Bankers Say Supporting Obama Is "Bad For Business" And Embarrassing
IT IS WELL DOCUMENTED THAT WALL STREET WAS DEEPLY OFFENDED BY OBAMA'S "FAT CAT" COMMENTS AFTER HE WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT, so much so, that longtime Democratic supporters have shifted their support to the GOP for the next election.
In fact, some Wall Streeters even alleged that at an even more basic level, Obama just doesn't like rich people.
But apparently the disdain for Bam on the Street may be mostly appearances.
According to Andrew Ross Sorkin at Dealbook,
While MANY OF THE BIGGEST NAME FINANCIERS FEEL THAT THEY CAN’T PUBLICLY SUPPORT MR. OBAMA through campaign contributions the way they did in 2008 — “it would be bad for business,” one brand-name chief executive of a major bank acknowledged — SOME STILL PLAN TO VOTE FOR HIM….
http://www.businessinsider.com/bankers-actually-do-support-obama-theyre-just-too-embarassed-to-do-it-publicly-2011-6#ixzz1QevR9Zp2
Stupidity knows no bounds. There should be a new book written, “What’s the Matter with Wall Street?”
Poll Numbers Continue Alarming Trend for Obama
As Alana wrote earlier today, according to the latest McClatchy-Marist poll:
• ONLY 37 PERCENT OF REGISTERED VOTERS APPROVE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S HANDLING OF THE ECONOMY, HIS LOWEST RATING EVER.
• By nearly 2-1 (61 percent v. 32 percent) voters disapprove of how he’s handling the federal budget deficit.
• Fifty-eight percent of voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy, comprising 60 percent of independents, 31 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of Republicans.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/06/28/poll-numbers-continue-alarming-trend-for-obama/
This is actually worse for Obama than it seems. Pollsters always add, but people still approve of him personally. We won’t vote for him to be a friend, but someone responsible for the economy as President. This points to a big loss next year.
Morning Examiner: Obama’s debt deal desperation
The Gang of Biden is dead. President Obama has met with one Republican leader once on the debt limit. And that meeting produced nothing. Meanwhile there are only 24 working days until financial Armageddon supposedly begins on August 2nd. THE WHITE HOUSE IS GETTING DESPERATE.
THEY APPEAR TO HAVE REALIZED THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE 100 PERCENT SERIOUS WHEN THEY SAY THEY WILL NOT PASS ANY DEBT-LIMIT HIKE THAT INCLUDES ANY TAX HIKES. But Obama's base would be demoralized if he failed to win tax hikes. So the White House needs a game changer. Two possibilities have emerged.
From the White House, National Journal’s MARC AMBINDER REPORTS THAT OBAMA BELIEVES HE CAN GET THE REPUBLICANS TO CAVE ON TAXES IF HE FIRST LETS THE BOND MARKETS PANIC IN LATE-JULY. Obama then hopes that Wall Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will force Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to compromise, like he did on the FY 2011 budget deal earlier this year.
Outside the White House, more and more prominent Democrats are questioning whether the debt limit is even constitutional. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., became the latest Democrat to raise the argument yesterday. IF THERE IS NO DEBT DEAL, AND BOND MARKETS DO PANIC, WHAT IS STOPPING OBAMA FROM JUST ORDERING TREASURY SECRETARY TIM GEITHNER TO ISSUE MORE DEBT? IF OBAMA CAN JUST IGNORE THE WAR POWERS ACT, WHY NOT THE DEBT LIMIT TOO?...
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/06/morning-examiner-obama-s-debt-deal-desperation#ixzz1Qfe7IWih
Obama and the Democrats are in trouble. The debt is leverage that the Republicans have over a Democrat Senate and an extremist executive. I’m looking for something that the democrats will howl at.
Team Obama nervous
IT’S BEEN A ROUGH JUNE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE. Instead of being able to run a campaign taking credit for economic improvement, President Obama will, according to the latest forecasts, be trying to win four more years amid a grim economy next year. THE PRESIDENT’S REELECTION TEAM, ONCE HOPING TO RUN ON A “MORNING IN AMERICA” THEME NOW DOESN’T HAVE THAT LUXURY. No wonder, the president’s advisers over the past month have been making moves that suggest they’re awfully concerned about his prospects:
http://nationaljournal.com/columns/against-the-grain/nerves-show-on-team-obama-20110628
This one is well worth your time to read it. It talks about the four corners of the Obama reelection strategy and the holes they are trying to fill.
Obama: Do you want the good story or the bad one?
First the good one
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYS IT WOULD DEFY COMMON SENSE FOR BOEING CO. TO HAVE TO SHUT DOWN A NEW AIRCRAFT PLANT OR LAY OFF WORKERS AS A RESULT OF A LABOR DISPUTE WITH THE GOVERNMENT.
Obama says companies need to have the freedom to relocate work, though they must follow the law when doing so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-says-us-companies-like-boeing-need-freedom-to-relocate-within-us/2011/06/29/AGwD3pqH_story.html
The left is quick to condemn companies moving jobs overseas, but here we have a case of a company wanting to keep jobs in America although in a right to work state. It would seem the NLRB should remember this before they do stupid things.
And now the bad one
Lieutenant General John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the AFGHANISTAN DECISION PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK WAS NOT AMONG THE RANGE OF OPTIONS THE MILITARY PROVIDED TO THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF. Allen’s testimony directly contradicts claims from senior Obama administration officials from a background briefing before the president’s announcement.
In response to questioning from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Allen testified that Obama’s decision on the pace and size of Afghanistan withdrawals was “a more aggressive option than that which was presented.”
Graham pressed him. “My question is: Was that a option?”
Allen: “It was not.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/general-reveals-obama-ignored-militarys-advice-afghanistan_575902.html
The question here is not whether Obama had the right to override the military’s options, but was it wise to do so. It appears this was a political decision rather than a military one.
Michele Bachmann from a liberal perspective
The Michele Bachmann surge (confirmed most recently by the latest PPP poll) suggests the question is not whether Bachmann is a legitimate contender for the Republican nomination but what it will take to stop her from winning. AS I'LL EXPLAIN, I DO THINK BACHMANN CAN BE STOPPED. BUT THE GENERAL ADVANCE OF CONSERVATISM WITHIN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OVER THE LAST THREE DECADES HAS BEEN A REPEATED PATTERN OF THE UNTHINKABLE BECOMING THINKABLE, and the trend has sharply accelerated over the last two years. Moderation simply lacks any legitimacy within the GOP. It exists, but -- UNLIKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, WHERE MODERATION IS A FREQUENT BOAST -- it's undertaken almost entirely in secret. Since Barack Obama's inauguration, virtually every quarrel within the Republican Party between moderates and maximalist partisans has been resolved in favor of the latter. Bachmann has positioned herself as a mainstream, serious figure who has also outflanked the other as-yet announced candidates. They will have a hard time attacking her without seeming to attack conservatism itself.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/90963/how-stop-bachmann
I wanted to quote this article because of the underlying assumptions. The author talks about conservatism overwhelming moderation in the Republican Party vs. the Democratic Party where it is a “frequent boast.” Moderation has absolutely no power in the Democrat Party. If it did, the Democrats wouldn’t have lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives. But from the left’s viewpoint, what is actually a moderate position seems far to the right.
Chokegate: The left responds to Ann Althouse
I want you to see the kind of thing that passes for mainstream media commentary in this town:
In one narrative, Bradley rushed Prosser with her fists up and Prosser managed to touch her neck while defending himself. It is, my colleagues in the press now say, a classic “he said/she said” controversy. No, it's not. IT IS A CONTROVERSY ONLY IF PROSSER'S HANDS WERE NOWHERE NEAR BRADLEY'S NECK. I MEAN, COME ON!
There follows a tirade about what we teach our sons about violence against women, as if, in a face to face physical encounter, the man is always wrong. SO, AS A WOMAN IN THE WORK PLACE, CAN I GET RIGHT UP IN ANY MAN'S FACE, GET AS ANGRY AS I WANT, SHAKE MY FIST RIGHT BY HIS BIG OLD GLASSES, AND THE MOMENT HE FLINCHES, IF HIS HAND TOUCHES ME, I GET TO SHOUT "VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN" and he's the one who's screwed? As a feminist, I would just love to have power like that. That's sarcasm, I hope you're not too far gone to realize….
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/local-journalist-bill-wineke-demagogues.html
It’s funny how your ideology will determine who you want to believe that will lead you to create a scenario where that person will be in the right or the other person will be in the wrong.
California passes austerity budget
The Legislature passed an austerity budget Tuesday night that would CUT FROM UNIVERSITIES, COURTS AND THE POOR, SHUTTER 70 PARKS AND THREATEN SCHOOLS BUT WOULD NOT — BY OFFICIALS' OWN ADMISSION — RESTORE CALIFORNIA'S LONG-TERM FINANCIAL HEALTH.
The UC and Cal State systems would face about a 23% funding cut, among the steepest in the proposal. Cash grants for the needy would fall, a program to help thousands of teen mothers get an education would be suspended and hundreds of millions of dollars would be siphoned from mental health programs.
The state park closures would be the first ever. Courts would face what the state's chief justice has described as crippling reductions.
In an optimistic forecast, LAWMAKERS BUILT IN AN EXTRA $4 BILLION OF REVENUE. If all that cash does not materialize, K-12 schools — which had so far survived negotiations relatively unscathed — would face a cutback equal to shortening the academic year by seven days….
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110629,0,1794731.story
Eventually reality comes even to the Golden State. When will it come to Washington?
Economic Freedom and Prosperity
…. Blogger Glenn Reynolds recently highlighted numerous examples of the media’s increasingly frequent use of “unexpected” to describe bad economic news. Unemployment “unexpectedly” rose despite federal “stimulus.” Home sales “unexpectedly” fell despite taxpayer bailouts. ER visits unexpectedly rose in Massachusetts despite RomneyCare. Similarly, the Pundit Press blog has rounded-up dozens of examples of such “unexpected” developments since January 2011.
However, the fact that such GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS NECESSARILY STIFLE ECONOMIC PROGRESS IS NOT NEWS. Volumes have been written on this topic. The “natural laboratories” of East Germany vs. West Germany, North Korea vs. South Korea, and communist China vs. Hong Kong amply illustrated the principle that whenever government forcibly thwarted people from furthering their happiness and their lives, the result was misery and death.
The same phenomenon can be observed in the natural laboratories within the United States. ECONOMIST MARK PERRY HAS DESCRIBED HOW BUSINESSES ARE LEAVING CALIFORNIA IN “RECORD NUMBERS” FOR STATES LIKE TEXAS THAT OFFER GREATER FREEDOM FROM BURDENSOME REGULATIONS. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that 37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas.
Similarly, when the Mercatus Center released its 2011 Index of Economic and Personal Freedom ranking all 50 U.S. states, THEY NOTED TWO INTERESTING FACTS. FIRST, ECONOMIC FREEDOM CORRELATED WITH INCOME GROWTH. SECOND, AMERICANS “VOTED WITH THEIR FEET” AND MOVED FROM STATES WITH LESS FREEDOM TO STATES WITH MORE FREEDOM…
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/why-the-unexpected-keeps-happening/
And which party is the party of economic freedom? Which party is the party of economic regulation? Progressivism is based on the idea that wise people running things will do better than an economy where everyone has the freedom to buy and sell as they choose.
Unions off Target
Confronted with an unwelcome intrusion, employees at A TARGET STORE IN NEW YORK REJECTED UNIONIZATION AND DEALT A BLOW TO THE GRAND PLANS OF THE UFCW.
That average Americans continue to stand against these job-killing, profit-leaching forces is most encouraging. But make no mistake, the fight is far from over.
LABOR UNIONS ARE IN DECLINE AND DESPERATE. Today, union membership is under 12% of the U.S. workforce -- it was over 20% in the 1980's. Among retail unions, like the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW), membership has also undergone sizeable erosion, down over 40% nationwide since 1983….
….At the Target store in Valley Stream, NY, the UFCW's efforts to unionize workers was supposed to be a harbinger of things to come -- a national comeback if you will. BUT OVER 60% OF EMPLOYEES VOTED DOWN THE MEASURE. As one worker put it, "what do I need a union to fight for me for?" Good question….
…Predictably, and on cue, the UFCW SOUGHT TO INVALIDATE THE ELECTION RESULTS. IN FACT, THE UNION CALLED ON THEIR COMRADES AT THE NLRB TO INVESTIGATE TARGET FOR ILLEGALITY, SUPPOSEDLY FOR EMPLOYING FEAR, INTIMIDATION, AND THREATS AGAINST WORKERS. How typical of union thugs..…
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/a_union_off-target.html
Unions are a dying institution in the private sector in America.
Global Warming
Al Gore, Free Speech and Climate Change
….GLOBAL WARMING IS A LOSING ISSUE. The failure of the UN’s climate conference in Bonn earlier this month shows waning appetite for the issue on an international scale. A new survey commissioned by Yale and George Mason Universities finds THAT LESS THAN HALF OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THAT HUMAN ACTIVITIES CONTRIBUTE TO PLANETARY WARMING AND JUST 39 PERCENT AGREED THAT “MOST SCIENTISTS THINK GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING.” Pew’s annual “top policy priorities” poll RANKS GLOBAL WARMING 21ST OUT OF 22 ISSUES IN IMPORTANCE, BEATING OUT OBESITY but trailing such off-the-radar topics as transportation and lobbyists. When unemployment rates exceed nine percent and national debt approaches annual GDP, citizens tend to focus on concrete rather than amorphous issues. IN HARD TIMES, WE WANT THE NEWS, NOT THE WEATHER.
AL GORE BLAMES ANOTHER CULPRIT FOR HIS CAUSE’S DEMISE, NAMELY, FREE SPEECH. The Nobel Prize winner writes in Rolling Stone that “the ‘conversation of democracy’ has become so deeply dysfunctional that our ability to make intelligent collective decisions has been seriously impaired.” It’s not just that the public square has become a dangerous place for global warming, but that skeptics of anthropocentric global warming have put their money where their mouths are. “POLLUTERS AND IDEOLOGUES ARE TRAMPLING ALL OVER THE ‘RULES’ OF DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE,” GORE COMPLAINS….
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/06/29/al-gore-in-denial/
Gore and the rest of the Progressives are dangerous to our liberty and our country. They see dissent as something that is dangerous and should not be tolerated. They know what is true and if you disagree with them you are trampling all over the “rules” of democratic discourse. Their solution is to end democratic discourse.
Science
Cancer Surges In Body Scanner Operators; TSA Launches Cover-Up
Fearful of provoking further public resistance to naked airport body scanners, THE TSA HAS BEEN CAUGHT COVERING UP A SURGE IN CASES OF TSA WORKERS DEVELOPING CANCER as a result of their close proximity to radiation-firing devices, perhaps the most shocking revelation to emerge from the LATEST FOIA DOCUMENTS OBTAINED BY THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER.
After Union representatives in Boston discovered a “cancer cluster” amongst TSA workers linked with radiation from the body scanners, THE TSA SOUGHT TO DOWNPLAY THE MATTER AND REFUSED TO ISSUE EMPLOYEES WITH DOSIMETERS TO MEASURE LEVELS OF EXPOSURE.
The documents indicate how, “A large number of workers have been falling victim to cancer, strokes and heart disease.”
“The Department, rather than acting on it, or explaining its position seems to have just dismissed. I don’t think that’s the way most other agencies would have acted in a similar situation if they were confronted with that question,” EPIC’s Marc Rotenberg said….
http://www.infowars.com/cancer-surges-in-body-scanner-operators-tsa-launches-cover-up/
This sounds a bit over the top to me. Exposure to radiation normally takes much longer to cause cancer than we find here. But forewarned is forearmed and in checking out EPIC they appear to be a legitimate foundation.
