Diggapedia

Economists suck at predictions.   Economist Kevin Hassett, and former Romney economic advisor, said in 1999 “Stocks are now, we believe, in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground—to the neighborhood of 36,000.” Of course there was President Obama’s own Christine Romer who predicted that unemployment would never pass 8% if the stimulus was passed.   We know how that turned out.   How many economists predicted the 2008 economic collapse?   I can only think of one: Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini.   Roubini now warns of a perfect storm recession in 2013:   “Everybody’s kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest.”    Meanwhile Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman says “ So yes, debt matters. But right now, other things matter more. We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. And the wrongheaded, i

How about the establishment clause?    Oklahoma judge Mike Norman sentenced 17 year old Tyler Alred to ten years in church in connection to a drunk diving incident that killed the teenager’s friend.   Church?   I am all for a progressive judge trying to find alternative sentencing, but this is bad for justice AND religion. Nativity plays will need new casts.   Pope Benedict XVI says there were no oxen, donkeys, or any other animals for that matter at the birth of Jesus.   No word yet if the Three Wiseman are in jeopardy of being cut too. I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas?   Pope Benedict XVI also claims that the entire Christian calendar may also be off due to a 6 th century monk’s miscalculation regarding the actual birth date of Jesus. Never too soon to kiss ass.   Florida Senator Marco Rubio visited Iowa soon after the 2012 Presidential election.   Rubio is building his credentials with the evangelical Iowa caucus crowd where he dodged the question about the age of the e

  With 36 shopping days until the ‘fiscal cliff’ pundits and analysts from both sides are offering their opinions and giving advice to the political combatants.   And as usual, the left is calling for President Obama to not ‘cave in’ like he did in in 2010, he didn’t, and the right is calling for Speaker Boehner to hold fast and not allow a tax increase.   Now that we are passed the election and Black Friday the rhetoric will amp up on cable news, I won’t watch, and the Sunday Talk Shows, won’t be watching those either, to a fever pitch with the zealots on each side looking for unconditional surrender and unanimous victory.   Yes compromise is on the endangered list of political will. But should this come as a surprise to anyone?   In every aspect of society we feel we have to treat everything   as a competition.   Within hours of the Gaze cease fire, pundits were already trying to declare winners and losers.   Now I am no ‘everybody gets a trophy for participation’ kind of g

I am thankful for: History repeating itself, because I fear how we would cope if everything was new. David Chase making a sociopath the protagonist in the HBO series The Sopranos, and in the aftermath we have been treated to the likes of Vic Mackey, Nucky Thompson, Dexter Morgan,   Al Swearengen, Walter White, Russell Edgington, Don Draper, and Tommy Gavin. Hindsight because without it we wouldn’t know what we were supposed to do. Political pledges because anytime you can get a politician to sign anything you have a document and record that becomes useful in mocking said politician Box cutters because they are the most useful tool to overcome manufacturers and retailers fear of theft and are necessary if you want to open the most basic packaging.  A must if you want to open the package sometime this century Sports surgeons because isn’t every surgery deemed ‘successful’?   I mean have you ever heard a surgeon say “Well that didn’t go so well”, following an ACL pro

97 House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama telling him they were ‘deeply troubled’ by his consideration of Susan Rice to be the next Secretary of State.   The letter goes on to claim “Ambassador Rice is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public in the Benghazi matter.”   That’s rich from a party that ginned up the Iraqi invasion or lied to the American people about every piece of Obama-approved legislation.   I have copied the link to the letter below for your reading pleasure which includes the signatures of the 97 cosigners.     Here are some of the select few that have signed the ludicrous letter. Author South Carolina’s Jeff Duncan , who wants to open all of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to drilling exploration and production, including the Gulf Coast, Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific. Also approves new leasing areas such as the Southern Atlantic OCS and the Eastern Gulf, and full exploration of ANWR. Texas Congressman

·          Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan loves to chastise Israel for its treatment of Palestinians living in Gaza.   I could take him seriously if he wasn’t systematically trying to wipe out Kurds living in Turkey. ·          The next time the Muslim Brotherhood and it’s new government feel the need to criticize Israel for its handling of Gaza, perhaps they should look in the mirror and ask themselves about how they treat Egypt’s Coptic Christians. ·          If the Netanyahu government cared about Israel’s long term security, it would work out a deal with Fatah.   Alas, his Likud led RW government cannot see the inevitable. ·          Yes it is true that Social Security has not been a significant contributor to the current deficits and debt.   Nonetheless, it along with Medicare, are bridges we will be crossing very soon and wouldn’t it be novel for our government to deal with a situation before it becomes acute? ·          We are much better off without the likes o

The latest Israeli-Palestinian deadly altercation continues in Gaza and Israel, is very much like previous battles, but also different.   One thing that remains the same is the media’s inability to delve into the awful situation beyond the surface, I hold out hope for Fareed Zakaria this weekend, and get to the root of the situation. What seems to have triggered the latest battle was Israel’s targeted killing of Al-Qassam Brigade’s, the militant wing of Hamas, leader Ahmed Al-Jabari following the launch of over 100 rockets from Gaza into southern Israel over the preceding days.   Immediately following Al-Jabari’s death, the conflict escalated as rocket launches from Gaza continued and return fire from Israeli land, sea, and aerial forces became more deadly. It’s Politics Stupid: There has been speculation that the Netanyahu government targeted Al-Jabari to help his Likud party in the coming elections on January 22, 2013.   Whether the rapid escalation was part of the calculu

I was disappointed watching the Ed Show this evening.   For a party that claims to be pro math and science, for a party that loudly applauded Bill Clinton’s “People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets.   What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic”, and for a party that chided the Republicans for holding America hostage, the liberal wing of the Democrat Party certainly are singing a different tune.   A tune that may whip them into a frenzy, but a tune that doesn’t help the country. You see, I too think that the rich are getting off way too easy with respect to effective, not marginal, tax rates.   I am disgusted that Mitt Romney only pays 14% effective tax rate because his capital gains and dividend income rates are so low.   Tell a Reagan loving Republican that his hero RAISED the capital gains tax rate to 28% and they will look at you incredulously.   Today’s 13% rate is hurting this country as it robs the Treasury of funds and

Twenty Questions 1)       Will President Obama have as successful a lame duck congressional session as he did on 2010 when he was able to push through another $300Billion in stimulus, get DADT repealed, and a new START treaty signed? 2)       Will anybody really miss Jon Kyl? 3)       Has the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences started engraving   Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar yet for Lincoln? 4)       Anybody else not really missing Kristen Wiig on SNL this year? 5)       Why are a year’s worth of great movies crammed into the last 10 weeks of every year?   (That one is rhetorical) 6)       Why does the NFL mandate the color of a players undershirt, but not the safest helmet? 7)       Can the media now move on from Lance Armstrong? 8)       Does anyone else find the notion that a show called Are You Smarter Than a 5 th Grader is not a good sign for our global competitiveness? 9)       If the Tea Party believes in individual responsibility to take care

  A final Diggapedia post on the 2012 election: Irrespective of outcome, the biggest loser is the voter.   As the global proponent of democracy we are the epitome of do as is say, not as I do.   We are skeptical of elections in other countries claiming they are neither ‘free nor fair’, but when the same international body used to judge a nation’s electoral fairness is not only banned in a dozen U.S. states, these monitors are also threatened with arrest.   What are we hiding?   When poorer countries like Mexico and India can invest $Billions in biometric technology to insure fair elections and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela has electronic voting machines and we have a patchwork of the archaic and antiquated. I say enough is enough.   The time has come for a new voting rights act, a national independent bureau for voting standards.   Those that believe in state’s rights might balk at such a notion, but accepting the status quo is not a practical solution. One of the problems with the

Now that may surprise some of you, but our Republic requires strong opposition.   When one party completely dominates the legislative, executive, and judicial branches debate, problem solving, critical thinking, liberty, society, and the nation suffer.   This goes for both parties.   Our greatest asset is our diversity and when there is no opposition to provide alternative ideas or proposals, group think takes over and suddenly a mob mentality ensues. I am an independent because I believe no party today best represents my views on the role of government, economics, and globalization and based on the growing number of unaligned voters I tend to believe I am not alone.   In Arizona, local and state government is now dominated by ultra conservative politicians having purged Republican moderates from office.   The impact?   The opposition voice is often muted and ineffectual resulting in social and fiscal dominance from one party.   The same is true on the other end of the political

-           Newt Gingrich o    “What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anticolonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.” o    “Drop a little bit of the pious baloney.” o    “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering.   I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.” -           Mitt Romney o    “Uh, I'm actually going to to, I'm not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was. And with regards to, uh, I'll go back and take at what was said there.” o    “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, we can’t have illegals.” o    “This feels good, being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height." -           Rick Perry o    “I would do away wi