From CNS:

The jobs created and saved by the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009 cost at a minimum an average of $228,055 each, according to data released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

In a report released Wednesday—“Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October Through December 2010”—the CBO said it now estimates the stimulus law cost a total of $821 billion, up from CBO’s original estimate that the stimulus would cost $787 billion…

Of course, that supposes that any jobs were actually created by the stimulus. More than likely we just did a money shuffle and whatever we gained in one area we lost in others – with a double loss on that in the fact that the stimulus money was all borrowed and will have to be paid back with interest. But even supposing that the number of jobs “created or saved” is real, that is a fantastically irresponsible amount of money to spend per job.

But, that was what the stimulus was really about – just an excuse for Obama and his Democrats to open up the government spigots in a way not seen since the Carter Administration. This is what Big Government liberals have been dreaming about since Reagan was elected – the chance to shovel taxpayer money at themselves in huge amounts. They hooked up their donors, their foot soldiers and themselves…billions have essentially been looted from the American people by the left since Obama took office. And keeping Obama in office is a gigantic priority because they know that if a Republican wins in 2012, the party is over…and perhaps this time for good.

What matters to our liberal Ruling Class now is merely to cash in as much as they can before someone stops them. Liberal rank and file types might dream of gay marriage or more grants for education, but the boys and girls in charge are all about grabbing heavy wads of money – as is demonstrated by “green jobs” cretins of the Obama Administration jumping ship to work in the industries which will now be subsidized by “green jobs” money.

Ah, well – what is one to do? Work for GOP victory in 2012, of course. Disaster stares us in the face, but we’ll over come it…we’ll get rid of the liberals, reform our nation and restore the world to its proper equilibrium – with the United States once again absolutely dominant in world affairs and the American economy once again out producing everyone out there. The future is grim, but America is promising…and supported by the Founders’ vision and our faith in God, nothing can stop us.

From NRO:

Earlier this week, a blogger impersonating industrialist David Koch spoke with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is attempting to pass a budget-repair bill. The conversation between Walker and the poseur, which was recorded, has received heavy media attention and turned the national spotlight onto the political activities of Koch Industries, a private, Wichita-based company with diverse holdings.

In interviews with National Review Online, Koch executives responded to the incident and pledged to “not stop” supporting free-enterprise initiatives, even as opponents attempt to sully the Koch name and the groups that brothers David and Charles Koch, the company’s co-owners, support. They also noted that David Koch and the governor have never met or spoken…

The Koch brothers are just the latest in a long line of leftist bogeymen – the left finds someone to hate and blame, and then goes about the process of demonization. The really amazing thing about it all is that the nefarious influence the left ascribes to the Kochs is genuinely wielded, on the left, by George Soros and his minions. Soros really does create astro-turf groups to agitate for things only a tiny minority want…and goes about slandering everyone who disagrees with the Soros worldview. The Kochs are just politically interested bazillionaires who spread the cash around to causes they like – not all of which I agree with (it seems that the Kochs are in favor of gay marriage, for instance – they seem far more libertarian than conservative).

My only word of caution here is to my fellow conservatives:

I Put no trust in princes, in mere mortals powerless to save. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing. Happy those whose help is Jacob’s God, whose hope is in the LORD, their God… – Psalm 146:3-5

The Koch brothers have done some good work in funding important conservative and libertarian issues – but billionaires have a lot of calls on their time and anyone who has a billion dollars is, by nature, very concerned about that billion. You see, if they didn’t care about the money, they would have given it all away…or, at least enough to no longer be a billionaire. It takes a lot of effort and attention to stay that rich…and someone who is expending that kind of energy on a thing will sacrifice a lot to keep it. So, don’t think of the Kochs as something entirely on our side – come a day when they will do something which will infuriate conservatives and/or libertarians. But, meanwhile, as long as they are doing good, they deserve our support and thanks.

In this particular battle – that of the battle for fiscal sanity – the Kochs will, I believe, continue to do well by us. Other battles may go other ways. Meanwhile, there is no justification on the part of the left for the way they have insulted the Kochs. A couple of men who engage in business have done far more for America than any grafting union boss…or politician on the take from the unions. It is evidence of a growing desperation and, really, craziness on the part of the left that they have seen fit to cook up what amounts to a Stalinist show trial of the Kochs, with them found guilty regardless of the facts.

More and more I think we’ve got the left on the ropes – they are tapping the last dregs of their power in an attempt to beat us back after the liberal catastrophe of 2010. All we need to is keep up the pressure a little while longer and they’ll fold…and in this sort of fight, a couple billionaires willing to write checks is a good thing.

From Senatus:

President Obama, in a “major legal policy shift, has directed the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act — the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages — against lawsuits challenging it as unconstitutional,” the New York Times reports.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday saying that the Justice Department will now take the position in court that the act should be struck down as a violation of same-sex couples’ rights to equal protection under the law.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) issued a statement today indicating that it is her “intention to introduce legislation that will once and for all repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.”

“My own belief is that when two people love each other and enter the contract of marriage, the Federal government should honor that.

I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It was the wrong law then; it is the wrong law now; and it should be repealed.”

Will a DOMA repeal pass? It might get through the Senate, but it stands little chance of even coming to a vote in the House…and if it does, it will probably go down to crushing defeat (almost all the GOPers and a goodly portion of the Democrats voting against as they look over their shoulders towards 2012). This is just eyewash for the liberal gay groups – getting them completely on side for the 2012 election, and getting them long before the campaign heats up. You won’t hear a peep about repealing DOMA from Obama and the Democrats in 2012…by then, they’ll be back to trying to move to the center for the general election.

This will, of course, work as planned – liberal gay groups, in contrast to the conservative gay groups, are narrow minded, bigoted and easily led by the nose. They’ll lap this up and then happily shower Democrats with bags of money in 2012…as if they’ll have a chance of a DOMA repeal in 2013, even if Obama is re-elected (Democrats are almost certain to lose the Senate in 2012, regardless of what happens on the Presidential level…the only question is whether they’ll lose 5 or 15 seats).

Of course, long term, our liberals do hope to accomplish this – anything which weakens marriage and family also weakens the ability of the individual to defend himself against the government. The more atomized and dependent upon government we become, the more liberals like it. So, their war on family and marriage will continue – though it won’t be by legislation but in the courts and bureaucracies where they hope to conquer. What this means is that we must fight them hard in 2012 – and win so sweeping a victory that we are no longer just holding the line, but actually rolling back the liberal agenda.

No more than 4 months behind the curve – from CNBC:

Despite rising commodity prices and a bleak employment picture, “stagflation” remains a word not uttered in the polite company of the financial world.

But there remain only a few more tumblers to fall into place for a return to that awful word that conjures up images of the “malaise days” of the late 1970’s and early ‘80s, where rising inflation and slumping employment tamped down economic growth.

Oil’s foray Wednesday above the psychologically important $100-a-barrel line only helped stoke the historical comparisons…

It was back in October that I first wrote about the coming stagflation here on Blogs for Victory – and it was in March of 2009 where I figured that the economic policies could lead to a bout of stagflation. This isn’t news. It isn’t a surprise. It was all noted and predicted long ago – you have to be some sort of fool to think that borrowing and printing up trillions of dollars will work out well. Trouble is, utter fools are governing our economy at the moment – from the bankster boardrooms to the Federal Reserve to the US Treasury they all believe – really, no kidding – that fake money and debt lead to prosperity.

It may seem a bit silly, and perhaps it really was, but yesterday when I prayed the Rosary I actually prayed for our economy. That some how, some way, we’ll be spared the worst of what we so fully deserve – and we deserve it because, first, most of us bought the idea of debt and get-rich-quick over the decades and, secondly, because a majority of us really did vote for Obama in 2008. I’ve never been more pessimistic about our economic chances in my life time – not that it will kill us off, but that we’re really in for it. And maybe, in the end, a wiser America will emerge from it all…but, man, what a mess…and the people running the show don’t even seem to see it coming.

When do we get that new civility thingy?

UPDATE: A Dem Congresscritter urges the union thugs to “get a little bloody”…the fools simply don’t know what they’re saying. Good, grief…its like they’re playing with matches in a gasoline can…

Here’s our chance to out-do the unions in skewing a vote – the Wall Street Journal has an on-line poll:

Should state employees have collective-bargaining rights?

The unions, it seems, have sent out the message to their troops to vote on this poll – as of right now, it is 47.7% saying “yes” and 47.6% saying “no”, with more than 46,000 votes cast. Get out there and vote all you Republicans, conservatives, Libertarians, Independents, people with above 80 IQs. Let’s see if we can shove this right back in the faces of the union thugs!

UPDATE: Now at 48% “no” and 47.3% “yes”…keep it up!

From CBS:

The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the final three months of 2010, the highest level in 18 years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Wednesday that the number of banks on its confidential “problem” list rose to 884 in the October-December quarter, up from 860 in the previous quarter. Those are banks rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk…

In reality a majority of those 884 are probably insolvent and just kept alive by the FDIC’s part of “extend and pretend” for our financial system. The FDIC simply doesn’t have the resources to take over all the banks which have failed and so lets them limp along until the funds become available…the only way to make a clean sweep of it would be to go to Congress to get a 1980’s style Savings and Loan bailout…but there is no possibility that Congress will bail out another bank.

Fundamentally, the entire financial system is insolvent – even the big banks, primary beneficiaries of both the Federal Reserve money printing and the TARP bailout, are really not in good shape. A lot of their “assets” are garbage (failed loans which the regulators allow them to keep on the books at face value even though they’ll never collect the principal) and so all the “profits” they’ve made are just a means of masking the reality. All will be well as long as they stay just as they are now – in other words, as long as there isn’t, say, a big jump in unemployment, a big spike in inflation, another downturn in housing, etc.

Oh, and did you hear the news of late? Seems like we’re probably going to get a big jump in unemployment as summer comes in, inflation is going ahead at, perhaps, a 10.5% clip and housing is entering a double dip.

Hold on to your hats, good people.

Just keeps getting worse over there, it seems – from the AP:

Oil prices rose to fresh two-year highs near $96 a barrel in Asia on Wednesday amid trader concern a violent power struggle in Libya could disrupt crude supplies.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 47 cents at $95.89 a barrel — the highest since October 2008 — at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract jumped $5.71, or 6.4 percent, to settle at $95.42 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for April delivery gained $1.08 to $106.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Tuesday called on supporters to attack anti-government demonstrators as protesters backed by defecting army units claimed control over almost the entire eastern half of the country, including several oil-producing areas…

It might not be possible for either Gadhafi or the rebels to swiftly win – which means the turmoil keeps up. This is not looking good.

More pressure on Senator Ensign to quit.

Can individuals sue to stop federal actions on 10th amendment grounds? The Supreme Court will decide.

California’s teacher pension system is bankrupt. As we keep telling you liberals, you can’t just keep spending forever.

A rather slow motion yet rapidly spreading run on the banks in Korea. Fuse lit for the next financial crash? Time will tell.

Is the National Association of Realtors putting out bogus home sales data? Could be they are over-stating sales in 2010 by 20%.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, NARAL founder but eventual convert to Catholicism and Life, has died. The healing power of Christ was exhibited in Nathanson’s life – a life which went from lying for abortion “rights” (and many of the lies Nathanson invented to advance abortion are still used by the pro-aborts to this day) to telling the truth for life.

Coptic Christians call for a secular Egypt. I hope they get it, but I don’t think they will. The ultimate resolution may require a partition of Egypt as there has been with Sudan…allow the Jihadist lunatics to have their own country to wreck, let all the non-Moslems form a rational, civilized State.

From CNS:

Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009—the latest year available—only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”…

So, union-run, gold-plated public education systems don’t work. Who would have thunk it?

All of us, of course. We all know that the public school system is a failure – that it provides sub-standard product at a high price. This is because of the unions. The unions, it must be remembered, are not interested in whether or not the kids learn anything – such a thing is entirely irrelevant to union goals. Unions are interested in having the highest number of unionized employees doing the least amount of work possible for the highest possible pay and benefits package. This is just a fact of life; there is no escaping it.

And, so, the only way to fix education is to bring in another force which will counter-balance the claims of the unions. In this, Governor Walker and the Wisconsin GOP has hit the jackpot – terminate the ability of the unions to work out back room deals with bought politicians. This forces the unions to campaign for public approval for their plans, and by bringing in this public force to counter the union force, there is a chance that some actual efforts will be made at education. This is not union-busting (if it were, we’d be passing laws banning public employee unions) but a simple attempt to bring balance and democracy in to the running of our schools.

And they are our schools. Make no mistake about that. They don’t belong to the teachers. They don’t belong to the unions. They don’t belong to the government officials. They belong to us – they part of the property of we, the people. And we thus have the absolute authority to force them to be run in our interests…and our interest is in highly educated kids, not well paid union workers, nor politicians grafting with the union bosses.

The union stooges will not deter us. The corrupt union bosses will not scare us off. The Fleebagger Democrats will not arrest the march of reform. We will have our way in this matter. The time for real change has come.