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    links for 2010-11-29

    • Latino leaders in Nevada and around the country are floating the idea of breaking traditional ties with the Democratic Party and creating a grass-roots independent movement tentatively called the Tequila Party. According to Delen Goldberg at the Las Vegas Sun, the leaders want to pressure the Democratic Party to deliver on Latinos' priorities much in the same way the tea party has done with the GOP over the past few years.

      Robert de Posada, the former GOP operative behind this fall's controversial "Don't Vote" ads aimed at Latinos in Nevada and California, tells The Lookout that he has heard "rumblings" of this movement among national Latino leaders
      +++++
      Is that because the Latinos are "drunk" for power? Political power that is….

      The problem with the Latinos is their number of voters in order to exert power are only in California and somewhat in Nevada and New Mexico. Florida's Cuban population are in the GOP.

    • Congress agreed Monday to a one-month delay in Medicare payment cuts to doctors, giving a short-term reprieve to a looming crisis over treatment of the nation's elderly.

      The House, in approving by voice vote the bill passed by the Senate earlier this month, postponed a 23 percent cut in doctors' pay scheduled to take effect Dec. 1. That gives lawmakers a month to come up with a longer-term plan to overhaul a system that in recent years has bedeviled Congress, angered doctors and jeopardized health care for 46 million elderly and disabled.

      "This bill is a stopgap measure to make sure that seniors and military families can continue to see their doctors during December while we work on the solution for the next year," said Rep. Frank Pallone, R-N.J., chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee.

      Health care payment formulas for military service members and veterans are tied to Medicare.
      +++++
      It will be continued again in another 30 days or there will be mo physicians left

      (tags: medicare)
    • Irons said that while the deficit commission proposal would bring spending down to 21 percent of gross domestic product, the liberal groups plan would bring it down to only to 25 percent by 2020, while raising revenue to 21.7 percent of GDP.

      To get spending down, the liberal plan would cut defense spending by $960 billion over 10 years.

      Regarding long-term entitlement programs, Anrig pointed out that the groups estimate significant savings in cost due to the Obama healthcare reform bill in later years.

      “We reject arbitrary caps on Medicare or Medicaid spending,” he said.

      To make Social Security solvent, the liberal groups' plan would raise taxes but would not reduce benefits.

      To raise revenue, the groups propose a carbon cap-and-trade scheme or carbon tax, a surcharge on millionaires, closing foreign tax loopholes, and limiting the value of tax deductions for higher earners.
      +++++
      Yeah this left wing plan will really help Obama and America – NOT.

      (tags: taxes Economy)
    • Even amoebas learn by trial and error, but some economists and politicians do not. The Obama administration's budget projections claim that raising taxes on the top 2% of taxpayers, those individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning $250,000 or more, will increase revenues to the U.S. Treasury. The empirical evidence suggests otherwise. None of the personal income tax or capital gains tax increases enacted in the post-World War II period has raised the projected tax revenues.

      Over the past six decades, tax revenues as a percentage of GDP have averaged just under 19% regardless of the top marginal personal income tax rate. The top marginal rate has been as high as 92% (1952-53) and as low as 28% (1988-90). This observation was first reported in an op-ed I wrote for this newspaper in March 1993. A wit later dubbed this "Hauser's Law."
      +++++
      Read it all

    • According to the Washington Post, Democrats are continuing to push for an increase in marginal rates, but only on the very rich.

      A faction of congressional Democrats is making a push to persuade President Obama to consider a compromise on tax policy that would leave only the nation’s 315,000 richest households facing higher taxes in January.

      That’s because these Democrats still think they will be able to raise more revenue by letting marginal rates go up. But that ignores the fact that the federal government has never been able to get much more than 19 percent of GDP in tax revenues, no matter how high the top marginal tax rate goes.
      ++++++
      Look at the chart

      (tags: taxes)
    • The New York Times is participating in the dissemination of the stolen State Department cables that have been made available to it in one way or another via WikiLeaks. My friend Steve Hayward recalls that only last year the New York Times ostentatiously declined to publish or post any of the Climategate emails because they had been illegally obtained. Surely readers will recall Times reporter Andrew Revkin's inspiring statement of principle: "The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won't be posted here."
      ++++++
      And, the New York Times sell their wares in America?

      Journalistic whores in every sense.

    • Sarah Palin might think she could get elected President in 2012, but few Americans agree. Only 28% of voters in the country think that Palin is capable of defeating Barack Obama while 60% think she is not and 12% aren't sure.

      What might be most troubling for Palin within those numbers is that less than half of Republicans think she's capable of beating Obama- 48% think she would be able to, 37% think she would not be able to, and 15% have no opinion. Republicans continue overwhelmingly to like Palin- 67% have a favorable opinion of her- but a pretty large number of them have serious electability concerns about her.

      Many GOP voters who admire Palin may be left having to decide whether it's more important to them to defeat Barack Obama or to help advance her political career and that may prove to be too high a hurdle for her to overcome.
      ++++++
      As I have said all along, her candidacy epends upon the economy and Obama's poll numbers after the first of the year

      (tags: sarah_palin)
    • “It is more the view of reality rather than policy” that the treaty will not be ratified in the next month, Kyl said, arguing that if Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) provided him with three weeks to debate the treaty, it could be finished. “He has made it clear he has a different agenda in mind,” Kyl said, pointing to Reid’s decision to pursue other legislation during the lame duck, including a repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay service members and the DREAM Act immigration bill.

      “Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate, can bring up the START treaty any time he wants to. But he has a different agenda,” Kyl
      said.
      +++++
      Of course, Harry Reid can call up the START Treaty anytime he wants but he wants pay back to the Latinos who supplied him with his re-election in November.

      (tags: START John_Kyl)
    • A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."
      ++++++
      And, what message does this send to Iran?

      They are free to develop their nuclear weapon capability because Obama has not acted.

  • Barack Obama,  Sarah Palin,  WikiLeaks

    Sarah Palin: Serious Questions about the Obama Administration’s Incompetence in the Wikileaks Fiasco



    Sarah Palin has a point.

    We all applaud the successful thwarting of the Christmas-Tree Bomber and hope our government continues to do all it can to keep us safe. However, the latest round of publications of leaked classified U.S. documents through the shady organization called Wikileaks raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s incompetent handling of this whole fiasco.

    First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop Wikileaks director Julian Assange from distributing this highly sensitive classified material especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months? Assange is not a “journalist,” any more than the “editor” of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a “journalist.” He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?

    What if any diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on NATO, EU, and other allies to disrupt Wikileaks’ technical infrastructure? Did we use all the cyber tools at our disposal to permanently dismantle Wikileaks? Were individuals working for Wikileaks on these document leaks investigated? Shouldn’t they at least have had their financial assets frozen just as we do to individuals who provide material support for terrorist organizations?

    Most importantly, serious questions must also be asked of the U.S. intelligence system. How was it possible that a 22-year-old Private First Class could get unrestricted access to so much highly sensitive information? And how was it possible that he could copy and distribute these files without anyone noticing that security was compromised?

    The White House has now issued orders to federal departments and agencies asking them to take immediate steps to ensure that no more leaks like this happen again. It’s of course important that we do all we can to prevent similar massive document leaks in the future. But why did the White House not publish these orders after the first leak back in July? What explains this strange lack of urgency on their part?

    We are at war. American soldiers are in Afghanistan fighting to protect our freedoms. They are serious about keeping America safe. It would be great if they could count on their government being equally serious about that vital task.

    – Sarah Palin

    But, hasn’t President Obama’s Administration been plagued by incompetence from the beginning?

    I won’t say I told you so – but America made a mistake electing a POL who basically voted PRESENT his entire career. No leadership there, folks.

  • economics,  GOP,  Taxes

    Why the GOP Should NOT Compromise with Obama and the Democrats Over Tax Rates

    Why?

    Because it is bad for the economy and job creation.

    The Obama administration and members of Congress should study the record on how the economy reacts to changes in the tax code. The president’s economic team has launched a three-pronged attack on capital: They are attacking the income group that is the most responsible for capital formation and jobs in the private sector, and then attacking the investment returns on capital formation in the form of dividends and capital gains. The out-year projections on revenues from these tax increases will prove to be phantom.

    Republicans should not be complicit in a bad “compromise” plan in order to save Obama and the Democrat’s collective ass. Rather to let the Bush tax rates expire, re-enact them in January and let Obama take responsibility in vetoing lower marginal tax rates – if he dare do so.

  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day,  WikiLeaks

    Day By Day November 29, 2010 – Midterms

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    And, now onto the FINALS where President Obama may not win re-election and the Democrats may very well lose control of the U.S. Senate.

    President George W. Bush is long gone (in political terms) and there is no one to blame for the current economic malaise and unemployment. With the WikiLeaks revelation, the bloom has come of the Hopey Changey American image foreign policy of Obama as well.

    Watch the Dems in the lame duck session of the Congress as they attempt to salvage and pay back some ethnic constituencies that did NOT desert them in November. It will be a pathetic attempt at political maneuvering.

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