The Violence Worker!

Waiting For The Outrage

Let's play a little "what if".  Normally I don't like that little game because it's really not much of an intellectual exercise.  The counter to the "What if" question that I like to use is a "what if" of my own.  "What if your Aunt was plumbed differently, she would then be your Uncle, right?"

So forgive me if I play this game in this little essay.  Sometimes it's a necessary little tool in order to point out the obvious to those who might otherwise not see it.  A little help for those type of people who can't see the forest because of all the trees hiding their view, if you will.  So play along as we play a quick game of "What If".

What if Solyndra was an oil company and what if it was a Republican President?  Do you see where I'm going with this game?  What if it was called "Oilyndra and a Republican President just blew a half billion bucks on them just before they filed for bankruptcy?  And not just thew the money at them like a monkey flinging poo at spectators, but what if they quickly restructured the "loan" so that the first ones to get paid back, if the company suddenly went belly up, would be the investors (who, by the way, just happened to be huge donors)?

Still playing?  Good, because I have one more little "What if" for you.

What if, after all of this was exposed, that same Republican President doubled down and authorized another billion in loans to some more companies that are probably not in the best of financial condition?  And what if one of those companies had the brother-in-law of a prominent Republican Congressman on their board? 

So "what if"?  More like "whatever" from the Democrats and their cheering section otherwise known as the media.

You know as well as I do that there would be an immediate run on hot tar and cold feathers down at the local Walmart, if this was a Republican administration.  The press and the Democrats would be screaming for heads and it would most likely sink any re-election hopes of the President.

We all know there is a double standard among the press and most Democrats.  Most of them are just wishing all of this would quietly go away so they can get on with the business of trying to re-elect the most unqualified person to occupy the White House in the last hundred years or so - if not the most unqualified ever!

"Solyndra? Gee...umm...hey look over there!  Bachmann made another gaffe!

We are waiting for the outrage.

VW

The Most Dishonest Congress Ever!

I have no other way to explain it.  There is a budget process that is law.  The Democrats ignored it and "deemed" a spending resolution "passed".  Honest people do not do that.  It's not a budget by any stretch of the imagination.  It's nothing more than a slimy attempt to cover up their spending and taxing before the November elections.

The enforcement resolution is being used instead of a full-fledged budget resolution because rank-and-file Democrats did not want to vote for a budget resolution that would show large deficits, particularly in an election year marked by worries about the nation’s fiscal solvency.

They are trying to hide behind the skirts of the White House Fiscal Commission.

The budget document, however, doesn’t say what policies Congress should enact to reach that out-year goal, something past budget resolutions have done. Instead, it relies on the White House fiscal commission, a bipartisan panel looking at tax, spending and entitlement policies, to come up with a plan to reach their target by 2015.

A Congress that, according to the Speaker of the House, is supposed to be the most honest and transparent Congress ever, is in a word, neither.  They lie, cheat and steal and the hell of it is, the media do nothing but look the other way.

Don't blame this idiocy on Bush.  The Democrats have been in charge of Congress two years before Bush left office.  GROW UP AND START TAKING RESPONSIBILITY!

Of course they won't.  Blaming Bush is all they have.  They have no answers, they have no leadership and most of all, damned few of them - if any - have the slightest sense of integrity.

VW

Up Next: Hyperinflation

For awhile now, I've been writing about our impending financial melt down.  There are now more and more people starting to sound the alarm, but I fear it may be too little too late.  Granted, it's not a sure thing, but if I was a betting man, I'd bet a couple hundred trillion Zimbabwe bucks on it.  There is time to reverse policy, tighten the money supply and live within our means, but the Democrats are in charge and they are dead set on spending as much as they want with no thought to the harm it will cause.

This from an Op-Ed in the San Fransisco Examiner:

Santayana’s maxim — those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — has grown threadbare from heavy use. But it unavoidably comes to mind this week, as President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill blithely put the final touches on the chief executive’s proposed 2010 federal budget.

With an unprecedented deficit that’s approaching $2 trillion, this budget proposal is a surefire prescription for hyperinflation. So every senator and representative who votes for this monster $3.6 trillion budget will be endorsing a spending spree that could very well turn America into the next Weimar Republic. For those too young to remember, that was the period in Germany in the years between the two world wars when people needed wheelbarrows full of money to buy a loaf of bread.

That's if you can find a loaf of bread on the shelves. 

The presses at the mint are working overtime.  The money supply is at it's largest ever and expanding.  Unless the fed pulls the brake and stops printing, the only result will be hyperinflation. 

I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but this just has to make you wonder what is going on.  Are the Democrats really that stupid?  Maybe they just don't care.  Maybe they want a collapse and the resultant chaos.  After all, that's right out of the Socialist's playbook.

Bailing out the bankers maybe just a ploy.  It looks like they are feigning to save something they intend to actually destroy when all is said and done.

I wish I could be more upbeat, but I do not see this economic train wreck ending well.

VW

Satire? Yeah right....

Thanks Instapunk.

THE AMERICANS WITH NO ABILITIES ACT

Washington, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans.

The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real ambition or skills...

'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said California Senator Barbara Boxer.

'We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.'

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the Transportation Security Administration, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. 

Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U. S. employer of Persons of Inability. Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%).

At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million 'middle man' positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees.

The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'

'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her inability to remember righty tighty, lefty loosey. 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Gertz added. 

With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): 'As a Senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen,   regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.'

Raising Gas Taxes

I don't know what qualifies a person to be a business reporter.  One would assume along with the ability to write, some kind of business background would be appropriate.  If I were to write a want ad for a business reporter for a major news media outlet such as Newsweek or the Washington Post, it would include a requirement to have a number of years of experience in meeting a payroll or managing something successfully other than a computer keyboard.

Allan Sloan is the business writer for the above mentioned media outlets. I checked his bio, and aside from the fact that he is a Journalist and he's concentrated his efforts on reporting on business, he's never had any real experience in running a business.  He's won a lot of awards, I guess, but all in all, the man has only looked at business from the outside looking in.  It's apparent in his latest idiotic idea.

But all the to-ing and fro-ing about how (or whether) to keep General Motors, Ford and Chrysler out of bankruptcy is ignoring the elephant in the room -- lower gasoline prices. As you almost certainly know, they've fallen about 50 percent from the record levels they reached in July, making them one of the few bright spots in our economic picture.

So let me fulfill my traditional role of skunk in the garden party and suggest that these lower gas prices aren't an unalloyed good thing. Let me also suggest that we jack them up, sharply, by adopting a big honking tax on gasoline.

Yes, you read that right, Mr. Sloan wants to raise gas taxes to rarefied levels. It gets worse.

Yes, a big gas tax would cause economic hardship, especially to people who are barely making ends meet. But we could refund the money to those needy people through the income tax. We could also refund the gas tax to those of us who aren't particularly needy or else use it for energy research-and-development or public works or -- dare I say it -- for deficit reduction.

This is called wealth redistribution.  The people getting the gas tax refund from income taxes probably already pay little or no income taxes.  What doesn't get given away through the income tax would be left for Congress to spend willy-nilly.

The flaw in this line of reasoning (if you can call this reason) is that doling the refund out in a lump sum to the poor will not help them buy gas.  Let's say they get an 520 dollars back.  They will not put that money in the bank and dole it out at ten dollars a week to help fill their tank.  Some, inevitably, will waste all or part of it on booze, drugs and cigarettes.  Most will use it up fairly quickly on things they need, maybe some luxury or maybe some minor emergency.  Granted it's money they wouldn't normally have, but why take it in the first place?  Making them pay up front, then hope to get some or all of it back in the spring makes no sense.  Taxing them now may mean the difference of putting gas in the car, buying food or medicine, or paying rent.  Waiting for a refund check 10 months later doesn't pay the bills today.

He then confuses government manipulation with letting market forces work.

The idea of this tax isn't to inflict pain or get people out of cars -- it's to make gasoline prices predictable so that automakers and consumers could make rational long-term decisions rather than being subject to the roller-coaster ride we've taken in the past year.

Having permanently high gas prices would let the market, rather than incomprehensible, loophole-ridden Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations, guide the decisions on what kinds of vehicles Americans get to drive.

The idea might not be to inflict pain, but pain will indeed be the result. 

Since Government will artificially inflate the cost, the market won't be guiding anything.  You can't have it both ways.  It might stabilize the price, but at what cost to the economy.  If people can't afford to buy things because the cost of fuel, the rest of the economy goes to hell.  I'm not sure why that is better.  Prices will rise commensurately across the board.  We will afford less, buy less, the economy consequently tanks.

It's not likely to keep gas prices low.  When the producers understand that we will be forced to buy less, they may just cut production, forcing the price higher and our prices will still go up.  The tax will remain constant, the commodity price won't.

Small businesses on the brink will be driven over and more forced to the brink and probably over it.

Sorry Mr. Sloan, but you wouldn't know a free market if it walked up and slapped you.

VW

Obama and The Redistribution Of Wealth

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Obama’s redistributionism

Plumber to Obama: “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more. Isn’t it?”

Obama: “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Simply put, this is Socialism.  Wealth redistribution schemes have never, ever worked.  It stifles economic growth and job creation.

Revenge!  Stick it to the man!  Class Warfare is patently un-American.  If you believe that taking money from those who work hard and earned their success and giving to those who haven't applied themselves an American value, I want to know what America you've been in.  Jealousy is not an American

I'm not talking about those who, through no fault of their own, have fallen into hard times or are in some way disabled.  We are prosperous enough to have a safety net and to help support those who are disabled in some way. 

Spreading the wealth around is not good for everybody.  Despite what Obama says, it's is punitive.  He is punishing the guy for being successful and he is going to spread it around to people who did not earn it.

Frankly put, I don't deserve a tax benefit because this guy is forced to pay higher taxes and neither do you! 

Taxing the rich has always been counter-productive.  Taking money from and punishing the people who provide jobs does not promote a healthy economy.  Ever get a good paying job from a poor man?

Prosperity is more than giveing me a few extra pennies after taking dollars from someone who is successful.

Welcome to the welfare state.

VW

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To Hell With California!

Governor Schwarzenegger is coming to you, in whatever state you live in, for a handout.  He calls it a loan, but I doubt they even have the ability to pay it back.

From the LAT:

SACRAMENTO -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, alarmed by the ongoing national financial crisis, warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.

The warning comes as California is close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans that it typically relies on to remain solvent.

California spends money like a drunken sailor.  The state is decidedly leftist in its outlook.  When the Democrats in the legislature and their Dear Leader, Grey Davis, spent every dime they could get their hands on and then some. When Californians realized they were in a crisis condition, they got rid of Davis.  Arnold turned out to be not much better at controlling the spending.

 They've done all they can to run industry out of the state.  The state's once huge aerospace industry is almost gone.  The C-17 is the last large airplane to be made there and that production will end in a few years and then it will be gone.  Abusive taxation and wanton spending is continuing to drive industry out of California.  This is anecdotal, but I personally know of one large trucking firm that left CA for Nevada because of taxes.  I can imagine they aren't the only ones.

And California isn't the only one. Here in WA, we are facing a 3.2 billion dollar shortfall and climbing.  The Democrats have spent us damn near into oblivion.  The Governor (Queen Christine GregFraudoire) has ads touting our $700 million "rainy day fund". 

Memo to the Queen:  That rainy day is now a Cat 5 Hurricane and building!

My point is this.  States like CA and WA are not fiscally responsible.  When times are good and the tax revenues roll in, they spend it faster than a jet engine sucks fuel.  When the good times end, they demand more in taxes to cover their excesses.  The problem is that they start to realize that they can only squeeze so much out of us.  Their initial threats is to cut public safety and schools.  They never even suggest cutting any of the social spending they've initiated and put in place. 

At some point, people need to understand that government money does not spring from some mysterious, bottomless well.  It comes from the rich and the poor and everyone in between.  You cannot tax anyone into prosperity, but you can sure as hell tax them into poverty. 

Before we lend California one dime, we should get some kind of guarantee that they will work toward fiscal responsibility.  I understand this loan is to cover them for the short term and they do it every year at this time.  On the other hand, they need to figure out how to do this without borrowing money every year.  Cut back, set aside enough to cover these things and don't spend more than you can afford.

Like that will ever happen. 

VW

In Ohio, The Fix Is In!

This from Ohio:

There is another one at Redstate below this that they have .  It's not a youTube so I can't embed it here, but you can see it here.

Then there is this:

Absentee ballots being thrown out.

The Secretary of State is a Democrat hell bent on disenfranchising Republicans and fixing the vote for Obama.

VW

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez Is What Is Wrong With This Country

Welcome 2--4 Net readers!  I hope you like what you see and come back again!

Complements of a 2--4 Net Reader, here is the cached page of her blog.

VW

UPDATE 12:50:  Apparently this moonbat thief is angry because the right has called her to task.  Apparently, if you think she is a thief, you are a fascist.  This is what she has up in place of her story:

That's OK, This Fascist quoted the relevant parts.  Read on:

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is a successful left-wing extremist journo-novelist-blogger-producer who finds racism and sexism under ever rock in her life's path.  She did not grow up in some migrant camp or in some dusty Mexican village.  She is not the product of the East LA barrio or a New York Puerto Rican slum.  On the contrary, she is the daughter of a sixth generation New Mexican mother of Irish extraction and a pro-Castro, Cuban immigrant, sociology professor. 

As stated, Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez is neither poor or oppressed.  She is not hurting for money or status.  She is living the American Dream and she hates herself and her heritage for it. 

She moved to Scottsdale, an upscale suburb of Arizona, to enroll her son in some sort of "gifted" program which she has since become disillusioned with.

In the process of moving from Albuquerque to Scottsdale, she plunked down $120,000on a house that cost $570,000. 

From her blog:

A little more than a year ago, I bought a four-bedroom tract home with a pool, in a very nice subdivision in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $570,000. It was the most I'd ever paid for a house, and certainly much more than a similar house might have cost me back in Albuquerque. Still, we hoped the gifted school thing would work out, and, according to conventional wisdom at the time, felt that buying was better than renting, even if we left after a short time, because of the tax benefits of interest paid on a mortgage.

I put $120,000 cash down on the house, thinking it was safe there, and might even grow. I figured it was a good investment because that's what people like Suzie Orman used to say, until, like, last week. Arizona was said to be booming, and the mortgage, while steep, was something I could handle, thanks to my supportive and loyal readers and other assorted sources of income.

Fast-foward to this summer. The gifted school thing has not worked out. We do not like Phoenix and Scottsdale very much. We are homesick for our friends and family in New Mexico.

Oh the problems of being an oppressed minority!  It gets better!

I am up to date on my mortgage payments, but all around us houses are going on the market at slashed prices, being abandoned, or coming up for lease. The prices begin to drop drastically, as homeowners in our area see their shady loans balloon out of reach and they lose their homes to foreclosure.

Suddenly, the house I bought for $570,000 is worth...$380,000?!?! Amazing! I know this because it is a tract division, and that is the price the same model is going for right now. And dropping with every week that passes.

What this means is that I, as a responsible homeowner, am now paying a mortgage of $450,000, on a house worth $380,000 - and the price continues to drop. By this time next year, I would not be surprised to learn this house is worth $310,000, or less. I have lost every penny I put down, and am now, astoundingly, in negative equity, which grows only more negative with every payment I make. Does this make sense to you? Not to me, either.

Holy Interest Rate, Batman! Her mortgage bubble just burst!  So what is our heroine going to do about it?

I never thought I would be the type to end up in foreclosure, but last month I made the decision to stop paying my mortgage. To just walk away. Not because I can't pay it, but because it is foolish to continue to do so. (Emphasis added) I am aware of the new FHA program designed to refinance homes like mine at their current value, but I don't think the dropping prices are going to bottom out for a long time. It's just not worth it, either way.

That's right, boys and girls!  She just ain't gonna pay another dime to those greedy Reich-wing bankers!  Check out this reasoning:

The conservatives will try to tell you this crisis is only impacting irresponsible homeowners, who got into mortgages they could not handle. Wrong! If you own a house in any of the areas hit hardest by this thing, you are wasting money if you continue to pay for a worthless property. Many of us realize this, and we are walking away, mailing in the keys, saying "thanks but no thanks for this bridge to nowhere."

In other words, she is one of the most irresponsble people to ever walk the earth!  Because her home is no longer worth what the bank sold it to her for, she is just going to walk away from it and leaving the bank holding the bag and it's everyone's fault but her own!

This is what is wrong with this country and she is a big part of it.  All of us who own homes have seen a big chunk of our equity slip away.  It happens.  But responsible people who can afford their payments just don't walk away and tell the banker to go pound sand, we ride it out and continue to make our payments.  This, like a painful kidney stone, will also pass. 

She thinks she's entitled to make a profit.  A house is an investment and sometimes investments lose money.  No one, not the banker or anyone else ever promised her a profit, but by God she thinks she should get one.  News Flash Ms. Reporterette, No one promised you a rose garden in the garden of life.

She's happy to take the hit on her credit rating and move back in with Daddy.

Sister, there is a word for people such as yourself and it is "thief".  You are nothing more than a common thief.  Maybe you didn't stick a gun in a teller's face, but your running out on a mortgage that you are perfectly capable of paying is not much different than the guy who walks in to the bank and demands money.  Let me say it again, you are a thief and you desrve to be in jail.

I hope the bank refuses the short sale and comes after you with a lawsuit. If I was the banker and I knew you were perfectly capable of paying the loan, you can bet your sweet Latina ass, that I'd have you in court suing you for the remainder of that loan.  You deserve nothing less!

VW

Obama Thinks You Are Stupid

Obama thinks you're stupid.  He thinks you can be bought off with with the promise of revenge.  He wants to give you single people out there 500 dollars and 1000 dollars to families.  Why is he being so generous?

“This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold in the winter, it will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills. Or you could use the rebate for any of your other bills or even to pay down debt.

There you go!  He is going to fix the high cost of energy for you by giving you a rebate!  But wait...where is he going to get this money, you ask?  Good question.  Dear reader, he will get it from YOU in the form of higher prices at the pump!

Here's the scam:

1. Forcing big oil companies to take a reasonable share of their record breaking windfall profits and use it to help struggling families with direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple. The relief would be delivered as quickly as possible to help families cope with the rising price of gasoline, food and other necessities. The rebates would be fully paid for with five years of a windfall profits tax on record oil company profits. This relief would be a down payment on Obama’s long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1000 per year in permanent tax relief.

Yeah baby!  You are gonna get some sweet justice from those robber barons at ExxonMobil!  The One is gonna give you back some of that hard earned cash you've been throwing their way all your life! 

Except that isn't exactly the case.  You see, if next year, ExxonMobil isn't making a windfall, where is he gonna get the money?  Is he just going to expect the oil companies to pay it anyway?  And if the Oil companies are taxed to the gills, exactly what makes you think they will have any incentive to lower prices?  I guarantee you will be out more than what you get back by the time the dust settles.

And the next part of the scam:

2. $50 billion in immediate measures to turn our economy around and help prevent more than 1 million Americans from losing their jobs:

• $25 billion in a State Growth Fund to prevent state and local cuts in health, education and housing assistance or counterproductive increases in property taxes, tolls or fees.  The fund will also ensure sufficient funding for home heating and weatherization assistance as we move into the fall and winter months.
• $25 billion in a Jobs and Growth Fund to replenish the highway trust fund; prevent cutbacks in road and bridge maintenance and fund new, fast-tracked projects to repair schools – all to save more than 1 million jobs in danger of being cut.

This is ludicrous.  The first part is a bail out for California, Michigan and other states where the Democrats have spent the state into oblivion.  Wouldn't it be nice if some rich uncle would help you out when you spend a bit recklessly!  Those of you whose states have been a bit more fiscally responsible will be paying for the ones who weren't.  You see, Obama wants to use YOU as the rich uncle!

The second point is a bone to the unions.  This is the reason some Democrats wanted to raise your gas taxes another dime this summer so they could pay for all of these projects.  It was union sponsored.

Obama is not changing anything.  Those of us old enough to remember the seventies know it as Jimmy Carter redux.

Just one more reason amongst a million not to vote for this empty suit.

VW