Political
With NO Presidential Leadership and NO Presidential Performance, We Only Get Cynicism and Negativity
by Mike on Aug.11, 2011, under Political
As I have been telling folks, with no record to run on, President Obama is going to point his $1 billion in campaign funds directly at whoever he is running against. This post by Phillip Klein at the Washington Examiner states this very elequently:
An Abject Failure of Performance!!
by Mike on Aug.09, 2011, under Political
I didn’t realize that President Obama has been laser focused on creating jobs since day 1 of his administration. That was certainly clarified in this video below, courtesy of the Huffington Post:
I thought he was working on maintaining our AAA credit rating, passing a health care plan the whole country could get behind, spending $800 BILLION of stimulus funds prudently to revive the economy, supporting our oil and gas drilling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and on the mainland, making sure we have enough electrical power generating plants to meet our needs, supporting Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, fixing medicare, etc. Since President Obama has been focused like a laser beam on job, jobs, jobs, he can be excused that a few of these other metrics have seen some slippage since he took the reins.
January 2009 | Feb 2011 |
% chg | Source | |
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. | $1.83 | $3.104 | 69.6% | 1 |
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) | $43.48 | $99.02 | 127.7% | 2 |
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) | $38.74 | $91.38 | 135.9% | 2 |
Gold: London (per troy oz.) | $853.25 | $1,369.50 | 60.5% | 2 |
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL | $3.56 | $6.33 | 78.1% | 2 |
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL | $9.66 | $13.75 | 42.3% | 2 |
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob | $13.37 | $35.39 | 164.7% | 2 |
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall | 7.6% | 9.4% | 23.7% | 3 |
Unemployment rate, blacks | 12.6% | 15.8% | 25.4% | 3 |
Number of unemployed | 11,616,000 | 14,485,000 | 24.7% | 3 |
Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim) | 2,779,000 | 2,840,000 | 2.2% | 3 |
Real median household income (2008 v 2009) | $50,112 | $49,777 | -0.7% | 4 |
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10) | 31,983,716 | 43,200,878 | 35.1% | 5 |
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10) | 7,526,598 | 9,193,838 | 22.2% | 6 |
Number of long-term unemployed | 2,600,000 | 6,400,000 | 146.2% | 3 |
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009) | 13.2% | 14.3% | 8.3% | 4 |
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009) | 39,800,000 | 43,600,000 | 9.5% | 4 |
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings | 5 | 9 | n/a | 10 |
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10) | 29.9 | 23.5 | -21.4% | 11 |
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date) | 140 | 164 | 17.1% | 12 |
U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate | 89.76 | 82.03 | -8.6% | 2 |
U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) | 1,575.1 | 1,865.7 | 18.4% | 13 |
U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) | 8,310.9 | 8,852.3 | 6.5% | 13 |
National debt, in trillions | $10.627 | $14.052 | 32.2% | 14 |
Source: (1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury
AN ABJECT FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP!!
by Mike on Aug.06, 2011, under Political
S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating
Nothing more to say!
Does This Surprise Anyone?
by Mike on Jul.14, 2011, under Political
I receive a daily email from the Dallas Business Journal with headlines from the local business scene. You can imagine I was not surprised to see these 2 headlines adjacent to each other in the email:
EFH says air rules could prompt power plant closures
Extreme heat prompts electric grid warning
At a time when we have the electric grid nearly maxed out, the EPA is hammering the electricity providers with its under the radar cap and trade program to shut down those evil coal-fired electricity plants. All this will do is drive up costs, or to quote then candidate Obama. “Electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket“. I am not sure how that will help the economoy, but I don’t think that is a concern of this President.
Bumper Sticker of the Year
by Mike on Jun.21, 2011, under Political
From my friend Karri at imc²:
“If you voted for Obama in ’08 to prove you’re not a racist,
vote for someone else in 12 to prove you’re not an idiot.”
Very well said!!
“We have to pass the bill to so you can find out what is in it.”
by Mike on Jun.21, 2011, under Political
Who could forget this inane quote from then (thank God) Speaker Pelosi. Well, now we are finding out. The AP reported:
President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed.
This is what happens when bills are written behind closed doors and rushed through a jury-rigged voting process so that opposition to the bill can not congeal in time to stave off passage.
What happened to the transparency in government, all the negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and all bills will be posted on the internet 5 days before he signs it. Were those just a few of many broken promises or were they outright lies?
At Least He hasn’t Lost His Sense of Humor
by Mike on Jun.14, 2011, under Political
I’m glad President Obama can laugh about unemployment, or wasting $800 BILLION tax dollars. Excuse me, not tax dollars, DEBT dollars.
The Heritage Foundation has a more comprehensive view on this matter located here.
Them That Can, Do. Them That Can’t, ……
by Mike on Jun.13, 2011, under Political
Grab power, through whatever means available.
After listening to the podcast of Michele Bachman on the Laura Ingraham show where Bachman described President Obama’s professorial pontificating at the big budget summit last week, where he offered no leadership and no solutions, I was reminded of the adage, “Them that can, do. Them that can’t, teach”. I thought that described our president perfectly, since he has shown no ability to lead or find solutions, only to propose bi-partisan commissions to develop solutions (which he then ignores), or to throw stones at solutions others have proposed.
However, when I read Hugh Hewitt’s piece at the Washington Examiner about Obama’s Declarant Presidency, it became clear as ever that Barack Hussein Obama is not interested in fixing the economy. He is not interested in providing leadership to take this great country out of the economic morass we are in. He is not interested in restoring the United States of America to greatness. As Dennis Miller would say, he is willing to crash this country on the carrier deck in order to implement his radical views of what this country should be. He is a far, far left radical ideologue who will and is implementing his radical agenda of single payer healthcare, cap and trade, unfettered unionism, the demise of Israel, open borders, green energy, etc., etc., etc., using all the tools he has available, the foremost of which is government regulation making, whether legal or not.
This is a man who we should have recognized as a socialist when he told Joe the Plumber “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” He doesn’t understand that this country became great only through the hard work of its citizens who earned their keep in our capitalist system.
We should be very, very afraid of this man’s vision for America and we must do everything we can do to stop him before he is re-elected and consolidates his plans.
How About a NOT Romney/Bachmann Ticket?
by Mike on Jun.09, 2011, under Political
It sure didn’t take long for reality to set in. Last week I speculated about a Romney/Bachmann ticket, and earlier this week, that looked pretty good as Romney and Obama polled even in a Rasmussen poll.
However, in the last couple of days I have heard of Romney’s belief that global warming exists and is partially man-made and his continued support for ethanol subsidies.
Sorry Mitt, these unsettling positions, combined with your Romneycare history, cause you to fail my ideological purity test, even grading on a curve. Its time to look for someone who is above pandering to his audience just so he can get their support.
Can you say Tim Pawlenty?
This is what makes America Great!!
by Mike on Jun.09, 2011, under Political
Check out the Grand Rapids LipDub video. Some guy came up with the idea to highlight his town of Grand Rapids, Michigan, got the town to buy in and now 3 million folks have seen this.
Makes me proud to say I lived in GR many years ago.