Blogs For Victory

From the AP:

A wave of government layoffs in September outpaced weak hiring in the private sector, pushing down the nation’s payrolls by a net total of 95,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s…

I seem to recall something from my history books about the Great Depression…something bad. What was it? Let’s think now…oh, yeah, that’s it!…there was a Great Depression back then. And now Obama has matched that wonderful time – we’ve got high, long term unemployment just like back then. Woohoo!

Oh, wait…that isn’t a good thing…

We can’t borrow and spend our way out of this – we can only work our way out of it. We need to make things, mine things and grow things – if we’re not doing that, then we’re just wasting our time and, very probably, making things worse.

UPDATE: In October of 2006, just prior to the Democrat takeover of Congress, unemployment was 4.4%. Ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?

UPDATE II: The “U-6” unemployment rate (which counts unemployed, discouraged and working part-time when wanting full time) rate is up to 17.1%…just shy of the 2009 peak of 17.4%. This indicates two things:

1. We’re back in recession.

2. Someone is fudging the official number as it shows 9.6%. My guess is that it is actually closer to that 10.1% in the Gallup survey…and I’ll bet dollars to donuts the post November 2nd numbers reflect this.

It is possible – Victor Davis Hanson notes:

… if the Republicans regain the House, the entire Obama redistributive agenda will stall. That stasis will give far more certainty to the business cycle — and probably provide the necessary psychological lift for businesses to start hiring and buying again.

In a weird way, by losing the Congress, Obama may well see the economy rebound — a turnabout for which he’ll take credit, despite the failure of his earlier massive borrowing schemes, which will seem like ancient history by 2012…

The key, for Obama’s economic recovery hopes, is if American business is really sitting on trillions of dollars, waiting for a better business climate to get going like gang busters. I’m not so sure – it seems to me that our banks, for instance, are sitting on their money because they know they’ll have to write down at least a trillion dollars in loans in 2011 and 2012. Meanwhile, other businesses may be sitting on cash because they don’t expect any fundamental recovery and thus just want cash reserves to survive for a year or two of low or non-existent profits.

Meanwhile, our debt hangs over us like a sword of Damocles, ready to cut off our head at any moment. It cannot be emphasized enough that if we don’t get our budget balanced in a few years, we’re going to be facing a complete collapse. And this leaves off the prospect that Europe and China may collapse under their mountains of bad debts – even if we balance our budget, if Europe and China tank it will be hard for us to gain economic traction (though we’ll do better than them, if we’ve balanced our budget).

Can Republicans really tackle the debt while Obama is firing off the class warfare rhetoric about evil Republicans forcing granny to starve? That remains to be seen – it may prove impossible.

But we must try. We must, that is, rescue America even if it means rescuing Obama. And, of course, it may not help Obama – I think a lot of people have already tuned him out and he may have difficulty convincing people that any recovery by 2012 is really due to Obama’s efforts. It is also different, now, because of the New Media…Clinton could triangulate his way in to a second term on the back of GOP policies, but I don’t know if Obama will be able to do that trick, even with a slavishly devoted MSM running cover for him.

Read it and weep, liberals:

Low-income workers stand to lose the most if lawmakers fail to reach a consensus on the Bush-era tax cuts, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation.

The report states that on Jan. 1 the doubling of the child tax credit, increased standard deductions and income credits and the creation of the 10 percent tax bracket — all of which primarily aimed at non-wealthy taxpayers — will vanish if gridlock persists in Washington.

While wealthier taxpayers pay more in taxes and stand to lose more money if the tax cuts expire, the impact on low-income taxpayers will be far greater because they live on slimmer margins…

This is because the tax cuts were designed to give a lot of help to poor and middle income wage earners. While you liberals were out there screaming “tax cuts for the rich”, the reality has been quite different…it is the poor who benefited. And not just in direct tax cuts, but in the increased prosperity because job creation wasn’t hampered by high taxes on “rich” people who make 250,000 a year (meanwhile, the super rich – your George Soros, etc – never seemed to get taxed when you liberals “tax the rich”).

Just because you wanted to play class war politics, these poor people will now suffer. Because you wanted a talking point rather than a policy, poor people will now have less money to spend and save.

So, is this hope, or is it change?

Didn’t we just have a whole summer of recovery?

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 10.1% in September — up sharply from 9.3% in August and 8.9% in July. Much of this increase came during the second half of the month — the unemployment rate was 9.4% in mid-September — and therefore is unlikely to be picked up in the government’s unemployment report on Friday…

The consensus for the report tomorrow seems to be for a figure of 9.7 to 9.9%…I figure it won’t, under any circumstances, go to 10% simply because Obama and Co won’t let unemployment be officially in double-digit territory a few weeks in front of the vote. Someone will fudge the numbers sufficient to keep it below 10…even if its 9.96%, or some such.

The bottom line is that we are heading back in to full blown recession. The stimulus failed – now we’ll have to become a bit more responsible and realize that balancing the budget and cutting taxes is the only way out.

Bailouts weren’t enough – now the banks have to be protected against their illegal actions regarding foreclosures. From Business Insider:

The hottest story right now in the banking industry is foreclosure-gate, as various firms like Bank of America, JPMorgan, and GMAC have halted foreclosures upon realizing that the paperwork behind them has been shoddy at best.

The fallout — which has already invited investigations from state AGs — could throw a major wrench into what’s already been a costly, tedious, and economically damaging process.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Senate passed a bill that could get the banks out of this mess…

It looks as though the banks, faced with massive numbers of foreclosures, played fast and loose with State and federal regulations on foreclosure processing. This has thrown in to question the legality of all foreclosures. The banks face risks of lawsuits forcing them to return foreclosed homes to previous borrowers, as well as possible criminal sanctions under various State laws – and this doesn’t get in to the fact of what to do for the people who bought foreclosed homes but may not have full legal title to the property. Its a huge mess and it is the direct result of financial industry incompetence.

And, liberals, your Democrats have slipped through a bill to get the banks off the hook. How do you feel about that? Where is your grand progressivism, now? I mean, we conservatives don’t like this – we know that foreclosures must happen, but we are also insistent that the relevant laws and regulations be observed. Why is your side working to provide what amounts to unfair advantage to one of the two sides?

Because it does work out like that – if Obama signs this bill, then it will essentially mean that a bank can do as it pleases regarding foreclosure. The people will have little recourse, because they won’t have the money to take the banks to court, while the banks will feel that they are protected against sanction by law enforcement. This law is a direct assertion of the power of big corporations over the lives of regular folks.

Is this hope, or is this change?

Allahpundit (who is getting waaaay too much linkage from me these days, but he’s been on some really good issues) talks up the Supreme Court case regarding those blackguards of Westboro who engage in vile protests at military funerals:

Glenn Beck: We must defend Fred Phelps’s right to picket soldiers’ funerals

Must we? Even the Supreme Court sounds like it’s not sure. Via McClatchy, a report on this morning’s oral arguments in the hotly anticipated Snyder v. Westboro Baptist Church case. Does a scumbag have a right to be a scumbag on the street outside a fallen hero’s funeral?…

To me, there is a very simple test to be applied here. If you really want to know what a right is, then ask yourself: would I die for it? In such a case as that of Westboro, we should ponder whether or not a young soldier, slain on a battlefield and, perhaps, leaving wife and children behind in this world without his help and guidance, would choke out his last words and say, “I’m pleased to die so that lowlifes can shout ‘God hates f***’ at my funeral”. If you can answer that in the affirmative, then you’re a purblind idiot we need pay no further attention to.

We’ve allowed a lot of nonsense to encrust our thinking over the past few decades – everyone is shouting for this, that and the other thing, claiming they are rights, when they are really just personal desires…and often narrow minded and selfish personal desires, in to the bargain. I’m sitting here safe and dry while much younger men and women are laying their lives on the line for me – I’ll not have them shed their blood for nothing…I won’t allow the noblest sacrifices of youth to be given up for shit.

Not only do Phelps and his cretins not have a right to engage in disgusting demonstrations at military funerals, they should all be flogged within an inch of their lives for even trying such a thing (yes, I know this makes twice this week I’ve come out in favor of flogging…and, yes, I further realize that being a man I probably could not survive an inquest in to my own life without earning a few stripes on my back…but I’m not going for “non-hypocrite” here: I’m going for a bit of vigor in defense of decency). It is high time we started to put the nauseating in their place – this nation is built by patriots to be a place for patriots to live in honor, liberty and peace…it is not a clown shop where cowards and mountebanks get to live off the sacrifices of others.

Enough is really quite enough – it is time to smack down the insects like Phelps and let them know that men and women of honor and courage won’t be having any more of their garbage.

Allahpundit links to the news:

I’ve been trying to tell you that it’s time to get out in front of this issue.

And now … it’s too late.

Some pollsters and party officials say Democratic candidates in California are benefiting from a surge in enthusiasm among young voters eager to back Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in certain quantities and permit local governments to regulate and tax it.

Party strategists and marijuana-legalization advocates are discussing whether to push for similar ballot questions in 2012 in Colorado and Nevada—both expected to be crucial to President Barack Obama’s re-election—and Washington state, which will have races for governor and seats in both houses of Congress.

Its not just that, of course – Democrats are also hoping marijuana legalization will provide the revenues to keep Big Government going a bit longer. Boil it down, and the Democrats’ hope is that if they can legalize the process whereby people ruin their lives, they’ll reap electoral benefit. That does really say is all about the rank immorality of the Democrat party these days – and keep in mind that I favor legalization of marijuana…I just don’t have any desire to have the GOP benefit from such a thing…

The argument against Obama is unanswerable – it all depends, now, on whether or not people will draw the right conclusion on November 2nd.

From Michael Barone:

…why are Democrats less enthusiastic? And why has “the progressive donor base,” as Democratic consultant Jim Jordans reports, “stopped writing checks”?

I don’t think it’s just because the economy remains sour or that President Obama failed to jam a public option in the health care bill.

I find a more convincing explanation in an offhand phrase in a subordinate clause in a brief article by Adam Serwer of the Center for American Progress on the Washington Post’s opinion pages. “There’s no question,” Serwer writes, defying anyone to disagree, “that Obama has completely reversed on his promises to roll back Bush-era national security policies.”…

And that may very well be it – for 8 years the liberal leadership hammered endlessly upon the Chimp McSmirk BusHitler theme about how we’re choosing war and violating civil liberties in an orgy of Islamophobic insanity…and Obama ran, explicitly, on changing all that. That reality has forced Obama to essentially continue most of Bush’s policies in this area doesn’t matter – they want the “gulag” in Gitmo closed!

This is what comes with using flat out, bald-faced lies to make a political point…if you do have followers dumb enough to believe the lies over a long period of time, they will continue to believe them even when you don’t need them any more. Welcome to your own problem, Democrats – and, next time, maybe try telling the truth?

Obama’s Communist mentor.

Joe Manchin, future loser, attempts to distance himself from Obama – by suing him over coal mining. Is this an example of hope, or change?

Just what does the “enthusiasm gap” portend?

Work hard for victory, Republicans – because, remember, if its close, the Democrats will try to steal it.

Global Warming Hoax Update: heading for the coldest winter in 1,000 years.

Hispanics note motivated to vote in 2010?

Helpful advice for our Democrats.