Friday, August 28, 2009

California (New Jersey, New York, Michigan) Here We Come

Just to prove Barack Obama is a great manager in the Democrat view of "manage" he told us back in March that the deficit over the next decade would be $7,000,000,000,000 (trillion!)over Republican charges that he was using bullish projections. Well now, August 26, 2009, the president happily announced a deficit of not 7 but $9,000,000,000,000 (still trillion). Take that California. America can go bankrupt first! And the new projections assume 1) The Liberal Congress will hold spending increases to the rate of inflation, vs. 47% in 2009 and so far 8% in 2010; 2) Liberal heartthrobs like Head Start, food stamps and child nutrition will be cut by 1/3; 3) Revenues into the federal government (taxes) will reach 20.2% by 2019 vs. a 40-year low this year of 14.9%, signalling gigantic tax increases for everyone that pays taxes; 4) Finally that the Democrats' Alternative Minumum Tax will burn 28 million middle class taxpayers, something the Democrats have promised that they will not let happen. And all this is before President Obama's monopoly stranglehold on healthcare will spend another $1,000,000,000,000!

Vote for the most corrupt state in the union. Democrat-controlled New Mexico anyone? The governor, prominent Democrat, Bill Richardson, is under federal investigation for another Democratic "pay for play" scam where state financings are awarded in exchange for campaign contributions. Well also the former 12- year Democrat Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron was indicted for giving federal elections funds to a Democrat political consultand and two Democrat lobbyists. 50 counts. At least a couple million dollars. (See my post "Conflicts and Crooks, Obama and Democrats".) They join other convicted or indicted Democrats: two state treasurers, leader of the state senate, director of affordable housing and two utility regulators. But as I wrote in another post, Washington DC has decided to let Richardson go. True there are no Democrat crooks in the Obama Administration. He lets them all off.

Democrat-controlled New Jersey might be the most corrupt state in the Union. Or Democrat-controlled Illinois with its $9,200,000,000 projected budget deficit. Or Democrat-controlled Louisiana (but with a Republican governor). Or Democrat-controlled California ($53,500,000,000 deficit). But one thing is certain. They all are failing.

Why? Well for one all, adding Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota and Oregon, not only have been controlled by Democrats, but are proposing to follow their president's lead in attempting to soak -- tax -- the rich, the top 1%, 2% or 5% depending. Well when they do, those rich people or at least many of them will simply pick up stakes and move to a lower-taxed state. Taking wealth, innovation and jobs ultimately with them. Study after study have documented this phenonomen. Over the period 2002 - 2005 when Connecticut, New Jersey, New York increased maximum txes to 5%, 8.97% and 7.7% respectively, in increases of tax filings by the wealthy dropped to the 46th, 49th and 50% among all states. In other words, max tax increased filers didn't. Hmmmm.

Add. Democratic-run, well pretty much union-boss-run, Philadelphia the country's 6th most populous city has stopped paying its bills. It has a projected city budget deficit of $1,400,000,000 over the next 5 years. Detroit. Its former mayor, black Democrat Kwame Kilpatrick, in jail for some sex/perjury scandal. Its present mayor, black Democrat former pro basketball player, dave Bing, warned that Detroit may have to declare bankruptcy, being in the hole $250,000,000, just before his re-election in November. Mr. Bing started an auto-parts company in Detroit in 1980 and is invested in Detroit. Bodes well for Detroit when he stated: "Business will bring the city back, not politics," CHEERS FOR MAYOR BING!

Other Democrat-controlled deficits: Michigan, $2,400,000,000; New York, $17,900,000,000; Ohio, $3,300,000,000; Oregon, $ $4,200,00,000; and Pennsylvania $4,800,00,000.

New Jersey with more government (measured by numbers of jurisdictions) than any other state, created 6,800 private sector jobs from 2000 - 2007. But government jobs are another story with 55,800 added, nearly 10 times the private sector. It is the worst state measured by small business survival rates, with high taxes, oppressive regulations, and deficit spending (although against the law.) For every government crony hired his or her salary must come from taxing someone else. And recently 43 arrests for mayoral and other corruption of Democrats with one token Republican arrest.

Monday, August 24, 2009

King Barack and his lobsters in Montana

The following is an email I received from a friend who doesn't want to be identified. It was unsolicited, but is followed up by another email from a relative in Bozeman who confirms, at my request, much of the first email. I deleted his identification, too.

Superamerican
Seattle
________________________________________________________________________
FYI from friend in Colorado with friend in Montana
Subject: What Really Happened Last Week in Montana
Hello All,

By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since XXX and I live here and we were at the
airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.

On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and
deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.

On about Tuesday XXX found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because XXX knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public.

FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking (gymnasiums/auditoriums). All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$ During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$

Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday.

Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.

This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it
would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.

On Friday XXX and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to
be. A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal) and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd. The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)

Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very
intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.

So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest. If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away.
None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds. We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho.

Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head. It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous. XXX and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your
voices.

If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine
what is going on in Washington DC. Scary!!

Sincerely,

Bozeman, Mt
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
XXXX ,

I know several folks that attended....and YYYY and I were driving to Flathead lake when Air Force One was landing with several helicoptors protecting its airspace upon descent. The days prior there were many flights of c130 transport planes bringing in the helecoptors and suburbans and the lobsters......

As we drove on the interstate there were hundreds of cars parked with protest signs, and I heard the accounts from people on the ground regarding the SEIU hit squads.

As for me, I will cling to my guns and religion, I fear we will need them both.

Have a great day!

ZZZZ

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 9:28 PM, XXXX wrote:
We'd like to know if any of you know anything about any of this...Thanks for any comments or anything. (It was great to meet all of you, XXXX.)
XXXX

Krauthammer speech

Charles Krauthammer (born March 13, 1950) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist and a prominent political commentator. His weekly column appears in the The Washington Post and is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers and media outlets.[1] He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New Republic. He is a Fox News contributor, a regular panelist on Fox’s evening news program Special Report with Bret Baier and a weekly panelist on Inside Washington.[2]



Suffering a paralyzing accident in his first year of medical school, he was hospitalized for a year, during which time he continued his medical studies.[5] He graduated with his class, earning an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975, and then began working as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 1984, he became board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.



From 1975–1978, Krauthammer was a Resident and then a Chief Resident in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time he and a colleague identified a form of mania resulting from a concomitant medical illness, rather than a primary inherent disorder, which they named "secondary mania"[6] and published a second important paper on the epidemiology of manic illness.[7] The standard textbook for bipolar disease (Manic Depressive Illness by Goodwin and Jamison)[8] contains twelve references to his work.



In 1978, Krauthammer quit medical practice to direct planning in psychiatric research for the Jimmy Carter administration, and began contributing to The New Republic magazine. During the presidential campaign of 1980, Krauthammer served as a speech writer to Vice President Walter Mondale.



A good read!!!!



Last Monday was a profound evening, hearing Dr. Charles Krauthammer speak to the Center for the American Experiment. He is brilliant intellectual, seasoned & articulate. He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear monger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He is a fiscal conservative, and has a Pulitzer Prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News and writes weekly for the Washington Post. The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have shared this with many of you and several have asked me to summarize his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically and internationally. Even 2 Dems at my table agreed with everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free.



Summary of his comments:



1. Mr. Obama is a very intellectual, charming individual. He is not to be underestimated. He is a cool customer who doesn't show his emotions. It's very hard to know what's behind the mask. Taking down the Clinton dynasty from a political neophyte was an amazing accomplishment. The Clintons still do not understand what hit them. Obama was in the perfect place at the perfect time.



2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan and Clinton. He has a way of making you think he's on your side, agreeing with your position, while doing the opposite. Pay no attention to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!



3. Obama has a ruthless quest for power. He did not come to Washington to make something out of himself, but rather to change everything, including dismantling capitalism. He can¹t be straightforward on his ambitions, as the public would not go along. He has a heavy hand, and wants to level the playing field with income redistribution and punishment to the achievers of society. He would like to model the USA to Great Britain or Canada .



4. His three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, & NATIONAL HEALTHCARE by the Federal government. He doesn't care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada , God forbid.



5. He has surrounded himself with mostly far-left academic types. No one around him has ever even run a candy store. But they are going to try and run the auto, financial, banking and other industries. This obviously can¹t work in the long run. Obama is not a socialist; rather he's a far-left secular progressive bent on nothing short of revolution. He ran as a moderate, but will govern from the hard left. Again, watch what he does, not what he says.



6. Obama doesn¹t really see himself as President of the United States , but more as a ruler over the world. He sees himself above it all, trying to orchestrate & coordinate various countries and their agendas. He sees moral equivalency in all cultures. His apology tour in&nbs p; Germany and England was a prime example of how he sees America , as an imperialist nation that has been arrogant, rather than a great noble nation that has at times made errors. This is the first President ever who has chastised our allies and appeased our enemies!



7. He is now handing out goodies. He hopes that the bill (and pain) will not come due until after he is reelected in 2012. He would like to blame all problems on Bush from the past, and hopefully his successor in the future. He has a huge ego, and Mr. Krauthammer believes he is a narcissist.



8. Republicans are in the wilderness for a while, but will emerge strong. Were pining for another Reagan, but there will never be another like him. Krauthammer believes Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl (except for his terrible speech in February) are the future of the party. Newt Gingrich is brilliant, but has baggage. Sarah Palin is sincere and intelligent, but needs to be seriously boning up on facts and info if she is to be a serious candidate in the future. We need to return to the party of lower taxes, smaller government, personal responsibility, strong national defense, and state¹s rights.



9. The current level of spending is irresponsible and outrageous. We are spending trillions that we don¹t have. This could lead to hyperinflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid and Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due and people will realize the huge bailouts didn¹t work, nor will the stimulus package. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama¹s allies, unions and the Congress to placate the left, so he can get support for #4 above.



10. The election was over in mid-September when Lehman brothers failed, fear and panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, and the war was grinding on indefinitely without a clear outcome. The people are in pain, and the mantra of change caused people to act emotionally. Any Dem would have won this election; it was surprising it was as close as it was.



11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it's under 8%, the Dems continue to roll. If it's between 8-10%, it will be a dogfight. It will all be about the economy. I hope this gets you really thinking about what's happening in Washington and Congress. There is a left-wing revolution going on, according to Krauthammer, and he encourages us to keep the faith and join the loyal resistance. The work will be hard, but were right on most issues and can reclaim our country, before it's far too late.




Do yourself a long term favor, send this to all who will listen to an intelligent assessment of the big picture. All our futures and children's futur es depend on our good understanding of what is really going on in DC!!!! And our action pursuant to that understanding!!! It really IS up to each of us to take individual action. Start with educating your friends and neighbors!!!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Adding Bodies To Watch Over You

Everyone Should Work for the Government - Vast new patronage for Democrats to win election and re-election.

While many in the left-leaning media are indicating the the "stimulus" bill was a success, think again. With less than maybe $120,000,000,000 spent (not even 1% of GDP) for one-time, barely-boosting tax cuts, and other monies that would have been spent by states anyway, such as Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment insurance, the impact on the economy and unemployment has been not even marginal. Now on the opposite, job-killing side, Obama has nationalized the student-loan industry (loss: 35,000 jobs), gone after successful technology companies and appointed czars over each industry to keep them in line. Jobs are NOT created with highly-burdensome regulation and threatened tax hikes. NOT. Please check out my posts about Obama diminishing business.

Editorial (In The Seattle Times)
More students drawn to public-service careers
The College Class of 2009 is more interested than its predecessors in public service and government. The surge of applications at graduate schools of government and public policy is good news for a nation in economic trouble.
Seattle Times editorial
AS the college Class of 2009 heads out into the world the next few months, the career paths these bright-eyed graduates are choosing should encourage a troubled nation.
A country in financial turmoil ought to cheer the fact that more college students than before are interested in public service and government — and the idea of giving something back.
Yes, of course, students flock to fields that offer the best chance of landing a job. Government offers more opportunities in certain disciplines than the private sector.
That only explains part of what is happening. Graduate schools of government and public policy are receiving a surge of applications.
"Young people today understand that government has a powerful role to play in solving these problems," said Sandra Archibald, dean of the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Applications increased 26 percent this year.
College experts report fewer students seeking careers on Wall Street. The switch is obviously because of the enormous mess in the financial world.
More compelling, however, is where the students are going. Officials at universities report a trend toward government and public service. The energy and ideas of young people eager to help in social services, health care, energy and climate change will benefit communities.
The New York Times reminds us that college students flooded into civil engineering during the Great Depression seeking jobs, yes, but also to help the nation rebuild itself. They designed highways, dams and bridges. In the Sputnik era, the trend was toward sciences, and some of that is taking place today.
President Obama said during the campaign he wanted government to be cool again. Some will argue government could never be cool. High schools emphasizing community service also deserve credit for boosting interest in the public sector.
Perhaps. Yet young altruists can help chart the country's direction. Everyone benefits if an emerging generation devotes enthusiasm and bright ideas to the numerous public-policy problems vexing our nation.
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

My response.

To the Seattle Times Editorial Board:
"The career paths these bright-eyed graduates are choosing should encourage a troubled nation". Would these exact same graduates be "bright-eyed" if they had chosen to work on Wall Street? To the "enormous mess in the financial world"? "Wall Street" which is a all-embracing term for the mechanism that raises capital from American citizens who have some to spare, institutions and foreign individuals and institutions and deploys it into American business to add to capacity, perform research and development of new products and services and create jobs. A base of lasting jobs. Yes, those jobs ebb and flow with the over-all economy. But without that "Wall Street" you so easily dismiss as a "mess", our country would not be the most prosperous country ever known to humankind.
OK, the Seattle Times Editorial Board, from where does the money to pay the salaries and expenses of these "public-service careers" come? (The answer, which you probably won't get from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs, is business.) Now, for the sake of argument, if everyone in this country were young (and old) altruists working for the government, exactly who would pay for their salaries and expenses?
The answers can be emailed to:
superamerican@att.net

Early May, 2009, The House Committee on Oversight and Government "Reform" approved a bill to provide paid parental leave (four weeks) to federal workers. It should help attract more private sector workers to government, attract more Democratic voters and expand the number of children born, adopted or foster parented by government employees.

California has the highest teachers salaries in the United States. (California has the second lowest math and reading test scores in the United States.) California's unions have it spend $49,000 per year on prisoners, 50% more than average. California gets more than 50% of its income from the second highest income tax rate in the country (11% second only to NY's 12.5+%) from Kobe Bryant and the other rich 1%.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Transparency for Taxes!

This is a brilliant article. Bring transparency to taxes would open people's minds to what they are paying and for what.

OPINION (Wall Street Journal, Thursday, August 13, 2009, page A 15)

Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
So is the payroll tax. End them both and voters will have a healthier understanding of the government burden.

By CHARLES MURRAY
America is supposed to be a democracy in which we're all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common understanding that we all pay a share of the costs. Taxes are an essential ingredient in the civic glue that binds us together.
Our democracy is corrupted when some voters think that they won't have to pay for the benefits their representatives offer them. It is corrupted when some voters see themselves as victims of exploitation by their fellow citizens.

By both standards, American democracy is in trouble. We have the worst of both worlds. The rhetoric of the president tells the public that the rich are not paying their fair share, undermining the common understanding from the bottom up. Meanwhile, the IRS recently released new numbers on who pays how much taxes, and those numbers tell the people at the top that they're being exploited.

Let's start with the rich, whom I define as families in the top 1% of income among those who filed tax returns. In 2007, the year with the most recent tax data, they had family incomes of $410,000 or more. They paid 40% of all the personal income taxes collected.

Yes, you read it right: 1% of American families paid 40% of America's personal taxes.
The families in the rest of the top 5% had family incomes of $160,000 to $410,000. They paid another 20% of total personal income taxes. Now we're up to three out of every five dollars in personal taxes paid by just five out of every 100 American families.

Turn to the bottom three-quarters of the families who filed income tax returns in 2007—not just low-income families, but everybody with family incomes below $66,500. That 75% of families paid just 13% of all personal income taxes. Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation has recast these numbers in terms of a single, stunning statistic: The top 1% of American households pay more in federal taxes than the bottom 95% combined.

My point is not that the rich are being bled dry. The taxes paid by families in the top 1% amounted to 22% of their adjusted gross income, not a confiscatory rate. The issue is that it is inherently problematic to have a democracy in which a third of filers pay no personal income tax at all (another datum from the IRS), and the entire bottom half of filers, meaning those with adjusted gross incomes below $33,000, have an average tax rate of just 3%.

This deforms the behavior of everyone—the voters who think they aren't paying for Congress's latest bright idea, the politicians who know that promising new programs will always be a winning political strategy with the majority of taxpayers who don't think they have to pay for them, and the wealthy who know that the only way to get politicians to refrain from that strategy is to buy them off.

For once, we face a problem with a solution that costs nothing. Most families who pay little or no personal income taxes are paying Social Security and Medicare taxes. All we need to do is make an accounting change, no longer pretending that payroll taxes are sequestered in trust funds.
Fold payroll taxes into the personal tax code, adjusting the rules so that everyone still pays the same total, but the tax bill shows up on the 1040. Doing so will tell everyone the truth: Their payroll taxes are being used to pay whatever bills the federal government brings upon itself, among which are the costs of Social Security and Medicare.

The finishing touch is to make sure that people understand how much they are paying, which is presently obscured by withholding at the workplace. End withholding, and require everybody to do what millions of Americans already do: write checks for estimated taxes four times a year.
Both of those simple changes scare politicians. Payroll taxes are politically useful because low-income and middle-income taxpayers don't complain about what they believe are contributions to their retirement and they think, wrongly, that they aren't paying much for anything else. Tax withholding has a wonderfully anesthetizing effect on people whose only income is a paycheck, leaving many of them actually feeling grateful for their tax refund check every year, not noticing how much the government has taken from them.

But the politicians' fear of being honest about taxes doesn't change the urgent need to be honest. The average taxpayer is wrong if he believes the affluent aren't paying their fair share—the top income earners carry an extraordinary proportion of the tax burden. High-income earners are wrong, too, about being exploited: Take account of payroll taxes, and low-income people also bear a heavy tax load.

End the payroll tax, end withholding, and these corrosive misapprehensions go away. We will once again be a democracy in which we're all in it together, we all know that we're all paying a share, and we are all aware how much that share is.

Mr. Murray is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His most recent book, "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality," will be out in paperback later this month (Three Rivers).

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Postal Service will be put in Private Hands. Free Enterprise?

The U. S. Postal Service is expected to lose billions and billions of dollars this year. The Article I read stated it would be returned to private hands. Oops. That is Socialist France. Hmmmm. Its cabinet approved the first step toward the possible privatization of La Poste into a joint-stock (private) company. Mail services will be opened to comptition in the European Union in 2011, this is France's first thrust of an initiative to compete.

Barack Obama, president of the formerly free-enterprise United States of America, are you listening?

The Obama Revolution: America Down the Toilet

Since General Motors can't seem to sell cars, ditto Ford, Chrysler and others, President Obama will take tax money (borrowed from China in the short term) and bribe Americans to buy new cars. The one stupid proviso is that the gas mileage needs to be what he wants. Might be 17 mpg if you trade in one getting 15 mpg. Great green victory! $1 billion of cash spoken for in about a week. Does that end the program? Not on your life, add $2,000,000,000. This will make Obama look good the Third Quarter of 2009 and kill new car sales in the Fourth Quarter. This man is ridiculous and his thoughtless protection of union bosses is hurting America and Americans, as will be shown in the future. Central control of economies and manufacturing has never in history done anything but put dictators in power and destroy countries. USA next?

Here's the impact of Obama stimulus: states and cities spent $21 million on lobbying the Obama Administration for stimulus cash from April to June, 2009.

Here's the impact of Obama threatening healthcare takeover: the healthcare sector shot up to Number One of 10 major industries in attempting to buy influence from Congress and the Obama Administration with $133,000,000 in lobbying over the second quarter of 2009.

This week, from July 27 through July 31, the Treasury Department of the United States of America will pray. It needs to borrow $200,000,000,000 the most since 1985 -- nearly 25 years ago. Way to go Obama! You'd better get back to Rev. Wright's church. Will it be China? Will it be Russia? Will it be...just who will be buying America this week? And $200,000,000,000 is only a "down payment". With the deficit nearing $2,000,000,000,000 more will be needed.

The Obama Administration can't even get giving money away right. Its much haralded effort to reduce home foreclosures by strongarming mortgage and servicing firms is failing. It's a product of katrinazation, or excess governmental bureaucracy. Everyone involved seems to be confused so the Obama Administration has summoned 25 company executives to probably blame them for its own incompetency. (The Obama plan in essence bribes companies with taxpayer cash to reduce payments of people in trouble and others "at-risk" as they say.) The confusion and lengthy wait for final interim federal guidelines of hundreds of pages and differing messages contribute to the failure so far.

Here's the Obama philosophy. Industrial production down (13+%, lowest since the '40's), tax receipts down (23%), government spending up (18%), slower growth, jobs being shedded at record rates, non-government unemployment up, government jobs up. Regulations up, taxes up, minimum wage up. Legislate success, legislate wealth, legislate, legislate. And get the anti-trust going...who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of business?

And to that end, the Obama administration is being filled by union bosses, those verysame people who elected him. Joseph Main, 20-years in the United Mine Workers, will oversee the Mine Safety and Health Administration; Jordan Marab, advocate for Democrats and the AFL-CIO, will be #2 at OSHA.


[May 23, 2009: mortgage modifications don't work. The linchpin of Obama's recovery initiatives doesn't work. Fitch Ratings reports that between 65% and 75% of modified subprime pooled mortgages fall 60 days into delinquency within one year of modification. Ignorance reigns.]


When effective chief executive officers -- in the private-company sector -- newly take over, many generally take a few or six months to get a lay of the land before jumping in with changes. Not so the CEO of the United States, President Barack Obama; he jumped right in, yes, blindly. With no executive experience. And little knowledge of the free-enterprise system. He should read, listen and learn, but, of course he won't, being too self-absorbed to admit he doesn't know everything. America will suffer. America is suffering. Guatamala's experience resonates, see below: "Finally, a Real Revolution. California's experience managed by Democrats with similar ideological dogma also resonates, see below: "California Reckoning". With Obama's Change mantra, America is headed down the toilet.


"Finally, a Real Revolution" The Wall Street Journal, Monday, May 18, 2009, page A15.(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260191911428369.html).
"California Reckoning" The Wall Street Journal, Monday, May 18, 2009, page A16 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124259847829628121.html) and
"Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich" The Wall Street Journal, same issue, page A 17 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html)

Riddle: what do those three articles have to do with one another?

Obama and FDR created revolutions. Hitler saved America before FDR's activities could sink America. What's with Obama? Can't he read history? Who will save America this time around?

California is an analog to what America will become. Democrats' spend to get re-elected, borrow then tax. And it drives out industry. Aerospace anyone? California had 140,000 aerospace workers in 1990; now? Under 40,000. Movies anyone? Q 1 2009 saw the lowest number of feature-film days of production ever measured. And, of course, unemployment in California is one of the nation's highest at 11.4%. On Tuesday, May 19, 2009, California voters resoundly vetoed this spend, borrow and tax approach that has virtually killed its competiveness and solvency. Voters said, "no"; they are the citizens of "no". But, of course they said, "no, almost 30 years ago with the Gann Amendment which limited the growth of California government spending. But later the politicians neutered it. And neutered California's growth. And the rest is history: lousy economic growth, hugely higher taxes which force out high-net-worth investors and companies, and a $21 billion deficit. California voters did pass limits to politicians' compensation.

Remember health insurance which priced policies based on ridiculous things like someone's health? No longer. Politicians get paid by constituents (campaign contributions) to add mandates for virtually everything under the sun, then some. And prices for insurance go up. Doesn't matter someone's health or personal risky activities. Now President Obama has appointed someone who does what health insurance companies used to do. Select out those people who do health-risky things like smoke and get fat. But through government action, and more government employees, not the free markets where individuals can choose and pay. The man, Thomas Frieden, also gives out free condoms, increased colon-cancer screenings (one diagnostic tool that Medicare is reducing because of cost. Hmmm. Who will win this one?) He banned french fries that are crisp (trans fats, once the answer to butter's high cholestrol).

"Silicon Valley Girds for New Antitrust Regime" The Wall Street Journal ("WSJ"), Monday, May 18, 2009, page B 1. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260263059528447.html). Why would President Obama attack the most productive element of American society? I remember when the Clinton Administration filed an antitrust suit against poor Microsoft, which then had NO -- ZERO -- people lobbying in or not in Washington DC. I believe last year is spent nearly $30 million. That is the goal of antitrust, to grab money from companies. Could this be prima facie evidence of either 1) his ignorance and inexperience or 2) his desire to throw America down the toilet? Or what?

And while the country is an a nasty recession, what to do? Punish companies so they won't have any money to create jobs. WSJ, Monday, May 18, 2009, page A3 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260337667928567.html). "The [Obama] administration has proposed changes that would generate a total of more than $400 billion in new tax revenue [from business]." This article discusses only one.life insurance companies.

Then Friday, May 15, 2009, WSJ Front Page: "U. S. Slates $22 Billion For Insurers From TARP" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124234565889921705.html). Let's see the article above discusses taxing life insurance companies around $12.7 billion, while this article says Obama is going to give the same companies $22 billion. Huh? I am betting on Obama being ideologically stuck in communism ("You don't need no dang capitalism") AND stupid.

All this brought to you by goverment, owner and manager of the U. S. Postal Service which lost $1,900,000,000 for the second quarter of its fiscal year (it lost only $400,000,000 Q 1) and should run out of money by year end. So it increased prices t0 $.44 per first class mail.