24 November 2012

A Cure For Blue State Fiscal Blues






By Steven Malanga

Faced with massive debt, a struggling economy and political stalemate in Washington, we've entered the silly season for public policy. A host of citizens in states that voted against Barack Obama are petitioning to secede from the union. On the heels of that movement, the Washington Post's political columnist Dana Milbank suggests that the President should let them leave. Most of the states where people are intent on secession, Milbank argues, are ‘takers' from the budget, that is, they get back more in spending from the federal government than they provide in taxes and so are to a greater extent responsible for the nation's budget woes.

No one is leaving the union, of course. But if Milbank is really interested, there is a practical and entirely doable policy that Washington could embrace which would address the fiscal imbalance of the so-called Blue states, and it would make cleaning up the federal budget mess easier too by making the budget simpler and more transparent. It's a policy that has been suggested occasionally over the years, including by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. That his own Democratic Party has never embraced this solution (and wouldn't now) tells you a lot more about Washington than Milbank's analysis does.

Sen. Moynihan, you may know, is the guy who first started counting how much money the citizens of each state send to Washington in taxes, and what those states get back. His researchers totaled things like the value of defense contracts to local firms, salaries paid to federal officials located in each state, and grants and payments to recipients of federal programs in each state. Moynihan suspected that his own state, New York, was a net contributor, and every year for about two decades he produced a report which demonstrated who the takers and givers were.

Over time he noticed that the imbalance never changed, regardless of which party was in the White House or controlled Congress. So in one of his final studies, Moynihan suggested that maybe the country needed to pursue a different approach, which he termed a ‘new federalism.' It was time, he argued, to pare the national government's functions back to those things it could do better than individual states, such as national defense. Then Washington could cut federal taxes significantly with the money it saved and leave that money back in the states, where each state could then decide which model of government it would follow: a low-tax, basic services model, or a high tax, high services approach.

"It is time to trade," Moynihan wrote in 1998. "Less activism in Washington in return for more revenue at home, for whatever active measures recommend themselves to the state or municipality in question." As one Washington journalist wrote at the time, Moynihan "is the last of the New Deal liberal Democrats, so we must sit up and pay sharp attention when Moynihan says that New Deal-type government has become a bad deal" for some states.

Following the Moynihan prescription might quickly cure state fiscal woes in places that have supported the President. California might get enough of a windfall to fix Jerry Brown's budget without raising state taxes again. New Jersey might realize enough so that it could adequately finance its woefully underfunded pension system. New York might be able to expand its subsidized health insurance to cover its staggering number of uninsured citizens. The President's home state, Illinois, another net contributor, might be able to clear up its $5 billion in unpaid bills, a result of the country's worst state budget mess.

Meanwhile, all of those folks in Red states looking to secede from the union would get a taste of true small government.

You can see what would be at stake for the Blue states merely by looking at how a tumble over the fiscal cliff would impact them. The Tax Foundation calculated the average increase in taxes that a household in each state would pay if all of the Bush tax cuts as well as additional cuts enacted since then were simply to expire on Dec. 31. If you ranked the states in terms of total additional taxes per household, states that voted for the President would dominate your top 10, taking eight of the slots. Maryland is at the top. Its average household would send an additional $7,194 to Washington, followed by New Jersey at $6,933 per household and Connecticut at $6,653 and Massachusetts at $6,632.

While a budget compromise that avoids the fiscal cliff seems likely, Blue states will still be the biggest losers because the President is demanding significant tax increases. Since many of the states that supported the President already pay the most in taxes to Washington per household, they are likely to ante up more in any budget compromise. That's money leaving the state, much of which may not come back.

When you look at the figures, you can only speculate why Moynihan's party never took him up on the proposal. Perhaps the Washington representatives from Blue states wouldn't want to abandon the less fortunate elsewhere to their own local governments. That didn't seem to concern Moynihan, however, and he understood more about government policy and how it impacted the poor than just about anyone.

Or maybe it's simply that the federal office holders elected from California, Jersey, Illinois, New York, and other places all like seeing the money flow down to Washington and then back to the states, rather than simply staying at home. Maybe that has an awful lot to do with our budget mess in Washington, too.

Whatever the case, nobody's seceding from the union. But the Blue states could clearly get a better deal for themselves. All they have to do is vote for it.

Steven Malanga is an editor for RealClearMarkets and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute

A Physician’s New Reality: Patients Ask Me to Break the Law


M2RB:  KISS, Dodger Stadium, Halloween, 1998




They call me (Dr. Love)
They call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' of (calling Dr. Love)
And even though I'm full of sin
In the end you'll let me in
You'll let me through, there's nothin' you can do
You need my lovin', don't you know it's true



Ironically, but expectedly, the ones who do this now are likely to have supported Obamacare.



By Dr Peter Weiss

Obama won, Obamacare is the law, and, as my wife says, I will just have to learn to dance to a new song.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Obamacare is awful. Forget all the “free stuff” it provides. Children covered on their parents’ plan until 26 years of age? A scam, making young adults — excuse me, children — pay for complete, comprehensive health insurance when all they need and should pay for is major catastrophe insurance. Then there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free.”

You gotta love this stuff. I wish I had the chutzpah of the people who wrote Obamacare. What they did not tell you, and I am, is that it covers absolutely nothing more than the bare minimum.

I have now posted a notice in my office and each exam room stating exactly what Obamacare will cover for those yearly visits. Remember Obama promised this as a free exam — no co-pay, no deductible, no charge. That’s fine and dandy if you are healthy and have no complaints. However, we are obligated by law to code specifically for the reason of the visit. An annual exam is one specific code; you can not mix this with another code, say, for rectal bleeding. This annual visit covers the exam and “discussion about the status of previously diagnosed stable conditions.” 

That’s the exact wording under that code — insurance will not cover any new ailment under that code.

If you are here for that annual exam, you will not be covered if you want to discuss any new ailment or unstable condition. I cannot bait and switch to another code — that’s illegal. We, the physicians, are audited all the time and can lose our license for insurance fraud.

You, the patient, will then have to make a decision.

Do you want your “free” yearly exam, or do you want to pay for a visit which is coded for a particular, new problem? You can have my “free” exam if you only discuss what Obamacare wants me to discuss.

This happened to me personally, as a patient, when I went for my physical. It is the law. If you are complaining of a new problem, then you have to reschedule, since Obamacare is very clear as to what is covered and what is not. Obamacare — intentionally — makes it as difficult to be seen and taken care of as possible.

Patients can be very tricky. I have had patients make an “annual” exam, only to want to discuss and be treated for another ailment. I can’t do it.

I can hear the complaints from you guys already — I become the bad guy. “Why don’t you just take care of the problem, and not bill out any different code? You’re a rich doctor, and we are entitled to free stuff.”

It doesn’t work that way. First, doctors are not rich and, like most of you, actually work terribly hard for a living. Second, Obamacare is the law — and as I said earlier, we are audited all the time now.

Also — I don’t ask for free gas when I go to the gas station, or ask for free food from the supermarket. Additionally, Obamacare has a 23% cut in Medicare reimbursement to doctors and hospitals.

These lower payments won’t cover the cost of staying in practice to take care of the patient.

Private doctors are becoming a thing of the past. By 2014, less than 25% of physicians will be in private medicine. Obama was right in stating you can keep your doctor if you want to — the problem is he or she will rarely be available.

On top of all of that, doctors will be obligated — that’s right, obligated — to talk to you about things you may have no interest or need to talk about.

You may just want to have a pap smear or check your cholesterol. However, I am now mandated by the government to talk to you about your weight, exercise, family life, smoking, sexual abuse(!), and even to ask if you wear seat belts. And I am mandated to record your answers.

I am a physician. But I need to tell you to wear a seat belt and then record your answer.

I have received interesting responses from my patients since I put up the notice. Almost all are supportive and totally understand. The very few who complain? The same patients who always ask for free samples, who always complain that we do not validate parking. These are also the same patients who call my office and ask for free samples even when they are not even being seen.

Obamacare and its 2,000-plus pages are here to stay. I will still give my patients 100% of my time, energy, and knowledge. I still love being a doctor — my patients’ doctor. I will, however, abide by the law and follow it to the letter. I will have to learn this new dance. “Free” has its price.
Peter Weiss M.D., F.A.C.O.G., is Director and Founder of The Rodeo Drive Women's Health Center. He is also Assistant Clinical Professor of OB/GYN at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He was health care adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign. Dr Weiss is an Attending physician at Cedars Sinai and St Johns Health Centers
Calling Dr Love - Kiss
You need my love baby, oh so bad
You're not the only one I've ever had
And if I say I wanna set you free
Don't you know you'll be in misery
They call me (Dr. Love)
They call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' of (calling Dr. Love)
And even though I'm full of sin
In the end you'll let me in
You'll let me through, there's nothin' you can do
You need my lovin', don't you know it's true

So if you please get on your knees

There are no bills, there are no fees
Baby, I know what your problem is
The first step of the cure is a kiss
So call me (Dr. Love)
They call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I am your doctor of love (calling Dr. Love), ha
They call me (Dr. Love),
they call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' of (calling Dr. Love)

Ooh, they call me (Dr. Love)

I am the doctor of love (calling Dr. Love)

Ooh, they Call me (Dr. Love)

I am your doctor of love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure
you're thinking of (calling Dr. Love), yeah
Yeah, they call me (Dr. Love)
They call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' of (calling Dr. Love)
Love, love, love, (Dr. Love)
Love, love, love, love, (calling Dr. Love) love Dr. Love
(Calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' (Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure you're thinkin' of (calling Dr. Love)
(Dr. Love)
They call me Dr. Love (calling Dr. Love)
I've got the cure

None Dare Call It Default


M2RB:  The Black Eyed Peas






Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop,
The, the, the, the, don't stop the party.
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop,
The, the, the, don't stop the party.



Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson


By Holman Jenkins

To call Greece First World may be a stretch, but Greece has defaulted once already, and it is only a matter of time until Greece defaults again. Welcome to default-o-rama, the next chapter in the First World's struggle for fiscal sustainability.

Japan is piling up debt in the manner of a nation beyond hope. France, Belgium, Spain and Italy are defaults waiting to happen unless Europe can somehow generate the kind of growth that has eluded it for decades.

America's fiscal cliff is an artificial crisis. We have no trouble borrowing in the short term. But at some point the market will demand evidence that long-term balance is being restored. President Obama said in his first post-election press conference that he doesn't want any proposals that "sock it to the middle class." He knows better. A long-term socking is exactly what's coming to the middle class, which must pay for the benefits it consumes. 

A few years ago, when the economy was humming, a common estimate held that federal taxes would have to rise 50% immediately to fully fund entitlement programs. Today, a 50% tax increase would be needed just to meet the government's current spending, never mind its future obligations.

One way or another, then, entitlements will be cut. Don't call it default. The correct term is entitlement reform.

You saw this day coming and saved for your own retirement. Don't call it default when Washington inevitably confiscates some of your savings, say, by raising taxes on dividends and capital gains. Taxpayers accept the risk of future tax hikes that may make the decision to save seem foolish in retrospect.

According to economists Robert Novy-Marx and Josh Rauh, state and local taxes would have to increase by $1,385 per household immediately to make good the pension promises to state and local workers, including firefighters and cops. That's not going to happen given all the other demands on taxpayers. Default, in this case, is the proper word for cities and states using bankruptcy to repudiate their pension obligations.

Prominent voices ask why the Treasury shouldn't just cancel the government bonds the Federal Reserve has been buying. It's money one part of the government owes the other. Dispensed with, of course, would be the idea that the Fed, in buying these bonds in the first place, was engaged in monetary policy. The Fed was printing money so Washington could spend it.

Now let it be said that inflation isn't fundamentally a solution to the entitlement problem, but the Federal Reserve is being led by increments to accommodate inflationary financing of future deficits. Don't call it default. Inflation is a risk savers are deemed to have accepted by putting their faith in the U.S. dollar.

Here's what you weren't told about Medicare during the presidential debates. Under the Paul Ryan plan, the affluent would pay more. Under the Obama plan, the affluent would flee Medicare to escape the waiting lists, shortages and deteriorating quality as Washington economizes by ratcheting down reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. Don't call either default. You don't have a legally enforceable right to the free care you imagined you were promised.

"Don't worry" was President Obama's implicit message during the campaign: If cutting subsidies for Big Bird is unthinkable, a joke, how much more so cutting benefits for middle-class voters?

Don't go running to a judge when this doesn't pan out. The courts do not overrule changes in government policy just because citizens find their promised free lunch isn't forthcoming. Nor will it be fruitful to appeal to politicians' sense of "fairness." Politicians can be relied on to do what will get them re-elected. And, believe it or not, that is the good news.

If politicians weren't eager to be re-elected, the trust necessary to be an investor would vanish altogether. While there is no escaping our challenges, there is a path in which the economy grows strongly and we don't savage each other, and there is the other path. For years the trustees of Social Security and Medicare were accused of exaggerating the programs' deficits by envisioning that America's long-run growth would become more like Europe's. Now who doesn't fret that America's growth is becoming permanently slower like Europe's?

Which brings us to President Obama. He knows cuts are necessary but seeks to position Democrats politically as the defender of all spending. Notice that, with ObamaCare, he is deliberately creating a constituency of the young to set against the old in future fights over the allocation of federal health care dollars.

Meanwhile, saving the dynamism of the U.S. economy, while still affording an entitlement state, naturally falls to the other party in a two-party system.

A version of this article appeared November 24, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: None Dare Call It Default.


Don't Stop The Party -  The Black Eyed Peas

Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't, don't, don't, don't stop the party
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop
The, the, the, don't stop the party
[Will.I.am:]
(Eh... my people this is mega unstoppable)
Don't stop the party
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop
The, the, the, the party

This is that original

This has no identical
You can't hack my digital
Future Aboriginal
Get up off my genitals
I stay on that pinnacle
Kill you with my lyricals
Call me verbal criminal
Send you to that clinical
Subscribe you some Chemicals
Audio and visual, can't see me, invisible
I'm old school like Biblical
Futuristic next level
Never on that typical
Will I stop I never know...

I ain't gonna stop until I'm done (don't stop it)

I ain't gonna quit until I've won.
Now baby don't you stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it, stop it
You cannot stop us now...
I ain't gonna stop until I'm done (don't stop it)
I ain't gonna quit until I've won.
Now baby don't you stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it
Even if you wanted to, you couldn't stop us now...

Don't stop the party


Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't

Stop, stop, stop,
The, the, the, the, don't stop the party.
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop,
The, the, the, don't stop the party.

You could call me crazy man

Everyday I'm party'in
You could find me at the club
Pop'n bottles, minglin'
Ladies danc'in to the jam
Acting naughty, man oh man
Got me in the mood again
At the party, partyin'
Yeah I keep it happenin'
Taken shots, whatever man
Party like a veteran,
Music is my medicine,
You won't fine me settlin'
Can't be stopped I'm steppin in
Keep it goin till the end
Yeah that's right here we go again

I'm that one that lights it up

We red hot like fire trucks
Burn that roof, cause that's what's up
Tell the DJ turn it up
We droppin, that music, for people all around
Keep rockin', head knockin'
Cause they can't shut us down

Ain't ain't no stoppin'

We gon keep on rockin',
Baby ain't no stoppin,
You cannot a stop us now.

I ain't gonna stop until I'm done (don't stop it)

I ain't gonna quit until I've won
Now baby don't you stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it, stop it
You can't stop us now...
I ain't gonna stop until I'm done (don't stop it)
I ain't gonna quit until I've won
Now baby you don't stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it
Now baby don't stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it
Even if you wanted to, you couldn't stop us now...

Don't stop the party


Don't, don't, don't, don't

Don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop
The, the, the, don't stop the party
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop
The, the, the, don't stop the party
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop, the, the, the, the
Don't stop the party
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
Stop, stop, stop, the, the, the, the
Don't stop the party

23 November 2012

Failures of Intelligence


M2RB:  Keith Urban







Oh, you stupid, stupid boy...





Petraeus’s judgment and Clapper’s obtuseness testify to America’s problems.



By Mark Steyn

Let us turn from the post-Thanksgiving scenes of inflamed mobs clubbing each other to the ground for a discounted television set to the comparatively placid boulevards of the Middle East. In Cairo, no sooner had Hillary Clinton’s plane cleared Egyptian air space than Mohamed Morsi issued one-man constitutional amendments declaring himself and his Muslim Brotherhood buddies free from judicial oversight and announced that his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, would be retried for all the stuff he was acquitted of in the previous trial. Morsi now wields total control over parliament, the judiciary, and the military to a degree Mubarak in his jail cell can only marvel at. Old CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but he’s our SOB. New post–Arab Spring CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but at least he’s not our SOB.

But don’t worry. As America’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, assured the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Mubarak’s fall, the Muslim Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization. The name’s just for show, same as the Episcopal Church. 

Which brings us to Intelligence Director Clapper’s fellow intelligence director, General Petraeus. Don’t ask me why there’s a director of national intelligence and a director of central intelligence. Something to do with 9/11, after which the government decided it could use more intelligence. Instead it wound up with more directors of intelligence, which is the way it usually goes in Washington. Anyway, I blow hot and cold on the Petraeus sex scandal. Initially, it seemed the best shot at getting a largely uninterested public to take notice of the national humiliation and subsequent cover-up over the deaths of American diplomats and the sacking of our consulate in Benghazi. On the other hand, everyone involved in this sorry excuse for a sex scandal seems to have been too busy e-mailing each other to have had any sex. The FBI was initially reported to have printed out 20,000–30,000 pages of e-mails and other communications between General Allen, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Jill Kelley of Tampa, one-half of a pair of identical twins dressed like understudies for the CentCom mess-hall production of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Thirty thousand pages! The complete works of Shakespeare come to about three and a half thousand pages, but American officials can’t even have a sex scandal without getting bogged down in the paperwork.

For the cost of running those FBI documents off the photocopier, you could fly some broad to the Bahamas and have a real sex scandal. Instead, we’ll “investigate” it for a year or three, as we’re doing with Benghazi itself. At her press conference the other day, soon-to-be Secretary of State Susan Rice explained that she would be misspeaking if she were to explain why she misspoke about Benghazi until something called the “Accountability Review Board” has finished “conducting investigations” into “all aspects” of the investigations being conducted, which should be completed by roughly midway through Joe Biden’s second term.

Pending that “definitive accounting,” one or two aspects stand out. Paula Broadwell had access to General Petraeus because she was supposedly writing his biography. As it turns out, she can’t write, so her publisher was obliged to hire a ghostwriter from the Washington Post. Some years ago, at a low point in my career, I was asked to ghostwrite a book for a supermodel. That’s usually the type of “writer” who requires a ghost: models, singers, athletes, celebrities. When a first-time biographer requires a ghostwriter, that person is not a biographer but something else. Yet she had classified documents at her home — and yes, as the president suggested, they’re probably not that classified, not the real top-secret stuff. But in a speech at the University of Denver Mrs. Broadwell appeared to reveal accidentally that she is privy to operational knowledge of illegal CIA interrogation chambers in Benghazi.

Now let us move from General Petraeus’s mistress to General Allen’s non-mistress, Tampa socialite and identical twin Jill Kelley. Mrs. Kelley had clearance for all parts of the MacDill Air Base and was given some kind of commemorative certificate as “honorary ambassador” to CentCom, on the basis of which, in a recent 9-1-1 call, she claimed the right to “diplomatic protection.” Yeah, that’s what Chris Stevens thought in Benghazi. As appears to be well known, the Kelleys have financial problems and their luxury home faces foreclosure. For a while they ran a charity, the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation, which makes terminal cancer patients’ final wishes come true. In 2007, they took in $157,284 in donations, and ran up expenses of $81,927 on dining, entertainment, and travel. So, if you’ve got cancer and your dying wish is for Jill Kelley to party, this is the charity for you.

In other words, neither of these women pass the smell test. Which is a problem insofar as Petraeus, as CIA director, is supposed to be head of the national smell test, and General Allen, as Petraeus’s successor in Kabul, is supposed to be head of the smell test in Afghanistan. In the Gaza “peace agreement” signed last week, they flew in Hillary Clinton to give the impression that she had something to do with it, whereas in reality she was entirely peripheral to the deal. But Jill Kelley is apparently essential to anything that matters in CentCom: When Pastor Terry Jones was threatening to burn a Koran, General Allen asked Mrs. Kelley to mediate. When radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge was threatening to “deep-fat fry” a Koran, General Allen recommended the mayor of Tampa ask Mrs. Kelley to intervene. The U.S. government is responsible for 43 percent of the planet’s military spending, and apparently all that gets you is that, when the feces hits the fan, the four-star brass start e-mailing Jill Kelley of Tampa. If only she’d been hosting a champagne reception at the Sigonella air base in southern Italy, maybe we could have parachuted her into Benghazi to defuse the situation. Jill is the woman Hillary can only dream of being — at the confluence of all the great geostrategic currents of the age. Why didn’t we fly Jill Kelley to broker the Gaza deal? Instead of a patsy peddling risible talking points like Susan Rice, why can’t we have Jill Kelley as secretary of state?

As far as I can tell, our enemies in Afghanistan don’t go in for Soviet-style honey traps. Which is just as well, considering the ease with which, say, a pretend biographer can wind up sitting next to the U.S. commander on his personal Gulfstream. In different ways, Director Petraeus’s judgment and Director Clapper’s obtuseness testify to the problems of America’s vast, sprawling, over-bureaucratized intelligence community. If Director Petraeus can’t see the obvious under his nose in his interventions in the Kelley twins’ various difficulties, why would you expect Director Clapper to have any greater grasp of what’s happening in Cairo or Damascus?

Having consolidated his grip in Egypt, Morsi is now looking beyond. His “peace deal” legitimizes the Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliate in Gaza, and increases the likelihood of the Brothers advancing to power in Syria and elsewhere. As on that night in Benghazi when the most lavishly funded military/intelligence operation on the planet watched for eight hours as a mob devoured America’s emissaries, America in a broader sense is a spectator in its own fate. As for Afghanistan, it seems a fitting comment on America’s longest unwon war that the last two U.S. commanders exit in a Benny Hill finale, trousers round their ankles, pursued to speeded-up chase music by bunny-boiling mistresses, stalker socialites, identical twins, and Bubba the Love Sponge.



Stupid Boy - Keith Urban



 Well, she was precious like a flower
She grew wild, wild but innocent
A perfect prayer in a desperate hour
She was everything beautiful and different

Stupid boy, you can't fence that in

Stupid boy, it's like holding back the wind
She laid her heart and soul right in your hands
And you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans
She never even knew she had a choice and that's what happens
When the only voice she hears is telling her she can't
Stupid boy, stupid boy
Oh

So what made you think you could take a life

And just push it push it around
I guess to build yourself up so high
You had to take her and break her down

She laid her heart and soul right in your hands

And you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans
She never even knew she had a choice and that's what happens
When the only voice she hears is telling her she can't
You stupid boy

Oh, you always had to be right but now you've lost

The only thing that ever made you feel alive
Yeah, yeah

Well, she laid her heart and soul right in your hands

And you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans
Yes, you did
She never even knew she had a choice and that's what happens
When the only voice she hears is telling her she can't
You stupid boy, oh, I'm the same old
Same old stupid boy

It took awhile for her to figure out she could run

But when she did, she was long gone, long gone

Ah, she's gone, she's long gone.

Yes, she's gone

Nobody's ever gonna love me like she loved me

And she loved me, she loved me
God please, just let her know
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
Baby, yeah, I'm down on my knees
She's never coming back to me



22 November 2012

Pic of the Day: 49 Years




"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.  And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural address, 20 January 1961


to


Obamanism's Occupy Movement's...




49 years ago today, a young Democratic President was felled by an assassin's bullet. One wonders what he would have to say about the state of his country and his party, if he were alive today...