So what happens to all those almost empty, in foreclosure high and low rise, bankrupted condos built on the City of Tempe Town Lake, now all the water has flowed down the Salt River on it's natural river bed, since the fake lake rubber dam collapsed? The "Town Lake that embodies [err...make that embodied] a unique vision for the future" according to the City of Tempe's website?
Millions of people became involuntarily unemployed in 2007-2008, early in the economic crisis, and have long ago exhausted unemployment benefits and any extension they may have received at that time. They have dropped off the unemployment rolls and are no longer statistically counted as unemployed. Additionally many people have never qualified for unemployment benefits due to the professions they were in, for example real estate agents and mortgage brokers, also hard hit by unemployment.
An extension of people currently on benefits seems to beg the questions...what about those that have already dropped off? Also, since we now know unemployment is a long term, vexing problem, do we continue to extend indefinitely those on unemployment now and leave those already dropped off the rolls in the lurch? When do we cut off benefits? What about the massive federal deficit? Do we really want to create a permanent special underclass of people on unemployment, which in turn becomes basically welfare? These are hard questions that must be asked.
Video is from MSNBC's Hardball:
Jeffrey A. Miron is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University.
Christian Weller is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Public Policy professor at the University of Massachusetts.
"Are we going to reclaim the American idea - an entrepreneurial economy where you make the most of your life, you can maximize your potential; reinvigorate the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise - and defend its morality - or - are we going to abandon the American idea, and become a stagnant European-style cradle-to-grave welfare state, where we drain people of their incentive and will to make the most of their lives, and become more dependent on the government? The President and the people that run Congress are dedicated progressives. They believe that we ought to have the government so much more involved in our lives, with the government - not ourselves - as the determining factor of our destiny. The country must answer the question: do we want an entrepreneurial society that gets the prosperity turned back on in the 21st century, where individual merit and entrepreneurial activity defines the American economy - or - are we going to have more and more people dependent on the government for their livelihoods? That is the fork in the road - and the urgency of the time for choosing is being precipitated by the current direction of our government and the looming debt crisis, driven by the explosion in entitlement spending. We must decide what kind of a country we are going to be in the 21st century."
Civil rights diversity groups are also intolerant...
The NAACP condemnation of the Tea Party movement as racist reminds me again of what I've thought for a long time about groups such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), NOW (National Organization of Women) and HRC (Human Rights Campaign).
All of these organizations have wasted countless hours and money on approaching legitimate problems regarding issues of discrimination with the wrong approach but also hypocritically. They have spent decades pushing for special legislation requesting special rights in the name of reversing discrimination using federal, state and local legislatures. In my mind these grievances should be redressed through legal challenges based on US Constitutional Rights. That, however, is for another blog.
What occurs to me with the NAACP resolution is what has bothered me about all the so-called civil rights groups. They're just as prejudiced as the people they claim to represent that are the subject of prejudice. There is no tolerance for diversity of political views or opinions within these groups, only one point of view is allowed: Liberal. The National Organization of Women claims to defend women against oppression but are oppressive to women who do not follow lockstep into the feminist agenda. You may or may not like Sarah Palin but she is treated by NOW in exactly the manner that organization claims all women are treated. The Human Rights Campaign Fund has no tolerance for any homosexual that does not sign up wholesale for the entire Gay Agenda from A to Z.
Another troublesome thing about the NAACP resolution, is it makes the assumption that the Media and the Political Class like to cast, that the Tea Party is one unified group of people on the fringe. The Tea Party is a movement that comprises many different groups with similar primary goals but differing ideas.
In any case Arizona Congressional District 3 candidate former Paradise Vally Mayor Vernon Parker states that this will backfire on the NAACP. It appears it already has with such old hat luminaries of civil rights days gone by as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson distancing themselves from the resolution. They've been around long enough to know that the black community itself is not unified under one political philosophy and that many African Americans are actually quite conservative.
My blog Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker is Red from 05/21/10 has Vernon Parker discussing the myth that black and ethnic groups are assumed to be Social Democrats and Liberals.
Here is Vernon Parker's statement from yesterday that he has received the backing of Arizona's largest Tea Party group and about the potential for backlash.
Are looking better all the time in the rear view mirror...
John McCain has been my Congressman and Senator since 1982 and I never have trusted him. He's always fallen into that awful category of "the lesser of two evils" which happens too often in politics; rather like Bush vs. Kerry. I have no idea what shape we would be in if McCain had won the 2008 Presidential election. It's a mind-numbing thought but not nearly as as anesthetizing as thinking about who we have now as President, a man clearly more interested in superficial image than deep thinking and in way over his head.
The absurdity of the White House insisting on "detaching the word Islam from any statement regarding terrorism," for the sake of college-style political correctness, causing military and intelligence personnel to carefully parse their words, is the latest oddity.
Let's get real...the largest terrorist threat to the US is from the Islamic world. The inanity of "detaching any reference to Islam when referring to terrorists" is enough to cause even non-conspiracist me to wonder what Obama's allegiances truly are.
Hindsight is 20/20. I can't say I trust Hillary Clinton all that much but what the heck...I don't trust Obama at all. Not on one issue for one second. I'm thinking McCain would've been a terrible President and we probably would have been better off with Hillary Clinton.
Pre-packaged agendas are for sissies, of both genders and all races. Buying into a Feminist, Gay, Liberal, Right Wing, Union, Religion, Tea Party, Political Party,Name-Your-Program, is a sign of not having an original thought. Few people fit neatly into boxes and categories.
In this video Willie Nelson (with an appearance by Burt Reynolds) gives stereotypes and as an aside, pre-packaged agendas, a run for the money. Regrettably a lot of people miss the point.
Coming up as a laggard from the rear, Governor Jan Brewer has made the best of an opportunity after signing S1070 the Immigration Bill, using it to push her to the front of the pack in her bid to become the actual elected Governor of Arizona. With her political wits about her she's managed to make people forget, at least for now, that awful sales tax she managed to push the voters to pass.
She did get a meeting with Obama and it's understood she was very direct and clear and he didn't like it too much. Good. His response so far has been these warning signs.
The Governor has handled some criticism for her statement that most illegal immigrants smuggle drugs and are drug mules for Mexican organized crime. There actually is a lot of anecdotal evidence, although not necessarily by their choice, that most illegal immigrants crossing well known trails are hauling drugs as part of the price they pay to come here. The Mexican drug cartels demand it of them as well as payment.
The du jour counter charge regarding her statements is the usual "Racism." It's fair to say that the truth is the majority of illegal immigrants are caught up in the web of drug smuggling and all of the other types of crime that go with it. I'm sure many of them never intended nor do they want to live that way.
Arizona has been assaulted for decades by the drug cartels, the equivalent of the Mafia in NY and NJ, the Mob in Vegas and the political machine of Chicago. Why should we have to put up with that anymore than those places do with their criminal gangsters?
The fight she is picking is looming much larger than immigration though. It really is about States' Rights and the power the States hold vs. the power the Federal government holds. It is one that needs to happen but on a number of fronts. The Federal Government has grown too powerful and this Congress and Administration have taken it to an extreme that is unconstitutional.
Here is the thing...
Immigration is an important issue to me but my main one has always been the economy. The entire nation, indeed the world, is in an economic contraction that very few people alive have seen and it's getting worse. Arizona, especially Phoenix, is one of the worst hit. The Valley of the Sun is a modern day ghost town...very little traffic in the streets and stores. The dramatic slowdown can't be attributed to winter visitors and illegal immigrants leaving. The real reasons are well known and they're economic.
The next big issue Arizona (and other states) are barreling head on into is insolvency and bankruptcy. The Federal Government can't (or shouldn't) help because the Federal debt level is too high and can't be justified by GDP. Yet, it appears that the Federal Government wants to do just exactly that and float more fiat money, thereby exerting even more control over the states.
Most Arizonans, of all stripes, have one thing in common, an intense dislike for the Federal Government due to the the federal role in creating the state and owning and mismanaging a vast portion of our land.
The trick will be...
Can Governor (by secession) Jan Brewer, as elected Governor, maintain the stamina she will need get the contentious state legislature and other elected major office holders to agree on anything? We are in the budget crisis we are in today, due to the childish bickering of petty partisan politicians in the state legislature, partly because as an unexpected governor she didn't grasp the reins quickly and firmly enough. Has she learned from the lesson?
Looking at how well she is doing in the polls right now and her opposition, as it stands, we probably will get to find out.
3 Reasons The FCC Shouldn't "Touch" The Internets...
The very last thing we need is an analog electromechanical bureaucracy, from the last century, thrusting itself unwanted on a new digital technology for this century.
1. Where's the fire?
2. The FCC F2%#ING SUCKS
3. MISSION CREEP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyUeiR7djQ Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions of all their videos Written and Produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
