Mish’s has the full story stemming out of the possible bankruptcy of YRC Worldwide, America’s largest trucking company (which, by the way, is yet another indicator of just how bad the economy really is). Here is the crux of the matter:

Rep. Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota Democrat, is drafting legislation that would amount to a massive, employer-crippling bailout for struggling union pensions. The congressman is trying to spin this as a cheap, proactive way to shore up said pensions. He claims that his bill is a response to an “urgent plea [from employers] for manageable and predictable pension funding rules as the nation works [its] way back to recovery.”

In reality, the bill as currently drafted would be a costly sop to unions, which have done so much to get Mr. Pomeroy elected. (Twelve out of his top 21 donors are unions, according to opensecrets.org.) It would allow the unions, which have badly mismanaged pension funds in the past, to make new companies liable for the pension obligations of workers at other companies, in other industries. It also would create an explicit taxpayer guarantee if it all comes crashing down.

The devil is in the details of the draft, the text of which can be found on the congressman’s Web site. The changes it introduces are chilling.

The draft would allow union-controlled multiemployer pension plans to form alliances with one another. It also would create something known as a fifth fund that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., with taxpayer help, would use to prop up failing union pension plans.

Multiemployer union pension alliances might sound innocent enough, but consider what that actually means. Moody’s Investors Service recently warned of a vast underfunding problem with multiemployer pensions. Many employers fear being shackled into them. Even though the funds are controlled by unions, employers are liable not just for their own employees, but for every worker in the plan regardless of how the plan is managed or mismanaged.

The so-called last-man-standing rule holds that if every other company in a multiemployer pension plan goes bankrupt, closes or pulls out of the plan, the one survivor is responsible for every single employee covered by the plan, even those who never worked for him. UPS paid $6.1 billion in withdrawal fees just to escape the Teamsters Central States pension fund.

The “last man standing” under Pomeroy’s plan is you, dear taxpayer. Pomeroy, of course, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Union and as the unions have saddled corporations with crushing pension plans, it is natural that, instead of getting rid of the burden, the unions are casting about for a way to make everyone pay for their profligacy. Its in the nature of things that a Democrat falls easily in to line with this.

As we can see, the Democrats’ seem bent on putting as much of their constituency on the public dime as possible. They want ACORN using tax payer dollars to do the ballot box stuffing Democrats used to have to pay for on their own – why not also have the taxpayer fund the pension funds of those unions which provide so much cash to Democrat campaigns?

We’ll have a lot of repealing to do…

Lo, how the mighty have fallen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President…

Gatewaypundit says that Bush’s strongly disapprove was at 43% at the end of his term.

UPDATE: And the GOP holds an 8 point lead in the “generic” ballot.

UPDATE II: And Dick Cheney is named Conservative of the Year – Gay Patriot nominates for Conservative of the Decade.

As I told you it would be:

Estimated GDP growth for the third quarter has been revised downward again, to 2.2% from an initial estimate of 3.5% (it was also revised downward last month). That means that the Cash-for-Clunkers program accounts for most of the growth:

Motor vehicle output added 1.45 percentage points to the third-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.19 percentage point to the second-quarter change. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.08 percentage point from the third-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.04 percentage point from the second-quarter change.

Take away that 1.45 percentage points and you get 0.75% growth – anyone want to bet me that other government spending accounted for most or all of that? I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the private, productive economy contracted in the third quarter – and is continuing to contract right now.

Its all smoke and mirrors, as I’ve said. It will come crashing down. Will it crash by March as I expect? No one can say for certain – but crash it will. Bank on it.

Right back at ya, Barry.

Just as Democrats bribed their way to get the 60 votes needed to bring Obamacare to a vote in the Senate, a new poll by Quinnipiac finds Americans overwhelming disapprove of the plan, and more than 70% oppose using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

As the Senate prepares to vote on health care reform, American voters “mostly disapprove” of the plan 53 – 36 percent and disapprove 56 – 38 percent of President Barack Obama’s handling of the health care issue, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Voters also oppose 72 – 23 percent using any public money in the health care overhaul to pay for abortions, the independent Quinnipiac University poll finds.

And how about Independent voters? They ain’t buying the plan either.

Looking at the health care plan, independent voters “mostly disapprove” 58 – 30 percent, as do Republicans 83 – 10 percent. Democrats “mostly approve” 64 – 22 percent.

The situation only gets worse for Obama. Obama’s handling of the economy gets bad marks as well, even as Obama claims that this health care bill will reduce the deficit.

American voters also disapprove 51 – 44 percent of President Obama’s handling of the economy and disapprove 56 – 37 percent of the way he is creating jobs. But voters favor 52 – 42 percent his plan to use $200 billion left over from the bank bailout for a new stimulus package to create jobs rather than to reduce the budget deficit.

Only 31 percent of voters say Obama’s policies will help their personal financial situation, while 37 percent say his policies will hurt and 30 percent say his policies will make no difference. Among voters in households where someone has lost a job in the last year, 37 percent say Obama policies will help them personally, while 37 percent say they will hurt.

I guess the people aren’t buying Obama’s b.s. about the bill deficit-reducing nature. Of course, no thinking person would.

That’s the word at the moment. Very disappointing since polls showed him defeating Gillibrand,

I know there are some who believe that since Rudy is “a RINO,” or “not a true conservative” then this news is good news. While I totally agree that it is important and vital to support conservative candidates, if people in the Tea Party movement would rather have Kirsten Gillibrand in the U.S. Senate than Rudy Giuliani, then the Tea Party movement is doing more harm than good. While I would fully support Rudy for the U.S. Senate, I would not (and did not) support him running for president.

Not all victories have to look the same. Every election doesn’t have to be about electing 100% conservative candidates. Some victories must mean booting out the pawns of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, If electing Rudy Giuliani would mean Harry Reid would have one less vote to support the radical left-wing agenda of Barack Obama, that’s still a victory for liberty.

Interesting:

In the end, Connecticut Democrats can’t make Sen. Chris Dodd choose to retire. They can go to him and urge him to think about the joys of an ambassadorship, or teaching, or heading up some organization and raking the cash in by the bucketload. They could publicly endorse a serious primary challenger.

A former state party chair talking about how someone ought to urge him to retire is probably giving Democrats the worst of both worlds. Dodd isn’t likely to take the advice, and Connecticut voters notice, “Wow, even Democratic party officials are sick of this guy.”

This isn’t confirmation that the “Torricelli maneuver” — a last-minute, not-entirely-voluntary candidate switch — is coming down the pike, but clearly some Democrats in that state have thought about it.

And Connecticut is a rather blue State, isn’t it? And yet here is a long term, Democrat incumbent who is, to put it mildly, on thin electoral ice. If voters in Connecticut are angry enough to toss out a senior Democrat, how mad to you think the voters in the red States are? Especially in those GOP districts currently held by Democrats?

Getting a net gain of 41 House and 11 Senate seats is an exceptionally tall order for the GOP (11 in the Senate because if its 50/50, VP Biden breaks the tie and Democrats remain in control) – but, clearly, winning big is not out of the question.

Our problem, as GOPers, is twofold:

1. To craft a revolutionary message which will resonate with voter anger over the disgusting sewer which is American government.

2. Figuring out a way around the myriad ways Democrats will attempt to cheat in order to limit losses. The removal of Torricelli in NJ wasn’t just non-voluntary, it was entirely illegal, in to the bargain. Democrats will stick at nothing – I really can’t imagine anything they wouldn’t do in order to win.

But if we craft the message and carry it home against all vulnerable Democrats, then even with Democrat cheating, we still stand to make big gains next year – and, just perhaps, gains which will astound the world.

This isn’t the sub-prime stuff, good people – these are the loans made to well-qualified people:

Serious delinquencies among U.S. prime mortgages rose nearly 20 percent in the third quarter from the prior quarter, as the percentage of current and performing mortgages fell for the sixth consecutive quarter, banking regulators said on Monday.

The report by the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, which are part of the Treasury Department, covered about two-thirds of all U.S. mortgages.

It found 3.6 percent of prime mortgages — those made to the most credit-worthy borrowers — were seriously delinquent in the third quarter. That was more than double the year-ago quarter and up nearly 20 percent from the … second quarter.

The report defined “serious delinquencies” as those loans 60 days or more past due…

It isn’t getting better out there – not in the least. And with all the bubbles being built up by the Fed and central banks around the world (especially China) its just a matter of time before the second crash hits. To be sure, the fools who got us in to this mess can continue to play fast and loose with the money supply and, perhaps, keep the ball in the air for even as much as a year or two, but without wealth creation, we’re doomed to another crash. And the bad news is we can’t create wealth if governments are printing and borrowing like mad (any real gains in wealth will be wasted effort as money and debt rise faster).

Only a complete reversal can save the situation – we have to stop borrowing, stop printing and clear the decks to allow a bit of wealth creation and “clearing the decks” means, among other things, allowing “too big to fail” corporations to do just that.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

The news:

One is a former vice presidential candidate who has been vilified in much of the press. The other is a former two-term vice president who has been celebrated in much of the press. So which is more respected by the public at large?

In the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released a few days ago, pollsters Peter Hart and Bill McInturff asked, “I’m going to mention some people who have served in public life at some point in the past decade. Please tell me which one or two of these people, if any, you have the most regard and respect for.” The list was filled with the predictable answers. The president was on top, named by 28 percent of respondents. Colin Powell was also way up there. But the striking thing is that Sarah Palin, after all the criticism that has been directed at her, finished tied for sixth place, respected by 13 percent of respondents, and Al Gore, after all the praise that has been directed at him, was in eighth place, respected by eight percent. (The poll was taken just before the global warming fiasco in Copenhagen, which seems unlikely to have a positive effect Gore’s ratings.)

Caveat: being better respected than Al Gore is akin to being better respected than a crazed chimpanzee – but, hey, the MSM is what set up this contest.

From the supposed party of tolerance:

They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one.

We won’t forget – and we’ve taken enough insults from liberals. 2012 is not such a long way off and I’m sure we’re going to do everything we can to get intolerant, un-American cretins like Whitehouse out of office.

UPDATE: Let what is going to happen to Sen. Dorgan (D-ND) next year be an indicator of what we will do to all of those who have betrayed American principles.

UPDATE II: Reid defends ObamaCare bribes.