By William L. Garvin
When Bill Clinton needed a central and unifying theme for his presidential campaign, he chose “it’s the economy, stupid.” Any challenger to the Obama administration would probably have similar success along that same line.
In the latest Rasmussen poll, consumer confidence is at its lowest point in two years. No wonder the President is out to “win the future”; he has apparently already “lost the present.” Only 21% of the Rasmussen respondents thought the economy was getting better while an overwhelming 60% thought it was getting worse. Undoubtedly the 21% have the quixotic belief that stock in windmills and high speed trains is the key to economic well being!
For those who forsake fantasy and formulate factually-based conclusions, the data is clear. The Billion Prices Project at the esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology says inflation is 3 percent HIGHER than a year ago. The Fed has insured this will continue by pumping (printing) nearly one trillion dollars of new money into the economy. Certainly this has helped the stock market but it has come at the cost of devaluing our money and raising the prices of food and commodities. The dollar dropped nearly 1% last week after following a similar 1% drop against other currencies the week before that. How does this translate to the middle class?
Everyone who buys groceries knows that the prices are up but they may be unaware as to exactly how much. Over the year ending in February, lettuce is up 36%; butter is up 29%; coffee is up 13%, and broccoli is up 21%. The trend line is upwards since in March, food went up another .8% in that month alone. This is the largest monthly increase in three years.
Everyone also knows that the price of oil and gasoline directly affects the price of growing, processing, and transporting food. There is no light at the end of this administration’s energy tunnel. On the day President Obama was inaugurated, oil was $37 per barrel and gasoline was $1.87 per gallon. Today, the respective prices are $111 per barrel and $4.04 per gallon. Again, the trend line is up but domestic oil production is down.
Maybe it’s because five deep water oil rigs have already left the Gulf of Mexico because of interminable Department of Interior delays. One Texas oil producer even declared bankruptcy. More recently, Shell Oil has scrapped plans to drill in shallow water off the coast of Alaska because the Environmental Protection Agency withheld critical air permits. Keep in mind that Shell has shelled out $2.2 billion for the leases alone and then invested five years and $4 billion dollars in exploratory costs. Look for unemployment to jump in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas communities. However the feds did come up with billions to loan to oil companies in Brazil and liquid natural gas projects in Central America. That should certainly help the unemployment problems in those countries.
In the meantime, according to the Department of Energy’s “Energy Information Agency,” domestic crude oil production will decline by 50,000 barrels per day in 2011 and will decline an additional 190,000 barrels per day in 2012. EIA EXPECTS that production in the Gulf of Mexico will fall by 250,000 barrels per day each year over the next two years! There will be some slightly increased production elsewhere that will only partially make up for the Gulf shortfall. In the meantime, Mexico, Cuba, and China happily drill away in the Gulf.
Yes, it is the economy stupid. The United States has accumulated an additional $6 trillion in debt since Democrats assumed control of Congress in 2006. Standard and Poor’s is now likely to drop our AAA debt rating. Other nations are proposing that gold replace the dollar standard. Your house is worth less; your savings are worth less; food costs more and gasoline costs more. Unemployment stays above 8% despite the continually gerrymandered numbers. There is no way to defend a record that puts more and more of its citizens on a “bullet train to bankruptcy”!
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Simpletons, Stooges, and Shysters
By William L. Garvin
President Ronald Reagan said the trouble with liberal friends “…is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” In a world of Alinsky community organizing acolytes, they not only “know what isn’t so,” they go out of their way to deliberately distort what is!
For example, when IAFF Local 311 Firefighters Union sent out its call to membership to disrupt Governor Sarah Palin’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, they referred to her as a “corporate shill.” Their clarion shibboleth: “Let’s show ‘em how we really feel about big corporations passing the tax burden on to the rest of us.” Only in Liberal-Logic-Land does this hypocrisy pass the smell test. Keep in mind that this is a government union of government employees that is supported entirely by the “tax burden” on the private sector. It is only in Liberal-Logic-Land that “corporate shill” and “Sarah Palin” can exist in the same sentence because it requires a total suspension of reality. It wasn’t Tina Fey that took on and defeated Big Oil, crony capitalism, and the Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska…that was Governor Palin who did and who put Alaska’s budget in the black! Do at least a tiny bit of research, Pinocchio!
Another simplistic strategy of socialist stooges is to rephrase arguments to imaginary positions which their opponents do not hold. Naturally, that artificial argument is easily defeated. For instance, government unions have recently been criticized for their extravagant pension plans and for contributing over ninety percent of their political contributions to Democrats against the wishes of some of their conservative/independent members. Recklessly disregarding the truth, the dedicated Alinskyite begins to whine “when did teachers, firefighters, public service employees and police personnel become the enemy?” They aren’t now, they never were, but since you bring it up, let’s take a closer look.
Estimates are that New York City spends $65 million each year reassigning teachers to the infamous “rubber rooms” where they have no assigned duties while awaiting disciplinary action. Sometimes they wait for years…at full salary. In California, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has a backlog of 12,600 cases for revocation. That’s a three-year workload according to the state auditor’s report. One teacher was suspected of showing students pornographic materials in 2008 but the agency did not even request police reports until 2010! Justice delayed is justice denied. The teacher went to work in another school and the case was closed with no action.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “It’s not impossible to get rid of bad teachers, but it’s extremely hard and expensive. A report this month in LA Weekly noted that in the past decade the Los Angeles Unified School District “spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance.“ The paper also reported that 32 underperforming teachers were initially targeted for removal “but then secretly paid $50,000 by the district, on average, to leave without a fight.”" In Illinois, it costs approximately $219,000 for a school district to fire an incompetent teacher.
The State of California also conducted an audit of the Mule Creek State Prison. They found that teachers spent as little as 33 hours inside the prison even though they were paid for forty. According to the Associated Press, taxpayers paid $272,900 for time that 66 employees did not work during the three-month audit period. That costs out to $1.1 million in overpayments each year for that prison alone. Mule Creek is only one of thirty-three prisons in the state. It is also the only prison to require employees to clock in and out; therefore it is “difficult” to say if the practice is widespread. Union contracts prohibit corrections officials from keeping track of actual hours worked! Also, according to the AP report and the Department, none of the employees have been disciplined nor has the Department tried to recoup the overpayments.
As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say: “Just the facts, ma’am.” They are indeed “such stubborn things.” When good teachers are paid the same as incompetent teachers, it’s a shame. When unions protect incompetence, it’s a disgrace.
President Ronald Reagan said the trouble with liberal friends “…is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” In a world of Alinsky community organizing acolytes, they not only “know what isn’t so,” they go out of their way to deliberately distort what is!
For example, when IAFF Local 311 Firefighters Union sent out its call to membership to disrupt Governor Sarah Palin’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, they referred to her as a “corporate shill.” Their clarion shibboleth: “Let’s show ‘em how we really feel about big corporations passing the tax burden on to the rest of us.” Only in Liberal-Logic-Land does this hypocrisy pass the smell test. Keep in mind that this is a government union of government employees that is supported entirely by the “tax burden” on the private sector. It is only in Liberal-Logic-Land that “corporate shill” and “Sarah Palin” can exist in the same sentence because it requires a total suspension of reality. It wasn’t Tina Fey that took on and defeated Big Oil, crony capitalism, and the Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska…that was Governor Palin who did and who put Alaska’s budget in the black! Do at least a tiny bit of research, Pinocchio!
Another simplistic strategy of socialist stooges is to rephrase arguments to imaginary positions which their opponents do not hold. Naturally, that artificial argument is easily defeated. For instance, government unions have recently been criticized for their extravagant pension plans and for contributing over ninety percent of their political contributions to Democrats against the wishes of some of their conservative/independent members. Recklessly disregarding the truth, the dedicated Alinskyite begins to whine “when did teachers, firefighters, public service employees and police personnel become the enemy?” They aren’t now, they never were, but since you bring it up, let’s take a closer look.
Estimates are that New York City spends $65 million each year reassigning teachers to the infamous “rubber rooms” where they have no assigned duties while awaiting disciplinary action. Sometimes they wait for years…at full salary. In California, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has a backlog of 12,600 cases for revocation. That’s a three-year workload according to the state auditor’s report. One teacher was suspected of showing students pornographic materials in 2008 but the agency did not even request police reports until 2010! Justice delayed is justice denied. The teacher went to work in another school and the case was closed with no action.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “It’s not impossible to get rid of bad teachers, but it’s extremely hard and expensive. A report this month in LA Weekly noted that in the past decade the Los Angeles Unified School District “spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance.“ The paper also reported that 32 underperforming teachers were initially targeted for removal “but then secretly paid $50,000 by the district, on average, to leave without a fight.”" In Illinois, it costs approximately $219,000 for a school district to fire an incompetent teacher.
The State of California also conducted an audit of the Mule Creek State Prison. They found that teachers spent as little as 33 hours inside the prison even though they were paid for forty. According to the Associated Press, taxpayers paid $272,900 for time that 66 employees did not work during the three-month audit period. That costs out to $1.1 million in overpayments each year for that prison alone. Mule Creek is only one of thirty-three prisons in the state. It is also the only prison to require employees to clock in and out; therefore it is “difficult” to say if the practice is widespread. Union contracts prohibit corrections officials from keeping track of actual hours worked! Also, according to the AP report and the Department, none of the employees have been disciplined nor has the Department tried to recoup the overpayments.
As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say: “Just the facts, ma’am.” They are indeed “such stubborn things.” When good teachers are paid the same as incompetent teachers, it’s a shame. When unions protect incompetence, it’s a disgrace.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Choke On These Numbers
By William L. Garvin
Chew on these numbers and then see if you can choke them down. The projected revenue for the Federal government in 2011 is $2.174 trillion dollars. The projected spending for the same period is $3.82 trillion dollars. That means the deficit will be $1.65 trillion dollars for this year alone! Last month alone, the Federal government spent eight times more than it received. That is pathetic.
Let’s forget for the moment that last year’s Democrat President, Democrat House, and Democrat Senate were unable (or refused) to pass a budget before the fiscal year started October 1, 2010. Let’s forget that the new Republican House is cleaning up the Obama-Reid-Pelosi fiscal mess that the last Congress left behind. Let’s look at how the parties are reacting to the $14 trillion (and climbing) national debt.
The Democrats proposed ZERO spending cuts and supported raising the debt ceiling so they can continue their profligate spending ways. With Tea Party urging, the Republicans started off with their election charter of $100 million in spending cuts. The predictable liberal outrage gurgled out like clockwork. Nancy Pelosi prophesied that six million shut-in seniors would no longer have meals. Where did you get those numbers, Nancy? They’re pure poppycock. Harry Reid said Republicans wanted to “throw women under the bus” and “prevent them from having cancer screenings.” The King of the Cowboy Poets must have been rolling his own with some of that funny tobacco to even be able to say that with a straight face. Regurgitating the Democrat talking points, Eleanor Holmes Norton said a shutdown would be equivalent to “bombing innocent civilians.” Not to be outdone, Democrat lemming and Representative Louise Slaughter brayed that the newly elected House Republicans were here “…to kill women.” After all these insane verbal histrionics, a “historic cut” of $38.5 billion was agreed upon. Folks, this is a whopping 1% reduction in the gigantic 28% increase in the President’s spending plan for this year. That is beyond pathetic; it’s also insignificant.
The majority of the liberal angst festered because the Republicans targeted National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood for specific cuts. So let’s look at the numbers for the latter. In their annual report for 2009, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts. According to their records, during that same year, they performed 332,278 abortions. That is to say, they terminated an unborn child every ninety-five seconds for the entire year! That is equivalent to eliminating an entire population of a city the size of Honolulu or New Orleans or Anaheim or Tampa one by one by one. The President intervened in Libya for “humanitarian reasons” for a mere fraction of our own human loss.
The most recent polls show that 51% of Americans regard themselves as pro-life. When it comes to whether or not government health care should fund abortions, a whopping 67% oppose such action. Only 27% support the government funding of abortions. Many of the freshmen legislators are responding to their electorate who do not want their tax dollars used to kill someone else’s baby! Of course it’s ideology…but then continuing to fund the war against the most vulnerable members of our society in opposition to the majority of Americans’ wishes is also ideological. The aforementioned (and ironically named) Representative Slaughter is apoplectic about a contrived and imaginary threat to women but absolutely insensitive to the real deaths of female and male babies.
With that type of moral ambivalence it’s no surprise that Democrats would also throw our American servicemen and women under the bus as a bargaining chip in the budget negotiations. Republicans were appropriately incensed when the President said he would veto a bill to insure our military personnel would be paid even in the event of a government shutdown. Holding our military and their families hostage during a time of war to further a political goal destroyed the last shred of confidence that may have existed for this Commander in Chief. Given the callous disregard this Administration displays toward the unborn and the military, don’t be surprised when the seniors become the next target! Can you say “death panels” through bureaucratic neglect?
Chew on these numbers and then see if you can choke them down. The projected revenue for the Federal government in 2011 is $2.174 trillion dollars. The projected spending for the same period is $3.82 trillion dollars. That means the deficit will be $1.65 trillion dollars for this year alone! Last month alone, the Federal government spent eight times more than it received. That is pathetic.
Let’s forget for the moment that last year’s Democrat President, Democrat House, and Democrat Senate were unable (or refused) to pass a budget before the fiscal year started October 1, 2010. Let’s forget that the new Republican House is cleaning up the Obama-Reid-Pelosi fiscal mess that the last Congress left behind. Let’s look at how the parties are reacting to the $14 trillion (and climbing) national debt.
The Democrats proposed ZERO spending cuts and supported raising the debt ceiling so they can continue their profligate spending ways. With Tea Party urging, the Republicans started off with their election charter of $100 million in spending cuts. The predictable liberal outrage gurgled out like clockwork. Nancy Pelosi prophesied that six million shut-in seniors would no longer have meals. Where did you get those numbers, Nancy? They’re pure poppycock. Harry Reid said Republicans wanted to “throw women under the bus” and “prevent them from having cancer screenings.” The King of the Cowboy Poets must have been rolling his own with some of that funny tobacco to even be able to say that with a straight face. Regurgitating the Democrat talking points, Eleanor Holmes Norton said a shutdown would be equivalent to “bombing innocent civilians.” Not to be outdone, Democrat lemming and Representative Louise Slaughter brayed that the newly elected House Republicans were here “…to kill women.” After all these insane verbal histrionics, a “historic cut” of $38.5 billion was agreed upon. Folks, this is a whopping 1% reduction in the gigantic 28% increase in the President’s spending plan for this year. That is beyond pathetic; it’s also insignificant.
The majority of the liberal angst festered because the Republicans targeted National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood for specific cuts. So let’s look at the numbers for the latter. In their annual report for 2009, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts. According to their records, during that same year, they performed 332,278 abortions. That is to say, they terminated an unborn child every ninety-five seconds for the entire year! That is equivalent to eliminating an entire population of a city the size of Honolulu or New Orleans or Anaheim or Tampa one by one by one. The President intervened in Libya for “humanitarian reasons” for a mere fraction of our own human loss.
The most recent polls show that 51% of Americans regard themselves as pro-life. When it comes to whether or not government health care should fund abortions, a whopping 67% oppose such action. Only 27% support the government funding of abortions. Many of the freshmen legislators are responding to their electorate who do not want their tax dollars used to kill someone else’s baby! Of course it’s ideology…but then continuing to fund the war against the most vulnerable members of our society in opposition to the majority of Americans’ wishes is also ideological. The aforementioned (and ironically named) Representative Slaughter is apoplectic about a contrived and imaginary threat to women but absolutely insensitive to the real deaths of female and male babies.
With that type of moral ambivalence it’s no surprise that Democrats would also throw our American servicemen and women under the bus as a bargaining chip in the budget negotiations. Republicans were appropriately incensed when the President said he would veto a bill to insure our military personnel would be paid even in the event of a government shutdown. Holding our military and their families hostage during a time of war to further a political goal destroyed the last shred of confidence that may have existed for this Commander in Chief. Given the callous disregard this Administration displays toward the unborn and the military, don’t be surprised when the seniors become the next target! Can you say “death panels” through bureaucratic neglect?
Monday, April 4, 2011
Extreme Extremist Extremism!
By William L. Garvin
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Barry Goldwater
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never met a microphone he didn’t like. Last week, he unapologetically disclosed the Democrat playbook by citing orders from the Democrat Caucus to brand every attempted spending cut as “extreme.” We will now be treated to a litany of “draconian” cuts that will result in children dying in the streets, soldiers not having bullets for their weapons, and old people having to choose between eating dog food or paying for their medicine. It will be a veritable apocalypse if government is forced to shut down because of the extremist Tea Party element amongst the Republicans.
Let’s examine this “extremist” meme from a different perspective. Wasn’t it an extreme dereliction of duty that has led to this current imbroglio? The Obama-Reid-Pelosi triune failed to meet their constitutional obligation in passing a budget by October 1, 2010. This malfeasance has led to the current quibbling over continuing resolutions and “chump change” cuts in spending. To date, only about $10 billion in cuts have been enacted. The parties are currently spinning their wheels over the difference between $31 and $61 billion in cuts. That’s equivalent to “emptying the ocean with a thimble” when you’re adding another $1 trillion in debt for the remainder of this fiscal year!
As far as government shutdowns, they’ve happened before. It’s nothing new. Social Security checks were printed and delivered; airplanes took off and landed; and of course, Congress continued to be paid. Lest we forget, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and the Cowboy Poetry Festival all continued to be funded. It’s only the Doomsday rhetoric that’s extreme.
When the U.S. Agency for International Development says that a nine percent cut in their budget would result in 70,000 children dying, it’s not extreme enough. Representative Pelosi immediately upped the ante to 100,000 because of the impact on the malaria prevention programs. Of course, buried in the historical details is the fact that malaria was well on the way to extinction until the extreme environmentalists, aided and abetted by Rachel Carson, managed to get United Nations and United States prohibitions against the use of the very effective DDT.
When an obscure Florida preacher poached a second fifteen minutes of fame by burning a Koran, that was actually extreme and reprehensible. Even more extreme is the fallout in Afghanistan. After Friday prayers, a mob began torching cars, smashing windows, and rioting for four days (and counting as of this writing). Then these butchers proceed to murder several innocent United Nations employees in Kabul by stabbing, slitting their throats, and beheading. Equally extreme are the liberal contortionists who attempt to construct a moral equivalency between these two actions. It is extreme intellectual hypocrisy.
Speaking of intellectual hypocrisy, where was the liberal outcry when the R & R Gallery in Los Angeles displayed paintings of Jesus Christ portrayed as a monkey? This same gallery displayed another painting of Sarah Palin being crucified. Should galleries be firebombed? Should fatwahs be declared against the artists? Where is the equivalent moral outrage from the left? As usual, their silence is thundering.
Media hypocrisy and double standards are also extreme. During the Bush Administration Iraq campaign, front page news always included the latest histrionics of Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, or any other anti-establishment movement. Apparently the anti-war and protest movement no longer exists during the Obama Administration. The daily body counts, the posting of every milestone, and the continual tabulation of costs is no longer front page, above the fold news. If covered at all, it is buried in the fine print on page eleven.
Where are the demands for timelines? Where is the demand for clarity of mission? What is the yardstick for success? Do we even speak of victory? What is the exit strategy? Wait! Stop the presses…there’s breaking news on Charlie Sheen! Is anyone available or are they all covering Lindsay?
When Congress and the press begin to actually do their jobs, that will be radical; that will be EXTREME!
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Barry Goldwater
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never met a microphone he didn’t like. Last week, he unapologetically disclosed the Democrat playbook by citing orders from the Democrat Caucus to brand every attempted spending cut as “extreme.” We will now be treated to a litany of “draconian” cuts that will result in children dying in the streets, soldiers not having bullets for their weapons, and old people having to choose between eating dog food or paying for their medicine. It will be a veritable apocalypse if government is forced to shut down because of the extremist Tea Party element amongst the Republicans.
Let’s examine this “extremist” meme from a different perspective. Wasn’t it an extreme dereliction of duty that has led to this current imbroglio? The Obama-Reid-Pelosi triune failed to meet their constitutional obligation in passing a budget by October 1, 2010. This malfeasance has led to the current quibbling over continuing resolutions and “chump change” cuts in spending. To date, only about $10 billion in cuts have been enacted. The parties are currently spinning their wheels over the difference between $31 and $61 billion in cuts. That’s equivalent to “emptying the ocean with a thimble” when you’re adding another $1 trillion in debt for the remainder of this fiscal year!
As far as government shutdowns, they’ve happened before. It’s nothing new. Social Security checks were printed and delivered; airplanes took off and landed; and of course, Congress continued to be paid. Lest we forget, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and the Cowboy Poetry Festival all continued to be funded. It’s only the Doomsday rhetoric that’s extreme.
When the U.S. Agency for International Development says that a nine percent cut in their budget would result in 70,000 children dying, it’s not extreme enough. Representative Pelosi immediately upped the ante to 100,000 because of the impact on the malaria prevention programs. Of course, buried in the historical details is the fact that malaria was well on the way to extinction until the extreme environmentalists, aided and abetted by Rachel Carson, managed to get United Nations and United States prohibitions against the use of the very effective DDT.
When an obscure Florida preacher poached a second fifteen minutes of fame by burning a Koran, that was actually extreme and reprehensible. Even more extreme is the fallout in Afghanistan. After Friday prayers, a mob began torching cars, smashing windows, and rioting for four days (and counting as of this writing). Then these butchers proceed to murder several innocent United Nations employees in Kabul by stabbing, slitting their throats, and beheading. Equally extreme are the liberal contortionists who attempt to construct a moral equivalency between these two actions. It is extreme intellectual hypocrisy.
Speaking of intellectual hypocrisy, where was the liberal outcry when the R & R Gallery in Los Angeles displayed paintings of Jesus Christ portrayed as a monkey? This same gallery displayed another painting of Sarah Palin being crucified. Should galleries be firebombed? Should fatwahs be declared against the artists? Where is the equivalent moral outrage from the left? As usual, their silence is thundering.
Media hypocrisy and double standards are also extreme. During the Bush Administration Iraq campaign, front page news always included the latest histrionics of Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, or any other anti-establishment movement. Apparently the anti-war and protest movement no longer exists during the Obama Administration. The daily body counts, the posting of every milestone, and the continual tabulation of costs is no longer front page, above the fold news. If covered at all, it is buried in the fine print on page eleven.
Where are the demands for timelines? Where is the demand for clarity of mission? What is the yardstick for success? Do we even speak of victory? What is the exit strategy? Wait! Stop the presses…there’s breaking news on Charlie Sheen! Is anyone available or are they all covering Lindsay?
When Congress and the press begin to actually do their jobs, that will be radical; that will be EXTREME!
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