnell (again, why would he?), he simply brings Obama's $250K and up hike and the Unemployment Insurance extension up for a vote in the Senate. Then McConnell can filibuster it (or try to, enough GOP Sens might break to pass it) or let it go through on a simple majority vote.

Boehner being the genius he is has already promised to bring up anything the Senate sends over. So the Obama/Reid plan will pass with a majority of Democrats and enough Republicans.

Dems will win the policy fight and the GOP will be shattered politically .

Or....nothing passes and all this happens anyway on Wednesday and everyone can say they are "cutting taxes for 98% of Americans" by returning them to the level they were the day before and for the last 12 years. Yay!

The GOP bet last year Obama would lose reelection. Everything since he won has been about how the GOP wants to get its ass handed to it.

They should have never set up this cliff. The tea party demand of tying a debt hike to spending cuts set this in motion. That was iditotic considering the cuts are going to be mostly from defense and leave entitlements untouched. The mainline GOP accepted the two-year extension on the Bush cuts (it should have either been 1 year or 4 years. 2 years was the worst possible time frame).

As much blame as there is for the GOP the real villains here are the voters. Reelecting Barack Obama was an act of national suicide. There's simply nothing to be done about it now.

UPDATE: After the Reid/McConnell talks broke down both parties held caucus meetings. The GOP's just broke up and they immediately announced they won't seek to save any money from reducing Social Security cost of living adjustments (the chained CPI).

Of course.

And just like that GOP sens emerge from their meeting saying chained CPI is off the table, "a losing hand," McCain says.

Again, why would Reid/Obama cut a deal when they are getting everything they want?

Posted by: DrewM at 11:01 AM | Comments (226)
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Obama rewarded David Gregory for flouting DC gun laws last week with an exclusive chance to bash Republicans without being asked any tough questions interview on Meet the Press today.

Following Obama's one-sided version of reality, Speaker of the House John Boehner went in front of the media to whine about Obama.

“Americans elected President Obama to lead, not cast blame," Boehner said in a Sunday statement. "The president’s comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party. Needed cuts and reforms that the president agreed to just last year were no longer on the table, as he cited an inability to sell them to Democrats."

Boehner continued: "Republicans made every effort to reach the ‘balanced’ deficit agreement that the president promised the American people, while the president has continued to insist on a package skewed dramatically in favor of higher taxes that would destroy jobs. We’ve been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes.'"

Shut up Mr. Speaker. Just SHUT UP.

I'd like to Boehner the benefit of the doubt and say this is his plan. The problem is, if it is his plan, it's a piss poor one.

Stop demanding the Obama "lead". He is leading! He won running on a tax hike for earners making $250,000. Does Boehner's idea of "leadership" include Obama unilaterally giving into the GOP even though by saying no to everything he gets what he wants automatically by going over the cliff (and as a bonus, he gets to blame Republicans for it)?

Obama maybe an idiot but he's not that stupid.

I can't tell if Boehner is stupid enough to believe that Obama wants some sort of compromise (spoiler, he doesn't) or he's too stupid to come up with a better counter message than whining like this.

In 1984 Ronald Reagan won with a much bigger mandate than Obama received this time around. Everyone loves to talk about how he a Tip O'Neil were able to come to a deal but that didn't just happen. O'Neil had a plan that involved actually making his case to the American people. So he put Dan Rostenkowski, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee on TV to respond to a Reagan speech. "Write Rosty" became a national catchphrase that enabled O'Neil to get in the game.

Boehner wants to follow Obama's lead but the reality is he needs to stop trying to be a follower and become the leader of the opposition. He's clearly not up to the task.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:16 AM | Comments (86)
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Afternoon Morons and Ettes! I hope you are enjoying a pleasant weekend with your friends and family.

This being the last Gaming thread of the Year, Game of the Year discussions are fine. Try really hard not to spoil people. For The Walking Dead, that ends next week. With all the GOTY discussion it's been really fascinating to go through everyone's different choices and how it impacted what was My 2012 GOTY.

So yea, GOTY discussions, but be nice about Spoilers.

I've really been enjoying the coverage and podcasts from Giant Bomb this year. Go check out thier show parody videos which were pretty funny. Also if you are a podcaster, all 5 are very good. Fair warning, the videos spoil the podcasts (not terribly, but you know the winners if you watch the vids)

More Gaming Shiz Below the fold more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 09:30 AM | Comments (65)
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New Year's Day At AoSHQ

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to this week's bleary, hungover, and out-of-focus. Sunday Morning Book Thread.

You Know Who Else Has Written a Book?

Moron commenter Oldsailors Poet, that's who. His new book Amy Lynn, just came out last week. According to the Amazon description:

Amy Lynn is the story of the life of a sheltered, unrefined, tomboyish country girl relatively untouched by the culture of the outside world. While growing up in the early 1990's on the outskirts of the small rural town of black Oak Alabama, she learns that honor, virtue and a strong work ethic are not just positive character traits, but a way of survival

This is a story about character, both good and bad, and how it is formed and how it is nurtured. From the intensely personal author's note:

Throughout the years I have met people, wonderful people, that stood by me when I was at my worst, when my life was at it's lowest. I often wondered, who mentored them? Who made them who they are? Why would they waste time with me? But they did, and I am a better man for it.

With this in mind, it appears to me as if this book is Oldsailors Poet's way of paying back a debt that he never really can repay. So, if someone does you a kindness, the only thing you can do do is to pass on that kindness to someone else. And that looks to be precisely what OSP has done by writing his book.
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:22 AM | Comments (140)
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Dayum it's cold here today. Even in Houston.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:27 AM | Comments (189)
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Bourbon Milk Punch

This is a nice, simple breakfast drink that is a bit more festive than a Bloody Mary. Although...a little more bourbon seems to be in order to cut the richness of the milk (or cream). I haven't figured out where the bacon goes in this recipe, but I'm working on it.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:42 PM | Comments (335)
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Gun Control's Self-Refuting Arguments

Damn Dirty Rino sent along a link to this great piece at PJM.

I personally believed in civilian disarmament until an acquaintance in law enforcement challenged my gun-bannerÂ’s assumptions with questions and points I could not rebut. This began a research journey limited only by my decision to exclude any data cited by the NRA. At the time, I was convinced only caring people like the Brady Campaign would present the truth.

Surprisingly (to me, at the time), I found no dataset proving civilian disarmament made anybody safer.

In response to Ezra Klein’s report titled “Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States,” below are eight fictions about gun control.

Oh, did I mention it was a nut stomping of a piece by WaPo wunderkind Juicebox Klein? No? Well that's just an added bonus, so read the whole thing.

This point really jumped out at me:

Fiction 3: “Gun Violence”

“Gun violence” is a crafted phrase to induce people into associating guns with violence. Using Ezra Klein’s logic, Brady’s “A”-graded, low-gun states should be the safest. But when collated with CDC firearms murder rates, an inconvenient correlation appears: more gun control, higher black homicide, lower Caucasian homicide.

(Crime rates = incidents per 100,000 population.)

One of the unpleasant realizations from my original research was my learning that the history of American gun control is that of racist oppression: banning sales to Indians in order to maintain dominance while grabbing land; ensuring free blacks remained as close to slaves as possible; disarming the Japanese before their internment during World War II.

Modern gun control still makes whites safer, while more blacks get murdered.

Gun control is racist. Tell all your liberal friends. Or acquaintances. Whatever. Also, somebody tell this clown.

Another good read by someone applying logic instead of emotion: A Reluctant Vote in Favor of Armed School Guards

Most Americans agree that dramatic steps must be taken to prevent the recurrence of a horrible event like that of Dec. 14, 2012. Just what steps should be taken is a matter of disagreement. After considerable thought I have sadly concluded that Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, is correct when he advocates for armed security in the country's more than 100,000 schools.

...

What happened at Sandy Hook was not the failure to plan; it was the failure of the plan. The teachers and administrative staff executed their school district's plan heroically in trying to save lives, some at the loss of their own. Police departments changed their policies after Columbine and now rush to the source of an incident inside a school building at great risk to themselves. But a major flaw in such plans persists to this day—namely that it takes just a few unguarded minutes for a catastrophe to unfold.

It's really not that hard, is it? Like LaPierre said, the only thing that'll stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

The only problem the left really has with this is that the proposal was made by the NRA. When Bill Clinton said largely the same thing after Columbine, it was the most brilliant thing ever.

Journalists and Guns

Lots of fun was had at the HQ this week in pointing out how ignorant journalists are of gun laws. You'd think they'd recognize this deficiency and seek to address it, but you'd be wrong.

@theh2 Approached a MSM bigwig 2 days ago, with suggestion to hire a firearms editor to "proof" stories. No response.

— Bob Owens (@bob_owens) December 28, 2012

I wonder, though, whether they're any more ignorant about guns than they are about any other topic in general. It's at this point that a reminder of Michael Crichton's Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect is in order:

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

See also: Ezra Klein.

Gun Of The Week

What's this Semiautomatic Assault Pistol?

Posted by: andy at 05:25 AM | Comments (237)
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Woke up to about 10" of snow outside ... an awesome white Christmas was missed by a matter of days.

I blame the Mayan calendar.

Posted by: andy at 03:44 AM | Comments (133)
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