Author: Mark Noonan

Can’t Keep Their Story Straight

Mark Noonan5 Comments

Two headlines, both from Bloomberg:

Crude Oil Trades Near Two-Day High on U.S. Economy, European Debt Optimism

Asian Stocks Decline on U.S. Economic Concern

And I generally have a lot of respect for Bloomberg’s economic reporting – but, come on!  Which is it?  Are people optimistic or pessimistic?

Honestly, I think it is ultimately a matter of no one really knowing for sure – theories say it should be this, reality is starting to show that it is quite different.   We’re all just waiting at this point – will they pull a rabbit out of the European hat?  Will China manage a soft landing?  Will the US debt be brought under control?  Or does it even matter at this point?  Have things got to a point where no matter what we do, pain is in our future?

I’m of that last view – I don’t think we can avoid some really rough times.  The best we can do with some wisdom and grit is make them bearable while we clear out the mess.  Maybe I’m wrong, but when you get a respected news source with headlines at such variance – and posted just 31 minutes apart – you can be sure that something is screwed up somewhere.

Mmmmm, Toasted Obama: My Favorite!

Mark Noonan39 Comments

From James Pethokoukis at Reuters in response to Goldman Sachs lowering GDP projections:

…Alarms bells must be ringing all over Obamaland today. Unemployment on Election Day about where it is right now? Sputtering — if not stalling — economic growth? To many Americans that would sound like the car is back in the ditch — if it was ever out. Maybe Goldman is wrong, but economists across Wall Street have been growing more bearish.

And recall that back in August of 2009, the White House — after having a half year to view the economy and its $800 billion stimulus response — made an astoundingly optimistic (PDF) forecast. Starting in 2011, with Obamanomics fully in gear and the recession over, growth would take off. GDP would rise 4.3 percent in 2011, followed by … 4.3 percent growth in 2012 and 2013, too!  And 2014? Another year of 4.0 percent growth. Off to the races, America…

Do take a look at that “astoundingly optimistic” White House forecast – as far as Obama and Co were concerned, the stimulus was going to get us rip roaring in to boom economic times.  It is all there – carefully laid our projections about how wonderful things were going to be.  I can only guess that they really believed it – after all, they were being rather arrogant in their assumptions of 2012 victory back there when questions first arose about the effects of the stimulus.  Only people who really believed in it could have looked at the 2010 data and assumed that 2011 would have 4.3% GDP growth (if we’re lucky – very lucky – we’ll see official growth at 2.5% for the year 2011; which is not nearly enough to get things rolling).  The big question:  do they still believe it?

As Pethokoukis notes at the end of his article, there is still a very short time left for Obama to change course and have a chance at a reasonably good economy for election day, 2012.  But I mean he’d really have to move fast – in the next few weeks we’d have to see serious proposals to cut the tax and regulatory burden on wealth creation for it to have a noticeable positive effect by election day.  Wait until the end of August and it will be too late – the good news would start to roll in around January of 2013, just as we’re swearing in President Bachmann.  But if they are still retaining their faith in the stimulus, then they’ll do nothing and just cross there fingers that some how, some way, what has thus-far failed will start to work in an astounding manner over the next 15 months.

And if that is the case, then the good news is that Obama won’t be re-elected – the bad news is that the economy will be very much worse before we get rid of him.

 

Race Card, Bottom of the Deck: Democrats as Usual

Mark Noonan31 Comments

We’re all just raaaaacists for arguing with Obama:

 

For 80 years we’ve watched liberalism slowly bankrupt our nation; now it is crunch time and we must cut spending to save ourselves.  This is just something that happens, and happened while our President happens to be black.  Wouldn’t matter if it was President Hillary up there (though I guess we’d be seeeeexist at that point).

This is a sad, desperate attempt to fire up the liberal base for 2012…poll after poll shows sagging support among the left for the President.  It isn’t that these people will vote GOP in 2012, but they might well decide to stay home…not only costing Obama the White House, but causing down-ballot Democrats to lose, as well.  Pulling out the race card is a sure-fire method of getting liberal foot soldiers back in to the battle…because, remember, your typical white liberal is wracked by guilt.  Figuring that “white privilege” is the source of their wealth and well-being, they are easily swayed by accusations of racism.  This may well help perk them up and get them donating and volunteering again, lest those evil, racist, sexist, homophobic Republicans win.

We can expect a lot more of this as 2012 comes in – and in rising hysteria if Obama’s poll numbers continue to crater.

Obama’s Fat Cat Donors Come Through

Mark Noonan15 Comments

The Billion Dollar Man is making his way – and selling himself completely.  From Politico:

About 40 percent of President Barack Obama’s record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama’s campaign web site.

No fewer than 27 mega-bundlers managed to collect at least $500,000 for a joint account run by Obama’s 2012 campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

That exclusive circle included marquee fundraisers like Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg, DNC treasurer/personal finance guru Andrew Tobias and former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs before entering politics.

That group chipped in a minimum of $13.5 million, according to records. In addition, $21.4 million was bundled in amounts of between $50,000 and $499,000…

Thank goodness Obama is fighting for the poor and middle class; if that weren’t the case, all this millionaire and billionaire money would be worrisome.  And we know he’s going after the millionaires and billionaires because he says so – whenever he talks taxes, he’s sure to mention that millionaires and billionaires must pay their fair share.  So, it is amazing that the millionaires and billionaires keep coming through for him…I mean, after all, Obama is promising to tax them more.  In fact, his proposals for taxation always call for hitting those millionaires and billionaires who make more than $250,000.00 per year….

Hey, wait a minute…how many years would you have to work to become a millionaire at $250,000.00 a year?  Four years…if you didn’t spend a dime on anything.  And how many to become a billionaire?  Four thousand years…  You know, now that I think about it, it seems kind of strange that Obama would say a millionaire makes $250,000.00 a year…and downright stupid to think that a billionaire makes that much.  Could it be…?  No!  It couldn’t be that!  It couldn’t be that all Obama is doing is talking about taxing the rich while really taxing the middle class and that is why the millionaires and billionaires are pouring money in to his campaign.  That couldn’t be the case, could it?

Guilty No Matter What

Mark Noonan8 Comments

That is our new legal principle, at least at the University of North Dakota:

In a stark demonstration of the failure of campus judicial procedures, the University of North Dakota (UND) has found a student guilty of sexual assault despite the fact that local police refused to charge him with a crime and instead charged his accuser for lying about the incident. Former student Caleb Warner has been banned by UND from stepping foot on any state public campus for three years. Meanwhile, his accuser has been wanted by the Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department for more than a year on the charge of making a false report to law enforcement…

It seems that Uncle Sam – carrying out the liberal mandate – has decided that all colleges receiving federal funds must use a “preponderance of evidence” rather than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard for judging such cases.  In this case it does seem that an accusation is “preponderance of evidence” because if there was something beyond the accuser’s statement it is highly unlike that the regular law enforcement agencies would have charged the accuser with lying, even if they lacked sufficient evidence to convict the accused.  Beyond the outrage of what amounts to a kangaroo court convicting the accused there lies the double outrage in the college’s refusal to reopen the case in light of the charge of lying leveled against the accuser.

In the end, this is the result of all that liberal nonsense about political correctness, “hate crimes” and “zero tolerance”.  In their zeal to enforce liberal ideas, the very concepts of truth and justice have been jettisoned.  It will take extreme legal and political pressure to get the college to reverse course…and even if they are in this case, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll still go forward trying to enforce the liberal view.

How to fix this?  Simple:  prohibit the federal government from setting rules in colleges.  Go ahead and spend federal money if you like, but don’t go dictating how it is to be spent.  In other words, if money is to be spent it had better just be in the form of bloc grants (best calculated on a per-student basis) which is then dispensed to the colleges to use as they wish…scholarships, new facilities, slush funds for the faculty, what have you.  Better to have the money mis-allocated by some schools than to have all schools come under the thumb of liberal fascism.   Most places would use it properly and those which did would swiftly earn the better reputation and thus draw in more students…and thus more funding.  But get Uncle Sam out of it…all he can do is screw it up, as we see here in this case.

Obama: The People Want Tax Increases

Mark Noonan35 Comments

From The Hill:

President Obama on Friday kept up the pressure on Republicans to agree to revenue increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, claiming 80 percent of the public supports Democrats’ demand for tax increases.

“The American people are sold,” Obama said. “The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically.”…

Ok, Mr. President, then have Harry Reid pass a debt deal through the Senate which includes tax increases…get those 53 Democrat Senators on record as doing the will of the people.  After all, if the people are “sold” on it, then the Democrat majority in the Senate should be happy to oblige the people…there can’t be the slightest worry that a Democrat up for re-election in 2012 will vote against because, as you say, the people are “sold” on it.

Time to put up or shut up, Mr. President…don’t ask us GOPers to be the tax collectors for Big Government.  Do it yourself – if you can.

UPDATE:  From Gallup –

Might want to re-think that “sold” bit there, Mr. President.

UPDATE II:  We’re all raaaaacists for not raising the debt ceiling.

A Small Judicial Victory for Common Sense

Mark Noonan6 Comments

A triumph of common sense over political correctness – from CNA:

An Illinois judge’s July 12 order will allow Catholic Charities to continue its foster care work in three dioceses, despite an attempt by state officials and the governor to end the partnership.

“This is a great win for the 2,000 children under the care of Catholic Charities, protecting these kids from the grave disruption that the state’s reckless decision to terminate would have caused,” said Peter Breen, Executive Director and Legal Counsel at the Thomas More Society.

Breen said that Catholic Charities, with the legal assistance of his organization, “will continue this fight” to continue “the high-quality foster and adoption care that the Catholic Church has provided for over a century to Illinois children.”…

As you might have guessed it, liberalism is at the bottom of this – Illinois passed a law last December entitled Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act which, its sponsors said, would allow for civil unions but would not in any way, shape or form interfere with those faith-based groups which were doing charitable work in Illinois.  It was specifically asked, in legislative debate, if this bill would prohibit faith-based institutions from dealing with foster care and adoption – and the answer was “no”.  It was this assertion which may have allowed enough Illinois legislators to swallow “civil unions” – as long as people of faith are protected, who can have an argument against anyone – gay or straight – having a civil union?  Presto, the law was done.  But that was without anyone reckoning on the ultimate desire of leftwing activists…whether or not gay people shall be married, civil-union’d or shot to the Moon is irrelevant…what is relevant is whether or not faith can be attacked…especially the Catholic Church part of it.

Because the Catholic Church will not place a child in a gay or cohabitating home (so, you see, it isn’t about gays for the Church…it is about the Church’s adherence to Christian sexual morality), someone in the Illinois government – clearly with an anti-Christian axe to grind – decided to terminate Illinois’ contracts with Catholic Charities regarding adoption (any gay person with a gripe would be a person just being a jerk – plenty of adoption agencies in Illinois will adopt out to a gay couple…and even Catholic Charities would refer a gay person to such agencies should a gay person happen to wander in to a Catholic adoption agency).  Didn’t matter that Illinois doesn’t have the facilities to take on the thousands of kids under Catholic Charities’ care; doesn’t matter that the Illinois government has proven routinely incompetent in dealing with such social issues, didn’t matter that kids lives would be disrupted…all that mattered was bashing the Church, bashing Christianity, bashing morality.

Fortunately, a judge has seen right through this and put, at least temporarily, a stop to it.  Hopefully now some wiser heads will prevail and some sort of accommodation can be worked out so as to ensure that the kids are taken care of.  But this this what is so wrong about our society – liberal ideology has so infected is that even something as common-place as a Church caring for orphans has become politicized, and the realm of lawsuits.  There is a sickness in liberalism – some sort of disease of the spirit which generates such mean spirited actions.  This should never have happened – in any decent society, it wouldn’t have happened.  A small victory for common sense – but common sense should not have had to take the field of battle; it should have been automatic that no sane person would ever dream of challenging the care of orphans.

Obamunism! Consumer Confidence Hits Two Year Low

Mark Noonan60 Comments

From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell three points on Thursday to 67.8. That’s the lowest level in nearly two years, since July 24, 2009.  Consumer confidence is down four points from a week ago, down eleven points from a month ago and down ten points from three months ago…

There are a few polls out there purporting to show Obama and his Democrats as the winners in the budget debate…that the GOP will be blamed if there is a shut down or default.  These polls fly in the face of two facts:

1.  Its not like the Democrats are innocent bystanders with nothing to do with the issue.

2.  Poll after poll shows people just miserable about the state of the nation.

Given these two facts, I find it highly unlikely that a majority of Americans – or even a plurality – will heap blame primarily upon the GOP for whatever goes wrong.  To this day, probably not one in 20 Americans could correctly identify the Speaker of the House in a line up.  No, my friends, if things blow up, they blow up in Obama’s face…he’s the President, he’s the man who said that everything was going to get better with him in office, he’s the man who said he’d bring us all together.

Well, people can see that isn’t working and that is why Obama’s poll numbers are tanking…and if don’t get a budget deal, people aren’t going to suddenly say, “hey, that poor Obama!  Done in by the GOP so let’s re-elect Obama”.  That just isn’t going to happen.  The only way Obama and his Democrats can gain a 2012 advantage is if things get better – and so much better that people can clearly perceive that things are improving.  Can that happen?  Certainly – not too likely, but it can happen…but if it doesn’t happen then people will not give Obama four more years just because they’re mad at the House GOP leadership, even supposing they lay primary blame on them for the failure to get a budget deal.