Obama Proposes to Make Economy Worse

My goodness, these are stupid proposals.

Democrat Barack Obama proposed more immediate steps Monday to heal the nation’s ailing economy including a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures…

What will that do, exactly?  People who can’t afford their homes are not likely to be able to afford them any better in three months.  They are being foreclosed on because they can’t pay their mortgage.  All this will do is allow people to live for free in a house that they can’t afford for 90 days, then all of those houses will be foreclosed on and put on the market to create even more of a housing glut thus driving down home prices even further. 

...at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs…

He also called for a $3,000 tax credit for each additional full-time job a business creates. That means a business that adds five jobs would get a $15,000 break. That would end after 2010 and would cost $40 billion, the campaign estimates.

Um, OK.  If a company can’t afford to create a new job now, how will offering them $3k in tax credits help them?  It’s not nearly enough to justify the expense of adding a full time job.  All this will do is had cash out to companies that are already creating jobs.  It’s great for those companies, but does nothing to help the economy.

With the economic turmoil weighing down his Republican presidential rival, Obama also proposed allowing people to withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts without any penalty this year and next.

Isn’t this precisely what we should NOT do?  First off, Americans should be saving for their retirement - now more than ever.  We should encourage people to save, not encourage them to spend beyond their means.  Second, where does Obama think that the money in those retirement accounts is?  It’s in the stock market!  Can you imagine the negative impact on the markets if 100 million people cash out $10k of their investments?  It will further depress the market. 

Obama’s plans are economically naive.  It wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that he might be our next president. 

Feeling Vicious Today?

This should help.

Thanks, Beth.

Thomas Sowell Takes Obama to Task On His Record

Newsflash: Obama is a bona fide liberal. 

Obama has had more than two dozen of his own earmarks in the past fiscal year, and he knows the Senate well enough to know that, if he voted against the bridge to nowhere, his own earmarks might get nowhere.

Those earmarks, incidentally, included a million dollars of the taxpayers’ money for a facility where his wife works at the University of Chicago. Her salary rose by nearly $200,000 when her husband became a United States Senator-- no doubt a shrewd investment by the university that paid off.

When a highly publicized bridge collapse in Minnesota in 2007 led Senator Tom Coburn to propose taking money from federal spending on bicycle paths and use it for maintaining and repairing bridges instead, Senator Obama voted against it. The kind of people who vote for him want bike paths.

Moreover, the very idea of taking money from one thing to use for something with a higher priority-- something that we all have to do in our own personal lives-- is foreign to the liberal big spenders in Washington.

When they want more money for some purpose, they simply raise the tax rates. They don’t cut spending somewhere else.

The idea that Barack Obama is somehow different from other liberal-left politicians can only be based on his rhetoric, because his actual track record shows him to differ only in being further left than most liberals and at least as opportunistic.

McCain Plans to Whip Obama

Seriously? 

In an effort to energize supporters at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., John McCain on Sunday may have also whipped up a little controversy with a remark that he’d “whip” Barack Obama’s “you know what” at the next debate.

The presidential candidates are meeting Wednesday in their final televised debate before the Nov. 4 election.

But McCain’s pledge—coming after two days of racial grievances aired by McCain’s camp over a comparison made by Rep. John Lewis of McCain to the late Gov. George Wallace—has sent shivers down the spines of some Republicans who find the racially charged verb may be used against the candidate.

The phrase “whip your butt” or “I’m going to whip your butt” has been a part of the lexicon for what.... two centuries?  And now it’s suddenly racist when talking about DEBATING a biracial presidential candidate?

Please.  The Obama outrage machine is officially in overdrive. 

Federal Government Might Partially Nationalize Banking System

This headline should scare the crap out of you.

Bush administration weighs plan for government to take temporary ownership stakes in banks

Yes, it is what it looks like.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said an administration proposal to inject federal money directly into certain banks, in effect partially nationalizing the banking system, “is gaining steam.”

Blazing Saddles Showing Prompts Racism Charge

This guy ever hear of satire?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has apologized to a black student who during a class last year was shown a clip of the movie “Blazing Saddles” that features racial epithets.

During a seminar for working professionals, an instructor showed a scene of the 1974 comedy in which blacks are shown working on a railroad, according to a complaint filed by the student. Whites call the workers racial epithets and an overseer orders them to sing like slaves.

The student complained and the school’s Office of Equity and Diversity, which investigates racial discrimination, got involved. That prompted an apology in March from the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies, which offered the course.

Obama Invites ACORN to Set The Agenda

Hat tip Wizbang.

Grab Life By the…

Hmmm…

Caption This

Golden Gun Stolen

I love how they tell the thief how they plan to catch him/her. 

The £80,000 golden gun used in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun has been stolen from studios in Hertfordshire.

The gun was noticed to be missing from Elstree Studios on Friday. It was made for the film starring Sir Roger Moore and Christopher Lee.

Lee played Scaramanga, hired to kill Bond for $1m with the gun made from a pen, a cigarette case and a lighter.

The studios hope the golden gun will be offered to a memorabilia dealer.

It is then hoped the thief will be able to be traced via the dealer.

OK, folks… this is a great time for all of us to tell each other what our favorite Bond movie is.  I think mine is You Only Live Twice.  You?  Note: anyone who says Moonraker will be slowly dipped into a shark pool while I take my final steps to world domination.

“They have guns and weapons—how can we resist?”

What a shame.

Demolition teams wielding axes and machetes this week smashed up popular beach bars, one still bearing a sign saying “Paradise,” as part of an improvement scheme to develop tourism in Sierra’s Leone’s capital Freetown.

Truckloads of soldiers and armed police stood guard and pushed back journalists as demolition workers reduced illegal bars to rubble along a five-km (three-mile) stretch of Lumley Beach in the West African state’s seaside capital on Wednesday.

“They have destroyed our lives,” waiter Papa Yansanhe, 28, told Reuters in front of the ruins of the Paradise Beach Bar.

“Now I have nothing, no job, and against these vigilantes, soldiers and police I can’t do anything. They have guns and weapons—how can we resist?”

Of course, the reason that people don’t want to visit Sierra Leone is not the beach bars… it’s the roving bands of lethal thugs. 

Dems Looking at $150 Billion Bailout

For the love of all that is Holy, will you PLEASE STOP TRYING TO BAIL US OUT!?!?

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.

The bill’s total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.

Pretty soon, we’re just going to have to send all of our money to Washington so that the government can afford all of these bailouts

Palin Abuses Power

So I read the finding in which a legislative investigator said that Governor Palin abused her power.  Frankly, I don’t think it holds water.  In order to spare you from having to read the thing, let me summarize it. 

Basically, the deal is that Palin’s sister and brother-in-law went through a nasty divorce and custody battle.  The brother-in-law is Mike Wooten and was a State Trooper.  Palin’s father filed a complaint with the Troopers alleging that Wooten is basically a dirt bag and shouldn’t be entrusted to enforce the law.  This complaint was filed BEFORE Palin became governor. 

The complaint launched an administrative investigation of Wooten.  Before and then after Palin became the governor, she and her husband continued to call around to see how the investigation was going and express their opinion that they didn’t think that Wooten should be a Trooper.  Eventually, Wooten was disciplined, but not fired.  Some time after that, Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who was ultimately responsible for Wooten’s discipline. 

The charge against Palin is that she fired Monegan in retaliation for Wooten not being fired. 

The finding says that the firing of Monegan was completely appropriate, ethical, and legal.  The finding also says that Wooten properly received his workman’s compensation benefits and complains that the Attorney General isn’t cooperating. 

The big “Palin abused her power” line comes from the first finding.  It alleges that Palin broke the ethics code because she used her position of public trust for personal benefit.  I read through all of the finding (skip to page 65 for the conclusion) and it just seems very very weak to me.  Basically, it catalogs a bunch of times when one of the Palins called or emailed people about Wooten.  The finding is that by doing so, it put undue pressure on government officials for Palin’s personal reasons.  Again, remember the firing was completely legit, so this is just about the Palins calling people to discuss Wooten’s situation.

First, the Palins obviously have a personal interest in Wooten’s case since it was Palin’s father who filed the complaint and it involved a death threat against the father.  They called before and after Palin became governor, so it’s not like they only started nagging the government officials after she became governor.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with them calling to check on the case and offer an opinion.  Particularly galling is that the finding says that Todd Palin should be forbidden from contacting government officials about Wooten.  Um, Todd is not the governor and has every right in the world to speak to his government. 

Second, the Palins obviously feel that Wooten is unfit to be a State Trooper based on their personal experience with him.  Imagine that you are the Mayor and you know that one of the police officers on the force is an unstable nut bag.  Wouldn’t you be morally obligated to do everything you legally can to get the guy off the force?  Yeah, you would.  Governor Palin thinks that Wooten is unfit.  You may disagree with her assessment, but I would argue that she’s in a better position to know Wooten than I am. 

Third, the findings show that Palin never asked or told anyone to act illegally, break procedures, or act unethically.  All Sarah and Todd Palin did was followup on Wooten’s status and voice their own opinions on the matter.  What the heck is wrong with that? 

Look, if the finding had proven that Palin fired Monegan in retaliation for his not firing Wooten, then I think that would be a legitimate abuse of power.  It would have been legal, because Monegan serves at the pleasure of the Governor, but certainly abusive.  But the finding didn’t show that.  If the finding had shown that Palin ordered someone to fire Wooten and bypass the normal process, that would have been an abuse of power.  But the finding didn’t show that either.

It shows a pattern of Sarah and Todd Palin contacting people about Wooten’s case before and after she became governor to find out what’s going on with Wooten and to voice their opinion.  Sorry, but this was neither unethical or an abuse of power. 

Miss You

From Candlebox’s new album, Into the Sun, which is one of my top 3 albums of the year.

Prevailing Wages Drive Up Government Spending

This story is a fantastic example of how most government projects have ridiculous additional costs that private projects do not. 

Jackson’s Community Building, breaking ground next Friday across from Hickory Lane Park, is $1 million over budget.

Village officials believed the building, which will house Jackson’s Boys And Girls Club and host several village and town functions, would cost $2.6 million. The village agreed to split the cost with the Boys And Girls Club and with the town of Jackson. The Boys and Girls Club will pay $800,000, the town will pay about $400,000, and the village will pay the rest.

Design2Construct president Jim Blise told the village board at a Sept. 30 special meeting that the cost of the community building project would be closer to $3.6 million. Because the town and Boys And Girls Club contributions are fixed, the village has to take on all of the added cost. Cutting corners on the building’s design will only save about $100,000 to $150,000 before the cost-cutting starts to affect the quality of the facility.

Village Administrator Del Beaver said the higher cost comes from the village’s decision to publicly bid the community building project. Originally, Beaver said, the building would be a design-build project, where the village would negotiate a price with a builder to make the building. After its completion, the builder would turn the community building over to the Boys And Girls Club, Beaver said.

The village decided it would make more sense if the village owned, insured and managed the building, Beaver said, which requires the public bidding process.

“Design-build can be a negotiated number, whereas with the public bidding process you have to advertise it and bid it in accordance with state law and pay prevailing wage rates. There’s a lot more steps to be taken and a lot of those steps cost money,” Beaver said.

Prevailing wage rates alone added $200,000 to $300,000 to the community building’s cost, Beaver said. Electrical and HVAC equipment also accounted for a significant part of the increase, he said.

The choice of Jackson to use the public bidding process, which mandates prevailing wage rates, instead of the design-build process, it meant that the taxpayers would have to spend $200,000 to $300,000 for the exact same results. 

This was only $2.6 million project.  Project these unjustified costs over a project at $119.3 million.  How much of that is just pure waste?  A lot. 

Prevailing wage requirements are only one of the political requirements that drive up the costs of public projects.