"I am concerned for the security of our great nation, not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within."
General Douglas MacArthur
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants" - Albert Camus
Tim Geithner: "GOP debt plan 'irresponsible, risky, radical, unwise"
Oh really, Timmy?! ...And spending money that we do not have on non-productive things, then sticking our children and grandchildren with the bill that will certainly enslave them is not?
Bill Clinton: “the stimulus did as well as it could have done — there just wasn’t enough of it”
Proof positive, once and for all, that he was never responsible for the balanced budgets (thanks to the G.O.P. controlled House) he likes to claim credit for.
Janet Napolitano: DHS can’t enforce immigration laws so we need amnesty programs…
Then, let's disband this useless $53 billion a year government monstrosity! More likely than can't, DHS will not enforce immigration laws on purpose. Illegals = Democrat power
Hillary Clinton: “And then there is the work that our embassy team in Rome has been doing; two weeks ago they played an instrumental role in bringing Lady Gaga to Italy for a Euro (Gay) Pride concert."
Isn't it comforting to know that in an era when Iran is testing ballistic missiles to mound their soon to be operational nuclear weapons, and leaders like Chavez crushing the will and resistance of their freedom loving people, our State Department is busy arranging gigs for euro gay parades? Let the good times roll!
Al Sharpton: "Offering public sector employees 401k’s instead of pensions is an unthinkable civil rights violations."
...And just whose rights will be violated when public pension funds go belly up and need to be rescued by the tax payers? That is easy, I am sure if we ask Al, the answer would be "the rich".
AFL/CIO and AFT: "Let's use the billions of pension dollars set aside for union retirees to fund real estate development"
This coming from those screaming the loudest when Bush suggested investing a tiny portion of the Social Security fund in the stock market in order to ensure its solvency?
Jay Carney: “not a conversation worth having.”
White House press secretary on why the President turned down an offer by Republican Senator McConnell to discuss raising the debt limit. President is already off to 4 campaign fund raising events. I guess this is the kind of work ethic he was talking about yesterday!
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D): "GOP is committing class warfare"
According to the good senator, "by loading up the tax code with all these breaks for people who already have privilege". Does he realize that in the 1950s when the top tax rate was in the 90-93% range, no one paid anywhere near that? Had they, economic activity would have completely stopped.
By the way, what do progressives mean by "privilege"? Fruits of one's hard work in now a "privilege"? And then they shamelessly deny that they are Marxists!
---
And finally, the whole Obama press conference yesterday when the President started ugly and finished much uglier. It was class warfare at its best with hypocrisies galore concerning work ethic among others from a president with 75 golf outings, dozens of campaign events during the past month, and several high profile vacations under his belt.
Relax, one more Orwellian attempt to keep producers of the society in line by the Obama Administration has been thwarted for the time being. HHS announced that they are suspending their plans to use "mystery shoppers" due to strong reaction from various groups as well as the public. The "mystery shoppers" were to check how many doctors refuse the Medicaid patient while giving an appointment to the privately insured patient - an unnecessary exercise since earlier this month a similar study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that two-thirds of Medicaid patients were denied doctors' appointments, compared with just 11 percent of those with private insurance.
Why Medicaid? Answer: Obamacare
Over half of all new health coverage obtained by Americans thanks to Obamacare will be through Medicaid. Obamacare's authors specifically chose Medicaid as the vehicle for most of the coverage expansion because it is "cheaper" than Medicare and private insurance. But Medicaid isn't cheaper because government is somehow better than the private sector at controlling health care costs. Rather, Medicaid is cheaper because it pays doctors less for the same services (about 60 cents on the dollar after burdensome paperwork and long waiting times (up to 10-12 months sometimes) for reimbursements). In other words, Medicaid, like Medicare, is price controls.
I can attest to this because my wife is a health care provider.
As a Washington Examiner editorial succinctly puts it:
Government price controls decrease the supply of doctor labor. When a government's price control regime fails, the next step typically is to find other means of coercion in order to keep economic actors in line.
SEIU has enough out of work members with plenty of time in their hands to crack some doctor skulls if necessary.
---
Alinskyite tactics of UAW
The left loves to play by the rules outlined by Saul Alinsky as the impostor who masquerades as our president proves day after day.
UAW, one of Obama's closest allies, is now threatening to brand foreign car makers in right-to-work states "human rights violators" if they refuse to unionize.
To show that there is some hope for the U.S. yet, overwhelming majorities of workers in these plants are perfectly happy and want nothing to do with the UAW or any other union.
---
Loons of class-warfare agree: Corporations and the rich must pay
Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is apparently circulating a letter asking President Obama not to give in to the G.O.P. demands not to raise any taxes. They do not have to do much convincing as Obama agrees that the Republican approach to budget is immoral in a twisted way only a progressive could reason.
The long and short of it is these collectivists think that the rich along with corporations must pay off the debt by paying their fair share. Excuse me?
Does the good senator from the loony state of Vermont not know that those two groups effectively pay more than twice their share compared to the bottom 95% of the society? Does he also not know that even taxing 100% of their earnings (hypothetical since much past 90%, none of them would bother to work anymore) would not make a dent in the debt? How about growth we would be sacrificing by imposing higher taxes on the producers - Goldman Sachs analysts recently said that just letting Bush tax rates expire would have cost the economy 1.5% in GDP growth, let alone imposing much higher taxes.
As billionaire Stanford Professor Cheriton, of Google fame, puts it in no uncertain terms: Obama (and the same goes for other collectivists) is leading America on a crash course towards economic disaster.
---
A picture is worth a thousand words...
Welcome back recession? As Zero Hedge reports, manufacturing survey indicates that we are in the second month of a new recession. As usual, NBER should catch up with the news within the next 12 months or so.
I am embarrassed to say this but I have been cheering for this since last few months. Anything to get rid of these enemies of America is welcome.
---
Who needs the Congress, Obama thumbs his nose at the Constitution yet again...
Suspicious by hundreds of immigration cases dismissed in Houston (and nearly 35,000 cases dismissed in the U.S.) by ICE last year, the Chronicle has obtained, through a FOIA, series of internal ICE memos that show that Obama Administration is implementing a backdoor amnesty.
The short and sweet of it is that, other than hardcore felons, ICE is instructed to not pursue immigration cases against illegal aliens. Who needs a congress that refuses to pass amnesty. There is more than one way to skin a cat, especially if the Administration in question has nothing but disregard for the U.S. Constitution as well as the will of its citizens.
Remember Gerald Walpin? The Inspector General Obama fired without a valid excuse early in his administration because he had uncovered a scandal surrounding corruption involving one of Obama's closest supporters - Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, who apparently used tax dollars as hush money for sex partners among other irregularities? Well, he now has a companion to commiserate with: Vince Cefalu.
Vince Cefalu is the agent who broke the scandal surrounding Operation Fast and Furious under Project Gunrunner, where geniuses in ATF (no doubt with the blessings of higher ups in the D.O.J.) lost track of hundreds of assault weapons they knowingly let Mexican drug gangs acquire, six of which turned up at the murder scene of a U.S. agent. Vince has been notified that he will be terminated by the ATF as a result of his role in letting the cat out of the bag.
The incompetence of government aside, there seems to be a troubling (but in no way surprising) pattern here on the part of the Obama Administration. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is supposed to protect those government employees who blow the cover off all types of malfeasence on the part of federal government. Vince Cefalu is the second high profile case where a whistleblower is being sacrificed instead of being congratulated.
The lesson for anyone contemplating on blowing the whistle on anything to do with this government is clear: In the rough and tumble world of Chicago politics, you do not rat on the big dog or his close supporters. Just ask Rahm "dead fish" Emanuel! If you are lucky, you will recieve a dead fish in the mail; if not, a couple of SEIU goons could be visiting you soon.
Lets go with the more outrageous ones first (- not that almost all news that comes out of Washington under this regime is not outrageous):
---
USDA gay sensitivity training may be imposed on all federal employees.....
What?...you might be wondering. Afterall, it is not like the USDA (home of Shirley 'I discriminate against whites' Sherrod) is the OPM or that we live in an Orwellian future society, right? Well, if that is your reaction, you may just need to be sent to a re-education center (soon to be proposed by the Obama administration, I am sure).
U.S. Department of Agriculture activists want to impose their intense brand of homosexual sensitivity training governmentwide, including a discussion that compares “heterosexism” - believing marriage can be between only one man and one woman - to racism.
Well, at least I am sure this is not a meat headed move by the secretary or anything.....but oh wait, the push for the training is coming from Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack. The Democrat has launched the departmentwide “cultural transformation” that includes a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Special Emphasis Program.
By the way, do not fear because our military and the ATF among other entities have already been subjected to this very training.
I am wondering when the public in general will be told to submit ourselves to the training as well!
---
Failing in congress, the DOL writes its own DISCLOSE Act while NLRB revives Card Check
If you thought that the deserved deaths of the DISCLOSE Act (never got voted on) and Card Check (defeated) in the Congress were victories for the free markets, think again! In a law abiding government where the separation of powers is not violated almost on a monthly basis, these job killing unionization bills would have long been buried in the ash heap of history, but this is the Obama thug administration that disregards such constitutional trivialities.
So, here we go again with law making by regulation (when it is not done by executive order). This past week, the Department of Labor issued an expansive 160-page notice for proposed rule-making. According to Labor Union Report "it is, in sum, a radical overhaul of the reporting requirements for employers who wish to remain union free and the consultants, lawyers, and firms that provide human resources, employee and labor relations services". Like the intent behind the proposed DISCLOSE Act, unions want to be able to shut down free speech for employers to make it easier to target them.
At the same time, the NLRB (which under the Obama regime no longer acts as an independent mediation body but rather as the governmental arm of the Marxist labor unions) announced on Tuesday that it is seeking comments on its proposed rule making to make it easier to unionize companies.
The rule change the NLRB is proposing to change is to turn union representation elections into “quickie elections”—from the current 38 to42-day elections that occur now to elections that take place in as little as 10 to 21 days. In his dissent, lone Republican NLRB member Brian Hayes noted:
…[B]y administrative fiat in lieu of Congressional action, the Board will impose organized labor’s much sought-after “quickie election” option, a procedure under which elections will be held in 10 to 21 days from the filing of the petition. Make no mistake, the principal purpose for this radical manipulation of our election process is to minimize, or rather, to effectively eviscerate an employer’s legitimate opportunity to express its views about collective bargaining.
As unions currently win nearly 70% of NLRB elections, an expedited (or “quickie”) election process is expected to increase the union win rate substantially. Former NLRB member Peter Kirsanow explains:
Make absolutely no mistake: That’s not enough time for even the largest and most sophisticated employers to counter what the union has been telling employees while organizing them for the last 6–8 months.
In addition to “quickie elections,” the union extremists controlling the National Labor Relations Board are also proposing that unions be given names, addresses, telephone numbers, ande-mail addresses of eligible voters within two days once an election has been set up. [Currently, unions are only given eligible voters' names and addresses seven days after an election is set up.]
Moreover, the employer would be forced to provide to produce a preliminary voter list, including names, work location, shift, and classification, by the opening of the pre-election hearing. The NLRB also proposes limiting parties’ (read: employers’) right to appeal cases.
Who needs Card Check legislation when you can unilaterally institute electronic voting, which may (and will) open up fraud, as well as coercion and intimidation of voters who no longer have the protection of private ballots; rushed elections so employees don’t have time to inform themselves about having to pay union dues, live and work by union rules, and support a vast far leftwing political machine; the inability for employers to challenge the validity of voting employees until it’s too late; and giving digital readouts of the home address and contact information for all the employees the union is targeting.
And you thought the government bureaucrats were inefficient! Tsk, tsk...
---
In other employment related news of the past week, while the NLRB, now dominated by appointees of President Obama, continues to push an activist agenda at the expense of our nation’s workforce (like the Boeing jobs NLRB is suing on behalf of the union to take way from S. Carolina which is a right-to-work state), we found out that the first time unemployment claims "unexpectedly" rose again. This piece of news came at the heels of the revelation that that AFL/CIO's Trumka talks to the White House everyday and visits twice a week (at least he is not letting Andy Stern, the former head of SEIU who was the most frequent visitor of Obama until he resigned in 2010, beat him in the crony game).
Quite unsettling were also the revelations by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that he is stumped by the economy and the CBO saying that we are on target for a 1.4 trillion deficit for the year which will add on to our $14.2 trillion debt that CBO now says was almost doubled by the failed Obama stimulus. And, oh, did I mention that Elmendorf said government policies and debt are the reasons for the piss poor growth and pretty much predict doom for America (as he conveyed on his blog as well)?
The saying "no shit Sherlock" comes to mind!
And how about those Clinton era tax rates Obama claims will resolve our debt problem? Forget it, they will not!
I mean, come on Ben, what is there to be stumped about? Vilifying and assaulting the private sector non-stop while writing job killing regulations at record pace, diverting capital from the private sector, adding to the national debt at record pace, debasing the currency with hairbrained ideas like quantitative easing that have never worked anywhere before....; and you are wondering why Obamanomics is a miserable failure?
Plus, we have a genius of a President who thinks ATMs (among other examples of automation) are the reason why unemployment remains high one day and promotes robots in manufacturing the next...
And, oh, he also said in his weekly radio address that "we can’t simply cut our way to prosperity" I guess that means we will be spending our way to prosperity as we have been doing for several years now!
Now, why wouldn't businesses be willing to invest with this private sector-friendly environment and competent bureaucrats running Washington (sarc.)??? (additional hint: read the next news item below)
---
Tim Geithner gets his own little capsule for his little gem this week:
What a ship of fools we have in the Obama Administration...
---
“Trouble in the Hen House: A Puppet Show.” What is that, you may ask. Well, that is the latest indoctrination attempt by the Marxists who call themselves the American Federation of Teachers. The target? Our Kindergarteners and first graders. The aim? Teaching children how to use mob tactics to get what they want from those in positions of power. This puppet show fits very nicely into a kindergartener’s school day – right after finger painting and just ahead of snack time.
I mean which kindergartener doesn't need to be taught the virtues of labor unions? Long live cultural Marxism. Si, se puede!
While we are on the subject of cultural Marxism, the Board of Education in the socialist hell hole known as the people's republic of Maryland has made "environmental literacy" a requirement for graduation. I mean who needs functional literacy when they can be indoctrinated in 'environmental justice' and evils of capitalism?
---
Here are some more brief headlines you can click on if your blood pressure could benefit from rising:
* U.S. Taxpayers subsidizing Soros' war on Fox news. Oh, Joy.
* Obama’s administration offering quasi-amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illega immigrants. Just in time for the elections!
* In related news, N. Carolina's Dem governor vetoes voter photo id bill (god forbid, how else would the illegals vote for their favorite Democrat?)
* Union lawyer says southern workers unskilled, uneducated. Progressive elitism at its worse.
* Holder’s claim: Lawyers are nation’s “most effective terror-fighting weapon.” Military apparently to be declared unnecessary by the Marxist Obama machine.
* EPA to put its jackboot on the neck of the highly successful Texas econmy - Just because we cannot have that kind of accomplishment make this administration and their Marxist allies look bad.
* Hillary Clinton, holding true to the hypocrisy that defines progressives, flip flops on 'patriotism'
* A glimpse in to our future under Obamacare: Britain's NHS provides tambourines and maracas for the elderly instead of electronic alarms (...and no, it is not an episode of Benny Hill)
* Delusional statement of the week - Pelosi: "Debt largely accrued by President G. W. Bush"
* Pelosi wants to amend America's 'sacred documents' for 'ever expanding freedom' of jobs...as Democrats line up to call for the federal government to hire the unemployed (no joke!)
* Calls grow in Egypt to delay elections (but muslim brotherhood is a moderate group, no?)
Vice President Dan Quayle got ridiculed endlessly for spelling potato with an e. George W. Bush was vilified in the media for his mannerisms (and widely referred to as a "chimp") as well as his utterances like "I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq" . It has now been three years that we have been treated to the Obama/Biden gaffe machine on a weekly basis - and the media whores of the Administration still maintain the supposed (read: non-existent) magnificent oratory and intellectual qualities of this President while obfuscating the countless examples of not just gaffes but downright ignorance of everything from economics to ..... well, you name it.
This is a public service to all liberty loving patriots who will eventually (and inescapably) encounter a progressive drone ridiculing a Republican. For comparison purposes, here is a list of Bush 'offenses'. You decide which President displays more mind numbing ignorance as far as substance goes.
First a hilarious video that has recently gone viral over the Net:
Here are others, in no particular order - some with details (in print form):
* 2008 May, he claimed that Kansas tornadoes killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.
* Again 2008, in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”
* During the 2008 campaign, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, South Dakota audience, Obama exulted: “Thank you Sioux City…I said it wrong. I’ve been in Iowa for too long. I’m sorry.”
* Explaining why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.” On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?
* Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. In March 2008, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama, he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement:
“There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.”
Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was “speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole.”
* In 2008, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by honing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
* 2008 - In Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multi-billion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear waste clean-up:
“Here’s something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I’m not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I’ll learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.”
I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that he’s voted on at least one defense authorization bill that addressed the “costs, schedules, and technical issues” dealing with the nation’s most contaminated nuclear waste site.
* In 2008 again, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obama’s “Dreams from My Father:”
“Then, there’s the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don’t exist, say the magazine’s own historians.” Just another lie.
* And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesn’t “pose a serious threat to us”–cluelessly arguing that “tiny countries” with small defense budgets can’t do us harm– and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, “I’ve made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”
* Barack Obama jokes about Nancy Reagan having séances in the White House. He later called her to apologize after the AP noted that although she had consulted astrologers, “she did not hold conversations with the dead”
* Barack Obama mixes up the windows and doors at his new home.
* On his maiden Marine One trip Obama breached protocol and makes life uncomfortable for an enlisted marine by shaking the the serviceman’s hand as he’s saluting his commander-in-chief
* Gordon Brown presents the new President with: a pen holder carved from the timbers of HMS Gannett, a sister ship of HMS Resolute; the commissioning certificate of HMS Resolute; and a seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In return, the Prime minister gets 25 DVDS, which don’t work in Britain.
* Barack Obama jokes about the disabled on the Jay Leno show. Afterwards, he calls the head of the Special Olympics to apologise.
* Barack Obama talks of “my Muslim faith”
* Barack introduces President Joe Biden
* Obama misspells "Advice" in Letter to Fan
* April 21, 2009: After receiving a heart-felt letter from Michael Powers, who criticized the president for his smoking habit, Obama hand-writes a response, "Michael -- Thanks so much for the wonderful letter, and the good advise ... " C'mon folks, it is not like he misspelled potato!
* April 22, 2009: Obama flies to and from Iowa, making two trips on Air Force One and four trips on Marine One, burning at least 9,000 gallons of fuel on the 895-mile cross-country excursion. The president makes the trip so he can plant a single tree and deliver a speech on the importance of using alternative energy.
* References Non-Existent "Austrian" Language
April 4, 2009: In response to a question asking what he learned from European leaders, Obama responds, "It was ... interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing ... "
* April 1, 2009: During a visit to Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth presents Obama with a silver framed photo of her and Prince Andrew. Obama gives the queen -- an iPod featuring 40 Broadway show tunes and footage of her infamous visit to the US in 2007.
* January to February, 2009: Over a three-week period, Obama selects no fewer than five cabinet selections who are each revealed to have legal problems. Obama gets lucky with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but is not so lucky with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose late payments to the IRS raise questions and threaten to derail his confirmation. Meanwhile, the president's other nominees -- all Democrats -- proceed to fall like dominoes. Gov. Bill Richardson withdraws as commerce secretary nominee in the wake of a legal inquiry. Former Sen. Tom Daschle (Health and Human Services), Rep. Hilda Solis (Labor) and Nancy Killefer (Budget and Spending reform) all withdraw because of tax problems.
* In what might be the worst possible moment of his young administration, Obama clearly bows before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. When queried about the bow later that day in Strasbourg, France, Obama says, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect." A week later, after apparently being alerted that the only people who bow before the king are his subjects -- not his peers -- the administration's official line on the bow changes, and White House spokespeople say the president was merely stooping to shake hands with the much-shorter king. This lame excuse irks even the most biased members of the fawning press, who can clearly see the deep bow the president makes in subsequent video clips.
* Jan. 20 to July 20, 2009: Whether it's brief introductory remarks or drawn-out policy speeches, Obama doesn't go anywhere without his TelePrompter. On several occasions, his reliance on it results in some embarrassing moments, such as April 27, 2009, when, speaking to scientists at the National Academy of Sciences, Obama's TelePrompter soars ahead of him and loses the president altogether. To regain his place, he is forced to completely stop his speech until it's rolled back. On July 13, 2009 his TelePrompter completely falls apart and shatters on the floor as he delivers a speech on the economy at the White House. His continued use of the device prompts some in the media to dub him the "TelePrompter-In-Chief." Off-camera, of course!
* As he tells us, children with asthma require breatalyzer.....and then gets lost about what he wants to say (as usual)
---
There are so many more (like returning Churchill's bust back to the U.K. when he moved in the White House), but you can do your own research for the rest. Here is just one of many sources.
We all know that some of these are slipping of the tongue (as in almost all of GWB's cases and a few of Obama's), but since the left wants to ridicule Republicans, I say have at it! You have got to fight fire with fire and point out these progressive tools' hypocrisies.
I know I am late with this but six days ago marked the one year anniversary of the 'Summer of Recovery' touted by the village idiot we call our Vice-President.
Biden, with great fanfare, announced on June 17, 2011 that more people were going to be put to work that summer. Looking back, the actual numbers of new jobs created obviously disputed that claim's veracity:
June: -192,000
July: -49,000
August: -59,000
September: -29,000
Well, maybe the village idiot meant 'jobs saved'!
Looking at the following 12 months after that fateful statement, we now know why only 30% of the nation seems to be willing to vote these jokers back in for another term:
The country is still plagued by high unemployment (9.1%) and even higher underemployment (15.8%, BLS // 18.6%, Gallup)
May 2011: Unemployment increases for the second consecutive month
May 2011: Overall consumer spending drops for the first time in 11 months
May 2011: New-home construction rose to adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units per year---but still far below the 1.2 million new homes per year that Economists say is needed to sustain a healthy housing market
Applications for new weekly unemployment benefits have average 434,792 since last summer
Consumer prices for all goods have increased each month since June 2010
Cost of food for a family of four, on average, up 5% since last summer
6.2 million Americans have been unemployed for 6 months or longer
Nearly 1 of every 3 people unemployed have been out of work for more than 1 year
About 25 of mortgage holders nationwide are now underwater -- owe more than their homes are worth
GDP revised down to a disappointing annual rate increase of 1.8% in the first quarter of 2011, (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. If adjusted for inventory build ups, the rate goes down to 0.6% growth.
Oh, by the way, if the economy keeps on adding jobs at the past 12 months' rate of 72,500 per month, it will take 8 years to just make up for the jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in 2007. That of course does not even account for the population increase in the work force!
Of course, what is the response of Democrats to the wild success of the past Obama stimulus? More stimulus.
Did Einstein have today's Democrats in mind when he defined insanity as 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results' or what?
Governor (and hopefully GOP presidential candidate) Rick Perry and the state legislature have been making news with their defiance of the collectivist federal government by openly opposing two federal law/regulations.
First, the legislature just passed a bill that would allow Texans to skirt federal efforts to promote more efficient light bulbs, which ultimately pushes the swirled, compact fluorescent bulbs over the 100-watt incandescent bulbs many grew up with. The measure, sent to Gov. Rick Perry for consideration, lets any incandescent light bulb manufactured in Texas - and sold in that state - avoid the authority of the federal government or the repeal of the 2007 energy independence act that starts phasing out some incandescent light bulbs next year."
Second, Texas Attorney General, along with six other states, is legally challenging EPA's unlawful and unconstitutional green house gas regulations. The rules under the Federal Clean Air Act were meant to regulate toxic substances - not carbon dioxide, which we all exhale and is not toxic.
Along with Arizona governor Brewer and several other southern governors' challenges to the federal domain of the immigration laws, we can only hope that these are the collective shots heard around the world against run-away tyrannical federal abuse of power.
-----
Shhhhh....
Some like to milk the system, like millionaire Leroy Fick, while others like James Verone have to resort to extreme measures to recieve basic medical treatment - well sort of, that is if you believe the media whores of the Obama regime.
In another display of disingenuous media coverage aimed at painting the still-unpopular Obamacare as a sorely needed reform, major news outlets simply neglected to inform their readers that Mr. Verone had all sorts of options available to him, including UNC and another hospital near his home, both of which have stated goals of treating patients regardless of their ability to pay, along with state and federal programs.
Here is the dirty little secret the left does not want you to know: last year hospitals provided $34 billion in unpaid care in the U.S. and $694 million in North Carolina alone - much of it voluntarily.
Shhhhh.....
-----
Finally some awakening on the left....
Are some on the left, like the NYT Business Editor Gretchen Morgenson, finally coming around to admitting the federal regulators'/government's role in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacles?
"Reckless Endangerment" by Morgenson - a stounch critic of Wall Street - examines the corrupt relationship between the two GSEs and politicians. In the book, Morgenson recognizes the formerly ignored real villains like ex-Fannie chairman Jim Johnson, one of many Clinton cronies who helped set the stage for the financial disaster back in the 1990s. She also goes in to how Johnson's succesor, Franklin Raines. encouraged the zero down payment schemes as well as more subprime mortgages. Read more about it here.
Finally an influential progressive comprehends the bitter fruit of government social engineering and crony capitalism - what I and millions of other reasonable observers have been saying for the past several years!
-----
How to bury a scandal "fast and furious"
Get the bus ready to run over the latest victim: Acting Director of ATF Kenneth Melson who apparently will be the scapegoat in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.
If a federal agency, willingly allowing the exportation of assault weapons to notoriously violent Mexican drug cartels in an attempted sting, loses track of the weapons, some of which turn up in the murder scene of a U.S. Border agent, is not the height of government ineptness, I do not know what would be.
Moreover, if anyone thinks that such a risky operation with potentially far reaching implications does not get communicated to the big boss - Eric Holder - they must be smoking some funny stuff.
On the other hand, would any of you dismiss the idea that this was all planned so the Obama Administration could build public support for their war on second amendment?
The same failed progressive policies that have laid waste to states like California and Illinois threaten to do the same to the entirety of our country if we do not regain our sanity as a nation soon.
In the latest news from the "golden state", companies keep on leaving California in record numbers so far in 2011 (at 5x the rate of 2009). This isn't really surprising given that California ranks #49 in the nation in business climate and 48th in "economic freedom".
The culprit is run away regulation, record level taxation, and union driven policies that allow instances like retired San Francisco city employees getting more in retirement benefits than the average private employee in the city earns.
We, as a nation, have a choice of two paths in front of us: one emulating the California experience, and the other emulating the Texas model that has been successful in many red states.
Are we going to wake up soon enough and heed the warning signals technically broke states like California and Illinois are sending, or will our country as a whole go down the same path to eventual financial armageddon?......A question every voter needs to ask themselves in 2012!
Charles Manson could claim to be an angel. Ex-porno star Ginger Lee (of Weiner fame) a virtuous virgin. Maybe, even George Soros a rabid anti collectivist. Whatever the obviously ridiculous claims such infamous individuals could make, they do not because they carry some trace sense of shame not to insist on being what they obviously are not.
This sense of shame does not exist in our disgraceful President. We know this because of his actions throughout his public life. Actions like insisting on transparency yet conducting critical legislative business behind locked doors away from not only public scrutiny but Republican input, or telling bankers that he is the only one between them and angry mobs while in the same breath trying to secure their cooperation in easing credit. Examples are too numerous and unnecessary to list for those who read this blog.
The latest addition to the list is his claims throughout last week that he is a "free market" leader. The man who could barely spell the word free market is desperate. The vision he sees these days is the one of him packing his bags for Chicago one and a half year from now. Although he insists that he is okay with it if he is not re-elected, he knows that he still has important work to do if America's destruction as a free society founded on constitutional principles is to be achieved.
Any man, who could make that claim with his track record is simply either clinically out of touch (as in schizophrenic) or lacks any sense of shame, which arguably stems from just such clinical condition.
This is the man who has long lamented that ours is a constitution that makes redistributive justice very difficult. This is the man who has throughout his community organizing days strong armed entities for 'social justice'. This is the shameless sham of a man who continuously resides on his high horse on moral issues but acts like the common street thug that he is.
Mr. Obama, if you were such a free market guy, why would your administration kill jobs in right to work S. Carolina to protect unions in Washington state?
Come to think of it, why would you be willing to kill nearly a million coal mining and potential oil and gas drilling jobs? How about the sky high energy prices you admitted your policies would hoist upon the citizenry of this country just to satisfy your ideological goals?
Do you think that anyone whose EPA has just cost Shell Oil upwards of $4 billion they have spent over the past five years thanks to their baseless denial of critical air permits a free market proponent?
Do you think that anyone who thinks green jobs can replace the million or so conventional energy jobs (when you see the miserable failure of such policies in the EU) you fully intend to kill is free market oriented?
Do you think someone whose green car mandate will add $10,000 to the price of the vehicles and cost 260,000 jobs is a free market proponent?
Do you think that a free market believer would be running around talking about a jobs plan for the private sector? (I know you do since according to your ilk, government is the real source of all jobs and benevolence, and its planning of the economy is essential)
Even your own chief of staff admits some (a gross understatement) of your economic policies are "indefensible"!
Don't you ever take a moment and listen to the job creators of America (the CEOs, the NFIB, the Chamber of Commerce) and their complaints that there is no regulatory or fiscal certainty therefore they are not willing to invest their capital?
No, you could not even run a lemonade stand (and have never taken on such an endeavor)
No, you are only good for one thing: assaulting our collective sensibilities with claims that are transparently false.
The Obama regime continues unabated with its illegal war in Libya to the tune of $9.5 million a day per L.A. Times.
Obama originally assured congressional leaders that the military action would only take days and therefore did not require congressional authorization. Well past those few days, he now insists that the force being used does not amount to a war.
The War Powers Resolution allows the president 90 days to cease hostilities before the congress (the only body that can do so) must declare a war. Yet, there is still no attempt on the part of the Administration to get congressional approval three months in to the excursion. As such, this affair is fast turning in to a constitutional crisis.
You know that things are bad when Rep. Kucinich praises former President Bush for getting congressional approval and your old pal and steadfast supporter Farakhan calls you a murderer!
Obama originally justified U.S. involvement by stating that "When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world. It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen".
Well, to point out a glaring hypocrisy, actually not only the so-called massacre in Libya is well over stated, this sham of an Administration has not lifted a finger in the face or real atrocities in Syria (arguably in strategically more important region) where the Assad regime has already massacred thousands of its citizens.
Moreover, the situation in Libya does not involve our interests as much as it does his European socialist allies.
The real question in my mind is, will the congress take any meaningful action when the 90 days are up three days from now? We will see if the Republican leadership really has any teeth or are they the sheep that they have been for several years now.
Transparency, not raising taxes (cleverly leaving out the word fees) on the middle class, not having lobbyists in the Administration, not giving in to special interests (which I am sure excludes labor unions per the Administration), ........................ the list of broken Obama promises is a long one.
So, no one should be surprised to find out that 80%, or nearly 200, of Obama's major contributors have ended up with government posts and some with government contracts.
In all fairness, such political appointments occur under all administrations, but nowhere near level this per I Watch. As far as government contracts and stimulus awards go, Obama Administration breaks new ground in cronyism that no other administration has even approached.
Marriage of crony capitalism and socialism lives on stronger than ever before.
As you might have gleaned from my previous posts, I am dismayed about the current state of our education. Not a week passes that I do not witness another unmistakable sign of death of reason and critical thinking in our public schools as well as on our campuses of higher learning. This is symptomatic of cultural Marxism that has been plaguing our educational system from primary school on up for the past five or so decades
Ever since in the 1920s and 1930s Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, the father of cultural Marxism who argued that traditional values must be obliterated in order to free “oppressed” social groups, called for eliminating social decorum and glorifying perverse behavior in order to destroy the Western middle class and collapse society from within (guess where Cloward and Piven got their strategy from), the radical teacher unions in the U.S. have adopted his blueprint to undermine free market capitalism as the enemy of a "socially just" political and economic system.
As such, schools have given up on developing critical thinking skills that usually take place during the second stage of one's education - the logic (or dialectic) stage. The reason is as obvious as day: teach a child to think critically and you will lose a future progressive. Here is the latest example of inadequately educated children (I shudder to think that they will be running this country soon)
The same group of students have similar videos taken on different campuses of UC, including Berkeley, that reinforce my fears that my children may become such zombies if I do not intervene. A fair warning to all parents: take active interest in your young children's education.
A new British study says what I have said for over 3 years: Electric cars produce more emissions than gasoline engines. Am I a genius who knew what a multi-million dollar study using esteemed scientists discovered 3 years later? No. The same conclusion was reachable 3 years ago (as many did) and the media simply ignored it (as they will do their best to ignore this time around as well).
----
President Incompetent, errr, I mean Obama, met with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness yesterday. When responding to issues relating to federal permitting for construction, he uttered the words: "Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected." The Council, led by GE's Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter.
Again, I and others who said that two and a half years ago manage to look like geniuses. Make that common sensical.
----
President Obama explained to NBC News that the reason companies aren’t hiring is not because of his policies, it’s because the economy is so automated. … “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers".
You would think that it is new innovations that are responsible for the 1.9 million jobs that have been lost since he took office. Thousands of new regulations and uncertainty about taxes have nothing to do with lack of confidence that shows up in every poll, of course.
Told ya this guy was clueless about the economy!
----
Texas is defying the federal plans phasing out the 100-watt incandescant bulb. The state legislature passed a bill that skirt federal ban on the 100-watt bulbs. We can only hope Governor Perry signs the legislation.
Something has to set off the confrontation between the feds and the states. It might as well be the incandescant bulb. Who knows, one day we may be able to look back and say "this was what set off the independence movement of 21st century".
I am willing to bet Perry has the cajones to do it.
----
ObamaCare waivers and the cronyism that it represents has been best summarized by Tim Carney:
"Congress imposes mandates on other entities, but gives bureaucrats the power to waive those mandates. To get such a waiver, you hire the people who used to administer or who helped craft the policies. So who’s the net winner? The politicians and bureaucrats who craft policies and wield power, because this combination of massive government power and wide bureaucratic discretion creates huge demand for revolving-door lobbyists. It’s another reason Obama’s legislative agenda, including bailouts, stimulus, ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, tobacco regulation, and more, necessarily fosters more corruption and cronyism."
This is a gangland style rogue regime's sickening games.
----
Finally, Boeing Company will be heading to the NLRB’s kangaroo court in Seattle, Washington today to be prosecuted by an agency controlled by pro-union extremists. The outcome, as far as the NLRB hearing is concerned, is already a foregone conclusion.
There are so many alarming stories in this post-racial, post-partisan, Obama era that I am going to have to write a daily digest of the latest news (if time permits) Here is today's edition.
---
DWS (as Debbie Wasserman Schultz - the new DNC Chief - is affectionatelly referred to in the blogosphere) appears to be experiencing a shaky start as the face of Democrat Party. As Politico reports, many Democrats are secretly fretting about what might be considered the female version of Rep. Weiner (no, not in that sense).
Caption: "We all knew that Weiner was big in the party but I had no idea just how big until I saw the twitter photo, Mr. President..."
In the four weeks since she succeeded Tim Kaine, Wasserman Schultz has been called out by four nonpartisan fact-checkers for mischaracterizing the GOP’s Medicare plan.
She’s accused Republicans of wanting to reinstate segregation and of waging a “war on women.” She has asserted, somewhat nonsensically, that the GOP wants to make illegal immigration — by definition against the law — “a crime.” She’s also been mocked for driving a foreign car after pounding Republicans for not supporting the American auto industry.
It is a good thing that the Democrat Party seems bent on self-destruction lately as it should balance out the usual Republican ineptitude we are likely to witness in 2012.
---
In Yemen, Al-Qaeda is apparently controlling parts of the country.
Hamas is reporting a bumper crop at their "youth terror camps"
Hezbollah's rocket arsenal grows to more than 50,000. Hamas says "nothing will prevent" them from joining the new government with Palestinian Authority.
Hundreds of rampaging Palestinians attack Israeli settlement and burn Jewish holy books. Hamas calls Israel a "cancerous tumor" that needs to be destroyed and vows to liberate Tel Aviv.
Syrian refugees are flowing in to Turkey in a desperate attempt to escape the murderous regime there.
Muslim Brotherhood, which recently announced an electoral coalition with other groups seeking a pure Islamic state, is reportedly poised to have major influence on Egypts future government as 69% of the country wants clerics in having a say in making the country's laws. Iran, according to Rand Corporation, might be a little as eight weeks from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
Aaah, that wonderful "Arab Spring"......smells a lot like the Iranian Spring of 1979, doesn't it?!
---
While the Middle East is burning, here in the U.S. third graders in Wisconsin (and elsewhere rest assured) are being indoctrinated in school budgeting by union members.
The Carolina Journal reports State Rep. Mike Stone received a hand-written note from his 8-year old daughter asking him to “put the buget (sic) higher dad.”
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, teachers’ union president Paul Helder floated the idea of the school board shuttering the schools one day so the students could go on a “civics field trip” to the state Capitol. The fact that the leader of the teachers union would actually propose closing school, and giving up a day of learning for a labor protest, tells us where union priorities lie.
In Wisconsin, who can forget the MacIver Institute video of students marching around the Capitol? When asked what they were doing there, one replied, “you know, I don’t really even know. I guess we’re protesting today.” “We’re trying to stop whatever this dude is doing,” another said.
And yes, that is the latest on the (sad) state of the American educational establishment.
---
The Environmental Protection Agency has two new rules it wants to impose on utilities that use coal. But the rules make sense only if you want less energy, higher prices and fewer jobs.
According to a study the economic consulting firm National Economic Research Associates conducted for the coal industry, the two new rules mentioned above will by themselves cost electric utilities $184 billion by 2030 and kill 1.4 million jobs.
This, folks, is just the latest on rogue EPA regulations. By the time they get through with their plans (if we let them), the U.S. economy will surely be on its back - never to rise again.
---
Following multiple scandalous news items (Black Panther case, etal.), the DOJ is apparently caught at it again. This time, the department officials apparently pressured the Dayton Police and Fire Departments to lower testing standards because not enough African-American candidates passed the written exam.
Read more about it here.
---
Obama invites the notorious thieving dictator of Gabon to the White House. I wonder if he will be shown the back door (by the trash bags) when leaving like Dalai Lama!
Come to think about it, the meeting of the two like minds will be quite appropriate.
---
Finally, it is thankfully looking more and more likely that Governor Perry will be jumping in the race afterall. Oh, please, please, please, please.... We cannot afford Romney the RINO to be the GOP nominee.
My favorite European pol of recent years is undoubtedly Daniel Hannan - a man whom I like to call Tocqueville of modern times; a man who understands and admires what the spirit of the U.S. Constitution stands for; in other words a rare man likes of whom are unfortunately sorely lacking even in the Republican party of today. Here are some great (mostly short) videos with lessons embedded in them that we better heed if we hope to regain what has made us the greatest nation on earth for the past two centuries.
This one is about comparison of the U.S. and E.U. from a constitutional view. Hannan rings the alarm bells that many here are ignoring: Power (especially under this Administration) is being centralized and we are witnessing the europeanization of our political system.
This one is about why Europeans don't protest oppressive taxation. It summarizes the reason why the parliamentary systems of Europe are not conducive for liberty and why there is no Tea Party movement in Europe. Taken together with the warning embedded in the first video, one wonders if a populist movement such as Tea Party would even be possible a decade or two from now.
Here is a worthwhile, longer video on Tea Party as the symbol of our uniqueness as a nation.
Finally, here is Hannan's warning to America - a longer video - parts of which were included above - which I recommend you make the time to view.
Daniel Hannan - a true champion of liberty. Here is the link to his other videos, many of which are highly worthwhile. Enjoy.
These came in too late to include in my digest of weekly news, so here they are:
Last week Obama pointed to a Toledo, Ohio restaurant as example of indirect beneficiary of Chrysler bailout. You know, the bailout kept the Chrysler plant open and in turn small businesses as the ma and pa restaurant in the story flourished; blah, blah, blah.....
Well, according to the local ABC station, the very same restaurant has announced that they have to go out of business after 70 years because of the economy and the workplace smoking ban approved by Ohio voters in 2006.
If this Administration had any integrity, they would be embarassed; but, hey, this is the gang that can't shoot straight!
----
Obama says cutting spending would dishonor America. What??? Is Obama competing with the village idiot (Biden) to see who can say the most outrageous stuff?
Of course, god forbid, we may not be able to fund likes of EPA, FCC, NLRB, Dept. of Education, etal. to continue their fine efforts to undermine America!
----
Obama Admin Awards $17 Million Grant To Lay “Foundational Work” For American Carbon Credit Market…
Who says cap and trade is dead? When has congressional inaction ever stopped this rogue administration, and what does the U.S. Constitution matter anyhow?
Just to put your minds at ease that the madness is not solely attributable to our continent, in Australia they are considering awarding carbon credits to people who kill camels -- you heard it right, carbon credits for dead camels because of the methane they produce! It is equivalent of the 2009 epa proposed cow and pig 'fart tax' in this country.
Better watch those beans....
----
Somehow, I missed this next one...
Last week-end, Obama proclaimed June as LGBT pride month and Richmond Fed promptly obliged by flying the multi-colored LGBT flad alongside the old glory. Sadly amusing...
----
On Tuesday, Obama urged EU members to prevent a disastrous default by Greece (and it goes without saying - Spain and Portugal in due course) and pledged U.S. financial support as well.
I wonder if the EU will be there to bail us out when we go under?!
----
And finally (but not for long).....
MSM continues to spin the latest jobless claims as "unexpectedly rising". Didn't Einstein say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? ...And doesn't that apply to the MSM? If the latest jobless claims are just the repetition of what has been happening for the past two plus years, how is that still "unexpected"?
Of the 54,000 new jobs added in May, McDonald's hiring accounted for 56% of it. Yes, the golden arches hired 30,000 employees in May. That leaves the millions of other businesses 24,000 jobs created - that is 480 jobs per state, folks.
Does anyone in this inapt administration ever look at business confidence surveys, wonder why businesses are so reluctant to invest, and question the wisdom of their pedal to the metal approach to regulating? Naaah...
Judicial Watch obtained e-mails and other correspondence regarding NN (net neutrality) which is the most significant attempt by the Obama Administration to control internet. Is it any surprise that FCC under this Administration is in bed with the socialists at Free Press, especially after seeing the take over of NLRB by the marxist labor unions?
More labor board shenanigans:
Remember the recent NLRB decision to challenge Boeing's move of some of its assembly operations to S. Carolina - a right to work state? This time the agency involved is National Mediation Board and they decided that Delta Airlines has to agree to re-holding unionization election that the union recently lost. I guess you can win for losing if you are the Marxist labor unions under this regime.
Obama Administration back stabs an ally for the nth time:
The Administration continues to slap Britain in the face over the highly sensitive Falklands issue. Washington signed on to a “draft declaration on the question of the Malvinas Islands” passed by unanimous consent by the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS). The declaration calls for Argentina and Great Britain to enter into negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, a position which London has long viewed as completely unacceptable. U.S. sided with the socialists in Argentina, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela besides others.
I'd say par for course. Remember Honduras?
Foreign aid folly:
According to a story in the U.K. Daily Mail, in 2010 alone we handed out $1.4 billion to 16 countries that own at least $10 billion in US Treasuries. So, let me get this straight: we give them foreign aid and they turn around and finance our debt?! Just amazing!
Ready to turn your arms over to the U.N.?
Forbes reports, under the guise of a proposed global “Small Arms Treaty” premised to fight “terrorism”, “insurgency” and “international crime syndicates”, you can be quite certain that an even more insidious threat is being targeted – our Constitutional right for law-abiding citizens to own and bear arms. And, of course, the Obama Administration is behind this treaty all the way.
What do you do when your economic blueprint has been a total failure? Blame everyone - GWB, Wall Street, Businesses, whoever - but yourself as Obama is so fond of doing. His latest predictable act came during the visit of Angela Merkel whose country's economy is headed the opposite way thanks to fiscal sanity. The guy just can't help himself.
Those pesky unemployment numbers dim Obama's 2012 prospects:
Remember Christina Romer's projection that with the stimulus, unemployment would not surpass 8%? We all know what a crock of bull that turned out to be. The Administration had estimated that every stimulus dollar spent would increase GDP by $1.55. Lets see, the GDP should have increased by more than a trillion and a half dollars, or roughly 13% over the past two years. Ummm... no!
In fact, whatever anemic recovery was underway seems to have stalled as the latest 1.8% growth and 9.1% U3 figures indicate. Oh, and by the way, that 1.8% is mainly due to inventory build ups. At retail level, the GDP growth rate is less than half that.
The administration claims to have created 3 million jobs with the stim bill. Even if we accept that fantastical number, it pencils out to the stim bill costing $266,000 per job.
Besides, new research shows that the stim bill actually cost the economy half a million jobs in the aggregate.
Not looking good for the 'wonder boy' from Chicago gangland (even before the gas prices - oh did I mention that OPEC just agreed among themselves not to increase output? Hello $120+ barrel of oil).
GM CEO Akerson asks for a hike in federal gas tax:
The Obama puppet Akerson, who has no auto industry experience but nevertheless was appointed the CEO of Government Motors, is paying back the crony king president. Well not exactly, but that seems to be the only way he will ever sell the Volt to the unsuspecting public. I guess what is good for GM is not always good for America!
Obama's relations with most world leaders dismal:
Carrie Budoff Brown writes in Politico that President Obama has very poor personal relations with most world leaders. Even worse, the one leader whom he "respects and admires" is anti-American and anti-Semitic: PM Erdogan of Turkey.
You can only backstab so many allies before friend and foe alike will view you with suspicion.
and finally......
Bernanke optimistic at the dusk of QE2:
About what? Growth as well as inflation. That is if you want to believe a man who said QE2 would be successful.
And the record of QE2?
The working labor force dropped as a percentage of the total labor force.
The unemployment rate was virtually unchanged.
Housing prices continued their downslide.
Growth in the economy slowed from 2.6% to 1.8% in the most recent quarter.
The rise in the stock market of 26%, according to Mr. Arends
Those who owned stocks had gains, but gave part of the gains back due to the rise in prices, especially of imported goods.
Wage gains trailed reported CPI inflation meaning the poor became worse off.
Non-investors in the stock market were made worse off as a result of higher prices.
The US government further added to the debt burden of the public with virtually nothing to show for it other than speculative financial markets.
The US dollar continued to lose value relative to other fiat currencies.
Precious metals and other hard assets continue to increase in dollar value.
The latest job report (May) showed only 54,000 private jobs created, of which reportedly half were jobs at McDonald's.
I had an article published in American Thinker last year. Even I look like a genious looking back in time.
And that is all the news fit to print for now folks.
True comprehension of our founding requires a thorough and intellectually honest approach to the entire spectrum of social science disciplines from history to philosophy to economics among the rest. I knew I could not do justice to it short of writing a book - a virtual impracticality considering time constraints (not to mention that I am not an author and do not profess to have the writing skills) - so I decided to attempt writing sort of a mini-book. Looking back at it now, though I am relatively happy with the content, I hope the lack of organization did not take much away from it.
I started my "mini-book" by discussing the importance of true, classical education in comprehending the relationship between universal truths and our founding in general. As such, I made the point that it is a logical fallacy to view our founding principles that are anchored in absolute natural/universal rights merely as a guideline for the future generations.
The American Founders understood liberty to mean freedom from unjust coercion. The Bill of Rights was indeed expressly intended to codify the Founders' understanding of liberty as protection from coercion in the normal course of human events. What set the first American Patriots on the path to revolution was not the economic burden imposed by British taxes, which was very small by contemporary standards, but rather the fact that these taxes represented a form of unjust coercion in direct conflict with their natural liberty.
Today, coercion is being applied by enemies of our Constitution from within. The progressive agenda aims to break down the individual spirit of independence and replace it with dependency on the state simply because of their inability to accept individuals as unique beings with their own strengths who may attain differing levels of success in life.
The elitist view that individuals must be guided through life is wholly inconsistent with our foundational principles. Therefore, in order to attain progressive/collectivist goals, anything related to our founding has to be attacked and discredited by any corrupt and dishonest means as possible.
The progressive mantra that the Founders were a bunch of white racists with a handful of good ideas they embodied in our Founding documents that were meant to be molded to the needs of future generations is nothing but a smokescreen for their collectivist ideals. This is exactly why the progressives incessantly fight originalism as it pertains to the U.S. Constitution and refuse to inter-connect the founding documents.
This undermining of liberty is part and parcel of the left's agenda (precisely because their agenda is coercive). Liberty is nothing but an obstacle to the left. As such, today, the consent of the governed is routinely ignored by the executive branch as in undisputedly unpopular healthcare reform, FCC and EPA regulations, etc. – Constitutionality of their actions be damned!
As such, liberty according to progressives is the obligation to accept coercion in the interest of a greater good that has been determined in advance by the political class. On this view, the government acts beneficently in order "to assure the full worth of every individual's equal freedom." Thus, on this twisted model, coercion by government actually increases freedom.
In contrast, defenders of our founding principles – classical liberals and libertarians – believe in triumph of the human spirit over weaknesses of human nature. We believe we are all unique in our own ways and circumstances. As such, we believe in equality before law and equality of opportunity – not equality of outcome which by definition violates independence and individual freedom.
We believe that government that governs best governs least – mainly because we understand the frailty of human nature as it comes to greed and power in politics. Politics is the competition and division of power. As history also shows, power instilled in politicians is directly correlated to government size (from Rome on down). That is so because, throughout history, democratic governments descend into a process by which an elected few, often for their own political gain, redistribute the earnings of one societal group for the benefit of another. That dynamic, more often than not cast in compulsory terms, can’t help but be divisive. As that chasm of envy and resentment grows, and it has throughout all of history, ever-greater partisanship is sure to follow and elections become all the more important.
Our Founders understood that dynamic and wanted none of it. Keep in mind that they fought against a powerful government and the notion government should rule our lives. They also knew, as studied as they were, that the Utopian chase of a better life through government fiat was not only illusory but necessarily fracturing. All this is well documented in their writings and thus, beyond dispute.
Today, America is very different than any of our Founders could have imagined. Return to Federalism is a must if we are to survive in the spirit of the Constitutional republic our founders envisioned. This vision is the only vision consistent with what made our nation uniquely great.
America has a special place in the world – not because we are as individuals or geographically different from anyone or anywhere else but our foundation as a nation is built upon universal truths that make everyone living within our borders truly free individuals. The phenomena emanating from this foundational strength, called American Exceptionalism, has propelled us to greatness as defenders of liberty as well as economic and innovative leader of the world.
We must never give up on the timeless principles of the American idea: free-market democracy, open competition, a robust private sector bound by rules of honesty and fairness, a secure safety net, and equal opportunity for all under a limited constitutional government of popular consent.
Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nothing, perhaps with the exception of progressives' misplaced disdain for Andrew Breibart lately, is more symbolic of the MSMs dishonesty when it comes to painting Sarah Palin as the bumbling idiot that she most certainly is not. This portrayal of supposed conservative ignorance is nothing new as we have witnessed from Dan Quayle's never uttered words about speaking Latin in S. America to progressive generated, media propelled caricature of Rep. Michele Bachmann, who actually has more intellect in her pinkie than 90% of Democrats in politics or political punditry.
In the latest episode of this nearly daily charade, the MSM got on the case of Palin for saying that Paul Revere's famous ride was as much to warn the British as it was to warn patriots. At least, this time I can say that it was not a made up statement as in the case of "I can see Russia from my house" farce. However, my charity towards MSM stops there as they got egg on their face once again.
As Boston University history professor Brendan McConville grudgingly admitted, Palin got her facts correct.
Andrew Malcolm of the L.A. Times also backed up Sarah's account.
So does a cursory search on the internet, were the members of the press professional enough to research.
Sometimes I wonder what the media feeding frenzy would be like if a conservative claimed anything like visiting 57 states, nuking Pearl Harbor, or made demonstrably false statement as to where his/her parents met.
The lack of truth and veracity of those who criticize her and other conservatives is appalling and, as I said, testament to their complete lack of integrity and moral compass.
