Hooray! The Bailout Worked!

"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase" (Proverbs 13:11, King James Version).

"Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time" (Proverbs 13:11, New Living Translation).


Yet more evidence that welfare, corporate or otherwise, is a great idea that has a positive economic impact:

From CNBC reports by journalist David Faber --

American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned.

Sources close to the company said the loss will be near $60 billion due to writedowns on a variety of assets including commercial real estate.

That massive loss is likely to spur downgrades in its insurance and credit ratings that will force AIG to raise collateral that it doesn't have.

In addition, if AIG's book value falls below a certain level, as it seems certain to do, it will trigger default in certain of its debt instruments, say people familiar with the situation.

All of this adds up to a huge headache for the Federal Reserve and Treasury, which have already provided over $150 billion of assistance to AIG.

Full article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/29353282 .

David Faber has been on CNBC asking: "Where did we go wrong? Should we just have done nothing and accepted the pain rather than throwing good money after bad?"

Good question. Or maybe he was making a point. Good point.

Turkish Reporter Mocks Obama in Blackface

Apparently traveling overseas with one's hat in one's hand and insulting your own country in a misguided attempt to curry favor with the subjects of a foreign land, is not a very effective way of gaining respect. Appeasement has a bad historical record, according to some guy named Neville Chamberlain....

This Turkish reporter mocks Barack Obama by delivering the news in blackface.




Where are all the American Poverty Pimps and Race Whores complaining about this one?

Lesson: If you engage in principled opposition to a black liberal in America, you are a racist, though your disagreements center only on ideas and have nothing to do with skin color. But if you are a foreigner (especially a Muslim!) who paints his face in mockery of a black US president, liberals will be glad to overlook it.

After all, to criticize their actions would be so Eurocentric and would demonstrate a lack of tolerance. We need to learn to appreciate the expression of thought from other nations, don't we, O ye liberals? Multiculturalism, man!

Barack Obama: Foreign Policy Genius

On the day after Billy Bob Barry Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama was elected, I noted that the world - and the United States in particular - would be less safe because of his election.

I stated that in this blog entry: http://www.thoughts.com/contraeverything/blog/george-w-bush-a-near-great-president-172318/ .

Obama's lack of a realistic vision of human nature, especially as such a vision translates into an effective foreign policy, guarantees that there will be more terrorist attacks on Americans and that foreign policy interests will suffer.

George H. W. Bush, and his son Dubya, while constantly criticized by the neurotic left, actually managed to secure significant cooperation from foreign governments in their foreign policy excursions. I still remember the utter surprise I felt when I learned that the Saudi Arabian government was cooperating with the U.S. in the Iraq operation. And of course, George W. managed to get nearly worldwide cooperation for both the actions in Iraq and in Afghanistan - even from the likes of the French and the Japanese.

















Obama set as a core goal of his G20 trip to gain commitments from current allies to send more of their troops into Afghanistan.

As everything involving foreign policy for Obama - from his Russian "easy button" to the G20 itself - he was an utter and complete failure.

Our closest allies, the British, committed to send 700 additional troops - but only for the time surrounding upcoming elections in Afghanistan. Obama had sought in excess of 1,000 troops with a commitment to much longer involvement.

Other than that, only the Belgians and Spanish are sending troops. The Belgians will send 35 "trainers," and the Spanish will send 12. Yes, you read that right - 47 new troops combined from those two countries.

Story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6032342.ece .

And every other country flatly turned Obama down.

This whole alliance-building thing is a lot harder than it appears from the ivory tower of a law school, isn't it Skippy?... errrrrr, I mean Mr. Obama?

And apparently it takes much more than petulant scolding to have an effect on the psychopaths in North Korea. After Obama smarmily reminded the Communists that North Korea's unwillingness to be properly put in their place by his "warnings" was precisely the type of behavior "that has led to North Korea's isolation in the international community for a long time" on April 3, Pyongyang launched a test missle over Japan on April 5.

Story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6029272.ece .

Billy Bob Barry Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama is the proverbial dog chasing the bus. Now that he has caught the bus, he doesn't know what to do with it.

I am sure there are some foreign powers who rejoice, even as we watch these events unfold, that Americans do not have a baseline expectation of competence in their chief executives any longer....

Barack Obama: Too Much Spending for Democrats!

Now the Obama administration is stacking chits and keeping score against DEMOCRATIC opposition to his spending-free-as-water ways.

Apparently, Billy Bob Barry Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama is too radical a socialist even for DEMOCRATS at this point.

[The Obama Administration's} targets were initially Republicans, as team Obama ran ads depicting the GOP as the "party of no." But now the fire is being trained on Democrats worried about runaway spending.

Americans United is going after Democrats who are skeptical of Mr. Obama's plans to double the national debt in five years and nearly triple it in 10. The White House is taking aim at lawmakers in 12 states, including Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. MoveOn.Org is running ads aimed at 10 moderate Senate and House Democrats. And robocalls are urging voters in key districts to pressure their congressman to get in line.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123862834153780427.html

Barack Obama: Ghetto Fabulous

There is a type of populism that is admirable. Think of Thomas Jefferson answering the door of the White House himself. And in his bathrobe.

But then there is a type of cluelessness born of being firmly rooted in the lower classes, no matter how much wealth and power one may amass.

And Barack Obama is one of the most classless individuals on the planet, for shizzle.

When the leaders of two countries meet for the first time, it is customary for them to exchange gifts with one another. Generally, the gifts are simple, classy, and unique expressions of some aspect of the home country's culture or history. Think of a bottle of wine from France, or something containing a small diamond from South Africa.

When Barack Obama met English Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time in the White House, Brown brought him an exquisite carved ornamental pen holder from the planks of the English anti-slavery ship, HMS Gannet. Simple. Exquisite. Unique. Meaningful. Reservedly English.

In return, Barack Obama offered to Prime Minister Brown a sack of 25 DVDs. Now wait - good DVDs. Psycho was one of them. Star Wars.

As of today, more than 2,000 letters of apology from U.S. citizens have been received by the English government.

Brown's gift? Exquisite. Meaningful. Obama's gift? Wal-Mart. Trailer park. Ghetto.

To make matters worse, Obama seems blissfully ignorant that DVDs are regionally coded, to make it impossible for new DVD releases to be mass-released overseas while the movies themselves are still in theaters in foreign countries. So the DVDs given by Obama are not even capable of being played in England.

Ghetto fabulous.

See the article in the Christian Science Monitor here: http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/03/31/obama-in-europe-more-dvds-for-gordon-brown/ .

So this week Obama meets the Queen of England for the first time. Again, a traditional gift is presented to her. She is, after all, the Queen.

Obama's gift? An ipod.

An ipod filled with his own speeches. Yes, Barack Obama's speeches.

I'm not kidding

See it here: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/what-does-one-g.html .

And to make matters worse, the Queen already owned an ipod.

So I think I can anticipate Billy Bob Barry Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama's re-election slogan: VOTE FOR ME. I'M GHETTO FABULOUS.

Is there any place to hide from this lower class buffoon?

Promises, Promises

That Democrats have their own, unique (read: "special") definition of what "keeping one's campaign promises" means is obvious. Who can forget George Stephanopoulis' statement that Billy Bob "Floral Oral" Clinton "kept all of his promises that he intended to keep"?

Billy Bob Barry Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama seems to be of the same philosophy on campaign promises. Let's see - I promise to close Gitmo, NOT! I promise to bring the troops home, NOT! And now, I promise to not raise taxes on the middle class., PSYCH!

From an AP wire report:

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

(http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D979POSG0&show_article=1 )

Somebody wanna start explaining to me the concept of the "Lyin' Messiah" now?

More Obamazombie Stupidity

The unthinking masses, those who believe that Oprah is a legitimate source of morality, and those that actually think that The Daily Show is a news source - in short, the Obamazombies, are now out in force defending their Messiah with their agile mental midgetry.

In the face of the foverwhelming evidence demonstrating that Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama is in fact 1) a liar and 2) incompetent, the Obamazombie Club (decoder ring in every fourth box of Ghetto Fabulous Sugar Smacks) is amassing its forces to come to the rescue of its cowardly cult leader.

Now, never expect an Obamazombie to engage you on the facts concerning The One. Of course, they never knew any facts about him when they decided to support him. They never knew any facts because there were no facts - Barack Obama holds the singular distinction of being the only man to ever have penned an autobiography without having first bothered to accomplish anything - rather, the Obamazombie supports The One because of some special spiritual insight obtained by their existence upon a higher spiritual plane than us wee commoners. Well, either that or too many anchovies after 8 pm, or maybe that peculiar diagnosis that they take the Xanex for... but why are we trying to figure out HOW the Obamazombie discovered The Truth about The One. The fact is that they DID discover it!

Now, let's take a look at the rhetorical flair of the Obamazombie when s/he is confronted with the facts about The (Other) Messiah.

1) It's all Bush's fault. This is a peculiar argument (peculiarity being a distinguishing trait of the Obamazombie), since the salient factors which have brought about the current economic melee both preceded Bush's tenure in office, and followed it.

The simplistic thinking of the simpleton liberal left is thoroughly revealed in its engagement in the philosophical error known as post hoc, propter hoc, which loosely translated means that "Since it followed, it was caused by." Since the mortgage meltdown and economic troubles (roughly) followed eight years of George W. Bush, then certainly Bush must have caused the whole mess. By this same type of meager excursion into attempted adult thinking, Obamazombies would determine that because Summer follows Winter, it is thereby caused by Winter.

However, even the surface logic of the Obamazombie reveals more than a touch of "Once upon a time, in a land far away...." Because the specific problems that led to the economic meltdown are only tangentially related to the Bush administration - i.e., such was the law when Bush came into office. But rather, the stupendous (or, in the Democrats' case, "stupindous") error which led to the meltdown was an initiative crafted at the hands of one Billy Bob Clinton, and various Democrats (particularly the Congressional Black Caucus) "empowered" by his oral fixations in the mid- and late-nineties.

It was, in fact, a Clinton intitiative (no doubt a part of his being our nation's "First Black President") to "reach out" to minorities who could not afford to own their own homes by demanding that they, in fact, be given access to mortgages. That there was a causal connection between someone not having a mortgage and their not being able to pay a mortgage was, of course, incidental to the thinking of the Clintonistas and their Fascist-Democratic friends - after all, ability or merit has never entered into the calculation when a bunch of socialists sit down and begin to plot how to redistribute wealth!

Nevertheless, as the great evangelist was known for preaching, there comes "Payday Someday," and that payday began to come due at the end of the Bush administration. Somehow, often through SECOND mortgages taken out to sustain the first, those who were unable to pay their mortgage had floated along, but when no more money could be lent to those who obtained mortgages only by the temper tantrums of the Congressional Black Caucus, the mortgage system failed and a domino effect ensued.

So the primary problem - that of the entire banking system faltering on its foundation - was not related to Bush at all, except as he inherited banking regulations authored by Democrats and Billy Bob "Floral Oral" Clinton which demanded unwise behavior by bankers.

All of this is documented here: http://www.openmarket.org/2008/09/16/clinton-pressure-to-promote-affordable-housing-led-to-mortgage-meltdown/ .

What about the secondary problem?

Well, the secondary problem in all of this mess is how Dorkus Maximus, otherwise known as Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama, has decided to respond to the problem that he and his Socialist Komrades have caused, supported, and/or pushed over the years.

I have an idea, he seems to say. Let's respond to a bunch of money that has been borrowed which folks are now unable to repay by borrowing a bunch of money that there is no hope that anyone will ever repay.

As I have so eloquently stated previously (see http://www.thoughts.com/contraeverything/blog/so-now-we-know-what-hope-and-change-means-262675/ ), the spending spree... errrrrrr, economic bailout now totals essenitally the amount of the Gross Domestic Product. As I have so eloquently additionally stated, the vast majority of all deficit spending done in all 200+ years of American history (see the same above-referenced blog entry) has occurred during the first less than 100 days of the Obama administration. These are facts that are undeniable, even to the morally and mentally challenged Obamazombies.

Now, because Obamazombies are ignorami (that is the plural of ignoramus, for those of you Obamazombies who went to public school), they do not understand that Obama is not the first U.S. president to have taken office during an economic crisis. Of course, Obamazombies do not understand ANYTHING, but that is beside the point. Both Kennedy and Reagan faced turbulent economic times and responded by cutting taxes - which forthwith produced a measure of economic health. Nixon and Carter, of course, responded with hiking taxes and spending simultaneously (the Obama plan) and turned a bad economy worse.

Even George W., inheriting an economic slowdown begun under Clinton (because of his massive spending increases) and exacerbated by 9/11, responded by cutting taxes and providing business stimulus and brought the economy back to health even after the catastrophe that could have been due to the terrorist attacks. Bush responded appropriately and wisely to a far greater potential catastrophe than Obama inherited.

So, the real problem is not what Obama inherited, it is what he has done since he inherited it - which is to say that he has (thus far) responded like Karl Marx on crack. He took a $4 trillion deficit accumulated over 200 years of American history and added nearly $5 trillion to it in his first less than 100 days.

So as those who are capable of sound logic (yes, I know Obamazombies, they don't teach that in public schools anymore do they?) can clearly see, the economic meltdown was CAUSED by Democrats and IS BEING EXACERBATED by Obama.


2) Everything anybody says that is negative about Obama is B.S. See discussion above. Note that historical facts are cited. Note that websites with voluminous amounts of information are provided. Can you produce counterevidence? Are you arguing that the facts are NOT as stated? Can you provide proof and a cogent argument to that effect?

I know, I know, the public schools don't teach the word "cogent" anymore. Look it up.


3) I choose to believe in Obama. Yes, and Obama chooses to believe in Fascism. And the six-year old next door chooses to believe in fairys.

The facts are pretty clear, though.

Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama is not up to the job. He is at best a liar and an incompetent. At worse, he intends to do damage to the United States so that he may remold it in the image of his own radicalism.

So Now We Know What Hope and Change Means!

What happens when you take a committed socialist with no experience in governance, who has never so much as held a legitimate adult job (and yes, I know he taught law, and having graduated from law school, I utterly deny that being a law professor is an adult job), who is full of style and resentment but utterly lacks substance and wisdom, and make him president?

In March, nearly 750,000 jobs were lost and the government "rescue" of the economy is almost equivalent to the yearly Gross Domestic Product at $12.8 trillion (see http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5303F820090401 and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=armOzfkwtCA4&refer=worldwide ).




















Welcome to the nightmare.

Barack Obama is dishonest and incompetent at best. At worst, those folks who maintain that he actually has a strategy to run the nation into the ground in order to do away with Constitutional government may actually be on to something.

During the campaign, it was a cute (though legitimate) recurring theme for those of us who knew Obama wasn't quite up to the job to ask his brain-dead cultlike following, "What does Hope and/or Change mean exactly?" One may look back in my own blogs here on thoughts and note that numerous times I referenced this question. Of course, no genuine answer ever came. Variations on this theme included asking the zombie left, between the gutteral moans accompanying their Obamagasms, "Exactly which position of Obama's do you agree with?" Well, of course, since Obama never actually took a position (other than the fifth-grade essay variety: "War bad, Peace good!"), no answers were ever forthcoming on that question either.

Well, now we know.

The Change promised by Obama includes the surrender of all fiscal responsiblity. Obama has increased the public debt of the United States by more in his first less-than-hundred-days than any other president in the history of the United States - and more than all of them combined. The cumulative federal deficit for the United States, as accumulated over more than 200 years of history, was $4.4 trillion when Obama took office. In less than 100 days in office, Obama has already proposed $4.8 trillion in deficit spending. Yet he continues to promise that the federal budget deficit will be halved by the end of his first term. Yeah, right. And Gitmo is closing and the soldiers in Iraq are coming home, right?

The Hope promised by Obama, then, certainly involves the ethereal hope that somebody, someday, may be able to pay all this fiat money back.

The Change promised by Obama includes the end of American leadership in the world economy. Again, before Obama's first 100 days had ended, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reduced to panhandling on the streets of Beijing - showing up at an economic meeting in China and, with hat in hand and trained monkey dancing, begging the Chinese not to stop investing in American government paper. "After all," she crooned, "we really need your money, and if we go down, you guys will lose everything you have already invested!" A stunning argument, sure to go down in the annals of rhetoric as one of the great appeals in all of human history.

The Chinese responded by proposing a new worldwide currency administered by the International Monetary Fund that would relieve them of the need of the American greenback entirely.

So the Hope promised by Obama likely involves the ephemeral wish that perhaps somebody other than the Chinese will start lending us money so that we can fund Obama's federal shopping spree.

The Change promised by Obama includes the end of the private sector's freedom from governmental intervention. Yes, the federal government, the same people who brought you such marvels of efficiency and service as the Post Office, is now going to make the rules for private businesses.

Remember that the very mortgage schemes that firms such as Countrywide mastered to their own detriment were originally dreamed up by Democrats and the Clinton administration in an attempt to get people into houses who could not afford the mortgages for those houses. Who saw a mortgage problem coming when you lent mortgage money to people who could not repay it? (Hint: Democrats) Now, dressed in his Super Socialist red cape, Obama rushes in and says, "The pound of flesh that I exact from the firms who did exactly what we Democrats demanded that they do, and now need governmental rescuing because of it, is that I, Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama, the Super Socialist, will now be making decisions on how to run these private companies. I will be making decisions on wage issues (so you guys over there give back those contractual bonuses!) and I will be making hiring decisions (so the head of GM is now summarily fired without Due Process of law).

So apparently the Hope promised by Obama involves the wispy notion that the federal government, who cannot adequately deliver mail or make laws without melting down the mortgage industry, is going to be able to directly run multinational organizations like AIG and GM better than people who actually have money to make or lose based on performance.

And this is killer: because Obama has so royally screwed matters up in less than 100 days in office, now the government has a hyperfemme help-me-emote website that will, I suppose, offer governmental subsidies for facial tissues since I can't stop crying as I look at the whole world collapsing under Obama's gentle and incompetent tutelage. The essence of Obamazombie hope is crystallized in the new Nanny State website, "Getting Through Tough Economic Times" at http://www.samhsa.gov/economy/. Note to self: there is a better way to get through tough economic times, and it is a proven success - ELECT REAGAN.

Finally, the Change promised by Obama includes such a headlong, trainwreck, rush into socialism that even Eurosocialists are frightened by America's descent into Marxism. Who ever thought we would see the day when the Swedes and the French would helpfully offer advice to America: "Perhaps you need to slow down on your socialist scheming?" Who ever thought that the economy of the United States could be so poorly managed - in a mere 100 days or less at that! - that the Chinese Communists would begin to lecture us on fiscal responsibility?

The real Hope? I hope the next two years goes quickly.... Vote Republican in 2010.

And I hope that a law will soon be passed taking the privilege of voting away from the brain-dead buffoons who voted for Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama. They've done enough damage already.