The Obama administration passed another fiscal milestone this week, according to new data released by the Treasury Department. As of the close of business on Oct. 3, the total national debt was $14,837,099,271,196.71—up about $44.8 billion from Sept. 30.
That means that in the less-than-three-years Obama has been in office, the federal debt has increased by $4.212 trillion--more than the total national debt of about $4.1672 trillion accumulated by all 41 U.S. presidents from George Washington through George H.W. Bush combined.
This $4.212-trillion increase in the national debt means that during Obama’s term the federal government has already borrowed about an additional $35,835 for every American household--or $44,980 for every full-time private-sector worker. (According to the Census Bureau there were about 117,538,000 households in the country in 2010, and, according to the BLS, there were about 93,641,000 full-time private-sector workers.)…
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-has-now-increased-debt-more-all-presidents-george-washington-through-george-hw
This was the guy who was going to put on the green eye shade and make the hard spending decisions. Obama is a disaster.
ABO (Anybody but Obama) leads Obama
A GENERIC REPUBLICAN NOW HOLDS A SIX-POINT ADVANTAGE OVER PRESIDENT OBAMA in a hypothetical 2012 match-up for the week ending Sunday, October 2.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds the generic Republican earning 47% support, while the president picks up 41% of the vote. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording.)…
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/generic_presidential_ballot/election_2012_generic_presidential_ballot
Obama has not gotten above 40-45 percent against a generic Republican. Why is this bad for Obama? If someone said would you remarry your wife and you answer “I’m undecided,” it wouldn’t bode well for your marriage.
Lowest Poll yet for Obama
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S DISAPPROVAL RATING HIT AN ALL-TIME HIGH OF 55 PERCENT IN A NEW POLL FROM QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY, and in the most troubling poll news for Obama to date, independent voters disapprove of Obama's job performance by a 56-38 margin.
APPROVAL OF OBAMA'S HANDLING OF THE ECONOMY — certain to be the most significant issue in the coming election — HIT ANOTHER RECORD LOW AT 32 PERCENT, WITH 64 PERCENT DISAPPROVING.
Additionally, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the country is in a recession, with little confidence the economy will recover anytime soon.
A full 43 percent of Americans trust congressional Republicans more on the economy, compared to 41 percent for Obama. The results are a statistical tie — the first time Obama has not led on the issue ever. This is particularly telling given that just 23 percent of Americans approve of congressional Republicans' job performance….
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-poll-has-the-worst-news-yet-for-obama-2011-10#ixzz1a0NTqhoM
BHO keeps dropping and dropping.
Solyndra: Administration was considering giving them another loan
Newly released e-mails show the Obama administration’s Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company’s financial situation grew increasingly dire.
The department was still considering providing the second loan guarantee to the solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, at a time when Solyndra’s auditors were already warning that the company was in danger of collapsing….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-e-mails-dept-of-energy-was-poised-to-approve-469-million-for-firm/2011/10/05/gIQA0IvgNL_story.html?hpid=z2
Perhaps green in this case meant the experience level of the people in the Energy Department.
Elizabeth Warren and liberalism, twisting the ‘social contract’
Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and former Obama administration regulator (for consumer protection), is MODERN LIBERALISM INCARNATE. As she seeks the Senate seat Democrats held for 57 years before 2010, when Republican Scott Brown impertinently won it, she clarifies the liberal project and the stakes of contemporary politics.
THE PROJECT IS TO DILUTE THE CONCEPT OF INDIVIDUALISM, thereby refuting respect for the individual’s zone of sovereignty. THE REGULATORY STATE, LIBERALISM’S INSTRUMENT, CONSTANTLY TRIES TO CONTRACT THAT ZONE — FOR THE INDIVIDUAL’S OWN GOOD, IT SAYS. Warren says:
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. . . . You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God bless, keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
WARREN IS (AS WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY DESCRIBED HARVARD ECONOMIST JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH) A PYROMANIAC IN A FIELD OF STRAW MEN: SHE REFUTES PROPOSITIONS NO ONE ASSERTS. Everyone knows that all striving occurs in a social context, so all attainments are conditioned by their context. This does not, however, entail a collectivist political agenda….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/elizabeth-warren-and-liberalism-twisting-the-social-contract/2011/10/04/gIQAXi5VOL_story.html
The straw man argument is one used extensively by the left. Obama is a master at it (he’s always telling us “they say” when what he means is he about to say something, so he can refute it and seem middle of the road. Warren’s argument about the rich is nonsense. We all build the roads, but we pay for them based on our usage. That millionaires is paying his fair share just as you or I are. Same with the fire and police and education. We all benefit and we all pay. Warren seems to think that some should pay more than others for public services because they can.
What I Saw at the Revolution
After spending two days at the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street campout, I HAVE YET TO ENCOUNTER ANYBODY WITH A SERIOUS PLATFORM, OR TO GLEAN ANY COHERENT SENSE OF WHY THEY ARE THERE. The terminal vagueness which is the hallmark of the demonstration was best articulated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in 2004’s Team America, in which a disgruntled and effusive Tim Robbins puppet complains that, “the corporations sit there in their… in their corporation buildings, and… and, and see, they’re all corporation-y… and they make money.” This is a sentiment I have heard repeatedly from attendees, almost verbatim. It is always accompanied by derisive gestures toward the skyscrapers towering overhead, whose construction, I am informed without irony by the union members who have now got in on the action, is a source of well-paying union jobs.
When I try to transcend the inchoate vitriol and ask WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT ALL THE PROBLEMS?, INDIGNATION TURNS QUICKLY TO SILENCE, OR FRUSTRATION — OR BOTH.
In truth, THOSE CAMPED OUT IN ZUCCOTTI PARK ARE RUNNING A COMMUNE MORE THAN A PROTEST. They have established a small communitarian village, which is punctuated by a small cabal of the angry, the insane, and the ignorant. Nothing I have seen is representative of a serious movement, and even less is indicative of any substantive thought….
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/279373/what-i-saw-revolution-charles-c-w-cooke
The left keeps looking for a movement to counter the TEA Party. Unfortunately this isn’t it. The importation of Unions takes it from a grass roots movement to one that is being co-opted by one of the major components of the Democratic Party. Not surprisingly a few Democrat congressmen have come out in support. I guess will have to see if there becomes an OWS caucus started in congress. Probably not.
This is what a mob looks like
This is what a Mob Looks Like
I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point.
NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE WALL STREET PROTESTERS WANT – AS IS TYPICAL OF MOBS. They say they want Obama re-elected, but claim to hate “Wall Street.” You know, the same Wall Street that gave its largest campaign donation in history to Obama, who, in turn, bailed out the banks and made Goldman Sachs the fourth branch of government.
This would be like opposing fattening, processed foods, but cheering Michael Moore – which the protesters also did this week.
But to me, the most striking difference between the tea partiers and the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd – besides the smell of patchouli – is HOW LIBERAL PROTESTERS MUST CLAIM THEIR EVERY GATHERING IS HISTORIC AND HEROIC.
They chant: “The world is watching!” “This is how democracy looks!” “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!”
At the risk of acknowledging that I am, in fact, “watching,” THIS IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT HOW DEMOCRACY LOOKS…..
http://rightwingnews.com/liberals/this-is-what-a-mob-looks-like/
Ann Coulter makes a very good point. This is how democracy looks.
Texting while Driving: You were right, it’s dangerous
TEXTING OR EMAILING WHILE DRIVING IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR.
"Essentially texting while driving doubles a driver's reaction time," Christine Yager, who led the study at Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"That makes a driver less able to respond to sudden roadway dangers."
For the study, 42 drivers between the ages of 16 and 54 drove on an 11-mile test track course while sending or receiving text messages, and drove it again while focusing completely on the road.
Drivers were asked to stop when they saw a flashing yellow light, and their reaction times were recorded, Yager said.
THE TYPICAL TIME IT TOOK A DRIVER WHO WAS NOT TEXTING TO RESPOND TO THE FLASHING LIGHT WAS ONE TO TWO SECONDS. BUT WHEN THE DRIVER WAS TEXTING, THE REACTION TIME EXTENDED TO THREE TO FOUR SECONDS, AND THE TEXTING MOTORIST WAS 11 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO MISS THE FLASHING LIGHT ALTOGETHER….
I don’t know what idiot thought it was okay to do this, but there are some. Of course the Darwin theory says they will be culled out of the herd.
Obama Scandal Update: Fast and Furious
So now the FAST AND FURIOUS AFFAIR HAS REACHED STAGE 2 OF THE CLASSIC WASHINGTON SCANDAL: House Republicans have called for a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder himself for possible perjury.
Justice Department documents indicate that Holder knew of the operation way back in July 2010 -- far earlier than the “in the last few weeks” that he told congressional investigators under oath last May.
Memos from Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and others to Holder clearly show the scope, if not the nature, of the disastrous project: “This investigation, initiated in September 2009 . . . involves . . . straw purchasers [who] are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug cartels.”…
…The heavily redacted memos don’t explicitly implicate ATF and other federal agencies in an illegal scheme, as ATF whistleblowers have alleged. But if there’s a coverup going on, why would they?
AND COVERUP THERE SEEMS TO BE. ON TOP OF STONEWALLING REP. DARRELL ISSA’S HOUSE INVESTIGATION OF THE MESS, JUSTICE HAS FLOATED A SERIES OF CONTRADICTORY EXCUSES:
* There was no such program.
* Even if there were, Holder never knew about it.
* Even if he should have known about it, he might not have read Breuer’s memos.
* Even if he read Breuer’s memos, he misunderstood the simple question: “When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious?”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/furious_mess_has_justice_in_full_WYXAPQoFlBaBVer5Q47oiO#ixzz1a0aj4Om8
Scandal, poor economy, and protest in the streets against Wall Street. Obama is toast.
