"I Am Ready To Puke."

Great Healthcare Debate Resource

There are only two doctors currently serving in the US Senate.  Every Tuesday and Thursday they answer your questions about healthcare policy.  Check it out here.  This is an unbelievable resource for average citizens, but the YouTube view rates are appalling.  If you are concerned about healthcare in this country, watch these videos and share them with people you know.

Obama's Terrible Day ... and NBfPB Saw It Coming

Wow, President Obama has just had a really bad day...

- We kicked it off this morning with the release of the unemployment figures - 10.2% - which highlights the impotency of the Democrats signature approach to the economy, the "stimulus" (where he did not lead, but gave Pelosi carte blanche)

- Then his crappy reaction to the Fort Hood massacre was branded "frightening insensitivity" by the usually compliant MSM.  In a second attempt to address the situation, he urges Americans to not see what is plain to see before their very eyes by not "jumping to conclusions" (kinda like he did when Sgt. Crowley arrested his buddy Skip Gates).

- The new Congressman from NY-23 that the administration boasted about helping win, is made to look like a scumbag and a Pelosi lap dog in less than a few hours of being shown in.

- China has labeled us "protectionist" which represents the final warning before we are in a trade war, one of the single most damaging things that can happen to our economy right now.

- His "jobs saved or created" talking point continues to be debunked as complete garbage.

- It looks like the vaunted Copenhagen confab on global warming is officially a bust.

- After touting the AMA's endorsement of his healthcare reform plans, the AMA reveals that it is riven with internal debate and may rescind its endorsement.

- His signature issue, healthcare reform (again where he did not lead but gave carte blanche to Pelosi), is sure to be forever associated going forward with the at-the-same-time laughable and horrifyingly outrageous prospect of jail time for citizens that fail to purchase health insurance.

I'm sure I am missing something too, but man-oh-man what a crappy day.

On the flip side, a pretty good day for me.  I've been warning that we were treading dangerously close to potential trade conflict with China.  A year ago, I said that a global consensus on climate change was unachievable.  From the get go, I've said the stimulus would do nothing for the economy and we'd have 10+% unemployment.  I walked my readers through how doctors would assess the current healthcare proposals unfavorably.  I've said to be on the lookout for raw, naked tyranny embedded in the healthcare reform that Democrats will eventually concoct.  Finally, I've more or less said on numerous occasions that, based on character and qualifications, Barack Obama was not only not fit to lead our nation but was patently destructive to our national character.  In foreign policy I said he would be feckless and easily rolled by world leaders big and small.  Given everything, I concluded that, on present course, the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States will go down as an accident of history,  a sort of once-in-a-generation collective national brain fart.

Today, frankly, was about all the vindication I could have asked for.

What Do Honduras and Net Neutrality Have In Common?

Awhile back I mentioned a very large company CEO that got in a tussle with Obama's FCC Chairman who was pressing full ahead with crazy net neutrality rules that would be a job killer for the telecom infrastructure industry but was beloved by Obama Maoist cadres (and Google).  I since got a little more scuttlebutt that the industry went deep into the administration and showed them how nutty this was and got a deal to strip out the really economically stupid stuff and leave just enough so that it looks palatable to the lefty nuts.  Well, here is something that sheds some light on how this is playing out.  It's not outlandish to see a guy like Summers saying 'enough is enough, we're at 10% unemployment, we don't need to poke business in the eye yet again for a bunch of techno nutjobs.'  Sounds about right to me.  Where does Honduras fit in?  See this.

I see a pattern emerging.  Obama lets the Maoists and crazies run wild; at the last minute someone in the administration - after catching a ration of shit from people who actually know what they are talking about - says "Hold it, maybe we ought to think about this"; they stop and think and they eventually backtrack.  We should all be thankful for this, although it would great if we had an administration that didn't have us stepping in Maoist doodoo on every first move.

Empathy...?

Empathy?  That's for Supreme Court Justices.  Not for Presidents!

One More Time...Why We Have 10% Unemployment

I am not happy about being right about this (nobody wants a healthy economy more than me).

Our problem isn't the presence, lack of, or size of any stimulus, interest rates, or any such obsessed over aspect of the macro economy.  Our problem, as I've been saying, is fear and uncertainty.  Washington DC and our President are running roughshod over American business like Sherman through the South.  Profit is viewed with hatred.  Businesses are either 1) scared they are going to get taken behind the woodshed like the credit card industry, 2) simply too uncertain about major changes shaping up in Congress, like cap and trade which would raise the cost base of nearly every company in America, or 3) fed up at the attacks and the anti-business rhetoric and standing pat.  American Business is hiding under their desks.  They could be hiring and growing but we elected fools who want to beat them into submission - it is as simple as that.  Enjoy your economy America.

P.S. As a grace note to all this, let me point out that many large companies, Cisco and IBM for example, have announced large increases in their stock buyback programs to the tune of billions of dollars.  This means that there is a higher return to shrinking their capital base than to expanding and hiring.  That is the heart of the structural problem that Washington and Obama have created.  Until that reverses, we won't see any meaningful job creation.

UPDATE:  Here is our President today on the subject.  I'm sad to say he doesn't get it, he is not within 100 miles of getting it.  Finally, this all leads to the irony of ironies - that a President (and his party) who is (are) supposedly the second coming for the working man and the bane of monied interests is pursuing policies that are a disaster for the working man and pretty darned OK for the money class.  By driving businesses and entrepreneurs into the bunker, the DC Dems are choking off job creation in the crib.  Nonetheless, companies have a base level of business and are eager to sell into a global market outside the US that is hungry for growth and economic health, thus earnings are hanging in there and expectations are rising.  This has propelled the stock market.  The working man is SOL but investors are doing OK so far in 2009.  Like I said, irony of ironies.  This a classic manifestation of the maxim (and I will probably butcher it) that it is not that liberals aren't knowledgeable, it's just that what they know is wrong.

If This Is the Alternative, Give Me Greedy, Overpaid Bankers Any Day

Stop railing on bankers for a bloody second and focus in on where the disaster began and where it still continues apace, sucking in taxpayer dollars by the billions. Current tally: Accounting fraud, $100 billion in losses, $45 billion in tax payer bailouts, and no end in sight.

Without question the undeniable, undisputed, number one villian in this story is...this guy.

Slouching Toward Smoot-Hawley

More trade-war-inviting protectionist stupidity from the Obama administration. We're not fully there yet, but we're close. Sooooo dumb.

Speedreading Nita Lowey Loves Her Some PelosiCare

Attention residents of New York's 18th congressional district, which includes almost all of Westchester County: Your Congresswoman, Nita Lowey, is a superhuman over-achiever par excellence! She's read all 2000+ plus pages of Nancy Pelosi's healthcare bill. It was released only last week on October 29th and by this Saturday, but her office confirmed to me that she will have read the whole thing!!! That's 220+ pages of dense legalistic language she will have read, absorbed, and contemplated per day!!! Seriously, she's that good. Call her office, ask them for yourselves, it's true! (NY office: 914-428-1707; DC office: 202-225-6506) And they're still writing parts of it and adding to it as I write this, so Nita is still having pages piled in front of her. How can one person do it? Amazing!

Actually, I'm understating her awesomeness. Get this. She has still got a few more days to go and she's already decided she's gonna vote in favor of PelosiCare. That means she's already done reading it!!! She's unreal!!! WOW!!

Enough about Nita's superhuman powers of cognition. Get ready for even higher taxes my fellow Westchesterites. We pay the highest property taxes in the country, NY state has the seventh highest income tax rate in the country (and we're still bankrupt), we have that beloved mansion tax on real estate that hits 30% of Westchester homeowners, but Nitro Nita thinks we ought to pay more taxes for an awesome new government healthcare bureaucracy. Bring it on, Nita! What's another few thousand bucks to rich folks like us between good friends?!?!

Make your neighbors proud - forward this link to all of your neighbors so we can all be rightly proud that SuperNita is helping bring higher taxes, more government intrusion into our lives and unconstitutional usurpation of personal liberty!!

Smile Iran, You're On Candid Camera!

Wow, wow, and WOW. This post over at Powerline is not to be missed. Israeli commandos boarded and commandeered a cargo ship bound for Syria that was carrying weapons meant for Hezbollah. The video shows some initial footage of what the commandos found and more extensive footage of the seized weaponry unloaded at an Israeli port. This is the kind of superior chess that the Israelis are capable of playing that I alluded to way back, and it is a powerful message to the Iranians from the Israelis as to who has whose number. The Powerline guys make the right assessment of Obama's most recent statement on Iran in light of Iran getting caught sending illict weapons to a terrorist group. Meanwhile, the WSJ makes a similar assessment of these same words from President Obama in the context of a renewed push by the Iranian democracy movement protesting their regime.

On their own these are each quite an indictment, but taken together they represent a stunning illumination of the bankruptcy of Obama's foreign policy toward Iran. The Powerline guys show that in the context of the "great game", the hardscabble world of real politik and international strategic maneuvering, Obama is a rank amateur, a piker who doesn't even see how the game is played. The WSJ covers the moral dimensions of our approach to Iran, showing Obama to be a moral midget unwilling to take anything but the most laughable stand in favor of the values of democracy, self-determination and human liberty.

As I said...batting .0000.

UPDATE: Even the WaPo is saying that it is "amateur hour."

27 !

Shocking Economic Cause & Effect of the Day

Democrats continue their assault on credit card companies with regulations and price controls, and...Citibank lays off 100 people in credit card marketing. Yeah, I know, shocker.  UPDATE: and credit shrinks...

Let me say it again, the reason we are not creating jobs is that Washington DC and the socialists in power have their boots pressed down on the neck of American businesses.

A Picture Worth 1,990 Pages Worth of Words

This is fantastic and a brilliant move in terms of contrast. Only problem? It is months late. Many precious months too late.

UPDATE: And it looks like there is alot of steak to go with that beautiful, restrained, modest sizzle.

Good Job Westchester! Now Let's Reload and Aim Big Again.

Political pundits are pointing to the myriad examples of voters rejecting ever-expanding government and the higher taxes that pay for it - obviously Christie in NJ but also in places like Colorado Springs. One important example they are missing is Rob Astorino's win in Westchester County, NY for County Executive. Westchester has the highest property taxes in the country. Political machine boss Andy Spano has increased government spending by $1 billion to $1.8 billion, more spending than 87 countries. Rob had a simple "Stop the Madness" message, and he won. Not just won, he smoked one of the most locally recognizable political names in the country. That Spano is so well known gives me hope that perhaps incumbancy has become an albatross. Sausage Factory Worker Nita Lowey, a Pelosi lap-dog if ever there was one, ought to take notice. You're next Nita!

Last Night Was Not a Wake-Up Call, It Was the Act of Waking Up

The Good Professor has a fairly typical take of the independent-minded, non-hyperpartisan reaction to last night's election results. He says that the Obama magic has faded. That's most likely true, but that is not the big story in my opionion. The big story is that anybody thought for a moment that it wouldn't fade. That anybody expected even the most basic level of governance from Obama, let alone monumental and transformative things, is the story of greatest import here. And it is not that the hope, dreams and expectations placed into the Obama vessel were so grand, it is that the vessel that is Obama is so small. I have said it before - in November of '08 I said we bought ourselves a pig in a poke. Later I said that disappointment and pain is what we deserve given that we elected a man of no consequence and no achievement to the highest office in the land. Why we expected a man with no discernable track record or proven record of leadership to lead and to achieve in the name of this massive and complex society is a story of historical proportions. Did we think that plucking just any man off the street - essentially what we did - to wield enormous power was wise? And a young man to boot. And a man who never held a job at a profit-making organization. Why did we think that the wisdom acquired over a long life and the first hand knowledge of commerce gained by private sector work somehow weren't relevant anymore? Why did we think that - after over 200 years of electing (with a few exceptions) staid, boring, but presumably wise, adults, who could draw to them the counsel and assistance of many more wise, older adults - we needed a rock star of relative adolescence? Why did we think that a man with no knowledge of the private sector would lead a mostly private sector nation out of a severe economic slump? Why did we think that a man who consorted with raving America-haters would inspire a mostly proud and patriotic nation to excellence? Why did we think that a man who views our role in the world as flawed would draw our allies nearer to us? Why did we think these things?

You know my answer. Delusion. We are more susceptible to it now, having lived for decades in a celebrity-soaked, instant gratification society. We've kept the wolves of reality at bay for so long, we are easy prey for delusion - that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity, that taxing the rich will yield windfalls as if these people are willing and ready to just hand over their money, that reducing our defenses makes us more secure, that using less energy won't hurt our standard of living, that a prohibitive regulation will eliminate an anti-social behavior, that you can love jobs but hate job creators. Delusionary. All of it. Yet, we wallow in it. The culmination of our wallowing in delusion was the building up of a cipher on a cloud of dreamy unreality into some messianic figure. That edifice is now crumbling. From California's budget to Iran's nukes, from high and rising unemployment in the face of a trillion dollars in stimulus to improving healthcare by slashing doctors pay, to "jobs saved or created", the whole phony edifice of delusion we have constructed is starting to crack. It is not all Obama's fault, it is not even mostly his fault; this has been building for years, and he is merely the embodiment of it all.

This election wasn't about sending a message, it was about coming out of a state of delusion, about shedding, slowly, our warm, soft cloak of unreality. As will be the next election, and possibly even the next one after that.

Hanke Agrees With Me

Check this out, where a prominent economist agrees with me that 2007/08 was a panic more akin to 1907 than to the Great Depression. Again, you heard it here first!

Ford Needs to Press Their Advantage

I have said it before here a few times - a long term strategic analysis can only lead to the conclusion that Ford and the UAW should part ways. The latest news from the front lines is that the UAW rank and file have rejected labor concessions that would put Ford on an equal footing with GM and Chrysler in terms of labor costs (unlimted government subsidies, well, that is another story). There is a little wrinkle here in that the UAW leadership was actually pushing for the better deal for Ford. I presume that the UAW brass know that if Ford is uncompetitive long term it will 1) not fare well and thus need a GM-style bailout, the public appettite for which is long gone, or 2) come to agree with Donny Baseball's analysis. The rank and file seem not to feel similarly. My guess is that they see Ford as doing OK so why should they give up anything.

My initial reaction is that Ford has an opening here. They can inflict a little pain on the rank and file, and say "See, you should have listened to your leadership" or they can go to the leadership and say "You can't deliver votes, so we're not going to meet you in the middle on your priorities." I don't quite see how Ford can use this situation to make the hyperleap to a UAW-free future, and perhaps Ford isn't even contemplating such a move. Nonetheless, given the opening they now have and the latest chill sent down the spine of organized industrial labor courtesy of Boeing (Alan Mulally is ex-Boeing, keep in mind), Ford is in a good position to take a bigger step in that direction. They ought to do so soon to take advantage of the conditions on the ground.

Gulp!!!

I have been mentioning how Paul Volcker has been used, abused and run over by Team Obama who stole his credibility. This CNBC interview segment is amazing. It lends credibility to my theory. The economic dream team was yet another fiction of the Obama candidacy.

UPDATE: Here is Maria Bartiromo's take on the whole thing. I find it hard to believe that Volcker would stand for being muzzled. What does he fear? He craps bigger than Obama, on the economy at least.

Sarbox Cynicism

In the early days of this blog, I commented alot on the wrongheadedness of Sarbanes-Oxley. Now, oddly enough, there seems to be an effort underway to get some firms exempted from this onerous and worthless law. But only some firms and not because the law stinks and it is the right thing to so, but because there is some patronage to dole out and votes to be bought. Sad. Our government creates the problems and then rides to the rescue granting exemptions from their laws in order ease burdens, all for a fee of course.

Stop the Madness - Dump Spano

Let start taking our country back one race at a time. Let's jettison the entrenched, the corrupt, and the spendthrift. Fortunately, in Westchester County we can do all three at once by booting the political machine boss that has given us the highest taxes in the country - Andy Spano.

Learn more about Rob here.