Wednesday, March 10, 2010
No posts?
I've been taking a break. I am bored blogging about Obama because the blogger with many visions™ declared he was a socialist WAY before he began to demonstrate it on a day-to-day basis. Disaster.
Wrong Bill At The Wrong Time
ObamaCare and the downfall of the Democratic Party.
The real reason why ObamaCare is so unpopular is that it is proposing a giant expansion of the entitlement state precisely when this state everywhere is coming apart: here and abroad; at the federal level and the state; in the public sector and the private. Suggesting a giant government takeover of a sixth of the economy can't be a popular selling point in a country whose DNA has a programmed hostility to Big Government.
There are not enough taxpayers in the country or creditors in China capable of financing all these promises. Expanding this massive, multifarious entitlement state even more strikes most normal people as sheer lunacy--especially now that it is visibly coming apart at the seams.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Three Epic Failures
Another Liberal Crackup (WSJ)
The real source of this mess is the agenda that Democrats have tried to ram through the political system. Far from offering new ideas to reform the welfare state or compete better against rising global powers, Democrats have with rare exception tried to impose the same spending, tax and regulatory agenda that failed in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. Mr. Obama was a new face promising new hope, but his ideas are as old as the average Congressional Chairman.
Related
Party Like It's 1773?
The real source of this mess is the agenda that Democrats have tried to ram through the political system. Far from offering new ideas to reform the welfare state or compete better against rising global powers, Democrats have with rare exception tried to impose the same spending, tax and regulatory agenda that failed in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. Mr. Obama was a new face promising new hope, but his ideas are as old as the average Congressional Chairman.
Related
Party Like It's 1773?
Friday, February 05, 2010
Madoff/US Government: What's the difference?
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
The long goodbye...
Google discontinuing FTP support for Blogger blogs
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
- Lewis Carroll
Related
A long goodbye indeed.
45% for Obama, 49% Against – If Election Were Held Right Now
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
- Lewis Carroll
Related
A long goodbye indeed.
45% for Obama, 49% Against – If Election Were Held Right Now
Labels: obama
Monday, February 01, 2010
European Style Socialism: Exit Stage Left
The Obama Spell Is Broken: Unlike this president, John Kennedy was an ironist who never fell for his own mystique.
The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon.
Progressives pressed for a draconian attack on the workings of our health care, and on the broader balance between the state and the marketplace. The economic stimulus, ObamaCare, the large deficits, the bailout package for the automobile industry—these, and so much more, were nothing short of a fundamental assault on the givens of the American social compact.
Americans don't deify their leaders or hang on their utterances, but Mr. Obama succumbed to what the devotees said of him: He was the Awaited One. A measure of reticence could have served him. But the flight had been heady, and in the manner of Icarus, Mr. Obama flew too close to the sun.
Limestone Commentary
My declaration of the death of European-Style Socialism was way premature.
According to Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the Obama budget is a "firm step toward transforming America into a collectivist society overseen by a social-welfare state."
This budget is about more than specific programs or policies. It is really about the American idea, and whether we want to move towards a European-style welfare state. I know that seems like those are big words, but those are the stakes. It is hard to come to another conclusion when you look at our debt and how we are spending. We are in a very dire fiscal situation."
The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon.
Progressives pressed for a draconian attack on the workings of our health care, and on the broader balance between the state and the marketplace. The economic stimulus, ObamaCare, the large deficits, the bailout package for the automobile industry—these, and so much more, were nothing short of a fundamental assault on the givens of the American social compact.
Americans don't deify their leaders or hang on their utterances, but Mr. Obama succumbed to what the devotees said of him: He was the Awaited One. A measure of reticence could have served him. But the flight had been heady, and in the manner of Icarus, Mr. Obama flew too close to the sun.
Limestone Commentary
My declaration of the death of European-Style Socialism was way premature.
According to Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the Obama budget is a "firm step toward transforming America into a collectivist society overseen by a social-welfare state."
This budget is about more than specific programs or policies. It is really about the American idea, and whether we want to move towards a European-style welfare state. I know that seems like those are big words, but those are the stakes. It is hard to come to another conclusion when you look at our debt and how we are spending. We are in a very dire fiscal situation."
Saturday, January 30, 2010
126.1 (Populist, Ideologue and Slog Rainmaker)
(1) Obama v. the Supremes: Alito wins the oral, and factual, argument.
The President's claim about "foreign entities" bankrolling U.S. political campaigns is also false, since the Court did not overrule laws limiting such contributions. His use of "foreign" was a conscious attempt to inflame public and Congressional opinion against the Court. Coming from a President who fancies himself a citizen of the world, and who has gone so far as to foreswear American exceptionalism, this leap into talk-show nativism is certainly illuminating. What will they think of that one in the cafes of Berlin?
(2) The Obama Contradiction: Washington is sick and broken—and it can solve all our problems.
As the TV cameras panned the chamber, I saw a friendly acquaintance of the president, a Republican who bears him no animus. Why, I asked him later, did the president not move decisively to the political center?
Because he is more "intellectually honest" than that, he said. "I don't think he can do a Bill Clinton pivot, because he's not a pragmatist, he's an ideologue. He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity."
The great issue, this friendly critic added, is debt. The public knows this; Congress and the White House do not.
(3) Don't Rejoice Over Higher GDP Yet: U.S. economy grows at 5.7% clip, but next few quarters will be a slog.
The consumer is essentially frozen, Egan added, and even those with jobs are looking over their shoulder and holding back spending. One of the results is that credit unions are seeing an increase in savings, which inched up a tenth of a point to 4.6% in the fourth quarter, as households look to strengthen their defenses against future crises.
The President's claim about "foreign entities" bankrolling U.S. political campaigns is also false, since the Court did not overrule laws limiting such contributions. His use of "foreign" was a conscious attempt to inflame public and Congressional opinion against the Court. Coming from a President who fancies himself a citizen of the world, and who has gone so far as to foreswear American exceptionalism, this leap into talk-show nativism is certainly illuminating. What will they think of that one in the cafes of Berlin?
(2) The Obama Contradiction: Washington is sick and broken—and it can solve all our problems.
As the TV cameras panned the chamber, I saw a friendly acquaintance of the president, a Republican who bears him no animus. Why, I asked him later, did the president not move decisively to the political center?
Because he is more "intellectually honest" than that, he said. "I don't think he can do a Bill Clinton pivot, because he's not a pragmatist, he's an ideologue. He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity."
The great issue, this friendly critic added, is debt. The public knows this; Congress and the White House do not.
(3) Don't Rejoice Over Higher GDP Yet: U.S. economy grows at 5.7% clip, but next few quarters will be a slog.
The consumer is essentially frozen, Egan added, and even those with jobs are looking over their shoulder and holding back spending. One of the results is that credit unions are seeing an increase in savings, which inched up a tenth of a point to 4.6% in the fourth quarter, as households look to strengthen their defenses against future crises.
Labels: economics, obama, weekend
Monday, January 25, 2010
Make no mistake about it...
Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at where we are after twelve months of Obama.
Spoiler alert: It ain't pretty.
Spoiler alert: It ain't pretty.
Obama simply does not have the popularity to carry unpopular legislation forward. Indeed, he is reaching a point where he may poll more negatively than his agenda does. "Let me be perfectly clear" and "make no mistake about it" are now caricatures.
So where are we at twelve months? Obama showed the country his vision of where he wanted us to go; he had both houses of Congress, a toady media, and enormous personal popularity — and he is getting nowhere. Why? Because most Americans are vehemently opposed to taking their country in the direction that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid would prefer.
Since Obama is both inexperienced and apparently a stubborn ideologue, I think all we will be left with when the novelty wears off is rhetoric and euphemism.
Hell Cometh
The Global Debt Bomb: Spending our way out of worldwide recession will take years to pay back--and create a lot of pain. (Forbes)
National governments will issue an estimated $4.5 trillion in debt this year, almost triple the average for mature economies over the preceding five years. The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt (including debt held by government agencies, like the Social Security fund) to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion. The pain of repayment is not yet being felt, because interest rates are so low--close to 0% on short-term Treasury bills. Someday those rates are going to rise. Then the taxpayer will have the devil to pay.
Related
Figures on government spending and debt
News Flash: Entitlement Spending Grows Like Giant Cancer on U.S. Economy (via Instapundit)
National governments will issue an estimated $4.5 trillion in debt this year, almost triple the average for mature economies over the preceding five years. The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt (including debt held by government agencies, like the Social Security fund) to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion. The pain of repayment is not yet being felt, because interest rates are so low--close to 0% on short-term Treasury bills. Someday those rates are going to rise. Then the taxpayer will have the devil to pay.
Related
Figures on government spending and debt
News Flash: Entitlement Spending Grows Like Giant Cancer on U.S. Economy (via Instapundit)
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Sunday, January 24, 2010
No way out after Faustian bargain
The Fall of the House of Kennedy: The battle over who defines the work and institutions that make a nation thrive and grow. (WSJ)"The central battle in our time is over political primacy. It is a competition between the public sector and the private sector over who defines the work and the institutions that make a nation thrive and grow..."
Labels: clintons, democrats, obama, pelosi, reid
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Weekend 124.1
The States and the Stimulus: How a supposed boon has become a fiscal burden. (WSJ)
Keyword: Jimmy Carter II
Keyword: Jimmy Carter II
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Jimmy Carter
Monday, November 30, 2009
Obamacare: Higher Premiums & Less Care
It's the gift that keeps on giving‡. I find it ironic how aggressively the MSM targeted 'Joe the Plumber' after he asked Obama about his redistribution ethos during the election run-up.
‡Giving = Taking away and giving to someone else.
Nicholas Kristof, Obamacare, and the Broken Window Fallacy
‡Giving = Taking away and giving to someone else.
CBO: Insurance Premiums Will Increase by 10% Under ObamaCare (Ace)Related
There are winners and losers here. If you've got insurance, you're a loser: Congratulations, you will now basically have a complete stranger's health care added to your premiums as if he's a member of your family, because you can afford it.
If you don't have insurance, you may be a winner... sort of. As regards primary effects you come out ahead -- free money! -- but there will be secondary effects, too, as all health care overall is driven to a lower quality.
Broken record time: This is and always was about only one thing. A fairly direct transfer of wealth, and the services that wealth buys, from the middle class to the lower class. There is plenty of reason for the uninsured and poor to support this plan; there is no reason for anyone middle-class and insured to support it. For the latter, there are no benefits whatsoever, and only costs -- except for the benefit of knowing you have basically added a stranger as a family member to your plan, and you can now enjoy the satisfaction of knowing all the extra money you're paying, and all the treatments you're personally be denied, are going to help someone else. Maybe.
Nicholas Kristof, Obamacare, and the Broken Window Fallacy
Friday, November 20, 2009
China to Underwrite Socialized Health Care (Obamacare)
The government of China is also providing these high-quality "I Am with Stupid" t-shirts* to members of Congress and the Obama administration. As a display of goodwill the Federal Reserve is reciprocating these niceties (trillion dollar underwrting and spiff) by 'printing money'.*T-shirts are 100% cotton and manufactured by Chinese factory workers.
Related
A $4.9 Trillion Spending Increase
Hammond: Section by Section Analysis of the Reid Bill
China warns Federal Reserve over 'printing money'
Clinton To China: Keep Buying Our Debt (CBS)
Labels: china, economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Plenty of signs...just no signs of jobs
Stimulus Spent Over $617k in Non-Existent Missouri District This seems to the norm rather than the exception. More examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
I love the smell of transparency in the morning.
Labels: dodd, economics, obama, pelosi, reid, signage
Thursday, November 12, 2009
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
A flash in the pan...
Big Rock Candy Mountain
He needs to come down from his mountaintop because, in this country, only the faithful appreciate a president who consistently makes us listen to him, rather than the other way around....and a flash of brilliance.
So far, the signs aren't good. In his quest to surpass what he's done before and reprise his role as the nation's Moses, Obama appears to be on the verge of an "historic" remake of one-sixth of the American economy, namely health care - despite the fact that a solid majority of Americans oppose the change. Whatever the merits, pushing for major societal change without bringing society along is a guarantee of prolonged strife, and is as unprecedented in its own way as his election was. It is - dare we say it? - very George W. Bush-like in its disregard of the popular will; meaning that, in the ultimate irony, history may pair these two as mirror reflections of one another.
Right out of the box they propose sending people to jail for acting as economic subversives and economic traitors and yet I am, somehow, paranoid if I point out that the first step here is to reduce human freedom and increase state power.Related
And this is just a down-payment, remember. This is merely the first of many freedoms you previously believed sacrosanct to be lost. This is merely the first freedom they've realized, in advance, will have to be taken away. When their Rube Goldberg system of cross-subsidizations and stealth-rationing produces a slew of irrationalities and evasions they did not anticipate, we will have a welter of new crimes to correct all that human behavior they now find constitutes bad economic hygiene and must be outlawed.
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monopoly Chance and Community Chest
"Under the terms of the Pelosi health-care bill, "Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years."And so we have, yet again, a perfect illustration of the truism that socialism would work perfectly if only there were no people. Since we do have people, with all their self-interested motives and unwillingness to bend their inherent nature to ideological demands, socialism in practice encounters problems, known as Enemies of the People."
Source: Critical Condition on National Review Online
Related
Dem Congresswoman Threatens IRS Retribution Against Catholic Church for Supporting Stupak Amendment
Attacking the Catholic Church
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Democratic Political Insanity
If only CNN/MSNBC/NYTIMES/ABC/NBC/NEWSWEEK/NPR would report on news like the burgeoning deficit instead of stories like balloon boy.
Related...
I had to read this post three times before the absolute insanity of what the DEMS are doing sank in.
First, the White House announces a $250 payment to every senior for inflation that didn’t exist. “In effect, a COLA was paid on inflation that no longer existed,” notes Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute.Absolute madness.
Second, the White House in its desperate attempts to get its health reform passed, has tasked the all-too-willing Majority Leader Reid to walk the plank by convincing him to push a $247 billion portion of health reform as an off-budget item, in a separate bill, to be on the Senate floor this week before moving to the merged ObamaCare bill. Even the Washington Post editorial board said “Mr. Reid proposes not to pay for any of it, not even $11 billion, but simply to write a $247 billion IOU.”
Labels: connecticut post, democrats, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, reid
Monday, October 19, 2009
$1 USD = $1 CAD
Anxiety in Canada Over Near Parity with US Dollar
All the world prefers a strong dollar, except American leadership - how else to pay off our massive debts?
Related
Weak Dollar, Oblivious Treasury?
The dollar is down an average of 15 percent in just over seven months. If it falls about 5 percent more, the dollar will hit an all-time low.
What's Inside the Deficit?
As you know now, the deficit for FY2009 has reached $1.4 trillion, or 9.9 percent of the GDP. It's the biggest deficit since the end of World War II.
Whistling Past the Graveyard
The so-called “stimulus bill” is nothing but a reorientation and massive increase in long-term spending. The real stimulus is current spending on all parts of government grossly in excess of current tax receipts. This can go on for a while, but even the balance sheet of the United States is finite.
Oil tops $80, highest since Oct 14, 2008
All the world prefers a strong dollar, except American leadership - how else to pay off our massive debts?
Related
Weak Dollar, Oblivious Treasury?
The dollar is down an average of 15 percent in just over seven months. If it falls about 5 percent more, the dollar will hit an all-time low.
What's Inside the Deficit?
As you know now, the deficit for FY2009 has reached $1.4 trillion, or 9.9 percent of the GDP. It's the biggest deficit since the end of World War II.
Whistling Past the Graveyard
The so-called “stimulus bill” is nothing but a reorientation and massive increase in long-term spending. The real stimulus is current spending on all parts of government grossly in excess of current tax receipts. This can go on for a while, but even the balance sheet of the United States is finite.
Oil tops $80, highest since Oct 14, 2008
Labels: economics, end times, obama
Friday, October 16, 2009
China to Purchase Life Alert & Jitterbug for $13 billion
Cash for Oldsters
A $250 bribe to help the ObamaCare medicine go down.
No one ever went broke underestimating political cynicism, but these days even we can't keep up: On Wednesday, President Obama announced that he wants to send every American senior a $250 check.
The $250 checks will funnel $13 billion to some 57 million beneficiaries—in addition to whatever they have already received as part of the $787 billion stimulus.
Related
Deficit Hits $1.4 Trillion, Complicating Stimulus Plans
Lawmakers Eye Untapped Stimulus Funds as Obama Proposes New Spending
A $250 bribe to help the ObamaCare medicine go down.
No one ever went broke underestimating political cynicism, but these days even we can't keep up: On Wednesday, President Obama announced that he wants to send every American senior a $250 check.
The $250 checks will funnel $13 billion to some 57 million beneficiaries—in addition to whatever they have already received as part of the $787 billion stimulus.
Related
Deficit Hits $1.4 Trillion, Complicating Stimulus Plans
Lawmakers Eye Untapped Stimulus Funds as Obama Proposes New Spending
Labels: china, economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Monday, October 12, 2009
Rangel Scandal Timeline
The House Ethics Committee announces that it is expanding Rangel investigation into "all Financial Disclosure Statements and all amendments filed in the calendar year 2009."
Remember When...
Pelosi Says She Would Drain GOP 'Swamp'
There's another little gem in that article. According to Pelosi, "All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority."
Related
Obama under fire over falling dollar
To Fix The Global Economy, Fix The Dollar
Remember When...
Pelosi Says She Would Drain GOP 'Swamp'
There's another little gem in that article. According to Pelosi, "All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority."
Related
Obama under fire over falling dollar
To Fix The Global Economy, Fix The Dollar
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, rangel
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
The Economy is Barack (What's in a name?)
Obama readies second stimulus following wildly successful $800 BILLION version:
Why has the president’s stimulus package had less than intended results? Dr. Timothy G. Nash and Dr. Keith A. Pretty of Northwood University ask that question and look at some common sense alternatives
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama is considering a mix of spending programs and tax cuts to respond to widening job losses that would amount to an additional economic stimulus without carrying that label.Related
Why has the president’s stimulus package had less than intended results? Dr. Timothy G. Nash and Dr. Keith A. Pretty of Northwood University ask that question and look at some common sense alternatives
The problem is not, as Mr. Biden would have us believe, that the government didn’t spend enough, or that government bureaucracy is slowing the pace of stimulus spending, which it is. The problem is with a package that didn’t cut taxes enough or in all the right places. People have little confidence in government spending as a catalyst for economic growth and long term prosperity. They know that business creates jobs; government largely creates taxes, regulations and spends. The U.S. economy is burdened by: onerous regulations, the third highest corporate income tax rate (39.27 percent) in the world, and a combined state and federal personal income tax rate that can exceed 46 percent in certain states.
Despite all the money coming in, the U.S. national debt is now $11.2 trillion dollars, or 78 percent of U.S. GDP, and will likely be above 100 percent of GDP by the end of next fiscal year, surpassing the 1949 level of 97.5 percent which included costs associated with World War II and post war reconstruction.
Labels: china, economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
October looms...
(1) Foreclosures, Delinquencies Continue to Rise(2) Paul Volcker: You Call This An Economic Recovery?
(3) U.S. Economy: Chicago, Jobs Data Signal Slow Rebound
(4) Greenspan Sees Growth Slowing as Stocks ‘Flatten Out’
(5) Manufacturing, employment data push stocks lower
(6) Goldman Sachs Changes U.S. Jobs Forecast to Show Larger Cuts
(7) Stocks Slump Before Key Jobs Data
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Monday, September 28, 2009
U.S. Will Attack Israeli Jets
Zbig Brzezinski: Obama Administration Should Tell Israel U.S. Will Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Attack Iran
The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them.
The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them.
Doin' the neutron dance
Sooner or later ABC/NBC/CBS/NEWSWEEK/NYTIMES/NPR is going to investigate the links between ACORN/SEIU and Obama. I'm joking (it's a joke).
Irrational Exuberance: With a weak dollar, economic recovery might not be as broad as advertised. (Forbes)
Grant feels that our recent recession bears "comparison with the slump of 1981-1982." And while he acknowledges that Ronald Reagan was president then, and that Reagan "stood for free enterprise, free trade and low taxes" versus a President Obama who "stands for other things," he makes the more intriguing point that Obama's "policies seem as far removed from Roosevelt's as they are from Reagan's."
Related 2
ACORN's Man in the White House
We are talking about a persistent and shared political-ideological alliance between President Obama and the complex of community, labor, and party organizations controlled by ACORN. Again, the Gaspard issue is new and needs further investigation and consideration. Yet preliminary indications are that the Gaspard-ACORN-Bertha Lewis-New Party-WFP-SEIU ties are significant, and tell us something disturbing about the political ideology and intentions of President Obama.Related
Irrational Exuberance: With a weak dollar, economic recovery might not be as broad as advertised. (Forbes)
Grant feels that our recent recession bears "comparison with the slump of 1981-1982." And while he acknowledges that Ronald Reagan was president then, and that Reagan "stood for free enterprise, free trade and low taxes" versus a President Obama who "stands for other things," he makes the more intriguing point that Obama's "policies seem as far removed from Roosevelt's as they are from Reagan's."
Related 2
ACORN's Man in the White House
Labels: left-wing media, obama
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
A recurring (and very creepy) abuse of power
The language employed by the administration to speak to artists was already creepy before this story grew arms and legs.
Related
NEA Reassigns Communications Director Following Uproar Over Obama Initiative
Breaking: Senate GOP Goes After NEA
All Your Art Are Belong To Us
White House "Regrets" Any "Misunderstanding" There May Have Been On NEA Call
Earn Big $$$ the NEA Way!
Breaking: Yosi Sergant fired in NEA payola scandal.
Yosi Sergant Exits
“This is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government...Bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely."Unrelated to the developing NEA story, but equally troubling, is the administration's actions in Honduras. This quote from Mary O'Grady is just part of a pattern that should serve as wake-up call to all Americans. She writes:
- Obama NEA Appointee
Thousands of readers have written to me asking how all this can happen in the U.S., where democratic principles have been recognized since the nation's founding. Many readers have written that they are "ashamed" of the U.S. and have asked, in effect, "How can I help Honduras?" A more pertinent question may turn out to be, how can they help their own country?Read her entire op-ed. She uses the word tire iron to describe the tactics of our thug-in-chief. What's not to like (er, fear)?
In its actions toward Honduras, the Obama administration is demonstrating contempt for the fundamentals of democracy. Legal scholars are clear on this. "Judicial independence is a central component of any democracy and is crucial to separation of powers, the rule of law and human rights," writes Ahron Barak, the former president of the Supreme Court of Israel and a prominent legal scholar, in his compelling 2006 book, "The Judge in a Democracy."
Related
NEA Reassigns Communications Director Following Uproar Over Obama Initiative
Breaking: Senate GOP Goes After NEA
All Your Art Are Belong To Us
White House "Regrets" Any "Misunderstanding" There May Have Been On NEA Call
Feel the GleichschaltungMore
Reading through this transcript, I was struck by two things. One was the aroma of self-intoxication. These bureaucrats and artists and activists are utterly besotted by the contemplation of their own virtue. They know what’s good for the country, and what’s good for you, and they’re willing to devote themselves ceaselessly to making it happen.
Earn Big $$$ the NEA Way!
Breaking: Yosi Sergant fired in NEA payola scandal.
Yosi Sergant Exits
Labels: obama
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Need any more proof?
Just in case you needed more proof that Obama/Chávez are ideological soul mates.
(1) Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to schoolchildren (Michelle Malkin)
(2) Hey, Obama, Can We See the Text of Your Speech to Every Schoolkid Before You Deliver It? (Ace)
(3) 2 great links from Instapundit
(1) Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to schoolchildren (Michelle Malkin)
(2) Hey, Obama, Can We See the Text of Your Speech to Every Schoolkid Before You Deliver It? (Ace)
(3) 2 great links from Instapundit
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Venezuela & US: Freakishly Eerie Similarities
Hugo Chávez seeks to catch them young
A hastily passed education law is part of the president’s plan to take control of all aspects of Venezuelan society
What is apparent is that the law was not framed in parliament but by a team of ideologues in the presidential palace. Legislators suspect Cuban specialists had a hand in it, along with radicals from the Spanish left in Mr Chávez’s close circle.
University rectors say the hasty way the law was passed violated both parliamentary norms and the constitution. They were tear-gassed when they approached parliament as it was being debated, to try to deliver a document criticising its content. But a campaign of peaceful resistance is gathering strength.
Since winning a referendum in February abolishing term limits (thus allowing him to seek re-election again in 2012), Mr Chávez has stepped up the pace of his revolution. He has taken powers and funds from mayors and governors, clamped down on independent trade unions and broadcasters, and passed a law which will allow the government-controlled electoral authority to gerrymander constituency boundaries. A wilting economy and a lack of money to spend on his ambitious welfare programmes have begun to sap Mr Chávez’s popularity, forcing him to keep casting around for fresh scapegoats.
In his weekly broadcast on August 16th he promised a stimulus package but gave no indication of how he would pay for it. With public dissent growing, his response has been to stifle sources of independent thinking, be they private television channels, trade unions, the church or the schools and universities. However, once he has achieved complete dominance over them all, there will be no one left to blame for the country’s ills but himself.
Limestone Commentary
We're probably a failed treasury auction or two away from a banana republic. Obama had Pelosi/Reid draft the $800 BILLION and they did so with the help of special interest groups. He is doing the same thing with OBAMACARE (outsourcing) and asking the radicals to shove this transformational "bill" down our throats (despite overwhelming public/citizen opposition). Meanwhile the MSM marginalizes the opposition by portraying any act of civil disobedience as organized thuggery.
As the economy worsens he (and his enablers) thrash about searching for scapegoats. The witch hunt at the CIA is red meat for lefty radicals chasing a phantom menace while providing a thinly veiled (wink, wink on the 'we weed up') smoke screen against his untenable/unsustainable deficits (all hyper-accelerated by his partisan wish list - cap and trade, national health care).
One final thought...Obama also equals Chávez in ideological heroes. Obama has Alinsky/Wright while his South American equal has Bolívar/Gramsci.
A hastily passed education law is part of the president’s plan to take control of all aspects of Venezuelan society
What is apparent is that the law was not framed in parliament but by a team of ideologues in the presidential palace. Legislators suspect Cuban specialists had a hand in it, along with radicals from the Spanish left in Mr Chávez’s close circle.
University rectors say the hasty way the law was passed violated both parliamentary norms and the constitution. They were tear-gassed when they approached parliament as it was being debated, to try to deliver a document criticising its content. But a campaign of peaceful resistance is gathering strength.
Since winning a referendum in February abolishing term limits (thus allowing him to seek re-election again in 2012), Mr Chávez has stepped up the pace of his revolution. He has taken powers and funds from mayors and governors, clamped down on independent trade unions and broadcasters, and passed a law which will allow the government-controlled electoral authority to gerrymander constituency boundaries. A wilting economy and a lack of money to spend on his ambitious welfare programmes have begun to sap Mr Chávez’s popularity, forcing him to keep casting around for fresh scapegoats.
In his weekly broadcast on August 16th he promised a stimulus package but gave no indication of how he would pay for it. With public dissent growing, his response has been to stifle sources of independent thinking, be they private television channels, trade unions, the church or the schools and universities. However, once he has achieved complete dominance over them all, there will be no one left to blame for the country’s ills but himself.
Limestone Commentary
We're probably a failed treasury auction or two away from a banana republic. Obama had Pelosi/Reid draft the $800 BILLION and they did so with the help of special interest groups. He is doing the same thing with OBAMACARE (outsourcing) and asking the radicals to shove this transformational "bill" down our throats (despite overwhelming public/citizen opposition). Meanwhile the MSM marginalizes the opposition by portraying any act of civil disobedience as organized thuggery.
As the economy worsens he (and his enablers) thrash about searching for scapegoats. The witch hunt at the CIA is red meat for lefty radicals chasing a phantom menace while providing a thinly veiled (wink, wink on the 'we weed up') smoke screen against his untenable/unsustainable deficits (all hyper-accelerated by his partisan wish list - cap and trade, national health care).
One final thought...Obama also equals Chávez in ideological heroes. Obama has Alinsky/Wright while his South American equal has Bolívar/Gramsci.
Labels: china, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, reid
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
He is a scold...
I cribbed this from K-LO at NRO. It's a long quote from Fouad Ajami.
"At the core of the Reagan mission was the recovery of the nation's esteem and self-regard. Reagan was an optimist. He was Hollywood glamour to be sure, but he was also Peoria, Ill. His faith in the country was boundless, and when he said it was "morning in America" he meant it; he believed in America's miracle and had seen it in his own life, in his rise from a child of the Depression to the summit of political power.
The failure of the Carter years was, in Reagan's view, the failure of the man at the helm and the policies he had pursued at home and abroad. At no time had Ronald Reagan believed that the American covenant had failed, that America should apologize for itself in the world beyond its shores. There was no narcissism in Reagan. It was stirring that the man who headed into the sunset of his life would bid his country farewell by reminding it that its best days were yet to come.
In contrast, there is joylessness in Mr. Obama. He is a scold, the "Yes we can!" mantra is shallow, and at any rate, it is about the coming to power of a man, and a political class, invested in its own sense of smarts and wisdom, and its right to alter the social contract of the land. In this view, the country had lost its way and the new leader and the political class arrayed around him will bring it back to the right path."
"At the core of the Reagan mission was the recovery of the nation's esteem and self-regard. Reagan was an optimist. He was Hollywood glamour to be sure, but he was also Peoria, Ill. His faith in the country was boundless, and when he said it was "morning in America" he meant it; he believed in America's miracle and had seen it in his own life, in his rise from a child of the Depression to the summit of political power.
The failure of the Carter years was, in Reagan's view, the failure of the man at the helm and the policies he had pursued at home and abroad. At no time had Ronald Reagan believed that the American covenant had failed, that America should apologize for itself in the world beyond its shores. There was no narcissism in Reagan. It was stirring that the man who headed into the sunset of his life would bid his country farewell by reminding it that its best days were yet to come.
In contrast, there is joylessness in Mr. Obama. He is a scold, the "Yes we can!" mantra is shallow, and at any rate, it is about the coming to power of a man, and a political class, invested in its own sense of smarts and wisdom, and its right to alter the social contract of the land. In this view, the country had lost its way and the new leader and the political class arrayed around him will bring it back to the right path."
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thank You China!
Remember this sign when interest rates soar, the value of the dollar plummets, taxes (at all levels) increase and a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk (INFLATION) costs $15.00. I really hope China keeps financing the reckless spending of our political class.Related
AP sources: $2 trillion higher deficit projected
The Obama Deficit (Instapundit)
Obama Administration to Adjust Projected Deficit; $7 Trillion 10-Year-Defict to Become...$9 Trillion (ACE)
It was an August Friday afternoon, at the start of peak vacation season
Friday Night News Dump
Why the Stimulus Flopped by Mark Steyn
The other day, wending my way from Woodsville, N.H., 40 miles south to Plymouth, I came across several “stimulus” projects — every few miles, and heralded by a two-tone sign, a hitherto rare sight on Granite State highways. The orange strip at the top said “PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK” with a silhouette of a man with a shovel, and the green part underneath informed you that what you were about to see was a “PROJECT FUNDED BY THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT.” There then followed a few yards of desolate, abandoned, scarified pavement, followed by an “END OF ROAD WORKS” sign, until the next “stimulus” project a couple of bends down a quiet rural blacktop.
Labels: china, economics, obama, pelosi, reid, signage
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Untrustworthy Decider
Worst. Hires Rate. Ever. by Jerry Bowyer
Entrepreneurs and business managers are frozen. They’ve stopped posting want ads and they’ve stopped adding staff. When I look at the chart above, I see a giant sign hanging in the window of America. It reads: “Help Not Wanted.”
No, but Obama has made them scared. Everywhere I go I hear the same story. Business owners know the little details that academics and pundits don’t, and they know what not to do. They know, for example, that payroll taxes are not only scheduled to rise, but already have risen. And they know all too well that government-mandated unemployment compensation is funded by employers through an unemployment-compensation payroll tax. As a result, they know not to hire.
Obama's Doomed Utopia by Richard A. Epstein
Barack Obama was a great, if empty, orator when running for office. He projected an elusive utopian vision of hope and change that won over the hearts of those who postponed thinking about how the brutal fact of scarce resources can stymie even his grandiose plans for social reform. Unfortunately, his campaign skills have not easily transferred to the humdrum business of governance. So much so, that his best chance for reelection requires the remainder of his legislative program to fail.
Why Obama's Ratings Are Sinking by Arthur C. Brooks
Citizens will put up with a lot—but not with anyone who imperils our future. There is practically nothing that lowers American happiness more than taking away our faith in a better tomorrow.
Related
An Economic Recovery That Whimpers
Truth Scar
Entrepreneurs and business managers are frozen. They’ve stopped posting want ads and they’ve stopped adding staff. When I look at the chart above, I see a giant sign hanging in the window of America. It reads: “Help Not Wanted.”
No, but Obama has made them scared. Everywhere I go I hear the same story. Business owners know the little details that academics and pundits don’t, and they know what not to do. They know, for example, that payroll taxes are not only scheduled to rise, but already have risen. And they know all too well that government-mandated unemployment compensation is funded by employers through an unemployment-compensation payroll tax. As a result, they know not to hire.
Obama's Doomed Utopia by Richard A. Epstein
Barack Obama was a great, if empty, orator when running for office. He projected an elusive utopian vision of hope and change that won over the hearts of those who postponed thinking about how the brutal fact of scarce resources can stymie even his grandiose plans for social reform. Unfortunately, his campaign skills have not easily transferred to the humdrum business of governance. So much so, that his best chance for reelection requires the remainder of his legislative program to fail.
Why Obama's Ratings Are Sinking by Arthur C. Brooks
Citizens will put up with a lot—but not with anyone who imperils our future. There is practically nothing that lowers American happiness more than taking away our faith in a better tomorrow.
Related
An Economic Recovery That Whimpers
Truth Scar
Monday, August 17, 2009
flag@whitehouse.gov
Obama Misread His Mandate by Jay Cost
Now that his legislative agenda is stalling, we're seeing the predictable critiques about the outdated United States Senate, which is the real source of the bottleneck: the Connecticut Compromise was meant to protect the interests of small states, but not states that are this small. Rhode Island, yes. Wyoming, no! These arguments will be conveniently tabled whenever the Democrats return to minority status, so I won't bother to address their merits. The bigger question is: what did they think was going to happen? It's one thing to bemoan the fundamental unfairness of the Senate; it's another thing to overlook it when you're formulating your legislative program.
Channeling your inner Goldstein by Roger Kimball
Obama came to office promising to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Establishing his virtuous Green Republic requires not only cadres of self righteous ideologues. It also requires enemies. Linda Douglass, Obama’s communications director, has already invited you to send her the names of anyone who says or writes something “fishy” about the President’s policies. Nancy Pelosi, poor thing, sees swastikas everywhere, while Barbara Boxer and Robert Gibbs are terrified that some of the people criticizing the President are “well-dressed.”
Our Ongoing Catharsis by Victor Davis Hanson
So the Bush-era inability to articulate positions, to balance budgets, to explain what we were doing in Iraq, to admonish Wall Street grandees to slow it down a bit, translated into Obamism. By 2008, we did not wish to hear the surge finally worked and Iraq with it, that Bush gave billions to African AIDs relief, worked with allies, ran a clean government, and kept us safe from terrorist attacks for seven years. No, the country was angry for his lapses and was ripe for a Cleon right out of Aristophanes. And so again, we got Obama. And now the American public belatedly learns that the reaction to Bush is not balanced budgets, careful clear exegesis, but rather the Hollywood alternative of cap-and-trade, enormous tax increases, soaring deficits, nationalized health care, a general attitude that “they” owe “us,” and Europe is our model.
Obama's healthcare horror by Camille Paglia
But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.
Now that his legislative agenda is stalling, we're seeing the predictable critiques about the outdated United States Senate, which is the real source of the bottleneck: the Connecticut Compromise was meant to protect the interests of small states, but not states that are this small. Rhode Island, yes. Wyoming, no! These arguments will be conveniently tabled whenever the Democrats return to minority status, so I won't bother to address their merits. The bigger question is: what did they think was going to happen? It's one thing to bemoan the fundamental unfairness of the Senate; it's another thing to overlook it when you're formulating your legislative program.
Channeling your inner Goldstein by Roger Kimball
Obama came to office promising to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Establishing his virtuous Green Republic requires not only cadres of self righteous ideologues. It also requires enemies. Linda Douglass, Obama’s communications director, has already invited you to send her the names of anyone who says or writes something “fishy” about the President’s policies. Nancy Pelosi, poor thing, sees swastikas everywhere, while Barbara Boxer and Robert Gibbs are terrified that some of the people criticizing the President are “well-dressed.”
Our Ongoing Catharsis by Victor Davis Hanson
So the Bush-era inability to articulate positions, to balance budgets, to explain what we were doing in Iraq, to admonish Wall Street grandees to slow it down a bit, translated into Obamism. By 2008, we did not wish to hear the surge finally worked and Iraq with it, that Bush gave billions to African AIDs relief, worked with allies, ran a clean government, and kept us safe from terrorist attacks for seven years. No, the country was angry for his lapses and was ripe for a Cleon right out of Aristophanes. And so again, we got Obama. And now the American public belatedly learns that the reaction to Bush is not balanced budgets, careful clear exegesis, but rather the Hollywood alternative of cap-and-trade, enormous tax increases, soaring deficits, nationalized health care, a general attitude that “they” owe “us,” and Europe is our model.
Obama's healthcare horror by Camille Paglia
But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.
Monday, August 10, 2009
End Times Alert (Kool-Aid Version)
Monday, August 03, 2009
I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal...
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Weekend 107.0
August Recess Reading
(1) Our Angry Aristocracy by Victor Davis Hanson
Scolding Americans for our various sins is proving popular among an elite group of self-appointed moralists...Yet these influential prophets of doom do not have lives remotely similar to the lesser folk they lecture.
Do the wealthy and the powerful lecture us about our wrongs because they know their own insider status ensures that they are exempt from the harsh medicine they advocate for others? Or does the hypocrisy grow out of a sort of class snobbery?
Do elites hector the crass middle class because it lacks their own taste, rare insight, and privileged style? Or is the new hypocrisy an eerie sort of psychological compensation at work?
(2) ObamaCare in Trouble by Karl Rove
Polls are turning against President Barack Obama’s health-care plan...The polls are crumbling because of a flood of bad news about Mr. Obama’s health-care proposals.
But the most damaging news came from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf, who said last week that the White House’s health-care proposals would not “reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.”
Democratic leaders, including the president, are now backing away from a vote on health care before August. But that’s not likely to decrease voter angst. Americans for Prosperity and others are already organizing voters to attend public meetings with members of Congress this summer. My guess is that members of Congress are about to hear a lot from their voters on the government takeover of health care, new energy taxes, the failed stimulus, record deficits, and growing joblessness.
(1) Our Angry Aristocracy by Victor Davis Hanson
Scolding Americans for our various sins is proving popular among an elite group of self-appointed moralists...Yet these influential prophets of doom do not have lives remotely similar to the lesser folk they lecture.
Do the wealthy and the powerful lecture us about our wrongs because they know their own insider status ensures that they are exempt from the harsh medicine they advocate for others? Or does the hypocrisy grow out of a sort of class snobbery?
Do elites hector the crass middle class because it lacks their own taste, rare insight, and privileged style? Or is the new hypocrisy an eerie sort of psychological compensation at work?
(2) ObamaCare in Trouble by Karl Rove
Polls are turning against President Barack Obama’s health-care plan...The polls are crumbling because of a flood of bad news about Mr. Obama’s health-care proposals.
But the most damaging news came from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf, who said last week that the White House’s health-care proposals would not “reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.”
Democratic leaders, including the president, are now backing away from a vote on health care before August. But that’s not likely to decrease voter angst. Americans for Prosperity and others are already organizing voters to attend public meetings with members of Congress this summer. My guess is that members of Congress are about to hear a lot from their voters on the government takeover of health care, new energy taxes, the failed stimulus, record deficits, and growing joblessness.
Labels: dodd, obama, pelosi, rangel, reid, weekend
Monday, July 27, 2009
Pawned
Knowing the Endgame — in Chess and the EconomyRelated
In the agon we are considering, Barack Obama is an unskilled player. Timothy Geithner is an unskilled player. Larry Summers, Christina Romer, and Austan Goolsbee are unskilled players. (The jury is out on Ben Bernanke.) The moves they are now making will see to their embarrassment when they try to unkink the sinuosities of the endgame — assuming, as with my five-year-old, that they get that far. Indeed it appears that almost everyone in the administration is either an unskilled player, an old hack player (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton), or a weirdo player (John Holdren, Van Jones).
This also appears to be the case with the Democratic Congress and its attendant RINOs. Duffers all or most. They cannot adhere, in Harry Frankfurt’s words, to “a disinterested and austere discipline” since they do not understand the game they are playing or are merely incapable of taking it seriously. They do not even read the bills that they pass. They are, in fact, prone to “some kind of laxity,” they are “trying to get away with something,” and they are blithely making up the rules as they go along. Frankfurt would not hesitate, despite his cachet as a Princeton philosopher, to call them bullsh*tters. But when one tackles a vital issue like the economy, there is no room for ignorance or frivolity — or bullsh*t.
Granholm’s California-by-the-Lakes
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Even if it was economically naive...
Adrian Goldsworthy could be writing about Obama:
Michelle Obama: Barack is the only man who can “heal” this nation and “fix our souls”
Make mine malaise
Obama vs. Carter
Diocletian's government lacked the machinery to enforce such a rigid pricing system on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps the most striking thing about the edict was its ambition - even if it was economically naive. Combined with the objective of profound change is the highly moral rhetoric. Talk of the 'peaceful state of the world' now that the 'seething ravages of barbarians peoples' have been restrained by great effort, is followed by outrage at a new evil attacking the soldiers. 'There burns a raging greed, which hastens to its own growth and increase without respect for human kind.' A little later the emperor compared this greed to a religion. The tone is typical of the other legislative activity of the tetrarchs and of their recorded rescripts - replies issued to legal questions and appeals sent to the emperor. The sense of outrage was accompanied by savage and often inventively cruel punishments.Related
Diocletian may genuinely have believed his own propaganda. He certainly felt that the best way to deal with the empire's problems was to impose strong central control. This was not a new idea. Bureaucracy had been growing in the last decades. The turnover of emperors was do rapid that officials, especially those of middle rank who were less likely to be purged when a regime changed, provided the most stable element in government. Diocletian stayed in power longer than his recent predecessors, his strength increasing with each passing year. He was therefore able to take much further the trend towards centralised government.
Michelle Obama: Barack is the only man who can “heal” this nation and “fix our souls”
Make mine malaise
Obama vs. Carter
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The limits of imposed efficiency
Orwell was a genius. Most writers quote 1984 and/or Animal Farm but it is his work in The Road to Wigan Pier that most devastatingly reveals how and why the left can embrace fascism/statism.
The Deeper Debate by Yuval Levin (***MUST READ***)
The underlying motive of many Socialists, I believe, is simply a hypertrophied sense of order. The present state of affairs offends them not because it causes misery, still less because it makes freedom impossible, but because it is untidy; what they desire, basically, is to reduce the world to something resembling a chessboard.Companion Piece
The Deeper Debate by Yuval Levin (***MUST READ***)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Coming out of the shadows...
Two great posts by Andy McCarthy. The first is about a conference in Chicago (wink, wink) entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" sponsored by the Sunni fundamentalist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
The second is about the lifeline the Obama administration has given the Iranian terror regime.
This quote answers the why:
"As I've been saying for a month, there is nothing complicated about this: Obama wants the mullahs to win. That seems impossible to believe for many well-intentioned people, but once you accept it — and everything it implies — life starts to make much sense. It isn't any better, mind you, but at least it makes sense."
- Andy McCarthy
Related
Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference
The second is about the lifeline the Obama administration has given the Iranian terror regime.
This quote answers the why:
"As I've been saying for a month, there is nothing complicated about this: Obama wants the mullahs to win. That seems impossible to believe for many well-intentioned people, but once you accept it — and everything it implies — life starts to make much sense. It isn't any better, mind you, but at least it makes sense."
- Andy McCarthy
Related
Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference
Labels: islamofascism, obama
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want
- John Mayer
The Obama Administration is now referring to their failed $800 BILLION stimulus as a stabilization/recovery act/bill. The intent is to lower expectations now that economists have predicted a jobless recovery. The national unemployment rate is hovering near 10% and is expected to increase before a fragile recovery in 2010. In addition to deflecting blame for the failed stimulus, the Obama Administration may ask DEM lawmakers for a second stimulus bill to complement their TRILLION dollar schemes for socialized health care and cap and tax.
The Obama media machine is up and running, but it could backfire if the media gain some self-respect and tire of being manipulated on behalf of the President's image and agenda.
Related
Barney Frank: White House "Message People" Telling Democrats to Call Stimulus a "Recovery Bill"
Stimulating Dishonesty
Krugman: U.S. Headed for 'Jobless' Recovery (ABC NEWS)
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want
- John Mayer
The Obama Administration is now referring to their failed $800 BILLION stimulus as a stabilization/recovery act/bill. The intent is to lower expectations now that economists have predicted a jobless recovery. The national unemployment rate is hovering near 10% and is expected to increase before a fragile recovery in 2010. In addition to deflecting blame for the failed stimulus, the Obama Administration may ask DEM lawmakers for a second stimulus bill to complement their TRILLION dollar schemes for socialized health care and cap and tax.
Turns out the $787 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (AARA) was not designed for full economic recovery, but rather to "stabilize" the downturn. That's the word from White House officials today, who held off-camera briefings with reporters on how the AARA is working so far.The Obama Administration is spending an estimated $100,000 a week on "message people" to spin words in a "consciously dishonest way." According to Accuracy in Media (AIM):
The Obama media machine is up and running, but it could backfire if the media gain some self-respect and tire of being manipulated on behalf of the President's image and agenda.
Related
Barney Frank: White House "Message People" Telling Democrats to Call Stimulus a "Recovery Bill"
Stimulating Dishonesty
Krugman: U.S. Headed for 'Jobless' Recovery (ABC NEWS)
Labels: left-wing media, obama
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Hawaii Hothouse Levels
Welcome Back, Carter
The stimulus package has failed to stimulate as trillions of dollars of debt are being laid upon our children and grandchildren as we build turtle tunnels and try to save marsh mice. The Obama administration is trying to get money into the economy instead of leaving it where it was in the first place through tax cuts. As we near double-digit unemployment, it is failing as Carter failed, and the cry goes up: Where are the jobs?
Related (Absolute Insanity)
Your Tax Dollars at Work
The stimulus package has failed to stimulate as trillions of dollars of debt are being laid upon our children and grandchildren as we build turtle tunnels and try to save marsh mice. The Obama administration is trying to get money into the economy instead of leaving it where it was in the first place through tax cuts. As we near double-digit unemployment, it is failing as Carter failed, and the cry goes up: Where are the jobs?
Related (Absolute Insanity)
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Monday, July 13, 2009
DEMS in Disarray
Disarray. That's one word to describe the status of the Obama administration's legislative program as Congress heads into its final four weeks of work before the August recess...Related
$1 Trillion Deficit Complicates Obama's Agenda (WSJ)
Federal budget deficit tops $1 trillion with 3 months left in budget year (USA Today)
Limestone Commentary
Who will the DEMS blame?
Labels: democrats, dodd, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, reid
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Prescient
I referenced this article yesterday from The Royal Gazette and keep coming back to this quote:
The Warwick businesswoman wrote to Government MPs: "I am ashamed of the leader of my country. His dictatorial leadership style, his grandiose spending, his questionable ethics, his inflated ego, his lack of transparency, his stirring up of racial hatred, are all hurting the fabric of our Island.
Only power, pure power
Neal Boortz channels George Orwell:
All you have to do is recognize and acknowledge the true goal of the political class. It's summed up in one word: POWER. You think they actually give a flying Krispy Kreme about you? What? I know you were born at night, but was it last night? They may care about your vote .. but that's it. It's power, my friends. Power and little else.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Banana Republic II
Then something messy comes along that doesn't fit the neat paradigm like the purple-finger elections in Iraq, Tiananmen Square, or the most recent democracy demonstrations in Iran that confound that easy calculus.
- Victor Davis Hanson
Labels: obama
Banana Republic
"The emperor needed the wealthier classes to help him run the empire. Senators in particular were the class he lived amongst and their attitude towards him tended to dictate how he would be portrayed in later histories."Related
- How Rome Fell, Adrian Goldsworthy
Amid Criticism, Post Drops "Appalling" Plan to Sell Access (ABC)
Barack Obama Seeks to Turn America into a Third World Country
Again, Why the Diffidence?
National Security & the Cult of Personality
Congress's Travel Tab Swells: Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Rises Tenfold; From Italy to the Galápagos (WSJ)
Labels: dodd, history, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, quotes, reid
The Obama Economy: Post $800 BILLION Stimulus
The Job Market's Grim Picture: Unemployment flirts with an ugly truth--the possibility of hitting a new post-Depression high. (Forbes)
Stocks Skid on Payrolls Data (Wall Street Journal)
Unemployment in America: A rising tide (Economist)
America lost a further 467,000 non-farming jobs in June, pushing up the unemployment rate to 9.5%, a 26-year high.Related
How Politicians Bankrupted California
Obama’s jobless ‘recovery’ - unemployment at 9.5%
A Miserable Failure
Forget Green Shoots: They’re Just Weeds
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Noteworthy Cartoons, Comic Books and Posters
A cartoon on RedState featuring John Mayer/ABC/Obama.Limestone Roof John Mayer Flashbacks
The blogger with many visions returns...
Hillvez and Generation Y
Comic Books
IF ONLY IT WERE THIS EASY (Poor and Stupid)
Poster Art
† Death, taxes & Obamacare: Poster contest, Round Two
† Obamacare poster contest: Coming to a hospital near you!; Updated with new entries
† Bad medicine: Obamacare poster art, Round 3
Cartoons
This cartoon by Michael Ramirez is a little more poignant.
Labels: iran, left-wing media, obama
Monday, June 22, 2009
Barack being Barack (in Bermuda now)
Back from Stormy Bermuda was written by Andy McCarthy and appeared on NRO:
Great ire has been directed at the premier, Ewart Brown, the hard-Left race-baiter and former Black Panther sympathizer in whom the Obama administration (surprise!) managed to find a willing partner for its jihadist relocation quest — willing, that is, blatantly to violate his country's constitution (which leaves decisions about foreign affairs and national security to imperialist, colonialist Great Britain); to negotiate in secret in a manner that cut out said imperialist, colonialist Britain (i.e., America's most important ally); to negotiate so secretively he cut out his own cabinet (which was not made aware of the Uighurs' coming until they'd already arrived); to lie about the security risk posed by the Uighurs (Brown told the Parliament Bermuda's security forces had vetted the detainees and found no risk, but the following day the head of the security forces said that was not true and that there was significant security risk); and, finally, to impose this fait accompli on Bermudians (who, like the cabinet, were left totally in the dark until they started seeing pictures of the Island's new residents strolling around their new digs and swimming in the Atlantic).
In Bermuda, where the public regards their premier as a snake, no one believes that. But no one among the public, parliament, or the office of the British governor really knows. There were protests all week, which is highly unusual for the laid back populace. They are worried not only about the potential jihadist threat but what the relocation means for tourism, the island's most important industry. The local newspapers featured stories about cancellations due to the Uighurs and safety concerns — very bad news in already bad economic times.
Related
Re: Back from Stormy Bermuda
Protest rally swells to around 1,500-strong
Premier's job approval rating down to 24% – public survey
Obama approval index turns negative
Great ire has been directed at the premier, Ewart Brown, the hard-Left race-baiter and former Black Panther sympathizer in whom the Obama administration (surprise!) managed to find a willing partner for its jihadist relocation quest — willing, that is, blatantly to violate his country's constitution (which leaves decisions about foreign affairs and national security to imperialist, colonialist Great Britain); to negotiate in secret in a manner that cut out said imperialist, colonialist Britain (i.e., America's most important ally); to negotiate so secretively he cut out his own cabinet (which was not made aware of the Uighurs' coming until they'd already arrived); to lie about the security risk posed by the Uighurs (Brown told the Parliament Bermuda's security forces had vetted the detainees and found no risk, but the following day the head of the security forces said that was not true and that there was significant security risk); and, finally, to impose this fait accompli on Bermudians (who, like the cabinet, were left totally in the dark until they started seeing pictures of the Island's new residents strolling around their new digs and swimming in the Atlantic).
In Bermuda, where the public regards their premier as a snake, no one believes that. But no one among the public, parliament, or the office of the British governor really knows. There were protests all week, which is highly unusual for the laid back populace. They are worried not only about the potential jihadist threat but what the relocation means for tourism, the island's most important industry. The local newspapers featured stories about cancellations due to the Uighurs and safety concerns — very bad news in already bad economic times.
Related
Re: Back from Stormy Bermuda
Protest rally swells to around 1,500-strong
Premier's job approval rating down to 24% – public survey
Obama approval index turns negative
In short, he's a typical lefty...
...the type our universities produce every year. The difference is that he's the prodigal son.
Obama is clearly to the left of Europe. He sees himself more as multicultural prophet born out of the Third World, foe of colonialism, angry at past imperialism, skeptical of capitalism, eager to showcase his non-traditional ancestry and tripartite nomenclature. By coming from the West, but separating himself from the history of his own country, Obama has become a citizen of the world, who polls far higher, as intended, in the Middle East, than does his own country.
Source
Friday, June 19, 2009
The NOT SO wonder-working power of Obamanomics
Why Obama’s big economic gamble is failing
Obama wagered that the deluge of money coming from the Federal Reserve would do the heavy lifting as far as stabilizing the financial sector and keeping the already apparent recession from turning into a real disaster. Voters would, thus, continue to support his policies to assert more government control over healthcare, heavily regulate energy through a costly cap-and-trade program and further intervene into the financial industry.
The gamble appears to have failed miserably, both economically and politically. The terrible tale of the tape: a) the current downturn is arguably the worse since the Great Depression; b) household wealth has fallen by $14 trillion during the past two years, including the first quarter of 2009; c) while the economy may not shrink as much this quarter as it did in the previous three months (-5.7 percent) or the final quarter of 2008 (-6.3 percent), unemployment is soaring; d) Obama himself said the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year; d) even worse, the Federal Reserve sees it approaching 11 percent next year.
Obamaworld: Logic in the Age of Obama.
Obama wagered that the deluge of money coming from the Federal Reserve would do the heavy lifting as far as stabilizing the financial sector and keeping the already apparent recession from turning into a real disaster. Voters would, thus, continue to support his policies to assert more government control over healthcare, heavily regulate energy through a costly cap-and-trade program and further intervene into the financial industry.
The gamble appears to have failed miserably, both economically and politically. The terrible tale of the tape: a) the current downturn is arguably the worse since the Great Depression; b) household wealth has fallen by $14 trillion during the past two years, including the first quarter of 2009; c) while the economy may not shrink as much this quarter as it did in the previous three months (-5.7 percent) or the final quarter of 2008 (-6.3 percent), unemployment is soaring; d) Obama himself said the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year; d) even worse, the Federal Reserve sees it approaching 11 percent next year.
"Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"Rich Gov, Poor Gov: Why Obama can't Fix the Economy
Obamaworld: Logic in the Age of Obama.
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Economic Apocalypse
President Barack Obama has pushed the nation’s marketable debt to an unprecedented $6.36 trillion and raised estimates for the deficit this year to a record $1.84 trillion.‡
(1) Exploding Debt Threatens America
(4) And It Gets Worse: The Coming 100% Inflation (Ace)
(5) Ouch: Federal Tax Revenues Fall By Over One Third (Ace)
Obama/Reid/Pelosi will need a VAT, Cap & Trade and a slew of other taxes (beer, tomatoes, lamb) to narrow (not close) the gap. The DEM penchant for spending (printing) has set the stage for slower growth and rising instability in commodity markets (Oil at $63 bbl). Will you be better off 6 months from now? Doubtful. And so much for Obama's pledge not to tax 95% of us (Obama's 95% Illusion). These not-so-hidden taxes will increase the burden all Americans endure to keep politicos and bureaucrats in their posh Washington DC offices.
The good news for the GOP is that current economic woes have nothing to do with what Obama inherited but what his (and his cohorts) have prescribed (spend, spend, spend and spend).
Related
Geithner To Travel To China For Economic Talks (Fox)
Get Ready For a VAT
Obama’s “Saved Or Created Jobs” Does Not Match Reality
‡Yield Curve Steepens to Record as Debt Sales Surge (Bloomberg)
(1) Exploding Debt Threatens America
(2) Chi-Comms and Times Get It, Obama Doesn't(3) More Treasury Bond Worries
The Federal Reserve is printing money from thin air, and the government is issuing trillions of dollars in new debt as it tries to spend its way out of the recession with a huge stimulus package, new lending programs, health care overhauls and automotive rescues.
(4) And It Gets Worse: The Coming 100% Inflation (Ace)
(5) Ouch: Federal Tax Revenues Fall By Over One Third (Ace)
Obama/Reid/Pelosi will need a VAT, Cap & Trade and a slew of other taxes (beer, tomatoes, lamb) to narrow (not close) the gap. The DEM penchant for spending (printing) has set the stage for slower growth and rising instability in commodity markets (Oil at $63 bbl). Will you be better off 6 months from now? Doubtful. And so much for Obama's pledge not to tax 95% of us (Obama's 95% Illusion). These not-so-hidden taxes will increase the burden all Americans endure to keep politicos and bureaucrats in their posh Washington DC offices.
The good news for the GOP is that current economic woes have nothing to do with what Obama inherited but what his (and his cohorts) have prescribed (spend, spend, spend and spend).
Related
Geithner To Travel To China For Economic Talks (Fox)
Get Ready For a VAT
Obama’s “Saved Or Created Jobs” Does Not Match Reality
‡Yield Curve Steepens to Record as Debt Sales Surge (Bloomberg)
Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sotomayor is just another Socialist
They seem to collect around the White House like mosquito larvae in stagnant water. Sotomayor has demonstrated an antagonism to private property which should complement Obama's Hugo Chavez like penchant for nationalization.
†NRO via Beliefnet.com
Judge Sotomayor has managed to take already liberal, redistributionist areas of the law and push them even further down the road in the direction of redistributing wealth to constituencies favored by government officials. The Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo case that governments can take private property and give it to developers as part of a general redevelopment plan that they rationally believe will benefit the public good.The White House is obviously proud of her socialist creds since they feature her yearbook page on their website, complete with a quote from former Socialist-party presidential candidate Norman Thomas†.
But Judge Sotomayor went well beyond that, to hold that property owners have no legal redress even in the face of what legal commentators have called extortion, in Didden v. City of Port Chester. In that case, a developer told a property owner to either give him $800,000 or half his property, or he would seize it by having the Village of Port Chester condemn it. When the property owner refused, the developer promptly had the town condemn it and transfer it to him. Judge Sotomayor and two of her colleagues upheld this seizure against a constitutional challenge in an unpublished opinion.
†NRO via Beliefnet.com
Labels: obama
What moves Mr. Obama?
It's the question Binyamin Netanyahu wondered aloud after meeting Obama. I think someone should get Netanyahu a dossier. Here is Obama's mentor Jeremiah Wright on Israel. The truth doesn't go away with a tingly speech or a news cycle.
Labels: obama
Obama: We are out of money.
"One of the most important talents for success in politics is the ability to make utter nonsense sound not only plausible but inspiring."
The quote is from "Our Confused Age" by Thomas Sowell.
This weekend, in an interview on C-SPAN, Obama told Americans: "We are out of money." But the cause is not his spending binge. The real cause, as he would have us believe, is the lack of socialized/nationalized health care! As Glenn Reynolds writes:
That [Obama's claim] goes beyond chutzpah to the edge of pathological dishonesty. Except, I guess, that it’s not pathological if you get away with it. And so far, he has.
Have you ever read two better quotes to describe Obama?
Related
Obama and the South Park Gnomes (Ace)
The quote is from "Our Confused Age" by Thomas Sowell.
This weekend, in an interview on C-SPAN, Obama told Americans: "We are out of money." But the cause is not his spending binge. The real cause, as he would have us believe, is the lack of socialized/nationalized health care! As Glenn Reynolds writes:
That [Obama's claim] goes beyond chutzpah to the edge of pathological dishonesty. Except, I guess, that it’s not pathological if you get away with it. And so far, he has.
Have you ever read two better quotes to describe Obama?
Related
Obama and the South Park Gnomes (Ace)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A Niebuhrian Renaissance
I keep coming back to this quote from George Weigel:
...because, for a good postmodern liberal like President Obama, that progressive “consensus” is so self-evidently true that one can afford to be generous in acknowledging that others, less enlightened but arguably sincere, have different views.
I was also re-reading the chapter (22) on Reinhold Niebuhr in Mead's God and Gold and was reminded of how slimy E.J. Dionne and David Brooks are. I'll write more in the coming days but God and Gold is an opposition research must read. Needless to say, Dionne is positively giddy that "Obama has strengthened moderate and liberal forces inside the [Catholic] church." I surmise his feelings are similar to those the writers and editors have at the Connecticut Post when they exhaustively cover church scandals.
Source: Speaking of Dionne by Ramesh Ponnuru
...because, for a good postmodern liberal like President Obama, that progressive “consensus” is so self-evidently true that one can afford to be generous in acknowledging that others, less enlightened but arguably sincere, have different views.
I was also re-reading the chapter (22) on Reinhold Niebuhr in Mead's God and Gold and was reminded of how slimy E.J. Dionne and David Brooks are. I'll write more in the coming days but God and Gold is an opposition research must read. Needless to say, Dionne is positively giddy that "Obama has strengthened moderate and liberal forces inside the [Catholic] church." I surmise his feelings are similar to those the writers and editors have at the Connecticut Post when they exhaustively cover church scandals.
Source: Speaking of Dionne by Ramesh Ponnuru
Labels: books, connecticut post, obama
More Democratic meddling...
...with the Credit Card Overhaul Bill means responsible individuals will bear the brunt (and endure the punishment) of those who choose to live beyond their means.
Related
Good news: Responsible credit-card users to “subsidize” deadbeats now (Hot Air)
Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.Obama's age of responsibility is such an utter farce.
Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.
“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”
Related
Good news: Responsible credit-card users to “subsidize” deadbeats now (Hot Air)
Labels: democrats, obama, pelosi, reid
MP Expense Scandal = Dodd, Rangel, Murtha...
Is Carol Gould writing about Dodd, Rangel and Murtha?
Related
British expense scandal ousts lower house speaker
Doing Penance
Every day one sees yet another shop being abandoned and boarded up; in London some local authorities are allowing charities and small groups to move into abandoned shop premises rather than let them become damp-ridden dumps. As this unfolds, members of Parliament are reported to have been claiming £18,000 for a bookcase and £6,000 for a wooden floor, while engaging in complicated “flipping” arrangements in which they received payments for switching homes every so often.These politicos live fabulously (Chris Dodd's Irish 'Cottage') while pick pocketing us poor rubes. Where is the outrage as Gore stands to make millions from Cap-And-Trade (Con-And-Transfer)? How about tax cheat Geithner's auto industry adviser who is building a $15 MILLION DOLLAR summer home in Martha's Vineyard! Meanwhile all these schemes, while populist in tone, increase the every man(s) living expenses! The new CAFE standards will IMPOSE a $1,300 car tax on the working/middle class!
Related
British expense scandal ousts lower house speaker
Doing Penance
Labels: democrats, dodd, obama, pelosi, rangel, reid
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Obama: Fear & Loathing America
"At a town hall meeting in St. Louis last week, President Obama referred disrespectfully to those people who attended the Tax Day Tea Parties last month. What continues to haunt me is the fact that while Obama traveled all over the world to shake hands, bow, pose for photos and apologize to those who have explicitly declared their hatred for America, he refuses to engage in dialogue with those in his own country who love America and wish to defend our freedoms, our beliefs and our way of life."
Source: Wausau Daily Herald
Why is anyone surprised? How could anyone listen to that bile from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. not loathe America and her allies?
I cribbed this from Ace:
Source: Wausau Daily Herald
Why is anyone surprised? How could anyone listen to that bile from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. not loathe America and her allies?
I cribbed this from Ace:
...the Obama people might think there's some sort of moral equivalence between Israel and Iran.
They don't think that at all. In their minds Israel is the colonial power oppressing the peaceful Muslims who just want to blow the infidel up in peace. Hussein Obama and the leftists know in their hearts that Israel and the U.S. need to be destroyed because they are the root of all evil.
Labels: obama
Sir Churchill on Socialism
I know Obama is fond of Churchill but he may take issue with this quote:
"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent trait is the equal sharing of misery."
- Sir Winston Churchill
Related
Obama & Churchill & the President's Sources
Obama Throws Churchill Out of Oval Office
Barack Obama sends bust of Winston Churchill on its way back to Britain
"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent trait is the equal sharing of misery."
- Sir Winston Churchill
Related
Obama & Churchill & the President's Sources
Obama Throws Churchill Out of Oval Office
Barack Obama sends bust of Winston Churchill on its way back to Britain
The Obama/Pelosi/Reid Checklist
The first 100 days have been fruitful comrade!
No. 1. Abolition of property in land application of all rents of land to public purposes.
No. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
No. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
No. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
No. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and exclusive monopoly.
No. 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of State.
No. 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil in accordance with a common plan.
No. 8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies; especially for agriculture.
No. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
No. 10. Free education for all children in public schools.
Source: Getting Rid of Communism by Leonard E. Read
No. 1. Abolition of property in land application of all rents of land to public purposes.
No. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
No. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
No. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
No. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and exclusive monopoly.
No. 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of State.
No. 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil in accordance with a common plan.
No. 8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies; especially for agriculture.
No. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
No. 10. Free education for all children in public schools.
Source: Getting Rid of Communism by Leonard E. Read
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Breathtaking in its scope
That's how U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4th) describes the mind-numbing $787 billion available for redistribution. The availability of funds is creating such a tsunami that Himes has appointed a "recovery director" to assist with the redistribution.
Most recently Himes has been busy teaching nonprofits how to waddle up to the trough for some of that; (a) newly printed money, (b) Chinese held debt, (c) stolen from the most productive, and (d) soon to be raised from a bevy of new taxes levied against 95% of all Americans.
Most recently Himes has been busy teaching nonprofits how to waddle up to the trough for some of that; (a) newly printed money, (b) Chinese held debt, (c) stolen from the most productive, and (d) soon to be raised from a bevy of new taxes levied against 95% of all Americans.
trough (noun) - a long, narrow, open receptacle, usually boxlike in shape, used chiefly to hold water or food for animals.
Good Old Fashioned American Welfare! Get you some!
$1 billion a day for stimulus (CNN)
The Obama administration has committed $75 billion in stimulus money in 10 weeks. So far $14.5 billion has been spent, mostly for Medicaid.
Many would-be recipients are still wading through all the recovery program's requirements or waiting for guidance from federal agencies before they put in requests.
Lastly, a significant amount of funding won't be made available until recipients either sign contracts or file grant applications. And in some cases, new programs must be created before the money can flow.
The Obama administration has committed $75 billion in stimulus money in 10 weeks. So far $14.5 billion has been spent, mostly for Medicaid.
Many would-be recipients are still wading through all the recovery program's requirements or waiting for guidance from federal agencies before they put in requests.
Lastly, a significant amount of funding won't be made available until recipients either sign contracts or file grant applications. And in some cases, new programs must be created before the money can flow.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Obama in his own words (and the one surge he can wholeheartedly support)
"I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."
- Barack Obama, February 23, 2009
Related
- Barack Obama, February 23, 2009
Related
Obama defends budget as deficit forecast surges
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast Friday the deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars this year under the Obama proposal, quadrupling the 2008 record shortfall.
The CBO said its latest budget deficit estimate for fiscal 2009, which ends on September 30, would amount to 13.1 percent of the country's total economic output.
China buying boosts gold to 3-week high
"China is protecting its huge currency risk by diversifying with gold as well as other currencies like the euro. This is prudent," said Frank Holmes, chief executive officer of U.S. Global Investors, which manages more than $2 billion in fund assets.
Labels: obama
The Obama Economic Blueprint
"Starting in the 1960s, Detroit began a precipitous decline. Most scholars blame rapid suburbanization, outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, and federal programs they say exacerbated the situation by creating a culture of joblessness and dependency."
Source: America's Most Dangerous Cities (Forbes)
Related
‘Going Galt’ Got Going Last Summer: How Pelosi, Obama, and Reid began the recession — and then worsened it.
Source: America's Most Dangerous Cities (Forbes)
Related
‘Going Galt’ Got Going Last Summer: How Pelosi, Obama, and Reid began the recession — and then worsened it.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Weekend 94.0
Black Breath - Name given to the fell influence of the Nazgûl, which resulted in despair, unconsciousness, and bad dreams, and after prolonged exposure, in death. I think you can catch the equivalent from Barney Frank, Christopher "Countrywide" Dodd, Charles Rangel, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. I'm not sure who in this motley lot would play the Lord Of The Nazgûl.
Related
The Hunt For Gollum
Labels: dodd, obama, pelosi, rangel, reid
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Political Expediency: The Obama "torture memos" game
You look at the political expediency and the political objective of these leaks. Obama was elected by running against George Bush, even though he wasn't on the ballot. He has been running against Bush in the first 100 days. He ran against Bush when he was in Europe and in Trinidad. He's making himself the foil against Bush.
And you would expect that has to end after a few months. Well, with the torture issue, it doesn't end. It's a perfect way to keep Bush alive as the permanent nemesis and foil of Obama.
And what he's doing is by strategically releasing a memo here, a memo there, he creates a firestorm, which is all predictable, which is not going to end up in prosecutions. It will end up in a truth commission.
You will have all kinds of Congressional hearings. You will have all kinds of commissions. You will have leaks. You will have televised, very dramatic testimony.
This issue, the Bush issue, will be alive for a long time.
Source
Labels: obama
Monday, April 20, 2009
Obama thinks YOU are a MORON
Obama to Order $100 Million in Budget Cuts
The Obama/Reid/Pelosi deficit is $3 TRILLION DOLLARS ($3 TRILLION DOLLARS)!!! According to Forbes, the NEW Yankee Stadium cost $1.4 BILLION. In ANY scope, the $100 Million in budget cuts Obama is "ordering" is pathetic.
Related
YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING (Poor and Stupid)
AP: Obama's Cuts are Sick Joke
Smoke Signals
The Obama/Reid/Pelosi deficit is $3 TRILLION DOLLARS ($3 TRILLION DOLLARS)!!! According to Forbes, the NEW Yankee Stadium cost $1.4 BILLION. In ANY scope, the $100 Million in budget cuts Obama is "ordering" is pathetic.
Related
YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING (Poor and Stupid)
AP: Obama's Cuts are Sick Joke
Smoke Signals
Obama’s $100 Million Cut
It is 1/40,000 of the federal budget;
It is 1/7,830 the size of the recent “stimulus” bill;
It would close 1/1,845 of this year’s budget deficit;
It is the amount the federal government spends every 13 minutes; and
For a family earning $40,000 annually, it is the equivalent of cutting $1 from their family budget.
Seriously. President Obama has reportedly been working closely with noted behavioral economists, and their studies have shown that most people are “insensitive to scope,” meaning they are not very good at putting large numbers in their proper context. People will react about the same to a policy proposal whether the cost/benefit is $10 million, $10 billion, or $10 trillion. Consequently, the $100 million cut may seem huge to many voters.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Nothing is ever what is seems with Obama
Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request (CNSNews.com)
More on "Catholic" Georgetown from Jonah Goldberg:
Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real (Michelle Malkin)
DHS Ignored Civil Liberties Objections to Rush Out "Extremist" Report (Ace)
This next one could turn out to be the biggest story of the year.
The EPA is angling to control greenhouse gases. This is a clever way for Obama to escape culpability for significantly higher energy costs (cap and trade).
Nothing is ever what is seems with Obama. Even his call for a simpler tax code will require legions of new government bureaucrats.
More on "Catholic" Georgetown from Jonah Goldberg:
If Obama were to give a major address, say, on the state of U.S. relations with the Muslim world, it would be silly to do it at such a venue. So too bad for Georgetown and other religiously affiliated schools. But the idea that, as a general matter, when the president is speaking about budget and economic priorities, he shouldn't do it if there's a chance someone will see him near a religious symbol, well, that's absurd. Real pluralism means pluralism of institutions. When the living embodiment of the executive branch shows up, that shouldn't mean that all religious images need to be hidden. It means, perhaps, they should be polished.Old news now but worth posting because it demonstrates a deliberate pattern by Obama.
Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real (Michelle Malkin)
DHS Ignored Civil Liberties Objections to Rush Out "Extremist" Report (Ace)
This next one could turn out to be the biggest story of the year.The EPA is angling to control greenhouse gases. This is a clever way for Obama to escape culpability for significantly higher energy costs (cap and trade).
Nothing is ever what is seems with Obama. Even his call for a simpler tax code will require legions of new government bureaucrats.
Labels: obama
Friday, April 03, 2009
Weekend 91.0
Why Catholics Are Worried About Obama (RealClearPolitics)
Mr. Obama has remained popular among his mainly poor supporters, whose living standards have been improved by increased spending on welfare, food subsidies and other programs.
Clitonista stooge Robert Reich (didn't he work for Citibank?) calling for more stimulus.
The Tea Party Google map
The Ship is Sinking: Quick, Add Water (RealClearPolitics)Venezuelan Government Arrests Chávez Opponent (Wall Street Journal) - Just substitute Obama for Hugo to extract maximum clairvoyance. As an example:
President Obama has reminded us countless times that he inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. Even if he were about to propose the most responsible, prudent, visionary budget imaginable, that complaint would still be petulant and unseemly. But considering what Obama's own spending will do to the deficit, it's jaw-droppingly galling. He now proposes to increase that deficit to $7 trillion in 10 years. And that $7 trillion is probably a low estimate (the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will be $2.3 trillion higher). When the new spending for programs like Pell Grants, education for handicapped children and so forth comes up for renewal in a few years, Congress is not going to let it lapse. So, to review, it was terrible for President Bush and the Democratic Congress (the president neglects to mention them) to saddle him with all this debt. His answer is to triple it. That's showing 'em!
Mr. Obama has remained popular among his mainly poor supporters, whose living standards have been improved by increased spending on welfare, food subsidies and other programs.
Clitonista stooge Robert Reich (didn't he work for Citibank?) calling for more stimulus.
Washington’s Socialist Spendathon: The federal bailout exceeds 90 percent of U.S. GDP. If that isn’t socialism, what is?
Bloomberg News has tallied Washington’s spending and promises as it props up banks, insurers, automakers, and seemingly everyone except hardworking taxpayers who promptly pay their bills. Bloomberg deserves great credit for focusing on this constantly moving target. In its latest estimate, Bloomberg correspondents Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry reported on March 31 that the Federal Reserve, Treasury, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Department of Housing and Urban Development have saddled taxpayers with $12.8 trillion so far. America’s 2008 gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion. Hence, the federal bailout now equals 90.14 percent of GDP.
The Tea Party Google map
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
First National Bank of Obama
Many of Mr Obama’s achievements have a Potemkin quality. He signed a $410 billion spending bill that contains 8,570 earmarks (directing funds to specific projects), despite his pledge to reduce the practice. His budget rests on unrealistic assumptions about America’s future economic growth and about the cost of his spending programmes. He throws out numbers like confetti: Peter Orszag, his usually impressive budget director, made a dismal job of explaining to Congress where Mr Obama intended to find the $634 billion “down payment” he promised for health-care reform.The biggest surprise of Mr Obama’s first two months has not been his policy preferences (most of which he advertised), but a certain lack of competence. The man who earned the sobriquet “No Drama Obama” for running such a disciplined campaign has, since coming to office, slipped on one banana skin after another.
He has spent his career, apart from a year or so in business consultancy, in the non-profit sector, first as a community organiser and later as a rising politician. In his memoirs he often speaks disparagingly about the private sector. He draws some of his keenest support from trade unions and liberal pressure-groups. The most influential think-tank in Mr Obama’s Washington, the training ground for many of his top appointees, is the Centre for American Progress, funded by liberal billionaires such as George Soros and Peter Lewis.
Source: Economist
Monday, March 30, 2009
About DEM style tyranny and socialism...
Here's a bill sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) that seeks to regulate small farms and roadside produce stands. (Hat Tip: Ace)
Socialism: Yes We Can! (Follow Up)
I can't conclude a round of quotations on socialism without one from The Northwood Idea by V. Orval Watts.
With this elitist excuse for tyranny, governments organize militaristic and imperialistic gangs to substitute forms of slavery for the voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Then, as in Communist countries today, even the ablest of the ruling bureaucracies find that any individual is expendable - trapped and exploited or liquidated - as millions of humans are sacrificed on the altars of Planned Perfection. The Moral Law of the Golden Rule and of the Ten Commandments may be violated, but not with impunity. He who harms others, harms himself; he who deceives another, cheats himself.
