You could be an Icelandic fisherman. Or you could set aside a moment to make a list of jobs that you are really glad that you don’t have to do. Or—you could be the guy out on the deck making the video!
Filed under: Economy, Progressivism., Taxes, The Elephant's Child | Tags: Budget Deficits, Democrat Corruption, Projections for Future Years
President Obama has an unpleasant habit, left over from the campaign, of beginning every speech with a (don’t blame me) reference to the deficit he inherited or the worst crisis or something of the sort. Whatever it is, it’s not his fault.
The Bush administration spent too much. We agree. There was 9/11, Katrina and a War in Iraq, but President Bush didn’t veto some things he should have, and opted for some expensive programs. Congress spent too much. But, let’s face some facts.
For each year of Obama’s term, deficits are projected to be larger than in any year that Bush was in office.
Each color represents the difference between the projected deficits at different points in time. The purple bars represent the numbers as they were projected back in September 2008, the black and red bars represent the differences at other points in time. The orange bars represent the actual deficit numbers during President Clinton’s last year in office (fiscal 2001), and President Bush’s two terms.
President Obama promotes what he calls “a new ethic of responsibility.” The chart above is based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data. It shows a projection of deficit numbers for each year until fiscal year 2018.
Obama rightly notes that he inherited a large deficit in fiscal 2009, but he is responsible for growing the deficit beyond all expectations in 2009 and thereafter. The black bars represents the TARP spending, which Obama voted for in the Senate. The red part is all Obama’s.
Obama’s deficits are frightening. Every month that goes by adds to the deficit. His budget is astounding, and he keeps adding personnel,more Czars and more programs.The August 2009 projections contain no health care spending, assume that “temporary” stimulus spending will stop in 2011, and contain no expenses for cap-and-trade, the proposed new energy grid, the Midwest high-speed rail plan, or any of the other big changes he wants to bring to America.
The stimulus funds spent so far have been largely wasted, and subsequent stimulus is not expected to create jobs. The big investment in Government Motors is no longer expected to produce any pay-back for taxpayers.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Environment, The Elephant's Child
The more one learns about stimulus funds, the more depressing it gets. The Stimulus Bill, we have learned, was designed by the Apollo Alliance, a far-left group that marries environmental radicals with labor union radicals. That, however, is no excuse.
The Senate last week was all set to award $2.6 million of stimulus money tor forest fire management to——the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C. is notably lacking in forests. This has to be a signature paragraph in the Big Golden Book of What Happens When You Do Not Read the Bills.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, where they do have forests, filed an amendment to eliminate that funding and shift it to the U.S. Forest Service which is actually in the business of fighting forest fires.
In an interview Mr. Barrasso said he was “amazed” when he saw where the funding was going. “The last time Washington,D.C. faced a catastrophic fire is when the British burned down the White House in 1814.”
The National Interagency Fire Center says that more than 5.5 million acres of U.S. Wildlands have already burned this year.
The original plan was to give the money to a local D.C. non-profit called “Washington Parks & People”. What was the group going to spend the money on? “Planting trees and vegetables” and “green education projects.”
Only a small part of the stimulus funds have been spent, but among the projects are guardrails beside a dry lake, bridges that carry fewer than 10 cars a day, airports that have only occasional flights and other absolutely urgent projects.
Senator Barrasso added that “I’ve only been in Washington for a short time, but I’m continually shocked by how this town wastes money.”
Filed under: American Elephant, Health Care, Politics, Socialism, Taxes | Tags: Debunking Liberal Lies, Obama, Obamacare
Perhaps you realized this before yours truly — I understood it was true, yet for whatever reason, never really wrapped my brain completely around it…
Whatever “mandate” Obama may have once had is history…evaporated….GONE!
He won the election by garnering 53% of the vote, and we were told that was a landslide. That he had a mandate.
Perhaps he once did, but American voters now oppose Obamacare by 56%. Forgive my remedial math, but if 53% is a landslide, then 56% is a complete shutout. Only 41% of voters — that’s barely more than his base — support his health-care proposals, and only tepidly at that. All the passion among Americans is in opposition to his signature issue.
Americans do not want what Barack is cooking!
The reason I post this, is because I don’t think Democrats have wrapped their tiny little brains around these numbers either. They certainly don’t behave like it. They are still pushing ahead with an attempt to cross a large majority of voters on an issue that touches more closely on personal liberty than any other. As personal as liberty gets.
I suspect Democrats saw President Bush defying popular will by refusing to abandon Iraq, and took inspiration from it. They believe his resolve means they can also defy the voters to pass their socialized health-care Trojan Horse. But they forget a few things at their peril.
- They forget that Bush was insisting on winning a war the American people, and their representatives, initially, specifically, supported. And
- They forget that Bush lost both houses of Congress for doing so.
Either that, or they are convinced that by passing their socialist health-care Trojan Horse, they will secure their majority in perpetuity. That voters wont dare vote them out once they depend on government for their health.
I think its a little bit of all of the above.
What we need to do is make sure every Democrat understands that we, the people are very serious in our opposition to these reform proposals — that they will lose their seats, and their majorities, if they pass this abomination.
I intend to explain it to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell today.
Filed under: Foreign Policy, National Security, Terrorism, The Elephant's Child | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Iran, Mushy Multilateralism, The United Nations
Wednesday, September 23— President Obama speaks to the United Nations General Assembly. He says “if the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards…then they must be held accountable. The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced.”
Thursday, September 24— President Obama chaired a session of the U.N. Security Council. When the Security Council passed a new resolution which never mentions Iran or North Korea, Obama pounded his gavel and proclaimed: “The resolution we passed today will also strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We have made it clear that the Security Council has both the authority and the responsibility to respond to violations to this treaty. We’ve made it clear that the Security Council has both the authority and responsibility to determine and respond as necessary when violations of this treaty threaten international peace and security. That includes full compliance with Security Council resolutions on Iran and North Korea. Let me be clear. This is not about singling out individual nations….[W]e must demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced.”
Friday, September 25— Speaking to the G-20 in Pittsburgh, President Obama admitted that “yesterday in Vienna, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France presented detailed evidence to the IAEA demonstrating that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years….The existence of this facility underscores Iran’s continuing unwillingness to meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions…Iran’s decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the non-proliferation regime…[T]he size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program. Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow… [and is; threatening the stability and security of the region and the world."
So when President Obama spoke to the General Assembly and the Security Council, he already knew that Iran's latest violations of "international standards" endangered peace, but he refused to put Iran on the agenda of the Security Council summit. So he made a perfectly useless speech, and got a perfectly useless resolution.
As a matter of fact, the president has known since last fall, before he was inaugurated that Iran had another facility at Qom. He knew when Iranians took to the streets to protest an illegitimate election, and he refused to offer any encouraging words. The demonstrations continue, but words in favor of liberty have not been forthcoming.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France [France!] in the U.N.’s translation from the French said…“President Obama himself has said that he dreams of a world without nuclear weapons. Before our very eyes, two countries are doing exactly the opposite at this very moment. Since 2005, Iran has violated five Security Council Resolutions… I support America’s extended hand. But what have these proposals for dialogue produced for the international community Nothing but more enriched uranium and more centrifuges. And last but not least, it has resulted in a statement by Iranian leaders calling for wiping of the map a Member of the United Nations.
As Jules Crittenden said: “It’s a sad state of affairs when a Frenchman mocks an American president and you have to go with the frog.”
From his statement on Friday, Obama said: “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.” Gosh! You think?
The regime in Iran is corrupt, willing to use terror as a weapon at home and abroad. It has demonstrated over and over that it will stop at nothing to acquire nuclear weapons, and that it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and of the United States.
Lest you think that President Obama has no particular foreign policy beyond a mushy hope for “meaningful dialogue” maybe around December or so, that he is unconcerned about a nuclear holocaust, never fear. He says that if the international community does not act swiftly to deal with climate change that “we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe.”
“The security and stability of each nation and all peoples — our prosperity, our health, and our safety — are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out.” But then the World Wildlife Fund and other environmental activist groups say the President’s speech didn’t go far enough, that it was an opportunity missed.
Well, it’s always especially nice when everybody has their priorities straight.That one degree of warming we had last century, back before 1998, was really worrying. Now that the climate’s been cooling for the last ten years we are facing “irreversible catastrophe”— but nuclear attacks — that’s so, so 20th century!
A surveying team stops passers-by and asks for help. The victims just have to hold a pole and walk down an alley. Easy, but unknown to the helpful victims, a crowd of “protesters” quietly sneak up behind the victim.
Political protests sometimes get out of control and intense. Imagine being stuck between a rowdy crowd and the police. Some prank! The expressions on the victims’ faces are priceless.
Filed under: Economy, Health Care, Law, The Elephant's Child | Tags: Baucus Bill, Health Insurance, Young and Healthy
Are you one of those healthy young adults who has chosen to go without health insurance? Not for long. The Baucus bill will charge you a $1800 “fee” for not buying health insurance. Violators of this requirement could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, according to a handwritten note sent by the Chief of Staff Tom Barthold of the Joint Committee on Taxation to Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.).
Democrats are uninterested in any free market solutions to holding down the costs of healthcare, so it is imperative that they have all healthy young adults buying insurance. Lots of people paying who make no real demands on medical care.
The theory is that and cutting Medicare will help to pay for all the added costs.The Medicare cuts — cutting reimbursement to doctors and hospitals and other service providers — will simply raise the cost of everyone else’s health care through cost shifting. And rationing, of course. People like to claim that there is rationing now, and it is true that there are some drugs deemed to expensive if there is an alternate, and treatments deemed too new and untested. But that is not the kind of rationing that will be coming in a government run program.
The theory isn’t going to work anyway.
Filed under: American Elephant, Humor, Politics | Tags: Obama, United Nations
This video of an immovable Obama with 130 UN delegates has others wondering if the White House sent a cardboard cutout to the UN in the president’s stead. Watch his face, his lips, and his eyes. They are completely plastic. Only the position of the camera changes. I submit that the shadows are too realistic for a cardboard cutout. Perhaps they borrowed the president’s wax doppelganger from Madame Tussaud’s. In Times Square, its less than 2 miles away from the UN…
I’m inclined to believe it’s the real deal. After all, it’s what he does! He speaks and he poses, speaks and poses, speaks and poses — while others govern. Speaking and posing could very well be his only expertise. I suspect he has just mastered the art of the phony smile so thoroughly that he has taken his to this whole new level — Stepford President.
What do you think?
(h/t Hot Air)
Filed under: Economy, Foreign Policy, News, The Elephant's Child | Tags: Mongolia, The Great Hural, Ulan Bator
The world financial crisis hit Mongolia as well as the rest of the world. Everyone had to tighten their belts a bit, from camel drivers to horse herders. Mongolia has a wealth of natural resources in copper, gold, silver and high-quality coal. They thought they had the answer in 2006, when the legislature in Ulan Bator, the Great Hural, slapped a 68 percent windfall profits tax on copper exports, at $2,600 or above a ton. Gold exports they taxed at $500 an ounce or above, and settled back to watch the money flow in.
Not only did it not flow in, mining companies shut down their operations, gold was smuggled out of the country, and foreign investors vanished. Then the boom times ended and the global financial crisis hit too.
The Great Hural borrowed a page from the supply-side notebook, and scrapped the tax. Money is now flowing into the country. Mining companies like Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines and Australian Rio Tinto are expected to sign a major deal to exploit the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine. The government would receive a $250 million advance against future royalties and taxes.
Tavan Tolgoi, the world’s largest undeveloped coal deposit with 6.5 billion tons of coal, may be the next project. A consortium of Russian energy companies and other mining companies have submitted bids.
There is much more to do. Corruption is endemic, amd officials at every level of society are on the take. Education needs to be modernized so that Mongolians can supply their own financial expertise and business skills to support the economy. Dumping the windfall profits tax is a good start.
Do you think our Congress might take a lesson from the Mongolians?
Filed under: American Elephant, Liberalism, National Security, News, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear | Tags: Democrat Corruption, Democrat Lies/Dirty Tricks, Obama
By cutting border control agents:
Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Border Patrol Director of Media Relations Lloyd Easterling confirmed this week–as I first reported in my column yesterday–that his agency is planning for a net decrease of 384 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.[read more]
Democrats have already stated that as soon as they are done destroying American health care, amnesty is next on their agenda.
Filed under: American Elephant, Health Care, Liberalism, Taxes | Tags: Debunking Liberal Lies, Obama, Obamacare
The House voted Thursday to freeze Medicare Part B premiums for most elderly next year, even as Democrats moved to exempt the Postal Service from having to make $4 billion in payments due next week to cover retirement health benefits for its employees. [read more]
Filed under: American Elephant, Education, History, Liberalism, Politics | Tags: Debunking Liberal Lies, Democrat Lies/Dirty Tricks
In New Jersey, they are learning to praise Obama in song:
[Update: This same woman has pushed her creepy program on kids in Washington DC, MD, PA and NY as well.]
In San Francisco, “Mr. B” is teaching his students to praise Obama in song, dance AND with pictures!
(I love that in a song at least ostensibly about being proud Americans, the children are drawing Mexican flags and writing in Spanish)
In Illinois, they are being taught to follow Obama unflinchingly.
While other students are being taught that Obama’s health care rhetoric is the gospel truth. As Smart Girl Politics reports, they are even being quizzed on his statements as though they were fact:
I’ve listed my answers here:
1) None.
2) A lot more since Obama became president! And getting the economy growing would do far more to help them than anything Democrats propose.
3)
1.Undermine and over-regulate the private market.
2. Force people onto a government run plan.
3. Single-payer baby!4)
- Giving consumers what they want
- Succeeding.
5) Dishonestly.
6) Yes.
7) Whatever he thought he needed to say to get the bill passed, with almost no regard for the truth.
8 ) Make them permanent wards of the State, and thus the Democrat party. (That is, until they grow old or get sick at which time the benefits of assisted suicide will lovingly be explained to them by billy-club-wielding SEIU members.)
9) In ways that won’t pay for it.
10) I was irritated by the beginning, middle and end. I was inspired by the part where he talked about how he wouldn’t be president forever.
Do you think I would have passed? I rather doubt it.
My niece writes like an escaped homicidal maniac because her school feels it no longer has the time to teach penmanship. And let’s not even get started on how badly schools are failing at teaching out children accurate history, civics, mathematics, English, and science. Yet they have nothing but time when it comes to broadcasting presidential platitudes, using them as a ‘teaching moment”, or brainwashing your kids about the environment, and any number of other liberal agenda items.
I think we conservatives generally have a hard time believing that other people could really be so devious as to try to teach our children things we would object to.
They could and do.
Liberal activists have been working to increase their influence over your kids for decades. They work though legislatures, local governments and within the education system to make sure their agenda is taught as fact. The Obama worship is almost small potatoes by comparison.
So, what DID your kid learn in school today? Was it true? Do you know what they are being taught regarding history? America? Capitalism? Religion? Do they know how their teachers feel about political issues, individual politicians or religion? (They shouldn’t.) Ever investigated what their text books teach?
Just curious.
(h/t Michelle Malkin)
Filed under: Economy, Environment, Law, The Elephant's Child | Tags: Environmental Activists, Green Movement, Progressives
The Green movement extols a future of hybrid-electric cars, sure that it will also mean a future of green jobs, especially in the struggling industrial states in the Midwest. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
In northern Michigan, mining companies are hoping for a new era in mining in the state’s Upper Peninsula because of a rise in commodities prices for nickel—in demand for use in batteries for the Toyota Prius, Chevy Silverado and other hybrids.
But the new rush for nickel mining jobs has run into opposition from — of course — the Green movement. Mining can possibly harm streams and groundwater and the effects could be lasting. The risk of long term damage is surely not worth any short-term economic gains.
“Across America, entrepreneurs are constructing …batteries for hybrid cars—projects that are creating new jobs and new industries.” President Obama said at the UN on Tuesday.
The National Wildlife Federation has gone to court.
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The San Joaquin Valley in California is one of the great market agricultural regions of the country, and it is suffering from a third year of drought, because of the latest mishandling of the Endangered Species Act. Last December the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a “biological opinion” that imposed water restrictions to safeguard the federally protected tiny delta smelt. Billions of gallons of water from mountains east and north of Sacramento have been channeled away from farmers and into the ocean.
In some farming areas the unemployment numbers reach near 40%. A provision of the Endangered Species Act (added after the snail-darter folly) allows a panel of seven cabinet officers , the “God Squad,” to intervene in economic emergencies. Governor Schwarzenegger has been unwilling to use that remedy.
The power of the Endangered Species Act to damage economies is clear.
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So now that we have an economy in recession, environmental activists are active. WildEarth Guardians filed two petitions in the space of one month to list 681 species under the Endangered Species Act. The Act requires each petition to be researched and reviewed. In June a petition to review 475 species was filed in New Mexico, and in July a separate petition to review 206 was filed in Denver. Usually it’s just one at a time.
It is difficult to determine if a species is endangered. There may not be any here, but are there plenty on the other side of the hill? Some species are claimed to be “endangered” but recover quickly when people stop shooting them. The record is not very good.
The “green programs” that are initiated, whether wind farms, solar arrays, algae farms, mining or farming invariably draw activist environmental protests. And since famously “green” organizations are only trying to “save the earth,” how can one object to these noble people?
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If you really wonder, you can look them up at Discover the Networks or Activist Cash. It is an interesting little bit of research.
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Addendum: Bright Source Energy Inc. had planned a 5,130-acre solar power farm in a very remote part of the Mojave Desert. The Wildlands Conservancy, a California environmental group, had tried to block the solar development, as had Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) who suggested it become a national monument. Canceled. Look for another spot, and more subsidies.
The spot was about 50 miles northwest of Needles, CA and about 5 miles from the California-Nevada border. The complex would be a 6 square mile facility (4065 acres) within the 25,000 square mile Mojave Desert and would generate enough electricity to power 140,000 homes,( except at night or when it is cloudy).
Needles may sound familiar, for it is often mentioned as the hottest spot in the nation. Not exactly a spot that is going to draw lots of tourists.
May I say politely, heh heh, I told you so!
‘Steampunk’ is the name given to a sub-genre of science fiction that re-imagines the Victorian era with contemporary level high-tech and mechanization using only the technology available in their time — like steam power, pistons. magnets, springs and lots of gears. As far as I know, the genre is entirely contemporary, perhaps reaching its broadest audience with the 1999 movie, ‘Wild Wild West‘ starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek, but has its roots in the works of authors such as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley.
Steampunk artists also love to play with the elaborate mechanization of everyday objects — as artist Mike Libby has done brilliantly with — of all things — dried insect carcasses. His entire collection can be seen, and purchased, here.
