Blaska's Blog is double sealed at the factory for maximum freshness and protection against airborne pathogens.
Today, the Blogge settles some long-running arguments. But first, this encomium from a liberal who claims not to be the Jeremy I'm looking for or any Jeremy at all. (So, why does he act like one?)
Look, Dick, look. Me not your Jeremy
Clearly, you're not just a dick, you're also a very sick man. How else to explain you seeing Jeremys (sic) everywhere?
Well, dick, for the record I am not the Jeremy you're looking for.
I'm not any Jeremy. I am simply a guy that thinks you're a real dick. And to reiterate, I think you're a dick because of your dickish behavior, not your politics.
If tomorrow God himself descended upon the Earth and showed all of mankind how to set aside their political differences and live together in peace and harmony for all eternity, you'd still be a dick. -- "Bland" on TheDailyPage Forum, 9-14-11.
Speaking of Jeremies
Still waiting for the State Democratic Party, Progressive Dane, Senate minority leader Miller, congressional candidate Mark Pocan, The Capital Times, The Progressive, Comrade Nichols, Fighting Ed Garvey and the National Society of Jeremies to call out the "useful idiots" (as Brian Fraley of the MacIver Institute calls them) who are indulging their egos at the State Capitol.
Finally, the State Journal has, with its excellent "Wearing out their welcome" story today featuring Segway Jeremy, the Pink Slip guy, and headlock Bridget -- thespoiled fruit of our entitlement society.
Then again, as ye sew, so shall ye reap. The Dems created these children, they own them, they can live with them.
What is wrong with our law enforcement that these clowns are allowed to pretend they are civil rights martyrs day after day? Steve Nass expresses his thoughts on this MacIver video. And BTW, crybabies: just try videotaping the U.S. Congress from the spectators' gallery! You won't last 10 seconds.
(Thanks to the State Senate for today's photo of children play acting at being the middle class during the February-March Siege of the Capitol. The Caption courtesy of the Blaska Policy Research Factory.)
Segway to the party of money
We heard during this summer's recalls how Republicans would outspend Democrats. I said it was balderdash then and Mike McCabe's Democracy Campaign saysit now.
Democrats outspent Republicans $23.4 million to $20.5 million. Dems were led by We Are Wisconsin, a coalition of labor unions "mostly based in Washington, including the AFL- CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union."
These figures do not count Segway Jeremy Ryan, who, he says himself, "has given almost everything to fight for the middle class since February. We need more people like him in Madison! He has been arrested and given numerous citations for our cause."
The citations are not the medal kind but neither do they ever result in a real penalty. I'd put Jeremy on the liability side of the ledger.
Still making up their mind?
The MacIver Institute did some polling and finds the Wisconsin mind divided with two contrary thoughts. Of those, 53% said they favored restricting bargaining rules for public employees and 45% said they opposed doing that.
But 52% said they opposed Wisconsin's new law while 44% like it. Time is on our side. The sky has not fallen. In a nation where 2 million fewer workers have jobs than the day Barack Obama was sworn in as president, government employees in Wisconsin still have jobs and Segway Jeremy Ryan can call himself a hero on his own Facebook site.
Tax the rich?
Been there and doing that. When President Obama, with his deficit reduction plan, panders to the Jeremy wing of the party you know there's some funny money going on. From indipsensable James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. "The Associated Press has one of those "fact check" pieces on the president's speech, and it actually contains some facts":
On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. ...
The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes pay more than half of all federal taxes. They pay more than 70 percent of federal income taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Millionaires pay one-quarter of their annual income in federal income tax, according to the IRS (referenced in the AP story).
The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year, says the Associated Press.
If Warren Buffett pays less than his secretary, he is the exception, not the rule.
Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
The Ponzi Jeremy Scheme
The argument is over, answered by the inimitable CharlesKrauthammer on the Ponzi scheme (thank you, Rick Perry) that is Social Security:
When Social Security began making monthly distributions in 1940 there were 160 workers for every senior receiving benefits. In 20 years there will be but two.
And one of them is a Jeremy!
When Franklin Roosevelt created SS, choosing 65 as the eligibility age, life expectancy was 62. Today it is almost 80. FDR wanted to prevent the aged few from suffering destitution in their last remaining years. Social Security was not meant to provide two decades of greens fees for baby boomers. [Blaska: "Ouch!"]
And that is your dagger!
