Campaign 2012

Obama Unveils $450 Billion Jobs Plan

Mark Noonan55 Comments

From the AP – first, bait the GOP with a tax cut:

…The newest and boldest element of Obama’s plan would slash the Social Security payroll tax both for tens of millions of workers and for employers, too. For individuals, that tax has been shaved from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for this year but is to go back up again without action by Congress. Obama wants to keep it and deepen the cut to 3.1 percent for workers…

Then get on to Porkulus II – from Hot Air:

…According to CBS, more than $100 billion will go towards infrastructure and a similar amount will be comprised of money to states to hire more teachers and first-responders and tax breaks for small businesses…

Don’t get me wrong, I like teachers – but how are teachers going to get us out of a recession?  What Obama is really doing here is shoveling more money at government-union enterprises to keep employment up in those areas, thus assuring a large and steady stream of union donations to Obama’s re-election effort.  As for the infrastructure stuff…first off, didn’t we already spend hundreds of billions on that?  Secondly, did thos hundreds of billions actually create jobs?

And all this will lead to a campaign meme:  “I offered them a middle class tax cut, but those obstructionist GOPers in Congress were more interested in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.  Let me be clear, I know that we have much to do and things are hard…but I need more time to get our do-nothing Congress motivated to work for the people”.

Its nothing but a campaign speech.  Obama knows that no policy he can use would help the economy, so now he’s just setting a blame-shifting stage and hoping we all sorta forget he’s been President since 2009.

UPDATE:  Bank of America may lay off 40,000 workers.

Obama’s Fat Cat Donors

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From Zero Hedge:

Before tomorrow’s 2012 pre-election speech in which President Obama’s vocal elocution will be earnest, and results – to put it mildly – tepid, about about how he could create jobs dammit, if only the Republicans would behave, it’s interesting to note who’s supporting Obama keep his job. A cursory look at the early stages of his campaign fundraising reveals that the same group of people that benefitted from policies (bi-partisan) that lavished them with cheap money, secret loans, debt guarantees and other forms of perks not available to the average citizen, are backing him for President… To date, Obama’s Presidential bid dosh comes largely from – wait for it – the financial sector. Yes, the same sector that screwed the country over, and that, despite some unpleasant lawsuits they will likely settle,  remains as powerful, unrepentant, unaccountable, selfish and Main-Street-destabilizing as before Obama took office…

You can read it and weep over at Open Secrets.  Now, to be fair, a lot of rich people will also be shelling out for the eventual GOP nominee – and we should find a way to discourage that…at all events, we won’t out-raise Obama in 2012 and, anyways, money won’t determine the winner – but Obama and his Democrats claim to be for the little guy.  Remember, one of the memes for Obama is how we nasty, mean, cruel GOPers are trying to destroy the middle class…on purpose, because we’re just such bastards.  We want everyone to die as long as millionaires and billionaires can get their private jet tax breaks…so go Democrat talking points.  But I ask you, do the 44 “bundlers” from the Securities and Investment industry who have ponied up $7.2 million for Obama represent the middle class?

The bankers are deathly afraid of one thing – a government which won’t bail them out.  So far, Obama has proven ever willing to screw everyone to bail out the banks.  In fairness to Obama, I doubt he fully understands what he’s been doing…completely insulated from day-to-day American living and never having had to struggle to make ends meet, Obama may not know how a bail out eventually causes higher food and energy prices for average Americans.  But whether Obama understands it or not, the fact is that he has been the bankers best friend since January 20th, 2009; and the amount of money the bankers are lavishing on Obama indicates they believe he’ll continue to be their friend if re-elected.

The middle class really has only one bulwark these days – the TEA Party.  Sure, a lot of TEA Partiers are Republicans, but even the GOP – from olden times the party of the middle class – has not fully grasped just how bad things are getting out there.  Only the TEA Party – being made up mostly of middle class Americans – understands.  The battle of 2012 is a battle of the Ruling Class against the Middle Class…with Obama and his bankers defending the Ruling Class while the TEA Party defends the Middle Class.

We’ll see how it comes out – we’ll find out, once and for all, who runs this nation.

 

GOP Debate

Mark Noonan32 Comments

Stanley Kurtz over at NRO’s The Corner gives it to Perry:

This was a very successful debate debut for Rick Perry. It confirms his position as the leader of the field. As of now, this race is a Perry-Romney duel, but Perry’s the one to beat. Romney and Perry were well matched tonight, but Perry’s appeal to the base means he’s got a leg up over Romney just by fighting to a draw, which he did at least, if not better…

It seems to be the consensus that Perry did well – which means a Perry win because it was his first time out and he didn’t blow it.  As for me, I do believe that Perry’s entry in to the race immediately ensured that Romney would not be the nominee…even if Perry doesn’t end up making it, he’s sure to take a good portion of Romney’s support, thus causing Romney to come up short when the votes start to be counted. The big question is whether or not the second tier candidates can take advantage of the Romney/Perry dogfight…while the two big boys battle it out a clever Bachmann or Cain stealing their clothes and heading off to early primary wins?  We shall see.

 

The Romney Plan: Good, But…

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Mitt Romney lays out the broad outlines of his 59-point economic plan over at USA Today and I have to say that I am unimpressed.

To be sure, Romney’s plan does have a lot of really good things in it – but it always falls short of the revolution we need.  For instance, Romney calls for a tougher stance with China…but doesn’t lay out what that tougher stance would be (in my view, it should be a phased-in trade embargo).  Romney says he wants to review Obama’s regulatory record and then remove those which “unduly burden” job creation…why not just sign an executive order on January 20th, 2013 voiding all Obama-era regulations?  Does anyone seriously think that any regulation enacted since January 20th, 2009 has been vital to preserve the freedom and safety of the United States?

Given how lousy Obama is becoming, this 59 point plan of Romney’s may prove sufficient to get him in to the White House, but it simply does not go far enough…we need a revolution if we are to save our nation.  The left conducted its “long march” through our institutions and has created a Big Government/Big Corporation monster which is crushing the American spirit…morally, intellectually and economically we are being destroyed, and turning this around won’t be accomplished by tinkering with the tax code to stimulate job creation.

Before Romney can get my primary support, he’s going to have to show me that he’s not just running to be President because it would be a cool thing…I need to see a man who knows what we face and is willing to do whatever is necessary, including ensure a lost re-election bid in 2016, to get it done.

Run, Sarah, Run!

Mark Noonan21 Comments

Real Clear Politics has a link to the Palin speech today as well as several quotes – this is the most important part:

…On crony capitalism: “So many of them, they arrive in Washington, DC of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy. Well, it’s because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money, to taxpayer dollars.”

“They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street. And their corporate cronies. And to reward contributors. And to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this. It’s called ‘corporate crony capitalism,'” she said.

“Like you, I’m not for sale. I believe in the free market and that is why I detest crony capitalism. And Barack Obama has shown us cronyism on steroids. It will lead to our downfall if we don’t stop it now.”…

She gets it – whether by insight or careful study, she understands the basis of what is wrong…we’ve got a self-perpetuating Ruling Class which has fastened itself upon American society.  They are like colonial overlords, or a visitation…they are not organically connected to us, but they rule us and bleed us dry so they and their hangers-on can prosper.  Unless and until we get rid of them, we won’t be able to restore America.

The people who run our system of government and economics will always stand in the way of reform for the simple reason that any reform will eject them from power.  There is no way that those who leech off the American people will voluntarily give up their place at the  trough.  They will have to be forced out – by peaceful, political revolution.  Sarah Palin understands this – so, to be sure, do Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum.  But Palin has the national name recognition and the instant ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars as well as mobilize an army of volunteers.

In spite of all the excellent qualities in the current GOP primary field – and whomever gets the nomination will get my enthusiastic support against Obama – my view is that Sarah Palin is the best option for the GOP in 2012.  Palin is the embodiment of the true American spirit…the self-reliant, hard working, family-orientated, ardently Christian core of America.  She is the sort of person who crossed the oceans to found America, and who then tamed a continent, built a democratic republic and made America in to the most powerful and generous nation in human history. We can get that America back – but only by revolution.  Of all the candidates Palin is not only most likely to do this, but she has the ability to run that long, difficult race which will be necessary for a revolutionary to win the GOP nomination and beat Barack Obama.

So, run, Sarah, run.  Become the leader of the revolution and let’s restore America.

How Liberals See It

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Cenk Uygur wrote a piece over at HuffPo about how Obama and Co just won’t get out there and fight…that Team Obama thinks they are winning and thus just don’t answer the GOP blow for blow.  For those of us who have been watching Obama serially insult and attack us since he became President, this attitude comes as a surprise…what do the liberals want Obama to do?  Shoot us?

Uygur’s opinion is applauded and repeated by many liberals in the comments, but other liberals are countering the argument with a plea for patience.  Obama, you see, had dropped in his lap more challenges than any other President.  Civil War?  World War Two?  Oh, puhleesse!  Give me a break…that’s nothing!  Think about what Obama was faced with:  a recession!  My goodness, man, can anything be more challenging than that?  And then look at all that cruel obstructionism from the GOP…for crying out loud, in the face of the beaten down, dispirited GOP all Obama had was absolute command of Congress and the slavish devotion of the MSM.  It is a wonder that Obama survived at all!

Interspersed are, naturally, the accusations that we’re all racists and that corporations and billionaires control us (one wonders if any liberal has ever asked what George Soros does for a living?).  It is really rather sad; pathetic, really.  It is people who simply don’t know…they were fed a fairy tale about what that wicked,  mean Chimpy McSmirk BusHitler was up to…and then they were told that Obama was The One who will make it all better.  Now that the fairy tale has entered reality and reality doesn’t measure up, they are just floundering around, looking for excuses or getting petulant that The One hasn’t delivered.

These are not people who are set for victory next year…from Obama on down liberals are just out of their depth.  We’re going to beat them like a drum – not easily because ignorant as they are, they’ll still have a billion dollars to spend and a nasty streak a mile wide, but we’re going to beat them.

The Democrat Plan: Smear and Fear

Mark Noonan7 Comments

From The Hill:

President Obama is struggling in the polls against would-be Republican challengers because voters don’t know the GOP contenders well enough yet, a top White House official said Thursday.

Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer expressed confidence that Obama would perform better against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or Texas Gov. Rick Perry once Americans familiarize themselves with those GOP presidential candidates.

“My guess is that a significant portion of the people polled, the American people, don’t know what Mitt Romney’s economic plan is yet,” Pfeiffer said on MSNBC. “I’m confident they will know that he supports Cut, Cap and Balance, which would essentially end Medicare, end Social Security.”…

The only way to figure that Cut, Cap and Balance would end Medicare or Social Security is to lie about Cut, Cap and Balance.  As it turns out, flat out, bald-faced lies don’t seem to be a difficult proposition for Democrats.  And if your man can’t run on his record while his opponents have ideas that play well with the public then you have two alternatives:  either gracefully surrender, or lie like a rug about your opponents.

Rely on it:  from now until election day there will be an increasing crescendo of fear and smear tactics from the Democrats – to hear them talk about it, the GOP plan will be to kick granny off social security, kick sick people out of hospitals, kick kids out of school and bring back Jim Crow laws…all so we can give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Democrats are not doing this to win support – one thing about popularity is that once it is lost it is very hard to get back.  The chances of Obama winning enthusiastic support from people who backed him in 2008 but have soured on him in 2011 are very small – unless some gigantic event entirely outside his control allows Obama to shine, there is little chance that the disenchanted will come back.  Democrats are doing this to fire up their base and dispirit independents.  But running a nasty, dishonest and slanderous campaign, Democrats hope to fire up the mindless rank-and-file left (who will actually believe the GOP wants to be all that nasty) while making politics so vile that independents stay home in droves…Democrats then count on their registration advantage and ground game to out-turnout the GOP on election day.

A party with a sense of honor wouldn’t do this – a party whose leaders cared more for America than their own power and wealth would run on their record and let the American people decide.  Of course, a decent, honorable party like that holding the Democrats’ current record would be crushed at the polls.  For the Democrat leaders, there is no upside to that.  They want to win – and this is the only way they can possibly win.  The bad news for them is that it won’t work.

I think that the Democrats’ primary problem in 2012 is that they have already been so nasty and slanderous since 2001 that the people have tuned them out.  When an Andre Carson claims that the TEA Party wants to lynch black Americans, it is considered outrageous and disgusting, but it is also considered par for the course.  People expect Democrats to act like that but don’t allow it to affect behavior.  There is a chance that when Democrats really pour on the filth it will work as Democrats hope, but my view is that it will just steel the hearts of both GOPers and independents to have done with the Democrats…to chastise them so severely that they may even learn their lesson and rethink their policies and tactics.

But get ready for it – they will be as nasty and disgusting as they can be.  They will lie about us.  They will insult us.  They will use the crudest appeals to liberal racism. They will send minions out to disrupt our events.  They will use false-flag tactics…liberal activists presenting themselves as conservatives and TEA Partiers mouthing racist sentiments.  They will give marching orders to the MSM and so the MSM will gang up on us and highlight every slander as if it were true, while hiding the truth about the left.  It will be a long and very difficult campaign.

And we’re going to win.

Nooooo, there’s no room to cut!!!

tiredoflibbs7 Comments

I am so glad the pResident has not rested since taking office and promising to fix the economy, create jobs, heal the earth…  ok he did not say he will not rest on the last one.  But the first two he did and we have seen NOTHING from this so-called “leader” but more of the same failed liberal policies of the past.   I know… I know…you drones can’t wait to cry “Republicans do it too”.  That was before the last election.  We now have some TRUE CONSERVATIVES working against the RINOs.

Here is a collection of government outrage stories from the last few weeks.  It’s just too easy to come up with this BS. There is more…. a lot more.  After next week’s “jobs plan” errrr “jobs summary” errr “reasonable list of policies” speech, there will be even more…

Environmental Enforcement Leaves Gibson Guitar Makers in Fear

Feds Give 4 States $5.8 Million to Protect Insect Habitat

USDA Gives $73,824 Grant To Connect Food With Bed And Breakfasts

DHS Giving $2.1B in ‘Preparedness Grants’ to Cities, Indian Tribes, Non-Profits, Etc.

Postal Service spent $4.3 million on union employees who did “nothing”

$500,000 for a windmill in Milwaukee

Pentagon pays $720M in late fees for storage containers

Gov’t Paying Farmers, Ranchers $112M to Protect Bird Too Numerous to be Threatened

HIV/AIDS group charged with diverting tax dollars to strip club

Taxpayer-Funded App Makes You Look Like a Neanderthal

$245 million for a desalting plant in Arizona that has never been used and still costs $6 million a year to maintain

Taxpayers Foot Bill For an App To Tell Workers It’s Hot Outside

Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns

Are you tired of hope and change yet?  Still waiting for the change from someone who was “a new kind of politician” and not “an insider”.  His actions have said otherwise.

Will Unemployment Increase?

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Lance Roberts over at Zero Hedge thinks so:

Unemployment is potentially set to rise sharply in the coming months.  That is a pretty bold claim on the surface and one that flies in the face of both mainstream economists, and the White House which is about to unveil a new “jobs plan”.

Let’s take a quick look at some numbers:  8, 160, 400, 350, 12 and 5.  There have only been 8 weeks out of last 160 weeks that unemployment claims have been below 400 thousand claims.   In normal circumstances we are worried about recessions when claims are rising above 350 thousand claims.   Furthermore, jobless claims tend to plunge below 350 thousand a week within 12 months after the end of a recession.  Currently we are still holding above 400 thousand claims after more than two full years since the recession statistically ended…

But what about “5”?  He gets to that – the STA Composite Employment Index.  When it gets to “5” or less, it is a solid indicator of a recession.  Right now, it is at “5”.

But even without that, anyone with eyes to see knows that the economy is in bad shape – the mere fact that we’re sitting on 400,000+ plus claims for unemployment week after week after week shows that we are, at best, treading water…and more likely we’re slowly losing ground, in spite of all the new jobs the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims we’re creating (of course, it must be noted that then the BLS says “X” jobs were created in month “Y” it is really no more than a guess…and it will be about a year before we know how many really were created in month “Y”…and if BLS guesses wrong…).  Along with the jobs picture, every metric of economic activity has been pathetic for a “recovery” period…and they are all trending towards worse.  Even when some statistic comes in higher than expected, it is not high enough to indicate a robust economy.

It remains to be seen whether or not Bernanke will print up a bag of money to keep us out of official recession through the 2012 election – I think it would be disastrous, and may not even give us fake “growth”.  But he may try it – the Ruling Class is worried about a political revolution in the United States next year and will pull out all the stops to ensure that Obama is re-elected.  Or, failing that, that the eventual GOPer is wedded to the current system.  These people don’t care if America is going to heck in a handbasket…all they care is that they remain rich and in charge.

Brace yourselves – we’re going to have to deal from now through election day with a bad economy and an exceptionally nasty, political fight.  We will win – and win rather big, I think – but it will take every last ounce of effort we can muster.  As for me, I’m excited about the prospect and looking forward to the battle…it will be honorable, it will be fun and it will change America.

 

Battle for NY-9 Neck and Neck

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Not the sort of news the Democrats want to hear:

A new Republican-commissioned poll showed the race to replace ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) in New York’s 9th district to be a dead heat.

A McLaughlin & Associates poll of 300 likely voters found 42 percent would vote for state Assemblyman David Weprin (D) while 42 percent said they would vote for retired businessman Bob Turner (R).

Sixteen percent of those polled said they were undecided with less than two weeks to go before the Sept. 13 special election. The poll was conducted for Turner’s campaign…

There is a gigantic Democrat registration advantage in the 9th…so that it is even close is astounding.  It probably isn’t helping matters for the Democrats that Weprin hadn’t the foggiest notion of the national debt when asked the other day…proof that Democrats have just put up a loyal hack who will do what he’s told and is expected to easily win a heavily Democrat district.  There is a monumental contempt for the people in this – and it must be kept in mind that this contempt is being shown by Democrat leaders for Democrat voters.  They really do expect that the “D” after Weprin’s name will do the trick.

It’d be nice if Turner wins, but if he even comes within 5 it will amount to a crushing loss for the Democrats…the sort of small indicator which shows that things are going in a very different way.

Best of luck to Turner – let’s give Obama and his Democrats a big scare as they crawl in to 2012.