Thursday, January 30, 2014

On immigration...

As the GOP in the U.S. House of Representatives prepare to cave on immigration it's good to be informed. Here is the best presentation I've ever seen on immigration (try not to be distracted by the girl in the Green Bay Packers shirt in the audience):



So, you're a Republican and you still believe that immigrants, especially Hispanics, are largely conservative and will vote for the likes of Marco Rubio or Nikki Haley?

As if on cue, we are about to get a (another, actually) report that refutes this myth.  Read about it before the report comes out:

GOP CRAFTS PLAN TO WRECK THE COUNTRY, LOSE VOTERS

According to a Harris poll, 81 percent of native-born citizens think the schools should teach students to be proud of being American. Only 50 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens do. 
While 67 percent of native-born Americans believe our Constitution is a higher legal authority than international law, only 37 percent of naturalized citizens agree. 
Pew also found that only 27 percent of Hispanics support gun rights, compared to 57 percent of non-Hispanic whites. According to Latino Decisions, large majorities of Hispanics favor a national database of gun owners, limiting the capacity of magazines and a ban on semiautomatic weapons. 
While 47 percent of self-described "liberal Democrats" hold a negative view of capitalism, 55 percent of Hispanics do.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Obamacare ad blitz debacle

I remember in the days leading up to the passage of Obamacare having discussions (rather heated discussions, actually) about the potential efficacy of the law.  I argued that it is a road to a single payer system.  I argued that there is no way the government could be more efficient at providing healthcare insurance than the private insurers.  One of their big arguments was that there wouldn't be a need for "all that overhead & profit" so a government solution would be simpler. 

I know, I know.  What can I say?  In the words of Ronald Reagan, "Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

So here we are.  It's been a few months since the roll out.  The worst of the website access issues have apparently been resolved (or maybe it's that people just don't care so much anymore).  Of course, there are still big "elephants in the room" regarding website issues, sitting there waiting to explode.  For instance, still not having a way to effectively communicate with the back room aspects of buying insurance (like actually processing payments) and of course the biggest issue that is on the horizon:  the fact that the website security is nearly non-existent and made even worst every time there is a patch or fix applied.  And since the website must be connected to other government agencies such as the IRS, HHS, etc. it could be used as a portal into those databases as well.  We shall see.  

But I digress.  One of these liberals largest arguments was about how the lack of  "overhead & profit" would make the system cheaper.  Namely, they pointed to the marketing costs.  Since it'll be mandated, everyone will be required to have it, so "wala" no marketing expense required, right?  Wrong.  

Even as early as last summer it was reported the budget for marketing Obamacare was going to be $684,000,000.   Some of this money was spent on amazing advertising like thesethis, and this.  Ironically, since Obamacare has not yet nationalized the health insurers, they too are hopping on the band wagon.  These insurers are expected to kick in another $500,000,000 just in TV advertising alone.    

And now we have the 2014 Winter Olympics about to start and here comes another ad blitz with Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning.

So I have to ask, "Where is the efficiency of this new healthcare insurance scheme?"

Monday, January 13, 2014

Number's 4, 5, 8, 13 on display....

Funny how it all seems so clear now.  If you are a conservative and/or Republican and you're getting too popular (or in this case getting ahead of the Hillary in the polls) you must be "Alinsky'ed".

This CNN story has the all the elements on display:

Feds investigate Christie's use of Sandy relief funds



#13:  “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” -  Done

#8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” - These attacks on Christy will not stop until his poll numbers are in the dust.

#5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” - What's the first thing you think of when you think of Chris Christy?  Oh, yeah, he's fat.  Ridicule them like 1st graders....

#4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”  - Republicans are always, ALWAYS, held to a higher standard than Democrats, if for no other reason than they actually have standards.  In the Democrat party, what happened with the lane closures would have been heralded as resume enhancer, not something to be vilified.  

See this link for a full explanation of Saul Alinsky's, "Rules for Radical: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals"

 Remember, if you think that at least Hillary Clinton is not this radical, Hillary completed her thesis on this book...

Friday, January 10, 2014

92,000,000 Americans no longer in the workforce....

Ok,  let's think about this.  

Nearly 92,000,000 people in the U.S. are not in the workforce anymore:





Source: zerohedge.com

 Yet, these people are still eating, still have cell phones, flat screen TV's, internet, etc...   How?



 Source: Heritage.org

Just to be clear, we are in year 6 of the Obama regime.  

On January 9, 2014 Pres Obama announced "Promise Zones", described in the NYT, "where federal agencies will cut through red tape in an effort to give struggling residents a chance at better lives."

It seems like President Obama realizes there are better ways for the federal government to encourage economic growth and he wants to apply the new methods in these "promise zones".  This proves two things:

  1. He knows his regimes current economic policies isn't working.
  2. If he knows they aren't working and he is changing course in the "promise zones", then he is admitting he (at the very least) is OK with the failed results in the rest of the nation. otherwise he'd make changes to his economic policy across the board.
If the above is true, President Obama is choosing to hold back the entire U.S. economy, save for these 5 "promise zones".   In other words, he knows the right answer, he is choosing, I assume for ideological reasons, to continue on with his path of destruction, almost as if it is all part of his plan.  

Hmmm....  What if it is his plan to ruin the U.S. economy, forcing people to depend on government assistance for food, shelter, clothing, medical care, cell phones, higher education, home loans, etc....?  If that where his plan, he is wildly successful and should feel quite good about his accomplishments.