An80sReaganite

Ron Paul supported Cynthia McKinney in 2008...?

2012-01-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

That is about all you need to know about Ron Paul. I agree with his fiscal policies, but that is about where my agreement with him stops.

Here's the story from 2008:

Paul dismisses major party nominees

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor September 10, 2008 07:31 PM

Boston Globe

Former presidential candidate Ron Paul urged his supporters today to vote for a minor-party candidate, saying that he had rejected a last-minute appeal from Republican John McCain for his endorsement.

The Texas congressman cultivated a loyal following and raised sizable amounts of campaign cash online during the Republican primaries.

At a news conference in Washington he appeared with independent Ralph Nader, the consumer activist, and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, the former Georgia congresswoman.

Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman from Georgia, held his own news conference to announce he has asked Paul, the party's nominee in 1988, to be his running mate.

In a letter sent to Paul, Barr called Paul one of the "few American patriots" who exist in today's society, and asked him to "seriously consider this final offer as an opportunity to show true, lasting leadership beyond party politics."
UPDATE: Nader issued a statement tonight:

"Today, along with other third party candidates, I joined Congressman Ron Paul to endorse a common agenda that stands up for the US Constitution by ending illegal wars, and protecting the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We also jointly called for an immediate halt to the increase in the national debt, an end to corporate subsidies and taxpayer bailouts of corporations, and to start aggressively pursuing prosecution of corporations that commit crimes and frauds.

"Both Congressman Paul and I also support holding President Bush and Dick Cheney to account for their transgressions against our Constitution.

"Today's coming together of third party candidates marks the beginning of the realignment of American politics.

"While Congressman Paul and I do not agree on all things -- such as health and safety regulations, health insurance systems, and how to handle areas where the market fails or is not up to the task of getting the best outcomes for the American people -- on the overriding foreign policy, reckless waste financed by deficit spending, and civil liberties issues of the day, we stand together. He is a stalwart who has consistently stood up for what he believes in and never wavered when he is opposed by the legions of commercial interests and lobbyists that swarm the Capitol."

When you're sharing the stage in support of Cynthia McKinney & Ralph Nader, you know you've gone too far.... It's too bad most of his supporters are ill-informed college kids or idealists.

Even Rand Paul looked uncomfortable sharing the stage with his father in Iowa.

Who's next? Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins?

2012-01-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

From Politico:

McCain to endorse Romney tomorrow

By EMILY SCHULTHEIS

1/4/12 12:09 AM EST

John McCain will endorse his '08 rival Mitt Romney tomorrow, a top Republican source confirmed to POLITICO.
The Arizona senator fought a bitter nomination battle with Romney four years ago, though Romney has worked to mend the relationship since then. The endorsement was first reported byBuzzFeed.McCain’s endorsement will help Romney pivot away from Iowa, toward New Hampshire, and turn the page on the caucuses in any case. But McCain also symbolizes much of what the GOP base doesn’t want in its 2012 nominee, so it’ll be interesting to see just how closely Romney hugs the Arizona senator.
The endorsement is also a blow to Jon Huntsman, who has attempted to campaign as a McCain-style maverick and staked his whole bid on the state that made McCain a national figure.

I am sure Romney thinks this is a good thing. Personally, I think it's the kiss of death.

Great RNC Ad. A sign if things to come....?

2012-01-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Debunking: The fact-free world of Reagan myth making

2012-01-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

I knew when I read the title of this guys earlier post: "Krugman nails it, for the millionth time!", it would be easy to blow this idiot out of the water....

Reagan agreed to a compromise which included raising taxes in exchange for the democrats reducing some spending. In typical democrat style, the taxes were implemented, but the spending cuts never materialized. The truth is in the congressional record, should you care to do the research instead of trying to rewrite history.

When Reagan took office in 1980, there were 16 tax brackets ranging from 0% ($3,400 or less) to 70% ($215,400). When Reagan left office in 1988 there were 2 brackets: 15% (income up to $29,750) and 28% for income over $29,750). Coincidentally, revenues increased from $517.1 billion to $909.2 billion. Sadly, the democrat controlled congress spent at an even faster rate (from a -$73.8 billion dollar deficit in 1980 to -$221.2 billion dollar deficit in 1986).

Facts really are stubborn things.

"Outing" the New Deal

2011-12-16T17:53:00.000-05:00

Here is a great explanation regarding the truth of FDR's "New Deal".

Check out: "In the Days That Reagan Ruled"

2011-12-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

Here comes The Big Obama Cover-up by the MSM....

2011-12-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

Unemployment rate falls to 8.6% in November
USA Today 12-02-2011

Washington — The U.S. unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level in more than two and a half years, as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6% last month, from 9% in October. The rate hasn't been that low since March 2009, during the depths of the recession

Still, 13.3 million Americans remain unemployed. And a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was because roughly 315,000 people had given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

Employers added 120,000 jobs last month. And the previous two months were revised up to show that 72,000 more jobs added — the fourth straight month the government revised prior months higher.

Private employers added a net 140,000 jobs last month. Governments, meanwhile, shed another 20,000 jobs, mostly at the local and state level. Governments at all levels have shed almost a half-million jobs in the past year.

In the words of Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

There are many ways this headline and this story are misleading:

1) Since Obama has been president the pool of available jobs has shrunk by about 2,500,000 thereby lowering the denominator.

2) the commonly referred to "unemployment number" is the U3, which are the people who are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks. But, the U6, includes the discouraged worker, the "marginally attached or loosely employed" and the people who have accepted part-time work in lieu of full time work. The U6 paints a very different picture - currently 15.6%.

3) In November 2008, when BHO was elected the civilian workforce over 16 years old was 154,621,000, Today that workforce is 153,883,000. Last time I checked that was 738,000 fewer workers. Really? I thought about 120-150,000 new workers entered the workforce every month? From Dec 2001 to Dec 2003 the workforce grew 2,424,000. And this included the aftermath of 9-11.

Aren't there any journalist's left in the U.S.? I guess I'll have to check the U.K. papers to read some facts...

Oh, this is rich!!!

2011-11-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

(I'm sorry. I keep falling back to that line when talking about the OWS...)

Apparently, ACORN is at it again. Who'd a thunk? I doubt they'll ever go away....

ACORN Officials Scramble, Firing Workers and Shredding Documents, After Exposed as Players Behind Occupy Wall Street Protests

By Jana Winter

Published November 03, 2011

FoxNews.com

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.

NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said.

But, here is the greatest part of the article:

“Now there’s no texting in the office, no phone calls in the office. They tell us to take our phone calls out into the waiting room where there’s an intercom, and then they turn on the intercom to hear our conversations. They’re installing new cameras and speakers around the building so they can hear everything.

“It’s almost like working at Fort Knox.”

I thought these lefties hated this kind of "big brother" activity? Maybe they are so scared of being uncovered, they will disregard civil liberties and right to privacy.

They must be pretty scared:

NYCC is also monitoring its staff’s behavior, cracking down on phone use and socialization. Officials have ordered all papers -- even scraps -- to be shredded every night, the source said.

“And all the supplies—everything around the office that said ‘ACORN’ -- is now all in storage until this blows over,” the source said. “People literally have to cover up the cameras on the back of their cellphones in the office.”

Oh, and what is it they are scared of being accused of? Is it their association with ACORN or the fact they are paying people to protest at OWS?

FoxNews.com’s report identified NYCC as a key organizing force behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. Sources within the group also told FoxNews.com NYCC was hiring people to carry signs and join the protests. NYCC -- a nonprofit organization run almost entirely by former ACORN officials and employees --did not reply for comment prior to the publication of the initial article, but later posted a statement on its website dismissing the article and denying that it pays protesters.

Finally, a straight answer from San Fran Nan....

2011-11-01T15:30:00.002-05:00

No ambiguity here....

Yeah, the OWS crowd & the Tea Partier's are the same... NOT!

2011-11-01T09:03:00.000-05:00

The leftist "Occupy Wall Street" crowd:

vs. Glenn Beck Rally:

Again:

or even Obama's inauguration:

Again, Tea Party:

OWS (Atlanta):

WHOSE SIDE WOULD YOU RATHER BE ON.....?

We can only pray this is true.....

2011-10-24T13:20:00.000-05:00

World power swings back to America

The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor

5:53PM BST 23 Oct 2011

Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline - so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue - will seem wildly off the mark by then.

The author goes on to explain:

The U.S. has already increased it's supply of oil for its own consumption from 50% to 72% in the last 10 years.

"The implications of this shift are very large for geopolitics, energy security, historical military alliances and economic activity. As US reliance on the Middle East continues to drop, Europe is turning more dependent and will likely become more exposed to rent-seeking behaviour from oligopolistic players," said Mr [Francisco] Blanch [from Bank of America] .

According to a recent Boston Consulting Group report:

Chinese wage inflation running at 16pc a year for a decade has closed much of the cost gap. China is no longer the "default location" for cheap plants supplying the US

The fed has "unintentionally" created inflation in China.

As Philadelphia Fed chief Sandra Pianalto said last week, US manufacturing is "very competitive" at the current dollar exchange rate. Whether intended or not, the Fed's zero rates and $2.3 trillion printing blitz have brought matters to an abrupt head for China

Things are getting worse, not better in the EU.

The European Central Bank has since made matters worse (for Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France) by keeping rates above those of the US, UK, and Japan. That has been a deliberate policy choice. It let real M1 deposits in Italy contract at a 7pc annual rate over the summer. May it live with the consequences.

The bottom line is, we are likely to succeed where others have failed because when the playing field becomes more level, manufacturing will likely come back the U.S. States like South Caroline, Alabama and Tennessee will become the lowest cost place to produce products (along with other factors like infrastructure and security).

Here's to hoping they are right!

How many more food producers will go bankrupt before Washington D.C. realizes its ethanol subsidy is driving companies out of business?

2011-10-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

Chicken producer Cagle's files Chapter 11

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011, 10:27am EDT

One of Georgia's oldest companies, chicken producer Cagle's Inc. , has filed for Chapter 11 protection.

The Atlanta-based company (AMEX: CGL-A), which has been in business for more than 60 years, said it will attempt to restructure its debt.

"Over the past few years, the poultry industry has been under severe stress due to historically high corn and soybean meal prices coupled with sagging chicken prices caused by an oversupply of broilers. As a result, Cagle’s has incurred significant operating losses that have depleted its liquidity and working capital position," the company said.

Allen Family Foods,Seeks Bankruptcy Protection
By Dawn McCarty - Jun 9, 2011 1:35 PM ET

Allen Family Foods Inc., a chicken producer based in Seaford,Delaware, filed for bankruptcy protection citing changes in the market for poultry.

The company listed both assets and debt in the range of $50 million to $100 million in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Affiliates Allen’s Hatchery and JCR Enterprises also sought protection.

“A recent lag in the industry market has forced the company to reposition the business by reducing volume and diversifying its product line,” Vice President of Finance Brian Hildreth said in court papers.

Chicken processing plant files to sell assetsBy MARY PIEPER, Courier Lee News Service
Thursday, April 21, 2011 4:50 am

The owners of a closed chicken processing plant in Charles City have filed a motion in bankruptcy court to sell all its assets free and clear of liens.

Custom Poultry Processing LLC is proposing that an auction to sell its assets take place at 9 a.m. on May 26 in the courtroom for U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

Delaware Poultry Producer, Townsend files for bankruptcy

24 Dec 2010

Townsends Poultry in Georgetown, Delaware, USA, files voluntary Chapter 11 Petitions to address challenges in difficult market conditions. Operations will continue.

Townsends, Inc. and four wholly owned subsidiaries announced that they have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The company's operations are expected to continue during the bankruptcy process as it explores its strategic alternatives.

Do you suppose ANYONE in Washington D.C. is even noticing the "trend" in food company bankruptcies?

If they are, do you think they are smart enough to connect the dots and realize it might have something to do with them redirecting 40% of the corn grow in the U.S. into ethanol instead of into food?

Do you suppose they ever have to pick up a tab of their own when they go out to eat and realize that the cost of food is going up?

Or, maybe they don't really care, as long as their economic engineering is seen as politically correct?

Maybe, just maybe, they really don't care. After all, if food gets too expensive, they'll just vote themselves a new cost of living increase. I mean, we wouldn't want them scraping by on their measly $174,000 (congress) , $193,000 (congressional leadership) or $223,000 (Speaker of the House).

And they can't figure out why we believe they are out of touch...?

2011-10-20T09:58:00.000-05:00

[Senate Majority Leader, Harry] Reid [D-NV] signals government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs

By Pete Kasperowicz - 10/19/11 10:16 AM ET

Thehill.com

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday indicated Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.

I'm sorry, but has he had a head injury we've not been told about? Does he really believe this or is he just saying so others might believe it (i.e., lying to the "masses" in hopes no one will use the internet to find out )? Obamacare alone authorizes 16,000 new IRS agents. If total government jobs are down, it is because state and local governments, who cannot print their own money, have had to cut their payrolls because their revenue is dropping like a rock. I mean, with 14,000,000 people unemployed and up to another 10-11,000,000 underemployed, tax revenues at all levels are down.

The simple facts are, Harry Reid and all his Democrat buddies need to get the unionised employees back to work in order to collect the dues which then get used to fund their campaigns. It is this unholy alliance that Scott Walk is breaking up in Wisconsin. Don't believe me?

Reid reiterated his emphasis on creating government jobs by saying Democrats are looking to "put hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching [NEA] children, have more police patrolling our streets, firefighters fighting our fires, doing the rescue work that they do so well … that's our priority." He said Republicans are calling the bill a "failure" because they are "using a different benchmark for success than we are." {Links added by me.}

All unions are nothing more than money laundering schemes for the Democrat Party. The problem is, recent history has shown that private sector union memberships are dropping like a rock, so only public sector unions are available to increase their membership and thus their dues and thus their contributions to the campaigns of Democrats...... See how easy it all is?

The REAL Occupy Wall Street crowd...

2011-10-20T09:03:00.001-05:00

I am not sure which is more disturbing, the racist rants coming from a black person or the fact that she holds a teachers certification in CA and is allowed to potentially spew this venom in a class room....

In the meantime, Cain's 9-9-9 plan gets stamp of approval....

2011-10-19T10:28:00.001-05:00

Cain's Stimulating '9-9-9' Tax Reform

By ARTHUR B. LAFFER
October 19, 2011

A new sales tax could be raised in the future—but so can any

other tax. And the low marginal rates would jump-start the

economy.

Here's the highlights:

....federal tax revenues from the personal and business income taxes, all payroll taxes, and the capital gains, gift and estate taxes have averaged $2.3 trillion, while gross domestic product has averaged about $14.5 trillion. The total revenue from these taxes as a share of gross domestic product averages around 16%. Sometimes it's a good deal higher, as in the boom of the late 1990s, and sometimes its lower, as in today's "Great Recession." But a number in the 16%-19% range is as good as you'll get under our current tax code.

By contrast, the three tax bases for Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan add up to about $33 trillion. But the plan exempts from any tax people below the poverty line. Using poverty tables, this exemption reduces each tax base by roughly $2.5 trillion. Thus, Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 tax base for his business tax is $9.5 trillion, for his income tax $7.7 trillion, and for his sales tax $8.3 trillion. And there you have it! Three federal taxes at 9% that would raise roughly $2.3 trillion and replace the current income tax, corporate tax, payroll tax (employer and employee), capital gains tax and estate tax.

And:

A static revenue-neutral tax change requires static winners and losers. And this 9-9-9 plan has made certain that even on static terms those below the poverty line will be better off—period. Once the dynamics take hold, many of those below the poverty line will find good jobs and thus will rise above the poverty line and start paying taxes.

And finally:

This is the type of tax increase I wholeheartedly support. I support collecting more in taxes from people with high incomes who choose to actually pay taxes at lower tax rates than use lawyers and accountants to avoid taxes at higher tax rates. Some tax revenues at low tax rates is a heckuva lot better than no tax revenues at high tax rates.

Done deal. 9-9-9 is now a mainstream idea. If Art Laffer believes this will work, I am behind it and Cain 100%.

Go Herminator!

What happens to a city after decades of Democrat rule....?

2011-10-17T10:31:00.000-05:00

Detroit struggles to keep lights on

Copper thieves, aging equipment darken blocks in cash-starved city

Leonard N. Fleming/ The Detroit News

October 17. 2011 1:00AM

The growing lack of public lighting has become a troubling problem for cash-starved Detroit, where entire stretches of neighborhoods and thoroughfares — such as portions of the Southfield Freeway — are feeling the effects.

City officials estimate 15-20 percent of the 88,000 lights in the Motor City are not working, and they acknowledge that figure could be as high as 50 percent in some neighborhoods. Providing lighting to the city costs $10.7 million annually.
And often when they are fixed, they break down weeks and months later — or thieves steal the high-grade cable for its copper materials.

One of the city's premier neighborhoods, Indian Village boasts 350 mostly large, stately, eclectic homes that house diverse residents. The area is only three streets wide between Jefferson and Mack on the city's east side. But after thieves — in broad daylight and under the cover of darkness — stole every transformer on each pole, the area has been dark at night for months. The only light in the neighborhood comes from decorative gas lamps maintained by homeowners in front of their homes.

Public Lighting crews showed up to the neighborhood recently to repair 50 or so lights. Cornelius Johnson and a lighting department crew described the problem to neighborhood resident Wicks as he strolled down Seminole one block from his home. Transformers on every pole had been ripped out and wires hanging.

"One light at a time," Johnson told Wicks. "And pray nothing goes on anywhere else. This isn't all we do. But we'll get them on, don't worry about that. There's no guarantee that it will last, but we're giving it a good effort."

And of course:

Missing manhole covers plague Flint neighborhoods

By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal

Published: Monday, June 13, 2011, 8:00 AM Updated: Monday, June 13, 2011, 8:35 AM

Manhole covers, sewer grates and the occasional stop sign are disappearing from city streets, the victims of brazen scrap metal thieves who steal and deal them for quick cash.

It’s happening every day, said Joe Pilara, Flint utilities superintendent. Thursday night alone, the city lost 15 covers, he said.

“This is like an epidemic all over the city,” said 3rd Ward Councilman Bryant Nolden. “It’s just ridiculous.”

The illegal scrapping has the cash-strapped city spending time and resources to mark the exposed manholes and sewers with construction barriers before they swallow a passing vehicle’s tire or an unknowing pedestrian, costing the city even more in the long run.

And who could for get this forward thinker:

The Mayor Of Detroit’s Radical Plan To Bulldoze One Quarter Of The City

Faced with a 300 million dollar budget deficit and a rapidly dwindling tax base, Detroit finds itself having to make some really hard choices. During the glory days of the 1950s, Detroit was a booming metropolis of approximately 2 million people, but now young people have left in droves and the current population is less than a million. The true unemployment rate for those still living in Detroit is estimatedto be somewhere around 45 to 50 percent, and poverty and desperation have become entrenched everywhere. In many areas of the city, only one or two houses remain occupied an an entire city block. In fact, some areas of Detroit have so many vacant, burned-out homes that they literally look like war zones. And yes, it is true that there are actually some houses in Detroit that you can actually buy for just one dollar. According to one recent estimate, Detroit has 33,500 empty houses and 91,000 vacant residential lots. So what can be done when an entire city experiences economic collapse?

Well, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing believes that the answer is to downsize on a massive scale. Bing believes that Detroit simply cannot continue to pay for police patrols, fire protection and other essential services for areas that resemble ghost towns.

So his plan is to bulldoze approximately 10,000 houses and empty buildings over the next 3 years and direct new investment into stronger neighborhoods. In the areas that the city plans to bulldoze, the residents would be offered the opportunity to relocate to a better area. For buildings that have already been abandoned, the city could simply use tax foreclosure proceedings to reclaim them. Of course if there were some residents that did not want to move, eminent domain could be used to force them out.

I guess that means they are just quitting.... No sense trying to change the situation. Change the rules of the game. Just quit. No sense fighting.... Those pesky Republicans thwart them at every turn... So, let's just bulldoze (or "downsize the scale") of the problem....

Great Expose' on the Zuccotti Park of the "Occupy Wall Street" fame...

2011-10-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

This is NOT MY ORIGINAL WORK! I wish it had been, but alas I have a job and commitments which prevent me from taking the time to create an expose' like this. None the less it is an awesome piece of citizen journalism...

Corporation that owns Zuccotti "Protester" Park Wins $168 Million Loan Guarantee from Obama DOE!
Original Research ^ | Oct. 11, 2011 | chatteringclassof58/FightinJAG, ed.
Posted on Tue Oct 11 2011 05:51:57 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by fightinJAG
(This info was developed and originally posted by chatteringclassof58. The original post was deleted. This is an edited version of the material.)

Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out in and trashing Zuccotti Park for weeks. Zuccotti Park is a very nice private park, right in the middle of Manhattan.

Zuccotti Park is owned by Brookfield Office Properties, which is part of Brookfield Asset Management, worth at least $150 billion.

Brookfield Office Properties

Mayor Bloomberg has said he can do nothing about the protest unless the park owners (Brookfield Properties) ask the protesters to be evicted. Brookfield issued a statement that it was okay with them if the protesters stayed on their private property.

NYPD: Only Landlord Can Evict Occupy Wall Street Protesters From Zuccotti Park

That’s pretty nice of a big evil corporation to let protesters sleep, smoke weed and go number one and two on its nice private park in downtown Manhattan. Especially since the protesters are protesting big evil corporations. (But then again, President Obama expressed solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Nancy Pelosi said “God Bless Them,” and Bill Ayers is writing their collective Occupy Wall Street demands. So someone loves them.)

Hmm. Wonder what that’s about.

Maybe Mayor Bloomberg has some inside track on what’s going on here? After all, Bloomberg’s longtime shack-up girlfriend, Diana L. Taylor, is on the Board of Directors of Brookfield Properties, the company that owns Zuccotti Park. (She’s also served as the CFO of the Long Island Power Authority.)

You can read about Ms. Taylor here:

Diana L. Taylor

Brookfield Office Properties Board of Directors, Diana L. Taylor

Zuccotti Park is named after John E. Zuccotti, a member of the Brookfield Properties board.

Profile of John E. Zuccotti

John Zuccotti was also a long-term member of the Board of Directors of WellPoint Health Network (also known as Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York, Blue Cross Blue Shield in Missouri and Wisconsin, HealthLink, and UNICARE.).

WellPoint Health Networks

President Obama used WellPoint as an example of the evils that would be exorcized by Obamacare. In fact, some argue that WellPoint, along with other large health insurers, willingly colluded with the Obama administration in order to save Obamacare from an otherwise certain political death.

How the Health Insurance Industry Saved Obamacare

Why?

When the dust settled and people were actually able to read Obamacare, turns out it favors WellPoint.

Forbes: Obamacare Favors WellPoint

A few years ago, Brookfield Properties became the largest client in a start-up lobbying firm called Oldaker, Biden & Belair. Yes, the same Hunter Biden who was on the Board of Amtrak while Daddy was pouring Fedgov money down that rathole.

Some of Brookfield's lobbying history here and here.

One of the big divisions of Brookfield Asset Management is Brookfield Renewable Energy. You know where this is going. This company has received hundreds of millions, if not billions, in “green” grants, stimulus money and DOE loans (a la Solyndra).

First, about Brookfield Renewable Energy:

Brookfield Asset Management is looking to merge its hydroelectric and wind power assets into the world's second-largest public renewable power company in a move designed to cash in on the growing demand for cleaner power.

With a market capitalization of $6 billion, it would rank behind Italy's ENEL GP's $10-billion equity value and ahead of EDP of France and Portugal's EDF Group.

"The renewable power generation sector is increasingly becoming a meaningful portion of the new energy supply on a global basis," Richard Legault, CEO of Brookfield's power operations, said on conference calls with analysts and bondholders.

"Brookfield continues to believe that the strong growth in renewables will be driven by widespread acceptance of the need to reduce the world's carbon footprint, challenges faced by competing technologies such as coal or nuclear generation and the desire for energy self-sufficiency pursued by many governments through various policies and incentives."

A quick search of what Brookfield is up to:

A NH Solyndra? Wind farm gets fed loan

In the name of “green energy,” the Obama administration is using taxpayer money to subsidize a New Hampshire wind farm that is a subsidiary of a hugely profitable company.

New Hampshire’s largest wind farm, the Granite Reliable Power project under construction in Coos County, is jointly owned by BAIF Granite Holdings, LLC and Freshnet Wind Energy, LLC. BAIF owns 75 percent of Granite Reliable. BAIF Granite Holdings was created earlier this year by Brookfield Renewable Power, which is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management of New York.

That company, which runs clean energy operations around the world, has deep pockets. It reported net income of $454 million in 2009 and $3.2 billion in 2010.

Brookfield Renewable Power financed the creation of BAIF Granite Holdings from its Brookfield Americas Infrastructure fund, which was reported in February to have $2.7 billion in assets.

With that kind of backing, it is curious that the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would guarantee up to 80 percent of a $168.9 million loan for the Granite Reliable wind farm project last week.

Why would a company created by a $3.2 billion company and backed by a $2.7 billion private fund need federal loan guarantees? That would be an important question at any time, but it is more pertinent after the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker that got a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration last year.

Granite Reliable’s wind farm is not proven, and Granite Reliable is a limited liability company, which provides broad investor protection if the company goes down. If the wind farm flops, and investors cut their losses, the taxpayers stand to lose $135 million.

What is the justification for risking $135 million in public money, especially on a company with access to so much private cash? Apparently, the justification is that Obama likes “green power” and wants to associate himself with it.

With the country running deficits as far as the eye can see, the Obama administration opts to spend money we don’t have to subsidize a risky venture undertaken by the subsidiary of a huge, profitable company. If that doesn’t perfectly illustrate what is wrong with crony capitalism in general and the Obama administration’s practice of it in particular, we don’t know what would.

Department of Energy Finalizes Loan Guarantee of Nearly $170 Million to Granite Reliable Power

September 23, 2011 - 3:31pm

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today the Department of Energy finalized a partial guarantee for $168.9 million loan to Granite Reliable Power, LLC. The loan guarantee will support a 99 megawatt (MW) wind generation project that will be New Hampshire’s largest wind farm. The project will be located in Coos County in northern New Hampshire, approximately 110 miles north of Concord. Project sponsors, BAIF Granite Holdings, LLC and Freshet Wind Energy, LLC, expect the project will fund nearly 200 construction jobs. [Note: BAIF owns 75 percent of Granite Reliable. BAIF Granite Holdings was created earlier this year by Brookfield Renewable Power, which is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management of New York.

So....

Still wondering why a big evil corporation might be okay with a bunch of nasty protesters trashing its private property in beautiful downtown Manhattan?

As even the protesters could tell you, corporations don’t do stuff out of the goodness of their hearts.

Jimmy Obama....

2011-10-11T09:23:00.000-05:00

What comes around goes around...

Democrats are the "Party of the People"....

2011-10-11T07:13:00.000-05:00

..... all the little people who will never get to partake in scandalous land deals and banking schemes.

Pelosi’s disclosure belated in husband’s land deal

Partner is father of favored envoy

By Chuck Neubauer

The Washington Times

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, a real estate developer and investment banker, stands to make millions of dollars in a previously undisclosed residential real estate project in California as a partner with the father of a woman Mrs. Pelosi helped become ambassador toHungary, records show.

Paul F. Pelosi’s investment in Russell Ranch is worth at least $5 million and possibly as much as $25 million in a deal put together by his friend and longtime business associate, Angelo Tsakopoulos, patriarch of a multimillion-dollar real estate development firm, according to Mrs. Pelosi’s latest personal-disclosure statement.

Despite his involvement in the project dating back to the late 1990s, Mrs. Pelosi first listed the investment in May 2010 on her federal financial-disclosure forms covering the couple’s finances during 2009. The forms are required annually and are supposed to identify assets she and her husband have that are worth more than $1,000.

The first Russell Ranch listing came a month after The Washington Times raised questions about business dealings between Mr. Pelosi andMr. Tsakopoulos and Mrs. Pelosi’s successful efforts to help his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, become ambassador. For 2009, Mrs. Pelosi reported that the Russell Ranch investment was worth between $1 million and $5 million. The next year, she listed the value as between $5 million and $25 million.

Maxine Waters: Swamp Queen

By Michelle Malkin • April 27, 2011 08:33 AM

To re-cap: OneUnited Bank received $12 million in federal TARP bailout money after Waters’ office personally intervened and lobbied the Treasury Department in 2008. The minority depository institution was seeking a backdoor government rescue from its reckless decision to squander nearly $52 million of its bank capital on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock. Lavish spending by top bank executive Kevin Cohee, who boasted a company-financed Porsche and a Santa Monica, Calif., beachfront mansion, compounded the bank’s problems.

After the federal bailout of Fannie/Freddie, OneUnited’s stock in the government-sponsored enterprises plunged to a value estimated at less than $5 million. Only through Waters’ intervention was OneUnited able to secure an emergency meeting with the Treasury and its then-Secretary Henry Paulson.

Business as usual for the Dems. We are supposed to be grateful they are up there "fighting for the [little] people....

I wish they'd all just go home and let someone with a modicum of morals & ethics run things for a few hundred years.....

Where, oh where is our next George Washington, John Adams, even Thomas Jefferson....?

Only a liberal ideologue could say this with a straight face....

2011-09-27T06:10:00.000-05:00

$200K Per Job? Timothy Geithner Says White House Jobs Plan Is Still a Bargain

By BEN FORER

Sept. 26, 2011

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn't dispute a Harvard economist's estimate that each job in the White House's jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to measure the bill's worth.

And he also pointed out, in an interview today with ABC News' David Muir, that there is no other option on the table for getting the economy moving and putting more people back to work.

As if the only other option is "doing nothing" (of course, for the first 150 years of our existence we did nothing and it all seemed to turn out ok....):

"If the alternative plan is for Washington to do nothing, that's unacceptable," Geithner said. "If the alternative plan is to sit there and say we're going to cut our way out of this by just cutting spending, that would make the economy weaker. Or we're going to sit here and just complain about regulation. ... That will not do anything to help the average family now still suffering so much from the crisis."

But somehow the government borrowing $200,000 per job (will have to paid back through taxes of the "average U.S. family) WILL HELP the average U.S. family....?

Really? THIS is the smartest guy in the room...? NOT!!!

2011-09-23T16:30:00.001-05:00

New gaffe: Obama hails America's historic building of 'the Intercontinental Railroad'

"We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad," Barack Obama.

That's what the president of the United States flat-out said Thursday during what was supposed to be a photo op to sell his jobs plan next to an allegedly deteriorating highway bridge.

A railroad between continents? A railroad from, say, New York City all the way across the Atlantic to France? Now, THAT would be a bridge!

It's yet another humorous gaffe by the Harvard graduate, overlooked by most media for whatever reason. Like Obama saying Abraham-Come-Lately Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party. Or Navy corpseman. Or the Austrian language. Fifty-seven states. The president of Canada. Etc.

And of course, who could forget this intelligent look:

Yeah, this is the guy we were all waiting for....

And the NYT wonders why readers are leaving in droves....

2011-09-23T05:49:00.001-05:00

In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs

(yes, you read that correctly.... )

By ERIC LIPTON and JOHN M. BRODER

Published: September 22, 2011

Here are some pull quotes:

"While no evidence has emerged that political favoritism played a role in what administration officials assert were merit-based decisions..."

On the face of it, it actually sounds reasonable, until you realize what you just read in the prevous paragraph:

"The government’s backing of Solyndra, which could cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars, came as the politically well-connected business began an extensive lobbying campaign that appears to have blinded government officials to the company’s financial condition and the risks of the investment, according to a review of government documents and interviews with administration officials and industry analysts."

Hmmm... Admittedly, there are two authors of the article......

"While no evidence has emerged that political favoritism played a role in what administration officials assert were merit-based decisions, Solyndra drew plenty of high-level attention. Its lobbyists corresponded frequently and met at least three times with an aide to a top White House official, Valerie B. Jarrett, to push for loans, tax breaks and other government assistance. "

Wait a minute.... I'm getting mixed signals here. Is this a political scandal or not...

“It was alarming,” said Frank Rusco, a program director at the Government Accountability Office, which found that Energy Department preliminary loan approvals — including the one for Solyndra — were granted at times before officials had completed mandatory evaluations of the financial and engineering viability of the projects. “They can’t really evaluate the risks without following the rules.”

The Energy Department’s senior staff has acknowledged in interviews the intense pressure from top Obama administration officials to rush stimulus spending out the door.

Yes! I knew it!

But....

Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, said administration officials realized the Solyndra plan posed some certain risks. The loan program was designed to help finance cutting-edge projects that could not otherwise find enough private-sector investors.

“But we did not just take what this company was telling us,” Mr. LaVera said. “We did the analysis on our own and decided it was a good bet.”

Yeah, it was probably just an honest mistake by an over zealous bureaucrat who only wanted to give a hand up to someone in the private sector. I'm sure it had nothing what so ever to do with the "nearly $1.8 million on Washington lobbyists" or the fact that "George B. Kaiser, a billionaire from Tulsa, Okla., was a fund-raiser for Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign and the backer of a foundation that is Solyndra’s leading investor..."

No, I specifically remember Barack Hussien Obama promising to keep lobbyists out of the White House. Yeah, that's it. It was an honest mistake. A half a billion taxpayer dollar mistake. Easy come, tax some more....

Obama Nation....

2011-09-15T16:49:00.000-05:00

Consumers paid more for range of items in August

Consumers paid more for gas, food, rent and other items in August, raising inflation pressures

Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer, On Thursday September 15, 2011, 9:28 am

Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up inflation and squeezing Americans' purchasing power.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August after jumping 0.5 percent in July. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent.

The Labor Department said food prices rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase since March. That was due to higher prices for cereals and dairy products. Energy prices increased 1.2 percent. [emphasis added]

Huh.... Food inflation? Who'd thunk.....?

More Obama-nation....

2011-09-15T10:41:00.000-05:00

Mortgage default warnings surged in August

Report: Mortgage default warnings spiked in August, signaling potential new foreclosure wave

Alex Veiga, AP Real Estate Writer, On Thursday September 15, 2011

Banks have stepped up their actions against homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, setting the stage for a fresh wave of foreclosures.

The number of U.S. homes that received an initial default notice -- the first step in the foreclosure process -- jumped 33 percent in August from July, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The increase represents a nine-month high and the biggest monthly gain in four years. The spike signals banks are starting to take swifter action against homeowners, nearly a year after processing issues led to a sharp slowdown in foreclosures.

And:

Jobless Claims Rise Again -- 428K Weekly First-Time Benefits Requests

Published September 15, 2011 | Associated Press

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level in three months. It's a sign that the job market remains depressed.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000. The week included the Labor Day holiday.

How much more Obama can this country handle?

Welcome to Obama-Nation....

2011-09-15T08:27:00.000-05:00

Butterball to shutter Longmont plant; 350 jobs to be lost

Tony Kindelspire Longmont Times-Call

Posted: 09/14/2011

Butterball will close its plant at the end of the year, leading to the loss of 350 jobs.

Rising grain and fuel costs are the primary reason for the decision to close the Longmont plant, Nalley said.

“Corn is a primary ingredient of our feed costs, so is soybeans,” he said. “Grain represents approximately 70 percent of the costs for us to produce a live turkey, ready to be processed. Grain has essentially doubled just since 2010.”

In fact, costs for things such as corn, soybean meal and fat have gone up an average of nearly $65 million per year for the past five years, or $325 million total, the company said.

“We've been looking at this, actually, for the past couple years, because costs have continued to go up,” Nalley said.

The Longmont turkey plant dates back to 1951, when it opened as Longmont Foods. Rising fuel costs were another reason cited by Nalley in the decision to close Longmont.

This year alone the company's fuel costs — primarily diesel — will have increased $15 million to $20 million over 2010, he said.

Read the previous post to learn why this is happening. Again, complicated problems, simple solutions.....

It is difficult to believe this company survived Jimmy Carter, but not Obama.

Good News....? Not!

2011-09-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

Another record month for U.S. ethanol exports

Top destinations in July were Canada, Brazil, and European Union. Through the first seven months of 2011, the United States has exported 588.5 million gallons of ethanol, or roughly 7.5% of total output during that same period. Year-to-date exports in 2011 are already more than the combined total of 2009 and 2010 exports. The U.S. ethanol industry remains on pace to export 800-900 million gallons of ethanol for the entire 2011 calendar year.

Exports of denatured ethanol in July topped 100 million gallons for the first time ever, coming in at 104.6 million gallons. For context, this is equivalent to the annual output of a typical large ethanol facility. Canada was the top export destination in July, receiving 33.8 million gallons of denatured product. Brazil imported 16.1 million gallons, while the United Kingdom (14.0 mg), United Arab Emirates (13.6 mg), and Netherlands (12.3 mg) rounded out the top five. Together, the top five destinations accounted for 86% of July denatured ethanol exports.

This U.S. government's instance on interfering with market forces is completely screwing the typical U.S. consumer (unless you don't eat food or use energy).

1) U.S. Government mandates the use of ethanol, which diverts corn supplies away from food/feed and into ethanol production. Unfortunately, even this fake market created by the mandate is not enough to make ethanol production profitable, so;

2) the U.S. government must subsidize the manufacturing of ethanol. Because it is corn based it yield 1.5 units of energy for every 1 unit of energy input into producing it (when taking into account the fuel burned by the grower, the energy used to transport and the fact that ethanol is less efficiently burning than petroleum based fuel. So;

3) the price of U.S. corn doubles, then doubles again because it is short supply. "Why is it in short supply," you ask? We grow a lot of corn. True, but the price of sugar is also increasing. "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?", you ask. Well, as it turns out, after all the subsidies, U.S. based ethanol is cheaper (falsely, so) than sugar cane based ethanol (which, btw, yields 7-8 units of energy for every 1 unit of energy it takes to produce it). So, we import Brazilian ethanol, while Brazil imports U.S. ethanol. Confused? You should be.

4) So producers (specifically poultry producers) are losing money hand over fist. The government's response? Spend $40 million tax payers money to "subsidize" the poultry industry. BTW - $40 million is less than a half day of the industry's production, so all they are doing is throwing good money after bad.

5) So, you are getting ready to ask, "Why can't farmers just grow more corn?" Maybe because growers have land in conservation and are being paid to produce NOTHING (or maybe something besides corn).

Net effect?

Everyone pays more for the ethanol, the food and the taxes to support this lunacy.

Anyone else feel like screaming?

And congress wonders why they have single digit approval ratings.
The lesson? Government ought not try to pick winners and losers through tax policy, subsidies, set-aside, et. al....

This is what happens when adults run things....

2011-09-08T09:09:00.001-05:00

Here are some things you won't see in the MSM:
(Note: I could have put links on each of these, but it's too time consuming and most of these links also contain links to the other references.)

Ashland School District - saved $378,000 on health insurance;

Kimberly School District - saved $821,000 by dropping WEA Trust Insurance;

Edgerton School District - dropping WEA Trust, expecting to save at least $500,000;

Baraboo School District - dropping WEA Trust, expecting to save at least $660,000;

Dodgeland School District - dropping WEA Trust, expecting to save $260,000;

Elmbrook School District - changing health care provider, savings estimated at $878,000;

Mequon-Thiensville School District - saving $49,000 on dental insurance coverage;

Marshfield School District - saving $850,00 by dropping WEA Trust;

City of Sheboygan - Mayor Bob Ryan says collective bargaining reforms will provide enough savings to make up for the reduction in state aid;

Wauwatosa School District - tax levy decreasing, no programs will be cut, class sizes won't increase, thanks to the reforms in collective bargaining;

Manitowoc - Laid-off city workers may get their jobs back due to the wage/benefit reforms contained in Walker's budget. Changes to overtime rules saving the county $100,000;

Pittsville - will see a 9% decrease in the school portion of their property tax levy. "This is the first year we have not needed to short-term borrow," stated Board President Strenn;

Appleton School District - will save $3.1 million just in health insurance costs due to being able to bid out the coverage and being able to drop WEA Trust;

Racine County - inmates can now be used to perform tasks such as landscaping, painting and shoveling sidewalks. Executive Ladwig states, "...this is a win/win for the inmates and the county. It frees up county employees for other tasks, gives the inmates a sense of value, and helps the county maintain property that has been neglected."

Kaukauna School District - hiring additional teachers, reducing class sizes, enacting a merit pay system, and due to Walker's Budget Bill, Kaukauna's operating budget has moved from a negative $400,000 to a positive $1,500,000. Much of this savings was due to being able to drop WEA Trust.

Hartland School District - switched from WEA Trust and saved $690,000;

Hudson School District - saved $832,000 on health insurance due to ability to bid the insurance.

KSTP did a study of the savings in Sheila Harsdorf's 10th Senate District. They found that Ellsworth, Prescott, Menomonie, Somerset and Hudson school districts are all reporting large savings due to the changes signed into law by Walker.

Keep in mind, WEA TRUST is a union insurance company, a company that has obviously been ripping off the school districts for years, thanks to collective bargaining that prohibited school districts from seeking insurance coverage from any company other than WEA Trust. How much tax money would we have saved if school districts had been "allowed by the unions" to bid out their insurance over the years? I'd say probably many, many, many millions statewide. It's the union money train running off the tracks, finally, and Shelly and her union don't like it.

WANT MORE GOOD NEWS??

Walker just signed an Unemployment Insurance extension adding 13 weeks of UC benefits.

Passed a state budget on time, without tax increases, that leaves WI in the black for the first time in over 10 years.

Turned a $3 billion deficit into a $300 million surplus.

Cut bonding by nearly 20%.

Cut more than 1,000 government jobs, including 735 long-term vacancies.

In the first 6 months of 2011 WI showed job growth more than twice the national rate.

Protected our votes by requiring a picture I.D. at the polls.

Became the 49th state to recognize our 2nd Amendment right to carry concealed weapons.

Paid off WI's $60 million debt to MN under the former tax reciprocity agreement.

Paid back over $200 million to the Injured Patients and Families Fund. This is money that Gov. Doyle unconstitutionally raided from the Patients' Compensation Fund.

Walker expanded the prohibition against tax money being used to subsidize abortion.

A tale of two buses....

2011-08-26T15:34:00.000-05:00

Top: Former Governor Sarah Palin's Bus, Bottom: President Barack Hussein Obama's Bus
Need I say more....?

And we are paying for it...

2011-08-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

Pentagon report: China closer to matching modern militaries

Bill Gertz - The Washington Times 8/24/2011

“Militarily, China’s sustained modernization program is paying visible dividends,” the report said. “During 2010, China made strides toward fielding an operational anti-ship ballistic missile, continued work on its aircraft carrier program, and finalized the prototype of its first stealth aircraft.”

More disturbing:

China also is continuing aggressive cyberintelligence gathering and targeted numerous computer systems around the world, the report said, noting the intrusions “appear to have originated within the PRC.”

“These intrusions were focused on exfiltrating information,” the report said, noting that the same skills can be used for “computer network attacks” in warfare.

What is Obama's REAL motivation...?

2011-08-20T08:54:00.000-05:00

Ignorance, Stupidity or Connivance?

Townhall.com

8/10/2011

I believe Mr. Williams sums it up quite nicely:

I don't believe that Obama is dumb enough to believe that a tax on corporate jets would be a revenue generator. His agenda is to inspire envy and resentment against wealthy Americans as a tool in pursuit of his higher-tax agenda.

The question that is still nagging me, is why does he want to do this?

What is Obama's REAL motivation?

What part does "inspiring envy and resentment against wealthy Americans" play in BHO's bigger picture?

To me the possible answers to those questions are more disturbing than nearly every other question about Barack Hussien Obama.

We need an alien invasion to save the economy...

2011-08-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

The man, Paul Krugman, who said this is a Pulitzer Prize winning Nobel Laureate and all around kook on NY Times Opinion page....

Yes! He really did say that. Really. You heard it right. Alien invasion could save the economy. Dang, I wish I'd thought of that!

I'm sensing a pattern...

2011-08-17T08:30:00.002-05:00

A rose by any other name....

2011-08-17T08:26:00.000-05:00

You can call Food Stamps SNAP, but it's still welfare....

Using this logic, the government ought to give us all food stamps to really get the economy rolling! Idiocracy...

More Greenie Solar Power Boondoggles...

2011-08-15T17:24:00.000-05:00

From the Whitehouse.gov Stimulus Progress Report:

Evergreen Solar Was Hoping to Hire 90 to 100 People for Its Manufacturing Plant. "Evergreen Solar, the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels, also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources. The plant, which opened last summer, is expected to employ more than 800 when it reaches full capacity." [Boston Globe, 3/6/09]

Breaking News:

Evergreen Solar files for bankruptcy, plans asset sale

By Greg Turner And Jerry Kronenberg
Monday, August 15, 2011

I mean, really, who saw this coming, right?

Greg Bialecki, [Deval] Patrick’s economic development czar, defended the administration’s support for the once-promising Evergreen. The state is still trying to recoup about $4 million [of $58 million] in cash from the Marlboro-based company.

“Not every company is going to be successful ... but we still believe the approach of providing business incentives to create and maintain manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts is an important strategy,” he said.

Evergreen — hurt by lower-cost competition in China and plummeting prices for solar panels — also said it will cut more jobs — 65 layoffs in the United States and Europe, mostly through the shutdown of its Midland, Mich., manufacturing facility. That would leave Evergreen with about 68 workers according to a head count listed in the bankruptcy filing.

To cut costs, Evergreen shifted some of its production to Wuhan, China, last year. That joint venture will remain operating subject to financing talks with Chinese investors. [emphasis mine]

Again, I'll say, "Who could have thought way back last year that China could produce solar panels cheaper...? Who?

Forefather Wisdom....

2011-08-11T19:17:00.002-05:00

"History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781

'nough said..

2011-08-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

The Dems are scared...

2011-08-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

...and rightly so.

The Democrats will always tell you who they fear by who they attack. This weekend they coined the phrase "Tea Party downgrade", as if the $10 trillion they are going to add to the deficit doesn't count, the fact that they did not pass a budget in either the house or the senate the entire time they controlled it didn't matter and conveniently over looking the fact that 95 House and 45 Senate Democrats voted FOR the bill raising the debt ceiling....

The inside-the-beltway Dems are sacred....

The New Face of the U.S. vs the Old Guard....

2011-08-01T08:08:00.000-05:00

Maro Rubio is one the rare politicians who I actually enjoy listening to.... My prediction is that if he can remain scandal-less, he will one day be president.

Ignorance on Display....

2011-07-25T15:17:00.002-05:00

Messing With Medicare

By PAUL KRUGMAN

NY Times

Published: July 24, 2011

Where do I start with this mess....? How about this:

For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers. It has been more successful in controlling costs.

What do you think? Ignorance? Wilful-ignorance?

Also, did I mention that Republicans are doing all they can to undermine health care reform — they even tried to undermine it as part of the debt negotiations — and may eventually succeed? If they do, many of those losing Medicare coverage would find themselves unable to replace it.

I guess Krugman missed the part of Obamacare that strips $500,000,000 from Medicare and thrusts Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board...?

The bottom line? Paul Krugman proving once again that he lives in some sort of parallel universe: "For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers. It has been more successful in controlling costs." Really? Does he believe this crap? Does he have ageing parents? Has he seen the bureaucratic paperwork jungle seniors must navigate?

As with absolutely every industry in which the government regulates the most, prices for private insurance are raising faster than (official) inflation. Why is he not screaming about the fact that colleges are raising tuition faster than even the costs of healthcare are raising?

Has anyone asked the question, "Why is the price of college tuition outpacing even the price of health care, when in reality the actual cost to deliver an education, due to technology advances, is significantly decreasing?" Could it be that with the nationalization of student loans the free market is skewed? Could it be that the same thing is occurring in private insurance (notice I did not say healthcare - healthcare and health insurance are two very different things).

Now people like Mr. Krugman want to add yet another layer by forcing government control over all healthcare: “Most health reformers I know would have supported Medicare for all if they had considered it politically feasible.” Nothing will be more expensive than free healthcare.

We DO NOT have a healthcare crisis in this country. Everyone has access to healthcare – everyone. No one is turned away at hospitals. What we have in a 3^rd party payer system, so prices for services rendered are never enter into patient/doctor discussions. That is the single greatest problem with our system. My Dad ran a gas station and I am pretty sure he paid the doctors bill for my delivery in gasoline and the hospital bill in cash. Prices were negotiated and not submitted to a 3^rd party to decide what should and shouldn’t get paid.

I, for one, have long since given up the concept that I’ll be provided free healthcare and get paid my social security benefits when I reach retirement age. The money is simply not there and to tell the American people that it will be is the cruelest of lies. We are simply on an unsustainable spending path, when $.42 of every dollar we spend in borrowed. Means testing and raising the age for future beneficiaries now, so they can plan accordingly is the only responsible thing to do. Of course, when do liberals ever care about doing the responsible thing? They only care about doing the things that make them feel good, regardless of the future consequences. Does Mr. Krugman even know that Obamacare guts $500,000,000 from Medicare? Does he even know that Obamacare already has the mechanisms in place to ration healthcare via the newly created Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board? Does he even care about facts, or is all about what makes him feel good?

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein

2011-07-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

By refusing to be honest about the fact that terrorists are most likely to be of Middle Eastern decent is ridiculous.... And dangerous...

From the Gateway Pundit:

"Somehow the findings from this December report didn’t make it into the video…In the last 24 months (2009 and 2010) 126 people were indicted on terrorist-related charges in the United States. All of them were Muslim."

Watch in fear...

2011-07-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

I've never met a single job creator whose said to me, "I can't wait until the government raises my taxes so I can hire some more people."

2011-07-12T18:20:00.000-05:00

"We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. Then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again." - Marco Rubio

This is freaking awesome! We need to clone these two!

Marco - Reagan - Rubio....?

2011-07-12T18:04:00.000-05:00

Wow. I had thought Bobby Jindal was the next Ronaldus Magnus. I stand corrected. It might just be Marco Rubio. Maybe a Perry/Rubio ticket is what this country needs...

"Barbaric", but not "racist" only holds true when it's black on white violence.

2011-07-11T13:54:00.000-05:00

Flynn calls looting, beatings in Riverwest barbaric

By Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel

July 6, 2011

Though Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn noted Tuesday that crime is colorblind, he called the Sunday night looting of a convenience store near the park and beatings of a group of people who had gone to the park disturbing, outrageous and barbaric.

"Color blind"?

"They just said 'Oh, white girl bleeds a lot,' " said Perry, 22, who was attacked at Kilbourn Reservoir Park over the Fourth of July weekend.

Here is a video report on the attacks...

EPA doing the bidding of "The One"....

2011-07-08T08:26:00.000-05:00

EPA finalizes stricter air pollution rules for Wisconsin, other states

By Lee Bergquist and Thomas Content of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized stronger regulations for Wisconsin and 26 other states aimed at curbing air pollution from long-distance sources.
The likely result: Higher electric bills in the coming years.

A group of power companies known as the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity called the action one of the most costly crackdowns on coal ever.

Nationwide, the EPA estimated that utilities are projected to spend $800 million on the rule in 2014, in addition to $1.6 billion a year that's been spent to satisfy an earlier version of the regulations.

But, wait! It is all worth it, in the name of lower healthcare costs....

...EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson extolled the health benefits of cleaner air, including $120 billion to $280 billion in annual health and welfare benefits beginning in 2014.

EPA's analysis found the rule will save up to 34,000 lives a year and prevent more than 400,000 asthma attacks as well as 19,000 admissions to hospitals.

What is the REAL reason for imposing these draconian rules? Could it all be part of The Obama Plan of fundamentally transforming the U.S.?

MSM Hoping for a Black Swan event...

2011-06-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

This is why people question the MSM. Their unabashed support of their supreme leader, Obama is bordering on lunacy. Does anyone believe this drivel? Really? Obama and his cronies in the lame-stream media are putting all their "hope" in an economic black swan event, while their policies are doing everything to ensure none will happen.

The best thing for this economy will occur in November 2012 when this president is defeated. Once he is defeated by a candidate who has a solid grasp of economic reality and knows that you have to squash Obamacare before the genie gets too far out of the bottle and current tax rates are made permanent, then the economic engine will at least begin to fire on some certainty. As long as this uncertainty remains, we will be in Obama's Great Recession....

Here's the crazy article from the nearly defunct Time Magazine:

Getting Ready for a Black Swan

The biggest stock market surprise could be an unexpected economic rebound.

By MICHAEL SIVY | @MFSivy | June 29, 2011

Successful investors take account of all known economic facts, but also try to be prepared for the most unlikely events. And as bad as trends look right now, it actually wouldn’t be impossible for the economy to surprise everyone with a rebound over the next 12 months.

Can you hear the the "hope" in the author words...?

Balanced Budget Amendment

2011-06-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

I wrote the following in response to a Wall Street Journal Article:

The Fiscal Pledge We Need: Cut, Cap, Balance

Congress has never failed to increase the debt limit.

This makes having a debt limit functionally useless.

My fear of a constitutional amendment requiring a "balanced" budget stems from the fact that the historically the Democrats have controlled congress for most of the last 60+ years. If Democrats are required by law to balance the budget, they will do so on the backs of the citizens. No, I don't think now is the time to force a balanced budget amendment. I do believe we must do the first two items on the list NOW. However, I think there are several even more fundamental problems with congress.

1) Term Limits. The power of being a member of congress appears to be too much of a high for most of the members. Once term limits are in place (6-terms as congressman, 2 as senator, but no more than 12 years for any combination) the heavy lifting can proceed, with full knowledge that despite their votes they can see the end of their political careers from their very first day in office. Serving in congress was once considered a sacrifice that a person felt compelled to do out of a sense of duty to one’s country. Now it is a get rich slowly scheme, where they spend their entire careers running for office and consolidating power & influence so that if they ever get booted from office, they’ll land in a nice cushy position with a favored constituent.

2) Abolish the income tax. Everyone knows that you get less of what you tax and more of what you don't. Everyone (mostly) also knows people ought to work and be productive. So, why do we tax people's labor? Taxes ought to be collected on what individuals spend. Instead of a mammoth bureaucracy to police 330 million individuals, you would collect taxes from 10's of millions of businesses, most of which already have a tax collection/payment process in place because of state taxes. The largest benefit of the system is not even the system itself. It is the fact that congress would have no power to create special classes of people or provide special benefits for particular industries, thereby stripping most of their power. This, in effect, neuters congress.

3) Balanced Budget Amendment. Now you can pass a balanced budget amendment because when spending gets out of control, then congress would have to sell increasing a tax on every individual, rather than only the current remaining 45% or so that still pay taxes. This makes cutting spending the easier route to balance a budget.

These three items will ensure the U.S.A., as founded in 1776 will continue to exist for another couple centuries.

Hold on your wallets, here comes raising food prices!

2011-06-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

Corn Stocks Plunging to 1974 Low as China

Adds Brazil-Sized Crop to Demand

By Whitney McFerron and Jeff Wilson - Jun 20, 2011 2:02 AM ET
Bloomberg.com

Even a fifth consecutive year of record global corn harvests will fail to meet demand for food, fuel and livestock feed, reducing world stockpiles to the lowest in two generations.

This article is a perfect example of the lunacy of not including food & fuel in the government's official inflation calculations. The number the government reports bears no resemblance to what people experience in real life. Of course, I suppose there are the hand full of people, including the president, who have no idea what food and fuel costs because they never go the grocery store or the gas station. That is for their servants and the rest of us "little people".

The funny thing about this article is that it hardly mentions the relationship between corn and fuel prices.

Because of our (the U.S.) screwed up ethanol policy, some 25% of corn produced in the U.S. is used to produce ethanol. The ratio of fuel used to produce ethanol to actual ethanol produced is 1:1.5 (meaning for every 1 unit of energy consumed in production of ethanol only 1.5 units of ethanol energy are actually produced). I suppose that sounds good to most people. I mean if I could invest a dollar and get back a dollar fifty, who wouldn't do it right? Wrong.

In Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer (& exporter) they make their ethanol from sugar cane. Sugar cane produces roughly 7-8 units of energy for every unit consumed in production. This is what has allowed them to become such a large producer/exporter. Oh, by the way, the U.S. imposes a $.54/gal tax on all imported ethanol from Brazil, so you can forget the free market taking over.

In the meantime we subsidize our own inefficient production of ethanol up to $.45/gal! (Note: that makes U.S. ethanol $.99/ gallon cheaper that Brazilian ethanol.) Yes, you heard me right, the U.S. government (USDA, actually, though you would think this ought to be handled in the Dept of Energy - but I digress) pays between $.10/gal & $.45/gal to the ethanol producer as a Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), to the tune of "$22.6 billion in ethanol subsidies since 2005. [With] Another $31 billion will be spent in the next three years."

So, here's the summary:

We are channeling 25% of our U.S. corn production away from food and export production to produce a product that;
is not very efficient to produce;
provides fewer mpg of fuel and;
must be subsidized to remain profitable while we;
exclude the importation of cheaper ethanol into the U.S. by imposing tariffs.

The result is corn prices expected to hit $9/bushel next year which will result in:

higher food prices for anything containing corn;
higher feed prices for protein producers (beef, poultry & pork) which will in turn;
force protein producers to reduce herd/flock sizes which will in turn;
make protein (beef, poultry & pork) more scarce and therefore much more expensive.

Whew!

But, not to worry, our government knows how to control markets.... Those folks in Washington D.C.can run things better than a free market. I mean they did such a great job with cash for clunkers.

Sure they do... Sure they do...

Besides, excluding food & fuel, inflation in remaining quite steady. Just don't eat anything or use any energy....

This is a MUST READ by Thomas Sowell....

2011-06-10T10:57:00.000-05:00

Seductive Beliefs: Part II

Thomas Sowell

Townhall.com

Thomas Sowell has been a very keen thinker on the conservative movement for decades. I believe he has really hit the nail on the head with these very specific descriptions of BHO's stealth messages he spot lights in this article.

Here's just one:

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A photograph that should tell us a lot about Barack Obama shows him on the phone, talking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama was seated, leaning back in his chair, with his feet up on the desk, and the soles of his feet pointed directly at the camera. In the Middle East, showing the soles of your feet is an insult, as Obama undoubtedly knows.

This photograph was no accident. Photographers cannot roam around White House, willy-nilly, taking snapshots of the President of the United States as he talks to leaders of foreign nations.
It was a photograph with a message. No one would have known who was on the other end of the line, unless Obama wanted them to know -- and wanted to demonstrate his disdain."

As Mr. Sowell so aptly points out, BHO knows exactly what he is doing. He does everything for a reason. He is not prone to go off script like "Plugs" Biden. BHO's every move, every utterance is very calculated. When will the MSM pick up on this? (I know, it's a rhetorical question.)

Is living in a "Post-American World" inevitable?

2011-06-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

Back to the Pre-American World

Victor Davis Hanson

Townhall.com

Here's the skinny:

"....if American abrogates its preeminent leadership position of the last 65 years, wouldn't the world look a lot like it did in the pre-American days of the 1930s? Then, a Depression-era United States was just one of many powers and reluctant to assert leadership abroad."

Here's some interesting parallel's - then vs now:

"Eighty years ago, a newly Westernized and anti-democratic Japanese powerhouse, in the fashion of today's rising China, was carving out uncontested Asian spheres of influence. An oil-, rubber- and iron-hungry imperial Japan claimed it needed more natural resources to fuel its industrial revolution, and so spread an authoritarian Asian co-prosperity sphere of influence as an alternative to alliance with an economically depressed and psychologically withdrawn America.

Most Americans then were tired anyway of overseas commitments. Our ancestors felt that their considerable sacrifices in World War I either had gone unappreciated or had solved little -- not unlike the way we are becoming exhausted by Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya.
A newly confident, united and ascendant Germany was growing angry at other European countries. It nursed a long list of financial grievances over feeling used and abused. Sound familiar? A weak Britain and France had almost no confidence in their own declining militaries -- sort of like the sad spectacle of their impotence in Libya that we have witnessed over the last two months.

Much-vaunted international institutions, like the bankrupt League of Nations, were about as effective in the role of world watchdogs as the corrupt United Nations is today. Europe and America were emerging from the nightmare of financial insolvency.

The so-called international community cared as much in the 1930s about rising, aggressive totalitarian states in Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia as it does today about ascendant China or Iran. Millions of Jews, then as now, heard crazy threats of their annihilation, and desperately -- and in vain -- looked to the protection of the United States."

Having said all that, he's lists the reasons we don't have to have history repeat itself:

America's known fossil-fuel reserves -- natural gas, oil, coal, shale, tar-sands -- are larger than ever. The problem is not finding more energy but marshaling the will to use the vast new sources of energy we have recently discovered.

"Our military is not just larger than the alternatives, but vastly larger and ever more lethal. Given the enormous size and productivity of the U.S. economy, we have the means -- but not yet the will -- to rapidly pay down our huge debt. In a world short on food, America is the world's greatest agricultural producer.

Other industrialized populations age and decline; ours is still growing. America is widely criticized abroad even as it remains by far the favored destination of global immigrants. Diverse religious practice is still vibrant in the United States. Elsewhere, it is fossilized in Europe, nonexistent in China, and intolerant in the Middle East.

While riots, strikes or revolutions sweep southern Europe and the Middle East, the United States remains stable and quiet -- despite far greater racial, ethnic and religious diversity. Globalization is still mostly a phenomenon of American innovation and originality to be licensed and outsourced abroad."

So, I don't believe our decline is necessary, much less inevitable. What we need is a leader who will lay the groundwork for the U.S. to become economic juggernaut it should be. If the leader is really great, say on the level of Ronald Reagan (aka, Ronuldus Magnus), they could lead countries like China and Russia to shed their communist ways and allow freedom and the rule of law to reign. Is there a leader out there like that? Maybe....

Man's eats 25,000th Big Macs. Michelle Obama has a heart attack!

2011-05-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

What's it like to eat 25,000 Big Macs? Ask Don Gorske
HealthPop
CBS News

Fast food restaurants get lots of criticism for serving up fatty, salty, calorie-dense fare. But Don Gorske has no complaints. The 57-year-old retired prison guard was just honored at his hometown McDonalds for eating his 25,000th Big Mac - a feat that took him 39 years to accomplish.
Gorske, who was featured in the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," is slim, takes regular walks, and was recently given a clean bill of health by his doctor.

But, of course, they can't pick on his health, so then he must be crazy.....

Gorske admits his motivation may be more rooted in his mind than his belly. He says he loves numbers and repetition, and suspects he may have obsessive-compulsive disorder. If that's true, he's not alone. More than 2.2 million Americans have obsessive-compulsive disorder, and experts say food is often a focus.

There's a lesson here if you read closely...

2011-05-16T17:28:00.000-05:00

IMF Chief Ordered Held Without Bail in Sexual Assault Case

By Jana Winter

Published May 16, 2011

FoxNews.com

Despite DNA being found and all no evidence to conflict with the maid's story, how does the IMF respond?

Here's the 17th paragraph of the story:

The IMF has said they would deny immunity because the alleged assault occurred when Strauss-Kahn was on a personal visit, not a business trip.

I guess we can all breath a sigh of relief that the IMF Chief was visiting NY on "personal business" or he would have been able to walk away Scott-free....

Remember, these are the people, the IMF, who will one day be bailing out the U.S. economy. So, I guess I'm glad to see they people of high morals and strong ethics.

10 Myths of Ryan's House Budget Plan | The Heritage Foundation

2011-05-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

Follow the link to read the detailed explanation of each myth....

Myth #1: The House budget recklessly cuts taxes by $4 trillion.
Fact: It cancels a future tax increase.

Myth #2: The House budget increases the deficit by giving tax cuts to the rich.
Fact: The proposed change is a revenue-neutral tax reform plan that simplifies the tax code.

Myth #3: The House budget represents only minor deficit reduction.
Fact: It substantially reduces both short- and long-term budget deficits.

Myth #4: The House budget exaggerates the long-term spending challenge.
Fact: The challenge is real and potentially calamitous.

Myth #5: The House budget balances the budget on the backs of seniors.
Fact: Current and near-retirees are exempt from reforms.

Myth #6: The House budget would privatize Medicare and hand seniors vouchers.
Fact: Seniors would receive government support to purchase health insurance coverage on a tightly regulated government exchange system.

Myth #7: Medicare is more efficient than private health insurance.
Fact: Medicare’s administrative burdens are hidden and they outweigh private-sector costs.

Myth #8: The House budget plan would end Medicare as we know it.
Fact: Obamacare ended Medicare as we know it.

Myth #9: The House budget plan would shift Medicaid costs to the states and hurt the poor.
Fact: Medicaid block grants would help states lower Medicaid costs and provide them with the flexibility to better serve the poor.

Myth #10: Most Medicare costs would continue to rise, and retirees would bear those costs with insufficient assistance.
Fact: Intense market competition would reduce costs and enable Medicare patients to secure value for their dollars.

Brian M. Riedl is Grover M. Hermann Research Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies; Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow in the Center for Policy Innovation; and Romina Boccia is Research Coordinator in the Roe Institute at The Heritage Foundation.

Agreed.

2011-05-16T14:55:00.000-05:00

Killing Osama

Oliver North

Townhall.com

....highly successful operation validates Ronald Reagan's maxim for terrorists after U.S. Navy SEALs captured the murderous hijackers of the Achille Lauro in October 1985: "You can run, but you can't hide." Afterward, one of the participants penned a corollary: "Don't bother to run -- you will only die tired."

I have to agree with his conclusion that we should never have said whether or not we got Osama. I mean why broadcast it? Why not let Al Qada figure it out for themselves? Why all the chest beating? Especially when comes to the release of "the treasure trove" of files and data Obama discussed on '60 Minutes'. Instead of our enemy knowing we killed their de facto leader and taking all his communications dating back years, had we said nothing, Al Qeda would likely have continued communicating at least for several days, but possibly weeks or months, in normal patterns and we would have been tracking them the entire time. But, sadly we have a man-child president, who is only thinking about his political future, who needed to be propped up by his "gutsy call".

In fact, like Col. North, I'd agree BHO had no choice, really. The compound was too close to a Pakistani army base to strike with a drone and had it ever leaked that he potentially had OBL in his sights and did not take him it would destroy, forever, any chance of his re-election, his legacy and potentially the entire Democrat Party. After all, Bill Clinton was the first to be offered OBL (twice) and did not take it. If two Democrats had had a shot and not taken it, I doubt the American public would ever again trust a Democrat as commander-in-chief. Col. North also points out:

A "we will not confirm or deny" statement from the White House in the aftermath of the JSOC operation would have made it more difficult in the short-term for Obama to appear "decisive" and "hands on." But years from now, when the full story was finally revealed, he would have been seen as more "presidential." It also would have made it easier for those friends we do have in Pakistan to continue cooperating with our military and intelligence services.

Oh the horror!

2011-05-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

New London Graduation Requirement:

Speak English

Only 16 percent of 10th graders test at the highest levels.

By LeAnne Gendreau

"Students in New London [CT] will not only have to pass English to graduate, but they will have to prove that they know the American English language and be able to demonstrate it as of 2015."

The next thing you know they'll want them to be able to do math and know history! Oh the horror! The humanity!

How long until the ACLU fights this?

How did this get through the Obama policy censors at CBS...?

2011-05-16T13:38:00.002-05:00

Belated Congratulations to Our Special Forces AND President Obama

2011-05-04T15:31:00.000-05:00

Yes. I said it. Congratulations to our Special Forces and President Obama. It has been a week of great emotion regarding the killing of Osama/Usama bin Laden. My first reaction was, "We finally got the bastard." Then I heard about the burial at sea and got suspicious. I am now thoroughly convinced OBL is dead.

Having said that, my next layer of thoughts pertained to, “How did they get him?” I’ve read, watched and listened to the details of the operation, from the initial code name for the courier coming out a few years ago, to the spotting of the suspicious compound. All I can say is I'm glad I'm on our side.

As for the motivation of Obama to order this type of mission, I do believe he apparently does possess some ability to make the correct decisions for the good of the USA. This is an ability I've been wondering doubt for some time. It is important to know BHO has this capability, for reasons I'll get back to. BHO also seems to be willing to take risk. This was a politically risky move, no doubt about it. Had the choppers crashed inside Pakistan or had they invaded a compound and killed people that turned out to be innocent civilians, this could have been the end of his presidency and been a very significant international fiasco. This leads me to believe that despite it being a "gutsy" decision for Obama, he had to be completely convinced OBL was there and that the Special Forces had every contingency covered. BHO does not make decisions like this quickly or easily. I see there were reports it took him 16 hours to decide. I'd say for this president, that is record speed. I do not begrudge him for taking the time; it has to be a gut wrenching process of weighing all the options and ultimately being the guy on the hook for the success or failure of such an operation. Barrack Hussein Obama made the right call. Congratulations Mr. President!

Next, I have to congratulate the intelligence community. I do not know how they do what they do, but I'm damn glad they do it for us and not them. The fact that it took years of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and that the information did not get ignored or confined to a specific agency was nothing less than a bureaucratic miracle. Many people whose names will never be spoken touched, read, passed on the information that kept the information flow alive.

And, of course, the Special Forces (specifically Navy Seals Team 6, if reports are to be believed) community is simply amazing. I am convinced they are far deadlier than have ever been portrayed in movies. These are men of incredible resolve, intellect, bravery who have endured years of brutal training to become the best of the best. I cannot put into words the esteem in which I hold them, other than to say I am simply in awe. Congratulations men! Congratulations from a grateful citizen.

I do believe that the Bush administration ought to be thanked. It was the resolve of GHWB who put us on the trajectory to find OBL and bring him to justice, "dead or alive". It was men like Rumsfeld who realized that our armed forced had to be rebuilt to face the reality of a new type of enemy. Rummy had to turn that ship around ASAP and build up capabilities, some from the ground up, and divert budgets and resources to fight a war like we've never fought before. It was sweeping action of the Bush administration that reversed Jamie Gorelick's idiotic FISA provision's that allowed 9/11 to occur in the first place. So, congratulations to the men & women who served in the Bush administration that allowed us to have the capabilities to even conduct such a mission to begin with... If I were a crazy terrorist I would be scared to death of the U.S. because we finish what we start, even when our president’s change through our peaceful election process.

I have a couple more thoughts on this subject. First, I am a little appalled by all the celebration regarding OBL's death. Please don't misunderstand me; I am glad we are rid of what was the world's worst homicidal maniac. But, I find the celebration is a little unseemly for two reasons. I don't think we are necessarily safer because OBL is dead. In fact, some would argue that we may now experience a spike in attacks. We'll see. Mainly, I hope we are not lulled into a false sense of security. But, more importantly, I do not believe we should be seen as celebrating because it is simply in bad taste. It is not humble behavior at all. I believe it would have been better for the USA to be seen as simply finishing what it said it was going to do. I don't ever remember John Wayne screaming, "Yippie! I killed the bastard!" The Duke simply blew the smoke from the barrel of his gun and re-holstered it, looking at the dead body with disdain and disgust as he got on his horse and rode away. Classy. Death, even that of a vile homicidal maniac should not be celebrated. This war is not over.

That leads me to my last train if thought regarding the death of OBL. I am appalled by the lack of gratitude expressed by the "peaceful" Muslims around the world. If, in fact, OBL represented a dishonest faction of Islam, then they ought to be glad to be rid of him and all he represented. Aside from Saudi Arabia, no other Muslim country nor any "moderate/peaceful" Muslim leader has said that Islam is better off now that OBL is dead. That, to me, is an ominous sign. It leads me to believe that there may not be as many "peace-loving moderate" Muslims in the world. Maybe, though they have never said so, they secretly reveled in the fact that OBL was able to elude the U.S. for so long.

I believe we have seen the end of round one in the battle against radical Islamists. Only time will tell if Islam is a religion of peace, as they say.

I hope (and pray) for the best but, I am preparing for the worst.

Debt Ceiling, Smebt Ceiling.....

2011-04-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

The conservative coup: Now, on the debt ceiling

The Washington Post Opinions

Posted at 09:34 AM ET, 04/29/2011

By Jennifer Rubin

In sum, the Democratic Party has thrown overboard decades of tax ideology (“soak the rich”) and succumbed to the Republicans’ insistence that Keynesian spending must end and fiscal discipline must commence.

The White House has lost control of the fiscal debate and of its own party. (“The White House has condemned efforts to attach additional measures to the debt-ceiling issue. Press secretary Jay Carney has called it ‘a dangerous, risky idea to hold hostage . . . a vote on raising the debt ceiling to any other piece of legislation.’ ”) Now, the White House grudgingly accepts the prospect of spending conditions. I suppose this is, as they say, leading from behind.

I am trying to figure out Ms. Rubin's point. Is she for the continued stimulus spending binge in Washington? Does she think we should pass the deficit cap with no strings attached? Maybe we should just eliminate the deficit cap altogether?

I'll tell you what, Ms. Rubin. Why don't you call your credit card company and tell them to remove the limit on your card. Explain to them how by allowing you to spend ad infinitum, you will be able to take care of your family so much better and grow the economy. You'll be able to provide a larger house (infrastructure), raise allowances (entitlements), install some solar panels & a geothermal HVAC system (green technology) , sent all your relatives to Ivy League Schools (education) if only you did not have that nasty spending cap on your credit card. Explain to them how the economy would grow if you got to build a bigger home, if they spent their allowances on products, how your expenses would decrease due to the solar panels & geo HVAC and how much more successful everyone would be if allowed to go to the best schools... I'm sure they would lift the cap - no strings attached - right?

Stupid Decisions Continue from the "Least Qualified Person in any Room He Walks Into"...

2011-04-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

So, how is our POTUS, or as Rush Limbaugh and I prefer to call him, the "Least Qualified Person in any Room He Walks Into" doing on energy policy? Let's take a look at how the MSM is portraying his action (or inaction, as the case may be)...

What can Obama do to bring down gas prices?

By Zachary Roth
Wed Apr 27, 11:19 am ET

Here's a rundown of what Obama might do to start bringing gas prices back to earth:

Invest more in renewable energy sources. In a radio address Saturday, Obama called this effort "the key to helping families at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

End the $4 billion in subsidies for oil companies. "Instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow's,"Obama has said.

Root out fraud and manipulation in the oil markets. Obama has said he'll have a Justice Department task force probe whether oil market traders and speculators are "taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain."

Boost domestic oil production. "We don't want a repeat of the oil spill that we had in the Gulf last year," Obama said in an interview Tuesday. "But we've got to continue to make sure that U.S. production is strong." That might mean expanding drilling off the coast of Florida, or in Alaska.

Press oil-producing allies like Saudi Arabia to do their part. We need to "let them know," Obama said, "that it's not going to be good for the if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices."
Work with automakers to increase fuel economy standards for cars and trucks.

Still, none of these approaches looks likely to have an immediate impact when Americans fill up their tanks. Ending oil subsidies and instead boosting investments in renewables may be good long-term policy, but it would take years for consumers to start feeling the benefits of such shifts at the pump. LIkewise, increasing domestic production wouldn't bring prices down any time soon, while raising fuel economy standards is a long-term project requiring a serious buy-in from Congress. And most experts think manipulation of the oil markets account for only a very small part of the recent price spikes, so it's unlikely that cracking down on such practices will have a major impact. As for leaning on Saudi Arabia, the Saudis profit from high prices, so it's far from clear what leverage the United States may have to counter the Saudis' push for market dominance.

All that and nary a word on the one thing that would have the greatest impact on oil prices. How about fixing our monetary policy? Since oil is pegged to the dollar and the dollar continues to lose value maybe there is a connection, hmmmmm? I bet yuan to donuts that George Soros is betting against the dollar and is helping to drive down the currency and thus inflating the price of oil. Of course, the Chinese Yuan being worth $0.15 is what is driving China's economy which makes us competitors for the same limited supply of oil. Unfortunately, they have a government whose only concern is China and because of this they have been going around the world buying up oil from places like Venezuela and Africa ...

Add to the stupid monetary policy the stupid ethanol policy and now you double down on higher food prices.... The ratio of the energy obtained from ethanol/energy expended from corn in the U.S. in its production is between 1.3-1.6. Compare this to Brazil where they make their ethanol from sugar cane which contains far more energy per unit (8.3-10.2) and I'd say we are crazy to try to continue to direct corn from our food supply for such an incidental amount of energy.... But, the ethanol lobby is pretty strong....

And finally we have a no-new-oil-exploration and no-new-oil-leasing policy of our energy department. We are pumping more of our own oil now, but these are on leases granted by the previous administration (as it can take 6-8 years to develop new wells).... So where does that leave us in 6-8 years...?

"National Coverage Decisions" (NCD) = Death Panels...

2011-04-26T09:39:00.001-05:00

Wow... Is this for real? If so, then NCD = the Death Panels everyone was talking about during the debate over Obamacare. How can a federal agency arbitrarily set rules that trump the decision of the doctor who is actually there on the ground with the patient who may die if not given this course of action? The rationing of healthcare is beginning and, as per usual, the winners are none other than the lawyers.... God help us....

Georgia hospitals facing federal investigation

by Randy Southerland, Contributing Writer

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Excerpts from the article:

Some of the Georgia’s largest hospitals could face multimillion-dollar losses in Medicare reimbursements, if a new federal investigation finds surgeons do not follow guidelines for patients receiving implantable cardioverter defibrillators.

The review will determine whether hospitals followed National Coverage Decision (NCD) criteria in determining who should receive the small battery-powered electrical impulse generator. The devices, which cost upward of $35,000 each, detect an abnormal heart rhythm that can cause sudden cardiac death, and then fire an electric jolt to restore a normal heart beat....

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sets specific guidelines that prohibit the devices being implanted if the patient has received other types of treatments or procedures prior to the surgery, according to Rebekah Plowman, a partner in the Atlanta office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP and chair of the firm’s fraud and abuse practice.

“The government found it was pretty easy to go out and use data mining techniques to see if they or any other hospital had billed for codes associated with a heart attack or other [prohibited] procedure,” [Emphasis & color mine] said Plowman. “Then they send a letter to the hospital asking why we shouldn’t collect the fees we paid back from you.”

The NCD criteria prohibits hospitals implanting the device in patients who have had a heart attack within the last 40 days or undergone procedures such as balloon angioplasty or open-heart surgery within the past 90 days. [Again, emphasis & color mine] [Really? They just assume that every patient fits this template does not get this procedure?]

...

With the potential for losses so high, hospitals have an incentive to fight the claims.

“What hospitals are doing is hiring lawyers to put everything under attorney-client privilege and then hiring consultants to review the medical records,” said Plowman.

...

Critics of the CMS review contend that its guidelines for when a defibrillator can be implanted, which were issued in 2003, are out of date and haven’t kept up with research. Others point to evidence that doctors implant too many of the devices without regard to evidence-based guidelines that result in medical complications.

A recent Duke University study found that surgeons often strayed from the evidence-based guidelines for when defibrillators should be implanted. Those cases that did not follow the professional recommendations were more likely to produce in-hospital complications and even death.

...

Maybe Sarah Palin is not so stupid after all......

Chicago style "poly-ticks".....

2011-04-26T08:39:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin

All the President's Funny Money

Townhall.com

Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. President Obama's perpetual campaign cash-o-matic machine kicks into high gear again this week as the celebrity-in-chief heads to Hollywood for several high-priced fundraisers. But while the Democrats' 2012 re-election team stuffs its hands into every liberal deep pocket in sight, questions about the Obama 2008 campaign finance operation still fester.

Last week, the laggard watchdogs at the Federal Election Commission announced an audit of the Obama 2008 campaign committee -- which raised a record-setting $750 million. White House flacks are downplaying the probe as a "routine review."

But there's nothing routine about the nearly $3 million Obama has spent on legal expenses to address federal campaign finance irregularities and inquiries. Roll Call reports that Obama's campaign legal fees have exceeded all other House and presidential campaign committees, including members of Congress under ethics investigations.

There's nothing routine about the whopping $6 million that Team Obama has refunded to individual donors since Obama took office.

And there's nothing routine about the 26 warning letters to Obama for America totaling "more than 1,500 pages of questions and data that outlined compliance concerns -- including the longest one ever sent to a presidential candidate," according to Roll Call.

She goes on to describe some of the worst offenses of his campaign contributors, but you know none of this will make the Daily Show. And if doesn't make the Daily Show, how will any of the Obamaites learn about how crooked he really is..? I'm just sayin'....

I love Thomas Sowell's writing...

2011-04-20T11:26:00.000-05:00

Thomas Sowell

Taxes and Politics

Here are some great excerpts:

... We may think of taxes as just a source of government revenue. But tax rates are a big political statement on the left, whether they bring in any revenue or not.
For more than 80 years, the political left has opposed what they call "tax cuts for the rich." But big cuts in very high tax rates ended up bringing in more revenue to the government in the Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan and Bush 43 administrations. This included more-- repeat, more-- tax revenue from people in the highest income brackets than before.

... After all, "the rich" paid that larger sum of taxes only because their incomes had risen. Their paying a higher share of all taxes doesn't matter to the "progressives," who see high tax rates as a way to take a bigger bite out of the incomes of higher-income people, not just provide more revenue to the government.

Tax rates are meant to make an ideological statement and promote class-warfare politics, not just bring in revenue.

....Internal Revenue Service data show that the income of people who were in the lowest income tax bracket in 1996 rose by 91 percent by 2005. But people in the "top one percent" had their incomes drop by 26 percent in those same years.

There is nothing complicated about this. Most people simply start at the bottom when they are young and their pay rises as they get more experience. Most people in the top one percent are there for only a single year when they happen to have a spike in income. They too are not an enduring class.

More Journalistic Malpractice

2011-04-11T15:38:00.000-05:00

Obama to set out budget plan on Wednesday
AFPApril 11, 2011, 8:18 am

Here is all you need to read to know how disingenuous this so-called journalist is:

"Republicans want to slash funds for Medicare, benefits for the elderly, and Medicaid, a health program for people with low income, but Democrats would prefer to make up much of the deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy."

Really? Is that what the Republicans are proposing? Medicare "cuts". Only D.C. politicians and the minions in the MSM can get away with such blatant lies... There are no "cuts" proposed for people on medicare/medicaid. They are simply lowering the rate of growth and changes qualifications to means test it, so people like me will not be able to access the "free healthcare" after paying in all these years. You know what? I don't care because the country cannot afford it!!!!

And Democrats only raise taxes on the "wealthy". Really? That is unless you eat, drink, smoke, use electricity, gasoline, or have a cell phone, credit cards, a bank account or home mortgage. Then your taxes, either directly or indirectly are going up as well.

What about this do people not understand. We spend $10,000,000,000 a DAY. $4,000,000,000 of that is borrowed! Most of that is borrowed from other countries. Are people really so stupid, as to believe we can continue this absurd behavior?

Adult conversation

2011-04-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

This is how adults talk about the real problems facing our country. No talk about cowboy poetry or other useless government programs.... FINALLY!!!

Moron Alert...

2011-04-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

I'll be the first to admit, up until the last couple years I neither knew, nor cared to know who Paul Krugman was... But, since the economy tanked and Obama took over, it seems as though the Obama administration has been following his playbook, albeit with a couple less zero's behind his recommendations. And now Krugman is clamoring for even more spending:

The Mellon Doctrine

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: March 31, 2011

I know he's one of the "smartest men in the room" people, but someone ought to tell him the emperor has no clothes. His plans are worse than moronic, they are downright dangerous, if only because for some idiotic reason people listen to him. I guess he must have failed as a financial planner (er, sorry "wealth manager") so he thought he'd try his hand at economics.

Here is but one small sample of how out of touch this guy is...:

"....why would lower wages promote higher employment?"

Really, he said that. Worse yet, he WROTE that, by which I mean he might have thought it in a flash, but anyone with a half a brain would have realized how nonsensical it would have sounded and thought better about actually saying it (i.e., better to not say anything and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt). But, no he actually pecked out that sentence on a computer and one would assume he proof read it before submitting it, so he likely wrote and read it (at least once). And yet, he allowed that sentence to be published.

I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence by pointing out that higher wages do, in fact, lead to higher unemployment, especially among entry level employees, so I won't. I also won't point out that if a business doesn't have to pay each employee as much per person, they might actually be able to afford to hire a couple more people and those couple more people would generate even more revenue. And that the greater revenue might lead to greater profit and eventually expansion and the creation of even more jobs... No, I don't want to insult anyone who might read this by pointing out such a simple, basic, business principle as that!

I can only think of one thing when I read that column. Moron.

Why is what Herman Cain said considered controversial?

2011-03-31T08:03:00.002-05:00

Herman Cain May Sneak Up On 2012 GOP Primary Field If He Doesn't Trip Himself Up First

Huffington-Puffington Post/AOL News Service....

They say what Herman Cain said is a blunder. Listen to what he said and you tell me if it's a blunder:

He was asked Saturday if he would feel comfortable appointing a Muslim to his Cabinet or to a federal judgeship.

"I will not," he said. "And here's why. There is this creeping attempt, this attempt, to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government," Cain said. "It does not belong in our government. This is what happened to Europe. And little by little, to try to be politically correct, they made this little change. They made this little change. And now they've got a social problem that they don't know what to do with hardly."

Now, if he lived in a world where every time a radical Muslim suicide bomber blow herself up at bus station/train station/open air market/night club, "moderate" Muslims would publicly excoriate the radicals as extremists, then it might be a little "un-PC". But, as of right now there are very few publicly "moderate" Muslim's and those who do exist are not very forceful. I assume they are afraid, after witnessing how a Salman Rushdie or a Theo Van Gogh gets treated in the peaceful religion of Islam.

The bottom line is. "Is what Herman Cain said true or false?" Is say it's true and he ought to be held to that standard - none other.

Wow... "Central Planning" gone awry...

2011-03-29T11:36:00.000-05:00

Fascinating.... How do they expect to deal with the ensuing bubble?

Conspiracy Theorist? Maybe....

2011-03-23T08:29:00.002-05:00

Victor David Hansen nails it, again....

2011-03-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

Our President, the man-child, least qualified person in any room he walks into, is so devoid of leadership ability it makes one wonder how he will ever handle being such a young ex-president in 2013....

President Hamlet

Victor Davis Hanson

...now Obama is chief executive, and learning, as did Prince Hamlet, that thinking out every possible side of a question can mean never acting on any of them -- a sort of Shakespearean "prison" where "there is nothing either good or bad." Worrying about pleasing everyone ensures pleasing no one. Once again such "conscious does make cowards of us all."

Hamlets, past and present, are as admirable in theory as they are fickle -- and often dangerous -- in fact.

Why do I think the Libyan rebels aren't comforted...

2011-03-10T09:53:00.000-05:00

SARKOZY FILLS LEADERSHIP VOID ON LIBYA France formally recognises Libyan rebels' authority

France became the first country to formally recognize the rebels’ newly created Interim Governing Council, saying it planned to exchange ambassadors after President Nicolas Sarkozy met with two representatives of the group based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Way to lead Obama! Of course, when you believe you were elected to manage the decline of the U.S., you probably feel you are showing leadership when you abdicate your role as "leader of the [formerly] free world".... It's a sad, sad day....

Oh, Christmas Tree....

2011-02-28T09:27:00.000-05:00

So there is a new pig poking it's head in the public trough. The Christmas Tree consortium now wants the government to tax Christmas Trees so they can market - wait for it - Christmas trees. Yep, apparently their attempt to voluntarily form organizations to market trees them selves failed, so they need the ever compassionate Big Government helping hand to get Christmas Tree growers the money they need to effectively market their product.

What's next, a diaper consortium? (I shouldn't have said anything....)