Cartoons

This cartoon hit home the fact that liberals and conservatives will never be able to come together because they see the world so differently. It is very depressing to think that any amount of education will not change peoples views of how to deal with the problems of the economy.This next cartoon shows how ridiculous the subsidies on the green jobs has become. When will people see that green jobs have never been cost effective. When the idea about green jobs came about during the Carter years, there were studies done that showed they were not cost efficient. So when the government stepped in to help out it made it look like green jobs were going to be the future. But if you really start looking around, you will find abandoned wind farms and solar farms from years ago because the government money ran out. Then you fast forward to today and you hear about Solyndra and other green job companies that have gone bankrupt after using millions of tax dollars to help jump start them.

My thoughts on the extension of the Payroll Tax

My letter to Representative Jim Matheson - who is a democrat

The extension of the Payroll tax cut is more of a problem then a help. The payroll tax money goes into the Social Security fund. Right?! So we have been putting less money into the Social Security fund all these months with this payroll tax cut and now we want to extend it and also cut what the employer is taxed?! That sounds so dumb. The democrats are hurting the seniors. Can't you all think of something different to help create jobs? You are robbing Peter (Seniors - less money into the security fund) to pay Paul (working person who can't buy much from the payroll tax cut anyway). Let us get back to paying our payroll tax, like we used to so it can go back into the Social Security fund and instead work on getting government regulations repealed (like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank bill-if you haven't noticed yet, they have raised fees and premiums) and create a flat tax OR a consumption tax so that everyone, and I mean everyone, will contribute to this great nation. That should start creating new jobs because the employers will know what the rules of the game are (Don't we all need to live by rules?) and create jobs so that it bring more money into the economy. What is so wrong with this idea? I just don't understand why democrats won't do these things? Why do you have to create such uncertainty? And by the way, we all knew that the super committee was going to fail! So lets get to the hard stuff (reform Social Security since we are ruining it even faster with the payroll tax cut, and reform the tax system to an easier one, reform Medicare and Medicade, too much regulation again) and make the hard changes. None of this "Oh.. let's extend the payroll tax cut" That is so lame!

Arab Spring is really Anit-Christian Spring

Article for Newsmax:

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich contends that the “grotesque failure” of President Barack Obama’s Mideast policies has propelled an “anti-Christian spring.”

The number of Christians in Iraq plunged from 1.2 million to 500,000 since the American invasion in 2003, and Christianity is under siege throughout the region, Gingrich told an audience in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Saturday.

“This is why the current strategy in the Middle East is such a total grotesque failure,” the National Journal quotes Gingrich as telling a crowd of about 200. “People say, ‘Oh, isn’t this great, we’re having an Arab Spring.’ Well, I don’t know, I think we may in fact be having an anti-Christian spring. I think people should take this pretty soberly.”

Gingrich was referring to the wave of uprisings that have upset longtime autocratic regimes in the Middle East.

Ironically, the plight of Christians in the Middle East is likely to worsen as the Arab Spring removes dictators who shielded Christian communities. The parties that are gaining power in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries tend to be offshoots of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

As president, Gingrich said, “I would actively try to defend religious liberty across the planet, including in Egypt and Iraq.”

That vow comes amid increasing instances of violence targeting Christians, including the Oct. 8 killing of more than two dozen mostly Coptic Christian demonstrators in Egypt and the potential execution of a Christian pastor in Iran for refusing to renounce his faith and embrace Islam. In the Egyptian slaughter, the New-York based Human Rights Watch alleged a military cover-up and demanded an independent investigation. And the death sentence for Yosef Nadarkhani has prompted an international outcry, as Newsmax has reported.

"The only hope for justice for the victims is an independent, civilian-led investigation that the army fully cooperates with and cannot control and that leads to the prosecution of those responsible," Human Rights Watch said.

Indeed, the flight of Christians from Egypt mirrors the Iraqi exodus Gingrich mentioned, as Newsmax reported last week.

Egypt is home to about 8 million Coptic Christians, but at least 95,000 of them have fled since March, and the number could balloon to 250,000 by the end of this year, according to the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights.

"At the present rate, the Middle East's 12 million Christians will likely drop to 6 million in the year 2020. With time, Christians will effectively disappear from the region as a cultural and political force," according to Daniel Pipes, a leading scholar of the Middle East.

In Libya, transitional government leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil laid out a vision a week ago for the country now that Moammar Gadhafi has been killed. Islamic Shariah will be the "basic source" of legislation and existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified, he said.

“We are an Islamic state,” he declared to a cheering crowd in Benghazi Sunday.

Christian Syrians have clung to the government of President Bashar Assad, despite his regime’s own atrocities and his threats against the West. They fear what might happen if Assad fell, having seen what has happened in neighboring countries. Indeed many Christians who have fled sectarian strife in countries such as Iraq have ended up in Syria.

Words from Pat Buchanan

I agree with what Pat Buchanan said “The faith we had – Christianity – provided our moral code, our moral consensus and the moral community that we all share, the ideas of right and wrong, what should be done and what should not be done. When you disagree on fundamentals like that, it leads, frankly, to what we call culture wars, clashes over abortion, over gay rights, should there be prayer in the public schools? Should they celebrate Easter and Christmas. The wars continue endlessly and that is one of the things tearing the country apart.”

Winners and Losers

Chris Chocola from Club for Growth said, "I agree with Biden: Solyndra is a great example of the what the Recovery Act was all about - When government picks winners and losers, they almost always loose."

Biden: It's Time to Blame Obama, Not Bush, for Economy

I could not believe this when I read this from Newsmax:

Vice President Joe Biden acknowledges that it’s time to hold the Obama administration’s feet to the fire for the sorry state of the U.S. economy instead of continuing to blame President George W. Bush.

“Right now, understandably — totally legitimate — this is a referendum on Obama and Biden and the nature of the state of the economy,” Biden said during an interview with South Florida public radio station WLRN this afternoon.

Biden made the startling comment during an interview in which his main goal was to pitch for support of President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act.

The vice president dismissed polls in which people continue to blame the Bush administration for the economy.

“Even though 50-some percent of the American people think that the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant,” Biden said. “What’s relevant is we’re in charge. And right now we are the ones in charge and it’s gotten better, but it hasn’t gotten good enough.”

“I don’t blame them for being mad. We’re in charge,” Biden acknowledged.

my letter to President Obama on the jobs bill

Dear President Obama,

For your information, Your jobs bill does not create lasting, sustainable jobs. It only creates short term jobs, so once the job is done then the person is out of a job again and then you would have to do another jobs bill. To tell you the truth it sounds like the earlier one you had passed (Stimulas bill 2009) And that did not create jobs! You even agreed that the "shovel ready jobs were not as shovel ready as they could have been" The simple way to create jobs let the people create their own jobs. (More people creating their own jobs pay taxes which means more money for the governemt) The only way they can create their own jobs is to NOT have the government regulations that are so restrictive. Some of the bills that are written have some much in them that it becomes scary when we start hearing what is in them. Like the the Dodd-Frank Act. Businesses, who are owned by regular people(which includes tea party people) who you seem to put down at every turn, are starting to get sick to the stomach by the amount of regulation that is coming out. It is already killing jobs. Please stop what you are doing to create jobs and start doing it differently. Albert Einstein said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Solyndra goes bankrupt

In 2009, Solyndra secured a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Treasury to produce solar panels. But on August 31, 2011, the company shut its doors and announced its intent to file for bankruptcy.

President Obama visited the plant in May 2010 and touted it as a shining light for the future of green jobs and a green-energy economy.

“The promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith — not anymore,” Obama said at the time. “The future is here.”

Apparently the future was bankruptcy! (So much for Obama's promise of clean energy)

Withholder in Chief by Maureen Dowd

The following is taken from an Op-ed entitled 'Witholder in Chief' on August 9 written by Maureen Dowd, a professed liberal:

"As America reels from the latest humiliating blows on the economy and in Afghanistan. The politician who came across as a redeemer in 2008 is now in need of redemption himself…

"Faced with a country keening for reassurance and reinvention, Obama seems at a loss. Regarding his political skills, he turns out to be the odd case of a pragmatist who can’t learn from his mistakes and adapt…

"After failing to interrupt his Camp David weekend to buck up the country on one of its worst days in history[In Afghanistan], he tacked on his condolences for the soldiers’ families to his economic pep talk, in what had to be the most inept oratorical segue of his presidency…

"His withholding and reactive nature has made him seem strangely irrelevant in Washington, trapped by his own temperament. He doesn’t lead, and he doesn’t understand why we don’t feel led..."

Thought for the day

"Chicago style thug politics may fit well into Obama's world but it has no place in America." by Roger Stockton

quote of the day

I saw this on a bumper sticker.

I'll keep my guns, freedom and money...
You can keep the "Change"

quote of the day

Remember, when Ronald Reagan was president

We also had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash still with us...

Now we have Obama, but no Hope and no Cash!!!!!

Global Warming is political suicide

From an article entitled: Obama Backing Off Global Warming Agenda

President Obama has not stood up for "bold action" on global warming because he recognizes that it is political suicide to do so.

The scientific case for man-made climate fears has collapsed. The Arctic has rebounded in recent years; the Antarctic sea ice extent has been at or near record extent in past few summers; polar bears appear to be thriving; sea level is not showing acceleration and may be dropping; Mount Kilimanjaro melt fears are being made a mockery by gains in snow cover; global temperatures have been holding steady for a decade or more; scandals continue to rock the climate fear movement; and scientists continue to dissent at a rapid pace. (Visit ClimateDepot.com for the statistics on these facts.)

Shovel ready jobs

Here is what Obama said about shovel ready jobs.

My thoughts on Pres. Obama's shovel ready jobs.

Shovel ready jobs do not create sustained and lasting jobs. Once the job of building a bridge is done the job is done and gone. The worker is now out of a job. What needs to be done is create an atmosphere for businesses who can hire people whose job will continue on and on and on. The only time that job will be done is if the person leaves to find a better job or the business goes under. The way to create these jobs that go on and on is to decrease the amount of regulation on business. Another way is to stop creating uncertainty. The government has its hand in too many pies. It needs to do only the things it was meant to do, military and Keep us safe.

Comment from National Tea Party Alert .com

Tea Party 1, President Obama 0

Barack Obama held a campaign event town hall meeting Monday night in Iowa (coincidentally the site of the Iowa Straw Poll) where he came face to face with the type of criticism Mr. Hopenchange largely avoided during his 2008 coronation campaign:

US President Barack Obama went head-to-head with a prominent conservative Tea Party activist, in a microcosm of a political clash that will play out in the 2012 election.

Ryan Rhodes, a leader of the group in Iowa, took on Obama during an open-air town hall meeting, which marked a moment of new intensity in the president's campaign for a second term.

Rhodes shouted out that the president's calls for more civility in politics had little chance of coming to pass after "your vice president is calling people like me, a Tea Party member, a 'terrorist.'"

We can't help but be reminded of the countless calls fro civility from the left in this country immediately follwoing the tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabriele Giffords this January. of course, these declarative statements were in sharp contrast to this comment from President Civility himself:

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said in Philadelphia last night. “Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

Are we the only ones who remember Barack Obama's promises to be the first post-partisan president?

interesting comments

"God wants you to Render to Ceaser that which is Ceasers. Jesus never said 'Take the coat off of your back and give it to the government and him divide it up and give it to other people.' " Glenn Beck

"It used to be 'Hope and Change'. Now it is 'Hope that the Status quo changes.' " a guest on Fox News.

“People don’t work to pay taxes, people work to get what they can after taxes. It’s that very private incentive that motivates them to work. If you pay people not to work and tax them if they do work, don’t be surprised if you find a lot of people not working.” Arthur Laffer architect of “common-sense” Reaganomics.

Is Obama Smart? by Bret Stevens

Below is an editorial by Bret Stevens that I thought was very interesting.

The aircraft was large, modern and considered among the world's safest. But that night it was flying straight into a huge thunderstorm. Turbulence was extreme, and airspeed indicators may not have been functioning properly. Worse, the pilots were incompetent. As the plane threatened to stall they panicked by pointing the nose up, losing speed when they ought to have done the opposite. It was all over in minutes.

Was this the fate of Flight 447, the Air France jet that plunged mysteriously into the Atlantic a couple of years ago? Could be. What I'm talking about here is the Obama presidency.

When it comes to piloting, Barack Obama seems to think he's the political equivalent of Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager and—in a "Fly Me to the Moon" sort of way—Nat King Cole rolled into one. "I think I'm a better speech writer than my speech writers," he reportedly told an aide in 2008. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm . . . a better political director than my political director."

On another occasion—at the 2004 Democratic convention—Mr. Obama explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter that "I'm LeBron, baby. I can play at this level. I got game."

Of course, it's tempting to be immodest when your admirers are so immodest about you. How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he's criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he's too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.

I don't buy it. I just think the president isn't very bright.

Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.

Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché? As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get Triple-A bromides about America remaining a "Triple-A country." Which, when it comes to long-term sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.

President Barack Obama

Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved. He is overbearing when he ought to be absent. At the height of the financial panic of 1907, Teddy Roosevelt, who had done much to bring the panic about by inveighing against big business, at least had the good sense to stick to his bear hunt and let J.P. Morgan sort things out. Not so this president, who puts a new twist on an old put-down: Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of financial capital.

Then there's his habit of never trimming his sails, much less tacking to the prevailing wind. When Bill Clinton got hammered on health care, he reverted to centrist course and passed welfare reform. When it looked like the Iraq war was going to be lost, George Bush fired Don Rumsfeld and ordered the surge.

Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggesting—whether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God's good time—that the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn't. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.

Much of the media has spent the past decade obsessing about the malapropisms of George W. Bush, the ignorance of Sarah Palin, and perhaps soon the stupidity of Rick Perry. Nothing is so typical of middling minds than to harp on the intellectual deficiencies of the slightly less smart and considerably more successful.

But it takes actual smarts to understand that glibness and self-belief are not sufficient proof of genuine intelligence. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.

Pro choice on lightbulbs

Raising the Debt Ceiling

The following comment from the Blaze is exactly what I have been wondering about and it answers it quite nicely.

"The twelve year Republican Congress (which started in 1995 and concluded by 2007) raised the Debt Ceiling by $4 trillion. During the following four years that the Democrats had the Congress, the Ceiling was raised by a total of $5.3 trillion. Here it gets juicy: The Debt Ceiling under President Reagan was raised eighteen times to a total of $1.85 trillion (See Table 7.3). This is less than the $3 trillion-plus already raised under President Obama! Raising the Ceiling 18 times during the eight Reagan years meant a Ceiling battle every 5.3 months (on average), with an average rise of only $102 billion per increase. So… does Obama really want to get the Reagan Treatment? Well… Em, ah, er. (Even after adjusting for inflation, Reagan got way less per increase than what Obama got — $1 trillion per pop for Obama, on average! In terms of the amount of times Reagan needed to ask for an increase, well… a year still has only twelve months in it just as it did twenty-thirty years ago. Reagan was forced to stand before Congress every 5.3 months asking for money, but Obama is not happy with the Republican House offer of a seven-eight month extension) An honest debate about the Ceiling is NOT how many times it was raised by this Congress or under that President. Instead, let’s see by how much it was raised; by how much more will we raise it, and how fast will we burn through the new debt."

O'Reilly: U.S. "Bankrupting Itself With An Entitlement Philosophy"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/27/oreilly_us_bankrupting_itself_with_an_entitlement_philosophy.html

Obama thinks he is Emperor

Charles Krauthammer: "When I heard today that he was going to speak at 9:00, instantly I thought, 'we've got a deal.' Why else would the President request airtime? Then I hear he's just going to make his argument. I think the reason he's doing this is because -- three nights ago, there he was on television, summoning the leaders of the Congress to a meeting the next day, like King Henry summoning the wayward Dukes to the castle. He has that meeting. Boehner decides, we don't need the President anymore, we're going to work this out in Congress. And they were close to a deal on Sunday. I think the President is speaking tonight because he's gone from Emperor to bystander in three days, and he wants to be at least in on it to be resolved, and doesn't want it to be appear as it was resolved in spite of him and without him."

The stimulus failed - see chart

The stimulus failed, and made unemployment worse – by Barack Obama’s own standards.

This chart can be found on page four at http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074_l3m6bt1te.pdf – it was produced by the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and has been combined above with historical unemployment data.

read more at http://www.crossroadsgps.org/news/did-obama-make-economy-worse-see-graph