"Our editorial of today discusses the many regrettable and forgettable arts groups that are receiving small stimulus grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, such as the producers of timeless classics like "Perverts Put Out" and "What's Under That Skirt?"
What is less commonly known is the connection that several of these groups have to President Obama's 2008 campaign. Leaders of at least seven of the fortunate, newly stimulated and NEA-subsidized art groups also happened to serve on the Arts Policy Committee of the Obama campaign last year.
Among them is Obama's law school classmate, Nancy McCullough, whose California Lawyers for the Arts received a $50,000 grant. CLA is an advocacy organization which takes government money and, among other things, uses it to urge people to write their elected officials and ask for more government money."
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Paglia unleashed: says Obama running "colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation" on health care
"...I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy. When will heads start to roll? I was glad to see the White House counsel booted, as well as Michelle Obama's chief of staff, and hope it's a harbinger of things to come. Except for that wily fox, David Axelrod, who could charm gold threads out of moonbeams, Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys.
Case in point: the administration's grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Ever since Hillary Clinton's megalomaniacal annihilation of our last best chance at reform in 1993 (all of which was suppressed by the mainstream media when she was running for president), Democrats have been longing for that happy day when this issue would once again be front and center.
But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities."
Case in point: the administration's grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Ever since Hillary Clinton's megalomaniacal annihilation of our last best chance at reform in 1993 (all of which was suppressed by the mainstream media when she was running for president), Democrats have been longing for that happy day when this issue would once again be front and center.
But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Some stimulus dollars stimulate oddly
"Long a punching-bag for critics of wasteful government spending, the National Endowment for the Arts continues to live up to its reputation by throwing hard-earned tax dollars after frivolous and not-infrequently obscene projects. A group of 52 congressmen, all Republicans, recently wrote the agency to question the latest example of NEA spending foolery. Take, for example, CounterPULSE, which received $25,000 in stimulus funds, and which may be best known for its "Perverts Put Out," a "long-running pansexual performance series." The group urges guests, "Join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun."
Last Friday, the NEA defended this and numerous other small grants of extremely questionable merit in a letter to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. "The NEA did not use [stimulus] dollars to fund any of the projects," wrote Patrice Powell, the agency's acting chairman. The grants, she wrote, "can only be used to provide salary support for staff positions or fees for previously-engaged artists and/or contractual personnel that are critical to an organization's artistic mission and in jeopardy of being eliminated as a result of the current economic climate." In other words, you're not paying for "Perverts Put Out." You're paying to make sure that CounterPULSE has enough money to produce "Perverts Put Out."
CounterPULSE is just one of several groups whose grant awards baffle. There is also the Tuscon-based Teatro Fronterizo, which will soon put on "What's Under that Skirt: A Borderline Look at Gender" (described on the group's site as "a family favorite,") and "She Was My Brother," which "explores the borderline between love, sexual orientation and fluid gender identities." Then there is the Buffalo-based Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, which is promoting the transgender photography of Alice O'Malley and a play called "Deviant Bodies," "presenting work through the multiple lenses of Transgender, Genderqueer and Gender Variant perspectives."
There are many, many more examples."
Last Friday, the NEA defended this and numerous other small grants of extremely questionable merit in a letter to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. "The NEA did not use [stimulus] dollars to fund any of the projects," wrote Patrice Powell, the agency's acting chairman. The grants, she wrote, "can only be used to provide salary support for staff positions or fees for previously-engaged artists and/or contractual personnel that are critical to an organization's artistic mission and in jeopardy of being eliminated as a result of the current economic climate." In other words, you're not paying for "Perverts Put Out." You're paying to make sure that CounterPULSE has enough money to produce "Perverts Put Out."
CounterPULSE is just one of several groups whose grant awards baffle. There is also the Tuscon-based Teatro Fronterizo, which will soon put on "What's Under that Skirt: A Borderline Look at Gender" (described on the group's site as "a family favorite,") and "She Was My Brother," which "explores the borderline between love, sexual orientation and fluid gender identities." Then there is the Buffalo-based Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, which is promoting the transgender photography of Alice O'Malley and a play called "Deviant Bodies," "presenting work through the multiple lenses of Transgender, Genderqueer and Gender Variant perspectives."
There are many, many more examples."
Opposition to health care overhaul growing
"The latest report from Rasmussen shows only 42% of Americans now support Congressional Democrats’ and President Obama’s proposal for a government-centric overhaul of the American health care system.
This poll shows that the decline in support for the President’s plan, which began in earnest in late June, has continued unabated. Two months ago, support for the Obama/Kennedy/Pelosi health care overhaul stood at 50%; in July, it fell to 47%, and now, in August, it is 42%.
American opposition to allowing government to overhaul the health care system remains 53%, identical to the late July number."
This poll shows that the decline in support for the President’s plan, which began in earnest in late June, has continued unabated. Two months ago, support for the Obama/Kennedy/Pelosi health care overhaul stood at 50%; in July, it fell to 47%, and now, in August, it is 42%.
American opposition to allowing government to overhaul the health care system remains 53%, identical to the late July number."
Buchanan: Hispanics gain jobs as whites lose jobs.
"Ed Rubenstein, who has written for Forbes, National Review and the Wall Street Journal, blogs on VDARE.com that if one uses the household survey of job losses for June-July, Hispanics gained 150,000 positions, while non-Hispanics lost 679,000. Guess who got the stimulus jobs.
Going back to the beginning of the Bush presidency, Rubenstein says that "for every 100 Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 122.5. ... (But) for every 100 non-Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 98.9."
Since 2001, Hispanic employment has increased by 3,627,000 positions, while non-Hispanic positions have fallen by 1,362,000. For black and white America, the Bush decade did not begin well or end well, and it has gotten worse under Obama.
African-Americans remain loyal, but among white folks, where Obama ran stronger than John Kerry or Al Gore, he is hemorrhaging.
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, which showed him falling to 50 percent approval, whites, by 54 percent to 27 percent, felt Obama behaved "stupidly" in the Sgt. Crowley-professor Gates dustup.
Fifteen straight months of job losses by non-Hispanics explains the anger..."
Going back to the beginning of the Bush presidency, Rubenstein says that "for every 100 Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 122.5. ... (But) for every 100 non-Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 98.9."
Since 2001, Hispanic employment has increased by 3,627,000 positions, while non-Hispanic positions have fallen by 1,362,000. For black and white America, the Bush decade did not begin well or end well, and it has gotten worse under Obama.
African-Americans remain loyal, but among white folks, where Obama ran stronger than John Kerry or Al Gore, he is hemorrhaging.
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, which showed him falling to 50 percent approval, whites, by 54 percent to 27 percent, felt Obama behaved "stupidly" in the Sgt. Crowley-professor Gates dustup.
Fifteen straight months of job losses by non-Hispanics explains the anger..."
Sotomayor a racist who "cooed" at the right time
"Since no one seems overly concerned about putting a racist on the Supreme Court-- provided it is a politically correct racist-- the moral of the story seems to be that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, that doesn't matter if it coos like a dove at Senate confirmation hearings."
(snip}
"How long will it be before the public gets tired of the little know-it-all sermonettes by Barack Obama-- especially since nothing that he is doing is actually working?"
(snip}
"How long will it be before the public gets tired of the little know-it-all sermonettes by Barack Obama-- especially since nothing that he is doing is actually working?"
Monday, August 10, 2009
Climate cools for global warming alarmism
"Here's what Gallup found: The number of Americans who say the media have exaggerated global warming jumped to a record 41 percent in 2009, up from 35 percent a year ago. The most marked increase came among political independents, whose ranks of doubters swelled from 33 percent to 44 percent. Republican doubters grew from 59 percent to 66 percent, while Democratic skeptics stayed at around 20 percent.
What's more, fewer Americans believe the effects of global warming have started to occur: 53 percent see signs of a hotter planet, down from 61 percent in 2008. Global warming placed last among eight environmental concerns Gallup asked respondents to rank, with water pollution landing the top spot.
Another recent Gallup study found that, for the first time in 25 years of polling, more Americans care about economic growth than the environment. Just 42 percent of people surveyed said the environment takes precedence over growth, while 51 percent asserted expansion carries more weight. That reverses results from 2008, when 49 percent of respondents said the environment was paramount and 42 percent said economic growth came first. In 1985, the poll's first year, 61 percent placed a bigger priority on the environment, while 28 percent ranked economic growth highest."
What's more, fewer Americans believe the effects of global warming have started to occur: 53 percent see signs of a hotter planet, down from 61 percent in 2008. Global warming placed last among eight environmental concerns Gallup asked respondents to rank, with water pollution landing the top spot.
Another recent Gallup study found that, for the first time in 25 years of polling, more Americans care about economic growth than the environment. Just 42 percent of people surveyed said the environment takes precedence over growth, while 51 percent asserted expansion carries more weight. That reverses results from 2008, when 49 percent of respondents said the environment was paramount and 42 percent said economic growth came first. In 1985, the poll's first year, 61 percent placed a bigger priority on the environment, while 28 percent ranked economic growth highest."
Detroit celebrates a poor symbol, Joe Louis's fist
"On the plaza in front of the Detroit municipal building is a huge bronze replica of Joe Louis’ fist and arm, as if to say: “Here is a city ruled by brawn.” Brawn counts for very little in the modern world. The earnest redevelopers who hoped to renew Detroit by razing its history instead destroyed the raw materials out of which urban renaissance has come to so so many other American downtowns. A couple of days after I returned from Detroit, I telephoned a friend who had lived and worked in the city for many years. My friend, it’s relevant to mention, is the son of an Irish cop, ardently Catholic and defiantly conservative. Why did Chicago recover and Detroit fail, I asked. What doomed the city? He thought for a moment. “Not enough gays.”
Detroit confirms the lessons taught by Jane Jacobs and Russell Kirk. Preservation is as vital to urban health as renovation. Indeed, they are inseparable. The preservation of the old incubates the new.
It’s a lesson with application not only to Detroit’s past, but its future. The great factory complexes along the Detroit River have shuttered. America no longer manufactures here. Some will want to rip the factories down. Leave them be – leave them for now as monuments and memorials of the achievements of the past; leave them for the future, when somebody will want them. Want them for what? Who can say? Who in 1950 could ever have imagined London’s Docklands converted into condominums? Who would have guessed that New York’s emptied toolshops would provide some of the city’s most coveted office space? The 22nd century will put the artifacts of the 20th to equally unsurmisable uses, if only we permit it. Cities can molder for a century or more, and then reawaken to a new era that rediscovers something of value in the detritus of an earlier time. Brooklyn did. So did Miami Beach. Ditto Boston and Charleston – and even more spectacularly, Dublin and Prague. The promise of renaissance may yet come true, even for the ghost city of Detroit."
Detroit confirms the lessons taught by Jane Jacobs and Russell Kirk. Preservation is as vital to urban health as renovation. Indeed, they are inseparable. The preservation of the old incubates the new.
It’s a lesson with application not only to Detroit’s past, but its future. The great factory complexes along the Detroit River have shuttered. America no longer manufactures here. Some will want to rip the factories down. Leave them be – leave them for now as monuments and memorials of the achievements of the past; leave them for the future, when somebody will want them. Want them for what? Who can say? Who in 1950 could ever have imagined London’s Docklands converted into condominums? Who would have guessed that New York’s emptied toolshops would provide some of the city’s most coveted office space? The 22nd century will put the artifacts of the 20th to equally unsurmisable uses, if only we permit it. Cities can molder for a century or more, and then reawaken to a new era that rediscovers something of value in the detritus of an earlier time. Brooklyn did. So did Miami Beach. Ditto Boston and Charleston – and even more spectacularly, Dublin and Prague. The promise of renaissance may yet come true, even for the ghost city of Detroit."
RIP global warming alarmists
From the Journal of Geophysical Research:
"Because El Niño−Southern Oscillation is known to exercise a particularly strong influence in the tropics, we also compared the SOI with tropical temperature anomalies between 20°S and 20°N. The results showed that SOI accounted for 81% of the variance in tropospheric temperature anomalies in the tropics. Overall the results suggest that the Southern Oscillation exercises a consistently dominant influence on mean global temperature, with a maximum effect in the tropics, except for periods when equatorial volcanism causes ad hoc cooling. That mean global tropospheric temperature has for the last 50 years fallen and risen in close accord with the SOI of 5–7 months earlier shows the potential of natural forcing mechanisms to account for most of the temperature variation."
"Because El Niño−Southern Oscillation is known to exercise a particularly strong influence in the tropics, we also compared the SOI with tropical temperature anomalies between 20°S and 20°N. The results showed that SOI accounted for 81% of the variance in tropospheric temperature anomalies in the tropics. Overall the results suggest that the Southern Oscillation exercises a consistently dominant influence on mean global temperature, with a maximum effect in the tropics, except for periods when equatorial volcanism causes ad hoc cooling. That mean global tropospheric temperature has for the last 50 years fallen and risen in close accord with the SOI of 5–7 months earlier shows the potential of natural forcing mechanisms to account for most of the temperature variation."
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Cash for clunkers is, in the end, a clunker
"Cash for clunkers is best seen as a perfect example of why economic illiteracy - evident both in our politicians and even sometimes in noted economists - is so damaging to our economy now.
The clunkers program is the latest example of French economist Frederic Bastiat's warning to always analyze secondary, unseen effects as well as the primary effects of any policy; that is to say, to fully reflect all costs, as well as benefits of a program, when determining its efficacy."
(snip)
"The clunkers program certainly helps auto manufacturers, sellers and participating buyers, today; this is what's seen. But it hurts used-car buyers, who now face constricted supply, along with used-car dealers, repair shops, parts suppliers, mechanics and a myriad number of businesses in other industries who face lower sales revenues."
The clunkers program is the latest example of French economist Frederic Bastiat's warning to always analyze secondary, unseen effects as well as the primary effects of any policy; that is to say, to fully reflect all costs, as well as benefits of a program, when determining its efficacy."
(snip)
"The clunkers program certainly helps auto manufacturers, sellers and participating buyers, today; this is what's seen. But it hurts used-car buyers, who now face constricted supply, along with used-car dealers, repair shops, parts suppliers, mechanics and a myriad number of businesses in other industries who face lower sales revenues."
Are Obama's hands really clean on "the mess?"
In his new role as the nation's self-appointed rationer of speech, President Obama said this: "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess."
The word "mess" apparently refers to the recession, the rising total of jobless Americans and the shrinking tax revenue of government at all levels.
Sure, we have other messes. Because of reckless spending by his administration and the Democrat Congress, China now holds unparalleled power to make matters much worse by stepping away from U.S. debt auctions until interest rates rise. There is also the small matter of Russian submarines patrolling off U.S. shores.
But neither of those issues would have materialized if the economy hadn't collapsed.
Why did the economy collapse? Because, for 30 years, the U.S. government carried on an aggressive policy of bullying banks and other lenders to make home loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back.
Where was Obama while all that was happening? For much of the time, he was a community organizer in Chicago, where he worked closely with ACORN, which did its part by picketing banks that were too slow to lend to borrowers who couldn't repay the loans.
For part of the time, Obama was an attorney for ACORN.
In other words, while in Chicago, Obama earned a living by defeating free markets so as to provide benefits to people who couldn't afford to buy them.
Traditionally, banks or other local lenders had provided a check on reckless lending by limiting the maximum size of a loan to the borrower's income, a system that made repayment more likely than not.
In Washington, politicians destroyed that safeguard by setting up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, quasi-government organizations whose function was to promptly buy newly issued mortgages from local lenders. Because they could quickly unload new mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, local lenders no longer had any skin in the game. Now, they had an incentive to be reckless.
Obama benefited personally from Fannie's and Freddie's central place in home financing. After just four years in the U.S. Senate, Obama ranked as the second-biggest recipient of political contributions from the two giants.
Fannie and Freddie contributed to their friends, not their adversaries.
The word "mess" apparently refers to the recession, the rising total of jobless Americans and the shrinking tax revenue of government at all levels.
Sure, we have other messes. Because of reckless spending by his administration and the Democrat Congress, China now holds unparalleled power to make matters much worse by stepping away from U.S. debt auctions until interest rates rise. There is also the small matter of Russian submarines patrolling off U.S. shores.
But neither of those issues would have materialized if the economy hadn't collapsed.
Why did the economy collapse? Because, for 30 years, the U.S. government carried on an aggressive policy of bullying banks and other lenders to make home loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back.
Where was Obama while all that was happening? For much of the time, he was a community organizer in Chicago, where he worked closely with ACORN, which did its part by picketing banks that were too slow to lend to borrowers who couldn't repay the loans.
For part of the time, Obama was an attorney for ACORN.
In other words, while in Chicago, Obama earned a living by defeating free markets so as to provide benefits to people who couldn't afford to buy them.
Traditionally, banks or other local lenders had provided a check on reckless lending by limiting the maximum size of a loan to the borrower's income, a system that made repayment more likely than not.
In Washington, politicians destroyed that safeguard by setting up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, quasi-government organizations whose function was to promptly buy newly issued mortgages from local lenders. Because they could quickly unload new mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, local lenders no longer had any skin in the game. Now, they had an incentive to be reckless.
Obama benefited personally from Fannie's and Freddie's central place in home financing. After just four years in the U.S. Senate, Obama ranked as the second-biggest recipient of political contributions from the two giants.
Fannie and Freddie contributed to their friends, not their adversaries.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Sarah Palin attacks Obama regime, AP defends
Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page, attacks the Obama regime's "death panel" as "downright evil." The AP, in what pretends to be a news account, counter-attacks, arguing that "millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover. Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions."
If a one-time news agency functions as a flack for the Democrat Party and its office holders, shouldn't it have to pay taxes?
If a one-time news agency functions as a flack for the Democrat Party and its office holders, shouldn't it have to pay taxes?
D.C. court: IRS screwed taxpayers out of billions
"In a blistering 2-1 opinion, the D.C. Circuit today reinstated a challenge to the IRS's procedures for issuing billions of dollars of refunds of the long distance telephone excise tax. Cohen v. Commissioner, No. 08-5088 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 7, 2009). Here is the opening of the majority's opinion:
The opinion:
"Comic-strip writer Bob Thaves famously quipped, 'A fool and his money are soon parted. It takes creative tax laws for the rest.' In this case it took the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS” or “the Service”) aggressive interpretation of the tax code to part millions of Americans with billions of dollars in excise tax collections. Even this remarkable feat did not end the IRS’s creativity. When it finally conceded defeat on the legal front, the IRS got really inventive and developed a refund scheme under which almost half the funds remained unclaimed."
The opinion:
"Comic-strip writer Bob Thaves famously quipped, 'A fool and his money are soon parted. It takes creative tax laws for the rest.' In this case it took the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS” or “the Service”) aggressive interpretation of the tax code to part millions of Americans with billions of dollars in excise tax collections. Even this remarkable feat did not end the IRS’s creativity. When it finally conceded defeat on the legal front, the IRS got really inventive and developed a refund scheme under which almost half the funds remained unclaimed."
Rationing of medical care means blindness, death
In this piece, in American Thnker, a practicing physician explains how rationing of medical care can mean lights out, or death, for those over 65.
"For those of you who are over 65, this bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in England over 59 cannot receive stents for their coronary arteries. The government wants to mimic the British plan. For those of you younger, it will still mean restriction of the care that you and your children receive."
"For those of you who are over 65, this bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in England over 59 cannot receive stents for their coronary arteries. The government wants to mimic the British plan. For those of you younger, it will still mean restriction of the care that you and your children receive."
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