Those Are Some Lovely Kneecaps You Have There...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MICHAEL GRAHAM ON the Democrats’ uncivil discourse. “From now until November 2012, you’re going t…: "Under the leadership of Hoffa the Elder, the Teamsters were synonymous with union corruption and organized crime. And so industrious was onetime US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy in trying to clean up the union that Teamsters actually cheered when Kennedy was murdered by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968.

How fascinating that then-Sen. Barack Obama — whom many Democrats saw as the second coming of RFK — won the Teamsters’ endorsement in 2008 by supporting an end to strict federal anti-corruption oversight of the union.

Indeed."

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PinOcchiO

Obama’s whopper of a claim on tax cuts - The Fact Checker - The Washington Post: "Obama’s claim of having passed the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history” is ridiculous. He might have been on more solid ground if he had claimed the “broadest” tax cut, but that doesn’t sound very historic.

 We went back and forth over whether this was a three or four Pinocchio violation, until we found evidence that Obama knew he was saying a whopper.  Here’s how he put it in his 2010 State of the Union speech: “We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.”  That phrasing, at least, would not have been so misleading."

I suspect this article will be "disappeared" from the WaPo website soon...

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Allies

Belmont Club » Time Bandits: "The Time Bandit problem would not have happened without the alliance of finance with government. Without the money Time Machine government could never have looted the future.  The advances of modern finance were the key technological breakthrough that enabled such monstrous and useless organizations like the EU to rise up.

This fact fundamentally illustrates why “giving government more power over the banks” may never work. It doesn’t solve the moral hazard because government is the chief abuser of the magic intertemporal deficit machine. Put them in charge of the Time Machine and nothing may change."

An instant classic. Wretchard strikes again.

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Regime Uncertainty Update: Enough

Articles: An Economics Lesson Even a Liberal Can Grasp: "Let me give you one example to illustrate this point: in the course of my lecture business I meet a great many owners of small- and medium-sized companies -- precisely the men and women we depend upon to create jobs for all the rest of us.  One evening, when my lecture to a group of these entrepreneurs had ended and we were all having a drink in the hotel bar, the CEO of a rock-solid manufacturing company said something that stopped the conversation cold: "I'll be damned before I start hiring people now, just in time to send the unemployment rate plunging so it re-elects the president next year.  In a second term, this guy'll kill my business."  There was a dead silence, and then every other business owner at the table nodded in agreement.

The point isn't whether these CEOs are right or wrong.  The point is that this is what they've come to believe, and their actions will be based upon their perceptions.  For all of us who depend on our country's entrepreneurs to create jobs -- which is to say, for all of us without safe government jobs -- this is more than depressing.  It's terrifying."

Any questions?

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COTD II: Which Side Is Anti-Science Again?

Climate Confusion I | Power Line: Oh, and I have taken to responding to the "anti-science" charge similarly. The "science" on the safety of vaccines is overwhelming, as is the science on the utility of DDT, the safety and utility of GMO crops, the safety of plasticizers such as phthalates and BPA, the overall safety of nuclear power, and so forth. As you point out, they refuse to de-list non-endangered species, they refuse to allow land use on parks that has been shown to be environmentally harmless, and the list goes on. The left is adamantly against all of these things, arguing that one or two fringe studies suggest they're unsafe. Which side is anti-science again?

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COTD: Biflation

Presenting Goldman's Six Bullet Point Forecast Of Global Policy Intervention To Prevent The Re-Depression | ZeroHedge: "Biflation...everything you need is rising...stuff you already own is losing value."

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Makes You Wonder How Much Access To "Healthcare" The Joooos Have In Cuba, Doesn't It?

News from The Associated Press: "HAVANA (AP) -- An American government subcontractor sentenced to 15 years in prison after illegally bringing communications equipment into Cuba told a Havana court he was a "trusting fool" and never meant any harm to the government, according to excerpts from his testimony released Friday by his lawyer.

Alan Gross, a 62-year-old Maryland native who has been jailed here since December 2009, said he had no idea his actions while on a USAID-funded democracy-building program would raise the ire of Havana authorities.

Cuba says he was distributing satellite telephones and other communications equipment that are illegal to use without authorization. The island's government says the U.S. democracy programs in general are an assault by Washington on the country's sovereignty. Gross has maintained he was only trying to help the Cuba's tiny Jewish community improve Internet access."

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Earlier And Later

A Tale of Two Declines - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "She opens with a lurid account of a recent visit to a north Virginia mall — zombie teens texting, a thirtysomething metrosexual having his eyebrows threaded, a fiftysomething cougar spilling out of her tube top, grade-schoolers in the latest “prostitot” fashions — and then embarks on a lively tour of American cultural levers, from schools to social media to churches to Hollywood. If there is a common theme in the various rubble of cultural ruin, it’s the urge to enter adolescence ever earlier and leave it later and later, if at all. So we have skanky tweens “dry humping” at middle-school dances, and an ever greater proportion of “men” in their thirties living at home with their parents."

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Wikileaks On The Golden Stone

Wikileaks Discloses The Reason(s) Behind China's Shadow Gold Buying Spree | ZeroHedge: "Wondering why gold at $1850 is cheap, or why gold at double that price will also be cheap, or frankly at any price? Because, as the following leaked cable explains, gold is, to China at least, nothing but the opportunity cost of destroying the dollar's reserve status. Putting that into dollar terms is, therefore, impractical at best, and illogical at worst. We have a suspicion that the following cable from the US embassy in China is about to go not viral but very much global, and prompt all those mutual fund managers who are on the golden sidelines to dip a toe in the 24 karat pool. The only thing that matters from China's perspective is that "suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries towards reserving more gold. Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the RMB." Now, what would happen if mutual and pension funds finally comprehend they are massively underinvested in the one asset which China is without a trace of doubt massively accumulating behind the scenes is nothing short of a worldwide scramble, not so much for paper, but every last ounce of physical gold..."

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The Bastards

The People Have Spoken–the Bastards! | Power Line: "That immortal line is generally attributed to Dick Tuck, I think, but it sums up the reaction of many politicians to electoral defeat, or, sometimes, the anticipation thereof. At Reason, A. Barton Hinkle satirizes the deteriorating relationship between Barack Obama and the American people. As time goes by, his approval of us continues to drop:

President Obama’s approval rating of the American public has fallen to an all-time low, according to a new Gallup survey of White House residents and employees.

Fewer than one in 10 Americans earned the president’s favor, according to the president. That is down sharply from six in 10—the percentage of Americans Obama approved of shortly after his election in November 2008, and the lowest level yet for his administration."

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800%

Yes, It Is a Ponzi Scheme - Michael Tanner - National Review Online: "Of course, Social Security and Ponzi schemes are not perfectly analogous. Ponzi, after all, had to rely on what people were willing to voluntarily invest with him. Once he couldn’t convince enough new investors to join his scheme, it collapsed. Social Security, on the other hand, can rely on the power of the government to tax. As the shrinking number of workers paying into the system makes it harder to continue to sustain benefits, the government can just force young people to pay even more into the system.

In fact, Social Security taxes have been raised some 40 times since the program began. The initial Social Security tax was 2 percent (split between the employer and employee), capped at $3,000 of earnings. That made for a maximum tax of $60. Today, the tax is 12.4 percent, capped at $106,800, for a maximum tax of $13,234. Even adjusting for inflation, that represents more than an 800 percent increase."

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The Truth Is Out There

Afterburner: The Truth Is Out There - YouTube: "Bill Whittle has his truth. Pacifica Radio's Amy Goodman has her truth. Everyone has their own truth. This is the mantra of the left today, and if you think about it, it has to be the mantra of the left. Find out why."

Bill Whittle is a national treasure. This is absolutely devastating.

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The Biggest Lie In History

Obama, Hitler, And Exploding The Biggest Lie In History - Forbes: "“The line between fascism and Fabian socialism is very thin. Fabian socialism is the dream. Fascism is Fabian socialism plus the inevitable dictator.” John T. Flynn

Numerous commentators have raised alarming comparisons between America’s recent economic foibles and Argentina’s fall “from breadbasket to basket case.” The U.S. pursues a similar path with her economy increasingly ensnared under the growing nexus of government control. Resources are redistributed for vote-buying welfare schemes, patronage style earmarks, and graft by unelected bureaucrats, quid pro quo with unions, issue groups and legions of lobbyists.

In Argentina, everyone acknowledges that fascism, state capitalism, corporatism – whatever – reflects very leftwing ideology. Eva Peron remains a liberal icon. President Obama’s Fabian policies (Keynesian economics) promise similar ends. His proposed infrastructure bank is just the latest gyration of corporatism. Why then are fascists consistently portrayed as conservatives?"

I have previously linked to some excellent but longish articles on what Hitler and Mussolini (and Roosevelt) were really up to with National Socialism / Fascism. This is one that is relatively short but not so short to be content-free. You should take the time to read it about four times so it sinks in. Then make sure all your friends and family read it...

I can't emphasize enough how important it is that people understand this part of recent history correctly and clearly.

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The Rest O The Story

“Kelo v. New London”: An Ignominous End for One of the Supreme Court’s Worst Decisions - Ricochet.com: "In 2005, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Kelo v. New London, using the powers of eminent domain to seize property from one private owner and hand it over to another private owner -- a developer who promised more than 3,000 new jobs and $1.2 million in tax revenue.

And now, as they say, the rest of the story: 

. . . the city’s project has been a failure, with 91 acres of waterfront property sitting there empty and overgrown by weeds."

Who could have possibly forseen such a thing? Maybe those few of us left that don't have lettuce for brains?

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Destruction

Obama’s Ozone Action Shows Internal Conflicts - By Iain Murray - The Corner - National Review Online: "My colleague Myron Ebell spells out the political calculations:

 What is shameful about the President’s decision to delay the new ozone rule is that it’s all about improving his chances of being re-elected and has nothing to do with the economic damage that the rule would do. The fact that the President still wants to go ahead after he gets re-elected with a regulation that has been estimated to cost $1 trillion a year shows that he could care less about the U. S. economy and the millions of people who have lost their jobs.

In other words, he wants to wait until the economy recovers before he starts destroying it again."

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COTD: O, Wait A Minute!

Belmont Club » A Comment About What the President May Tell Congress: "49erDweet
2011-09-01 23:49:43

I have no problem with suing the banks as long as all the co-conspirators are included as defendants. Conspirators like Senators and Congresspersons who more than enabled fiduciary mismanagement, they literally demanded it by way of legislative fiat. Let’s name names and sue them all.

Oh, wait a minute. When exactly was Obama a Senator?"

Yep. Sign me up for some of that. Look over right at the runner-up quote of the Holocene...

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Jobs, Shmobs

This Cartoon Is Very Funny, but also Does a Great Job of Teaching Economics « International Liberty: "Economists often do a crummy job of teaching people about the impact of fiscal policy on the labor force, largely because we put people to sleep with boring discussions about “labor supply” decisions (my blog post from last year perhaps being an example of this tendency).

From now on, I will try to remember to use this cartoon. It’s a parody of Obama’s policies, but the last slide (or is it a panel?) is a great teaching tool about what happens when politicians turn the safety net into a hammock."

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Eventually

Keynesian Economics in a Cartoon | Cato @ Liberty: "I’ve written extensively about the flaws of Keynesian economics, and I’ve even narrated a video on the flaws of Keynesian theory.

But this clever cartoon may be more effective than anything I’ve ever done."

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High Speed Rail Update

Ace of Spades HQ: "How blatant a campaign move is it? They've already leaked their Blame Republicans strategy to the press.

in the forthcoming issue — ‘Can He Step Up His Game? Obama’s next move: if he can’t fix the economy, make sure the Republicans get the blame’

Obama is not looking for solutions; he is looking for campaign attacks. He wants a laundry-list of vague, soundbite-friendly non-initiatives (nonitiatives?) which he knows the Republicans will reject (he's counting on them to reject them) so he can claim all economic troubles are due to Republicans not wanting to throw more money at high-speed rail and high-speed internet."

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Did I Forget To Mention "Regime Uncertainty"?

Instapundit » Blog Archive » OOPS: Solyndra Filing A Disaster For Obama. “Wow, which radical right-wing deathbeast Obama-hating…: "Reader Patrick Kelly writes:
I read the WaPo article on Solyndra. This quote from Solyndra’s CEO really stood out:

“This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate,” Solyndra chief executive Brian Harrison said in a statement. “Regulatory and policy uncertainties” made it impossible to raise capital to quickly rescue the operation, he said.

I guess that’s what you get when you dance with the devil. The same government that can take other people’s money to make your company work can also regulate your company to the point where you can’t raise capital from any other source.

Oft evil will shall evil mar.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:28 am"

... Die by the sword.

UPDATE: Wowee:

Total losses for Solyndra — the company which President Obama touted as the future of Green Jobs — may exceed a billion dollars. GigaOm says the debacle could be the biggest VC loss in history. “When hip cell phone startup Amp’d Mobile went bankrupt back in 2007, the company lost its venture capital investors about $360 million. When solar maker Solyndra files for bankruptcy (they’re aiming for next week) it could lose close to three times that amount, or a big chunk of its VC backers $1.1 billion (we’ll see how much any assets go for). That could make it the largest equity loss for venture capitalists in history.”

The power O disaster.

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