by Bill O'Connell on September 22, 2010
The imagery in my mind was triggered by an editorial in the Wall Street Journal by John Fund, when he described Obama in a “political tailspin.” Close your eyes and picture the pilot Barack Obama screaming, “I’ve never flown a plane before!!!” as he furiously toggles switches and twists dials. Biden in the co-pilot seat is flipping through a copy of Piloting for Dummies, shouting back, “Neither have I. I always sat in the back!!!” At the same time, Jimmy Carter is trying to calm Obama down and talk him through pulling plane out of its deadly dive while muttering as an aside, “It’s all Fox News fault.” Then together they all scream, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!”
Such is the political landscape this bright Wednesday morning. The sky is clear here in New York, but politically it is anything but that. The news came out yesterday that the recession ended eighteen months after is started in December 2007. That means it was about five months after Obama took office and just three months after the massive stimulus package passed, which means the economy recovered on its own, without the stimulus.
[click to continue…]
by Bill O'Connell on September 20, 2010
In today’s rant titled, “The Angry Rich and Taxes,” Paul Krugman continues to amaze how the man won a Nobel Prize for economics. I know, I know, it was for his work on international trade. I keep telling myself, but it just seems so strange that when he wanders into other areas he seems so lost. But then again, he was a paid advisor to Enron.
After his introductory riff he gets down to business, “The rage of the rich has been building ever since Mr. Obama took office. At first, however, it was largely confined to Wall Street.” Ever since Mr. Obama took office and primarily from Wall Street? Wall Street spent tremendous amounts of money to get Obama elected over John McCain and Krugman is trying to tell us that they were upset with him from the day he took office? Here are the numbers:
- Goldman Sachs associates gave $764,700 more to Obama than McCain
- Citigroup associates gave $379,239 more to Obama than McCain
- JP Morgan associates gave $467,025 more to Obama than McCain
- UBS associates gave $350,726 more to Obama than McCain
- Morgan Stanley gave $241,429 more to Obama than McCain
Who is crazier, Krugman or all those folks on Wall Street, who we are told are devilishly clever, who spent a fortune to elect a man they hated the day he won?
[click to continue…]
by Bill O'Connell on August 27, 2010
Revised GDP numbers suggest that going down is exactly what the economy is doing. The government revised second quarter GDP growth from 2.4% down to 1.6%. Even Paul Krugman is saying the stimulus didn’t work, but his solution is to drive the country into bankruptcy faster. Krugman’s complaint was that the stimulus wasn’t big enough. He also believe we should,” use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored lenders, to engineer mortgage refinancing that puts money in the hands of American families.” Fannie and Freddie have already sucked $160 billion out of the Treasury and Mr. Krugman wants to back up and re-inflate the housing bubble. Talk about failed policies of the past, sheesh!
The solution to the jobs issue is private industry. The problem is that this is the most anti-business government in memory. Business is the target of the administration’s ire, tax policies, health care policies, cap and trade schemes, repeal of the Bush tax cuts, card check, financial regulation, have I left anything out? So business is sitting on its hands. No matter how much cash it may be accumulating it does not want to take any steps, like expanding, until the full weight of all these choking policies are understood and priced out or until the Democrats are run out of the Congress and the anti-business sentiment is lifted there.
So let the Joe Biden show continue. The man who says he know little about economics and proves it with every speech will go on telling us how the stimulus is working exactly as planned. President Obama will continue to take a new vacation about every 90 days and we will cross our fingers that there is something left to recover when we recover our government from these inexperienced, clueless dolts.
by Bill O'Connell on May 21, 2010
Yesterday, at a joint session of Congress, Filipe Calderon the President of Mexico addressed the joint body. In his address he openly criticized the new immigration law recently passed in Arizona. This law was passed by a duly elected legislature in Arizona and signed by the governor. To their great disgrace most, if not all, Democrats as well as President Obama’s cabinet members gave the Mexican president a standing ovation. These Members of Congress took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Are these Members of Congress going to now claim, well… Mexico is a friend, not an enemy so we can actually help them wipe their feet on the Constitution?
An analysis done by Megyn Kelly, an anchor on Fox News and an attorney, compared federal law and Supreme Court decisions to the new Arizona law. She found that current federal law is tougher than what was recently passed in Arizona. Under federal law, police can stop anyone for any reason or no reason and ask them for their immigration status. In Arizona, a police officer can only ask immigration status if, while in the course of stopping the individual for another reason and they suspect the individual may be in the country illegally, for example, if they don’t have a valid driver’s license. If they can produce a valid driver’s license, the inquiry is over.
So let’s recap. Existing federal law is tougher than the recently passed Arizona law regarding asking an individual for proof they are here legally. The federal government is AWOL on enforcing immigration law. Arizona acted where the federal government failed. Attorney General Eric Holder calls the Arizona law discriminatory and a potential law suit target, but without actually reading the law. It is also clear, he does not know the federal laws he has sworn to uphold. Janet Napolitano also has not read the law and she has a sworn duty to secure the homeland. She also does not know the federal laws in place that she should be enforcing. Both of these individuals along with most, if not all, Democrats in Congress give a standing ovation to a foreign head of state who criticizes a properly passed state law. The whole lot of them are a disgrace to this country and should be booted out of office at the first opportunity.
