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"Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction"

Top of the Ticket:

But before leaving for his ninth presidential vacation, 10 days at a […] secluded estate on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama devoted four minutes in the White House driveway to a special statement on the latest disappointing jobs numbers. […]

No questions allowed because the president didn’t want to explain why despite the administration’s announced Recovery Summer Program, the jobs numbers have started going backward again after 19 months of promises and $787 billion in alleged stimulation spending. Because, faced with the uncertainty of the economy and the certainty of new taxes after Nov. 2, employers are holding back on hiring.

According to the president, he’s been “adamant” with Congress for months now about a new jobs bill to help small businesses. Obama says this really good bill is stalled in the Senate, where so much administration legislation has been crammed through so effectively by Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid’s been so good at it, in fact, that he’s now running for his political life in a reelection campaign back in Nevada where Obama’s legislation is not so popular.

Reid’s up against a conservative Republican. So, That means that Harry Reid must be a Democrat, just like Obama, and just like 59% of the Senate’s votes.

The very same party that has controlled both houses of Congress since the 2006 election and really controlled them both since the 2008 hopey-changey balloting.

So, facing the growing grim possibility of a GOP surge on Nov. 2, is this maybe the start of buddy-bickering within the Democratic huddle? Vulnerable people pointing the proverbial political finger of blame at someone else? That’s ridiculous, of course.

First it was Bush’s fault; now it’s the fault of a Congress controlled by Democrats.

Can that sinister cabal “who controls world banking and the media” really be all that far behind…?

149 Replies to “"Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction"”

  1. Squid says:

    I bet he blames Bo for every foul odor emanating from his general vicinity, too. Blamer!

  2. happyfeet says:

    Obama said that passing the Small Business Jobs Bill is the tonic the economy needs.

    “It would allow small business owners to write off more expenses,” the President said. “And it would make it easier for community banks to do more lending to small businesses, while allowing small firms to take out larger SBA loans with fewer fees, which countless entrepreneurs have told me would make a big difference in their companies.”*

    I thought cocksucker’s trillion dollar stimulus was the tonic our failshit economy needed. So that was the wrong tonic?

    Me if I had to create jobs I’d start by lifting the job-killing oil drilling moratorium instead of whining like a little bitch about Congress not passing another fag-ass spending bill what our brokedown broke-ass rode hard and put up wet piece of shit country can’t even begin to imagine how it will pay for.

  3. proudvastrightwingconspirator says:

    This is what happens when an unqualified “community organizer” gets in so deep over his head that he suffers acute rectal-cranial inversion.
    Expect more of this Obama-style “bipartisanship” as November approaches.

  4. happyfeet says:

    but running the numbers, how many jobs will Obama’s ground zero victory mosque create?

    perhaps less than he hopes cause of it’s looking like victory mosque-building jobs are “jobs Americans won’t do” … I blame Congress

  5. geoffb says:

    He’s perfect. We’re not. All else flows downhill from that.

    Truman’s desk, “The buck stops here.”

    Obama’s desk, “Rule one, the boss is always right.” Rule two? there is no rule two.

  6. Mr. W says:

    Can someone find poll numbers for Pelosi? I want to see how right I am that she’s gone so I can torture Carin for her ill-considered ‘enthusiasms’ comment, but there seems to be a blackout on Pelosi polls in her district.

  7. Spiny Norman says:

    geoffb,

    “Rule one, the boss is always right.”

    I’m beginning to see President Urkel as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert.

  8. proudvastrightwingconspirator says:

    Pelosi will win her SF district this November with the usual overwhelming numbers.
    Sadly, most of her SF voters think she’s been too centrist and should have fought harder for a single payer option and to end the wars.
    As a result, she’s probably more vulnerable from her left than her right.

    SF: You can’t fix stupid!

  9. Mikey NTH says:

    I thought the problem was that Congress was too active.

    Ain’t it great, though? Instead of touting all of the activities of the Congress and the administration, the administration is now attacking the Congress – controlled by the same party that controls the White House – as a ‘do-nothing-Congress’. I think this underscores that they are really frightened, they really don’t know what to do, and are preparing the blame-game for the losses they are expecting.

  10. Pablo says:

    Can someone find poll numbers for Pelosi? I want to see how right I am that she’s gone so I can torture Carin for her ill-considered ‘enthusiasms’ comment, but there seems to be a blackout on Pelosi polls in her district.

    John Dennis is the challenger. I don’t think anyone’s bothered to poll the district. If so, I can’t find it.

  11. Pablo says:

    As a result, she’s probably more vulnerable from her left than her right.

    Last round, Mother Sheehan pulled almost twice the votes of the Republican and Granny McRictusface crushed them both with 71%.

  12. geoffb says:

    the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert.

    Then the real question becomes who are Catbert, Dogbert and his secretary?

  13. Joe says:

    Can that sinister cabal “who controls world banking and the media” really be all that far behind…?

    Do you mean the homos?

  14. Joe says:

    No, that does not work, we would have to change it to this:

    Can that sinister cabal “who controls world banking [interior design] and the media” really be all that far behind…?

    Hmmmm, who could Jeff Goldstein be talking about?

  15. ak4mc says:

    Catbert: Rahm.
    Ratbert: Biden.

  16. mojo says:

    So – the warning about “fecal matter contamination” in the waters around MV is just coincidence, right?

  17. bh says:

    I have this vision of Obama whistling past the graveyard and accidentally waking the zombies.

    Sure, they’re slow and mindless… uh-oh, Barry.

  18. Carin says:

    Can someone find poll numbers for Pelosi? I want to see how right I am that she’s gone so I can torture Carin for her ill-considered ‘enthusiasms’ comment, but there seems to be a blackout on Pelosi polls in her district.

    Don’t be a hater, Mr. W.

  19. Silver Whistle says:

    Can someone find poll numbers for Pelosi?

    CA8 is so far left it has fallen off the map. No polling or voting needed there.

  20. Mikey NTH says:

    #17 bh:
    He’s safe, they want to eat brains.

  21. Mr. W says:

    I ain’t hatin’, Carin. I love disagreement, I am just always taken aback when people disagree with me.

    And don’t buy the hype, Pablo. They’re polling their asses off, they just don’t publish the results. If Democrats don’t poll, how will they know how many Pelosi ballots need to be pre-printed?

  22. Mr. W says:

    She is gone.

  23. alppuccino says:

    I think the main point of this post is how it reinforces the fact that Obama is a big dickhead.

  24. happyfeet says:

    albeit an obviously Christian big dickhead

  25. Mr. W says:

    Your arguments all sound like the ones we heard of why The Late Great Swimmer’s state was going to stay blue.

    There are no safe seats.

  26. Mr. W says:

    His Islamic faith leads him to represent all 57 states.

  27. Mr. W says:

    His words, just mashed up.

  28. Carin says:

    I can’t find any poll numbers for Nancy, but I did find this.

    The most stylish honors went to gavel-wielding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the poll commissioned by the Huffington Post and apparel brand Weatherproof (the same company that used an unauthorized picture of President Obama on a Times Square billboard, which subsequently had to be taken down following objection from the White House).

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came in third behind second place Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

    So. There you have it. Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, then Kathleen Sebelius.

    Michelle Obama wasn’t in the running, because she wasn’t elected. But, no fear. She made the International best dressed list.

  29. Carin says:

    She is gone.

    I am never “gone.”

    For long.

  30. Jeff says:

    Obama is starting to sound like Belushi in that tunnel with Carrie Fischer …

  31. Carin says:

    Where’s JD? As promised, BBF is up at the Hostages. SFW.

  32. sdferr says:

    That’s Silver Whistle bait that is Car in.

  33. Carin says:

    Hunky Hump Day (the mens – yum) is Wednesday.

    Best day of the week at the Hostages.

  34. Carin says:

    We’ve got an actual Rocket Scientist that does it. She’s good. We used to have a gay guy, and he was pretty darn good, but he’s been a bit busy.

  35. cranky-d says:

    So Wednesday is gay day at the hostages. That’s very inclusive of you guyz.

  36. Silver Whistle says:

     

    That’s Silver Whistle bait that is Car in.

    sdferr could learn from the generous of spirit.

  37. sdferr says:

    Yes’mm, he could, but he’s an incorrigibly niggling bastard at heart.

  38. Silver Whistle says:

    Then I shall expect another of your devious ploys, sdferr.

  39. Carin says:

    o Wednesday is gay day at the hostages. That’s very inclusive of you guyz.

    No, see the H2 is all-inclusive and thus sensitive to the needs of female Hostages.

  40. cranky-d says:

    Next thing you’ll be telling me is that women bought Playgirl. Cracker, please.

  41. happyfeet says:

    here’s an exciting reason to vote for Team R in November… centralized industrial policy!!! We can let government tax the shit out of the economy and then pick winners and losers!

    New legislation introduced by Republican Representative Devin Nunes (CA) and backed by several GOP House members would invest billions into renewable energy deployment, signaling an opportunity for bipartisan support for clean energy technology policies.

    Over at CNBC, reporter Trevor Curwin has been one of the first to note the significance of the Republican bill, which Nunes’ says could “potentially provide hundreds of billions in financing” for renewable energy over the next several decades.

    Team R will use its branded Team R wisdom processes to redistribute hundreds of billions of dollars efficiently and productively!

    Okey dokey then. See ya at the polls!

  42. happyfeet says:

    oh… the good news is Paul Ryan is on board so you know all the monies will be redistributed with great reluctance and sorrowful puppy dog eyes

  43. bh says:

    Co-sponsored by… Paul Ryan. And Nunes co-sponsors Ryan’s roadmap.

    Maybe check it out a bit more than this little tidbit. Not saying it’s all good. Might be a great deal to criticize but given the proponents it might be worth checking the details or considering whether they see some facets to just be requisite initial bargaining chips.

  44. bh says:

    For the record, I discussed this awhile back from a WSJ article with sdferr and, yes, there are some considerable problems with the basic thrust of the thing.

  45. Lazarus Long says:

    Oh, my this is just too sweet for words:

    “Generic Congressional Ballot
    Generic Ballot: Republican 48%, Democrat 36%”

    “Republican candidates have jumped out to a record-setting 12-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 15, 2010. This is the biggest lead the GOP has held in over a decade of Rasmussen Reports surveying.”

    Likely voters. Not Adults. Not registered voters.

    Likely voters.

    I’m beginning to think that the Republicans might also take back the Senate.

    Source:

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot

  46. Ric Locke says:

    Maybe check it out a bit more…

    Nah. Just another example of Team R’s default campaign slogan: Us, too, but we’re cheaper!

    Regards,
    Ric

  47. sdferr says:

    Nunes’ homepage touts “The bill titled “A Roadmap for America’s Energy Future” uses untapped energy resources throughout our nation to bridge the gap between current energy consumption and our nation’s long-term goal of transitioning to renewable and advanced energy alternatives.”

  48. happyfeet says:

    I read the details it’s gay as gay can be – this is not an energy policy what a fucked in the ass piece of shit broke-ass country can have… it’s Washington D.C. cocksucker energy policy what wants to take my monies and do gay-assed central planning bullshit with it for cause of the carbon dioxide molecules are dirty.

  49. bh says:

    Heh, that’s pretty much what sdferr said.

  50. sdferr says:

    Did Wendell Willkie know the deal?

    The subtitle reads:

    To expand domestic fossil fuel production, develop more nuclear power, and expand renewable electricity.

    Then there’s:

    TITLE IV — REVERSE AUCTION MECHANISMS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION AND FOR RENEWABLE FUEL PRODUCTION

    Which, I haven’t a clue how that is proposed to work, mostly because I haven’t read it. I’d prefer the utter elimination of all (yep, read “all”) government direct subsidies to commerce and industry, but have to say upfront that such a preference is necessarily based on an admission of ignorance, an ignorance I would attribute to every possible economic actor however, not merely myself. It entails the further belief on my part that the emergence of an efficient (and therefore better) order out of the atomized individual choices of a myriad of economic forces and actors will be the result. Competition, resulting in both success and importantly, failure, being the surest path to that end.

  51. cranky-d says:

    Any energy bill which doesn’t green-light a bunch of new nuke plants is worthless. That’s the major untapped energy resource we have that doesn’t create CO2 (as if that mattered… more plant food). As far as renewable energy goes, it’s a crock of poop and anyone with a brain knows it. You can’t duplicate in a year what took millions of years to create.

    G-d, people are so frelling stupid sometimes. Anyone on Team R who does this with anything but a token amount of money to shut the clamoring green idiots up can frak off.

    We’re going to hell in a handbasket, but it’s a greeeeen handbasket. whee.

  52. bh says:

    Here‘s the Kimberly Strassel column that sdferr and I were talking about by email if you want to check it out.

  53. happyfeet says:

    this is $40 billion a year of proposed redistributeyness and more to the point it builds a redistributey infrastructure the dirty socialists will a lot appreciate when they inevitably hijack it

  54. Mr. W says:

    The depth of the vitriol about to overwhelm the Democrats is perfectly illustrated by the fact that even an complete imbecile like this moron Nunes can’t screw it up this year.

  55. happyfeet says:

    Strassel needs to wipe her mouf

  56. cranky-d says:

    I will not let the facts cloud my rant, dammit! Just cut that “expand renewable energy” crap out of the bill and it looks good to me. We need more refineries and more domestic oil and coal production.

  57. happyfeet says:

    cranky this one fancies that it does somehow streamline blah blah blah the nuclear plant building process and it takes a new tack on waste what I need to read – it’s all very grandiose and no stone unturny really

  58. cranky-d says:

    What am I saying? Those guys will screw up anything. Just remove the barriers to nuclear, coal, and oil production and let the private sector handle the details.

    Man, the Statists took over my brain for a moment.

  59. sdferr says:

    On the nuclear front the bill proposes:

    SEC. 302. 200 OPERATING PERMITS BY 2040.
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shall issue operating permits for 200 new commercial nuclear reactors, or the megawatt equivalent, by 2040, if there are a sufficient number of applicants.

  60. cranky-d says:

    Yeah, happyfeet, I don’t know what I was thinking. No politician should be picking any winners, and no money needs to be spent at all. If all they do is make things easi

  61. cranky-d says:

    Oops. Well, you get the drift. The bill should read, “We will get the heck out of your way, private sector. Do your thing.”

  62. cranky-d says:

    I’ve obviously gone off the rails again. Time to go back to work for a while.

  63. happyfeet says:

    it worries me that they think energy grandiosity is a priority – we need cheap dirty energy like what the chinesers has

  64. sdferr says:

    The Trust fund part looks like it merely dedicates otherwise existing “bonus bids, rents, and royalties for oil and gas leases” to the reverse auction scheme. It isn’t clear to me yet that it either jacks up those fund sources nor that it is adding new ones, but I’d have to do more than just scan it as now. Where do these funds go now, if they aren’t dedicated to some particular “energy” purpose?

  65. happyfeet says:

    the first link I had talks about an extra $5 tax per barrel

  66. bh says:

    As best I can tell, it does attempt to increase cheap dirty energy across the board. It just goes off the rails by then attempting to better manage green subsidies rather than ending them.

    If you buy Strassel’s take (which probably has deep background straight from Nunes) he views this as the only way to make the bill politically viable.

  67. sdferr says:

    The coal to liquid thing looks stupid. I don’t trust the Jenkins guy.

    “Curwin quotes my recent suggestion, along with Breakthrough’s Yael Borofsky, that a small fee on each barrel of oil sold could do the trick.”

    That sounds like him, not Nunes’ bill.

  68. bh says:

    I don’t think that $5 new tax is from the Nunes’ proposal, ‘feets. Think that’s the author’s or someone else’s idea.

  69. sdferr says:

    No fucking way Obama would ever sign anything remotely like this.

  70. bh says:

    With Obama present, I’m not sure if anything we’d like is politically viable, sdferr. However, this appears to be an attempt to create and refine a Republican blueprint for when they have the Presidency again.

    If so, I think it’d be good for them to hear that people like the parts about increasing energy production and dislike the parts about continuing costly green subsidies.

  71. sdferr says:

    The Commission is a real nose-holder too. I recognize the apparent necessity of such stuff, if only to counterbalance the damage done by Obama-Democrat Commissions already in operation, but it still stinks.

  72. bh says:

    Makes me think of Obamacare in a way. The temptation will always be there to better manage some aspects rather than eliminate it entirely.

  73. cranky-d says:

    All politicians think they know what’s better for us than we do. A good beating might cure that.

  74. sdferr says:

    “A good beating might cure that.”

    Or, start choosing people who aren’t politicians and don’t want the job.

  75. bh says:

    Heh, but I just broke my cheap old cudgel, cranky.

    What am I to do?

  76. happyfeet says:

    i want my money back give me my money back

    you bitch

  77. sdferr says:

    Oysh, goddamnit. If ya’s want to give someone a beatin’, how about one of these fucks?

  78. cranky-d says:

    When people don’t want the job, it’s kind of difficult to make them do it, don’t you think? I like the idea in principle, but I don’t see how it will work in practice without coercion.

  79. Makewi says:

    I haven’t read the thing that is freaking out happyfeet today, so I may be way off base. Don’t we have a history of similar type funding when we used defense contractors to develop technology for cell phones and the internet?

    Maybe I’m naive, but I’ve always thought that funding research into new technology is one of the good ways that the government affects the economy.

    Just wondering.

  80. happyfeet says:

    oh. if bh is right about the no new tax and they’re just appropriating the current and future royalties then I trust Mr. Ryan’s general sensibilities about this sort of thing I guess

  81. bh says:

    OT: Article in the Marketplace section of the WSJ today about GM’s IPO. Title: “GM Is Boastful, and Wary, in IPO Filing“. Which is good for a chuckle in itself.

    This caught my eye:

    “People familiar with the matter said the IPO, expected later this year, is anticipated to raise $10 billion to $15 billion but possibly more. An expected price range for the shares will be determined closer to the sale.”

    Heh.

    (Sorry, don’t know if that link is behind the paywall or not. Once I log in, those little icons disappear.)

  82. happyfeet says:

    but he should have talked to me first

  83. sdferr says:

    Of course there is coercion involved, the question is whether the coercion comes by way of the moral suasion of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ones fellow citizens demanding one take the job for their sakes or whether the ordinary sense of coercion is used. I see the former, not the latter.

  84. Mikey NTH says:

    #47 Ric Locke:

    And hence the reason why the Republican Party has to be captured at the local and state level so that the apparatus can be used to produce candidates that are the type we want. Because as i have said before the party will not change through people staying out of it and screaming at it, the party will only change if people enter it and start changing it. Sort of like a “Long March Through The Institutions” type thing.

    Oh – and those who say that the party will never let you do that, I can only say you lose every battle you don’t fight.

  85. happyfeet says:

    it seems unlikely that *all* of the proceeds will go to pay back the monies our cocksucker president gave to his illiterate UAW faggot pals… so this won’t make much of a dent really I don’t think

  86. george smiley says:

    “Bobby” Ghosh is a worm ridden piece of filth, he has always had a soft spot for every terrorist, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan

  87. Mr. W says:

    Cell phones were not invented by the government: Motorola
    Teflon was not invented by NASA: DuPont
    The government did not invent the internet: Geeks with some DARPA money

    What we think of as ‘the government’ is an financial transfer/distribution/graft corporation. It has no skill but it does possess the ability to fuck things up constantly.

    WHY THE INTERNET WORKS SO GOOD:

    The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.

  88. cranky-d says:

    That centralized governance of the internet is coming to a computer near you. It’s not if, it’s when.

  89. mojo says:

    Sign up in the hallway today: “Green Art Show”

    WTF? All art made with organic stoat vomit?

  90. Makewi says:

    I’d get into this whole big thing about federal or military funding of various technologies, but why bother when Mr. W will just tell me that the internet was developed by some geeks with DARPA funding. So consider the questions retracted.

  91. happyfeet says:

    diet coke technology was invented by a savvy brand extension manager what said hey you scientist monkeys please to make one of these except without no calories

  92. bh says:

    Sorry, Makewi, I didn’t respond because I’m simply ignorant of the topic. Don’t really know what government R&D efforts have achieved or, alternately, took money away from.

    I’d tend to side against such efforts simply because I don’t feel it falls under the government’s proper role and that’s about all I could contribute towards the discussion.

  93. happyfeet says:

    who is responsible for inventing things is a complex question is what I mean to say

  94. JD says:

    How fucking stupid can Barcky be? How can he not see that the problem with the economy has nothing to do with what hasn’t been done by him and the congresscritters, and everything to do with what they have done.

  95. Mr. W says:

    I read it on the internets that Al Gore designed. The said that there is no such thing as The Department of Thinking Stuff Up.

  96. Big Bang Hunter says:

    I don’t think anyone’s bothered to poll the district. If so, I can’t find it.

    – The last time they tried to run a poll in SF the Mayor got shot.

  97. Big Bang Hunter says:

    WTF? All art made with organic stoat vomit?

    – Is that stoat or goat vomit?

  98. Randy says:

    What is it about “Stop Spending,” that these guys don’t understand?

  99. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – The “stop” and the “spending” part.

  100. happyfeet says:

    Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs and freeze up to $10.2 billion in oil-industry investment, according to previously undisclosed documents detailing their internal debates.*

    obviously Christian

  101. B Moe says:

    What the hell is a “reverse auction mechanism”?

    And why does my hand reflexive move to protect my wallet every time I read those words?

  102. happyfeet says:

    I’m pretty sure reverse auction mechanisms aren’t allowed to marry each other Mr. Moe

  103. Mr. W says:

    That’s fascinating that document got leaked, happyfeet.

    The ‘elite’s’ self-preservation instinct has kicked in at last and they will begin a desperate Bush-level effort to undermine Barry.

    I’m not sure why they bother since Barry is a master at undermining himself, but I digress.

  104. happyfeet says:

    actually they released the papers cause they’re very pleased with their job-killing efforts and want the court to bless them

    The administration hadn’t previously disclosed its estimates of the economic effect of the controversial halt, ordered after the April explosion at a Gulf of Mexico well. The documents doing so were filed in a New Orleans federal court by the Justice Department earlier this week as part of the latest round of litigation over the moratorium.

  105. happyfeet says:

    it’s a Friday evening doc dump is all

  106. sdferr says:

    Isn’t it maybe truer to say that Barry is closer to an atheist than to being a religious believer? I mean, we don’t have to believe his I’m a Christian bullshit do we?

  107. happyfeet says:

    the Associated Press was very clear Mr. sdferr… he’s the mostest christianest one!

  108. bh says:

    I think a job must have bullied Obama when he was a kid. Or maybe he had a crush on a job and then she did something really mean to embarrass him.

  109. bh says:

    Maybe he thinks a job killed Jesus and now he’s taking his revenge.

  110. happyfeet says:

    that was good I like that

  111. sdferr says:

    They were clear about his political position back during the campaign too: he’s the mostest moderate unitiest non-partisan wisest prezzidential candidate ever. Turned out just like we already knew then, just like now. The man’s an inveterate liar. Can’t help hisself.

  112. geoffb says:

    What the hell is a “reverse auction mechanism”?

    Perhaps this will help, An Analysis of Troubled Assets Reverse Auction a pdf. Or not.

  113. LTC John says:

    #109 – I rather like that.

    #112 – those of us stuck here in the orbit of Chicago knew O! from his rather undistinguished State Senate “career” – do whatever Emil Jones told him (Dem Leader/President of Senate, a wholly owned subsidiary of Commonwealth Edison was Mr. Jones) or vote “present” (1/3 of his votes).

  114. geoffb says:

    he’s the mostest moderate

    As with the moderate GZM imam with the discovery linked by both bh and Ric Locke on the GZM thread there is I suspect a double secret definition of “moderate” in play on the port side.

  115. JD says:

    I have often wondered that too. What do they mean when they say moderate, or centrist?

  116. sdferr says:

    They mean to fool the rubes is all.

  117. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – A moderate Muslin closes one eye as he hacks off the infidels head. A centrist Muslim makes sure the cut is symmetrical.

  118. JD says:

    Apparently people are starting to finally figure it out.

  119. sdferr says:

    “…people are starting to finally figure it out.”

    About him maybe, but when it comes to the part where they ask “how did he do this?” they’ll fail to look to the cause: themselves. Which is why they’re rubes and will remain so.

  120. JB says:

    No need to worry that Obama won’t sign legislation passed by the new Republican Congress…he doesn’t read much and doesn’t understand much of what he reads, so we can just tell him it’s all about Outreach To Islam, put a pen in his hand and tell him if he signs we’ll send him and Michelle off on his next vacation and if he makes a favorable comment on the legislation he’ll get a new set of golf clubs under the tree next Ramadan or whatever.

  121. Ernst Schreiber says:

    – A moderate Muslin closes one eye as he hacks off the infidels head. A centrist Muslim makes sure the cut is symmetrical.

    My take is that a moderate Muslim is one who doesn’t personally feel the need to take up the sword, his moral support is sufficient.

  122. Pablo says:

    My idea of a moderate Muslim is Steve Emerson.

  123. […] “Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction” […]

  124. John Bradley says:

    I think a job must have bullied Obama when he was a kid. Or maybe he had a crush on a job and then she did something really mean to embarrass him.

    Back when he was in high school, a bunch of mean jobs dumped a bucket of pig’s blood (*) on his head at the prom. And then they laughed and laughed… “well, who’s laughing now, bitches?!”

    (*) And given his “muslim faith”, doubly harsh!

  125. B Moe says:

    The auctioneer starts at a price like 100g on a dollar. All the holders, bid the quantity of their shares that they are willing to sell at the current prices. There can be excess supply. The auctioneer then lowers the price in steps e.g. 95g, 90g, etc. and bidders indicate the quantities that they are willing to sell at each price. At some point (for example at 30g on a dollar) the total supply off ered by all the holders for sale equals or falls bellow the specified budget of the treasury. At that point the auction concludes and the auctioneer buys the securities o ered at the clearing price. As explained in [1], this simple approach is flawed as it leads to a severe adverse selection problem. Note that at the clearing price the securities that are o ffered
    are only the ones that are actually worth less than 30g on each dollar of face value. They could as well worth far bellow 30g. In other words, the government would pay most of its budget to buy the worst of the securities.

    So my initial reaction of hiding my wallet was a sound one.

    I have also come to the conclusion that economists as a whole are the modern day alchemists.

  126. B Moe says:

    g = cents and oered is offered. The pdf didn’t copy and paste well.

    That came from geoffb’s link, by the way.

  127. SDN says:

    Mr. W, the general theory of government paying for technology works something like this:

    1. The government sees a need for a new capability. Usually, that new capability is driven by military proposals (see Manhattan Project, or a means of military communication that’s redundant) or national prestige (the race to space / moon).

    2. What it ISN’T driven by is the profit motive which leads businessmen who answer to stockholders to say, “I’ve got better uses for my cash than rolling the dice on something which won’t work (because new basic science / applied science will have to be invented) or there just isn’t much of a market (because how many customers do I have for something to reduce a city to glass and ash). Go away, egghead, you bother me.”

    3. Yes, the egghead may come up with something working nights and weekends in the basement. However, time available to work on that something is likely to be a tad constrained by keeping food on the table and the roof over the basement. Not to mention that a lot of discoveries involve skills and equipment that have to be paid for somehow. (Yeah, I know, give Tony Stark a cave and a forge and turn him loose. The supply of Tony Stark’s is even more limited than the supply of honest politicians….)

    4. Government funding helps remove that constraint: someone can work on the impractical and once they do the most important thing in any research, namely prove that something is possible, the government can license the tech to the private sector and let them run with it. The government can also provide a guaranteed customer, which again makes producing the new product less of a risky investment.

    There are cheaper ways of doing this: one way is to offer prizes payable upon delivery of the new tech. IIRC, this is how a number of the private space companies are being incentivized now.

    This works when the object is something real, like an atomic bomb or a spacecraft. Every one of the things you cited can be traced back to exactly that kind of government spending.

    Of course, there are always people (usually those who want the funding for their pet projects) to scream something like “Why are we spending money to go to the Moon while there are starving children here?” Those are the short-sighted types who’ve been eating the seed corn, looting Social Security, and generally promoting a state of mind that got us where we are today.

  128. Mr. W says:

    Awesome distillation of how it is supposed to work, SDN. In some Capitol City on a distant planet it may work like that, but not here in Washington. My experience (and I am deeply (DEEPLY!) involved in this) here in The Heart of Darkness known as DC, is slightly different.

    1) Fake money is printed.

    2) Grant money is set aside for friends, relatives, campaign contributors, staffers, old army buddies, preferred (connected) minorities, (connected) women, the (connected) disabled, and ex-congressmen to study whatever is fashionable at that exact moment (algae fuels, corn fuels, switchgrass fuels, bio-diesel, etc…you get the point).

    3) The grant is opened for submissions. Note: If you did not contribute to a congessional or senatiorial campaign, or are not affiliated with an entity that is undestood to be left (university) wing, do not waste your time.

    4) Money is steered directly to the same people over and over.

    I was recently in the mother-fucking palatial-assed K-Street offices of a guy who rides this gravy train. he has the mansion in town, and the one in horse country, and his group was currently sucking at the laughable algae-fuel teat.

    Five minutes of rudimentary calculation by and eigth-grader would demonstrate that algae fuels are not a sensible alternative to petroleum, but that is not the point. The point is to keep the money sloshing around in DC to keep your personal power base empowered.

    Any other viewpoint is fantasy based.

  129. Mr. W says:

    One more thing: Periodically, like the lottery, this system accidentally produces a ‘winner’. But pointing to that ‘winner’ as an example of the systems inherent goodness is laughable.

    The money that is consumed by this high-end welfare state is mind bending. Those ‘welfare queens’ that Reagan pointed to are rank amatuers next to the ones I know. The welfare queens I know drive Bentleys and live in homes that get profiled in Architectural Digest.

  130. sdferr says:

    Milton Friedman puts it thus in TSI’s post (7:50 on):

    So you have more money being spent carelessly and less money being spent carefully.

  131. LTC John says:

    128-129 – so both of you have worked for TACOM or AMC? Heh.

  132. Carin says:

    SDN, you theory is blown completely apart by the battery kurffle. Do you somehow think that government money is somehow magic? That private industry coulda, just didn’t wanna, create a better battery?

    “Investment”(for I can’t use that word in this instance w/o scare quotes) into companies here in Michigan … just watch what happens in a few years.

    You want to know why battery companies HAVEN”T been located in the US? Why every manufacturer has moved overseas? Why don’t you guess.

  133. Mr. W says:

    LTC John:

    If the standards of behavior that the government forces business to operate under were applied to that same government, we would have to double or triple the size of our prisons immediately.

    They don’t even hide the bribes (sorry, ‘contributions’) the kickbacks (sorry, high paying ‘jobs’) and the payoffs (sorry, ‘bailouts’) in this sleazy town anymore.

    Just looking at pictures of the Capitol makes me want to take a shower to rinse the scunge off.

    It needs to be stopped before it ends the Republic, and it very well might.

  134. Carin says:

    My idea of a moderate muslim, for starters, is one who doesn’t support Wahhabisim.

  135. Mr. W says:

    No. Vem. Ber.

    100 Democrat seats gone!

    Nancy: Gone!

    Barney: Gone!

    Harry: Gone!

  136. Carin says:

    The money that is consumed by this high-end welfare state is mind bending. Those ‘welfare queens’ that Reagan pointed to are rank amatuers next to the ones I know. The welfare queens I know drive Bentleys and live in homes that get profiled in Architectural Digest.

    One of the battery companies took the money and laughed and laughed and laughed.

  137. Carin says:

    Hey, I’m on your side W. I’ll just believe it when I see it.

  138. Carin says:

    Ok, going for a run. See you folks in 8 miles.

    I hope.

  139. Mr. W says:

    I just cannot believe that nobody wants my money.

    Let’s recap:

    100 “credits” at 5 to 1 that the Democrats lose 100 seats in the combined House and Senate races this November, with the winnings going to Jeff G. for site upkeep.

    Winnings double when Reid, Pelosi, and Frank are gone as part of the 100.

    The sitting speaker of the house from The People’s Republic of San Francisco being booted?

    Preposterous!

    Form a gambling sydicate comprised of twenty people who have said I am wrong and are willing to lose a maximum of 50 each (you will lose it) and bet me!

    It’s for a good cause.

  140. sdferr says:

    It may be that it’s for a good cause, but it has the unfortunate vice of putting people who earnestly desire that you be proven right into the position of rooting against you in order to win the wager. If they would not win the wager yet be content to lose, then they may as well send the money to be wagered on, without bothering with the wager and the orbiting details.

    But the trolls would be happy to take you up on it, surely, for they are confident and hopeful that you are wrong. However, the have proven absolutely that they cannot be trusted to perform. So you are left adrift in limbo, without a wagering partner.

  141. serr8d says:

    Hey, Mr. W, if it weren’t illegal…

    “On Nov. 3, the day after the election, there will be a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate,” Mr. Biden said. “If it weren’t illegal, I’d make book on it.”

    …”Bite Me” would be your huckleberry.

  142. sdferr says:

    No way. Biden is one of the least trustworthy men in America, outside being good for putting his foot in his mouth about once every fortnight.

  143. SDN says:

    The only reason you invite me to take a guess, Carin, is because you obviously haven’t read many of my posts. If you had, you would know that my ideas on lawyers start with Shakespeare’s and then get brutal.

    I know it doesn’t work that way. That’s why I’ve advocated for years that the answer to this country’s problems lies only through a decimation, literally, of the government bureaucracy and legal community (90% for the Congress and the Cabinet). My point was that this can work provided it is approached correctly. That decimation is a first step to establishing a climate where it can.

    “You are founding this battery company to try to make a buck on Global Warming, a theory which has no evidence of any sort to support it. You are a fraud. !BANG!”

  144. geoffb says:

    I’ll not take your wager for the reasons outlined by sdferr and that I don’t generally gamble.

    What I will do and state here is if the Republicans take control of the House I’ll double my usual contribution to PW for November. If they take the Senate also I’ll triple it. If they get 60 Senate seats plus the House I’ll quadruple it and do the same for December.

  145. Carin says:

    I know it doesn’t work that way. That’s why I’ve advocated for years that the answer to this country’s problems lies only through a decimation, literally, of the government bureaucracy a

    Sorry SDN. It was early.

    It just pisses me off about the battery stuff, and stimulus money, and “Investment” and green jobs bullshit because 1) I live in Michigan and 2) my husband is in the battery business and know enough to know that the green battery stuff is total and utter bullshit.

  146. Rusty says:

    “Green Battery” is an oxymoron.

  147. geoffb says:

    Oh, and when you link to comments at times the link won’t go exactly to the correct comment. The one I linked above was #145.

  148. geoffb says:

    Wrong thread sorry.

Comments are closed.