State of the Union Suit

Cruella Pelosi

Bader to the Bone

State of the Union Address - the Subtext

Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Your 2015 State of the Union Drinking Game

Okay, folks! Really simple this year! First, the caveat that if you are prone to alcoholism, liver disease or unconsciousness, you may want to leave this to the professionals. The rules are easy:

1) Take a shot every time the president uses a personal pronoun (I, me, mine, ours).

2) Prepare for the most drunken night of your life.

3) Relax! No way you remain conscious during the entire speech!

Any questions?

Barack Obama, Economic Genius

From Obama's State of Confusion speech:

We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.

Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.

First, let's consider Obama's imaginary worker: "...full-time...making the minimum wage". Does such a creature even exist?? One of my predictions for 2014 was:

The 29 hour work week will become the de facto standard for the majority of new hires in 2014

According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), some additional 2.5 million full time jobs will be lost, liberating them from the need to work, according to most good liberals. As more and more jobs become part time, my prediction is well on its way to coming to pass.

He goes on...

"a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong."

Yeah it is! Who in their right mind would start a family and have children if they are working a job only pulling down minimum wage? And if there is such a thing as a full time worker, making just minimum wage, sole provider for the family, the percentage of workers meeting this criteria must be approaching zero.
And before I hearing the bleating about a lack of compassion, we have welfare, food stamps and any number of programs to assist those unfortunate few.

Workers (and I use the term loosely) who receive minimum wage are primarily unskilled, without experience, possibly someone's first job. Employer paid health care benefits were originally devised as a way to get around wage controls and to reward valuable employees with the equivalent of a higher wage. The reality is today, that employers are reducing the ranks of those paid lower wages in order to avoid the expense of government mandated health care (for less productive employees).

Employers want to pay productive workers as much as they can. When I was a hiring manager, I sought to start my people at the highest possible salary, and grant raises and provide bonuses to retain the workers I trained. The idea that all businesses want to do is exploit their workers and pay them as little as possible, is a liberal old wives' tale. Those unfortunate enough to work for such an employer are free to improve their education and skills, as they garner experience, making them more desirable to those enlightened employers who know that they succeed along with their employees.

According to the US Dept. of Labor,

"In 2012, there were 3.6 million hourly paid workers in the United States with wages at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. These workers made up 4.7 percent of the 75.3 million workers age 16 and over who were paid at hourly rates.".

Less than five percent? Weren't the Obamabots recently all bleating about how insignificant the five million people who were losing their private insurance because they were 'less than five per cent' of the work force?

Closed captioning for the Irony Impaired: If five million people losing their insurance are insignificant, then 3.6 million is less significant than that. You can't have it both ways!

So, if an insignificant number of people, according to good liberals, being caused financial hardship because their affordable insurance was cancelled, why should we be more upset over a lesser and transient number of people who will be paid minimum wage until such time as they have the experience and skills to earn more?

Also, working less than full time increases...what was it the President calls it? "Income inequality"! Seems to me that even if we raised the minimum wage, there's going to be 'income inequality' between those working forty hours a week and those only working twenty nine! And between those working twenty nine hours a week and those who are unemployed... That whole pesky math thing again!

As Obamacare crashes and burns, the old minimum wage canards are being hauled out to distract people from the real economy killer, as government tries to take over one sixth of the economy. It is an election year, and the Democrats have nothing to run on but fear itself. They are counting on their supporters being math impaired enough to believe all the doublespeak they utter. That and trying to pull as many un-Constitutional extensions and delays of Obamacare mandates out of their hats, at least until after the midterm and 2016 elections.


Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Cross posted at LCR, Political Clown Parade

Sockpuppet Of The Union Speech

Obama's target audience.
Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

The "Axis of Evil" Revisited

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for January 29, 2002. The State of the Union address. George W. Bush.


Remember the amount of ridicule heaped upon George W. Bush for categorizing three countries, "regimes who sponsor terror", each seeking nuclear weapons, as the "Axis of Evil"? The first was Iraq, whose leader's dreams of being a nuclear power came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of a spider hole and the end of a short rope.

The second, Iran, has test fired missiles capable of reaching Israel and much of Europe, is closer to building a nuclear device than they've ever been, plus they continue to export weapons, jihadists and unrest to neighboring countries in the region. To many people, it is not "if" Israel or the US will be forced to take out Iran's nuclear program, but "when".

And when was the last time you heard a North Korean dictator threaten to fire nuclear missiles at the United States? Yesterday? Today?? Check Drudge, I'll wait.

The price of indifference is apparently still catastrophic, Mr. President. A lesson long in the learning for some...

We return you now to the economic chaos and diplomatic incompetence that is the Obama administration. Hope you enjoyed your brief respite.

The Demagogue-in-Chief's Shameless SOTU on the Minimum Wage

Dear reader, if you did not see last night's State of the Union speech, I will try to spare you most of its banality and hypocritical platitudes. But there was at least one more item I felt I had to touch upon, and that is the demagoguery of our president concerning the minimum wage.

I say "demagoguery", because I doubt that one could attain the highest office in our country and become the de facto leader of the free world* and be so ignorant as to make the statements he made innocently or without knowing better. From the speech:

We know our economy's stronger when we reward an honest day's work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong.

Only the minimum wage was not designed to fulfill the needs of a single earner household with children. Minimum wage jobs are typically for those with few or no marketable skills. As the workers gain skill and proficiency, they leave minimum wage jobs behind. And unfortunately, if the minimum wage is set too high, it can keep unskilled labor out of the job market if it is impossible for them to produce what it costs to employ them.

Minimum wage laws effect the bottom rung of the ladder of success. If the price is too high for employers to pay, and remember, the employer is also paying half of the employee's Social Security taxes, and unemployment taxes, too, plus benefits, if any.

The president goes on to say:

Tonight, let's declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty -- and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.

Again, if the minimum wage is designed to accommodate someone with no skills, say, a student still living under his parents' roof, it's not a question of living in poverty, but a temporary measure along the way. The first rung of the ladder. As the student gains skills, some of which are as simple as "showing up on time" and "showing up on time every day", most people are ambitious enough to prepare themselves to continue to climb the ladder.

In the unicorn and rainbow filled world of Barack Obama, what would this produce?

This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank, rent or eviction, scraping by or finally getting ahead.

For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. And a whole lot of folks out there would probably need less help from government. In fact, working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up, while CEO pay has never been higher.

"This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families." Oh, really? This is a particularly pernicious bit of demagoguery. While it might raise the amount of dollars in a person's paycheck, those dollars become worth less and less. Inflation is whenever you pay more for the same goods and/or services. When the price of gas goes from $2.89 to $3.89, you pay more dollars to fill your gas tank, as if your dollars had suddenly become worth that much less. The same applies to labor. If McDonald's has to pay their employees more, that cost gets passed along to their customers. I notice that McDonald's now advertises their $4.00 Value Menu, which not that long ago was their $3.00 Value Menu.

Not only will those minimum wage workers receive a raise, but others, notably some unions, have their wages tied to the minimum wage: if the minimum wage goes up, union wages go up. Others, who may not be working under a contract are more likely to approach their bosses when minimum wage goes up, arguing that they are worth "X" more than minimum wage, therefore they should receive a wage increase, too.

And when wages go up, pretty much across the board, the cost of those goods and services produced by those people will go up (or in some cases, the size reduced), meaning that for the minimum wage worker, wages will go up, followed immediately by an increase in the cost of living. Or unemployment or underemployment.

One of the unintended consequences of Obamamcare, was that the regulations for mandatory insurance kicked in at 30 hours a week. This resulted in many, many companies reducing the hours of part time employees to less than 30 hours a week. So, a person working 39 hours a week with no insurance can now have his hours reduced to 29 hours a week, still no insurance, and the cost of that insurance has gone up as well. Thank you, Mr. Obama!

"For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets." But not more disposable income, since everything you need or want to buy costs more money than it did the day before.

Would you like a few dirty little secrets to go on top of that? Aside from being a payoff to the Democrats' friends in the unions
whose wages (and union dues, with a direct pipeline to Democrat campaign contributions) go up, the employer's "contribution" to Social Security, that art of their compensation the employee never sees, will go up as well. As inflation forces wages up in more and more industries, some people could experience "bracket creep", where higher wages, but not necessarily more buying power, puts them into a higher tax bracket.

Obama throws in a gratuitous piece of class envy at the end, because however much the CEO is paid, doesn't reflect what the value of goods and services you would be, and thus, the value of your compensation.

Inflation is also a hidden tax on any savings you've been able to put away. If you have a $100 in a checking or savings account, and the cost of buying everything you need to live goes up 5%, that's like a hidden 5% tax on that cash. If you are a government with trillions of dollars of debt, the idea of paying those loans off with cheaper dollars that are not worth as much, is very appealing.

"working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up"

Most working folk don't. Some may wait for an annual review of their job performance, but they do not rely on government to slap a Band-aid on the problem and tell you that their cosmetic fix will cure your financial problems. Perhaps if Barack Obama would reduce the restrictions and taxes on businesses that keep them from prospering, they could afford to hire more people and pay higher wages to those already working for them. Perhaps if Barack Obama, his EPA and environmentalist wackos were not at war with energy producers, such as oil and coal, the dollars you are earning now would go farther, as the inflationary costs of high energy drive up the prices of nearly everything you buy?

The simple stroke of a pen, and energy producers hire 20,000 people, at well paying jobs, with the promise of more, once the Keystone pipeline is completed. The stroke of a pen and energy producers create more jobs drilling off our coast, mining within our borders creates new wealth, and the taxes generated by them goes to reduce our debt and pay for some of the programs Obama wants to fund and create.

Don't hold your breath waiting for him to tell you that.






*This may have actually fallen to Benjamin Netanyahu, in recent years, whose statesmanship and standing for freedom and the ideals of free and democratic people would seem to eclipse the pedestrian and self serving remarks and positions of our Narcissist-in-Chief.

Cross posted at LCR.

Welcome to all you visiting from Teri O'Brien, where she graciously made this her Post of the Day!

The Demagogue-in-Chief's Shameless SOTU on Gun Control

I must confess, I took the night off from politics last night. I had intended to listen to the Bloviator-in-Chief prevaricate and dance around the actual state of the union in favor of some warmed over leftist rhetoric about "investing in the future" and a laundry list of new spending programs, but I somehow found more productive things to do.

Unfortunately, glancing over my dead tree newspaper this AM, I had to address some things on which I could not remain silent. The headline read:

Obama: Parents of Shooting Victims Deserve Vote

"They deserve a vote". Obama must believe it, he repeated it eight times. The parents, Gabby Giffords, The families of Newtown, The families of Aurora...deserve a vote on all of these gun control proposals.

Do you know what they deserve Mr. President? They deserve an honest president who doesn't demagogue tragedies to further a political agenda. They deserve a president honest enough to tell them that most or all of the proposals they "deserve" a vote on, would not have prevented the tragedies that you are seeking to exploit.

And listen to just how sympathetic the Demagogue-in-Chief is to their plight!

One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house.

"She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss". What about victims of domestic abuse, Mr. President? Any of them "love lip gloss"? So, if a woman gets a restraining order against an abusive spouse or boyfriend, who chooses then to ignore that order, and one of your new virtually meaningless regulations prevents her from obtaining a firearm for self defense, when she is seconds away from bodily harm and death, and police are only minutes away, will you come before the nation and tell us what she deserved?

Hadiya Pendleton lived in an area with some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Don't her parents deserve the truth, Mr. President? That what you are proposing is already on the books in Chicago, and failed to prevent the shooting of a little girl who loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss? That none of the proposals you say "deserve" a vote would have prevented the shootings in Aurora or Newtown? Would not have prevented the shooting of Gabby Giffords or the firemen in New York, who were shot by a weapon that illegal to own in New York, by a felon who was already prohibited by law from owning any firearms at all? Mr. President, what difference would one more gun law meant in any of these incidents? Don't those victims' families deserve to know?

At the bottom of my blog posts, there are labels or tags to help people searching for certain stories to find them. Up until today, I had never found the need for one marked "shameless", but in my five years of writing this blog, I have never seen anything so blatantly shameless as this president. Gun control fails in Chicago, New York City and Washington D.C. The murder rates are higher there than in most of the country. The lowest murder rates are in states with the highest per capita gun ownership. Mr. President, the families of murder victims deserve more than your smarmy demagoguery in furthering your agenda of gun control.

But since we're talking about things that the citizens of the U S deserve, how about a budget? The Constitution requires that the Senate pass a budget every year...something they haven't done since 2009. In this shipwreck of an economy, Mr. President, don't you think the people f the U S, victims of higher inflation, higher cost of living and higher unemployment deserve a detailed plan as to how your administration would put us on the path to fiscal responsibility? It is Harry Reid and your party, Mr. President, who have forced the country into crisis after crisis by not passing the budget every year, that they are Constitutionally required to produce. And when budgets were passed by the House, Senate Democrats refused to even bring them up for a vote. Mr. President, don't you think the U S deserves to have a Senate that obeys the Constitution they have sworn to uphold?

Don't you think the people of the United States deserve a vote on a budget that effects nearly every aspect of their lives?
In four years, Senate Democrats could not produce a budget, but in a mere manner of weeks were able to draft bill after bill on gun control measures, which would not only not solve the problems, but in many cases, make some of them worse, but still allow shameless politicians to beat their chests and tell us how much they care about little girls who love Fig Newtons and lip gloss.


Two words for you and your speech, Mr. Obama: Shameless demagoguery




Transcript of 2013 SOTU

Cross posted at LCR.

The Bamboozler-in-Chief's SOTU Tonight

Given Mr. Obama's penchant for recycling old speeches and old campaign promises, look for at least one reference to spending money on education, or at least on his fellow travelers in the teacher's union, as an "investment in the future". When he gets to this point, remind yourself that money spent is not always an "investment". Every time someone want to sell some big ticket item to my dear sainted mother, they would couch the expense in terms of "an investment". I remember one time, she told me she thought she was going to "invest" in new drapes. Now, I don't know about you, but of all the drapes, curtains and window coverings I have ever purchased, not one has ever produced a dividend over and above covering the windows I purchased them for.

The US Department of Education is one of the ugliest set of drapes you have ever seen. With a price tag of over 100 Billion dollars a year, hung upon the curtain rod of ever declining and failing test scores, if this were something you had to stare at every day, you would get rid of them in a heartbeat. Possibly burn them.

When Obama stands up once again, to tell you he wants to spend money we do not have, for full employment of his friends at the teachers' union, who obediently kick back a portion of those "investments" as contributions to the Democrat Party, because it is an "investment" in our country's future and necessary to turn the economy around, remember that every dime we spend on education, will take an entire generation to find itself into the workplace. Consider the billions upon billions spent since 1980 on the Department of Education: Did the generation that was supposed to benefit from that "investment" find themselves trained and prepared for the jobs of the late 20th and early 21st. centuries?

Beware! When Obama and his fellow Democrats speak of "investing" in the future, they think along the lines of balancing your risk from Enron with this up and coming new company called "Solyndra".

Caveat emptor.


Cross posted at LCR.

Obama Quotes Obama for SOTU: Déjà Vu

Is anyone surprised that hardly any of the empty rhetoric we get from Obie is original?

This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll: Obama's SOTU called for spending freezes and multi billion dollar high speed rail projects. Was he:

Trying to be all things to all people?

Disingenuous?

Engaged in politics as usual? and

Mildly schizophrenic?

All came in at 0%

Bamboozling the people? Came in at 15%

And "All of the above?" came in at a whopping 92%

Multiple choices and Obama's crack budget office accountants may account for totals greater than 100%

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Focus Group, Even Obama Voters Found Obama Hard to Believe

These guys found some weasel words that I missed! For example Obama spoke about "cutting" spending with a five year spending "freeze". As one sharp individual in the group noted, those are two different things.

I saw one news story out of Sacramento where they interviewed some Democrats at a "watching party" who were pretty high on the president, but about half of the Obama voter Democrats in the focus group in the video look like they could be persuaded to change horses in the middle of the 2012 stream.

More at Gateway Pundit

Krauthammer on the SOTU Speech

“This is a president who is capable of giving great speeches and has… This was not one of them.” -Charles Krauthammer

Charles is a man of few words. But those few are well chosen! The Gary Cooper of Washington Punditry...

H/T Gateway Pundit

SOTU Live Blogging

I see John "Lurch" Kerry wearing his ribbon tonight. Thank God Obama did not go with this empty symbolism. I missed it. Did Obama get a kiss from all the ladies on the Supreme Court or just the ones he appointed?

"Everybody please have a seat"

Sounds a bit odd coming from POTUS. Looks like another "Jack in the box" pep rally to follow!

But there’s a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause. Amid all the noise and passions and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater — something more consequential than party or political preference.

Sorry! That's not the reason! Oh, no! A reprise of the little girl in a puddle meme!

Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.

Is this the smoke or the mirrors part of the speech?

Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans’ paychecks are a little bigger today.

Yeah. About as little as possible! Weasel Word alert!

The steps we’ve taken over the last two years may have broken the back of this recession

"May have" broken the back, means it ain't dead bang sure.

Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation

...which Obama clearly doesn't understand when he talks about "sharing the wealth".

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t there yet. NASA didn’t even exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.

...which is why I personally gutted NASA and redirected them from space exploration to touchy feely self esteem missions.

"But too many schools don't meet this test. "

And voucher systems in Washington DC that could have rescued poor children from those schools that didn't meet the test were rejected by Obama and the Dems. (Someone get John Boehner some No-Doze!)

We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones.

Except the teachers unions oppose both of these ideas. Are you really going to go against your ardent supporters, or is this just "boob bait for the bubbas"? Update: I didn't catch this weasel word the first time around. How could Obama say "we want" something he knows his supporters don't? The operative word is "want". I want world peace and to date a super model. Don't look for either of them to happen any time soon. Weasel Word alert!

"address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows"

Address, eh? Another word for "amnesty"?

Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do

Maybe that's because the gasoline taxes that were supposed to pay for new roads and road maintenance were siphoned off by lowlife dishonest politicians? (But I repeat myself!)

China is building faster trains

Hi speed rail can be a black hole of government spending. Trains "without the pat down." Obama is a fool if he thinks that DHS wouldn't have designs on high speed rail. Or that terrorists wouldn't consider them a prime target, even harder to defend than air travel. Weasel Word alert! "Get rid of the loopholes" Translation: Raise taxes on business.

It's why last year, we put in place consumer protections against hidden fees and penalties by credit card companies

He equates this with clean air and clean water?? Anecdotes about health care rather than speak about principle, like the Constitutionality of forcing everyone to buy insurance. Weasel Word alert!

So instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and move forward.

Translation: Don't try to repeal the health care abomination that we forced down your throats against your will. Let's let me have my way!

Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine

Anyone ever hear a lamer analogy? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?? Weasel Word alert!

Still, I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits

"Okay, I looked, but it'll be a cold day in Hell before I stand up to my buddies in the Trail lawyers association!"

Before we take money away from our schools, or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break.

Class envy.

Because you deserve to know when your elected officials are meeting with lobbyists, I ask Congress to do what the White House has already done: put that information online

Mr. Transparency hasn't lived up to his own campaign promises about putting proposed legislation online yet, what will be different about the next two years?

A government that lives within its means.

This is a hoot coming from Mr. Trillion Dollar Stimulus Debt!

"American Muslims are part of our American family"

Strawman. Whoever said they weren't?

"Tollybon"

Wonder if that was on my Bingo card?

we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.

Good words. Wonder if he means them to go so far as not to give civilian trials to terrorist combatants who are not signatories to the Geneva conventions?

I call on all of our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC.

I wonder if the liberal college elites will heed his words here as much as his calls for "civility"? Overall, his rhetoric moved to the center. A few too many "weasel words" for my liking. We will see how much of the centrist talk he talked tonight will be the walk he walks tomorrow. Don't hold your breath! You can see the text of Obama's SOTU speech here.

SOTU Bingo

Full Metal Patriot had this great SOTU Bingo card:





More at Full Metal Patriot