30K Per Household

The amount that the Obama administration (and Congress) has borrowed per household since the economic stimulus was signed into law two years ago (and no, I do not excuse the Bush administration which was no more interested in fiscal sanity than the Obama administration). Obviously this is unsustainable and will lead to serfdom for all but the ruling and financial elites. Welcome to the reign of Louis XIV.

Michelle Obama = Marie Antoinette?

Leave it to the Taiwanese to sum up Michelle Obama's "vacation." Knowledge of Chinese isn't necessary, the animation speaks for itself.

Uh Oh...

Isn't this what Mr. Chavez from Venezuela does?

Kudos for Trying: Mr. President

I'm sure that there are some people who will throw stones at Mr. Obama for pretty much anything he does. He IS the President and He IS a very busy man, so I give him points for getting daily prayers sent to him on his blackberry. Any mortal in the position that he is in, needs all the spiritual input (not to mention our prayers) that he can get.

Who Will Bailout Profligate Greece? (Hint: Check a mirror)

Now that the Europeans are smart enough not to bailout Greece, who do you think is going to do it? Did you look in the mirror? Yes, you, the U. S. taxpayer. Sure you're already weighed down handing money to Goldman Sachs so they can buy even bigger homes in the Hamptons, but that is not enough. You are going (yes, that is exactly what I'm predicting) you are going to bail out Greece via the IMF. Here is exactly how it is going to happen. The Fed and Obama (not to mention President Bush) have never seen a bailout that they didn't love, and I suspect Greece will be the same.

Sure it's ironic that we are going to print money we don't have (with some more tossed in from China, Russia, and the Arabs) to support Greece, but hey, it's worked for us, why not help everyone?!?

More on Global (Non) Warming

The Washington Times has a good editorial on the issue today. Including this excellent point: Mr. Mann admitted that he was party to this conversation and lamely explained to the New York Times that "scientists often used the word 'trick' to refer to a good way to solve a problem 'and not something secret.' " Yeah, right, Mr. Mann. I believe that explanation.

Fortunately for us, President Obama has no interest at all in the revelations about scientific fudging, collusion, and criminal disregard for the Freedom of Information Act. An agreement on climate change is close! Whew, I was worried that we might be more concerned about economic growth than we are about implementing idiotic policies based on fraudulent data. Thanks for saving us, Mr. President!

Meanwhile, Ed Begley goes postal on Fox News.

Missed It By 6 Million

The Obama Administration predicted the stimulus bill would add 3.5 million jobs across the US. Actual result? We lost 2.5 million. Rats! Missed it by 6 million jobs. Not bad for the government.

Big Bird takes on the Obamas (Comedy Alert)

Jimmy Carter II?

The White House is dithering while Afghanistan burns. Will General McChrystal resign if he doesn't get the troops that he needs for the country? I hope so. We shall see.

California, Obama, and Never Ending Deficits

An excellent read from Bloomberg. I find this paragraph both sad and funny.

The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

"The intergalactic champion of fiscal irresponsibility," it has quite a ring to it, doesn't it?

A Perfect Example of Orwellian DoubleSpeak

A remarkable little news item from Bloomberg wherein the President swears he will keep his campain pledge not to raise taxes "on working families." I'll post what he said then interpret the doublespeak for you.

“If we are growing at a robust rate, then we can pay for the government that we need without having to raise taxes.” Interpretation: This depends on the exact meaning of the word "robust" which I myself will define since I'm the President and can do whatever I want.

“I’m confident that we don’t have to raise taxes on ordinary working families,” he said. Interpretation: If we DO have to raise taxes (which we will), I will simply say that Congress is begging me to do it, and despite my personal preference, I will yield to the will of the people.

He also repeated his promise to cut the budget deficit, forecast to hit $1.8 trillion this year, in half by the end of his first term. Interpretation: Who cares whether this actually happens, four years is a long time and no one will remember any of my promises.

Bush (43) Speaks Out

With all due respect to the former President, and while having no love for the current one, it's pretty clear that what Mr. Bush wanted to do while he was President, he simply declared "within the law." He has certainly paved the way for Mr. Obama to do the same thing.

And can anyone make sense of this quote:

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

Let's see, two negatives make a positive, so Mr. Bush does believe that persuasion is going to work? Did an English major vet this speech, or was he misquoted?

Prediction: California is the Next Bailout

Sure the Obama administration claims that it isn't going to bailout California. I beg to differ. The cuts required to balance California's budget are draconian enough to set off unrest among the populace. California's economy is the 8th biggest in the world. If it goes off the edge of the precipice, where do you think the U.S. economy is going to be? If you're the president do you think you're going to allow this to happen on your watch? Nope. You're going to bail them out.

More on Obama's Firing of an Inspector General

Some further information on the Obama administration's approach to shielding their friends. You get accused of wrongdoing by an inspector general and are forced to pay up, no problem, we will fire the inspector general.

What To Do When Your Buddy Gets Busted?

If you're the president, you fire the cop.

The Beginning of the End (of the Rule of Law)

While putting junior creditors ahead of senior creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy might seem like a good idea to the Obama administration from a political standpoint, the fact that this overrides the rule of law will bear nasty consequences in the years to come, hurting most of all the people whom Obama claims to care most about.

Mr. Obama may have helped save the jobs of thousands of union workers whose dues, in part, engineered his election. But what about the untold number of job losses in the future caused by trampling the sanctity of contracts today?

No Mr. President!

John Piper puts it so eloquently, I will leave it at that.

On The Way to Third World Status

This is a crucial article. The Obama Administration is raising the need for investors to consider political risk when making an investment. Without going into detail this means that the U.S. is becoming less and less competitive and this will have profound effects on our day to day lives.

They view President Obama's restructuring plan for bankrupt automaker Chrysler as an attempt to subvert the legal rights of lenders and say lenders will also be unfairly targeted if the U.S. Congress passes a bill to rewrite bankruptcy law to reduce home mortgage payments.

Investors concerned that politics could hurt them may demand a risk premium before they buy stocks or bonds or do a business deal. That could make the U.S. less competitive and money might flow elsewhere.

"There is a much larger political risk premium on investing in the United States than there has been in years," said Sean West, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a research and consulting firm that studies political risks.

"What we're seeing now in the United States is much more like what we see in emerging markets, where the government either by choice or as a result of circumstance is in a position to decide which companies or banks survive and which ones don't," he said. "These were almost unthinkable risks a year ago."

US: So What if We Break Our Promise

So the President says that we will not prosecute the CIA torturers (nor, it appears the people who ordered them to torture), thus breaking the promise we made in the UN Convention against Torture to do so. The discussion of this issue by the President and in the press has been apalling. So what if they were "ordered" to torture and therefore shouldn't be punished. Did we accept this excuse from the Nazis at Nuremburg? No. As Mr. Nowak says in the article:

"The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he was quoted as saying by AP news agency.

The (Coming) Demise of Pakistan

Pakistan looks like a disaster in the making, according to some analysts on the level of Iran when the Shah was deposed. I'm sure Jimmy Carter II...oops, I mean, President Obama, once he releases his tight grip on his best pal, Hugo Chavez, will fix this.