Quick Hits - December 24, 2011

Turmoil in the GOP Presidential Primary race occurred this morning as Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry failed to qualify for inclusion on the Virginia primary ballot.  Virginia, one of the 'Super Tuesday' states holding its primary on March 6, requires candidates to collect and subject 10,000 eligible signatures for inclusion on the ballot.  Both the Gingrich and Perry campaigns failed to collect the needed number of eligible signatures.  This reflects major problems in the organization of these campaigns.

Donald Trump, always interested in self promotion, found himself in the desperate need for more attention yesterday.  Trump announced that he dropped his affiliation with the Republican Party, and registered as 'unaffiliated'.  He also started to reach out to the group 'American's Elect' which is positioning itself as an alternative for American voters than the traditional two political parties.  This is a combination of progressives and former RINO's - with the group led by the former communications director for Deval Patrick's (Governor of Massachusetts) campaign in Massachusetts.  Trump, who has bantered about a third party run for President, is seeking to be the group's candidate.

GOP Presidential Primary candidate Ron Paul continues to face challenges over a number of very questionable statements made in newsletters under Ron Paul's name.  Paul continues to deny that he wrote the statements that went out under his name and that he had any knowledge that those statements were part of the materials in those newsletters.  Ace at Ace of Spades listens to these complaints, and finds that these claims by Ron Paul are even less plausible than the excuses that Anthony Weiner tried to use to mask the sending of inappropriate pictures via his twitter account.

Why wouldn't he write them? I didn't start blogging because I wanted to get rich. I started blogging because I was, get this, interested in politics and had a bee in my bonnet to express myself.

Why would Ron Paul, who during his years of private sector temporary retirement, not write his own newsletters? He's a man who has something to say about government, and money (and Negros, and Homos); why would he pass up the opportunity to do say something about topics of interest to him?

He's a reasonably intelligent guy. He writes his own speeches. He writes lots of columns. This is certainly not outside his skill-set.

Although I do believe it's possible that Lew Rockwell contributed stuff when Paul was lazy or busy, it's simply absurd to claim that even in this situation Ron Paul "didn't know" what was going on.

The reelection campaign for President Obama and the Democrat National Committee returned more than $70,000 in contributions made by former MF Global CEO and Chairman, Jon Corzine.  $1.2 billion of client funds remain missing from the failed company - and Corzine is under fire for his role in the misappropriation of these client funds.  Corzine, who was the Governor of New Jersey and a former US Senator from New Jersey, was also a major campaign bundler for President Obama.  Those funds, apparently, are not being returned.

In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama campaigned against the use of signing statements by President Bush stating that if elected President, he would never use signing statements.  President Obama used a signing statement on Friday to advise that he is going to ignore a number of provisions in the Omnibus Spending Bill that he signed into law.  He believes that these provisions are 'unconstitutional' - therefore he will ignore them.

“These are constitutionally impermissible forms of congressional aggrandizement in the execution of the laws,” Obama wrote. “Although my Administration will notify the relevant committees before taking the specified actions, and will accord the recommendations of such committees appropriate and serious consideration, our spending decisions shall not be treated as dependent on the approval of congressional committees.”

The state of the economy is a major concern..Powerline has this thought for the day from the 1940's that is just as applicable today as it was then..

Recently ran across this line from Rebecca West, written in the late 1940s with reference to the British Labour Party, but which reads just as accurately in the Age of Obama:

“The individualist is being looted by his own country as if it were an enemy.”

Well, Obama did once say that he considered his one experience in the private sector was like being “a spy behind enemy lines.”

There are so many fundamental misconceptions about America and it's economy that are held by the President and his supporters.  Forbes Magazine has a review of a number of these along with the effects of these misconceptions.  One is about the cost of regulation..

Similarly, regulations impose increased costs on businesses and consumers, and sometimes flat out prohibit productive economic activity altogether. See, e.g., the Keystone pipeline. Academic studies estimate the total costs of regulation in the economy to be rapidly rising towards $2 trillion per year, or $8,000 per employee. That is close to 10 times the corporate income tax burden, and double the individual income tax. When the resulting effects on the economy are considered, the total losses due to regulatory burdens may total $3 trillion, or one fifth of our entire economy.

These regulatory burdens increase the cost of production, and consequently reduce the net return to the producers, reducing the reward for production quite similarly to taxes. They consequently also slash the incentive for production, reducing economic growth and prosperity. Alternatively, reducing regulatory burdens reduces the cost of production, increasing the net return to producers, and so adds to the incentives for production. The result is increased economic growth and prosperity.

But Barack Obama does not understand any of this. He dismisses any concern over the costs of regulation by saying simplistically that businesses are always complaining about regulation. But the result shows up in unemployment, declining real wages, increased poverty, and less economic growth and prosperity. Those effects will only worsen the more Obama’s regulatory tsunami is allowed to grow.

Here are 7 of the most illuminating economic charts of 2011 - which will destroy some more of the myths and misconceptions about the President's economic policies.

The Orange County Register reflects that the anti-business environment in California is causing even profitable companies to leave the state.

From Santa Monica, California, we have this example of the tyranny of the minority being inflicted on the majority - as atheists in Santa Monica are working to block / prevent nativity scenes being displayed in a city park as has been tradition for decades.

On the international front, there are suspicions that the Syrian regime may be responsible for the dual suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 and injured more than 150.

At least 10 protesters were killed in Yemen after security forces fire on the thousands marching in protest against the Yemeni government.

In the largest demonstrations since 1991, tens of thousands (50,000 or more) demonstrators protested against Russian PM Vladimir Putin - who is blamed for the rampant voter fraud thought to have occurred in the elections earlier this month which kept his party in power in the lower house of the Russian Parliament.

On the Eurozone crisis, Italian bonds saw their yields jump back above the 7% rate.  A Director of the rating company, Standard & Poors, said that the unprecedented decision by the European Central Bank to make available €489 billion in cheap loans to troubled European banks will only buy time for these banks, but not improve their credit outlook.

Finally, on this Christmas Eve, we wish to extend to all of you our wishes for a Merry Christmas! 

Here's a clip of the remarkable duet with David Bowie and Bing Crosby...on Crosby's Christmas special and filmed just one month before Crosby died in 1977.