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Posts Made By: Dave Snope

March 29, 2012 08:01 AM Forum: Politics

Obama Budget Vote: Close But No Cigar

Posted By Dave Snope
President Obama's budget was defeated 414-0 in the House late Wednesday, in a vote Republicans arranged to try to embarrass him and shelve his plan for the rest of the year.

The vote came as the House worked its way through its own fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, written by Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan. Republicans wrote an amendment that contained Mr. Obama's budget and offered it on the floor, daring Democrats to back the plan, which calls for major tax increases and yet still adds trillions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade.

"It’s not a charade. It’s not a gimmick — unless what the president sent us is the same," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a freshman Republican from South Carolina who sponsored Mr. Obama's proposal for purposes of the debate. "I would encourage the Democrats to embrace this landmark Democrat document and support it. Personally, I will be voting against it."

But no Democrats accepted the challenge.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/mar/28/obama-budget-defeated-414-0/

March 30, 2012 07:34 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

This Cannot Stand

Posted By Dave Snope
This may be a cultural problem, this may be religious problem, I don't care. These people have no respect for tradition. It is not OK!


GENEVA -- Most female beach volleyball players will wear their usual bikini outfits at the London Olympics. For those who prefer to cover up, that's OK, too.

Under new rules adopted by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), players are free to wear shorts and sleeved tops. The governing body said the move was made out of respect for the cultural beliefs of some of the dozens of countries still in contention to qualify for the games.

“Many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible,” FIVB spokesman Richard Baker told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/olympic-beach-volleyball-shorts-bikinis-dress-code_n_1382806.html?ref=sports&icid=maing-grid7%7cmain5%7cdl2%7csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D147100

March 31, 2012 05:56 PM Forum: Politics

The Merchants of Despair

Posted By Dave Snope
In which the eloquent Bill Whittle presents the big picture about the people who are wrecking this country's economy and deeply dividing it by class and race. David Axelrod, Harry Reid, Tim Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, Eric Holder, and of course The One who named his dog after himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FGgoReyNE&feature=player_embedded

April 1, 2012 06:59 AM Forum: Politics

Obamacare Shortfall Actually $17 Trillion Not Zero

Posted By Dave Snope
The One told us that it would save money. Pelosi said to pass it and then find out what's in it. Now we have, thanks to the Supreme Court case puttng the microscope on it. Instead of saving money we would ultimately be looking at a 30:1 debt to GDP ratio which makes Greece look like it was run by practical, forward-thinking misers. As this debt will be impossible to make up, the U.S. would suffer complete economic and social collapse. Sounds like an Alinskyite wet dream.

The hidden shortfall between new spending and new taxes was revealed just after Supreme Court justices grilled the law’s supporters about its compliance with the Constitution’s limits on government activity. If the court doesn’t strike down the law, it will force taxpayers to find another $17 trillion to pay for the increased spending.

The $17 trillion in extra promises was revealed by an analysis of the law’s long-term requirements. The additional obligations, when combined with existing Medicare and Medicaid funding shortfalls, leave taxpayers on the hook for an extra $82 trillion in health care obligations over the next 75 years.

The federal government has an additional $17 trillion unfunded gap in other obligations, including Social Security, bringing the total shortfall to $99 trillion.

That shortfall is different from existing debt. The federal government already owes $15 trillion in debt, including $5 trillion in funds borrowed during Obama’s term in office.


That $99 trillion in unfunded future expenses is more more than six years of wealth generated by the United States, which now produces just over $15 trillion of value per year.

The $99 trillion funding gap is equal to almost 30 years of the the current federal budget, which was $3.36 trillion for 2011.

Currently, the Social Security system faces $7 trillion shortfall between spending and taxes over the next 75 years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Also, Medicare will is underfunded by $38 trillion, and Medicaid will consume another $20 trillion of the taxpayer’s wealth beyond what is budgeted, according to estimates prepared by the actuarial office at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The short-term cost of the Obamacare law is $2.6 trillion, almost triple the $900 billion cost promised by Obama and his Democratic allies, said Sessions.

The extra $17 trillion gap was discovered by applying standard federal estimates and models to the law’s spending obligations, Sessions said.

For example, Session’s examination of the health care law’s “premium support” program shows a funding gap $12 billion wider that predicted.

The same review also showed the law added another $5 trillion in unfunded obligations for the Medicaid program.

“President Obama told the American people that his health law would cost $900 billion over ten years and that it would not add ‘one dime’ to the debt… this health law adds an entirely new obligation—one we cannot pay for—and puts the entire financing of the United States government in jeopardy,” Sessions said in a floor speech.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/30/another-17-trillion-surprise-found-in-obamacare/#ixzz1qlggykT1

April 10, 2012 05:27 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

400mm F9.5 Binocular Reflector Telescope For Sale

Posted By Dave Snope
You can be 2nd owner of this telescope.

The mirrors have a focal length of 3.8 m and a diameter of 40 cm. Each mirror consists of 118 nested pairs of reflectors. Each reflector consists of 0.017 mm thick aluminum shaped into a cone, coated with an acrylic lacquer to form a microscopically smooth surface, which is overcoated with gold to enhance reflectivity.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Broad-Band-X-Ray-Telescope-BBXRT-Space-Shuttle-COLUMB-/320632933132

April 15, 2012 06:24 PM Forum: Politics

In The Year 2525

Posted By Dave Snope
Mark Steyn is funny:

...I had clean forgotten Zager & Evans’ far-sighted pop hit, I’m all in favor of making it this year’s Obama campaign theme:


In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman should survive
They’ll only be twelve months away from paying off Obama’s 2011 budget deficit…

Presumably, the attraction of the Buffett Rule for Mr Buffett lui-mème is that, if it catches on, the IRS may offer him the same generous 514 year schedule for paying off what he owes.

This all began with Mark's calculation of 514 years in a previous column:

But instead every other American “millionaire” will be subject to the new rule — because, as President Obama said this week, it “will help us close our deficit.”

Wow! Who knew it was that easy?

A-hem. According to the Congressional Budget Office (the same nonpartisan bean-counters who project that on Obama’s current spending proposals the entire U.S. economy will cease to exist in 2027) Obama’s Buffett Rule will raise — stand well back — $3.2 billion per year. Or what the United States government currently borrows every 17 hours. So in 514 years it will have raised enough additional revenue to pay off the 2011 federal budget deficit. If you want to mark it on your calendar, 514 years is the year 2526. There’s a sporting chance Joe Biden will have retired from public life by then, but other than that I’m not making any bets.

Let’s go back to that presidential sound bite:

“It will help us close our deficit.”



http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/296023/re-year-2525-mark-steyn

April 18, 2012 07:09 AM Forum: Politics

Obama vs. Romney on Dogs

Posted By Dave Snope
This has been cause for much mirth after all the liberal attacks on Romney for the old vacation dog-on-the-station-wagon story.

Jim Treacher twitters out the one-liners:
If you think Romney's dog on a car is a campaign issue, but Obama's dog on a dinner plate isn't, #YouMightBeALiberal.

Romney put a dog on top of a car. Obama put a dog on top of rice.

Romney was too busy hiding his dog on top of the car so Obama wouldn't eat it.

Yorkshire Terrier Pudding. #ObamaDogRecipes

I strongly encourage @BarackObama's staff and supporters to run with this one: "Well, he hasn't eaten any dogs LATELY."


BHO: “With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.” Chapter Two of Dreams from My Father.

April 19, 2012 12:35 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

How We Nearly Lost Shuttle Discovery

Posted By Dave Snope
Now that Discovery is safely delivered to the Smithsonian, I think I can tell the story of how we nearly lost her in July of 2005, and how well intentioned, highly motivated, hard working, smart people can miss the most obvious.

It’s tough to know people who have died. Many of us knew the astronauts on Challenger and Columbia well. We had met with them daily, we had visited in their homes, we knew their families, their children. It is not an easy thing to lose a colleague; especially one who entrusted their safety to you. So don’t question whether we were motivated to prevent another loss.
....

You see, we dodged a bullet in 2005. One we should have seen coming but didn’t.
...
I think that must have been the worst call of my life...

I thought I would not be able to breath again.

I thought of Eileen and her crew and how we had probably just killed them.

I thought of all the work and time and how wasted it had been.

I had no idea how I could possibly tell the team, the world, what had transpired.



Read the rest of this compelling story at:
http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost-discovery/

April 22, 2012 11:12 PM Forum: Politics

Union Sues Indiana Using Slavery Amenment

Posted By Dave Snope
Lets see how you lefties defend the unions on this one. It's a "living document", right?

In a lawsuit against three Indiana government officials, a labor union alleged on Wednesday that its constitutional rights under the Thirteenth Amendment — which outlawed “slavery” and “involuntary servitude” — are violated whenever its members are forced to work alongside nonunion employees.

The International Union of Operating Engineers, whose members work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics and construction surveyors, sued Indiana’s governor, attorney general, and labor commissioner in February, alleging that the state’s “right to work” law is unconstitutional.

Indiana’s law prohibits employers from making union membership a condition of getting or keeping a job. The union’s February lawsuit claimed the law violated its members’ Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “equal protection” under the law.

But an amended complaint filed on Wednesday added a Thirteenth Amendment claim as well. The new lawsuit suggests that when nonunion employees earn higher salaries and better benefits because of the union’s negotiation on behalf of its members, the union has been forced to work for those nonunion employees for free.

And being forced to work without compensation, the union suggested in its revised lawsuit, is slavery.



http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/22/labor-union-sues-indiana-calls-working-alongside-nonunion-employees-slavery/#ixzz1smVygEw9

April 26, 2012 07:34 PM Forum: My Favorite WIMP.COM or YOUTUBE.COM

I Am an African Man

Posted By Dave Snope
What do YOU think first when you think of an African man?

http://youtu.be/qSElmEmEjb4

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