Tag Archives: United States

Storms Ahead for the Right

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If the odd weather we’ve been experiencing across the country – 75 one day, 38 the next with torrential rains; temperatures in the 20s in California – means anything, maybe it reflects our nation’s wild spinning off course. There is something almost Shakespearean about it. It fits with how quickly and strangely the United States is falling from what has been its natural orbit for 200 years.

Go back a few years and reflect if we’d have a pro Islamist cabal in the White House. Seem crazy? It happened and we do. Iranian born Valerie Jarrett runs the show in the Oval Office. Chum of despot Bashar Assad, John Kerry, will be Secretary of State. Chuck Hagel, a man who opposes military action almost completely and who refused to vote to call Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, will head our Defense Dept. Jack Lew, presumptive Treasury Secretary, has no qualifications, standing or experience in finance here or abroad at a time when America’s economic situation is perilous.

And yet, no one seems to care. The media would rather report on Republicans’ crazy belief in our second amendment or bashing football Christian Tim Tebow than tell us about our own administration. They won’t even put forward stories on Europe’s deteriorating fiscal situation, which will eventually touch us.

If they won’t talk about that and won’t ever dare criticize President Obama, what else aren’t they telling us?

How about the plans called The Democracy Initiative? It is one of the more disturbing examples. A story from the Washington Free Beacon about it is titled “A Conspiracy So Immense” (http://freebeacon.com/a-conspiracy-so-immense/). They learned about it from a Mother Jones report, “Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics” (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/democracy-initiative-campaign-finance-filibuster-sierra-club-greenpeace-naacp). Before you dismiss it as some whacked out right wing nightmare, take a look and see if it isn’t something the Obama people would do.

Matthew Continetti explains the Democracy Initiative “is a major story. The brainchild of Michael Brune, Phil Radford, Larry Cohen, and Ben Jealous, the Democracy Initiative, according to Mother Jones’s Kroll, is ‘the first time so many groups teamed up to work on multiple issues not tied to an election.’” In other words, liberal groups met in June and December of 2012 to plot the course for our country. Here’s a hint: it wasn’t towards the Constitution. Who was involved? The list is staggering: The Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Communications Workers of America union, NAACP, National Education Association, AFL-CIO, Center for American Progress, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Color of Change, Common Cause, Demos, The Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters, Mother Jones (who reported on this), National People’s Action, National Wildlife Federation, People for the American Way, Piper Fund, Public Campaign, SEIU, UAW and Voto Latino. Evidently they are still building this coalition and hope to have 50 groups this spring.

Together, the groups bring $1.69 billion to the table to work on public opinion. And what issues are they targeting? They say the want to get big money out of politics (ironic!), fight voter ID laws at the state level to expand voter rolls and stop the use of the filibuster in the Senate so they can push their legislation through.

What can our side do to combat this? It looks bleak. The Left has the media, Hollywood, television, newspapers, Google, Facebook, lawyers, liberal judges that have been put in place for decades, unions, schools, colleges and even some naive businessmen like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. They have been masters at propaganda for decades, honing their craft to appeal to the “low information voter.”

They have young people, too. Talk to a few and you find out they have no desire to question anything they are told. There are good guys and bad guys. George W. Bush was a bad guy. A stupid bad guy. Barack Obama is a good guy, even though the economy is bad for them. They don’t remember any other presidents, so they have nothing to compare.

Politics are seen in black and white. Republicans are racists and examination of issues is just skin deep. The Democrats have been adept at framing issues that way. The appeal to emotions has been wildly successful for them. Facts and logic escape the LIV.

Will the Right find a leader to break through the madness? Someone like Ronald Reagan who can part the clouds of doom and restore the light?

Obama’s Backward World

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It is striking how the “progressives” led by President Obama are the least progressive people in the United States today, if you understand the word to mean advancement and reform.

Why do I say that? Listening to Glenn Beck brought me to that conclusion. Beck, since he left Fox News, has branched out to form an amazing empire. He has a daily radio show, but he now has formed a network, The Blaze TV, that single handedly may revive journalism.

He has been revealing his plans on his radio and internet show this week:

Glenn said that many things would be happening in the next sixty days for The Blaze. He explained that the network would soon have a “Global Information Headquarters” located in New York City, hinting at a new location with noted significance that will cause people to take notice. TheBlaze would also have three new bureau offices, some of which would be located overseas. He also announced plans to expand the news team with a focus on investigative journalism.

Glenn also announced expanded programming. First, he said that “For the Record” would soon be launching as a periodic news magazine show similar to “60 Minutes”.He also said that he was planning to launch a new nightly news show similar to “Nightline”, but noted cautioned that his business and programming teams have warned him that it would be “impossible” to accomplish this in 2013. Glenn disagrees.

“Our Nightline will be a nightly half hour broadcast to update you on a topic that no one else quite frankly has the balls to do. I will,” he said.

He also plans to have live news updates during TheBlaze throughout the broadcast day.

Glenn then shifted gears to technology, focusing on an exciting second screen experience. Glenn explained that using an iPad, viewers would be able to delve into an enhanced experience that would allow them to access more information than can be shown on the television screen.

The second screen feature, which is still in development, would allow viewers to find and view primary sources, purchase books and items mentioned on the show, participate in live polls, and delve further into the videos and charts showcased during the monologues.

Is anyone else in network TV even contemplating doing such things?

Beck also talked about the new technology ahead that will revolutionize our lives. Did you know that you now can – with the right equipment – make a gun on a 3D printer? You can. You will be able to make other items, too, which will completely change the manufacturing status in the world.

Do you see Barack Obama or any of the Democrats even mentioning these innovations? No. Just think how being able to make your own gun renders moot all the talk about gun control. On this issue, the Democrats and Obama have just one thought: curtail your gun rights. That’s the answer they had a hundred years ago. They have no new ideas about it at all.

And this is true in issues across the board. Obama is very backward looking if you think about it. The only forward thinking he’s had has been his campaign slogan and his method for getting out votes for himself. Other than that, we are stuck with debt solving by more taxes; women’s rights meaning more abortions; energy expansion can only be done with the very old idea of windmills and the reliance on solar energy that has not been reliable for decades.

Topics like race relations devolve into every American must be freed from it by hate legislation and free speech monitoring. Education can only be done the old fashioned way; no vouchers or other plans get the slightest consideration. Social Security can’t be changed either, but ramped up through more taxes. Health care is an issue relying on the old European socialist plan and that doesn’t seem to help citizens get better care or encourage new treatments.

The progressive world is actually a very regressive one. Their world is still a world of segregated lunch counters, women kept barefoot and pregnant and gays hiding in closets. They inhabit the 30s, 40s and 60s. They refuse to see that America has bettered herself. It’s not to their advantage.

Sad, really, that they mask everything in these lies. Forward? Hardly.

You Owe $218,676

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If you are under 18, better start saving those pennies now. Congratulations, you owe $218,676. And no, it isn’t President Bush’s fault.

CNS News reports this figure that reflects the amount needed to pay off the entirety of the federal government’s debt.
They say:

During the time Barack Obama has been president, the U.S. government debt has increased from approximately $143,255 per American under 18 to approximately $218,676 per American under 18–a climb of $75,421 or about 53 percent.

As of Nov. 1, the total national debt was $16,221,685,381,838.28, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. On Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, it was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Thus, during Obama’s presidency, the U.S. government debt has increased $5,594,808,332,925.20.

The 2010 Census said there were 74,181,467 people in the United States under the age of 18. Thus the total U.S. government debt of $16,221,685,381,838.28 equals about $218,676 per person under 18, and the $5,594,808,332,925.20 in new debt accumulated under Obama equals about $75,421 per person under 18.

Guess you can kiss four years at that good college you want to attend good-bye.

So what about the rest of us over 18?

As of September, CNS found that:

The U.S. government debt, which topped $16 trillion… now equals approximately $136,260 for every household in the country.

Just since President Barack Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt has increased by $45,848 per household—or about 50 percent per household.

All that money and what have we gotten for it? Do you see roads fixed? Do you see more interstate highways built? Has the power grid been improved? Are we better protected? Have schools improved? Are there more people graduating from high school who actually know how to read? Exactly what improvements have been made with all that stimulus money?

All we got was more debt and should Obama win, all we will get will be more taxes.

Mitt’s a Hit

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Political analysts had been harping for so long on Mitt Romney’s speech last night that you couldn’t help but feel apprehensive for him. As they usually do, the politerati’s strident voices insisted that this was make or break for Mitt. He had to show his human side to the nation. He had to succeed. This was his once in a lifetime moment. This was what he had prepared for his whole life.

Well, things are rarely that cut and dried. There are months left to campaign in which anything can happen; some beyond a leader’s control and some he causes himself.

In Romney’s case last night, he met all expectations. He fulfilled every requirement for the presidency.

First, he looked presidential. His entry through the convention crowd was worth every minute spent. It resembled the president’s entrance when he makes the State of the Union address to Congress. That was no accident. At least subconsciously it made you see him in that role.

Then he felt like one of us. He was the husband who recognizes that his wife’s parenting skills outweigh whatever work title he has. He was the son who misses his mom and dad. He was the father who repairs things around the house (I loved the film clip of the too big bulb he replaced over the stove, then blocked with duct tape and paper). He was the breadwinner who wants to make sure his family thrives. He was the man of faith who knows he must live it out as a believer. He was the citizen, outraged at the condition the United States now finds itself in. He was the leader who seeks to change it.

Brilliantly, he contrasted four years ago with today. Romney said he wished Obama had succeeded; that was another riff on Ryan’s portrayal of Obama as a has been who didn’t know what to do. Romney tied Obama to Jimmy Carter, which sets himself up as the Reagan antidote.

One of his best lines quoted Obama’s convention promise to stop the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. As Romney said, let that sink in. No one but a delusional egotist could spit those words out of his mouth. Romney paused and said he just wanted to help Americans. There is nothing better in speeches than using your opponents words to hang him.

Romney went on to sketch his ideas.

First: Get the U.S. energy independent by 2020 by opening up our assets in North America, including the pipeline.

Second: Make sure Americans have the skills they need to get jobs. School choice, he said, is the way.

Third: New trade agreements in which cheaters (like China) would not be tolerated.

Fourth: Cut the deficit and balance the budget.

Fifth: Champion small business by reducing taxes, cutting regulations and repealing Obamacare.

Critics have been quick to say these are all too vague. For many of them, though, hope and change were all they need to know to vote for Obama. In a 40 minute speech details necessarily are limited.

Did Mitt seal the deal? Probably not. I doubt any speech would do that. He moved us a lot closer to victory, though.

2016: Obama’s America

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This afternoon I went to the first showing of the above mentioned movie at Wolfchase. A line for tickets had already formed, which was surprising since we got there 20 minutes early, and this was the 1:10 showing, not usually one where you have to wait to purchase tickets.

Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative writer born in India, narrates the film. D’Souza felt a strange sort of kinship with Obama. His life follows, in an odd way, Obama’s. He was born in the same year, 1961; graduated the same year as Obama; and even got married the same year as Obama and Michelle. Both had exposure to life in the third world during their childhoods. But this is where the story diverges.

In a very fair way, D’Souza examines the background of Obama, especially his father. As he says, Obama’s “autobiography” (after numerous accounts, I share the belief that the true author is Bill Ayers), Dreams From My Father, is from his father and not of. It’s an important distinction.

So he goes in search of what Obama Sr.’s dreams were. D’Souza explains and shows that they are not dreams from America’s Founding Fathers. The dreams of Obama Sr. concerned getting the British out of his native Kenya. He hated all colonial nations and even suggested 100% income tax on the wealthy. The idea is to bring down the colonial powers by bringing them down to the level of the third world so that they suffer as he did.

Bus aside from his real father, Obama’s spiritual fathers are examined because they provided guidance his absent father did not. They are Bill Ayers, Edward Said, Jeremiah Wright, Frederick Unger, a Harvard professor from Argentina, and Communist Frank Marshall Davis.

For Americans, the dreams these men have are nightmares. Reducing our nuclear stockpiles until we are powerless, a United States of Islam in the Middle East, halting our energy production so that other powers like Brazil can overtake us are on the list and fast becoming realities. So is the scary scenario of a tipping point brought on my our debt. David Walker, U.S. comptroller from 2000-2008 paints a dire situation. We are near Greece in our debt situation. If we fall, it will have repercussions for us, but the whole world, too.

Throughout the movie, D’Souza interviews great thinkers, among whom Dr. Shelby Steele is one of the best and most enjoyable.

At the end of the movie, an unusual thing happened. The lights dimmed and a ripple of applause broke out and got louder. How many movies have you gone to where that happened? I can’t recall one. And this for a documentary – something Americans aren’t supposed to tolerate.

Go see the movie and see it quickly. Hard to say how long it will be here, but it’s a must see.

Jobless No. Tops Last Week

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Bloomberg reports:

The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits climbed last week to a one-month high, showing little progress in the labor market.

Jobless claims rose by 4,000 for a second week to reach 372,000 in the period ended Aug. 18, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 365,000. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, increased to 368,000.

This prompted ZeroHedge’s response: “The real story continues to be the steep fall off in those on extended benefits and EUC, which declined by a total of 48K in the past week, and down by about half a million in the last few months, and lower by 1.3 million in the past year. This is 1.3 million fewer consumers who can recycle Uncle Sam’s dole back into the economy and iGadgets.”

Later in the morning we got a nugget more information. Again, ZeroHedge brings us back to reality:

Looking at the headline number in the just released New Home Sales data one would be left with the impression that the tepid “recovery” in housing may be chugging along: after all with a seasonally adjusted annualized 372,000 new homes sold in July, this was an improvement to the revised 359K in June (ignoring that the US housing market at best continues to drag along the bottom). This impression, however, promptly changes when one looks at the underlying data. The reality: the actual number of new homes sold in July was 34,000, the same as in June, and the lowest since March. Of this, a massive 3,000 (yes, three thousand) homes were sold in the Northeast in the entire month. Where things get worse is when one looks at the number of new homes for sale. At 142,000 (of which just 38,000 actually completed), this was the lowest number. EVER. And finally, to ruin all hopes that the housing bottom may mean an actual pricing bottom, the median new home price slid to $224,200, down from $229,100 in June, and the lowest since January, while the average home price declined from $266,900 to $263,200. This was the lowest average price posted so far in 2012.

Romney Interviewed About Religion Tonight

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If you get EWTN network (370 on DirecTv), Raymond Arroyo interviews Governor Mitt Romney on tonight’s program at 7 p.m. Central Time. He breaks some news in the interview, including that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the top Catholic in the U.S., will give a benediction at the RNC convention as Romney accepts the nomination.

Forward to Socialism

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Sunday at a fundraiser in Chicago, one of the five he managed to squeeze into one day, the president of the United States made a pitch for a new, socialist/marxist America:

Shared prosperity. Let that sink in. How is that different from communism?

Obama’s obviously serious about this vision because here he is in a weekly radio address from April of last year. Notice he uses “shared prosperity” again but this time he throws in “shared responsibility.”

This comment is not some outlier. Nor was his “you didn’t build it remark.” He means to take us to a completely different economic and social system and it’s not one that was shared by the Founding Fathers.

Gotchas Avoided on 60 Minutes

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Probably the most important part of the 60 Minutes interview last night with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan was left on the cutting room floor.

Not by accident, either, in my opinion. Bob Schieffer discussed Medicare with Ryan who correctly targeted Obama as the one who will cut it and explained that his mother relies on Medicare. He did not want her or other old people to suffer from the drastic cuts coming to Medicare.

But that clip didn’t make it to the television audience. Maybe because it goes against the Democrat talking point of scaring seniors? Ya think?

The interview that did make air time showed a team on the ball for whatever Schieffer threw at them.

Romney and Ryan were completely at ease, the ease that comes with believing in your message and knowing it is the right one. Neither was mean spirited or desperate. Ryan summed up their campaign as focusing on “here’s how you get the country back on track.” They don’t plan on demonizing Obama, although his plan seems to be solely that towards them.

Schieffer did not press for details. He skirted any substantive policy plans and specifics about the economy. I guess he’ll leave that to the practiced Democrat slime machine.

It was a good first impression of the candidates. Schieffer brought up Romney’s introductory flub. He has introduced Ryan on Saturday as the next president of the United States. Romney acknowledged it with a laugh and recalled that then candidate Barack Obama had done the same thing in introducing Biden.

I guess I haven’t looked at 60 Minutes for a long time, but was that Morley Safer doing the intro? He looks like he’s barely hanging on. Sometimes it’s better to go out while you’re ahead.

8.3% Unemployment Rate

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Sure, 163,000 jobs were added, but read what it really means according to the savvy ZeroHedge blog:

Happy by the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US “added” 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an “adjusted” rise? Simple: the BLS “added” 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there’s more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs “added”, 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging. Doesn’t matter – the flashing red headline is good enough for the algos.

We got the pre-spun job quantity data already, where we learned that nearly 3 times the headline print was due to seasonal and B/D adjustments and is thus nothing but noise. Now we get the quality… from the Household Survey, in July the number of part-time jobs added was 31K, bringing the total to 27,925, just shy of the all time record of 28,038. Full time jobs? Down 228,000 to 114,345, lower than the February full-time jobs print of 114,408. Once again, more and more Americans are relinquishing any and all benefits associated with Full Time Jobs benefits, and instead are agreeing on a job. Any job. Even if it means working just 1 hour a week. For the BLS it doesn’t matter – 1 hour of work a week still qualifies you as a Part-Time worker.