U.S.A.

In repsonse to tough times, Congress is stimulating itself:

We all need to sacrifice.
Well, everyone but those lucky enough to be a member of the Pelosi-Reid Congress.

They gave themselves a raise last month.
They now make $174,000 a year for their 3 day work week.

Investment guru and entertaining TV hothead Jim Cramer appears to have joined Rush Limbaugh on the Failed Obama Administration™’s enemies list. Cramer, on his Monday show, told viewers that Barry’s budget, “is the most, greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president.”

Education is like torture. Or, the opposite of torture, in the way popular culture regards it.

We are all proud to hear that the United States does not torture, but we do not have a sound, common definition of what constitutes torture. Torture is vague, something that evil people do. Take waterboarding. Some say it is obviously cruel, while others point out that we do it to our own as a routine part of training. We go on to ignore the lack of definition and argue about whether this vague idea is effective, and under which hypotheticals it might be exceptionally permissible.

Listening to the talking heads defend, explain and justify the policies of the Failed Obama Administration™, I realize who the leader of the GOP really is: George W. Bush.

The lefties have all the power. They respond to every challenge against their use of that power by looking in the rear-view mirror. Barry says all his problems are inherited. So, the man commanding all this Democrat energy is actually the previous President.

Yesterday was NRR’s weekly stop for Bar Night. I overheard one of the regulars lamenting that Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric of wanting Obama to fail would incite violence from groups like the KKK. I don’t think racists wackjobs need any help building their fury. Further, I do not see Limbaugh as an opinion leader. He gives voice and clarity to what his audience already believes, rather than feeding them beliefs to cling to.

It isn’t Limbaugh’s rhetoric at the root of our imminent civil unrest. Barry is the one inciting violence with inflammatory speech:

Other presidents have been accused of using "enemies" as a political rallying point. Almost invariably, however, these enemies have been foreign (the "evil empire" and "axis of evil"). Obama is the first president "in my adult life" to set American against American, to create enemies at home as a political rallying point, to create a climate in which law-abiding American citizens are singled out as being worthy of attack.

Yep, Barack has met the enemy, and he is us.

Investing legend and Presidential economic adviser Warren Buffettt, “the Oracle of Omaha”, last week released his annual letter to shareholders of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. The resulting headlines were focused on Buffett’s prediction for 2009: The economy will be in shambles.

Last Tuesday I listened to the current President fog his way through a non-State-of-the-Union speech. At this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference, an opposing blowhard orator had the podium. In the interest of fairness and balance, I would like to hear how these words were delivered:

I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed.

Sounds like change I can believe in.

Obama’s budget proposal is a declaration of war.

The porkulus bill was ordinary leftyism, or ordinary politics, taken to the next level. I estimate the productive elements of the US economy could have paid for it. Remember, we do get some value out of the $787B. The money is not all set on fire, just put to less productive uses.

Neo-neocon senses a hunger for class warfare:

The feeling has been fed by decades of maceration in the idea that life is supposed to be fair and that fairness equals equality; that people are entitled to do well financially; that it’s a zero-sum game in which, if your neighbor is doing better than you are, then he/she is taking something away from you; that economic downturns are always the fault of the rich doing something underhanded and crooked; and that taking it out on the rich will benefit the rest of us.

Since TJIC is abstaining for Lent, I’ll try to step in:

"Otherwise, freedom will be sacrificed" is not a phrase that some of us will ever accept. I'll take to the streets, back alleys, and the like, to physically fight what is easily a Marxist attempt at extinguishing our freedoms.

So I die fighting for what was fought for by Washington, Hamilton, Knox, et. al., hell, I'll die for a good cause and in good company.

I realize many, many of our citizens have never even held a gun and cannot imagine doing any harm to another but that's ok, they can simply pass the ammo.

A Vermont lefty—and Obama voter—awakens [emphasis in original]:

I looked so forward to not having to listen to that stupid, smug son-of-a-bitch "W" Bush. I was really excited about the prospects of having a smart, eloquent, level-headed leader speaking in plain truths and common sense. I am such an asshole! What I have come to realize is that even though I found Bush-the-dumber virtually impossible to listen to, I always thought it was because he was such a self-congratulatory moron. But what I have quickly come to understand is that it was NOT his insipid, shit-assed grin, or his quasi-literate references to Noooquoooler Weaponsssssssssss that made me nutso, it was his lying. And the reason I know that now is because I feel THE EXACT SAME WAY about our new President.

I cannot possibly be the first to offer this snark:

After September 11, 2001, the stock market (DJIA) hit a low of 7286. As I type, the Dow is at 7285.

The current President has crashed a loaded jetliner into the US economy.

The previous President made sure the plane was ready for take-off. Last week, Congress made sure it had $800B of fuel on board. And Barry is the pilot aiming it at Wall Street.

Higher education is remedial education, and the affliction it remedies is an American upbringing.

Quoted from: William Voegeli

Via: Maggie’s Farm

President Tokyo Rose Obama has been lying. Economic conditions require no urgent action to “avoid catastrophe”:

For the second consecutive month, the index of leading economic indicators rose, gaining 0.4% in January, following a downwardly revised 0.2% in December.
 

"The second half of 2009 may see a period of anemic growth," said Ken Goldstein, economist at the Conference Board. "In fact, a return to robust growth may not occur until well into 2010, even if the long climb starts a few months from now."

If there was any urgency, it was political.

The Barrister posts:

Another bit of evidence contrary to the current sky-is-falling headlines:

Apparel sales picking up at some stores

Sales have likely picked up at Urban Outfitter Inc.'s Anthropologie stores, Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret and American Apparel Stores Inc., said Todd Slater, an analyst with Lazard Capital markets.

Businesses are required to track their income, expenses and obligations according to a standard set of rules. The rules are called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. Although there are complexities and abuses, following GAAP allows businesses to be reliably compared against competitors. GAAP helps the Securities and Exchange Commission deter management from manipulating the books to overstate profits or hide liabilities.

$900,000,000,000 (porkulus plus 1st-year interest cost)
÷    300,000,000 (estimate of US legal population)
=        300,000 (cost of bill per person)


Congress is borrowing an additional $300K per American.

THREE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS. PER. PERSON.

The current President has shown poor judgment in his cabinet picks. He’s taken a hostile tone with Republicans, contrary to his promised bipartisan “change”. He’s taken a series of steps to make the United States appear weaker in the eyes of terrorists. And he’s put his name on an $800 billion addition to the deficit which he didn’t write.

I expect Obama’s supporters are happy with this. Conservatives, and even most Republicans, are irate. There’s a third group, not getting mention in the media or the blogs I follow, who are likely the real victims of voter remorse: Hillary supporters.

Coyote posts evidence that Tokyo Rose Obama’s anti-hope message isn’t change, either: