Ken Nelson

Picture of Virgin River, via KSL.com

A friend of mine just posted this view from the Bloomington side of town on Facebook:

I don’t live too far from where this picture was taken, in fact I walk it with the dogs many times a month, including just two days ago.  But a week of rain has cause the river to jump the banks, putting where I walk the dogs, and the trail I bike ride regularly under water. In other spots the river is now a few hundred yards wide.

There doesn’t seem to be any risk to houses, unlike in 2005. The at risk houses aren’t there any more.

Here is another Facebook friend’s view from the Green Valley side of town, this is the Santa Clara river, which caused most of the flood damage in 2005:

Here is the river by my house as it was 2 days ago while walking the dogs, up with recent rain, but not over the banks yet.

and here it is a few weeks back running up from its summer low, but well within its banks.

Megan McArdle is the brightest spot about the venerable but increasingly ludicrous Atlantic magazine.

Today she asks a very tough question of liberals. Basically, if Congress has unlimited taxing powers, which they seem to support, can it use that power to get around its power limits, such as free speech, privacy, so forth. She uses a liberal touch stone, abortion, as her example:

1)  Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax on second term abortions?

Good question Megan.

How about a $25,000 tax on registering Republican?  Or a $15,000 tax on writing negatively about Congress? Or a $100,000 tax credit for registering a number of Democrats?  Are there limits? As currently thought by Congress and the courts, no there are not.

The 16th Amendment was poorly written and is a HUGE risk to freedom. It needs to be eliminated, and if we decide to permit Congress to tax again, replaced with a carefully worded document that LIMITS what Congress can do with the power to tax.

What happens when the group becomes more important than the individual.

Between 2 and 3 million of these victims were tortured to death or summarily executed, often for the slightest infraction. People accused of not working hard enough were hung and beaten; sometimes they were bound and thrown into ponds. Punishments for the least violations included mutilation and forcing people to eat excrement.

More here.

Skeptics will say “oh that was China, it couldn’t happen in a Western Democracy”.  Uhmmm… it has and can again, if you let force become centralized.

I’ve placed the earmarks found in the bloated Omnibus Overspending Bill (courtesty Tom Coburn) in a searchable, public, online Google document:

http://goo.gl/O4vIh

Search it for pork near you!

Here is what I’ve found near me:

Row 665, Dixie State College, $400K, Cybercrime Detection and Computer Support Training

Row 857 Cedar City Police, $300,000, Prescription and OTC Drug Abuse

Row 1635, Army National Guard, Unit History Records

Row 1683, Utah National Guard, $1.2M, Counter Drug State Plan

Row 1732, Utah National Guard, $4.8M, MRAP virtual trainers

Row 2803. Rural UTAH, 22.5M, for water and damns

Row 3468, South Utah Electric District, $1.0M, Hydropower Facility

Row 3925, Utah Remapping of Rural BLM districts, $300,000

Row 5357, Jobs training St. George, UT, $608K

Row 5522, Southern Utah University, Museum Exhibit, $400,000

Row 5945,St, George  I-15 Bike/Walking Underpass,  $500K

This is just a start. I’ll update as time permits.

Basically, there is a lot of wasted spending, mixed with with perhaps useful spending that could be done by the State, mixed in with a very small amount of directed federal spending that is primarily political, probably to donors.

About 45 percent think government is a threat to personal liberty. Only 3 percent of those polled said the government did not need major reform.

More at Commentary Magazine.

Well, sure, 97% of people can be wrong. Happens all the time, square earth, sun revolves around earth, so forth. But in this case… they are right, and I suspect the 3% of miscreants who think not misread the question.

This tax deal with Obama stinks. It has not enough tax cuts and WAY too much spending. Plus the spending is of the stupid government kind.

But it provides a useful “mettle test” for current 2012 Republican “favorites”.

For it:

Mike Huckabee
Newt Gingrich
John Thune
Tim Pawlenty
Bobby Jindal

Against it:

Sarah Palin
Mike Pence
Mitt Romney

Huckabee, Thune never met a dollar they wouldn’t be delighted to tax and spend for you.

Gingrich, he shouldn’t be in the list. He disqualified himself when he left his dying wife.

Pawlenty, Jindal… this pains me. They talk the talk, but at the first shot saying no to new Federal spending they salivate.

Palin… I never thought she would back this. She is too smart. And she proves it here.

Pence… Solid Tea Party guy. Good.

Romney… Calculated to make him look good. He will flip if he gets office.

Gosh… the field falls apart pretty easy. Palin and Pence get it.  Pawlenty, Jindal… this disappointed me. The rest, just careerists trying to fit into the new game.

In other words, if Palin or Pence isn’t it for you, well… keep looking.

We asked for lean legislation. We asked for decreases in spending. We asked for more personal responsibility. This bill contains none of the things we asked for. If Republicans want to keep the gains they made in the last election they will demand an up or down vote on the tax issues…sans the lard.

Commenter on TheHill.com

Corruption personified.

Ethanol subsidies are up for renewal and are likely to be part of this bogus tax deal Obama and the Republicans are cooking up.

Why?  One Senator, Charles Grassley, from the state that gets most of the subsidies.

Rush has some requests for WikiLeaks… including Obama’s birth certificate. But… if it doesn’t exist, it can’t be leaked, can it….

Do I think he was born outside the country?  I’ve no idea. All I know is that they sure do behave like they are hiding something when they don’t release a valid looking one.

Put another way, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that Obama wasn’t born in the US and thus wasn’t qualified to be President.

Rush is peeing in the wind, though. WikiLeaks will never release material that helps the US. It isn’t why they exist.

Let them eat…

Not everybody has to go through this crazy airport security…. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t. Tim Geithner doesn’t. John Boehner doesn’t. And didn’t on his last trip.

I don’t mind exempting pilots. But politicians don’t deserve, nor should expect, special treatment.

Especially ones like Geithner and Pelosi, who are more dangerous to the country than the typical Muslim extremist.

I’m tired of them thinking they are so special when they are clearly just a bunch of morons and political hacks.  And in that I include Boehner, who should have been savvy enough to NOT use special TSA favors.

Unless you donate to the President.

1. Donate millions.
2. Hang with the President.
3. Who cares if you trample the rights and inconvenience millions. See 1.

Looks like 2/3rds to me!

This Repeal Amendment, which lets the states repeal Federal legislation is a good idea.

Other good amendment ideas… Balanced Budget, Flat Tax, and No Anchor Babies.

Or just have one Big amendment, called the “Fixing stupid ideas from the past Amendment”.

I’d also favor a part-time Congress. And not permitting serial holding of political offices.

I suspect that 80% of the population would like these ideas, and 0% of the political class.

I’ve been thinking about budget cuts, and government layoffs, and other good things.

There are three basic options:

• Keep spending. Borrow. Face economic consequences due to excessive debt, plus hose our children and grandchildren.
• Keep spending. Raise taxes. Alas,  the spending equals the taxing, so how is that a good thing?  Forced government spending isn’t as productive as it would be if  the money was left in the hands of the people and not directed towards politically  favored groups and projects.
• Cut spending.  This hurts. But who?  Well, only politicians and the groups that have purchased them.  And the more we cut government spending, the more productive our national spending becomes

Basically, those who think we need to “raise taxes” are all wet.  They foolishly believe that stealing money from people who earn it, and giving it to political allies is more nationally productive than letting them keep it.  Who believes that? Really?

I’m not interested in ANY plan that has raises taxes.  I’m okay with plans that simplify our tax system, including getting rid of the maize of deductions that are really just government spending / constituency buyoffs,  and  then lowers rates, as long as there are protections to keep rates low, and as long as they spread the burden beyond the 5% that currently carry the country.

In other words, I’m interested in a smart plan, that works, not just more politically puffery that somehow keeps on rewarding the professional politicians and those than own them.

I’m not going to read Decision Points.  I don’t read memoirs of live people. Or of that many dead people for that matter.

I have caught some of Bush’s interviews in support of the book – including on Fox News and an interminable NBC thing with Matt Laur.

I remain in about the same position as before on Bush…  I trust he was looking out for the country, not himself, and I can’t detect an ounce of political principal (of the convervative kind) in him.  I’d like to have dinner with him, go biking with him, and hang out, but, to me, he was just another in a long line of failed Presidents.

When he wasn’t kicking the can down the road (social security, banking), he was actively making problems worse (prescription benefits, crazy spending).  About all he got right was to kick some Muslim ass after 9/11, but even than he stepped all over himself by emphasizing WMDs that weren’t there.

Sure, he was better than Obama, but that is faint praise

If you believe the typical liberal, Sarah Palin is  so dumb. Barely gets a sentence together darn it. No REAL enlightened citizen should care what that Tea Bagger Sarah thinks:

We shouldn’t be playing around with inflation. It’s not for nothing Reagan called it “as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hit man.” The Fed’s pump priming addiction has got our small businesses running scared, and our allies worried. The German finance minister called the Fed’s proposals “clueless.” When Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about the dangers of inflation, warns us to think again, maybe it’s time for Chairman Bernanke to cease and desist. We don’t want temporary, artificial economic growth bought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings.

Uhmmm… gosh, that’s not as dumb as you would have thought.  In fact…. that sort of sounds RIGHT.

I  like Sarah Palin. She may not know who the Prime Minister of Nowhereistan is, but she has the IMPORTANT issues down just fine.