Obama to San Fran crowd: If I lose in 2012, you’re going to have to be self-reliant
Gasp! Perish the thought! Here’s Chairman Zero from San Fransicko:
At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.
“The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, ‘you are on your own,’” Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel.
Self-reliance is a bad thing? As opposed to reliance? How’s reliance been working for you, liberals?
And to think that Normal America perceives B.O. to be a socialist!
Obama: Screw Congress, I’ll “heal the economy” by executive fiat
Yeah, his policies thus far have been so wildly successful that…they made the economy worse and got his party run out of power by the electorate. So what do you do when the peasants revolt against you? Why, you take matters into your own hands, the Constitution and the will of the people be damned! Details:
President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.
“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.
“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.
Right, because growing the leviathan of Big Government is a great way to…um…save money and make government efficient. Alrighty then.
Well, when the economy doesn’t improve (and there are no signs that it will), he won’t be able to argue that it wasn’t his fault. OK, he’ll try to argue that (and, naturally, blame it on Bush), but that dog won’t hunt anymore. Normal America sees right through it.
Remember when the left hated a perceived overstepping executive branch? Good times, good times.
Senate FINALLY working on important legislation: tackling fake maple syrup
The Senate hasn’t proposed a budget in 900+ days. How can they, when they’ve got far more pressing issues to address?
Six senators introduced legislation that would make selling fake maple syrup a felony offense leading to fines and up to five years in prison.
The Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement (MAPLE) Act is a response to what chief sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and others say is the increasing practice of cheating Vermont, Upstate New York and other maple syrup regions by selling inferior, fake syrup.
“I have been alarmed by the growing number of individuals and businesses claiming to sell genuine Vermont maple syrup when they are in fact selling an inferior product that is not maple syrup at all,” Leahy said Thursday. “This is fraud, plain and simple, and it undermines a key part of Vermont’s economy and reputation for quality that has been hard-earned through Vermonters’ hard work.”
He added that others in the syrup-producing regions of Maine, New York and other states also have been hurt. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are all co-sponsors.
Under current law, selling fake maple syrup is a misdemeanor offense.
Under the bill, S. 1742, selling fake maple syrup would be listed as an act of fraud that is seen as a felony offense, along with falsifying bank entries, mortgage transactions, loan applications and citizenship records, along with dozens of other activities.
“We need to make sure that those who intentionally deceive consumers get a trip to jail, not a slap on the wrist,” Leahy said. “Schemers should not easily be able to sully the seal of quality that is associated with genuine Vermont maple syrup.”
The bill specifically lists what qualifies as real maple syrup: a liquid food derived from heating tree sap or mixing water and maple sugar. In either case, not less than 66 percent of the weight of the product must be “soluble solids derived solely from the sap of a species of tree in the genus Acer.”
Of course, leave it to the Maine sisters to join this lunacy.
Democrats are pro-rape
How else would Joe Biden explain this?
President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda hit another roadblock in the Senate on Thursday night, as the two parties remained locked in a bitter stalemate with the economy sputtering and tens of millions looking for work.
In their first attempt to advance individual pieces of the president’s sprawling American Jobs Act, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward a $35 billion package for states and localities to hire and prevent the layoffs of teachers and first responders.
A united GOP Conference, along with three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus — Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — voted 50-50 to block a debate on the package, which would have been funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million.
Bipartisan. Right? I mean, whenever any RINOs get peeled away into voting for Democrat legislation, we’re told the legislation was “bipartisan”. So this is bipartisan opposition to B.O.’s rape prevention jobs bill, right?
Quote of the day, “Reid admits which is more important, public or private sector jobs?” edition
Dude. Seriously?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said 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.
Right. Government hasn’t gotten nearly big enough over the last 3.5 years, has it?
Biden: Pass Obama’s jobs bill or there will be more rapes, or something
Why are Republicans (plus the two Senate Dems who voted against Porkulus II) in favor of rape? From The Weekly Standard:
“In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city,” Biden said. “In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes–just to pick two categories–climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don’t rectify it.”
The vice president also seemed to suggest that the Obama administration’s first stimulus is the reason rapes and murders were not even higher in 2010 and 2011.” And God only knows what that number would have been had we not been able to get a little bit of help,” Biden said.
Ho. Ly. Shiite.
So building more roads, bridges, and pork projects, plus raising taxes on millionaires, will…um…prevent rapes in Flint, Michigan? Seriously? That’s the greyhound you’re betting on, champ?
Quote of the day, “The left’s flipping out as Obama sinks” edition
Excellent column from James Taranto, an excerpt of which follows:
The left got what it wanted in 2008: a liberal president with a sweeping agenda and big Democratic majorities capable of enacting it. The result has been a great and failed experiment in progressive politics and governance. In due course, one hopes, the left will absorb some lessons–but for now, they seem to be suffering a nervous breakdown.
That is one way to understand why so much of the liberal establishment is rallying behind Krugman’s Army, as the “Occupy Wall Street” protests are known. Everything they believe in has failed, so they are turning nihilistic.
Awesome takedown of liberalism’s failed experiment in America, and how the left is coping (hint: not very well).
Congress’ only Muslim: You know, regulations are GREAT for job creation!
Nice to see that economic ignorance doesn’t discriminate based on religion. From MSDNC, and interview with Keith Ellison (D-MN):
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) tells MSNBC regulations create jobs because a business will have to hire people to help them comply with the new requirement.
“I think the answer is no,” Ellison said when asked if he believes regulations kill jobs. “And here is why: When we talked about increasing fuel efficiency standards, the industry responded, and they need engineers and designers and manufacturers, and they need actually more people to help respond to the new requirement.”
“I believe if the government says, look, we have got to reduce our carbon footprint, you will kick into gear a whole number of people that know how to do that or have ideas about that, and that will be a job engine. I understand what you mean, because if anything adds a cost to a business, you could assume that that will diminish that business’s ability to hire. But I don’t think that’s actually right. I think what businesses want is customers and what — if they are selling product, if they have a product to sell they will do well even if they have some new regulations to meet,” the Congressman said.
Wow. Just…wow.
Right, businesses just sit back and take it up the chute when big government comes in and imposes newer and bigger regulatory burdens on them. They don’t lay off workers or raise prices of their goods/services in order to fund the new help (temporary, usually) to comply with the regs. They don’t relocate to friendlier business climes. They don’t close their doors for good. No, they don’t do any of those things, do they?
Look, Muhammed, if increased government regulations spurned job creation, then the economy would have caught fire in the last 2.5 years. But it hasn’t. It’s gotten worse. Why, it’s almost as if the anti-business regulations have strangled the economy and job creation! Almost, of course. From Investors:
If regulations were job-creation engines, the economy should be in danger of overheating right about now. Obama has overseen the fastest growth in new federal rules ever, imposing 75 new major regulations in his first 26 months in office at a cost of more than $40 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation.
And the left wonders why their efforts to revive the economy have fallen flat?
Republicans blocking Obama’s jobs bill
Wait, did I say Republicans? My bad:
Democratic leaders in the Senate are scrambling to avoid defections on President Obama’s jobs package, which appears headed for defeat on Tuesday.
A lack of Democratic unity on the president’s bill would be embarrassing for the White House, which has been scolding House Republicans for refusing to vote on the measure.
…
Democrats who will vote no or are leaning no include Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.), who all hail from red states and are up for reelection next year.
Of course, this inconvenient fact won’t keep B.O. or his minions from blaming Republicans rather than their own party. But the left is impervious to facts and truth, so this is no surprise.
If you want America to be as screwed as California, vote for Obama in 2012
That is the subject of this column by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), and it is absolutely brilliant. Please take the time to read it, because it is also a warning to Americans: If you want to avoid the disintegration of the once-Golden State from being exported to the other 56 states, you must vote out the Commie-in-Chief next year.
Excerpts:
I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer.
Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country.
…
Mark that well, because if we lose this struggle for the future of our country, you too someday will live in a California – only without the nice climate.
Bad policies. Bad process. Bad politics. Those are the three acts in a Greek tragedy that tell the tale of how, in the span of a single generation, the most prosperous and golden state in the nation became an economic basket case.
One of the results?
One thing – and one thing only – changed in those years: public policy. The political Left gradually gained dominance over California’s government and has imposed a disastrous agenda of radical and retrograde policies that have destroyed the quality of life that Californians once took for granted.
The Census bureau has reported for the better part of the decade that California is undergoing the biggest population exodus in its history, with many fleeing to such garden spots as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Think about that. California is blessed with the most equitable climate in the entire Western Hemisphere; it has the most bountiful resources anywhere in the continental United States; it is poised on the Pacific Rim in a position to dominate world trade for the next century, and yet people are finding a better place to live and work and raise their families in the middle of the Nevada Nuclear Test Range.
Ouch. So in light of this collapse, why has Californiastan insisted on sending liberals to Suckramento and D.C.? McClintock has a theory:
Last November, while the rest of the country was celebrating historic Republican gains (including a shift of 63 U.S. House Seats, six U.S. Senate Seats, 680 state legislative seats, 19 state legislatures and six governors), the statewide Republican ticket in California – despite massively outspending the Democrats in the best Republican year since 1938 – lost every statewide race and even lost ground in the state legislature.
Republicans nationally now hold more state legislative seats than in any year since 1928. In California, they hold fewer than at any time since 1978!
That is not because the voting population of California has lost its collective mind and it is not because the state is divinely ordained to be run by morons.
It happened because Dick Armey is right: “When we act like us we win, and when we act like them we lose.”
Republicans lost the 2006 and 2008 elections not because voters abandoned Republican principles, but because they looked at the Republicans and concluded that the Republicans had abandoned Republican principles.
Possibly. Or, perhaps he gives way too much credit to Californiastan’s residents.
I suspect that because of L.A., the San Fransicko Bay area, and Suckramento, the rest of the state is hopelessly lost to blue policies. When you have people who basically think “Sure, our economic policies are crap, but gay marriage and abortion rights are far more important to me than fiscal solvency”, there is virtually no way you can expect a collective wake-up call. The state losing its AAA bond rating did nothing to change that.
Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. I wonder, though, if Californians really do expect different results…or if they just don’t care if the results are different. Because hey, being broke and losing the producers to other stable and friendly states sure beats the other side “winning”, right?
Obama: My jobs bill will grow our GDP by 2%, and it will only cost us…3%
At a White House press conference on Thursday, President Barack Obama said the legislation he has proposed to create jobs could “grow the economy as much as 2 percent.” However, the White House estimates that the plan itself will cost $447 billion — or 2.97 percent of the 2011 GDP of $15.012 trillion that is currently projected by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
This mental midget has been a functional economic illiterate his whole life. Which was fine, when he was living within the ivory towers of academia and the cocoon of community organizing. But now that he’s exported his ignorance into America, we suffer greatly.
UPDATED: Administration learns from Solyndra scandal
UPDATES BELOW.
Learns nothing, that is. Here we go again:
The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.
The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.
Corruption. Incompetence. Crony capitalism. 2012 can’t get here soon enough.
UPDATE (09/29/2011 – 11:00 AM EST): As Kanaka Girl points out in the comments, the aforementioned Tonopah Solar Energy company getting $737 million in our money to fund 45 jobs (a bargain at $16.3+ million per job) has connections with Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law. Details here. Yep, Ron Pelosi is executive director of Pacific Corporate Group, an “investment partner” with Tonopah’s parent company SolarReserve. But hey, I’m sure this is just another big ol’ coinkidink and not a case of the crony capitalism we’ve come to expect from the Chicagoland Thug-in-Chief.
Obama to NC audience: You have 153 “structurally deficient” bridges. NC DoT: You’re about 153 bridges too high in your calculation.
Kinda reminds me of when he lamented the loss of 10,000 people in the Kansas tornado, when the number was 12. Not 12,000…but 12. A dozen. Kinda off by a few powers of 10, huh?
Anywho, B.O. is out there pitching his “jobs plan”, which is essentially Porkulus II (which worked so darned well the first time that they figured they oughta give it a whirl again). The latest:
Governor Perdue can tell you — there are a lot of roads and a lot of bridges that need fixing. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in schools and airports. All these things are in need of repair. In North Carolina alone, there are 153 structurally deficient bridges that need to be repaired.
The same Governor Perdue who said we ought to suspend elections so ObaMao can force more of his massively unpopular and wildly unsuccessful socialism down our throats? Boy, is this chick having a bad week or what?
DOT engineers and administrators are fielding calls about the president’s remarks, too. They say the bridges around the Beltline and across the state are safe.
“The key thing is: We don’t have any bridges that are about to fall,” said Wally Bowman, DOT’s division chief for Wake and six neighboring counties. “We don’t have any bridge out there that is structurally inadequate, where it cannot handle the traffic. We make sure those bridges stay in a good state of repair.”
So was it ignorance or lying? And is either acceptable?
Dem NC governor: Why don’t we suspend the Constitution so we can get stuff done?
Daily Caller has the story, as well as the audio. Excerpt:
f it was a joke, North Carolina Democratic Governor Bev Perdue needs to polish her delivery.
Newly released audio contradicts the claims of Perdue’s press team that her call Tuesday for suspending Congressional election was a joke or hyperbole. In the recording, her tone is matter-of-fact and her comments are part of a serious speech.
“Listen to the Governor’s words: She wasn’t joking at all,” North Carolina GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood told The Daily Caller. “The congressional Democrats are wildly unpopular in North Carolina, so she may have been trying to invent a solution to save their jobs from public accountability.”
“If it was a joke, what was the set-up?,” Lockwood adds. “What was the punch-line? Where was the pause for laughter? It took them three hours to say it was a ‘joke,’ but when that flopped it became ‘hyperbole.’ We’ll just call it an unconstitutionally bad idea.”
The spin from the left and the MSM (pardon the redundancy) is that the guv was “just kidding”. Seriously, the humor-impaired left is suddenly in tune with what is funny and what isn’t, and what is intended to be humor and what isn’t? Anywho, listen to the audio and judge for yourself.
I’m sure the goob(ernor) is worried mightily about her own hide and that of her fellow NC Democrats. Dems took a HUGE pounding in NC in 2010, and the state legislature turned red for the first time since Reconstruction. The new legislature is going to redraw districts in very red ways, too.
I’m not worried about elections being suspended because some leftist hayseed thinks they should be. No, this is just another example in an already-long list of them of leftists holding their own perceived intellect in such a delusional high regard and the intellect of the individual voter in such condescendingly low regard. Leftists know that their ways aren’t going to be embraced by Normal America, especially in the South, so they need to remove barriers to their socialist utopia…even/especially if the barriers are erected by the “great unwashed”.
Another Solyndra creditor? The California Democrat Party!
I’m sure this is a big coinkidink:
Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party.
Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn’t clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure.
The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing.
Under a policy first issued by the White House in 2009, federal agencies were required to disclose lobbying for stimulus funds. McBee Strategic Consulting, a lobby firm then under contract with Solyndra, said it had contacted the Energy Department in the first and third quarters of 2009 regarding the Recovery Act, according to records filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA).
Yet a review by The Hill of the more than 40 lobbyist contact disclosure forms regarding the stimulus posted online by the Energy Department reveals no contact between the department and Solyndra’s lobbyists.
The only capitalism that the Economic Illiterate in Chief and his party’s mouth-breathing retards understand is crony capitalism. And he’s not any good at that, either.
Once again, Chicagoland thugonomics on full display.
Democrats: We want jobs created! CEO: I was fined by the feds for creating jobs.
Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, tells Congress about his adventures in hiring. Video at RCP, an excerpt of which follows:
In my own business, securities regulations have prohibited me from hiring brokers for more than three years. I was even fined fifteen thousand dollar expressly for hiring too many brokers in 2008. In the process I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to mitigate a more severe regulatory outcome as a result of hiring too many workers. I have also been prohibited from opening up additional offices. I had a major expansion plan that would have resulted in my creating hundreds of additional jobs. Regulations have forced me to put those jobs on hold.
Huh. Regulations are job-killers? Who knew?
Howard Dean: Yeah, Obama was lying with “if you like your plan, you get to keep it!”
Story and video here. Details:
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman, and doctor, Howard Dean backed a McKinsey & Co. survey today that found that almost a third of private-sector employers will drop their employee health insurance coverage when Obamacare’s government-managed insurance exchanges come online.
Dean told Morning Joe, “The fact is it is very good for small business. There was a McKinsey study, which the Democrats don’t like, but I do, and I think its true. Most small businesses are not going to be in the health insurance business anymore after this thing goes into effect.”
The reason Democrats fought so hard to dismiss the McKinsey survey when it was released is because its conclusion undermines two major claims Obama made during health care debate: “If you like your health plan, you can keep it” and “It will not add one penny to the deficit.”
Fellow Morning Joe guest former New York Gov. George Pataki immediately hit the first point: “The only way its a help is if they drop coverage and their employees would all of a sudden have to go on the exchange, which is what of course the president promised wouldn’t happen.”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) premised their Obamacare score on the assumption that only 7 percent of employers would drop their employee health plans. If the percentage is closer to the 30 percent, as the McKinsey survey results predict, Obamacare’s price tag would rise by almost $1 trillion.
For the left, this is a feature and not a bug.
But hey, the feds have done such an awesome job managing the Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Amtrak, etc., so we can expect that same level of competence and efficiency when it comes to running our health care, right?
Yet another instance of “we have to pass the ObamaCare bill to see what’s in it” story
You know, I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion that lawmakers and the president didn’t actually read the ObamaCare bill before it was signed in to law. Latest development:
Even as leading Democrats offered assurances to the contrary, government experts repeatedly warned that a new long-term care insurance plan could go belly up, saddling taxpayers with another underfunded benefit program, according to emails disclosed by congressional investigators.
Part of President Barack Obama’s health care law, the program is in limbo as a congressional debt panel searches for budget savings and behind the scenes, administration officials scramble to find a viable financing formula.
A longstanding priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, or CLASS, was spliced into the health care law despite nagging budget worries. Administration emails and documents reveal that alarms were sounded earlier and more widely than previously thought. Congressional Republicans seeking repeal of the program provided the materials to The Associated Press.
“Seems like a recipe for disaster to me,” William Marton, a senior aging policy official in the administration, wrote in an October 2009 email. Marton explained his concern that large numbers of healthy people would not willingly sign up for CLASS, creating a predicament in which soaring premiums for a smaller group of frail beneficiaries would destabilize the program.
That central design flaw has dogged CLASS from the drawing board, and it may turn out to be insurmountable without making the program mandatory for most workers. CLASS remains vulnerable to repeal. (Another individual mandate? Huh. Imagine that. – CL)
Item #1 on the agenda on Jan. 21, 2013, unless the Supreme Court beats us to the punch: Repeal ObamaCare.
Quote of the day, “health care and socialism” edition
From the American Enterprise Institute:
Ironically, many of the problems in our current healthcare system that lead to demands for public policy fixes—the underpayment of primary care providers, overpayment for certain specialty procedures, excessive payments for medical supplies—actually originate in government-run health programs. Expecting things to get better by expanding the reach of government in medicine appears to be a triumph of hope over experience.
How odd! I mean, the government is so efficient with what it runs (Post Office, the VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Social Security, Medicare), so why shouldn’t we allow the feds to replicate the same level of success they’ve had in the aforementioned programs and agencies with respect to our health care system?
Obama’s new jobs proposal sounds awfully like old jobs proposal
It’s been his singular focus. Or something.
Bachmann: If elected, I will abolish the federal Dept. of Education
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the MSM and the left (pardon the redundancy) will have a conniption over this:
Painting herself as a “constitutional conservative” Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann told Sen. Jim DeMint’s forum Monday that if elected president she would look to get rid of the Department of Education, among other things.
“Because the Constitution does not specifically enumerate nor does it give to the federal government the role and duty to superintend over education that historically has been held by the parents and by local communities and by state governments,” she said, responding to a question by DeMint, a popular figure among the tea party movement.
Now I’ll admit that Bachmann is not my first, second, or even third choice among GOP prez hopefuls. That said, why would it be crazy to shiite-can the Dept. of Education?
First of all, there is no question that “one size fits all” when it comes to education is patently absurd. There is no way that D.C. can better manage schools than local and state governments can do.
Secondly, how did the republic survive before the Dept. of Ed was founded in 1980?
Thirdly, our nation’s test scores have dropped precipitously ever since D.C. created the behemoth. If you want to dismiss any cause-and-effect here, be my guest. But I won’t.
Finally, it’s clear that our Founding Fathers never intended for the federal government to meddle in educational affairs of cities, counties, and states. Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to educate your children or mine. Judging by how poorly educated our kids are in matters related to civics, I’d say that D.C. needs to butt out of molding our kids’ minds and let parents and local governments do our jobs. Everything D.C. touches turns to crap, anyway.
Obama’s crony capitalism fail: “green” energy company that got a half billion dollars of our money files for bankruptcy
Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus.
“I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave,” one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website.
Shortly after it opened a massive $700 million facility, it canceled plans for a public stock offering earlier this year and warned it would be in significant trouble if federal loan guarantees did not go through.
Well, fortunately, the leftist-in-chief had the foresight to keep taxpayer “stimulus” dollars away from this craphole. Or not.
Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said “it is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. And you guys all represent that. “
The federal government offered $535 million in low cost loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. NBC Bay Area has contacted the White House asking for a statement.
Huh. Seems like another “green jobs” boondoggle that blew up in his face. Go figure.
Obamanomics = Epic Fail.
Obama considers himself unpatriotic
Who am I to question B.O.’s patriotism? Well, it is not I who questions his patriotism…it is Chairman Zero himself.
To quote Joshua from War Games: “Shall we play a game?” Let’s look at an excerpt from a speech, edited (in bold) so as not to give away the punch line:
The problem is, is that the way the president has done it over the last few years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first X presidents – #X+1 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $X trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $X0,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.
So, which wingnut mouthed this drivel? That rightwing nutbar would be…candidate Barack Hussein Obama in 2008. Full quote, unedited:
The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.
Ergo, if Bush adding $4 trillion in debt in eight years makes him “unpatriotic”, then what does adding $4 trillion in 2.5 years make Oba-Mao?
Hypocrisy is a dish served cold.
Obama’s Ag Secretary: Sharp rise in food stamps is awesome, because it’s creating jobs!
Economic illiteracy is pandemic in the administration. But darn it, Vilsack has his talking points and he ain’t deviating from them! Observe:
Every $1 in food stamps creates $1.84 in the economy? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, dude? Using that pretzel logic, then, shouldn’t everyone ask for food stamps in order to push unemployment through the cellar?
The welfare state has expanded massively under Oba-Mao, and it is most certainly by design. They’ve been telling us that food stamps and unemployment benefits are huge stimulators of the economy, specifically in job creation, yet unemployment remains near 10% (closer to 20% when you count those who have abandoned looking for work or full-timers who have resorted to become part-timers). It’s a lie, and not a very believable one, too.
California: Hmm, it seems our “Amazon tax” is pushing businesses out of the state by the droves!
Who knew? I mean, besides all people who aren’t functional economic illiterates (which disqualifies California), who could have possibly seen this coming?
California recently instituted as part of its budget solution an “Amazon Tax” aimed at forcing out-of-state, online retailers with no physical presence in the Golden State to collect and remit sales tax in respect of goods sold to Californians where the retailer in question advertises, or maintains an “affiliate” referral relationship, with websites based within state lines.
How’s that working, Cali?
Prior to passage of the bill obligating collection and remittance in such circumstances, prominent online retailers including Amazon.com and Overstock.com had threatened to terminate relationships with affiliates, if the legislation became law. Now that it has, and affiliate relationships are being severed, something critics of the legislation say was entirely foreseeable is occurring: Online businesses and entrepreneurs are leaving the state, thus risking an actual reduction, as opposed to marginal increase, in California’s tax revenue.
…
Backers of the legislation seemed to believe that affiliates would be happy to work with other retailers who also operate affiliate programs, or that online retailers targeted by the law would not end affiliate relationships and the threat was idle.
In neither case do those assumptions now seem correct.
Cali: Man, our economy sucks! It continues to suck! Jobs evaporating, businesses moving, real estate collapsing, public union pensions pushing us to the precipice of bankruptcy…what can we do to stop this?
Normal America: Well, for starters, how about stop putting Democrats in charge every stinking election cycle?
Cali: That’s just crazy talk.
Florida passed a series of tax increases in the late 1980′s, when it had a Democratic legislature. One of them was to tax entry fees on freshwater fishing tournaments, such as those held by Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. BASS had tournaments every year in Florida, and those tourneys always generated plenty of tax revenue to cities and the state in the form of hotels, restaurants, stores, gas stations, etc. Taxing entry fees (which ranged from $500 – $1500) was a bit steep, especially since the fisherman were already spending a pantload of money. The libs refused to back down, and BASS pulled back on Florida tournaments. The state lost a ton of money, losing dollars because they were trying to collect dimes.
The GOP revolution of 1994 got people who understood how business and economics work into office. In 1997, the new budget repealed the stupid tax, and in 1998, BASS returned to Florida for tournaments. They even moved their headquarters to Celebration, FL, and brought about 200 jobs with them. Tax revenues increased as a result.
Liberals are married stubbornly to static tax analysis, the belief that taxing activity results in NO CHANGE WHATSOEVER to productive behavior. It’s quite simple, really: If you want less of an activity, tax it more. Businesses and wealthy individuals are intelligent enough to look out for their bottom lines, and if CA won’t help them with their bottom line, states like TX and FL are more than happy to help.
Obama comes up with new plan on how to tackle debt problem
And by “new plan”, I mean a new speech that says the exact same thing he’s always said: raise taxes. From Jen Rubin:
Obama had all weekend and the best he could come up with was a reiteration of his plea for a “balanced” approach to deficit control. That’s right. We have a tumbling stock market, over 9 percent unemployment and a flight to gold (some investment advisers say it will be at $2,500 per ounce by year’s end). All he can do is promise to raise taxes.
Now that’s not exactly right. He did trot out proposals for a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and extension of unemployment benefits. And he promised to make his own proposal to the debt committee. That’s it. It is what he has been saying for what seems like forever. He has nothing new.
Note he still offers no formal plan. He has put nothing in writing. He hasn’t even given an informal plan, really. Just “we need a balanced approach with modest reductions in Medicare spending”, or something to that effect.
Basically, here’s a general timeline of how this has transpired:
Paul Ryan: I’ve got a plan.
B.O. and the Dems: No. We’re going to go tell the American people that your plan sucks and that we need a balanced approach. But we’re not going to release a plan of our own.
House Republicans: We’ve got a plan. Cut, Cap, and Balance.
B.O. and the Dems: No. We’re going to go tell the American people something else.
House Republicans: Oh yeah? What might that be?
B.O. and the Dems: That your plan sucks and that we need a balanced approach. But we’re not going to release a plan of our own.
John Boehner: I’ve got a plan.
B.O. and the Dems: No. We’re going to go tell the American people something else.
John Boehner: Oh yeah? What might that be?
B.O. and the Dems: That your plan sucks and that we need a balanced approach. But we’re not going to release a plan of our own.
House and Senate: We’ve got a bill. Sign it, Mr. President.
B.O.: OK. After signing it, I need to address the American people.
House and Senate: OK. Out of curiosity, what are you going to tell them?
B.O.: That this bill sucks and that we need a balanced approach. But I’m not going to release a plan of my own.
S&P: We’re downgrading America’s bond rating.
B.O.: THAT does it! You’ve left me no choice! There’s only one thing left to do!
The world: What might that be?
B.O.: I’m going to tell the American people what needs to be done to rein in this debt mess.
The world: Finally! What is your plan?
B.O.: This debt problem sucks and we need a balanced approach. But I’m not going to release a plan of my own.
If you tell yourself a lie often enough, or if you live in a fantasy long enough, you convince yourself of a reality that doesn’t exist. That’s where ObaMao is right now. He keeps talking about raising taxes (which he playfully calls “a balanced approach”), knowing full well it isn’t going to happen. But he keeps talking about it, as if it were going to happen and that it’s just around the corner.
AP: The economy sucks because there’s no more federal government stimulus coming
Seriously? Is this a news story or a column by Paul Krugman? Nope, it’s allegedly “news”. Right out of the chute:
Shoppers won’t shop. Companies won’t hire. The government won’t spend on economic stimulus – it’s cutting instead. And the Federal Reserve is reluctant to do anything more.
Without much to invigorate growth, the economy may be in danger of slipping into a stupor like the one Japan has failed to shake off for more than a decade. And Wall Street is spooked.
Note how they set up their position. The economy is in the crapper because…
1. “Shoppers won’t shop”. OK, no one will argue that shoppers refusing to shop keeps the economy depressed.
2. “Companies won’t hire”. OK, no one will argue that the continuing unemployment problem, fueled by companies not hiring, keeps the economy depressed.
3. “The government won’t spend on economic stimulus – it’s cutting instead”. OK, no one will argue that…uh…wait a sec! Actually, based on the fact that the last “economic stimulus” didn’t do a friggin’ thing it advertised, I think I can safely say that most people will question the wisdom of government stimulus.
Then, notice how the second paragraph opens: “Without much to invigorate growth…” The clear implication here is that 1-3 above were all things that would “invigorate growth” if their reverses were true. In other words, we’d see “invigorated growth” if shoppers did shop, if companies would hire, and if the government would spend on economic stimulus. That’s the AP’s position, presented as three equally contributing factors to our current economic condition. But that’s like saying that a passenger plane crashed because the plane ran out of fuel mid-air, the flight crew all passed out, and the plane’s bathroom was out of toilet paper, when the latter had jack squat to do with the crash.
Nope…no liberal media bias!
GM business savvy about what you’d expect from Government Motors
The Chevy Volt is selling like hotcakes! OK, more like those little silver dollar pancakes the kiddies can handle. From The Weekly Standard:
The July sales numbers are out and the Chevy Volt continues to electrify (get it?) the country. GM sold … 125 Volts last month!
Really? A whole 125? No comma needed to report the number sold? Continuing:
Way back in March I made fun of the Volt for selling 281 units in February. Turns out, February was a good month. But wait, there’s more! GM says they’re going to increase production to 5,000 Volts per month in order to keep up with demand. You see, they claim that the reason the Volt isn’t selling is that they can’t keep enough cars on the lot. A GM spokeswoman recently claimed that they are “virtually sold out.”
Oh, I see. They’ve only sold about 3,000 (the comma is optional) Volts total, which means they must ramp that up to…5,000 Volts…per month!
Well, at least they are “virtually sold out”…or not.
Which is virtually true. Mark Modicacalled around his local Chevy dealers and found plenty of Volts waiting for an environmentally conscious driver to bring them home.
All told, GM has sold close to 2,700 Volts. (Funny aside: There’s a Volt in my neighborhood and a Volt that parks in my garage at work. So I see almost 0.1 percent of all the Volts in America on a daily basis.) But hey, the EV future is just around the corner.
Government Motors. Nuff said.
RNC ad: Recovery? What recovery?
I guess the “recovery” the Dems are telling us about.
Rubio schools Kerry on debt issue
This is a 14:00 video clip, but trust me when I say that it is worth every stinking second! My man-crush on Marco Rubio grows after this clip of the junior Senator from Florida humiliating Jean-Francois Heinz-Kerry (who is rumored to have served in Vietnam).
If you’re of the ADHD variety, then jump to about 7:49 in the clip, where Lurch interrupts Rubio to ask one of his two questions. Takeaway quote: “To the Senator from Massachusetts, I would say that it is impossible to negotiate with someone who doesn’t have a plan.”
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