How one Democratic pollster summarizes Obama's big economic speech yesterday, division and polarization

Doug Schoen, who was Bill Clinton's pollster when Clinton was president, has this at Forbes:

Obama doubled down on his approach in 2012: division, polarization and moving to the left. 

Much like in 2012, the President placed little emphasis on tax reform or growth. He spoke of bringing jobs back to America – specifically in manufacturing – but did not reveal many details of how he would achieve this. 

We heard some talk of balancing the budget and deficit reduction, cornerstone issues of the protracted battle in the House at the end of last year and beginning of 2013. But there was no talk of a long-term deficit reduction plan or plan for entitlement reform that will save crucial programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 

The President emphasized redistribution above all else, but with, again, no long-term plan as to how he would finally make this approach an effective one. Indeed, he hid behind the terms “ineffective government” and “broken Washington,” giving himself leeway in not having solved the economic problems that he promised to fix in both 2008 and 2012. . . .

Chinese Film Director could face fine of up to $26 million for fathering seven children, some thoughts

Assume for a second that the Chinese policy on the number of children makes sense, if you have seven children with seven different women, shouldn't that be treated differently than seven children with the same woman?  Also, why should higher income individuals pay such a much much higher fine for having kids?  Why discourage the smartest, most successful people from having kids?  Presumably, if higher income individuals tried to cheat, it would make enforcement against lower income people more difficult.  But I wonder if that is true.  In the US (where speeding fines are based on the crime) or Finland (where they are also based on income), do you have more people breaking speed limits?  I don't know the answer, but it would be interesting to check.  The simplest way would be to see if these relative rates changed when Finland changed the way it fined speeding.  From the Vancouver Sun:

Zhang, 61, reportedly could face a fine of up to 160 million yuan ($26 million), said the People's Daily newspaper, the Communist Party mouthpiece. People caught breaking China's family planning policy must pay a "social compensation fee" based on their annual income. . . . 

Obama In 1998: "I Actually Believe In Redistribution"

How the bad guy in The Dark Knight Rises represents Occupy Wall Street types

This quote is available at Rotten Tomatoes.

Bane: We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Blackgate, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For and army will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, as they learn to serve true justice. This great city... it will endure. Gotham will survive!

Let's redistribute GPA scores!

This was actually a very enjoyable video to watch. Hopefully it will get some people to think more. The unedited video is here:

Sen. Baucus says purpose of health care bill is to create redistribution of income

From Fox News:

As Democrats tout the moral underpinnings of the federal health care system overhaul -- ensuring health care coverage for nearly all Americans -- one senator appeared to go off message when he said the legislation would address the "mal-distribution of income in America."

After the Senate passed a "fix-it" bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the influential Finance Committee, said the overhaul was an "income shift" to help the poor.

"Too often, much of late, the last couple three years, the mal-distribution of income in American is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy and the middle income class is left behind," he said. "Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America."

That contrasted with the arguments Democrats have been making in the past year for reinventing the health care system: to expand health care coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans and tighten regulations on insurance companies while reducing the federal deficit. . . .

UPDATE: Howard Dean agrees.