Obama's Honeymoon is Over: Poll Shows First Negative Approval Rating

I think the GM takeover and screw-job on their bondholders is the first hole in the boat. Now Americans are finally coming to the realization that we can't afford all of Obama's plans and dreams.

"The raw numbers of pretty straightforward — 31 percent of Americans strongly approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job, 33 percent strongly disapprove," Rasmussen said.

"Before the last week we never had a circumstance where the number who disapprove outweigh the number who approve. So we're in new territory. Right now the approval index at minus two is as low as it's been.

I think this is the most heartening part of the poll by a long shot:

"When we talk about healthcare reform and the proposal the president is talking about, the country is fairly evenly divided. But those who have strong opinions tend to oppose the plan more than support it.

"On the cap and trade legislation [to reduce carbon emissions], 42 percent believe it's going to hurt the economy. Only 19 percent believe it's going to help.

I think Americans are still on the fence about healthcare reform because they want to see the economy getting better before we have to borrow another $1.6 trillion dollars from the Red Chinese.

Also the idea of taxing every American when they can barely find jobs, for some negligible reduction in temperature in 20 years, is a bad idea no matter what Obama says. I'm pretty sure that most Americans would not want the economy to tank even further just so Al Gore can be the first Climate Billionaire.

Cap and Tax Bill Just Keeps on Sucking: Now Homeowners will be hit

There is nothing like burdening homeowners with extra costs right at the time that home price drops are starting to slow down.

Home Sellers Beware. Having a hard time selling your home? Here’s one more hurdle to jump: all homes sales are conditioned upon an energy audit and a new energy rating assessment and energy labeling program for your home that’s outlined in the Democrats’ bill. And if you thought you could improve your property with a fresh coat of paint and some granite counters? Think again! Now your home will be subjected to a new energy rating assessment and energy labeling program that will penalize you for older windows, original fixtures, and dated appliances. So the Democrats’ bill would bring down the value of your home!

So if you are already underwater and want to sell your home Cap and Tax will put you a few $1000 more underwater just to sell your home. Sounds like some real unintended consequences.

Here is the text of the stupid bill that they passed so even more nuggets can be mined from its 1300 pages. I'm glad Congress loves to vote on things that they don't read. I guess they will have plenty of time to read it when they are out of office. I sincerely hope that that is what happens to the 8 GOP members that voted for economic ruin. This is the list of the Cap and Tax 8 and their office numbers:

Mary Bono Mack (CA) (202) 225-5330
Mike Castle (DE) (202) 225-4165
Mark Kirk (IL) (202) 225-4835 (And he’s seriously considering running for Senate!)
Leonard Lance (NJ) (202) 225-5361
Frank LoBiondo (NJ) (202) 225-6572
John McHugh (NY) (202) 225-4611
Dave Reichert (WA) (202) 225-7761
Chris Smith (NJ) (202) 225-3765

The Us Pulls out of Iraqi Cities

At least we were able to leave at the head of the column and not on our shields or sneaking out in the middle of the night.

We all recall the delighted leftist claims that Iraq had entered a hopeless civil war. Wrong. That Iraqis preferred al Qaeda to us. Wrong. That Shia militias represented the people. Wrong. And that Iran would seize control. Wrong again.

Looking back over six years of good intentions, tragic errors, generosity, arrogance, partisan vituperation, painful deaths and ultimate vindication, two things strike me: the ever-resisted lesson that human affairs are more complex than academic theories claim, and the simple truth that most human beings prefer a measure of freedom to immeasurable repression.

I still think L Paul Bremer needs to be brought up on dereliction of duty charges for disbanding the Iraqi Military. That mistake extended the war by 5 years and cost 1000s of extra lives. That might go down as one of the biggest blunders of all time.

I've Heard of Acid Reflux but What is Bile Reflux?

This is kind of a sad state of affairs when doctors seem disinterested or not knowledgeable about something that afflicts quite a few people. Maybe it is time for a drug company to step up and get rid of this thing.

Although the condition is certainly not unknown, there is a relative lack of information on it in major medical journals read by nonspecialists. Mr. Kozma said his wife had now developed Barrett’s esophagus and, instead of being offered treatment, was told to return in three years to have another endoscopic look at her damaged esophagus. “What are we supposed to do? Wait and see if this develops into cancer?”

I wonder if we could get the Mayo Clinic to run the entire health care system? They always seem to be on the cutting edge of any breakthrough.

Both acid reflux and bile reflux may afflict the same person, which can make diagnosis a challenge. But the stomach inflammation that results from bile reflux often causes a burning or gnawing pain in the upper abdomen that is not felt with acid reflux, according to experts at the Mayo Clinic. Other symptoms of bile reflux may include frequent heartburn (the main symptom of acid reflux), nausea, vomiting bile, sometimes a cough or hoarseness and unintended weight loss.

Coleman Conceeds, Al Franken to Serve Out His One Term

Ah the NY Carpetbagger and "funnyman" is now Senator Franken for that one term after which he should probably lose to just about anyone with a pulse.

Coleman announced his decision at a news conference in St. Paul hours after a unanimous Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and liberal commentator, should be certified the winner.

"The Supreme Court has made its decision and I will abide by the results," Coleman told reporters outside his St. Paul home.

Radio-host to Senator is too big a jump and I will be willing to bet there won't be a 30 year career in the Senate ahead of him. I can see Coleman trouncing him in 6 years after the Dems blow up the economy if things like Crap-and-Trade pass. The filibuster-proof margin might be big but I'm pretty sure the Dems don't want to ram through alot of crap in a partisan manner and be stuck with the consequences.

Now Obama is "Has Doubts" About Cap-and-Trade War Bill

This is exactly why Congress needs to read bills before they vote on them. The part of the bill that would create tariffs on countries that don't have the same carbon measures as the US in place is just asinine. I guess Obama kind of agrees in a wishy-washy way.

President Obama, speaking to reporters Sunday, didn't say whether he would veto the bill if the measure remains a part of it, or whether he will work to remove it in negotiations with Congress. "At a time when the economy world-wide is still deep in recession, and we've seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there," he said. He added that he was "mindful" of the need to level the playing field internationally for U.S. business.

Uh, yes Mr. President protectionist signals are what Great Depressions are made of. If this passes the Senate then Americans will deliver a massive hiding to the Democrats come 2010. Especially because this thing will hit every single American right in the face. I'm sure the domestic oil companies (if the don't all move to Switzerland or Dubai or something) and utilities will remind the consumers of the fact that they had to raise rates due to Congress just to cover their own asses.

Germany Floats Tax Cut Plan

It seems the Germans are trying to cut taxes to goose growth while we try to knee-cap ourselves with that asinine Cap-and-Tax bill.

The conservative parties' election platform promises tax cuts worth €15 billion ($21 billion), but gives no time frame. The parties plan to cut the lowest income tax rate to 12% from 14% at present, raise the threshold for paying the top income tax rate of 42%, and reduce the degree to which a rising income leads to a progressively higher tax rate.

If that plan goes through and the Germans are able to cut spending at the same time we might see some impressive growth numbers coming out of Germany in the near future. It would be interesting to see the Germans leading the rest of Europe out of a recession.

CBO Releases Debt Numbers and they are Staggering

Now this should give every Congressman heart palpitations from its gravity.

To put it bluntly, the fiscal policy of the United States is unsustainable. Debt is growing faster than gross domestic product. Under the CBO's most realistic scenario, the publicly held debt of the U.S. government will reach 82 percent of GDP by 2019 -- roughly double what it was in 2008. By 2026, spiraling interest payments would push the debt above its all-time peak (set just after World War II) of 113 percent of GDP. It would reach 200 percent of GDP in 2038.

I think it is time to argue that we need immigration reform as soon as possible. Most of this huge interest expense comes from aging population and older people consuming more health care then they are paying in. So we need to open the gates and start bringing in skilled immigrants to pay taxes and buy things to stabilize our debt load.

Trade War with China and India in the Cap-and-Tax Bill

You have got to be kidding about this Cap-and-Destroy the Economy Bill. There is a trade clause in the thing that might start a trade war with China and India.

But it isn't clear how much of the sprawling House bill will survive in the Senate, where moderate Democrats and Republicans could form a majority that backs less ambitious action. Among the potential problem areas: the House bill has a provision that would impose tariffs on goods imported from countries that don't match U.S. carbon dioxide restrictions -- a slap at China and India that some business interests fear could provoke a trade war.

Oh yes, that means it is a trade war with just about every country in the world except for a handful like Iceland and Sweden. This is not just kind of like Smooth-Hawley this IS Smoot-Hawley all over again.

That Tariff caused a trade war that wrecked the world economy for decades and indirectly led up to WW2. This asinine Cap-and-Trade War bill will act in exactly the same way as China and India retaliates against us. The Senate better kill this piece of crap or the world will pay the consequences.

Dems Barely Pass the Cap-and-Destroy the Economy Bill

The one good thing is that the thing passed by such a narrow margin that the Senate will hopefully put this crap out of its misery.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

The whole argument that it will "grow green jobs" does not say that these jobs will be in the future at some uncertain date. At this time these "green jobs" are little more then guys that install solar panels and have basically failed in Spain. These jobs will be there if the government funds the research instead of penalizing every single American for using any energy at all.

We don't need to go into the Second Great Depression just so we can reduce the temperature by .0013 degrees by the end of the century. I think if this thing actually passes the Senate (by some miracle) this will be the Smooth-Hawley Tariff of this century in lead us into 10 years of economic ruin.

Think Tank Now Believes that ObamaCare will Cost $4 Trillion?

A Healthcare economist (what a dismal job) from the University of Minnesota, named Dr. Stephen T. Parente testified in front of Congress and broke out the real numbers on ObamaCare and they are staggering.

CBO scored the Kennedy Bill last week at approximately a 30% reduction [of uninsured people]for 1 trillion over ten years. Using the ARCOLA model, we found nearly everyone would be covered if all elements of the Kennedy bill were enacted at a ten year cost of 4 trillion. At this time, we are the only group yet to score the full Kennedy proposal. (If you would like to see the full analysis of this bill including how they got to their budget numbers)

That will cover all but 1% of the uninsured at what might be the insolvency of the debt of the United States. As this article pointed out the total federal budget for 2010 is $3.6 trillion and that is with all the TARP and stimulus and other crap thrown in. Now that is a big pile of money I hope the Red Chinese have their checkbooks out.

15 More Reasons Why Cap-and-Tax Will Rob America of Growth

Ugh, some of these things sound make this thing sound like the greatest regressive tax of all time.

National Energy Tax: This is a tax that will affect constituents in every aspect of their lives. From transportation, to food, to electricity, to income - this is the ultimate regressive consumption tax to the tune of nearly $3,000 per year according to the Heritage Foundation. The costs per family for the whole energy tax aggregated from 2012 to 2035 are estimated to be $71,493.

Nothing like taxing people an additional $3000 a year when there is 10% unemployment in the nation. Plus anything that makes food prices go up hits poor people right in the wallet since most of their cash goes to food. I think every Congressman that votes for this thing should be branded an economic criminal and thrown out of office. The Senate better fix this thing or we will be feeling its ill effects for the next 30 years.

Cap and Tax Might be an Economic Disaster

Now this is sobering news now that the green shoots of an economic recovery are just coming up.

As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million (see charts below).

Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once put it, by 90% adjusted for inflation. Inflation-adjusted gasoline prices would rise 74%, residential natural gas prices by 55% and the average family's annual energy bill by $1,500.

Yup cap-and-trade has the potential to cripple the US economy while it doesn't do anything to stop the Red Chinese from building 2 coal power plants per week or the Indians from increasing their energy usage. I mean both countries will fight like mad against any world carbon emissions scheme because they know it will cut their growth in the trillions of dollars range. This bill will strait up have the ability to put us into a second Great Depression.

Lightswitch Tax Moves Closer to Getting Through the House

The Senate better kill this thing quickly because there is no way we can afford to raise any taxes during a recession and hope for a V-shaped recovery.

Obama on Thursday called it "a vote of historic proportions ... that will open the door to a clean energy economy" and green jobs.

"It will create millions of new jobs," Pelosi insisted.

This is the most BS thing I have read recently. This thing will strait up destroy jobs right now and might create jobs in the future but probably won't. Those carbon credits will result in higher prices for anyone who turns on a lightswitch and will cost many more people in manufacturing their jobs.

It would be so much easier and cheaper for many companies to move whatever jobs are left to Malaysia where a company doesn't have to deal with this cap-and-rob crap. About the only people happy about this are the Wall Street types running the carbon marketplace and people that are going to get rich from selling offsets.

If they really wanted to create millions of new green jobs they should give tax incentives for companies to switch over. Call it a green tax cut and pay for it out of the stupid stimulus bill. Use that $700 billion waste of money to build a nuclear plant for every coal or oil power plant in the country.

Then create a multi-billion dollar energy research grant program to work on new power solutions. In other words pay for the R&D of solar, nuclear, and wind companies. Then when we have the technology in place put down the carbon limits. Don't do it backwards so people are stuck with a regressive tax for decades. Hoepfully the Senate will make the House come to their senses on this thing.

ObamaCare Infomercial Draws Hardly Any Viewers

I think this whole Health Care fix-it plan from the Dems only seems to resonate in some place where the majority of Americans do not live.

The one-hour ABC News special "Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America" (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour (against NBC's "The Philanthropist" debut and a repeat of "CSI: NY" on CBS). The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

Actually the funniest part may be that ABC sold its integrity for a show that lost to a rerun of CSI and a probably soon-to-be-cancelled NBC drama. It goes to show you that people don't seem to care as much about health care as the Dems will have you believe.

Nokia Sells the Iranian Regime a Way to Catch Protestors

Well there seems to be a boycott in the works against Nokia. I've only owned one Nokia phone but I will not be buying another one for any reason.

Telecommunication companies in the United States and other countries are required to provide this so-called “lawful intercept” capability so that domestic law enforcement agencies can eavesdrop on calls to investigate criminal activity. “Lawful,” of course, means different things in different countries. In the U.S. such interception generally requires a court order.

Yup in Iran you don't need any court order to get you and your whole family "disappeared." Nokia did yoemans work helping the regime catch their foes. The Basij Militia will probably send them a nice fruit basket for making their job so much easier. I have no idea why this telecom equipment was sent to them without this "feature" crippled.

I can just see the new Iranian Telecom Whitepaper thanking Nokia for their service.

It was so hard in the past to catch enemies of our regime who were using cell phones in order to communicate. So we turned to our friends at Nokia who provided us with a solution to this very pressing problem. Using Nokia's technology we are able to listen in on cell phone calls so we can tell exactly when and where we need to be to intercept their lawlessness.

Nokia's Solutions helps our very own Basij Militia crack heads and kill people with axes more efficiently and effectively with no wasted time trying to find the troublemakers. Then we are able to trace the calls back to their families in order to make the protestors pay for their transgressions.

We don't even need to question the detained protesters or plant moles in their organizations because Nokia has done the work for us. Nokia's superior technology has literally brought the tools of repression right into the homes of the hated enemies of our regime. Thanks again Nokia!

Yours with lotsa love,

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Holy Crap! US Beats Spain 2-0 at Confederations Cup!

Now this is something I thought would never happen.

The United States stunned top-ranked Spain 2-0 Wednesday night on goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey, advancing to the Confederations Cup final with one of the Americans' biggest soccer victories.

Yup the hapless US team knocked off the Worlds Number 1 team. Now they will probably take on the 5 time World Cup champ Brazil who has already beat them 3-0. Normally I would say they have no chance but stranger things did actually happen.

North Korea Directly Threatens the Existence of the US

Well I am curious to hear what Obama has to say about this latest rhetoric salvo the crazies in North Korea lobbed at us.

North Korea has said it would consider interception of its ships a declaration of war, and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to start another Korean War.

"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," a dispatch from the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Now I haven't heard this from a sovereign nation in quite a long time and should be taken as a direct threat against the US. The problem with North Korea is that the US end wars that are started against us. Kim Jong Il will be crawling out of a spider hole in 6 months time if they dared to declare war against us.

SC Governor Sanford Found: He was in Argentina With Some Woman

Who knew that the Appalachian Trial led all the way to Argentina?

Questions about Sanford's whereabouts arose early this week. For two days after reporters started asking questions, his office had said he had gone hiking on the Appalachian Trial.

Cornered at the Atlanta airport by a reporter, Sanford revealed Wednesday morning that he'd gone to Argentina for a seven-day trip.

The funny part about it is this:

He told reporters he spent "the last five days of my life crying in Argentina" and the affair is now over. Sanford, a rumored 2012 presidential candidate, refused to say whether he'll leave office.

Um, why did he have to sneak off to Argentina to break up with this woman? He could have done it over the phone or just waited until she was back in the States. Instead he flies off like a CIA operative going on a clandestine mission and alarms the people of South Carolina.
I guess it is time for him to resign because lying about being in the country is something that governors shouldn't be doing.

Is Obama Turning Us Japanese?

I sure hope not. The idea of 10 years of economic malaise has created all sorts of problems in Japan. Reason thinks we might be going down that road.