Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
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Yesterday 'PNF/F' was confronted with such a choice and he caved, as he usually does. He campaigns on wanting to get Americans back to work yet voted to protect his 'green' friends because he needed to throw them a re-election bone having neglected their environmental demands far too long.
The green's argument is based more on emotion than logic because the states where the pipeline was to run already have multiple pipelines and when you balance their arguments against our nation becoming energy independent and American workers being re-employed, at good paying jobs, their case fails.
Once again, in my view, this is not the first time this president has spoken out of both sides of his mouth and lied about his rationale. Politicians will be politicians and when they are we should not expect them to meet high principled standards or display character. Just take them for what they often are - mealy mouthing weasels.
Netanyahu is right not to trust 'PNF/F' because his word has no currency. The Republican leadership learned that a while back as did the Supreme Court Justices who came to hear the SOTU address. (See 1and 1a below.)
Meanwhile more politicians in The House yesterday engaged in a symbolic vote to provide them cover regarding the debt-ceiling increase all the while letting it take effect. D.C. is aflood with mealy mouth weasels.
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Interesting how the University that sends more Liberals and policy wonks to D.C. now decries the fact that we are losing our competitive edge. Perhaps 'Hahvahd' has something to do with that about which they complain. (See 2 below.)
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All appointed to high paying positions and none were voted on or vetted by Congress. We now have more Czars and Czarinas than Russia! It is all reminiscent of Orwell. (See 3 below.)
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What will the future look like? Victor Davis Hanson gives his insights. (See 4 below.)
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Last night , after five years, The JEA Speaker Series concluded with a wonderful concert by Robert Henry (pianist) and Charae Krueger (cellist) - two faculty members of Kennesaw University's excellent Music Department.
This series was successful because of my many friends who gave their time to participate as speakers and musicians and many more friends who unselfishly financed this undertaking as patrons.
My thanks to all of you. Could not have done it without you.
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Dick
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1)The Anti-Jobs President
Obama rejects the Keystone XL pipeline and blames Congress
The central conflict of the Obama Presidency has been between the jobs and growth crisis he inherited and the President's hell-for-leather pursuit of his larger social-policy ambitions. The tragedy is that the economic recovery has been so lackluster because the second impulse keeps winning.
Yesterday came proof positive with the White House's repudiation of the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada's $7 billion shovel-ready project that would support tens of thousands of jobs if only it could get the requisite U.S. permits. Those jobs, apparently, can wait.
Related Video
Mary O'Grady on the Obama administration's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
Unless the President objected, December's payroll tax deal gave TransCanada the go-ahead in February to start building the pipeline, which would travel 1,661 miles from Alberta to interconnections in Oklahoma and then carry Canadian crude to U.S. refiners on the Gulf Coast.
The State Department, which presides over the Keystone XL review because it would cross the 49th parallel, claimed yesterday that the two-month Congressional deadline was too tight "for the President to determine whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest." The White House also issued a statement denouncing Congress's "rushed and arbitrary deadline," which merely passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
This is, to put it politely, a crock.
Keystone XL has been planned for years and only became a political issue after the well-to-do environmental lobby decided to make it a station of the green cross. TransCanada filed its application in 2008, and State determined in 2010 and then again last year that the project would have "no significant impacts" on the environment, following exhaustive studies. The Environmental Protection Agency chose to intervene anyway, and the political left began to issue ultimatums and demonstrate in front of the White House, so President Obama decided to defer a final decision until after the election.
The missed economic opportunity was spelled out Tuesday by Mr. Obama's own Jobs Council, which released a report that endorsed an "all-in approach" on energy, including the "profound new opportunities in shale gas and unconventional oil." The 27 members handpicked by the President recommended that he support "policies that facilitate the safe, thoughtful and timely development of pipeline, transmission and distribution projects," and they warned that failing to do so "would stall the engine that could become a prime driver of U.S. jobs and growth in the decades ahead."
Only last week the White House issued a "jobs" report praising domestic energy production, but that now looks like political cover for this anti-jobs policy choice.
Getty Images
State did give TransCanada permission to reapply using an alternate route, timetable indefinite. The construction workers, pipefitters, mechanics, welders and electricians who might otherwise be hired for the project—well, they must be thrilled with this consolation prize. Not to mention all the other Americans who might fill "spin-off" jobs on the pipeline's supply chain like skilled manufacturers and equipment suppliers, or still others who might work in oil refining and distribution.
Environmentalists seem to think they can prevent the development of Canada's oil-rich tar sands, and that their rallies against Keystone XL will keep that carbon in the ground. They can't, and it won't. America's largest trading partner will simply build a pipeline to the Pacific coast from Alberta and sell its petroleum products to Asia instead, China in particular.
Such green delusions are sad, and Mr. Obama's pandering is sadder, though everything the country stands to lose is saddest. If Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates have any political wit, they'll vindicate the Keystone's "national interest" and make Mr. Obama explain why job creation is less important than the people who make a living working for the green anti-industrial complex.
1a)Heavy Metal Politics
President Obama's Keystone XL abdication is all too typical of his Administration's general hostility to domestic energy production. Only last week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he is banning new uranium mining on one million acres of federal land in northern Arizona.
1a)Heavy Metal Politics
Interior bans new uranium mining in Arizona.
President Obama's Keystone XL abdication is all too typical of his Administration's general hostility to domestic energy production. Only last week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he is banning new uranium mining on one million acres of federal land in northern Arizona.
The 20-year withdrawal of these lands from "mineral entry" blocks access to hundreds of millions of pounds of the highest-grade uranium ore to be found in the country. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the northern Arizona parcels contain uranium that, mined to capacity, would generate enough electricity to power Los Angeles for 154 years. Expect the Obama campaign to tell its green funders how the Administration "saved the Grand Canyon" from corporate despoilers as the Presidential race heats up.
What is surprising is the extent to which the mining ban seems to have been made without regard for the Interior Department's own conclusions about the potential environmental effects. According to the Bureau of Land Management's environmental impact statement on the withdrawal, mining would have "no direct impacts" on protected wilderness areas. The impact on drinking-water supply in the Colorado River was also found to be "negligible."
We love the Grand Canyon as much as anyone, but protecting treasured landscapes is not incompatible with job creation and economic growth. Why bother with an environmental impact assessment if the decision was always going to be made for political reasons?
The Administration contends that the withdrawal merely prohibits new mineral entry on the land, and that previously approved projects will still be allowed to go ahead. But mining based on pre-existing rights is restricted to known deposits, the total uranium output of which is a small fraction of the area's potential. The withdrawal also blocks previously claimed sites from being further explored for uranium endowment, meaning that some claimants will not be able to extract full value from their existing rights.
All of this will go over splendidly in an area of northern Arizona with a 17% unemployment rate. The land bureau's impact statement estimates that Mr. Salazar's withdrawal will cost the region $160 million in average annual economic output—no small change over 20 years. Too bad this Administration remains more focused on pleasing its Sierra Club donors than creating jobs.
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2)US Will Be Less Competitive in Three Years, Harvard Survey Warns
The U.S. economy will be less competitive in three years thanks to constant political bickering, faltering schools, and a convoluted tax code, a survey of Harvard Business School alumni finds.
Three quarters of the respondents see U.S. companies as less competitive in three years as emerging-market economies gain ground.
"The U.S. is losing ground to emerging economies, where low wages, increasingly skilled workers, growing markets and proximity to customers frequently trump traditional American strengths such as sophisticated infrastructure, a reliable legal system and effective macroeconomic policy," he Wall Street Journal reports, pointing to the survey.
While calls have grown for the U.S. to stay out of the business sector, the Obama administration says government spending and influence is necessary if the country is to keep its edge.
A Commerce Department study finds government spending will be needed in infrastructure, education and research in the coming years.
"Some elements of the U.S. economy are losing their competitive edge, which may mean that future generations of Americans will not enjoy a higher standard of living than is enjoyed in the United States today," the study presented to Congress finds, according to the AFP newswire.
"Common to all three pillars — research, education, and infrastructure — is that they are areas where government has made, and should continue to make, significant investments."
The Commerce Department adds that the government doesn't feel the need to intrude in areas where private investment thrives but rather, in areas where the private sector is tending to avoid.
"For a variety of reasons, the private sector under-invests in these areas, so the government needs to step in to bring investment up to the socially optimal levels.
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3)These people are not helpful in preserving American values!
There are very few of us who know just what all of Obama's Czars do, as they quietly go about their "work" in the nation's capital. This listing of their names and job descriptions should be educational to all Americans, no matter what your political leaning. If you resent the existence of these extra-governmental "officials," with their very generous salaries funded by--you guessed it--you, the taxpayer, then get angry with the one who put these characters on the payroll. Realize what they want to do: Richard Holbrooke - Afghanistan Czar (died) Ultra-liberal, anti-gun, former Governor Of New Mexico. Pro-Abortion and pro- drug legalization. Wants to dissolve the 2nd Amendment. Ed Montgomery - Auto recovery Czar Radical anti-business, black activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. University of Maryland Business School Dean ; teaches that U. S. business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member. Jeffrey Crowley - AIDS Czar Radical Homosexual. Gay Rights activist. Believes in Gay Marriage and a special status for homosexuals only, including complete free health care for gays. Alan Bersin - Border Czar The former failed superintendent of San Diego . Ultra-Liberal friend of Hillary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno - to keep borders open to illegals without interference from the Federal Government. David J. Hayes - California Water Czar Senior Fellow of radical environmentalist group "Progress Policy." No training or experience in water management whatsoever. Ron Bloom - Car Czar Auto Union worker. Anti- business & anti- nuclear. Has worked hard to force U. S. auto makers out of business. Sits on the Board of Chrysler, which is now Union-owned. How did this happen? Dennis Ross - Central Region Czar (left administration) Believes U. S. policy is the cause of war in the Middle East . Obama-apologist to the world. Anti-gun and completely Pro-Abortion. Lynn Rosenthal - Domestic Violence Czar Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Vicious anti-male feminist. Supports male castration - imagine? Gil Kerlikowske - Drug Czar Devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun-law proposal; former Chief of Police in liberal Seattle , WA . Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of all drugs. Paul Volcker - Economic Czar Former head of the Federal Reserve under Jimmy Carter, when U.S. economy nearly failed. Obama-appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which engineered the Obama economic disaster to U.S. economy. Member of anti-business "Progressive Policy" organization. Carol Browner - Energy and Environment Czar Political Radical. Former head of the EPA - known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership. Joshua DuBois - Faith-Based Czar Political Black activist. Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti-gun ownership lobbyist. WHAT THE HELL DOES A FAITH BASED CZAR DO ? ? ? Cameron Davis - Great Lakes Czar Chicago radical, anti-business, environmentalist. Blames George Bush for "Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink." No experience or training in water management whatsoever. Former ACORN Board member. (What does that tell us?) Van Jones - Green Jobs Czar (since resigned) Black activist with strong anti-white views. Member of American Communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party. Said George Bush caused the 9-11 attacks and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Daniel Fried - Guantanamo Closure Czar Human Rights activist for Foreign Terrorists. Believes America has caused the Global War on Terrorism. Believes terrorists have rights above and beyond Americans. Nancy-Ann DeParle - Health Czar Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong proponent of Healthcare Rationing, i.e. "Death Panels." She is married to a reporter for The New York Times. Vivek Kundra - Information Czar Born in New Delhi , India . Controls all public information, including labels and news releases. Monitors all private Internet emails. (HELLO?) Todd Stern - International Climate Czar Anti-business, former White House Chief of Staff. Strong supporter of the Kyoto Accord; pushing hard for Cap-and-Trade. Blames U. S. business for Global warming. Anti- U. S. business prosperity. Dennis Blair - Intelligence Czar Retired U. S. Navy. Stopped U. S. guided missile program he described as "provocative." Chair of ultra-liberal "Council on Foreign Relations," which blames American organizations for regional wars. George Mitchell - Mideast Peace Czar (since resigned) Former Senator from Maine Left-wing radical. Has said Israel should be split up into "2 or 3...smaller, more manageable plots". (God forbid.) A true anti-nuclear, anti-gun, and pro-homosexual "special rights" advocate. Kenneth Feinberg - Pay Czar Chief of Staff to Ted Kennedy. Lawyer who got rich off the 9-11 victims payoffs (horribly true). Cass Sunstein - Regulatory Czar Liberal activist judge, who believes free speech needs to be limited for the "common good;" essentially against the 1st Amendment. Has ruled against personal freedoms many times on private gun-ownership and right-to-free speech cases. This guy has to be run out of Washington ! ! ! John Holdren - Science Czar Fierce ideological environmentalist, Sierra Club anti-business activist. Claims U. S. business has caused world poverty. No Science training. Earl Devaney - Stimulus Accountability Czar Spent career trying to take guns away from American citizens. Believes in Open Borders to Mexico . Author of statement blaming U. S. gun stores for drug war in Mexico . J. Scott Gration - Sudan Czar Native of Democratic Republic of Congo . Believes U. S. does little to help Third World countries. Council of Foreign Relations, asking for higher U. S. taxes to support United Nations. Herb Allison - TARP Czar Fannie Mae CEO responsible for the U. S. recession by using real estate mortgages to back up the U. S. stock market. Caused millions of people to lose their life savings. John Brennan - Terrorism Czar Anti-CIA activist. No training in diplomatic or gov. affairs. Believes in Open Borders to Mexico and a dialog with terrorists, and has suggested Obama disband U. S. military. A TOTAL MORON !!!!! Aneesh Chopra - Technology Czar No Technology training. Worked for the Advisory Board Company, a health care think tank for hospitals. Anti-doctor activist. Supports Obama Healthcare Rationing, i.e. Death Panels, and salaried doctors working exclusively for the Government Healthcare plan. Adolfo Carrion Jr. - Urban Affairs Czar Puerto Rico-born, Anti-American activist, and leftist group member in Latin America . Millionaire "slum lord" of Bronx , NY . Owns many lavish homes and condos which he got from "sweetheart" deals with labor unions. Wants higher taxes on middle class to pay for minority housing and healthcare. Ashton Carter - Weapons Czar Leftist. Wants all private weapons in U. S. destroyed. Supports U.N. ban on firearms ownership in America . No other "policy." Gary Samore - WMD Policy Czar Former U. S. Communist. Wants U. S. to destroy all WMD unilaterally as a show of good faith. Has no other "policy" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4)Civilization in Reverse Victor Davis Hanson In Greek mythology, the prophetess Cassandra was doomed both to tell the truth and to be ignored. Our modern version is a bankrupt Greece that we seem to discount. News accounts abound now of impoverished Athens residents scrounging pharmacies for scarce aspirin -- as Greece is squeezed to make interest payments to the supposedly euro-pinching German banks. Such accounts may be exaggerations, but they should warn us that yearly progress is never assured. Instead, history offers plenty of examples of life becoming far worse than it had been centuries earlier. The biographer Plutarch, writing 500 years after the glories of classical Greece, lamented that in his time weeds grew amid the empty colonnades of the once-impressive Greek city-states. In America, most would prefer to live in the Detroit of 1941 than the Detroit of 2011. The quality of today's air travel has regressed to the climate of yesterday's bus service. In 2000, Greeks apparently assumed that they had struck it rich with their newfound money-laden European Union lenders -- even though they certainly had not earned their new riches through increased productivity, the discovery of more natural resources, or greater collective investment and savings. The brief Euro mirage has vanished. Life in Athens is zooming backward to the pre-EU days of the 1970s. Then, most imported goods were too expensive to buy, medical care was often premodern, and the city resembled more a Turkish Istanbul than a European Munich. The United States should pay heed to the modern Greek Cassandra, since our own rendezvous with reality is rapidly approaching. The costs of servicing a growing national debt of more than $15 trillion are starting to squeeze out other budget expenditures. Americans are no longer affluent enough to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to import oil, while we snub our noses at vast new oil and gas finds beneath our own soil and seas. In my state, Californians for 40 years have hiked taxes; grown their government; vastly expanded entitlements; put farmland, timberland and oil and gas lands off limits; and opened their borders to millions of illegal aliens. They apparently assumed that they had inherited so much wealth from prior generations and that their state was so naturally rich, that a continually better life was their natural birthright. It wasn't. Now, as in Greece, the veneer of civilization is proving pretty thin in California. Hospitals no longer have the money to offer sophisticated long-term medical care to the indigent. Cities no longer have the funds to self-insure themselves from the accustomed barrage of monthly lawsuits. When thieves rip copper wire out of street lights, the streets stay dark. Most state residents would rather go to the dentist these days than queue up and take a number at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Hospital emergency rooms neither have room nor act as if there's much of an emergency. Traffic flows no better on most of the state's freeways than it did 40 years ago -- and often much worse, given the crumbling infrastructure and increased traffic. Once-excellent K-12 public schools now score near the bottom in nationwide tests. The California state university system keeps adding administrators to the point where they have almost matched the number of faculty, although half of the students who enter CSU need remedial reading and math. Despite millions of dollars in tutoring, half the students still don't graduate. The taxpayer is blamed in constant harangues for not ponying up more money, rather than administrators being faulted for a lack of reform. In 1960 there were far fewer government officials, far fewer prisons, far fewer laws and far fewer lawyers -- and yet the state was a far safer place than it is a half-century later. Technological progress -- whether iPhones or Xboxes -- can often accompany moral regress. There are not yet weeds in our cities, but those too may be coming. The average Californian, like the average Greek, forgot that civilization is fragile. Its continuance requires respect for the law, tough-minded education, collective thrift, private investment, individual self-reliance, and common codes of behavior and civility -- and exempts no one from those rules. Such knowledge and patterns of civilized behavior, slowly accrued over centuries, can be lost in a single generation. A keen visitor to Athens -- or Los Angeles -- during the last decade not only could have seen that things were not quite right, but also could have concluded that they could not go on as they were. And so they are not. Washington, please take heed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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