Archive for June 7th, 2009
Now we’ve gone and ticked off Canada
Posted by: | CommentsNothing like starting a trade war with our biggest trading partner and friendly neighbor to the north.
WHISTLER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Canadian municipal leaders threatened to retaliate against the “Buy America” movement in the United States on Saturday, warning trade restrictions will hurt both countries’ economies.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities endorsed a controversial proposal to support communities that refuse to buy products from countries that put trade restrictions on products and services from Canada.
The measure is a response to a provision in the U.S. economic stimulus package passed by Congress in February that says public works projects should use iron, steel and other goods made in the United States.
The United States is Canada’s largest trading partner, and Canadians have complained the restrictions will bar their companies from billions of dollars in business that they have previously had access to.
“This U.S. protectionist policy is hurting Canadian firms, costing Canadian jobs and damaging Canadian efforts to grow our economy in the midst of a worldwide recession,” said Sherbrooke, Quebec, Mayor Jean Perrault, also president of the federation that represents cities and towns across Canada.
We’re now a nation that appeases our enemies and treats our friends like dog doo. What next?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Europeans finally realizing that liberalism sucks
Posted by: | CommentsEuropeans are living with the effects of liberal socialist policies. It’s not working so well, so they’re kicking the libs out.
Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe’s largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere.
Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.
First projections by the European Union showed center-right parties would have the most seats – between 263 and 273 – in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were expected to get between 155 to 165 seats.
Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.
Wake up America!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas Sums Up How the Media Feels About Obama: He’s God
Posted by: | CommentsObama is the left’s new religion. I might hurl.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Shock! Stimulus isn’t stimulating!
Posted by: | CommentsNot only is it not stimulating, it’s downright depressing. Gee, who knew? The massive government spending spree has had the opposite effect than what they intended. I’m sure Team Obama will be out there tomorrow spinning this as some sort of good news. Or they’ll blame it on Bush. Take your pick.
The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.
But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.
That’s the Catch-22 threatening to make an awful housing market potentially worse and keep the economy stuck in a funk. Kick-starting the economy requires higher spending, but rising rates mean fewer Americans will be able to refinance their home loans. And some potential buyers will be shut out of the market by higher monthly payments they won’t be able to afford. …
The White House estimates that the government will rack up an unprecedented $1.8 trillion budget deficit this year – more than four times last year’s all-time high.
“The bond market is calling the Federal Reserve out,” said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Fla. “Investors are saying that the Fed can’t just print money out of thin air to finance a massive deficit.”
Investors know they can’t just print money out of thin air. Team Obama doesn’t care, because he won, so they’re going to do whatever the hell they want. It’s easy when it’s other people’s money (in this case America’s children’s) they’re playing with.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The War on Suburbia
Posted by: | CommentsSuburbia is okay for the elites, with their long, well lit driveways and gated communities. But they don’t like the idea of the rest of us enjoying a scaled-down version of their lifestyle. I’ve lived in cities, out in the country and in the suburbs. Each has it’s own qualities. At this point in my life living in a suburb is perfect. We chose our town because of the school district and we’ve settled in quite nicely. Nothing is very far away but we don’t have the noise and litter of the city to deal with. It seems the Obama administration wants to do away with our way of life.
The Heritage Foundation reported that Energy Secretary Steven Chu wants us to reduce carbon emissions by moving us all into tiny little apartments.
It’s not widely believed you can do this [reduce carbon emissions by 80% in 2050] in a cost-effective way, and so I think we can develop design tools to help people actually design buildings to do this.
You read stories in Europe where there are in small apartments zero-net energy consumption apartments. There is-you know, body heat keeps a lot of the apartment warm. You can’t do this in a big apartment with a few people.
Jack Givens compares the idea to Soviet style block housing. Is that our future once we let the statists take complete control of our lives?
John Wasik devoted an entire book to doing away with suburbia. He touts The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream as an analysis of how suburban homes are unaffordable. The houses themselves are expensive, then add in property taxes, maintenence and energy costs and it becomes unsustainable for most Americans. But rather than proposing lowering property taxes and building more nuclear plants to bring down the cost of energy, Wasik is advocating exactly what Mr. Chu is pushing. He would like to see us all crammed into small, energy-efficient apartments in cities.
Ultimately, though, the American home and community will have to be re-invented. Houses will need to be ultra-energy efficient to reduce long-term ownership costs and even produce their own energy. This can be done with factory-built, green homes.
Then we’ll have to build — or re-build — high density, walkable communities that are close to jobs and retail outlets. This is already happening throughout the U.S., although building and zoning codes need to change to allow this to happen on a large scale. Even more federal incentives are needed for green building.
Here’s an idea, how about Chu and Wasik move themselves and their families into teensy little energy efficient apartments. They can bring all of their liberal friends with them.
Popularity: 4% [?]
They must think you’re stupid.
Posted by: | CommentsI caught a little bit of Obama advisor Austin Goolsbee this morning on Fox News Sunday. He said flat out that the Obama administration will have input on operations at GM. I didn’t see the whole show, but Andy McCarthy did and Goolsbee was far less candid, to put it mildly, during the rest of the show. One would have had to suspend disbelief to listen to Goolsbee’s BS when it comes to the economy.
Goolsbee didn’t resort to the administrations’s blather about “saving or creating jobs,” but he did repeat its fustian about how last month’s loss of 345,000 jobs (resulting in a half percentage point jump in the jobless rate) is somehow good news because it beat predictions (I don’t recall him saying whose) of even more dire loss numbers. It made me wonder why, if those predictions either existed or were serious, the Obama administration would have previously predicted that unemployment would top out at 8%?
Goolsbee then laughably intimated that the steep jump in the jobless rate could be attributable to hopeful signs that the economy is improving. Huh? See if you can follow this: he says flashes of hope that we are on the verge of a revival have purportedly caused previously uncounted jobless people to seek (but not find) work – that is, they waited out prosperous times, deciding to leap into the job hunt only when hundreds of thousands of heretofore gainfully employed people got pink-slipped and began competing for a declining pool of jobs. Of course, why shouldn’t Goolsbee think he can get away with these fables when the Obamedia has taken to repeating them verbatim? Witness the headline on page one of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: “Slower Job Losses Lift Hopes” – I’m sure that’s exactly the headline Bush would have gotten after a half-point jump in an already sky-rocketing jobless rate.
If that weren’t enough to make your head spin, Goolsbee also blamed Obama’s handling (i.e., nationalizing) of the auto industry on … President Bush. Obama, you see, was saddled with this mess because Bush – over the objections of his own party – decided back in December to raid billions in public money intended for bailing out the financial sector in order to bail out the automakers.
What a load of crap. What’s worse is that the media let’s them get away with it. Speaking of the media, The Hollywood Reporter published a report about how GE stock holders accused GE/NBC of media bias at a meeting. GE had the gall to cut someone’s mike for asking a question. GE wasn’t happy about THR reporting the story so they punished THR’s parent company, Nielson.
It’s a very dangerous situation when any huge multinational corporation wages war against media companies. Especially when that huge multinational corporation is General Electric, which itself owns a media company, NBC Universal, and it’s using all its power and influence and money to try to harm another media company, Nielsen, and Nielsen Business Media, and its trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. This certainly sounds like a situation which the FCC, and the FTC, and the U.S. Justice Department should be investigating. Just one problem: the controversy stems from GE/NBCU’s coverage of President Obama.
You should read the whole thing, it’s despicable. I certainly will avoid any future purchases of any GE products and I won’t be watching NBC any time soon.
Update: Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino ripped Goolsbee’s outrageous claims.
“If the Obama transition team had not wanted us to provide breathing space for the automakers – with an express condition of future proven viability – they should have said so at the time, and those concerns would have been given considerable weight and may have changed the outcome,” she wrote, in an entry beginning, “Whoaaa, Nellie – I can’t let this go unanswered.”
Popularity: 3% [?]
Wow! Who knew? Generational theft doesn’t work.
Posted by: | CommentsRobbing Peter to pay Paul has never really worked. Robbing children to pay for their grandparents doesn’t work either. Check out Gateway pundit to see what Obamanomics has done to our economy. Where are the three million jobs Obama promised to save or create? Even unions need viable employers to shake down to keep their racquet going. And for all you Kool Aid drinking Obamabots, please remember that the economy didn’t begin to tank until your party took control of congress.
To prove the point, here is Vice President Joe Biden telling us how much money we’re wasting. Where’s his muzzle?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Courage and Leadership
Posted by: | CommentsJay Henderson wrote a truly wonderful tribute to Dwight D. Eisenhawer.
Sixty-five years ago, Gen. Eisenhower prepared himself for D-Day with hope and trepidation. Having made the decision to go earlier on the day of June 5, he spent time during the afternoon with the paratroopers who would be the first to leave for France. Although he said that he found it hard to look men in the eye on the eve of battle, knowing that many of them would soon be dead, he forced himself to the task – - it was his responsibility; ultimately, all of what would happen the next day, for better or for worse, was his responsibility. Unlike many leaders, then and now, Eisenhower did not display narcissistic self-promotion and breezy self-confidence. Confidence and optimism, yes; and also great humility.
You should read the whole thing. It’s a lovely tribute to a great man. What those men did that day is beyond the imagination of those of us known as civilians. We should honor them whenever we get the chance. To all of the men and women wearing the uniform of the United States of America please accept my humble thanks.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Who knew? George W. Bush delivered a beautiful D-Day speech.
Posted by: | CommentsIt just so happened that on the day former President George W. Bush gave a speech at Normandy, Ronald Reagan died. The death of our beloved Ronald Reagan was naturally big news, but one reporter woke up early to record the message delivered by George W. Bush.
It was well worth it. Prefaced by a gentle nod toward Reagan (“a gallant leader in the cause of freedom”), George W. Bush gave as noble an explication of why democracies fight as any president ever has.
Standing at a lectern with a clear view of the English Channel, packed with vintage ships from the Second World War, Bush spoke of the great battle that had taken place below the cliffs in front of him, and how, when the firing had finally ended and the wounded and dead were removed from the beaches, the sand was still littered for mile upon mile with the equipment of the armies and the belongings of the boys who had given everything they had.
“There were life belts and canteens and socks and K-rations and helmets and diaries and snapshots,” Bush said. “And there were Bibles, many Bibles, mixed with the wreckage of war. Our boys had carried in their pockets the book that brought into the world this message: Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends. America honors all the liberators who fought here in the noblest of causes.”
Turning then toward Chirac, Bush delivered the speech’s kicker. “And America would do it again, for our friends.”
The field of green was silent for a moment before the aging audience broke into heartfelt applause. Chirac, clearly moved by Bush’s words, approached the American president, grasped both his hands, and for a poignant moment, did not let go.
Popularity: 3% [?]
How to ruin a perfectly fine weekend – read about Obamacare
Posted by: | CommentsI lost count of the number of boys here at our house today to celebrate my son’s birthday today. They did everything they planned – swimming, 4 innings of baseball and a shirts-and-skins basketball game. Some of the boys went home, then more boys showed up. After the sun set and it cooled off we built a fire. A perfect day all around…until I read this.
The bill also proposes requiring individuals to own insurance, mandating businesses to provide insurance or pay a fee to the government, creating state insurance marketplaces where people can compare and buy plans, and providing subsidies for low-income individuals to buy coverage. The bill comes from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The contours of the draft legislation, which did not include specific dollar figures or numbers, match up with the outline of a bill that first leaked last week. As expected, the bill contains some of the more liberal options that the Senate will consider.
But it’s worse, much worse than what Politico reported. Ed Morrissey took the time to look over the bill. You aren’t going to like it. Not one little bit.
Popularity: 2% [?]
