All ya have to do is fail miserably…
America, land of suckers paying a failed car company to continue pumping out cars no one wants.
Thanks, Barack.
Ha. Ouch.
Crony Capitalism
Transparency? Obama’s Secretive Soros-Funded Money Machine
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, left-wingers and Democrats have been braying for center right and conservative organizations, PACS, and super PACS to reveal their donors, the libs claiming that such “transparency” is good for American politics. But as far as these people are concerned, “disclosure” is only to be forced on others and the fact that one of Obama’s biggest campaign donation bundlers is the leader of a very secretive Democrat money machine proves the rule rather than the exception.
That campaign money maven is Kelly Craighead, president and managing director of Democracy Alliance, a high dollar group of Democrat donors founded in 2005 with start-up money from left-wing billionaire George Soros.
So, what does this group do? According to the Washington Free Beacon:
The Alliance serves as a clearinghouse that connects donors to endorsed organizations—such as the Center for American Progress and the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA—without threat of disclosure. The Alliance is not listed in any phonebook, and does not disclose its donors or endorsed organizations.
That’s right, this group that is made up of left-wingers that scold the right for a lack of transparency won’t reveal its own donors. So much for veracity.
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Transparency? Obama’s Secretive Soros-Funded Money Machine”
Obama Just Hates Capitalism. Period.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many are saying that President Obama just doesn’t understand capitalism, that his big government ideas are born of a misunderstanding of what makes the United States of America the great nation it has become. Many think that he just doesn’t grasp our American culture, our philosophy, and our founder’s vision. With his comments made at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia on July 13, one can easily think that might be the case.
Here is what he said about the business sector:
Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
So, Mr. President, no one makes his own business? Someone else handed it to him? And the wellspring of all business is government spending?
As they used to say on Saturday Night Live back in the day, “Barack you ignorant slut.”
Many are saying that this, along with a plethora of other off handed comments he’s made over the years proves he doesn’t understand the American economy. Other comments such as his 2008 claim that he wants to “redistribute” everyone’s wealth, his thought that he wanted to “necessarily bankrupt” the coal industry in order to implement jobs-killing faux enviro-nut rules, his crony loans to multiple failed Solyndra-like “green” energy companies, and his sweetheart deals with other friends, campaign donors, and members of his administration — all with OUR tax money — all this shows he is not a capitalist, but a quasi-fascist that thinks the State should own and control the business sector.
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Obama Just Hates Capitalism. Period.”
Arizona Utility Company Owner Getting Rate Payers to Pay HIS Income Taxes?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now this seems like a case of blatant influence peddling to me, but the owner of a water utility company in Arizona is seeking the assistance of a friendly state regulatory agency to allow him to charge his customers a higher rate so that he can use their money to pay his income taxes.
The Arizona Republic recently posted a story by Ryan Randazzo that breaks down all the players nicely, but it is a somewhat confusing story nonetheless.
It appears that a real estate developer named Ed Robson started the community of water customers in question, a community of some 10,000 homes in the southwest valley called Sun Lakes. Not surprisingly, Robson also owns Pima Utilities, the water company that serves that community and the one seeking the rate hike.
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Arizona Utility Company Owner Getting Rate Payers to Pay HIS Income Taxes?”
Too Many Republican Congressmen Giving Unions Free Tax Dollars
-By Warner Todd Huston
For such a blue state, Illinois has some rather good Republicans in Congress, but on one issue many of them consistently fail. That is in their unfortunate support for Big Labor. The issue of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) is a perfect example of this penchant to support issues dear to the hearts of Big Labor.
Unions love PLAs because the rule forces government construction projects to be conducted under union rules, to pay union pay scales to workers as well as pension payments to the union plans, and requires all work to be controlled by union bosses even if the companies hired to do the work are non-union. With PLAs unions feel they have the best of both worlds because they can still benefit from free government money even when they aren’t hired to do the work. In short, PLAs are a sop to unions.
The main problem with PLAs is that they drive up the costs of government building contracts from word go. This costs us all money and in this era when we need to be cutting back the skyrocketing costs of government adding rules that drive up costs before the first foundation is dug is madness. Worse it is unfair to the largest number of construction companies that aren’t union members as they are forced as a condition of getting the work to pay unions thousands out of their pockets even as they’ll never benefit from union pensions or other programs.
Sadly, too many Illinois Republican Congressmen have been consistently in favor of allowing unions this free government handout. It is probably not a huge surprise that even Republicans in deep blue Illinois might end up bowing to the needs of greedy Big Labor initiatives. But it is not a healthy support regardless.
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Too Many Republican Congressmen Giving Unions Free Tax Dollars”
‘Leaf’ Vision & Broadband Usage Caps
-By Scott Cleland
Near hysterical opponents of broadband data usage caps need to breathe slowly, drop their magnifying glass, look up and take in the big world all around them. They are not just missing the forest for the trees, they are missing the leaves, stems, branches, trees, forest and sky, because they can’t take their magnifying glass off of the leaf with which they are myopically obsessed.
Broadband data usage caps are a very small, normal, and essential part of a healthy and economically-sustainable Internet ecosystem. Pricing is the central mechanism for any marketplace to balance supply and demand and to create economic incentives and disincentives for behavior that can drive costs. There is nothing wrong with pricing caps, tiers, and other pricing mechanisms that are used to manage networks, avoid network congestion, achieve a return on investment, manage a business model, differentiate a business, and/or earn a profit.
Does an average consumer get indignant when an all-you-can-eat buffet limits them from: piling food on a tray and not a plate; sharing their food with someone who hasn’t paid; or putting it in a bag to take home? No. Does an average consumer expect to be able to run their AC at max 24-7 during a heat wave when the system is at peak usage? No. Does an average consumer imagine that they can pay a flat rate for water, electricity, or gasoline, and then consume it without any usage limit or extra payment for high-usage? No. Most all American consumers understand the most basic economic principle, that if one uses more of a good or a service, one can expect to pay more for it. Only the small but very vocal group of Internet commons radicals that are currently indignant over broadband data usage caps imagine that broadband communications should somehow be a public unlimited free good.
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‘Leaf’ Vision & Broadband Usage Caps”
Our ‘Cool’ President is Killing US!
After four years of a celebrity president, is your life any better?
Obama is the “cool president,” we are told. Obama slow jams with Jimmy Fallon and calls Kanye West a “jackass.” He goes on late-night TV every other week. He plays basketball and spends more time on vacations and golf courses than he does in the White House. He also owns an economy where 50% of recent college grads are unemployed or underemployed, and 85% have to move in with their parents.
Has four years of a pop culture POTUS made anyone’s life any better?
Google’s PR Strategy in Advance of the EU’s Monopoly Charges — A Satire
-By Scott Cleland
Confidential Memorandum:
To: All 11,342 Google PR/Spokespeople
From: Brandi Sparkles, Google PR Chief & Googlerati Whisperer
Subject: PR Statement/Strategy in Advance of EU’s Monopoly Charges
We expect the European Union’s antitrust authority to issue a Statement of Objections against Google shortly, which will charge Google with being a monopoly that anti-competitively ranks its own content #1 while ranking its competitors’ content where few will find them.
So you can help rally the Googlerati in the media to Google’s side and organize a chorus of Google adoration among the masses to make this problem blow over, we are sharing an advance copy of our public statement for public dissemination and also a copy of our confidential PR strategy for this event, so you can be in the know. But remember, this PR strategy is not for public distribution.
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Google’s PR Strategy in Advance of the EU’s Monopoly Charges — A Satire”
Good News for Union Members
-By Frank Hyland
While this message applies to virtually all labor union members, it is especially applicable to the younger members, those whose futures – and whose families’ futures — are being stolen by the older members of the unions, especially the leadership.
Thinking back to when you have voted in union-led, union-conducted elections, it didn’t take long for you to figure out that what was being called an “election” was, in fact, a sham. The results already had been decided by the union’s leaders long before the “voting” even began. What you’ve been going through is called “Majority Sign-Up” or “Card Check.” At least under the present White House, there won’t be any change in the way that your union elections are conducted. Your local leadership will continue to sit in front of you and watch as you fill out your ballot. Union leaders like Richard Trumka will continue to visit the White House, travel in first-class style, and receive their handsome salaries ($283,340 in 2010) plus expenses, of course.
You can be thankful, though, that not all elections are like those conducted by your union. I’m speaking of the upcoming general election on November 6th. You’ll be treated as a grownup with a mind of your own, not a tool for the union leadership to maintain their hold on you and your dues. As I hope you’ve done in the past, you’ll again walk into a private area/booth and mark your ballot in secrecy, not in front of watchful union leaders. You won’t even need to glance at the piece of paper that union leaders, in a blatant insult to their members, give to members as instructions on candidates and ballot issues for which to vote. Union leaders aren’t even allowed to remain in the polling place, much less sit at the table and watch how their members vote like they do during Card Check.
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Good News for Union Members”
Video: Glenn Morton for Maryland’s 5th CD
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the last in my Challenger Series of interviews with congressional candidates is Glenn Morton who is running for the 5th CD in Maryland.
Mr. Morton is passionate, especially about how bad Obamacare is. In fact, Morton says he wasn’t all that political until Obamacare came about. Being an insurance man he came to realize just how bad this law was. The more he looked into it the worse it got.
In any case, here was our conversation at CPAC this year…
Video: Glenn Morton for Maryland’s 5th CD”
Sarah Palin’s Main CPAC Speech Points: Did She Sell Out?
-By Warner Todd Huston
I am just now back home from CPAC and I thought I’d wrap up my CPAC reports with the main points from Sarah Palin’s CPAC speech. I will have video of a dozen or so GOP candidates for Senate and the House over the ensuing days as well as a short video interview with Daniel Hannan, the Member of European Parliament that made himself beloved to Americans for his impassioned speeches in favor of freedom and liberty.
Those videos will come later, but now, on to Sarah’s speech. As expected, Sarah Palin was met with the most adulatory applause of any CPAC speaker. When she came out onto the stage the house went wild. She had the longest sustained standing ovation of the entire event. Obviously, Sarah Palin is still a rock star to these conservatives.
I live tweeted her speech and following this introduction I’ll repost those live tweets here so that you can see her main points as she delivered them and as I tweeted them. But first my over all impressions.
Palin spent a lot of time smacking President Obama over the head with his smashing failures over the last three years. She made no effort to be coy about it but attacked him head on. As in all her speeches — and I’ve been in the audience for a few of them, myself — she made many allusions to the founders, citing them often. And she ended up with an urgent plea to those watching to fall in behind who ever becomes the GOP nominee “for the sake of our country.” This ending might have surprised, maybe even dismayed her more ideological fans because perhaps she just proved to be just another party woman instead of the ideologically pure representative they’d hoped for.
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Sarah Palin’s Main CPAC Speech Points: Did She Sell Out?”
CPAC Speeches: Contrasting Santorum, Gingrich, Romney
-By Warner Todd Huston
CPAC 2012 featured appearances by the three top GOP contenders who came to ask for the support of the conservatives gathered there. First came former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum, then Governor Mitt Romney, and finally former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, all came to sell their ideas and candidacy.
Rick Santorum
Santorum came out to the most applause of the three, for sure. As he and his family mounted the stage the crowd was obviously eager to hear what the candidate had to say.
“Conservatism did not fail this country,” began the meat of the former Pennsylvania Senator’s remarks, “conservatives failed conservatism.”
Santorum said that in the past we, “listened to the voices that said we had to abandon our principles and our values to get things done, to win.” But no more compromise, he said. “The lesson we’ve learned is that we will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great for a hollow victory in November.”
Santorum went on to say that Obamacare was a “game changer” and with it, as the British found with their system, we will never be free again. “It’s about government control of our lives and it’s gotta stop,” he asserted to great applause.
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CPAC Speeches: Contrasting Santorum, Gingrich, Romney”
After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?
-By Warner Todd Huston
How much bailing out does one company need? (The correct answer is none, of course) After receiving some $50 billion in tax dollars from us courtesy of Obama’s “cash stash,” GM is claiming success with a “Obama claimed that GM was “back on top as the world’s number one automaker.” But true or not, if all is coming up roses for GM why is the company now lobbying the individual states for mini bailouts?
That is exactly what is happening. The new “big success” automaker is spending millions hiring lobbyists to squeeze more millions out of state legislatures. As Justin Owen notes, GM has “turned to another, smaller government teat,” by putting its hand out to the states. GM, Owen says, “has received another $1.7 billion in taxpayer-funded grants and tax abatements.”
This is no accident of timing, either. GM admitted to the Tennessee Watchdog that begging to the states for tax dollars is a concerted effort.
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After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?”
Raiding of the Treasury to Bribe the Irresponsible
-By Frank Salvato
A little publicized political story, if played out to the satisfaction of California Democrats (read: Progressives), would not only set the stage for a politically motivated raid on the US Treasury, it would afford President Obama, his administration and political operatives plausible deniability in any “coincidental” benefit to Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign. And if you don’t think that has David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe salivating, you haven’t been paying attention for the past three years.
According to a report by TheHill.com:
“A long list of California Democrats is urging President Obama to name a new housing regulator using a controversial recess appointment.
“In a letter to the president, more than two dozen House members said the temporary head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco, simply hasn’t done enough to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. The lawmakers are pushing the president to name a permanent director ‘immediately.’
“‘FHFA has consistently and erroneously interpreted its mandate far too narrowly and as such has failed to take adequate action to help homeowners,’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘Installing a permanent director of the FHFA will allow the FHFA to move forward to make key decisions that will help keep families in their homes and improve our economy.’”
Okay, let’s first examine the FHFA. According to their website:
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Raiding of the Treasury to Bribe the Irresponsible”
Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed: A Case Study of Silver Spring, Maryland
High, persistent unemployment and a sluggish economy underscore what all but the most-dedicated supporters of Barack Obama know to be true: The president’s 2009 stimulus program was a massively expensive bust.
Understanding why the stimulus failed is an important step in understanding how the government can—and cannot—goose economic recovery. To get a better sense of how and where the stimulus went wrong, Reason.tv focused on Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., that’s home to a large number of government contractors and other recipients of money earmarked for the sorts of “shovel ready” projects that were going to bring the economy back to life.
President Obama’s top economic advisor Larry Summers laid out ground rules for how stimulus dollars should be spent: The funds must be “targeted” at resources idled by the recession, the interventions must be “temporary,” and they needed to “timely,” or injected quickly into the economy.
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Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed: A Case Study of Silver Spring, Maryland”
Obama Crony Capitalism: Navy Buys ‘Green’ Fuel at 4 X Price
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Obama administration has announced its successful purchase of “green” biofules for the U.S. Navy at $15 per gallon. This success story is interesting for the fact that the Navy’s regular fuel cost is just under $4 per gallon. Additionally, one of the companies involved in the sale employs a prominent member of Obama’s 2008 transition team, one T.J Glauthier.
The company in question, Solazyme of California, has also been a happy beneficiary $21.8 million of Obama’s “stimulus” spending.
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?
-By Warner Todd Huston
It’s that time of year again, time for newspapers and magazines to start floating their “top stories of the year” lists and Time Magazine has a whole “Top of Everything” list with which to thrill us. But it is Time’s Top U.S. News Stories list that deserves some closer scrutiny because on it Time has determined that the Occupy Wall Street tale is the number one story of the year. As if anyone ever doubted that this left-wing temper tantrum would pique Time’s interest most.
But, seriously, now. Is Gabrielle Giffords somehow a lesser story than the Occupiers? Is the long-drawn out GOP primary campaign a lesser story? How about the debt crisis? Is that somehow a less important story than Occupy Wall Street? Apparently Time thinks so.
Certainly these lists are always somewhat subjective. After all, what one considers important another may not. But some of these entries seem to point out Time’s ideology as opposed to a serious attempt to pick the top stories of 2011. And making the Occupy story number one is pure ideology.
Time puts this story above the bad economy, Iraq, the Penn State sex abuse case, and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. In fact, if it weren’t for the bad economy, the debt ceiling debate and the bank crisis this Occupy business would not have occurred at all.
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Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?”
Obama-Supported Wireless Startup Suffers Massive Tech Failure
-By Warner Todd Huston
The startup wireless service that the Obama administration is investing both financial and political capital in, a company called LightSquared, seems to have suffered a massive technical failure, one that has been warned about for some time. Despite the warnings, though the administration continues to push LightSquared causing many to worry about another Solyndra-like calamity.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that testing of the wireless service is showing that its signal disrupts 75% of all global-positioning system receivers (GPS). Apparently, there is no doubt about this result, either….
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.