Truth

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.

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Showing posts with label raising taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raising taxes. Show all posts

Friday, October 1, 2010

Come Hell or High Water

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The Congress that took the last week of July until Sept 13 off has now left Washington for all-out-war campaigning after working an exhaustive 17 days since late July and won’t be back until after they have had their heads chopped off by the American people.

Poor babies.
They left town without the House passing a budget for the first time since 1974. The 4th time the Senate has done it since 1974.
So the government that started a new fiscal year today with resolutions.
I bet your household budget works the same way. You just fake it. right? :)
They also left town without dealing with the Tax Increases coming on 1/1/11. They were too chicken. So they split town to save their own asses rather than tell you, your employer, or any potential employers if they were going to get hit with the largest Tax Increase in American History (for real).
Failure to extend the Bush tax cuts will also mean a reinstatement of the marriage penalty that makes some married couples pay higher taxes filing jointly than they would if they were single and filing individual returns. It will mean cutting in half the child tax credit from $1,000 to $500. It will increase tax rates on dividends from a maximum of 15 percent to 39.6 percent, which affects seniors who depend on dividends to supplement their Social Security and pensions. And it will raise the top capital gains tax rate from 15 percent to 20 percent, stifling business investment.
It will also raise taxes anyone who pays taxes. Regardless of income.

The President repeatedly says he want to raise taxes on the rich as a class warfare tactic, but in all these months has he actually proposed an actual bill for it?
Or was he hoping Pelosi or Reid would do it for him? Be the good Lieutenants and get all the troops in line to set up for the firing squad one more time?
But the fact remains it was all talk and no action. Much like the Congress since the passage of the business buzzsaw killing Financial Reform bill the Democrats have done nothing useful since (not that they did it before to be fair).
And who is to blame for the President not proposing and the Democrats not disposing of this part of the agenda, The Republicans. :)
The Minority party is at fault for the President not even sending a bill containing his Tax proposals to the House and the House not willing to come up with the bill and vote on it.
It’s all those damn Republicans fault! :(
HUH??
Now that’s a “transparent” “drain the swamp” “most ethical congress” “responsible”, “post-partisan” government isn’t it?
The real problem was there were enough Democrats  who were willing to join Republicans on an across-the-board extension of the Bush tax cuts that it made the Reid-Pelosi position of raising taxes on some higher earners untenable, so no tax bill moved forward.
But that was the Republicans fault too. :)


Members of Congress have now returned home to try to save their own jobs, never mind helping the millions of Americans who have lost theirs. “When we come back this fall, the election will be over,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Washington Post. “I hope that it also means that Republicans will finally be able to put the American people ahead of their short-term political interests and ambitions.”
Now that’s responsible government.  and very “post-partisan”. :)


So it’s time to get your Lame Duck Poisoning Prevention Shot.
The New Roman Empire is being invaded by a hoard of Barbarians are the gate. So it’s time to prep the wells for poisoning and to raze the crops and poison the soil.
What Reid and his counterpart in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are hoping is that Democrats who lose their seats in the election will be willing to pass legislation in a lame duck session that they know the voting public doesn’t support. In Reid’s logic, they will be free to vote their liberal ideology. And it won’t matter because they will have already lost their jobs. But it is precisely this kind of arrogance that has Democrats in such poor shape heading into the mid-term elections. (Linda Chavez)
Some say you have to admire our “rock star” (in his own mind and the media’s) President for sticking to his ideology as he is 200% in campaign mode, 2008 campaign mode, that he doesn’t care about moving to the center. He wants to move even farther LEFT. Hoping to spike turnout amongst those who were fainting in his presence 2 years ago.
Now their fainting from working so hard. But that doesn’t matter. And once again, it’s supposed to be how he says it, not what he says.
Let’s party like it’s 2008!

The perception that he’s The Anointed One is supposed to trump the reality of the last 21 months.
A couple of back-to-back statements by President Obama at a town hall rally in Des Moines, Iowa, tell us all we need to know about his economic philosophy and that we aren’t going to climb out of his recession and begin to slow the growth of the national debt as long as he’s calling the shots.
Voters, he said, tell him to “cut government spending.” But “most spending is for veterans, for education, for defense. … Finding $700 billion is not easy.”
Yet a few minutes earlier, in response to criticism over illegal immigrants getting health care in the United States, he had said, “It is very important that we have compassion as part of our national character.” (How about compassion for future generations of Americans?)
Does anyone see the disconnect here? If Obama believes our national character is deficient unless we expand the welfare state to illegal immigrants, then how could he ever preside over a balanced budget?
His wildly inaccurate statement about where the money is spent is equally revealing. For fiscal year 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and other sources, benefits for veterans constituted about 3.5 percent of the budget; education expenditures were 3 percent; and defense and security totaled about 20 percent.
Even worse than these errors is his defeatist statement that “finding $700 billion is not easy.”
Well, of course it’s not easy if you have no desire to trim the size, functions and intrusiveness of government.
Didn’t he just say again the other day that he is “committed to fiscal responsibility”? Hasn’t he incessantly argued that President George W. Bush is the one who ran up these outlandish deficits?
We all know what a distortion and exercise in scapegoatery that is. President Bush fulfilled his promise to cut the deficit in half by 2006. In fiscal year 2007, the deficit was $161 billion. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
That’s just three years ago, and Obama says it’s nearly impossible to trim much? Even the final Bush year, which Obama continues to blame for all “this mess” and which Obama has used to establish his new deficit base line, was not actually the alleged $1.3 trillion, but closer to $800 billion when TARP repayments are factored in.
Assuming Obama even wants to bring down the deficit, his economic philosophy precludes him from advancing policies likeliest to do it. You cannot make much headway on the deficit in a period of recession, and his policies are leading us toward a double-dip recession.
Indeed, the dirty reality is that Keynesian policy works as a double whammy against fiscal sanity. It involves government’s spending money it doesn’t have, which, by definition, increases the deficit and debt. And it also increases the deficit by smothering the private sector and deterring real economic growth. There is no appreciable “multiplier effect” from monies that are spent by government fiat, as opposed to those spent in response to true market forces, including real consumer demand — as opposed to government  command.

We saw the devastating impact of reckless Keynesian policies during the Great Depression, and we’re witnessing them again today. As long as Obama is married to his redistributionist profligacy, we cannot reduce the deficit. And it’s even worse when you consider that Obama wants to raise taxes on the primary generators of economic growth, small businesses, during a slow economic period.
With his signature audacity, Obama told town hall attendees their taxes haven’t gone up in his administration. Puleeze! Obamacare, anyone — for starters? He also said Republicans haven’t been honest with voters about what needs to be done to revive the economy. “We can’t pretend that there are shortcuts,” he said.
Sorry, but he’s the one being dishonest. The Bush years saw robust economic growth until the last year of Bush’s second term. The policies that led to the subprime collapse, the recession and the skyrocketing deficit in his final year were brought upon mostly by liberal Democrats hellbent on demonstrating their “compassion” for people by insisting on loans to people who couldn’t repay them and cynically resisting President Bush’s efforts to rein in Fannie and Freddie.
President Reagan didn’t continue to blame Jimmy Carter for his malaise-ridden economy during his term. He didn’t implement policies that didn’t work after promising they would and then whine that it would “take 10 years to get out of this mess because it took us 10 years to get into this mess.” He passed tax cuts that launched an unprecedented period of peacetime growth — and not at the expense of federal revenues, as has been falsely alleged.
I don’t expect President Obama to come clean with the American people or to ever accept responsibility for his disastrous policies, much less to voluntarily change course, but it’s gratifying to see that people, including some of his supporters, are finally onto him. (David Limbaugh)

And if you were expecting the Media to do their job, of journalism. Forget it. The Propaganda ministers for Obama are in full damage control, but unlike 2008, people are less inclined to believe their spin.
But it’s all they have and if they say it often enough people will believe their lies.
Gallup: Distrust in Media Hits New High and Three Times as Many See Media as ‘Too Liberal’ Over ‘Too Conservative’
They are too busy kissing up to Rep. Alan Grayson’s so-blatant-it’s-a-supernova misrepresentation attack ad, Obama’a 2008 “glory days” (they actually use that term repeatedly) and the manipulation by the far left of a Maid of California Gubernatorial Candidate Meg Whitman who was an illegal alien (she was fired last year for this by Whitman) and now is being paraded around the media with a prepared speech and lots of crying in the most cynical of acts.
And the Liberal media eats it up and regurgitates it.
So don’t expect anything from them expect spin.
I’m sad to report today a death of a good friend to all of us…..Journalism, the once esteemed 4th estate of our nation and the protector of our freedoms and a watchdog of our rights has passed away after a long struggle with a crippling and debilitating disease of acute dishonesty aggravated by advanced laziness and the loss of brain function.” — Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2009.
Doubt me?:
Watch ABC’s World News Runs White House Produced Pro-ObamaCare Video as ‘News’: http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=hdkUkUQueu
CNN urging liberals to promote the “Amazing Achievements” of the liberals: http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=hdkUSUZunz
Matt Lauer (Today Show) urging the President to be more forceful about attacking the Republicans: http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=hdkUSUqG6U
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
All aboard the Democrats Unsinkable Ship of Keynesian Economic  State, The Titanic!
And don’t forget to destroy the land behind you.
If they can’t have it, no one can!
Film at 11.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Incestuous Narcissism Part 1

For about 15 years if someone asked me to sum up my philosophy about the people I ranted about I would say “Unenlightened Narcissism” but now I have revised that.
It’s now “Incestuous Narcissism”. Where both parties are consensual in the narcissism and incestuous need for the other, to the exclusion of “the extremists” who don’t buy into their relationship or try to break it up.
Intervention in their incest is not best. It is to be fought to the bitter end.
Part I: Unions
Unions, especially public sector unions, are the perfect example of this relationship.
As a matter of disclosure I have never like Unions, ever. I grew up in a “union town” but was never in a union.
I used to watch them play their games with GM, this being the UAW- United Auto Workers.
They would go on strike because $28/hr in 1975 was too little. And then GM would fire them and then re-hire them. It was  game.
But now, it’s just incest.
The recent booze and pot mess at a Chrysler plant is merely the tip of iceberg. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVmKyJXHXRE)
What you have is simple. (This is a California graphic, but it applies nationally)
Taxpayer gives money to Government, Government gives money to Union and then gives money back to Government Officials in the form of political and lobbyist contributions.
It’s an incestuous circle.
And when they need more money the government simply borrows more money from China or it takes it from you.
The GM bailout was not about GM, the company. It was about The UAW, which now has bigger stake (and thus more power) in the company and will be even harder to discipline.
The 15 workers identified in the video were suspended by Chrysler, but the Union is saying nothing.
The $30 Billion bailout that Congress had to interrupt their summer vacation for was for government teachers unions, nothing else.
Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley says that, regardless of the faltering economy, a no-raise new contract is unacceptable.
And to hell with the public.
“I’m not running a popularity contest here,” Mesley said. “If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen . . . and their taxes have go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership.”
Mesley added: “As the president of the local, I will not accept ‘zeroes.’ If that means . . . ticking off some taxpayers, then so be it.”
Here are some of the facts;
Public pensions have unfunded liability of $1 trillion to $3.5 trillion
Federal workers take home twice pay and benefits as private workers. Local and state workers also make more.
Total                      Pay           Benefits           Difference
Private                 $59,909      $50,028         $9,881
Local/state          $67,812      $52,051        $15,761
Federal               $119,982     $79,197        $40,785
– Average TWU (NY Transit Workers) union worker makes $60K without overtime or benefits.
– 25% took 15 or more sick days.  Average was 8 sick days.
– Fox average 3 sick days (same for men and women)
– No FOX employee took 15 days
Relative Danger of Jobs (Deaths per 100,000 workers)
– Fishing      128.9
–Logging     115.7
–Iron workers  46.4
–Farmers       39.5
–Firemen   3.8
–Transit workers 1.4
(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, except Transit worker death, that is from interview with TWU Local100 President)
Some people argue that there’s no alternative to the government monopoly on municipal work, but Sandy Springs, Georgia, privatized most of it’s jobs in 2005.  Now the city pays about ½ of what it used to pay.  It enjoys a $14 million surplus, in addition to funding a $20 million reserve. (John Stossel)
And the Union bosses defense: They have a dirty job. People Spit on them! Boo Hoo! Women get Pregnant! (really, he said it repeatedly).
Though Statistics show that the deadliest profession is Deep Water Fishing (aka Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch”).
But you don’t seem getting these kinds of perks. They aren’t pimping or whoring for the government and vice versa like Union are.
That mean nothing to our Union Narcissist. He doesn’t care about fishing. It’s all about him and his own.
He’s entitled to retire at 50 with a pension you will never even dream of.
Compensation A. State and Local B. Private Sector Ratio A/B
Total Compensation $39.66 $27.42 1.45
Wages and salaries $26.01 $19.39 1.34
Benefits $13.65 $8.02 1.7
Paid Leave $3.27 $1.85 1.77
Supplemental Pay $0.34 $0.83 0.41
Health insurance $4.34 $1.99 2.18
Defined benefit pension $2.85 $0.41 6.95
Defined contribution pension $0.31 $0.53 0.58
Other benefits $2.53 $2.40 1.05
(redstate.com)
http://www.foxnewsinsider.com/2010/09/24/john-stossel-hosts-the-battle-for-the-future/
Whole Program  John Stossel “Battle for the Future”  in Six parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7PGbZSs4xM
Then there’s The NEA, the National Teachers Association, a government union.
They are also incestuous.
John Stossel again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXFVeATlCDo
Like the fact that, despite pouring ever more money into the schools these past 40 years, America has fallen behind dozens of industrialized countries in math and science.
And the fact that every day in this country, 7,000 kids drop out of high school.
And that at this rate, by the year 2020, there will be 123 million American jobs for highly skilled and highly paid workers, but only 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill them.
Because of their political sway, teachers, no matter how good, are almost never rewarded. And no matter how bad, they are almost never fired. Contract rules in New York City even keep unwanted teachers on the payroll for unlimited amounts of time when they’re not in the classroom at all.

Isn’t the NEA’s only recourse to say they need more money?
According to NEA-NH Insider the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (The Stimulus)…
…represents a huge win for education thanks to unprecedented funding increases targeted to local districts.  ARRA also included increases for Title I, stabilization funding, and school construction bonds. This adds up. The US Dept. of Education saw funding increase $159.4 billion – an increase of 169%.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved approximately 325,000 education related jobs nationwide. Dr. Christina Romer, head of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), stated that state stabilization funding to states has been “one of the triumphs” and has had “more bite than we would have thought.” Dr. Romer’s observation affirms the economic value to the nation of what was one of NEA’s major priorities in the stimulus package, and reinforces our argument in favor of continuing such aid through an Education Jobs Fund.
That’s “saved or created” for you… :)
And given the Incestuous circle of Taypayer-Government-Union-Lobbyist Contribution is it any wonder that pouring more money down this rathole isn’t working? :(
The National Education Association, the larger of the two national teachers unions, considered spending $3.5 million to create an ad campaign to counter “the media propaganda of this summer’s series of anti-teacher union documentaries,” according to an agenda from its July meeting.
In the end, union officials decided it wasn’t worth it, said John Wilson, executive director.
“I think the films are a blip. They will come and go, but the union will still be there, our members will still be in these schools,” he said. “We don’t see any advantage of going to war with documentarians.” (Sacramento Bee)
Well, when you’re f*cking the boss (aka government) and creating the next generation of people who will view themselves as entitled to the fruits of others and that government must save them from themselves it’s Orwellian incestual indoctrination at it’s best.
Is it any wonder that the Democrats #1 base supporters are their own whores, The Unions, and that they care more about them than you.
And if you want to intervene in their mutual incest-fest you’re an “extremist”, a “kook” a “loon” and have to be stomped on.
Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:
  • Believing that you’re better than others
  • Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
  • Exaggerating your achievements or talents
  • Expecting constant praise and admiration
  • Believing that you’re special and acting accordingly
  • Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings
  • Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
  • Taking advantage of others
  • Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
  • Being jealous of others
  • Believing that others are jealous of you
  • Trouble keeping healthy relationships
  • Setting unrealistic goals
  • Being easily hurt and rejected
  • Having a fragile self-esteem
  • Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional
Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence or strong self-esteem, it’s not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence and self-esteem into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal. In contrast, people who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don’t value themselves more than they value others.
When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don’t receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry. You may insist on having “the best” of everything — the best car, athletic club, medical care or social circles, for instance.
But underneath all this behavior often lies a fragile self-esteem. You have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. You may have a sense of secret shame and humiliation. And in order to make yourself feel better, you may react with rage or contempt and efforts to belittle the other person to make yourself appear better. (Mayo Clinic)
Tell Me that doesn’t sound like your garden variety Liberal?
Go on…I dare you…
Part 2: The People and Unemployment

Monday, September 20, 2010

Press 1 for Save the Elites Press 2 for Pandering...


Remember this beauty, it’s 80 Miles from the Border.
The Democrats, and specifically Harry Reid have decided to bring the issue back up, but in an underhanded manner that is a cynical political ploy.
Put simply, Harry Reid has attached the DREAM Act (Amnesty) to a Defense Bill so you can vote against the troops or vote for Amnesty. The so-called “Blue dog” Democrats won’t vote for it. The Republicans certainly won’t. So it’s just red meat thrown to the troops as “Hope”.
HOPE IS FEAR
And the cynical ply doesn’t stop there.
Oh no, why would it.
No, this is a blatant attempt to energize a demoralized base to turn out at the polls to save themselves from a taxpayer revolt.
It’s all about them.
“We need to get out the message that it’s now really dangerous to re-empower the Republican Party,” said one Democratic strategist who has spoken with White House advisers but requested anonymity to discuss private strategy talks.
Late Sunday night, White House advisers denied that a national ad campaign was being planned. “There’s been no discussion of such a thing at the White House” or the Democratic National Committee, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser.(NYT)
Which means they are have produced the ads and are just waiting for that last minute all-out Nuclear Armageddon strike. :)
The more people they can get out to the polls to vote against the anger wave headed their way, the better.
So let’s throw a “hope” out. A “hope” that has no real hope of actually passing. But we can stir up the Hornet’s nest  and try obscure what we’ve done to destroy this country.
And besides, if you disagree, you’re a racist! :)
After all, the Democrats main strategy seems to be, Want More Bush? or Want these kooks and extremists (aka Tea Party) to takeover??
They can’t and won’t run on their own “accomplishments” because none of them are positive.

Heath Care: The Majority still favors repeal. Despite the campaigns to “explain it better” so you’ll love have the government deciding whether you live or die.
Debt: It was George Bush’s Fault that the 10 Trillion Deficit is now over 14.
Financial reform: It was Bush’s Fault that they’ve stiffeled business and burdened them with choking regulations and made uncertainty the only certainty.
It  was the Democrats fault for the Subprime-Meltdown because they got the ball rolling that eventually turned into the mountain. But you won’t hear that from them either.
And does anyone seriously think that the sequel to the 1980′s Anti-Reagan movie “Wall Street” is anything other propaganda?? I mean really…
Stimulus: A miserable failure. A Trillion dollars that “saved or created” jobs that either didn’t need saving (because they were saving Union Pensions instead) or they cost $2 million per jobs (as in LA).
Vice President Joe Biden on Friday cited one in which the New York City Department of Transportation is spending $175 million to renovate bridges and a parking lot, putting all of 120 people to work. That’s $1.46 million per job. Another job on Biden’s list, a highway project in Ohio, has created 300 jobs and costs $138 million — $460,000 per worker.
When the Democrats are in charge, the rich just get richer. Wait — isn’t that what we’re supposed to say about Republicans?
Not so when federal stimulus funds are being spent.
Washington has taken trickle-down economics to a whole new level of inefficiency. Those closest — literally — to the seat of federal power get the most. By the time the funds make their long journey to paychecks for people doing productive work, there’s not a whole lot left. (IBD)

But don’t worry, there’s always hope. :)
Taxes: they are going up on 1/1/11 and The Democrats are ideologically incapable of stopping it. It’s like staring into mouth of hell for Democrats to raise taxes on anyone but “the rich” which the Bush tax Cuts WILL do and they are hypnotized by it. So they just conveniently forget about it and go for class warfare instead.
Then there are all the taxes associated with their “Reforms”, Aka health Care and Financial that they won’t talk about.
Jobs: Well, the President’s “focus” has been a bit lazy. And when his economic team promised if you spend a Trillion dollars on the stimulus the maximum unemployment will be is 8% (That person has now left the team).
It’s nearly 10% and has been for the better part of a year and now many pundits and economists are talking about a permanent underclass and permanent structural unemployment.
So Mission accomplished there! :)
You have plenty of people completely dependent on your largess and will do whatever you want them to do and think whatever you want them to.
And that were the illegals come in again.
They are apart of that underclass. And they have to stay there to be manipulated. So keep dangling the carrot!
And just like the NAACP, Hispanics have plenty of organizations that “speak form them” that are only interested in their own self-interest of self-perpetuation of their own power and self-importance.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says illegal immigrants do essential work in the U.S. and he has firsthand knowledge of that — because they fix his house.
Powell, a moderate Republican, urged his party Sunday to support immigration generally because it is “what’s keeping this country’s lifeblood moving forward.”
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said a path to legal status should be offered to illegal immigrants because they “are doing things we need done in this country.”
He added: “They’re all over my house, doing things whenever I call for repairs, and I’m sure you’ve seen them at your house. We’ve got to find a way to bring these people out of the darkness and give them some kind of status.”
Powell did not say whether he has hired illegal immigrants directly or they showed up with contractors.
They do Gen. Powell’s house so they must be ok! Let’s just give them all Amnesty! :)
So what about the Legal American Construction Worker?
Oh, he’s on the unemployment line looking for a job ,for the past 2 years.
The unemployment rate for the construction industry edged down to 17 percent in August.
Who cares about him. Because if you’re against illegal aliens taking his job, you’re a racist! :)


“While we may have a handful of nominees out of the mainstream, the American people have come to the conclusion this administration and this Congress are out of the mainstream,” said John Weaver, a Republican consultant.(NYT)
The elites are better than you, remember. You should trust people who are smarter,better educated, slicker than oil itself, after all. :)
And besides, if you disagree you’re a racist and/or a bigot! :)
Or even better, An EXTREMIST!  (not that they aren’t, by they the way-just ignore the socialist behind the curtain).
So Press 1 for Elitism
Press 2 for Pandering
Press 3 for Creative Lying
Press 4 for Out-and-Out Bold faced Lies
Press 5 For Class Warfare
Press 6 For Ministry Truth/mainstream Media Spin
Press 7 to VOTE THE BUMS OUT!
7 has always been a lucky number. :)
Political Cartoon by Chip Bok

Monday, September 13, 2010

Reality is to Be Feared

| Remember this when you hear liberals screaming and yelling about “fat Cat” CEO’s and their bonuses and how evil they are:
DETROIT – New General Motors Co. CEO Daniel Akerson will get the same $9 million pay package as the man he replaced, Ed Whitacre.
The automaker, which is 60.8 percent owned by the U.S. government, disclosed the pay package in a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is identical to what the company disclosed for Whitacre in February.
So don’t do as they do, do as they say and hate the “the rich” because they are evil incarnate. :)
Contrary to press reports that he would not be compensated, uncovered Treasury Department documents reveal President Obama’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, received a $120,830 annual salary.(WT)
********************
WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department plans to test futuristic iris scan technology that stores digital images of people’s eyes in a database and is considered a quicker alternative to fingerprints.
ACLU lawyer Christopher Calabrese fears that the cameras could be used covertly. “If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there’s a camera and access to the Internet,” he said.
Iris scans can be quicker than fingerprints. “You can walk up to a wall-mounted box, look at the camera, and that’s it,” Grother said.
Homeland Security will test cameras that take photos from 3 or 4 feet away, including one that works on people as they walk by, Vemury said.
If I agree with the American Communist Liberals Union (ACLU) you know the universe is endanger! :)
But don’t worry, Big Brother and Big Sis are not trying to track your every move and know and control everything about you. No, not at all… :)
*******
The number of people in the United States who are living in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
Census figures for 2009 – the recession-ravaged first year of Obama’s presidency – are to be released this week, and demographers expect grim findings.
The expected poverty-rate increase – from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent – would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power. Midterm congressional elections are only weeks away.(WP)
But don’t worry,this too is also totally Bush’s Fault! :)
He claims that “the policies of the previous decade … that cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires … ultimately culminated in a financial crisis and a terrible recession that we’re still digging out of today.”--President Obama
The president falsified the record. The Democrats’ politicization of mortgages — not Bush’s tax cuts — caused the financial crisis.
But don’t expect the Ministry of Truth to tell you that either.
If the tax cuts are to blame, why did Obama’s just-resigned Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer — whom Obama on Friday said “helped save this country from a depression” — recently co-author an article in the American Economic Review “contrary to the White House’s plan to reverse the Bush tax cuts,” as columnist Donald Lambro noted? (IBD)

And then there’s former Budget Director Pete Orszag who said the tax cuts should be kept.
So if tax cuts are so evil and wrecked the nation, then why were two of Obama’s biggest Financial Guru’s for them??
Mind you, it was only AFTER they left. :)
President Barack Obama talked a lot about economic recovery during his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, 2010, including the benefits of the economic stimulus bill passed last year.
The stimulus, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included tax cuts for many Americans, Obama said.
“We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses,” Obama said. “We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.”
So when he says he cut taxes (and doesn’t really or does and then raises in other ways-like Obama Care) it’s good. But if someone else proposes it, it’s just cuts for “the rich” and wrecks the country.
Say what??
“We’re going to take the next 50-some days to convince the public that’s exactly what the Republicans would do – back to the Bush policies,” White House Spokesman Gibbs said.
******************
“By far, Jan Brewer has shown herself to be the most unreasonable and racist governor in our country, and her discriminatory policies echo the type of prejudice that took place during the lynchings and brutality suffered by African Americans in the South,” Duarte said. “I have known families who have suffered gravely due to the policies she has so easily signed into law.”– Stella Pope Duarte, Phoenix College.
*******
FEAR IS HOPE
Ad Hominem: attacking the person instead of attacking his argument.
Democrats desperate to convince their base to show up at the polls in November have begun talking less about issues and more about the possibility of a “Tea Party Congress” next year.
The passage of landmark bills such as healthcare and financial regulatory reform has not triggered as much grassroots enthusiasm as initially envisioned, Democratic strategists say. And while the right is engaged this cycle, the left is deflated.

“This is a big problem,” said Democratic targeting and turnout guru Hal Malchow.

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.”
In the past several weeks, when Democratic activists cite the ramifications of a “Tea Party Congress,” they say, more volunteers have signed up to knock on doors to preserve a Democratic-led House and Senate.
President Obama does not fire up the left as much as he did in 2008, and polls indicate independents are turning on him.
A recent Gallup survey shows that Republicans are far more enthusiastic about voting than Democrats, leading by a 50 percent to 25 percent count.
Many liberals have expressed frustration with the White House on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay — which Obama pledged to close by last January — to the lack of a public option in healthcare reform.
Uniting the party, and making sure their voters don’t stay home this fall, has become the No. 1 issue for the Democratic Party.
“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. “It not only energizes Democrats, but it’s the fundamental choice that independents and moderates face in the fall, too.”
Some in Democratic circles are unsure whether they can convince voters that this election is a choice instead of a referendum on Obama and the Democratic Congress. Still, there is a consensus that it’s the best game plan they have.
While then-President George W. Bush was an effective bogeyman for Democrats in 2006 and 2008, blaming him now for the nation’s economic woes has not resonated nearly as much.
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato pointed the finger at “the failure of the Obama economic agenda” for depressing the Democratic base, but is skeptical that shifting away from issues on the campaign trail will solve the party’s turnout dilemma.
“I’m not sure trotting out a bunch of devil figures — the Tea Party congressional nominees, George Bush, [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin, etc., is going to make much difference. Democrats know Obama is in power for at least two more years and can stymie a GOP Congress,” Sabato said. “But in the absence of good news on the economy, it’s worth a try to point out to Democrats who’ll be running things at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue if Democrats don’t show up to vote.”
Many Democrats, including Obama, predicted six months ago that voters would embrace the healthcare reform law when they learned more about it.
But polls show that the public is deeply divided on it. And it’s not moving many people off their couches, according to Democrats at the state and local level.

“Healthcare is largely unpopular in most places,” Malchow said. “That’s why Democrats aren’t talking about it.” (Fifty-three percent (53%) of U.S. voters now say they at least somewhat favor repeal of the new national health care law, matching the lowest level of opposition since the bill was passed by Congress in March. That includes 42% who Strongly Favor repeal.A majority has favored repeal of the legislation every single week since late March, and the bill is playing a major role in a number of congressional races across the country. Support for repeal has ranged from a low of 53%, reached once before in July, to a high of 63%.-Rasmussen)
Financial reform, and other items enacted in the 111th Congress, are likewise not lighting a fire under the Democratic base.
What is working, turnout specialists say, is talking about the “insurgent” Tea Party and how the “rising red” movement could affect the agenda in Washington in 2011.
The success of Tea Party candidates in primaries, especially candidates backed by Palin, has given Democratic operatives a key talking point. These officials have also used the Aug. 28 rally in Washington, D.C., led by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, as a volunteer recruitment tool.
Malchow said that Tea Party-backed candidates who are further to the right than centrist and independent voters will, in the end, help the Democrats’ cause: “That’s a major motivating factor for Democrats, but I think it also depends on where you are.”
In Nevada, with a Republican nominee for Senate like Sharron Angle, Malchow said, it’s likely to be more of a motivator for Democrats than in a state like Illinois, where the party has nominated a more centrist Senate candidate in Rep. Mark Kirk.
“Base voters understand what’s at stake in this election,” said the DNC’s Sevugan. “The message that’s resonating is, do we continue to move forward or do we allow the Republicans to take us back? A slate of Republican candidates who hold very extreme positions make that choice crystal clear.”
Earlier this summer, Democrats launched an effort to cast the Republican Party and the Tea Party as one and the same.
“You don’t know where the Republican Party ends and the Tea Party begins, and they have to own that,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in July.
In an interview on MSNBC late last month, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he expects voters to wake up to what Tea Party-backed candidates are actually running on before November.
“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 Cummings.
That’s a much sharper tone than Democrats were employing six months ago. In late February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went so far as to say that she and Tea Partiers share some of the same views. Since then, however, Democrats have identified the Tea Party as their clear adversary.
For example, Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at the “Republican Tea Party” a couple of weeks ago, predicting Democrats will retain control of both houses of Congress.
“It’s a race between Democrats and the Republican Tea Party,” Biden said.(The Hill)
Washington is today a human and systemic failure that is destroying us from within. Its profligate spending is undermining the dollar — and, according to the International Monetary Fund, it is risking a U.S. sovereign debt crisis. According to Lenin, “There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than debauching the currency.”
The eminent Samuel Huntington observed that Washington is — through the Third World orientation of its immigration policies — deliberately destroying the linguistic, cultural and creedal glue that defines and holds the nation together. Research by Harvard professor Robert Putnam associates high levels of government-created “diversity” with civic dissonance and decline.
Washington makes tax slaves out of one in four Americans, forcing them to pay nearly all the income tax while others pay little or none. It taxes too heavily in the dumbest way possible that does the maximum economic damage (about $3 for every $1 of tax collected), costing everyone jobs and incomes. Taxation is an economic poison that spreads quickly.
And when government spends a dollar, the economic benefit is typically between zero and 60 cents, thereby digging the hole still deeper with a loss on each transaction. No wonder “stimulus” doesn’t work.
Washington discriminates among us according to race and gender, takes our money and property and gives it to union bosses and other friends on its political Facebook, and by forcing us to fill out millions of government forms, annually confiscates 10 billion hours of our time.
It invades our schools, raises costs, messes with students’ minds and morals, and lowers educational quality. It scorns and interferes with traditional Americans in the exercise of their religion — and it forces everyone to fight through a jungle of federal regulations just to live our daily lives.
Washington has by fiat reduced the earnings on our savings accounts to near zero and given the differential to banks and speculators. It has taken $2.5 trillion out of our Social Security Trust Fund and “replaced” the money with federal IOUs that it can pay only by imposing additional taxes on us. What a cruel hoax.
A soon-to-be-published analysis of historical data (by Gary and Aldona Robbins) shows how government ineptitude has for decades been increasing the price of health care. ObamaCare is the final atrocity. It will not be tolerated.
Washington constantly intervenes in our free-market economy, cannibalizing vital parts and impairing its ability to provide jobs and raise living standards. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of commerce and trade may soon stop altogether. Absent that productive genius, what will we do then? Rely on government? What a hoot. Washington is broke and produces nothing.
The Great Recession tells us that government is better at creating problems (such as deficits, debt, unemployment and the housing bubble) than it is at providing solutions. And President Obama proves daily that profligate spending really is a sin: It kills jobs.
Instead of apologizing to the world for America, Obama should apologize to us. His administration seems unfortunately to have lost both its economic mind and its moral compass. (IBD)

But instead, you get it’s Bush’s Fault, fear the “tea party” as radicals and nutjobs, and spending EVEN MORE money than we have will solve everything! :(
I’ll give Gov. Deval Patrick (MA) the last word: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country,” Patrick said on the “Jim & Margery Show” on WTKK-FM. “You know, you got to, you got to respect that freedom.”
:)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Cynical Ploy

Political Cartoon by Eric Allie
Stimulus: President Obama’s new plan to cut taxes on all but those most likely to create jobs is little more than an exercise in class warfare to divide Americans and win votes — not to get the economy growing again.
Much was made of Obama’s “compromise” on taxes, including his plan to keep lower rates on the 98% of Americans who earn less than $250,000, and spend $180 billion or more to cut some business taxes and invest in more infrastructure repair.
The president’s supporters say this is a good plan — giving Republicans the tax cuts they want while letting average Americans keep their current tax rates. Only the “rich” get hit.
This plan is actually quite cynical, as even the New York Times tacitly admits, saying Obama “intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.” In short, it’s not really about jobs at all. It’s about politics.
Obama, though himself wealthy, seems to truly hate the private-sector rich — believing the neo-Marxist pap that as a “class” they create nothing, but rather exploit the rest of us.
When he told Joe the Plumber during the 2008 campaign that he wanted to “spread the wealth,” he was at least telling the truth.
In fact, the wealthy are the nation’s creators, innovators and job makers. The small businesses they run account for more than four of every five new jobs. Obama’s tax hikes target them — and you.
As economists Kevin Hassett and Alan Viard recently noted, “Fully 48% of the net income of sole proprietorships, partnerships and S corporations reported on tax returns went to households with incomes above $200,000 in 2007.”
A recent National Federation of Independent Business survey found that 50% of the small-business owners who employ 20 to 249 workers fall in the top two income brackets. They’re the “rich.”
So half of all small-business profits — maybe more — will be hit by Obama’s tax hikes. And guess what? They’ll respond predictably by not expanding their businesses or doing more hiring. If Obama’s plan is passed, expect no meaningful job growth for years.
For two years, we’ve heard repeated verbal assaults leveled at successful people to make the rest of us resent their success — like the canard that the rich don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes.
Well, as the National Taxpayers Union recently reported, the richest 1% of Americans earn 23% of all income and pay almost twice that — 40% — toward income taxes. Meantime, the bottom 50% take home 12% of the income and pay only 2.9% of the taxes.

Fair? Since 2002, the year before President Bush’s 2003 across-the-board tax cut went into effect, the share of taxes paid by the wealthy has risen every year. As for Democrats’ claim that the tax cuts “benefited only the wealthy,” 7 million new U.S. jobs were created from 2003 to 2008. How’s that stack up to Obama’s record of 4 million lost and counting?
Instead of emulating past success, Obama continues to push policies that scapegoat the rich while using “stimulus” spending to enlarge government, enrich unions and subsidize favored industries.
To their credit, Republicans have countered with a far better plan — one that freezes tax rates at the Bush levels and rolls back spending to the pre-stimulus levels of 2008. This would have a truly stimulative effect on the economy. It would be even better if the tax changes were made permanent and future spending were cut.
Until something is done to convince businesses that Washington is capable of fiscal sanity, few companies will willingly commit huge amounts of capital to new investments and jobs.
Like the rest of us, they want tax and regulatory relief, entitlement reform and smaller government. Until they get it, they’ll sit on the sidelines waiting for the craziness to end.
As the New York Times last weekend described the new Democratic “firewall” approach, “A national campaign trumpeting Democratic accomplishments on health care, education and Wall Street regulation has given way to a race-by-race defensive strategy.”
Joe Sixpack’s inevitable reaction to such a change in tack is simple: If ObamaCare, more money for teachers unions and preserving too-big-to-fail on Wall Street are so great, why not run on these things?
Instead, the party whose theme song used to be “Happy Days Are Here Again” is battening down the hatches.
“Small businesses drive economic growth, not government,” he added, “but ObamaCare and a slew of upcoming tax hikes are going to make it harder for our district’s small businesses to stay afloat.”
The hyperspending that was supposed to provide jobs has failed — yet those in power plan more of it.

But don’t worry, Obama’s new stimulus-that-isn’t-a-stimulus will solve everything.
After all, Obama was on the TV yesterday touting that “3 Million people had jobs” because of him.
Isn’t he amazing! :(
The fact that they are union and government union apparatchiks kind of got lost in the ra-ra speech. :)
That and the millions of people who have lost their jobs SINCE he came to power. They don’t matter.

Obama characterized Republicans as pandering to corporations, millionaires, special interests, and credit card and insurance companies. He asserted they did “not having a plan to govern” and praised the values that “we Democrats believe in.”
The president recalled the principles upon which America was founded — “values of self-reliance and individual responsibility” and “a country that rewards hard work. A country built upon the promise of opportunity and upward mobility” — and contrasted them with his characterization of the Republican attitude in Washington. “They’re asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness, and a shrinking middle class.”
Said Obama, “This country is greater than the sum of its parts — America is not about the ambitions of any one individual, but the aspirations of an entire people and an entire nation.”(Politics Daily)

<>

We also hoped for a chance to get beyond some of the old political divides -– between Democrats and Republicans, red states and blue states -– that had prevented us from making progress. Because although we are proud to be Democrats, we are prouder to be Americans -– (applause) — and we believed then and we believe now that no single party has a monopoly on wisdom.

We’re just way smarter than you and if we just explain why 2000+ page government takeover bills that we never even read are great then you’ll just love us!

“I ran because I had a different idea about how America was built.”
“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; a country that rewards hard work; a country built on the promise of opportunity and upward mobility.”

(just don't be too mobile or you'll be an evil "rich" person)

It’s amazing he can say this with a straight face. But then again, he is so much better than you.
It was an America where you didn’t buy things you couldn’t afford (They just expect government handouts to do it for them because they are entitled); where we didn’t just think about today -– we thought about tomorrow. An America that took pride in the goods that we made, not just the things we consumed. An America where a rising tide really did lift all boats, from the company CEO to the guy on the assembly line.
That’s the America I believe in.
<<>>

He’s other deeply, deeply cynical and manipulative and/or delusional and  just thinks his soaring charms and rhetoric will override the reality of what he and democrats have actually been doing.
What matters is scoring cheap,soaringly cynical, disingenuous, arrogant and deeply divisive political rhetoric that sounds good and makes you feel good.
I just feel sick. :(

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Buck Stops

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Political Cartoon by Gary Varvel
One of the best, Thomas Sowell:
President Barack Obama boldly proclaims, “The buck stops here!” But, whenever his policies are criticized, he acts as if the buck stopped with George W. Bush.
The party line that we are likely to be hearing from now until the November elections is that Obama “inherited” the big federal budget deficits and that he has to “clean up the mess” left in the economy by the Republicans. This may convince those who want to be convinced, but it will not stand up under scrutiny.
No President of the United States can create either a budget deficit or a budget surplus. All spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and all taxes are voted into law by Congress.
Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Barack Obama became president (January 2007 to be precise). The deficit he inherited was created by the Congressional Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, who did absolutely nothing to oppose the runaway spending. He was one of the biggest of the big spenders.
The last time the federal government had a budget surplus, Bill Clinton was president, so it was called “the Clinton surplus.” But Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, where all spending bills originate, for the first time in 40 years. It was also the first budget surplus in more than a quarter of a century.
The only direct power that any president has that can affect deficits and surpluses is the power to veto spending bills. President Bush did not veto enough spending bills but Senator Obama and his fellow Democrats in control of Congress were the ones who passed the spending bills.
Today, with Barack Obama in the White House, allied with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in charge in Congress, the national debt is a bigger share of the national output than it has been in more than half a century. And its share is projected to continue going up for years to come, becoming larger than national output in 2012.
Having created this scary situation, President Obama now says, “Don’t give in to fear. Let’s reach for hope.” The voters reached for hope when they elected Obama. The fear comes from what he has done since taking office.
“The worst thing we could do is to go back to the very same policies that created this mess in the first place,” he said recently. “In November, you’re going to have that choice.”
These risky loans, and the defaults that followed, were what set off a chain reaction of massive financial losses that brought down the whole economy.
Was this due to George W. Bush and the Republicans? Only partly. Most of those who pushed the lowering of mortgage lending standards were Democrats– notably Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, though too many Republicans went along.
At the heart of these policies were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who bought huge amounts of risky mortgages, passing the risk on from the banks that lent the money (and made the profits) to the taxpayers who were not even aware that they would end up paying in the end.
When President Bush said in 2004 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reined in, 76 members of the House of Representatives issued a statement to the contrary. These included Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel.
If we are going to talk about “the policies that created this mess in the first place,” let’s at least get the facts straight and the names right.
The current policies of the Obama administration are a continuation of the same reckless policies that brought on the current economic problems– all in the name of “change.” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still sacred cows in Washington, even though they have already required the biggest bailouts of all.
Why? Because they allow politicians to direct vast sums of money where it will do politicians the most good, either personally or in terms of buying votes in the next election.
Another political fable is that the current economic downturn is due to not enough government regulation of the housing and financial markets. But it was precisely the government regulators, under pressure from politicians, who forced banks and other lending institutions to lower their standards for making mortgage loans.
Amen! And those were Democrats by and large.
The RINOs still have to learn that getting along with Socialist Democrats is not possible and that even if they win Obama will be ideologically opposed to them on everything.
But at least it can’t get any worse and there is some hope, especially from the Tea Party Candidates.
Now that’s real “Hope and Change”. :)
Political Cartoon by Glenn McCoy
25 Reasons to “jaws” the Democrats…
But first, I would add #26: “Though the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we’re still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we’re losing,” Obama said last week. “For families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.”
Was this last week?
No.
It was December 2009.
Sounds like last week doesn’t it?
“We all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times,” he said, alluding to the concerns about the soaring budget deficit. “But we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step that we can to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country.”
This week?
No.
November 2009.
“Democrats have to reassure voters we are not being reckless,” said a Democratic official involved in the planning. “The White House knows this and that’s why we’ll be hearing a lot about reducing the deficit early next year. Democrats owned this issue for the past four years and cannot afford to cede it to Republicans now.”
You got it. November 2009!
You be the Judge, Jury and hopefully executioner.
1) Remember the stimulus bill? Republicans strongly opposed it and said it wouldn’t work. Democrats said it would revive the economy and keep unemployment under 8 percent. So, what happened? Democrats shoved through a bill that cost $1.1 trillion when you add in the interest. It cost more than the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase (the real one not the Health Care one :) ), and putting a man on the moon — combined. The result? The economy didn’t take off, the unemployment rate is still at 9.6 percent, and Democrats are calling for…you guessed it, another stimulus bill.
2) Perhaps the biggest problem with the economy right now is that businesses are so afraid of what the government will do that they’re stockpiling cash instead of spending it. Having a pro-market, Republican Congress that will oppose tax hikes, red tape, and damaging new legislation will reduce uncertainty and help give businesses the confidence they need to start hiring and expanding again.
3) While he was campaigning, Barack Obama promised to cut the deficit in half, but in his first 100 days alone, he quadrupled the deficit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his budget blueprint adds more, debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined.” No civilization in human history has spent like America has over the last two years of Democratic rule and unless we can get more Republicans in office, this country’s economic future is going to be deader than King Tut and uglier than a 7 day old chunk of roadkill.
4)The Democrats seem hellbent on taking over as much of the private sector as possible. In a relatively short period of time, our government has taken over much of the banking industry, auto industry, health care industry, and student loans. There are currently no viable plans to get out of any of these industries either. This sort of Sovietization of the American economy can only end badly. After all, look what similar policies did to the Soviet Union.
5) In the middle of a recession, the Democrats in Congress still seem to be on track to enact the largest tax increase in American history by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Here we are with a struggling economy and businesses that are afraid to move because they can’t be sure of what the Democrats will do, and Pelosi, Reid, and Obama still haven’t addressed this massive tax hike. How incompetent. How short-sighted. How foolish.
I would add (#27): In the middle of a recession, with joblessness hovering around the 10% mark, the Obama administration made a deliberate decision to impose a drilling moratorium knowing it would cost at least 23,000 jobs. Why?
Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs, but went ahead with the ban because they didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment and the government’s own inspection process, according to previously undisclosed documents.
Never mind the fact that an event like this had never happened before in deep water.   Never mind there were hundreds of deepwater wells functioning properly and well.  Never mind that those jobs were well paying jobs  and that through their elimination would cause ripple-effect unemployment down the supply chain.
Instead, deliberately trash the lives of 23,000 workers – and their families – because of unfounded fears.
And a deep seated radical environmentalist “green” agenda. They weren’t the right kind of jobs, after all.
Yeah, that’s leadership, isn’t it?
6) “Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.” — Joe Biden
7) Our economy is no longer suffering from the recession. At this point, the economy is suffering from the policies the Democrats put in place that were supposed to create a “recovery.”
So how was the “summer of recovery” for you?8)

I don’t mind a President taking a vacation now and then or playing a little golf, but Barack Obama has taken it to a ridiculous extreme. The man has already played more golf in two years than George W. Bush did in his whole presidency. Is he planning to try out for the PGA after he gets out of office? And what’s with the never ending vacationinh? It’s like the presidency is a distraction from taking time off for this guy. Wait, is that the phone ringing? Oh, it’s Marie Antoinette. She is just calling to say that Obama needs to show more sensitivity to the people during tough economic times.
9) “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine.” — Democratic Congressman Pete Stark to a constituent at a Townhall.
10) “But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.” — Barack Obama explains his views on bipartisanship.
11) The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home… What I think we know — separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact. — President Barack Obama explains that racism was behind the arrest of his friend, Bill Gates
12) “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” — Attorney General Eric Holder
12a) Suing Arizona. Period.

13) Iran, a nation that’s known for supporting terrorism and chanting “Death to America,” is about to get nukes and Barack Obama’s reaction has been…well, pretty much nothing.
14) On the other hand Israel, a nation that’s known for being a bastion of freedom in a backwards region and for supporting America, is just trying to survive and Obama’s reaction has been cold and hostile. Maybe if Benjamin Netanyahu started leading “Death to America” chants in the Knesset, Obama might become a little friendlier.
15) The President of the United States should not bow to foreign leaders.
16) Nancy Pelosi once promised to run the most “ethical and honest Congress in history.” She wasn’t alone. Yet, how have the Democrats been doing on that front? Perhaps we could ask Eric Massa, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, Roland Burris, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Alan Mollohan, Laura Richardson, Pete Visclosky, and William Jefferson among others. Sorry that all the charges aren’t laid out, but covering all the Democratic corruption that has occurred would be a double sized article in and of itself.
17) In one of the most corrupt deals in American history, Barack Obama broke existing contracts and tossed away billions in taxpayer dollars to give his union pals an outsized ownership stake in Chrysler and General Motors. Now, every time you buy a car from one of those companies, you’re essentially contributing to the Democratic Party. Calling that sleazy is like calling the ocean “wet.”
18) “The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.” — Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the public’s lack of concern over greenhouse gasses
19) “How about just tracking down every single person who said drill baby drill and putting them all in prison. Why don’t we do that? Starting with Michael Steele.” — Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson
19a) By Grayson himself on the floor during the Health care debate: Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) warned Americans that “Republicans want you to die quickly” during an after-hours House floor speech Tuesday night, highlighted by a sign reading “The Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly.”
Then the apology for this hyper-partisan rhetoric: “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America,” he said on the House floor Wednesday afternoon.
Now that’s your Obama Post-Partisan Congress for you.

20) “There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the (Ground Zero) mosque being funded. How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City — Nancy Pelosi
20a) If you disagree with a Democrat you’re a racist, a bigot, or a terrorist. Or all three. Isn’t that enough right there? :(
21) “When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — (Obama) charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering.” — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden explaining that Democrats no longer view space as one of NASA’s top priorities
22) The Democrats in the House actually managed to pass a cap and trade bill that’s supported by Barack Obama. This bill would impose massive new energy costs on American consumers. Estimates range from $1600 to $4000 in new costs per family. Although the Senate hasn’t passed this legislation yet, in an almost unbelievable show of arrogance, they’re considering trying to push it through during the lame duck session. If they try that, the American people should rise up as one and proclaim that it will be a “cooked duck session” for anybody who tries to shove significant legislation through before the next Congress arrives.
22a) The massive, seismically so, tax increases that the Democrats want to see on 1/01/11  when the Bush Tax Cuts expire. They actually think it’s a good idea to raise taxes on everyone during a recession. But they will be dishonest and say “it’s only the rich” we want to target. This kind of Class Warfare has never worked out in the past and won’t now.

23) How about Obama’s big, oily Katrina? Know what the difference was between the oil spill in the Gulf and the other programs Obama has pushed? With most of the other programs, it’ll take years for people to see how bad they are. With the oil spill, the country could see the complete and utter incompetence of the Obama Administration in real time.
24) It’s bad enough that the federal government ignored the law, isn’t trying to finish the fence, and refuses to secure our southern border. But now, not only are they still talking up amnesty, they’re actually harassing and suing Arizona because that state has decided to do the job that the federal government is refusing to do. If only the trial lawyers, unions, or ACORN were demanding that the border be secured, we might get some action.
25) You’d have to go all the way back to the days when the British were bossing around American colonists at the point of a bayonet to find the sort of government arrogance that led to Obamacare being shoved through in Congress. No matter how loudly the American people said they didn’t want the bill, Democrats insisted that they knew best. So now, the quality of American health care will be destroyed, private health insurance will end, rationing will occur, death panels will be instituted, the deficit will soar, and taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortion — but on the upside, Democrats think over the long-term, it will be good for their political prospects. However, there is an alternative. The GOP House Leadership has pledged to defund and repeal Obamacare. If we can get them into power, we can start putting the brakes on now and start working on health care reform that will actually improve what we have now instead of destroying it utterly and replacing it with an inferior system. (John Hawkins- Townhall.com)

So when the Democrats trot out their bribes in the next few months, don’t buy it. It’s just more Marxist Snake Oil.
We don’t need anymore Snake Oil. That buck has to stop.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Peasants are Revolting!

| Speaker Nancy Pelosi 2/4/09: “Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs.”
9/3/10: Obama said a recovery is taking place, but not at the speed he’d hope. “That’s why we need to take 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,” Obama said Friday. “In the weeks ahead, I’ll be discussing some of these ideas in more detail.”
Doesn’t the anticipation of more Keynesian economics just make you twitch with excitement? :(


This is not “better than expected”; it’s worse than expected. This can be gauged not by market expectations for modest job creation, but by long-term experience watching how jobs are created in a normal recovery. By that gauge, we’re in the worst jobs slump since World War II.
Even the normally bland Surveys of Consumers, put out by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan, warned Friday that “the probability of a double dip (recession) is high enough for everyone to include such an event in their contingency plans.”
Job data can be misleading. Gallup’s biweekly measure of “underemployment” — the share of workers who are either unemployed or working part-time but want to work full-time — stood at 18.6% in late August, the highest level since June.
“Worse yet,” said Gallup, “(our) job data show that 28% of Americans 18 to 29, 24% of those with no college education, and 22% of women, were underemployed in August.”
For those who have no job but want one, it may be a long wait.
In 2009, President Obama vowed to create 3.5 million jobs, lifting the total by the end of this year to 137.8 million. The actual number as of August was 130.3 million — leaving, as Heritage Foundation economist J.D. Foster puts it, a “jobs deficit” of 7.5 million.
Put differently, at August’s pace of private-sector job creation — 68,000 a month — it would take more than nine years for Obama to reach his goal. And that assumes that there’s no growth in the work force at all.
If it wasn’t clear to everyone by now, it should be: All the actions this government has taken — the $700 billion TARP program, the $862 billion “stimulus,” the health care takeover, financial reform — haven’t “saved or created” 3.8 million jobs, as claimed. Instead, they’ve destroyed millions of jobs — and with them, the hopes and dreams of those who’ve lost the jobs.
But the administration remains clueless, hinting that it may seek another “stimulus” costing billions. This bunch is either willfully doing damage to the U.S. economy, or completely incompetent.
On Friday, the president actually patted himself on the back, saying the employment report was “positive news” that “reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.”
If there’s one thing that marks this administration as different from others, it’s the steadfast refusal to remove its ideological blinders and learn from its mistakes.
The Democrats’ politicized housing and mortgage policies pushed our economy into its worst downturn since the Great Depression. So, of course, it’s a perfect time for the biggest tax increase in history.
Why is the economy still paralyzed after the president’s much-touted “Recovery Summer”? It may be that private investment, too, has been immobilized.
With unemployment now up to 9.6%, Americans fear that the economy won’t get moving again anytime soon. As a new report from Americans for Tax Reform shows, that fear is completely rational. The report outlines the impact of the largest-ever tax hike that’s coming in just 120 days as the Bush tax cuts expire.
On New Year’s Day, “The top income tax rate will rise from 35% to 39.6% (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10% to 15%. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.”
Of crucial importance to entrepreneurship and job creation, the top capital gains tax rate rises from 15% to 20% next year, while the top rate for taxation of dividends rises from 15% to 39.6%.
And, “These rates will rise another 3.8% in 2013,” ATR points out.
Then there are the 20 new or increased taxes dictated by the ObamaCare government takeover of the health care system. All told, Americans’ taxes will go up by $3.1 trillion, as Heartland Institute economist John Nothdurft noted in IBD last week.
With all that on the horizon for an already-crippled U.S. economy, the Obama administration has saturated the Internet with WhiteHouse.gov propaganda — like an interactive map in which you can “Roll over states to learn how many estimated jobs have been created and saved due to Recovery Act funding.”
Maybe playing with that map of fictional jobs on their computer can give unemployed breadwinners something to do.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in July sent an open letter to the president, Congress and the American people, warning: “Through their legislative and regulatory proposals — some passed, some pending, and others simply talked about — the congressional majority and the administration have injected tremendous uncertainty into economic decision making and business planning.”
“This is why banks are reluctant to lend and why American corporations are sitting on well over a trillion dollars,” the Chamber wrote. “It is why America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs, the engines of innovation and job creation, are starving for capital and are either struggling to survive or unable to expand.”
Amid all this, the president is reportedly mulling “emergency” infrastructure spending — another stimulus to throw tens of billions more in good taxpayer money after bad. (IBD)


Though the Democrats won’t call it a “stimulus” anymore. That word is persona non-grata. It’s now a “jobs bill” And how could you be against that? :)
But in reality, the Democrats are going into a siege mentality. The villagers are coming for them with pitchforks so they are shoring up their defenses.
It’s not like they can admit to being wrong. After all, they are the morally and intellectually superior Masters of all that they survey.

Eugene Robinson, Mega-Lefist: According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they’re ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans — for whom, according to those same polls (by Liberals no doubt) , the nation has even greater contempt. This isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum.
Maybe the american people just need a time out in the corner to think about how badly they have been treating their Intellectual Superiors. :)
But at this point, it’s impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. (IBD)


It’s just a bunch of ignorant peasants wanting to storm the gates of their castle, after all.
To hold the line against Republicans, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, issued an urgent plea for members in safe districts to help their endangered colleagues by contributing money. She called out to Democrats who were delinquent on paying their party dues and instructed members with no re-election worries to tap into a combined $218 million from their campaign accounts to help save their majority.
“We need to know your commitment,” Pelosi wrote to lawmakers last week in a private letter, demanding that they call her within 72 hours to explain how they plan to help.
She added, “The day after the election, we do not want to have any regrets.”
They are circling the wagons. The hostile natives are after them and they have fight them off.
They have the liberal media to use as their ammunition.
So expect an all out nuclear war.

The following headline appeared at Time.com shortly after the release of Friday’s jobs report:
What’s Good About Rising Unemployment
What should jump out at the eagle-eyed reader is that headline didn’t end with a question mark.
Time senior writer Stephen Gandel was actually making the case that the rising unemployment rate was good news.
He also argues a fallacy: What economists know very well, but most of the rest of us do not is that the unemployment rate never hits 0%. It never even gets close.
So why are you worried now?  It’s not like we can solve the problem, so just be patient, you’re an ignoramus for being so short-sighted. :)
Watch just how far a liberal media member is willing to go today to make economic data look favorable for the Party currently in power, and imagine the unlikelihood of such a thing happening if a Republican was in the White House.(Newbusters)

You mean like, the uptick in unemployment is good because more people are LOOKING for work instead of sitting on their asses waiting for their Mama Government to take care of them?

Orwell would be proud of you my sons.
Not that they will find them. That doesn’t really matter in the end. Just the perception.
The Hope.
And Change. :)
And it won’t stop there. Many Democrats are running as “moderates” and “against Washington” and all I have to say to that is, stay tuned to see if voters remember and apply this old adage come Election Day: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
So don’t be fooled.
And if the Republicans don’t get it, the same applies.
Period.
 
Cynthia Tucker (AJC): Our long, hot summer needed another ingredient to induce a fever-like madness in the national psyche: demographic change. Over the last year and a half, many Americans have begun to see a deeper message in President Obama’s inauguration — the end of the white majority. For some,  especially those who are middle-aged and older, it’s a jarring and unwelcome message.
Then she goes on to say she’s not calling you a racist…sort of. :)
While some prognosticators were naïve enough to believe that Obama’s election signaled the beginning of a post-racial era, it prompted something altogether different: a backlash against the browning of America. The winds of resentment would have blown in even if the economy were booming, but an anemic recovery provided the perfect fuel for a summer of discontent.
Timing is everything. Just as many Americans came to understand that the nation they knew was undergoing a dramatic demographic change, the economy collapsed. Unable to account for the disappearance of jobs and financial security, they linked those developments as cause and effect. The backlash is now at gale force.
So we’ve seen a summer of fury over illegal immigration, despite the fact that illegal border-crossings have plunged in the last two or three years, according to a new study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Islamophobia spiked as conservatives made a case against a proposed Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero, claiming that it would represent a victory for jihadists. It didn’t seem to matter that the imam proposing the center has publicly denounced jihadists.
Just not terrorists, Iran, or Sharia Law. Nothing too big to fail. :)
So in the coming months as the Democrats turn up the spin to the point where the Earth should stop rotating because it, just keep it in mind this science fact:

If you raise the middle while trying to crush the top you squash the middle. :)