Delusions of Competence

It is no mere coincidence that the updated jobless numbers were released this Friday before a long holiday weekend. The ObamaNation would rather not trumpet the fact that 125,000 more people are without work and the unemployment rate still hovers around 10%.

If too many people were focused on the report, they might start asking questions. And, the answers would inevitably reveal that things are even worse than the official statistics. The truth is there are more like 24 million unemployed and underemployed, a much higher rate of misery.

This is not the sort of "hope and change" they promised, is it?

Poor Christina Romer. She's the unfortunate soul who chairs the president's Council of Economic Advisors. So, it was her unenviable task to spin the dismal results of her advice on all the cable news outlets today. When the folks at Bloomberg TV pressed her on what the administration is going to do now, her frightening response was: "We're always talking about what more we can do."

What MORE they can do?!?

One might argue that all the tinkering they've already done is exactly what is prolonging this great recession. And, if they want the business environment to improve, the best thing they could do would be to exercise restraint. Romer et al would do us all a great service if they encouraged the president to pursue a simple three-point strategy on the economy: (1) extend the low '01 & '03 tax rates, (2) stop discouraging banks from lending, and (3) repeal the many and onerous mandates of ObamaCare.

Instead, she is busy sputtering her flimsy defenses and laughable claims that her boss still has job creation at the top of his agenda.

Actions speak louder than words.

Since taking office, Mr. Obama has made socialized medicine and relaxed immigration policy his primary domestic concerns, not job creation.

Today's jobless numbers reflect that misdirected focus.

And, don't even get me started on the Gulf oil leak. It is, after all, the Friday before a long holiday weekend . . .

My congressman is indeed nuts . . .

I just don't see how Alan Grayson was ever elected to public office in the first place, but we've been stuck with his "representation" of this little corner of heaven for the better part of the worst year and a half we've seen since the Great Depression.

I cringe every time I see his goofball image pop-up on a tv screen, because I know he's going to say something even more preposterous and embarassing than he has already done to bring shame on his Central Florida constituents.

Well, the latest shenanigans invaded my Sunday routine when he got his mug on my favorite CBS morning show.

Now, I realize that a lot of folks around here depend on the tourits industry, and they've been suffering greatly during the ObamaNation's lurch toward socialism.

Perhaps that is why Mr. Grayson was on the airwaves this morning, pimping his latest scheme to mandate paid vacations?

I know, I know. I'm a Grinch. But, can somebody out there explain to me just when exactly did it become the purview of the federal government of the United States of America to decree what has always been a "perk" voluntarily agreed-upon in the free market would henceforth be an entitlement?!

What's that? Oh . . . yes . . . I suppose January 2009 WOULD be a likely timeframe . . .

Seriously, Gibbs . . . it HAS been a month, already!

Were any of ye socks at least a little bit stunned by the White House press secretary's behavior at today's news conference?

No?

OK, maybe, yours truly is too tuned-in to the ongoing saga that is the Gulf oil spill and the never-ending series of flubbed efforts to stem the flow of the disaster.

Despite making somewhat disturbing remarks early on in the crisis about putting boots on necks, the federal response has been a disappointment to a lot of folks.

Not yours truly, mind you. I never have very high expectations from government, particularly this administration.

But, as Robert Gibbs wiped away his fop sweat today, I hope that was the conclusion of more folks out there. Despite their bluster/rhetoric, government is NOT capable of handling every situation. Nor should it be.

And, that applies to a whole host of issues, not just environmental disasters.

I suppose I should feel SOME relief . . .

I didn't wait until the very last minute to mail off my tax return for 2009.

It got stamped and posted this afternoon.

I suppose I should be kicking myself in the rump for not filing sooner, as it looks like I should get a pretty decent refund this year.

Still, it's hard to get overly-excited.

I mean, yeah, I'm getting SOME of what DC swiped from my paycheck all year.

But, they're still holding on to the lion's share of that money pile.

And, it just feels like it's all being flushed down one big toilet bowl . . .

I suppose this is hope and change?!

Frightening how history repeats itself sometimes . . .

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."

---Cicero, 55 BC.

March Madness

Having had another 24 hours to further digest the recent constitutional travesty, I am pleased to see our state's attorney general Bill McCollum is taking the lead on filing a lawsuit against the ObamaNation's stealth scare scheme.

Florida, along with eleven other states (so far!) have filed suit in federal court at Pensacola, claiming the socialist agenda is unconstitutional. I'm pleased to see the AG from Louisiana, a Democrat, standing by our side on this one.

Virginia, for a variety of reasons, has filed a separate suit up in Richmond. The basis of their claim is that the mandates issued from on high by Pelosi, Reid, and their ilk, conflicts with existing state law.

Furthermore, it is my understanding that at least 32 other states have either put into place, or are in the process of creating, legislative and constitutional challenges in a variety of forms.

So, America isn't just sitting back and taking it.

I love it!

It sounds like this version of "March madness" may just be settled in the courts, too!

Hope and change, y'all!

Rights vs entitlements

What a travesty last night's vote in Congress was.

Simply put, it is the product of ignorance.

I'm not saying the perpetrators of Socialized Stealth Scare are ingorant. Far from it. Rather, the people who drink their KoolAid are the real dopes.

For instance, let's clarify the definitions of the words "right" and "entitlement."

Rights are endowed by our Creator. They are inalienable. They are NOT granted to you by the government. You are born with them.

Entitlements are simply government hand-outs. They are given or taken away at the whim of our illustrious leaders.

Of course, Socialists have been purposely using the word "right" for "entitlement" for many years, and not just as relates to Stealth Scare.

Back in the days of the late great Soviet Union, they decreed every comrade had the "right" to free food.

Those of us with a little gray hair remember how well that worked for them. Everytime we saw a news report about a grocery store in Moscow, it showed lines of people snaking around a city block. And, when the reporter asked them what they were waiting for, they never knew. They just figured since everyone else was in line . . .

Eerily similar to what's going on in the ObamaNation, no?!

I fear we have not only trashed the Constitution, but have also bankrupted ourselves and future generations . . . wonder if our unborn great-grandchildren are experiencing buyers remorse this morning?!?

I guess they're entitled to feel that way . . .

Debt kills

As the disaster in Haiti continues to unfold, television viewers here in the United States are getting a crash course in the island nation's history.

The historical tidbit that gained my particular attention was the stinging indictment of the French that appeared on CBS news.

That may be in part to my natural predisposition against French politics.

Anyway, it turns out that Napoleon and his successors put a 150 million franc stranglehold on the emerging democracy back in 1825.

This was supposed to be for reparations the French slaveholders "suffered" during the Haitian revolution.

The slaves themselves received no reparations for their years of forced servitude.

Anyway, it took Haiti more than a century to pay off that staggering mountain of debt . . . 1947 to be exact.

I'm not saying that Haiti could have emerged as the proverbial shining beacon of light to the rest of the world if not for French extortionists, but we Americans could learn a vital lesson from this bit of history about the long-lasting impacts of carrying a massive national debt . . .

Get ready to get scrooged.

In case ye socks ever doubted the fact that The ObamaNation is completely out-of-step with the real concerns of the American people, I offer you the following poll results.

53% of the American people put the economy & jobs at the top of the national priority list.

Yet, the current occupant of the White House is spending most of his time pimping his global redistribution of wealth plan as THE answer to global warming (an issue only 2% of us put atop said priority list).

And, his minions in Congress are ramming thru their stealth scare legislation in the middle of a blizzard, thumbing their noses at the typical holiday recess.

Only 10% of us put health care reform atop the national agenda. Even that is a misnomer. Health care in this country is the best to be found anywhere in the world. Access to it, and affordability are the things that really need to be reformed. And, you don't accomplish that by socializing the delivery mechanisms.

Yet, this is the path we are on. Printing up more greenbacks to hand out to developing countries so they will halt development in the Quixotic pursuit of global cooling. And, the double-whammy, we're poised to hand over 1/6 of our national economy to the DC beltway brain trust.

Yeah, those things will kickstart the economy and put people back to work.

Hope and change?!

The ObamaNation's impression of itself

Were any of ye socks as stunned as yours truly was to hear tonight that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue gave himself high marks for his track record to date?

Seriously.

He told his guru/benefactor Oprah that he would give himself a B+.

Self-deluded much?

I mean, really, how do you get that kind of a grade with only a 46% approval rating?

When I was going to school back in the Stone Age, a 46% was pretty much an F-.

He must be grading on one heck of a curve.

I tried to engage in some Al Gore style fuzzy math to figure it out, but got about as far as his presidential ambitions.

For instance, I'm willing to concede that roughly 25% of the population is never going to approve of the ObamaNation.

And, I figure there's another 25% who will always goosestep behind this guy, or any other Democrat for that matter.

So, really, you'd have to grade him on how well he's doing with the remaining 50% in the middle.

Well, by my caluclations, 46% - 25% loyal supporters = 21% real approval rating x 2 = 42% of actual middle of the road type folks.

But, that result is even worse than the poll numbers, and still yields a big fat F-.

Hmmm . . .

While you were sleeping . . .

Sneaker . . . er Speaker . . . of the House Nancy Pelosi pulled a fast one on you, America.

Borrowing a page out of the Mussolini and Hitler play book on national socialism, she rammed an unconstitutional piece of tripe disguised as healthcare reform legislation through Congress in the middle of the night.

You know, if it won't bear the light of day, then vote on it when the public is fast asleep.

And, I suppose that's the problem, isn't it? We all need to wake up and stop the madness.

Pelosi and her goose-stepping goon squad, with a FIVE VOTE MARGIN, rushed-thru roughly 2,000 pages of incomprehensible gobbledy-gook with a price tage of $1.2 trillion.

Mark my words, ye socks, unless cooler heads prevail in the Senate, this assault on America's fragile economy will:

1. sink small business

2. cause our already astronomical deficit to soar to dizzying new heights

3. force us all to buy insurance policies from Washington

4. cut Medicare spending by $400 billion.

Hope and change = dope and deranged.

A grim anniversary

Yes, ye socks, it has now been one year since our great experiment in democracy was hijacked.

Hope and change, indeed.

More like "dope and deranged."

One year and trillions of dollars in spending later, GM now stands for Government Motors.

Unemployment tops 10%.

And, The ObamaNation's minions in Congress are poised to socialize another 1/6th of the US economy.

:(

Jimmy Carter: Racism Czar?

Just when I was sure that Ben Bernanke was the biggest nut to step off the crazy bus this week, our illustrious former president Jimmy Carter has once again astounded the nation with his brilliant insights on racism.

In fact, this "elder statesman" has made so many profound remarks on the topic over the years, it would be little wonder if The ObamaNation with its penchant for putting unelected jackasses into positions of power doesn't quickly name the former peanut farmer its new "racism czar."

After listening to the "man from Plains," how could any of ye socks doubt that any disagreement with the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue must boil down to color?

Remember, this is the guy who once accepted the endorsement of Georgia's segregationist governor Lester Mattox with the statement, "I hope to live up to his standard."

Oh, and let us not forget his masterpiece on the subject of racism, "Palestine," which has garnered him the accolades of every anti-Semite from Osama bin Laden on down the list.

I would suggest to Jimmy-Boy that the color issue is not simply one of black and white. Instead, I think HellCare and the other socialist proposals flowing out of DC lately are what is provoking outspoken opposition to The ObamaNation. People beyond the beltway are seeing RED, not black or white.

A suggestion to Anheuser Busch

Is it just yours truly, or is there electricity in the air on this Beer Summit Eve?

Now, I know a lot of ye socks have criticized The ObamaNation for hosting this event at all. And, I understand the reasons for believing it is beneath the dignity of the White House to get involved in a petty issue like the scrap between Professor Henry Gates and Officer James Crowley--much less propose to act as referee over adult beverages.

I don't know why folks are getting upset now, since we now have a pretty good explanation why we've seen such interesting behavior in and around the executive mansion in recent months: beer!

Is that whole multi-trillion dollar deficit thing beginning to make sense to you now?

And, you thought they were just drunk on their own power as they went about shackling us and future generations with staggering debt and concocted schemes to hijack Wall Street, Detroit, and the nation's healthcare system!

It was just the beer talking, all along!

But, here's my thought. The problem here isn't too much drinking in the West Wing. Rather, there's not been enough!

If we could just convince a patriotic distributor to commit to delivering a keg or two to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue every day, maybe these jackasses* would get plowed and pass out before they could do any more damage!

(* The term jackasses was not used here to offend, but rather as a reference to the reigning party's mascot. And, no, that's not Ted Kennedy . . . though, he does know a little bit about drinking to excess . . . )

And, while they're at it, maybe they could drop a couple off at the other end of The Mall to keep our illustrious legislators busy, too . . .

ABC = All Barack Channel

If ye socks haven't heard this one, yet, it's probably because you've been getting your "news" spoon-fed to you by ABC.

Apparently, they have agreed to give the ObamaNation a free 90-minute infomercial disguised as a town hall meeting to pimp socialized medicine.

It won't be a very good disguise, though.

In real town hall meetings, there's a good cross-section of the community present. And, they don't all march lock step behind The Benevolent Leader like a bunch of Maoist lemmings.

ABC has explicitly said they will not only disallow those who oppose socialized medicine from offereing a rebuttal, they won't even be allowed to attend. Period.

I'm not much one for boycotts, but this sort of behavior does not deserve to be rewarded.

Ironically, in my search to find out who was underwriting this free infomercial for the ObamaNation, I discovered a lot of pharmaceutical types on the list. Hmmmm . . .

Check it out for yourselves at: http://www.nationalcenter.org/ABCNewsSponsors.html

Hope and change!

Well, ye socks, good news!

Barack Obama only let 1/16th of his term expire before he convened his first full cabinet meeting! That's right, "only" three months have elapsed since his glorious coronation . . . er . . . innauguration.

He's really hitting the ground running, isn't he?

But, the icing on the cake that was today's meeting of the minds was the executive order to cut $100 million out of the federal budget.

Can you imagine what a positive impact this 0.0025% cut in government spending is going to have on our economy?

Such thrift! Such fiscal discipline! Let's all shout it from the mountain tops!

ObamaNation discourages charitable donations

I just got done watching the president explain how he's going to tax us back into prosperity by soaking the rich.

His new "plan" employs the typical old Democratic hyperbole and class warfare by promising to "soak the rich."

This time around, they want to disallow deductions for the top 3% of earners in this country--you know, the people who make roughly HALF of the charitable contributions. At least, they do now.

They estimate this will put $10 billion into the hands of federal bureaucrats to dole out in their oh-so-efficient manner.

What they don't like to mention is where that money would have been sent if it wasn't going to Washington:

* churches
* universities
* medical research
* hospitals
* food programs
* cultural institutions
* international relief organizations

But, I suppose that's in the best interest of the ObamaNation. Why should folks look to the private sector when they can be dependant on Big Brother?

Stop the madness!

ObamaNation's first big constitutional crisis

Well, ye socks, yesterday the red herring throwers that yours truly mentioned in earlier posts succeeded in ramrodding a resolution thru the House of Representatives to retroactively impose a 90% tax on AIG bonus recipients.

The vote on HR1586 was overwhelming, 328-93. Shame on members of the loyal opposition who marched in lock-step behind the "democratic" majority!

If anything like this resolution reaches the oval office and is signed into law by El Presidente, it will be nothing short of unconstitutional and will demand an appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Thank God that George W. Bush got Justices Roberts and Alito on the bench before he left office. They may be the last line of defense against the irrational socialist juggernaut.

I maintain that all of this political theater is disingenuous in the extreme, meant to distract the public's attention from the fact that the bailout bonuses were approved by the ObamaNation's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The legislation that ok'd them was shepherded thru Congress by one of the administration's most capable minions, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. And, the bill with that provision was signed into law by El Presidente himself! So, why all the outrage?!

I guess the lesson here is what the ObamaNation gives you today can and will be arbitrarily taken back tomorrow.

If we open the door to retroactive and punitive taxes to satisfy every outrage these socialists can gin-up with their herring tossing hi-jinks, just how far back will they go?!

I'm afraid the sky's the limit with these folks. And, that's why they've got to be stopped.

Hope and change . . .

What's good for Wall Street is good for Capitol Hill

Yours truly had an epiphany last night while watching coverage of the idiots running our nation into the ground trying to justify why they should be in charge of deciding how people's compensation packages are structured.

They are so convincing with their arguments that those dastardly employees of AIG should give back their bonus money. They are so righteous in declaring support of salary caps for executives.

That's when it hit me. Something about a goose and a gander.

Why don't we start capping politicians' salaries, too?! I mean they are just as responsibile, if not MOST responsible, for the financial mess we are currently experiencing.

My sanctimonious, narrow-minded, and heavy-handed approach would work something like this.

Since the pols live and die by the polls anyway, let's tie their pay to their public approval ratings (PAR's)!

Say a given office pays a $100,000 salary, but the sycophant that occupied said office only has a 50% approval rating. The PAR adjusted salary would only be $50,000. And, the difference could revert back to the treasury to offset the massive "stimulus" plans of the ObamaNation!

Hope and change!

AIG Bonus Outrage is a Red Herring

All the bluster and hyperbole coming out of DC about the $165 million bonus money being paid by recently-bailed-out AIG is a load of tripe.

First, and foremost, AIG is contractually bound to pay that money and would be in violation of Connecticut law if they failed to do so.

Second, the total spent on bonuses represents less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the $173 BILLION in "bail-out" money AIG received.

If taxpayers really want to get angry about something, let's talk about the $172,835,000,000 that the feds in all their wisdom forced AIG to take without so much as getting the company's shareholders to vote whether or not they wanted to accept it.

The fact is, the ObamaNation has been preaching the twin lies of a "systemic risk" and "rogue executives" who managed to slip thru the cracks of weak regulations. And, forcing AIG to take the money was nothing short of a hostile takeover by the government. They hijacked a multi-billion dollar international corporation, and used it as a funnel for redistributing wealth. Remember, by their own admission, $120 billion of the $173 billion they gave to AIG actually ended up in the hands of other banks and local governments--not to mention the billions more that ended up in the hands of FOREIGN institutions. AIG's net "bail-out" was only a fraction of the sum over which the herring throwers would have us all wringing our hands.

If the media would stop basking in the glow of their Messiah, they might ask him and his minions exactly what "system" was at risk and required government involvement. It certainly was not the capitalist system, whereby those who make poor decisions have to suffer the consequences.

Furthermore, it's absolute balderdash to claim there isn't enough government regulation of our financial services. In the case of AIG, the SEC and the Office of Thrift Supervision both had direct oversight, a responsibility they took quite seriously. And that was just the federal layer of government that was watching their every move. On the state level, it was the oh-so-ethical watchdog Eliot Spitzer, then New York's attorney general, whose "oversight" marked the decline of the financial giant.

In March 2005, Spitzer pressured AIG to fire its CEO Hank Greenburg over accounting practices he couldn't comprehend. This accomplished, he never pursued the charges . . . probably because he knew he couldn't argue his case intelligently. But, the damage was done to AIG's credit rating, denying them the ability to get favorable terms from their creditors, and leading them to begin investing in risky derivatives.

Bigger government is not the answer to this question, or most others for that matter. Stop the madness! Return AIG and other "recipients" of government takeover money back into private hands as soon as possible. And, stop the aforementioned bluster and hyperbole. It's disingenuous in the extreme.