Colin Powell: Tea Party at Fault for Divisiveness

Colin Powell always displays his true colors on Sunday talk shows. Today he says that it's all those millions of responsible Americans who want the country to live within its means that are responsible for the country's divisiveness.

Nope, not Obama's desire to destroy the economy or demonize everyone who disagrees with his radicalism. To Powell, all those who disagree with Obama are at fault. It's time for Powell to announce what he's always been - a big government liberal.

Bush Cancels Swiss Speech on Threats of Arrest

Former President Bush has cancelled his planned speech in Switzerland due to threats of his arrest from Leftist groups.

It's interesting that they don't care about politicians (Chavez, Castro, Ahmedinijahd) who commit what they view as torture or criminality unless it's an American or Israeli politician.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As a reminder of Thanksgiving each year, Rush Limbaugh reminds us of the true story of Thanksgiving. In it, the Pilgrims experiment with socialism did not work, so they tried a market economy instead. The Democrats should pay attention...

"The experience that we had in this common course and condition,'" Bradford wrote. "'The experience that we had in this common course and condition tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing -- as if they were wiser than God,' Bradford wrote." This was his way of saying, it didn't work, we thought we were smarter than everybody, everybody was gonna share equally, nobody was gonna have anything more than anything else, it was gonna be hunky-dory, kumbaya. Except it doesn't work. Because of half of them didn't work, maybe more. They depended on the others to do all the work. There was no incentive.

"'For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense,'" without being paid for it, "'that was thought injustice.'" They figured it out real quick. Half the community is not working -- living off the other half, that is. Resentment built. Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself? that's what he was saying. So the Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the under-girding capitalistic principle of private property.

"Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? 'This had very good success,' wrote Bradford, 'for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.' ... Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes," it did. "Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you're laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians." This is what happened. After everybody had their own plot of land and were allowed to market it and develop it as they saw fit and got to keep what they produced, bounty, plenty resulted.

CBO Downgrades Obama Stimulus Effects

Not a good review, even from the normally pliant CBO. From IBD:

So in other words, the CBO now says it's possible that the stimulus had virtually no meaningful effect on growth and employment despite its massive price tag.

All this comes after the CBO increased that price tag to $825 billion from its initial $787 billion — a 5% hike.

Adding insult to injury, the new report also says the stimulus will hurt economic growth in the long run because of "the resulting increase in government debt." Each dollar of additional debt, it reports, "crowds out about a third of a dollar's worth of private domestic capital."

In our view, even the CBO's downgraded estimates are too high, because they're still based entirely on Keynesian economic models that simply assume extra government spending results in added economic growth.

Frankly, the GDP was likely barely improved from the increased spending because of the crowding out effect in the private sector. All it did was reduce future GDP growth and add $1 trillion to our debt.

Supercommittee "Success" Would Have Been Failure Anyway

Oh no, the Supercommittee "failed." The whole goal of the committee was absurd. Under the CBO baseline, thanks to Obama's increased spending over the past three years, was projected to be approximately $50 trillion in spending over the next decade, with an additional $9 trillion in debt.

The committee was arguing about how to narrow the deficit by $1.2 trillion. So even if it were ALL spending cuts, which the Democrats adamantly refused, that would have reduced spending from $50 trillion to $48.8 trillion over the next decade. And that was a bridge too far for them. But the GOP said they would reduce spending by only half to $49.4 trillion and increase revenue by the other $600 billion. That was still too much for the Dems.

Frankly, a successful outcome would have been a sham anyway.

Obama's Uncle In Court In Mass

He's not contesting the fact that he was drunk-driving, or the fact that his blood alcohol level was .14, or the fact that he almost smashed into a police car. He's contesting the fact that the officer stopped him in the first place.

What is he insinuating?

Et Tu, Toomey?

I'm not convinced I should believe this story, but it appears that even Pat Toomey, a conservative member of Obama's 2nd Super Committee (he ignored his first one) is now acquiescing to raising taxes on wealthy Americans through the back door.

Toomey is apparently pushing a plan designed to raise taxes by eliminating or capping deductions in favor of reducing tax rates. The desired result, according to sources, is to raise taxes on wealthier Americans and reduce them further on lower class Americans. Unfortunately it appears that even the GOP is agreeing with Obama that we have a revenue problem and not simply a runaway spending problem. If so, it's extremely unfortunate. (And certainly won't help the housing situation either as owning homes will not be advantageous.)

Oh, and if the Super Committee is successful, it will merely increase the debt from $15 trillion today to $23 trillion in 10 years rather than CBO's estimate of $24.2 trillion. And that is if they are "successful."

President Golfs Again - This Time with Convict-Friend

Ok - big deal - the President golfed again - yes - we're getting used to that. Some might say - hey, what's the big deal? He's having some down time. I don't mind the leisure time at all (even if it is a lot of down time). My beef with the President's golfing is that the media treated the previous administration with such contempt every time he golfed, on the few occasions he played. Eventually he simply quit the game. Sure it was his decision, and he said he did it out of respect for the troops fighting overseas. My beef is that those troops are still overseas, and we have a President golfing again, and he's breaking records for frequency. But the media are non-existent, or simply don't care. Double standard? Those are the facts. You decide.

Yesterday, the President golfed with a long time friend who was busted a few months ago for soliciting prostitution.

My guess is that if this were GW Bush, that this would be on every front page of every newspaper worldwide. My expectation with Obama is that it is completely ignored (again).

Obama Making Friends Again: This Time China

Chinese officials don't like the fact that Obama is blaming the US's economic woes on their country. I'd say this to them: stand in line!

For the first two years of his Presidency, Obama blamed the previous administration on average, about 14 times per speech for the poor economy. I'd say it's lessened slightly over the past year - maybe down to about 7-9 times per speech now. Recently he blamed Europe, Japan, and the Middle East for America's problems. He's also been blaming Wall Street and banks for his woes. Then he blamed the Tea Party for a while. Over the past month or two, he seems to be blaming Congress for not doing enough, even though he's the president.

Always plenty of blame to go around! This might be the one thing that Obama seems to be good at.

The Corn Ethanol Disaster

In case anyone thinks that the clean ethanol experiment was a success, this is an instructive read. I think it's time to phase out corn ethanol altogether.

Stryker to Cut 1,000 Employees in Face of Obamacare Taxes

As expected, Obamacare fees are starting to translate into job losses at medical companies to offset new taxes.

Stryker, the Kalamazoo-based maker of artificial hips and knees, will cut 5% of its global workforce by the end of next year to reduce costs in the face of new fees on device makers required by the U.S. health care law.

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Obama's Got a Big Problem in Virginia

Kimberley Strassel has a good post on the election results in Virginia this week. In short, the GOP now controls the governorship, Senate and House for only the second time since the Civil War. More importantly, Democrats ran as far from Obama as they could get. This, despite the fact that Northern Virginia has grown wealthy on the backs of a massive federal government. Now, it takes one unpopular president to accomplish that feat but Obama achieved it.

Democrat US Senate candidate Tim Kaine must be more than a little worried right now, as I've already seen commercials showing his praise for Obamacare and Obamanomics when he was chairman of the DNC.

Obama Votes "Present" on Keystone XL Pipeline

The next time Obama says he is "laser-focused" on jobs, remember that he is refusing to allow the Keystone XL pipeline project to go forward due to pressure from his environmental wacko friends. As the WSJ notes:

President Obama used to be fond of "shovel-ready projects." He's also demanding that Congress pass his jobs bill immediately because 9% unemployment is a crisis, and, by the way, he's for making the U.S. less reliant on energy from tyrants. So how about putting 20,000 Americans to work on a North American energy project that's as shovel-ready as they come? Sorry, Mr. Obama is voting present.

The $7 billion project is TransCanada's Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile underground pipeline that would deliver 830,000 barrels of heavy crude oil a day from Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. TransCanada filed an application to build the pipeline in September 2008 with the State Department, which must approve it because the pipeline would cross the 49th parallel. In April 2010 and again this August, State produced multivolume environmental impact statements that concluded the pipeline would have "no significant impacts" on the environment.

If people haven't noticed already, Obama doesn't give a damn about jobs. He cares about one thing - his re-election. He must assume he needs to rev up his wacko base to have a chance at winning.

Fatal Shooting At Occupy Oakland

I guess this is how "community organizing" works. Obama's favorite vagabond group, the "Occupy" movement, has had another death at its camps - this one a fatal shooting in Oakland. Apparently the shooting took place in an area directly adjacent to the Occupy group, where drug use is prevalent.

And liberal newspapers still like to claim that Americans at large support this violent, anarchist, drug and defecation movement (aka "community organizing").

SEC Brags About "Record Results"

The SEC posted this news release bragging about its "Record Results" over the past year. Everyone knows that the SEC considers itself to be the enforcer of financial markets, but does anyone else find it a bit odd that they issue a press release emphasizing their record results by the number of prosecutions it brings? Only in Obamaville does this seem appropriate.

“We continue to build an unmatched record of holding wrongdoers accountable and returning money to harmed investors,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “I am proud of our Enforcement Division’s many talented professionals and their efforts that resulted in a broad array of significant enforcement actions, including those related to the financial crisis and its aftermath.”

The press release just seems strange. It also forgot to mention that they've also dramatically increased staff and costs to operate and now have 103 employees who make $225,000 or more at the agency. Not bad for government work...

Time to Narrow the Republican Candidates

Ok. Another debate with 8 different candidates. A debate with so many people limits the time each person can speak and limits the depth of the conversation. I say it's time to limit the debate to 4 or 5. In my opinion, it's now time that for Huntsman, Santorum, and Bachmann to be relegated to the second tier. It's possible the even Governor Perry doesn't make the first cut.

The would leave Romney, Cain, Gingrich and Paul to duke it out. I would welcome this.

Cain Accuser Krashaar Filed Similar Complaint at Next Job

From ABC News, that bastion of right wing extremism:

Karen Kraushaar, who settled a sexual harassment complaint against Republican presidential frontrunner Herman Cain in 1999, filed a different complaint at her next job four years later, accusing a manager of sending out a sexually suggestive email and asking to be allowed to work at home after a car accident.

Kraushaar was injured in a car accident at an intersection in late 2002. After the accident, Kraushaar asked to be allowed to work from home. She filed the complaint when her repeated requests to work at home were denied, according to a former supervisor. The former supervisor told ABC News that Kraushaar wanted a "large payout" of tens of thousands of dollars, a year-long fellowship at Harvard, a raise and the reinstatement of sick leave.

Hmm. This woman's history speaks for itself, I think.

Obama's New Christmas Tree Tax

Is there anything that Obama and his Democrat buddies won't tax? He just imposed a new 15 cent tax on the sale of Christmas trees.

Hey, at least his Muslim base should be happy.

*Update*
That was a quick reversal on the tax. But the entire episode was absurd: tax Christmas trees in order for the federal government to hire a PR firm to promote and market Christmas trees. Why does the federal government need to do this again and who was stupid enough to even propose it?

Why is Obama Loaning $730MM to a Russian Steel Company?

Unbelievable. I can see lowering taxes for companies that choose to manufacture in the US, both American companies and foreign - that makes sense. But simply handing them a loan? Guess that's what happens when you have a President that doesn't understand business.

People have been asking where the trillion + of stimulus has gone....

Cain Accuser Short on Credibility

Media outlets (well, at least those outside the US) have learned a bit more about Sharon Bialek and there certainly is quite a bit of a shady past, from two personal bankruptcies to harassing former lovers to pay child loans to not holding a job in two years. Frankly, the one I'm most interested in is how she was fired from the National Restaurant Association after only six months. For those who understand the hiring and firing practices of these non-profit associations, it is nearly impossible to be fired. Should be interesting to find out why.

Jindal Wins Landslide Victory in Louisiana but Media Yawns

Bobby Jindal won an election two weeks ago for Governor of Louisiana but you wouldn't know it, as the media has all but ignored the results. (Republicans won all seven elections). Even more glaring is that he won by 48% to his nearest challenger! Even more remarkable is that Jindal is only the fourth Republican governor in his state in the last 125 years.

All of this leaves me scratching my head - as I have seen hardly any coverage of this huge victory. It's possible that it was expected and so the media doesn't care but I have a feeling if an Indian-American Democrat had won a landslide election in a huge Republican state, like say, Texas, then we'd be hearing a lot more about what the election means for 2012. I suspect if the media were to mention his win, then they'd have to speculate on what this means for Obama next year, which is something they don't really want to talk about.

By the way, Republicans (and Democrats) should take note: Jindal cut the budget by 25% and still achieved this victory.

Politico Attacks On Cain - By The Numbers

This from Legal Insurrection:

Days as of 8 p.m. Eastern today since Politico broke the story - 7
Politico news stories about or mentioning “Herman Cain“: 138
Politico news stories about or mentioning “sexual harassment“: 91
Politico news stories about or mentioning “sexual harassment” not involving Herman Cain: 0
Politico news stories showing what Herman Cain actually did: 0
Politico news stories showing specifically what Herman Cain was accused of: 0
Percentage drop in Herman Cain favorability rating as reported by Politico: 9
Politico news stories about or mentioning “Solyndra“: 9
Politico news stories about or mentioning “Fast and Furious“: 3
Politico news stories about or mentioning “unemployment“: 17
Politico news stories about or mentioning “recession“: 14
Politico’s credibility self-destruction: Priceless

These Financial Services "Fat Cats" Make Too Much Money

If an executive at a financial institution creates value for shareholders, there is a good argument that he should be paid big money. But when federal government employees with all sorts of perks and benefits (including guaranteed pensions that private workers only dream about) make a lot of money at the sole expense of American taxpayers, that is something else (and never mentioned by Obama). These are the true "fat cats." From Biggovernment.com:

• The CFPB responded on August 4, 2011. The SF-50s revealed CFPB workers being hired at salaries twice the maximum ordinarily allowed under guidelines published each year by the Office of Personnel Management. A dozen new hires take home more than $225,000 a year, and a student intern is currently being paid $42,036 “through completion of education & study” as a communications trainee.

• The CFTC responded on September 12, 2011, but blocked out most of the information on the 26 forms provided. The documents, however, reveal that the agency has instituted a cash award bonus system, and during the first six months of 2011, the agency doled out from $400 to $5,000 in bonus income to employees already earning $225,000 or more per year.
• The Federal Reserve, responding on August 25, 2011, denied using SF-50s, despite an apparent statutory requirement to do so. It also refused a subsequent request for “Transcripts of Service,” which the agency said it used instead of SF-50s.
• The OCC responded on August 22, 2011. The SF-50s indicated that 85 workers earn $225,000 or more per year. The employee names, as well as the legal authority under which the pay raises were issued, were blotted out.
• The U.S. Department of the Treasury, responding on August 25, 2011, indicated that two employees earn more than $225,000, but withheld their names.
• The SEC responded on October 3, 2011, reporting that 103 workers earn $225,000 or more per year.

Cain Accuser Sees No Value in Coming Public

OK, after a week of the attempted sabotage of Herman Cain, we now know that there are anonymous sources for anonymous details about something that happened or was suggested or interpreted 20 years ago while Cain was the CEO of the National Restaurant Association. And the woman making the allegations was paid severance when she later left the association. Despite efforts to make it appear there was a massive scandal, her lawyer now says she sees no value in coming forward.

Wow - seems like a smoking gun story to me. Bill Clinton has to be laughing right now at this nonsense.

Top Corzine Contributor and Ally In Charge of MF Global Investigation

Nothing to see here. Just because Gary Gensler has known and been friends with Jon Corzine for years and personally contributed $10,000 to Corzine's campaign doesn't mean anything. I'm sure he'll be an objective investigator as he heads up the Corzine / MF Global investigation...

Corzine's MF Global Another Madoff Fraud?

It appears that MF Global, run by top Democrat Jon Corzine, has been fraudulently using customer funds to help fund the company's massive losses. If this is indeed true, Corzine should receive the same treatment that Bernie Madoff received.