Where Are My Keys?

Looks like Piker owes Paulie twenty bucks..

"The Rally To Inspire White People" occupied an area approximately 60% of the size of the Beck Rally.  Smaller area, same density means fewer people.  Unless of course you are CBS.

Gonna pay up Piker, or demand a recount?

Bill Maher, intolerant, fear-mongering, racist bigot?

Note the silence of the crowd.  Should they clap and agree, or boo to show their outrage?  All we get is crickets chirping.  Towards the end, Maher says "I should be alarmed", and gets a few tentative claps..

 

Unhinged Leftie chokes a dude he disagrees with..

This will get just as much press as the head "stomper" story got, right?

MoveOn and Republicorps member Fred Highton says he regrets initiating a physical altercation with a conservative Tea Partier at a political event at the University of Arizona earlier this month.

“If I’m going to take part in these political events, I need to learn some self-control,” Highton said.

Conservative James Massee released video of Highton grabbing his throat and face after the face-stomping video from a Kentucky rally for Republican Rand Paul.

“I released it just to show there are some lefties who could be violent too,” Massee said.

Massee said he approached Highton while he was giving a theatrical performance of how MoveOn thinks Republicans treat the working and middle classes to voice his opinion at which point he said Highton started choking him. Massee said he then found a nearby police officer to take control of the situation instead of hitting Highton back. Massee chose not to press charges and plans to stick with that decision now even though he has gone public with his story.

More here.

Not many "faces of color" there..

At the Comedy Central Rally to Entertain White People:

 

Looking at the Rally Flickr page, I see lots of white folks there, too..

People traveled all the way to D.C., and gave up a Saturday for this?

 

 

"Hatchet faced nutmeg dealer"..

Nasty political "ads" have been around since politics began..

 

a three-minute trip down memory lane..

A look back at the last four years of a Democrat-run Congress..

 

Getting better, but still awful..

Weekly Initial Unemployment Claim data is up, and in graph form:

 

There was a drop in the number this week (-21,000 from last week), but is still significantly higher than the historical average.  It's still going to be ugly for a while, folks..

 

Two short years..

My, how things have changed.

From Chicago:

It's hard to fathom how President Obama so connected at an emotional and inspirational level with the voters in 2008 but managed to so misjudge what they wanted from him. Obama was essentially running even in the polls until the economy collapsed and the nation turned to the charismatic but relatively inexperienced junior senator from Illinois to resolve the economic crisis.

Instead, the new administration and liberal leaders of Congress decided to use the crisis to push a left-wing agenda on health care, energy, spending and aid to government employees. A politician who campaigned against cynicism in politics cynically used the nation's economic predicament to advance liberal political causes.

The result has been a train wreck: A health-care plan that is increasing insurance costs, prompting companies to look at dropping coverage for employees, and hampering employee tax-free and health-savings accounts for medical spending. A combination of Federal Reserve moves and regulatory reform that was supposed to rein in Wall Street is putting free bank checking for the middle class on the road to extinction. A stimulus package promising to keep unemployment below 8 percent left 14 million unemployed and the jobless rate at 9.6 percent. And, by the way, housing prices are showing signs of weakness again, and economists fear that they could end up being below the already depressed levels of 2009.

Such is what the nation has reaped from Obamanomics. Now, the word from Washington is that the administration wants to focus the next two years on . . . jobs. No wonder the nation is in an angry, sullen mood. And it's not just on the political right. It has even infected the 2008 candidate of hope as Obama has taken to calling his political foes "enemies."

From USA Today:

Two years after President Obama was swept into office on a message of hope, he faces what may be a historic rebuke from midterm voters, including millions of independents who supported him last time. Four years after California liberal Nancy Pelosi triumphantly claimed the House speaker's gavel for the Democrats, Ohio conservative John Boehner is poised to take it away for the Republicans.

From across the Pond:

Not only is Krugman’s article one of the most ridiculous pieces of scare-mongering in the history of modern American journalism, but it is the pathetic whimper of a decaying liberal Ancien Regime that is spectacularly crumbling. It also illustrates just how out of touch liberal elites are with public opinion, as well as economic reality. The tired old blame Bush line no longer works, and as a recent poll showed, the former president’s popularity is rising again.

Whether Krugman likes it or not, the American people are turning overwhelmingly against Barack Obama’s Big Government agenda, and are looking for free market solutions to getting the country back on its feet, creating jobs and cutting the nation’s debt. As poll after poll shows, Americans are rejecting the liberal status quo and embracing the political revolution sweeping the country. My guess is that historians will look back on November 2010 not as a “catastrophe”, as Krugman declares, but as the beginning of a powerful new era for the United States, when conservatism and the cause of freedom made a striking comeback.

Those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it.

 

 

Wow, I guess this means the Democrats will run away with the midterms on Tuesday, right?

Piker has a post up featuring four questions:

1.  
   1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?
   2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?
   3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?
   4. Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

 

What fun are questions, if you don't have the answers?

In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.

On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

It's so easy to see the point, right?  That things are better today, than during the last days of the Bush Administration.

No shit, Sherlock.  Of course they are, in some regards.  Those final days were pretty hairy.  Companies melting down, all over the World, and everyone freaking out.

I'm assuming the point that Kos (and Piker) are trying to make here is that things are totally awesome under Obama, and the stupid, unwashed masses don't know what is good for them.

Nice attempt at spin, ladies.

Do I need to deconstruct each of the four questions?

1.  Interesting that Piker/Kos look at "public sector" hiring, and not overall employment.  Hey guys, what was unemployment on Bush's last day, and what is it now?

2.  I'll simply ask two questions of our esteemed friends on the Left.  Who writes the Budget, the President, or Congress?  Who was in control of Congress the final year of Bush's term?

3.  What an arbitrary way to compare apples to oranges.  I wonder if the last month of the last term of Bush was indicative of his whole Presidency, or did something out of the ordinary cause those numbers to tank?  In the Piker/Kos world, if Brett Favre (he's a football player, guys) throws an interception (that's when the ball is caught by a member of the opposing team), does it mean that every throw that Brett Favre has made prior to that was an interception?  And if the Vikings (that's the team Favre plays for) put in a backup quaterback (that's the position Favre plays), and he throws a touchdown (that's a scoring play in football) on his first pass, does that automatically mean the backup is a better quarterback than Favre?  To Piker and Kos, the answer is "yes".

The Stock Market is "forward looking", in that the values today are largely based on a belief by investors that things will be better or worse down the road.  If investors think things will be better, the Market rises, worse and it falls.  Bush's last days, the future looked pretty bleak, thanks to the recession, the Global economy, and a whole slew of panicked selling.  Piker/Koswould have you believe that the Market is up solely because of Obama's "leadership".  I bet I can find lots of folks in the financial industry that would offer the opinion the Market is higher today, thanks to the "future" news at the polls on Tuesday.  Is it possible that the Market is/has been reacting to the 80% chance that Republicans will take the House?  Te 7+ pickups the Republicans will have in Governorships?  The 7 or so seats the Republicans will pick up in the Senate?  The Market isn't up because of what Obama is doing, it's up because investors recognize that there will no longer be single-Party control in the House, Senate, and White House.  Cap and Trade?  Very expensive.  On Tuesday, it's dead.  Wall Street approves.  Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts?  Very costly to business, as there is less disposable income to spend.  Democrats have joined Republicans on the campaign trail to call for their extension.  Wall Street approves.  Obamacare?  Very expensive.  Republicans have campaigned on repealing (or at the very least defunding the bad parts, if they can't repeal).  Wall Stret approves.  THe Market didn't go up because of what you are doing, it's going up because much of your power will be removed on Tuesday, and Wall Street likes that.

4.  When the Civil Wars buffs get together and re-enact battles from the war, are the members that portray the Confederates all hoping that slavery returns to the United States?  Do they feel that the South should leave the Union?

When Samuel Jackson shot all those guys in Pulp Fiction, does he really want to murder people in real life?

When actors in a movie portray unseemly characters from history, are they playing a role, or are they secretly showing their true colors?

It's been reported that Jesse Jackson once referred to New York as "Hymietown".  So by using Piker/Koslogic, any Democrat that stands alongside the good Reverend is guilty of anti-semitism.  Right?

I've got a few questions of my own for Piker/Kos:

1.  If things are so good "out there", why did Congress extend unemployment benefits for 99 weeks for some workers?  After all, public sector hiring is way up under Bush, the deficit is way down, and the Stock Market is kicking ass.  So why the extension?

2.  What is reported unemployment and "real" unemployment these days?  I think 60 Minutes had a piece on this last week.  Maybe they can help with the numbers.

3.  How do you explain the close races in Districts that have been traditional Democrat strongholds?  Boxer, Reid, Frank, Feingold, Kucinich, they are all in tight races.  You can explain away Blue Dogs losing, but how do you account for the "safe" seats being in play?

4.  Why are Democrats having to resort to "supporting" third party candidates to better their chances?  Seems desperate, doesn't it?  Shouldn't their support of TARP, The Obama Stimulus, Obamacare, Cap and Trade, etc be enough to run on and get re-elected?  Why are almost all of them running away from those votes, and not embracing them?

Piker/Kos are doing what losers do.  They try and justify their loss by assigning blame.  In this case, they are trying to assign blame to the voters who are just too plain stupid to realize how great Barack Obama and his leadership are.  Clearly, if voters spent more time reading the NYTimes, or watching MSNBC, they would be informed, and know how great things really are.  Maybe John Kerry could help them deliver the message.

Or maybe, just maybe, Piker and Kos are the uninformed.  Perhaps they are the ones that can't see the "forest for the trees".  Buck up, fellas.  Learn from the mistakes.  Pay attention to what the body politic is saying.

Smaller Government isn't a bad thing.  I'm not talking about wiping out Departments completely, but a scaling back in every one of them (yes, including Defense).  Securing the borders isn't a bad thing.  Spending taxpayer money on taxpayers, and not every Tom, Dick, and Harrythat walks in the clinic is a good business practice.  Increase the Social Security payroll tax to be uncapped.  Right now I stop paying SS Tax when my annual income hits about $100,000.  LeBron James hits that threshold after about 7 minutes in his first game of the season.  Every dime he earns after that, not a single penny goes towards Social Security.  Lots of people in the Country earn more than $100k a year.  Why is it bad to change that?

Look around you, guys.  You may think that everything is "better" out there, but it ain't. 

You'll learn that for sure on Tuesday.

Just because..

I have an early flight to catch, and probably won't post much today, so I offer you this: