Crist

Crist was in favor of offshore drilling, but now, he is not. Is there anything this guy believes in other than political calculation?

Which gets to the point as to why I don't think his forthcoming decision to run as an Independent will work. First, it will allow Rubio to get a head start on tailoring his message to a general election audience. And second, Crist just spent months arguing that he is a “good, Conservative Republican”. With this switch, he will never escape the “he’ll do or say anything to get elected” label.

No negotiation on AIG CDS payout

Last March, I wrote this post about how investment banks such as Goldman Sachs were the ultimate recipients of the AIG bailout funds in the form of credit default swap (CDS) payouts.

Today, Senator Coburn asked Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar how Goldman was able to negotiate a full payout on their AIG CDS, instead of taking, say, 50 cents on the dollar. The CFO responded by saying that there was no negotiation with government officials. "We received the term sheet, and we agreed to it."

He forgot to mention that Goldman executives not only agreed to the terms, but they promptly broke out into a chorus of "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang.

Obamacare: The Accountants Full Employment Act

Right now, businesses are only required to report payments made to individuals and sole proprietors to the IRS through 1099 reporting. The health care bill will require all payments, even those to corporations, to be reported on a 1099 form. This is huge.

SEC. 9006. EXPANSION OF INFORMATION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General- Section 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new subsections:
‘(h) Application to Corporations- Notwithstanding any regulation prescribed by the Secretary before the date of the enactment of this subsection, for purposes of this section the term ‘person’ includes any corporation that is not an organization exempt from tax under section 501(a).
‘(i) Regulations- The Secretary may prescribe such regulations and other guidance as may be appropriate or necessary to carry out the purposes of this section, including rules to prevent duplicative reporting of transactions.’.
(b) Payments for Property and Other Gross Proceeds- Subsection (a) of section 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended--
(1) by inserting ‘amounts in consideration for property,’ after ‘wages,’,
(2) by inserting ‘gross proceeds,’ after ‘emoluments, or other’, and
(3) by inserting ‘gross proceeds,’ after ‘setting forth the amount of such’.
(c) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to payments made after December 31, 2011.

Read about it here.

They were right, Alan Keyes is insane

I was always fond of Alan Keyes. He made the Republican Presidential debates back in '96 and 2000 worth watching. And I remember watching him debate Senate candidate Barack Obama back in 2004. Keyes was the victor and it wasn't even close.

But last week, he was the keynote speaker at the Dayton, Ohio tea party, and Mr. Keyes goes off into an unfortunate discussion about the legitimacy of the President's birth certificate. Below is the video.



Come on Mr. Keyes, do we really need to go down that route? Isn't there enough material to work with? Besides the fact that the evidence that the President was born in Hawaii is overwhelming, I'm sure the President would love the "birther" story to stay out there for as long as possible. It's a distraction from the real issues. It weakens the Tea Party movement and all legitimate opposition to the President's policies.

In other words, the White House's worst nightmare is more Paul Ryan, and its best hope is more Alan Keyes.

Limbaugh

From yesterday's show:

"Clinton and Obama. Two former protesters protesting protesters."

Up is down, left is right, night is day . . .

. . . and just in time for Earth Day, the U.S. State Department is about to release a report in which the following is asserted:

Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced ... Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.

To borrow a phrase from Will Ferrell, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Before I go grind my molars into little nubs, I'd like to remind the resident geniuses at the State Department of a few points made by Stephen Milloy in a column from early last year:

First, we know from studies of Antarctic ice that, over the last 650,000 years or so, warmer temperatures have preceded increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by hundreds, if not thousands of years. The ice studies indicate that the carbon dioxide-causes-global warming theory is precisely backwards.

Second, during the 20th century, there is simply no correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and global temperature. Not only did most of the century’s temperature rise occur before most of the century’s manmade greenhouse gas emissions, but during 1940-1975 global temperatures actually declined while atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide emission levels steadily increased.

It would be so great if the global warming bullies would challenge these points head-on, if they can, rather than pretending that CO2 levels and global temperatures have risen together in lockstep. It would also be great if I were taller.

Unfortunately, I expect I'll wake up tomorrow as short as I've always been. And global warmists' circular "arguments" will continue to resemble these villagers in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as they reason out whether they have a witch on their hands.

Romney shaking things up

Headline from NRO's The Corner:Romney Backs Rubio

One word....courage

"These are my people...Americans"

Watch this. No commentary is necessary.

Completely tone deaf

This is getting hard to believe:

Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser tonight, President Obama touted his administration’s tax cuts and said that the recent tea party rallies across the nation have “amused” him.

"You would think they should be saying thank you,” the President said to applause.

Read about it here. Like I said, this is like George W. making jokes about not finding WMDs.

[Update]

Here is the video. It makes it worse.

I'm in love

Tea-party Barbie.

Charles Shumer knows better

Spirit Airlines is proposing a fee for carry on baggage, and says that their ticket price will be reduced by about the same amount as the fee. This makes perfect sense - a traveler who walks on with no carry on luggage probably costs much less than someone who tries to jam a large suitcase into an overhead bin. I imagine the extra cost from additional boarding time alone, over the course of thousands of flights, is astronomical.

But Chuck Shumer does not like it. He says it would be a "slap in the face to travelers" and is threatening to propose legislation banning a separate fee for carry-on luggage.

I see it differently. Those who currently pay to check their bags will probably enjoy the lower ticket price. Plus, because of the lower ticket price, the total travel cost to those who carry-on will not change. I'm not sure how that is a "slap in the face". What he is really doing is forcing passengers who don't carry-on luggage to subsidize the passengers that do.

But more important than any of that, why in the world does he think he knows how airline travel should be priced?

Apparently he's not only a lawyer and career politician, he's also a cost accountant and airline marketing specialist. Man, he's good!

April is "Confederate History Month" in Virginia.

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell takes out his revolver and takes careful aim at his own foot. Not to mention the collective feet of the GOP.

More important, politics aside and strictly on the merits, McDonald's decision to remove the anti-slavery language added by a previous governor is a colossally stupid move. It is fine to study the Confederacy -- it is part of our nation's history after all -- and it's also fine to acknowledge that the Confederate soldiers fought bravely, and were motivated by more than just a desire to preserve the noxious, Curious Institution. In fact, such an acknowledgment is necessary to a full understanding of the Civil War. And I should also say that I do not think this proclamation is a window into McDonnell's soul, or that it will affect the lives of anyone in Virginia or elsewhere. This proclamation is at most a symbol. But symbols matter, which is why the proclamation was issued in the first place. Removing the anti-slavery language makes that symbol less true to the underlying reality, and suggests a certain obtuseness as to that reality.

Imagine a salute to the French revolutionaries that did not acknowledge the guillotine, or the Bolshevik revolution in Russia without a nod to the horrors that came after.

Anyway, if nothing else this serves as a reminder of the remarkable tone-deafness of Republican officials. The fall elections, to say nothing of 2012, will be difficult enough. No need to write the Democrats' sound bites for them.

UPDATE: Similar thoughts from Ramesh Ponnuru.

Chris Matthews is on top of his game

Chris Matthews on April 2, 2010:

"I never heard the word 'regime,' before, have you? I don't even think Joe McCarthy ever called this government a 'regime.'"

and

"The use of the word 'regime' in American political parlance is unacceptable, and someone should tell the walrus [Limbaugh] to stop using it."

Chris Matthews on June 14, 2002:

"Let's go to the Reverend Al Sharpton. Reverend Sharpton, what do you make of this letter and this panoply of the left condemning the Bush regime?"

Read more here

Obama the comedian

Like I said, somebody tackle him. He's completely tone-deaf.



By the way, the non-biblical definition of Armageddon is: Any great and crucial conflict. I thought the genius-in-chief would know that.

Email from friend

Went to the dmv to register my car and was asked to register to vote. Can't believe it's come to this - but I abandoned my party of 15+ yrs and registered Republican....There it's off my chest.....still can't believe I did it. Thanks Obama and Pelosi.....what a joke.

Wow, it's incredible how many people think the President was born in Kenya.

Obama talking more trash

Last week, it was "Bring It On!", and this week, he's repeating the line "Go For It!". What in the world is he thinking?


It reminds of when president Bush made those jokes about not finding WMD's in Iraq, or when Mark Sanford wouldn't shut up about his Argentinian mistress. My only thought is, "Please, somebody tackle him."

Send this guy money

A great appearance this morning by Senate candidate Pat Toomey on Morning Joe.



In a discussion on industry bailouts, one of the other guests tries to trap him by asking "So it was right for the steel industry in Pennsylvania to go away, to let that happen?". He responds by saying, "Well, the steel industry had lots of problems, and if we always try and bail out failing companies, we lose prosperity in the future."

In other words, "yes". How refreshing.