The GOP Wins by Bruising - WSJ.com

The GOP Wins by Bruising - WSJ.com: "They are not funneling their energy into the democratic process because there is no market for what they are selling: Capitalism should be overturned, I am angry that my college loan bills are so big, the government is bad, and the answer is more government. You can't win elections in America with that kind of message. So they will stay in the streets, where they can have an impact by stopping traffic, inconveniencing people going to and coming from work, and appearing to be an amorphous force that must be bowed to.

The difference between the occupiers and the tea party is the difference between acting out and taking part.

Where is Mr. Obama in all this? He has made sympathetic sounds about Occupy Wall Street, probably seeing it as ultimately part of his base. Beyond that, he's out campaigning. Sometimes he is snarky about Congress: He's giving them "another chance" at voting on his jobs bill. Sometimes he is self-justifying. He told ABC's Jake Tapper that "all the choices we've made have been the right ones." Sometimes he lectures America. But he doesn't buck it up, and he must know in his heart that it's coming for the keys."

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Joe Biden’s Teachable Moments - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

Joe Biden’s Teachable Moments - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "So instead Washington, D.C., is going to "give you some money" to hire these teachers back. So, unlike York, Pa., presumably Washington, D.C., has "money for them"?

No, not technically. Washington, D.C., is also broke - way broker than York City School District. In fact, the government of the United States is broker than any entity has ever been in the history of the planet. Officially, Washington has to return 15,000,000,000,000 dollars just to get back to having nothing at all. And that 15,000,000,000,000 dollars is a very lowball figure that conveniently ignores another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities that the government, unlike private businesses, is able to keep off the books.

So how come the Brokest Jurisdiction in History is able to "give you some money" to hire back those teachers that had to be laid off?

No problem, says the vice president. We're going to "ask" people who have "a lot of money" to "pay just a little bit more" in taxes. Where are these people? Evidently, not in York, Pa. But they're out there somewhere."

...to balance the budget of the United States on the backs of millionaires you would have to increase the taxes of those earning more than one million a year by six million a year.

Not only is there "no money in the city" of York, Pa., and no money in Washington, D.C., there's no money anywhere else in America — not for spending on the Obama/Biden scale. Come to that, there's no money anywhere on the planet: Last year, John Kitchen of the U.S. Treasury and Menzie Chinn of the University of Wisconsin published a study called "Financing U.S. Debt: Is There Enough Money In The World — And At What Cost?"

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Dems Get It Exactly Wrong On Jobs - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

Dems Get It Exactly Wrong On Jobs - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "Overall, the private sector has lost 16 jobs for every job lost in government since 2007. Even if you correct for the relative difference in the size of the two job markets (see chart above), the private sector has still lost three times more jobs than the public sector.

Is this surprising? It shouldn't be. The federal government's $840 billion stimulus effort was almost entirely aimed at bolstering government, and bailing out industries and unions that support Democrats.

Reid's remarks reflect his party's dishonest complaints about "austerity" and "draconian cuts" in federal spending. As new data show, federal spending jumped 5% in 2011. Some austerity.

This why the typical household in the Washington metro area — where government is the No. 1 employer — earned $84,523 last year, or 69% higher than the national median of $50,046. Federal employees took home $126,000 — two and a half times the U.S. median.

"

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Cybercommand chief opposes U.N. net control - Washington Times

Cybercommand chief opposes U.N. net control - Washington Times: "The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said Thursday that he does not favor giving the United Nations the power to regulate the Internet.

Some regulations are needed to protect critical networks that control electrical power, banking, transportation and other key elements of society, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who is also director of the National Security Agency, said after a speech to a security conference.

But asked whether the U.N. should have a regulation role, Gen. Alexander said: “No. I’m not for regulating, per se. I’m concerned about it, and this is a tough question. I would say, generally speaking, I’m not into that portion of regulating as you would espouse.”"

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Speaking sense. He'll probably be fired.

EPA Mythological MPG for Electric Vehicles

Update: Fisker Karma Electric Car Gets Worse Mileage Than an SUV - Forbes: " In the case of the Fisker Karma, we get a true MPGe of 19.  This makes it worse than even the city rating of a Ford Explorer SUV."

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4.6 Earthquake Hits South Texas « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

4.6 Earthquake Hits South Texas « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth: "No injuries or major damage was reported, and the light quake wasn’t even noticed by some residents living close to the epicenter, near Karnes City. Yet small vibrations felt in San Antonio did cause occupants to briefly evacuate a downtown federal building as a precaution."

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I hope the feds took the rest of the day/week/month off to recover!

More Payoffs To Labor Peddled As A Jobs Bill

Rove: Obama's Political Stimulus Plan - WSJ.com: "Mr. Obama also continues insisting on $35 billion to "put teachers back in the classroom" and "make certain we're not laying off police officers and firefighters." But his own National Center for Educational Statistics forecasts that the number of teachers will rise anyway—from 3.66 million this fall to 3.7 million in the fall of 2012, and to 3.75 million in the fall of 2013.

While some communities may face police and fire layoffs, there is no evidence of a massive wave of firings of first responders. Could this $35 billion be a payoff to state and local public-employee unions?"

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Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley - Bloomberg

Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley - Bloomberg: "Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show."

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This one speaks for itself

Gee, what a surprise!

News from The Associated Press: "After months insisting that problems could be resolved, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn't see how that can be done.

"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius said in a letter to congressional leaders."

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Now let's see what government spending they cut elsewhere to make up the fake revenues this plan was supposed to throw off in the early years of Obamacare. Right.

David Moore: The Panhandler and the President - WSJ.com

David Moore: The Panhandler and the President - WSJ.com: "President Obama has become the "Great Divider" instead of the "Great Unifier" that we all hoped he would be.

I do not recall another president in my lifetime whose negative drumbeat about large segments of the population has been so relentless. I do not recall another president (even those similarly frustrated by congressional gridlock and the stifling of their agendas) repeatedly targeting a specific economic class, complaining as loudly and using his bully pulpit so consistently for bashing those who disagree with him."

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Review & Outlook: Green Jobs Brown Out - WSJ.com

Review & Outlook: Green Jobs Brown Out - WSJ.com: "A new report by the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General examined a $500 million grant under the stimulus program to the Employment and Training Administration to "train and prepare individuals for careers in 'green jobs.'" So far about $162.8 million has been spent. The program was supposed to train 125,000 workers, but only 53,000 have been "trained" so far, only 8,035 have found jobs, and only 1,033 were still in the job after six months.

Overall, "only 10% of participants entered employment." In the understatement of the year, the IG says the program failed to "assist those most impacted by the recession.""

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Review & Outlook: Stimulus Lite - WSJ.com

Review & Outlook: Stimulus Lite - WSJ.com: "Meanwhile, as amended last week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the bill is financed by a new 5.6% surtax on millionaires. So a bill that the White House has sold as a temporary $265 billion tax cut for employers is financed with a permanent almost half-trillion-dollar tax hike on businesses and investors. What a deal."

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And a bill advertised in the name of job creation is now primarily about the new Democratic campaign theme of redistributing income. If history is any guide, that ploy will send employers and investors into a further hiatus, destroying far more jobs in the private economy than the government-financed jobs it hopes to create.

David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Non-Keynesians - WSJ.com

David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Non-Keynesians - WSJ.com: "Although the Nobel committee did not cite his work on unemployment insurance, Mr. Sargent, with Swedish economist Lars Ljungqvist, found that high, long-lasting unemployment benefits in Europe have caused many European workers who lose their jobs to stay unemployed for years and, thereby, erode their "human capital." This makes them less employable in the long run. The fact that the U.S. government has extended unemployment benefits in many U.S. states to 99 weeks, said Mr. Sargent in a 2010 interview with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, "fills me with dread.""

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SPIN METER: Obama disconnects rhetoric, reality | ajc.com

SPIN METER: Obama disconnects rhetoric, reality  | ajc.com: "When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal.

When the president says Republicans haven't explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail.

And when he calls on Congress to "pass this bill now," he slides past the point that Democrats control the Senate and were never prepared to move immediately, given other priorities."

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Barack Obama | Wall Street Money | The Daily Caller

Sunlight Foundation | Barack Obama | Wall Street Money | The Daily Caller: "Despite his rhetorical attacks on Wall Street, a study by the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Project shows that President Barack Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years, including former President George W. Bush."

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistic

CIS and the Texas Immigrant-Job Myth - Chuck DeVore - National Review Online: "The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) has released a detailed rejoinder to a well-publicized study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) that made a remarkable claim: “Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).”

Put simply, CIS used faulty methodology to make its main point. "

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Reid’s Power Play - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online

Reid’s Power Play - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online: "Indeed, Reid had opted for the so-called “nuclear option,” to toss history and precedent aside and change the rules of the Senate, all to avoid having to vote on a jobs plan the president has repeatedly called on Congress to pass. Instead, Reid intends to hold a vote next week on an amended version of the bill that includes a 5.6 percent “millionaire surtax” to cover the bill’s $450 billion price tag. "

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My Way News - FACT CHECK: Obama claims miss some evidence

My Way News - FACT CHECK: Obama claims miss some evidence: "Are President Barack Obama's ideas for job creation really bipartisan as he claims? Not when the means for paying for them are put in the equation.
The president dodged various facts and and left some evidence in the dust in his latest challenge to Republicans to get behind his jobs program or offer a real alternative."

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Policy Uncertainty Chokes a Recovery: Baker, Bloom and Davis - Bloomberg

Policy Uncertainty Chokes a Recovery: Baker, Bloom and Davis - Bloomberg: "So how much near-term improvement could we gain from a stable, certainty-enhancing policy regime? We estimate that restoring 2006 levels of policy uncertainty would yield an additional 2.5 million jobs over 18 months. Not a full solution to the jobs shortfall, but a big step in the right direction.
(Scott R. Baker and Nicholas Bloom are economists at Stanford University. Steven J. Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is a contributor to Business Class. The opinions expressed are their own.)"

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‘Darn Tooting!’ Obama Brags About HHS Reg Catholic Bishops Call Attack on Liberty | CNSnews.com

‘Darn Tooting!’ Obama Brags About HHS Reg Catholic Bishops Call Attack on Liberty | CNSnews.com:

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Cain's 'Chilean Model' - Investors.com

Cain's 'Chilean Model' - Investors.com: "Chile's system, enacted in 1981, took government out of the pension business altogether and replaced it with a system of personal retirement accounts.

It's one of most successful fiscal reforms in history.

It outperforms Social Security on returns, yielding about 9.23% compounded annual returns over 30 years under private management.

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That means Chilean retirees take home pension checks four times what they would have gotten if they had remained in their old Social Security system."

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Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking? - IBD - Investors.com

Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking? - IBD - Investors.com: ""Obamaism" was the Emperor's new centrism: To a fool such as your average talk-radio host, His Majesty appears to be a man of minimal accomplishments other than self-promotion marinated in a radical faculty-lounge view of the world and the role of government. But, to a wise man such as your average presidential historian or New York Times columnist, he is the smartest guy ever to become president."

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Environmentalists Clobber Texas - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

Environmentalists Clobber Texas - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily: "On February 1, 1993, federal district judge Lucius Bunton, in Midland, Texas, handed down his ruling in favor of the Sierra Club; in case of drought, no matter the shortage of water hitting San Antonio, there will have to be enough water flowing from the aquifer to the two springs to preserve these four species. Judge Bunton admitted that, in a drought, San Antonio, to obey the ruling, might have to have its water pumped from the aquifer cut by as much as 60 percent. This would clobber both the citizens of San Antonio, and the farmers and ranchers of the area; man would have to suffer, because human beings are always last in line in the environmentalist universe, certainly far below wild rice and the fountain darter."

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Obama’s Jobs Bill: Read It and Weep | Hoover Institution

Obama’s Jobs Bill: Read It and Weep | Hoover Institution: "What is so striking about Obama’s shopworn rhetoric is its juvenile intellectual quality. His explanation for how the AJA will create jobs is a non-starter because he does not explain how we get from here to there. As in so many other cases, the president thinks that waving a wand over a problem will make his most ardent wishes come true, even when similar earlier efforts have proved to be dismal failures. This dreadful hodgepodge of a bill will likely be dead-on-arrival in Congress, but it remains a patriotic duty to explicate some of its worst provisions.

The most evident feature of the AJA is that it is a combination of ill-conceived, disparate measures. The wandering quality of the bill makes it impossible to cover all of its silliness, but it is possible to focus on some of the core job provisions, all of which kill the very jobs that the AJA is supposed to create."

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Getting Taxes All Wrong - Investors.com

Getting Taxes All Wrong - Investors.com: "The idea that a "modern industrial economy" needs high tax rates to be successful is a Keynesian fairy tale — sadly, one that President Obama and his dwindling number of true believers seem to actually believe.

History's verdict on taxes is quite clear: Cut to grow. If only our nation's top elected official knew more economic history and a lot less progressive ideology, we might be growing right now."

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Germany slams 'stupid' US plans to boost EU rescue fund - Telegraph

Germany slams 'stupid' US plans to boost EU rescue fund - Telegraph: "Mr Schauble told Washington to mind its own businesss after President Barack Obama rebuked EU leaders for failing to recapitalise banks and allowing the debt crisis to escalate to the point where it is "scaring the world".
"It's always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared to give advice to the US government," he said."

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More Inconvenient Truth Leaks Out of NASA

 "NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed."

The science is settled, right AlGore?

The Genius of Obama

 "Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail — regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says is to those who have. Shameless effrontery can be a huge political asset, especially if uninformed voters outnumber those who are informed."

- Thomas Sowell

It's All Because of Bush Spending...Right

"Under Obama, the government over the last two and a half years has borrowed on average about $4 billion each day. That staggering sum is far in excess of the $1.6 billion per day borrowed during the eight-year tenure of George W. Bush, who until Obama had borrowed more than any other peacetime president."

Just Tax the RIch Another $140 TRILLION; Problem Solved

SteynOnline - ENTITLEMENT SENSE: "Recently, in the London Telegraph, Liam Halligan bemoaned the way commentators focus on America’s $14 trillion of debt — i.e., the “debt ceiling” debt — without factoring in the entitlement liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. That makes America’s real debt some $75 trillion, or five times GDP. Our own Kevin D. Williamson puts the FDR/LBJ entitlement liabilities a little north of $100 trillion." Once you add in state and municipal debt, you need to add a zero to that reassuringly familiar $14 trillion hole. The real hole goes ten times deeper: $140 trillion — or about twice as much as America’s total “worth.”

Wasn't that easy?

For my next trick, I will transform the Islamic world into a haven for liberal democracy by having NASA build up their math and science self esteem, and by apologizing for all of the atrocities that the United States has perpetrated upon them.

Youthful Idiots

John Cogan: The Millionaire Retirees Next Door - WSJ.com: "According to my calculations based on government data, such married couples will begin receiving monthly Social Security checks that will, on average, total about $550,000 after inflation. They will receive health-care services paid for by Medicare that, on average, will total another $450,000 after inflation. The benefactors will be a generation of younger workers who are trying to support themselves and their families while paying taxes to finance the rest of government spending."

One of the benefits of our debased educational system is that is has raised multiple generations of suckers to pay for the boomers' retirement. And these patsies vote overwhelmingly for the crooks that are hustling them. I guess if this arrangement were sustainable, you could chock it up to beneficence, but given the totally predictable collapse of this ponzi scheme, you have to conclude they are just "youthful idiots."

Obama the Transformational Hope and Change Candidate Does MediScare Better Than Teddy K!

Betsy McCaughey: Medicare As We've Known It Isn't an Option - WSJ.com: "The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama's health law.

The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years and spends the money on other programs, including a vast expansion of Medicaid. In 2019, Medicare spending under the Obama health law is projected to be $14,731 per senior, instead of $16,162 if the law had not passed, according to Medicare actuaries (Health Affairs, October 2010)

Maybe he can scare people into re-electing him. That's probably his only HOPE.

Couldn't Resist Another Steyn Zinger

Losing the Future - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "Question: How much do you have to invest in the future before you’ve spent it and no longer have one?"

WTF - I mean WInning The Future, of course

Losing the Future - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "How do you “invest in the future”? By borrowing $188 million every hour. That’s what the government of the United States is doing. It’s spending one-fifth of a billion dollars it doesn’t have every hour of every day of every week — all for your future!"

Mark Steyn is always a hoot. Read it and weep, with tears of laughter.

I Finally FIgured Out What He Means By "Adult Conversation:" B@## S&$%

Obama Deficit Plan | White House releases misleading figures for families ahead of Obama's deficit tour | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "197 billion was paid out as interest to debt-holders using funds from Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and income taxes. That’s roughly $656 per person, or $1,971 for a family of three. That total is 103 times the number shown by the White House website.

The site also shows a family with two children and an income of $80,000 paying $285 on federal interest payments, and a single parent with one child and an income of $35,000 paying $39 on interest payments. In reality, the first family’s share of national interest payments is nine times larger than shown, and the single parent’s share is 33 times larger than the site acknowledges."

Boy, sure glad the President isn't practicing politics as usual in Washington. In fact, he's unusually dishonest!

Good News - We Are Revising Our Forecast for the End the World From Yesterday to Ten Years From Now!

50 million climate refugees | United Nations | The UN disappears 50 million climate refugees, then botches the cover-up | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.

The UNEP even provided a handy map. The map shows us the places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean."

Hilarious article. Not only points out how wrong the UN climate people were, but how inept they were at trying to cover up their error. This is the UN group whose work the EPA cited in justifying its legal basis for regulating carbon.

Taxing the "Rich" 100% Won't Pay For the Obama Mega State

Review & Outlook: Where the Tax Money Is - WSJ.com: "The rich, in short, aren't nearly rich enough to finance Mr. Obama's entitlement state ambitions—even before his health-care plan kicks in.

So who else is there to tax? Well, in 2008, there was about $5.65 trillion in total taxable income from all individual taxpayers, and most of that came from middle income earners. The nearby chart shows the distribution, and the big hump in the center is where Democrats are inevitably headed for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks."

Hang on to your purses and wallets - the big government crowd are coming to your house next. Trying to balance the budget of an out-of-control federal government on tax increases is ludicrous on its face. Read the article. It takes you thru the thought experiment of confiscating 100% of the income of the "rich," defined in ever broader terms.  Obama is not a serious man.  He's just a huckster politician working 24/7 to get reelected while the country drives "into the ditch," to use a colorful metaphor.  How's that hope and change working out for ya?

If You Don't Believe Me, How About the Washington Post?

President Obama's budget kicks the hard choices further down the road: "THE PRESIDENT PUNTED. Having been given the chance, the cover and the push by the fiscal commission he created to take bold steps to raise revenue and curb entitlement spending, President Obama, in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal, chose instead to duck. To duck, and to mask some of the ducking with the sort of budgetary gimmicks he once derided."

A Fraud

Review & Outlook: The Cee Lo Green Budget - WSJ.com: "How unserious is this budget? Although the White House trumpets $2.18 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, those savings are so far off in the magical 'out years' that you can barely see them from here. More than 95% of the savings would happen after Mr. Obama's first term in the White House is over, and almost two-thirds of the promised deficit reduction would arrive after 2016. Pretending to cut deficits by pushing all real cuts into the future is Budget Flimflam 101."

And of course even those savings are based on ridiculous assumptions about economic growth.

This President has decided to abdicate his responsibilities as LEADER of the United States, hang back while the benighted Republicans try to bring the budget under control, and demagogue the hell out of them in his reelection campaign. How's that hope and change working out for you?

Thank Goodness We Have An Obama "Science-Based" Federal Government Now

Chris Tucker: EPA is a no-show in Texas fracking case | Chris Tucker | Op Eds | Washington Examiner: "Your task: Pin the presence of methane on Range Resources by trying to prove its wells in the Barnett represent the source of the natural gas in the water wells.

On Dec. 7, 2010, that’s precisely the argument that EPA put forth in issuing an unprecedented “emergency order” -- demanding, among other things, that Range plug up its wells and go home.

Just one problem: The isotopic analysis EPA used as the basis for its order doesn’t include a word about nitrogen; EPA never ran those tests.

Fortunately, experts from Weatherford Labs in Texas did. And at a hearing of the Texas Railroad Commission in Austin this week, those experts testified that the methane found in those private water wells in question came from the Strawn, not the Barnett.

What that means in practical geological terms is that Range isn’t (and in fact couldn’t be) responsible for the occurrence of methane in those wells – it has no wells in the Strawn."

Just another example, like the gulf spill commission, of how the Obama administration ignores science to serve the interests of the enviro-fascists that bankroll the Democrat party (oh, was that uncivil?). Meanwhile, the cost of energy in this country marches ever upward, and a resurgence in jobs is nowhere to be seen.  The Barnett shale formation in north Texas, and others like it across the country, represent a marvelous new source of clean domestic energy, and good jobs to go with it.  The EPA has become the Anti-Domestic-Energy Department.

Good news for panda-lovers (bad news for the rest of us) | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Good news for panda-lovers (bad news for the rest of us) | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "Wow, what a coup. J.P. Freire calls this wonderful feat of diplomacy “Obamagotation,” and adds, “So China gets to continue copyright infringement and manipulating their currency. We get two pandas.” Hey, at least it’s not three."

From one of the wittier sites on the web - the Daily Trawler. Check it out.

Worried About Income Inequality - Protect the Border!

Obama and Income Inequality: No New Brazils! - Newsweek

I'd argue Obama's main effort on immigration would, in fact, have made the
inequality problem at the bottom worse. A "comprehensive" bill would almost
certainly have attracted new illegals, but the efforts to stop them at the
border might well have failed, as they failed after a similar 1986 bill. The
result of that failure has been a looser labor market at the bottom. Lower
unskilled wages. Even the emergence of favela-like shantytowns in California. You want
Brazil? Obama's 2009-2010 immigration plan would bring us Brazil. Obama was
putting coalition politics--pleasing Latino voters, and especially Latino
politicians--over economics, at least egalitarian economics.

Exposes the hollowness of the President's concerns about income inequality. Very thoughtful and well written. Mr. Kaus, by the way, is a Democrat.

Time For a Doctrine of Pre-Emption in DOMESTIC Affairs - Ricochet.com

Time For a Doctrine of Pre-Emption in DOMESTIC Affairs - Ricochet.com: "One of the arguments for Bush's Afghanistan and Iraq policies was that we needed to take our our adversaries where they lived so we wouldn't be forced to live at home in a constant defensive crouch.

Well, that's how we conservatives have been forced to live in the world of domestic politics. Even after delivering the President an historic 'shellacking,' we have spent the month of December with our hearts in our throats, fighting off trillion dollar omnibus spending bills, and to achieve tax rate status quo, having to swallow a tax bill larded with Keynesian 'stimulus' that, like the last trillion dollar pork-a-thon will leave us no better off and another trillion deeper in debt."

Follow the link to Ricochet.com for the rest...

A Mind-Blowing Fact You Need to Memorize and Share

EDITORIAL: Obama's mourning in America - Washington Times: "China currently owns $1 trillion in U.S. debt in the form of Treasury bonds and notes. While this certainly is a large sum, it's not even a third of the staggering $3,211,613,265,584.56 in red ink added to the nation's ledgers under Mr. Obama's watch."

From a great editorial that enumerates the ways in which the President's rhetoric and demeanor are fostering "malaise." The recent poll in which Americans mistakenly opined that the China had surpassed the US in economic might is just one example. If they think China owns us now, just wait and see where we'll be if the Democrats' runaway federal spending isn't reined in by the Republicans.

Scary!

Biden Takes On More Influential Role for Obama - NYTimes.com

You know things are desperate when Biden becomes the Oracle of the Potomac. Talk about the one-eyed man in the land of the blind!

Global Warming's Done - Stick a Fork In It

Global warming has halted: That's what happened to 'warmest year on record' | Mail Online: "Actually, with the exception of 1998 - a 'blip' year when temperatures spiked because of a strong 'El Nino' effect (the cyclical warming of the southern Pacific that affects weather around the world) - the data on the Met Office's and CRU's own websites show that global temperatures have been flat, not for ten, but for the past 15 years."

Another leftist fraud exposed and put to rest. RIP Kyoto Treaty. RIP Cap and Trade. RIP AlGore.

Simple Question for the GM Cheerleaders in the MSM

GM selling at a loss should tell you something | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "If the federal government wanted to recoup its investment in GM, then the GM stock price should be much higher than the $33 initial price. In order to break even, as the Deal Journal reports, the stock price would have to rise to around $50 per share. So why is the Treasury Department selling off the company at a loss?"

Yes, how is this $33 IPO in the taxpayer's best interest if GM is such a successful turnaround story? Don't tell me the answer is that the government wants to allow GM to return expeditiously to private control. Post-IPO, GM is still the statists' automotive hobby horse.

Good Crises Make For Good Shake-downs

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Meet the New-Old GM - WSJ.com: "What would the pre-crash GM have been worth if relieved of $80 billion in IOUs? Assume a 5% yield on GM debt and nine-to-one price-earnings ratio on the stock. The answer (for sake of argument) is $61 billion. This shouldn't be surprising. GM's progress on labor costs, quality and new models were all in the pipeline before its Chapter 11 filing. The main achievement of bankruptcy was a redistribution of rights from GM's creditors to a worrisome and conflicted new set of equity owners, namely the U.S. and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers."

This shouldn't be surprising. GM's progress on labor costs, quality and new models were all in the pipeline before its Chapter 11 filing. The main achievement of bankruptcy was a redistribution of rights from GM's creditors to a worrisome and conflicted new set of equity owners, namely the U.S. and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers

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Great article. Explains how, at the end of the day, the GM bailout, via government-orchestrated bankruptcy, had only one distinguishing feature from a traditional bankruptcy - it allowed the Dems to steal billions of dollars in equity from private parties and hand it to the UAW. Crony capitalism. Kleptocracy. Did I mention that the orchestrator, Rattner, has pled no contest and agreed to pay a multi-million dollar fine related to an influence peddling charge from the SEC?

This Scandal Will Be Investigated

Findings from the Inspector General (IG) inquiry into the administration's handling of the Gulf oil drilling ban:

Review & Outlook: Science and the Drilling Ban - WSJ.com: "The IG findings include no evidence the decision to shut down an entire industry—at a huge cost to jobs and long-term drilling safety—was done with input from engineers, scientists, economists or anyone with day-to-day oversight of U.S. drilling. S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, former head of the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, said she learned about the ban from a deputy, and only after the fact. Preparation for the Interior drilling report was tasked to Steve Black, a lawyer who is officially the Counselor to Mr. Salazar. Yet Mr. Black told the IG the ban was 'a policy decision made by Secretary Salazar and President Obama.' Though Mr. Salazar issued the report, the IG says final edits to the summary were done by Ms. Browner's office."

Callous, reckless, ideological, indefensible. Injurious to our energy security. But who cares? The area impacted didn't vote for Obama. Browner is going to finally have to answer some questions when the new Congress is in session.

Obama's Singular Focus - Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Offshore drilling still on hold - Nov. 12, 2010: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama lifted his moratorium on deepwater oil drilling nearly a month ago, but the government still hasn't issued any new permits in the Gulf of Mexico.

And most analysts say permits will be slow in coming through 2011."

Thank goodness the "special interests" aren't getting in the way of employment and energy security in the Gulf!

This Is An Ingenious Plan

Jenkins, Jr.: The GOP Can Outsmart ObamaCare - WSJ.com

I think this plan really has promise for "infecting" Obamacare with free market innovations. Read it. Send it to your representatives with your endorsement.

In battle for Senate control, could GOP win by losing? - Washington Times

In battle for Senate control, could GOP win by losing? - Washington Times

This is exactly what I have been saying. "winning" the Senate by a one vote margin buys you virtually nothing, except expectations that are impossible to meet.

Obama the Thinker? - WSJ.com

Obama the Thinker? - WSJ.com: "Occam's razor suggests that Obama is a mere conformist--someone who absorbed every left-wing platitude he encountered in college and never seems to have seriously questioned any of them. Kloppenberg characterizes Obama as a skeptic, not a true believer. We're not sure he has an active enough mind to be either one."

Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’ | CNSnews.com

Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’ | CNSnews.com

'Nuff said.

One Year After Obama Wins Nobel, World Looks for Signs of Peace - ABC News

One Year After Obama Wins Nobel, World Looks for Signs of Peace - ABC News: "One year after the Nobel prize jury made its controversial decision to award President Obama the prize for world peace, a larger jury is still waiting for the president to live up to those lofty expectations. 

Even some of Obama's allies -- like former Nobel laureates Al Gore and Jimmy Carter -- declined to assess his performance in fulfilling what the peace prize citation said was his 'vision' of world harmony.

The one year anniversary of Obama's prize comes as fighting is escalating in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq continues to smolder and Obama struggles to keep fledgling Middle East peace talks from collapsing. Drones are firing missiles in unprecedened numbers and confrontations with Iran and North Korea are hotter than ever.

In addition, wars rage in Somalia, Africa, Asia and South America, fueled by religion, tribal hatreds, poverty and piracy."

'nuff said

The Pot Calls the Kettle Black

Obama backs off charge that foreign money is funding Chamber ads | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "President Obama on Sunday stepped back from categorical charges he made earlier this week that foreign money was funding conservative TV campaign ads, telling a rally in Philadelphia only that such a scenario was possible.

The softening of Obama’s language reflects the impact of a Saturday report on the issue by the New York Times, which concluded that charges originally made by a blog run by a Democratic-aligned think tank were baseless."

While Obama's charges were baseless, it is a fact that the Obama campaign made no effort to identify or exclude illegal foreign contributions during the 2008 campaign. More Alinksy-style "accuse your opponents of your own transgressions" propaganda.

Enviro-Hysteria? Unheard of...

One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again | Mail Online: "Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well."

UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT!!! Bloomberg: Obama ‘not particularly interested in business’ |

Bloomberg: Obama ‘not particularly interested in business’ | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday gave a mixed but decidedly negative review of President Obama’s economic policies, saying that the reason for joblessness is uncertainty in the private sector caused by government and that the president is uninterested in business."

You can say that again, and again, and again.

OK, I Didn't Expect to Be Saying This...

I wish the President would heed Leonid Breznev's advice when it comes to the economy:

"'The fundamental problem we face is that we can only distribute and consume what is actually produced.' Leonid Breznev, Communist Party Congress, 1972."

Inspiring the Country, One Voter at a Time

Check out the guy behind him, too.

Remember Those Quaint Old Nixon Days When Presidents Just Sponsored "Dirty Tricks?"

Obama Linked To Houston Voter Fraud Scandal (Wizbang): "Oh, my. The voter fraud situation in Houston -- which may have started with the burning of voting machines, but now has developed into a full-fledged ACORN-esque mess of fraudulent voter registrations -- and it looks like it goes all the way up to President Obama himself.

The fraudulent voter registrations were the product of a group called Houston Votes, an ACORN Lite. Houston Votes volunteers were recruited through President Obama's web site, www.barackobama.com. (He doesn't actively run it, but turned it over to his campaign staff after the election, now operating as 'Organizing For America.') And one of the chief recruiters was a local Democratic activist (a very active one) named Maria Isabel.

To call Isabel 'active' would be like describing Jeffrey Dahmer as 'a man of interesting appetites.' She once brought a friend and fellow organizer for www.barackobama.com to a health care town hall hosted by crazy whackjob Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The friend stood up and said that she, as a doctor, backed ObamaCare. But the friend was about as much of a doctor as I am"

I am missing Nixon's high integrity in the Oval Office

Lying About Lying

Obama: GOP hasn't been honest with Americans - Yahoo! News: "Arguing doggedly against returning Republicans to power, President Barack Obama told Iowa voters Wednesday that the GOP has been dishonest about what needs to be done to revive the economy and restore middle-class dreams.
'We can't pretend that there are shortcuts,' the president said, addressing about 70 voters in a grassy backyard.
'When you look at the choice we face in this election coming up,' Obama said, 'the other side, what it's really offering is the same policies that from 2001 to 2009 put off hard problems and didn't really speak honestly to the American people about how we're gonna get this country on track over the long term.'"

Right out of Alinsky - accuse your opponent of doing what you yourself in fact are doing. This guys is so not serious.

Warm Words From the Great Uniter

Review & Outlook: Blaming the Voters - WSJ.com: "This week President Obama chimed in with another uplifting message about the American electorate. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that the tea party movement is financed and directed by 'powerful, special-interest lobbies.' But this doesn't mean that tea party groups are composed entirely of corporate puppets. Mr. Obama graciously implied that a small subset of the movement is simply motivated by bigotry.

The President said 'there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President.' The tea party is now supported by a third of the country in some polls."

So which are you, a corporate puppet or a knuckle-dragging bigot? Or both?

Let the Mudslinging Begin!

Democrats Unleash Ads Focusing on Rivals’ Pasts - NYTimes.com: "Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their Congressional majority."

When you can't defend your policies, your record or your ideas, all you have left are ad hominem attacks.

Study: Obama adminstration underestimated moratorium job loss | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Study: Obama adminstration underestimated moratorium job loss | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "An interagency report released last week by the Obama administration underestimated the number of jobs lost because of the deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico by about half, according to a study released Tuesday by the American Energy Alliance.

The study, conducted by Dr. Joseph Mason, endowed chair of banking at Louisiana State University, found that the moratorium has cost the Gulf region 19,536 jobs, not the 8,000 to 12,000 jobs estimated by the Department of Commerce report."

Thank goodness Obama is not beholden to any "special interests," like the environmental lobby. I think it's better to be safe (i.e. put 19,000 people out of work) than sorry (risk another oil spill).

Hats Off to the Washington Post for at Least Noticing...

President Obama picks Elizabeth Warren ... and thumbs his nose at the Senate: "President Obama picks Elizabeth Warren ... and thumbs his nose at the Senate"

Constitution, What Constitution?

Review & Outlook: Elizabeth III - WSJ.com: "We have here another end-run around Constitutional niceties so Team Obama can invest huge authority in an unelected official who is unable to withstand a public vetting. So a bureau inside an agency (the Fed) that it doesn't report to, with a budget not subject to Congressional control, now gets a leader not subject to Senate confirmation. If Dick Cheney had tried this, he'd have been accused of staging a coup."

Frankly, the amount of power vested in executive branch officials by recent abominations like TARP, Dudd-Frank, and ObamaCare is scary enough. But now, the Executive doesn't even deem it reasonable to subject these officials to confirmation by the legislative branch. How does that oath of office go, "I solemnly swear to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States..."?

And of course, the deafening silence of the MSM goes without saying...

Defend It, Don't Mend It

You can do a lot with 59 Senate votes, and that was certainly clear this week as Majority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats slammed the door on a bipartisan attempt to repeal ObamaCare's new 1099 reporting requirement on small business. 

The Democrats, unable to sell ObamaCare to their consituents, have resorted to saying:  "it's not perfect, but it's a start, and we will fix the problems with it over time."  Well, the issue of the 1099 reporting requirements shows how empty that promise is.  Virtually everyone, including the IRS' own Taxpayer Advocate,  agrees that the new 1099 reporting requirements are an abomination:

The office of the National Taxpayer Advocate within the IRS estimates that this provision will affect 40 million businesses. In July, they issued a harsh report on the consequences of the 1099 provision. They noted that small businesses in particular will be harmed by the new reporting requirements.

They state that the new burden on businesses would be disproportionate compared the actual revenue gained. For a relatively small increase in revenue, small businesses across the country would need to purchase new software and accounting services to handle the new paperwork.

Well, the opportunity to fix this clearly flawed provision of ObamaCare came up this week, with a bipartisan majority of senators supporting it.  But Harry Reid made sure it didn't pass.  If the Democrats can't mend this provision, they can't mend any provision of ObamaCare.   They intend to defend it, not mend it.

Crippling Our Economy for the Sake of Green Myths

 

John Stossel: Going "green" | Washington Examiner

Awesome Article on Fallacies of Green Thinking. Some Highlights:

Al Gore's group, Repower America, claims we can replace all our dirty energy with clean, carbon-free renewables. Gore says we can do it within 10 years...

"It's simply not possible," says Robert Bryce, author of "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy." "Nine out of 10 units of power that we consume are produced by hydrocarbons -- coal, oil and natural gas. Any transition away from those sources is going to be a decades-long, maybe even a century-long process. ... The world consumes 200 billion barrels of hydrocarbons per day. We would have to find the energy equivalent of 23 Saudi Arabias."...

How about wind power?

"Wind does not replace oil. This is one of the great fallacies, and it's one that the wind energy business continues to promote," Bryce said....

The media rave about Denmark, which gets some power from wind. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says, "If only we could be as energy smart as Denmark. "Friedman doesn't fundamentally understand what he's talking about," Bryce said. Bryce's book shows that Denmark uses eight times more coal and 25 times more oil than wind.(emphasis added)

"One nuclear power plant in Texas covers about 19 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Manhattan. To produce the same amount of power from wind turbines would require an area the size of Rhode Island. This is energy sprawl." To produce the same amount of energy with ethanol, another "green" fuel, it would take 24 Rhode Islands to grow enough corn. (emphasis added)

Thank goodness we now have an administration that makes decisions based on science, not superstition or ideology!

An Environment Catastrophe In the Gulf But ANWAR is Safe

Monday, May 31, 2010

Oil spill culprits run deep | obama, oil, deep - Opinion - The Orange County Register

Here's my question: Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place? Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama's tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we've had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Krauthammer implies there is a downside to banning offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Alaskan wilderness. Doesn't he know that leftist policies have no downsides? The Left has repealed the laws of nature, they can:

- hobble the economy by cutting off energy resources and LOWER unemployment (thanks to all those windmill and solar panel jobs - ask Spain how that's working out for them)
- raise taxes to confiscatory levels on the most productive in our society without sapping their incentives to create wealth for the society
- give everyone in the nation access to free healthcare but not create massive shortages and rationing
- SPEND their way out of a debt crisis

Come on, Krauthammer, your thinking is so 19th century!

Don't Flush MY Money Down The Greek Toilet

This is from a free email newsletter by John Mauldin.  An incredible resource on economics and finance:

Should the US Bail Out European Banks?

The obvious answer to the above question, at least on this side of the Atlantic, is no. But that is the plan being foisted on US tax-payers by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF wants to create a $250 billion dollar bailout fund for Greece, Portugal, et al that the US will contribute roughly 20% to. This fund will loan money and that IMG debt will be subordinate (junior!) to regular Greek debt, so when Greece does default, and they will, the IMF is the last in line to get paid.
Where will the money go? It will buy mostly Greek rollover debt from European banks getting out of their Greek debt. It is a back door bailout for German and French banks. The US Senate voted 94-0 that the US should not fund any such debt if the Treasury cannot certify the probability of getting repayment. If the Obama administration allows this funding to go through, the hue and cry will be large. It is bad enough that we have to pay for Freddie and Fannie (already $400 billion and counting!). Not meaning to be churlish, but the French and Germans can bail out their own banks.

Don't let them tell you we are bailing out the Greeks - we are once again bailing out the big bankers (didn't Pres Obama refer to them as "Fat Cats?") but this time FRENCH and GERMAN FAT CATS.  And the sad fact is that this bailout has no chance of saving the Greeks - it's just money down the toilet.