The US economy grew by 1.9% in the last quarter. That means we are not, as much as Democrats and the MSM may wish for it, in a recession. There is also news today that US deaths in Iraq are down to the lowest point since the invasion, and troop tours in Iraq will be cut to 12 months.

It sounds like great news to me so I thought I’d check the websites of ABC, CNN, MSNBC and CBS to see if they had these stories as their top headlines. The answer is no, no, sort of and no. MSNBC had the troop tour story. The rest chose their right to remain silent. But they did share the news of Exxon’s big profit and Boston trading Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers.

The media and the Dems have done whatever they can do to ruin the economy and lose the war. When their efforts fail they won’t even report the news. Go figure.

Update: In all fairness, ABC News did mention the story about the decline in US casualties in Iraq during their 6:30 broadcast, but not until after they reported on Exxon Mobil’s record profit.

Later Fox News reported that for every dollar in profit Exxon Mobil has earned, they have paid three dollars in taxes, so for the last quarter Exxon Mobil paid a record $32 BILLION dollars in taxes! But Obama wants more.

Barack Obama was trying to say that John McCain is trying to scare voters from electing Obama and went on to say “You know, he doesn’t look like all of those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

John McCain’s campaign cried foul and said that Obama is playing the race card and Obama’s campaign replied “Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign.”

What did Barack Obama think when he said he doesn’t look like the men on the money? Any rational person knows exactly what he meant. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. Then when McCain responds he accuses McCain of dirty politics. I guess Obama expects that even his opponents are supposed to fawn all over him in the manner of the main stream media.

In less than 24 hours Congress will be going on a long vacation. Don’t you wish you could go on extended holiday without first getting your job done? Nancy Pelosi and Company are refusing to allow an up/down vote on drilling. They are worried because there are a number of Democrats willing to vote for drilling because their constituents want it.

This afternoon Representative Mike Pence said he has asked President Bush to call a special session of Congress, under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution:

He may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respsect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.

President Bush should call them out, call them back and force them to vote on drilling.

To take action visit the following web sites:
American Solutions
Freedoms Watch

Tonight I took the kids to Game Stop. My younger son received a game for his birthday that was defective so we went in to exchange it for a different game. One would think that wouldn’t be a big deal. The problem is, I was returning a game purchased in Pennsylvania in a New York store.

The young lady who waited on us was very nice and pleasant but this was her first out of state return. Pennsylvania has a 6% sales tax while New York has an 8% tax. There was only about a 50 cent difference, but I can’t blame the girl for doing her job and balancing the books. After she made six phone calls and about twenty minutes she finally figured it out. The Sponge Bob game is much better than the Power Rangers anyway, so I suppose it was worth the headache.

That little event got me thinking, how does Pennsylvania manage with a 6% sales tax? What about Delaware? That state has no sales tax and Florida has no state income tax. Where is all of the money in New York going? Today Governor Paterson ordered a 7% spending reduction from all state agencies. Already counties are complaining that it will mean less money from Albany, so they may have to raise our taxes. Why don’t they just stop spending so much of our money?

I think I’ll move to Bikini Bottom.

Drilling! We don’t need no stinking drilling! Just inflate your tires!

Liberals are starting to notice, and write about, the arrogance of Barack Obama. We can probably expect to see him change his personality again some time very soon. This morning Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote a scathing editorial about the Prince of Hubris, Barack Obama.

It seems that Obama’s presidential charade isn’t lost on everyone. Milbank declares that “he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president’s. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or more to have photos taken with him.”

While most of the press adores the Prince of Hubris, some are starting to tire of him and with about 100 days until election day more are sure to grow weary of Obama’s act.

If Barack Obama is elected president there’s a good chance we’ll see Hooverville’s cropping up across this great land of ours after his policies throw us into another Great Depression.

The American Presidents, Ninth Edition documents that “No other President came to the White House with more dazzling visions of achievements and left with more shattered illusions than did Herbert Hoover.” One of his promises was “the perfection of justice, whether in economic or social fields” and he intended his administration to be a “progressive, reform regime.” That all sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Herbert Hoover is said to have been for small government and laissez-faire economics. It’s too bad he didn’t stick to his guns. He was called a “do nothing President”. He tried a housing bailout which was a failure. His refusal to repeal Prohibition probably didn’t help. Not only would people have gone to work at breweries and distilleries, but they would have been happier, not having to go to to the local speakeasy for a pop. But Herbert Hoover’s biggest mistake was signing the Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930 which only intensified the depression. Time and again we find that free trade is a good thing and the imposition of tariffs is bad. Obama doesn’t get this.

Unfortunately, President Bush seems to be falling into the Democrats’ trap when they compare him to Hoover, accusing him of doing nothing. (For example the economic stimulus and homeowner bailout.) We will never know what would have happened had President Hoover, and later Roosevelt “done nothing”. Perhaps the depression may have ended in 1934.

On the left we have Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Madame Pelosi is in the news today for saying that she’s trying to save the planet. According to the Politico:

With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

I wish the interviewer had further prodded Madame Speaker and asked her where she found the Constitutional authority to “save the planet”.

On the right we have Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who recently went on an energy tour that included ANWR. Debunking the Democrats claims that there is plenty of oil available for drilling under current leases, Rep. Bachmann retorts:

The Democrats’ focus on the National Petroleum Reserve is also striking. While it contains comparable known reserves to ANWR — 10.6 billion barrels compared to an estimated 10.4 billion barrels in the wildlife refuge — its fields are spread over 23 million acres. The portion of ANWR territory that should be opened to exploration covers a mere 2,000 acres. The National Petroleum Reserve’s fields are a little over 250 miles from the current pipeline infrastructure, while ANWR is only 75 miles away. To top it off, currently there is no production in the National Petroleum Reserve because of ongoing litigation.

By focusing on a patch of Arctic tundra more spread out than ANWR, a greater distance from current pipelines, and subject to lawsuits not addressed by the legislation, the Democrats chose to respond to American cries for expedited drilling in such a way that would have made it harder to produce energy.

Rep. Bachmann has also opposed the wretched homeowner bailout and she is calling on President Bush to veto the bill which she refers to as a “blank check” to the treasury.

Who is right and who is wrong here? How the American people continue to be fooled by the likes of Nancy Pelosi is beyond comprehension. Something tells me it won’t be that way for long. As the old saying goes “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

Oh yeah, if you’d like to tell Madame Pelosi what you think of her you can call her at 202-225-0100.

Governor Paterson just delivered his speech on the local television stations. I was a little nervous at first, it began as what could have turned into a typical liberal speech. I held my breath, hoping the Governor would not be calling for tax increases to beef up the state coffers.

Governor Paterson did not disappoint, in fact I yelled “Woo Hoo!” when he said he was calling for an emergency session of the state legislature and the legislators vacations were coming to an end. He went on to state that, like New Yorkers, the government will need to learn to get by with less and we need to cut up our credit cards!

One thing the Governor said that may give some of us pause is that the government needs to act. As history has shown, government action often makes fiscal problems worse.

It remains to be seen if the dysfunctional New York State Senate and Assembly will do anything to balance the budget. It doesn’t fit with their “spending for votes” way of thinking. But the Governor is going to give it a go and he should get credit for that.

Washington, are you listening?

Update 8/30/08: I couldn’t let this post stand without commenting on Governor Paterson’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. In the style of ‘politcs as usual’ the Governor blamed everything on President Bush.

Why don’t Republicans get it? Democrats win elections by running as moderates or what they call “blue dog Democrats”-Democrats who espouse conservative ideas (at least until they’re elected and fall in line behind the likes of Pelosi, Reid and Schumer). Sure, there are some exceptions, like John McCain who, oddly enough, has turned right since the primaries.

Much to my chagrin, my Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives, Dale Sweetland, has come out in favor of releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Who does he think he is, Dan Maffei? Why not just come out and announce that we can turn the economy around if all Americans raid their 401k?

It’s been reported that Governor Paterson is expecting some tough fiscal times ahead here in NY and he plans to give a speech to address the issue. He reportedly plans to call for dramatic cuts in state spending.

It’s starting to sound like the governor is a closet conservative, at least fiscally. The governor is going to be up against some pretty tough opposition to any cuts in spending and it shows guts that he’s at least trying to do something to curb spending.

It would be nice if our local, state and federal governments had kept spending under control for the last century, but they have not. It’s never too late to start, however, so good luck to Governor Paterson. Maybe President Bush can take a cue and veto the housing bill.

All of you Rush Limbaugh fans should read Rush: The Engine of Conservatism by Mark Levin. Here’s to twenty more years!

Junior senator from Illinois Barack Obama has returned from strutting around the world as if he owns it. Now that he’s back state side he has directed his staff to start planning his transition. That’s awfully presumptuous for the man who is only the presumptive nominee of his party. Talk about audacious! Has he forgotten that one must first be nominated as his party’s candidate and then win the general election before taking office?

Perhaps press reports like No. 44 Has Spoken deluded him into believing that he’s already the president-elect. With each passing day Senator Obama’s ego grows ever larger. He believes the only way to solve the problems of the globe is his ascension to the White House. He believes that his few years as an Illinois state senator and his very brief stint as a US senator (most of which he has spent campaigning) qualifies him to serve as leader of the free world. Anyone who dares to mention that media hype and hope do not entitle him to the presidency is attacked as mean spirited and playing dirty politics.

Rex Murphy said it best in Obama’s Audacity of Hubris: “Yet, there he was on Thursday, acting in every way as if he were already president delivering, Urbi et Orbi, a proclamation. There was something almost glorious about the presumption: Call it the audacity of hubris. There was also and equally something very reckless about it. The only set who seem more enraptured than a good part of the U.S. media about the Obama campaign is the Obama campaign and the candidate himself.”

Listening to the main stream media one would believe John McCain and his campaign have said nothing in the past week other than complaints about the media’s love-fest with Senator Barack Obama. All McCain did was merely state the obvious, but they’re not going to let him get away with it.

Rather than report the story, the media has now become the story, intertwined with the Obama campaign. They’ve entered into a credibility damaging viscious circle that goes something like “We love Obama, now we are reporting on our love for Obama because his opponent pointed it out, so we must now attack the opponent”.

ABC News has the headline Anatomy of an Attack: How McCain Hit Obama - McCain Camp Seethed, Then Began Landstuhl Attack by Touting Hannity Comments on their website. Including the title, the article mentions the McCain campaign “seething” three times. About McCain’s ad regarding Obama scrapping his plans to visit our wounded troops the author writes “The McCain campaign dropped the bomb…… an extraordinarily harsh attack line: ‘And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops’.”

Of course, ABC made the Obama campaign’s retort sound extremely reasonable: “The Obama campaign was quick to cry foul…..This politicization of our soldiers is exactly what Sen. Obama sought to avoid.” They failed to point out that had Senator Obama visited Landstuhl without the press it simply would have been a sincere gesture from the man who wants to be president. It became political when he scrapped the visit because he couldn’t bring his reporters along.

When did criticizing a political opponent become an “extrordinarily harsh attack”? Oh yeah, when the politician making the criticism is the opponent of your love child.