Keystone Back On? This an other things you may not know

What’s new Today

Our #1 story gives you the top 10 reasons to vote Obama out of office in November.  By now you know that the payroll cut has been extended, but there is a lot more in that extension.  Read about it in #2.  #3 relates a story from England that may be coming soon to the USA.  #4 contradicts the left’s view of themselves as the gentle side of the political spectrum.  #5 gives you a clue as to why unemployment is going down.  We are rapidly going nuts. 

1.  Top 10 reasons to elect anybody but Obama

While Republicans are locked in a brutal battle over their presidential nomination, let us not forget that anybody the GOP picks will be far superior than the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Not convinced? Here’s the evidence:

1. Mountain of debt

To say that President Obama spends like a drunken sailor is an insult to drunken sailors. From the stimulus bill and auto bailouts to Cash for Clunkers and green jobs, President Obama’s spending reached epic proportions with annual trillion-dollar deficits. Any of the remaining Republican nominees would turn off the spigot of red ink.

2. ObamaCare demise

As long as Obama remains President, the Patient Affordability and Protection Act (ObamaCare), has a chance of remaining the law of the land. Not so with a Republican in the Oval Office, as all the candidates would seek an end to the healthcare law. As long as Obama holds a veto pen, he can stymie conservative legislative efforts to reduce its scope….

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=49597

As one “drunken sailor” said on a link, he took offense at the comparison.  He said, “When I ran out of money, I stopped spending.”

2.     Look At All The Other Junk Stuck In The Payroll Tax Cut Extension

This week our leaders in D.C. extended the payroll tax deduction for another ten months. The new law also extends Unemployment Benefits, and it allows for a continuation of the old payouts to Doctors for Medicare reimbursements. The cost of the legislation is $110b for the rest of the year. There are some minor offsets to this expense in out years. (We will never see those offsets.)

This legislation should have been easy to draft because it was just an extension of what had been agreed to, two months ago. But that’s not the case. H.R. 3630 is 386 pages long. The Bill includes some interesting things:

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*The Keystone Pipe line is a “go”:

The President, acting through the Secretary of State, shall grant a permit relating to issuance of permits with respect to certain energy-related facilities and land transportation crossings on the international boundaries of the United States for the Keystone XL pipeline project.

There is still “wiggle room” on the pipeline. Obama can nix the deal, but he has to do it over the next 60 days, and he has a tough obstacle:

The President shall not be required to grant the permit if the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Obama cannot make a strong argument that the Keystone XL pipeline is not in the national interest. And he knows it. Therefore, I conclude the pipeline will happen. The president folded on this one. Environmentalists will be unhappy.

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*There is a new provision for eligibility for unemployment benefits. In the future, some states will require you to pee in a cup:…

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/simple-extension-2-reduction-payroll-taxes?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

This is a very interesting article because there is a lot more in this bill.  I guess we have another one where they needed to pass the bill in order for US to find out what was in it. 

3.  The Racists Right and the Scientific Left

The mother of a seven-year-old boy was told to sign a school form admitting he was racist after he asked another pupil about the colour of his skin.

Elliott Dearlove had asked a five-year-old boy in the playground whether he was ‘brown because he was from Africa’.

His mother, Hayley White, 29, said she received a phone call last month to say her son had been at the centre of a ‘racist incident’.

She was then summoned to a meeting with Elliott, his teacher and the deputy head of Griffin Primary School in Hull….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103175/Boy-7-branded-racist-asking-schoolmate-Are-brown-come-Africa.html#ixzz1mn63TQoG

This happened in England, but is very representative of how the scientific left sees the racists right.  They are all for scientific inquiry unless you cross one of their taboos.  Ask a question (a scientific form of inquiry) and if you ask the wrong one they will try to stigmatize you and condemn you. 

4.  Death Threats? Ho Hum!

Sometimes I miss the good old days–what was it, a year ago?–when liberals were in favor of civility. Remember when talking about “targeting” a Congressional district could get you accused of murder? Things were a lot more genteel back in 2011.

On Thursday, Charles Koch authorized employees of Koch Industries to reveal the contents of “hundreds of e-mails that the Kochs and employees have received in the last year, some of them containing death threats.” The Wichita Eagle, Koch Industries’ home-town newspaper, reported:

“I hope you all DIE,” one e-mail, received last year, said. “You people are ruining our country, and all for $$$.” “Choose your expiration Date, Brothers…” said another. “The Koch brothers will DIE!!!!!” said another.

There were hundreds more — some from Wisconsin, where the Kochs were accused of aiding Gov. Scott Walker in his disputes against unions. Most of them were signed with what appear to be real names, many contained obscenities, and some Koch employees said these messages had made them nervous. …

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/02/death-threats-ho-hum.php

Anger and threats are only news as long as they are representative of the right according to the left.  Just more hypocrisy by the left.

5.  Unemployment Driving People Nuts?

Standing too many months on the unemployment line is driving Americans crazy — literally — and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.

“It could be because their health really is getting worse from the stress of being out of work,” says Matthew Rutledge, a research economist at Boston College. “Or it could just be desperation — people trying to make ends meet when other safety nets just aren’t there.”

As of January, the federal government was mailing out disability checks to more than 10.5 million individuals, including 2 million to spouses and children of disabled workers, at a cost of record $200 billion a year, recent research from JPMorgan Chase shows.

The sputtering economy has fueled those ranks. Around 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 is currently collecting federal disability payments, a jump from 4.5 percent since the economy slid into a recession.

Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging….

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/pain_brings_gain_taZkGOAUhXALmhEEyMpmqJ#ixzz1mpeYfpGH

The percentage of people in the workforce has slipped by 2.3%.  This would account for .7%.

2011 worse than 2010

What’s new Today

Story #1 is about how dismissive the Democrats are of real jobs for Americans.  #2 is a great article to help you know what is really going on in manufacturing in this country.  #3relates the bad news from 2011—growth was only 1.7 percent.  #4 is a fun political ad where you get to see Obama is the captain of our ship.  And #5 is another obituary for Global Warming. 

1.  Keystone and the Democrats

Hey there, one of the many millions wanting to be employed unemployed. And you too, all the many pouring more and more of your once discretionary income into your car's gas tank. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democrats, who once served in the notoriously corrupt Illinois legislature with a guy named Barack Hussein Obama (D) before both were somehow elected to wreak their havoc on the rest of the country, doesn't seem to think your situation is so bad.

Interviewed on Chicago's popular Don and Roma Show she brushed off concerns about the estimated 20,000 jobs the now vetoed Keystone Pipeline would have created by stating

"Twenty thousand jobs is (sic) really not that many jobs and investing in green technologies will produce that and more."

And the now grandiosely bankrupt green (as in consuming American dollars) Solyndra created how many jobs? …

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/twenty_thousand_jobs_are_really_not_that_many_jobs.html#ixzz1kenoBlbU

In Obama’s world, 20000 jobs aren’t that many jobs, and losing $500,000,000 on Solyndra isn’t that much money, and spending deficits over $1 trillion is just a drop in the bucket.  And in Obama’s world all of these are reasons he needs a second term.

2.  Manufacturing

The U.S. is still the leading manufacturing nation on earth, while China and India are growing much faster in their manufacturing. This is good, not bad. They need to grow. They each have huge populations and an emerging middle-class demographic that demands a better standard of living. The economic pie of world wealth is not fixed, it is dynamic and getting bigger. We should be glad they are growing their middle class. But this hardly means the U.S. is becoming irrelevant in manufacturing. The U.S. produced 19% of the worldwide value-added manufacturing output in 2008 and about 22% of that was exported. The U.S. is the 3rd largest exporter and the number one manufacturing economy in the world as depicted here:

The percent of GDP that manufacturing occupies has remained about the same for the past 30 years. In 1900, 3% of the labor force was involved in farming. By 1990, that fell to 2.6%. Why is that important? Because, over time, farming became much more productive and mechanized and required less labor. Manufacturing labor is similar to farm labor in terms of a slow decline in its share of employment and national output. But adjusting for price changes, the share of GDP for the manufacturing sector has tracked with the overall economy over the past 60 years.

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/viewpoint_is_manufacturing_dead_in_america_26464.aspx?ShowAll=1>

There’s a lot of conversation about manufacturing.  What is amazing is that most people would think you are daft if you told them the USA was the largest manufacturer in the world and the third largest exporter of manufactured good.  But it’s true. 

3.   2011:  Growth 1.7 percent

Real GDP increased 1.7 percent in 2011 (that is, from the 2010 annual level to the 2011 annual level), compared with an increase of 3.0 percent in 2010.

The increase in real GDP in 2011 primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

Not exactly a barnburner….

http://www.businessinsider.com/2011-gdp-2012-1#ixzz1kgP4gXjW

From what I’ve seen, growth is normally fastest when you first come out of a recession.  This is not very good news for the country.  If 3% is the peak of growth, perhaps we need some new ideas.

4.  Have some fun—a political ad that isn’t awful

http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2012/01/27/bizarre-ad-brings-obamas-captain-ship-analogy-life

Obama is such a sitting duck. 

5.   Scientists: Chill on global warming

16 actual scientists have joined 1973 Nobel-winning physicist Ivar Giaever in calling global warming concerns overblown. In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal today, the scientists called for everyone to remain calm — and mocked the alarmism by UN bureaucrats over global warming and carbon dioxide.

They recommended that the world do nothing about global warming for the next 50 years.

“The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant,” the scientists wrote in their letter, which the Wall Street Journal headlined: “No Need to Panic About Global Warming. There’s no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to ‘decarbonize’ the world’s economy.”

The letter went on to explain that warming may actually benefit life on Earth: “CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere’s life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere.”

The scientists did not dismiss entirely the idea that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases may be increasing temperatures. The scientists simply said there is no proof that the globe is warming.

“The lack of warming for more than a decade — indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections — suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause,” the scientists wrote. “Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.”

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/50482

Global warming is basically dead as an issue. 

Lot's of bad news for Obama

What’s new Today

Our #1 story tells of how Obama killed 20,000 jobs yesterday.  Thanks Mr. President.  #2 explains the way Obama did this is the equivalent of how he used to vote present.  #3 looks at how divided the country is and lays the blame with the current occupant of the White House.  #4 is really bad news for Mr. Obama.  It appears less than one third of swing voters have a favorable impression of him.  #5 is an article about Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  Could she lose her seat in congress?  Not likely, but possible.  #6 is interesting especially considering the occupy movement.  It seems the middle class is shrinking and the Occupy crowd wants to change that.  But the reason for the shrinkage of the middle class is because more people are upper middle class.  When you take the numbers together, back in 1970 there were 76% in those categories and today there are 75%.  #7 details how the solar industry in Germany is not a big contributor to anything except excess costs. 

1.  Obama kills 20000 jobs

The White House’s pre-emptive strike on the Keystone XL oil pipeline is a disaster for American workers and consumers. President Obama continues to demonstrate that he has no idea how real jobs are created or how the economy works.

The proposed pipeline would bring oil from the sand tars in Alberta to refining centers in the United States. The project would produce 20,000 direct jobs and indirectly employ 118,000. Once completed, it would enable America to continue to shift oil imports away from trouble spots such as the Middle East and regimes that American consumers would rather not be supporting. Predictably for a fossil-fuel project, Keystone XL ran into opposition from environmental groups and became a rallying cry for greens disappointed by Mr. Obama’s perceived failure to energetically push their agenda. The pipeline project was seen as the last straw, especially after uber-global-warming alarmist James Hansen declared that completing Keystone would mean “game over for the planet.”

In November, after a series of high-profile protests by celebrities, the State Department announced that a lengthy review process was necessary to find a route around the sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska. That pushed off the decision on Keystone until after the 2012 election, allowing Mr. Obama to dodge the issue. Congress responded by demanding an answer by Feb. 21, and rather than use the remaining month to conclude the study, the White House punted on third down and blamed Republicans….

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/18/obamas-pipe-dream-economy/

I guess when Obama went to bed last night thinking about jobs, this didn’t enter his mind. 

2.  Obama Votes Present Again

The Obama administration today denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring crude from Canada's tar sands to Texas' refineries. But as National Journal reports, that doesn't mean the pipeline will never get built. "The Obama administration has said it simply could not adequately review the proposed project in time to meet a 60-day deadline for a decision on the permit imposed by Congress in the payroll-tax package enacted in December."

This looks to be a reasonably effective parry. The administration had initially said it would delay the decision until after the election for what critics took to be political reasons. On the one hand, the pipeline would create thousands of jobs and increase the supply of energy--and labor unions, which would fill some of those jobs, like it. On the other hand, environmental fundamentalists hate it. Thus either a "yes" or a "no" would carry risks for a Democratic president seeking re-election.

Its hand forced, the administration formally rejected the permit request. But by attributing the decision to a lack of time and leaving open the possibility of a reversal, it blunted Congress's ultimatum. Things now stand pretty much where they did before the payroll tax deal.

Congress's aim was to force Obama either to approve the pipeline or take the blame for rejecting it. He has managed to do neither, and the Hill reported yesterday that Republican lawmakers, anticipating a rejection or a punt, have been exploring options to force approval of the pipeline. But such a measure would be "highly unlikely to clear the Senate." Thus it appears the president has escaped the trap the Republicans laid for him….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577168992521313420.html

Hmmm, rather than a do nothing congress, it appears we have a do nothing president.

3.  The Great Divider

Now we know. After three years in office and the launching of his second election campaign, we have experienced President Obama's leadership. We can see whom we elected president -- the mystery man of 2008 revealed.

Democrats were in ecstasy over the great healer, the multiracial candidate who would bring together red states and blue states, black and white, coasts and flyover country. Republicans saw the man with the most leftist, least bipartisan voting record in Congress being installed in the White House. We now know who was right.

Democrat professionals Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen this July pleaded with Obama in a Wall Street Journal column, "Our Divisive President," not to run for a second term. They describe his leadership as toxically divisive to our country. According to Gallup, Obama's approval gap after one year was the most polarized in history, with an average approval of 88% among his own party and 23% among Republicans.

Obama's disdain and hostility to opponents has been quite visible. He dissed the Supreme Court to their faces, dismissed Congressman Ryan's efforts to work together on the deficit with a "you lost, we won" crack, and told Republicans to shut up and go to the back of the bus. He rammed through the biggest changes to health care in history by chicanery, to avoid having to make compromises with Republicans through the normal conference process. He ignored the recommendations of his own bipartisan commission on controlling debt and deficit. His favorite activity (next to golf) is class warfare. Obama is indeed the great divider, and the country shows it….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/now_we_know_who_was_right_about_obama.html#ixzz1juN82wq0

The democrats want to blame Fox News, the TEA Party, the House, etc. for the divide in the country but the truth is simply Obama and the hard left Democrats in the party leadership position have run roughshod over the country.   

4.   More Obama Problems

President Barack Obama is poorly positioned with key independents less than a year away from Election Day, with less than a third of swing voters expressing a favorable opinion of the president in a new poll.

Just 31 percent of independent voters indicated a favorable opinion of the president in a New York Time/CBS News poll out Thursday, compared to a 38 percent favorability rating among all voters.

Asked about how Obama is handling his job, the majority of swing voters, 52 percent, said they disapprove while 37 percent said they approve.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of swing voters said the president hasn’t made significant progress in fixing the country’s economy, while six in ten of them said Obama doesn’t share their priorities for the country.

The poll also revealed that more than five in ten independent voters, 54 percent, do not have a clear idea of what the president wants to accomplish during a second term of presidency….

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71649.html#ixzz1juj30ggw

Obama’s in big trouble.  In his first election he was able to promise abstract things like hope and change.  This election cycle, the people who might be open to voting for him (not his base) will want specifics and those will cause him no end of problems. 

5.  Could DWS lose her reelection bid in 2012?

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s toxic brew of fierce partisanship and eyebrow-arching statements has been alienating moderate voters and raising conservatives’ ire ever since she assumed the position in May. “DWS” has arrived on the national stage with a bang, exhibiting a contentious relationship with the truth and a special knack for incendiary rhetoric. Given her prominent role as a top party spokesperson, fundraiser and cheerleader, some of Wasserman Schultz’s critics may forget that she simultaneously wears another hat: Three-term Congresswoman from Florida’s 20th Congressional District. Karen Harrington wants to strip DWS of that title in 2012.

A local businesswoman and relative political novice, Harrington is gearing up for a second run at DWS in the upcoming general election. Last year, she cobbled together a rag-tag, under-funded campaign, and fell to the incumbent by a 61-39 margin. This time, she says, could be different: “We didn’t know what we were doing [in 2010]. We ran a short, five-month campaign and didn’t have very much money. This time we’ll have 18 months, and we’ve brought [Florida Senator] Marco Rubio’s finance chairman on board. We’re traveling the district and the state introducing ourselves. A lot of people really don’t like Debbie.”

Although 2010 marked the first time in DWS’ Congressional career that she attracted less than 70 percent of the vote, Harrington readily admits that 2012 will still be an uphill climb. Voter registration runs roughly 2-to-1 Democrat to Republican in the district. Nevertheless, the Harrington campaign views President Obama’s unpopularity – especially in Florida, where only 41 percent of state voters say he deserves a second term, according to a new Quinnipiac poll – as a major vulnerability for their opponent in 2012….

http://townhall.com/columnists/guybenson/2011/09/23/meet_the_woman_running_to_fire_debbie/page/full/

It’s possible.  Obama is not very popular in Florida and DWS is one of his spokespersons. 

6.  Where’s the Middle Class going?

Krueger’s claim of a shrinking middle class relies on the same peculiar definition. Specifically, “middle class” is defined as having a household income at least half of median income but no more than 1.5 times the median. I re-ran the numbers using the same definition and data source as Krueger and found that the entire reason the middle class has “shrunk” is that more households today have incomes that put them above middle class. That’s right, the share of households with income that puts them in the middle class or higher was 76 percent in 1970 and 75 percent in 2010—two figures that are statistically indistinguishable. For that matter, I am not discovering fire here; Third Way made the same point in early 2007.  A shrinking middle class is only a problem if it reflects fewer people reaching the middle class.

http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/288306/guest-post-scott-winship-obama-administrations-questionable-mobility-claims-reihan-sal

This is akin to telling your wife you aren’t taking her to Miami Beach this year but to Hawaii instead.  I don’t think she’s going to be too upset.  But the Dems don’t want you to tell her where you are really taking her. 

7.   Where's the Sunshine?

The Baedeker travel guide is now available in an environmentally-friendly version. The 200-page book, entitled "Germany - Discover Renewable Energy," lists the sights of the solar age: the solar café in Kirchzarten, the solar golf course in Bad Saulgau, the light tower in Solingen and the "Alster Sun" in Hamburg, possibly the largest solar boat in the world.

The only thing that's missing at the moment is sunshine. For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no electricity. The days are short, the weather is bad and the sky is overcast.

As is so often the case in winter, all solar panels more or less stopped generating electricity at the same time. To avert power shortages, Germany currently has to import large amounts of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic. To offset the temporary loss of solar power, grid operator Tennet resorted to an emergency backup plan, powering up an old oil-fired plant in the Austrian city of Graz.

Solar energy has gone from being the great white hope, to an impediment, to a reliable energy supply. Solar farm operators and homeowners with solar panels on their roofs collected more than €8 billion ($10.2 billion) in subsidies in 2011, but the electricity they generated made up only about 3 percent of the total power supply, and that at unpredictable times.

The distribution networks are not designed to allow tens of thousands of solar panel owners to switch at will between drawing electricity from the grid and feeding power into it. Because there are almost no storage options, the excess energy has to be destroyed at substantial cost. German consumers already complain about having to pay the second-highest electricity prices in Europe.

Solar Industry Facing Tough Economic Times

In the coming weeks, the German government intends to decide how it will treat solar energy in the future. The parliamentary leaders of the ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) have written Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen a letter asking him to present a new subsidy concept by Jan. 25. Economy Minister Philipp Rösler (FDP) would prefer to abandon the current subsidization system altogether, as would the business wing of the CDU.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,809439,00.html

Something we are hearing more and more about, but haven’t in the past.  With new fossil fuels finds and the nearly complete collapse of the solar and wind industries, the only thing standing between the world and a golden age is the environmental wackos and the warmists who still claim that world is heating from CO2

Obama's TR Moment

What’s new today

Story #1 has Dr. Krauthammer hammering BHO.  #2 show BHO claiming an unemployment insurance extension and extending the tax cut on Social Security will create more jobs than the Keystone pipeline (estimated jobs 200,000).  Since both of those are extension, I’m not sure how they will create any new jobs!  #3 has Republicans questioning a two month gap in information about SC Justice Kagan.  #4 is my teaching moment today.  A very interesting discussion of the role of government.  #5 is something to keep your eye on.  Will Hillary challenge Obama?  #6 has Peggy Noonan looking at Newt Gingrich.  Another article worth your viewing and look at my comments as well. #7 is an article of fracking.  Here’s a environmentalist nightmare.  It appears to be completely safe and delivers fossil fuels that are relatively clean, but somehow they just can’t back it.  #8 is a repudiation by PolitiFact of a Jon Stewart claim about Christmas.  #9 is a fun look at 19 of life’s little victories. 

1.  Obama Explains it all to You

In the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama averred that IF IN THREE YEARS HE HADN’T ALLEVIATED THE NATION’S ECONOMIC PAIN, HE’D BE A “ONE-TERM PROPOSITION.”

When three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the “wrong track” and even Bill Clinton calls the economy “lousy,” how then to run for a second term? Traveling Tuesday to Osawatomie, Kan., site of a famous 1910 Teddy Roosevelt speech, Obama laid out the case

It seems that HE AND HIS POLICIES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CURRENT STATE OF THINGS. Sure, presidents are ordinarily held accountable for economic growth, unemployment, national indebtedness (see Obama, above). But not this time. RESPONSIBILITY, YOU SEE, LIES WITH THE RICH.

Or, as the philosophers of Zuccotti Park call them, the 1 percent. For Obama, these rich are the ones holding back the 99 percent. THE “BREATHTAKING GREED OF A FEW” IS CRUSHING THE MIDDLE CLASS. If only the rich paid their “fair share,” the middle class would have a chance. Otherwise, government won’t have enough funds to “invest” in education and innovation, the golden path to the sunny uplands of economic growth and opportunity.

Where to begin? A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It’s mis-investing….

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-campaign-for-class-resentment/2011/12/08/gIQApYDagO_story.html

Krauthammer once again nails it.  Obama is a member of the political class with only good intentions in their heart so anything that goes wrong is not their fault. 

2.  Obamanomics:  Oh-Oh. 

… President Obama said that he will delay his vacation and keep Congress in session until the passage of his desired payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension -- two proposals that Obama said would create more jobs than the Keystone XL pipeline that his administration recently delayed.

"I would not ask anyone to do something I'm not willing to do myself," Obama said when asked if he would go on vacation while keeping Congress in Washington D.C. "We are going to stay here as long as it takes [to get unemployment extended and pass the payroll tax cut]."

As Obama called for passage of those bills, he also responded to a recent Republican push to require him to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. "HOWEVER MANY JOBS MIGHT BE GENERATED BY A KEYSTONE PIPELINE," HE SAID, "THEY'RE GOING TO BE A LOT FEWER THAN THE JOBS THAT ARE CREATED BY EXTENDING THE PAYROLL TAX CUT AND EXTENDING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE."

For the record, it is estimated that Keystone would create about 200,000 jobs.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/obama_echoes_pelosi_-_unemployment_benefits_create_jobs.html#ixzz1g2PBvciE

Obama must go.  The man is delusional. 

3.   GOP Questions Two Month Gap on Kagan’s history

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee said Thursday the Obama administration is fueling speculation about Justice Kagan ’s impartiality because IT WON’T TURN OVER DOCUMENTS DETAILING HER ROLE IN CRAFTING THE LEGAL STRATEGY TO DEFEND THE HEALTH CARE LAW.

Rep.Lamar Smith, the committee chairman, told Attorney General Eric Holder   that emails show Justice Kagan took an interest in the case in January 2010, when she was solicitor general, and he demanded to know WHAT ROLE SHE PLAYED BETWEEN THEN AND MARCH 2010, when President Obama tapped her to sit on the high court.

“The issue is how involved was she in health care discussions between Jan. 8 and March 5. Just as President Nixon had an 18½-minute gap, does Ms Kagan have a two-month gap?” Mr. Smith said.

Conservative groups have called for Justice Kagan to recuse herself from ruling on the health care case, which the Supreme Court last month said it will consider next year.

Mr. Smith has requested a fuller explanation of Justice Kagan’s role. HE SAID THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DENIED HIS REQUEST, BUT NEVER CITED ANY LEGAL PRIVILEGE TO WITHHOLD INFORMATION.

Mr. Holder told the committee they tried to wall off Justice Kagan from conversations once they knew she was under consideration for the Supreme Court.  

“My memory is, whenever we had conversations about the health care bill, then-Solicitor General Kagan was not present,” he said.

But MR.SMITH SAID THAT WALLING OFF WOULDN’T HAVE OCCURRED UNTIL MARCH, LEAVING THE TWO-MONTH GAP HE QUESTIONED.

Mr.Holder also again declined to cite a specific legal privilege that would allow him to withhold documents or prevent committee investigators from interviewing department employees about Justice Kagan’s involvement. Instead, the attorney general said he has “separation of powers” concerns.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/8/gop-questions-two-month-gap-kagans-health-care-inv/

4.  The Role of Government

….Public Choice Theorists, like Nobel Laureate James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, provided an alternative view of government that was consistent with that of the Founders. THEY SAW GOVERNMENT AS JUST ANOTHER INSTITUTION IN THE SENSE THAT IT IS POPULATED BY SELF-INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS. As such, it would be an active player in the economy and society to the extent possible.

So long as these individuals could benefit from outcomes, GOVERNMENT COULD NOT BE AN HONEST BROKER. IN THEIR VIEW, THOSE WHO "SERVE" ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE "GREEDY" BUSINESSMAN WHO POLITICIANS REGULARLY CONDEMN.

This view of human nature drove the Founders to develop The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the separation of powers in an attempt to contain misbehavior by government. Public Choice theory is merely a modern intellectual affirmation of what our educated Founders knew two and one-half centuries ago.

GOVERNMENT IS NECESSARILY RUN BY SELF-INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS UNTIL WE DISCOVER A WAY TO BREED AND ELECT ANGELS. FRIEDRICH HAYEK, AMONG OTHERS, ARGUED THAT A BIASED PROCESS ATTRACTS AND ENABLES THE "WORST" TO SUCCEED IN GOVERNMENT. (See "The Road to Serfdom" for his reasoning).

Passive and unbiased government is not impossible, merely highly improbable. Noble phrases like "public service" should be seen as modern day examples of what Nock saw as self-serving propaganda.

What Does This Mean?

Public Choice theorists deal with the difficulties of providing the proper incentives and disincentives to prevent self interest from exploiting positions in government. Charles R. Anderson recently used a taxonomy that is consistent with Public Choice and history. HE DESCRIBED TWO ORIENTATION OF GOVERNMENT -- PRINCIPLED VERSUS PRAGMATIC.

Mr. Anderson's description of the two follows:

1) A government which is HIGHLY LIMITED BY PRINCIPLE IN POWER AND SCOPE TO THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING THE EQUAL, SOVEREIGN RIGHTS TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO LIFE, LIBERTY, PROPERTY, the ownership of one's own mind and body, and the pursuit of personal happiness. This is the legitimate government envisioned by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

2) A so-called PRAGMATIC GOVERNMENT NOT RESTRICTED BY PRINCIPLE TO A LIMITED SCOPE AND WITH FEW POWERS WHICH IS INCLINED TO BESTOW SPECIAL PRIVILEGES ON SPECIAL INTERESTS. Such a government may be a democracy, an oligarchy, a one-party state, or a dictatorship and IT MUST OF NECESSITY TRAMPLE THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL BECAUSE OUR PERSONAL INTERESTS ARE TOO DIVERSE FOR GOVERNMENT TO FOSTER ALL OF OUR INTERESTS. It must pick which interests it will favor and which it will suppress. It violates the principle that government should do no harm….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/government_of_the_elites_by_the_elites_and_for_the_elites.html#ixzz1g2MjJpVf

Somehow when someone goes to work for the government they become chaste and good.  And if they leave government they become stupid and evil.  Just look at John Corzine as an example. 

5.  Will Hill Challenge O?

Jimmy Carter was not just defeated by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. Carter, the president who could easily be confused with his own floppy sweater, WAS FIRST KNOCKED DOWN BY SMILIN' TED KENNEDY, who was entitled to be president because he was a Kennedy. (Don't ask, this is how Democrats think.) Kennedy ran against Carter because the other Democrats were less prone to suicide than they are today. They still lost big.

OBAMA STARTED THE FIGHT THREE YEARS AGO, IN THE MINDS OF FEMINISTS, BY TARRING HILLARY AND BILL AS "RACISTS." Today we are getting media leaks from the Clintons: “I don’t know what the future holds” said Bill the other day, going wink, wink, nudge, nudge, and looking sincere. LIBERAL SNITCH PAUL BEDARD SAID IT MORE CLEARLY IN THE US NEWS BLOG: HILLARY CAMPAIGN CONSPICOUSLY EMERGES.

This could become a grudge match. You can call smear good and honorable Americans with the racist brush all you want, but just don't call another Demagogue a racist. It's not polite. They have ways of making you pay. And feminists are the nastiest of them all. Harvard's left feminists ate President Larry Summers for breakfast one day. And

Hillary's supporters have been boiling with rage since she lost to the Chicago Machine….

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/a_hillary_grudge_match_with_bam.html#ixzz1g2PzhLBT

Democrats tend to hope there is a bloody fight between Newt and Mitt and perhaps a third party run by Ron Paul.  But right now, the more likely third party candidate would be Bloomberg and if Hillary gets into it with O, expect a blood bath. 

6.  Noonan on Gingrich

….That's the problem with Newt Gingrich: IT'S ALL TRUE. It's part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It's also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president.

ETHICALLY DUBIOUS? TRUE. INTELLIGENT AND ACCOMPLISHED? TRUE. Has he known breathtaking success and contributed to real reforms in government? Yes. Presided over disasters? Absolutely. CAN HE LEAD? YES. IS HE ERRATIC AND UNRELIABLE AS A LEADER? YES. Egomaniacal? True. Original and focused, harebrained and impulsive—all true. ..

 … Republicans on the ground who view Mr. Gingrich from afar, who neither know nor have worked with him, are more likely to see him this way: "WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON TO ACTUALLY CUT GOVERNMENT? WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO ACTUALLY LED A MOVEMENT THAT BALANCED THE FEDERAL BUDGET? . . . THE LAST TIME THERE WAS TRUE WELFARE REFORM, THE LAST TIME GOVERNMENT WAS CUT, GINGRICH DID IT." That is Rush Limbaugh, who has also criticized Mr. Gingrich.

And that is exactly what I've been hearing from Newt supporters who do not listen to talk radio. They are older voters, they are not all Republicans, and when government last made progress he was part of it. THEY HAVE A VERY PRACTICAL SENSE OF POLITICS NOW. The heroic era of the presidency is dead. They are not looking to like their president or admire him, they just want someone to fix the crisis. The last time helpful things happened in Washington, he was a big part of it. SO THEY MAY HIRE HIM AGAIN. ARE THEY PUT OFF BY HIS SCANDALS? NO. THEY THINK ALL POLITICIANS ARE SCANDALOUS….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577086824255350642.html

Noonan raises a red warning flag but also explains Newt’s appeal.  In reading this it makes me think of Steven Jobs.  Fired from Apple he came back to save the company and created a new future that went way beyond Apple.  He appears to not have been the nicest person around or the easiest to work for, but he was genius.  Could Newt do the same thing especially since we need the country fixed?  Is he worth the gamble? The Republicans will have a big say in this because whoever the Republicans nominate will be the next president of the United States. 

7.   Fracking:  The left tries to make a Mountain out of an Ant Hill

Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is the process used by the energy industry to extract immense deposits of oil and natural gas from deep geologic formations that only a few years ago were unreachable. It involves injecting a solution of water and chemicals far underground, typically thousands of feet below groundwater supplies. FRACKING WAS FIRST USED IN OKLAHOMA IN THE 1940S AND IN THE YEARS SINCE HAS BEEN EMPLOYED IN MORE THAN A MILLION OIL AND GAS WELLS ACROSS THE NATION. There is NOT A SINGLE INDEPENDENTLY DOCUMENTED INSTANCE OF GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION BY FRACKING ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY, a fact that was confirmed as recently as May by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson during congressional testimony.

So why did the EPA announce Thursday in a draft report that CHEMICALS "LIKELY" ASSOCIATED WITH FRACKING WERE FOUND AT A DRILLING SITE NEAR PAVILION, WYO.? Big Green activists who are determined to stop fracking will loudly proclaim from every media rooftop in coming days that there is now "proof" that fracking endangers drinking water across America. Here's what these ideologically blinded zealots won't tell you:

The next two sentences in the EPA announcement quoted in the opening paragraph state: "EPA also re-tested private and public drinking water wells in the community. The samples were consistent with CHEMICALS IDENTIFIED IN EARLIER EPA RESULTS RELEASED IN 2010 AND ARE GENERALLY BELOW ESTABLISHED HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARDS." By "below," the EPA means that chemicals in the groundwater do not exceed acceptable health and safety standards….

….The facts remain as they were stated by Jackson in May: The EPA has not yet documented a single case in which fracking caused groundwater contamination.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/12/here-comes-another-rush-judgment-fracking/1987696#ixzz1g2U1y97F

Fracking is safe.  We have more than 1,000,000 wells fracked and there is absolutely no evidence of environmental damage even when there have been accidents.

8.   Jon Stewart on Christmas—Funny but Wrong

The Rhode Island controversy over Gov. Lincoln Chafee's decision to call the decorated spruce tree in the State House rotunda a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree" spilled over to Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" program on Dec. 6.

During a segment on the “Tree Fighting Ceremony” that focused on Fox News' assertion that there is a culture war against Christmas, Stewart said, "Perhaps you'd prefer to celebrate Christmas the way our Founding Fathers did."

Then he cut to a video clip from a documentary from the History channel cable network that stated: "On Dec. 25, 1789, the United States Congress sat in session and continued to stay open on Christmas Day for most of the next 67 years."…

… The web page "Dates of Sessions of the Congress, 1789-present" says that the last session of 1789 for both the House and the Senate was Sept. 29. By the time Christmas came around, Congress had been out of session for nearly three months. Both bodies reconvened on the first Monday in January 1790.

The web page also shows that there were three years from 1789 to 1857 when Congress had a formal recess that extended over Christmas Day. But that doesn't mean they were on the job on Dec. 25 during all the remaining years.

To find out, we went through the journals that were the predecessors of The Congressional Record.

So how many times did the House and Senate meet on Christmas Day during the first 68 years of Congress?

Once each….

http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2011/dec/09/jon-stewart/comic-jon-stewart-says-early-congress-met-most-chr/

9.   19 Everyday Victories that you can Enjoy

1.      Whenever I’m waiting for the bus and it stops so that the door is right in front of me.

2.      Getting that popcorn kernel unstuck from in between my gum and tooth.

3.      Go to public bathroom and it’s empty!

4.      When I’m approaching a red light and don’t have to brake before it turns green again…

http://cavemancircus.com/2011/12/07/19-minor-everyday-victories-that-are-way-enjoyable/

What’s your favorite?  Keep reading there are 15 more.