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Saturday, December 05, 2009

Barack Has Fixed The Economy!

According to the AP, the jobless rate has dropped from its high 10.2 percent in October to an astoundingly low 10 percent in November!!!  Everybody break out the champagne!  The crisis is over!

The first line of the article states "Two years of steep job cuts all but ended last month, unexpectedly pulling down the unemployment rate and raising hopes for a lasting economic recovery."

It then goes on to say that the unemployment rate "unexpectedly" dropped by 0.2 percent, and the "real" jobless rate dropped 0.3 percent, moving from 17.5 percent to 17.2 percent  It also referred to the numbers as "better than expected."

Frankly, any good news on the jobs front is "better than expected," but to assume that this is a portend of the end of the current economic crisis laughable.  The government has done little more than spread some money around - so what will happen when the money dries up?  Nothing has been done that will lasting effects on the economy, but the media is so desperate for good economic news that an insignificant shift in the unemployment rate is reported as great news.

Rubbish.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Time To Save The Liberal Media

According to Henry Waxman (D-CA), it's time for the government to step in to bail out the failing newspaper industry.  This has been in the works for a while - after all, the government bailed out the banks, and the auto industry, giving handouts to their union allies all the while, so it was only a matter of time before they decided that the newspaper industry is "too big to fail." 

According to Waxman, the "depression in the media sector is not cyclical, it is structural."  Wouldn't that imply that a government bailout wouldn't help anything over the long term?  Of course, they aren't just talking about throwing money at failing newspapers, they're talking about offering tax breaks and even possibly allowing newspapers to be classified as non-profit organizations, as well as loosening up media ownership regulations for newspaper publishers (on a side-note: if loosening up regulations will help the newspaper industry, isn't it possible that it will help in other areas of the economy, such as health care?).


This is absolutely, totally, and disgustingly predictable.  When conservative talk radio succeeds, all we hear from liberal politicians is the need for government-regulated "fairness" on the airwaves.  When the liberal media fails, though, it's up to the government to step up and save them.


Henry Waxman is right: newspapers are facing a structural failure.  The problem with newspapers is that they are antiquated, fast being replaced by internet news.  Waxman speaks of his worry that the failure of the newspaper industry will result in "the loss of an informed public."  The truth is that the internet provides people to much more information every day than newspapers ever could, and the internet allows opposing viewpoints to be heard much more than newspapers ever would.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Dubai Bubble

If I've ever seen a predictor of where overspending will lead, it's in Dubai.  The UAE, basking in the wealth they gained from oil sales, spent and spent and spend, even going so far as to build a tower to the heavens (the Burj Dubai) and a man-made island.

This is the danger that America faces: we cannot afford the arrogance to think that we can spend as much as we want with no consequences.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Obamacare is One Step Closer

In the interests of transparency and openness, the Senate decided to take an idea from Nancy Pelosi and hold their cloture vote for the health care power-grab as late on Saturday night as they possibly could.

According to Harry Reid, Republican opposition to cloture constitutes opposition to debate.  This notion is, to put it simply, idiotic.  America has already debated government health care.  We debated it throughout the summer, when Senators and Congressmen went to their districts and held town halls.  We debated it when people from across America journeyed to Washington to voice their opposition.  We debated it in poll after poll, showing that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't want the government to run our health care.

This vote for cloture isn't about debate.  It's about power.  It's about manipulation.  It's about the elitist politicians in Washington taking away the freedoms that our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought and died to protect.

This isn't about what the people want, it's about what the politicians want for the people...and no matter what they say, all they want for us is to have power over us and to control us in the interests of maintaining their power and ability to control.

The bottom line is this: a vote against cloture was a vote for the people of America.  It is essential to the continuation of our freedoms that this health care bill be opposed at every turn.  Once Obamacare is instituted, it will be permanent.  As nice as the thought is that conservatives could take back control of the government in 2010 and/or 2012, even conservative majorities in the House and Senate, combined with conservative control of the White House cannot guarantee the repeal of any government program.  Politicians are, by nature, stubborn, and once they gain power over some aspect of our lives, forcing them to give the power up is next to impossible.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Is Universal Health Care Worth Destroying America?

The Democrats, in typical crooked politician fashion, are now pushing the health care travesty through the Senate just as fast as they can. Word has it they're pushing for a cloture vote as early as Saturday, which would put the bill in the Senate for all of two weeks before it comes up for the first round of voting. In those two weeks, the bill has grown nearly 200 pages over the sorry excuse of a bill the House passed.

The idea that the purpose of this cloture vote is to open the bill up for debate is little more than a cheap lie. All a cloture vote will do is to begin the arm twisting, cajoling and bribery that are all too typical in Washington. In fact, the bribery has already begun. With deals like this going on, it's no wonder the only Republican congressman to vote for the House bill was from Louisiana...way too suspicious to be coincidence.

More flaws in the Senate bill:

The abortion provision that was introduced to the House bill that would block federal funding for abortions has been done away with, and replaced with a fee specifically for the purpose of funding abortions.

The bill will raise taxes on anyone not buying "qualifying" health plans, as well as levying other taxes and fees specifically designed to get people on the so-called "public option."

The million dollar question that has yet to be answered is this: Since when did the federal government have the authority to tell American citizens what products and/or services they have to buy? It's bad enough that the government is out there levying taxes on all of the things that the experts say will kill us - that trend has gotten so bad that they're now considering taxing soft drinks.

This used to be a free country. If the federal government would follow the Constitution, we would be still. But today, we are not a free country. We do retain some freedoms, but the number of freedoms we enjoy is shrinking daily. I have read the Constitution, and nowhere does it give the federal government the right to tell Americans what they can and can't buy. The ironic thing is that that fact matters more to millions of Americans across this great nation than it does to those who have sworn to protect and defend our Constitution. Any politician in Washington who votes for this health care bill should be tried for treason against the United States, because the only thing this legislation will bring us is poverty and destruction.

It is high time that the ordinary Americans who still possess common sense and pride in their country stand up and tell the politicians that we have had enough. Thomas Jefferson said it best when he wrote:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
These words, from the document that started the Revolution that spawned the freest nation on Planet Earth, ring just as true today as they did when they were written. Our government is full of "light and transient causes," and it is high time we "throw off such Government, and...provide new Guards for [our] future security."