From the Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration is considering a range of new measures to boost economic growth, including tax cuts and a new nationwide infrastructure program, according to people familiar with the discussions…

…in the mix: a possible payroll tax cut for businesses and individuals, as well as other business tax breaks, according to people familiar with the discussions…

A payroll tax cut would be the most useful thing Obama could do immediately for the economy – and for the people. But this also shows the level of desperation Democrats are reduced to – facing big losses in the fall, they are looking for expedients to just hold the line. Their thinking might be that a tax cut with a flourish enacted shortly before election day might give them a boost…might, that is, save the Senate for them, and prevent a complete blow out in the House.

If it works – I’m not so sure it will; given the attitude of the American people, such a move could backfire and be seen for a cynical, political ploy.

But, my fellow Americans, we’ve got them on the ropes – they are considering a dose of Reaganism two months in front of an election to boost their popularity!

From the Wall Street Journal:

Stocks limped to their worst August since 2001, battered by a wave of discouraging data that cast doubt on the faltering economic recovery.

Investors now enter September, a month that has been historically challenging for the stock market, against a backdrop of broad uncertainty, including slow growth and deflation fears.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average battled to a stalemate on Tuesday, rising 4.99 points, or 0.05%, to finish at 10014.72. The blue-chip index’s 4.3% drop for the month was the worst since a dismal May, and the measure’s first down August in five years. The Dow had rallied 7.1% in July…

I’m not so sure that September will prove a bad month – seems to me that the markets are being either manipulated, or controlled by coked-up monkeys. It should be down thousands of points from where it is as the economy is clearly in the dumpster – but, it still hangs on around the 10,000 mark. It will eventually fall, but I suspect that the Powers That Be will try their best to keep it up until November 3rrd.

The curious thing is that I don’t see how we get out of this while Obama is in office. Supposing the GOP wins big in November, the fact remains that the only thing the GOP can do for sure is halt any further Obama initiatives…but with Obama holding the veto, we can’t roll back any of the disastrous policies (Obama-made or inherited from decades past) which are preventing us from recovering. It could be a very long two years.

Victor Davis Hanson notes:

…The truth about Iraq is that, for all the tragedy and the loss, the U.S. military performed a miracle. After nearly seven years, a constitutional government endures in that country. It is too often forgotten that all 23 of the writs for war passed by the Congress in 2002 — from enforcing the Gulf I resolutions and stopping the destruction of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs, to preventing the Iraqi state promotion of terrorism, ending suicide bounties on the West Bank, and stopping Iraq from invading or attacking neighbors or trying to acquire WMD — were met and satisfied by the U.S. military. It is also too often forgotten that, as a result, Libya gave up its WMD program; Dr. Khan’s nuclear franchise was shut down; Syria left Lebanon; and American troops in Saudi Arabia, put there as protection against Saddam, were withdrawn…

Our troops behaved magnificently – their courage and devotion has won a major victory. This is also very much President Bush’s victory, as without him it would never have been started, and never carried through. This victory should be the signal of a new Middle East – a reformed Moslem world, but I fear that Obama’s temporizing attitude towards Iran and other threats will lose us the ultimate fruits of victory.

But nothing can take away what the troops did – in spite of all odds and immense difficulties and heart breaking losses, they carried out their duty and won what so many people said could not be won. They have proven themselves the worthy successors of the soldiers of America’s past wars.

From CNS News:

…When Obama was inaugurated last year, Americans who said they never or seldom go to church were more likely to approve of the job he was doing as president than Americans who said they attended church every week or Americans who said they attended church nearly weekly or monthly…

…In the week of Aug. 23-29, according to Gallup, only 48 percent of those who never or seldom go to church said they approved of the job Obama was doing. Meanwhile, 49 percent of those who go to church nearly weekly or monthly said they approved, and 34 percent of those who attend church weekly said they approved…

One does wonder, a bit, just why this should be. After all, Obama is pretty much being what every intelligent observer expected – and the unbelievers claim they are much, much smarter than we believers. You’d have expected such smart people to have looked carefully in to Obama’s views and background and only come to support him as the result of rational thought.

Unless, of course, the old saw is true – people who don’t believe in God don’t believe nothing, they believe anything.

From Ed Morrisey over at Hot Air:

Remember when both the Republican and Democratic Parties tried to insist that Arlen Specter was the only path to victory in Pennsylvania? A new poll by Reuters and Ipsos puts a stake through the heart of that argument once and for all. Pat Toomey leads Joe Sestak in the Senate race by ten points, but Arlen Specter would be losing it to Toomey by 12…

Morrisey notes that with the gubernatorial race also slipping away from the Democrats, the votes down ballot for House seats may also crater for the Democrats. Pennsylvania could end up quite red on November 2nd.

More and more, “wheels coming off the cart” describes the Democrats’ predicament.

Got the details over at Noonan for Nevada.

The third sitting Senator to fall in the primaries in 2010.

Here is the news report. I didn’t watch it – from what I understand, President Obama did not admit he was flat and quite foolishly wrong about the surge.

Our magnificent soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines secured a big victory for America, Iraq and the whole world. It is not to be seen whether or not Obama will use this victory, or fritter it away.

Discuss the speech, if you’ve a mind to.

Yet more evidence that they’re just making it up as they go along – from the Telegraph:

Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made the claim which it said was based on detailed research into the impact of global warming.

But the IPCC have since admitted it was based on a report written in a science journal and even the scientist who was the subject of the original story admits it was not based on fact.

The article, in the New Scientist, was not even based on a research paper – it evolved from a short telephone interview with the academic…

Remember? “Scientific consensus”. “Settled science”. All a bunch of rot – a bunch of kook leftists cooked up a story which was designed to allow a creeping, global socialism.

Yet another thing to add to the “to do” list if we’re given power – a thorough investigation in to this hoax, how much it cost us, who profited the most and what we can do to obtain redress both in criminal and civil court.

And I mean at the polls? Well, Sean Bielat is going to give it a try:

Sean Bielat is the first strong challenger to Barney Frank since the 1980s. His experience and accomplishments have shaped his views:

—As a businessman, Sean believes in focusing on economic growth and fiscal responsibility

—As a Marine, he believes in peace through strength

—As an American, he believes in a return to Constitutional values and citizen-legislators

This is an incredibly uphill fight for Mr. Bielat, but if there is a year in which a Republican can beat Barney Frank, 2010 is it. Perhaps you’d like to help out?

From My Fox NY:

If you think you’ve been seeing more people sleep on city streets, statistics back up the perception. The homeless population living on New York City streets has gone up 50 percent in the past year, according to city statistics reported by the HellsKitchenLife.com blog.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services conducts a yearly survey of the streets of the city to count the number of homeless who are not in shelters. The HOPE survey was conducted in January 2010…

The “good” news is that the number living in the streets is not as bad as it has been in the past – but my bet is that it’ll get increasingly worse. We’re at the tail end of the support we can easily provide. States and local governments are going broke; charities are feeling the pinch; people have less to give. And, furthermore, the increase is not in the number of boozers and druggies on the streets – that remains fairly constant, but in the number of regular folks.

We’ve seen it out here in Vegas – where other places have rooms for people to warm up in winter time, we have rooms for people to cool down in during the summer heat. During our very hot July, the cooling rooms were swarming (which isn’t 100% an indicator of homelessness – some of them were probably people who couldn’t afford to turn on the air conditioning…but, you get the picture).

A bankrupt government – a dying economic and political settlement, is now leaving the most vulnerable in a lurch. The welfare state has failed – I write more about this over at Noonan for Nevada where I actually get in to an argument with a man facing eviction.