Jobs & Debt Anyone?

indyfromaz|

Our Biden Momemt of the Week: “If I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them.”
He quickly added: “To the press, that’s a figure of speech.”
Yeah, that’s an evil thought isn’t it Joe.  Perish the Thought…
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Another great Moment: The debate between Richard “I lied about being in Vietnam” Blumenthal(D) and Linda McMahon.
When asked about how you create a job, he rambled on for over a minute and end up with praising government.
She did it in 19 seconds.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4359817/how-do-you-create-a-job/
By the way, it is expected by many economist that when the Unemployment figures come out on Friday that the rate will GO UP!
3 Trillion Dollars of Debt and nothing but Keynesian socialism to show for it!
Don’t worry, be Happy.
Hope and Change is still alive!. It’s a zombie corpse coming relentlessly to eat your brains, but it’s still alive!
Yes He can!!!
The Democrats have no idea how to create a job without a massive government bureaucracy run by them, which is probably why they ignore it so much.
WASHINGTON — Recovery.gov promised transparency on how the government spends every dollar of stimulus money, but there’s $162 million the website doesn’t disclose.
Recipients of 352 federal stimulus contracts, grants and loans have failed to report how they spent the money, the status of their projects or how many jobs were funded, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Despite orders from the White House to crack down, enforcement is spotty.
Gee, now that’s not transparent.
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From a Russian Webpage on “Global Warming”
Forecasters say this winter could be the coldest Europe has seen in the last 1,000 years.
The change is reportedly connected with the speed of the Gulf Stream, which has shrunk in half in just the last couple of years. Polish scientists say that it means the stream will not be able to compensate for the cold from the Arctic winds. According to them, when the stream is completely stopped, a new Ice Age will begin in Europe. (prime time russia)

I guess the Global Warming alarmist were too busy blowing up people they disagreed with in commercials to notice.
Then there’s Obama’s Global Warming Cops, The EPA.
Tough new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricting greenhouse gas emissions will “slow construction nationwide for years” – but will only reduce global temperatures 0.0015 (15 ten-thousandths) of a degree Celsius in the next century.
“(D)uring this time, tens of thousands of sources each year would be prevented from constructing or modifying,” the EPA staff wrote. “In fact, it is reasonable to assume that many of those sources will be forced to abandon altogether plans to construct or modify. As a result, a literal application (of the permit requirement) to GHG (greenhouse gas) sources would slow construction nationwide for years, with all of the adverse effects that this would have on economic development.”
But the benefit of regulating mobile sources (aka Cars) is, also by the EPA’s own estimations, as little as less than two thousandths of a degree in temperature reduction over a century.
Meanwhile, Mother nature is doing it anyways. Gee, I wonder “Global Warming” (climate Change, et al) is a liberal socialist control scam?
And way to create some jobs there, guys!
If it walks like a liberal socialist duck, smells like a liberal socialist duck,it’s a liberal socialist duck.
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said, “In many instances, the EPA is overreaching its authority. Instead of operating within the law, EPA believes it can dictate to Congress that legislation needs to be passed for more government authority. And if Congress doesn’t act, it threatens to regulate anyway.”
“Every day, the EPA seems to demonstrate how vastly disconnected it is to the folks who feed us.”
Gee, where have we heard this about being “disconnected” before?
President Obama made a big show this week of installing solar panels at the White House, calling it a “commitment to lead.” It’s not. It’s feel-good political symbolism masquerading as a real energy policy.
One could almost feel the prickly sweater of Jimmy Carter descending over the White House as news of solar panels gracing the roof of the residence, as they once did in 1976, was announced Tuesday.
Back then, Carter made symbolic gestures like installing panels and wearing sweaters to set a personal example for conserving energy, while ignoring the shortages, gas lines, rationing and inflation that came with high energy prices.
Inexplicably, the current president is copying him.
According to the White House blog, the new panels are “a project that demonstrates American solar technologies are available, reliable, and ready for installation in homes throughout the country,” a claim which presumes that the only reason Americans aren’t buying them is their own stubbornness.
But in reality, the panels remain costly, and experts estimate the White House installation to cost $100,000. A price tag like that means such panels will remain a rich man’s plaything, no matter how much they demonstrate a commitment to green energy.
In the White House case, the panels also represent politics. Democrats have been desperate to enact a green agenda as midterm elections approach, having failed repeatedly as their proposals collided against economic reality. So instead of grinding the economy to a halt with an economy-killing cap-and-trade law, for now the White House will have to do with its symbolic solar panels.
As harmless as this symbolism may seem to some, it amounts to a substitute for a real energy policy.
As the president installs his solar panels at taxpayer expense, he isn’t doing what he could be doing: making a practical case for energy security, something that could come from development of domestic shale, offshore oil, natural gas, coal and other resources that the environmental lobby has put off-limits over the years.
The symbolic act also amounts to a planted flag for the radical green agenda instead of an energy agenda that serves the people.
To the White House, money is limitless and green technology every inch the equal to more efficient oil. In the real world, the viability of energy is determined by its cost and availability.
People won’t install solar panels just because the White House has them. They will do so if panels make the best business sense.
Unfortunately, this White House doesn’t require that.(IBD)
Because no one in this White House has any actual business experience. They are talking out of their Liberal Elitist Academic asses.
And we are the ones getting the fecal results.

The Light

indyfromaz|

The light at the end of the socialist environmentalist tunnel is a train, by the way.
But it will make you “feel” good as you get run over by it and your freedom denied.
But you’ll be saving the planet! Isn’t that peachy.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
FEAR IS HOPE
Beginning today (Sept 1), it is a crime to manufacture or ship for sale a traditional 75-watt incandescent light bulb in the European Union. Autocrats in Brussels last year declared war on Edison’s greatest invention with a ban on 100-watt lamps. Homes throughout the Old World will continue to dim until incandescent lighting of all types is snuffed out in 2012 – the same year the United States is scheduled to begin a phaseout schedule mirroring the European plan.
The EU’s final solution to the incandescent problem was sparked by bureaucratic irritation at a public that refused to accept the pale, flickering, cold light emanating from government-approved, expensive compact fluorescent bulbs. “Although energy-saving bulbs have been clearly labeled since 1998 as the most cost-effective bulbs, their relatively high purchase price has inhibited take-up,” the European Commission website explains. “To remedy this, EU European Parliament asked the Commission to adopt minimum requirements phasing out the least-efficient bulbs.” governments and the
Consumers realize the warm glow of a cheap incandescent is superior in every way to the deadly, mercury-filled substitute being foisted upon them. In Finland, Helsingin Sanomat reported that the new ban has not resulted in a surge of sales for the new bulbs that the bureaucrats expected. Instead, 75-watt packages have been flying off the shelves as customers filled their closets, garages and attics with lighting supplies for the long term. Such hoarding has been the rule for more than a year. London’s Daily Mail gave away 25,000 of the 100-watt bulbs as a prize in a January 2009 contest. Der Spiegel reported that German customers left hardware stores with carts jammed with enough incandescent bulbs to last 20 years.
We can look forward to a similar reaction on these shores as our own Jan. 1, 2012, deadline approaches. President George W. Bush’s signature on the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 condemned the traditional bulb in favor of the fluorescent lights rejected by the free market. Only eight senators and 100 House members opposed the bill.
Yes, George W Bush, the Left’s Anti-Christ!
There is still hope that sanity could return before the U.S. ban on normal light bulbs takes effect. Two years ago, New Zealanders faced an imminent ban. The National Party, at the time in the minority, made overturning the light-bulb scheme a priority in its campaign against the ruling Labor government. The public responded favorably to the party that proclaimed that it “stands for freedom, choice, independence and ambition.” In December 2008, the National Party government overturned the light-bulb ban. Republican challengers seeking an edge over Democrats in November could learn a few things from the Kiwis. (Washington Times)


A light bulb factory closes in Virginia as mandated fluorescents are made in China. It’s now a crime to make or ship for sale 75-watt incandescent bulbs in the European Union. Welcome to green hell.
(I bet if they’d had a Union…)

Thomas Alva Edison was a genius credited with the invention of many things — the phonograph, the motion picture, the incandescent light bulb, global warming. That last credit was given by those who rank light bulbs right up there with the internal combustion engine as ravagers of the planet.
The General Electric light bulb factory in Winchester, Va., closed this month, a victim, along with its 200 employees, of a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014.
Just as they are by fuel-economy standards, consumers are denied choice and the freedom to evaluate any possible benefits on their own by the nanny state. Washington’s force and coercion are necessary because it seems the great unwashed can’t seem to see the benefits or ignore the risks of compact fluorescents, or CFLs.
In Europe, light bulbs are already a controlled substance. The 100-watt bulb was banned last year and the 75-watt became illegal as of Sept. 1.
Not surprisingly, incandescent light bulbs there quickly became a hot item, flying off the shelves while they were still available. Der Spiegel reported that German customers leave hardware stores with carts piled high with enough incandescent bulbs to last 20 years. Garages and attics throughout the Old World are full of them.
It’s said that CFL bulbs are more economical in the long run because they supposedly use up to 80% less energy than old-style bulbs and don’t burn out as quickly. Though we’re not fully convinced of these claims, we do know that CFL bulbs are more expensive, costing up to six times as much as equivalent incandescent bulbs. Because they are made of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they also require more hand labor and therefore cost more.
Due to the expense, CFLs are made largely in China, where labor is cheaper and environmental regulations not so strict. As with wind turbine blades, we are creating plenty of green jobs — in the People’s Republic.
Despite governments’ effort to market them, CFLs are not necessarily better. Tests conducted by the London Telegraph found that using a single lamp to illuminate a room, an 11-watt CFL produced only 58% of the illumination of an equivalent 60-watt incandescent — even after a 10-minute warm-up that consumers have found necessary for CFLs to reach their full brightness.
Lack of light isn’t the only drawback. CFLs apparently are so dangerous, the European Commission has to warn consumers of the environmental hazards they pose. If one breaks, consumers are advised to air out rooms and avoid using vacuum cleaners to prevent exposure to the mercury in the bulbs.
You can’t just throw an old bulb out, either. It must be properly disposed of lest your bedroom or family room become a Superfund toxic waste site.
Mercury is considered by environmentalists to be among the most toxic of toxic substances and, yes, it is dangerous if ingested or handled over time. We’ve been warned that high concentrations in fish are dangerous to pregnant women. We’ve been told mercury in vaccines causes autism. So it’s safe in light bulbs?
As we’ve found out here with energy regulation and taxes, and the push for cap-and-trade, governments don’t care what people want. Nor do they weigh the costs, the benefits and the risks of this or that. Government must mandate what’s good for us under penalty of law. (IBD)


And if this is the humble Light Bulb, imagine what Health Care will be like.
And then there’s the Chevy Volt, built, subsidized and marketed by the US Government (GM-Government Motors).
Texas Instruments, for example, has a page on its web site devoted entirely to the wonders of using RFID chips to monitor municipal trash collection in order to determine whether people are properly recycling.
The city council in Cleveland, Ohio, on the other hand, is far less concerned with even the appearance of benevolence in its RFID-based trash monitoring program, than is Texas Instruments.  The council recently voted to expand its RFID trash program by mandating the installation of the devices in order to determine and hand out fines for failure to participate.  In yet another example of the unholy alliance between business and government in expanding the reach of Big Brother, Cleveland has retained a  private company to handle its high-tech recycling program.  It’s a win-win — the company makes money by collecting the recycled trash, and the city reaps at least a short-term windfall by receiving payments from the company for a task it formerly had to carry out.  The loser, of course, is the consumer who is paying the taxes and fees for such activities; and surrendering to the company and the city council any privacy in their accumulation or disposal of garbage.
In California, schools are finding that students – like municipal citizens — constitute another captive audience on which to experiment with RFID chips.  One school district in Contra Costa County, for example, now requires all its students to wear jerseys embedded with RFID tags, so their whereabouts can be monitored all the while they are at the schools, and then data-based.   The tags also reportedly will alert school officials if a student has not eaten; though what punishment will befall dieting students is unclear.
Where is the Contra Costa County school system getting the money to implement such a school-based Big Brother program?  They get the money from same place most of these and other privacy-invasive programs come from — you, the American taxpayer; genereously given away as federal “grants.” (AJC)
The government wants to know everything about you. Because, you want to misbehave and act outside society’s interest (aka their control) you individual freedom-ist. You selfish bastard.
We, The Government, just want you to be safe, save energy, and save the planet all at the same time.
Is that so wrong?

The 4th Precept

indyfromaz|

We all should be familiar with Orwell’s 3 main Thought control precepts as put forward in in his book, 1984.
If you have never read it. Do so. Immediately.
It can change your life. I know it did mine.
But those precepts used by the Ministry of Truth were:

“”War is Peace”

“Freedom is Slavery”

“Ignorance is Strength”

And I think the Democrats and especially Obama have come up with a new one.

FEAR IS HOPE

Because they are constantly talking about hope. But all they do is spread fear.
So Fear must therefore be Hope.
“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.”-Orwell.
And since the liberals view of the past decade is one of total evil and you should fear that evil coming back, and you should have hope for a brighter, more vibrant America than letting that evil back in, Fear is Hope.
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”-Orwell
And there can’t be more deceit going on now than in recent memory.
“It’s still fear versus hope; the past versus the future,” Obama said from Cleveland, Ohio Sept 8th, “It’s still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward.  That’s what this election is about.  That’s the choice you’ll face in November.”
“There were no new ideas.  There was just the same philosophy we already tried for the last decade – the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place.”
The Republican way for 2010 is through FEAR. Fear of African-Americans (especially President Obama), immigrants, health care, credit card reform, bank reform and Muslims, and the complete untruth that oil shortage and jobs will never come to the U.S. unless the wealthiest 2% of Americans get tax cuts.
“Now Republicans are scheming to win back Congress. With a majority, they’ll do everything they can to reverse the progress Democrats have made. They’ll turn back the clock on behalf of their special interest friends, their big donors, and the extreme right-wing elements that have taken over their party”.–DNC Chair Tim Kaine
Let’s ignore all the bailouts for their special interests: Unions and their biggest donors,: Unions and Trial Lawyers.
97% of SEIU (a government service union) political contributions went to Democrats. The Union President is the person who has visited the Obama White House more than any other person so far. Hmm…
Let’s just ignore the whole “Community Reinvestment Act”, Barney Frank & Chris Dodd passing legislation to force banks to lend, Fannie and Freddie meltdown that continue to this day because it and now $4 Trillion dollars more debt than when Bush was in office.
Hope for a better future. Fear anyone who disagrees with us.
“So let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else:  we should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer.  We are ready, this week, to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or less,”
So that’s why I’m in favor of not extending the Bush Tax cuts so EVERYONE’s taxes GO UP!
Obama said, “Now for any income over this amount, the tax rates would go back to what they were under President Clinton.  This isn’t to punish folks who are better off. God Bless them. It’s because we can’t afford the $700 billion price tag.”
But we could afford the Trillion Dollar Stimulus, Nationalizing Health Care, Massive new regulation and taxes on businesses, Bailouts of GM, Banks, Unions, Teachers, Government Pensions, States and now Stimulus III the stimulus-you-better-not-call-a-stimulus!
We can spend for that to the tune of more spending in the last 20 months than from George Washington to Ronald Reagan!!
That’s fine.
But FEAR the return of the Bush policies that destroyed us (which they didn’t-it was the democrats 1990′s ideas that slowly crashed the engine of this country but ignore that)!
Hope lays in the Democrats and only the Democrats. We will save you!
FEAR IS HOPE
Obama said of the Republicans of yesteryear, “They didn’t always prey on people’s fears and anxieties (Democrats never do that ). They made mistakes, but they did what they thought was in the best interest of their country and its people (and so did the Democrats and the Community Re-investment Act where everyone is entitled to a home).  That’s what the American people expect of us today – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.  That’s the debate they deserve.  That’s the leadership we owe them.” (so that’s why he divide everyone on everything).

HAIL BIG BROTHER!  FEAR IS HOPE!
HOPE AND CHANGE!
“Yes, our families believed in the American values of self-reliance and individual responsibility, and they instilled those values in their children.  But they also believed in a country that rewards responsibility.”
But it was all George Bush and The Republican’s Fault!!
And if you elect them in November they’ll do it to you again!
FEAR IS HOPE!
The fear of uncertainty that pervades the business world is palatable. What will the Democrats do now to crush business and evil corporate america.
But have have hope that more spending (on stimulus not on tax cuts) will save you from the evils of corporate america.
FEAR IS HOPE
“Anyone who thinks we can move this economy forward with a few doing well at the top, hoping it’ll trickle down to working folks running faster and faster just to keep up—they just haven’t studied our history.”
“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.”-Orwell.
Trickle up poverty and crushing everyone is much better. It gives you hope.
You can hope that the government will save you and fear your boss.
FEAR IS HOPE!
“If we’re willing again to choose hope over fear, to choose the future over the past, to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy, rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American dream for the next generation,” he said, striking the revival-like cadences that buoyed his presidential bid.
It’s just no one is fainting in the audience anymore, overcome by the shear wonder of of his greatness!
He’s Hope.
They are are Fear!
FEAR IS HOPE
He hit Republicans hard for opposing the administration’s economic plan.
“Instead of setting our sights higher, they’re asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness and a shrinking middle class,” Mr. Obama said.
None of which is his fault or the fault of Democrats, mind you. They are simply trying to clean up the mess.
FEAR IS HOPE
HOPE IS FEAR
FEAR IS HOPE
The LA Times  proudly proclaims, “Obama blasts continued tax cuts for the rich!” But every time you hear leftists refer to “the rich,” remember that “the rich” are also known by these other terms: employers, investors, the self-reliant, self-starters.
Attacking “the rich” is a direct assault on the people who invest and employ. Hate the rich if you must, but don’t force them into poverty or offshore solutions. If you hope to bankrupt the rich, you have only seen the beginning of the economic collapse to come. (American Thinker)
Oh, and ignore that the richest member of Congress are largely Democrats. And that most of Congress regardless og party are “the rich” by liberal definitions.
But Class Warfare is easy.
And giving people hope that the government will right the wrong is good.
Fear anyone who doesn’t want to do that.
FEAR IS HOPE
As it is, Obama’s economic plan has a once-great nation so debt-strapped that nobody in the world wants to buy our debt anymore. In Obama’s voodoo bag of economic tricks, there is no next trick. Obama has pretty much guaranteed every American a soup-line existence in his or her near future.
And even Hillary who is now running for President said it.
HILLARY:  I think that our rising debt levels poses a national security threat, and it poses a national security threat in two ways.  It undermines our capacity to act in our own interests, and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable, and it also sends a message of weakness internationally.  I mean it is very troubling to me that we are losing the ability, not only to chart our own destiny, but to, you know, have the leverage that comes from this enormously affected economic engine that has powered American values and interests over so many years.
But the government is  your only hope.
You can’t possibly do it without us.
So when the people themselves rise up against the Your Saviors, the Democrats, you must fear them.
So Democrats have turned to a strategy that may be their next best bet: demonization of the “insurgent” Tea Party.
“These are not your run-of-the-mill Republicans we’re talking about here,” said one Democratic organizer working in a state with a contested Senate race this fall. “When you actually start telling voters what these candidates are about, it scares the hell out of them.”
“The argument that we’ve made is that the Republican Party has been taken over by the Tea Party,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Hari Sevugan said.
“I think we’ve got some folk — Tea Party folk, Republicans — who are out of sync with the average American. And most Americans are in the middle,” said Rep. Cummings (D-MD).
The Republicans are to be feared.
The Tea party has “taken over” the Republicans.
They are extremists. We aren’t
So the Tea Party must be feared.
So, the hope of saving you from this fear is The Democrats!
FEAR IS HOPE
“It’s a race between Democrats and the Republican Tea Party,” VP Biden said.
The Tea Party is full of racists and bigots and extremists. Fear them!

SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center, a very liberal group) also sees a connection between the “paranoid” anti-government ideas espoused by extremist militias, racist skinheads, and the ideas espoused by prominent Tea Partiers.

CNN worried that the “dangerous rhetoric” of Tea Party activists may be “inciting violence” against lawmakers.
Not too long ago, taking to the streets to protest your government was considered a patriotic act as long as you were against Bush or Republicans.
But now it’s to be feared.
Why, because those protesters are now in power and they don’t want to be protested against. Simple.
“These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,”
Republican or Democrat? Tea party or Union Member?
Try Nancy Pelosi on the protests against the Health care bill.
So drowning out their views is un-american, but when they shout you down it’s patriotic.
Orwell would be proud.
FEAR IS HOPE
And finally, The Mosque issue.
Where you’re a racist if you oppose them.
You’re a bigot.
Because all they want to do is “build bridges” “tolerance” and bring hope of muslim acceptance.
But it hasn’t worked. So it’s time for fear.
CNN: “If we move from that location, the story will be the radicals have taken over the discourse, the headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. Our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how we speak about it. The battlefront is between moderates of all sides… and the radicals on all sides.”
Moving the project to another location would strengthen Islamist radicals’ ability to recruit followers and will likely increase violence against Americans, the imam said.”– Iman Faisal Abdul Rauf earlier this week.
So if you don’t build it they will attack!!
If you oppose it you’re a racist and a bigot!
But if they build it. Peace and Harmony and understanding and love will love like water.
FEAR IS HOPE

Uncle Sam becoming Santa Claus

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter. And those who matter don’t mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Government’s role in the economy has reached an unprecedented scale by at least one measure.
A record 30 cents of every dollar in personal income comes directly from government, Commerce Department data show.
And since government produces nothing and gets it money from you and me (the private sector) and there is now 47% of the people who don’t pay taxes at all and One in six Americans receives some form of government aid because of effects of the recession that started in 2007, a review of data indicates.
More than 50 million people are on Medicaid, a program principally designed to help the poor, and nearly 10 million Americans receive unemployment benefits, USA Today said Monday in a report based on data from state officials.
“Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record,” said Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates, a company that compiles data for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
More than 40 million people now receive food stamps, a jump of nearly 50 percent since the recession began, the report said. The unemployment rate in the United States remains above 9 percent.

You have more people dependent on less people for more money!

But don’t worry, this was the “Summer of Recovery” and everything is fine. It just needs more time , according to our Harvard Educated Academic Elites — aka the Obama boys and girls.
And they just need to explain it better and suddenly you’ll have an epiphany and see how wonderful they are!
Including transfer payments (income support and health insurance benefits) and compensation to public employees, government paid out $3.8 trillion of $12.5 trillion in total personal income in July on an annualized basis.
And remember their “urgent” August bailout of state workers for  $26 billion was supposed to be partially paid by cuts in Food Stamps in 2014 (when the Health Care Mandate is set to kick in).
So if they just explain better how their Wimpy “I’ll bailout you today for a payment in 4 years” economics work for you, you’ll suddenly fall madly in love with them and bask in their greatness.
That 30.3% share of personal income compares to 25.5% before the recession and 23.5% in 2000. The level topped 27% in the wake of the 1991 recession and hit a prior peak of 28% in 1975.
So government workers personal income has risen 7.5 % SINCE the recession started (and Congress was taken over by Democrats in 2007). And you’re on the hook for it. Doesn’t that make you happy?
The government’s record share reflects the dismal state of private wages and the ramping of federal transfer payments from a historically high base.
“The private economy has been put through the wringer and thus policymakers have been working hard to fill the hole,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Real private wages remain 8.4% below their December 2007 level and just 1.3% above their February bottom. That low was a level first reached in March 2001.
The weakness in private wages reflects deep layoffs and shorter workweeks due to the recession, and the “not terribly robust” prior economic expansion, said Josh Feinman, chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management in the Americas.
Meanwhile, government income payments are up 17% in real terms since the start of the recession. The real mover has been transfer payments, which accounted for a record 18.4% of personal income in July. That’s up by nearly half from 12.7% in 2000 and more than a quarter from 14.4% in 2007.
The growth is a combination of the inexorable rise of spending on Social Security and health care entitlement programs, as well as a spike in unemployment compensation, food stamps and Medicaid due to weak labor markets and expanded benefits included in the Recovery Act.
Real personal income less government transfer payments remains 5.5% below its December 2007 peak, yet real disposable income is up 2.7% since the start of the recession. That’s due to increases in government income payments and lower tax payments.
Too Much To Get Out?
The government’s role in supporting the recovery is already raising questions about how the economy will fare as the crutches are removed.
“Given how significant its role has become, it does make it more difficult for the government to exit out in a graceful way,” Zandi said.
The stimulus has already begun to fade, with more than a million unemployed exhausting jobless benefits of up to 99 weeks.
Zandi says even further government stimulus would be prudent, given the current slowdown.
In addition to tax cuts and spending hikes, another option would be a government-led mortgage refinancing push to make low-rate loans available to those with insufficient equity in their homes to qualify.
“To have a meaningful recovery, the private sector has to step back up to the plate,” Feinman said.
In prior recoveries, policy stimulus and inventory building eventually allowed for a handoff to a healing private sector, he says.
That handoff “is just not happening” said Feinman. He expects “a long climb back.”
The one area of private compensation that is growing, nonsalary benefits, is not as helpful as wage growth, which puts cash in people’s pockets, Zandi notes.
Real nonsalary compensation (private and government) is up 4.1%, likely reflecting rising health care costs and perhaps some catchup pension contributions.
During the Great Depression, when fiscal stabilizers and safety nets were in their infancy, the government’s share of personal income peaked at just over 16%. Even in World War II, when the government payroll ballooned, its share only briefly neared 25%, falling back below 20% until the 1960s.
The share of personal income is an incomplete gauge of government’s economic role because it doesn’t include direct spending. A better, though imperfect, measure would be the combined federal, state and local government budgets as a share of gross domestic product.
By this score, government was far bigger during World War II, when the federal budget alone topped 43% of GDP. While state and local figures are out of date, total government spending probably will be around 40% of GDP this year. (IBD)


And Obama & Co’s solution, they want to spend more money and still raise taxes on 1/1/11.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
But that’s what happens when you’re in an ideological ditch and you can’t get out.

So bring out the talking points:
“In the month I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month,” the president said. “This morning, new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private job growth.  Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000. Now that’s positive news, and it reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.”
The net job loss for August is largely because of the layoffs of 114,000 Census temporary workers.
When May’s job numbers showed a net increase of 431,000 jobs – 411,000 of which were Census jobs — the president did note that “most of these jobs this month that we’re seeing in the statistics represent workers who’ve been hired to complete the 2010 census.” But in those June 4 remarks the president didn’t detail just how many of the 431,000 jobs were Census jobs – 95% of them — and he cited the overall report, and its deceptively large number as evidence that businesses are “starting to hire again. Workers who were laid off, they’re starting to get their jobs back. Companies that were almost forced to close their doors are making plans to expand and invest in new equipment.” (ABC)

So you can have you’re cake and eat it too! So Let them Eat Cake!
…and said he would “in the weeks ahead” be detailing “further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest.”
And judging from past performance that means more government jobs and more bailouts for states and unions.
Yeah, that’s the ticket…:(


Asked to what degree he regrets his administration’s decision to call this Recovery Summer, the president stammered then said, “I don’t regret the notion that we are moving forward, but because of the steps that we’ve taken.  And I’m going to have a press conference next week, where, after you guys are able to hear where we’re at, we’ll be able to answer some specific questions.” (ABC)

Oh god, he’s going to EXPLAIN IT AGAIN! Just in case you were too stupid to understand it every other time he’s said it!
If he just explains it repeatedly enough you’ll get it.


“This is what change looks like,” Obama said on signing into law the Health Care Cram down Bill.
So in November, we have to show HIM what change looks like then we have change ourselves too because they are the pimps, and we are the ho’s.  So we have to take them out of the drug dealing business and we have to stop using them.

The Last Stand of Liberals- Bigotry

Charles Krauthammer: Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed. Just yesterday it was all hope and change and returning power to the people. But the people have proved so disappointing. Their recalcitrance has, in only 19 months, turned the 40-year liberal ascendancy that James Carville predicted into a full retreat.
Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the “bitter” people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging “to guns or religion or” — this part is less remembered — “antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.”
That’s a polite way of saying: clinging to bigotry. And promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.
Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.
Disgust and alarm with the federal government’s unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.
Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Now we know why the country has become “ungovernable,” last year’s excuse for the Democrats’ failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?
Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities — often lopsided majorities — oppose President Obama’s social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, ObamaCare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a Ground Zero mosque.
What’s a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that pre-empts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument.
The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card. When the Tea Party arose, a spontaneous, leaderless and perfectly natural (and traditionally American) reaction to the vast expansion of government intrinsic to the president’s proudly proclaimed transformational agenda, the liberal commentariat cast it as a mob of angry white yahoos disguising their antipathy to a black president by cleverly speaking in economic terms.
Then came Arizona and SB 1070. It seems impossible for the left to believe that people of good will could hold that: (a) illegal immigration should be illegal, (b) the federal government should not hold border enforcement hostage to comprehensive reform, i.e., amnesty, (c) every country has the right to determine the composition of its immigrant population.
As for Proposition 8, is it so hard to see why people might believe that a single judge overturning the will of 7 million voters is an affront to democracy? And that seeing merit in retaining the structure of the most ancient and fundamental of all social institutions is something other than an alleged hatred of gays — particularly since the opposite-gender requirement has characterized virtually every society in all the millennia until just a few years ago?
And now the Ground Zero mosque. The intelligentsia are near unanimous that the only possible grounds for opposition is bigotry toward Muslims. This smug attribution of bigotry to two-thirds of the population hinges on the insistence on a complete lack of connection between Islam and radical Islam, a proposition that dovetails perfectly with the Obama administration’s pretense that we are at war with nothing more than “violent extremists” of inscrutable motive and indiscernible belief.
Those who reject this as both ridiculous and politically correct (an admitted redundancy) are declared Islamophobes, the ad hominem du jour.
It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting (in a colorful variety of forms).
Indeed, how can one reason with a nation of pitchfork-wielding mobs brimming with “antipathy toward people who aren’t like them” — blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims — a nation that is, as Michelle Obama once put it, “just downright mean”?
The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama over-read his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.
AMEN!


And as for border security? Nothing to worry about there.
The body of an official investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in a ranch in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was found today dumped beside a nearby road alongside another unidentified victim, according to local media.
No big Deal. It’s racist to SECURE THE DAMN BORDER!

The Ditch

Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in its mid-year budget update, has projected that the 2010 budget deficit will be the second highest on record since the end of World War II, eclipsed only by the deficit of 2009.
The CBO says that the total 2010 deficit will reach $1.3 trillion, down slightly from 2009’s $1.4 trillion record. All told, CBO projects that the government will run up a total of $6.2 trillion in new deficits between 2011 and 2020.
Making it over $20 Trillion, double what it was in 2007 and 4 times what it was 20 years prior! a 400% rise in a generation!
But don’t worry it’s all George W Bush and The Republicans Fault! 

During his speech, the president likened Republicans to the “folks who drove the car into the ditch.”
“And so we decided, you know what, we’re going to do the responsible thing,” he said. “We put on our boots, we got into the mud, we got into the ditch. We pushed, we shoved, we’re sweating. They’re standing on the sidelines sipping a Slurpee, sort of watching us, saying, ‘Well, you’re not pushing hard enough,’ or ‘Your shoulder is not positioned the right way,’ giving us a whole bunch of advice on how to push — not lifting a finger to help.
“And finally we get this car up back on the road again, and finally we’re ready to move forward again,” Obama said. “And these guys turn around and say, ‘Give us the keys.’ Well, no, you can’t have the keys back — you don’t know how to drive.”–President Obama

So, children, you can’t hand the keys back to those morons. You have to trust me, I know what I’m doing.
And I’m so much smarter, and so much better than you!
Yeah, the car is back on the road alright, it has a whole in the gas tank, the fuel system is running rich, the steering wheel veers violently to the Left, the muffler has a hole in it and is dragging on the ground. The windows are broken, the transmission needs an overhaul,  and the tires are bald.
But it runs. And you should have more respect and reverence for your Elite Superiors, you ungrateful louts!
And it’s all George W Bush’s Fault after all!
Relative to the size of the economy, the 2010 deficit will reach 9.1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, according to the CBO’s projection. The deficit in 2009 was 9.9 percent of GDP.
“As was the case last year, this year’s deficit is attributable in large part to a combination of weak revenues and elevated spending, associated with the economic downturn and the policies implemented in response to it,” the CBO explained.
The current economic downturn is expected to last for several more years, the non-partisan office said, predicting that unemployment will not fall to around a healthy 5 percent until at least 2014.
Oh goody, just in time for the Health Care Mandate and the other taxes to start kicking in!!!
Rejoice!!
After a year and half of “stimulus” and bailouts gone bad, what has the shift towards higher government spending and an encroaching nanny state cost you? This year, it has cost you 231 days out of your life, or 63 percent of 2010.
Every year, the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation and its Center for Fiscal Accountability calculate the day on which the average American has paid off his burden of federal, state and local spending and regulations. This year that day falls on August 19, a full eight days later than last year’s date.
That was yesterday folks! Rejoice!
Federal spending, always the largest contributor to the Cost of Government Day, cost taxpayers 104 days this year. This is up from 90 days in 2008, when Cost of Government Day fell on July 16. This is to say that the ill-conceived spending policies of the past two years have cost taxpayers over a month of their lives, and show few signs of abating.
President Obama has proposed spending $3.8 trillion in 2011, a 40 percent increase from pre-bailout, pre-“stimulus” levels. (Daily Caller)
And they want to raise taxes in a recession…sorry “Summer of Recovery”.  Hope 2.0…Recovery from what? a Marxist drunken stupor?
Does it kind of remind you of Hollywood rehab, where they go and attend a rehab then come out and do it all over again and go back to rehab and then come and do it again, ad nauseum…?
But don’t worry, if you’re mad about it,remember  it’s all George W. Bush’s Fault you islamophobic,racist,insensitive, ignorant low country moron!
Listen to your Masters, the Insufferably Superior Left.
They are just better, smarter, more tolerant, and sensitive than you could ever be.
And that’s just the facts, ma’am.

Putting Government First

I have not always had much love for Pat Buchanan, but this article he wrote recently is brilliant. So I give him props for it.
The Topic: the lastest bailout of Obama apparatchiks (even though they don’t call them bailouts anymore because they don’t “bailout” anyone anymore. I guess it depends on your definition of “bailout”)

Where a man’s purse is, there his heart will be also.
If you would know where the heart of the Obama party is today, consider. In the dog days of August, with temperatures in D.C. rising above 100, Nancy Pelosi called the House back to Washington to enact legislation that could not wait until September.
Purpose: Vote $26 billion to prevent layoffs of state, municipal and county employees whose own governments had decided they had to be let go if they were to meet their constitutional duty to balance their books.
Workers their own governments thought expendable, Congress decided were so essential, it borrowed another 26 thousand million dollars from China to keep them on state and local payrolls.

//

A nation whose national debt is approaching the size of its gross national product, that goes abroad to borrow money to keep non-essential workers on government payroll is a nation on the way down and out.
And anyone who thinks this Obama party is ever going to cull the armies of tens of millions of government workers or scores of millions of government beneficiaries to put America’s house in order is deluding himself.
As long as this Congress and White House remain in power, a U.S. default on its national debt is inevitable. The only question is when.
Nor is this the first time the Obama administration has rushed to save workers whom their own state, city and county governments were prepared to let go. Among the reasons the $800 billion stimulus failed is that so little of it was directed to firing up the locomotive of the economy, the private sector, and so much of it was spent to ensure that government workers did not have to share in the national sacrifice.
Why Pelosi & Co felt compelled to return to D.C., to ensure that state and local government payrolls were not pared, is not hard to understand.
Which party does the American Federation of Teachers; the National Education Association; and the American Federation of State, Municipal and County Employees usually contribute to, work for, vote for? At which of the two party conventions are teachers and government employees hugely over-represented?
Consider, too, the states deepest in debt and facing the largest cuts in employee ranks, pay and benefits: California, Illinois, New York.
In these states, public employees earn at least $10,000 per year more in pay and benefits than the average America worker, who is bailing them out.
Hence, we have a situation where private sector workers in Middle America are being taxed, their children being driven ever deeper into debt to China, so government employees who have greater job security than they do, and earn more in pay and benefits than they will ever earn, can stay in Fat City.
And folks wonder why so many Americans detest government.
In the same week Congress came back to prevent AFSCME from taking a haircut, the Wall Street Journal reported that, in 2009, only three of 52 metro areas with over 1 million in population saw “net earnings and the broader measure of personal income both rise.”
Are you surprised to learn Washington, D.C., was among the three?
That same day, USA Today had a startling report on how, during the last decade, U.S. Government workers, like Wall Street bankers, left their fellow Americans in the dust.
“Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.
“Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation. … The Federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.”
Remarkable. U.S. government workers, who enjoy the greatest job security of any Americans, now earn twice as much in pay and benefits as the average American. This is not the D.C. some of us grew up in.
Nor is this all Obama’s doing. For most of the fat years of the federal work force came while Washington was being run by a Congress of Big-Government Conservatives and a White House of Bush-Cheney Republicans.
No wonder the tea party is targeting both parties.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to believe that the Obamaites, who intervened twice and massively with bailouts to prevent minor layoffs of local and state government employees, have the stomach to do the major surgery needed to cut the federal monolith down to size.
For the vast majority of the tens of millions of government workers vote Democratic, as do the vast majority of the scores of millions of beneficiaries of federal, state and local programs.
What Pelosi & Co. were saying with that $26 billion bailout this week is, “We are going to protect our own.”
Which is why either Obama, Pelosi, Reid & Co. go, or we are gone. (Human events).

Brilliantly said.
Especially, in light of the “payment” for that government employee bailout was to raid Food Stamps in 2014.
What I called a few days ago a the Wimpy (from Popeye) style economics. I will pay you in four years (china) for the burger (bailout) today.
A bailout several states didn’t even need or want!
It’s largess for everyone in government, on the tax payers paid for by China. (Do you actually think in 2014 with the Health Care Mandate kicking people in the teeth that they will cut Food Stamps? Yeah right…)
Obama has to protect his apparatchiks though.
Screw everyone else.

The Ship is Sinking! Save the Apparatchiks!

Americans should all print this out and carry it everywhere . . .

***********************************************
Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Christina Romer is best known for drafting the February 2009 report “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” which the White House used as an ammunition belt in the fight to gain passage of its $862 billion economic stimulus bill (the actual cost of which exceeds $1 trillion when interest is included). Romer predicted that following passage of the stimulus bill, unemployment would plateau below 8 percent last fall and by this month register at 7 percent. That’s not close enough for government work, as unemployment stands at 9.5 percent today. It would be higher except that hundreds of thousands of frustrated job seekers have given up looking for new jobs and dropped out of the labor force.
Predictably, the stimulus bill has proven to be an extraordinary waste of borrowed money that has failed to create jobs, generate economic growth or do much of anything other than line the pockets of White House political allies. That and give $308 million in subsidies to BP before the Gulf oil spill disaster, and subsidize a study on what happens when monkeys snort coke.
Obama is adding to the economic misery by creating an environment of regulatory uncertainty. The Wall Street reform law Obama recently signed potentially requires 533 new regulations, 60 studies and 93 reports, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has 29 active rulemakings, and there are 100 new rules on the Labor Department’s agenda and 26 at the Transportation Department.
Add Obama’s determination to raise everybody’s taxes by allowing the Bush cuts from 2001 and 2003 to expire Jan. 1, 2011, and it’s easy to why banks, businesses and consumers are hoarding trillions of dollars that could otherwise spur economic growth. And we haven’t even addressed the destructive effect on economic growth of Obama’s nationalization of major portions of the economy, including the banks, health care and the auto industry.
The economy is stalling, unemployment seems stuck at European levels of idleness, the federal deficit and the national debt are at historic highs, public confidence in Congress is at its lowest-ever level and big majorities of Mainstream Americans say Obama has the country on the wrong path. Obamanomics has failed miserably and it’s time for everybody in this town to admit it so we can move on.

But The Democrats and Liberals can’t and won’t do that. They can’t politically admit the stuff they have waited generations to cram down everyone’s throat is total crap on a stick!
“Recovery summer”? Time for another sobriquet.
So the little buggers went off on their 6 week holiday, BUT, nope they were ordered back by the likes of Speaker Pelosi
because they needed to pass a $26 Billion spending bill to give more money to public sector employees!
More money for their Peeps. The apparatchiks need more money!

On Friday, after release of the jobs report, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis touted the economy’s “turnaround” and credited “strong and immediate action” President Obama took after entering office. The only real problem, she hinted, was Republicans who refuse to support a $26 billion bailout for state and local governments and their pampered unions.
“There is no room for partisan roadblocks when Americans are depending on their government’s action and the stakes are so high,” Solis said. In this White House, economic recovery is always just one massive stimulus or bailout bill away. (IBD)
This would be the Hilda Solis who earlier this year created a PSA advising Illegal aliens to call her if their mean, capitalist boss was exploiting them so she could crack down on their boss!


And naturally, voting against it, is hurting children!
WASHINGTON — House members are giving up a couple of days reconnecting with folks in their districts this week to pass a jobs bill that Democrats say is crucial to the nation’s well-being.
The unusual in-and-out session was called because the Senate waited until last Thursday, after the House had already recessed for its summer break, to pass a $26 billion bill to prevent tens of thousands of teachers and an equal number of other state and local government workers from being laid off before the November election.
Oh no!  Not that! We can’t have public sector employees (unemployment rate 3%) hurt before the election while the little people have 9.5% (officially) closer to 18% in reality (with those who have given up) are in actual need but not politically necessary enough to care about.
“This legislation is about creating and saving American jobs, and preventing a double-dip recession,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in announcing the special session just hours after the Senate passed the bill that the administration says could save the jobs of nearly 300,000 teachers and other public workers.
“It’s not a gamble,” he said, but “it would be gambling our childrens’ education to have them go back to school and find no teacher in the classroom or a larger class size.”-Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
It’s all for the children…:)
Well, you’ve heard it hear first. Everything is now perfect and we’ll all be better off and the recession is officially been sorted by saving 300,000 public sector employees!!
Democrats should be staying home and listening to their constituents “instead of scampering back to Washington to push through more special interest bailouts and job-killing tax hikes,” said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.
Republicans portrayed the special session as the Democrats’ pre-election gift to their labor union allies and objected to provisions to raise taxes on some U.S.-based multinational companies as a way to partially cover the $26 billion cost of the bill.
So raising taxes on evil capitalists to “save” some jobs will save us all.
Utopia is upon us all 
REJOICE!
Bask in the splendor and the wonder that is Obamanomics!

Here’s the real record: America has lost 4.1 million jobs since Obama took office and 7.7 million since the recession began in December 2007. So most of the jobs lost have been under this administration. Whatever else you might call Obamanomics, “successful” isn’t it.
You’d never know that Democrats controlled Congress for Bush’s last two years, or that policies they enacted during their many decades in power — in particular, using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to issue trillions of dollars of mortgages to unqualified borrowers — are the root cause of our crisis.
As with most progressives, they believe bigger government is always the solution to our problems…(IBD)
So the Democrats stategy to stave off a political bloodbath is to SPEND EVEN MORE and then Blame Bush for it!
Haven’t we seen re-run before?
Following release of Friday’s government report on unemployment and job creation, consumer and investor confidence has fallen to the lowest level of 2010. Just 21% of Adults nationwide now believe the economy is getting better. That’s down from 30% on Friday morning. The number who believe the economy is getting worse is now up to 54%.
The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, slipped on Monday to 69.7. That’s down nine points since release of Friday’s disappointing jobs report and the lowest level of confidence measured since December 2, 2009. Eight percent (8%) rate the economy as good or excellent while 55% say it’s in poor shape.
Looked at on a month-by-month basis, consumer confidence increased on four of the first five months in 2010 and held steady in the fifth. However, it has fallen in the past two months, June and July.
But don’t worry, everything will be a utopia when these 300,000 government union people are kept off the unemployment line!!

Everything will be great when your taxes go up!  (sorry, “pro-growth revenue”)
or was that the Health Care Mandate that wasn’t tax, it’s a penalty, that’s a tax because of the Commerce Clause.
The Border is more secure now than ever!
When Social Security is officially broke (and it is).
When Medicare Advantage is slashed and your Health Savings Account is gutted.
When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (left out of financial reform) are bailed out YET AGAIN!
When your bosses taxes and regulations go up!
When evil capitalist pigs are crushed under the boot of Big Brother!
When the government runs your Health Care.
When Illegal aliens are granted Amnesty (but we’ll come up with an Orwellian term for it, like “deferred action”).
Rejoice in the grandeur and splendor of Obama, Pelosi, Reid!
OR ELSE!

What is "Poor"?

Congressman Pete Stark at a Town hall: “the government can do pretty much anything…”
http://www.breitbart.tv/congressman-at-town-hall-the-federal-government-can-do-most-anything-in-this-country/
Gee, I wonder if Washington, Madison  & Jefferson would have agreed?
*********************
It’s racism time again:
The politically charged decisions by veteran Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California to force public trials by the House ethics committee are raising questions about race and whether black lawmakers face more scrutiny over allegations of ethical or criminal wrongdoing than their white colleagues.(Politico)
I guess what Speaker Pelosi should have said back in 2006 was that they’d “Drain the White Swamp”
You can only be corrupt if you’re a cracker!!
But don’t worry, you have the first post-racial, unifying President!
*************************************
TO BE POOR By Walter E. Williams
Imagine you are an unborn spirit whom God has condemned to a life of poverty but has permitted to choose the nation in which to live. I’m betting that most any such condemned unborn spirit would choose the United States. Why? What has historically been defined as poverty, nationally or internationally, no longer exists in the U.S. Let’s look at it.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2009 poverty guideline was $22,000 for an urban four-person family. In 2009, having income less than that, 15 percent or 40 million Americans were classified as poor, but there’s something unique about those “poor” people not seen anywhere else in the world. Robert Rector, researcher at the Heritage Foundation, presents data collected from several government sources in a report titled “How Poor Are America’s Poor? Examining the ‘Plague’ of Poverty in America” (8/27/2007):
– Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage and a porch or patio.
– Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
– Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded; two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
– The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
– Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
– Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
– Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
– Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
What’s defined as poverty is misleading in another way. Official poverty measures count just family’s cash income. It ignores additional sources of support such as the earned-income tax credit, which is a cash rebate to low-income workers; it ignores Medicaid, housing allowances, food stamps and other federal and local government subsidies to the poor. According to a report by American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt, titled “Poor Statistics,” “In 2006, according to the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, reported purchases by the poorest fifth of American households were more than twice as high as reported incomes.” That additional money might represent earnings from unreported employment, illegal activities and unreported financial assistance. A proper measure of well-being is what a person consumes rather than his income. A huge gap has emerged between income and consumption at lower income levels.
Material poverty can be measured relatively or absolutely. An absolute measure would consist of some minimum quantity of goods and services deemed adequate for a baseline level of survival. Achieving that level means that poverty has been eliminated. However, if poverty is defined as, say, the lowest one-fifth of the income distribution, it is impossible to eliminate poverty. Everyone’s income could double, triple and quadruple, but there will always be the lowest one-fifth.
Yesterday’s material poverty is all but gone. In all too many cases, it has been replaced by a more debilitating kind of poverty — behavioral poverty or poverty of the spirit. This kind of poverty refers to conduct and values that prevent the development of healthy families, work ethic and self-sufficiency. The absence of these values virtually guarantees pathological lifestyles that include: drug and alcohol addiction, crime, violence, incarceration, illegitimacy, single-parent households, dependency and erosion of work ethic. Poverty of the spirit is a direct result of the perverse incentives created by some of our efforts to address material poverty.
As of December 2009: The Poorest Nation on Earth

1.      Democratic Republic of Congo 

Once known as the Belgian Congo, Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic, this huge resource
rich nation holds the position of poorest country in the World.

It has been embroiled in wars, civil and with other nations, since Independence in 1960.

During the past two decades of conflict, over 5.4 million people have died and continue to die
at the rate of 45,000 a month. This is not only attributable to war, but its fellow travelers,
disease and famine.
DR-Congo has diamonds, uranium, cobalt, tantalum, copper, and other valuable minerals. The wars, besides being caused by ethnic hatred, are inspired by control of the nation’s wealth.
The smuggling of coltan and cassiterite, the ores of tantalum and tin have fueled the war
in the Eastern Congo.
As a kleptocracy, whatever can be appropriated by the government and its agents,  be it
food aid, donations for health care, equipment; is.
Despite having more resources than most places in the world, two thirds of the population
is malnourished. Hunger has provoked a market in ‘bushmeat’, that is, the meat of wild animals,
often chimpanzees and gorillas.

See any similarities to Obama and Company. Especially, the kleptocracy part.
But are we them?
No, but we could be.
Class Warfare, Racial Wars and a government out to steal anything and everything it can for itself and it’s apparatchiks?
Maybe not as far away as we’d like to think.

It's Not You, It's Me...

You either think government is the solution to the problem, or it is the problem. And, unless your worldview shifts, no amount of clever wordsmithing, or smokescreens, will ever change your opinion.

Have you ever heard, “it’s not you, it’s me?”  I know that I have.  People employ this phrase to distract from, and even soften, the blow of ending a relationship.  The dirty little secret – that we all know – is that it simply doesn’t work.  The words do nothing to distract from the fact that, at least to one party, what’s about to happen is very undesirable.
Yet, this is exactly what the media suggests that the Obama White House do.  “If only they made it sound nicer,” the theory goes, “the American people would finally accept President Obama’s liberal agenda.”  Apparently, we just need to have our ears tickled because we mistakenly thought we disliked the president’s policies because they are bad for the country. (Daily Caller)

Imagine that.
If they just explained it better we’d all rush to the wonders and fascination for government control of every second of our lives.
Imagine that.
One Obama adviser was even quoted as saying, “‘I tell you, it’s very frustrating that [the message] is not breaking through.”
Remember they said the same thing due the Health Care “debate” as the popularity of it went into the tank.
Some things that are old are new again.

Dan Gerstein is a smart, centrist Democrat who usually has insightful things to say about the political landscape, but this column entitled, “Fire David Axelrod” is a symptom of the same disease he is trying to cure. Gerstein is shocked that according to poll taken by fellow-Democrat James Carville, 55 percent of Americans think Barack Obama is a socialist. He concludes that this statistic along with similar negative feelings among voters for the stimulus legislation and Obamacare are all part of the White House’s message problem. David Axelrod was a fabulous choice for the campaign, Gerstein says, but he sucks at developing and controlling Obama’s message. Gerstein’s solution is that more Democrats should be demanding that the president shake-up his staff and bring in someone else who will not fail to drive the conversation.
But when it comes to perceptions about health care reform and the stimulus, Gerstein has diagnosed the wrong disease. It isn’t a matter of losing the message that Obamacare is leading us toward more government control of the health care industry, it is the truth and voters know that. As for the stimulus, well, Gerstein may be right that lots of economists think that it was better than nothing. But that doesn’t mean it was actually helpful to the vast majority of Americans. The stimulus has been great for government jobs, but even Obama now admits that he’s going to focus on the private sector to help them create more jobs . Isn’t that what he was supposed to be doing since he came into office nearly two years ago?
David Axelrod may indeed be a net negative for Obama, but it isn’t because a better spinmeister would be able to make lemonade out of lemons. Voters are smarter than most pundits and journalists give them credit for and these folks recognize that the changes afoot are not going to make their lives better. Axelrod or no Axelrod, Obama’s problem isn’t the message. It’s the policies that make people think he’s a socialist. (NY Post)

Don’t shoot the messenger, just replace him with a better one!
It’s not you, darling, It’s me…

And now the Arizona Republic (Repulsive) has run a story with pictures. “Do I Look Illegal?”
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Since that is impossible. I guess you’d have to ASK!!
But if you do you’re a racist!
See how that works. It’s not them, it’s YOU!  You’re the Racist!
Now doesn’t that make you feel better, honey…


Arianna Huffington: “George, the truth is that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they’re supposed to be overseeing the industry.”
George Will: “So, it’s Bush’s fault? Just clear this up.”
Huffington: “It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney’s fault.”
It’s not me, it’s Bush!


The fact that the Financial Reform package exempted the largest mortgage holder in the country from the rules changes, oversight, and regulations is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a government entity, is not worth mentioning.
That the government itself is now the largest mortgage lender in the US.
It’s still not me, darling, it’s you!
What happens when the government drives business to a few banks in collusion with the government to control your activities and funds.  The government will be able to identify what you do, what your habits are, when you use money and what you spend it on?
After all, it’s for you own good.
Don’t you just love how government turns everything on it’s head.
And it’s not You, It’s Me!
I’m too stupid to understand the complexities of Social Justice and Social Engineering and you’re not able to communicate it’s brilliance properly.
So it’s not you, it’s me.

You Can Lie with Spin

Government these days isn’t about making the hard choices. It’s about making the choice that will sell, either to “your base” (thus ignoring everyone else) or by spin (which is inevitably deceitful) because it will benefit you or one of your “sides” interests.

They write 2000+ bills they won’t read. But expect everyone to follow.
They can’t be bothered to read SB1070, at a minimalist 16 pages.
Much easier to just play on people fears, anxiety,biases, and divide and conquer.
And when that doesn’t work, just lie.
Then there’s the politician favorite phrase these days, “I misspoke”.
No, we have it on tape or audio.
But they “misspoke”.
Then you get stuff like this:
President Barack Obama, fresh from a win on a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations, on Saturday urged Congress to take up his proposal for a $90 billion, 10-year tax on banks as the next step in reform.
Obama wants to slap a 0.15 percent tax on the liabilities of the biggest U.S. financial institutions to recoup the costs to taxpayers of the financial bailout.
“We need to impose a fee on the banks that were the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer assistance at the height of our financial crisis — so we can recover every dime of taxpayer money,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
He does realize that a tax on business is passed onto the consumer right?
He doesn’t care. It sounds good.
It plays to his anti-capitalist base and the “wall street” anger that has been ginned up.
The fact that Congress in the 1990′s set up the roots of this problem and the Government agency in charge of monitoring them were too busy with Porn is not a matter for discussion.
And one of the biggest players in this whole mess, Fannie and Freddie were and are  ignored should be a sign.
Alinsky, Rules for Radicals:
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself.
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.
Daniel Foster at the conservative National Review Online argues that the bill is filled with unnecessary or useless measures.
“There is much in the bill that has nothing to do with ‘Wall Street’ or the root causes of the crisis (i.e. debit card and interchange fee rules),” Foster writes. “There is little in it that will ‘reform’ too big to fail or change the incentives for the kind of behavior that led to the crisis (implicit subsidies and bailout authority galore); and it was a ‘compromise’ mostly between Democrats.”

Then you have VP Joe Biden, a one man gaffe machine:
VP Biden ran into an ice cream shot owner (in his shop) who aked him to lower the taxes and he called the guy a “smartass”
And it gets better:
Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy Friday, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.”
Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost.
“We inherited a godawful mess,” he said, adding there was “no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost.” (CBS)
Andrew Langer, The Daily Caller:

Ultimately, with election victory comes the responsibility of governance. That responsibility requires grappling with the excruciating problem of making tough choices. This is something all elected officials face at some time or another, and it is the caveat for anyone interested in pursuing a political career. Problems ensue when political leaders abdicate their responsibilities—and a case can be made that such abdication is an abuse of the public trust. And when it comes to domestic policy, there is no more important issue than the creation of a government’s annual budget.
For the past three years, there has been a disturbing trend of federal legislators essentially punting their responsibilities—whether it comes to oversight of federal agencies, understanding the constitutional implications of legislation, or, at its most basic, actually reading legislation being voted upon. This seemingly fundamental misunderstanding of the role of legislators in our republic has resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of public ire, from Tea Parties to very public “dressing downs” of congressmen at Town Hall meetings.
Congress should have gotten the message, yet as proof they are deaf to their constituencies, leaders in the House have recently done—or not done—something stunning. Congressional leaders have decided that they are unable to even propose, let alone pass, a federal budget this year.
They have ostensibly done this while they await the decision of President Obama’s “Deficit Commission,” a convenient fiction created to give cowardly Democrats the “cover” necessary for a tax increase following the 2010 elections. It is not their fault, they will argue when they eventually do propose a budget. They were forced to do this because of the recommendations of the commission.
It is an excuse that doesn’t hold water. Congress has the responsibility for the budget, which means that the majority party has the responsibility for getting it prepared and shepherded through the system and passed. It is, in fact, statutorily mandated. But without any consequences, the law has about as much real power as a Las Vegas illusionist: it’s great theatre, but it really doesn’t do what it claims.
The problem is that more and more government entities (including state and local governments) are shifting these powers to unelected commissions. While some might call it mere “punting”—moving the power to some other group of individuals—it’s more accurately a form of political surrender; the functional equivalent of throwing in the towel because, well, the job is just too darn hard, and, in an election cycle, these guys want the title but they don’t want the responsibilities to go along with it.
Spending and size of government are the two top issues going into this fall election, with healthcare reform playing a role in both. Voters not only are fed up with out-of-control spending, they’re genuinely fearful of the potential economic instability runaway spending creates. Controlling that spending is infinitely more complicated when government officials refuse to release a budget detailing just how that money is being spent. It was, interestingly enough, the continued secrecy of national budgets that brought Gorbachev to power as the Soviet Union’s last premier—and opening up those budgets to greater scrutiny one of the hallmarks of his Perestroika program. How ironic, then, that more than two decades later, America is moving in that direction—an entirely wrong direction—when it comes to budgets.
Americans are tired of cowardly politicians. They are tired of being lied to, of having polls say one thing and do quite the opposite. They are hungry for real leaders—leaders who mean what they say and say what they mean. Leaders who are willing to make the tough choices, like Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey.
Whether it’s trying to shift responsibility or surrendering to the difficulties of governance, either way the result is the same: Americans’ government grows larger without anyone exercising fiscal restraint. Political leaders raise taxes to try and pay for their inability to control spending. Overall we all suffer. Unfortunately, in this case, waiting until January 2011 might just be too late.

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• The deficit will reach a stunning $1.5 trillion this year. Even after the recession ends, trillion-dollar deficits will persist, causing the national debt to double by 2020.
• Excessive spending—not low revenues—accounts for 92% of deficits by 2014 and 100% by 2017.
• Solutions that “split the difference” between tax hikes and spending cuts doesn’t really address the source of the problem: spending.
• Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest costs will surge by nearly $2 trillion by 2020. By comparison, the cost of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts is 85% less at $404 billion.

Tax Increases Are Not the Solution

• Raising federal income taxes to pay for entitlement spending would require rates to double by 2050 and continue to rise thereafter.
• Balancing the budget with tax increases alone would increase the tax burden from an average of 18% of the economy to 30% by 2055.
• Layering on a value added tax (VAT)—a new national sales tax—would create a huge drag on the economy and family budgets.
• A VAT would cause the price of everything to rise by 15–20%. By 2019, 44 cents of every dollar would go to the federal government, compared to 15 cents today.

Tax Hikes Have Harmful Economic Consequences

• Tax increases take money from families and businesses, lowering savings and investment and killing jobs. This is especially harmful in the current economic climate.
• Future generations—who can’t yet vote—will be stuck paying the higher taxes and inheriting lower standards of living that go with it.
• Any new federal income taxes would be on top of state and local taxes, such as income, property, excise, fuel, and sales taxes.
• A VAT would become a cash cow for Congress to fund new spending and open the door for continued, stealthy rate increases.
• Twenty of 29 developed economies with a VAT have increased rates since passage. Denmark leads, having increased their VAT from 15 to 25% since it was enacted.

Congress has been mismanaging taxpayer dollars for decades. Can Washington really be trusted to use new revenues to close the deficit gap, or would they just spend the money on new programs? (heritage.org)

I would say no.
When you can just “misspeak” or “The previous administration…” or “the party of no” or just demonize someone else, why bother.
It is much easier to spend than to be responsible.
After all, it’s not the politician’s money.
It’s yours.
And you’ll always be there for them so why should they worry.