<$BlogRSDURL$>

Monday, January 31, 2005

The New York Times > International > Middle East > Allawi Vows to Unite Iraq's Ethnic and Religious Groups

A generally fair appraisal of yesterday's Iraqi election although talking about Afrikaaner, I mean, Sunni greivances is a bit tired.

One thing I especially liked was this:

"They (voters) did so despite relentless insurgent attacks that left 35 people dead, plus 9 suicide bombers."

I had seen reports fo 44 dead, but the suicide bombers do not deserve to be included with those people who gave their lives for the chance to cast a ballot.

While I could nitpick the fact that the suicide bombers do not deserve even enumeration, I will take the satisfaction that even the NYT had the decency to disaggregate them from the truly noteworthy.

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion

Seems a foregone conclusion that HoDo will be the final nail in the coffin of the Democrat Party.

Not so fast, his governship of VT was not radically liberal and, unless he has taken the plunge into liberal lunacy that Al Gore did, he'll be more moderate than forecasted. As a result, he'll be more effective as the expectations for his success have also been lowered.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Cold weather affects Metro-North

That damn $17.2 billion Pataki MTA budget!

Who could ever anticipate cold weather in January!?

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Little Black Lies

My first reaction was " Dems don't like it when Republicans play the race card because that trick is the sole provence of Democrats." (See claims of disenfranchisement.)

Using the life expectancy rate is misleading for the reason Mr. Krugman points out - mortality changes depending on where one begins. From birth, it is one figure (a lower one in this case), but from a different age (65 here), it is different.

Unfortunately, OLS' ideaology afflicts his criticism. Black men can expect to live 14.6 years once they reach retirement. White men can expect 16.6 years - two full years more! Or 13.7% longer!

When one only deals with 16.5 units, 2 full units discrepency is a lot!


Thursday, January 27, 2005

WSJ.com - Capital

A very important point about add-on accounts is not within the above article but comes from the blog of Donald Luskin.

His point is that those who spend every dime they earn do not have the extra income to particpiate in an add-on account. What would then occur is only the "rich" will particpate and then exacerbate the growing wealth disparity!

As a result, the private accounts would need to be carved out of the current payroll tax.




Downed wires delay morning trains

Back to bashing Brodsky.

Certainly Gov. Pataki's MTA budget didn't cause this delay on Metro-North, did it?

Airport decision benefits Brodsky

Bash in one post. Stand-up for him in another.

This small article reflects poorly on former Senatator D'Amato who used his influence to get the losing bidder a second chance.

Brodsky stepped-in and reminded the Port Authority of the laws.

A cheap shot by The Journal news.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

MTA Looks to the Sky for Cash - January 26, 2005 - The New York Sun

"A Westchester Democrat who has called for a constitutional amendment that would limit the governor's budgetary power, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, said: "The governor's proposal will yield a system of declining service and increased fares. This is no way to run a transportation system."

"Will yield" implies that this is not currently the case. Unfortunately, this is the case, and Pataki's budget will not cause something that already has occurred.

$17.2 billion is not enough. Keep that in mind.


Test-Prep Firms Bribing Students Just To Show Up - January 26, 2005 - The New York Sun

A couple thoughts.

1st, the reason the students fail is because they don't want to go to school. This is supported by the fact that the tutoring services can't bribe them to attend. It also leads to the conclusion that extraordinary efforts should not be made to further educate them.

2nd, as the service provider are paid by attendance, I wonder how many of them fudge the numbers.




New York Post Online Edition: postopinion

A grand slam analysis.

While I do not believe the Left will die, they are clearly on the wrong side of history at the moment.

As a result, they are doing an excellent job of appearing to die.

Monday, January 24, 2005

New Strategy on Social Security (washingtonpost.com)

The "add-on" approach is a good compromise appraoch. It is one that I thought would occur in conjunction with a slight increase in the payroll tax.

In 2001, the Dumocrats did not split the difference between Bush's prospsed top rate of 33% and the then-top rate of 39.6% (Split would have been 36.3%). Bush got 35%.

With that in mind, I could see Bush getting closer to what he wants than the Dems getting what they want (a tax increase).

State exams test students' nerves

And there is no doubt, the teachers' unions have exacerbated the anxiety by advocating against accountability.

WSJ.com - Newspapers Face Antitrust Scrutiny

If this had been Rupert Murdoch attempting to buy another media entity, the NYT would be all over it.

But when it is the NYT seeking.....business scale, it is all right.


Friday, January 21, 2005

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Free Lunch Bunch

Mr. Krugman (as opposed to Ol' Shifty Eyes when his pieces sicken me) brings a valid point.

The value of private accounts depends on the difference in returns between stocks and bonds.

This is a basic piece of information.

The bickering begins when one side decides to interpret this to fits their ideology.

A point OSL tries to use to support his view is "...private investors are stupid, and will swap their valuable stocks for much less valuable government bonds."

Has he never heard of asset allocation and risk-reduction reallocation?

What are all those boomers going to do with the stocks in 401Ks, IRAs, annuities? How about those pension plans?

As long as the demographics tilt towards those with less time available than those with more, there will be a demand for fixed income securities, and if the Democrats continue to wage their scare tactics upon those same time-needy individuals, then governement bonds become more attractive.

With the upcoming demographic surge, shouldn't his worry be that there will be too much equity coming into the market?



Thursday, January 20, 2005

Hispanic voters accord set

Will the Bush Adminstration receive kudos for this? As it helps a minority population, there is little doubt it will not.

Hopefully, the districts will have the funds to hire the Spanish-speaking workers and to pay for the additional voting materials in Spanish.



The New York Times > Business > Talk of Changing Pension Math Raises Concern on Benefit Cuts

Here is an area in whcih I side with the anti-business Left. Pensions should be transparent and funded. This will hurt many firms with older workforces (just as that same older workforce, the Baby Boomers, will hurt the budget.)

However, as the taxpayer is the "lender of last resort", getting corproate pensions in order ultimately benefits everyone.

As for the title of the NYt article, there is very little in the piece that cries out anything justifying it. Conjecture, yes. Precedent from tha change in health insurance reporting, yes. However, each point is a sentence ot two in a very large article.

Schumer Accuses Bush Of Plot on 'Blue States' - January 20, 2005 - The New York Sun

Now high profile Democrat Senators are claiming malevolence by the Bush Adminstration against whole states?

While I don't believe the party is dead, this is certainly something that shaeks that confidence.

So ol' Chucky wants the federal government to continue to subsidize the high tax rates the state of NY imposes upon its resident?

I am still wondering if this federal deduction (worth $37 billion a year) is included in the cries of the tax parasites when they claim NY gives more in taxes than it gets back.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

An issue that repeatedly pops-up in the nascent debate on social security privite accounts is the trust fund.

After meeting the obligations to current social security recipients, any excess payroll taxes collected go into the trust fund.

An entity in need of capital to fund its operating expenses borrows the money with the promise to repay it at the end of the loan.

When the bonds come due, the borrowing entity remits the face value of the bond to the trust fund.

All well and good.

However, the entity borrowing the funds is the Untied States government and the operating expenses are ongoing.

As is, the US government has used the excess payroll taxes to meet its operating expenses every year and will continue to do so until the excess payroll taxes no longer exist. (2018 is the CW, but the excess payroll taxes are expected to decrease beinning in 2009.)

When the trust fund begins to receive the face value of the bonds, the USG will still need to raise money to finance the ongoing operating expenses in addition to the repayment of principal due the trust fund.

Here is the crux of part of the discussion. How does the USG government meet this demand for cash? Does it cut its operating expenses? Does it find a new lender? Does it use its taxing authority to raise the money?




An issue that repeatedly pops-up in the nascent debate on social security privite accounts is the trust fund.

After meeting the obligations to current social security recipients, any excess payroll taxes collected go into the trust fund.

An entity in need of capital to fund its operating expenses borrows the money with the promise to repay it at the end of the loan.

When the bonds come due, the borrowing entity remits the face value of the bond to the trust fund.

All well and good.

However, the entity borrowing the funds is the Untied States government and the operating expenses are ongoing.

As is, the US government has used the excess payroll taxes to meet its operating expenses every year and will continue to do so until the excess payroll taxes no longer exist. (2018 is the CW, but the excess payroll taxes are expected to decrease beinning in 2009.)

When the trust fund begins to receive the face value of the bonds, the USG will still need to raise money to finance the ongoing operating expenses in addition to the repayment of principal due the trust fund.

Here is the crux of part of the discussion. How does the USG government meet this demand for cash? Does it cut its operating expenses? Does it find a new lender? Does it use its taxing authority to raise the money?




Saturday, January 15, 2005

Economic View: Social Security Bashing: A Historical Perspective

A perfect example of liberal bias in the NYT.

The writer is employed by Slate.com, a left-wing website.

He uses only the past four years to show politicans would spend the SS surplus.

Clinton also did this and the Dumocrats relied upon this surplus to claim the the surpluses of the late 1990s as their own when in fact they were a product of the excess SS taxes collected.


Wednesday, January 12, 2005

The New York Times > International > Detainees Describe Abuses by Guard in Iraq Prison

I have to seriously question the testimony of Syrians fighting democracy in Iraq.

1st, is there anything to assure they would tell the truth? That Bible thing? Threat of a perjury charge?

2nd, witnesses are coached. Wouldn't it be safe to assume the same of these Syrians fighting democracy in iraq?

3rd, what's with a prisoner having a gun? If this is the case, shouldn't he be dead already?




Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Krugman Hysterics

Ol' Shifty Eyes uses Plan 2 and builds an end-of-the-world scenario:

"It would be sure to cause a collapse of investor confidence, sending the dollar through the floor, interest rates through the roof and the economy into a tailspin."

When would this occur? After China stops being Communist and it's fat cats stop being afraid of a governement takeover of anything profitable and stop putting their money in USD? Or maybe Europe has no entitlement/unemployment problems (read: drains on tax revenues and an unending thirst for more.)?

He seems to want to continually denigrate America. How else does one explain the continuing references to the US as a "bana republic"?



Monday, January 10, 2005

Speech and Fraud - January 10, 2005 - The New York Sun

Certainly, no one is surprised that a Clinton campaign flauted campaign finance laws.

The real question is: So?

There is no consequences to doing so. She won and will pay a fine. Big whoop. it ain't coming out of her bank account.

Now if candidates are shown to have committed campaign finance fraud and were then stripped of thier office, that would crack down on it.

But until then, cheat, win and pay a fine is the rational thing to do.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Bush's Proposals Could Lead to Overhaul in New York State Medicaid From Sunday's NYT

To tie into a prior post:

"But Medicaid cuts have long proved unpopular with state legislators - and not just with Democrats. Medicaid dollars are a major part of the operating budgets for hospitals, nursing homes and home care providers that serve middle-class communities, many of them in Republican districts."

"Mr. Pataki is already coming under pressure from Democrats, as well as lobbyists for the health care industry, to use his political clout with Republicans in Washington to fend off any radical changes..."

"Radical" means????

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Masri never left Macedonia, if his story is true, which could be doubted.


Because I commented in the midst of reading this, I missed this. The paragraph immediately following the two I quoted!

""Mr. Masri had been questioned twice for a lot of hours, and he always has said the same things, he never changed details," Mr. Hofmann said in an interview about his country's investigation. "Therefore I don't think it would be possible that someone could invent such a story."

Either Masri is telling a pre-fabricated story or Hoffman is lying in pursuit of a "greater cause".


German's Claim of Kidnapping Brings Investigation of U.S. Link from Sunday's NYT

I question whether a person can tell the same story without ever changing it.

"Mr. Masri, who had not gone public with his case, agreed to give an interview last month after being approached by The New York Times. During the interview, he spoke without notes, and in great detail, about his case. He said he was able to recount his time in captivity because he wrote down his experiences right after he was released.

The timeline was corroborated by documents, including a bus ticket and a stamp on his passport in Albania on May 29, the date he said he was released. He returned to Germany on June 3. His account also matched details in a report about his case written by Amnesty International, whose officials interviewed Mr. Masri on June 21."

Also, I am not willing to assign nefarious motives to the United States for aggressive actions in the pursuit of terrorists. So even if this entire piece is true, I don't mind.


Applying Brakes to Benefits Gets Wide G.O.P. Backing (from Sunday's NYT)

Good for the GOP.

My favorite quote:

"A legislative proposal drafted by the White House would make it more difficult for Congress to pass legislation increasing the "long-term unfunded obligations" of benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare, Civil Service retirement and disability, veterans disability compensation, and health benefits for retired federal employees."

I also approve of revisiting the Prescription drug bill.

One point I keep in mind is part of the crisis around entitlement spending relates to the high growth rates of medical spending. Projecting these rates forward makes things seem horrible, but just as growth companies do not continue in perpetuity at high rates, neither will medical spending rates.

I also wonder how the various medical professions will react to more limited funds. The revenues to pay the salaries come from private insurance payments, cash payments and from governement payments. One stream of "revenue" will shrink.

I'm sure the SEIU will have some hysterical to say.




Friday, January 07, 2005

Beltran's Cost Would Not Equal Worth to Yankees

As Beltran's agent, Scott Boras, has dragged out the negotiations, this type of article is all over the place. It has replaced all the positive press Beltran received after his tremendous post-season.

A new thought on what he's worth and where he should sign. If unnamed sources are correct, Beltran would be perfect for the Yankees. He does not crave the spotlight, and where else would a $17 million player not be a big fish in a small pond?

And if he does not crave the spotlight, isn't the Mets strategy of selling him on having center stage wrong?

If he does not sign by tomorrow (Houston's deadline), the chances of him signing with the Yanks will increase as the Houston discount will no longer be on the table.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Social Security Formula Weighed (washingtonpost.com)

Boldness: Republican

Unthinking: Democrat.

It is a very simple rule of thumb. Another reason Democrats lose. They are the party of no ideas beyond skin color and sexual orientation (assuming it is not hetero.)

While I'm not sure where the final debate will end, certainly sticking one's head up one's ass is no solution, but it is what Dems propose. Of course, what they really propose is just raising taxes.


Monday, January 03, 2005

A Way Out of Iraq (washingtonpost.com)

Used as a cogent defense of just leaving is an article from the rabidly left-wing Nation. This exemplifies the lefty bias I see in WaPo. Take an opinion piece in a far left publication and legitimize it by citing it as authoritative on the op-ed pages. (NYT does this all the time in particlua, Paul Frugman and his reliance on mediamatters.org)

Also, this column explicitiyly states that Saddam was running a "functioning country" - "...There was a government in place. People went to work and to the market and to school in relative safety..."

WHAT. THE. FUC..........

Define "relative", you poor excuse for a columnist.

Further, he legitimizes the conspiracy of the lunatic Left by giving ink, in a serious way, to US intentions of reaping civil war to maintian our presence in Iraq.

This columnist should be fired for utter stupidity, and if the Left, needs to understand why it loses, here is the article to demonstrate why.

Sorrily, he closes with another demonstration of why the Left loses. Leave Iraq and go do humanitarian work for hate-filled Muslim countires!

Muscular is the opposite of the Left's foreign policy credentials.

Democrats Entangled: So What Happened in That Election, Anyhow?

Off the top, no Democrat politican will give an honest answer. It would immediately become campaign fodder.

As it is, the Democrats lost because they are fundamentally secular, and America is not.

Interpret this anyway one likes, but this is what it boils down to.

I could expand it to include the unfounded faith in Multiculturalism and its necessary partner, Relativism, but why complicate the matter?

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?