Recovery.gov Shows Jobs and Stimulus Money Going to Phantom Congressional Districts

They should have just made all the jobs come from these phantom districts. Then they can say that a billion jobs were "created and saved" in these districts and it would solve the unemployment issue just in time for 2010.

Researchers at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity found 440 “phantom districts” listed on Recovery.gov, consuming $6.4 billion and creating or saving nearly 30,000 jobs. Their findings are listed HERE.

For example, Recovery.gov shows 12 districts, using up more than $2.7 billion, in Washington, D.C, which only has one congressional district.

Recovery.gov also shows 2,893.9 jobs created with $194,537,372 in stimulus funding in New Hampshire’s 00 congressional district. But, there is no such thing.

The site also shows $1,471,518 going to New Hampshire’s 6th congressional district, $1,033,809 to the 4th congressional district and $124,774 to the 27th congressional district. In fact, New Hampshire only has two congressional districts; inviting confusion about where the money listed for the 00, 4th, 6th and 27th districts is going.

The Public Plan Would Actually Have Premiums 4% Higher than Private Plans?

We have been told over and over that the public plan would "reduce costs" but this report says that that is just bunk.

We estimate that the public plan will have costs that were 5% below the average level for private plans but that the public plan premiums would be roughly 4% higher than private as a result of the antiselection of enrollees.

In other words there will just not be enough people taking the public plan to make low premiums financially viable. Plus, the cutting of the so-called "overhead and profit motive" from private plans would result in just a 5% cost savings.

Also I would rather stick with the private plan if I get to pay 4% less in premiums. Suddenly the public option looks much less fearsome to private insurance as some might think. I think many Americans will look at the health exchange see that the government plan is too expensive and just choose Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield or something.

Will PelosiCare Gut Senior Health Care?

At least that is what the Washington Post is saying. Here is the text of the non-partisan report.

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending -- one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system -- would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

The report, requested by House Republicans, found that Medicare cuts contained in the health package approved by the House on Nov. 7 are likely to prove so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether.

Yup, now we are talking about some real "death panels." If hospitals won't take Medicare then there will be a lot more seniors that are going to have to choose between going to the doctor and buying food for themselves. In other words PelosiCare will cove 30 million extra Americans at the expense of 36 million senior citizens.

It is so laughable that the AARP is actually endorsing this mess because it will end up costing their members dearly. The funniest part too is that if you are rich or have "Cadillac Insurance" you will not be affected by these Medicare cuts (the SEIU and other retired union members just breathed a sigh of relief.) But if you retired as a member of the middle class you will be screwed by it. It seems that any senior that supports PelosiCare needs to know that their lives might be shortened if, for some reason, they are forced to rely on Medicare alone.

Palin Hits Back Against Couric

Too bad she didn't hit back at Couric during the campaign. That interview was a real ambush and it made her look like a dope.

Asked if she prepared for the interview with Couric, Palin said “not so much, but it was supposed to be a light-hearted thing.”

“After the first segment, it didn’t go well. It didn’t go very well, I was annoyed by her badgering,” Palin said.

The former Alaska governor accused Couric of trying to trap her on the issue of abortion, asking her “12 different times on my position on abortion and the morning after pill.”

Palin also said she grew annoyed by Couric’s presence at campaign rallies. After one particular rally when she left the rope line “fired up,” Palin recalled that she turned around to see Couric and thought, “There is the perky one again with the microphone.”

Palin indicated that she was offended when Couric asked her what newspapers and magazines she reads, saying that she took the question “in the context of ‘do you read?’”

“Obviously I have over the course of my life,” Palin said. “I’m a lover of books and magazines and newspapers.”

AG Holder Rolls the Dice

All I can say is that he better get a conviction or there will be hell to pay.

Holder insisted both the court system and the untainted evidence against the five men are strong enough to deliver a guilty verdict and the penalty he expects to seek: a death sentence for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people who were killed when four hijacked jetliners slammed into the towers, the Pentagon, and a field in western Pennsylvania.

If these terrorists get off the hook due to Judicial bungling or it turns into a Kangaroo Court where these killers continually disrupt the proceedings then all bets are off. Americans can forgive the White House for not stimulation jobs but letting terrorists off on technicalities or some other screw-up will be a grievous blow. I think a military tribunal would be a better deal but I guess you have to trust Holder to have enough evidence to execute these scumbags.

Twisted Logic on How Tax Hikes Empower Consumers

Even though I support an excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans I just think Ms. Romer should not be the one selling the plan.

“Part of the idea of how that is going to work is precisely because it does empower consumers. It empowers each of us to have an employer-sponsored plan to call our HR office and say, ‘Would you negotiate harder? Would you think about (whether this) is the most efficient plan out there, because I don’t want my plan paying an excise tax.' So I think that’s something that is very much empowering consumers.”

It really isn't up to most employees on what health plan their employers give them. Especially if you are in a union. I really think they need to pay some sort of tax so they don't end up getting away with a "Cadillac" Plan while other people can barely afford it.

Consumer Confidence Sours Again

I just wish this whole healthcare debate goes away so that people can focus on creating jobs by cutting payroll taxes. These terrible confidence numbers should be bad for retail and the economy as a whole in any case.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of sentiment for November fell to 66.0, the lowest since August, from 70.6 in October.

This was well below economists' median expectation of a reading of 71.0, according to a Reuters poll.

The Great China Crash?

Hmm this is some very interesting reading if you are long China or you think their GDP will grow at 8.9% forever. I thought it was interesting that with all that demand constrained all over the world they had such a high GDP growth. I could understand it when things were humming but who is buying all these cheap Chinese exports? This guy thinks its book cooking:

Chang argues that inconsistencies in Chinese official statistics — like the surging numbers for car sales but flat statistics for gasoline consumption — indicate that the Chinese are simply cooking their books. He speculates that Chinese state-run companies are buying fleets of cars and simply storing them in giant parking lots in order to generate apparent growth.

Also if you are a commodity bull you need to be ready to take profits since a Chinese collapse will destroy you.

Another data point cited by the bears: overcapacity. For example, the Chinese already consume more cement than the rest of the world combined, at 1.4 billion tons per year. But they have dramatically ramped up their ability to produce even more in recent years, leading to an estimated spare capacity of about 340 million tons, which, according to a report prepared earlier this year by Pivot Capital Management, is more than the consumption in the U.S., India and Japan combined.

That is a lot of cement and what are they supposed to build with all that? These China bears like Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates think its lots of empty high rises and factories. The slow motion collapse seems to be happening already at least when it comes to Chinese retail:

And the bears also keep a close eye on anecdotal reports from the ground level in China, like a recent posting on a blog called The Peking Duck about shopping at Beijing’s “stunningly dysfunctional, catastrophic mall, called The Place.”

“I was shocked at what I saw,” the blogger wrote. “Fifty percent of the eateries in the basement were boarded up. The cheap food court, too, was gone, covered up with ugly blue boarding, making the basement especially grim and dreary. ... There is simply too much stuff, too many stores and no buyers.”

When the food court closes you have to be worried.

Did Obama Betray the Iranian Protestors?

It certainly seems that way according to this New Republic article.

To the people in the streets, to the middle class and to the students--the only hope for Iran--he has shown them, frankly, his behind. Not a statement of solidarity. Certainly not material support. He is still apologizing for the overthrow by the C.I.A. of Iran's prime minister, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953. That was 56 years ago, for God's sake. Still, his apologies have gotten him nowhere and will get him nowhere.

I think there was an opportunity there that a JFK, Hillary Clinton, or a Truman would have seized in a minute. If he came out four-square for the protesters and gave them some kind of firm support we had the opportunity to see the Fall of the Mullahcracy in Iran.

Obama seemed so disengaged at the time while millions of people from the left and the right had their eyes on Iran. If he quickly said a statement like "I see in those protesters the same courage that filled the hearts of the people that founded our nation and we stand with them 100%" it might have gone a long way.

I think Truman might have even steamed a carrier group nearby or leaked satellite photos to make Iran know that any genocide of protesters would be broadcast to the world. I would bet JFK may have even had CIA agents in place to turn the protesters movement into a full scale rebellion.

I can understand that Obama was hedging his bets because he figured he would still have to negotiate with the hardliners over their nuclear program if they held onto power. But times like that would have called for an all-in gamble that a fall of the Iranian government would have solved the nuclear issue once and for all.

In any case is was just embarrassing to see a US President side with the Mullahs over the kids protesting in the streets of Tehran for actual "change they could believe in." It just seemed so unlike a Democratic President that is supposed to care about protesting and "radical change" to be so aloof and disconnected like that.

Liberal Calls for End of Filibuster: Be Careful What You Wish For

I think the totalitarian streak of some liberals seems to shine through every once in a while.

The filibuster may seem like an arcane procedural issue to rail on about (we've already published excellent articles about it in these pages by William Greider and Thomas Geoghegan), but it has serious substantive results. America desperately needs a twenty-first-century social democratic reformation, but no such thing is in the offing as long as the filibuster remains in place. As I write this, there are almost certainly fifty-one votes in the Senate for a healthcare reform bill with a public option and good subsidies, the Employee Free Choice Act, and cap and trade. But there aren't sixty votes for any of those.

Of course this filibuster is there to prevent the "tyranny of the majority" at the expense of the minority. If they could pass things with 51 votes then liberals would have flipped out in the 6 years when the GOP controlled the White House and Congress.

Imagine if one party needed just 51 votes to create a fascist dictatorship that made Bush President for Life? I mean 9/11 could have gotten people scared enough to think that was a good idea. It would only take 51 GOP votes to make that happen.

What is funny is that liberals like this writer can't convince a majority of people that these ideas are worth doing so he just wants to make Congress into a rubber stamp. He just wants to impose his will on America with no one there to stop it. That sounds suspiciously like something out of Soviet Union. If he wants a totalitarian government run by him and his "progressives" then come out and say it. Then just wait for a large part of the nation to succeeded from the Union.

Colombia and Venezuela Inch Toward War?

It seems that "Crazy Hugo" Chavez is rattling the saber again.

However, the move of troops to the Colombian border and the threats Chavez made this weekend of war do not reflect lunacy, but a bid to grab power and influence in Latin America at the expense of a weakened US. He wants the US out of Colombia, and Chavez apparently believes he has an American President he can bully towards that goal:

I agree with this statement. I think Chavez is testing Obama to see if he will protect his allies or not. A pullback here and everyone will be looking to make a power grab at the expense of Obama. I can see Russia pushing their influence into the Ukraine or maybe agitating for a pro-Russian government in Georgia. I also see Israel going it alone on Iranian nukes as well. That's what happens when Obama channels Carter instead of Truman.

The Rise of the Right Across Europe

I think people in the US as well as Europe are finally understanding that spending billions that you don't have is not a way to economic prosperity.

It's not just the Republicans who came out ahead. Last month a conservative coalition swept into power in Germany. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy's party has considerable public support. In Britain, conservatives are poised to win their first national election in 17 years. Even in Denmark and Sweden, where social democrats usually win, the right is in power. In fact, across continental Europe, only one major country, Spain, has a left-wing ruling party.

I think this criticism of PelosiCare is especially valid as well.

On health care, however, the story looks different. There are two great health-care crises in America—one in-volving coverage and the other cost. The Obama plan appears likely to tackle the first but not the second. This is bad economics but also bad politics: the crisis of cost affects 85 percent of Americans, while the crisis of coverage affects about 15 percent. Obama's message to the country appears to be "We have a dysfunctional health-care system with out-of-control costs, and let's add 45 million people to it."

Plus it raises taxes on some Americans while increasing costs for the rest of them. I can't wait until 20-somethings suddenly get a tax bill for $900 when they choose to forgo health insurance for more spending money. It will be interesting to see the backlash that will result from these same people being sent to prison for the crime of not having health insurance.

Holy Crap I Agree With Robert Reich

It might seem strange but this sentiment is bitterly important.

If Obama and the Democrats lose one or both houses of Congress in the midterms, it will be because the president learned only the most superficial lesson of the Clinton years. Health-care reform is critically important. But when one out of six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, getting the nation back to work is more so.

Yup, he is 100% right. No one cares about health insurance when they can't find a job to put food on the table. I think it is time for Obama to come up with an actual "jobs bill" with the rest of the stimulus money that hasn't been spent yet.

Large Hadron Collider Shut Down By Bread Dropped By a Bird?

I think they should shut this thing down because it is turning out to be a big joke.

The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

I think Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya have a point when they are saying that time traveling particles may be creating strange happenings to shut down the collider.

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”

A bird dropping a piece of bread that overheats part of the Collider has to be one of those one in a million things that these two theorists were speculating about.

"Saved" Jobs Count in Illinois Was Way Off

I think the White House needs to just sign on to the fact that the "Stimulus" was a dismal failure and figure out some other way to get Americans back to work. This number fudging on jobs "saved" is just adding up to embarrassment down the line.

In the official report, Wilmette Public Schools District 39 was credited with 166 jobs saved by stimulus aid. Superintendent Raymond Lechner said the number should be zero.

At Dolton-Riverdale School District 148, stimulus funds were said to have saved the equivalent of 382 full-time teaching jobs -- 142 more than the district actually has.

A similar discrepancy was found in data for Kankakee School District 111, where the stimulus report logged the equivalent of 665 full-time jobs saved. "That's impossible," a top Kankakee school official said, adding that the entire payroll -- full and part time -- is 600 workers.

Government To Be Your Land Lord?

It seems that way if you are about to be foreclosed on by Fannie Mae. Thousands of borrowers on the verge of foreclosure will soon have the option of renting their homes from Fannie Mae, under a policy announced Thursday. The government-controlled company, through its new "Deed for Lease" program, will allow borrowers to transfer ownership to Fannie Mae and sign a one-year lease, with month-to-month extensions after that. I'm not sure if this will slow the foreclosures but at least it will keep people in their homes as they wait to refinance them. It just seems like a "kick the can" type of thing but you never know.

Saudi Jets Cross into Yemen to Strike Militants

It seems that we might see a hotter war between militants in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia sent fighter jets and artillery bombardments across the border into northern Yemen Thursday in a military incursion apparently aimed at helping its troubled southern neighbor control an escalating Shiite rebellion, Arab diplomats and the rebels said. I hope the Sauid's are really careful that these militants don't start to launch attacks against oil fields and other infrastructure. You would see $100+ oil in a few weeks if that should happen.

Best Idea of the Day: Women Only Firearms Camps

Now this is a great idea and should deter all those rapists and muggers. A woman packing heat is a beautiful thing. The three-day camps, which cost £400, are exploding across the country and in January next year a US TV show will begin documenting the female gun trend. "It started with one camp in 2004 and now we're planning 15 to 20 camps for 2010," said Debbie, who has helped recruit over 1,000 women to the shooting world. "Women love it. We get schoolteachers, lawyers, nurses, women from all walks of life. The gun is the great equalizer for a woman. It doesn't matter how big and powerful her attacker is as long as he isn't on speed or something a woman can take him down with one shot. Those crazy boyfriends and stalkers would think twice if a girl shows them their arsenal and their willingness to use it.

Polling Shows Americans Against PelosiCare

This data should make moderate Democrats sit up and take notice. People just don't want a "public plan" or anything else the Dems are selling on health care. I think the idea of spending $1.2 trillion *more* dollars on top of all the other debt and unfunded mandates just rubs people the wrong way.

Japan Cruising Toward Debt Crisis

I knew Japan was deep in debt but these numbers are truly scary. The IMF expects Japan's gross public debt to reach 218pc of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, 227pc next year, and 246pc by 2014. This has been manageable so far only because Japanese savers have been willing – or coerced – into lending for almost nothing. The yield on 10-year government bonds has been around 1.30pc this year, though they jumped to 1.42pc last week. That means for every 1 Yen of GDP you have more then 2 Yen of Debt. That is simply unsustainable and if there is a debt crunch in Japan it will be strait-up devastating.