Thursday, January 29, 2009

819 Billion Reasons To Hate The Stimulus...

Let's suppose that you work a job and are paid hourly. Then suddenly you are informed that your hours will be reduced. What do you do? Do you suddenly decide to spend MORE money, or do you look for ways to cut back and save in preparation for the reduced income.

Probably not the best analogy possible, but it frustrates me that supposedly brilliant people in Washington think that in tough economic times, government needs to spend MORE. Where is this additional money coming from?

Well they will just max out Uncle Sam's credit cards so future generations can deal with it right?

The absurdity of this "stimulus" bill is obvious to the political novice. Even 11 Democrats saw through this and joined every Republican present and voted against it. The final tally was 244-188. The Republicans offered an alternative largely made up of tax cuts - a proven job creator and economic stimulant, the Democrats voted that down 286-170.

So exactly what does $819 billion (over a trillion with interest) buy us? Here are a few choice nuggets:

Digital TV Coupons ($650 Million) - Are there really that many people still using bunny ears for TV reception? If they are that hard up, maybe they should be out finding a job instead of sitting in front of the television.

Gov’t Cars ($600 Million) - Didn't we just "invest" in the car companies already?

Nat’l Endowment for the Arts ($50 Million) - Just what a slowing economy needs, more funding of a crucifix in urine. Oh what would we do without taxpayer funded arts...

Repairs to National Mall ($200 Million, including $21m for sod) - $21 million for sod! I hope you can smoke that stuff.

Prevention of STDs ($335 Million) - If after all the millions spent to teach people to keep their pants zipped hasn't worked, why would another $335 million make a difference? Will the CDC find more creative ways to spend money than transgender beauty pageants and teaching gay men to flirt? I guess this is a TYPE of stimulus...

I could rant on about how ridiculous this is, but the cult of Obama is very strong. And the ignorance of the public schooled masses is strong too. Until the myth of government is the answer is finally broken, we are stuck with yet another long downturn thanks to our dear leader and his liberal army in Congress. Maybe the Senate will neuter this mess? Don't count on it.

The era of Obama's Big Government is upon us.

Here are some other interesting opinions on the subject:
Hundreds of economists disagree with more government spending
You Won't Believe What's in That Stimulus Bill
Good Morning, Suckers
The Democratic Porkfest Bill of 2009
Obama's Bill Hands ACORN $5.2 Billion Bailout
$646,214 Per Government Job

The Hoax That Will Not Die...

On one of the coldest days in Washington, and on a day when most of the country is covered in ice, Big Al Gore, champion of the Global Warming Hoax, testified to Congress that we are all going to die unless we turn the world into a Socialist Utopia designed by Big Al.

Never mind that hundreds of scientists, many who originally worked on the UN studies have recanted. Never mind that temperatures have been falling for at least a decade. Never mind that CO2 is a very, very minor player in the greenhouse effect. Never mind that the largest source of heat for planet earth comes from the sun and man can do nothing to prevent that. Never mind all scientific evidence or even the need for further research. In Big Al's feeble mind, the issue is settled.

I guess if you have made millions pushing a hoax and stand to make millions more from it, you set all reason aside.

Here is an excellent link to the story behind the global warming scam. The key paragraph is below with the link.


But the tide was turning with Roger Revelle. He was forced out at Harvard at 65 and returned to California and a semi retirement position at UCSD. There he had time to rethink Carbon Dioxide and the greenhouse effect. The man who had inspired Al Gore and given the UN the basic research it needed to launch its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was having second thoughts. In 1988 he wrote two cautionary letters to members of Congress. He wrote, "My own personal belief is that we should wait another 10 or 20 years to really be convinced that the greenhouse effect is going to be important for human beings, in both positive and negative ways." He added, "…we should be careful not to arouse too much alarm until the rate and amount of warming becomes clearer."
THE AMAZING STORY BEHIND THE GLOBAL WARMING SCAM

Before any government starts taking your money to stop "global warming," learn the facts. This is all about power and money. Big Al and his liberal buddies want to destroy America's prosperity. Do not let them succeed!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Chicago - Roadmap to Obama's America?

I came across this little article that lists major employers in the Chicago area and it is shocking. Observe:

1 U.S. Government - 78,000
2 Chicago Public Schools - 43,910
3 City of Chicago - 35,570
4 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - 23,453
5 Cook County - 22,142
6 State of Illinois - 18,124
7 Advocate Health Care - 15,660
8 University of Chicago - 14,287
9 Walgreen Co. - 14,254
10 UAL Corp. - 14,000
10 AT&T Inc. - 14,000

78,000 FEDERAL employees in Chicago! Almost 200,000 government employees just in the 5 in bold above. If we add in the hospitals and colleges in the top 25, which through government funding/control could be considered de facto government employers, those numbers nearly double. This is not a model that leads to prosperity. Government jobs are a net loss to the economy. And we are quickly reaching the point where there are not enough taxpayers to cover all these expenses, especially when almost 40% of the country pays nothing in taxes. And many of those actually are receiving handouts from the government.

If this is Obama's plan for America, I'm not interested.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Iraq By The Numbers...

The debate will continue on whether or not the invasion of Iraq was the right strategy. But you can't argue that the Democrats who were screaming that it was a "lost cause" and a "civil war" and that we had "lost the war" all look pretty stupid now.

The military is reporting that American losses dropped to 314 for 2008 down from 904 the year before. It is not clear from the articles I have read if these are all combat deaths. One site only lists 230 actual combat deaths while describing the rest as non-hostile.

In the first link from AP, they made sure to mention that combat deaths were up in Afghanistan. We wouldn't want the current administration to receive any credit or praise. The AP will wait until their savior is in office before starting their "everything is glorious and rosy under the Dear Leader" mode.

The Iraqi government is also reporting a major drop in civilian casualties from 16,252 in 2007 down to 5,714 in 2008. Remember these numbers are out of a 27 million population.

While every life is precious, it is nice to see such a huge drop in casualties, and that the Iraqi Army is taking over more responsibility. The surge seems to have been a success.

Compare those numbers to a typical, liberal American metro area. In 2008 New York had 501 murders, Detroit 340, Los Angeles 376 (as of 12/27), Washington DC 186 (429 DC area), Baltimore 234, Philadelphia 332, and of course Obama's own paradise Chicago (bang bang) posted 509 homicides for the year. Let's hope Obama doesn't do for the rest of the country what he has done there.

FYI - Dallas dropped down to 171 in 2008 from 200 in 2007. We must have had a "surge" or maybe that little concealed handgun law may act as a deterrent down here.

There are still three major terrorist supporting countries left to be dealt with by the next President. But somehow I think they will get a pass.