Only two candidates for Virginia’s Republican primary will be on the March 6 ballot. They are the ones who have done it before, Gov. Romney and Rep. Paul.
Wazzupwidat? If not getting on the Virginia ballot is any measure of the candidates’ leadership, they’re in trouble.
Gingrich is one of five candidates that failed to make the Virginia ballot, but you wouldn’t know that from the AP title: Gingrich fails to qualify for Va. primary ballot
Here’s a peek into the liberal’s version of what’s wrong with President Obama.
Tina Brown believes that he just doesn’t like his job. Jon Meacham compares him to Jimmy Carter, ‘a technocratic president who thinks he’s really smart and perhaps above it all.’
Apparently, these liberals don’t buy the ‘leading from behind’ explanation. Obama’s problem is he is President of a country that he does not like.
There’s really nothing more to know about President Obama than his roots. When you understand where he came from, everything he has done and wants to do to this country begins to make sense.
He is, was, and always has been a community organizer. Community organizers pit people against people. Those people with the pitchforks that Obama said he could unleash on the banks if they didn’t go along with his bailout . . . the Occupy Everywhere crowd. It’s what community organizers do.
The percent figure that the Bureau of Labor Statistics put out yesterday is not what it appears to be.
The administration goes through some machinations of the number of people out of work to make the unemployment percent seem to go down. They no longer count, like they no longer exist, those people out of work who gave up looking, the underemployed, and those whose 99 weeks of unemployment compensation has run out. When you count them as still alive, the unemployment rate is 15.6 percent.
When you don’t count the them, you cut (on paper) the number of people in the job pool. That is how the administration and their media followers can say the percentage dropped .4% from 9 to 8.6 and yet make it sound like things are getting better. When they are not.
“When the unemployment rate declines, we want to see both employment and participation increase as discouraged workers return to the labor force. Today, we got the former, but not the latter, making the 0.4 percent drop look a bit suspect,” Neil Dutta, US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told clients. “We would not be surprised to see the unemployment rate give back some of its decline in the coming month(s).”
Considering that nearly half of the jobs created were for the Christmas retail season, expect them to go away in January.
This smoke and mirrors scheme was explained last August in this post.
Speaking of the government stimulus spending and green jobs. The Obama administration picked Southeast Michigan as one of 20 regions from around the country for economic growth grant money. The goal is to create an economic cluster of so-called clean technology manufacturing that is expected to generate jobs, business and exports for the region. Emphasis on jobs, business, and exports for the region.
News of the transaction is also noteworthy. You have the headline-grabbing union-busting Huffington Post putting a happy face on the deal. But when you follow the link to the story, you’ll see evidence that this is yet another waste of taxpayer money in the name of green jobs. Apparently, the thieves at the Huffington post don’t even read the stories they steal, let alone give credit to Jaclyn Trop, the writer of the story.
In reading the story, the economic growth stimulus money will be used in the Southeast Michigan Advanced Energy Storage Systems Initiative. Batteries. Great idea when you consider that Michigan is home to more than 35 advanced battery companies and suppliers for battery systems and electric vehicles, more than any other state, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Sounds like a good investment of taxpayer money. Except for the fact that, once again, markets exist when there is demand for a product. Lacking demand, there is no market, no business. According to the article, this is a product that nobody wants. What is the point of boosting manufacturing of a product that is already over supplied and without market demand sufficient to stay in business and effectively compete with China?
Michigan has given solar and lithium-ion battery manufacturers tens of millions of dollar in state tax incentives in recent years, but both industries are building more products than there is demand for, according to industry reports.
OK, that was the ‘good’ news. The bad news is . . .
The worldwide manufacturing capacity of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles will greatly exceed supply unless demand by automakers increases significantly in the short run, according to a September report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
and
Energy Conversion Devices Inc., the Auburn Hills maker of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, has been trying to sell its battery operation. And its losses grow since demand for solar panels in Europe has dried up and Chinese companies have offered lower-priced alternatives.
Given the circumstances in the marketplace, I’m not anticipating this government spending will have a different result than Solyndra. Meanwhile, keep a sharp eye out for all the new jobs, business, and exports for Southeast Michigan.
The media and the Democratics1 will have you believe that the balanced budget amendment that failed the House today was the only, if not last, hope for fiscal sanity. When the opposite is true.
Fiscal sanity prevailed by not passing this bill.
The government does not have an income problem. It has a spending problem. And the only problem with income is that it just can’t keep up with the $15 trillion in debt that Washington continues to pile on. Enter the bogus ‘balanced budget’ amendment.
This amendment has no limit on spending. It is a Liberal’s wet dream. Under this amendment, when spending increases beyond the income, then tax increases would ‘by law’ have to happen to cover (if only on paper) the deficit. That’s because the constitution says the budget has to balance. This amendment is an economy killer. Period.
A balanced budget amendment has to be one that limits spending in some way. For example, spend all you want up to 18% of GDP. If you spend more than that, you’ve spent too much and need to cut back THE SPENDING, not increase THE TAXES. A bill that would pass the House must be spending-priority instead of tax-priority.
Revenue surpluses (remember them) and operating under a balanced budget that pays down the debt will not kill the economy. Taxing too much and ballooning the debt will, and is.
Link: Balanced Budget Amendment Fails in House
1Democratics is synonymous with the old word Democrats. Democrats seem to be annoyed when their party is called the Democrat Party. 🙄 It just follows that members of the Democratic Party are democratics and democrats are members of the Democrat Party.
If you want to know why the U.S. economy and jobs picture still sucks, all you need to do is examine the world where the political Left lives. Take this video clip of The ED Show on the Lean Forward (Bend Over) Network for example. The subject is about President Obama’s bus tour trying to push his Jobs Act, aka the class-warfare-tax-increase-labor-union-bail-out bill.
There is one undeniable fact where the first two years of the Obama administration is concerned. Whether by hook or by crook, Obama got everything he wanted. He got the un-Affordable Health Care Act, he got his so-called stimulus bills, he got his auto industry and Wall Street, the mortgage industry, student loan industry. The bail outs, all of them. And most behind closed doors without any input from the ‘other side of the aisle.’
In this video, ‘Democratic Strategist’ Krystal Ball does her best to deny all of it in what has become the Democrats’ narrative.
The republicans have been coming up with the narrative that the President got everything he wanted in the first two years he had a Democratic congress, he had a Democratic Senate so of course he got everything he wanted, when the reality was Republicans from day one said we will defeat this president and they did everything they could to obstruct progress, to obstruct the focus on jobs, to obstruct doing anything that would help the American people.
Since Republicans were not successful in stopping any of it, her point is . . .?
Then there’s this gem from Mr. Pro-Capitalism himself Mike Papantonio, host of the Ring of Fire talk radio show and frequent guest of Sargent Shultz’s show.
Shultz asks Papantonio about taxing the millionaires and billionaires. “What about the millionaires? Do you think the majority of wealthy people in this country would be OK with .5 percent over a million dollars?”
They do. I don’t think they have problems with it Ed because most millionaires understand, they believe in capitalism. And in order for capitalism to work, you have to put money into the system. You have to move it by uh uh if you move it by way of government into people’s hands, that works!
When the Left has their own version of reality and their own definition of capitalism, is it any wonder why Obama’s ‘economic recovery’ has been a dismal failure?
What is it with the Left’s fascination with what conservatives wear? Now The Daily Beast has a columnist of a certain persuasion that has a problem with what Herman Cain is wearing.
First there was Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and who paid for it. Now, Beast writer Robin Givhan, seems to have a new attack on Herman Cain because of what he likes to wear. At least for now, she is not concerned with how much his clothes cost. For a style and culture writer, she seem to be ignorant of the cultural south, where Mr. Cain grew up.
But in her case, Givhan seems to be shuffling racial cards where Mr. Cain is concerned. What’s next from the Left? Anything to shift the focus off of Obama’s successful policies that are killing free-market capitalism, our economy, and your job.
Link: Herman Cain’s Power Suit
Herman Cain, currently leading polls for the Republican nomination for President, had two big media events today, one day after Politico comes out with an alleged sex scandal involving two un-named women and Herman Cain some 15 years ago when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
The first event was an hour at the American Enterprise Institute where Cain was to speak to his economic policies. That was the topic. After explaining his plan, the moderator stated the ground rules then opened up the floor to let the media ask Mr. Cain questions.
The ground rules were that questions to be about his fiscal policy. Any questions outside of that could be taken at his next meeting an hour later at the National Press Club. That is what the press was told.
Audio: Ground rules of discussion
After two or three questions from reporters, an AP reporter breaks the rules.
This was his question: AP question to Herman Cain
You can hear the moderator telling the reporter that that part of his question was inconsistent with the ground rules.
It’s not hard to figure out why he did it. Thirty minutes later, ABC News leads the 12 o’clock EST national radio news with ‘Herman Cain refuses to answer questions of sexual misconduct with two female National Restaurant Assoc. employees.’
When Bill Clinton actually did sexually assault women, that turned out to be a resume enhancement and the media spent all its time trashing all the women that came forward.
Not only behaving badly, but displaying their usual bias against conservatives.
The Politico article about two un-named women who claimed that Herman Cain directed ‘inappropriate behavior’ at them immediately cast a huge cloud over his possible presidential future.
After addressing that issue today at the National Press Club’s luncheon, it seems to me that Cain knocked it out of the park as a non-issue. Not only did he knock that one out, but he explained his plans for his administration regarding the economy, foreign relations, and everything else very well.
That said, here is Cain’s date with the National Press Club. For walking into the media’s house and answering all the tough questions squarely, I think he handled himself and his campaign chances very well.
As for the actions of Politico, they are just showing their colors.
If the mainstream media could ignore Herman Cain’s economic plan any more, I can’t imagine how. From the questions asked at the Bloomberg so-called debate about economic plans, you would think that Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan was just a nine percent tax. When in real life, the 9-9-9- tax plan is the bridge to converting to the FairTax.
We get there in two stages. Phase one is the 9-9-9 taxing structure, which also ends the payroll tax, capital gains tax, the death tax, and the elimination of double taxation of dividends. And by the stroke of a pen, it also eliminates the fear, uncertainty, and doubt caused by our current tax policies and the politicians in Washington. The economic impact is immediate, and sets the stage for the permanent, more stimulative, and more progressive ‘FairTax’ method of funding the government.
That there are two stages is out of necessity. The FairTax requires more time to educate the public of its benefits to them and to the country. It is Phase One that will get us going sooner than later, and in due course it will be replaced by the FairTax.
The FairTax is the best long-term solution to funding the government in a business friendly, pro economic growth, pro job growth environment than anything ever tried in the United States. It is the bold reform that we need.
Update: 10/16/2001