Saturday, October 13, 2012
Who do you trust on Medicare and Medicaid?
What can be done to keep Medicare and Medicaid coverage for all Americans at current levels (assuming that there is no free money).
1) Trust government bureaucrats to become efficiency experts?
2) Trust medical service providers? (Doctors, Hospitals, Researchers — to continue to do what they do for less and less money.)
3) Trust Washington to pay more? And tax more? (Need 2.25% per year tax increase to keep pace with current levels).
4) Trust competition and market forces to put the system on a fiscally sustainable path. (Like in the rest of the U.S. economy)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Worst Economic Recovery Since the Great Depression
Number of Americans out of work (4 years into recovery)---> 12.1 Million Americans out of work (23 Million including those who stopped looking for work)
Labor participation rate (down to 1981 level):--------------> 63.6 %
Of the 114,000 new September jobs, 104,000 were:--------> Private Economy
All of the 86,000 jobs in (July & August) upward revisions:--> Government Jobs.
Job growth:-------------------------------------------------> 146,000/mo (2012, Down from 153,000/month, 2011)
Manufacturing employment:---------------------------------> Down 38,000 (August & September)
Percent of America jobless for six months or more:----------> 40.1 %
GDP Growth '12 Q2 :------ ------------------------------> 1.3 % (In 1%-2% range for 2012)
September Employment:------------------------------------> Up by 873,000 jobs (582,000 part-time, Biggest jump in 30 years!)
Number of "part-time workers for economic reasons":--- ---> Up by 0.9 million since March.
Number of Jobs Created Since 2009:-----------------------> 5 Million (4.5 million jobs short of where it was in 2007)
Median household income since June 2009:-----------------> Down $3,040
The Most Profligate Fiscally Incompetent Presidency in History
Federal spending: $3.5 Trillion (2012 Vs. 2011, was $3.559 T in )
Down 1.6% (2012 Vs. 2011)
Medicare: Up 3% (2012 Vs. 2011)
Social Security: Up 6% (2012 Vs. 2011)
Pentagon: Down 3% (2012 Vs. 2011)
Interest on debt: Down 3%, ($258B in 2012 Vs. $266B in 2011, due to lower short term rates)
Record Years of Largest Deficits in US History: 1947, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Debate Pointers: Tells Which Give Away When Obama is Lying...
1. A pattern of "ahs" and "uhmms". Awkward pausing punctuated by semi-stutters increases in frequency as the lies increase
2. Filibustering. Average length of answer increases as he lies. Wandering as he rambles, the more he lies.
3. He will blow through every time limit, and dare the moderator or Mitt Romney to challenge him.
4. Feigned outrage that anyone would interrupt or question him. Countenance displays a disapproving sneer and his voice clouds with displeasure.
5. Non-responsive self-pity, verbal agonizing on how difficult it was when he took over and how hard he has been working. Displays of outrage at being thought a failure or "in over his head".
6. Citing of straw men, the president's favorite rhetorical trick. He will set up arguments that have never been made in the service of goals that have never existed, and then he will denounce both. Appearance of a straw man a trigger for lies to begin.
Issues on which to look for lies:
1) Benghazi Attack coverup,
2) Failure to remedy joblessness,
3) Failure to spark a recovery,
4) Failure to control Iran's nuclear ambitions,
5) Failure to keep promise on Immigration reform even with majority in House, Senate, and while President in first 2 years.
Obama Ad: 'Vote like your lady parts depend on it', and give $450M to Egypt, where clitorectomy is practiced...
An e-card that instructed women to 'vote like your lady parts depend on it' has been pulled from President Barack Obama's official Tumblr blog.
The e-card, which featured an image of a woman dressed in a 1920's flapper outfit reaching an arm in the air next to the controversial slogan, went viral on conservative blogs after a screen grab of it was posted online yesterday.
But within hours, the blue card had disappeared from the Obama 2012 campaign website.
The e-card sparked a backlash from republicans who took to Twitter in droves to lambast its 'misogynistic' message.
David Burge said: 'Nothing says 'pro-woman' like treating female voters as hysterical brain-damaged walking uteri.'
@Sevenlayercake said: 'Dear @BarackObama's Tumblr: I vote with my brain and not with my 'lady parts.' Seriously WTF?'
Kevin Eder @keder said: Leftists want black people to vote with their skin and women to vote with their lady parts. Who gets to vote with their brain?
Lori Ziganto said: My lady parts can't wait to hit the voting booth. Where I will vote with my brain. My daughter depends on it.
Gabriella Hoffman said: ...stop denigrating us, Democrats!
Datari-Isham said: Dems so disrespectful towards women. Bill linton is their sexual assaulting idol, and vagina costumes their uniform...
EmilyMiller tweeted: 'President Obama, quit worrying about my lady parts and start worrying about my wallet, OK?'
ezradulis tweeted: 'Obama appeases nations that literally cut up lady parts.'
ezradulis tweeted: 'Hi @Barack Obama: maybe you should rethink giving $450 million to Egypt, where female genital mutilation is still practiced.'
Monday, October 1, 2012
Criminal negligence in Benghazi Attack
What is uppermost on the minds of the president and his advisers? The safety of Americans, no doubt. So what are they prepared to do about it? Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:
"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."
So it did. Yet the attack was far from over. After leaving the principal U.S. compound, the Americans retreated to a second, supposedly secret facility, which soon came under deadly mortar fire. Time to call in the troops?
"Some officials said the U.S. could also have sent aircraft to the scene as a 'show of force' to scare off the attackers," the Journal reported, noting that there's a U.S. air base just 450 miles away in Sicily. "State Department officials dismissed the suggestions as unrealistic. 'They would not have gotten there in two hours, four hours or six hours.'"
The U.S. security detail only left Washington at 8 a.m. on Sept. 12, more than 10 hours after the attacks began. A commercial jet liner can fly from D.C. to Benghazi in about the same time.
Obama deserves to be judged in light of what he knew prior to the attack, including an attack on the mission in June and heightened threat warnings throughout the summer.
So how did the administration do on that count? "That the local security did so well back in June probably gave us a false sense of security," an unnamed American official who has served in Libya told the New York Times last week.
Stirrings of Militancy Since the Arab Spring
- Feb., March 2011: Egypt frees militant prisoners.
- April 2011: Ansar al Sharia in Tunisia is founded.
- April 2011: Ansar al Sharia in Yemen, a unit of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is formed.
- Dec. 2011: Ansar al Jihad in the Sinai Peninsula is formed, pledges to "fulfill the oath" of Osama bin Laden.
- June 2012: Bomb damages wall of U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
- Aug. 2012: Militants attack Egyptian security forces in Sinai.
- Sept. 2012: Attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Benghazi kill ambassador and three other Americans (left). U.S. officials believe some attackers had links to a militant released from prison in Egypt last year.
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