Second Stimulus?

The economy continues to dwindle in these harsh economic times.  Job losses have fallen in every month since BidenJanuary and the unemployment rate, 9.4%, is at a twenty-six year low.  Based on these statistics, Congress has asked themselves if a second stimulus bill is needed.  Let me give you a quick answer, NO!

Let’s go back to the first stimulus, named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The enormous $787 billion bill failed according to President Barack Obama’s predictions. While campaigning for its vote, Obama stated that without this very important bill, the unemployment rate will rise to 9% in 2010. Conversely, he said, if this legislation is passed, unemployment will not exceed 8%. However, the stimulus bill has not succeeded in doing what President Obama thought it would do, as seen by the unemployment rate flirting with 10%.

With his approval ratings decreasing, Obama sent his Vice President to calm the storm in Ohio, where less than half the people approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as President. In a speech from Cincinnati, VP Biden pointed to teaching and law enforcement jobs being saved, because of the stimulus. For the record, there is no statistic that can accurately measure the number of jobs saved. (By the way, there is a statistic that says we’ve lost roughly two million jobs since the stimulus passed). Continue reading Second Stimulus?

New Hampshire House Rejects Gay Marriage Bill

gay marriage

In what comes as a surprising twist the New Hampshire house has rejected a new bill which would have legalized gay marriage. Its particularly surprising not just because its well… New Hampshire but also because the house had already approved a previous bill legalizing gay marriage which was ultimately vetoed by the governor. Not to mention the fact that the New Hampshire senate had passed the new bill. Here’s how the AP described it:

A divided New Hampshire House has refused to go along with changes the governor demanded to make his state the sixth to allow gay marriage. Instead, it voted to further negotiate with the Senate.

But let’s not get our hopes up about this one. It seems they aren’t necessarily being held up by wether or not gay marriage should be legal but instead are arguing about protections for churches who refuse to perform marriage ceremonies for gay couples.

The AP story is extremely light on details but the vote totals show how divided even the New Hampshire house is over gay marriage so take a gander…

I’ll try to update when more info comes out about the exact reasons why the New Hampshire house didn’t pass this bill.

Gingrich to Pelosi: Resign

Pretty Pelosi

The call comes after Pelosi vomitted her lies all over the CIA. Sure he’s gone off on her over this before and sure this is little more than grandiose political theater that will lead to nothing in the end… but it’s still fun to listen to someone give ol’ Nancy a much deserved smack down:

In a column for the conservative publication Human Events, the former House Speaker takes aim at Pelosi’s press conference last week, during which she said the CIA did not tell her in 2002 that it used the aggressive interrogation technique of waterboarding. She went on to allege the CIA routinely misleads Congress.

“She charged that the CIA, deliberately and as a matter of policy, violated the law by lying to Congress,” Gingrich writes in the column. “And with that allegation, Speaker Pelosi disqualified herself from the office she holds.”

“Speaker Pelosi has damaged America’s safety,” Gingrich also writes. “She’s made America less secure by sending a signal to the men and women defending our country that they can’t count on their leaders to defend them.”

Indeed all those things are true. And, yes, she should resign. But lets be honest… she won’t and the Dems won’t do a thing to her. So really the political hacks used as human shields surrounding Pelosi got this one right: Continue reading Gingrich to Pelosi: Resign

Paulson to Lend Money to Anybody Who Wants it

Gosh, doesn’t this sound familiar?

The government stepping in to let just about anybody borrow money regardless of their circumstances.

In fact, I’m relatively sure this is exactly what caused the problem in the first place. Ummm, yea, actually I’m completely positive of that.

Hmm lets think back to the first presidential debate when Obama claimed that deregulation was the cause of our economic ills. Here was my reaction then:

“Deregulation, Obama? Are you kidding? Was it deregulation that created organizations to give people loans that clearly weren’t qualified for them and never would have received them otherwise? Was it deregulation that mandated financial institutes give the same clearly unqualified people loans? Thus creating a massive and seemingly unending housing boom which then lead to a plethora of bad investments, investments which were sold by the government as safe investments. No Obama it wasn’t deregulation, it was idiots like you.”

But, obviously, Bush, Paulson, and the rest of our betterers in DC will never admitt that this is what happened and will, inevitably, stick with the same broken mentality that got us into this mess.

Does anybody see the supreme irony in this move by the government? I mean, yea, there’s the whole quandary of using the same tactics that got is in trouble in order to save us from that trouble. I’m almost convinced that this was the exact conversation that occured when this plan was being mulled over:

(several of Springfield’s best and brightest are stuck in a hole they dug while searching for buried treasure)

Mayor Quimby: Mmm, I guess we’re not gonna find anything.
Otto: Well how we gonna get outta here?
Homer: We’ll dig our way out!
Wiggum: No, no, dig up, stupid!

But I think, perhaps, the deeper irony lays in the fact that we are increasing our government’s debt for the express purpose of increasing consumer debt. In other words the government is spending money it doesn’t have in order to encourage people to spend money they don’t have. Does that sound like a downward spiral to fiscal hell to anybody else?

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin eventually weighed in on this…

Massive Bailout Madness!!!

In case you missed the first go round we now have the pleasure of a take two which shall be appropriately named:

Massive Bailout Madness!!!

Who are the stars of this sequel you ask? Well I’ll tell you…

First off, like any quality sequel, there is always one returning star. For this production that returning star happens to be AIG. The insurance giant wants billions more on top of the billions they received in Bailout Madness take one.

But, like any sequel worth destroying a country over, this sequel includes a few big name newcomers.

There is American Express who must have figured, “Hey, we suck at running our business too… why not?”

And the last star for this sequel, though you can be sure this certainly isn’t the last sequel (I’m thinking this could be a 5 part series), happens to be the big three automakers. Yes, that’s right, in a not so shocking move Ford, GM, and Chrysler have asked for and received a 25 billion dollar bailout… opps make that two 25 billion dollar bailouts.

Unfortunately the predictability and complete lack of direction combined with an overused and ultimately unsuccessful plot line (you know how it goes, Business meets bad management. Bad management drowns business. Government buys badly managed business. Government provides even worse management, as always. Economy explodes) makes Massive Bailout Madness absolutely unbearable. I am forced to declare it a turkey (and I mean on a Gigli level).

I much prefer the classic and intelligent; Business makes bad choices. Business doesn’t get free money. Business faces consequences of its actions. Business learns lesson and adapts or closes.

But, in an upside for those who prefer the story behind Massive Bailout Madness, I hear it is an extremely popular plot line overseas…

UPDATE: Rumor… Newspapers will be big new star for then third instalment of this worn out series?

Congress finally gets oil drilling right, by doing nothing.

It took forever but Congress has finally caved and will not stop new drilling for off-shore oil.

Good news I’d say.

But, of course, as anybody who knows anything about government can tell you, there is still a mile of red tape to get through before anybody can actually go and actually drill for oil offshore. The biggest problem is in getting congress to pass a revenue sharing bill which cuts the states in on the money that drilling will enevitably bring in. Until then its doubtfull that the states will allow any drilling…

But I’m hopeful.

After all this is a winning issue for the Republicans and a loser for the Dems so the Republicans will push this as hard as they can until its settled and the Dems, as evidenced by the surrender on the drilling ban, simply can’t afford to fight back too hard.

So, as I said before, good news.

P.s. I can’t wait to see what this does to oil prices