Daily Archives: 22 March 2013

Obama Sequester Cluelessness

Posted on by
Reply

Here are two examples.

DHS Budget Undersecretary Rafael Borras, just last Tuesday, on the sequester:

There was an expectation that the sequester would not come to pass.  We’re doing everything we can to limit the impact.

House Democrats are whining about President Barack Obama and his administration being hectored about the sequester’s budget impacts before his Cabinet and agencies have had a chance to begin dealing with it.  Also last Tuesday, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D, VA) bleated

Did we expect [the sequester] to kick in within 19 days?  No!

Crap.  They’ve had 19 months since the sequester was passed—and signed into law by Obama.  On what basis do these folks think a law was not to be obeyed?

Gun Control Hypocrisy

Posted on by
Reply

Colorado has passed its gun control bills into law.  Included in that set is a limit on the size of semi-automatic rifle ammunition magazines to a maximum of 15 rounds.  In response to Magpul Industries’ statement that they would leave Colorado if the bills were passed, those good Democrats passed an amendment:  Magpul could make any size magazine they wished so long as the larger ones were not sold in Colorado.

State Congressman Mark Waller (R) has the right of it, noting the Democrats’ monumental hypocrisy.

[Y]ou can sell [magazines] at any other place where any of these tragic shootings have happened.  …a monumental inconsistency in their thought process.

Yeah.  Can’t sell normal magazines in Colorado, but feel free to sell them in, oh, say, Newtown, CT.

That’s the problem with interfering with freedom.  The damage is far-reaching, and it’s tough to do without the dishonesty of hypocrisy.

They All Could Learn from the Poles

Posted on by
Reply

In the aftermath of the Cyprus Parliament’s rejection (wholly correct IMNSHO) of the troika’s “bailout” offer—a “one time” “tax” on bank deposits held by Cyprus banks—talks are failing (breaking down?) within the government, between the government and the troika, and between the government and Russia on a Plan B to avert Cypriot bankruptcy.

Amid this crisis, and exacerbated by the rejection and potential failure of the subsequent talks, panic is growing in the EU, and especially in the euro zone, that a Cypriot bankruptcy will force Cyprus out of the euro zone, and that will lead to the doom of the euro.

That panic is both palpable and foolish (see here, also).

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has the right of it.

There is no obligation to accept help.  Cyprus has the possibility of living with its own mistakes.

He knows—Poland does not use the euro.  Greece and the EU should take this advice to heart, also.