By William L. Garvin
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest danger to be feared.” Thomas Jefferson
There isabsolutely no doubt that “figures don’t lie but liars figure.” The Office of Management and Budget scored ObamaCare and Congressional spending predicated on economic growth in 2011 at 3.1% and 2012 at 4.0%. Good luck with that. The Bureau of Economic Analysis previously reduced the rosy 2.5% growth in the third quarter to 2%. They finally settled in on 1.8%. That’s a 38% error rate for BEA but it was necessary to make Obamacare “revenue neutral.”
We hear the President saying “The economy is growing stronger. The recovery is speeding up.” That’s the rationale he relies upon to continue his astronomical deficit spending. Clearly he’s forgotten Alan Greenspan’s warning that “Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth.” Or did he?
There’s also a cloud of smoke being blown about millions of jobs being “saved or created,” which is impossible to empirically verify. If you want to go through the trouble of sorting through Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it’s hard to believe any of the President’s rhetoric. Let’s make some simple comparisons between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2011. In 2008, there were 143,328,000 people employed in the United States but in 2011, only 140,790,000 were employed. The net result is over 2.5 million fewer people are actually working! In 2008, there were 11,299,000 people listed as unemployed. In 2011, the number swelled to 13,097,000. Another curiosity is the total number of employed and unemployed has DECREASED over the last three years even though the U.S. population INCREASES about 165,000 each MONTH. To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo: “Barry, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!” We’ve misplaced an army of workers. Isn’t that a bit careless? Think about it, your buddy Jon Corzine only lost $1.2 billion. That was bad enough for the man you and your Vice-President called the “smartest man you know” and “literally the first person we called,” but really.
Then there’s this riff about “having increased oil production.” Sure, if you count state and private oil land production. On federal lands, it’s down. Remember when you and Senators Boxer and Feinstein complained that it would take 8-10 years to get new drillings into production? Well, if anything new is coming on line today, remember that 8-10 years ago it was George Bush who was president and approving the drilling. Thank you, President Bush. You may not have had a silver bullet but you certainly drove gasoline back down to below two dollars a gallon. Today it’s more than twice that much. Of course, that may not mean much to someone who spends $3,500 per night on their little Hawaiian hideaway over Christmas as the Obamas did. In any event, the money you are stealing from the Social Security trust fund and “redistributing” is going right down the tank…gas tank that is!
Stopping the “oil subsidies” (also known as tax breaks) would have been a good idea if you hadn’t doubled down on the green energy subsidies. You’ve got to admit that your track record in that arena has been pretty dismal. You previously said that electricity prices would “skyrocket” but you still keep pushing electric cars. At the same time, you’re closing down coal fired plants which produce the bulk of the electricity. It looks like you’re on track to make the skyrocket prediction come true for both electricity and gasoline.
Final proof there’s no silver lining is the lead bullet fired by the Food Police. One would think that the uproar created when Michelle said “We can’t just leave it up to parents,” and intruded into school bake sales would have been sufficient warning of clear and present danger. Now the Food Police are seizing homemade turkey and cheese sandwiches from four-year old girls and making them eat the MUCH healthier chicken nuggets. It’s surprising that Mom wasn’t arrested for endangering the health of a minor. It’s time to bring someone in who has realistic plans and who doesn’t rely on silver bullets.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Demons, Dummies, and Deceit
By William L. Garvin
What’s up with Maxine Waters? Has the “Democrat Doyenne of Disrespect and Diatribe” dashed disastrously over the cliff? Has the “Madame of Malevolence” lost all her marbles? Has the “Vaunted Vixen of Vituperation” vaulted over the shark? You’d think someone facing an ethics trial would keep a slightly lower profile but not “Mad Maxine”! She continues to spew her acerbic and apocalyptic aphorisms unfettered by truth or common decency. Naturally, her infantile behavior goes unchallenged by her party or the press.
While Representative Waters may whine that the Ethics Committee “lacks decency,” that charge characterizes much of her career. Back in 2004, a Los Angeles Times newspaper article noted that her relatives had made more than a million dollars doing business with “companies, candidates and causes” that were aided by Waters. The unrepentant Waters responded “They do their business and I do mine.” Government watchdog groups labeled her as corrupt in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011. Yet she soldiers on.
Current ethics charges have to do with her arranging meetings between the U.S. Treasury Department and OneUnited Bank officials. The bank was heavily invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and was in dire straits. The failing bank received $12 million in bailout funds but it wasn’t enough. It was subsequently shut down by the government. Oh yes, Ms. Waters’ husband was a former director and current stockholder in the bank. As for Fannie and Freddie, don’t forget her simpering adulation that “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines.” She couldn’t have been more wrong.
As for her interpersonal skill, she has called the first President Bush a “racist”; the second President Bush a “liar”; and Vice-President Cheney a “liar” and a “thief.” In some of her more irrational but predictable moments she has said “And as far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” When Dems and Repubs reached a compromise, she criticized the agreement and ranted “We should have made them walk the plank.” Last week at the California Democratic State Convention, she saw pictures of John Boehner and Eric Cantor on the screen. That’s all it took for her vicious vituperation to erupt into full boil: “Don’t ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. THESE ARE DEMONS. THEY ARE BRINGING DOWN THIS COUNTRY, DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY…!” Next she’ll be seeing “dead people.”
It appears as if Rep. Waters is only “situationally offended.” For instance, the district she represents has made no discernible economic progress during her tenure. When the riots broke out in South Central LA after the Rodney King fiasco, she was nonplussed. “I maintain it was understandable, if not acceptable, so I call it a rebellion.” When she was questioned about her support for the Occupy Wall Street sites after the deaths and crimes occurred, she blithely noted “That’s life and it happens.” She went on to say “…so I’m not deterred in my support for them because of these negative sorts of things.”
However, just look how easily her sensibilities are offended when it’s a Republican gathering: “I just watched—the Republicans were out there—they were having a great time. They were laughing. They were waving the American flag. They were egging them on and I thought that was outrageous behavior. I really did.” Oh, the horror!
Except for the malevolence, her comments are generally no more substantive than VP Joe Biden’s inartful gaffes. However, if Democrats regain control of the House, she stands to chair the Financial Services Committee despite her total lack of private sector experience. She demonstrated her economic ignorance of supply and demand while grilling oil company executives when she said the following: "Then, this 'liberal will be all about 'socialize' [sic]...er, ah ... basically, ... about the government taking over and running your companies!" Given the total lack of success of OneUnited Bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, her District, her State, and her Administration’s fiscal policies, one can only hope that American nightmare never becomes reality! Now that could be demonic!
What’s up with Maxine Waters? Has the “Democrat Doyenne of Disrespect and Diatribe” dashed disastrously over the cliff? Has the “Madame of Malevolence” lost all her marbles? Has the “Vaunted Vixen of Vituperation” vaulted over the shark? You’d think someone facing an ethics trial would keep a slightly lower profile but not “Mad Maxine”! She continues to spew her acerbic and apocalyptic aphorisms unfettered by truth or common decency. Naturally, her infantile behavior goes unchallenged by her party or the press.
While Representative Waters may whine that the Ethics Committee “lacks decency,” that charge characterizes much of her career. Back in 2004, a Los Angeles Times newspaper article noted that her relatives had made more than a million dollars doing business with “companies, candidates and causes” that were aided by Waters. The unrepentant Waters responded “They do their business and I do mine.” Government watchdog groups labeled her as corrupt in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011. Yet she soldiers on.
Current ethics charges have to do with her arranging meetings between the U.S. Treasury Department and OneUnited Bank officials. The bank was heavily invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and was in dire straits. The failing bank received $12 million in bailout funds but it wasn’t enough. It was subsequently shut down by the government. Oh yes, Ms. Waters’ husband was a former director and current stockholder in the bank. As for Fannie and Freddie, don’t forget her simpering adulation that “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines.” She couldn’t have been more wrong.
As for her interpersonal skill, she has called the first President Bush a “racist”; the second President Bush a “liar”; and Vice-President Cheney a “liar” and a “thief.” In some of her more irrational but predictable moments she has said “And as far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” When Dems and Repubs reached a compromise, she criticized the agreement and ranted “We should have made them walk the plank.” Last week at the California Democratic State Convention, she saw pictures of John Boehner and Eric Cantor on the screen. That’s all it took for her vicious vituperation to erupt into full boil: “Don’t ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. THESE ARE DEMONS. THEY ARE BRINGING DOWN THIS COUNTRY, DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY…!” Next she’ll be seeing “dead people.”
It appears as if Rep. Waters is only “situationally offended.” For instance, the district she represents has made no discernible economic progress during her tenure. When the riots broke out in South Central LA after the Rodney King fiasco, she was nonplussed. “I maintain it was understandable, if not acceptable, so I call it a rebellion.” When she was questioned about her support for the Occupy Wall Street sites after the deaths and crimes occurred, she blithely noted “That’s life and it happens.” She went on to say “…so I’m not deterred in my support for them because of these negative sorts of things.”
However, just look how easily her sensibilities are offended when it’s a Republican gathering: “I just watched—the Republicans were out there—they were having a great time. They were laughing. They were waving the American flag. They were egging them on and I thought that was outrageous behavior. I really did.” Oh, the horror!
Except for the malevolence, her comments are generally no more substantive than VP Joe Biden’s inartful gaffes. However, if Democrats regain control of the House, she stands to chair the Financial Services Committee despite her total lack of private sector experience. She demonstrated her economic ignorance of supply and demand while grilling oil company executives when she said the following: "Then, this 'liberal will be all about 'socialize' [sic]...er, ah ... basically, ... about the government taking over and running your companies!" Given the total lack of success of OneUnited Bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, her District, her State, and her Administration’s fiscal policies, one can only hope that American nightmare never becomes reality! Now that could be demonic!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Arrogant Airs and Nonsensical Notions
By William L. Garvin
Trying to make sense out of nonsense that oozes out of Washington on a daily basis is a full time job. The Founding Fathers envisioned the press as being a ferocious government watchdog and teller of truth. Lately, they’re nothing more than another Democrat Super-PAC. They fit right in with the union leadership lapdogs that run in similar self-serving circles. Speaking of running in circles, how did the President rotate from declaring Super-PACs “a threat to democracy” to directing his cabinet secretaries to make personal appearances at demo Super-PAC fundraisers? In some circles, his “flexibility” would be called “flip flopping.”
One area where he is consistent is his unabashed belief that he can do whatever he wants. Despite his extensive record of policy failures, he continues full throttle down his ideological railroad in a relentless quest to transform America. If only the American Constitution and those imbecilic citizens “bitterly clinging to their guns and religions” would get out of his way! Neither is likely to happen.
It’s hard to keep a straight face when a “constitutional scholar” tells the Catholic church, Christian evangelicals, and similar believers in the sanctity of life that they must check their religious convictions at an institutional door. Not only must they forsake matters of conscience, they must actively participate in providing services contrary to cherished and fundamental beliefs. In the Sixties, people worried that the Pope would tell the President what to do: now we have to worry that the President will tell the Pope what to do! Predictably, presidential surrogates failed to explain what will happen to all the religious institutions that are self insured. The devil is always in the details. Another interesting detail in the current brouhaha is the connection between the pill and successful birth control. In 1960 (according to the National Center for Health Statistics), when the pill became readily available, the birthrate to unwed mothers was 5.3%. In 2009, the last year that figures are available, the rate was 41%. Hmmmm. Does anyone even care?
When mainstream media was finally forced to acknowledge and cover the backlash, the administration moved quickly into damage control mode. The subsequent pontification handed down from Washington high was that private insurance companies servicing religious institutions will have to provide contraception services (including the “morning after” pill) free of charge and “without hassles.” Why is paying someone else to violate their religious beliefs any sort of acceptable compromise? It’s another unconstitutional sleight of hand. Again they devilishly avoided self insured institutions.
As they are wont to do, the liberal lemmings of the left immediately tried to change the focus of the argument. When you can’t defend, then distract, diffuse, and dissemble. The shrieking harpies began to wail about the “war on women’s health.” These are the same intellectual giants who said conservatives want to put arsenic and mercury in the water, love dirty air, and want to throw old people off cliffs and pull the plug on grandma. Now they hate women too?! Of course these same ardent administration apologists strive valiantly (and futilely) to conjure up similarities between the Occupy protest and the Tea Party. Obviously they have forgotten that in their previous hysterical hyperbole, they labeled the latter as racist Nazis, corporate shills and astroturfers. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee continues to hyperventilate about “their” uncivil political discourse being the cause of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. Some people just don’t understand the connection between class warfare, irresponsible speech, intrusive government and inciting to riot. Or do they?
While it may be a step down from telling God’s servants which of His principles they can adhere to, dictating to private companies that they must provide “free” products is the same unconstitutional dynamic. It’s government arrogance, pure and tyrannically simple. Where in the Constitution is any president authorized to mandate that private companies must provide any service or product “free of charge”? Then again, where in the Constitution or the Oath of Office does it say that a president can choose which laws to enforce or that he can ignore the laws that he doesn’t like? Or does he care?
Trying to make sense out of nonsense that oozes out of Washington on a daily basis is a full time job. The Founding Fathers envisioned the press as being a ferocious government watchdog and teller of truth. Lately, they’re nothing more than another Democrat Super-PAC. They fit right in with the union leadership lapdogs that run in similar self-serving circles. Speaking of running in circles, how did the President rotate from declaring Super-PACs “a threat to democracy” to directing his cabinet secretaries to make personal appearances at demo Super-PAC fundraisers? In some circles, his “flexibility” would be called “flip flopping.”
One area where he is consistent is his unabashed belief that he can do whatever he wants. Despite his extensive record of policy failures, he continues full throttle down his ideological railroad in a relentless quest to transform America. If only the American Constitution and those imbecilic citizens “bitterly clinging to their guns and religions” would get out of his way! Neither is likely to happen.
It’s hard to keep a straight face when a “constitutional scholar” tells the Catholic church, Christian evangelicals, and similar believers in the sanctity of life that they must check their religious convictions at an institutional door. Not only must they forsake matters of conscience, they must actively participate in providing services contrary to cherished and fundamental beliefs. In the Sixties, people worried that the Pope would tell the President what to do: now we have to worry that the President will tell the Pope what to do! Predictably, presidential surrogates failed to explain what will happen to all the religious institutions that are self insured. The devil is always in the details. Another interesting detail in the current brouhaha is the connection between the pill and successful birth control. In 1960 (according to the National Center for Health Statistics), when the pill became readily available, the birthrate to unwed mothers was 5.3%. In 2009, the last year that figures are available, the rate was 41%. Hmmmm. Does anyone even care?
When mainstream media was finally forced to acknowledge and cover the backlash, the administration moved quickly into damage control mode. The subsequent pontification handed down from Washington high was that private insurance companies servicing religious institutions will have to provide contraception services (including the “morning after” pill) free of charge and “without hassles.” Why is paying someone else to violate their religious beliefs any sort of acceptable compromise? It’s another unconstitutional sleight of hand. Again they devilishly avoided self insured institutions.
As they are wont to do, the liberal lemmings of the left immediately tried to change the focus of the argument. When you can’t defend, then distract, diffuse, and dissemble. The shrieking harpies began to wail about the “war on women’s health.” These are the same intellectual giants who said conservatives want to put arsenic and mercury in the water, love dirty air, and want to throw old people off cliffs and pull the plug on grandma. Now they hate women too?! Of course these same ardent administration apologists strive valiantly (and futilely) to conjure up similarities between the Occupy protest and the Tea Party. Obviously they have forgotten that in their previous hysterical hyperbole, they labeled the latter as racist Nazis, corporate shills and astroturfers. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee continues to hyperventilate about “their” uncivil political discourse being the cause of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. Some people just don’t understand the connection between class warfare, irresponsible speech, intrusive government and inciting to riot. Or do they?
While it may be a step down from telling God’s servants which of His principles they can adhere to, dictating to private companies that they must provide “free” products is the same unconstitutional dynamic. It’s government arrogance, pure and tyrannically simple. Where in the Constitution is any president authorized to mandate that private companies must provide any service or product “free of charge”? Then again, where in the Constitution or the Oath of Office does it say that a president can choose which laws to enforce or that he can ignore the laws that he doesn’t like? Or does he care?
Monday, February 6, 2012
Selective Secular Outrage
By William L. Garvin
Everything is coming up roses…if you view it through rose colored glasses. In the midst of glowing reports on how much our economy is improving, a few strident thorns are sticking out. All the unemployed aren’t counted as unemployed. Increases in food and gas aren’t counted as inflation. Property values continue to decline and foreclosures continue unabated. The populist thought is this is all due to sneaky, unscrupulous bankers tricking poor, unsuspecting homeowners into disastrous mortgage traps. There was never any problem with greedy, gambling investors buying property they couldn’t afford in the hope of making a quick buck. There was never a problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pressuring banks to make loans to unqualified buyers. There was never a problem with Fannie and Freddie granting excessive bonuses to executives on the basis of quantity of loans rather than quality of loans. Nope, it’s all predatory lenders.
Then you notice that there are 1,500 homes with mortgages of more than $1 million scheduled for auction in the Bay Area alone! Anne Walker, a Coldwell Banker realtor is quoted: “Most of these higher-end people are like 45 years plus, and they’ve gone through all their assets. It’s a really devastating situation for them. They thought they had planned. They had their kids’ college fund, they had their 401(k)s, the stock, the mutual funds, and they’ve been hanging on for the last three years. They’ve gone through everything, and they have nothing left, not even the house.” But of course, there’s no sympathy for the devil, the evil once-upon-a-time-rich.
Selective outrage has always been the norm with liberals. It was obvious when Occupy Wall Street marched right past the New York penthouses of hedge fund millionaires who support Democrats to protest the Koch brothers who support conservative causes. And why is there no Occupy Google or Occupy Facebook? After all, with net worths estimated over $100 billion each, they are in the upper one tenth of the one percent. Why don’t they protest the tax breaks and subsidies provided to Tesla and Fisker? After all, the base price of the Finland-produced Fisker is $102,000 and the 2011 Tesla Roadster starts at $109,000! Only one percenters can afford those. For the little people, you can spend forty to fifty thousand dollars for a Chevy Volt, complete with the spontaneously combusting battery. Volt sales have been incredibly underwhelming and are increasingly sluggish this year. They have not come close to justifying the taxpayer dollars poured into this Government Motors venture but at least they exceeded Solyndra sales.
Where is the leftist secular outrage about President Obama using sections of the Bible and quotes from Jesus Christ to justify raising taxes on the rich? It’s understandable that they would not recognize the lack of accuracy in using the teachings of Jesus out of context but surely they couldn’t miss the drum beat of “separation of church and state.” President Obama tried to justify his government tax policies by quoting Jesus from Luke 12:48: that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.” He either didn’t know or chose to ignore that Jesus was speaking about God judging an individual’s faithfulness and stewardship, not government taxation. Again the media ignored the President’s fallacious thinking as they previously did with his erroneous Sermon on the Mount justification of homosexual marriage or his Deuteronomy quote justifying immigration reform. Any serious student of the Bible avoids egregious error in picking and choosing verses out of context to “prove” a point.
Some critics of President Obama’s biblical justification for government’s increased seizure of people’s property think he is putting himself above God in determining how much shall be required/demanded/extorted. Certainly his administration is putting itself above religious conscience and doctrine when it mandates all health care facilities provide birth control free of charge. This pointedly undermines Catholic and other religious hospitals that view all life as sacred. Apparently he did not read those verses in the Bible. He is also putting himself above the Constitution by dictating which of your religious freedoms you may practice.
So put on your rose colored glasses. Trust the government; they’re here to help.
Everything is coming up roses…if you view it through rose colored glasses. In the midst of glowing reports on how much our economy is improving, a few strident thorns are sticking out. All the unemployed aren’t counted as unemployed. Increases in food and gas aren’t counted as inflation. Property values continue to decline and foreclosures continue unabated. The populist thought is this is all due to sneaky, unscrupulous bankers tricking poor, unsuspecting homeowners into disastrous mortgage traps. There was never any problem with greedy, gambling investors buying property they couldn’t afford in the hope of making a quick buck. There was never a problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pressuring banks to make loans to unqualified buyers. There was never a problem with Fannie and Freddie granting excessive bonuses to executives on the basis of quantity of loans rather than quality of loans. Nope, it’s all predatory lenders.
Then you notice that there are 1,500 homes with mortgages of more than $1 million scheduled for auction in the Bay Area alone! Anne Walker, a Coldwell Banker realtor is quoted: “Most of these higher-end people are like 45 years plus, and they’ve gone through all their assets. It’s a really devastating situation for them. They thought they had planned. They had their kids’ college fund, they had their 401(k)s, the stock, the mutual funds, and they’ve been hanging on for the last three years. They’ve gone through everything, and they have nothing left, not even the house.” But of course, there’s no sympathy for the devil, the evil once-upon-a-time-rich.
Selective outrage has always been the norm with liberals. It was obvious when Occupy Wall Street marched right past the New York penthouses of hedge fund millionaires who support Democrats to protest the Koch brothers who support conservative causes. And why is there no Occupy Google or Occupy Facebook? After all, with net worths estimated over $100 billion each, they are in the upper one tenth of the one percent. Why don’t they protest the tax breaks and subsidies provided to Tesla and Fisker? After all, the base price of the Finland-produced Fisker is $102,000 and the 2011 Tesla Roadster starts at $109,000! Only one percenters can afford those. For the little people, you can spend forty to fifty thousand dollars for a Chevy Volt, complete with the spontaneously combusting battery. Volt sales have been incredibly underwhelming and are increasingly sluggish this year. They have not come close to justifying the taxpayer dollars poured into this Government Motors venture but at least they exceeded Solyndra sales.
Where is the leftist secular outrage about President Obama using sections of the Bible and quotes from Jesus Christ to justify raising taxes on the rich? It’s understandable that they would not recognize the lack of accuracy in using the teachings of Jesus out of context but surely they couldn’t miss the drum beat of “separation of church and state.” President Obama tried to justify his government tax policies by quoting Jesus from Luke 12:48: that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.” He either didn’t know or chose to ignore that Jesus was speaking about God judging an individual’s faithfulness and stewardship, not government taxation. Again the media ignored the President’s fallacious thinking as they previously did with his erroneous Sermon on the Mount justification of homosexual marriage or his Deuteronomy quote justifying immigration reform. Any serious student of the Bible avoids egregious error in picking and choosing verses out of context to “prove” a point.
Some critics of President Obama’s biblical justification for government’s increased seizure of people’s property think he is putting himself above God in determining how much shall be required/demanded/extorted. Certainly his administration is putting itself above religious conscience and doctrine when it mandates all health care facilities provide birth control free of charge. This pointedly undermines Catholic and other religious hospitals that view all life as sacred. Apparently he did not read those verses in the Bible. He is also putting himself above the Constitution by dictating which of your religious freedoms you may practice.
So put on your rose colored glasses. Trust the government; they’re here to help.
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