Mass SNAFU

Paul Ryan hands Chris Matthews his lunch

Chris Matthews had Representative Paul Ryan on his show and predictably attempted to cross up the GOP' rising fiscal star throughout the interview. Ryan, to his credit, stuck to his roadmap providing - gasp! - facts and a concrete plan toward deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility. Matthews, as a result, came off looking like the far left hack that he is, and could obviously care less about Ryan's plan.  Matthews was simply trying to set him up.

From NewsBusters:

As NewsBusters points out, Matthews behavior toward Ryan is the new norm from those on the the left who have driven this economy into the ditch.  They continue to blather on about how the GOP hasn't any answers for our economic woes even though the GOP - as Rep. Ryan eloquently displayed above - has been trying to tell these morons what to do for close to two years now.  

And as Matthews so ignorantly demonstrated in the video, they just don't want to listen.

John Kerry: “Peasants please, do as I say and not as I do”

The yacht pictured above belongs to Senator John Kerry but for some reason, the senior senator from Massachusetts has decided to berth his new toy in Rhode Island, and not in his home state.  Considering his summer home is in Nantucket, Massachusetts - an island with more than ample dock space - why wouldn’t he just keep it there?  Could this be tax related?

Yes sir. From the Boston Herald:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

The Herald reports that the yacht’s approximate $7 million price tag and Massachusetts 6.25% sales tax would have cost Kerry $437,500.  He would also be responsible for $70,000 a year in excise taxes.  Rhode Island? Kerry pays nothing but the slip fee.

So, the man who has been one of the ardent backers of excessive tax policy is skirting the taxes that he has supported, proving two points he has long denied: 1) a high sales tax forces business out of state, and 2) higher taxes do not increase revenue for the government.

Thank you Senator Kerry.  Your actions, as always, speak louder than your words.

The political climate is so bad ...

... that everyday people - some completely clueless - are stepping up in an effort to change it:

With a platform that includes planting "grass or vegetation" and eliminating traffic stops, Mr. Marceaux may appeal to a large audience and transcend party lines.  Could he be the great uniter the electorate has been seeking?

Unemployment in perspective. A really, really negative perspective.

So how bad is the unemployment picture right now?  Well, let’s look at it in terms of median duration of unemployment (UEMPMED) from this chart via Derek Thompson at the Atlantic:

  

Now that’s a hockey stick and not exactly “heading in the right direction” as President Obama likes to claim, now is it?  As a matter of fact,  the UEMPMED is so bad, it is nearly twice as high today than at anytime since the 60’s when the chart starts tracking the stat.  Also notice the gaps between the peaks and the end of their respective recessions - with history as our benchmark, we're on a runaway train with no sign of a slow down.  Not good news, no matter what's being spewed out of the White House.

And the problem is, it’s only going to get much worse.  Nothing this administration is doing is going to create jobs in the private sector.  With the uncertainty of ObamaCare on the horizon, a plethora of new regulations in play, and the largest tax increase in US history 5 months away, businesses will be keeping their capital on the sidelines and their risk taking in check, thank you very much.

And with that comes a lack of growth and zero job creation which means a new norm of 10% unemployment as long as this president is allowed to produce this very unfriendly business climate. For those of you who are part of that chart, keep that in mind while in the voting booth in 4 months, and especially in 2012.

Fool me once, shame on you ... Fannie and Freddie are back!

According to a new watchdog report, government funded support of the financial system increased by $700 billion this year alone, bringing the total amount spent to bailout the system to $3.7 trillion.  Can you take one wild guess as to whom received the majority of that $700 billion increase?  From Reuters:

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government's pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market.

Increased guarantees for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Government National Mortgage Association and the Veterans administration increased the government's commitments by $512.4 billion alone in the year to June 30, according to the report.

"Indeed, the current outstanding balance of overall Federal support for the nation's financial system...has actually increased more than 23% over the past year, from approximately $3.0 trillion to $3.7 trillion -- the equivalent of a fully deployed TARP program -- largely without congressional action, even as the banking crisis has, by most measures, abated from its most acute phases," the TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, wrote in the report.

So Fannie and Freddie - all but ignored in the recent financial reform package - rear their ugly heads again to the tune of half a trillion of our tax dollars.  The two GSE's are starting to become like the post office - as in always in need of a bailout - yet with the power to force all of us to pay our idiot neighbor's mortgage, and destroy the financial system in the process.  They're one of the main reasons we're in this mess in the first place and are now being encouraged to repeat the same mistakes.  Big government is so ridiculously stupid awesome!

And just for kicks, criticism was also lobbed at the administration’s failed housing programs: 

Barofsky also in the report ramped up his criticism of the Treasury's housing relief efforts, saying that its program to reduce monthly mortgage payments for struggling homeowners was showing "anemic" participation numbers and had failed to "put an appreciable dent in foreclosure filings."

You know why?  Because no one has a freaking job!  No matter how much your mortgage may be reduced, if your making zero, you can’t pay it.  It makes more sense to just walk away from it.  The result being record foreclosures.  Barofsky also noted the program's complete lack of "transparency and accountability," something that is rapidly becoming a staple of this administration in everything it does. 

The reality is that government intervention – through social engineering programs like the Community Reinvestment Act -  caused this mess we’re in today, and government intervention is now preventing the free market from getting us out of the mess these myopic bureaucrats created.  Mortgage bailouts, home buyer tax credits, cash for clunkers – all of it, is just making matters worse, increasing our debt and prolonging the recovery. 

Throw in Obama’s unfriendly, pro-tax business policies that have eliminated risk taking and stunted growth and you have one hell of a vicious cycle occurring right now.

Can you imagine how great government run health care is going to be with these idiots behind the wheel?

The NAACP shell game

The NAACP recently threatened a condemnation of the Tea Party movement as a racist entity, even though they don’t have any evidence to actually support that claim.  Oh well, as I like to say, when a liberal arbitrarily calls you a racist, it’s usually indicative of said liberal losing the argument, so in this case it’s probably a good thing.

Andrew Breitbart released a video yesterday that shows USDA official Shirley Sherrod describing, to a very content NAACP audience, how she discriminated against a farmer based on his white skin color:

Sherrod claims she was forced to resign by the Obama administration shortly after the video was released, even though she feels she did nothing wrong.  She is claiming that the story is from 1986 and was using it as an example of how she learned to unite and not divide and that the full video will show the true context.  In a twist, the white farmer in question is supporting her and claims Sherrod worked tirelessly with him.  Kind of sounds like she may be exonerated in all of this, even though she is now part of the 9.5% looking for work.

Even so, the NAACP quickly released a statement condemning her comments and the reaction of the NAACP members in the audience:

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.

The reaction from many in the audience is disturbing. We will be looking into the behavior of NAACP representatives at this local event and take any appropriate action.

The NAACP then released a statement retracting their first statement claiming they had been “snookered” by Fox News and Breitbart.  Our post-racial White House with the backbone of a jellyfish is now denying it had anything to do with the resignation, and is putting full blame on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.   Mr. Vilsack, you have just been thrown under the bus, Chicago style.

All the plot thickening however, is missing the larger point here: The quick initial reaction of the NAACP to slam Sherrod  without having all the facts or the full context of the video, stinks to high heaven.  When have they ever slammed an African American without having all the facts?  Quick answer: Never.

This is the same group that lobbied the DOJ to drop the New Black Panther voter intimidation case – one in which the guilt was clear - and is currently on a mission to create racist Tea Partiers out of thin air. Recent publicity has not been good, to say the least.

So Shirley Sherrod was used as a convenient sacrificial lamb in a time of crisis for this group in order to promote the NAACP’s propaganda campaign of its, ahem, zero tolerance policy on racism. Slamming her was also a good way to get the focus off their race hustle and their piss-poor reputation overall, which has been less than stellar of late.

With his poll numbers in the tank and an economy in ruins, Obama blames the rich

Things not going quite the way you envisioned, champ?  Well, with the midterm elections less than four months away and public support looking pretty bleak, it might just be time to dig deep into the liberal playbook and enact some class warfare:

President Barack Obama stepped up criticism of Republicans on Saturday for blocking jobless aid, hammering home a Democratic election year attack line that casts the opposition as the party of the rich.

"Too often, the Republican leadership in the United States Senate chooses to filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress. And that has very real consequences," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Or, they might just want to cap the spending spree that has resulted in record deficits and a $13 trillion national debt.  The latest obstruction that Captain Kick Ass references is the Democratic idea of stimulus, er, the extension of unemployment insurance.  Fiscally prudent individuals – in this case, those evil, rich Republicans – realize that taking money from those that work and giving it to those who do not results in an economic wash as far as a stimulus goes.

Furthermore, these same Republicans also realize that the longer you pay someone not to work, the less incentive they have to actually go out and find work, which often times ends up in higher unemployment.  Even far-left economists like Paul Krugman used to agree with that premise. From his textbook, Macroeconomics:

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

Of course, with a Democrat in office, Krugman no longer feels that way and has championed the liberal cause of handing poor people money in exchange for votes, but I digress. 

The point of the matter is that  the government has a duty to provide unemployment benefits as a temporary aid to help people get back on their feet and to do so in a fiscally responsible manner.  It is not the government’s responsibility however, to create a nanny state dependent on a permanent source of income from the government under the guise of unemployment insurance.

But back to the strategy of casting Republicans as the "party of the rich."  Does it make a lot of sense for a guy who flew his dog out to the family vacation on a separate plane to pursue that tact?  Sometimes the limousine liberal is simply incapable of realizing their own hypocrisy and the unintended comedy is priceless.

Unemployment near 10%. Obama's dog gets his own airplane.

Seriously, Bo, the Obama family dog, flew into Maine for the family vacation on his own plane.  From Maine’s Morning Sentinel:

The president was the first to walk onto the tarmac, dressed casually in a pale blue Oxford shirt and khakis. A few minutes later, the first lady, dressed in black capris, a tank-top and sandals, walked onto the runway. Shortly afterward, Malia and Sasha joined their parents. [...]

Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Meanwhile, food stamp use is at an all time high and almost 3 out of 10 Americans are underemployed or not working at all, but why beat a dead horse?  We're in Recovery Summer, baby!  And dogs fly solo when the good times roll!

Granted, POTUS had to fly to Maine in a plane smaller than Air Force One due to the size of the airport but still, it’s a dog.  You couldn’t fit him in your rather roomy G3 Gulfstream, Mr. President?  I bet the golf clubs fit.

Anyway, let’s not forget the environmental impact of this.  Carbon pawprints are often overlooked by an ignorant, planet-destroying public. That little rug rat just killed some crops in Africa with his selfish act.  Can we PLEASE start holding these elitist canines accountable for their carbon outputs and planetary damage? 

It’s the only way we’re going to keep the ocean from rising into Al Gore’s beachfront living room.

Cool theory: Toy Story 3 a fable for our current political climate?

 

David Harsanyi at Reason.com breaks down the plot from Toy Story 3 and it certainly does sound a wee bit familiar:

Think about it. A slick sloganeering teddy bear convinces a gaggle of beleaguered toys that he holds the key to a brighter future. The toys, longing for leadership after years of broken promises and incompetence, uncritically submit to the teddy bear's vision.

Before long, even non-Ivy Leaguers like Mr. Potato Head, Rex, and Slinky catch on. All creeds of plaything are forced to sacrifice liberty and happiness for the collective good—as imagined by a technocratic leader, his feckless vice-leader (a Ken doll), and their muscle (a giant baby doll).

First there is concern and then anger and then revolt. Even Barbie—having shown no interest in political activism for more than 50 years—unleashes the best line in the history of animated films: "Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!"

Sacrificing "liberty and happiness for the collective good" has been the hidden foundation of the Obama agenda ever since he slipped up with the wealth redistribution comment to Joe the Plumber.  The focus on the “collective good” and being our brothers keepers has been the common denominator in everything from healthcare and financial reform to the mortgage bailouts.  Punishing success and rewarding failure has been the subliminal theme in just about everything this administration has done.

And, come to think of it, the “consent of the governed” has been noticeably absent in the majority of President Obama’s moves throughout his first 18 months as POTUS, as he has been successful in pushing unpopular legislation down the throats of an unwilling electorate.  

We currently live in an age where the government knows what’s best for all us apparently, no matter how much us drooling idiots may disagree and yeah, Toy Story 3 does a pretty good job of subconsciously putting that fact out there.

74% of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect at all

 

Smart people, those Americans.  It seems as if they’re not buying the complete bullshit rhetoric coming out of Washington that the economy is heading in the right direction and that the stimulus worked economic wonders.  Near 10% unemployment, record deficits, and a $13,000,000,000,000 national debt will tend to do that, but I digress.

Anyway, a new poll released today at CBS shows Americans don't really believe that spending close to a $trillion on repaving roads that didn’t need to be repaved worked all the economic magic they've been told:

Twenty-three percent say the stimulus package made the economy better - down from 32 percent in April and 36 percent last September. Eighteen percent say the stimulus package damaged the economy, while 56 percent say it had no effect.

The president's job approval rating on the economy now stands at 40 percent - a drop of five points from last month. Fifty-four percent disapprove of his handling of the issue.

And the overall mood on the economy as a whole is in the gutter:

Most also say President Obama has spent too little time on the economy, which Americans cite as the country's most important problem by a wide margin.

Three in four Americans now say the effects of the recession will last another two years or more. More than eight in 10 say the condition of the economy is bad, up five points from last month.

Just 25 percent of Americans say the economy is getting better - down from 41 percent in April. About half say it is staying the same, and the remaining quarter say it is getting worse.

So, it appears as if real-life economic misery has trumped the deceptive, misleading, and often blatantly untrue words of economic joy from Team Obama.