Looks like everyone may fold a bit, according to President Obama’s statement on a Senate-driven compromise. Rich people are held harmless in dealing with the U.S. budget. Big spending cuts will be made. The debt ceiling is lifted sufficiently to last through the 2012 election. Republicans give up on insistence on long-term solution. Sour tastes all around, except if the deal prevents U.S. defaults. Here’s a roundup.
However …. House Republicans seem determined to get their way or wreck the country.
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There is only two problems. First, there had been no deal cut. (Actually on Politico on Sunday afternoon they also reported a deal had been cut, but they jumped the gun like Max did here).
Second, the Republicans are right to protect the American job producers from any future tax increases that would kill our recovery.
David Addington nails it below in his summary of President Obama’s speech:
It’s hard to understand why President Obama took to the airwaves tonight at prime time. He still has no plan for dealing with government overspending and overborrowing, and he gave the nation very little except a repetition of his never-ending call for tax hikes.
In noting the risk of ever-increasing debt, President Obama said every family knows that “a little credit card debt is manageable.” The government has racked up $14.294 trillion in debt — thought of by no-one as a little credit card debt. The spend-tax-and-borrow crowd, currently headed by President Obama, has been in charge in Washington too long. They have mortgaged the futures of our children and grandchildren. Our government is so deep in debt that the share of debt of a baby born today is $45,000.
It is time for the spend-tax-and-borrow crowd to stop. As the President indicated, conservatives want deep spending cuts. In contrast, President Obama wants more taxes, a terrible idea. First, the government already takes too much money from the pockets of Americans in taxes. Second, if Americans give the government more money in taxes, the government will just find ways to spend it, rather than using it to pay off the public debt. Third, raising taxes reduces investment, which cuts economic growth and kills jobs.
Americans sent a message in the election of 2010 — cut the size and cost of government. Conservatives must act now to drive down spending on the way to a balanced budget, while protecting America, and without raising taxes. Forget the McConnell, McConnell-Reid, Coburn, Gang-of-Six, Boehner, and Reid plans. Go with the American plan — cut government spending, deeply and right now, for the good of the country.
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 1/4
I was saddened by the recent death of Amy Winehouse and her inclusion into the “27 Club.” This series I am starting today looks at the search that each one of these entertainers were on during their lives. Today I look at Jim Morrison of the Doors.
From: James Riordan, Stone: The Controversies, Excesses, and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker, Hyperion: New York, NY (1995), page 340:
[Val] Kilmer’s reaction seems to be one of relief that the project [The Doors] was over, but as far as Morrison goes, he too gained a more profound understanding. “He had a sincere search,” he says of Morrison. “He may have chosen some of the wrong tools, but I think he tried to keep open an avenue of hope through spirituality. But I also think he was a bit of a cop-out because he was deathly frightened of committing to a practice, a condition, a way to behave, something to live for or live out of. I think cool was very important to him, and I’ve always battled that vanity. I think I’ve found through playing this character an opportunity to reexperience some of my life, to reevaluate. It seems to have strengthened things I have always believed . . . in God, and a reality that’s a foundation for living. To put yourself on the line, to confront that . . . that fear.”
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 2/4
was there anything that morrison lacked? the epitome of rock stardom, perfect symmetrical chiselled features, insanely cool, leather pants and pirate shirts, a big beautiful bellicose baritone of a voice, unparalleled charisma and a wild side of pure unfettered freedom that unfortunately led to a very short career and an early death. a creative visionary who led the doors, which could go down as the quirkiest “big band” of all time. if you listen to the instrumentation and their very peculiar songwriting style it almost sounded as if “the carnival was in town”. yet they could be the “pound for pound” choice for bands with the most hits in ratio to their short career. they were only around for a few years but they contributed so much to our musical landscape.
as much of a creative collaborative force as the doors were, it was morrison that made them cool. he was also a sex god for the ages, and must have enjoyed his short time here immensely what with the freewheeling, free lovin 60′s in full flight.
a drug and alcohol user of copious amounts which will certainly become a common thread throughout this list, james douglas morrison flamed out in a bathtub in paris at the tender age of 27.
truly one of the most iconic front men to ever pick up a mike, a pure pagan, the lizard king will never be forgotten. long live the king!
essential listening: debut album, LA woman, strange days (the doors)
Jim Morrison – Feast Of Friends – (The Doors Documentary) (1969) (Paul Ferrara) 3/4
Thanks for writing and sharing your opinions. I hope your heart is open to our response. I read your email and still have no doubt in my mind, that Jim Morrison was steeped in the occult; he was being manipulated by demonic forces to do Satan’s bidding. Personally, I believe the evidence is more than overwhelming. Even Morrison’s biographers admit that Jim Morrison was involved in the occult and in the spirit world.
Jane, you wrote:
“As far as The Doors’ exposé is concerned, to begin with, you were not entirely forthright with the quotation from Wilderness. You posted “…an appearance of the devil on a Venice canal. Running, I saw Satan.” In actuality it reads “…an appearance of the devil on a Venice canal. Running, I saw a Satan or Satyr, moving beside me, a fleshy shadow of my secret mind. Running. Knowing.”
Before I comment on this, later on in your email you acknowledged that Morrison believed that spirits possessed him. His repeated identification with Satan and satanic imagery, whether it is in regard to the inspiration of his music or antichrist position, is quite revealing. The fact that he mentions a “Satyr” along with “the devil [and] Satan” does not detract from our point that he identified with dark satanic forces, but accentuates it all the more. Morrison’s usage of a Satyr reveals more than a poetic flair, but reflects Morrison’s knowledge of Bacchius occult ritual and his own experiences, along with how he interpreted them.
Jim Morrison, Hell & the Resurrection
Jim Morrison knew the truth and rejected it; he preferred temporal fame, power and eternal torment in hell, the house of detention, rather than eternal life and the resurrection of the righteous. Morrison sings:
“Cancel my subscription to the.. resurrection. Send my credentials to the house of detention I got some friends inside…”
Demonic spirit entities possess human beings not only in an effort to destroy them, as was the case with Jim Morrison, but to also influence the masses. The Scripture reveals that Satan himself was created with musical abilities, as were the angels (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Job 38 and Revelation 5 ). Such spirits use music to seduce us and teach demonic doctrines:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” –1 Tim. 4:1
The apostle Paul warned:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” –Ephesians 6:10-12
Morrison’s music, sadly, was used to seduce and indoctrinate his audiences into utter tragic lifestyles. Along with other rock gods, Morrison led millions of impressionable youth into destruction through his advocacy of drugs, sexual perversion, the occult and violence. When describing the Doors’ music, Morrison said, “Right now I’m more interested in the dark side of life, the evil thing, the dark side of the moon, the night-time.” Morrison also said, “I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning.” At times, Morrison would tell his young impressionable fans while in concert, “There are no rules; there are no limits.” This was a mere echo of Satanist Aleister Crowley’s satanic maxim, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”
Jim Morrison & Satanist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
It is not hard to surmise where Morrison’s loyalties lie when we realize that he paid homage to Satanist Aleister Crowley on the cover of the Doors 13 album. On this cover, we see Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors huddled around a bust of Satanist, Aleister Crowley. Crowley was a confessed Satanist who hated the Lord Jesus Christ declaring, “with my hawk’s head I peck out the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross,” and giving his allegiance to Satan:
“I bind my blood in Satan’s hands, all this that lieth betwixt my hands, too thee, the Beast, and thy control, I pledge me; body, mind, and soul” –Aleister Crowley, Satanic Extracts, Black Lodge Publishing, The Estate of Aleister Crowley, 1991, p. 1
Jane, I am not sure how you would even attempt to exonerate Morrison’s exaltation of Aleister Crowley and his teachings. Crowley taught repeatedly the sacrifice of children to Satan. He stated:
“For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.” –Aleister Crowley, Magick: In Theory and Practice, 1973, p. 219
In our exposé, we show an audio clip of Morrison speaking of sacrificing to the gods, which we have seen really are demons. This is not to say that Morrison ever made such sacrifices, but he glorified the idea and participated in a Wiccan wedding ceremony, wherein he smeared blood all over his girlfriend. Incidentally, Gerald Gardner, who started Wicca was a member of Crowley’s O.T.O., and met with Crowley for guidance when he organized the ceremonial magick of Wicca. He developed the Wiccan rede. “An it harm none, do what thou wilt,” which was a kinder, gentler form of Crowley’s earlier slogan, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”; it was sure to gather more adherents under the guise of a kinder and gentler form of Satanism, at least from Gardner and Crowley’s perspective. Crowley also taught that one was to sacrifice little girls to Satan, and mutilate them by dismembering them and writing the names of different demon gods on their lifeless limbs.
Jane, you state of a clip we use of Morrison:
“The media is the message, and the message is me,” [that we use it] as if Jim was referring to himself. He said that during an interview with Tony Thomas of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1970 (Available on CD at The Doors website). The two of them were discussing music; Jim was saying he enjoyed blues and early rock and roll.”
Jane, I am sorry, but this is another example of where you misjudge us while not having all of the facts. First of all, we simply play a clip without any of our own comment there. We found the clip from a pro Doors video that only plays that part of the clip. Moreover, the context in the interview itself bares out that Morrison applies the saying to himself and believes others should do the same. He says,
“What everyone should say is, ‘the medium is the message, and the message is me.’ That’s the answer, is for everyone to…uh…you’re asking for an answer, the answer is for everyone to stand up and say, ‘I’m me,’ and be fully aware of that fact and let everyone else know it, that you are yourself and express it.”
Obviously, Jim Morrison concurs with the statement and is pushing his own personal philosophy on others. Obviously, Morrison knew he was an icon and that he himself was a message and in many ways he played this role to the hilt and preached his diabolical and destructive views from his shaman pulpit which was the concert stage. Morrison was well aware that he and the Doors were a huge influence upon his fans, and in the same interview states, “they’re being programmed by their radios,” and to the degree that the Doors were getting airplay was the degree in which they too were programming their fans along with albums, concerts, and interviews. Sadly as we shall see such programming by so many rock stars, Morrison included has had a devastating affect on our culture.
Jim Morrison & the Family
I just talked to a dear sister in the Lord, named Rosalind, who last week shared her heart wrenching story with me. She grew up in Watts in Los Angeles and was abandoned by her mother who she has seen, sadly, only a couple of times in her life. She told me that her mother was deluded into actually believing that Jim Morrison was a prophet. I could not help but think this was interesting timing in light of your letter defending him. She said that her mother bought into the lifestyle that Jim Morrison was glorifying to the impressionable and easily led hippie youth culture. Morrison’s lies and Crowleyan philosophy ended up destroying her mother and would be family. This should not be a great shock as Satanist Aleister Crowley who influenced Morrison said that “The family” is “public enemy number one.” Thankfully, Rosalind’s grandmother raised her and led her to the Lord Jesus Christ. Rosalind ended up becoming a social worker in Los Angeles and has since gone on to marry and begin a family of her own. Thankfully, she did not follow Jim Morrison but rather found true freedom that comes through knowing Jesus Christ, the Son of God! I hope and pray her mother finds that same freedom and they are united in the future.
No doubt, as Crowley taught Morrison in many ways treated his immediate family as public enemy number one. Morrison shut his parents totally out of his life. Even though his father had paid for his schooling at UCLA, he refused to talk to him after he became a rock star. In a dire attempt to talk to her son, Jim Morrison’s mother attended one of his concerts, which Jim Morrison closed by singing “The End.” According to Doors biographer, Jerry Hopkins, in No One Gets Out of Here Alive, when he sang the words about wanting to kill his father and have sex with his mother, “Father, ‘Yes son’, I want to kill you, Mother…I want to…f@#$ you”, Morrison “gave his mother a vacant stare, and then he screamed again, this time showing his teeth” (Jerry Hopkins, No One Gets Out of Here Alive).
Morrison’s Tragic End
The fifth commandment is to honor our parents and with it comes the promise of long life:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” –Exodus 20:12
Tragically, so many rock stars have died young because of their rebellion against authority, whether it be God’s or parental. God’s Word declares:
“But You, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.” –Psalm 55:23
Sadly, Jim Morrison bought into Satan’s deception and his life ended at the young age of 27. Jesus Christ said that Satan is a murderer and the father of lies (John 8:44 ). Morrison died confused, tormented and depressed. His biographers point out that he drank continually to quell the voices of the evil spirits that continually tormented him. Satan promises freedom, but leads his followers into bondage and destruction. In Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, describes Crowley’s last days and death this way:
“Crowley finished his life as a sick, wasted heroin addict given to black rages and doubts about the value of his life’s work. His last words as he passed into a coma on December 1, 1947, were, “I am perplexed…”
–Steve Turner, Hungry for Heaven, pp. 92,97,98
Jim Morrison’s life before his death was characterized by wanton destruction. There is no evidence that he ever renounced his involvement in the occult and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal salvation. Whether it was beating and bludgeoning his “girlfriends,” stealing from even his “friends,” blaspheming God, repeated LSD inebriation, public nudity, endangering the lives of others while running several red lights on Sunset Boulevard at 100 miles per hour, Satan had his way with Jim Morrison. Sadly, as the electric Shaman, the demonic world used him like so many other rock stars to influence millions of young people toward destruction as well. Jane, in your email you state:
“My moment came about three years ago and I never felt such a sense of relief as I did then and still do. So much of what Jim Morrison wrote and spoke speaks volumes to me and helped me to break free from my chains.”
Genuine Freedom verses Counterfeit Freedom
Jane, I believe that you have substituted Jim Morrison with the place in your heart that only God should truly occupy. Jesus said that He is the one who has come to set the captives free (Luke 4:18-19 ). Jesus is the fulfillment of the message that God gave through the Old Testament prophets; that the Coming Savior would deliver those who are lost and enslaved to sin from death, the devil and eternal damnation. Jesus declared:
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free….”I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed…..You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies….if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.” –John 8:32, 34-36, 44, 52b
Jane, I was sorry to read about your experience when you stated:
“I resolved myself to the fact that I was never truly called and just figured I should have been because everyone around me seem to believe it with every fiber of their being. But after a while I just couldn’t pretend anymore.”
I thank God that we don’t need to pretend but can have a relationship with God through the shed blood of Christ that was poured out as payment for our sins. Jesus rose from the grave and conquered sin, death and the satanic forces that would hold us bound. The evidence all around us of the spiritual world and its affects on the masses is just one more confirmation to the veracity of Scripture; only the Bible reveals the darkness in the spiritual world for what it is, and the evil eschatological designs as to just where these spiritual rulers of darkness are leading the world. My hope and prayer is that you will realize that you are incredibly loved by God (John 3:16-17 ) and that perhaps God has allowed us to dialogue to reveal the truth to you. Jesus declared:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” –John 10:10
I believe the Lord wants you to know that if you turn to Him, He has open arms to receive you to Himself. Jesus, who cannot lie, promised, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37b ). Jane, our sin has consequences. Sin is transgression of God’s moral law. All have sinned (Romans 3:23 ) and the wages of sin is death, but thanks be to God that the free gift of God is eternal life to those who turn to Him in repentant faith (Romans 6:23 ). Jane, you only need to come to Him in faith. The prodigal son returned to His father’s house expecting to be rejected as a son but hoping to perhaps be accepted as a servant. Much to his great surprise and eternal delight, he was treated as a son and forgiven and blessed beyond his wildest dreams:
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” –Luke 15:17-24
Jane, the Lord’s arms are open and he is ready to forgive you. The question is, will you turn from the broad road that leads to destruction and receive His eternal love and grace? I have already prayed for you a few times, and we are here to help you if you have sincere questions and desire our help. I hope this response clarifies our position. May the Lord draw you to Himself and I pray that you will respond:
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” –John 12:32
Third — though in many ways first — in the trifecta of ’60s icons who died within a year of one another at the same tender age, Jim Morrison is the one whose death remains the most mysterious. This much we know (or think we know): The Doors’ frontman died in a bathtub in his Paris apartment. He had been drinking whiskey. He had been shooting heroin. His girlfriend Pamela Courson was in the apartment with him. She found his body. No autopsy was performed. The conspiracy theories attending his death run a staggering range from “he was murdered” to “he never actually died.” We’ll never be sure. One thing was certain: When his death was reported to the world, on July 3, 1971, Morrison was 27 years old.
The Acrobat (1930) is a simple, surreal cartoon, almost comical in its minimalism. It’s practically a one-line drawing that was seemingly slapdashed off in a few minutes, offering a barely feasible depiction of the body’s pliability. With utmost economy (a black curve for an eye, a placid little ripple for a mouth), Picasso etches on his subject’s face an expression of Zen bliss, perhaps triggered by the realization that his entire body has become elongated legs and arms, which then reversed roles. How liberating…
Picasso reportedly often experienced dreams in which his limbs grew to absurd dimensions. With primitive suppleness, The Acrobat captures that sort of extravagant wish fulfillment, the byproduct of a mind that likely scarcely harbored a moment of self-doubt. This is phallic gigantism in extremis and a not-so-subtle announcement by Picasso that he can and will do whatever the hell he pleases.
If Picasso were a musician—he was the Miles Davis of painters, as commentators have asserted, right?—The Acrobat would be a non-LP B-side, an anomalous, nonchalant ditty that contains an otherwise unexpressed kernel of the artist’s idiosyncratic genius.
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You can see this painting in San Francisco right now.
Health Care. Heritage’s plan makes important changes at all levels of
the health care system. The Heritage plan encourages consumer choice and
increased competition to reduce health care costs. Significantly, some of the
key Heritage reforms alter the price of health care, which will affect consumer
decisions. This demand side reform will reduce some health care spending by
encouraging consumers to make more efficient choices on plans and services,
thereby reducing health care outlays across the board. Some of the health care
proposals, such as the Medicare reforms, will also shift the cost curve of
health care.
The Heritage plan will also affect the supplier
side of health care providers. With increased competition, suppliers will be
encouraged to improve their business models and reduce their costs to consumers.
When highly regulated markets are more free and subject to competitive
pressures, costs can drop quickly and substantially. For example, the
deregulation of the airline industry reduced airfares by more than 20 percent in
only 20 years.[9]
Regulatory policy changes and increased competition have prompted sharp price
reductions in other industries, such as communications.
This fundamental downward shift in the cost curve of health care is
anticipated, but not modeled in this static analysisof the Heritage
plan. We expect the prices of certain health care goods and services to fall.
These effects will be included in the dynamic analyses,but our static
scoremodeling of the proposal, including the Medicare reforms, does not
model a scenario in which the change in prices would fundamentally change the
growth path of the cost curve. Instead, we model the price changes as a change
in the level of spending.Some of the price changes will likely spill
over into the non-Medicare market, but modeling those effects were outside the
scope of the analysis because the cost of the health care tax credit and
Medicaid are not tied to the price of health care.
Health Care for the Working-Age Population. The Heritage plan
fundamentally reforms the American health care system beginning with a critical
change in the tax treatment of health insurance. The plan replaces the current
tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with premium assistance
for most American households. This policy change eliminates the current inequity
in which only individuals with access to employer-sponsored insurance receive
favorable tax treatment and the additional inequity generated by the subsidies
in PPACA. This will reduce labor market distortions, such as “job lock,” and
remove the incentive created in the PPACA for individuals to stop working to
qualify for a generous subsidy for health insurance. The Heritage premium
support model will reduce the dominance of employers in selecting one or two
plans for their workers and allow individuals greater freedom to shop for an
insurance plan that will provide the best health care at the best value for
their families.
To best preserve public funds, the Heritage plan begins phasing out the tax
credit at $100,000 in income for a family and $50,000 for an individual. The tax
credit is completely phased out at $170,000 for a family and $90,000 for an
individual. The current Medicaid eligibility structure as well as the subsidy
cliff in the PPACA discourages people near the upper income limit from pursuing
better job opportunities for fear of losing Medicaid coverage for themselves or
their children. Importantly, the Heritage plan alleviates this disincentive for
upward mobility. The tax credit is also available to individuals well into the
middle class. For instance, individuals and families earning well over 400
percent of the federal poverty line (about $90,000 for a family of four), the
level at which the health insurance subsidies in PPACA phase out, will be
eligible for a tax credit.
Families with children and incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty
line qualify for an additional subsidy under the plan. This subsidy can be used
to pay insurance premiums or other health-related expenses. The additional
subsidies phase out slowly to prevent effective marginal tax rates from being
too high for eligible low-income workers.
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
I just did. I went to the Senator’s website and sent this below:
Returning Most Non-Defense Discretionary Spending to 2008 Levels. Non-defense discretionary spending has expanded 21 percent faster than
inflation over the past three years. Returning to 2008 levels still leaves
typical programs nearly one-third larger than they were in 2000 (adjusted for inflation). Freezing this spending at 2008 levels through 2015 and then capping subsequent growth at the inflation rate would save more than $2 trillion in the first decade and even more thereafter.
Many of these savings are achieved by reducing the size of the federal
bureaucracy, overhauling the federal pay system, permanently eliminating many earmarked accounts, and consolidating duplicative functions. Yet not all programs are affected equally. For example, Coast Guard and other important security spending rises under the plan, while lower-priority spending, such as subsidies to public broadcasting, AmeriCorps, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, is left to the private sector.
Devolving or Privatizing Most Transportation Spending. Under the federal highway program, Washington collects the 18.3 cents-per-gallon gas tax from states, subtracts a large administrative fee, and returns the remaining funds to the states with numerous strings attached, including many requirements to spend the dollars on congressional earmarks and for specific uses that may not coincide with local needs. The Heritage plan reforms this inherently wasteful system by devolving the highway program and gas tax to the states, thereby eliminating the federal middleman and allowing states to retain the gas tax revenues and spend them on their own highway priorities, provided they maintain a minimum standard of interstate highway maintenance.
The Heritage plan ends federal funding for passenger rail, saving money on
projects that invariably have ridership that is far below projections and costs that far exceed initial budgets. Amtrak subsidies are phased out over three years, the President’s costly high-speed rail program is terminated, and subsidies to for-profit freight railroads are ended. This relieves states of the upkeep and maintenance burdens associated with rail programs that Washington is currently pressuring them to undertake. The private sector and state governments can either take over or terminate these rail programs as they see fit.
Finally, all non-safety functions of the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) are transferred to the private sector, and most FAA fees are eliminated.
The air traffic control system will be transferred to the private sector, where it belongs, and financed by flight ticket user fees. The airport improvement program is also terminated, with airlines, state government, and private investment taking the place of the federal taxpayer.
As you know, we here at Red Arkansas Blog have been keeping tabs on the prognosticators’ ratings for Arkansas’ Congressional seats heading towards the 2012 election.
In Arkansas’ Fourth District, the word has been that Mr. Ross would be the likely winner in 2012.
We’re thinking the best-case turnout for Democrats would be that the immediate change for the race would be to “Toss Up.” We here at RAB think it may very well become a “Lean R” seat by the end of the day.
UPDATE
The Cook Political Reportis the first one out of the shoot, and it isn’t good for Democrats.
AR-04 has moved from Likely Democrat to Lean Republican.
Per Cook:
While the field in AR-04 will not emerge for several months, southern Arkansas is the last place Democrats want to defend an open seat with President Obama atop their ballot.
(snip)
Many Democrats will be livid at the news of Ross’s exit: in April, state Democrats passed a redistricting plan that stretched Ross’s district into northwest Arkansas, making it two points more Republican under the assumption that Ross would use it as a springboard to campaign in the fastest-growing region of the state. Now that Ross won’t be running next year, Democrats’ task of keeping the open seat is even harder than it would have been before redistricting.
UPDATE II:
Per Roll Call: AR-04 has moved from Likely Democrat to Lean Republican.
There are some Democrats out there that see an opportunity for a Republican pick up here.John Brummett in his article “Ross is running, but I repeat myself,” Arkansas News Bureau, July 26, 2011 noted:
To win, a Democrat will need to be as good a politician as Ross. I can’t identify such a Democrat at present.
At this point I’d give tea party pageanteer Beth Anne Rankin, the Sarah Palin wannabe of Arkansas, a decent shot.
U.S. Mike Rossof Prescott surprised everyone by scheduling an announcement this morning in Little Rock to say he would not seek a seventh term in Congress in 2012.His statement is on the jump. He said he hadn’t decided yet on a race for governor in 2014, which he’s long been expected to make. But his reference to the race indicates it is very much in his sights.
ROSS NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON — U.S. Congressman Mike Ross of Prescott on Monday announced he will not be seeking re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ross, who won re-election in 2010 by 18 points and has no announced opponent, has represented Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District in Congress since 2001. A fifth generation Arkansan, Ross is a former state senator and former small business owner.
Statement from U.S. Congressman Mike Ross:
Representing my home state of Arkansas in the U.S. Congress for the past eleven years has been a real privilege and honor. It is a job that I take very seriously and one that I love. However, as I reflect on turning 50 this year, I believe it is time for me to begin a new chapter in my life by spending more time with my family and exploring new opportunities here at home in Arkansas.
That’s why I have decided not to seek a seventh term to the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District. This was not an easy decision and one that I carefully made after a lot of reflection, thought and prayer.
Last year was a tough political environment to seek re-election. Yet, I won by 18 points—one of the largest margins of any member of Congress in a swing district. The trust and confidence the folks here at home have continually placed in me is something I will never forget. The people of Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District are good, decent, hard working people and I am proud to serve and represent them in the U.S. Congress.
A lot has changed since I was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 2000. Congressional campaigns have gone from several months in length to never-ending, costing millions of dollars every two years. As a result, fundraising never ends nor do the political attacks. While I have worked hard to bring folks to the middle to craft commonsense solutions to the many problems that confront our nation, Washington is mired in gridlock, gamesmanship and constant partisan bickering. Too many issues and votes are based on partisan politics rather than good public policy. Despite our many challenges, I remain optimistic that America’s best days are still ahead of us.
I never believed that my service in the U.S. Congress should become a permanent career. This seat never belonged to me—it belongs to the people of Arkansas. And I know there are many bright people in Arkansas ready to step up, go to Washington and offer a new generation of leadership. Simply put, it is someone else’s turn to represent our state in the U.S. Congress.
I have many good memories of my service in the U.S. Congress, and we have helped thousands of people. None of this would have been possible without the support of the people here in Arkansas, and for that, my family and I will always be grateful to them.
I look forward to serving out the remainder of my term in the U.S. Congress, which doesn’t end until January 2013. I will continue to work each and every day on behalf of the people I represent, just as I have faithfully tried to do from the beginning.
I have received a lot of encouragement to run for Governor of Arkansas when Governor Beebe’s term ends in 2014. I’ve always been very upfront and honest in the fact that, as a fifth generation Arkansan, I love our state and would like very much to help lead it at some point in the future. Whether I run for Governor in 2014 is a decision I have not yet made and won’t make until sometime after my term in this Congress ends.
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Ross will tough to beat in the governor race in 2014. However, I do think that the Republicans will have an excellent chance to capture a fourth Congressional seat in 2012. Will there ever be another Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Arkansas? (In fact if you check out some of the information at the Red Arkansas Blog and you will see that most people view this district as a Republican pick up.)
With the sudden news from Rep. Mike Ross that he will not seek re-election, potential Republican candidates will quickly emerge. However, two Republicans have already been busy lining up support behind the scenes before Ross even announced his decision.
Republican Tom Cotton from Dardanelle confirms to the Tolbert Report this morning that he will seek the open seat and is already putting together his team. Potential donors have confirmed that Cotton is lining up support and may already have over six figures in commitments. In addition, Cotton has been seen meeting recently with Second District Congressman Tim Griffin who could lend support to Cotton’s campaign.
Cotton was one of the many names considering a run for Senate in 2010 against former Sen. Blanche Lincoln, but ultimately decided against it. Cotton currently works for international consulting firm, McKinsey and Company. A veteran, he also serves in the U.S. Army Reserves. Cotton lives in Yell County, which was part of the Second Congressional District represented by Congressman Griffin. It was moved to the Fourth Congressional Disctrict in the last redistricting process.
In addition, Beth Anne Rankin of Magnolia, former candidate and general election opponent of Mike Ross, has been exploring another run as well. Rankin is a former Miss Arkansas and worked in former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s administration. She recently appeared on his Fox News program “Huckabee” cutting her red hair for “Locks of Love” – something she does every few years. Rankin recieved 40 percent of the vote in 2010 with Ross pulling in 57 percent.
In addition, sources close to State Rep. Lane Jean of Magnolia confirm that he is “strongly considering” getting into the race as well. Jean was elected to his first term in the Arkansas House in 2010.
Other potential Republicans names mentioned are: State Rep. Matthew Shepherd, former Congressional candidate Glenn Gallas, and Will Rockfeller – the son of the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockfeller.
The Arkansas Times Blog reported today: U.S. REP. MIKE ROSS U.S. Mike Rossof Prescott surprised everyone by scheduling an announcement this morning in Little Rock to say he would not seek a seventh term in Congress in 2012.His statement is on the jump. He said he hadn’t decided yet on a race for governor […]
HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com Arkansas Democrat Rep. Mike Ross Explains Why He Voted For the Health Care Bill in Committee (video from Tolbert Report.com) “I wasn’t sent to Washingon to play politics. I was sent there to do my job.” These are the words of Congressman Mike Ross after he basically got through playing politics and helped pass […]
HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com (John Stossel on healthcare bill 7 min) The Republicans are moving now to try and overturn the Obama healthcare act , but no one really gives their efforts much hope. How did President Obama get this healthcare act get passed in the first place. The liberal columnist John Brummett wrote an excellent article on […]
Mark Pryor’s support of the ultra liberal Obama is very clear in the video clip above. He voted for President Obama’s plan to nationalize healthcare and Obama’s stimulus plan that wasted almost a trillion dollars. Now he is following President Obama down the path of raising taxes during the debt ceiling debate.
Senator Mark Pryor on July 22 made the following statement on the Senate floor to encourage his colleagues to end the budget gimmicks and move forward with a comprehensive debt-reduction plan as part of a debt ceiling solution. A portion of his statement is below:
Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
We need to bring people the facts about our nation’s debt. People in my state see through the games being played in Washington. They want solutions, courage and leadership — the kind that puts us on a more secure fiscal path for the future.
Mr. Bryant of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas writes: “We know we have to increase the debt ceiling so let’s get serious about finding a solution….Why is this a problem for our politicians? The public expects responsible leadership not the demagoguery we are getting from both sides of the aisle.”
So here are the facts. For over 230 years, the United States government has honored its obligations. Even in the face of a Civil War, two World Wars and the Depression, America has paid its bills. Yet, now we stand on the brink of tarnishing the full faith and credit of the United States. And we stand here because Congress has failed to bring the American people the real facts. The easiest thing for a politician to do is to say they are for lower taxes and increased spending. This mind-set has rung up a $14.2 trillion debt. We now borrow 41 cents of every dollar we spend.
Now, under this debt, combined with the theatrics playing out in the House and Senate, the unthinkable could happen. The 80 million bills the federal government pays could come to a screeching halt. That means millions of seniors may not receive their Social Security checks in the mail, troops may not receive paychecks, Medicare patients could be denied care and the stock market could significantly drop.
Moreover, credit rating agencies have warned us that we will likely lose our AAA credit rating without immediate action. Interest rates would permanently rise, piling on additional costs for families. The cost of owning a home, buying food, filling a gas tank, sending kids to college and buying a car will become even more expensive.
There’s one more real fact I want to highlight. A default adds heavily to our deficit. For every 1 percent increase in the interest rates we pay, it adds $1.3 trillion to the debt.It is no wonder Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last summer said, “Our national debt is our biggest national security threat. “
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Mark Pryor has made several miscalculations concerning the debt ceiling problem. He thinks that the nationalizing of our healthcare will not affect the future deficits, and he doesn’t want to take a serious look at Medicare reform. Finally, although he says a lot about how serious the national debt is, he does not want to propose any serious cuts to federal spending. WHY NOT ELIMINATE THE DEPT OF EDUCATION? WOULDN’T THAT BE A BIG SAVINGS TO THE GOVERNMENT? JIMMY CARTER CREATED THAT AGENCY AND IT HAS DONE NOTHING TO HELP EDUCATION IMPROVE SINCE THEN DESPITE THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE HAVE THROWN ITS WAY!!!!
Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies at Harvard University and senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Miron is the author of Libertarianism, from A to Z.
As Democrats and Republicans debate the U.S. debt situation, both sides seem more concerned about pandering to their respective bases than reining in the debt. Worse, much of the discussion addresses only the debt per se, not the broader question of what policies are good for the economy. These conditions are likely to yield only cosmetic fixes, some of which will make things worse over the long haul.
The debt problem is substantial and pressing: Congressional Budget Office projections show America’s debt is exploding. Expenditures are growing much faster than the gross domestic product and tax revenues possibly could. Under the CBO’s most plausible projections, the debt would reach 109 percent of GDP by 2023, and 190 percent of GDP by 2035. This is not a problem we can ignore or address with minor adjustments.
The federal budget includes numerous programs that ought to be eliminated regardless of the deficit.
Raising tax rates is a bad idea: By reducing the income of households and the profits of businesses, higher tax rates discourage consumption and investment, slowing the economy in the short run. By reducing hiring, savings, and investment, they reduce economic growth in the long run. And higher tax rates are undermined by tax evasion and avoidance, making them an inefficient way to raise revenues.
Reducing tax “expenditures” is a good idea: When the tax code favors particular kinds of consumption or specific industries, it reduces productivity by distorting market forces, just as government spending can. Those who support economic efficiency should therefore oppose such tax expenditures, regardless of how they affect revenue or whether they are paired with reductions in tax rates. Important examples include the mortgage-interest deduction, special tax treatment of employer-paid health insurance premiums, and tax breaks for both conventional and green energy.
Health care is the greatest driver of expenses: The CBO’s analysis also indicates that rapidly increasing expenditures on Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance subsidies under Obamacare are the most important factors behind the exploding debt. Serious attempts to control the debt must reduce these programs’ growth rates.
Higher deductibles reduce health spending: Slowing the growth of health expenditures is crucial, but not all fixes are created equal. Price controls and rationing, for example, generate huge inefficiencies.
Higher deductibles are a better approach. They not only reduce spending directly; they also encourage consumers to economize and comparison shop, generating competition, efficiency, and lower costs. This moves Medicare toward insuring against catastrophic costs and away from reimbursing all expenses.
Patrick Michaels argues that, when discussing climate change, “people accept the strangest things without really fact checking.” Michaels argues that many of Al Gore’s claims and presumptions about global warming are false.
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There’s a whole new world of global warming science today-but few ever hear about it. In recent years, an internally consistent body of scientific literature has emerged that argues cogently for global warming but against the gloom-and-doom, apocalyptic vision of climate change.
Not that you would know. Consult the daily newspaper or evening newscast: dire predictions are nearly all we see or hear.
In their new book, “Climate of Extremes”, coauthors Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr. illuminate the other side of the story, the science we arent being told. This body of work details how the impact of global warming is far less severe than is generally believed and far from catastrophic. However, because it is not infused with horrific predictions and angst about the future, regardless of its quality it is largely repressed and ignored.
This in-depth exploration illustrates the crucial unreported forecasts: that changes in hurricanes will be small, that global warming is likely to be modest, and that contrary to daily headlines, there is no apocalypse on the horizon – Cato Institute
Pat Michaels is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia. He is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists and was program chair for the Committee on Applied Climatology of the American Meteorological Society. Michaels is a contributing author and reviewer of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He was an author of the 2003 climate science “Paper of the Year” awarded by the Association of American Geographers, for the demonstration that urban heat-related mortality declined significantly as cities became warmer. His writing has been published in the major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science; and his articles have appeared also in the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and the Journal of Commerce.
In the video clip above Woody Allen says that films are not his number 1 priority. There are very few of his films that are successful in his opinion. It is my view that his film Crimes and Misdemeanors is his best.
Owen Wilson and Lea Seydoux with director Woody Allen
First Posted: 05/23/11 10:57 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 06:55 PM ET
NEW YORK — Leaving the Angelika Theater this past weekend, on the opening night of Woody Allen’s latest film, I participated in a mild argument with my companion that left me feeling a bit like one of the blathering, pseudo-intellectual characters Allen has been parading before audiences for decades.
What I liked best about “Midnight in Paris” — and what my friend found most annoying — was its very thinness, its gallery of static characters, its steady march of fleshed-out clichés. In the film’s fantastical sequences, which deliver a struggling novelist from 2010 back to 1920s Paris, Allen conducts affairs with a mythical grasp of history, from entire eras –- primarily, the gin- and jazz-soaked Roaring Twenties -– to individuals: Ernest Hemingway always rearing for a fight; genial Scott Fitzgerald thwarted by his hysterical wife, Zelda; and Salvador Dali, the wide-eyed, hallucinatory weirdo.
All of this irritated my companion and delighted me, in large part because I do not really care much about Woody Allen as a moviemaker, but see “Midnight in Paris” in the tradition of other of his films, such as “Zelig” and “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” that are really just lavish gifts of transposition: film treatments of Allen’s extraordinary body of short humor writing that began forty years ago with the publication of his first collection, Getting Even.
Compared to the business of making movies, Allen has called humor writing “sheer dessert” -– no producers, no actors, no budget concerns -– and his other early collections, Without Feathers(1975), and Side Effects (1980), are overstuffed with the sort of gags and sleights of hand that on film answer to the name “special effects.” (His more recent collection, Mere Anarchy from 2007, had its moments but is more laborious and less funny.)
Getting Even contains the story “A Twenties Memory,” a parody of Hemingway’s laconic style as well as a breezy exploration of the same territory romanticized in his latest film. Indeed, the celebrity cast (the characters, not the actors) of “Midnight in Paris” is almost identical to that of “A Twenties Memory.” While the story is incomparably sillier than the film, the treatment of their common characters suggests Allen’s understanding of them is about the same as it was 40 years ago.
Lately, to get a sense of the academic world’s perception of Allen’s writing, I’ve spent some time with literary journals that analyze his work. “Midnight in Paris,” and my ensuing argument over its merits, reminded me of a complaint registered by a critic named Sanford Pinsker, who essentially called Allen, the writer, a lightweight. For all his textual nods to Camus, Kierkegaard, Kafka and other giants of art and thought, Allen’s “playfulness about Ideas and parodic romps depend on a ‘familiarity with’ -– if not an understanding of -– the originals,” he wrote.
Yet Allen has been the focus of much positive attention in academia, and it’s been said this is due to his mix of high and low culture (beavers that take over Carnegie Hall, Kafka references alongside men who long only to sit waist high in gravy) –- together with his good fortune to come along at a time of academic interest in popular culture. Allen won an O. Henry Award for his 1978 short story, “The Kugelmass Episode,” which more than any other of his writings resembles the plot of “Midnight in Paris.” It tells the story of Kugelmass, a romantic, frustrated City College professor who is magically transported to the French countryside of “Madame Bovary,” where he begins an affair with the beautiful Emma.
The conceit is nearly identical to the one that drives “Midnight in Paris,” in which a novelist played by Owen Wilson travels back in time to 1920s Paris, where he learns that one man’s golden age is another’s dull present. Similarly, in “Kugelmass,” as the lovers stroll past a country church, Emma admires Kugelmass’ leisure suit and tells him, “I’ve always dreamed that some mysterious stranger would appear and rescue me from the monotony of this crass rural existence.”
In a 1999 essay in the journal South Atlantic Review, David Galef acknowledged the danger of analyzing Woody Allen: “[A]cademics who play around with him risk being played around with themselves.” Canonical discussions of Allen’s work tend to be marked with hesitation — perhaps marred by considerations of his occasionally scandalous personal life, or maybe because it is simply premature to canonize the living.
In academic circles, Allen is frequently compared to Mark Twain. Both started their careers as humorists and, while never shedding that guise, increasingly strove for moral seriousness. In 1984, the Twain scholar Hamlin Hill wrote, “no major, sustained comic voice will arise and endure between now and the end of the century, to take a place with Franklin, Twain, Thurber, and possibly Woody Allen.”
Nearly 20 years after that tentative assessment, Allen is as prolific a filmmaker as ever, though his prose output is limited to the occasional piece in The New Yorker. Still, admirers of his writing cling hopefully to a hint he dropped in 1995, when he told the Paris Review he had a draft of a novel completed, “all handwritten, lying in my drawer on graph paper.” He said he was saving it for when he lacks the energy to make movies, or when the studios will no longer let him.
The following year, looking back on his custody battle and scandal –- involving actress Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, whom Allen would go on to marry –- Allen told the The New Yorker, “[p]eople kept saying, ‘This guy’s career is finished.’ I thought, You must be joking. My career can never be finished, because I will always write. Nobody can stop me.”
With the sudden news from Rep. Mike Ross that he will not seek re-election, potential Republican candidates will quickly emerge. However, two Republicans have already been busy lining up support behind the scenes before Ross even announced his decision.
In addition, Beth Anne Rankin of Magnolia, former candidate and general election opponent of Mike Ross, has been exploring another run as well. Rankin is a former Miss Arkansas and worked in former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s administration. She recently appeared on his Fox News program “Huckabee” cutting her red hair for “Locks of Love” – something she does every few years. Rankin recieved 40 percent of the vote in 2010 with Ross pulling in 57 percent.
The Daily Hatch 