By William L. Garvin
Christmas has survived for another year. This is probably because the sardonic Jon Stewart pompously declared that there was no “war on Christmas” and mugged and mocked those who are concerned. Unfortunately, many of his sycophants hear his words as “gospel.”
One advantage that entertainers have is that no one ever fact checks their so-called humor. Laugh tracks are also helpful. Another advantage is that they can spout their comedic riffs and never consider any contrarian points of view. For instance, numerous societal observers have commented on the increasing commercialization that threatens to eclipse the religious values of Christmas. It was impossible to miss the ruthlessness and lack of courtesy or concern in many of the “Black Friday” mobs. That was bad enough but then came the release of the “Air Jordan Retro XI Concord” shoes. Those of us who grew up in an era of Keds and PF Flyers don’t understand paying $200 for a pair of tennis shoes but crowds of thousands now vie to do just that. What’s more, they will violently defend their rights to ostentatiously consume.
In Seattle, Washington, police had to use pepper spray (oh, the horror!) to break up fights in the crowd. In Austin, Texas, two officers were overrun and injured when the crowd bolted through the doors. In Atlanta, Georgia, the crowd broke down the mall door to get inside early. Not to be outdone, an Indianapolis mob ripped doors off their hinges. Police reports in Louisville said there were 75-100 people fighting. In Richmond, California, the mall closed down after some idiot fired a shot in the crowd. Lots of folly; not much jolly.
After commercial warfare, there’s spiritual warfare. Despite their relatively miniscule numbers, atheists managed to secure seven of the ten public displays at the Loudon County Courthouse in Virginia. They used one of their displays to depict a Santa Claus crucified on a cross. Their “soul” mates, the Wisconsin Freedom From Religion Foundation felt so strongly that a nativity scene in Athens, Texas, “sends a message of intimidation and exclusion”, they demanded the scene be torn down or they would sue. Unlike other municipalities who buckled under the costs of potential lawsuits, the Henderson County Courthouse display remained intact with overwhelming community support.
Santa Monica, California, has a sixty year tradition of displaying nativity scenes in twenty-one city park spaces. This year, only three spaces went to Christians in the lottery. The rest went to atheists who appropriately left many of their spaces…blank. Then there’s the Massachusetts Superintendent of Schools who banned Santa Claus and cited the “Constitutional separation of church and state.” That is absurd beyond belief. First of all, the “separation of church and state” is not found in the Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees “freedom of religion” not “freedom from religion” as the atheists seem to want. Secondly, it’s unclear as to exactly which church Santa attends or where he is mentioned in any of the holy writings. Unfortunately, this superintendent is a profound example of one who has confused his education with his diploma.
It should also be noted that there is no ornament recognizing Jesus Christ on the national Capital Christmas Tree. Coincidence? Certainly the decision by the House Franking Commission that any correspondence between representatives and their constituents could not bear the greeting of “Merry Christmas” was not accidental. It did permit the apparently non-offensive use of “Happy Holidays.” Let’s pray that no one tells them that “holiday” actually means “holy day.” If you want to push this separation motif further, why do government employees get Christmas Day off? Let’s see the atheists take on the unions over that one!
On a deadly serious note, for the second year in a row, there have been a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on Christian churches in Nigeria on Christmas Day. This year, at least 39 people have been killed and many more wounded by the Boko Haram sect that desires to install Sharia law over all Nigeria. Maybe the hilarious Mr. Stewart should explain to the dead and dying on the steps of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla just exactly how he reached his conclusions.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Naughty and Nice
By William L. Garvin
Santa's workload got a lot lighter this week with all the additional names that popped up on his Naughty List. First there was Eric Holder, our nation's premier law enforcement officer, saying that the difference between a lie and misleading Congress was the state of mind of the liar, er, uh, misleader. Of course, this didn't really lighten Santa's bag because Attorney Holder is permanently on the Naughty side because of his incompetence and intransigence in the Fast and Furious fiasco.
Also ensuring permanent enshrinement on the Naughty side of the list is the esteemed ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. With her perpetually straight face she blithely intoned that extending the unemployment benefits would "make a difference of 600,000 jobs to our economy." Looks like Pinocchio will soon be second best when it comes to prominent proboscis projection. Apparently her muse continues to be the unnamed macroeconomists who have driven this economy into unparalleled debt with their astronomical spending.
Also on the Naughty List are all the pundits who hailed the drop in unemployment from 9.1% to 8.6% as proof that the Obama Economic Doctrine is working. Buried in the fine print (or completely ignored) is the fact that the only reason the rate dropped is because 315,000 workers simply gave up and stopped looking for work and are no longer counted. By this simplistic liberal logic, if everyone stopped looking for work, unemployment would be zero and happy days would be here again! Few of the unemployed and the underemployed who heard the President chortle that the shovel-ready projects "weren't really as shovel-ready as we thought" saw any humor or reason for levity. The President added salt to the wound by promising to veto the Keystone Pipeline job opportunities that would be created by the 1,700 mile project. Since there are already more than 2.5 million miles of pipeline in existence in the U.S., his environmental concerns appear to be primarily a strategy for keeping the green group money flowing into his campaign coffers.
Then there's the matter of the Federal Income Contributions Act (FICA) or Social Security "contribution" or newly coined "payroll tax." Whenever Republicans are in charge, Dems weep, wail, and moan about the impending demise and impending fiscal insolvency of the Social Security trust fund. All the while, they demagogued the issue and sabotaged any efforts at reform. This has resulted in a current unfunded liability of nearly $7.9 trillion dollars. So this year's 2% reduction in the payroll/social security tax meant $105 billion less into the fund; next year it will be $119 billion less. Our congressional leaders have proposed "paying" for this reduction by imposing a new "fee" (not a tax!) on mortgages. That should really help the housing industry where sales are at their lowest point in ten years despite the fact that home values dropped another 5.8% this last year! Would someone please send these economic ignoramuses back to school?
Also in need of remedial education is the Congressional Black Caucus and its "Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act." Their plan will "create 5 million jobs." Undoubtedly they are using the same macroeconomists employed by Nancy Pelosi and their "out of thin air" numbers. They might as well have said they would provide jobs for all 13.9 million unemployed and the other 6.2 million who have flat given up. How will they do it? You already know, don't you? They will impose another $800 billion in taxes on millionaires and $350 billion in taxes on investors. Here we go again, another trillion dollar redistribution of wealth shenanigan that will fail in every way except for increasing dependency on Big Government. Please give them a lump of coal and an Economics 101 Basic Primer on finance in their stockings.
On the "Nice List" are the names of nearly 1.5 million men and women who have served admirably in Iraq over the last nine years. Welcome home and THANK YOU! Also on this list are the countless men and women who are still in harm's way. We look forward to wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in person as soon as possible. Stay safe!
Santa's workload got a lot lighter this week with all the additional names that popped up on his Naughty List. First there was Eric Holder, our nation's premier law enforcement officer, saying that the difference between a lie and misleading Congress was the state of mind of the liar, er, uh, misleader. Of course, this didn't really lighten Santa's bag because Attorney Holder is permanently on the Naughty side because of his incompetence and intransigence in the Fast and Furious fiasco.
Also ensuring permanent enshrinement on the Naughty side of the list is the esteemed ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. With her perpetually straight face she blithely intoned that extending the unemployment benefits would "make a difference of 600,000 jobs to our economy." Looks like Pinocchio will soon be second best when it comes to prominent proboscis projection. Apparently her muse continues to be the unnamed macroeconomists who have driven this economy into unparalleled debt with their astronomical spending.
Also on the Naughty List are all the pundits who hailed the drop in unemployment from 9.1% to 8.6% as proof that the Obama Economic Doctrine is working. Buried in the fine print (or completely ignored) is the fact that the only reason the rate dropped is because 315,000 workers simply gave up and stopped looking for work and are no longer counted. By this simplistic liberal logic, if everyone stopped looking for work, unemployment would be zero and happy days would be here again! Few of the unemployed and the underemployed who heard the President chortle that the shovel-ready projects "weren't really as shovel-ready as we thought" saw any humor or reason for levity. The President added salt to the wound by promising to veto the Keystone Pipeline job opportunities that would be created by the 1,700 mile project. Since there are already more than 2.5 million miles of pipeline in existence in the U.S., his environmental concerns appear to be primarily a strategy for keeping the green group money flowing into his campaign coffers.
Then there's the matter of the Federal Income Contributions Act (FICA) or Social Security "contribution" or newly coined "payroll tax." Whenever Republicans are in charge, Dems weep, wail, and moan about the impending demise and impending fiscal insolvency of the Social Security trust fund. All the while, they demagogued the issue and sabotaged any efforts at reform. This has resulted in a current unfunded liability of nearly $7.9 trillion dollars. So this year's 2% reduction in the payroll/social security tax meant $105 billion less into the fund; next year it will be $119 billion less. Our congressional leaders have proposed "paying" for this reduction by imposing a new "fee" (not a tax!) on mortgages. That should really help the housing industry where sales are at their lowest point in ten years despite the fact that home values dropped another 5.8% this last year! Would someone please send these economic ignoramuses back to school?
Also in need of remedial education is the Congressional Black Caucus and its "Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act." Their plan will "create 5 million jobs." Undoubtedly they are using the same macroeconomists employed by Nancy Pelosi and their "out of thin air" numbers. They might as well have said they would provide jobs for all 13.9 million unemployed and the other 6.2 million who have flat given up. How will they do it? You already know, don't you? They will impose another $800 billion in taxes on millionaires and $350 billion in taxes on investors. Here we go again, another trillion dollar redistribution of wealth shenanigan that will fail in every way except for increasing dependency on Big Government. Please give them a lump of coal and an Economics 101 Basic Primer on finance in their stockings.
On the "Nice List" are the names of nearly 1.5 million men and women who have served admirably in Iraq over the last nine years. Welcome home and THANK YOU! Also on this list are the countless men and women who are still in harm's way. We look forward to wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in person as soon as possible. Stay safe!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Throw Them All Out!
By William L. Garvin
According to the Federal Reserve’s Quarterly Report, the average U.S. household’s net worth declined by $21,261 over this summer alone. Interestingly enough, the net worth of Congress had increased 25% from 2008-2010. Why is it that our political leaders always leave office with so much more wealth than they possessed when they arrived? Maybe the reason is that they possess incredible investment acumen.
A recent study of 6,000 congressional stock trades revealed some interesting results. While corporate insiders beat the market by 5% and hedge fund managers managed 7-8%, members of Congress had a 12% return. During this period, the rest of the U.S. showed an overall decline of 1.4%. When confronted by Sixty Minutes about a particularly sweet deal on a VISA card Initial Public Offering (and a potential conflict of interest!), Princess Pelosi pompously proclaimed “It’s not true and that’s that.” This privileged member of the 1% saw no conflict with trading in credit cards while shepherding credit card legislation through the hallowed halls of Congress.
That’s why the Occupy protest misses the mark in several ways. First, it is the lawmakers who profit on inside information that should be their target. Wall Street is hardly the be-all, end-all of crony capitalism. It is the lawmakers who listen to the lobbyists and accept their campaign contributions. It is the lawmakers who are setting the rules that allow the banks to game the system. It is the lawmakers who pressured the banks to give home loans to people who had no way of paying them back. It is the lawmakers who give the approval for the bankers to walk through that revolving door between Wall Street and key administration positions. Throw them all out, as Peter Schweizer recommends in his new book of the same name.
Schweizer notes that Ms. Pelosi and her husband received 5,000 shares of the highly coveted VISA IPO at $44 which increased 50% in one day and nearly doubled in two weeks. She also received stock in at least eight other IPO’s. Schweizer also notes that there was a high degree of correlation between the investment portfolios of members of Congress and how they vote. He points to one study that reveals a significant correlation between how lawmakers voted with respect to the TARP bailout in 2008 and their own investment portfolios. “What they found was the number one determining factor in whether you voted for or against, was not whether you were conservative or liberal, not whether you were Republican or Democrat, but whether you owned stocks in the bank sector.” Again, according to Schweizer, “if you did, you voted in favor of the bailout. If you didn’t, you tended to vote against.”
The current brouhaha over congressional investment acumen pales in comparison to the investment prowess of Hillary Clinton. In 1978, she invested $1,000 in cattle futures and parlayed it into a 630% profit in a single week. She managed to work it up to $100,000 in less than a year by almost always magically selling at the highs and buying at the lows each day. A university study found that the odds of being able to do this are 1 in 31 trillion! As to why she isn’t Secretary of the Treasury, no one knows. At least let her invest the Social Security Trust Fund!
These types of transactions would put a private citizen behind bars but as usual, Congress gets to play by a different set of rules. Today, thanks to the furor raised by Schweizer’s book and the Sixty Minutes segment, there are currently three versions of the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) bills under consideration, (HR 1148, S. 1871, and S. 1903). While each bill is a step in the right direction, none will stop the crony capitalism and corruption in the Congressional ruling class. Until they are prohibited from trading in areas where they have influence or knowledge, until their portfolios are required to be in blind trusts for the duration of their terms, expect the system to be gamed by those who set the rules. We deserve better.
According to the Federal Reserve’s Quarterly Report, the average U.S. household’s net worth declined by $21,261 over this summer alone. Interestingly enough, the net worth of Congress had increased 25% from 2008-2010. Why is it that our political leaders always leave office with so much more wealth than they possessed when they arrived? Maybe the reason is that they possess incredible investment acumen.
A recent study of 6,000 congressional stock trades revealed some interesting results. While corporate insiders beat the market by 5% and hedge fund managers managed 7-8%, members of Congress had a 12% return. During this period, the rest of the U.S. showed an overall decline of 1.4%. When confronted by Sixty Minutes about a particularly sweet deal on a VISA card Initial Public Offering (and a potential conflict of interest!), Princess Pelosi pompously proclaimed “It’s not true and that’s that.” This privileged member of the 1% saw no conflict with trading in credit cards while shepherding credit card legislation through the hallowed halls of Congress.
That’s why the Occupy protest misses the mark in several ways. First, it is the lawmakers who profit on inside information that should be their target. Wall Street is hardly the be-all, end-all of crony capitalism. It is the lawmakers who listen to the lobbyists and accept their campaign contributions. It is the lawmakers who are setting the rules that allow the banks to game the system. It is the lawmakers who pressured the banks to give home loans to people who had no way of paying them back. It is the lawmakers who give the approval for the bankers to walk through that revolving door between Wall Street and key administration positions. Throw them all out, as Peter Schweizer recommends in his new book of the same name.
Schweizer notes that Ms. Pelosi and her husband received 5,000 shares of the highly coveted VISA IPO at $44 which increased 50% in one day and nearly doubled in two weeks. She also received stock in at least eight other IPO’s. Schweizer also notes that there was a high degree of correlation between the investment portfolios of members of Congress and how they vote. He points to one study that reveals a significant correlation between how lawmakers voted with respect to the TARP bailout in 2008 and their own investment portfolios. “What they found was the number one determining factor in whether you voted for or against, was not whether you were conservative or liberal, not whether you were Republican or Democrat, but whether you owned stocks in the bank sector.” Again, according to Schweizer, “if you did, you voted in favor of the bailout. If you didn’t, you tended to vote against.”
The current brouhaha over congressional investment acumen pales in comparison to the investment prowess of Hillary Clinton. In 1978, she invested $1,000 in cattle futures and parlayed it into a 630% profit in a single week. She managed to work it up to $100,000 in less than a year by almost always magically selling at the highs and buying at the lows each day. A university study found that the odds of being able to do this are 1 in 31 trillion! As to why she isn’t Secretary of the Treasury, no one knows. At least let her invest the Social Security Trust Fund!
These types of transactions would put a private citizen behind bars but as usual, Congress gets to play by a different set of rules. Today, thanks to the furor raised by Schweizer’s book and the Sixty Minutes segment, there are currently three versions of the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) bills under consideration, (HR 1148, S. 1871, and S. 1903). While each bill is a step in the right direction, none will stop the crony capitalism and corruption in the Congressional ruling class. Until they are prohibited from trading in areas where they have influence or knowledge, until their portfolios are required to be in blind trusts for the duration of their terms, expect the system to be gamed by those who set the rules. We deserve better.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Democrats “Discover” Death Panels
By William L. Garvin
In the middle of the night, without any substantive discussion, Democrats in the House of Representatives unilaterally passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, generally known as ObamaCare. In a total absence of logical thought, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that “we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” No one in Congress had even read the two-thousand page Frankenstein monstrosity that Nancy, Harry and friends cobbled together behind closed doors.
Two of the early ObamaCare critics were Thomas Sowell and Sarah Palin. They had presciently written in August of 2009: “The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” Liberal outrage immediately went into existential overdrive to mock Palin and her concerns.
Typical and predictable attack dogs began their snarling propaganda on sites such as the Huffington Post, Think Progress, Daily Kos, and the AFL-CIO. “Sarah Palin Amps Up the Falsehood by Introducing the Death Panel Myth,” blared one headline. These internecine internet attacks were robotically reported by mainstream media such as the LA Times, ABC News, and small minded columnists in papers both large and small. Daily Kos’s projectile vomiting included the following: But no matter what happens to the legislation, you can expect the “death panel” lie to join all the other sound bite propaganda that now makes up the Republican manifesto.”The improperly named Politifact labeled her charge “Pants on Fire” and awarded it the “Lie of the Year.” Speaker Pelosi almost stripped her vocal gears rushing to the microphone to repeat the blatant slur.
Undaunted, Governor Palin penned another op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal a year ago: “Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments, including ObamaCare. Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar.
It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.” Again, the Governor was mocked and ridiculed by liberals in lockstep.
In typical Alinsky, Chicago political pugilism, propagandists tried to equate “death panels” to “end of life counseling” and continue this transparent ruse even today. This childish straw subterfuge was never the cause for alarm. It was always the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This 15-member Board is appointed by the President and is not subject to Congressional approval. Its stated goal is to reduce per capita Medicare spending and will recommend levels at which Medicare recipients can be reimbursed for health care expenses. Thus, the Board would cap the total amount of money senior recipients could receive for care. You never have to pull the plug on granny (Obama’s words) if you never allow granny to be plugged in to begin with!
This week, Representative Barney Frank, that saint-like epitome of civil discourse (soon to be beatified by Democrat sycophants everywhere) was the latest Dem to sign on and cosponsor legislation to repeal the IPAB. HR 452 already has 214 cosponsors including a dozen Democrats. Today, the “false and pernicious” charges leveled against Governor Palin are the actual adornments of those who mocked too much! Although Democrats are finally starting to discover the truth, don’t ever expect any apologies to Palin or Sowell from the rad-libs!
In the middle of the night, without any substantive discussion, Democrats in the House of Representatives unilaterally passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, generally known as ObamaCare. In a total absence of logical thought, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that “we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” No one in Congress had even read the two-thousand page Frankenstein monstrosity that Nancy, Harry and friends cobbled together behind closed doors.
Two of the early ObamaCare critics were Thomas Sowell and Sarah Palin. They had presciently written in August of 2009: “The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” Liberal outrage immediately went into existential overdrive to mock Palin and her concerns.
Typical and predictable attack dogs began their snarling propaganda on sites such as the Huffington Post, Think Progress, Daily Kos, and the AFL-CIO. “Sarah Palin Amps Up the Falsehood by Introducing the Death Panel Myth,” blared one headline. These internecine internet attacks were robotically reported by mainstream media such as the LA Times, ABC News, and small minded columnists in papers both large and small. Daily Kos’s projectile vomiting included the following: But no matter what happens to the legislation, you can expect the “death panel” lie to join all the other sound bite propaganda that now makes up the Republican manifesto.”The improperly named Politifact labeled her charge “Pants on Fire” and awarded it the “Lie of the Year.” Speaker Pelosi almost stripped her vocal gears rushing to the microphone to repeat the blatant slur.
Undaunted, Governor Palin penned another op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal a year ago: “Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments, including ObamaCare. Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar.
It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.” Again, the Governor was mocked and ridiculed by liberals in lockstep.
In typical Alinsky, Chicago political pugilism, propagandists tried to equate “death panels” to “end of life counseling” and continue this transparent ruse even today. This childish straw subterfuge was never the cause for alarm. It was always the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This 15-member Board is appointed by the President and is not subject to Congressional approval. Its stated goal is to reduce per capita Medicare spending and will recommend levels at which Medicare recipients can be reimbursed for health care expenses. Thus, the Board would cap the total amount of money senior recipients could receive for care. You never have to pull the plug on granny (Obama’s words) if you never allow granny to be plugged in to begin with!
This week, Representative Barney Frank, that saint-like epitome of civil discourse (soon to be beatified by Democrat sycophants everywhere) was the latest Dem to sign on and cosponsor legislation to repeal the IPAB. HR 452 already has 214 cosponsors including a dozen Democrats. Today, the “false and pernicious” charges leveled against Governor Palin are the actual adornments of those who mocked too much! Although Democrats are finally starting to discover the truth, don’t ever expect any apologies to Palin or Sowell from the rad-libs!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bovine Scatology and Demonic Drivel
By William L. Garvin
“Republicans want dirty air and dirty water,” according to the Campaigner-in-Chief. “Republicans want the bridges to fall down,” according to Mad Maxine Waters. “Republicans just want to protect their rich Wall Street buddies.” Why is it that no one in the media calls Democrats on these idiotic statements?
Simply put, it’s because most of them are liberals and want Democrats to win. That’s why we get selective and biased reporting. Why does no one remember or care to accurately report that the Bush tax cuts were for everyone, not just the rich? Sure, the top tax bracket was cut from $39.6% to $35% (an 11.6% cut) but all the other brackets were cut as well. The lowest bracket dropped all the way from $15% to 10% (a 33 1/3% cut!). Let’s not forget that nearly fifty percent of wage earners pay no income taxes at all. However, many of them also manage to receive federal rebates from other working taxpayers.
Along these lines, if you want to see another government program that is rife with abuse, check out the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. A report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that millions of people may have improperly received Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers from the IRS that could be used to fraudulently claim tax refunds. “TIGTA reported that ITIN filers are receiving billions of dollars in Additional Child Tax Credits intended for working families even though such individuals are not authorized to work in the U.S. In its report, TIGTA also found that the IRS has not implemented controls to prevent ITINs from being used by more than one taxpayer on multiple tax returns,” according to WebCPA.
Now, back to the deliberate disinformation doled out by the Dems and their devoted divas in the media. Did revenues actually drop when the Bush tax cuts were implemented? No, they increased just as they did when Kennedy and Reagan cut taxes. Following the Bush tax cuts, revenues were $1.88 trillion in 2004; in 2005, they were $2.15 trillion; in 2006, they were $2.4 trillion; and in 2007, they reached an all time high at $2.6 trillion! The Republican House still controlled the budget so that’s why the federal deficit then was just $161 billion dollars that year. Since then, President Obama has presided over a Democrat dominated Congress that has not only failed to pass a budget but has shattered the trillion dollar per year deficit ceiling and has done it for three straight years! The national debt increased $4.9 trillion dollars during the eight-year Bush presidency. When Barack Obama took office, the debt stood at $10.6 trillion. Now, less than four years later, it is already over $15 trillion and he wants $447 billion more! If he gets his so called Jobs Bill passed, more than one-third of the entire national debt will be incurred during his first four years in the White House.
Republicans now control the House of Representatives for the first time since 2007, and has passed a budget that will cut $4.4 trillion in spending. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it to come to a vote in the Senate. Republican Mitch McConnell has asked for the Jobs Bill to come to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it. Not only did Harry have to introduce the bill himself, he still has no cosponsors for the mini-me version of the disastrous Stimulus Bill. It’s the same old story: Democrats stall but blame the Republicans and the media goes along with the sham and scam, the bovine scatology.
History shows that when Reagan raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When George H.W. Bush raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When Republicans agreed to the increase in the debt ceiling, Democrats promised to cut spending. They haven’t. Now they want to raise taxes and promise to cut spending in the future. They won’t. They still promise to give “everything to everybody.” They’re still drinking champagne out of your beer budget. It makes their drivel easier to swallow.
“Republicans want dirty air and dirty water,” according to the Campaigner-in-Chief. “Republicans want the bridges to fall down,” according to Mad Maxine Waters. “Republicans just want to protect their rich Wall Street buddies.” Why is it that no one in the media calls Democrats on these idiotic statements?
Simply put, it’s because most of them are liberals and want Democrats to win. That’s why we get selective and biased reporting. Why does no one remember or care to accurately report that the Bush tax cuts were for everyone, not just the rich? Sure, the top tax bracket was cut from $39.6% to $35% (an 11.6% cut) but all the other brackets were cut as well. The lowest bracket dropped all the way from $15% to 10% (a 33 1/3% cut!). Let’s not forget that nearly fifty percent of wage earners pay no income taxes at all. However, many of them also manage to receive federal rebates from other working taxpayers.
Along these lines, if you want to see another government program that is rife with abuse, check out the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. A report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that millions of people may have improperly received Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers from the IRS that could be used to fraudulently claim tax refunds. “TIGTA reported that ITIN filers are receiving billions of dollars in Additional Child Tax Credits intended for working families even though such individuals are not authorized to work in the U.S. In its report, TIGTA also found that the IRS has not implemented controls to prevent ITINs from being used by more than one taxpayer on multiple tax returns,” according to WebCPA.
Now, back to the deliberate disinformation doled out by the Dems and their devoted divas in the media. Did revenues actually drop when the Bush tax cuts were implemented? No, they increased just as they did when Kennedy and Reagan cut taxes. Following the Bush tax cuts, revenues were $1.88 trillion in 2004; in 2005, they were $2.15 trillion; in 2006, they were $2.4 trillion; and in 2007, they reached an all time high at $2.6 trillion! The Republican House still controlled the budget so that’s why the federal deficit then was just $161 billion dollars that year. Since then, President Obama has presided over a Democrat dominated Congress that has not only failed to pass a budget but has shattered the trillion dollar per year deficit ceiling and has done it for three straight years! The national debt increased $4.9 trillion dollars during the eight-year Bush presidency. When Barack Obama took office, the debt stood at $10.6 trillion. Now, less than four years later, it is already over $15 trillion and he wants $447 billion more! If he gets his so called Jobs Bill passed, more than one-third of the entire national debt will be incurred during his first four years in the White House.
Republicans now control the House of Representatives for the first time since 2007, and has passed a budget that will cut $4.4 trillion in spending. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it to come to a vote in the Senate. Republican Mitch McConnell has asked for the Jobs Bill to come to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it. Not only did Harry have to introduce the bill himself, he still has no cosponsors for the mini-me version of the disastrous Stimulus Bill. It’s the same old story: Democrats stall but blame the Republicans and the media goes along with the sham and scam, the bovine scatology.
History shows that when Reagan raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When George H.W. Bush raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When Republicans agreed to the increase in the debt ceiling, Democrats promised to cut spending. They haven’t. Now they want to raise taxes and promise to cut spending in the future. They won’t. They still promise to give “everything to everybody.” They’re still drinking champagne out of your beer budget. It makes their drivel easier to swallow.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Let’s Wag the Dog!
By William L. Garvin
“A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.” Fred Allen
Did anyone notice that on Monday, the United States debt reached $15.1 trillion? Of course not. We were too busy watching the latest Occupy Wall Street clashes and its semi-related spawn at the University of California Davis campus. Any media distraction from the catastrophic failure of the current administration is welcome relief to the President and classic “wag the dog” tactics.
Let’s dispose of the UCD side show. Another group of students decided to “camp in” and pitch tents in typical Occupy fashion. Predictably, they were ordered to vacate by the police who were subsequently surrounded by additional students. A dozen protestors sat down, linked arms, and declared that they were the immovable object in the face of the irresistible police force.
In the continuum of force, if talking down the suspect and a show of force doesn’t work, they can consider hands on, batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tasers and deadly force. Heeding echoes of “don’t taze me, bro”, the police decided that pepper spray would be best to avoid injuring police or protestors. The police officers told the protestors that they would use pepper spray and then a few minutes later, they did.
OMG! They officers actually did what they said they were going to do! In a direct assault on UCD’s reputation for academic excellence, the students seemed surprised they were sprayed in the face. Did they think they would be sprayed on their Nikes and Birkenstocks? Talk about being unclear on the concept. Then the student whining and media outrage began. Under national media breast beating, two officers and the Chief were immediately suspended. The insatiable student beast now demands the university president also be fired.
If leaders are to be held accountable, the students could have demanded accountability from their own. After all, some of the Occupy sites are not feeding the homeless who show up. Some of the Occupy Wall Street leaders are staying in $700 per night hotel rooms. These Occupy leaders were also conspicuously absent when the police raided Zucotti Park. To paraphrase George Orwell, apparently “some pigs are more equal than others.”
The Justice Department has sold thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels and those weapons have been used to kill American citizens. Maybe they could demand the ousting of AG Eric Holder and his boss, President Obama. Nope. Maybe they should demand the resignation of all the members of the debt reduction committee who cannot come up with a single way to slow the increase in the rate of spending by our gargantuan federal government. Nope. Maybe they could protest the economic policies of a President that will certainly guarantee their non-employment upon graduation and higher taxes if they ever become successful. Nope. How about a hopeless California state government that is so inept that the unfunded liability is worse than Greece and directly leads to a steady increase in student fees? Nope. They don’t protest increases in taxes on other people but they do protest an increase in their tuition. It’s all about them.
As for the media, they continue to ignore the big problems and focus on the minor mistakes of potential Republican candidates. Holder’s “Fast and Furious” fiasco gets scant coverage; the continual failure of “green energy” companies (even though heavily subsidized by billions of government green) here and in Spain is last page business section fodder; the amount of money donated to the President by unions and Wall Street is treated as secretly as his college transcripts; and the National Labor Relations Board coddling of unions and all out anti-business warfare is barely mentioned. Why isn’t there an investigation of the union, socialist, communist, and anarchist influence on the Occupy gatherings? As for the debt committee, Fred Allen also said it’s “a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.” It’s better for the media and their straw President to focus on the trivial and ignore the significant. The lapdogs keep wagging the dog! Happy Thanksgiving, anyway.
“A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.” Fred Allen
Did anyone notice that on Monday, the United States debt reached $15.1 trillion? Of course not. We were too busy watching the latest Occupy Wall Street clashes and its semi-related spawn at the University of California Davis campus. Any media distraction from the catastrophic failure of the current administration is welcome relief to the President and classic “wag the dog” tactics.
Let’s dispose of the UCD side show. Another group of students decided to “camp in” and pitch tents in typical Occupy fashion. Predictably, they were ordered to vacate by the police who were subsequently surrounded by additional students. A dozen protestors sat down, linked arms, and declared that they were the immovable object in the face of the irresistible police force.
In the continuum of force, if talking down the suspect and a show of force doesn’t work, they can consider hands on, batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tasers and deadly force. Heeding echoes of “don’t taze me, bro”, the police decided that pepper spray would be best to avoid injuring police or protestors. The police officers told the protestors that they would use pepper spray and then a few minutes later, they did.
OMG! They officers actually did what they said they were going to do! In a direct assault on UCD’s reputation for academic excellence, the students seemed surprised they were sprayed in the face. Did they think they would be sprayed on their Nikes and Birkenstocks? Talk about being unclear on the concept. Then the student whining and media outrage began. Under national media breast beating, two officers and the Chief were immediately suspended. The insatiable student beast now demands the university president also be fired.
If leaders are to be held accountable, the students could have demanded accountability from their own. After all, some of the Occupy sites are not feeding the homeless who show up. Some of the Occupy Wall Street leaders are staying in $700 per night hotel rooms. These Occupy leaders were also conspicuously absent when the police raided Zucotti Park. To paraphrase George Orwell, apparently “some pigs are more equal than others.”
The Justice Department has sold thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels and those weapons have been used to kill American citizens. Maybe they could demand the ousting of AG Eric Holder and his boss, President Obama. Nope. Maybe they should demand the resignation of all the members of the debt reduction committee who cannot come up with a single way to slow the increase in the rate of spending by our gargantuan federal government. Nope. Maybe they could protest the economic policies of a President that will certainly guarantee their non-employment upon graduation and higher taxes if they ever become successful. Nope. How about a hopeless California state government that is so inept that the unfunded liability is worse than Greece and directly leads to a steady increase in student fees? Nope. They don’t protest increases in taxes on other people but they do protest an increase in their tuition. It’s all about them.
As for the media, they continue to ignore the big problems and focus on the minor mistakes of potential Republican candidates. Holder’s “Fast and Furious” fiasco gets scant coverage; the continual failure of “green energy” companies (even though heavily subsidized by billions of government green) here and in Spain is last page business section fodder; the amount of money donated to the President by unions and Wall Street is treated as secretly as his college transcripts; and the National Labor Relations Board coddling of unions and all out anti-business warfare is barely mentioned. Why isn’t there an investigation of the union, socialist, communist, and anarchist influence on the Occupy gatherings? As for the debt committee, Fred Allen also said it’s “a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.” It’s better for the media and their straw President to focus on the trivial and ignore the significant. The lapdogs keep wagging the dog! Happy Thanksgiving, anyway.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Hopeless, Jobless, Lawless and Clueless
By William L. Garvin
A murder has occurred at the site of Occupy Oakland but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Coffee and hot dog carts were vandalized at Occupy San Diego and splattered with graffiti, blood, and urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Rapes and sexual assaults plague Occupy Wall Street but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Police officers are pelted with rocks, bottles, padlocks, hammers, Molotov cocktails, M80’s, M100’s, and paint then “gassed” with urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Fires are set throughout the Occupy sites, windows are smashed, property is stolen, buildings are vandalized, news vans are overturned, reporters are attacked but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Thousands of people have been arrested but it has nothing to do with the protestors. That’s what the protestors expect you to believe.
Apparently the Occupy Whatever “movement” is coated with corporate Teflon and remains pure at heart and noble in motive. Ignore the signs that say “The death of democracy” and “Until the last capitalist is hung with the entrails of the last bureaucrat.” Ignore the injuries inflicted upon the police officers (many of whom are veterans) but devote story after story to an injured protestor who is a veteran. Repeatedly explain away the violence, destruction, and arrests as “a fringe group,” or “a small group of vandals,” or “a handful of people.” Don’t even bother to question why a gathering of five to seven thousand people are totally unable to contain a “handful” of anarchists. “We’re too afraid to get too physical,” said Rachel Dorney, “especially if they have a brick in their hand.” “They’re totally going to taint the image but you have to take the good with the bad,” added Alex Matkin. That is pure rhetorical rubbish disguising a lack of courage and a tacit approval of all that is going on. It is a gathering of sheeple many of who are mindlessly exploring their emotional (chemically induced?) sense of being important or significant.
There is no rational reason for refusing to report the crimes at Occupy Wall Street to the authorities or thinking they can police themselves if they are afraid of a single brick. There is no rational reason for refusing to provide the videos of the murder they made on cell phones of the Oakland murder to the police. There is no rational reason for shouting down the police chief when he asked for their assistance in identifying the suspects in the beating and subsequent murder. There is no rational reason for providing aid and comfort to the masked, black clad, ninja wannabe anarchists if the movement is truly peaceful…but they do. They are not part of any solution but they have become the problem.
These protestors have never been representative of “99 percent”, i.e., all those who understand that success comes from a lifetime of effort, hard work, and sound decisions. In short, most Americans don’t expect a free lunch and certainly wouldn’t destroy a hot dog cart when they stopped giving out freebies! They know how to sacrifice short term gratification for long term goals. They didn’t buy homes they couldn’t afford and they don’t whine about having to pay their bills. They don’t expect government to provide them with “womb to tomb” security or a life of ease. They will obey the laws and if they don’t like them, they will cast a vote to change them. They understand substance is better than style and that they will be judged not on their words but on their actions.
Through the prism of “global equality”, they understand that if you make $34,000 per year, YOU ARE IN THE TOP ONE PERCENT ON THIS PLANET! Therefore, those 300 teachers who abandoned their classrooms should give back their excess salaries to the 99% who deserve it in the name of social justice. You can start with those hopeless, jobless, lawless, and clueless protestors you were supporting. Occupy Oakland can also take that $20,000 they deposited in the Wells Fargo Bank and give it to the small businesses they have destroyed! You can also pay back all the cash strapped cities who have had to expend millions of dollars in overtime to limit your violent and narcissistic temper tantrums. When can they expect the check?
A murder has occurred at the site of Occupy Oakland but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Coffee and hot dog carts were vandalized at Occupy San Diego and splattered with graffiti, blood, and urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Rapes and sexual assaults plague Occupy Wall Street but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Police officers are pelted with rocks, bottles, padlocks, hammers, Molotov cocktails, M80’s, M100’s, and paint then “gassed” with urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Fires are set throughout the Occupy sites, windows are smashed, property is stolen, buildings are vandalized, news vans are overturned, reporters are attacked but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Thousands of people have been arrested but it has nothing to do with the protestors. That’s what the protestors expect you to believe.
Apparently the Occupy Whatever “movement” is coated with corporate Teflon and remains pure at heart and noble in motive. Ignore the signs that say “The death of democracy” and “Until the last capitalist is hung with the entrails of the last bureaucrat.” Ignore the injuries inflicted upon the police officers (many of whom are veterans) but devote story after story to an injured protestor who is a veteran. Repeatedly explain away the violence, destruction, and arrests as “a fringe group,” or “a small group of vandals,” or “a handful of people.” Don’t even bother to question why a gathering of five to seven thousand people are totally unable to contain a “handful” of anarchists. “We’re too afraid to get too physical,” said Rachel Dorney, “especially if they have a brick in their hand.” “They’re totally going to taint the image but you have to take the good with the bad,” added Alex Matkin. That is pure rhetorical rubbish disguising a lack of courage and a tacit approval of all that is going on. It is a gathering of sheeple many of who are mindlessly exploring their emotional (chemically induced?) sense of being important or significant.
There is no rational reason for refusing to report the crimes at Occupy Wall Street to the authorities or thinking they can police themselves if they are afraid of a single brick. There is no rational reason for refusing to provide the videos of the murder they made on cell phones of the Oakland murder to the police. There is no rational reason for shouting down the police chief when he asked for their assistance in identifying the suspects in the beating and subsequent murder. There is no rational reason for providing aid and comfort to the masked, black clad, ninja wannabe anarchists if the movement is truly peaceful…but they do. They are not part of any solution but they have become the problem.
These protestors have never been representative of “99 percent”, i.e., all those who understand that success comes from a lifetime of effort, hard work, and sound decisions. In short, most Americans don’t expect a free lunch and certainly wouldn’t destroy a hot dog cart when they stopped giving out freebies! They know how to sacrifice short term gratification for long term goals. They didn’t buy homes they couldn’t afford and they don’t whine about having to pay their bills. They don’t expect government to provide them with “womb to tomb” security or a life of ease. They will obey the laws and if they don’t like them, they will cast a vote to change them. They understand substance is better than style and that they will be judged not on their words but on their actions.
Through the prism of “global equality”, they understand that if you make $34,000 per year, YOU ARE IN THE TOP ONE PERCENT ON THIS PLANET! Therefore, those 300 teachers who abandoned their classrooms should give back their excess salaries to the 99% who deserve it in the name of social justice. You can start with those hopeless, jobless, lawless, and clueless protestors you were supporting. Occupy Oakland can also take that $20,000 they deposited in the Wells Fargo Bank and give it to the small businesses they have destroyed! You can also pay back all the cash strapped cities who have had to expend millions of dollars in overtime to limit your violent and narcissistic temper tantrums. When can they expect the check?
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Who’s Afraid of Herman Cain?
By William L. Garvin
If you were watching and reading the main stream media this week, you might have noticed some malice to their madness. First is their obsessive and repetitive need to use every possible means to slur the character and competence of Herman Cain. One lawyer (whose lips were moving!) said he represented an unnamed woman who claimed Mr. Cain made a gesture that while “not overtly sexual” made her feel “angry and uncomfortable.” Does anyone anywhere have the slightest idea what kind of gesture this could be? Furthermore (his lips were still moving!), he claimed she wanted to speak out on the subject but was prevented from doing so by a confidentiality agreement.
At the time of this alleged incident (1999), Mr. Cain was employed by the National Restaurant Association as their Chief Executive Officer. The NRA investigated her allegations and apparently reached an agreement that she would receive $45,000 and she would then quit the NRA. Liberal talking heads spent inordinate amounts of time quibbling over whether this was a “settlement,” “agreement,” or a “severance package.” Whatever it was, the deal was between the NRA and this mystery woman, not with Mr. Cain. Confidentiality was agreed to by both those parties as this generally serves to protect the plaintiff as well as the defendant. Mr. Mouthpiece continued his fifteen minutes of fame by proclaiming his client wanted to set the record straight.
It apparently came as quite a shock when the NRA waived its confidentiality requirement and said go ahead and speak. All of a sudden, Mystery Woman had a change of heart and no longer wanted to “revisit the details.” Rather than actually do a little investigative reporting, the media continued along its merry way rationalizing her abrupt reversal of field and continuing its “high tech lynching” with incessant innuendo and sexist aspersions. Notably absent from coverage were interviews with Mr. Cain’s coworkers who hold opposing views to the obscure charges of Mystery Woman. Also notably absent from the scene were those champions of minority rights, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Oh, that’s right…Cain’s a Republican, just like Clarence Thomas. When you have a black conservative, it’s hard to portray him as a racist so play the sexist card! Ms. Madeline Albright said as much when she complained that Mr. Cain didn’t consult her on foreign affairs because she was a woman. There are many reasons why he wouldn’t consult with her…just look at her record.
Now that you understand the main stream media hatchet job on Mr. Cain, let’s put things in real world perspective. The Human Resource Institute notes that the average sexual harassment claim that is founded results in an award of $650,000 with an additional award of $85,000 in legal fees piled on top of that. Mystery Woman received $45,000. One could infer she had a lousy case, a lousy attorney, or all of the above. It is an unfortunate but common practice in corporate and government worlds to settle out of court for “nuisance value” rather than litigate even the most specious of claims. The vague allegations, lack of evidence, refusal to come forward after the confidential requirement was lifted and anonymous source would lead one to objectively conclude that this was the case with the NRA.
It’s too bad the media didn’t spend the same amount of time investigating the seventeen jobs bills that have been passed by the House but are gathering dust in Harry Reid’s Senate. They could also have investigated why some Democrats voted with Republicans against the jobs bill. They could have investigated “Fast and Furious.” They could have investigated why the Bullet Train in California has ballooned in cost from its 2008 estimate of $33.6 billion to $$98.6 billion. Why has the completion date moved from 2020 to 2030? Why did Beacon Power get $43 million from American taxpayers in August of 2010 and file for bankruptcy in October of 2011? Why did they create only fourteen jobs?! And where is the $500,000 that Occupy Wall Street raised? And why did they apply for a trademark? Has OWS gone corporate? Inquiring minds want to know; the media doesn’t.
If you were watching and reading the main stream media this week, you might have noticed some malice to their madness. First is their obsessive and repetitive need to use every possible means to slur the character and competence of Herman Cain. One lawyer (whose lips were moving!) said he represented an unnamed woman who claimed Mr. Cain made a gesture that while “not overtly sexual” made her feel “angry and uncomfortable.” Does anyone anywhere have the slightest idea what kind of gesture this could be? Furthermore (his lips were still moving!), he claimed she wanted to speak out on the subject but was prevented from doing so by a confidentiality agreement.
At the time of this alleged incident (1999), Mr. Cain was employed by the National Restaurant Association as their Chief Executive Officer. The NRA investigated her allegations and apparently reached an agreement that she would receive $45,000 and she would then quit the NRA. Liberal talking heads spent inordinate amounts of time quibbling over whether this was a “settlement,” “agreement,” or a “severance package.” Whatever it was, the deal was between the NRA and this mystery woman, not with Mr. Cain. Confidentiality was agreed to by both those parties as this generally serves to protect the plaintiff as well as the defendant. Mr. Mouthpiece continued his fifteen minutes of fame by proclaiming his client wanted to set the record straight.
It apparently came as quite a shock when the NRA waived its confidentiality requirement and said go ahead and speak. All of a sudden, Mystery Woman had a change of heart and no longer wanted to “revisit the details.” Rather than actually do a little investigative reporting, the media continued along its merry way rationalizing her abrupt reversal of field and continuing its “high tech lynching” with incessant innuendo and sexist aspersions. Notably absent from coverage were interviews with Mr. Cain’s coworkers who hold opposing views to the obscure charges of Mystery Woman. Also notably absent from the scene were those champions of minority rights, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Oh, that’s right…Cain’s a Republican, just like Clarence Thomas. When you have a black conservative, it’s hard to portray him as a racist so play the sexist card! Ms. Madeline Albright said as much when she complained that Mr. Cain didn’t consult her on foreign affairs because she was a woman. There are many reasons why he wouldn’t consult with her…just look at her record.
Now that you understand the main stream media hatchet job on Mr. Cain, let’s put things in real world perspective. The Human Resource Institute notes that the average sexual harassment claim that is founded results in an award of $650,000 with an additional award of $85,000 in legal fees piled on top of that. Mystery Woman received $45,000. One could infer she had a lousy case, a lousy attorney, or all of the above. It is an unfortunate but common practice in corporate and government worlds to settle out of court for “nuisance value” rather than litigate even the most specious of claims. The vague allegations, lack of evidence, refusal to come forward after the confidential requirement was lifted and anonymous source would lead one to objectively conclude that this was the case with the NRA.
It’s too bad the media didn’t spend the same amount of time investigating the seventeen jobs bills that have been passed by the House but are gathering dust in Harry Reid’s Senate. They could also have investigated why some Democrats voted with Republicans against the jobs bill. They could have investigated “Fast and Furious.” They could have investigated why the Bullet Train in California has ballooned in cost from its 2008 estimate of $33.6 billion to $$98.6 billion. Why has the completion date moved from 2020 to 2030? Why did Beacon Power get $43 million from American taxpayers in August of 2010 and file for bankruptcy in October of 2011? Why did they create only fourteen jobs?! And where is the $500,000 that Occupy Wall Street raised? And why did they apply for a trademark? Has OWS gone corporate? Inquiring minds want to know; the media doesn’t.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Consistently Inconsistent
By William L. Garvin
In many religious discussions, there is a premise that all religions are fundamentally the same. A closer study clearly reveals that religions may be superficially similar but they are fundamentally different. Much the same false premise permeates the media comparisons of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Tea Party.
The OWS gang is weeping and wailing over the salaries, perks, and bonuses received by bank executives, oil executives and all the brass in their evil corporate enemies. Of course, they are spending their nights in sleeping bags made by corporations and sheltering in tents made by corporations. They text on their corporate smart phones, type on their corporate computers, and carry signs made by union corporations. Very few of their clothes are homespun or handmade. No one in New York or Oakland is growing their own food. Consistently inconsistent.
OWS mindlessly drones on about “people before profits” and “destroy capitalism.” In their childish, utopian view of “social justice,” everyone is equal regardless of their contributions. They have yet to explain how all those hardworking employees that make their cars, homes, cell phones, food, clothing, and computers have “exploited” and “ripped off the poor.” They are apparently unaware and unable to explain how this free market capitalism in the USA has spread more wealth over a broader segment of our society than has ever occurred in history. Somewhere along the line (given their outrageous student debt!), they should at least have the capacity to recognize and the decency to admit that we have the richest poor people on the earth! Their concept of forcibly redistributing the wealth is the antithesis of Tea Party principles. Consistently inconsistent.
Another superficial similarity is their outrage about the corporate cronyism and excessive bonuses paid to executives on Wall Street. Curiously (but predictably), the OWS denizens ignore the failings among their pet green energy corporations. They have nothing to say about the failed Solyndra and similar crony capitalist solar projects. They probably didn’t even read the Bloomberg report that Rob Gillette, the ousted CEO of First Solar, may be eligible for an $8.9 million severance package after collecting $29.9 million for his initial fifteen months on the job! Where did this money come from? Over the last year, First Solar’s stock has dropped from over $175 to less than $50! Maybe it’s from the $3.07 billion in loan guarantees from Uncle Sam and his hard working tax payers! Consistently inconsistent.
The media consistently portrayed the Tea Party movement as a fringe element but romanticizes the OWS crowds as emblematic of their self-proclaimed 99%. Unfortunately, Democrat pollster Doug Schoen actually surveyed the OWS protestors. In his findings, he found that 74% voted for Obama and there were ZERO Republicans in the crowd. Any way you cut it, it’s consistently inconsistent.
Look at the furor and outrage over Herman Cain’s campaign ad that showed his campaign manager smoking. Yet there’s no criticism of the President smoking in the White House. We heard the President promise that he would not take money from lobbyists but the New York Times says that fifteen “bundlers” who raised $5 million dollars “…are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies.” We have White House pledges of transparency (remember the health care debates would be televised on CSPAN?) but this administration is setting a new record for stonewalling. No one is taking Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to task for his many failings, especially his blatant refusal to cooperate in the horrendously flawed “Fast and Furious” fiasco. Consistently inconsistent.
Finally, you have the media covering up Bill Clinton’s escapades in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky (and numerous other sexual imbroglios), avoiding coverage of John Edwards’ love child and extramarital affair until the National Enquirer broke the story, and initially reluctance to condemn Anthony Weiner’s sexting because “there was no proof.” They were “innocent until proven guilty” and “private matters had no bearing on their ability to govern.” However, Herman Cain, a black Conservative is guilty until proven innocent to obscure charges by anonymous sources. Somehow he has the burden of proof…shameful shades of Clarence Thomas’s “high tech lynching.” Cowardly consistent inconsistency.
In many religious discussions, there is a premise that all religions are fundamentally the same. A closer study clearly reveals that religions may be superficially similar but they are fundamentally different. Much the same false premise permeates the media comparisons of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Tea Party.
The OWS gang is weeping and wailing over the salaries, perks, and bonuses received by bank executives, oil executives and all the brass in their evil corporate enemies. Of course, they are spending their nights in sleeping bags made by corporations and sheltering in tents made by corporations. They text on their corporate smart phones, type on their corporate computers, and carry signs made by union corporations. Very few of their clothes are homespun or handmade. No one in New York or Oakland is growing their own food. Consistently inconsistent.
OWS mindlessly drones on about “people before profits” and “destroy capitalism.” In their childish, utopian view of “social justice,” everyone is equal regardless of their contributions. They have yet to explain how all those hardworking employees that make their cars, homes, cell phones, food, clothing, and computers have “exploited” and “ripped off the poor.” They are apparently unaware and unable to explain how this free market capitalism in the USA has spread more wealth over a broader segment of our society than has ever occurred in history. Somewhere along the line (given their outrageous student debt!), they should at least have the capacity to recognize and the decency to admit that we have the richest poor people on the earth! Their concept of forcibly redistributing the wealth is the antithesis of Tea Party principles. Consistently inconsistent.
Another superficial similarity is their outrage about the corporate cronyism and excessive bonuses paid to executives on Wall Street. Curiously (but predictably), the OWS denizens ignore the failings among their pet green energy corporations. They have nothing to say about the failed Solyndra and similar crony capitalist solar projects. They probably didn’t even read the Bloomberg report that Rob Gillette, the ousted CEO of First Solar, may be eligible for an $8.9 million severance package after collecting $29.9 million for his initial fifteen months on the job! Where did this money come from? Over the last year, First Solar’s stock has dropped from over $175 to less than $50! Maybe it’s from the $3.07 billion in loan guarantees from Uncle Sam and his hard working tax payers! Consistently inconsistent.
The media consistently portrayed the Tea Party movement as a fringe element but romanticizes the OWS crowds as emblematic of their self-proclaimed 99%. Unfortunately, Democrat pollster Doug Schoen actually surveyed the OWS protestors. In his findings, he found that 74% voted for Obama and there were ZERO Republicans in the crowd. Any way you cut it, it’s consistently inconsistent.
Look at the furor and outrage over Herman Cain’s campaign ad that showed his campaign manager smoking. Yet there’s no criticism of the President smoking in the White House. We heard the President promise that he would not take money from lobbyists but the New York Times says that fifteen “bundlers” who raised $5 million dollars “…are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies.” We have White House pledges of transparency (remember the health care debates would be televised on CSPAN?) but this administration is setting a new record for stonewalling. No one is taking Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to task for his many failings, especially his blatant refusal to cooperate in the horrendously flawed “Fast and Furious” fiasco. Consistently inconsistent.
Finally, you have the media covering up Bill Clinton’s escapades in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky (and numerous other sexual imbroglios), avoiding coverage of John Edwards’ love child and extramarital affair until the National Enquirer broke the story, and initially reluctance to condemn Anthony Weiner’s sexting because “there was no proof.” They were “innocent until proven guilty” and “private matters had no bearing on their ability to govern.” However, Herman Cain, a black Conservative is guilty until proven innocent to obscure charges by anonymous sources. Somehow he has the burden of proof…shameful shades of Clarence Thomas’s “high tech lynching.” Cowardly consistent inconsistency.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Stuck in the Middle with Who?
By William L. Garvin
“Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,
Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you.”
Lyrics by Stealers Wheel
It’s been said that an agnostic is really just an atheist without the courage of his convictions. In political terms, maybe that’s how we should define “moderates”—politicians without the courage of their convictions. In the popular but unexamined parlance, they will sacrifice their principles but call it “compromise” because they are “practical” or “pragmatic.” They certainly would not be an “ideologue” of any persuasion. They would probably regard Neville Chamberlain as a master in the art of compromise…or could they even recognize the nefarious “appeasement” in its hideous, clandestine disguise?
Looking ever more closely, just what is an “ideologue”? It’s defined as a “zealous or doctrinaire supporter of an ideology.” Continuing on, what is an “ideology”? Webster says it’s “1. Visionary theorizing; 2a. A systematic body of concepts esp. about human life or culture; 2b. a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture, 2c. the integrated assertions, theories, and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program.” Visionary? Systematic? Integrated? Why that doesn’t sound bad at all does it? That raises the question as to why political candidates of all stripes tend to be ideologues in the primaries but moderates in the general elections? In essence, they sacrifice their principles and beliefs to the centrist voter who has the least defined (but most easily abandoned!) political convictions. That’s why there’s not a dime’s bit of difference between the Democrat and Republican elements of the ruling class. Everybody is courting the squishy, moderate middle.
Maybe we should be thanking the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators for finally giving us a very clear picture of the leftist ideologue and the Tea Party for defining the conservative ideologue. Develop a very clear picture of the Wall Street protestors. That shouldn’t be very difficult. After all, they received three times as much media coverage in their first ten days as the Tea Party received in its first nine months. Now develop that mental picture of the Tea Party rallies. Make a choice, America. Which image of this country do you prefer?
On the left hand, you have the incessant cries to destroy capitalism and strident demands for social justice accompanied by the incessant and mind numbing thumping of drums. The “gimme, gimme, gimme” generation begs for forgiveness on all their debt and wants the government to give them “more, more, more” with no productive effort or contribution on their part. On the right hand, you have much larger crowds singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.” They condemn the gargantuan growth of government and the bureaucratic strangulation of individual responsibility. They want to be left alone and believe they can run their own lives much better than the big government central planners. The left tramples the flag underfoot; the right raises it high overhead. The left turns public places into a pigsty; the right leaves their gathering places as clean as they found it. The leftist gathering is continually marred by arrests; the right is virtually free of violence.
The left expects a life of luxury but wants someone else to pay for it. They expect the results of success but think they can get there via a path of perpetual indolence. They want to be protected from risk, failure, trial and adversity. The right only demonstrates on weekends because they have to be back at work on Monday! Of course these are opposite ends of the political spectrum but maybe it’s time to have a clear cut choice. Both groups provide a vision for the future but most likely we’ll get stuck in the wishy-washy middle. Still, that will be an improvement on what we have today.
“Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,
Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you.”
Lyrics by Stealers Wheel
It’s been said that an agnostic is really just an atheist without the courage of his convictions. In political terms, maybe that’s how we should define “moderates”—politicians without the courage of their convictions. In the popular but unexamined parlance, they will sacrifice their principles but call it “compromise” because they are “practical” or “pragmatic.” They certainly would not be an “ideologue” of any persuasion. They would probably regard Neville Chamberlain as a master in the art of compromise…or could they even recognize the nefarious “appeasement” in its hideous, clandestine disguise?
Looking ever more closely, just what is an “ideologue”? It’s defined as a “zealous or doctrinaire supporter of an ideology.” Continuing on, what is an “ideology”? Webster says it’s “1. Visionary theorizing; 2a. A systematic body of concepts esp. about human life or culture; 2b. a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture, 2c. the integrated assertions, theories, and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program.” Visionary? Systematic? Integrated? Why that doesn’t sound bad at all does it? That raises the question as to why political candidates of all stripes tend to be ideologues in the primaries but moderates in the general elections? In essence, they sacrifice their principles and beliefs to the centrist voter who has the least defined (but most easily abandoned!) political convictions. That’s why there’s not a dime’s bit of difference between the Democrat and Republican elements of the ruling class. Everybody is courting the squishy, moderate middle.
Maybe we should be thanking the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators for finally giving us a very clear picture of the leftist ideologue and the Tea Party for defining the conservative ideologue. Develop a very clear picture of the Wall Street protestors. That shouldn’t be very difficult. After all, they received three times as much media coverage in their first ten days as the Tea Party received in its first nine months. Now develop that mental picture of the Tea Party rallies. Make a choice, America. Which image of this country do you prefer?
On the left hand, you have the incessant cries to destroy capitalism and strident demands for social justice accompanied by the incessant and mind numbing thumping of drums. The “gimme, gimme, gimme” generation begs for forgiveness on all their debt and wants the government to give them “more, more, more” with no productive effort or contribution on their part. On the right hand, you have much larger crowds singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.” They condemn the gargantuan growth of government and the bureaucratic strangulation of individual responsibility. They want to be left alone and believe they can run their own lives much better than the big government central planners. The left tramples the flag underfoot; the right raises it high overhead. The left turns public places into a pigsty; the right leaves their gathering places as clean as they found it. The leftist gathering is continually marred by arrests; the right is virtually free of violence.
The left expects a life of luxury but wants someone else to pay for it. They expect the results of success but think they can get there via a path of perpetual indolence. They want to be protected from risk, failure, trial and adversity. The right only demonstrates on weekends because they have to be back at work on Monday! Of course these are opposite ends of the political spectrum but maybe it’s time to have a clear cut choice. Both groups provide a vision for the future but most likely we’ll get stuck in the wishy-washy middle. Still, that will be an improvement on what we have today.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Enough Already!
By William L. Garvin
The Green Gravy Scam Train just keeps chugging along. Last year Seattle received a $20 million grant to weatherize homes by insulating crawl spaces. As of now, they have created a grand total of fourteen jobs and renovated a total of three homes! Then there’s Oak Park, Michigan’s hybrid bus company…despite millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, it’s out of business. Another egregious example of Green Gone Wild! is the Department of Labor’s green jobs training program. For a mere few hundred million of stimulus money, they were going to create 79, 854 new jobs. Reality is they trained 8,035 people and only 1,336 actually had jobs six months later. This fiasco cost American taxpayers $170 million! The Inspector General says this program has been such a failure that the unused $327 million should immediately be returned to the Treasury.
Nevertheless, the Green Gravy Train just keeps on rolling and doling primarily because government continues to mandate increased usage. California has dictated that one-third of its electricity must come from renewable sources by 2020. Therefore, BrightSource Energy received a $1.37 billion loan guarantee; First Solar received a $2.1 billion guarantee; Abound Solar received a $400 million loan guarantee. The Antelope Valley Ranch Solar Project received $646 million in loan guarantees. In return, they will provide 350 temporary construction jobs but only 20 permanent jobs! You’d think with all this taxpayer funding, green energy would be a terrific investment…not the case. For the investor, it’s caveat emptor! Over the last year, First Solar’s stock has crashed from $175.45 to $53; Canadian Solar from $17.63 to $3.05; Yingli Green Energy from $14.29 to $3.60; LDK Solar from $15.00 to $3.23; and Trina Solar from $31.89 to $6.66! Before Solyndra went bankrupt, it canceled a public offering because there was no private investor enthusiasm. Government was the only entity unable to see the looming bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida have canceled their plans (and federal funding!) for “high speed rail” after determining that it would be no faster than travel on the highways. However, California spends $10 billion on its “high speed” segment of 160 miles in the central valley that no one will ride. Their project cost has already ballooned from $43 billion to $67 billion and they can’t find any private investors.
Looking at cost overruns, New York City is looking at $3.2 million in overtime costs for police to manage the Occupy Wall Street “movement.” Boston is looking at $2 million if the protest continues all this month. There’s every indication that is probable since New York’s radical “Working Families Party” (sic) is advertising on Craigslist for immediate employment at $350-$650/week to “fight to hold Wall Street accountable.” Of course the WFP says these positions are for “routine canvassing jobs.” Riiiiiigggghhhtttt…and all the protestors are patriotic, hard working, peace loving, freedom loving, every day-average men and women just looking for a job.
That’s why we see the Young Communist League in attendance. That’s why the protestors are supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, SEIU, the AFL-CIO, George Soros, MoveOn.org and every victim group imaginable. That’s why their signs say “Destroy Capitalism” and they march around with Marx and Lenin tee-shirts, carry Che Guevara and communist flags, and sport their Mao buttons. That’s why there have been thousands of arrests and the clashes are becoming ever more worrisome. Some speakers have advocated violence and even “beheading.”
For every rational protestor who decries corporate cronyism, bank bailouts, the influence of lobbyists, and wants the Federal Reserve audited, there are a dozen who advocate anarchy, want to destroy the evil capitalist system and demand the government give them free money and bail them out of their student loans and credit card debt! There’s another dozen who are just there for the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There are a few protestors who are protesting President Obama and his relationship with Wall Street firms (donors), especially Goldman Sachs. But don’t expect the media to cover that or even the protestor who defecated on the police car—they’re still part of the poop-aganda machine and still backing this failed administration.
The Green Gravy Scam Train just keeps chugging along. Last year Seattle received a $20 million grant to weatherize homes by insulating crawl spaces. As of now, they have created a grand total of fourteen jobs and renovated a total of three homes! Then there’s Oak Park, Michigan’s hybrid bus company…despite millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, it’s out of business. Another egregious example of Green Gone Wild! is the Department of Labor’s green jobs training program. For a mere few hundred million of stimulus money, they were going to create 79, 854 new jobs. Reality is they trained 8,035 people and only 1,336 actually had jobs six months later. This fiasco cost American taxpayers $170 million! The Inspector General says this program has been such a failure that the unused $327 million should immediately be returned to the Treasury.
Nevertheless, the Green Gravy Train just keeps on rolling and doling primarily because government continues to mandate increased usage. California has dictated that one-third of its electricity must come from renewable sources by 2020. Therefore, BrightSource Energy received a $1.37 billion loan guarantee; First Solar received a $2.1 billion guarantee; Abound Solar received a $400 million loan guarantee. The Antelope Valley Ranch Solar Project received $646 million in loan guarantees. In return, they will provide 350 temporary construction jobs but only 20 permanent jobs! You’d think with all this taxpayer funding, green energy would be a terrific investment…not the case. For the investor, it’s caveat emptor! Over the last year, First Solar’s stock has crashed from $175.45 to $53; Canadian Solar from $17.63 to $3.05; Yingli Green Energy from $14.29 to $3.60; LDK Solar from $15.00 to $3.23; and Trina Solar from $31.89 to $6.66! Before Solyndra went bankrupt, it canceled a public offering because there was no private investor enthusiasm. Government was the only entity unable to see the looming bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida have canceled their plans (and federal funding!) for “high speed rail” after determining that it would be no faster than travel on the highways. However, California spends $10 billion on its “high speed” segment of 160 miles in the central valley that no one will ride. Their project cost has already ballooned from $43 billion to $67 billion and they can’t find any private investors.
Looking at cost overruns, New York City is looking at $3.2 million in overtime costs for police to manage the Occupy Wall Street “movement.” Boston is looking at $2 million if the protest continues all this month. There’s every indication that is probable since New York’s radical “Working Families Party” (sic) is advertising on Craigslist for immediate employment at $350-$650/week to “fight to hold Wall Street accountable.” Of course the WFP says these positions are for “routine canvassing jobs.” Riiiiiigggghhhtttt…and all the protestors are patriotic, hard working, peace loving, freedom loving, every day-average men and women just looking for a job.
That’s why we see the Young Communist League in attendance. That’s why the protestors are supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, SEIU, the AFL-CIO, George Soros, MoveOn.org and every victim group imaginable. That’s why their signs say “Destroy Capitalism” and they march around with Marx and Lenin tee-shirts, carry Che Guevara and communist flags, and sport their Mao buttons. That’s why there have been thousands of arrests and the clashes are becoming ever more worrisome. Some speakers have advocated violence and even “beheading.”
For every rational protestor who decries corporate cronyism, bank bailouts, the influence of lobbyists, and wants the Federal Reserve audited, there are a dozen who advocate anarchy, want to destroy the evil capitalist system and demand the government give them free money and bail them out of their student loans and credit card debt! There’s another dozen who are just there for the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There are a few protestors who are protesting President Obama and his relationship with Wall Street firms (donors), especially Goldman Sachs. But don’t expect the media to cover that or even the protestor who defecated on the police car—they’re still part of the poop-aganda machine and still backing this failed administration.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Wall Street, Pelosi and Green Jobs--Scams What Am!
By William L. Garvin
After his mad dash to rush through another $4.7 billion in green jobs funding before the September 30th deadline, Jonathan Silver, the head of the green jobs loan program resigned. A chief beneficiary of his largesse was the Antelope Valley Ranch Solar Project. If you thought the numbers last week were appalling, look at this windfall. Apparently, the $646 million in loan guarantees will result in about 350 TEMPORARY construction jobs but only about 20 PERMANENT jobs—that’s $32 million per permanent job. Such a deal!
In another example of media and government conspiracy, there’s the new jobs report that says 103,000 jobs were created last month. Reality is that 45,000 of those jobs were Verizon workers who had been on strike and finally went back to work. None of those jobs are new. It’s just another numbers scam and a blatant attempt to cover up the massive failure of this Administration’s economic policies.
Speaking of cover ups, why is the media so concerned about Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs when they could have cared less about Senator Obama’s attendance at Reverend Wright’s church? It’s probably the same dynamic that led Nancy Pelosi to finally speak out against slights against womanhood. Of course it was a Democrat woman. Why wasn’t this same sensitivity and “courage” visible when members of her party were engaging in the most bilious of slurs, innuendoes, vile epithets, and baseless charges against Sarah Palin? Oh, that’s right. Republican women are second class citizens and not entitled to the same rules of decorum and spirited defenses by the ex-Speaker and the National Organization of Some Women!
With all this going on, it’s no wonder that a “Wag the Dog” distraction manifested itself in the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations. Even though supported by Rep. Pelosi, organizers were terribly disappointed when their anticipated 20,000 protestors could barely number 1,000. Unlike the Tea Party, where the media had to search to find a controversial and bizarre sign, here the media had to meticulously search among the “occupiers” to find a lucid person with a coherent message. There was the occasional sound idea to audit the Fed or eliminate crony capitalism but none of them protested the genesis—government interference and ineffective government programs.
They lust to destroy capitalism but they have nothing but bromides from Mao’s Little Red Book as an alternative. One economic genius even “demands” the following: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period. Of course, he also expects a living wage regardless of employment, open borders, free pot and perpetual government induced nirvana. Many of these transients wouldn’t even accept a green job let alone work for an evil corporation!
But they text away on their smart phone (corporate), stream live on their iPads (corporate), occasionally wash up or eat at McDonald’s (corporate), blog on their website (corporate), backed by George Soros and MoveOn.org (corporate), carry signs made by SEIU and the AFL-CIO (unions are private companies and CORPORATE!), all the while spitting on the suits and ties that are working for a living. They rail about “sticking it to The Man.” OMG, that is so sixties!
Somehow they see themselves as romantic freedom fighters aligned in the stars with the Arab Spring. They’re not. They claim they’re representatives of the “99%.” They’re not. They are not even representative of the twenty percent of Americans who identify as liberals. They are representative of a self-indulgent gaggle of narcissists who don’t have a clue that success comes at a price—hard work, good ideas, and perseverance. Somebody should tell them there’s no free lunch (except at protests) and scams like these don’t last long or change anything. Their sound and fury is lacking in substance and signifies nothing more than ephemeral babble.
After his mad dash to rush through another $4.7 billion in green jobs funding before the September 30th deadline, Jonathan Silver, the head of the green jobs loan program resigned. A chief beneficiary of his largesse was the Antelope Valley Ranch Solar Project. If you thought the numbers last week were appalling, look at this windfall. Apparently, the $646 million in loan guarantees will result in about 350 TEMPORARY construction jobs but only about 20 PERMANENT jobs—that’s $32 million per permanent job. Such a deal!
In another example of media and government conspiracy, there’s the new jobs report that says 103,000 jobs were created last month. Reality is that 45,000 of those jobs were Verizon workers who had been on strike and finally went back to work. None of those jobs are new. It’s just another numbers scam and a blatant attempt to cover up the massive failure of this Administration’s economic policies.
Speaking of cover ups, why is the media so concerned about Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs when they could have cared less about Senator Obama’s attendance at Reverend Wright’s church? It’s probably the same dynamic that led Nancy Pelosi to finally speak out against slights against womanhood. Of course it was a Democrat woman. Why wasn’t this same sensitivity and “courage” visible when members of her party were engaging in the most bilious of slurs, innuendoes, vile epithets, and baseless charges against Sarah Palin? Oh, that’s right. Republican women are second class citizens and not entitled to the same rules of decorum and spirited defenses by the ex-Speaker and the National Organization of Some Women!
With all this going on, it’s no wonder that a “Wag the Dog” distraction manifested itself in the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations. Even though supported by Rep. Pelosi, organizers were terribly disappointed when their anticipated 20,000 protestors could barely number 1,000. Unlike the Tea Party, where the media had to search to find a controversial and bizarre sign, here the media had to meticulously search among the “occupiers” to find a lucid person with a coherent message. There was the occasional sound idea to audit the Fed or eliminate crony capitalism but none of them protested the genesis—government interference and ineffective government programs.
They lust to destroy capitalism but they have nothing but bromides from Mao’s Little Red Book as an alternative. One economic genius even “demands” the following: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period. Of course, he also expects a living wage regardless of employment, open borders, free pot and perpetual government induced nirvana. Many of these transients wouldn’t even accept a green job let alone work for an evil corporation!
But they text away on their smart phone (corporate), stream live on their iPads (corporate), occasionally wash up or eat at McDonald’s (corporate), blog on their website (corporate), backed by George Soros and MoveOn.org (corporate), carry signs made by SEIU and the AFL-CIO (unions are private companies and CORPORATE!), all the while spitting on the suits and ties that are working for a living. They rail about “sticking it to The Man.” OMG, that is so sixties!
Somehow they see themselves as romantic freedom fighters aligned in the stars with the Arab Spring. They’re not. They claim they’re representatives of the “99%.” They’re not. They are not even representative of the twenty percent of Americans who identify as liberals. They are representative of a self-indulgent gaggle of narcissists who don’t have a clue that success comes at a price—hard work, good ideas, and perseverance. Somebody should tell them there’s no free lunch (except at protests) and scams like these don’t last long or change anything. Their sound and fury is lacking in substance and signifies nothing more than ephemeral babble.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Green Scam, I Am!
By William L. Garvin
“I do not like Green Scam I Am,
Your business plans are such a sham.
Billions of dollars you have blown,
The money you spent was not your own!
Cronies and bundling paved the way,
And politicos do whatever you say.
I’d love to hear the cell door slam,
I do not like Green Scam I Am!”
(Apologies to Dr. Seuss)
It was somewhat remarkable to watch the Administration react to the Gulf oil disaster. In an overreaching exercise of caution, they shut down oil rigs far and wide. Deep sea of shallow water, it didn’t really matter. They fiercely fought (and lost!) every court action to reopen the rigs and to resume drilling. One judge even found them in contempt of court for refusing to let American workers resume their gainful employment.
Now contrast that with the Solyndra bankruptcy fiasco. It is so bad that a judge has ruled that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed and has issued a warrant to begin a criminal investigation. Since this is the third solar firm that has recently crashed and burned, you would think that a similar abundance of caution would be exercised. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred. The Administration has broken all land and bureaucratic speed records pushing new green energy grants through the process. Since September 30 was the end of the federal fiscal year, they threw caution to the winds to get taxpayer dollars out the door by that date.
The world’s best Jamaican sprinters would have been hard pressed to keep up with the amazing speed with which government bureaucrats dispatched the $737 million to the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. After all, they are predicted to create 45 new green energy jobs. It’s unclear what the new math says but the old math says that’s $16.38 MILLION PER JOB! I guess we should praise the progress. After all, “Son of Stimulus,” with its $447 billion price tag, is supposed to reduce the unemployment rate by 0.2 percent. Some estimates say that is the equivalent of creating or “saving” 275, 000 jobs…at a cost of $1.6 MILLION PER JOB. Doesn’t anyone do math anymore? It’s the same old government new math. Remember when the President said ObamaCare would lower the average family’s health care premiums by $2,400? Well, the Kaiser Foundation said the average family’s premiums went UP by $1,400! Maybe the government’s new math is also a scam.
Returning to the Green Energy Scam, here is another interesting wrinkle in the Crescent Dunes project. An investment partner in the deal is Pacific Corporate Group. Their Executive Director is Ron Pelosi. It is undoubtedly pure coincidence that he is Nancy Pelosi’s brother in law. Hmmmm…that’s no more suspect than Maxine Waters’ husband’s bank receiving TARP funds. By the way, whatever did happen with that ethics investigation?
Some time ago when Mother Earth became a deity and “saving the environment” became her religion, mathematics and common sense went out of style. That’s why the President can proclaim that the price of electricity will of necessity “skyrocket” and no one questioned him. If you pump billions of taxpayer dollars into alternative energy sources that are not efficient or economically viable at this stage, if you incessantly use executive orders and bureaucratic fiat to strangle the fossil fuel industries, of course the prices will skyrocket. When you continually demonize those industries that not fuel our economy but the world’s economy, you are setting yourself on the losing side of the equation.
The amount of government money that General Electric and Warren Buffett are receiving is nothing more than the corporate cronyism that the left is protesting on Wall Street and the Democrats railed against during the Bush Administration. If the same amount of money had been put into controlling emissions and upgrading the coal, natural gas, and oil extraction and refinement facilities as went into the alternative energy fiascos, we would already be energy independent AND have a cleaner environment. That’s why “I do not like Green Scam, I Am!”
“I do not like Green Scam I Am,
Your business plans are such a sham.
Billions of dollars you have blown,
The money you spent was not your own!
Cronies and bundling paved the way,
And politicos do whatever you say.
I’d love to hear the cell door slam,
I do not like Green Scam I Am!”
(Apologies to Dr. Seuss)
It was somewhat remarkable to watch the Administration react to the Gulf oil disaster. In an overreaching exercise of caution, they shut down oil rigs far and wide. Deep sea of shallow water, it didn’t really matter. They fiercely fought (and lost!) every court action to reopen the rigs and to resume drilling. One judge even found them in contempt of court for refusing to let American workers resume their gainful employment.
Now contrast that with the Solyndra bankruptcy fiasco. It is so bad that a judge has ruled that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed and has issued a warrant to begin a criminal investigation. Since this is the third solar firm that has recently crashed and burned, you would think that a similar abundance of caution would be exercised. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred. The Administration has broken all land and bureaucratic speed records pushing new green energy grants through the process. Since September 30 was the end of the federal fiscal year, they threw caution to the winds to get taxpayer dollars out the door by that date.
The world’s best Jamaican sprinters would have been hard pressed to keep up with the amazing speed with which government bureaucrats dispatched the $737 million to the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. After all, they are predicted to create 45 new green energy jobs. It’s unclear what the new math says but the old math says that’s $16.38 MILLION PER JOB! I guess we should praise the progress. After all, “Son of Stimulus,” with its $447 billion price tag, is supposed to reduce the unemployment rate by 0.2 percent. Some estimates say that is the equivalent of creating or “saving” 275, 000 jobs…at a cost of $1.6 MILLION PER JOB. Doesn’t anyone do math anymore? It’s the same old government new math. Remember when the President said ObamaCare would lower the average family’s health care premiums by $2,400? Well, the Kaiser Foundation said the average family’s premiums went UP by $1,400! Maybe the government’s new math is also a scam.
Returning to the Green Energy Scam, here is another interesting wrinkle in the Crescent Dunes project. An investment partner in the deal is Pacific Corporate Group. Their Executive Director is Ron Pelosi. It is undoubtedly pure coincidence that he is Nancy Pelosi’s brother in law. Hmmmm…that’s no more suspect than Maxine Waters’ husband’s bank receiving TARP funds. By the way, whatever did happen with that ethics investigation?
Some time ago when Mother Earth became a deity and “saving the environment” became her religion, mathematics and common sense went out of style. That’s why the President can proclaim that the price of electricity will of necessity “skyrocket” and no one questioned him. If you pump billions of taxpayer dollars into alternative energy sources that are not efficient or economically viable at this stage, if you incessantly use executive orders and bureaucratic fiat to strangle the fossil fuel industries, of course the prices will skyrocket. When you continually demonize those industries that not fuel our economy but the world’s economy, you are setting yourself on the losing side of the equation.
The amount of government money that General Electric and Warren Buffett are receiving is nothing more than the corporate cronyism that the left is protesting on Wall Street and the Democrats railed against during the Bush Administration. If the same amount of money had been put into controlling emissions and upgrading the coal, natural gas, and oil extraction and refinement facilities as went into the alternative energy fiascos, we would already be energy independent AND have a cleaner environment. That’s why “I do not like Green Scam, I Am!”
Monday, September 26, 2011
Attacks and Buffets
By William L. Garvin
It was very disconcerting to hear the President exhorting his acolytes that “if you love me, help me pass this bill,” while on the campaign trail. “If you respect me,” that’s one thing. “If you think this is good for America,” that’s another. Of course, “if you think this time we will actually create jobs,” would have been best of all. Instead he forsook rational and logical approaches and appealed to unadulterated, basic emotion…”if you love me.” Psychologists might opine that a narcissist would presume the answer is “of course I love you!” and flood the Democrat and Republican representatives’ offices with demands to pass the American Jobs Bill. It’s not happening.
Maybe it’s because Gallup found that only 40% of the populace think that “Son of Stimulus” and its $447 billion price tag will actually reduce unemployment. If you break it down, the numbers in the middle are pretty devastating for the President. In 2008, Senator Obama carried 52% of the independent vote; currently, only 21% of independents say they will vote for him. When 66% of independents say they disapprove of how he is “handling” the economy, the only reasonable translation is “one-term president.” It will be the Battle of the Independent Bulge in the middle of the political spectrum that will spell doom for the President and they’re showing him no love!
Conservatives who believe the federal government is entitled to only the limited and enumerated powers listed in the Constitution, who believe in fiscal responsibility, who know that free market capitalism is far superior to Ivy League eggheads and their centralized planning, will never vote for someone with this President’s disastrous economic record. Leftist liberals will gnash their teeth because we don’t already have socialized medicine and wail that he doesn’t go far enough in his plans to “redistribute the wealth” and provide “womb to tomb government security” but they will vote for him anyway. The American Communist Party (CPUSA) may call for a third party to represent “the people” but they still endorsed President Obama for four more years. The only way they would pull their endorsement is if Van Jones announced his candidacy. Chances are, they’ll just stay home and pout.
In a desperate effort to shore up feeble poll numbers, Obama for America launched a new website so that anyone who wasn’t “showing some love” to the Anointed One would be reported. James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun Democrat strategist, should have been the first to be listed. He said it was time for the President to “panic!” Then there are all those darned Tea Partiers in Florida who voted Herman Cain as the winner in the straw poll. They probably voted for a black man just to prove they weren’t racist…it couldn’t be sincere. Of course they are the same ones who voted Lt. Colonel Allen West into the House of Representatives, but that’s probably just another coincidence. Oh yes, the Congressional Black Caucus should also be reported because they are complaining about the devastating unemployment among black youth and the President not visiting any of their minority districts. Now if they had some money for campaign donations….
Speaking of money, Warren Buffet has got billions but to hear him talk, nobody will let him pay more in taxes. Here’s how you do it, Warren. First, stop fighting the loopholes you’ve been trying to exploit for the last ten years and pony up the billion in taxes your company owes. Second, pay yourself a salary so you can be taxed at the top rate instead of giving yourself tons of stock options and living off dividends that are taxed at a lower rate. Third, pay your secretary more so she moves into a higher tax bracket or start paying her in stocks so she can be taxed at a lower rate. Fourth, just write a check payable to “United States Treasury”! Fifth, you and the President should stop itemizing your charitable contributions. You can give out of the goodness of your heart without considering economic benefits and place yourself in the position of paying more taxes at the same time. Until you do that, you should be reported to AttackWatch…along with people who tear the tags off their pillows and mattresses.
It was very disconcerting to hear the President exhorting his acolytes that “if you love me, help me pass this bill,” while on the campaign trail. “If you respect me,” that’s one thing. “If you think this is good for America,” that’s another. Of course, “if you think this time we will actually create jobs,” would have been best of all. Instead he forsook rational and logical approaches and appealed to unadulterated, basic emotion…”if you love me.” Psychologists might opine that a narcissist would presume the answer is “of course I love you!” and flood the Democrat and Republican representatives’ offices with demands to pass the American Jobs Bill. It’s not happening.
Maybe it’s because Gallup found that only 40% of the populace think that “Son of Stimulus” and its $447 billion price tag will actually reduce unemployment. If you break it down, the numbers in the middle are pretty devastating for the President. In 2008, Senator Obama carried 52% of the independent vote; currently, only 21% of independents say they will vote for him. When 66% of independents say they disapprove of how he is “handling” the economy, the only reasonable translation is “one-term president.” It will be the Battle of the Independent Bulge in the middle of the political spectrum that will spell doom for the President and they’re showing him no love!
Conservatives who believe the federal government is entitled to only the limited and enumerated powers listed in the Constitution, who believe in fiscal responsibility, who know that free market capitalism is far superior to Ivy League eggheads and their centralized planning, will never vote for someone with this President’s disastrous economic record. Leftist liberals will gnash their teeth because we don’t already have socialized medicine and wail that he doesn’t go far enough in his plans to “redistribute the wealth” and provide “womb to tomb government security” but they will vote for him anyway. The American Communist Party (CPUSA) may call for a third party to represent “the people” but they still endorsed President Obama for four more years. The only way they would pull their endorsement is if Van Jones announced his candidacy. Chances are, they’ll just stay home and pout.
In a desperate effort to shore up feeble poll numbers, Obama for America launched a new website so that anyone who wasn’t “showing some love” to the Anointed One would be reported. James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun Democrat strategist, should have been the first to be listed. He said it was time for the President to “panic!” Then there are all those darned Tea Partiers in Florida who voted Herman Cain as the winner in the straw poll. They probably voted for a black man just to prove they weren’t racist…it couldn’t be sincere. Of course they are the same ones who voted Lt. Colonel Allen West into the House of Representatives, but that’s probably just another coincidence. Oh yes, the Congressional Black Caucus should also be reported because they are complaining about the devastating unemployment among black youth and the President not visiting any of their minority districts. Now if they had some money for campaign donations….
Speaking of money, Warren Buffet has got billions but to hear him talk, nobody will let him pay more in taxes. Here’s how you do it, Warren. First, stop fighting the loopholes you’ve been trying to exploit for the last ten years and pony up the billion in taxes your company owes. Second, pay yourself a salary so you can be taxed at the top rate instead of giving yourself tons of stock options and living off dividends that are taxed at a lower rate. Third, pay your secretary more so she moves into a higher tax bracket or start paying her in stocks so she can be taxed at a lower rate. Fourth, just write a check payable to “United States Treasury”! Fifth, you and the President should stop itemizing your charitable contributions. You can give out of the goodness of your heart without considering economic benefits and place yourself in the position of paying more taxes at the same time. Until you do that, you should be reported to AttackWatch…along with people who tear the tags off their pillows and mattresses.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Who are the Homegrown Terrorists?
By
William L. Garvin
Some time back, Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security,
alienated a large number of U.S. citizens when she issued a report that listed
numerous “homegrown terrorist threats.”
Her list included Christians and pro-life advocates, believers in strict
interpretation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, American
exceptionalists, and anyone who believes in enforcing our borders and
immigration laws. In an incredible leap
of logic, she also included military veterans because “they are trained in the
use of firearms.” Somehow she failed to
include hunters, police and sheriff’s personnel, and members of her own
department who are also trained in the use of firearms.
Recently, the Congressional Black Caucus reconstituted this hackneyed old refrain by chanting in Greek chorus fashion that the entire Tea Party amalgamation is terrorists and hostage takers. They said the Tea Party was the “enemy” and were told to “go straight to hell. “Rhymin’ Simon,” aka Jesse Jackson, combined his race baiting tactics by saying "The Tea Party is a new name on an old game." In the same logic-free utterance, he claimed that Martin Luther King “fought the Tea Party.” No, Jesse, you history-challenged anachronism, MLK was aligned with Republicans against southern Democrats favoring segregation and their terrorist arm, the KKK! Try reading a history book—you may have lived it but you certainly don’t understand it.
Recently, the Congressional Black Caucus reconstituted this hackneyed old refrain by chanting in Greek chorus fashion that the entire Tea Party amalgamation is terrorists and hostage takers. They said the Tea Party was the “enemy” and were told to “go straight to hell. “Rhymin’ Simon,” aka Jesse Jackson, combined his race baiting tactics by saying "The Tea Party is a new name on an old game." In the same logic-free utterance, he claimed that Martin Luther King “fought the Tea Party.” No, Jesse, you history-challenged anachronism, MLK was aligned with Republicans against southern Democrats favoring segregation and their terrorist arm, the KKK! Try reading a history book—you may have lived it but you certainly don’t understand it.
Union leaders, tired of being upstaged, swung into action with
Jimmy Hoffa opening a Labor Day introduction of President Obama in the
following manner: “We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: the war on
workers. And you see it everywhere, it is
the Tea Party. And you know there is
only one way to beat and win that war.
The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and
there’s only going to be one winner.
It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war. President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take those sons of bitches out and give
America back to an America where we belong.”
The President has failed to
condemn Hoffa for any of this violent and uncivil rhetoric. In fact, he said he was “proud” of Hoffa and
other labor leaders. Maybe that’s why
hundreds of union workers turned thug and stormed a port in Longview,
Washington, captured security guards, held them hostage, smashed windows, cut
brake lines on railroad cars and dumped the grain at the center of the
dispute. They were also defying a federal restraining order issued the previous
week against the union after it was accused of assaults and death threats.
In the meantime, our Department of Justice
refuses to prosecute black militants who blatantly attempted to intimidate white
voters at a Philadelphia polling place.
However, they quickly aligned with Mexico to prosecute every state attempting
to protect its borders. DOJ also quickly
jumped on the SEC coattails to prosecute Standard and Poor’s after they
downgraded the U.S. debt. They suddenly want
to know why the “toxic assets” received a triple-A rating. To date, they are not investigating any other
rating agency that gave the toxic assets the same rating.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence. However, for the SECOND time, DOJ has raided
Gibson Guitars and seized guitars, pallets of wood, and computers, effectively
shutting down their “Made in USA” factories in Memphis and Nashville. Why?
Even though Gibson has filed all the necessary forms and complied with
all American laws, DOJ thinks there “may” be a violation of a law in India
where the ebony and Indian rosewood was obtained. Curiously, charges have yet to be filed from
the first raid back in 2009.
Furthermore, none of the other guitar manufacturers who use the same
wood in the same unfinished state from the same importer and the same supplier
have been raided. Maybe it’s just a
coincidence that the Gibson owner is a Republican and the other companies are
owned by Democrats.
So the question remains, who are the REAL
homegrown terrorists?
Monday, September 5, 2011
Labor Pains Replace Growing Pains
By William L. Garvin
This Labor Day celebration had a muted and hollow ring to it. Maybe it was because the latest data shows that there were zero jobs created last month. Maybe it's because the only reason the unemployment rate remained at 9.1% is so many of the long term unemployed have simply given up looking for a job! Maybe it's because the present Administration's economic policies of the past have been such a dismal failure and their future plans will simply be more of the same.
It might also be because union members are becoming disenchanted with union leadership and their self serving ways. Maybe they are wondering why over half of the waivers from ObamaCare have gone to union entities after they saw so much of their union dues spent to get it enacted. Maybe it's why, despite spending $35 million on recall efforts in Wisconsin, union leaders were only able to unseat TWO Republicans! Maybe it's because union members are seeing that what is actually occurring does not come close to resembling the apocalypse their union leaders predicted.
For instance, let's take a look at what happened in the Hartland-Lakeside School District, not far from Milwaukee. The HLSD bargaining contract required that health insurance be purchased from the "WEA Trust." The teachers found that health insurance could be purchased much more cheaply on the open market and overwhelmingly voted to change their coverage to United HealthCare. The District approached the union with a mid-term change but union leaders refused their offer.
After Governor Scott Walker signed the Republican sponsored collective bargaining law, HLSD's contract expired on June 30. The District then was able to change the health insurance coverage to United HealthCare. "It's going to save us $690,000 in 2011-2012," said Superintendent Glenn Schilling. Pewaukee School District said it will save $378,000 by changing their WEA Trust coverage and Menomonee School District will save a whopping $1.3 million! Oh, by the way, "WEA" stands for "Wisconsin Education Association," the largest teacher union in the state. In essence, they have been exploiting their own membership by extracting exorbitant health care premiums in addition to their previously mandated union dues. Can anyone say "corporate cronyism"?
Speaking of corporate cronyism, look for the green bubble to burst. Despite all the hype, solar and wind remains inefficient, unreliable, and expensive. The only way these alternative energy sources remain on life support is with massive government infusions of cash. Look closely at Solyndra, a California based solar panel manufacturer (the third such operation to fail over the last month). President Obama personally visited Solyndra mid-2010 and declared them to be a gleaming example of green technology. Solyndra has declared bankruptcy, closed its doors and thrown 1,100 workers out on the streets with no severance pay, no health insurance, and no advance notice. This is despite having received $535 billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Federal government.
Now here's the fun part. In January of this year, Solyndra only had about a month of operating capital left despite having "only" received $460 million from the feds. The Department of Energy became involved in the restructuring and refinancing of the company and subsequently noted that DOE "believes that the restructuring plan represents the best possible course of action to achieve the highest return on its invested capital." They continued to finance the company but curiously allowed $75 million from private investors to take precedence as "senior debt" in front of all but $150 million of taxpayer financing.
There's more. The George Kaiser Family Foundation owns 35.7% of Solyndra. The Foundation is supported by George Kaiser who just happens to have been a "bundler" raising campaign funds for President Obama's campaign in 2008. Draw your own conclusions.
In summary, central planning "experts" should stop trying to pick winners and losers in a free market economy. Union leadership should stop feathering their personal nests at the expense of their union members. The political "ruling class" should stop meddling in areas where they have no expertise. If not, next Labor Day will be even more depressing. The labor pains are increasing and the economic contractions are coming with frightening frequency.
This Labor Day celebration had a muted and hollow ring to it. Maybe it was because the latest data shows that there were zero jobs created last month. Maybe it's because the only reason the unemployment rate remained at 9.1% is so many of the long term unemployed have simply given up looking for a job! Maybe it's because the present Administration's economic policies of the past have been such a dismal failure and their future plans will simply be more of the same.
It might also be because union members are becoming disenchanted with union leadership and their self serving ways. Maybe they are wondering why over half of the waivers from ObamaCare have gone to union entities after they saw so much of their union dues spent to get it enacted. Maybe it's why, despite spending $35 million on recall efforts in Wisconsin, union leaders were only able to unseat TWO Republicans! Maybe it's because union members are seeing that what is actually occurring does not come close to resembling the apocalypse their union leaders predicted.
For instance, let's take a look at what happened in the Hartland-Lakeside School District, not far from Milwaukee. The HLSD bargaining contract required that health insurance be purchased from the "WEA Trust." The teachers found that health insurance could be purchased much more cheaply on the open market and overwhelmingly voted to change their coverage to United HealthCare. The District approached the union with a mid-term change but union leaders refused their offer.
After Governor Scott Walker signed the Republican sponsored collective bargaining law, HLSD's contract expired on June 30. The District then was able to change the health insurance coverage to United HealthCare. "It's going to save us $690,000 in 2011-2012," said Superintendent Glenn Schilling. Pewaukee School District said it will save $378,000 by changing their WEA Trust coverage and Menomonee School District will save a whopping $1.3 million! Oh, by the way, "WEA" stands for "Wisconsin Education Association," the largest teacher union in the state. In essence, they have been exploiting their own membership by extracting exorbitant health care premiums in addition to their previously mandated union dues. Can anyone say "corporate cronyism"?
Speaking of corporate cronyism, look for the green bubble to burst. Despite all the hype, solar and wind remains inefficient, unreliable, and expensive. The only way these alternative energy sources remain on life support is with massive government infusions of cash. Look closely at Solyndra, a California based solar panel manufacturer (the third such operation to fail over the last month). President Obama personally visited Solyndra mid-2010 and declared them to be a gleaming example of green technology. Solyndra has declared bankruptcy, closed its doors and thrown 1,100 workers out on the streets with no severance pay, no health insurance, and no advance notice. This is despite having received $535 billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Federal government.
Now here's the fun part. In January of this year, Solyndra only had about a month of operating capital left despite having "only" received $460 million from the feds. The Department of Energy became involved in the restructuring and refinancing of the company and subsequently noted that DOE "believes that the restructuring plan represents the best possible course of action to achieve the highest return on its invested capital." They continued to finance the company but curiously allowed $75 million from private investors to take precedence as "senior debt" in front of all but $150 million of taxpayer financing.
There's more. The George Kaiser Family Foundation owns 35.7% of Solyndra. The Foundation is supported by George Kaiser who just happens to have been a "bundler" raising campaign funds for President Obama's campaign in 2008. Draw your own conclusions.
In summary, central planning "experts" should stop trying to pick winners and losers in a free market economy. Union leadership should stop feathering their personal nests at the expense of their union members. The political "ruling class" should stop meddling in areas where they have no expertise. If not, next Labor Day will be even more depressing. The labor pains are increasing and the economic contractions are coming with frightening frequency.
Monday, August 29, 2011
They Said What?!
By William L. Garvin
“Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”
Proverbs 26:11
Recently Governor Rick Perry drew a lot of press, most of it flack, for saying that if Ben Bernanke printed money out of thin air, the act was “treasonous.” While his choice of words was less than artful, what would you call an act that deliberately deflates the value of your dollar? In essence, the various “Quantitative Easings” are establishing a fiat currency, i.e., “legal tender, especially paper currency, authorized by a government but not based on or convertible into gold or silver.” What you have saved is worth less and what you buy will cost more. These deliberate inflationary interventions never stand the test of time!
Vice President Biden also drew some criticism when he said he “understood” Communist China’s one-child policy and would not “second guess” it. Once he got back to the terra firma of the USA, he decided to second guess it after all and called it “repugnant.” Nice flip-flop, Joe, but as usual, you’re a day late and a dollar short. Why didn’t you immediately recognize that the government mandated abortions of (mostly female) babies is barbaric and morally reprehensible? Please don’t say you were just being diplomatic…it was a time for standing up and speaking out on principle.
Speaking of diplomacy, this is obviously not in the tool kit of Rep. Maxine Waters. While posing as a fearless crusader in front of her constituents, Maxine let us know that she was not afraid of the big bad wolf and then caterwauled that “The Tea Party can go straight to hell!” Sorry, Maxine but the Tea Party is not responsible for the 16% unemployment rate amongst black Americans that is undoubtedly much higher in your district. It is not responsible for the massive failure of your “war on poverty” that has consumed trillions of dollars. You and your Florida counterpart, Rep. Frederica Wilson, actually don’t know “who the real enemy is,” do you?
Someone who surprisingly ended up in the liberal crosshairs was Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. He channeled Bill Cosby with a straightforward message telling black men that they need to be more than just a "sperm donor" or a "human ATM." "That's part of the problem in our community. Let me speak plainer: That's part of the problem in the black community. ... We have too many men making too many babies they don't want to take care of and then we end up dealing with your children." He could have been speaking to many young men but he clearly was addressing black youth after another night of Philadelphia’s “flash robs” when he also said: “Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt. Nobody. If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you. They don’t hire you ’cause you look like you’re crazy!” One can only imagine the liberal conflagration that would have erupted if the mayor was white.
Finally, Candidate Obama said this in July, 2008: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic.” Now that President Obama has added his own $4 trillion and raised the national debt to $14.6 trillion, in a world record thirty-one months, is he “super-irresponsible”? Is he “doubly unpatriotic”? Do you think he will apologize for his over-the-top and uncivil rhetoric? Will he apologize for raising each person’s share of the national debt from $30 thousand to $47, 125.26 (as of August 29)? You can bet you won’t hear that!
“Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”
Proverbs 26:11
Recently Governor Rick Perry drew a lot of press, most of it flack, for saying that if Ben Bernanke printed money out of thin air, the act was “treasonous.” While his choice of words was less than artful, what would you call an act that deliberately deflates the value of your dollar? In essence, the various “Quantitative Easings” are establishing a fiat currency, i.e., “legal tender, especially paper currency, authorized by a government but not based on or convertible into gold or silver.” What you have saved is worth less and what you buy will cost more. These deliberate inflationary interventions never stand the test of time!
Vice President Biden also drew some criticism when he said he “understood” Communist China’s one-child policy and would not “second guess” it. Once he got back to the terra firma of the USA, he decided to second guess it after all and called it “repugnant.” Nice flip-flop, Joe, but as usual, you’re a day late and a dollar short. Why didn’t you immediately recognize that the government mandated abortions of (mostly female) babies is barbaric and morally reprehensible? Please don’t say you were just being diplomatic…it was a time for standing up and speaking out on principle.
Speaking of diplomacy, this is obviously not in the tool kit of Rep. Maxine Waters. While posing as a fearless crusader in front of her constituents, Maxine let us know that she was not afraid of the big bad wolf and then caterwauled that “The Tea Party can go straight to hell!” Sorry, Maxine but the Tea Party is not responsible for the 16% unemployment rate amongst black Americans that is undoubtedly much higher in your district. It is not responsible for the massive failure of your “war on poverty” that has consumed trillions of dollars. You and your Florida counterpart, Rep. Frederica Wilson, actually don’t know “who the real enemy is,” do you?
Someone who surprisingly ended up in the liberal crosshairs was Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. He channeled Bill Cosby with a straightforward message telling black men that they need to be more than just a "sperm donor" or a "human ATM." "That's part of the problem in our community. Let me speak plainer: That's part of the problem in the black community. ... We have too many men making too many babies they don't want to take care of and then we end up dealing with your children." He could have been speaking to many young men but he clearly was addressing black youth after another night of Philadelphia’s “flash robs” when he also said: “Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt. Nobody. If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you. They don’t hire you ’cause you look like you’re crazy!” One can only imagine the liberal conflagration that would have erupted if the mayor was white.
Finally, Candidate Obama said this in July, 2008: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic.” Now that President Obama has added his own $4 trillion and raised the national debt to $14.6 trillion, in a world record thirty-one months, is he “super-irresponsible”? Is he “doubly unpatriotic”? Do you think he will apologize for his over-the-top and uncivil rhetoric? Will he apologize for raising each person’s share of the national debt from $30 thousand to $47, 125.26 (as of August 29)? You can bet you won’t hear that!
Monday, August 22, 2011
All Play and No Work!
By William L. Garvin
We taxpayers recently bought two buses from a Canadian company so the President could spend three days touring the Midwest perfecting his campaign speeches. He chose to ride in a black $1.2 million “Mega-Hearse” that personified the gloom and doom permeating the American economy that he attributed to “bad luck.”
After three arduous days on the taxpayer funded campaign trail, President Obama announced that he had another economic plan that he would announce “after Labor Day.” Never mind the unemployment data, never mind the psychotic stock market, never mind the dismal GDP growth rates, never mind the national debt, and, most of all, never mind his leadership responsibilities. Exhausted from the sheer effort of announcing a coming announcement, it’s time to take another vacation. Don’t roll up your sleeves and get to work. Don’t pressure Congress to come back to town and roll up their sleeves. Don’t allay the national fears and show the taxpayers your plan. Nope, take a vacation.
And not just any vacation…take a Martha’s Vineyard vacation. The Vineyard (along with its smaller cousin, the infamous Chappaquiddick) is an island seven miles off Cape Cod. It’s the summer home of millionaires, billionaires, corporate jet owners and luxurious yachts. Doesn’t it seem rather unseemly of the President to want to rub elbows with those whom he has been excoriating for months? Doesn’t it seem rather nouveau riche? Doesn’t it seem rather insensitive to the 50 million Americans on food stamps? How does this luxurious lifestyle resonate with the 13.9 million who are unemployed, the 2.8 million who are only “marginally attached” to the workforce and the additional 1.1 million “discouraged workers” who have just plain given up?
The President has demonstrated an affinity for campaigning, vacationing, and playing golf. He seems to like “being” President, making speeches, and basking in the glow of choreographed adoring crowds. He does not seem to like “doing” President, i.e., sitting down, buckling down and taking care of business as our nation’s Chief Executive. He has yet to demonstrate a significant work ethic or even a grasp of the basics of governance. In his academically insulated world, “the buck stops everywhere else but here.” Keep in mind that he voted for and supported TARP even though he has subsequently demagogued banks and Wall Street. He delegated and abrogated the details of the not so shovel ready Stimulus Bill to the Reid-Pelosi supermajority in Congress. The same scenario was followed for his signature Health Care bill. When you know there is no way the opposition can stop you, you have all the time necessary for quality control. The President failed and the programs failed.
No one is suggesting that Presidents don’t deserve vacations but timing and tone is everything. Maybe going home and clearing brush as Ronald Reagan did or building a pathway as George Bush did would be more appropriate in a time when so many Americans are struggling. Even toning down the size and scope of the ostentatious entourages that accompany foreign visits would be appreciated. As for golf, President George W. Bush was chided for the twenty-four rounds he played over eight years, President Obama has tripled that number in less than three years!
No one is suggesting that the President become some sort of eyeshade wearing policy wonk. However, when it comes to explanations of critical decisions, we deserve more than “pull off the band-aid,” “eat your peas,” “car in the ditch,” “pull the plug on grandma” bromides. It’s probable that when you have no experience making executive decisions, you will have even more trouble explaining them.
Texts on desirable leadership qualities generally cite honesty, competence, forward-looking, and inspiring. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you give the country what it needs to be successful? Do you have a positive vision for the future? Can you inspire the nation to get through the difficult times? Sadly the promises of the campaign are not translating into reality for this President. Even his oratorical gifts now sound as hollow as the Greek columns he once affected. We cannot afford four more years of leadership inexperience.
We taxpayers recently bought two buses from a Canadian company so the President could spend three days touring the Midwest perfecting his campaign speeches. He chose to ride in a black $1.2 million “Mega-Hearse” that personified the gloom and doom permeating the American economy that he attributed to “bad luck.”
After three arduous days on the taxpayer funded campaign trail, President Obama announced that he had another economic plan that he would announce “after Labor Day.” Never mind the unemployment data, never mind the psychotic stock market, never mind the dismal GDP growth rates, never mind the national debt, and, most of all, never mind his leadership responsibilities. Exhausted from the sheer effort of announcing a coming announcement, it’s time to take another vacation. Don’t roll up your sleeves and get to work. Don’t pressure Congress to come back to town and roll up their sleeves. Don’t allay the national fears and show the taxpayers your plan. Nope, take a vacation.
And not just any vacation…take a Martha’s Vineyard vacation. The Vineyard (along with its smaller cousin, the infamous Chappaquiddick) is an island seven miles off Cape Cod. It’s the summer home of millionaires, billionaires, corporate jet owners and luxurious yachts. Doesn’t it seem rather unseemly of the President to want to rub elbows with those whom he has been excoriating for months? Doesn’t it seem rather nouveau riche? Doesn’t it seem rather insensitive to the 50 million Americans on food stamps? How does this luxurious lifestyle resonate with the 13.9 million who are unemployed, the 2.8 million who are only “marginally attached” to the workforce and the additional 1.1 million “discouraged workers” who have just plain given up?
The President has demonstrated an affinity for campaigning, vacationing, and playing golf. He seems to like “being” President, making speeches, and basking in the glow of choreographed adoring crowds. He does not seem to like “doing” President, i.e., sitting down, buckling down and taking care of business as our nation’s Chief Executive. He has yet to demonstrate a significant work ethic or even a grasp of the basics of governance. In his academically insulated world, “the buck stops everywhere else but here.” Keep in mind that he voted for and supported TARP even though he has subsequently demagogued banks and Wall Street. He delegated and abrogated the details of the not so shovel ready Stimulus Bill to the Reid-Pelosi supermajority in Congress. The same scenario was followed for his signature Health Care bill. When you know there is no way the opposition can stop you, you have all the time necessary for quality control. The President failed and the programs failed.
No one is suggesting that Presidents don’t deserve vacations but timing and tone is everything. Maybe going home and clearing brush as Ronald Reagan did or building a pathway as George Bush did would be more appropriate in a time when so many Americans are struggling. Even toning down the size and scope of the ostentatious entourages that accompany foreign visits would be appreciated. As for golf, President George W. Bush was chided for the twenty-four rounds he played over eight years, President Obama has tripled that number in less than three years!
No one is suggesting that the President become some sort of eyeshade wearing policy wonk. However, when it comes to explanations of critical decisions, we deserve more than “pull off the band-aid,” “eat your peas,” “car in the ditch,” “pull the plug on grandma” bromides. It’s probable that when you have no experience making executive decisions, you will have even more trouble explaining them.
Texts on desirable leadership qualities generally cite honesty, competence, forward-looking, and inspiring. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you give the country what it needs to be successful? Do you have a positive vision for the future? Can you inspire the nation to get through the difficult times? Sadly the promises of the campaign are not translating into reality for this President. Even his oratorical gifts now sound as hollow as the Greek columns he once affected. We cannot afford four more years of leadership inexperience.
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