Birthday-wise, today is more about quality than quality.
One-hit wonder Brenton Wood …
… was born one year before two-hit wonder Dobie Gray …
No comments on Presty the DJ for July 26
-
-
The Republican National Committee is doing a smart thing:
The Republican National Committee and the Romney for President Campaign have created a new program to ensure that the voice of successful Americans can be heard. The “Built By Us” program is designed to show the president and his proponents personal stories of success that individuals have built themselves throughout this great nation.
“At a time when this nation is more and more divided along political lines, the president once again forgets the people who have made this nation great,” said Nathan Conrad, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. ‘The Built By Us’ program was designed with one ultimate goal: have real people across America show the president that hard work and diligence makes one successful, not a handout from the federal government.”
To participate in the program, please create a video and post it to the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Facebook Page, here, or you can submit your video directly to the Romney for President Campaign at builtbyus@mittromney.com.
The stories submitted need not only be by business owners. Any story of success based on something that one has built is greatly appreciated. If an individual wrote a book, raised a family, or built something in their community without the intrusion of the government, their stories are welcome.
You can tell the GOP thinks Obama’s gaffe is a winning issue by the attention the party is paying to it. But the GOP isn’t the only group paying attention to it. Rasmussen Reports reports:
Most Americans believe entrepreneurs who start businesses do more to create jobs and economic growth than big businesses or government. They also believe overwhelmingly that small business owners work harder than other Americans and are primarily responsible for the success or failure of their businesses.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe that people who start small businesses are primarily responsible for their success or failure. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 13% disagree.
The Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer takes a slightly different tack on this issue:
To say that all individuals are embedded in and the product of society is banal. Obama rises above banality by means of fallacy: equating society with government, the collectivity with the state. Of course we are shaped by our milieu. But the most formative, most important influence on the individual is not government. It is civil society, those elements of the collectivity that lie outside government: family, neighborhood, church, Rotary club, PTA, the voluntary associations that Tocqueville understood to be the genius of America and source of its energy and freedom. …
Obama compounds the fallacy by declaring the state to be the font of entrepreneurial success. How so? It created the infrastructure — roads, bridges, schools, Internet — off which we all thrive.
Absurd. We don’t credit the Swiss postal service with the Special Theory of Relativity because it transmitted Einstein’s manuscript to the Annalen der Physik. Everyone drives the roads, goes to school, uses the mails. So did Steve Jobs. Yet only he created the Mac and the iPad.
Obama’s infrastructure argument is easily refuted by what is essentially a controlled social experiment. Roads and schools are the constant. What’s variable is the energy, enterprise, risk-taking, hard work and genius of the individual. It is therefore precisely those individual characteristics, not the communal utilities, that account for the different outcomes.
The ultimate Obama fallacy, however, is the conceit that belief in the value of infrastructure — and willingness to invest in its creation and maintenance — is what divides liberals from conservatives.
More nonsense. Infrastructure is not a liberal idea, nor is it particularly new. The Via Appia was built 2,300 years ago. The Romans built aqueducts, too. And sewers. Since forever, infrastructure has been consensually understood to be a core function of government.
The argument between left and right is about what you do beyond infrastructure. It’s about transfer payments and redistributionist taxation, about geometrically expanding entitlements, about tax breaks and subsidies to induce actions pleasing to central planners. It’s about free contraceptives for privileged students and welfare without work — the latest Obama entitlement-by-decree that would fatally undermine the great bipartisan welfare reform of 1996. It’s about endless government handouts that, ironically, are crowding out necessary spending on, yes, infrastructure.
What divides liberals and conservatives is not roads and bridges but Julia’s world, an Obama campaign creation that may be the most self-revealing parody of liberalism ever conceived. It’s a series of cartoon illustrations in which a fictional Julia is swaddled and subsidized throughout her life by an all- giving government of bottomless pockets and “Queen for a Day” magnanimity. At every stage, the state is there to provide — preschool classes and cut-rate college loans, birth control and maternity care, business loans and retirement. The only time she’s on her own is at her grave site.
Julia’s world is totally atomized. It contains no friends, no community and, of course, no spouse. Who needs one? She’s married to the provider state.
Or to put it slightly differently, the “Life of Julia” represents the paradigmatic Obama political philosophy: citizen as orphan child. For the conservative, providing for every need is the duty that government owes to actual orphan children. Not to supposedly autonomous adults.
Beyond infrastructure, the conservative sees the proper role of government as providing not European-style universal entitlements but a firm safety net, meaning Julia-like treatment for those who really cannot make it on their own — those too young or too old, too mentally or physically impaired, to provide for themselves.
Newspaper opinion pages are also weighing in:
New York Daily News: “The President Demeaned The Qualities Of Initiative, Industriousness And Ingenuity That Drive America’s Ladder-Climbers.” “Regardless of whether Obama was talking about ‘roads and bridges’ or about ‘a business’ when he said, ‘you didn’t build that,’ there is no question that as he extolled the virtues of government — the government he claims Romney would dismantle — the President demeaned the qualities of initiative, industriousness and ingenuity that drive America’s ladder-climbers.” (Editorial, “President Obama Distorts Mitt Romney’s Record And Ignores His Own,” New York Daily News, 7/22/12) …
Albuquerque Journal: “[President Obama’s] Off-The-Cuff Comment Devalues The Importance Of Effort, Sacrifice, Dedication And Hard Work. And It’s Not How It Works Outside D.C.” “It’s been a tough week to be an American entrepreneur. President Barack Obama told campaign supporters ‘if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.’ At minimum, his off-the-cuff comment devalues the importance of effort, sacrifice, dedication and hard work. And it’s not how it works outside D.C.” (Editorial, “President Discounts U.S. Small Businesses,”Albuquerque Journal, 7/20/12) …
Las Vegas Review-Journal: “[President Obama] Clearly Believes … That Business Owners Who Risked It All For A Better Life Aren’t Responsible For Their Own Prosperity.” “Without a record of economic recovery to run on, President Barack Obama is taking a startling gamble this summer. He clearly believes that not only do Americans lack such entrepreneurial dreams, but that business owners who risked it all for a better life aren’t responsible for their own prosperity.” (Editorial, “Diminishing Entrepreneurship,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/20/12) …
San Diego Union-Tribune: “[President Obama] Offered Hosannas To Genius Entrepreneurs Like Steve Jobs In His Prepared Remarks, But When Speaking Off The Cuff Betrayed His Faculty-Lounge View Of The World.” “He took office at a time when the U.S. economy was on its worst slide in 75 years, but pushed policies using borrowed money that were more meant to preserve government jobs than broadly help the private sector where the great majority of Americans work, ensuring the jobs crisis continued. … He offered hosannas to genius entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs in his prepared remarks, but when speaking off the cuff betrayed his faculty-lounge view of the world, saying of businesspeople, ‘if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.’” (Editorial, “Presidential Busts: The Worst Of All: Barack Obama (2009-?),” San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/22/12) …
The Wall Street Journal: “The President Who Says He Wants To Be Transformational May Be Succeeding—And Subordinating To Government The Individual Enterprise And Risk-Taking That Underlies Prosperity.” “Beneath the satire is the serious point that Mr. Obama’s homily is the soul of his campaign message. The President who says he wants to be transformational may be succeeding—and subordinating to government the individual enterprise and risk-taking that underlies prosperity. The question is whether this is the America that most Americans want to build.” (Editorial, “’You Didn’t Build That’,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/17/12)
Chicago Tribune: “We’re Troubled … By The President’s Decision To Stoke Resentment Toward The People Who Have Taken Risks And Succeeded In This Nation.” “We’re troubled, too, by the president’s decision to stoke resentment toward the people who have taken risks and succeeded in this nation. ‘If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,’ Obama said Friday.” (Editorial, “The Roar Offshore,” Chicago Tribune, 7/19/12)
Not that Obama cares, but musician Charlie Daniels thinks Obama is, shall we say, tone-deaf:
here was your government when I spent as much as 16 weeks away from my wife and infant son to get a business started?
Where were you on those cold winter nights when my old bus broke down in the middle of nowhere and we had to scramble to make the next show, nobody from the government came along to give us a ride?
Where was your government when I had to borrow money from a bank to make my payroll?
Where was your government while I was digging out of a two million dollar debt, playing every smoky beer joint I could to keep from losing everything I owned?
Mr. Obama, I want to make you aware of a fact. It is the federal government’s responsibility to build roads and bridges and keep the nation safe. That’s what the federal government is supposed to do, not create an entitlement society that is totally unsustainable and pile up debt that we can’t pay.
And who do you think paid for those roads and bridges in the first place, and have been doing it for 200 years before you were even born? …
Mr. Obama I don’t think you like America very much. I think you’d like to redesign it from the ground up, to turn it into a lazy, unproductive, secular, socialist society.
Well, that just wont flush in a lot of ways, the most prominent being that when all the productive people have given up and stopped trying, when all the investors stop investing, when 80% of the population is living on government hand outs, your government is going to run out of money and this nation will sink into chaos. …
My help cometh from the Lord who made Heaven and Earth — not the government who made debt and class envy.
I wonder if the Ego-in-Chief or any of his minions in the White House has any idea what a stupid, stupid thing he said. And I wonder if Obama’s supposedly brilliant political advisors have any idea of how to get out of the mess into which their leader led himself.
Perhaps they should consult one of Obama’s predecessors:
Small business is the gateway to opportunity for those who want a piece of the American Dream. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear a little more about the forgotten heroes of America, those who create most of our new jobs, like the owners of stores down the street, the faithful who support our churches, synagogues, schools and communities. The brave men and women everywhere who produce our goods, feed a hungry world, and keep our families warm while they invest in the future to build a better America. That’s where miracles are made. Not In Washington, D.C.
-
Today in 1964, the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” hit number one and stayed there for 14 weeks:
Today in 1973, George Harrison got a visit from the taxman, who told him he owed £1 million in taxes on his 1973 Bangladesh album and concert:
Birthdays start with Mark Clarke of Uriah Heep …
… born one year before Verdine White, who played bass for Earth Wind & Fire:
Ken Greer played guitar for Red Rider:
One death occurred today in 1995: Charlie Rich:
-
Apparently Barack Obama’s comment about business owners not earning their success struck a nerve with Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass:
When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father.
But I didn’t have to close my eyes to see my dad. I could do it with my eyes open.
All I had to do was think of the driveway of our home, and my dad’s car gone before dawn, that old white Chrysler with a push-button transmission. It always started, but there was a hole in the floor and his feet got wet in the rain. So he patched it with concrete mix and kept on driving it to the little supermarket he ran with my Uncle George.
He’d return home long after dark, physically and mentally exhausted, take a plate of food, talk with us for a few minutes, then flop in that big chair in front of the TV. Even before his cigarette was out, he’d begin to snore.
The next day he’d wake up and do it again. Day after day, decade after decade. Weekdays and weekends, no vacations, no time to see our games, no money for extras, not even forMcDonald’s. My dad and Uncle George, and my mom and my late Aunt Mary, killing themselves in their small supermarket on the South Side of Chicago.
There was no federal bailout money for us. No Republican corporate welfare. No Democratic handouts. No bipartisan lobbyists working the angles. No Tony Rezkos. No offshore accounts. No Obama bucks.
Just two immigrant brothers and their families risking everything, balancing on the economic high wire, building a business in America. They sacrificed, paid their bills, counted pennies to pay rent and purchase health care and food and not much else. And for their troubles they were muscled by the politicos, by the city inspectors and the chiselers and the weasels, all those smiling extortionists who held the government hammer over all of our heads. …
If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that? Somebody else made that happen?
Somebody else, Mr. President? Who, exactly? Government?
One of my earliest memories as a boy at the store was that of the government men coming from City Hall. One was tall and beefy. The other was wiry. They wanted steaks.
We didn’t eat red steaks at home or yellow bananas. We took home the brown bananas and the brown steaks because we couldn’t sell them. But the government men liked the big, red steaks, the fat rib-eyes two to a shrink-wrapped package. You could put 20 or so in a shopping bag.
“Thanks, Greek,” they’d say.
That was government.
We didn’t go to movies or out to restaurants. Everything went into the business. Uncle George and dad never bought what they could not afford. The store employed people, and the workers fed their families and educated their children and put them through college. They were good people, all of them. We worked together and worked hard, but none worked harder than the bosses.
It’s the same story with so many other businesses in America, immigrants and native-born. The entrepreneurs risk everything, their homes, their children’s college funds, their hearts, all for a chance at the dream: independence, and a small business of their own.
Most often, they fail and fall to the ground without a government parachute. But some get up and start again. …
Obama’s changed. Gone is that young knight drawing the sword from the stone, selling Hopium to the adoring media, preaching an end to the broken politics of the past. These days, he wears a new presidential persona: the multimillionaire with the Chicago clout, playing the class warrior, fighting for that second term.
Tell me again why anyone should vote for Barack Obama.
-
Today in 1965, Bob Dylan released “Like a Rolling Stone,” which is not like the Rolling Stones:
Birthdays start with Heinz Burt, bassist for the one-hit-wonder Tornados …
… born one year before Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds …
… who was born one year before Jim Armstrong, guitarist for Them:
William “Junior” Campbell was the lead signer for two-hit wonder Marmalade:
-
Today is Cost of Government Day in Wisconsin, the government spending side of Tax Freedom Day, when the overburdened Wisconsin taxpayer is finally done paying for federal, state and local government spending.
Wisconsin ranks 41st; put another way, Wisconsin has the 10th latest Cost of Government Day, which means only nine states have more federal, state and local spending. Two of those are our neighbors, Illinois and Minnesota.
You’ll notice that Tax Freedom Day is three months and two days before Cost of Government Day, which demonstrates the grotesquely out-of-balance federal budget, despite the fact that one-fourth of our gross domestic product is sucked into the federal rathole.
And for what, you ask? Excellent question:
This graphic shows the increase in federal employment from 2010 to 2011. Two of these agencies listed here, the Education and Homeland Security departments, should be abolished because neither education nor homeland security has improved since those departments were established.As for Wisconsin …
… notice that this state is in the top 25 percent of states in terms of state and local government employees. Since employee compensation is the top expense of any unit of government below the state (and second highest behind shared revenue in the case of the state), the more government employees you have, the more spending you have.It should be obvious as well that the more units of government you have, the more government spending you have. Wisconsin has 3,120 units of government, second per capita only to Illinois, a state no one should want to emulate.
This is despite the praise the report gives Gov. Scott Walker:
In 2010, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker aimed to close a $3.6 billion state budget deficit by confronting the unsustainable liabilities in the state’s pension and benefits system. His proposals ended collective bargaining for most state employee union members and offered paycheck protection to workers. …
A recent study conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute looked at the effectiveness of the Wisconsin reforms. It found the measures prevented “painful tax increases that would have damaged the state’s private economy.” The study also showed that over 6500 public sector jobs, and somewhere between 11,500 and 14,000 private sector jobs, have been spared due to the proposal’s cost-savings.
Finally, the Walker budget saved Wisconsin taxpayers over $1 billion during its first year. In terms of COGD, this amounts to 1.37 days of work in the Badger State. Coupled with other reforms, Wisconsin has gone from an almost $4 billion deficit to a surplus in two years, without raising taxes. Governor Walker’s efforts should be used as a model for other states in order to reduce spending and tackle the unaffordable liabilities of bloated public worker pay and benefits.
Yeah, well, notice that Wisconsin, despite having about 2 percent of the country’s population (which is in about the middle), still is in the top 10 for government spending. The Walker reforms remain in the necessary-but-not-sufficient category.
In other words, Wisconsin remains a tax, spending and regulatory hell. And the effect of that is shown on this map:
Making use of date from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), we calculated both the number of taxpayers migrating and the adjusted gross income (AGI) that left the state. That is, we have calculated how much money—in terms of personal income—states lose or gain due to the migration of taxpayers. Our findings confirm previous studies, in which taxpayers leave states with high taxes, unfunded pensions and healthcare liabilities.
Due to the ease of interstate migration, taxpayers can easily avoid higher taxes by moving to another state. Consequentially, there is a significant effect wherein a rise in tax rates can lead to lower government revenues as individuals flee. There are nine states with no income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. In 2010 alone, these states gained a net total of over 134,000 new residents; additionally, these migrants brought with them over $6.7 billion of net adjusted income, according to IRS data.
In contrast, the ten states with the highest tax burden: California, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin lost around 200,921 residents and $7.4 billion of net adjusted income in 2009 alone.
From 2001 to 2010, the ten states with the highest tax burden lost over 2.5 million residents. These residents took with them a staggering $80.03 billion in adjusted income. …
The migration of residents from high to low-tax states has been the biggest issue facing state governments in over ten years. Without significant fiscal restraint as well as reforms in public employee pension and healthcare retirement programs, states with heavy tax and entitlement burdens will continue to see residents leave for lower-tax states, further draining state treasuries.
And people wonder why Wisconsin still sucks wind in personal income growth, business starts and other measures of personal vitality. If all the government we have had a positive effect on our quality of life, Wisconsin wouldn’t have lost all those people who left this state in search of more opportunity elsewhere.
At this point, someone usually asks, well, what government would you be willing to give up? To which I reply: The State Patrol, everyone with the title “executive assistant” in any state government agency (who are political appointees), most people with the title “communications officer” (or the equivalent) in every state government agency, a large chunk of the Department of Natural Resources (particularly the part that buys land to take it off the tax rolls), full-time state legislators, most staffers who work for state legislators, the (full-time) Milwaukee school board, mass transit in the state’s largest cities (Want mass transit? Pay for it yourself) and every cent of funding for political candidates. I may think of more later.
-
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal switches from excellent journalist/commentator to psychiatrist, and his “patient” doesn’t come out well:
The Romney campaign is out with a very effective new ad illuminating and responding to President Obama’s disparagement of individual achievement. The ad constructs a dialogue between Obama and Jack Gilchrist, a political independent who is president of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating Co., a small industrial concern conveniently located in the swing state of New Hampshire. …
Gilchrist: “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? Did somebody else take out the loan on my father’s house that financed the equipment? Did somebody else make payroll every week and figure out where it’s coming from? President Obama, you’re killin’ us out here. Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it? We are the solution, not the problem. It’s time we had somebody who believes in us–someone who believes that achievement should be rewarded, not punished. We need somebody who believes in America.”
That somebody, obviously, is Mitt Romney, who delivers his rebuttal to “You didn’t build that” (we quoted it yesterday). …
For it seems to us that Obama’s generalities about success being undeserved are absolutely true in one particular case: that of Barack Obama. Unearned success is the central theme of his life story. …
In 1995, Obama published an autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” substantial portions of which turn out to have been fictional. Just how substantial has become clear since David Maraniss published his heavily reported biography, but it had not gone unnoticed before, as evidenced by this 2008 piece from the New York Times’s Janny Scott …
And he would not have been elected president in 2008 without a series of lucky breaks. As Joshua Green noted in The Atlantic Monthly, strategic errors by Hillary Clinton’s campaign made it possible for the junior senator from Illinois to eke out a narrow victory over her …
What gave his campaign much of its appeal also was not what he had done, but what he was. As Janny Scott put it in that 2008 piece: “Out of his story, he has also drawn the central promise of his campaign: if a biracial son of a Kenyan and a Kansan could reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable in himself, a divided country could do the same.” …
Obama recently said his biggest shortcoming as president was that he has failed to tell the electorate “the story that tells us where he’s going.” But he’s certainly told a story: a story in which he has personally achieved great things, like saving Detroit and killing Osama bin Laden, whereas everything that’s gone wrong is the fault of somebody else–George W. Bush, congressional Republicans, corporate jet owners, etc.
The problem with this story is that it is manifestly untrue. Obama not only has failed to deliver on the extravagant promises–world peace and racial harmony and receding oceans and free medical care for all. He has fallen short even of a minimal standard of political and governmental competence.
What is the root of Barack Obama’s ressentiment? Why does he insist that men like Jack Gilchrist don’t deserve their success? Not because they are successful. Even if Obama loses in a landslide, he will have enjoyed more success than most people can dream of in a lifetime.
No, Obama resents their modest success precisely because they did earn it.
This self-inflicted wound isn’t going away. As I said last week, every bit of “help” a business gets is earned. The business has to prove its worth to financial institutions and investors. The business has to prove its value to its customers, or it loses its customers. Even advice a business owner gets from other business owners is usually delivered with a pay-it-forward expectation, as happened to me when we bought half of a newspaper 20 years ago. (And I’ve tried to do that since then.)
What has Obama earned? (Other than a vote for someone not named Obama Nov. 6.)
-
Today in 1965, the Beatles asked for …
Birthdays start with Cleveland Dunkin of the Penguins:
Dino Danelli played the drums for the Young Rascals:
Blair Thornton played guitar for Bachman–Turner Overdrive:
Ian Thomas was a one-hit wonder in this country and a bigger act in the Great White North:
Janis Siegel (who we once saw in a Lawrence University concert) sang for the Manhattan Transfer:
Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore:
Who is Saul Hudson? Slash of Guns N Roses:
Sam Waters of Color Me Badd:
-
Birthdays start with the indescribable George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic:
Rick Davies played keyboards for Supertramp:
Estelle Bennett was the older sister of Ronnie Spector, and both were part of the Ronettes:
Don Henley of the Eagles:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kslHr7_9Zac
-
It figures after yesterday’s encyclopedia of music knowledge that there are no interesting moments in rock history today and only three birthdays of note: Larry Tolbert, drummer of Raydio …
… Taco Ocheriski, an ’80s one-hit wonder …
… and Yusaf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens:
(Stevens, or Islam, either put himself in the Foot in Mouth Hall of Shame or revealed the cancer within his own soul when he approved of the fatwa an imam put on author Salman Rushdie for daring to write The Satanic Verses. Some radio stations refused to play Stevens’ music after that. I thought that was a poor decision at the time; my suggestion was to play Cat Stevens songs, followed immediately by a record from another Stevens — Ray’s “Ahab the Arab.” Needless to say, that would not fly today.)
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 