High vs. Low-Income Earners

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

Income disparity is not as big as you may think, believe it or not.

Everyone is talking about ‘taxing the rich!’, ‘redistributing the wealth!’ and ‘income inequality!’ as if it is something from a fairy tale or something. If you didn’t know better, you would think you were reading history from the French Revolution (‘Off with their heads!) or the writings of Leon Trosky and the others who brought ‘income-equality’ (as in ‘low’ income for everyone but the rulers) in Soviet Russia for almost a century. Continue reading →

Game Change or More of the Same?

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It was a status quo election. Or was it?

The players all seem exactly the same. Barack Obama. John Boehner. Harry Reid. Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi. The only change in any top leadership position was John Cornyn taking over from Jon Kyl as the Republican Whip.

Power in Washington is a game of perception. Who has it? Who doesn’t? Who can keep his troops in line and who can’t?

Power slowly recedes from a second term President. Second terms are never pretty. Continue reading →

Electoral Collage

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The United States Constitution provides for an indirect election of the President. That is, you didn’t vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney last week; you voted for electors pledged to vote for one or the other.

The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which superseded a large section of Article II, Section 1) suggests says that the ballots of the electors in the several states having marked their ballots for President and Vice President shall “transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United

Continue reading →

Kick the Can Over the Fiscal Cliff

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The election wasn’t over for 48 hours before both sides started laying down their opening bids on dealing with what has become known as the “fiscal cliff.”

At its core, the “fiscal cliff” (and I’m going to stop putting it within quotes from here on) is the result of the Congress and the President (to use another phrase I wish I could excise from the political lexicon) “kicking the can down the road.” Continue reading →

Romney Will Win

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

As we have discussed before, someone – and I tried to find the source of the quote, but couldn’t – said that “four years ago Barack Obama was on a crusade; this year he’s in a campaign.”

Obama won the crusade, but Mitt Romney will win this campaign.

I know…I know. The polls are close. The national polls are tied; the state polls tilt toward Barack Obama. Continue reading →

Franken-Storm

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Contrary to media reports, Franken-Storm has nothing to do with Al Franken still being in the Senate.

Just kidding. There are no media reports about Al Franken still being in the Senate. He’s a comedian, and now he is in the Senate. Enough said about that.

I wonder if it was Al Franken who coined the phrase Franken-Storm. I assume that whoever named Franken-Storm came from Washington D.C. I don’t know why I assume that, but I do. Continue reading →

Moments in Time

BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

1. Was fortunate to be at Neil Young’s Bridge Concert last Sunday. An amazing event, in an outdoor amphitheater in Mountain View. Jack White; K.D. Lang (forgot how incredible she was); Ray LaMontagne (“Trouble!”); Lucinda Williams; Steve Martin; Flaming Lips (a fav of mine—disappointed); Gary Jones, Jr.; Guns N’ Roses (Axl lives!); and legend Neil with Crazy Horse. Peak experience: being “there.” Jack White did some Stripes and Blunderbuss stuff, but his band was all New Orleans honky tonk. Absolutely Killer.

2. Spotted the guy who does the Men’s Wearhouse commercials (“I guarantee it”). Huge head, huger nose, all stuck on a tiny body. He was sucking on a reefer like there was no tomorrow. No doubt medicinal. Continue reading →

Another Election

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

From Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine

I’ve been here for two days preparing for, and actually observing, the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. I was part of the International Observer Mission in that effort.

SIDEBAR

The day before I hopped on an airplane from Kiev to come down here, we were briefed by various government and political leaders. One person in our group asked whether international observers could remain in a precinct to watch the counting process. Continue reading →

Mind Your Own Business

BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

“Oh, the woman on our party line’s the nosiest thing, she picks up her receiver when she knows it’s my ring.”—Hank Williams

 . . . listening to my favorite radio station yesterday hoping for some perspectives on the presidential debate . . . lucky me . . . what I got instead was the just-released recordings of the 911 calls made from Accent Signage while crazed killer Andrew Engeldinger was slaughtering six innocent coworkers. Yum. Continue reading →

Debate Backwash

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The first debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney changed the direction of the campaign. In the two-plus weeks since that debate Obama’s lead in national polls and nearly every battleground state poll has shrunk or Romney has pulled ahead.

The second debate, which most observers believe Obama won on style points, has had no effect on the race whatsoever.

At least so far. Continue reading →

Voters Understand Fiscal Cliff

BY STEVE BELL
Reprinted from the Bipartisan Policy Institute

In failing to address the foolishness of present policy, candidates make a comprehensive response less likely.

Center Forward recently released the results of a poll taken by Purple Insights, asking 1,000 likely voters how much they knew about the “fiscal cliff,” the massive increases in taxes and cuts in spending scheduled to occur within the first two days of January 2013. Continue reading →

Presidential Debate, Channeling Al Gore

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Naomi Wolf must have called Barack Obama and given her two cents about how the President could seem more macho in debate number 2. He certainly was channeling his inner Al-Gore at the beginning of the “Thriller on Long Island,” when he moved aggressively into Mitt Romney’s personal space.

Romney followed suit, and at a few points, you thought that maybe something bad was going to happen. It never did, but this debate showed the personal animosity that the President has for his opponent.

Continue reading →

Obama Rebounds for Win

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Short answer: Obama rebounded strongly in this debate. Romney was prepared and did as well as he did in the first one, but Obama’s performance was so much better than last time, he gets the win.

Mitt Romney got the first question (from a college student asking about the availability of a job after he graduates). He walked over to “Jeremy” and spoke directly to him. Barack Obama also walked to the student and used the answer to attack Romney on wanting to “bankrupt Detroit.”

Candy Crowley busted the rules right off the bat by asking a follow-up question – what about short-term jobs – which both men used as an excuse to get on each other. Continue reading →

VP Debate Meaningless

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The Vice Presidential debates are usually meaningless. The one last night was more meaningless than most meaningless Vice Presidential debates.

The most famous debate put-down in history came when Lloyd Bentsen tore into Dan Quayle, who, let’s face it, was no Jack Kennedy. Quayle looked like a fool, but his playing partner still won the election.

The highest-rated Vice Presidential debate had can-I-call-you Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Palin exceeded all expectations and won the debate on style points, but that had no measurable effect on the trajectory of John McCain’s ultimate defeat. Continue reading →

A Case of Bad Gas

BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

There are certain things about human beings that are shared, validating the old joke about what the Zen master said to the hot dog vendor: “Make me one with everything.” Universally we all share sexuality, eating, loving, spirituality, even bad gas. I defy you to name any among us who hasn’t experienced a bit of the bubbly in the lower trunk.

Hang on to that feeling for a moment.

When it comes to the economy, how do we spell R-E-L-I-E-F? Romney and Obama have their plans, but God knows which is better or worse. Bottom line: This economic gas requires that something’s got to give. Continue reading →

Blue Mountains and Budget Cliffs

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

WINTERGREEN, VA (Oct. 7, 2012)—The Blue Ridge Mountains are spectacular, even on a cold, overcast gray day in October. The leaves are turning color and the tranquility is sedating. Crisp 40-degree temperatures sharpen the senses, but still beckon you outdoors for slow walks and casual conversations.

Congressman Paul Ryan is here, preparing for his debate later in the week with the Vice President, jovial Joe Biden, the man who always says just a little more than he should. Continue reading →

The Real Mitt Romney

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The central question of this Presidential campaign seems to be an odd one:  Who is the real Mitt Romney?

We could ask the same question about Barack Obama. Is Obama the left-wing socialist, the lucky s.o.b. who beat a series of weak candidates to waltz into the White House and a job way over his head, or the most brilliant political strategist in the history of mankind?

I honestly don’t know the answer to the Obama question. He has elements of all three in his political persona.

The Romney question is a bit easier to answer. Continue reading →

Big Bird, Show Us The Money

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

‘Hey!  Waddya Mean I’m Part of the 1%?’

Has anyone seen the slightly amateurish ads lately by the Obama campaign that tries to hammer Governor Romney on ‘cutting Big Bird’ out of the federal budget?

Probably not since even Big Bird and PBS have asked the Obama campaign to take them off the public airwaves.

At a time when we have 23 million un/underemployed people in this nation, gas prices spiking like Billy Idol’s peroxided hair, and the Middle East completely coming apart at the seams, the geniuses behind the Obama Phenomenon of 2008 have resorted to a childish attack on Governor Romney on a serious issue such as budget discipline behind…..Big Bird? Continue reading →

Romney Hits Middle East Failures

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

Gov. Mitt Romney introduced the crises in the Middle East to the campaign conversation this week with some tough talk about the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, and the wave of protests that took place on that day in nearly a dozen other countries.

Romney is the wrong messenger, but he’s right about the issue. This is not about the campaign. This is about foreign policy.

The Obama Administration needs to come clean about what happened on that day and what has occurred since. And more needs to be said about our lame policies toward Iran, the growing militancy all across the Middle East (so much for the touted tilt toward the West of the Arab Spring) and the increased tension between Israel and her neighbors, the incomprehensible death and destruction in Syria, the eruption of more violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the volatile antics of Iran’s Ahmedinijad. Continue reading →

My Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

We were somewhat amused by President Obama and his political consultant David Axelrod ‘accusing’ Mitt Romney of ‘exploding the deficit’ with his ‘$5 trillion tax plan!’

Well, they should know, shouldn’t they? President Obama and his Administration have broken the world records for the accumulation of debt over the past 4 years. They are veritable experts at ‘exploding the deficit!’

President Obama and David Axelrod accusing Mitt Romney of ‘exploding the deficit’ is like Chicago mobster Al Capone ‘accusing’ squeaky-clean G-man Eliot Ness of illegally running bootlegged liquor during Prohibition. Continue reading →