Morning Mistress
15 minutes ago
we can't have a cloud of uncertainty either hanging over our heads now, or just a plan that would kick that down the road to Christmas and have us going through all of this again in such a short time.
we as a country need to not only lift our debt limit and take away the specter of default, the heavy cloud of uncertainty
But those are things outside of our control, Bret. What is inside our control is to not add the cloud of uncertainty...(More on this one later!)
And you saw a lot of economic forecasters say that if you could take that cloud of uncertainty off our economy
if we can take the specter of our nation's first default --
take that cloud of uncertainty off our economy
We have had headwinds that have hurt this economy -- higher oil prices, supply chain disruptions from historic earthquake in Japan.
In 2008, when throngs of Americans came to see Barack Obama speak, it wasn’t because they loved him. It was because they loved the image he presented to them. The Barack Obama they cheered and fainted over wasn’t a real man with real and tangible accomplishments that he and others could point to. He didn’t have any. Candidate Barack Obama was a figment, a marketing ploy, a charlatan.
February 2010 - $14.294 trillion
December 2009 - $12.394 trillion
February 2009 - $12.104 trillion
“It’s quite a success story for the new leader. (Of Al-Qaeda) He worked his way up all the way from the mail bomb room.”
Much as President Obama and other liberals may think natural laws for things like physics and economics don't matter, the reality is they do and nowhere more so than on American highways. The president reportedly has secured agreements from Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy fleet average standard to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The new standard will be reviewed in 2018, but that won't change the fact that automakers will immediately have to embark on efforts to lighten and downsize all of their models.
I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have been irreverent, except toward the things that were sacred to other people.
A $150million U.S. Army airship crash landed in woods today after it could only reach half of its expected altitude on a test flight. The unmanned solar-powered airship was only in the air for less than three hours after it launched in Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday morning. It ascended as planned up to 32,000ft but the Lockheed Martin airship then encountered problems and was not able to get up to 60,000ft.A hundred and fifty million for a solar powered blimp? I guess all those years of subsidizing the strategic helium reserves has finally paid off!
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While conducting combat operations against a hostile force, Sp5c. Hagemeister's platoon suddenly came under heavy attack from 3 sides by an enemy force occupying well concealed, fortified positions and supported by machineguns and mortars. Seeing 2 of his comrades seriously wounded in the initial action, Sp5c. Hagemeister unhesitatingly and with total disregard for his safety, raced through the deadly hail of enemy fire to provide them medical aid. Upon learning that the platoon leader and several other soldiers also had been wounded, Sp5c. Hagemeister continued to brave the withering enemy fire and crawled forward to render lifesaving treatment and to offer words of encouragement. Attempting to evacuate the seriously wounded soldiers, Sp5c. Hagemeister was taken under fire at close range by an enemy sniper. Realizing that the lives of his fellow soldiers depended on his actions, Sp5c. Hagemeister seized a rifle from a fallen comrade, killed the sniper, 3 other enemy soldiers who were attempting to encircle his position and silenced an enemy machinegun that covered the area with deadly fire. Unable to remove the wounded to a less exposed location and aware of the enemy's efforts to isolate his unit, he dashed through the fusillade of fire to secure help from a nearby platoon. Returning with help, he placed men in positions to cover his advance as he moved to evacuate the wounded forward of his location. These efforts successfully completed, he then moved to the other flank and evacuated additional wounded men despite the fact that his every move drew fire from the enemy. Sp5c. Hagemeister's repeated heroic and selfless actions at the risk of his life saved the lives of many of his comrades and inspired their actions in repelling the enemy assault. Sp5c. Hagemeister's indomitable courage was in the highest traditions of the U.S. Armed Forces and reflect great credit upon himself.
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”
John F. Kerry almost became president running on the basis of his alleged heroism in Vietnam. Thanks to the efforts of a group of truth-tellers, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the serious holes in the fantasy narrative propounded by the Kerry campaign came to the attention of enough Americans that John Kerry was not the first faux-Irish President of the United States.
One of Kerry's enablers in propounding his imaginary heroism was a man named Wade Sanders, who himself held a Silver Star, and who introduced Kerry to the Democratic Convention. Scott Swett, who was central to the unraveling of the Kerry storyline, tells us that the Kerry enabler has been exposed for what he is. His Winter Soldier site has the details:
John Kerry was introduced at the 2004 Democratic National Convention by Wade Sanders, a retired Navy Captain and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy who served as a Swift Boat officer in Vietnam. Like Kerry, Sanders was the recipient of a Silver Star for gallantry in action. During the 2004 campaign, Sanders functioned as Kerry lead attack dog against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, repeatedly denouncing the veterans on the air as liars and comparing them to Nazi propagandists.
Wade Sanders is now in Federal prison, serving a 37-month sentence for possessing child pornography. Now the Navy Times reports that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has revoked Sanders' Silver Star. The highly unusual decision appears unrelated to Sanders' felony conviction. A Navy spokesman cited "subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself."
Now, every family knows that a little credit card debt is manageable. But if we stay on the current path, our growing debt could cost us jobs and do serious damage to the economy
I won’t bore you with the details of every plan or proposal
The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a different approach -- a cuts-only approach -– an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all
General Electric Co.’s health care unit, the world’s biggest maker of medical imaging machines, is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing.
“A handful’’ of top managers will move to the Chinese capital and there won’t be any job cuts, said Anne LeGrand, general manager of X-ray for GE Healthcare
The X-ray business, whose financial results aren’t reported separately by GE, will hire 65 new engineers and support staff at a new Chengdu facility
But the new approach that Speaker Boehner unveiled today, which would temporarily extend the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, would force us to once again face the threat of default just six months from now. In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem
I want govt out of my bedroom. I also want it out of my office, den garage, toilet, refrigerator and light sockets.
When liberal politicians tell you that conservatives want to "end Medicare as we know it", the operative words are "as we know it". As we know it today, Medicare is going bankrupt. If it crashes and burns under its own weight, that too will "end Medicare as we know it".
It's the unsustainability that needs to be changed, not demagogued.
The idea that we're going to spend another seven months lifting the cloud of default from the American economy...
But they're going to look at whether we lift the cloud of default off the American economy...
And if Congress makes some sensible decisions right now, lifts this cloud of dysfunction, of default, off of the American economy...
...we're trying to do avoid not just default today, but the specter of default in the future.
And this spectrum of default that Republicans have put over the country is hurting the confidence of average Americans.
“We have to lift this credit default from the economy for -- you know, for the next 18 months. We have to take that threat off the table through the election”Yeah. Right! Obama does not want his stewardship of the economy to be an issue in the 2012 election. The Dems would rather sweep it under the rug than to deal honestly with a problem that affects every household in the country. Notice that Obama and the Dems have stated they will not negotiate on any plan that needs to be re-examined between now and November 2012. Getting Obama re-elected is, as Ford used to say, "Job One".
the American economy is still suffering undeniably from the tragic after-effects of the crisis this president inherited.Translation: The effects of Bush's spending and participation in two "unpaid for" wars were so bad that Obama spending three to four times as much and involving us in yet another war and assorted :kinetic military actions" (KMA seems to be a recurring theme for the Obama administration, along with WTF*) cannot be blamed. The "denial" is all ours! Shutting down oil production in the Gulf and refusing to allow drilling and other activities that would increase the nation's wealth (and tax a portion of it as it grows) is not as important as appeasing the environmentalist wackos and trying to foist "green" solutions to every problem. Despite massive influxes of government cash, electric car companies and solar companies are going bankrupt or cutting back. Obama is sacrificing the economy of today for some imaginary tomorrow. Obama and Tim Geithner's plans for "winning" sound more like Charlie Sheen's.
Xavier (Becerra) should run as Obama's veep in 2012. He's very slick verbally, his words mean nothing and his demonstrated knowledge of the economy and monetary policy is next to zero. Or else, he's lying, and either way would make a perfect fit with the current resident of the Oval Office.
I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president, who believe that with regard to Social Security and other things, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president. Who cannot believe how weak he has been for whatever reason in negotiating with Republicans, and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has made the move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama believes he’s doing. [...] So I would say to Ryan, discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.
It was already approaching 100° at 8 a.m. when I arrived at the Park Hyatt where, after 22 months of stalled negotiations, hotel workers were staging a one-day picket to protest the hotel chain's intolerable treatment of their housekeeping staff.
In case you didn't know, Hyatt is owned by the Pritzker family. Heiress Penny Sue Pritzker chairs Obama's national campaign finance committee. She is also big player in Democratic Party politics as well as in the world of anti-union, corporate school reform and was recently appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to a seat on the Chicago school board.
Pritzker's response to the Park Hyatt strikers was to turn on the hotel's powerful heating lamps to try and bake the workers into submission on this brutally hot day.
Just a glimpse at the American flag can sway voters, even Democrats, toward more Republican voting behavior, attitudes and beliefs, a new two-year study says.
The authors, from the University of Chicago, Cornell University and Hebrew University, say the research proves the American flag has a powerful effect on voters.
"A single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants' Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some effects lasting eight months," reads the study titled, "Long-Term Effects of U.S. Flag Exposure on Republicanism."
Showing a previously unknown talent for stand-up comedy, Barack Hussein Obama has declared that there is no need for a balanced budget amendment, because "we don't need a constitutional amendment to do our jobs...and to make sure that the government is living within its means and making responsible choices. "
Despite ongoing wars around the world, domestic fiscal meltdowns, and inconceivable death and destruction in America's "tornado alley," Mr. Obama has now racked up nine consecutive weekends in which he's decided the best use of his time is whacking a ball around the fairways.
And God help us all...he's probably right.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. (then 1st Lt.) Fritz, Armor, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as a platoon leader with Troop A, near Quan Loi. Capt. Fritz was leading his 7-vehicle armored column along Highway 13 to meet and escort a truck convoy when the column suddenly came under intense crossfire from a reinforced enemy company deployed in ambush positions. In the initial attack, Capt. Fritz' vehicle was hit and he was seriously wounded. Realizing that his platoon was completely surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and in danger of being overrun, Capt. Fritz leaped to the top of his burning vehicle and directed the positioning of his remaining vehicles and men. With complete disregard for his wounds and safety, he ran from vehicle to vehicle in complete view of the enemy gunners in order to reposition his men, to improve the defenses, to assist the wounded, to distribute ammunition, to direct fire, and to provide encouragement to his men. When a strong enemy force assaulted the position and attempted to overrun the platoon, Capt. Fritz manned a machinegun and through his exemplary action inspired his men to deliver intense and deadly fire which broke the assault and routed the attackers. Moments later a second enemy force advanced to within 2 meters of the position and threatened to overwhelm the defenders. Capt. Fritz, armed only with a pistol and bayonet, led a small group of his men in a fierce and daring charge which routed the attackers and inflicted heavy casualties. When a relief force arrived, Capt. Fritz saw that it was not deploying effectively against the enemy positions, and he moved through the heavy enemy fire to direct its deployment against the hostile positions. This deployment forced the enemy to abandon the ambush site and withdraw. Despite his wounds, Capt. Fritz returned to his position, assisted his men, and refused medical attention until all of his wounded comrades had been treated and evacuated. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Capt. Fritz, at the repeated risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect the greatest credit upon himself, his unit, and the Armed Forces.
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”
I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.
A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.
The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company. All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.
The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant. When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.
The start-up company promised city leaders that it would create 70 new jobs and pay $700,000 in taxes a year to Salinas.Hope! Change!!
Including the California money, the company... burned through over $700,000 of taxpayer money.
According to CNN, only 15% of the cost of the two year extension (of the Bush tax cuts)went to those folks. That means 85% went to families nearly all of whom are not millionaires or billionaires. In fact, these are the same people Obama repeatedly promised a tax cut during the 2008 election.
Should the program have been discontinued? (0%)
Should it be replaced with something else? (45%)
Should that replacement have been in place before retiring the shuttle program? (75%)
Will the discontinued shuttle program add to unemployment? (40%)
Is Obama's talk of "going to Mars" simply empty rhetoric in light of his gutting and his redirection of NASA? (70%)
Will the private sector be able to replace NASA in maintaining America's lead in space exploration? (30%)
"Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares."
My grandfather's Glock was too large for his hand,
so an old Smith and Wesson he wore.
It wasn't that great, just an old .38,
but it proved the right tool for the chore.
For you'd stare down the bore, if you showed up at his door,
unexpectedly or late at night.
As he said, once, never to bring a knife
to your own gun fight.
The World’s Greatest Orator (Obama) is almost always uninspiring, condescending, self-aggrandizing, peevish and grim.
"The Republicans are having their way gutting and cutting everything we can find"What exactly have the Republicans "gotten their way" on? A balanced budget amendment? Substantial cuts in spending? An agreement from Obama and Reid not to raise taxes in a recession? Take your meds, Sheila! (And no, I'm not disrespecting you because you're black, Ms. Jackson Lee. I'm disrespecting you because you're nuts!)
"Off to see the Wizard (One last time)"
Politicians with the power to determine each citizen’s income are no longer public servants. They are public masters.
"Better to have loved and lost a short person than never to have loved a tall."
"I cannot guarantee that those checks ("Social Security, Veteran's checks, folks on disability...70 million checks")go out on August third if we haven't resolved this issue."
...there is a political vulnerability to doing anything that tinkers with Medicare. And that's probably the biggest savings that are obtained through Paul's plan.
And I raise that not because we shouldn't have a serious discussion about it. I raise that because we're not going to be able to do anything about any of these entitlements if what we do is characterize whatever proposals are put out there as, "Well, you know, that's -- the other party's being irresponsible. The other party is trying to hurt our senior citizens. That the other party is doing X, Y, Z."
I've written numerous times over the last year about rapidly worsening perceptions of the U.S. in the Muslim world, including a Pew poll from April finding that Egyptians view the U.S. more unfavorably now than they did during the Bush presidency. A new poll released today of six Arab nations -- Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco -- contains even worse news on this front:Read the whole thing. It's not just Republicans and conservatives who realize that the Charlatan-in-Chief falls far short in the leadership department. Greenwald is part of a growing dissatisfaction on the Left with the blank slate candidate they foisted upon us in 2008.The hope that the Arab world had not long ago put in the United States and President Obama has all but evaporated.
Two and a half years after Obama came to office, raising expectations for change among many in the Arab world, favorable ratings of the United States have plummeted in the Middle East, according to a new poll conducted by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute Foundation.
In most countries surveyed, favorable attitudes toward the United States dropped to levels lower than they were during the last year of the Bush administration . . . Pollsters began their work shortly after a major speech Obama gave on the Middle East . . . Fewer than 10 percent of respondents described themselves as having a favorable view of Obama.
So, Obama's Cairo speech and a few predator drones across a half a dozen borders wasn't enough to convince the world that the US was their "buddy"? Imagine that!
Greenwald goes on to say,What's striking is that none of these is among the growing list of countries we're occupying and bombing. Indeed, several are considered among the more moderate and U.S.-friendly nations in that region, at least relatively speaking. Yet even in this group of nations, anti-U.S. sentiment is at dangerously (even unprecedentedly) high levels.