Millionaire celeb whine-in

With the double digit unemployment, the dollar becoming a substitute for kindling, and no end in sight, what’s a good lefty to do but stage a multi-celebrity whine fest:

Like most cultural entities, the Gang, one of L.A.'s most accomplished theatrical institutions, has been scorched financially by the economic crisis. Earlier this summer, the ensemble's accountant even recommended that, to save money, the Gang should consider temporarily not producing theater and just focus on its extensive educational and community outreach programs.

"I'm not ignoring the economy," Robbins says. "We are flying in the face of it. We are saying, 'This is not going to stop us.' And so the best way we can figure out for it not to stop us is to do more than we ever have in the past."

Among the marquee names who'll lend their presence to the Gang's intimate 99-seat space at the Ivy Substation for the festival will be Jackson Browne, Tenacious D, John Doe of X, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

In collaboration with PEN Center USA, the festival also will present conversations with such authors as Gore Vidal, Naomi Klein and T.C. Boyle.

Because I am sure they all have had to make real sacrifices, unlike like fat and prosperous kulak's in flyover country. I hear that Gore Vidal is so destitute that he had to cut loose his swanky Italian pool boy for a younger less expensive Philippino model.

Maybe next time they could try a die in?

Just a suggestion.

NY Times Rides to The Dear Leader's Rescue (yet again)

Our new political overlords never have to look too far for cover when inconvenient truths raise their ugly heads. Take a look see at the latest from the Times on the Tea Party Protests tomorrow: Hold the Tea: Americans Fine With Taxes.

In news that will be bad for activists hoping to start another American Revolution with a series of protests modeled on the Boston Tea Party, a new Gallup Poll finds that a solid majority of American say the income tax they pay is “fair,” and that slightly more than half classify their own tax burden as either “about right” or “too low.”

Not that the hacks from the Times actually bother to ask anyone involved what their beef is, after all, its much easier to construct a straw man and bash it for a while. As an interesting side note, the percentage of people who think they pay a "fair" amount of incomes taxes is eerily close to the percentage that pays no federal income tax at all.

What the real beef is, or mine at any rate, is not what the marginal tax rates are today, but what they are going to be in 5 or 10 years after the bill for our Dear Leader's "First of the Month economic development plan" comes in.



This is the problem, trillion dollar deficits financed by China for as long as the eye can see.

People are tired of being ignored, and worse they hate being kicked and mocked by assholes like the Time's Robert Mackey.

Redistributive Wealth In Action

Be careful what you wish for:

On my way to lunch recently, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama; I need the money." I laughed. In a restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed. Just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came, I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Barack-Obama-redistribution-of-wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need—the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

(H/T: A Chicago Blog )

A Big Pill

Although I never cared much for Ron Paul on a lot of issues, his former economic advisor Peter Schiff was spot freaking on in 2006:

Whether it starts in 07 or 08 I think is immaterial. I also think its going to also not just for quarters but for years. The basic problem with the US economy is we have too much consumption and borrowing and not enough production and savings and what’s going to happen is the American consumer is basically going to stop consuming and start rebuilding his savings especially when he sees his home equity evaporate.

And when you have the Economy 70% consumption you can’t address those imbalances without a recession. Rather than the recession being resisted, it should really be embraced because the disease is all this debt financed consumption. The cure is that we stop consuming and start saving and producing again, and that’s a recession. Sometimes medicine tastes bad but you gotta swallow it.

To which our newly ordained Dear Leader says:

The government will do ``whatever it takes'' to revive the economy, Obama said. That means ``we shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after,'' he said, adding that in the short term, ``the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession.''

I don’t know if this is the most prudent course of action, later on in the video Schiff makes the case that we need to get the deficits under control, otherwise inflation will explode and do more damage than to the economy than any correction. Unfortunately as spot on as Schiff was, I think that people will continue to ignore him at our peril.

No one wants to acknowledge the hard truth that we have collectively been living beyond our means for the past 20 years, it will only get harder to correct this imbalance the longer we allow it to continue.

Wake up ... Wake Up ... Wake Up

AIG, Amex, The Big 3, the cities of Detroit, Phoenix, Philadelphia all want in on some of tat delicious tasty rich and sweet goverment cheeze.

After reading about all these handouts, I dont know why Bone Thugs-N-Harmony popped into my mind.

Wake up, wake up, wake up
it's the 1st of the month
To get up, get up, get up
so cash your checks and get up

Obama's Economic Stimulus is Working!

Looks like Obama’s anti-gun stances are reaping large sales and profits for the gun industry.

Indianapolis - Gun control was an issue that was largely out of the spotlight in the presidential campaign. Fears the new administration will impose stricter regulations have caused a spike in the number of firearms sold nationwide.

At Popguns on the east side, business is literally booming. Racks with long guns are half empty. Hand gun cases are thinning out too. Last weekend, firearms sales here increased 250 percent.

I know from my own experience that gun sales have taken off since last Tuesday. Just today I went into buy the following Rock River AR-Clone, knowing that I might not get the chance to ever do this again in a couple of months.

I asked the salesman how many of these he was going through and he told me that in an average month he would sell between 50 and 60 of the Rock Rivers (this is a huge gun store) but since the election he has been selling 40 of them a day and cant get ebough from the distributor. Similar sales, although not in the same magnitude, were being seen for M1’s, AK’s and tactical shotguns.

I certainly hope that The Dear Leader can spur a similar uptick in the auto industry.

At least he preactices what he preaches

In an effort to get his new wealth distribution tax initiative in Barack Obama decided to take his children out on Halloween.

After returning home with their bags full of candy and other treats, then candidate Obama spread the haul on the living room floor and proceeded to divide it into two piles. One pile contained 33% of all the candy and the other pile contained 67% of all the candy.

The Obama children were given the 33% pile to split. When they asked what would be done with all that extra candy they were told by their father that he was going to give it to other children who were too lazy to dress up and go out trick-or-treating for their own candy.