Right Mind

From the L.A. Times:

“If we do nothing, in four years, the University will be spending more on retirement programs each year than we do on classroom instruction.” 

From USA Today:

Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand.

Here are some hard numbers:

• More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid
• Medicaid is expected to add another 16 million in 2014 thanks to ObamaCare
• More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn
• Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007.
• More than 4.4 million people are on welfare, an 18% increase during the recession.

As Andy Roth says,

“Once you create dependency, it can easily create a sense of entitlement, and that can translate into more votes for the politicians who promise more of it.”

Via the Club for Growth

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."  

—Samuel Adams

From the Washington Examiner:

Liberals gleefully predicted that the financial crisis and deep recession would destroy Americans' faith in markets and increase their confidence in Big Government. Many conservatives gloomily feared they were right.

Hasn't happened. If anything, public opinion has moved in the other direction, with most Americans rejecting the stimulus package and the health care bill, denying that government action is needed to address global warming, and expressing negative feelings about labor unions. 

From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama's administration recently submitted a report to the United Nations on human rights in America. The 29-page report shows the nation badly flawed but fortunate to have a Nobel Prize winner as its leader. The report is billed as "a partial snapshot of the current human rights situation in the United States, including some of the areas where problems persist in our society." Among the nation's shortcomings listed in the report:

• Arizona has dared to try to enforce immigration laws that the federal government will not. But don't worry, Obama is suing them.
• We incarcerate dangerous terrorists at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

But don't worry -- Obama has signed three executive orders to protect them from the last administration's rough handling and he "remains committed to closure of the Guantanamo detention facility."

The Tea Party movement, like the original Tea Party over two centuries ago, is a rebellion against overweening government and a call for the restoration of individual liberty, individual responsibility, and limited constitutional government. That there should be a religious element in this should not surprise. After all, America’s three great revolutions — the first whereby we declared ourselves free and independent, the second that ended slavery, and the third that ended legal segregation — were all supported and inspired by religious beliefs and institutions.

And for good reason: In America, at least, religion is a private affair, free from government coercion, a domain where individuals can and must assume responsibility for themselves — the very virtue that is crippled by dependence on government. Alaskans and Americans more broadly are increasingly rejecting the Murkowski view that government is instituted to provide goods and services. It’s instituted to ensure our freedom, including freedom from forced dependence on government.

 

—Roger Pilon, Cato

From the Idaho Reporter:

The Idaho Republican Party is again trying to tie Democrat Keith Allred, the man challenging Republican Butch Otter’s hold on the governor’s mansion, to labor unions.  In a press release sent out by the GOP Monday, chairman Norm Semanko accused Allred of doublespeak on his promises to union leaders.  Allred has consistently said that though he has met with union leaders, he has made no promises to them.

The release by the GOP cites an Aug. 27 article in the Lewiston Morning Tribune in which Allred is quoted as suggesting that non-union workers in union plants should pay some type of fee because they are benefiting from labor representation while refusing to pay dues.   Allred said that if elected governor in the fall, he might support legislation requiring non-union workers to pay the fee.

Those comments drew the ire of Norm Semanko, GOP chairman.  Semanko noted that at a debate in Idaho Falls earlier this month Allred came out against right-to-work, a state law prohibiting employers from requiring union membership as a condition for employment.  “Allred can’t have it both ways,” said Semanko. “It is obvious that Allred is trying to cater to his base while at the same time trying to deceive the majority of Idahoans into believing that he supports Idaho’s Right-to-Work law. We have had enough of this shell game in Washington, D.C. We don’t need it in Idaho, too.”

According to Camille Paglia in the Chronicle of Higher Education, preparing students for jobs “should be front and center in the thinking of educators.”

The idea that college is a contemplative realm of humanistic inquiry, removed from vulgar material needs, is nonsense. The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious postmodernist theory and insular identity politics.

So is there any difference between education and training any longer?

Seems like the whole purpose of “education” in America these days is for job-training/skill development.

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Americans Give GOP Edge on Most Election Issues: Americans say the Republicans in Congress would do a better job than the Democrats of handling seven of nine key election issues. This includes a 49% to 38% advantage on the economy, which 62% of Americans rate as extremely important to their vote.

 

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Generic Ballot Continues to Suggest Major Losses for Dems: Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport updates Gallup's 2010 generic ballot for Congress and explains why the measure points to significant seat losses for the Democrats this November.

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Religiosity Highest in World's Poorest Nations: Religiosity is strongly related to per-capita income worldwide. In the poorest countries Gallup surveyed in 2009, a median of 95% of adults say religion is an important part of their daily lives, compared with 47% who say the same in the world's richest countries.

Mark 10:25 — “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

GOP Takes Unprecedented 10-Point Lead on Generic Ballot: Republicans lead by 51% to 41% among registered voters in Aug. 23-29 Gallup weekly tracking of 2010 congressional voting preferences. The 10-percentage-point lead is the GOP's largest of the year and is its largest in Gallup's history of tracking the midterm generic ballot.

 

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

U.S. Consumers Pulling Back on Spending in August: Americans' self-reported spending averaged $61 per day during the week ending Aug. 29 -- down from the prior week's $66 average. So far, August and back-to-school 2010 spending appear no better than last year's disappointing results.

 

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Republicans Hold Wide Lead in Key Voter Turnout Measure: Gallup finds 54% of Republicans, compared with 30% of Democrats, already saying they have given "quite a lot of" or "some" thought to the upcoming congressional elections. That 24-point gap on this key indicator of voter turnout is much larger than Gallup has found in the final days before past midterm elections.

 

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

U.S. Underemployment at 18.6% in August: Underemployment, as measured by Gallup, was 18.6% in August, up from 18.4% at the end of July. Although Gallup's unemployment rate component increased to 9.3% from 8.9% during that time, hope among the underemployed of finding a job in the next month hit a new high of 47% in August.

Blog and Mablog has a list of Seven Things for Christians to Not Sip at the Tea Party.

Well worth reading and heeding.

Standard numbers for college debt usually focus on the kids and not on the family unit, so the reported numbers hide much of the debt that the parents take on. But “Shadow Debt” is the amount that parents borrow or raid from their 401k to pay for their kids’ college. Andrew Gillen over at the College Affordability Clubhouse just produced a better estimate of the unreported shadow debt.

Americans Borrow 126 Billion a Year for College

I did a radio show with Steve Scher this afternoon on student loans. (I started off a bit rocky, but eventually recovered). While preparing for it, I accidentally came up with an estimate of the yearly shadow debt of college. My back of the envelope calculations indicate that in total (standard debt plus shadow debt), Americans borrow about 126 billion dollars a year for college.

Federal Loans account for 84b.
Private and State Loans account for another 12b.
The Shadow Debt accounts for the rest, about 30b. It is composed of

• Non-official student loans ~ 7.4b
• Credit Cards (student) ~ 1.9b
• Credit Cards (parent) ~ 5.5b
• Home equity or line of credit ~ 8b
• Retirement Acct ~ 3.3b
• Other parent loans ~ 3.6b
  

Via the Club for Growth. Check out #34 below!

Rank	2010 Incumbent	District	GOP Candidate
1	Gordon	TN6	Dianne Black
2	Melancon	LA3	TBD
3	Snyder	AR2	Tim Griffin
4	Massa	NY29	Tom Reed (likely)
5	Kratovil	MD1	TBD
6	Kilroy	OH15	Steve Stivers
7	Teague	NM2	Steve Pearce
8	Driehaus	OH1	Steve Chabot
9	Moore, D.	KS3	Kevin Yoder
10	Ellsworth	IN8	Larry Bucshon
11	Markey	CO4	Cory Gardner
12	Shea-Porter	NH1	TBD
13	Hodes	NH2	TBD
14	Pomeroy	ND99	Richard Berg
15	Tanner	TN8	Stephen Fincher
16	Kosmas	FL24	TBD
17	Childers	MS1	Alan Nunnelee
18	Titus	NV3	Joe Heck
19	Perriello	VA5	Robert Hurt
20	Nye	VA2	Scott Rigell
21	Grayson	FL8	TBD
22	Stupak	MI1	Dan Benishek
23	Arcuri	NY24	Richard Hanna
24	Kanjorski	PA11	Lou Barletta
25	Mollohan	WV1	David McKinley
26	Schauer	MI7	Tim Walberg
27	Baird	WA3	TBD
28	Sestak	PA7	Pat Meehan
29	Foster	IL14	Randy Hultgren
30	Edwards, C.	TX17	Bill Flores
31	Berry	AR1	Rick Crawford
32	Bright	AL2	Martha Roby
33	Hill	IN9	Todd Young
34	Minnick	ID1	Raul Labrador
35	Spratt	SC5	Mick Mulvaney
36	Dahlkemper	PA3	Mike Kelly
37	Obey	WI7	Sean Duffy (likely)
38	Kissell	NC8	Harold Johnson
39	Herseth Sandlin	SD99	Kristi Noem
40	Boyd	FL2	TBD
41	Kirkpatrick	AZ1	TBD
42	Boccieri	OH16	Jim Renacci
43	Giffords	AZ8	TBD
44	Halvorson	IL11	Adam Kinzinger
45	McNerney	CA11	David Harmer
46	Hall, J.	NY19	Nan Hayworth (likely)
47	Adler	NJ3	Jon Runyon
48	Murphy, P.	PA8	Michael Fitzpatrick
49	Boucher	VA9	Morgan Griffith
50	Space	OH18	Bob Gibbs
51	Donnelly	IN2	Jackie Walorski Swihart
52	Mitchell	AZ5	TBD
53	Heinrich	NM1	Johnathan L. Barela
54	Boswell	IA3	Brad Zaun
55	Owens	NY23	TBD
56	Bishop	NY1	TBD
57	Critz (Murtha)	PA12	Tim Burns
58	Delahunt	MA10	TBD
59	Skelton	MO4	Vicky Hartzler
60	Carney	PA10	Thomas Marino
61	Connolly	VA11	Keith Fimian
62	Kagen	WI8	TBD
63	Salazar	CO3	Scott Tipton
64	Murphy	NY20	Chris Gibson
65	Sutton	OH13	Tom Ganley
66	Marshall	GA8	Austin Scott
67	Chandler	KY6	Andy Barr
68	McMahon	NY13	TBD
69	Schrader	OR5	Scott Bruun
70	Klein	FL22	Allen West (likely)
71	Rodriguez, C.	TX23	Quico Canseco
72	Peters	MI9	Rocky Raczkowski
73	Shuler	NC11	Jeff Miller
74	Holden	PA17	Dave Argall
75	Altmire	PA4	Keith Rothfus
76	Murphy, C.	CT5	Sam Caliguri
77	Kind	WI3	TBD
78	Pallone Jr.	NJ6	Anna Little
79	Davis, L.	TN4	Scott DesJarlais
80	Himes	CT4	Dan Debicella
81	Walz	MN1	Randy Demmer
82	Maffei	NY25	Ann Marie Buerkle
83	Sanchez, Loretta	CA47	Van Tran
84	Rahall	WV3	Elliot "Spike" Maynard
85	Bean	IL8	Joe Walsh
86	Etheridge	NC2	Renee Ellmers
87	Cardoza	CA18	Michael Berryhill
88	Yarmuth	KY3	Todd Lally
89	Larsen	WA2	John Koster
90	Loebsack	IA2	Marianette Miller-Meeks
91	Barrow	GA12	Ray McKinney
92	Matheson	UT2	Morgan Philpot
93	Ross	AR4	Beth Anne Rankin
94	McIntyre	NC7	Ilario Pantano
95	Wilson, C.	OH6	Bill Johnson
96	Bishop, S.	GA2	Mike Keown
97	Perlmutter	CO7	Ryan Frazier
98	Hare	IL17	Bobby Schilling
99	Costa	CA20	Andy Vidak
100	Braley	IA1	Benjamin Lange
101	Holt	NJ12	Scott Sipprelle
102	Wu	OR1	Rob Cornilles
103	Carnahan	MO3	Ed Martin
104	Kennedy, P.	RI1	John Loughlin (likely)

From WorldMagBlog:

Congress seems increasingly reluctant to let taxes go up, even on wealthier Americans. Worried about the fragile economy and the upcoming elections, a growing number of Democrats are joining the rock-solid Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s plans to let some of the Bush administration’s tax cuts expire.

The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation are due to expire in January, and lawmakers will act on the cuts later this month, just before congressional elections in November—raising the stakes politically and for taxpayers.

If Congress fails to act—a possibility given the gridlock that has gripped the Senate—workers at every income level would face significant tax increases next year.

Taxpayers making between between $50,000 and $75,000 would face an average increase of $1,126, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. 

From WorldMagBlog:

The Justice Department sued Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday, calling the sheriff’s defiance of an investigation into his office’s alleged discrimination against Hispanics “unprecedented.”

The Arizona sheriff had been given until Aug. 17 to hand over documents the federal government first asked for 15 months ago when it started investigating alleged discrimination, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and jail policies that discriminate against people with limited English skills.

Arpaio said the federal government is trying to score a win against the state, which has found itself at the center of the nation’s argument over illegal immigration since passing a law that mirrors many of the policies Arpaio has put into place in the greater Phoenix area.

“I think they know we have not been racial profiling, so what’s the next step—camouflage the situation, go the courts, and make it look like I’m not cooperating,” Arpaio said Thursday.

$3.85 million ?

There's big bucks in the anthropogenic climate change business.

I wonder what the financial incentive is to research anything contrary to the commonly received conclusion?

The following article ran in the Lewiston Tribune.

BILLINGS, Mont. - Scientists from universities in Montana, Colorado and Idaho announced Wednesday the start of a 5-year, $3.85 million research project into how a changing climate will influence wildfires.

The project is being pursued in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and researchers in Australia and New Zealand. The goal is to identify how human activities and climate change drive fires.

If combat is over, why are the troops still receiving combat pay?

From the Associated Press:

HAWIJA, Iraq - Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.

While the Obama administration has dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded the mission, the operation in Hawija was a reminder that U.S. forces are still engaged in hunting down and killing al-Qaida militants - and could still have to defend themselves against attacks.

That reality was front and center at a change-of-command ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces outside Baghdad that the American military now uses as its headquarters. Officials warned of a tough road ahead as the U.S. moves into the final phase of the 71/2-year war.

Prior to the last six months, when is the last time you heard of a Gulf of Mexico oil rig exploding? And now, two explosions in short order.

This is sure to get the conspiracy theorists going: did the Obama Administration not get enough mileage out of the Deepwater Horizon incident? Etc.

From the Washington Post:

Gulf oil rig explodes off La. coast

GRAND ISLE, La. -- An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

HT: Tim T.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Washington Education Association is calling for a boycott of Walmart, asking people to refuse to buy the crayons, notebooks and protractors needed for the fall term of school at this labor battleground.

And 5 years later, Washington gets a Super Walmart in Pullman. Ah, the irony.

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

From Time Magazine:

According to a new analysis of 2,000 communities by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., young women's median full-time salaries are 8% higher than those of the guys in their peer group. In two cities, Atlanta and Memphis, those women are making around 20% more. This squares with earlier research from Queens College, New York, that had suggested that this was happening in major metropoles. But the new study suggests that the gap is bigger than thought, with young women in New York City, Los Angles and San Diego making 17%, 12% and 15% more than their male peers respectively. And it also holds true even in reasonably small cities like Raleigh Durham, N.C., Charlotte, N.C., (both 14% more) and Jacksonville, Florida (6%).

Here's the slightly deflating caveat: this reverse gender gap, as it's known, applies only to unmarried, childless women under 30 who live in cities.

Bottom line: there’s no gender discrimination. Or if there is, it’s in favor of women.

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Republicans Remain Disproportionately White and Religious: American political parties remain sharply differentiated by race and religion. Republicans are disproportionately likely to be white and highly religious. Democrats are more racially and ethnically diverse, with proportionately fewer highly religious whites.

 

From NJ.com:

Democrats are scrambling after a recent Gallup poll indicated that if midterm elections were held today, Republicans are favored to take control of the House in November, according to a report by the Washington Post. The poll, which simply asked the generic ballot question, 'which party's candidate would you vote for in Congress elections?' showed Republicans hold a commanding lead over Democrats with 51 percent compared to 41 percent, the report said. The 10-point poll margin marks the largest lead Republicans have seen since 2002 and 1994, when the party held onto a five point advantage. In both years, Republicans took back numerous seats in the House.

From the Associated Press:

The Idaho Republican Party criticized a private fundraiser for Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick, though the GOP has also barred reporters from events. Idaho Republican leader Norm Semanko says Minnick smuggled in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland for "secret meetings" with supporters — and barred media. In January 2009, reporters were kept out of a GOP fundraiser for newly-appointed Lt. Gov. Brad Little. GOP activists were upset at the time by a news report that the lieutenant governor was taking lobbyists' cash during the 2009 Legislature — after Little had said lawmakers shouldn't accept lobbyists' money until the session ended. The Idaho GOP's Phil Hardy said Wednesday Hoyer's visit was problematic because it was kept quiet; Hardy said Little's 2009 event, while private, was common knowledge. Minnick staffers say Hoyer's trip was no secret, either.