Liberty 2010, Liberation 2012

Remember in November.

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The Socialist

This is a new one from Ben Howe (h/t Primordial Slack).

It's only twenty-seven days until election day. Remember in November.

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Are You Unemployed?

The video above pokes fun at some of the loopholes in the calculation of the official unemployment rate, which excludes some unemployed and counts some under-employed.

The average official unemployment rate for the first 18 months of the Obama Administration is 9.5% (U-3 Seasonally Adjusted - February 2009 through July 2010).

The average official unemployment rate for all 96 months of the Bush 43 Administration was 5.3% (U-3 Seasonally Adjusted - February 2001 through January 2009).

Note that the U-3 rate (the official unemployment rate) is a measurement, as a percent of the civilian labor force, of the total unemployed excluding discouraged workers, all persons marginally attached to the labor force, and total employed part time for economic reasons. The most complete unemployment rate is actually the U-6 rate, not the official unemployment rate.

The average U-6 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the first 18 months of the Obama Administration is 16.6% (February 2009 through July 2010).

The average U-6 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for all 96 months of the Bush 43 Administration was 9.3% (February 2001 through January 2009).

Interesting, isn't it, that the U-6 average for the Bush 43 Administration still ended up being 0.2% lower than the U-3 average for the Obama Administration?

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Secure Our Borders!

The federal government has put up signs in the Arizona desert to warn people of danger, and instructing them to stay away, because it is an active drug and human smuggling area. Imagine if we did that in high-crime areas in U.S. cities. "You will enter the Phillips Neighborhood in two miles. Be aware that it is an active drug and violence area, and that you are strongly advised to stay away." That sort of thing would cause an uproar.

There would be complaints of racism, either because the signs were outside minority neighborhoods, or because the police were only placing signs instead of dealing with the crime in those neighborhoods. That would be a public relations disaster. It would be tantamount to the local government ceding portions of its city to the criminal element within it. Further, it would likely embolden that criminal element to spread its area of influence and control.

Now, while I would hope to see the same outrage from the federal government ceding hundreds of miles (if not more) of territory along the Mexican border, I don't realistically expect that to happen. The media has vilified Arizona, and even though polls show that the American people support Arizona's right to control who comes-and-goes in their state, many will not hear about this through the MSM.

Setting up signs warning Americans not to enter certain areas of their own country's territory surely appears to be equivalent to Obama ceding sovereign U.S. territory to the Mexican drug cartels and other criminal elements. He and his administration need to be called on this. The federal government needs to step-up and enforce our borders, or the federal government needs to step aside and allow the states to do what his administration appears to be too impotent to do.

Support Arizona!

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In Charge Yet?

We are now 508 days into Obama's presidency, or about 35% of the way through this presidential term. At what point does everything stop being George W. Bush's fault?

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Falling Obama

The "Falling Obama" game, where the president who returned civility to politics mimics his own approval ratings.



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Ushering In Civility

Remember how President Obama was going to return civility to politics? Remember what a refreshing change he was going to be after eight years of Bush's "cowboy mentality"?

President Obama was embracing civil discourse a year ago at Notre Dame.

Obama, delivering the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, stressed the need for intelligent, open discourse instead of angry, destructive bickering.

"When we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do," he said, "that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground."

President Obama, May of 2009

Now, however, he is looking to pay a visit to the Gulf to chew bubble-gum and kick some ass; and he's all out of bubble-gum.

"I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

President Obama, June of 2010

It looks like President Obama has come full circle on that civility thing. Maybe that's what he meant by "change you can believe in."

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Feds Might Not Process Illegal Aliens From Arizona

The Obama Administration has decided to stick another finger in Arizona's eye.

A top Department of Homeland Security official reportedly said his agency will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona authorities.

John Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, made the comment during a meeting on Wednesday with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper reports. [...]

In response to Morton's comments, DHS officials said President Obama has ordered the Department of Justice to examine the civil rights and other implications of the law. [...]

Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said ICE is not obligated to process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona authorities.

"ICE has the legal discretion to accept or not to accept persons delivered to it by non-federal personnel," Napolitano said. "It also has the discretion to deport or not to deport persons delivered to it by any government agents, even its own."

Got that? The Obama Administration, members of which couldn't even be bothered to read the short Arizona legislation before attacking it, may now play the "we don't like your law, so we won't process the criminals that you send to us" card.

Well, if the administration follows through on that, then I'd like to make a suggestion for a new piece of legislation that should be passed by the State of Arizona: Anyone convicted of a crime that was committed in Arizona while the offender was in the state and the nation illegally will be sentenced to 5 years in prison if the crime that was committed was a gross misdemeanor, and 15 years to life if the crime that was committed was a felony. Arizona doesn't need to turn them over to the feds; they can just hold them in work farms where the fruits of the inmates' labor can be used to offset the cost of the facility and the cost of enforcing the law that the feds won't.

Support Arizona!

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False Compassion

Something to think about.

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April Fools' Day

Here's a fun April Fools' Day prank: Tell all of your Progressive friends and acquaintances that it seems oddly appropriate that today is Obama's birthday. You and I know that it's not really B.O.'s b-day (that would actually be 04 August 1961), but it will be fun to see how many of them get defensive about it.

And if any of them say that it is not the anniversary of Dear Leader's birth, feel free to use the image below. It has been altered by some social malcontent to show Obama's birthday as 01 April 1961. Tell them that you carry it with you to show to any Birthers that you come in contact with.

Living in Minnesota, I should have multiple opportunities. I can't wait to mention it while in line for coffee this morning.

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New Obamacare Departments: Offices of Health Insurance Consumer Assistance or Health Insurance Ombudsman Programs

I'm sick of hearing from the Progressives that the talk of Obamacare expanding government is just a scare tactic. Well, I found a list of newly created offices or progams in the Obamacare bill here, so I am going to go through the list, verify the language in the text of the new legislation, and then present the summary of any new departments and a link to the actual text at the official House website.

Offices of Health Insurance Consumer Assistance or Health Insurance Ombudsman Programs (Section 1002)
Note: The above link opens a PDF of the full text of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" to the page on which Section 1002 begins

Summary
Grants will be provided to the states, or to health insurance exchanges operating in the states, in order to establish, expand, or provide support for Offices of Health Insurance Consumer Assistance or Health Insurance Ombudsman Programs. In order to be eligible for such a grant, the state must designate an office or ombudsman. Funding of $30,000,000 for the first fiscal year, and sums as may be necessary for each fiscal year following the first fiscal year.

Here's the tally:
Sections Reviewed: 1
New Funding: $30 million +

(h/t to Vir Speluncae Catholicus for the list)

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What Change Looks Like

And he didn't even have the common courtesy to give us a reach-around.

(From Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler via Hookers and Booze via Logistics Monster via Daletoons/Out of Order the Blog)

Just Because It Made Me Chuckle

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More Lies, Less Freedom

If this so-called "health care reform" passes, we will all lose.

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P.J. Crowley Didn't Get The Memo

On election night of 2008, President-Elect Barack Obama, in his acceptance speech, asked his colleagues and supporters to avoid continuing partisanship and politics as usual.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

This past Friday, the State Department's P.J. Crowley decided to ignore President-Elect Barack Obama's election night request while commenting on President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

"From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum ... when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday.

It is very nice of Crowley to enlighten us on the current State Department's standpoint. From my standpoint, however, I think that it is better to be criticized for actually doing something, rather than being praised for something that one hasn't yet endeavored to execute.

That highlights a major difference between the current administration and much of the American public: The administration would rather be praised for a concept that hasn't been tried, instead of being criticized for an action taken; whereas many Americans would rather endure criticism for what they have chosen to do, rather than being praised for thinking about the things that they have never actually attempted.

It's another case of style over substance with this administration, and another case of saying one thing ("Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long."), and then doing another ("From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum ... when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes.")

Obama and his followers continue to keep it classy.

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How Many Will Need To Pay Back Obama's Tax Cut?

We've all heard our vaunted president and members of his administration claim that 95% of all taxpayers (or 95% of all Americans, depending on the speech) will be getting a tax-cut. They point to Obama's tax credit that started this April, in which workers receive a 6.2% boost in their paycheck; up to $400 worth for individuals making $95,000 or less, and up to $800 dollars worth for married couples filing jointly making $190,000 or less.

It's a nice credit if you qualify, and even more-so if you can keep it. You see, the problem is that this credit is being applied to each job that an individual has, so people with more than one job, or married couples where both husband and wife work, could receive more than the maximum allowed credit. If you receive more than the maximum, you'll need to pay that back in next year's income tax return.

Here are some examples from an AP article about this problem:

• A single worker with two jobs making $20,000 a year at each job will get a $400 boost in take-home pay at each of them, for a total of $800. That worker, however, is eligible for a maximum credit of $400, so the remaining $400 will have to be paid back at tax time -- either through a smaller refund or a payment to the IRS.



• A married couple with a combined income of $50,000 is eligible for an $800 credit. However, if both spouses work and make more than $13,000, the new withholding tables give them each a $600 boost -- for a total of $1,200.
  
  There were 33 million married couples in 2008 in which both spouses worked. That's 55 percent of all married couples, according to the Census Bureau.



• A single college student with a part-time job making $10,000 would get a $400 boost in pay. However, if that student is claimed as a dependent on a parent's tax return, she doesn't qualify for the credit and would have to repay it when she files next year.



• The Social Security Administration is sending out $250 payments to more than 50 million retirees in May as part of the economic stimulus package. The payments will go to people who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, railroad retirement benefits or veteran's disability benefits.
  
  The payments are meant to provide a boost for people who don't qualify for the tax credit. However, they will go to retirees even if they have earned income and receive the credit. Those retirees will have the $250 payment deducted from their tax credit -- but not until they file their tax returns next year, long after the money may have been spent.



• Retirees who have federal income taxes withheld from pension benefits also are getting an income boost as a result of the new withholding tables. However, pension benefits are not earned income, so they don't qualify for the tax credit. That money will have to paid back next year when tax returns are filed.

My wife and I have a situation similar to married couple example above. Since I set-up our withholding to have as little as possible withheld (low or no refund, but we keep our money and can at least earn a little something on it), I will need to start planning on either increasing our withholding to offset this problem, or I will need to make sure that I have the extra $400 or so to pay back to the government.

How much of that heralded 95% will get hurt next year by Obama's "generosity" this year?

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Poet Joan

If you haven't checked out Primordial Slack yet, you really should. Joan's got a great way with words, and she's pretty darned witty as well. Here's a little something of her's from the weekend.

Lullabye of the Last Man Working

Hush little baby, don't say a word,
Obama's gonna give you my mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Obama's gonna give you my diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring turns to brass,
Obama's gonna tax us right up the ass.

And if our over-taxed ass goes broke,
Obama will rule over all us volk.

And if we volk even once complain,
Obama will declare us all insane.

And in the re-education camps
Obama's gonna give us all tattooed stamps.

And if we lose all our private wealth,
Obama's gonna say it's for all our health.

And if that health and wealth should fall,
You'll be the generation that supports us all.

-Joan of Argghh!

Gotta love her.

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Obama Parroting McCain From Six Months Ago

In mid-September of 2008, the Obama campaign and the Democrats jumped all over John McCain for saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" during a Florida campaign speech. McCain was attacked for not understanding the economy and for being out-of-touch with regular Americans.

Well, fast-forward six months and listen to what President Obama and his administration are now saying.

On Thursday, the president said the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and said his plans will speed recovery.

Obama confronted misgivings, even in his own party, about his proposals during an address to top executives of the Business Roundtable.

The president said Americans shouldn't be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news, and that he's "highly optimistic" about the long term.

Source

---

But on Sunday, that optimistic message came from economic adviser Christina Romer. When asked during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the fundamentals of the economy were sound, she replied: "Of course they are sound."

"The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology," she said. "We know that -- that temporarily we're in a mess, right? We've seen huge job loss, we've seen very large falls in GDP. So certainly in the short run we're in a -- in a bad situation."

Source

Considering that Senator McCain was commenting on a market in which the Dow Jones Industrials hadn't closed below 10,000 points in nearly four years (26 October 2004), this seems a bit duplicitous. Since the inauguration, and very likely in reaction to President Obama's proposed economic solutions, we have seen the DJIA fall to 12-year lows, and at the end of his eighth week as president, the DJIA has lost over 1,050 points. McCain made his comments in regards to a market that was continuing to plug along, as opposed to the Obama administration's comments in regards to a market in which the DJIA has dropped 2,400 points since his election.

With that in mind, President Obama, were you lying to us then, or are you lying to us now?

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Taxes For Thee, But Not For Me

Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, and now Ron Kirk.

Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

What the hell is it with President "Everyone Must Sacrifice" Obama that he is continuously selecting people with these tax issues? Is the concept of finally paying taxes what the current administration considers "sacrifice" for their nominees?

Last year I had to pay a fine to the state because we didn't have enough withheld. I was off on withholding by four dollars, and I had to pay a damned fine. I wasn't late in paying the government. I didn't fail to pay the government. I was penalized because I didn't give the government enough of my money in advance.

Yet, while I was fined for a $4 shortage on my withholding, a privileged elitist like Ron Kirk, who is sitting before the Senate for his confirmation hearing, has the luxury to now agree to make payments on his $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade. It must be nice to be one of the more equal animals.

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Cartoon Kerfluffle

The cartoon above was in the N.Y. Post yesterday (18 February 2009). Some are saying that it compares President Obama to a deranged chimp, and that making such a comparison is racist.

"How could the Post let this cartoon pass as satire?" said Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. "To compare the nation's first African-American commander in chief to a dead chimpanzee is nothing short of racist drivel."

The Rev. Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."

First of all, President Obama did not write the stimulus package legislation. While the executive can make suggestions as to what legislation should be created by the legislature, the legislature is the organization that must write any legislation. The executive then chooses whether or not to sign legislation into law, and executes or enforces the enacted legislation. The legislature creates legislation, while the executive executes the laws; notice the etymology?

When the artist has the cartoon cop say that "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," he must be referring to the legislature, since it is the responsibility of the legislature to write bills. It is entirely conceivable that many people will view the dead chimp in the cartoon as representative of the U.S. government as a whole, and possibly President Obama because our president is the figure-head for our federal government. The words used in the cartoon, however, clearly indicate that it is comparing those who wrote the stimulus bill to an out-of-control chimpanzee who needed to be put down. Al Sharpton and Barbara Ciara can try to spin this differently, but the words in the cartoon clearly point to the writers of the stimulus bill. Those who wrote the stimulus bill were the members of the legislature, not the president, and as President Obama told us one year ago, words matter.

Second, let's consider why the chimp was used. One reason is because a chimp or a monkey is commonly used as a metaphor for people or institutions that are clumsy, unrefined, or smelly; that create items of poor quality; or that achieve something regardless of their ineptness. Another reason for using the chimp is because a recent news item was about a pet chimpanzee who was shot by police after it attacked and seriously injured a woman. The cartoon took a current event, and spun the ineptitude of Congress' stimulus bill around it.

Third, even if the cartoon was comparing Obama to a chimp, that is in keeping with the precedence that was set over the last eight years. President Bush was repeatedly referred to as chimp throughout his presidency. Some compared Bush to a chimpanzee because of the colloquial metaphor, and others did so because they felt that the former president's physical visage resembled a chimp.

Look at the following montage.

Those images are all intended to display a physical similarity between President Bush and a chimpanzee. Is that montage racist? I believe that most would say that it is not. Is that protected speech? Again, I believe that most would say yes.

The problem here is that the real purpose of those who are crying foul is not to decry racism. Rather, those who are claiming offense seem to be attacking the messenger instead of the message. The message is about a horrible stimulus package that could be dangerous to the financial safety of many Americans. Instead of defending the merits of the stimulus package, these detractors make a claim of racism in an attempt to squelch debate and change the subject.

Well, I'm not having any part of it. Many Americans would agree that Congress could easily be compared to out-of-control chimps at times, and the country is becoming more-and-more skeptical of the stimulus bill that Congress wrote. That cartoon is protected political speech, and it makes a provocative comparison by using two recent national news stories. It is not racist, and it is not out-of-line.

Sharpton, Ciara, and the others like them seem to find racism in everything they see. And in this situation, it seems that they are using a false claim of racism to stifle any criticism or debate. Much like a candidate said back in September of 2008, "They'd much rather have the story ... about phony and foolish diversions than about the future."

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