Can’t Wait! Can’t Wait!! For a Very Important

…DATE!!!

Oh, Jerry Brown and the Boys Got it HAPPENIN’!

As far as “California Dreamin'” goes. Everything else is “going” out of the state as FAST as it frickin’ can.

MetLife to move jobs from California to North Carolina

Insurance giant Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. said Thursday it will move 2,600 jobs from offices in five eastern states and California to lower-cost locations in two North Carolina cities, while also getting tax breaks and other incentives that could reach $100 million.

The insurer is shifting the jobs from Aliso Viejo and Irvine in California, and from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, MetLife spokesman John Calagna said. The positions will be consolidated in Charlotte, which will become the U.S. headquarters for MetLife’s retail business, and at a global technology and operations hub in the Raleigh suburb of Cary. The company’s retail segment sells and services life, disability, auto and other insurance.

…The new jobs, paying average salaries of nearly $82,000 a year, would include product management, marketing, sales and customer support in Charlotte and information technology positions in Cary. The company had about 140 workers in Charlotte before Thursday’s announcement.

“The strong business climate, access to universities and colleges and the desirable cost of living in North Carolina were significant factors in choosing to establish these new campuses in Cary and Charlotte,” MetLife executive vice president Eric Steigerwalt said.

Party in Charlotte, anyone?

H/T CA Political Review

Proud to Present A Thoughtful Piece on Rand Paul

…from Ebola. That’s our boy.

So the subject of Rand Paul being the “front runner” for the distant 2016 GOP nomination came up today. I was asked why I wouldn’t vote for Rand Paul, even were he the GOP nominee. So let me explain my position:

Paul did what was right in the Senate concerning basic civil liberties protected under the Constitution. I respect him for it and supported him on it. Hell, I even watched the thing all day. The right continually bashes the left for voting for a man full of ideas that are not beneficial for the country. I don’t disagree with them. However, that is entirely hypocritical concerning Rand Paul and the Right’s current hardon for his doing the right thing on civil liberties with his filibuster. Simply put, one action does not make up for a laundry list of bad ideas. (That aside, McCain and little girl Graham can fuck themselves, I hope they lose their seats.)

The conservatives, many of my friends among them and myself, had a cardiac concerning the nomination of Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Why? Primarily due to his stand on Iran…which Rand Paul shares saying, “Our national security is not threatened by Iran having one nuclear weapon.[1]” So, everyone up in arms about Iran, but currently attempting to rub one out at the thought of a Paul Presidency? He’s his father with better PR on the matter. When one looks at his statements on Iran, he plays the card of being staunchly against the regime while at the same time being quietly fine with their having a nuclear weapon. In fact he put forward an amendment that stated the US would not enter into war with Iran, with the most inane reasoning ever[2]. I love in the video he mentions that we’ve contained North Korea, but his own vague planning looks to remove the very troops that provide that containment.

Which brings us to an even scarier father/son passage of ideologies. Paul’s very own “Platform to Revitalize America[3]” argues that the military should be downsized (page 28) through attrition and our presence overseas in our allied bases with the following, “The ability to utilize our immense air and sea power, to be anywhere in the world in a relatively short amount of time, no longer justifies our expanded presence on the ground throughout the world.” Which is the most self-contradictory bullshit in history or shows such an amazing ignorance of how we project power as to make Biden look a military genius. Our logistical structure, dependent on both our allies and our overseas bases, is the reason we *have* the capability to project a forward conventional force in a rapid method. Removing it means you no long have the ability to project and have completely lost the singular major asset the US holds against every conventional and unconventional force on the planet. But no, just like daddy, Rand will happily hand that away. However, it will again be through a more muted fashion than his father’s outright declaration of issuing an executive order to return all deployed and troops stationed over-seas back stateside.

If you remember back to Georgia conflict, Paul went against Rubio’s attempt to get Georgia speedily into NATO.

On the foreign policy front, Rand Paul *is* his father with a nice facade. His father and he alike learned the lessons of the last few Presidential bids.

In the same aforementioned document[3], he makes the same more guarded arguments his father has made against the fed and the institution of a flat-tax. A number of these ideas many conservatives can at least to some degree agree with. The point remains, it is the exact same thing his father has been saying for years with far better packaging and no nasty history to deal with. The Salon[1] piece, I hate to say, probably expressed this best: “Until a few months ago, that is, Rand Paul sounded just like Ron Paul. Yet where Rand formerly avowed his agreement with his father on most issues, today he emphasizes their differences. It is a tinge of opportunism that has infuriated some early supporters, who feel he solicited their money and endorsements and then sold them out to smooth his way into the Senate. On the website of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, for instance, where the true libertarian faith is upheld, one downcast Paul fan expressed deep frustration over his support of Gitmo and military tribunals: –What good is it to win if you don’t stand for anything? This is very disappointing. Rand Paul deceived his supporters, and took money from them without telling them about his fundamental ideological differences with his more principled and honest father.–”

I could go further, but I’ll leave it at this for the moment: I will not vote for Paul, or by proxy, his son. I see little difference between the two than a more aesthetically pleasing packaging. Doing the right thing does not excuse your beliefs in other areas as a President.

**********************************************************************************************

REF
1. http://www.salon.com/2010/05/19/rand/
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hacgYsNisb8
3. http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/A%20Platform%20to%20Revitalize%20America.pdf
4. http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/05/rand-paul-prevents-war-with-russia/

Oh, I love that young man.

Pop Quiz

According to the Current Administration in Washington, one of the following is entitled to Due Process and the other you’ll just have to trust them on:

1) You

2) Osama’s Son-In-Law

Depends Of The Sith

Lucas has supposedly already signed the original cast to make another Star Wars movie.

What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah. About That Tumbling Drop in the Unemployment Rate

Get past the orgasmic gymnastics in the headline:

Job Creation Surges as Rate Falls to 7.7%

Job creation broke out in February, with the economy creating a net 236,000 new jobs as the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent.

Private job creation stood at a robust 246,000, finally indicating that the economy may be ready to escape the tight growth range in which it has been held since the financial crisis.

…(“ROBUST”?) to the brutal truth:

…A separate unemployment measure that includes workers no longer looking for jobs and those working part-time for economic reasons edged lower to 14.3 percent. At the same time, the labor force participation rate, which measures workers and those looking for jobs,

also fell, to a 32-year low of 63.5 percent, tied with where it stood in August 2012.

Hey, Skippy. Hiring at The Olive Garden or Target might be picking up, but the vast majority of the people are still sitting home, feeling pret-tee hopeless.

Lawnmowers Of Death Over America

But it’s ok because we trust they won’t abuse their power.

Rich, Black Bazillionaire Who Made His Money Promoting Rap Groups and Misogynist, Violent Music Lyrics

…is pissed the NRA has a new spokeman who happens to be black and wears a Yankees hat.

Seriously?

The NRA & Black People: Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That! by Russell Simmons

…Just recently, the NRA has placed their bulls-eye on the heart of Black America with their new advertisement starring some black guy with a Yankees hat! Like Black guys wearing Yankees hats can have any success in this world! 🙂 But with all seriousness, I find the message of this new video by the NRA deeply troubling, where the guy in the Yankees hat is advocating that our people arm themselves and fight the government (all under the banner of the NRA). Quite hypocritical of them, as during the Civil Rights movement, when the government was overtly oppressing our people, the NRA was quick to pressure legislatures across the country to get the guns out of the hands of the Black militants who were ready to fight back. I guess those weren’t the “well-regulated militias” they had in mind when they read their version of the Second Amendment. But, now that we have a Black President, and we have made great progress in creating a more equal playing field in America (although we still have much work to do), the NRA is encouraging us to pick up guns again and start poppin’. With smokescreens and a barrage of bullets, the NRA is intentionally playing into the fears of a very few people. Very, very few.

And, buried in the middle of his next paragraph, this little gem:

We know the danger of taking up arms, guns weren’t invented to protect us, they were meant to kill us.

Ending with the always powerful…

…Until they show a real interest in solving the violence problem in our community, they can keep their Yankee hat-wearing spokesman and their African-American “campaigns” for themselves. In the words of another internet star, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Get that? “THEY” need to solve all the ills in “OUR” community. Once again, a call goes out (and Russell Simmons lives far, FAR outside) for EVERYONE and ANYONE, but the FOLKS IN THAT COMMUNITY THEMSELVES to “fix that shit”. The people smack in the middle, watching it happen, bear no responsibility for what is going on around them.

When does that time ever come?

You got a stableful of big, bad talkers there, Russell! Put some of THOSE fine citizens to work cleaning up the community their music helped create, why don’t you, you revolting racist poser?

So, Besides Impinging on OUR Rights, Does It Mean Eric Holder

…could be going to jail?

Senate committee approves gun trafficking bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday making gun trafficking a federal crime as lawmakers cast the first vote in Congress to curb firearms since December’s horrific shootings at a Connecticut elementary school.

The panel was also debating bills banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, requiring background checks for nearly all gun purchases, and providing more money for schools to buy video cameras and other safety equipment.

“Expressions of Approval or Disapproval Are Not Permitted in the Senate”

Lovely. Just a lovely end to it all.

Standing fast With Rand Paul and Spelling Him During His Magnificent Filibuster?

From my colleague @chadpergram – the GOP senators in the chamber are Paul, Cruz, Toomey, Thune, Rubio,Johnson (WI) & Lee. That’s it.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) March 7, 2013

RT @sunnyright Rubio’s chief of staff says Rubio will continue filibuster after Cruz is done. #StandWithRand

— Samuel (@SARosado) March 7, 2013

I am SO PROUD of MY Senator.

Where’s yours?

ths note: THIS LITTLE RESOLUTION is what our despicable hack of a president and his miserable today of an AG couldn’t agree to.

Do you feel safe, America?

Well, do ya?

HAH!!

BOOM! McConnell says he’d oppose cloture and is voting no on Brennan.

— DrewM (@DrewMTips) March 7, 2013

Boy, They Sure Can Pick ‘Em in the City

Luckily, Twitter allows the common folk to answer the solemn Bronx congressman’s mournful Tweet.

@repjoseserrano You’re a fucking idiot.

— Dick (@DicksTrash) March 5, 2013

America Not Falling for the “Banana in the Tailpipe” Trick

You know it’s bad when Morning Joe and Politico start taking whacks…

Our Favorite Marine Corps General

…says what he wants, because that’s what he needs to DO THE JOB.

U.S. commander discloses Afghan troop recommendation

A top U.S. military commander said on Tuesday he has recommended keeping 13,600 American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when the NATO combat mission ends and most Western troops withdraw.

General James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee he believed that properly designing the residual force would be “critical” for a good outcome to America’s longest war.

“I have made my recommendation,” Mattis said in response to a question from Republican Senator John McCain. “That recommendation is for 13,600 U.S. forces.”

The figure provided by Mattis, who leads the U.S. military’s Central Command, is above the range of troop levels U.S. officials have said were being considered by the White House and discussed by NATO defense chiefs last month.

…U.S. officials have said in the past that the White House was considering up to 9,000 troops, a lower range than put forward initially last year by the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen.

Awkward for the administration now. Don’t even TRY something with THIS guy, Obambi. Mattis is a GOD in our house, with Ebola putting frequent Mattis funnies up on FB, just because the very OLD CORPS Marine Corps looking Mattis is a take-no-prisoners…um…”blunt” speaker and man o’ ACTION, spawning his own unique brand of sayings, dubbed “Mattisms”.

Here’s a few gems from the Mattis vault if you’re unfamiliar with him:

“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all”

“When Gen. Abrial arrived to relieve me as the supreme commander, only don’t ask, don’t tell kept me from hugging and kissing him”

“I don’t get intelligence off a satellite. Iraqis tell me who the enemy is.”

Considering Obama’s “Go Along With Sequester Pain Program Propaganda Points” Memo to Departments, It’s Only Fair

…to share the pain in return.

Republican amendment would block Obama from golfing as long as White House remains closed to visitors

…“None of the funds made available by a division of this Act may be used to transport the President to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume,” reads the text of the Amendment.

Good for them.

ths adds: Oh, SNAP!

‘White House cancels tours post sequester,’ said a tweet from Brad Dayspring, a Senate spokesman. ‘Now I guess the only way to get inside Obama WH is to give $500,000 to OFA,’ he said, evoking the current scandal over donations to President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action lobby group.

Happy Birthday THS

This phone is a pai n to type on and the letters are too dang small I can’t see bubkis

A Quick Primer On

Tax increases the fiscal cliff deal allowed:

1. Payroll Tax: increase in the Social Security portion of the payroll tax from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent for workers. This hits all Americans earning a paycheck—not just the “wealthy.” For example, The Wall Street Journal calculated that the “typical U.S. family earning $50,000 a year” will lose “an annual income boost of $1,000.”

2. Top marginal tax rate: increase from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for taxable incomes over $450,000 ($400,000 for single filers).

3. Phase out of personal exemptions for adjusted gross income (AGI) over $300,000 ($250,000 for single filers).

4. Phase down of itemized deductions for AGI over $300,000 ($250,000 for single filers).

5. Tax rates on investment: increase in the rate on dividends and capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent for taxable incomes over $450,000 ($400,000 for single filers).

6. Death tax: increase in the rate (on estates larger than $5 million) from 35 percent to 40 percent.

7. Taxes on business investment: expiration of full expensing—the immediate deduction of capital purchases by businesses.

Obamacare tax increases that took effect:

8. Another investment tax increase: 3.8 percent surtax on investment income for taxpayers with taxable income exceeding $250,000 ($200,000 for singles).

9. Another payroll tax hike: 0.9 percent increase in the Hospital Insurance portion of the payroll tax for incomes over $250,000 ($200,000 for single filers).

10. Medical device tax: 2.3 percent excise tax paid by medical device manufacturers and importers on all their sales.

11. Reducing the income tax deduction for individuals’ medical expenses.

12. Elimination of the corporate income tax deduction for expenses related to theMedicare Part D subsidy.

13. Limitation of the corporate income tax deduction for compensation that health insurance companies pay to their executives.

Don’t let ANYONE tell you it was “just the Bush Tax Cuts for the RICH!”

More at the Heritage Blog, via the Morning Jolt from Geraghty at NRO.

It’s Time to Play, “Name That Racist Nut Job Talking About Obama”

…“He believes in government controlling the lives of the people,” ****** said. “He wants government in anything and everything. Health insurance. He wants it in your job, the way you run your lifestyle, culture. He wants to take away your guns, which is a constitutionally-protected right.”

…“He doesn’t care about a budget. I’ve never known a president who doesn’t care about a budget. How do you run the richest economy in the world without a budget?” ****** asked. “You can’t even run a shoe-shine stand without a budget.”

…“Oh, he’s got some plans he won’t dare discuss. He wants to take it some place where we’ve never been before, and it’s some place where we shouldn’t go. He is scary,” ****** answered.

“What do you think those plans are?” Tantaros asked.

“To make America not as great as it once was,” ***** responded.

“That all countries should be equal, and everyone should get along, and stop thinking that European socialists is a bad system. We should be like them. We should be like France, as it’s approaching a 75% rate for taxation for wealthy. It’s crazy.”

Yeah, you were right. Can’t put anything over on YOU guys.

It was National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry C. Alford on Andrea Tantaros’ show yesterday.

I’d be watching the skies, brother Alford…

I TOLD Bingley We Sell Men’s SPANX at the Store

…and the cheap BASTARD could use my discount, but OH NO!!

Out he frickin’ went anyway, undergarmently unsupported.

Holy smokes! “Batman” nabs suspect for British police

A mystery man dressed as Batman demonstrated the same crime-fighting skills as the caped crusader when he handed over a suspect wanted for burglary in Britain.

Closed-circuit television footage showed a portly figure wearing an ill-fitting costume including gloves, cape and mask, bringing a 27-year-old man to a police station in Bradford in northern England.

This campaign thing gets further and further from happenin’, with his little “impulse” slip-ups making the news.

Fair Share

Welcome to America, now becoming Obama’s robbin’ ‘hood

President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress say the wealthy must pay their fair share if the federal government is ever going to fix its finances and reduce the budget deficit to a manageable level.

A new analysis, however, shows that average tax bills for high-income families rarely have been higher since the Congressional Budget Office began tracking the data in 1979. Middle- and low-income families aren’t paying as much as they used to.

For 2013, families with incomes in the top 20 percent of the nation will pay an average of 27.2 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a research organization based in Washington. The top 1 percent of households, those with incomes averaging $1.4 million, will pay an average of 35.5 percent.

Those tax rates, which include income, payroll, corporate and estate taxes, are among the highest since 1979.

The average family in the bottom 20 percent of households won’t pay any federal taxes. Instead, many families in this group will get payments from the federal government by claiming more in credits than they owe in taxes, including payroll taxes. That will give them a negative tax rate.

Sadly, I fear we’re very close to the tipping point where the weightier portion of the population has realized they can vote themselves both the treasury and the taxable income of those who actually work.

Dear New Jersey

…you are so screwed with these people in charge.

Sen. Loretta Weinberg takes pointed questions from gun control detractors in Teaneck

Sen. Loretta Weinberg laid out the state legislature’s agenda for gun control at the Ethical Cultural Society of Bergen County Tuesday, asking for help from supporters and and taking pointed questions from detractors.

There are more than 20 gun control bills under consideration in the state legislature in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Their aim isn’t to take guns away, Weinberg said, but to regulate them given their ability to kill or injure people. Most of the legislation calls for more stringent training and licensing.

While opponents to any limited on Second Amendment rights are always vocal, Weinberg said two provisions should have broad support:

Banning anyone on the federal no-fly list from buying a gun, and requiring basic safety training for anyone buying a gun.

Oh, yeah. The FNFL has been a WEALTH source of accurate information since its inception.

O_o

I’d lay all my eggs in THAT basket.

ths note: There’s wealth of info in the comments, like links to gunshops like “The Bullet Hole”, which are associated with the NJ Second Amendment Society, comments from folks who were actually at old Loretta’s townhall (“I give Miss Weinberg credit for admitting that she has never used a gun and has probably never held one.” YEAH. THAT’S who’s legislating AWAY YOUR RIGHTS…) and some pretty pithy observations that go straight to the heart of all the Ban-Bunnies’ arguments:

Ironically, Adam Lanza had gun training and gun safety. What he didn’t have was a nut house to reside in. His gun training didn’t prevent his murders, a nut house would have.

My Bride Says This Is In Our Language

My Bride is very very smart.

I will accept her Learned Opinion™ on this video, which I saw at Ace’s yesterday.

But I still have my doubts…oh, and this is most definitely NSFW

“Why Doesn’t the Public Trust Us?”

President Common Sense and Transparency’s Campaign of Death and Destruction Doom Pronouncement Number Two gets its “truthy” mileage rating:

Sequester spin: Obama’s incorrect claim of Capitol janitors receiving ‘a pay cut’

…Obama’s remarks continue the administration’s pattern of overstating the potential impact of the sequester, which we have explored this week. But this error is particularly bad–and nerve-wracking to the janitors and security guards who were misled by the president’s comments.
We originally thought this was maybe a Two Pinocchio rating, but in light of the AOC memo and the confirmation that security guards will not face a pay cut, nothing in Obama’s statement came close to being correct.

Must be the Republicans’ fault.

“Why Doesn’t the Public TRUST US?”

How to be a “somebody’s bitch”: Exhibit 1

BREAKING: Obama signs order to begin $85 billion in spending cuts that he opposed but couldn’t avert – SM

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 2, 2013

“If We Dump This Shit Off Right Now, With All the Sequestration Screaming Going On…”

“…no one’ll notice JACK on a Friday afternoon…”

“Sounds like a plan. Just clean ’em up good anyway.”

Source tells Fox that #Benghazi “talking points” documents delivered to Senate Intel Cmte were so heavily redacted they were “worthless.”

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 1, 2013

Source on #Benghazi talking points docs sent to Congress: “The word ‘attacks’ was changed to ‘demonstration,’” the source said.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 1, 2013