Economic Recovery? Shoppers Say It’s A Bunch Of Store-Brand Baloney

Remember how Obama and Democrats and their Joseph Goebbels propagandists in the mainstream media kept reporting that the stimulus had created jobs, but the American people kept saying, “Baloney!”?

And this particularly baloney is a store brand purchased with a coupon.

From me on February 17th:

According to a New York Times/CBS poll, a whopping 94% of the American people agree with Bayh. Only 6% of Americans believe Obama’s massive porkulus has created jobs a full year after going into effect.

Only SIX PERCENT of Americans believe that Obama’s porkulus has created any jobs at all.  That means more Americans believe that space aliens have anally probed them than believe in the stimulus.  It also means that 94% think Obama and his entire administration and the entire Democrat congressional leadership are completely full of crap.

And 48% of Americans polled don’t think porkulus will EVER create jobs.

All that nothingness for the low, low price tag of only $862 billion.

Basically, we’ve got the same thing going on with the economy.  Obama, the Democrat Party, and the mainstream media are increasingly being ignored as they keep assuring us that the economy is moving along just swimmingly.  And that’s a good thing.

Economic Recovery? New Study Underscores Shoppers’ Concerns and Store Brands’ Continuing Appeal

NEW YORK, March 31 /PRNewswire/ — By a very sizeable margin, American consumers appear to be at odds with recent reports that the economy has improved.  A new nationwide study reveals that more than eight out of ten supermarket shoppers see no improvement in the economy, and forty percent actually believe things have gotten worse.  As consumers continue to cope, the study affirms, the appeal of store brand products is stronger than ever and may even be intensifying.

The findings are based on a poll of nearly 800 main household grocery shoppers conducted in February 2010 by GfK Custom Research North America for the Private Label Manufacturers Association, New York. The full report, entitled “Recession, Recovery and Store Brands” is available for download at www.cli.gs/PLMAGfKRpt.

Among the GfK study highlights:

• For most American shoppers, the recovery has yet to begin. Asked whether the economy has changed over the past few months, 40% said conditions were worse, while another 42% said things have stayed the same. Fewer than one in five felt the economy had improved.
• As a result, the recent surge in store brands sales is likely to continue. When asked how important economic conditions were in deciding to buy a supermarket store brand, four in ten responded “very important.” A solid majority of consumers — more than six in ten — said they plan on buying more private label as they attempt to stretch their food dollars. Another finding that may also accrue to store brands’ benefit: Half of shoppers intend to spend less money on groceries in the months ahead.
• Consumer awareness of store brands is also rising. More than half of respondents said they are more aware of store brand products now than they were a year ago.
• Moreover, shoppers who identify themselves as “frequent” buyers of store brands are at an all-time high. Some 57% say they buy private label products frequently, a figure that has been increasing (it was under 55% a year ago).
• A greater number of shoppers are switching to store brands in product categories where they had previously only purchased a national brand. Some 43% report they have recently forsaken a familiar national brand for a private label counterpart, a marked increase since June 2009 when only 35 % said they had done so.
• Virtually all of the shoppers who switched are pleased with their decision. Ninety-seven percent compared store brands favorably to their previous national brand choices in the same categories. About half said that their store brand selections compare “very favorably,” a dramatic increase from the June 2009 study when only one quarter reported that.

Study participants endorsed a variety of strategies to cope with what they see as a persistently difficult economy.When asked how they think the economy will impact their supermarket shopping habits, more than two thirds said they will take advantage of discounts by buying larger sizes or quantities for items they regularly purchase; two thirds will look for more coupons and promotions on national brands.  About a third plan to change the stores or types of stores where they do their primary grocery shopping.

PLMA commissioned GfK to monitor consumer attitudes and behavior toward store brands in the U.S. as private label sales and market shares across all retail channels began to surge about two years ago. Sales of store brand products topped $86.4 across the major U.S. retail channels over the past year, according to the latest data compiled by The Nielsen Company for PLMA. In supermarkets alone, where market share in units reached an historic high of 23.7%, store brands growth outpaced national brands by a spread of 8 basis points and dollar market share also set a new record at 18%. Store brands accounted for 90% of the sales growth in supermarkets, adding $1.5 billion in incremental sales (+2.9%), while national brand sales were virtually flat for the year at +0.1%.

The February 2010 survey updates findings from two earlier PLMA studies on “Store Brands and the Recession,” published in February 2009 and in June 2009. GfK Custom Research North America is part of the GfK Group, the world’s fourth largest market research company.

The elitist mainline liberal talking heads are going to keep talking because they couldn’t shut up if they tried.

Meanwhile, the American people are here:

The poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent), and independents (80 percent).

“Change” is “fundamentally transforming” America into socialism, and “hope” is praying that we don’t get to find out what the Great Depression looks like firsthand.

Thanks, Obama!!!

Hypocrite Sarah Palin-Denouncing Democrats Used ‘Targets’ On Their Maps

This is just too classic an example of the most blatant kind of Democrat hypocrisy and mainstream media propaganda.

From Vocal Minority:

Liberal Hypocrisy: Guess Who Used “Target” Imagery on Their Maps?

In addition slandering the Tea Party on a daily basis, the Democrat-media complex has had another target in their sights: Sarah Palin.

About a week ago, the leftocracy, was all atwitter due to Sarah Palin having this map on her Facebook page:

The icons placed on strategic Congressional districts throughout the U.S. were interpreted as cross hairs or gun sights. Devonia Smith at the Examiner says they’re neither; they’re surveyor’s symbols:

So what exactly sent libs into a tizzy? Well, take out your fully functioning brain for a minute, and replace it with a liberal brain. Now do the calculation:Cross hairs = Guns = Violence
= Sarah Palin is threatening violence against Democrats!

Google “Sarah Palin” and “cross hairs” and you will see libs from politicians to the network shows to the mainstream editorial pages castigate Sarah Palin’s “despicable” ad. I even got into an argument with more than one liberal Facebook friend over the inoffensive (to most sentient human beings) ad. One of them even insisted Palin should be arrested. Amused, I responded: Arrested for what? Because of liberal politicians you support, we can’t even profile at the airport or engage in “warrantless wiretapping” or engage in any other preventative measure to capture radical Islamic terrorists. We need to wait until they’ve actually blown up an airplane or building before we do anything. But this liberal Palin-hater wants her immediately arrested for allegedly “inciting violence” by using crosshairs on strategic Congressional districts on a U.S. map. (Again, the liberal brain.)

The targets, obviously (to most sentient human beings), were symbolic. Hell, I’ve put politicians’ faces inside gun sights on my own blog as symbolic political targets. (Alas, neither Paul Krugman, Howard Kurtz, Anthony Weiner, nor Chris Matthews have discovered my blog!)

When Palin’s ad came out, the leftocracy went on and on about how she “crossed the line!” By the way, isn’t it funny how the right is always “crossing the line”? But for some reason calling Bush a Nazi and a war criminal; denouncing our troops as stupid, uneducated, hick dupes and cold-blooded murderers; calling the Iraq War “lost” while our troops were in harm’s way; publishing a full-page NYT ad reading “General Betray-Us;” the NYT adorning its front pages with classified information that hampered our war effort; and giving an endless forum for anti-American opportunists like Cindy Sheehan were never considered “crossing the line”? ‘M just sayin’.

Anyway, the British-health-(s)care-loving Paul Krugman wrote:

All of this goes far beyond politics as usual … you’ll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials … to find anything like what we’re seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president.

John at Verum Serum gladly accepted that challenge:

Really, Paul? I’ll search in vain?

The map appears on this page of the Democratic Leadership Committee website (dated 2004 during the Bush years). I guess we could argue over whether the DLC counts as “senior party officials” but they’re certainly as much a part of the party as Palin who, after all, currently holds no elected office. …

But wait, there’s more!

When Palin’s map became an issue, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), rushed on MSNBC to denounce it, telling Chris Matthews:

I really think that that is crossing a line…In this particular environment I think it’s really dangerous to try and make your point in that particular way because there are people who are taking that kind of thing seriously.

Really, Chris? So what do you think about this map?

Each one of those red targets represents a “Targeted Republican.”You’ll never guess where I found this map. That’s right, it’s on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) website. They launched the site and the map on February 23rd of this year, making it just over a month old. And yet Van Hollen was quoted by Politico just today denouncing Republicans for “pouring more and more gasoline on the flames.” Right back at you, pal. …

You have to be kidding me! The leader of the DCCC is condemning Sarah Palin for “crossing the line” with this supposed violent imagery when his own committee did the same thing only a month ago!?The knee-jerk “OMG, Sarah Palin scares me!” mentality of the leftocracy is so old and tired. But with regard to this latest outrage there’s only one way to describe them:

Hypocrites.

Democrats and liberal journalists are as dishonest as the sun is hot.

Liberals also fainted in panic over the “hate” Sarah Palin expressed when she said “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!”

And we all know how Democrats denounced Obama for his “FIRED UP, READY TO GO!!!” remarks, as we all recognized he was very clearly inciting his followers to violent acts of arson.

Oh, wait.  I’m sorry.  That was me assuming that Democrats and the mainstream media had enough brains or enough fairness to treat both sides the same way.  When they don’t have any of either.

Update, January 9, 2011: Given that this article is receiving more attention due to the shooting of  Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (among 18 other victims), I ought to throw a bone to a more current article on that subject: “Gabrielle Giffords Shooting: Don’t Blame Sarah Palin, Blame Jerod Loughner (Who If Anything Is A Leftist)”

For those who continue to want to blame Sarah Palin for using surveyor symbols to identify vulnerable Democrat-held districts, or for her “rhetoric,” I leave you with this:

The website Daily Kos has also deleted a diary about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords entitled “My Congresswoman Voted Against Pelosi, Now She’s Dead To Me,” but so far has not deleted a post by founder Markos Moulitsas that lists Giffords’ district among those on their “target list,” and noted that “Not all of these people will get or even deserve primaries, but this vote certainly puts a bulls eye on their district.” (emphasis ours).

Given the clear and abundant record of Democrats and liberals doing not merely the same as Sarah Palin, but in fact worse, what is your beef with Sarah, again???

Obama Allows Muslims To Opt Out Of ObamaCare; Christians Still Screwed

Interesting factoids on the Hussein-in-Chief’s ObamaCare opt-outs:

If you are Muslim you can opt out of the Obamacare health care reform laws with no penalties
March 26, 2010
Phoenix Small Business Management Examiner
by Gil Guigna

Isn’t this nice. If you are of the Muslim religion, you don’t have to give all the new Obamacare healthcare reform regulations and penalties another thought. Because the concept of being compelled to participate in such a healthcare program offends Islamic sensibilities, Muslims are specifically exempt.

As a matter of fact if you are Amish, American Indian or a Chistian Scientist you do not need to participate or pay the taxes associated with healthcare reform. That means not having to be forced to buy healthcare insurance, not paying the taxes or the penalties if you don’t get it. Nice!

Here is what the regulations say:

EXEMPTIONS FROM INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.

—In the case of an individual who is seeking an exemption certificate under section 1311(d)(4)(H) from any requirement or penalty imposed by section 5000A, the following information:

In the case of an individual seeking exemption based on the individual’s status as a
member of an exempt religious sect or division, as a member of a health care sharing ministry, as an Indian,
or as an individual eligible for a hardship exemption, such information as the Secretary shall prescribe.”

Senate Bill, H.R. 3590, pages 273-274

There are several reasons why an individual could claim exemption, being a member of a religion that does not believe in insurance is one of them. Islam is one of those religions. Muslims believe that health insurance is “haraam”, or forbidden; because they liken the ambiguity and probability of insurance to gambling. This belief excludes them from any of the requirements, mandates, or penalties set forth in the bill. More…

This means that if you are Christian and abortion is against your religion tough luck.

If you are Jewish tough luck as well.

We wonder why these certain groups get a free ride. We also wonder why the largest religious block in North and South America the Christians are discriminated against like this. Very odd indeed.

There is a lot of food for thought here and a lot of ways to object to this healthcare bill isn’t there.

So I could get out of this terrible ObamaCare boondoggle if I declared myself a Muslim?  Doesn’t that just figure with this guy?

Well, that’s not going to happen.  But I’m not sure not going to willingly accept Obama’s version of the Mark of the Beast, either.

Wonder how many more “Muslims” there will be as this asinine program starts to implode?

Maybe I’ll declare myself as Amish.  That doesn’t sound so bad.

Obama’s Casual Contempt For America Caught On Film

United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 — The Flag; §8. Respect for flag:
“The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.”

Those are just words, of course.  But those words have meant a great deal to patriots throughout American history.

One writer recounts his memories of an ancestor at the Battles of Chattanooga and Chicamauga while growing up:

I had heard the story often growing up. Men took the flag much more seriously during the Civil War era. To see one’s flag fall in battle was a demoralizing event, and therefore an act much desired by the opposing side. This resulted in many a Flag Bearer feeling as if he had a huge target painted on his chest. It was a dangerous occupation.

“He was in the war at Chattanooga, Chickamauga,” related my mother, “ … his flag bearer was running in front of him, and he got shot and he went down and the flag was falling … and in those days you would never let your flag touch the ground … and he grabbed the flag, pulled it off the [pole], and he shoved it in his tunic.” Charles then promptly got shot himself, and bayoneted, with the blades and musket balls ripping though the flag as well as the flesh.

This Civil War site records the words of William H. Carney, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the 54th Massachusetts Regiment’s legendary assault on Fort Wagner:

He was struck with one shot, but not being felled he continued, and then was struck with a second shot. On his struggle to cross the beach to the rear he met a member of the 100th New York Regiment who started to assist him, when Carney was struck with another shot in the head. The other soldier asked Carney to let him carrier the colors so he could more easily walk, but Carney refused, saying that no one other than a member of the 54th Massachusetts should carry the colors.

Finally, after an unlikely arrival alive at the rear guard hospital area, he saw his wounded and dying comrades who saw him carrying their colors and cheered him. He was able to tell them “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.”

Now let me show you the casual contempt displayed toward the American flag by a man who is masquerading as the President of the United States of America:

.

.

I would love to be there to see William Carney greet Barack Obama with a hard punch in the mouth for his indifferent disgrace to the American flag.

And I can imagine that Carney would have administered a second, even harder shot in the mouth to Obama after finding out that Obama was the first African-American president.

One day we will look back at Barack Obama and call him a national disgrace.

Redistributing Wealth: Why Not Just Be Consistent And ‘Redistribute’ Beauty And Justice, Too?

Max Baucus gave us yet another remark from a Democrat acknowledging the REAL purpose of ObamaCare:

“Too often, much of late, the last couple three years the maldistribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that maldistribution of income in America.”

Well, that and “to control the people.”  And to inevitably lead us into a fully socialist single payer system, or course.

Here’s Baucus on Youtube explaining the need to use Obamacare to redistribute wealth:

We can go back to Obama himself, of course, and hear him talking about “spreading the wealth” to Joe the Plumber.

Redistribution of wealth wants to “spread out” equality, such that we’re all  level.

But we’re NOT all level.  Some people are smarter than other people.  Some people are bigger and stronger and faster than others.  Some people are more creative than others.  Some people have a higher work ethic or ethics in general ethic than others.  Some people work harder than others.  And darn it, some people are just better looking than others.

And since we’re not all level, we see wildly disparate economic results.  When liberals try to “level the playing field” and “spread the wealth around” and “address the maldistribution of wealth,” what they are doing is not merely ignoring fundamental economic realities, but fundamental human realities.

If they’re going to “level the playing field,” they should be consistent, and apply their philosophy across the board.

Even when you get aside from the blameworthiness of the poor (i.e., never bothering to get off one’s butt to look for a job; or never working hard enough or showing responsibility enough to advance to the next level), you’ve still got some issues with wealth redistribution.  For instance, is it “fair” that some people are far more physically attractive than others?  Those pretty people get all the opportunities; whereas, non-pretty people, through no fault of their own, must struggle.  We should redistribute beauty!!!  We should be carving up the pretty people and giving some of their beautiful features to the non-pretty people!!!

I mean, why feel sorry for somebody who never bothered to apply himself or herself?  Who never bothered to work hard, or pursue training/schooling, or made smart choices?  It would seem that that short, fat, butt-ugly guy with the unfortunate flatulence should be the one who merits our sympathy, if anyone does.

Here’s another nice take on the idea of redistributing beauty (I wanted to see if redistributing beauty was my brainchild, and darn it, but it wasn’t!).

That’s the SAME idiotic reasoning that is used to justify wealth redistribution.

We could also move to re-distributing justice.

Let’s take it on the liberal’s argument.  It’s not that black inner-city gang banging kid’s fault that he’s a violent criminal; it’s society’s fault.  That poor kid is a victim.  That poor kid didn’t get the economic opportunities that others did.  He didn’t have a safe home environment.  He didn’t have good public schools.  He was surrounded by poverty and the grinding consequences of poverty, and he was literally conditioned into his life of crime.  So let’s take the punishment that falls on that kid for his crime and redistribute it, spread it out, and make it “fair.”  It seems to me that if that inner city gang-banger murders some innocent kid in a drive-by shooting, Al Gore should go to jail.  Maybe Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi, and we can “spread the justice” between the two of them.

I mean, that poor guy doesn’t have any freedom (metaphor for wealth).  He’s facing life.  And there are all sorts of people outside the penitentiary who have all sorts of freedom.  So we can help that guy out by grabbing you and taxing some of your freedom so we can redistribute it to the convict.

If that welfare queen shouldn’t be held responsible for her “inability” to get off her butt and work, why should the gang-banger be held responsible for his “inability” to live an ethical life?

You know what the liberal will say: “Well, that welfare queen isn’t hurting anybody.”

But she damn sure is: she’s hurting me.  She’s hurting my kids.  Because some jerk keeps seizing my wealth and the wealth I want to leave for my children and giving it to that welfare queen.  She sure IS hurting other people with her laziness and indolence.  And in point of fact the only way she’s NOT going to hurt other people is if liberals stop taking other peoples’ money and redistributing it to her.

Burton Folsom, Jr. points out how this mindset was anathema to America until FDR came along:

Throughout American history, right from the start, charity had been a state and local function.  Civic leaders, local clergy, and private citizens, evaluated the legitimacy of people’s need in their communities or counties; churches and other organizations could then provide food, shelter, and clothing to help victims of fires or women abandoned by drunken husbands.  Most Americans beleived that the face-to-face encounters of givers and receivers of charity benefited both groups.  It created just the right amount of uplift and relief, and discouraged laziness and a poor work ethic.

The Founders saw all relief as local and voluntary, and the Constitution gave no federal role for the government in providing charity.  James Madison, in defending the Constitution, observed, “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.”  In other words, if relief, and other areas, were made functions of the federal government, the process would become politicized and politicians and deadbeats could conspire to trade votes for food” (New Deal or Raw Deal, page 76-77).

The way it used to be is the way it ought to be again.

Folsom goes on to document how A) administrations and courts had throughout history repeatedly ruled “welfare” programs unconstitutional until the New Deal and B) how they did in fact become a political boondoggle during the New Deal.  And that has been the growing trend ever since.

Benjamin Franklin put it this way: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Samuel Adams said:

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Franklin also said:

“Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. … Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.”

These three statements, when combined together, mean: 1) Those who don’t pay their own way are a disgrace to themselves and a disgrace to their countrymen; 2) If you ARE forced to pay your own way in life, you will ultimately be the better for it, both in your provision and in your character; and 3) If we continue on the social welfare spending track we’re on, we will destroy our nation.

Liberals yearn to be more like Europe, just as they always have.  Thomas Jefferson said, “With all the defects in our Constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our government with those of Europe, is like a comparison of Heaven with Hell.”  And that is every bit as true today as it was when Jefferson said it.

FDR waged a war on poverty that has been going on for 77 years.  Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty anew in 1964.  And poverty has been kicking our asses ever since.  We’re no better off than we were before; in fact, we’re worse off.

What has the war on poverty got us?  As much poverty as ever, and a debt of ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE TRILLION DOLLARS (just add our total US debt with our debt in unfunded liabilities).

There’s that Dr. Phil question: “How’s federal government war on poverty working for you?

Frankly, if we had been “redistributing” pieces out of Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s faces to give to the less beautiful, or if we’d been “redistributing” justice by taking freedom from Al Gore or Hillary Clinton to give more freedom to convicts, it would have been morally idiotic.  Still, if we’d done those things instead of redistributing wealth, it would have saved us a few million tons of money.

ObamaCare Prescription For Health System Has Many Deadly Side Effects

I’m sure you’ve seen those TV ads for prescription drugs that are offered to treat a relatively minor problem, but then come with a long list of nasty side effects that make one wonder why anybody would take that drug.  The prescription seems far worse than the disease.

To put it in a nutshell, ObamaCare is rather like Saturday Night Live’s “Happy Fun Ball.”  It isn’t FUN like Happy Fun Ball, of course, but it does have that same list of toxic and deadly side effects that  just goes on and on.

A dramatic re-enactment of the SNL Happy Fun Ball commercial:

Happy Fun Ball, fun as it was, had just a few side effects:

Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Ball.

Caution: Happy Fun Ball may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.

Happy Fun Ball Contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.

Do not use Happy Fun Ball on concrete.

Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:
Itching
Vertigo
Dizziness
Tingling in extremities
Loss of balance or coordination
Slurred speech
Temporary blindness
Profuse sweating
Heart palpitations

If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.

Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.

When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration…

Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Fun Ball, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability.

Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.

Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Happy Fun Ball comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Happy Fun Ball

ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!

We have to worry about ObamaCare exploding, too, and taking our entire economy and society out with it.  ObamaCare will definitely accelerate to dangerous costs.  And we all KNOW it’s dangerous to taunt ObamaCare.

Heritage figured out that ObamaCare needed it’s own Happy Fun Ball sendoff-style commercial:

Here’s some of the ObamaBall side effects:

• Job loss
• Higher premiums
• Higher costs
• Higher taxes
• Medicare cuts
• Medicaid expansion
• Losing the plan you like
• Special backroom deals
• Small business penalties
• Denial of pre-existing conditions (until 2014, even for kids)
• Future government rationing
• Investment penalties
• Loss of state authority
• Higher deficits
• Higher debt
• Individual mandates with penalties

Kind of puts the side effects of Happy Fun Ball to shame, if you ask me.

Heritage has quite a bit more on the side effects of ObamaCare.

I’m sure you can’t wait to “bounce” through the 159 new federal agencies ObamaBall creates, or to ping-and-pong off the 16,500 new IRS agents ObamaBall will send reigning down on you.

That’s the kind of “fun” that ObamaBall promises.

Left Continues To Be Source Of ACTUAL Acts of Violence

I’ve heard all kinds of crap about right wing violence over health care.  I haven’t SEEN any violence; I haven’t seen or heard a shred of evidence caught on tape; but I’ve certainly heard bogus charges.

House Democrat Black Caucus members deliberately went through the crowd of Tea Party protesters hoping to create an incident – and video recorded their passage just in case their deliberate provocation incited something.  They certainly didn’t have to walk through that crowd.  You know who else did that?  Nazis, hoping to create an incident when they went through Skokie, Illinois, home of many Jewish death camp survivors.  Which is to say, the Black Caucus literally used a vile Nazi tactic.

There’s no evidence of it, no tape, no video, no cell phone footage, but when the Tea Party people didn’t give them what they wanted, Black Caucus members invented it for them: they screamed that someone in a crowd of tens of thousands of people used the N-word.

Rep. John Lewis is one of the main figures saying he heard the N-word.  Should anybody believe him?  He’s a documented race-baiter.  He accused John McCain of being tantamount to segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace.  If John Lewis wants to encounter a racist, he need only look in the mirror.

One thing: Wallace was a racist, all right.  He was also a DEMOCRAT.  It would have been nice if Lewis had actually been able to find a right wing racist if he wanted to demonize the right wing as racist.

The left has tried to falsely demonize the right as racist before.  At a Sarah Palin rally during the 2008 presidential campaign, a reporter claimed he heard someone shout “Kill him!” regarding Barack Obama.  The Secret Service – which takes such threats seriously – thoroughly investigated the  case and specifically concluded that no such threat had been made.

Glenn Beck had the following to say about where the REAL violence has come from from the very outset:

The media, they’ll spin it.  CNN was doing more today on the violence of the right. Why would they do that? A, to set you up; B, to stop you from talking about health care and what are you going to do to stop it. They are setting the trap to make anybody who is against this bill an enemy of the State, a traitor, a terrorist, a violent killer.

Let me ask you this: The tea parties have been peaceful and, yet, they’re dangerous killers. Peaceful but, yet, dangerous. Let’s look at the bricks through the window. When there’s been actual violence, the democratic headquarters, this is the first brick that went through the window.  In Denver, there was a brick that went through the window. Who did it?  It was a lefty, democratic operative that threw a brick through the democratic window. It was a lefty that did it! Where was the press on the liberal who bit off a man’s finger in a health care argument? Bit his finger off. That wasn’t somebody on the right. That was somebody on the left. How about the media on all of the damage done by the G 20 protesters? That wasn’t a protest from the right. That was a protest from the left. How about the stories of the radio tower that was torn down, blown up, in Seattle? That was done by the left. How about the Hummers, because they get bad gas mileage? That’s from the left. How about Amy Bishop, who shot coworkers? She was from the left, an Obama fan. How about the SEIU thugs that beat down opponents at health care rallies? Intimidation? You want intimidation? How about that? How about the SEIU members that the media decided not to cover and you have it on tape as they are beating down a black man, calling him the N word?! How about Ann Coulter?

Note: I supplied the links.

There’s more violence by the left.  Here’s footage of a Tea Party bus getting egged by Harry Reid supporters.  Andrew Breitbart got out to question the lefties.  One starts saying “Get him out of here, or I’m going to go to jail” (for the violent act he is going to commit on him):

Now we have a story about Norman Leboon, Sr., an Obama financial donor, being arrested for making death threats against Rep. Eric Cantor.  Should I mention that Cantor is Jewish?

Here’s video of Karl Rove shouted down and forced to leave a book signing event.  Hundreds of Rove fans came to have him sign their books and hear him speak; but a tiny group of protestors shouted him down and forced him to leave:

You could call this Stalinist, or Nazi, or fascist; they’d all be correct.  It is the LEFT that despises free speech, and it is the LEFT which routinely shouts down speech with which they disagree in clear demonstrations of hate and wild disregard for our democracy.

The mainstream national news media has been a collective of Joseph Goebbels wannabes, as is their usual custom.  They fell all over themselves to point out that conservatives had called Bart Stupak with hateful messages after he announced he was going to vote for ObamaCare.  What they DIDN’T bother to report was that Bart Stupak got hateful messages from liberals during the period when he said he would vote AGAINST ObamaCare.

The media intentionally provides the false narrative that violence is only coming from the right; if anything, it’s only coming from the left.  We’re not saying don’t cover the anger: what we’re saying is stop being partisan about it.  Cover BOTH sides.  Put the story into context.  Stop the propaganda.  Stop covering only one side of the anger through a narrow, partisan viewpoint intentionally manipulated to demonize the right.  If you’re going to cover Bart Stupak receiving hateful phone calls after saying he’d vote yes for ObamaCare, cover Bart Stupak receiving hateful phone calls throughout the period he said he’d vote NO for ObamaCare.

The anger, rage, and even acts of violence isn’t something that just happened yesterday.  It’s been going on for months.  And the documented incidents are coming from the left.

If you want to see real hatred, and real acts of violence, look at the left, because that’s where it is.

If you want to see the worst kind of demonization and demagoguery, also look to the left.

ObamaCare Destroying Demand For US Treasury Bills

Boy, this ObamaCare deal just keeps looking better and better.

First, we see US corporations and businesses forced to take writedowns to the tune of billions of dollars of profits that would otherwise have gone into getting the economy out of recession and creating jobs.  Why are they losing all this money?  Because they committed the unpardonable sin of trying to give their retirees excellent private health care.  The Democrats – whom we’ve been saying all along want to socialize the health care system – can’t be having that.  So they took away the tax incentives that made providing such benefits worth doing for the companies.

That’s bad.  That’s really bad.  And anyone who is actually paying attention should be coming unglued that our new law of the land health care system is not only going to destroy American jobs, but American employee-based health care, too, all in one fell swoop.

But as it so often has been with Obama, it actually gets even worse:

Sell-off in US Treasuries raises sovereign debt fears
Investors are braced for a further sell-off in US Treasuries after dramatic moves last week raised fears that the surfeit of US government debt is starting to saturate bond markets.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 9:06PM BST 28 Mar 2010

The yield on 10-year Treasuries – the benchmark price of global capital – surged 30 basis points in just two days last week to over 3.9pc, the highest level since the Lehman crisis. Alan Greenspan, ex-head of the US Federal Reserve, said the abrupt move may be “the canary in the coal mine”, a warning to Washington that it can no longer borrow with impunity. He said there is a “huge overhang of federal debt, which we have never seen before”.

David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff said Treasury yields have ratcheted up 90 basis points since December in a “destabilising fashion”, for the wrong reasons. Growth has not been strong enough to revive fears of inflation. Commodity prices peaked in January and US home sales have fallen for the last three months, pointing to a double-dip in the housing market.

Mr Rosenberg said the yield spike recalls the move in the spring of 2007 just as the credit system started to unravel. “The question is how the equity market is going to handle this back-up in rates,” he said.

The trigger for last week’s sell-off was poor demand at Treasury auctions, linked to the passage of the Obama health care reform. Critics say it will add $1 trillion (£670bn) to America’s debt over the next decade, a claim disputed fiercely by Democrats.

It is unclear whether China is selling US Treasuries after cutting its holdings for three months in a row, or what its motive may be. There are concerns that Beijing may be sending a coded message before the US Treasury rules next month on whether China is a “currency manipulator”, though experts say China is clearly still buying dollar assets because it is holding down the yuan against the greenback. Some investors may be selling Treasuries as a precaution against a trade spat.

Looming over everything is the worry that markets will not be able to absorb the glut of US debt as the Fed winds down its policy of bond purchases, starting with an exit from mortgage-backed securities. It currently holds a quarter of the $5 trillion of the MBS market.

The rise in US bond yields has set off mayhem in the 10-year US swaps markets. Spreads turned negative last week, touching the lowest level in 20 years. The effect was to drive credit costs for high-grade companies such as Berkshire Hathaway below that of the US government. This may have been a technical aberration.

Democrats can say whatever the hell they want, but people who AREN’T arrogant, incompetent, ignorant fools understand that ObamaCare is going to be to the US deficit what the HMS Titanic was to the cruise liner industry.

Let’s sum up the above article in bullet points.  Stop me when I get to something that sounds like it ISN’T a complete unmitigated disaster in the making:

• Investors are braced for a further sell-off in US Treasuries after dramatic moves last week raised fears that the surfeit of US government debt is starting to saturate bond markets
• The yield on 10-year Treasuries – the benchmark price of global capital – surged 30 basis points in just two days last week to over 3.9pc, the highest level since the Lehman crisis
• Alan Greenspan, ex-head of the US Federal Reserve, said the abrupt move may be “the canary in the coal mine”
• there is a “huge overhang of federal debt, which we have never seen before”
• Treasury yields have ratcheted up 90 basis points since December in a “destabilising fashion”, for the wrong reasons
• the yield spike recalls the move in the spring of 2007 just as the credit system started to unravel
• The trigger for last week’s sell-off was poor demand at Treasury auctions, linked to the passage of the Obama health care reform
• Looming over everything is the worry that markets will not be able to absorb the glut of US debt
• The rise in US bond yields has set off mayhem in the 10-year US swaps markets
• Spreads turned negative last week, touching the lowest level in 20 years

I tried to explain this growing economic crisis facing the US last month in an article entitled, “Greek Crisis Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon“:

We’re borrowing huge sums of money at a current rate of about 3% interest.  But as the lenders start getting nervous, they’re going to want to increase that interest.  We are in plenty of trouble paying these trillions of dollars back at 3% – but what happens if the interest increases to 5% or 7% as it could very quickly do?  The costs of paying these loans would rise to catastrophic levels, and we could find ourselves literally bankrupt overnight.

And we’ve just jumped from 3 to 4 percent in a great big hurry.

Like I’ve been saying: ObamaCare will ultimately be the anvil that breaks the camels back.

Democrats are telling you this is all just so good.  It’s good that the Democrats created the most gigantic and sweeping legislation in 60 years on a hard-core partisan vote.  It’s good that said bill was shenaniganized to create the illusion that it was “deficit neutral” while in reality it will cost over $6 trillion dollars.  It’s good that companies are going to lose billions of job-creating dollars as Democrats robbed every money-bag they could to fund their next boondoggle.  It’s good that Obama is sending our deficit into the stratosphere while setting up a banana republic-style debt-to-GDP ratio.  And, of course, it’s good that we’re seeing the value of our national holdings rapidly dissolving away.

You’re not that stupid, are you?

I mean, I have to ask: after all, you DID vote stupid when you elected Obama and loaded Congress with Democrats.

ObamaCare Already Rearing Its VERY Ugly Head

You’ve got to be amazed at the Democrats’ arrogance, incompetence, and ignorance.

They are apparently having their version of Casablanca’s Captain Renault moment: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

Only, in this Democrat-retelling, Captain Renault instead says, “Gambling?  There’s no gambling going on here!  It’s just gaming, not GAMBLING!  Why, it’s nothing more than two parties engaging in a predictive enterprise, in which the accurate prediction is rewarded in a monetary transaction.  But gambling?  You’re a violent racist to call that ‘gambling’!!!

Oh, my goodness.  I think you just spat on me!  It’s just the kind of thing you haters who attack us as “gamblers” would do!”

MARCH 27, 2010
The ObamaCare Writedowns
The corporate damage rolls in, and Democrats are shocked!

It’s been a banner week for Democrats: ObamaCare passed Congress in its final form on Thursday night, and the returns are already rolling in. Yesterday AT&T announced that it will be forced to make a $1 billion writedown due solely to the health bill, in what has become a wave of such corporate losses.

This wholesale destruction of wealth and capital came with more than ample warning. Turning over every couch cushion to make their new entitlement look affordable under Beltway accounting rules, Democrats decided to raise taxes on companies that do the public service of offering prescription drug benefits to their retirees instead of dumping them into Medicare. We and others warned this would lead to AT&T-like results, but like so many other ObamaCare objections Democrats waved them off as self-serving or “political.”

Perhaps that explains why the Administration is now so touchy. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, “In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them.” In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said “for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

In other words, shoot the messenger. Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don’t like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet.

On top of AT&T’s $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks.

As Joe Biden might put it, this is a big, er, deal for shareholders and the economy. The consulting firm Towers Watson estimates that the total hit this year will reach nearly $14 billion, unless corporations cut retiree drug benefits when their labor contracts let them.

Meanwhile, John DiStaso of the New Hampshire Union Leader reported this week that ObamaCare could cost the Granite State’s major ski resorts as much as $1 million in fines, because they hire large numbers of seasonal workers without offering health benefits. “The choices are pretty clear, either increase prices or cut costs, which could mean hiring fewer workers next winter,” he wrote.

The Democratic political calculation with ObamaCare is the proverbial boiling frog: Gradually introduce a health-care entitlement by hiding the true costs, hook the middle class on new subsidies until they become unrepealable, but try to delay the adverse consequences and major new tax hikes so voters don’t make the connection between their policy and the economic wreckage. But their bill was such a shoddy, jerry-rigged piece of work that the damage is coming sooner than even some critics expected.

The Democrats passed their totally partisan bill (the only bipartisanship was in the “Hell no!” vote, with 34 Democrats joining every single Republican).

The New York Times reported that Obama’s core promise was his pledge that he would transcend the starkly red-and-blue politics of the last 15 years, end the partisan and ideological wars, move beyond the divisive politics of Washington, and build a new governing majority that brought Democrats, independents and Republicans together.  And now we know that his fundamental, core promise was just a total lie, a massive lie of the devil.  Not only did he not try to become a unifying figure, as he cynically and deceitfully promised, but he became the most polarizing president in the history of the nation.  And that broken promise is now erupting into open rage like we have never seen in this country.

Obama is trying to demonize Republicans for the anger, but HE WAS THE ONE WHO PROMISED TO BE A TRANSCENDENT FIGURE.  HE WAS THE ONE WHO LIED.

Democrats have obfuscated every fact with spin and lies, and every single truth teller they could not bribe or intimidate they have tried to destroy.

Democrats can pass a pile of stinking lies on a 100% partisan ideological vote, but what they can’t do is make that pile of stinking lies that comprise ObamaCare actually work.  The Democrats health care law is already an open disaster, and it will continue to grow into a bigger and bigger disaster no matter how many congressional kangaroo courts they hold to demonize businesses who reported that their costs will skyrocket under this evil bill.

Obama said if you liked your health care you could keep it.  ABC was reporting that that promise was questionable back in July of last year.  Now it is a proven lie.  It was just another whopping lie of the devil all along.  Businesses are taking hits in the millions and even in the billions of dollars.  And one of them after another is going to start dumping their retirees into Medicare as the cost of offering private insurance plans soar under ObamaCare.

Obama’s reckeless spending is simply staggering.  The CBO is reporting that it is a gigantic $1.2 TRILLION more than Obama said it would be.  And they are reporting the terrifying news that the federal debt will soar to 90% of Gross Domestic Product.

Business costs are soaring.  AT & T will take a billion dollar hit because of ObamaCare.

As bad as that is in dollars, the bigger hit may well be the one taken by Caterpillar, because it shows the abject hypocrisy and fraud of ObamaCare.  Last year Obama said that “you can measure America’s bottom line by looking at Caterpillar’s bottom line.” And now that same Caterpillar is taking a $100 million hit due to ObamaCare.  Now that same Caterpillar is saying, “From our point of view, a tax increase like this cannot come at a worse time.”

That means fewer jobs for Americans.  A LOT fewer jobs.  And no denials by our Democrat version of Captain Renault can change that with his sputtering denials.

And there are other hidden provisions that are starting to leap out of this bill that Democrats passed, but apparently never bothered to read.

Now we’re finding that Americans are going to take a hit as high as $2,000 under another dark tunnel provision in ObamaCare.

“The damage is coming sooner than expected.”

That’s the nutshell summary of ObamaCare.

Joker Dee And Joker Dumb Captured Together

A picture is worth a thousand words.  And here’s a picture of Joker Jr. posing with Joker Sr.

And they don’t need the descriptive label of “SOCIALISTS” under their faces any more.  I mean, EVERYONE knows they’re socialists, now.