Our Apologist-in-Chief

Apologist is probably the wrong word here, since apologists attempted to use reason and logic to explain their beliefs. Our President on the other hand simply seems to try and make excuses. As Hurricane Irene makes it's rather anti-climatic landfall (and I don't mean to minimize the fact that people have died as a result of the storm) I am reminded of the President's recent speeches to explain away the economy under his watch.

Recently, President Obama has been explaining how his economic policies have actually saved the economy, it's just that we've had to deal with the "Arab Spring" (which I'm pretty sure is going to go badly in the end and Egypt is already showing signs to that end) driving up oil prices (which I'm sure wouldn't be ameliorated by the Obama administration getting out of contempt of court and allowing drilling or at least not actively trying to stop drilling) and the tsunami which hit Japan. At any given moment I'm certain the recent minor earthquake in the northeast and Hurricane Irene will be convenient excuses as well. Clearly, our current President has suffered under the great strain of incredible events (grab a mop, my sarcasm may be dripping on your floor).

So let's review the 8 years prior to see if maybe similar accidents tanked the economy by comparison. September 11, 2001, terrorists fly two planes into the Twin Towers in New York City. The only historical comparison in American history would be Pearl Harbor. In fact, after September 11, 2001, the country experienced an actual growth of economic output after having had three consecutive quarters of decline (which is probably some evidence that President Bush was horrible on domestic economic issues and more akin to Obama than Reagan).

December 24, 2004, a tsunami struck most of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. I haven't found data on this, but I'm going to guess, given the areas affected, the Japanese tsunami actually had a greater worldwide economic impact. However, both should mainly affect imported goods and increase the desirability of exported goods from the U.S. GDP slowed from a 6.4% rate of growth to 4.6% in the first quarter of 2005.

August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast causing an estimated $81 billion in damages (or 1/10 of a "stimulus" bill) making it the costliest U.S. hurricane on record. It was quickly followed by Hurricane Rita in September, which tried to kill the rest of the Gulf Coast west of New Orleans, tacking on another $11.3 billion in estimated damages (or 1/10 of the average Obama budget deficit). In October of 2005, Hurricane Wilma, the forgotten stepchild of a season in which saw the National Hurricane Center resorting to the use of the Greek alphabet because the 26 letters we use didn't cover the number of storms, handed Florida its metaphorical hat, causing an additional $20.6 billion in damages to the United States. The most active hurricane season in recorded history finished with tropical storm Zeta, having caused over $110 billion in damages to the United States. Yet once again, the economy grew from 2005 to 2006.

So, in the space of 4 years (or one Presidential term), President George W. Bush, whose economic policies I will not defend for one second as for the most part they were just a slower version of President Obama's, presided over an incredible period of domestic disaster and terrorism, on top of global disaster. Yet somehow, despite all of this, the economy grew during the period of his presidency until 2009, which was when Democrats took control of the Congress (judge for yourself if that was coincidence). Similarly, during the majority of the Bush presidency, the unemployment rate was less than 6%, suddenly spiking in late 2008 to 2009 and achieving its current, sustained 9% + rate under the careful guidance of central economic planning. While we have seen a resumption of growth in GDP, employment has remained low. I would argue that this is a result of regulatory uncertainty and historic growth in government interference in the economy along with a continued uncertainty as to tax rates. Again, I am not a fan of President Bush's economic policies, but to make a disease comparison, he was diabetes compared to President Obama's Ebola (I'm not suggesting he is African, so insert whatever hemorrhagic fever you are comfortable with here) economy.

So President Obama's "blame Bush, blame tectonic plates, blame Islamic extremists overthrowing despotic morons, blame anybody but the empirically disprovable Keynsian statism I advocate" speeches just don't strike me as being genuine. But then I'm biased because nothing about him ever has struck me as genuine.

The Ultimate Hypocritical President

Let's take a quick peek back at one or two quotes from our esteemed President Barack Obama and see if he may be a tad hypocritical.

"The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up the national debt from 5 trillion for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added 4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have 9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic." Senator Barack Obama, July 3, 2008 campaign speech.

President Obama then proceeded to tack on another $4 trillion in just 2 and 1/2 years.

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies...Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here'. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices onto the back of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." Senator Barack Obama, 2006 debate on raising the debt ceiling before he cast his vote against.

Senator Obama didn't bother to vote for the subsequent debt raises in 2007 and 2008. President Obama argued that failure to raise the debt ceiling would be a disaster that would unravel the financial system and create a worse recession than what we had just been through.

"The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." Senator Barack Obama, 2007.

President Barack Obama then decided that apparently bombing Libya is not a "military attack" such that Congress needed to even be consulted. In fact, he adamantly refused to consult with Congress on the bombing campaign.

"I will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine congressional instructions as enacted into law. The problem with this (Bush) administration is that it has attached signing statements to legislation in an effort to change the meaning of the legislation, to avoid enforcing certain provisions of the legislation that the President does not like, and to raise implausible or dubious constitutional objections to that legislation...it is a clear abuse of power to use such statement as a license to evade laws that the president does not like or as an end-run around provisions designed to foster accountability...No one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president's constitutional prerogatives; unfortunately, the Bush Administration has gone much farther than that." Senator Barack Obama, 2007 interview with the Boston Globe.

In fairness, a signing statement is somewhat different from an executive order. However, those same criticisms are easily applicable to the myriad executive orders and actions that President Obama has taken. When President Obama could not get congressional approval of his debt commission (from a supermajority Democratic Senate), he took a note from "I Dream of Jeannie" and winked it into existence. Though the "Dream Act" failed to pass through congress (despite both houses still being under Democratic control), President Obama in the last few days has simply instructed the federal government to enact it through "prosecutorial discretion" (yet another legal term our Constitutional lawyer-in-chief apparently doesn't have a clue what its meaning is). That's just two of the numerous extra-constitutional activities the President has engaged in through actions and executive orders.

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." President Obama, inaugural oath of office, January 20, 2009.

Not only did he take the oath, he may be the only president to have ever taken it twice. Nonetheless, amongst his arguably unconstitutional actions noted above, there is one act that I believe cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny. When GM and Chrysler entered bankruptcy, the Obama administration stepped in and forced a "guided" bankruptcy which deprived creditors of their interests. Bankruptcy is provided for in the Constitution and the power is given to Congress to enact the laws relating to it. There is no provision for the President to step in and guide a bankruptcy proceeding or, in doing so, to violate the rights of creditors. This action violated Supreme Court precedent protecting creditors' interests under the 5th Amendment.

The funny part is, I realized in researching this that Senator Obama said a lot of things I agree with (though I wouldn't have said unpatriotic). It's a shame he never meant any of it.

Because Who Doesn't Understand Killing Babies?

Vice President Joe Biden told an audience at a Chinese university that he understands the Chinese one child per family policy. So he doesn't second-guess despotism, forced sterilization, forced abortions and infanticide. Apparently his only problem with the policy is that it makes state welfare programs unsustainable. I guess you can't call it pro-choice when government makes the decision.

I wonder if he'll go to Africa and talk about how mutiliation of female genitalia is understandable.

And More Reasonable Statements From Democrats

"Remember the Alamo!" apparently is to Texas what "Remember the Tea Party!" will eventually be to the left. After California Representative Maxine Water's (D. Cal.) recent showing of hatred towards the Tea Party, Representative Frederica Wilson (D. Fla.) reminded a Miami town hall not to forget who the "real enemies are", the Tea Party.

I can only hope when they pull the race card and talk about all the hatred in this country, people remember that it is the Democrats and their class warfare tactics that always truly bring up race. Speaking of which, the Shadow Democracy's favorite comedienne, Jeanine Garofolo, showed just what a bigoted piece of crap she is recently. Garofolo showed up on former sportscaster and fake Ivy leaguer, Keith Olbermann's "I've been banished to Al Gore's TV network...yes, that's right, Al Gore has a TV network" Countdown, stating that Presidential candidate Herman Cain, a black male who the Tea Party is fond of (but wait, that can't be!) is actually being paid to run for President to distract people from how racist the Republican Party is. Amazingly, this was not some elaborate joke.

So Jenny (I hope she doesn't mind if I call her that, as it is also a reference to a mule, or jackass), anyways, so Jenny thinks black people cannot think for themselves sufficient to be Republicans. Well done, Jenny. I hope Olbermann gave you a carrot and a sugar cube.

The Feeling is Mutual

Representative Maxine Waters (D. Cal.), who is currently under investigation by the House ethics committee for improperly lobbying for a bailout of a bank her husband owned stock in, on Saturday said that the Tea Party can go to hell. Feel free to lead the way, Mrs. Waters.

Please Tell Me I Did Not Just Read This

There are a number of curse words wanting to spill out of me at the moment to describe this. Really? NASA scientists have decided that the crappy Keanu Reeves remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has some sort of a legitimate scientific basis. I find it more likely that aliens might kill us all if they find out how stupid our scientists are.

408,000 Apply For Stimulative Government Spending and Stimulative Government Cheese

Jobless claims are up 9,000 to 408,000 for the week ending on August 13. Luckily, those jobless benefits and the food stamps they, like record numbers of Americans, will end up on, are actually good for the economy. What's that you say? How can unemployment be good for the economy? Why silly child, haven't you heard? Luminaries (liberal English, English translation : idiots) such as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says that benefits to the unemployed stir job growth.

Now, if we could just ensure that enough people are unemployed, we should be able to employ everyone...wait...

Oh My Dear God

Ok, so I'm swamped with work at the moment and have been a bit slack about getting to some posts of late, though I think I have some interesting points to make. This, however, is idiocy on parade. I've seen a number of liberals advocate this, devaluing the currency. I hope they don't move on this and I'm reserving comment for now, but I can't express my disdain for something like this.

The Obama Administration, Oil and the Courts

President Obama's hatred for oil has taken another blow with a ruling by a the federal district court finding that rules implemented by his administration actually raise the cost of exploration and drilling. If that surprises you, you may want to see about special education classes. As far as I'm aware, the administration continues to be unrepentantly in contempt of court for the failure to comply with the Eastern District of Louisiana federal court rulings. I think contempt is probably the best way to describe how our President feels about a lot of things.

Today's Recommended Reading

This article from National Review Online indicates that Wisconsin teachers may need to be voting Republican next go round, even if their unions insist otherwise.

Just a Thought

If your protest began about affordable housing, why does the protest involve a tent city? Morons of the world unite!

We Are So F**ked, Part 2

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, I sent a text to several friends and family with the not so optimistic content of "We are so f**ked". I did this after seeing then candidate Barack Obama give a speech in which I pretty much saw the ideology above all aspect of his life. Luckily, the Democratic party feels no need to back off from that position.

The "super committee" of Democrats and Republicans that is set to be put in place as a result of the "deficit deal" has its first few appointees. Senate Minority Leader Harry Ried (D. NV) has tapped fellow Democrats John Kerry (Mass.), Max Baucus (Mont.) and Patty Murray (Wash.) to serve on the bipartisan committee ordained to solve the nation's debt issues. Murray is the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Kerry was on the Sunday morning political shows claiming the S&P decision was a "Tea Party downgrade" along with every other administration official and is, quite frankly, one of the biggest pieces of crap in Congress (I normally try not to get personal other than the occasional joke, but this man served in Vietnam as a sham and then threw his fellow soldiers overboard), and Baucus...well, why pile on.

There is no guarantee that the Republicans won't mess this up just as badly, but wow, we're off to a start that is rivaled only by Apollo 1.

Modern Liberalism and the Power of the State

Michael Moore, fourth planet from the sun and liberal filmmaker called for President Obama to arrest the head of Standard and Poor's for downgrading the United States' credit rating. I'm not aware of any criminal law broken by S&P (and I again note that I do not agree with their decision). But then, if you are Michael Moore, the dullest celestial body in the visible universe, you believe that the State is supreme and any insult against it is a crime (unless of course it is being run by a Republican and not even a particularly conservative one, such as George Bush).

This is just more proof that liberals aren't liberal any more. They are Statists, socio-facsists who believe in the state above the individual as long as the state advances the group over the individual and as long as that group is their group.

The Media Has a Duty to Ignore Senator John Kerry

Former Presidential candidate and current Senator John Kerry (D. Mass.) opined that the media has an obligation to not give equal time to the Tea Party because those wacky folks want a balanced budget and low taxes apparently. Good to see that a man who once ran for President (starting in Vietnam when the most important piece of equipment he took to war was a video camera to promote himself) is so anxious to tell the media what it should and should not cover. Somewhere underneath that Leno-esque chin of his is another asshole.

On the Deficit Reduction/Debt Limit Deal

I'm sure the world has been awaiting with bated breath for my usually spectacular analysis of the deficit reduction deal recently reached by Congress. So, in an effort to satisfy my adoring public (by which I mean the homeless man on Jackson who always claps when I walk by for some reason), I present the following analysis.

1. The Tea Party won a Pyrrhic victory. The Tea Party brought the debt debate to the foreground. Normally, these debt limit votes are perfunctory matters (except when some Senators who later become Presidents with the initials BHO write letters to the President telling them it would be immoral to raise the debt limit). Now, it is a big deal to pass this without some discussion of the insanity around federal spending. One of these days I need to sit down and write a post about unfunded mandates for you guys, but I digress. However, and this is key, A DEFICIT REDUCTION IS JUST A SMALLER INCREASE IN SPENDING.

2. The spending cuts, which aren't actually cuts in spending (see above) are pretty meaningless. The federal government operates on a budget that has automatic spending increases. As far as I can tell, these cuts don't even offset the automatic increases. Further, it doesn't meet the goals set by the S&P to preserve the United State's credit rating. I'm no fan of the S&P and I actually think a downgrade could be beneficial by raising interest rates and reducing the amount of cash the morons at the Fed have been flooding into the economy. However, it simply doesn't do anything to reduce the overall debt, and, in fact, pretty much preserves spending at record levels brought on by our Lord and Saviour Barack Obama.

3. The only cuts that matter are those made in 2011. One Congress cannot bind another to abide by its will absent a Constitutional Amendment. This means that once the 2012 elections occur, the cuts, which are heavily weighed over the next ten years rather than making any significant inroads this year, have no practical effect unless they are approved by the next Congress, assuming that one bothers to make a budget.

4. OH YEAH, THERE IS STILL NO BUDGET. I border on Guinness record levels of having the least responsible spending habits in the world and even I plan on how I'm going to pay my bills from month to month. We are approaching three state years that Congress has refused to pass a budget and that Democrats haven't even bothered to propose one (other that President Obama's joke of a budget that was voted down 97-0 and actually increased deficit spending, budget hawk that he is).

5. The budgeting process is broken like Sean Penn's sanity. As I said before, rather than looking at revenues and then programs and determining spending, the federal budget is based on expected automatic increases. Then, once those are put in, every starts planning on what they want to dump on top of it (i.e., "This sign telling you that the construction that hasn't accomplished anything on the Earhart Expressway was paid for by your tax dollars in the stimulus program because we wanted you to be fully clear and aware that we are wasting your money.") Most sane people either budget based on actual revenues in which they determine how much money they can use where (zero baseline budgeting) or file for bankruptcy. Only in the public sector is it acceptable to just spend thinking that you can print money to take care of it later. (Dear Democrats, devaluing the currency to pay the debt is not only idiotic, it borders on criminal.)

6. Tax raises are not only not off the table, they are being planned for. President Obama (who should have named his dog Cerberus, not that I'm implying he reigns over hell or anything) fully plans on letting the Bush tax cuts "expire" and has already said he will veto any legislation to extend them. Guess that whole "we all agree you shouldn't raise taxes during an economic downturn" thing went out the window. Of course, the President doesn't consider that raising taxes, they are just reverting to previous rates (which is going to be my defense when I ask the IRS to send me a refund as I would like to return to my previous taxes of 1997 when I worked minimum wage while in college). But beyond that, he has stated boldly that he intends to seek "revenue increases". I can only hope beyond hope that the President realizes that the government does not produce revenue and is planning on a bake sale of some sort. I'm not holding my breath.

I would say more, but frankly, I'm about to cry. I think the title of the bill was something like "Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing" or SB BS 112.

Have You Checked With Your Boss on That?

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday that the White House doesn't create jobs. While I tend to agree with Mr. Carney, he may wish to double check that statement with his employer, who constantly brags about how many jobs he has created.

Nearly a Perfect Example of Idiocy

Free cell phones for the poor because "it is a right to have peace of mind". Sometimes you read a story like this that just makes you want to give up because it seems like the idiots are destined to win. The 2012 election is going to determine that one way or the other.