Man after Obama's heart

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he seized the landmark Hilton hotel on Margarita Island because its owners dared to impose conditions on its use by his government to host a summit there last month.

"To hold the conference we had to ask for permission... and the owners tried to impose conditions on the revolutionary government. No way," said Chavez.

"So I said, 'Let's expropriate it.' And now it's been expropriated."

The acquisition by force of the real estate, furnishings, and related assets... of the Margarita Hilton & Suites Hotel Complex, along with the Marina owned by Inversiones Pueblamar y Desarrollos MBK, have been ordered," read a presidential decree in the official register.

In the past four years, Venezuela has implemented the nationalization of what is sees as strategic industries, including electric utilities, cement, steel, oil services and banking. More here:

Yes ... anyone else want to invest money in Venezuela? I wonder how he's doing with the economy.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's consumer prices rose 2.5 percent in September, the highest monthly level this year, underlining the challenge President Hugo Chavez faces in taming one of the world's highest inflation rates.

With August inflation at 2.2 percent, September's was the third successive monthly rate over 2.0 percent, led by food and education costs. The OPEC member is forecasting 26 percent inflation for 2009, below last year's level of 31 percent. More here:

D'OH - who could have predicted that? I mean, everybody thinks he's doing everything perfectly ... you know ... unless you ask a historian or an economist.

Hey, Venezuela ... don't worry ... he only wants to be Dictator President for life. How long can that be? ... another 40 years, tops.

This is what I love about lefties ... they don't mind throwing your entire life away while they make another failed attempt to bring about Utopia. Hey, majority rules, right? Don't worry about your "inalienable, God-given" rights/liberties ... nobody can take them away ... except a mob ... that's what the founding fathers had in mind.

After all, it's their dream and all they need is all of your money and liberty a "little bit more" of your liberty and money to make it happen.

The Evil Rich

Democratic members of the House of Representatives now represent most of the nation's wealthiest people, a sharp turnaround from the long-standing dominance that Republicans have held over affluent districts. More here:

Hey, I guess that means the libs will stop reviling and vilifying the rich, right? Well, they would if they had any brains. I'll let YOU make the prediction.

I did a search for:

"filthy rich Republicans" - 70,000 hits

"filthy rich Democrats" - 25,000 hits

Lefties burn another witch

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Limbaugh was to be a limited partner in a bid led by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts, but Checketts said in a statement Wednesday that Limbaugh's participation had complicated the effort. The group will move forward without him.

Checketts said he will have no further comment on the bid process. Limbaugh did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent late Wednesday seeking comment on Checketts' decision.

Limbaugh said on his radio show earlier Wednesday that he had been inundated with e-mails from listeners who supported him in the bid.

"This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me," Limbaugh said. "This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.

"Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have."

Limbaugh's bid ran into opposition from within the image-conscious NFL on Tuesday when Colts owner Jim Irsay said he would vote against the radio personality. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the commentator's "divisive" comments would not be tolerated from any NFL insider. That's right ... no witches divisive peeps allowed in the NFL. That's why they immediately fire any player or owner or manager who makes a witchy divisive comment ... right?

The league tries to avoid getting snared in controversial issues outside sports, which has caused Limbaugh trouble in the past. In 2003, he was forced to resign from ESPN's Sunday night football broadcast after saying of Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." More here:
Thou shalt speaketh NOT the truth divisiveness.
"Divisive:" anything that disagrees with us.

Simple truths evade Democrats/Liberals

Steve Wynn

Excerpts from the Rush Limbaugh show. Rush is playing audio excerpts from a Fox News interview with Steve Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas. His company has more than 20,000 employees. (Bold is mine.)

RUSH: ... That's what I have been saying. That's what anybody with even a modicum of Econ 101 understands. You have to invest and you have to create the investment. You have to incentivize growth, and this administration is penalizing it! This administration is punishing growth. This administration is doing everything it can to prevent growth. This is all done on purpose. And now, my friends, I finally am joined in my previous one-man crusade: Steve Wynn on board, Charles Krauthammer with a speech he gave on board saying the decline is purposeful. Chris Wallace said, "So where do you draw the line between the proper role of government in all this and the proper role of the private sector?"

WYNN: Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history. For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody. The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor -- whether it's you and I, Chris, or anybody else. The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America.

RUSH: Right.

WYNN: And soaring rhetoric and great speeches with or without a teleprompter aren't going to change the truth, and the truth is: The biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has is government spending. The rest here:

You know ... more and more I am being forced to believe that Obama & the Democrats ARE crushing America and its economy on purpose. You either have to think they are stupid or they're doing it on purpose ... and I don't think they're stupid at all. I think they're ideologues that have grown to hate America and capitalism. They blame the free market instead of government and its constant interference in the free market and they have, as they're objectives, the destruction of the free market and to massively increase the growth of government/bureaucracy.

By the way, that's a great article -- only one page. In it you read about the Governor of Michigan telling Steve Wynn that he's "simplistic." Got that? The Governor of Michigan? ... lecturing ANYONE about economics?

Rush has a reminder for those with amnesia.

In her two terms of governor, which will expire next year, I believe, the state of Michigan has lost 630,000 jobs. In the next 14 months it is expected that the state of Michigan will lose another 370,000 jobs for a grand total of one million jobs lost under Jennifer Granholm's governorship.

... Steve Wynn, multibillion-dollar enterprise, hires tens of thousands of people, could hire more and would love to be able to hire more, but because of government tax-and-spend policies, he can't. And on the other side, a failed governor, who's telling him that he's simplistic.

I might also add, the Fair Tax would be the single most critical thing America could do to send demand for jobs through the roof ... because every corporation with a mission statement would fight to move to America. Those corporations would need workers. When employers are fighting for employees, wages go up, working conditions are better, on and on and on.

Just a thought

How long will it be before we start seeing people wearing their swine flu like a badge of honor and bragging about it?

"Oh, I just need to get over this darn swine flu."
"The doc says I have the swine flu -- it's the worst I've ever felt."
"Did I mention I had the swine flu last week? It really kicked my ass."

Prepare yourselves. It's gonna be all I can do to keep from smacking some jackasses in the brain. Of course, I pretty much live my life in that condition anyway.

Another Great Depression?

This pic is not part of his article

By Thomas Palley at the Economist's Forum

Thomas Palley is former chief economist of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and is currently Schwartz Economic Growth Fellow at the New America Foundation

Over the past year the global economy has experienced a massive contraction, the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But this spring, economists started talking of “green shoots” of recovery and that optimistic assessment quickly spread to Wall Street. More recently, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers crash, Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, officially blessed this consensus by declaring the recession is “very likely over”.

The future is fundamentally uncertain, which always makes prediction a rash enterprise. That said there is a good chance the new consensus is wrong. Instead, there are solid grounds for believing the US economy will experience a second dip followed by extended stagnation that will qualify as the second Great Depression. Some indications to this effect are already rolling in with unexpectedly large US job losses in September and the crash in US automobile sales following the end of the “cash-for-clunkers” programme.

I don't do this too often but I'm going to recommend you read this entire article ... it's relatively short. It will show you (in mostly plain English) why the worst has not yet begun. The rest is here.

Tort Reform - wouldn't it be sweet?

Excerpts from an article by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Lost in the shuffle of the CBO scoring of Max Baucus’ non-existent bill on the health care overhaul system this week is another analysis by the CBO on tort reform. According to CBO director Douglas Elmendorf on his blog, the CBO studied the impact of both the reduced cost of litigation and the elimination of defensive medicine that would result with tort reform. Elmendorf says that tort reform would reduce the federal deficit $54 billion over the next ten years ...

But that’s not the end of the savings, either. A 0.5% reduction in health-care costs would mean $11 billion in savings per year overall, with roughly 40% of that benefiting the federal government in Medicare and other federal program costs. That amounts to a whopping $110 billion in cost savings over ten years to the entire medical industry, which would help keep premiums in check for consumers.

Unlike other mechanisms in the various Congressional plans, this would actually benefit consumers and accomplish what reformers claim to want — an end to overuse in the American system. By eliminating the defensive medicine that providers must practice to avoid predatory malpractice actions, tort reform will actually make the system more responsive and more flexible for patients. Less time will get wasted, fewer claims will get filed, and patients will get the care they need and not what the providers’ lawyers require.

Of course, tort reform isn’t in any of the packages Congress has under consideration for the coming health-care overhaul. Instead, Congress wants to play class warfare with “fees”, excise taxes, “windfall profits taxes” on an industry averaging a 3.3% profit margin while trial lawyers earn an average 14% profit margin — all of which will result in those costs getting passed to the consumer, making health care even more expensive than it is now. Why won’t Congress pass tort reform, an effort that would really reduce costs and reform the health-care system?

Have you noticed how the Obama administration CONTINUOUSLY ignores the findings of the Congressional Budget Office?

I'm going to tell you all you need to know about tort reform in one sentence ... ready?

The media and Democrats/liberals HATE the idea.

The Simpsons - Moe's bar

Imaginary patrons of Jersey City’s Tube Bar paged by owner Louis “Red” Deutsch at the request of telephone pranksters John Elmo and Jim Davidson in the mid-1970s:

• Al Coholic
• Al Kaseltzer
• Al Kykyoras
• Ben Dover
• Butchie Pantsdown
• Frank Enstein
• Holden McGroin
• Imov Irgin
• Jim Nasium
• Joe Mama
• Mike Ocksmall
• Moe Ronn
• Oliver Closeoff
• Rufus Leakin

Elmo and Davidson recorded Deutsch’s earnest pages and the wild, vituperative threats that followed when he realized he’d been had. In the 1980s the tapes began to circulate among professional sports leagues and eventually found their way to animator Matt Groening … who turned them into a running gag on The Simpsons.

From Futility Closet:

Obama loses a Nobel prize

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- In a decision as shocking as Friday's surprise peace prize win, President Obama failed to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Monday.

While few observers think Obama has done anything for world peace in the nearly nine months he's been in office, the same clearly can't be said for economics.

The president has worked tirelessly since even before his inauguration to wrest control of the U.S. economy from failed free markets, and the evil CEOs who profit from them, and to turn it over to wise, fair and benevolent bureaucrats.

From his $787 billion stimulus package, to the cap-and-trade bill, to the seizures of General Motors and Chrysler, to the undead health-care "reform" act, Obama has dominated the U.S., and therefore the global, economy as few figures have in recent years.

Other surprise losers include celebrity noneconomist and filmmaker Michael Moore; U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Larry Summers, head of the U.S. national economic council. More at MarketWatch:

Debating liberals = Debating Manson

Excerpts from an article by Leigh Scott at Big Hollywood:

Charles Manson - Whackjob Extraordinaire

They do not know their kiesters from a hole in the ground. They are a few fries short of a happy meal and a few cards short of a full deck. Their phasers are permanently set on “clueless.”

For an actual debate, two things are needed. One, there must be a logical and factual distinction between two separate positions. Two, there must be equally matched participants, each one prepared and versed enough to intelligently present their side of the issue.

We don’t have that. We have one group of people who live in a fantasy world, full of twisted facts, backwards logic and wishful thinking. You can’t debate that. There is no factual, honest, or logical way to support their positions. It’s like arguing the best way to take a cross-country trip with a delusional Dungeons and Dragons geek. You want to reroute to avoid traffic on the I-10. He wants to “avoid the realm of the Bugbears.”

The other side of the “debate” isn’t operating in the same reality. They do not operate in reality at all.

Imagine, if you will, a group of people who state that clouds are made of cotton candy. Children love cotton candy. In the sky, there is an unending supply of the sticky treat. To harvest the cotton candy, we must spend billions of taxpayer dollars to create machines that pluck the confection from the heavens. We must do this for the children.

“Ludicrous” states half of the population. Clearly, clouds are not made of cotton candy. In fact, we know exactly what clouds are made of. We also know the exact ingredients in cotton candy. The two are completely unrelated. Recipes and scientific data are presented to prove the case. To build a machine to collect non-existent cotton candy is a waste of money and resources.

The cotton candy cloud advocates respond. Anybody who claims that clouds are made of water vapor must want to hoard the cotton candy. They must benefit from the sales of cotton candy. Having free cotton candy would destroy their merciless pursuit of profits.

Oh, and obviously, they hate children and are probably racist.

This is what we are dealing with.

The rest here:

I wonder

I wonder who paid for this bus.

I wonder who is paying for all the gas and staff and accoutrements required to keep it moving.

I wonder if it's costing me any money.

I wonder who is behind it.

I wonder why it's necessary.

I wonder why idiots vote for liberals.

Some good shots

Adios, dipshit

Excerpts from this article:

Nevadans say they're ready to replace longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Harry Reid with an untested Republican.

Which Republican? Undecided.

Though respondents can't decide whom they want to win the Republican primary, they're certain they don't support Reid, the Senate majority leader seeking his fifth consecutive six-year term.

"That is the bad news," UNLV political science professor David Damore said of Reid's Clark County numbers. "That tells you there is a disaffected base there."

No, "professor," that is not the "bad news," that is the GOOD news ... got me? You leftist jackass.

Heres more good news Harry, after you get booted from the Senate, you can go back to your land scams.

Gaaa ... here comes global cooling ... again

You know how the earth has been cooling lately? You know ... just like the cycles the earth has endured, lo these millions of years? You'd think that would make the global-warming-idiots STFU due to abject humiliation ... but you'd be wrong ... wrong is, bru.

They've figured out what has been causing the cooling ... you'll never guess what it is. Lucky for you, the Klown is on the job ... working hard to bring you the info you'll never see in the media. (Bold is mine)

White House science czar John Holdren has predicted 1 billion people will die in "carbon-dioxide induced famines" in a coming new ice age by 2020.

As WND previously reported, Holdren predicted in a 1971 textbook co-authored with Malthusian population alarmist Paul Ehrlich that global over-population was heading the Earth to a new ice age unless the government mandated urgent measures to control population, including the possibility of involuntary birth control

measures such as forced sterilization.

Holdren's prediction that 1 billion people would die from a global cooling "eco-disaster" was announced in Ehrlich's 1986 book "The Machinery of Nature."

Holdren based his prediction on a theory that human emissions of carbon dioxide would produce a climate catastrophe in which global warming would cause global cooling with a consequent reduction in agricultural production resulting in widespread disaster. The rest of the comedy here:

Now see ... this is why I'll never be a big cheese in the government ... cuz right away, I'd determine that this Holdren guy is a fucking idiot and I wouldn't let him anywhere NEAR the public treasury and your tax money, much less appoint him to a White House level position. Seriously ... and I'm so hard-headed NOBODY would be able to talk me into it. I guess I'm not "open-minded" like the liberals. Tsk, tsk, such a shame, no?

As an example to you, here is how "brain-dead open-minded liberals" deal with controversy:

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia , would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?
If George W.. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?
If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?
If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?
If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had the audacity to be the first U.S. President to take the chairmanship of the powerful U.N. Security Council instead of the gavel being passed to U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, would you have approved?
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 5 months -- so you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.

Well would you?

Vote for Obama for the Heisman

"Type your nominee here!" field, entered "Barack Obama." The winner of this Nissan-sponsored promotion will actually receive one official vote for the Heisman award as sort of the people's choice. Click here to do your part -- and make sure all your friends do too This could be funny ... remember, you can vote once a day between now and when they award it in December so be sure to bookmark it and vote every day for additional fun.

Massive Behemoth Government

I found this post at the Ace of Spades blog.

Okay I don't claim to be an economist but this chart seems rather disturbing. I found it in this article by Adam Sharpe of Seeking Alpha. It shows government spending as a percentage of GDP over the last 107 years. (You can make your own chart here.) And here government spending includes federal, state and local spending as well as government transfers.

Now maybe GDP isn't the right comparison variable to use for this but it seems like a reasonable place to start. And apart from peaks during WWI and WWII the trend is unmistakable. I didn't bother running a regression but by my eye-ball extrapolation it looks like we go to a government-run economy with some free enterprise around the year 2025.

Well at least we'll have high literacy rates, free medical care, and social harmony. Just like Cuba.

Yes -- annoying

The Great Obama !!

They'll give this thing to anyone...except Wombat

For only the third time in history a sitting President has won the Nobel Peace Prize. First was Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Second was Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and now President Obama has won the prestigious award.

Obama was awoken by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs around 6 a.m., informing him of the award. The President, after lifting his chin from the floor, said he was humbled. As for the rest of the White House, along with the country, it was more surprising than humbling.

The Nobel Committee said he won because of his "Extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The award only furthers the idea that Obama is a God. I mean only a God could have impressed the Nobel CMTE, with his prowess on the international stage, in just 12 days. That's right the application deadline for the award was just 12 days into his Presidency. As far as I can remember the only thing he did in his first 12 days was sign legislation to close Gitmo and last I saw it was still open. And other than the possibility of having a background in the Muslim religion and bowing to the Saudis, he hasn't done anything else that could warrant the award.

Reports are that this is just a slap in the face of former President Bush. Many, if not all, on the CMTE are very left wing. In fact a former President and Vice President, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, were given the award while Bush was in office. The Cmte were not fans of Bush and his policies. I think Former Peace Prize Laurette Lech Wałęsa, union leader of solidarity in Poland, said it best with "Too soon, he hasn't accomplished anything."