Crush Liberalism

July 9, 2009

Hell freezes over: AP reports Obama’s tax lies

Filed under: Obama, big government, economic ignorance, hypocrisy, taxes — crushliberalism @ 8:06 am

What’s the over/under on how long it will take this soon-to-be-former AP writer to lose his job?  Excerpt:

President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It’s a promise he’s already broken and will likely have to break again. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have already increased tobacco taxes — which disproportionately hit the poor — to pay for extending health coverage to 4 million children in working low-income families.

Now, lawmakers are looking for more revenues to help pay for providing medical insurance to millions more who lack it at a projected cost of $1 trillion over the next decade.

The floated proposals include increasing taxes on alcohol, which could raise $62 billion over the next decade, and a new tax on sugary drinks such as soda, which could raise $52 billion. …

Obama made a firm tax pledge during the presidential campaign, repeating it numerous times in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day: no tax increases for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or couples making less than $250,000.

“Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year.

How this one escaped the passing of the Kool-Aid cup is beyond me.

July 6, 2009

Will Obama learn from California’s economic disaster?

Filed under: California, Obama, big government, economic ignorance, socialism — crushliberalism @ 8:35 am

Sure he will…when monkeys fly out of his squeakhole.  I mean, just last week, Uhhhh-bama was telling us how awesome Cali’s economy has been and how the rest of the country should emulate it.

See, while his gaffe-tastic VP admits that they didn’t have a firm grasp on economic reality when they passed the Generational Theft Act (or, if you prefer, the “stimulus” bill), they are intent on pushing us into a debt explosion that will likely double long-term interest rates and cause another recession.  Kevin Hassett at Bloomberg thinks that Californiastan’s lesson will derail Oprompter’s socialist plans, but I disagree.  After all, leftists don’t let facts and reality get in the way of their warped worldview. But here’s an excerpt from Hassett that hits the nail on the head:

The Obama administration has no shame, and is willing to abandon reason altogether to achieve its short-term political goals. Ronald Reagan ran up big deficits in part because he believed that his tax cuts would produce economic growth, and ultimately pay for themselves. He may well have been excessively optimistic about the merits of tax cuts, but at least he had a story.

Obama has no story. Nobody believes that his unprecedented expansion of the welfare state will lead to enough economic growth. Nobody believes that it will pay for itself. Everyone understands that higher spending today begets higher spending tomorrow. That means that his economic strategy simply doesn’t add up.

Oh, it “adds up”, alright.  It adds up to be the most irresponsible and damaging blow to capitalism possible.  One wonders if that’s not the left’s true intent.

June 30, 2009

Quote of the day, “Obama’s Energy Czar” edition

Filed under: Obama, big government, economic ignorance, energy — crushliberalism @ 7:14 am

Here is but a small portion of the exchange between Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends and Carol Browner, Oprompter’s Energy Czar, on whether or not she’s read the cap-and-tax energy killer bill that the House passed last week:

STEVE DOOCY: “[I] know the bill is over 1,000 pages long. Have you have read it?”

CAROL BROWNER: “Oh, I’m very familiar with this bill.”

DOOCY: “Have you have read it?”

BROWNER: “We have obviously been watching this for a very long time. I am very …”

DOOCY: “I’m sure you’ve got an idea of it, but you have read it?”

BROWNER: “I’ve read major portions of it, absolutely.”

DOOCY: “So the answer no you haven’t read it. But you’ve read a big chunk of it.”

BROWNER: “No, no, no that’s not fair. That’s absolutely not fair.”

DOOCY: “No, I’m just asking you if you read the thousand pages.”

BROWNER: “I’ve read vast portions of it.”

Got that?  Asking the “Energy Czar” if she read the bill of which she’s a huge proponent is “not fair”!  Thanks for the clarification, Carol.

By the way, here is a service I’m providing for you, my loyal readers, free of charge (you’re welcome): a translation from Beltway-ese to English.  Translation in bold:

“Oh, I’m very familiar with this bill.”  (”I first heard about it on MSNBC the night that it passed. It gave Chris Matthews a thrill up his leg.”)

“I’ve read vast portions of it.” (”I’ve read more of it than any member of Congress did…which is to say, I read the bill’s title, and that’s it.”)

We’re in good, capable hands with our nation’s energy infrastructure, folks.  For those of you on the left, the prior sentence was sarcasm.

June 15, 2009

Weekend round-up

Filed under: Biden, Iran, Obama, abortion, big government, corruption, economic ignorance, hypocrisy, vote fraud — crushliberalism @ 7:40 am

The human gaffe-o-meter we’ve got for VP admits something we all knew: the “stimulus” isn’t working.  Gee, thanks, Joe.  Nothing quite like peeing away our kids’ futures over something that doesn’t work, huh?  How’s that Hopenchange workin’ for you now?

Ahmanutjob says he won the Iranian “election”.  We know it was rigged.  Pro-reform students say they’re screwed if Obama accepts the tainted election results that confirm Ahmanutjob’s victory.  Obama says “Hey, sucks for you, reformers!” by legitimizing vote fraud, like his mentor Jimmy “the Dhimmi” Carter would do.  Of course, considering his deep ties to ACORN, this should come as no surprise.

Oprompter fires an Inspector General who was investigating an Uhhh-bama ally, a move that should have generated tons of outrage due to its reeking of Chicago-style corruption and cronyism.  Firing an I.G. is rare, even more so than, oh, firing U.S. Attorneys who serve at the pleasure of the president.  Yet for some really weird reason, the left and the MSM (pardon the redundancy) made a lot of noise over the latter scenario when a Republican administration did it.  But nope…no liberal media bias!

Here is an outstanding column on the left’s and the MSM’s (it’s a redundant Monday, what can I say?) efforts to link abortionist George Tiller’s murderer to us pro-lifers.  I just want to know: Why is it “out of bounds” or “beyond the pale” to play “guilt by association” with Obama and guys he actually DID personally know and associate with (Wright, Ayers, Dohrn, Farrakahn), but it’s totally acceptable to play “guilt by association” with von Brunn and millions of people he didn’t know or who didn’t know him?  Nope…no liberal media bias!

June 9, 2009

“Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead”

Filed under: Obama, big government, economic ignorance, socialism — crushliberalism @ 9:09 am

That’s the name of the column by Kevin Hassett, and it’s a damning indictment on how the Communist-in-Chief is either an economic illiterate or a Marxist intent on destroying capitalism.  Neither scenario is comforting.  Excerpt:

So the question is, why does Obama advocate a policy that so flies in the face of everything that economists have learned? How could Obama possibly say, as he did last month, that he wants “to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens?” Further, how could Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner call a practice that top scholarship has shown increases wages and employment in the U.S. “indefensible?”

I have to admit I am at a loss. Maybe it is good politics to bash American corporations, and Obama isn’t really serious about making this change happen. But if the change is enacted, and domestic corporate taxes aren’t reduced to offset the big tax hike, the result will be a flight from the U.S. that rivals in scale the greatest avian arctic migrations.

In other words, Atlas will have finally shrugged.

Elections have consequences.  America, you wanted a smooth-talking brutha to make you feel good about yourselves.  Well, how does his backside taste now?

June 8, 2009

Is this a crazy world or what?

Filed under: California, Euros, big government, bizarre, economic ignorance, media bias — crushliberalism @ 10:45 am

Europe seems to be eschewing big government liberalism and moving to the right, while a country that was once the bastion of freedom and liberty (for those of you on the left, that would be America) is following its smooth-talking Shyster-in-Chief down the failed path of leftist governing.

Californiastan, meanwhile, has seen its leftist utopia wither away over the last decade or so.  The state is about to go bankrupt, after having run off individuals and businesses that succeed by way of punishing tax rates, all while inviting welfare leeches and criminal aliens.  However, RINO Gov. Arnie is thinking that maybe a flat tax is the way to go, instead of a “soak the rich” tax that has hastened the exodus of achievers to more tax friendly states like neighboring Nevada.  Heck, CA is even considering canning its welfare program!  But while CA is thinking about not pounding the rich so hard anymore, B.O. is thinking that the same thing (punishing achievers to subsidize non-achievers) that has driven Californiastan to the brink of insolvency is a darned fine idea for the country.

To add to the craziness, we now live in a society that has a media that is no better or different than Pravda during the Soviet days, Castro’s Granma, or publications that you would expect to find in Chavez’, Ahmanutjob’s, or Mugabe’s countries.  They are propaganda mouthpieces for the administration, telling us that black is white and night is day.  Case in point: the MSM keeps spinning further job losses as “sure, jobs were lost, but not as many as we thought…so that’s good, right”?  There’s a problem with that, though: the job losses are worse than B.O. expected!

Did you ever think you would see the day where American media would fail to take their role seriously in policing government?  Journalists are now comparing the Obamessiah to God (but there’s no “Obama as Messiah” thing going on, is there, Andrew?)!  Instead of scrutinizing his Marxist agenda, his ties to domestic terrorists, his frequent apologies to the world for the crappy country he governs, or anything like that, the MSM delves instead to more pressing matters in B.O.’s “impossibly elegant” life:  his date night with his wife.  By the way, such an “objective” piece of news and not opinion was found in the National News section of the fishwrap.  The MSM also tells us that while Uhhh-bama has flip-flopped considerably (some might say “lie”, but why quibble over semantics?), his “flip-flops are for the common good“!  Then, of course, there’s MSNBC’s Brian Williams bowing before The One.

I mean, media bias has always been around, but we’ve gone way over the cliff and into the abyss here!  If Jon Stewart is making fun of you for kissing Oprompter’s behind too much, and if a leftist magazine like Vanity Fair admits to the pervasive media bias, then it’s safe to say that you’ve jumped the shark.

With apologies to John Lennon: Strange days, indeed.

May 28, 2009

Midweek news bytes

Filed under: Blagojevich, big government, bigotry, corruption, economic ignorance, shameful, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 10:31 am

The One’s promises should come with expiration dates, because he is once again leaning towards breaking his “no one under $250k will pay any new taxes of any kind” line.  It appears that a national sales tax is being considered.  Not like the Fair Tax, which would replace the income tax with a retail sales tax.  No, this “value-added” sales tax would be in addition to the federal income tax!  Hey, socialism doesn’t pay for itself, folks!  Exit question: how crazy do those tea party people look now, MSM?

In what amounts to a huge coinkidink, all of the closed Chrysler dealerships (so ordered by the administration…er, Chrysler) just so happened to be Republican-owned dealerships, while Dem dealerships owned by big donors just so happened to be left open to operate.  Heck, even 5-star money-making dealerships were closed, if the owner happened to be Republican.  But I’m sure B.O. isn’t a petty “I won” Chicago-style thug politician or anything!  Are you liberals content with that kind of shameful corruption, so long as it comes from your boy?

Arlen Specter (D-PA) left the GOP because he didn’t want to be defeated in the GOP primary, which he would have.  So in a delicious exhibition of karma, he finds himself with a Democrat primary challenger!  Heck, I’m almost tempted to send in a donation to a liberal for once in my life!  :lol:

It looks like Roland Burris did buy that Senate seat from the impeached Democrat governor from IL.  If Burris survives until the 2010 election, the GOP will actually do the unthinkable: pick up a Senate seat…and in a blue state, no less!  I doubt the Dems will let Burris get that far.

Oprompter’s SCOTUS nominee ruled recently, along with her appealate court colleagues, that New Haven, CT, can discriminate against white firefighters.  The SCOTUS will hear the appeal and rule on it by the end of their term, and possibly before her confirmation hearing.  If she has her ruling overturned, will it hurt her confirmation process?  After all, there are some red-state Dems in the Senate (both Senators from AR, MT, ND, as well as Senators from NE, LA, and SD) who will have to answer to their constituents on why they voted to confirm a racist anti-Second Amendment leftist ideologue to the court.

MD raised tax rates on millionaires.  In a totally unforseen development, the rich said “Enough!” and got the hell out of MD, leaving MD with a shortfall that only an economic illiterate wouldn’t see coming.  Hey, who knew?  (For those of you on the left, the prior sentence was both rhetorical and sarcastic.)

Bill “Just Some Dude In My Neighborhood” Ayers ghost wrote B.O.’s Dreams From My Father.  What an honor!  It’s not everyday you can get a domestic terrorist to pen your bestseller, right?

May 21, 2009

Obama’s bad week

Filed under: Biden, Obama, big government, economic ignorance, media bias, religion of peace, taxes, unions — crushliberalism @ 1:16 pm

The week’s a little more than halfway over, and let’s see what our illustrious Genius In Chief has had to endure, shall we?  Te recap:

He doesn’t know his own Secretary of Defense’s name.  We know, we know…you inherited him from Bush.

He’s fighting with his own party to close Gitmo.  For some really weird reason, a lot of people don’t think it’s a good idea to close a terrorist Alcatraz and bring bloodthirsty jihadist camelhumpers to America where they might try to blow up NY synagogues.  Go figure.  Especially when 1 in 7 freed Gitmo detainees return to terrorism (the administration was trying to keep that factoid on the “down-low”, so as not to undermine his stupid, heavy-on-emotion-but-light-on-fact case for closing Gitmo unduly alarming anyone).

Jobless claims are on the rise at a record pace.  Oil prices are up.  The CBO says unemployment will keep going up through next year.  We’ve quadrupled our deficit from last year.  The dollar is teetering on collapse.  Yet the MSM tries to sell us on how the economy has turned around?

The Gilded One has been caught in a lie about the “transparency” we were going to see from the Porkulus bill he signed into law.

Thanks to Uhhh-bama’s unholy alliance with unions, union-based companies are going to find it tough to get loans for their businesses. 

Oprompter’s vice-president isn’t exactly the shiniest light on the Christmas tree, and it’s proving to be very “distracting”, according to a new book.  When he plagiarizes Hillary’s Tuzla moment as something that really happened to him (forgetting that we’ve heard the story before, and from/to someone else), it’s easy to see how Quayle…er, Biden…can be such a “distraction”, no?

Remember Team Obama’s promise that “no one earning under $250k will see their taxes go up a dime”?  Well, the Senate is bringing up a federal beer tax to fund Omarxist’s socialized medicine plan.  I had no idea that the only people who drank beer were folks who earned a quarter million dollars and higher.

On the positive front for him:

He still has the NYT in his pocket, so much so that they’ve opened their very own NYT Obama merchandise store.  But no, no liberal media bias or anything!

May 7, 2009

Journalists: We KNOW that Obama will RAISE taxes on the middle class, but we’re going to keep lying and say he won’t

Filed under: Obama, big government, media bias, taxes — crushliberalism @ 7:41 am

Read this excellent exposé by Ace, and then keep telling yourself: 

Nope…no liberal media bias!

May 4, 2009

Weekend in review

Filed under: Obama, Supreme Court, big government, environuts, global warming, media bias, news bytes, religion of peace, shameful, swine flu — crushliberalism @ 8:30 am

Here’s the haps from the weekend:

My county now has a case of the swine flu at one of the local schools.  Friggin’ wonderful.

RIP Jack Kemp.

You know how I’ve been saying for the last five years that global “warming” nuts prefer to use the term “climate change” or other euphemisms when it’s cold and “global warming” when it’s hot?  The NYT confirms this calculated effort by the environuts.

Finally, the Obamedia does some deep investigative journalism of the president.  Excerpt:

Obamas take a walk, holding hands in the evening

WASHINGTON — The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night.
After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House.

So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children’s swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together. … 

The Obama administration threatened to use the power of the adoring “enchanted” press corps to destroy a Chrysler investment firm if it didn’t go along with Chavez’ Oprompter’s bankruptcy plan.  Chicago thuggery at its finest, no?  Paging Mr. Orwell!

Our ideologue president gets to pick a Supreme Court justice, since Souter is retiring.  The balance of the court isn’t changing, since Souter’s a leftist anyway.  But the odds-on favorite to be his replacement is a woman who says that “the courts are where policy is made“.  But hey, why would you go thinking she might be a leftist judicial activist or something?

Napolitano is at it again.  Yet another memo has emerged from her agency that describes a different breed of “extremists”: People who oppose giving drivers licenses, in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public schooling to criminal aliens.  That pretty much paints the vast majority of Americans as “extremists”, no?  Conspicuous by its absence from the list of “extremists”, however, is Muslim extremists.  “Jewish extremists” is on the list, though, although for the life of me, I can’t recall an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by a Jewish extremist.

April 21, 2009

Obama’s idea of fiscal responsibility? Forego one latté a year!

Filed under: Obama, big government, economic ignorance — crushliberalism @ 8:41 pm

When he’s not busy pushing for yet another tax on the middle class that his veep promised wouldn’t happen, Oprompter likes to pass the time balancing the budget.  Or something.

Excerpt:

Cut a latte or two out of your annual budget and you’ve just done as much belt-tightening as President Barack Obama asked of his Cabinet on Monday.

The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.

Wow…a whole 0.003% of the $3.5 trillion budget.  Boy, that B.O. sure does know how to make the tough calls in the budget, no?  Uh, no.

Even members of the press corps are asking “WTH“?

April 14, 2009

Obama’s DHS declares war on you and me

Filed under: Obama, big government, shameful — crushliberalism @ 12:58 pm

Remember the left-wing paranoia that Bushitler McRummyburton was going to lead us to Orwellian days of government oppression?  Well, replace “left-wing paranoia” with “legit concerns” and “Bushitler McRummyburton” with “the Obama administration” and you’ve got an accurate description of this (PDF of DHS memo).  Excerpt from Hot Air:

Michelle has it covered pretty well, but I looked at the DHS report on “right-wing extremism” myself, and it’s every bit as bad as she says, and as Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers first reported. The DHS fails to provide any specifics at all, preferring instead to smear half of the country or more as kooks for criticizing the government’s handling of the economy. As Eli Lake reports, the DHS has all but declared war on federalism, which used to be the founding concept of our republic:

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.

The first question we should ask is whether the DHS is reacting to any specific threats at all? Er … no (emphasis mine):

The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.

This gets repeated over and over again during the report. They have no threat information. In fact, the report can’t even say definitively whether “extremists” are gaining “new recruits”. In order to find that, they’d have to identify the actual groups, note the recruiting patterns, and determine whether in fact they’re gaining recruits or losing members. Bottom line: DHS has no actual data. They’re pulling threats out of their collective arse and publishing them without any supporting research whatsoever.

The document goes on to impugn veterans, especially those returning from war, as nutjobs teetering on the brink of becoming the next Tim McVeigh.  But hey, the left loves the troops, right?

Here’s a shameful excerpt:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

By their own definition, the administration would have to believe that the Founding Fathers were “right-wing extremists” and potential terrorists…as are/were anybody who believes in the Constitution and its 10th Amendment (i.e. the “states rights” amendment).  Therefore, if you believe that the 10th Amendment means what it says, then you are apparently a rightwing extremist.  If you believe that life begins at conception, then you are a rightwing extremist (which apparently means that the vice president is a wingnut…who knew?).

There’s more:

Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures.

Worrying about the economy, jobs, and foreclosures also makes a person a “rightwing extremist”?  And you thought Bubba was the president best at redefining English!

It’s gonna get fun out there, folks.

March 29, 2009

The week in review

Filed under: Biden, Obama, big government, economic ignorance, hypocrisy, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 9:50 pm

Let’s recap the prior week’s news nuggets, shall we?

That brilliant foreign policy expert veep we have, the gaffe-tastic Joe Biden, thanked Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for his help in Iraq.  Someone forgot to let the Vice-Plagiarist know that Zap was elected right after the Madrid train bombing by al Qaeda in 2004, promising immediate withdrawal in response to the bombing.  As soon as Zap took office, he made good on his cowardly promise.  Brilliant, Joe.  Boy, it sure is a good thing we finally have people with brains running the show!

President Oprompter feels that “I think it’s important to engage your critics … because not only will you occasionally change their mind but, more importantly, sometimes they will change your mind”.  Of course…which would explain why the five people the prez called upon during this town hall meeting just so happened to be, miracle of all miracles, avid Obama supporters!

In 2006, Rahm Emmanuel made a compelling case for opposing corporate welfare and for taking pride in welfare reform that took place during the Clinton years.  Now the same man thinks that corporate bailouts (same diff as corporate welfare, aren’t they?) are an awesome idea, as is his boss’ Porkulus bill that dismantles welfare reform.  It’s like the man says one thing and does another or something!  I know, I know…paranoid of me to conclude that, huh?

Uhhh-bama hits the late night talk show circuit, 60 Minutes, and several other televised appearances in order to sell his socialist crap sandwich to America.  As a result of the smooth brutha’s sermons, support for said crap sandwich has…dropped an additional 5%.  Keep talking, sir!  You can defeat this thing yet.

Add The Economist to the list of right-of-center pundits/publications who should have consulted with Coach Dennis Green before endorsing The One, because they’re now finding out that Obama is who we thought he was!  They now have buyer’s remorse.  Q and O asks them “What leadership position of any importance has the man ever held that would indicate he had what it took to lead as President?  And why didn’t you explore that question, its answer and ramifications before you jumped on the Hope and Change bandwagon?”

Candidate O promised us that whole “95% of working families” tax cut thingy.  We adults warned the Kool-Aid drinkers and economic illiterates that (ignoring the reality that 95% of Americans don’t pay taxes) he, like other Democrats, don’t cut taxes…they raise them.  Clinton did the same thing in 1992, running on a “middle class tax cut” then promptly reneging on the deal (some would say “lied”, but why quibble over semantics?) and raising our taxes.  The Obamessiah is now doing the same thing.  Awesome video montage here.  The last two Democrat presidents have been pathological liars, saying whatever the sheeple want to hear.  It’s like they’re so hopelessly dishonest they can’t help themselves.

Like I said before: elections have consequences.

March 27, 2009

The solution to an unresponsive bloated government bureaucracy is…to make it bigger?

Filed under: big government, health care — crushliberalism @ 7:50 am

Ed M. reported on this at Hot Air (video clip at the link):

Yesterday, Congress looked into reports that bureaucrats at the Department of Labor showed little enthusiasm for investigating complaints of “wage theft” and unfair labor practices. Independent investigators found that calling the complaint line usually resulted in no action at all, as workers at the agency openly complained about a lack of resources and advised callers to just find another job.  The GAO issued a stern report about the failure of the DoL to act on behalf of workers, and Gregory Kutz, Managing Director of GAO’s special investigations unit, testified before Congress to the issue.

This gave Rep. Tom Price, the chair of the Republican Study Committee, an opportunity to point out the basic problems in expanding government power.  Watch this colloquy and enjoy Kutz’ obvious discomfort…

Bingo.  This is a point I’ve made before: our government is so big and bloated and dysfunctional, so why do leftists think it’s a good idea to make it even bigger and more bloated?  One needs to look no further than the V.A.

It is so deeply mired in red tape, and any vet who has had to go to a V.A. hospital can likely back me up on the fact that getting a hassle-free experience there is the exception, not the rule.  Until the V.A. medical bureaucracy and ineffeciency gets cleaned up, why in Heaven’s name would you let the same type of people do to our nation’s health care system what they’ve done at V.A. and the Dept. of Labor (just to name a couple)?

March 16, 2009

Obama fumbling on the economy

Filed under: Obama, big government, economic ignorance, hypocrisy, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 9:41 am

President Hopenchange is off to a rocky start in his reign…er, term…on many fronts.  When he’s not busy ticking off our staunch allies, he likes to spend his time putting on a public exhibition of economic numbskullery.  Just for excrements and giggles, let’s take a look at some of President Teleprompter’s greatest hits thus far, shall we?

  • You would think that with the economy being the supposed #1 priority of the country right now, we’d have more than one pick in the Treasury Dept. confirmed in two months.
  • Is there anyone that the new administration can pick from who doesn’t have tax cheat or corruption problems?
  • Remember how “out of touch” Old Man Mac was during the campaign for saying that despite the economic downturn, the overall fundamentals of the economy were strong?  Well, Uhhh-bama’s own economic adviser is touting her boss’ message that the overall fundamentals of the economy are strong.  A dash of Hope, but a little light on the Change, no?
  • Remember how “out of touch” Old Man Mac was during the campaign for laying out a health care plan that would supposedly tax the benefits of workers?  Well, guess who thinks that sounds like a mighty fine idea now?
  • How many of you believed that load of bovine feces during the campaign that Uhhh-bama was going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans (despite the fact that nowhere near 95% of Americans pay income taxes)?  If you did believe that are you surprised to know that taxes are going to increase for everyone…and the administration admits it?  How are you Rust Belt Obama supporters feeling now about your boy, knowing that he’s going to further decimate your local economy, all in the name of the junk science fad known as global “warming”?
  • If O wants to wait until 2011 to raise income taxes because raising them now would hurt the already battered economy, why won’t he acknowledge that this is a tacit admission that tax increases are bad for the economy?  “Hey, I don’t want to hurt the economy now, but I don’t mind hurting it in two years!”
  • A reporter asks The One if he’s a socialist.  He at first dismisses the question, then feels compelled to answer “No.”  A reporter then asks “Is there anything wrong with saying, ‘Yes’?”.  Instead of saying “Heck yes, there’s something wrong with that!  Socialism is a bad thing!”, he avoids answering “Yes” or “No”.  But hey, why would anyone think Mr. Spread The Wealth Around is a socialist?

Let’s face it: O’s in over his head, and even many Democrats are beginning to come to that conclusion.  Sure, Obama voters will continue to get defensive, like the man who buys a $2000 plasma TV only to find out that it doesn’t get HD and that it was on sale across town for $1000…if you just suspend common sense for a moment, you’ll see the decision was a really good one, in a roundabout sort of way.  After all, admitting to such a colossal purchasing (and electoral) mistake so soon after the transaction will make you question your own decision-making process and make you feel that people will think you’re an idiot.  Therefore, though deep down inside you know the truth, the fact is that you must maintain, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that your decision to buy an overpriced and underpowered TV (and president) was the correct decision.

For a man whom the MSM told us takes his spirituality seriously (don’t make me laugh!), one would think that he would spend a little more time in church for proper guidance in this stormy season and in his new position.  But, as Allahpundit puts it, “What church could possibly be good enough for a man at the center of his own religion?”

November 19, 2008

Republican Congressman: It’s Congress’ money, not taxpayers’ money

Filed under: big government, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 10:18 am

As one can see, “spread the wealth around” redistributionism is a sentiment that isn’t exclusive to Democrats.  Corrupt Republicans can feel the same way.  From Michelle Malkin:

Behold the hubris of an entrenched Republican congressman shilling for the auto bailout. His name is Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Michigan) and you’ll be happy to know that he lost his re-election bid.

Attention, Republicans obsessed with “re-branding” the party and crafting appealing messages to win back voters. Here’s your textbook example of how not to act and what not to say if you want to restore credibility to conservatism.

Error
This video doesn’t exist

If there’s any silver lining, this guy just lost his re-election bid, so he can take his perverted economic theories back home.

The dude is from Michigan and supports a bailout of the auto industry.  OK, fine…he’s just serving his constituents.  But the breath-taking gall of this man to say that the money I earn isn’t really mine is simply stunning.  I guess I’m not stunned that he feels this way, but that he’s actually publicly admitting it.

October 31, 2008

Obama’s “rich” ceiling getting lower and lower

Filed under: Obama, big government, hypocrisy, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 5:16 pm

The Obamaliar told us that everyone making under $250k gets a tax cut, and everyone over that gets a tax hike.  So that means $250k is “rich”.  But that’s OK, because you won’t get the tax increase unless you make over $200k.

Joe Biden agrees.  Anyone making over $150k is rich and subject to a tax hit.

Bill Richardson thinks that’s a great idea: hit those evil “rich” folks making over $120k.

See a pattern?  And with even the Uhhh-bama shills at CBS noting that there’s no way to pay for The One’s $1 trillion in new spending, even with a tax hike on those making over $250k, this lowering of the “rich” ceiling would certainly explain how they plan on covering the shortfall: they’re going to raise middle class taxes, too.

October 23, 2008

Liberals aim to destroy your 401k

Filed under: big government, economic ignorance, moonbats, socialism — crushliberalism @ 11:48 am

Details here.  But hey, don’t you go and think they’re socialists or anything, m’kay?

October 21, 2008

Barney Frank: Hey, let’s increase taxes on the rich to pay for my screw-up of the economy!

Filed under: Barney Frank, big government, hypocrisy, shameful, taxes — crushliberalism @ 9:29 am

When Barney Frank isn’t taking a man-missile up his squeakhole from his Fannie Mae boyfriend in violation of Romans 1:27, he likes to spend his time taxing the producers of this country through the noses to fund the massive cleanup of his mess!  Transcript from CNBC:

I think at this point, there needs to be an immediate increase in spending, and I think this is a time when deficit fear has to take a second, uh, a second seat. I do think this is the time for a very important kind of dose of [unintelligible]. Yes, I think later on, there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of rich people out there who we can tax at a point down the road to recover some of this money.

Dude’s got a lot of nerve.  Fannie Boy told us for the last decade that there were no solvency issues with Fannie/Freddie, and he derided any attempts to preempt the problems we see today as racist attempts to limit homeownership (uh-huh-huh…I said “homo-nership!” :lol: ) among minorities.  Now that his obstruction has decimated our economy, he wants the successful to bankroll the housecleaning bill?

September 25, 2008

Government-run health care fiascos

Filed under: big government, health care — crushliberalism @ 10:26 am

Right here in the good ol’ USofA.  From MSNBC:

The government paid more than $1 billion in questionable Medicare claims for medical supplies that showed little relation to a patient’s condition, including blood glucose strips for sexual impotence and special diabetic shoes for leg amputees, congressional investigators say.

Billions more in taxpayer dollars may have been wasted over the last decade because the government-run health program for the elderly and disabled paid out claims with blank or invalid diagnosis codes, such as a “?” or “zzzzz.” Medicare officials say even smiley-face icons could have been accepted. …

And you leftards want the feds to manage our health care?  No thanks!

September 24, 2008

Bailout must be stopped

Filed under: big government, economic ignorance, socialism — crushliberalism @ 7:28 am

The trillion-dollar bailout of financial corporations and institutions must be stopped for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the bailout is, in the words of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), “financial socialism“!  But check this out:

In the dark of night over the weekend when most people were snoozing, the Treasury dramatically expanded its bailout plan to include buying student loans, car loans, credit card debt and any other “troubled” assets held by banks.

The changes, which were included in draft language that also opened the bailout program to foreign banks with extensive loan operations in the United States, potentially added tens of billions of dollars to the cost of the program.

Although it was a major addition to what was already the nation’s largest-ever bailout, it did not become part of the debate between Democrats and the Treasury over details of the program. A Monday counterproposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd included such consumer loans as well as mortgages, just as the Treasury’s draft did Saturday night.

“The costs of the bailout will be significantly higher than originally considered or acknowledged,” said Joshua Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher & Co., who charged that the Treasury and Federal Reserve have not been “forthright” about the ultimate cost to the public. The plan gives Treasury the discretion to buy the non-mortgage loans and securities in consultation with the Fed. …

I was joking with some friends that while the feds are at it, they can bail out car debtors and credit card debtors, too…why stop at mortgages?  I was joking.  Apparently, the joke’s on me.  Actually, the joke’s on all of us.

September 15, 2008

Economics 101 for blue states

Filed under: California, Florida, New York, Texas, big government, economic ignorance, taxes — crushliberalism @ 10:56 am

Two of the bluest states in the union, CA nd NY, have huge budget deficits and plan on addressing them by raising taxes.  Not the best approach, to say the least.  From WSJ:

Anyone who thinks the path to “fiscal discipline” is through higher taxes ought to look at the current budget spectacles in New York and California. The two liberal states have among the highest tax burdens in the country, yet both now find themselves with huge budget deficits and are debating still higher taxes to close the gap.

California has the highest state income tax rate in the country (10.3%), while New York State also has a high income tax rate (6.85%), with the combined state and city rate rising to 10.5% in New York City. Their overall government spending totals also happen to top the national charts. And, what do you know, California is $15 billion in the red this year while New York is trying to close a $6.4 billion 2009 budget hole, which budget expert E.J. McMahon of the Manhattan Institute expects to grow to $26 billion over three years.

California hasn’t even passed a budget yet, many weeks into the fiscal year. The Democrats in Sacramento have proposed a series of new taxes on businesses and individuals with incomes above $1 million. Their plan would raise the top income tax rate to 12%, which would be the highest in the nation. They would also repeal a tax law allowing businesses to carry forward losses against future profits.

…

A similar mess is playing out in Albany, where Assembly Democrats and Republicans have passed a budget with two added tax rates. Millionaires would face a one-percentage-point rate income tax hike (to 11.5% in New York City), while anyone making more than $5 million would get hit with another 0.85-point hike (to 12.35% in NYC). A new business tax of 4% would also apply to hedge fund managers.

And what happens to those vile, evil rich when you jack their taxes up even higher to fund the nanny state?  Well, they don’t like it very much…go figure!

The “progressives” who dominate politics in these states target the rich on grounds that they have the ability to pay. They also have the ability to leave. From 1997-2006, New York State lost 409,000 people (not counting foreign immigrants). For every two people who move into the state, three flee. Maybe the problem for New York is merely bad weather, not high taxes.

Except that sunny California is experiencing a similar exodus. Over the past decade 1.32 million more native-born Americans left the Golden State than moved in — despite beaches, mountains and 70-degree weather. Mostly the people who have fled are the successful, the talented and the rich.

I’m sure those numbers are simply inflated due to their large populations, right?  Nope.

If taxes don’t matter, then maybe someone can explain the divergent economic paths of California and New York and America’s two other most populous states, Florida and Texas. The latter two states have no personal income tax. Personal income has been growing about 50% faster in Florida and Texas than in California and New York. (See chart.) This year Texas became the No. 1 state for Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. About a dozen of those 58 corporations once called New York or California home, and taxes are one reason they departed.

Atlas is shrugging in CA and NY, and as long as the economically illiterate rubes continue running those states in the same way, the results will be the same.

Attention, liberals: The numbers don’t lie.

August 28, 2008

Obama more leftist than originally realized

Filed under: Obama, big government, socialism — crushliberalism @ 9:59 am

He was so far left on abortion that he actually voted to defend infanticide (a vote he is desperately trying to lie his way out of these days).  But dude, this is something else:

Sen. Barack Obama will portray himself Thursday night as an agent of change for mainstream America, but his eight-year voting record in the Illinois Senate shows the Democrat was on occasion an agent of isolation who took stands – particularly on anti-crime legislation – that put him to the left of his own party.

Mr. Obama was the only member of the state Senate to vote against a bill to prohibit the early release of convicted criminal sexual abusers; was among only four who voted against bills to toughen criminal sentences and to increase penalties for “gangbangers” and dealers of Ecstasy; and voted “present” on a bill making it harder for abusive parents to regain custody of their children, a Washington Times review of Illinois legislative records shows.

“On the one hand, I give him credit for being true to his beliefs. But certainly with concerns that there were, even for his own party in Illinois, he would be to the left on some of those key votes,” said Illinois state Sen. Dave Syverson, a conservative Republican.

Well, at least he stopped voting Commie since joining the U.S. Senate. Yeah, right:

The pattern has continued since Mr. Obama joined the U.S. Senate, according to National Journal magazine.

Its respected legislative scorecard rated the Illinois Democrat, based on his 2007 voting record, as the most liberal member of the Senate, even more liberal than Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, a self-described “democratic socialist.” (Isn’t that a redundancy? – Ed.)  Mr. Obama ranked No. 16 and No. 10 in the previous two years.

His running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, ranked third in the 2007 National Journal survey, with only Sen. Edward M. Kennedy between him and Mr. Obama.

When you’ve topped Ted Kennedrunk on the liberal scale, you’ve really achieved something (and in O’s case, that may be his only achievement).

Democrats’ own platform calls for socialism

Filed under: big government, socialism — crushliberalism @ 9:21 am

From RCP:

The Democrats have titled their party platform, “Renewing America’s Promise.”

A more honest and accurate title would be, “We’ll Give You More.”

The soul of the Democratic philosophy is summed up in this passage from the platform: “For decades, Americans have been told to act for ourselves, by ourselves, on our own. Democrats reject this recipe for division and failure.“

Their own words, my friends.  Not only do Ted Kennedrunk and the Hilldawg openly engage in a war on individualism, but their party has codified that sentiment into its platform.  Only government can make things right in your life, because you’re just too stupid to do it for yourself.  Continuing:

Note the disdain for the ethos of self-responsibility. Democrats do not merely regard it as insufficient. Instead they regard the idea that people should provide for themselves as divisive.

Even more significantly, Democrats regard self-responsibility as a “recipe for failure.” In other words, Democrats don’t think the American people are capable of making it on their own.

And so, Democrats have a government program for, well, everything.

Democrats want government to help you raise your kids, send them to college, train and retrain for a job, buy a home and save for retirement.

They must be saving the burial assistance program for 2012.

If you want an abortion or want to keep the child (or in Obama’s case, you want to kill the child – Ed.), it doesn’t matter.

Democrats want taxpayers to help pay for it either way.

Indeed they do.  Marx would be proud, were he not roasting in Hell right now.

August 27, 2008

California tries to destroy its economy once and for all

Filed under: California, big government, economic ignorance, socialism, taxes — crushliberalism @ 9:56 pm

The Eagles were ahead of their time with Hotel California.  “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!”  From TaxProf:

A California activist is trying to gather the 694,354 signatures needed to place a tax initiative on the ballot that would:

  • Impose a new 35% income surtax (in addition to federal taxes and the existing 10.3% top state rate) — 17.5% (on all of the taxpayer’s income) when income exceeds $150,000 (single)/$250,000 (joint), and an additional 17.5% (again, on all of the taxpayer’s income) when income exceeds $350,000 (single)/$500,000 (joint).
  • Impose a one-time 55% wealth tax on assets exceeding $20 million held by a California resident or held in California by nonresident.
  • Impose an exit tax of between 36.5% to 54.3% on both income and unrealized appreciation in asset values over $5 million when a resident dies or leaves California.

Let that sink in for a moment: you are incredibly successful, living in CA, and one day you’ve decided that you’re tired of being taxed through the teeth to fund the deadbeats living off the public teat in Californiastan.  So, you do what got you rich in the first place (hint: it’s not marrying a ketchup heiress): you use your noggin.  Economic literacy tells you that it makes better sense to move to less tax-oppressive states that don’t want to punish you for being successful.  CA’s response?  “How dare you!  We’ll tax you through the nose on your way out!”

Until the people of Californiastan get their collective heads out of their Marxist backsides, they will continue their seemingly unstoppable slide into bankruptcy.  And I, for one, will laugh myself sore when it happens.

August 21, 2008

Obama: My country is very stingy and uncharitable

Filed under: Obama, big government, hypocrisy, shameful — crushliberalism @ 3:04 pm

But hey, don’t you go thinking that the Euro-kowtowing, arugula-eating, Hawaiian bodysurfer is an anti-American elitist or anything, m’kay?  From the DC Examiner:

Barack Obama, in a discussion with evangelist Rick Warren about his Christian faith, said he had been guilty of a “fundamental selfishness” that had contributed to regrettable youthful behavior.

Then he confessed for the rest of us.

“Americans’ greatest moral failure in my lifetime,” he said, “has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”

Really?  Americans aren’t very charitable?

Sorry, but he can hang that one up. Whatever the case is with his own selfishness, the evidence of an internationally superior American generosity is impressive, beginning with the numbers on our charitable giving. We give twice as much as the British per capita, and according to The American magazine, seven times as much as the Germans and 14 times as much as the Italians.

Even in inflation-adjusted dollars, the amount given each year just keeps getting larger, and meanwhile, we do far more volunteer work than in other industrialized countries.

If only we conservatives could be as generous as liberals, then…well, we’d have more money in our pockets.

Of course, Obama isn’t just talking about private giving, and could face serious embarrassment if he were. As has been reported about a study by Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University, conservatives give almost a third more money to charities than liberals, who mostly have more to give.

Read the rest of the column.  It’s great!

As Instapundit notes on two points:

UPDATE: Speaking of selfishness, perhaps the millionaire Obama could do something for his long lost brother living in poverty in Kenya: “Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate’s half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender. ‘No-one knows who I am,’ he told the magazine, before claiming: ‘I live here on less than a dollar a month.’ . . . He has only met his famous older brother twice – once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi. . . . Of their second meeting, George Obama said: ‘It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger.’”

ANOTHER UPDATE: More Obama/Kenya background. “Obama to School Named After Him – Drop Dead.”

“Stingy are thee, but not me!”  The Obamessiah’s message is clear: We should take care of our brothers…so long as they’re not our real brothers!

July 21, 2008

Dems want to raise gas tax

Filed under: big government, economic ignorance, oil, taxes — crushliberalism @ 9:14 am

Just to make sure I understand this correctly:

Since Democrats took over Congress and promised us cheaper gas, gas prices have nearly doubled. As a result, American families and businesses are feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks. To help Americans deal with this reduction in household and business income, the Dems are proposing…to increase the federal gas tax?

They don’t want us to drill for more oil. They don’t want us to make more refineries or nuclear power plants. They don’t want us to recover oil from the large oil shale deposits out west. They oppose wind farms because some birds might get hurt. And to top it off, they want to increase our taxes, make energy more expensive, and take an even bigger bite out of our paychecks.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: a liberal will always, without fail, expect YOU to do more with less, but will NEVER demand the same of themselves and their beloved bloated imperial federal government.

July 17, 2008

World Court tries again to usurp American sovereignty

Filed under: Mexico, United Nations, big government — crushliberalism @ 9:30 am

The World Court ruled in 2004 that the U.S. could not execute Mexican nationals who had been convicted in Texas (for gang-rape and murder of two teenage girls) and sentenced to die.

Anywho, the lame open-borders administration attempted to get Texas to abide by the overreaching World Court, and Texas told Bush to go to Hell.  The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, whereby a 6-3 ruling in favor of common sense and national sovereignty was handed down.  SCOTUS said that the World Court had NO authority to intervene in the American legal system and that the president did NOT have the power to order Texas to abide by the World Court’s ruling.

Well, old habits die hard, because the World Court is trying to meddle again.  Details:

The World Court ordered the United States on Wednesday to do all it could to halt the imminent executions of five Mexicans until the court makes a final judgment in a dispute over suspects’ rights.

The row, which has strained relations between the neighbors, centers on the fact that the United States failed to inform 51 of its citizens sentenced to die in U.S. jails of their right to consular assistance.

One of the five Mexicans on death row, Jose Medellin, is due to die on August 5 in Texas.

In 2004, the World Court ruled in favor of Mexico, finding the United States had violated international law, and ordered it to review the 51 cases to see whether the lack of consular assistance had prejudiced the outcome of their trials.

A year later, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered Texas to review Medellin’s case but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Bush had no authority to do so, leading Texas to schedule Medellin’s execution for August.

“The court indicates that the United States of America shall take all measures necessary to ensure that five Mexican nationals are not executed pending its final judgment,” Judge Rosalyn Higgins said.

Mexico has asked the World Court or International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an interpretation of its 2004 ruling, given U.S. assertions that its federal states have a large degree of legal autonomy and it .cannot compel them to review the cases

Will the open-border amigos of Jorgé W. Bush in the administration pay attention to OUR court this time, or will they try to ignore OUR court to placate the UN’s court?

July 16, 2008

Obama: Teachers more important than parents

Filed under: Obama, big government, public education, unions — crushliberalism @ 1:11 pm

Once someone was finally able to peel Barry O’s lips off of the teachers union’s collective behinds, he dazzled them with this bit of genius:

That begins with recognizing that the single most important factor in determining a child’s achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from; it’s not who their parents are or how much money they have. It’s who their teacher is.

Memo to Mom and Dad: Mr. Bowers, my senile 7th grade science teacher, apparently played a bigger role in my life than you did.  All that feeding, housing, supporting, nurturing, bonding, affection, etc., that went on in our household during my childhood?  Well, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the man who filled my life with unmatched richness like mispronouncing “protozoa”, drizzling a puddle of spittle the size of the Caribbean when trying to say “photosynthesis”, and nearly blowing up the room by dropping a chunk of pure sodium into a beaker of water.  Who knew?

For those of you on the left, the prior paragraph was sarcasm.

Look, I was blessed enough to have had a number of outstanding, caring, and competent teachers in my life who I readily recognize as having had a profound and positive impact on my development.  But with all due respect to all of them, not a single one of them were more important than my parents!  Important, yes…but by no means more important!

July 8, 2008

“My right to unlimited rights”

Filed under: Obama, big government, socialism — crushliberalism @ 8:54 am

An absolutely awesome column by Mike Adams that you must read!  If you don’t read it, you suck.  Excerpt:

This trait of being more in love with consumption than production is one shared by most of my socialist colleagues in academia. They base their lives on the idea of taking “from each according to his ability” and giving “to each according to his need.” The problem is that they do a better job of articulating their needs than promoting their abilities. This is, of course, because socialists are generally short on abilities. They seek socialism because they think being guaranteed an average outcome is safer than trying to beat the average in a system based on merit, which is otherwise known as ability.

He also has a new term for the Obamessiah: the Dali Bama.  Heh.

Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com.