Backwards or Forwards?

After winning NY23, Bill Owen said this about voters there: "They put aside partisanship and declared they’re ready to move forward, not backward."

Just wanted to think about going backwards for a minute... back to when the DOW was over 14,000 (as on the day Obama won the nomination over Hillary). Back to when unemployment was under control? Back to when the Feds weren't owners of GM and taking over banks? Or forward to the new administration surrounding itself with self-proclaimed Marxist advisors? With professional students who hate small business, and big business for that matter... who hate Capitalism, and profit, and oil, coal, nuclear, natural gas... basically anything that makes economic sense?

Can we go backwards please? Progressive is a misnomer to be sure, but who didn't know that? (Quoting Sammy Farha... he likes to say that once a poker hand is revealed. The guy had squadoosh and was bluffing... who didn't know that? There's an analogy in there somewhere.) Progressives have been bluffing with squadoosh. Empty promises of hope and change that are without substance. But as in poker you play the player, not the hand, and in order to gain power, you play the voters. If you listened to voter interviews after the '08 elections, it seemed pretty clear that large numbers of voters were not politically aware of much. The good news is that voters are becoming increasingly aware of what the Progressive movement is all about, and the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey indicate that voters are talking back... wards.

America's Got Talent!

Now here's some talent:
Contestant 1: Timothy Geithner going on Meet The Democrats (aka Meet The Press) to explain that the stimulus is working. Wow... that's got to be harder than riding a unicycle while spinning plates on a pole.

"No. No, you're right, the unemployment is worse than almost everybody expected. But growth is back a little more quickly..."

Right. Growth as in buckets of government money thrown at "saving" government jobs, and bailing out clunker owners, and home buyers with free money. That's growth in the Obama administration.

"Well, again, I think for large numbers of Americans and businesses, small businesses in particular, it's a tough economy."

 Sorry about those small businesses... but um, don't you see a connection between unemployment and strapping/ignoring small business? This is the problem with electing Marxists and professional students who know nothing about business. The whole term "shovel ready" should've been one huge clue, as if the job growth would be coming through employing temp workers digging ditches to build a new highway system (a la FDR). Odd thinking from a campaign that used the internet with such success.

Contestant 2: Valerie Jarrett on This Week with George Stephanopoulos - her task was to explain how Obama has made good on building unity, and how his health care plan has been bipartisan. Wow. Selling that would be like trying to argue that Bette Midler was the greatest soul singer of the 20th century. The Democrats have tried to cram this legislation down our throats with the public option ignoring all the aspects that could actually improve the situation such as tort reform, and interstate competition.

Contestant 3: Obama himself getting his photo op in front of a fallen hero at Dover Air Force Base. Very dramatic, slow timed salute, with great lighting. He has some quality multimedia people working for him. Sorry 'bout those folks still slugging it out in Afghanistan, but it's sure good to know that Obama cares about our soldiers. Deeply.

So those are the three finalists. Who's the winner? They're all so talented; it's hard to choose.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/01/secretary_geithner_david_plouffe_on_meet_the_press_98980.html

That Frightening Chamber

Barack said recently that the Chamber of Commerce spent half a billion dollars over the past 10 years on lobbying. He was so impressed with that number that he said it twice, for emphasis. As if to say, "in case you didn't hear me the 1st time, and as shocking as it may sound, yes, I meant it: half a billion dollars."

Now, the U.S. Chamber represents over 3 million businesses and organizations. Just doing a little math for ya, but if you take 500 million divided by 10 (for the 10 years) that's 50 million a year spent on lobbying. 50mil/3mil is 16.666, so we can estimate that the Chamber spends about $17 per member on lobbying per year.

I'd like you to take a look at another number, and I'm plunking in a pie chart courtesy Open Secrets
of the campaign expenditures for the Barack Obama 2008 campaign:

 

How about that? Half a billion doesn't even cover the cost of Barack Obama's campaign in just one year alone, 2008. His media spend alone was almost half a billion. Yes, you heard me. Nearly half... a... BILLION... dollars.  <* pause for dramatic effect *> So I guess that Barack Obama knows what he's talking about when he starts droppin' numbers out there such as half a billion dollars. Wow, that's a lot.

Now I'll grant you that the Chamber is a powerful organization. Small business, after all, drives our economy and ignoring them in times of a recession could lead to higher rates of unemployment. Seems they have been  as of late (Barack loves his union boys, whose campaign giving leans Democrat for over 95% of all dollars given) and we are experiencing severe unemployment.

Wow. Those boys are not exactly in favor of Republicans, are they? Take a look at AFSCME to see an even greater partisan bias. (In the last 20 years they have never once given more than 2% of their contributions to a Republican. ) Hmmm. You see, a small business person might be a former laborer who decided one day that, hey, this here's a free country, and maybe I'll just start my own business, or invent my own product. But once you make that jump out of the big union, or mega-corporation, you don't have a lot of sway with the government. The Chamber of Commerce represents small businesses, and while they are the number one spending lobby, they are just one organization. Large companies also spend a great deal of money, and if you were to add the top 100 corporations, they would greatly dwarf the Chamber's influence.

But let's return to Barack. These were the expenditures of one man. In one year. And he has the audacity to attack the Chamber for spending 1/10th as much money to lobby for all small businesses in America! I hope America is gradually tuning in to the sarcasm and double-speak of our current President. His campaign spent 3/4 of a billion dollars in 2008, outspending his opponent in some states over 4 to 1. And once he was elected he promptly passed legislation amounting to close to a trillion dollars, most of which has gone to benefit those who helped get him elected, and almost none of which went to help small business.

Not surprisingly, the unemployment rate is through the roof, and the dollar is a shambles. Such is the plight of the fool who ignores small business. Much like FDR, Obama seems on the course of crippling the economy, while managing to convince people he's doing the right thing. It took 15 years to pull ourselves out of the FDR pit (thanks small business), although much of that socialistic junk-law still plagues us today. How many years will we have to spend to extract ourselves from the "great programs" Obama is trying to pass?

Half a billion may be a lot spent on lobbying by the Chamber, but apparently it is not enough. I don't see them being able to take over all major media outlets during prime time, or buy a 24/7 TV channel full of infomercial propaganda. No, it seems half a billion is not nearly enough.

BHOmophobe

Perhaps the reason I don't want Kevin Jennings masquerading as a safe school czar is because I'm a BHOmophobe. Aside from the fact that I don't think we need another large government paycheck going to an un-vetted, over-authorized czar, to be honest, I wouldn't want any person whose main rise to notoriety has been centered around sexual practices of any kind acting as a safe school czar.

But honestly, that would make me a racist and a homophobe I guess, eh? A 2-for-1 enemy of the state.

Massive war chest

OMG! Obama was speaking of a massive war chest! This is very scary. Were we attacked? Are there emergency alerts on the radio? Help us BHO!

Reuters

Government Approved

Had occasion to watch some government-approved news yesterday (Sunday 10/18 - Or was it government sponsored?), a show on NBC called, um, Meet the Democrats as I recall. Or was it Meet the Press? Something like that.

They did have one Republican on the show.

Valerie Jarrett was on board, all polished and shined up. See everybody? We're not radical left wingers at all. We're right there in the center zone, see, which is why FOX News is not approved. They're so far right... wow.

George Soros is not a left-winger according to Andrea Mitchell, so obviously neither is Valerie, or of course Barack himself. Extreme right wingers though abound, don't they?

Why would I want to spend time watching Democrats stroke themselves on NBC? The truth is that the only actual political news is on FOX News these days. The major channels that are "government approved" are the ones saying that on 9/12 1,000s attended the march on Washington. (Do they also tell prospective advertisers that 1,000s view their shows each night?) They are the ones that don't think Anita Dunn loving Mao is newsworthy. Communism is so chic. Those folks knew how to share the wealth, let me tell ya. Just ask my inlaws from Korea who saw their parents stripped of all their belongings homes and businesses, and some were shot. Sharing. Good enough for Anita I guess. She has her war, well I have mine.

But now we can all sit back and watch some good old-fashioned government-approved network programming about health care and volunteerism. That's gonna be great. As if the shows weren't already biased beyond imagination.

Celebrating-the-9/12-Rallies/

The Crash, part Deux

Originally posted Friday, February 27, 2009 at 11:58PM by Typical White Person

Ten days ago I wrote a piece entitled The "crash" officially began when Obama won the Democratic Nomination. This story has been very well received by our readers, and I'm glad for that, however when I continue to hear people say that Obama inherited this mess, and that it was 8 years of Bush's policy, or even that this really began in September, I would ask you to look at the pictures in that story from 10 days ago. Share it with your friends. This is a story that needs to be told. The market was strong enough (wouldn't people love to see the market reset to June 6?) but began a steady decline when Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination to Obama in early June of 2008. The markets have been on a steady decline ever since that date in history, and that time marks the high point of the last 9 months.



Fast forward to 2009. Finally the Democrats have power, that 10-pound anvil has been lifted off of Pelosi's head, and the Democrats let the world know that they can party hearty! It is historic, monumental, (insert your adjective of choice.) And I'm not downplaying the significance of this event. I know that to those in our country who identify each other by skin color, it is quite significant that this new President is black. Had an Asian candidate won, this would all be quite different. And if Bobby Jindal wins the Presidency some day... Oh God! Nevertheless, I know that to African Americans, this is a huge day that many thought could never happen. As a Typical White Person, I supposedly spend my days thinking about how I'm not black, and I remember back on those days 150+ years ago when people in the USA who happened to be "white" enslaved Africans in certain regions of this country. I never met a racist person during my first 25 years of life or so and no ancestor of mine was ever a slave owner, but some who identify themselves by their skin color have instructed me that I'm white and many people "like me" are racists, so I will take their word for it.

So we got all that over with. Actually this is a huge opportunity for those who do identify themselves as black people to enter into American society finally. Assimilate, embrace opportunity, reach out and love one another, even so-called white people! This is a time to stop the culture wars, and end racism, however it seems instead that racism has taken center stage. I blog as TWP anonymously because I am not free to speak out about race in this country due to my skin color, without severe consequences. Am I a coward? Perhaps. But I digress. That is all for future articles.

What happened since the inauguration is just more of the market's down slide. There may have been a brief period when people tried to believe in the hype, but markets represent real life, and political posturing doesn't pay the rent. (Click thumbnail to see full image.)

One interesting thing about this whole scenario is that the 401ks of left-wing journalists are just as empty as everybody else's. If they feel better by repeating to themselves that it was all Bush's fault, then hey; whatever works for you. But the truth is that Obama was largely unvetted, and that was because of Hilary Clinton's dominance in part. There was no need to really explore the history of Obama in detail, because he was just a junior Senator, a newcomer, so it was Clinton who endured the media shakedown, and Obama got a pass. All of a sudden, Democrats realized that, hey, this guy is hot! His actual policies don't seem to matter, he's great at reading cue cards, and smiling, and people love him. So the whole vetting process was skipped.

That wasn't good enough for the market though, which likes certainty more than mystery; Capitalism more than Socialism. And the mystery was revealed rapidly once Obama took office. The whole "tax and spend" and "most liberal member of the Senate" labels turned out to be very real, and very true. Apparently Rush Limbaugh doesn't just make stuff up. He and others like him were telling the truth, and despite continuing popularity, Obama supporters will have to get used to the idea that living in an Obama-led world will mean less money in the bank, and more racism in government. The "it's all the Republican's fault" pacifier will have to suffice instead of real money during these hard times, and look on the bright side: If you're an Obama supporter you're much more likely to get some free handouts.