An Argument Not Worth 77 Cents

Obama prepares to trot out his discredited 77 cent argument again but even the NY Times is choking:

As Obama Spotlights Gender Gap in Wages, His Own Payroll Draws Scrutiny

Ooops.

The fun continues:

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday will call attention to what he has said is an “embarrassment” in America: the fact that women make, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns.

But critics of the administration are eager to turn the tables and note that Mr. Obama’s White House fares only slightly better. A study released in January showed that female White House staff members make on average 88 cents for every dollar a male staff member earns.

The White House flack was quick to deride the phony '88 cents' statistic:

Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary, said the statistics for White House staff members reflect the fact that women fill more lower-level positions than men. But he said that women and men in the same positions at the White House are paid the same, and that many of the women hold senior positions.

“Men and women in equivalent roles here earn equivalent salaries,” Mr. Carney said. “Some of the most senior positions in the White House are filled by women, including national security adviser, homeland security adviser, White House counsel, communications director, senior adviser, deputy chief of staff.”

He said that the 88-cent statistic was misleading because it aggregates the salaries of White House staff members at all levels, including the lowest levels, where women outnumber men.

I know what you're thinking, but John Boehner's press guy beat us to it:

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner, said the 77-cent statistic that Mr. Obama has often cited was misleading for the same reason, because it aggregates salaries for the American workforce. “The wage gap is real, but the White House does itself a disservice — and embarrasses itself in the process — by grasping for misleading statistics that don’t tell the whole story,” Mr. Buck said.

No kidding. maybe Ezra can devote a column to why partisanship makes Obama stupid.

FWIW, the Times ignored the flaws in the 77 cent argument when they covered this just a ferw weeks back. Truth may have finally gotten its boots on.

AND SPEAKING OF DEFENSIVE... The White House spinners backpedal quicker than a Seahawk cornerback.

Comments

[matt]

Obama soils his mom jeans again.

[henry]

Whichever gal came up with the 77 cent argument is paid way over her worth.

[#JackisBack]

What a pathetic little man.

[narciso]

Well it's much like the debunked Joyce and Soros foundation generated stats on gun deaths'

http://thefederalist.com/2014/04/08/how-vox-makes-us-stupid/

[James D.]

Boehner's comment is why our side always loses.

"The wage gap is real."

That's surrendering the fight to the Democrats. And, implicitly, admitting that there is a need for governmental action to address the wage gap.

Idiot.

[Neo]

One possible answer would be that liberals and conservatives are very different kinds of people — that liberalism goes along with a skeptical, doubting — even self-doubting — frame of mind; “a liberal is someone who won’t take his own side in an argument.”

Another possible answer is that it’s institutional, that liberals don’t have the same kind of monolithic, oligarch-financed network of media organizations and think tanks as the right.

He did say "skeptical"

It must be extremely painful for liberals to take the mantle of AGW, knowing that conservatives are the "skeptics".

Perhaps, they feel they are "skeptical skeptics"

LUN

[Jeff Dobbs]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!!!

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY PORCHLIGHT!!!

[Threadkiller]

If it was 80 cents he could berate it as "the 4/5ths compromise."

[GMax]

You wonder why Scott Brown is running, because in this environment former Democrat Governor and incumbent senators are an anathema :

Republican Scott Brown leads incumbent Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire by five points in a recent poll obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The poll, commissioned by the Republican Governor's Association, was conducted on March 19 and 20 and asked 600 likely voters in New Hampshire who they would vote for in the U.S. Senate election. Respondents were given both Brown and Shaheen's names and their respective parties.

[narciso]

Happy birthday, Porch and baby Porchlight;

[Threadkiller]

Happy Birthday Peter!

Happy Birthday Baby Porch!

[narciso]

Another stat that is meaningless, the way it's being used:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/04/gallup-uninsured-rate-still-higher-than-under-bush/

[GMax]

No kidding. maybe Ezra can devote a column to why partisanship makes Obama stupid.

That was quick. First you say "no kidding." And then in the next sentence you expect Journolister juiceboxer democrat partisan to post something negative about the failed incompetent? Master Kidder. Yoda actually.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Speaking of 'deaths'. Syrian civil war deaths are at least 150,000 (mostly civilians), refugees are over a million. That equals or likely exceeds the Iraq total. Yet the Baathist ophthalmologist and Mullah bootlicker remains in power, and the deaths will continue to pile up and the infrastructure of Syria turned to rubble and dust. Where is the 'anti-war' Left? If there was ever any question that they were paid lackeys of Soros and a USA/BBC media creation, their absence now is the proof.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Happy Birthday Peter!

Happy Birthday Baby Porch!

[narciso]

Levick Group and their affiliates at Seton Hall, were wrong, yet again;

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/04/jordan_rearrests_ex-.php

In 'water is wet' news, Lurch is wrong again, on Syria, dissenting from the Pentagon,

[MaxB]

Liberalism is a religion. Liberal tenants are not based on facts and their faith in them abides regardless of the facts.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

— that liberalism goes along with a skeptical, doubting — even self-doubting — frame of mind; “a liberal is someone who won’t take his own side in an argument.”--

Liberals are absolutely convinced they're skeptical.
They will not tolerate intolerance.
They can't stand bigots who live in Hymietown or sport those big watermelon grins.
They stand ready to demonstrate their unity with the LBGTQWERTYUIOP community by calling anyone who irritates them a faggot at the drop of a hat.

The only true talent of lefties is the ability to pat their own back and rub everyone else the wrong way at the same time.

[narciso]

the piece in question,

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579479500649988892

[Bori]

Neo,

Thanks for the link. I needed a good laugh to start the day. I wonder if he actually reads what he writes.

Happy Birthday Peter!

Happy Birthday Baby Porch!

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Lurch and Hagel have diametrically opposed opinions about Syria. I am trying to figure out how they are both wrong.

[rich@gmu]

Happy Birthday Peter.

Happy Birthday Baby Porch.

[narciso]

He seems to following the advice, or at least using Keane and Petraeus's argument as an excuse, however is there really a Sunni awakening against the Salafi, as there was in Iraq,

[Old Lurker]

Did I mention Boehner should just go away?

I am getting to the point I hate my guys as much as I hate the other team.

[rich@gmu]

can't wait until Ezra has a chance to juiceboxer'splain it too me. until then i just don't know.

[GMax]

Lurch and Hagel? I think Caligula's horse was a better Senator. Maybe even smarter too.

[rich@gmu]

and on the midterms ... wouldn't expanding the field, nationalizing the contest (with dem issues of min wage, pay gap, and income inequality) seem to be the wrong way to go for the dems.

[James D.]

Did I mention Boehner should just go away?

I am getting to the point I hate my guys as much as I hate the other team.

That's where I am.

I honestly see most of the Republican Party as having views that boil down to: "We want government to do 80% of the stuff that the Democrats want it to do, at 90% of the cost, and with marginally less loathsome people administering it all."

Yes, it's better than the Dems, in the same way that a potentially fatal wound that will kill you slowly is preferable to immediate decapitation. But neither is something any sane person would voluntarily opt for.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

Laugh of the day courtesy Memorandum;

OkCupid's CEO Donated to an Anti-Gay Campaign Once, Too

[Extraneus]

Idiot.

You said it, James.

[rich@gmu]

but at least we have kissgate and bridgegate to keep us entertained.

[Old Lurker]

I think we are on the same page, James.

[MarkO]

I concur.

Happy Birthday Peter.

Happy Birthday Baby Porch.

[peter]

Thank you so much for remembering. And happy birthday, baby Porchlight. I actually celebrated my birthday on Sunday by going out to dinner with my crew at the Osteria Morini in Nolita. Excellent place, btw, rse, if you are looking for dining suggestions when you visit New York. Was struck by how much the lower east side, soho and all of downtown has changed in the past thirty years. Like jimmyk I am a boomer who cannot even think about retirement but I am comforted by the fact that when the time comes, there will be so much global warming, I won't need to waste money on gloves hats or scarves, and the beach will be a couple of miles closer to my home.Peace out, all my JOM babies!

[pagar]

Happy Birthday Peter.

Happy Birthday Baby Porchight.

May you both enjoy many more.

[Stephanie spring sprung]

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!

[Old Lurker]

Ask our Top Men if they see anything wrong with this picture...no, don't the answer would be too depressing:

"By April 21, Americans will have made enough to pay the $3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state taxes — more than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined."

And I would note that that is speaking for the average American. Since the tax burden is so skewed to the top 20% of earners, I am not alone to say that my taxes exceed not just the sum of our food, clothing and housing, but in fact they exceed all of my non-tax costs combined, including two houses without mortgages and a daughter in Med School in NYC. And one wonders why I get so depressed with the state of affairs.

[Old Lurker]

But I do wish Peter a Happy Birthday!

[Old Lurker]

You can wear a shirt of any color as long as it is brown:

"Yale student claims university threatened to suspend her if she didn’t gain weight"

She went to the doctor for one thing and that was a slippery slope. Is it something in the water in Conn-MA? Perhaps she should head up to BCH for a second opinion.

The story is LUN.

[matt]

The whole liberal/left mindset is built on a philosophical house of cards. This goes back to Nietzsche and Marx & Engels.

The two most destructive political philosophies of modern history were built on a foundation of demonstrably false premises.

Now, even when the evidence of the failure of socialism is in, they continue to press with statist ideologies.

LUN.

[Neo]

“if you…set out to write a social history of the Obama years, one that captured the day-to-day experience of political life, you would find that race has saturated everything as perhaps never before.” — Jonathan Chait

A day without Obama is therefore a day without faux ‘ad hominem’ racial claims.

So if Obama was all about race, why should America elect a woman, so it can be all about the sex of the POTUS for 4 or 8 years ?

Hasn’t 2 terms of faux ‘ad hominem’ claims been enough ?

[Marlene]

Happy Birthday Peter and Baby Porch!

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

That 'Tax Holiday' day is no longer an accurate barometer of the actual burden on taxpayers; OL cites the progressive highly unequal tax burden. Beyond that is the arithmatic. In addition to the $3T taxes to the Feds the feds will borrow $500-600BILLION THIS YEAR to payoff captured constituents, which will have to be paid off (HAH!... I mean rolled over) during the next 3-10 years, so the TOTAL taxpayer burden for 2014 is $3TRILLION taxes plus another $700BILLION of debt liability, accruing at about $15B/year in interest payments. Can the Evil Debt Lord Krugman and his JuiceBox minions do arithmatic?

[rich@gmu]

so is Chait finally waking up that all that post racial crap from 2008 was a fantasy?

OL-

thanks. i'll be a tax payer again ... eventually.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Chait said that? in what context? I'm gobsmacked because Obummer is a supreme racialist, and Chait's observation is correct.

[Danube on iPad]

Happy birthday Peter and Baby Porch.

[rich@gmu]

>>> Can the Evil Debt Lord Krugman and his JuiceBox minions do arithmatic? <<<

lol ... probably not, unless you can make it into a pie chart.

[Extraneus]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/07/Franken-Freaks-Out-Over-Palin-Endorsement-of-Tea-Party-Rival-in-Minnesota-Senate-Race

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

arithmEtic.. ai yai yai

[James D.]

I made the mistake of reading the Chait article when Instapundit linked it this morning. It's a long piece, and chock full of the usual slander against Republicans and conservatives. If he occasionally has a sentence or two that's somewhat tangential to reality, it's by accident.

Speaking of which, Zero is yammering right now about the pay gap and all the usual garbage. It's hard to imagine a worse human being than him.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Happy Birthday, Peter! Lots of love to you!! and Happy Birthday to Baby Porchlight.

Dittos to James D.'s 11:08.
BTW James...today is the special election for the County Board. We get to replace 'Conflict of Interest' Zimmerman.

**Go, John Vihstadt!!**

[rich@gmu]

NK-

his new Yorker piece is about 8 pages long ... yikes. that is some 'splanatory journalism right there.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

I was up at St. Agnes part of this morning. It looks like a light turnout.

[cathyf]

Happy birthday to Porchlight Jr and Peter!

[rich@gmu]

see that James is on it.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Uh... I'm not up for 8 pages of Chait.

[rich@gmu]

Hope your efforts pan out Janet. Love that picture of you holding that sign.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"Boehner's comment is why our side always loses."

Exactly. It's more of "we're just like the Dems, only a little less."

Happy birthday, Porch jr and Peter!

[Old Lurker]

"Boehner's comment is why our side always loses."

And why shouldn't we? The other side promises free phones, foodstamps and healthcare, and they promise to send the bill to the guy behind the tree.

[Account Deleted]

Happy birthday Peter and Baby Porchlight.
-----------------------

OL,

How would you approach a target market consisting of Lackwitz Sisters feeling their way through life and Gullibles dumb enough to have paid for brass serf collars by borrowing an equal weight in gold? Both groups have been well conditioned to reflexively peck and drool to the 'meanie' bell whenever progs declare the object of today's two minute hate, although the bell seems to be having less effect at the moment.

Right now, there is no one in our Parliament of Whores whom I would miss should a gigantic sink hole appear under the Capitol and remove them all from any further vexatious toiling on their own behalf. If they were all removed in the twinkling of an eye, we would still be left with the Lackwitz Sisters and the Gullibles, proven fools, as the hinge upon which the next elections will swing.

[Old Lurker]

True that, Rick. But after the sinkhole is paved over, we would do better accepting the applications of the first 537 individuals who wish to occupy Congress or the WH, particularly if they are vets or can produce a tax return.

[dublindave forever]

Jeb Bush referring to immigration as an 'act of love'.......House Republicans agreeing that Obamacare is good law for America and agreeing to make it better and stronger....... Rand Paul publicly discussing how Republicans betrayed the United States of America by invading a Iraq and murdering thousands of American troops......................I swear I can't tell the right wing nuts from the far left wing liberals......if this is what winning is like I'm not sure I like it.

[pagar]

"and they promise to send the bill to the guy behind the tree."

Plus they promise to continue to attack the man behind the tree until he is unable to pay for the free stuff.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/mozilla-speaks-sort-of.php

[Bori]

Matt,

All those philosophies are about the apotheosis of Man. Man is God to them, one that can build and also destroy.

[Bori]

Wow, DD, what will you do if you have no one to rail against? Suicide, will you turn against your own? Or will you just find something else to rail about, you know "Progress".

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Bori-- DD says 'show me the whiskey', opinions will be guided by the whiskey supplier's instructions.

[Man Tran on iPhone]

DrJ and Aliceh,

A couple comments on Opera from someone who has used it since the '90s. First, you'll need a backup browser for the rare times a website (usually one only tested for IE) won't play well. It usually involves some site where you have to click through a bunch of pages like some gummint application site. This applies to both Mac and Windoze(7).

Of the many benefits of Opera, I find the single key shortcuts the best. Z/X for page forward/backward and 1/2 for site tab indexing forward/backward leave you only needing your touchpad/mouse for scrolling. (I only drag a mouse around when I'm in CAD.)

FireFox copped a lot of the other features like tabs, but AFAIK didn't include the elements that made them really convenient.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Happy Birthday peter and baby Porch.

While Rick's fantasy is appealing, I fear we are reduced to trying to get controls of the levers of power away from the doctrinaire lefties. That is the first order of business, and it is achievable in the next two years.

But, as we have often discussed, ships -- especially ships of state -- need a lot of time and space to turn around. There are 80 plus years of inertia on their side. And a mid-course correction will not do even though many ostensibly on our side (yeah, McCain, Romney, Bushes, this means you) think that is all that is necessary. We leaders who have both the commitment and skill to take us to "another level". Sadly, like OL and James, I can't identify anyone who fills that bill.

Hence, DOOM.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

We "need" leaders...

[rich@gmu]

>>>Posted by: James D. | April 08, 2014 at 12:02 PM <<<

still being punished with MSDNC in the office.

[Man Tran on iPhone]

Re: the black box pings, I worked on the sonobuoys for the Glomar Explorer (yes, that one). I'm here to tell you that getting a couple of avionics boxes to work at 2-3 miles depth is beyond remarkable.

[daddy]

Looks like the breaking news on TV is that John Kerry Is Warning That Russia May Be Preparing For Military Action In Ukraine.

Whoa! I sure didn't see that coming.

Did that announcement catch you guys by surprise also?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

OL-- is this your daughter's landlord? http://nyphrealestate.com/housing.html

[rich@gmu]

daddy

i'm on my fainting couch ... get f'ing Flathead on the phone and ask him which number we need to push for this complication.

[daddy]

Ray Bradbury call home:

NASA photo captures strange bright light coming out of Mars!

[daddy]

I thought that'd take your breath away, Rich:)

[rich@gmu]

where is the earth shattering ka boom.

probably an oversaturated pixel in the data dump ... or an error in processing. interesting though.

[henry]

Daddy, probably a used droid sale under the light, complete with arm waving inflatable tube men (or maybe those are the sales guys?).

[rich@gmu]

daddy-

well good thing with have a multi 100 billion intelligence apparatus to explain these things to us and good liberals to tells all what it means.

[narciso]

Bret Stephens, slaps those that have been afflicted with category error re Volodya,
much like Seib, apparently,

Chaitred is to be taken in small doses, preferably, through the Tracinski piece,
that carves it up in thin slices.

[rich@gmu]

...tell us all what it means.

must be lunch hour.

[daddy]

Henry,

Is this light on the planet Mars from your condo up there?

If so. I just want you to know that we're not simply Eco-stewards of Earth, we're Eco-stewards of all the planets in our Solar System, so if you can't remember to turn out the lights when you leave Barsoom, how can we have any confidence that you're not wasting energy here on GAIA? For shame Sir:( For shame:(

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Mars light image?.... TK I'm beggin' you don't..... wait, on the other hand.... TK I think you should get on the Mars thing ASAP :)

[Dave (in MA)]

It's probably caused by anthropogenic Marsal warming and funded by the Koch brothers.

[Frau Ganz Stickum]

“Yale has a strong system of mental health care authoritarian fascism for students.”

FIFY, OL. I wonder if the mental health care system extends to drug use?

btw what happened to "You can't be too rich or too thin"?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Vlad's got the JEF/KERRY/Hagel crew going all Keystone Cops (not difficult to do, I know.) When he reads these internet headlines from any of them, Vlad must do massive face palms, and lean back and laugh like Geoffrey Holder.

[henry]

Daddy, that is the happy hour beacon at my condo (ahem, actually Grail shaped for reasons undisclosed). BTW, Mars could use some warming these days.

[Account Deleted]

NK,

I picture him with a thin smile on his face as he studies the map of Moldova. I also picture Kerry and Obama engaged in a deep discussion of the meaning of several concepts presented on page 2 of Chess for Dummies. The knight thingy is pretty tricky.

[narciso]

Shirley they can't be serious;

http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2014/04/07/arming-the-mullahs/

not to quibble, but those type of images were in Wells not Bradbury

[lyle]

It's probably caused by anthropogenic Marsal warming and funded by the Koch brothers.

No doubt. Anyhoo, has anyone linked this?

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/04/07/Welcome-to-Breitbart-California

It's SFW. I don't make any claim to its tastefulness...

[jimmyk]

How would you approach a target market consisting of Lackwitz Sisters feeling their way through life and Gullibles dumb enough to have paid for brass serf collars by borrowing an equal weight in gold?

I continue to believe that there is a middle 20% that is not "moderate" in the sense of preferring a RINO over a Tea partier, but ready to hear a compelling alternative argument. The only strategy that will work in the long run, and I think will work in the short run as well, is the Reaganesque plain speaking of principles.

The instinctive R response to, say, a proposal to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 is to say, "No, we should only raise it to $8.25." I'd rather see a response, "No, we should lower it, it is hurting the poor who want to enter the labor market," or "No, we should eliminate it entirely" for the same reason. If it is clearly explained, I don't think it's the political suicide that all the shrewd consultants are sure it would be, and in any case the alternative is economic suicide.

[MaryD]

Scott Brown is announcing his Senate candidacy at 6:00 pm Thursday at the Portsmouth Harborside Hotel. The Union Leader (our only statewide newspaper) is running an editorial today pointing out that Jeanne Shaheen has gotten three quarters of her 2014 campaign money from outside NH.

BTW, I stumbled across the fact that if you google "Shaheen NH healthcare" one of the first things that pops up is an ad for her husband's law practice, touting its outstanding ability to help clients through the maze of government healthcare regulations. So she pushes monster regulatory laws and he acts as the navigator for the regulated. In Biology this is called a symbiotic relationship. In politics it's a very sweet deal. Heh.

[lyle]

In Biology this is called a symbiotic relationship. In politics it's a very sweet deal.

Does symbiosis include parasitism as well?

[narciso]

Much like 'Tommy the Cork' writing much of the New Deal legislation and then devising the bread crumb path around them,

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Frau, my stumpy 20 yo daughter is 5'2", and a solid 100lbs, she ain't anorexic, I can tell you that. She consumes loaves of french bread and a lb of butter or cheese in a sitting, with a pint of room temp beer, or wine. If any doc, especially some shrink, told her to pack on lbs, she'd punch their lights out. My girl.

[daddy]

On FOX, I see now that the Dem's are publicly praising Boehner for his Bill yesterday that helped fix ObamaCare, (not Repealing ObamaCare), and they are saying that they hope this is the beginning of the Republican's being bipartisan in helping do more fixes to ObamaCare.

Way to go Boehner! And damn that Matt Drudge for posting a story that revealed exactly what you were doing.

[daddy]

JiB,

By chance, did the Missus stop for an ice cream cone at McDonald's in St Petersburg yesterday?

[Thomas Collins]

Happy Birthday to peter and baby Porchlight!

[Miss Marple]

Back from lunch.

Ate at Shapiro's, a Jewish delicatessen that has been a landmark in Indy for years. Although the quality of the food is just as good, the crowds are way smaller.

I attribute this to the economy, in that people are not eating out as much downtown, as well as the prices have gotten to be too much for the office-worker crowd, as a corned beef sandwich is now $14.50. Price increase is probably due to increased beef prices and also Obamacare for employees.

I think this is a good barometer of the economy.

[Danube of Thought]

Russia May Be Preparing For Military Action In Ukraine.

He's obviously mistaken. This is the 21st Century.