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I'm Back

After a long layover I am back and prepared to start blogging again.

NYT: Talking about a candidates religion is racist but only if that candidate is Obama

Just last week the media and Democratic operatives went crazy at the idea that a GOP Super PAC was going to run ads highlighting President Obama's 20 year association with Rev. Wright.

It would put "race front and center" claimed NBC, the NYT termed it "racial politics, 2012 style." Even Obama's own campaign claimed that to talk about Obama sitting in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years as he said things like "God Damn America" was racist and therefore off limits.
Surely Mitt Romney's religious background should be off limits, right? Wrong.

It goes on for 4 pages and then the "reporter" went on MSNBC to talk about how much of a hypocrite Romney is for engaging in political attacks.

"The way I reported the story is I really talked to members of the LDS church who are close to Romney, who have worshiped with him over the years, who really know him. And they see one conflict in particular, which is between the kind of ideals that Romney professed in church. He put a lot of emphasis on treating other people well, on being sensitive and respectful, on being generous and giving, talked a lot about Jesus' lessons in those manner. And yet these Mormons see the way Romney is carrying out political attacks, some of which are very harsh and they see a conflict between what he taught in church and what he does on the campaign trail," Kantor said.

My question is why exactly is Romney's religious history fair game but Obama's is verboten? Enough with the double standard bull. Either Obama's 20 year friendship and church membership in a church that preached black liberation theology is fair game for political attacks or Romney's Mormon roots are not.

Making Homes Affordable?

What happens when the homes that saw their mortgages reduced under Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program go back up in value? Do the home owners see their mortgages go back up to account for the fact that the housing market has rebounded? Or do these home owners get to continue with a taxpayer subsidized mortgage of, say, 100k when their home is now worth 140k?

Sen. Tester (D-MT) says that Obama didn't stay focused on jobs and the economy

Makes sense, Obama himself did say that he "forgets [the magnitude of the recession]"

Sen. Jon Tester stands by President Barack Obama on issues like health care reform and withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but often thinks the Democratic leader doesn’t go far enough where rural Montana issues are concerned.

In an interview at the Missoulian on Friday, the first-term senator from Big Sandy said Obama didn’t stay focused enough on stimulating jobs and the economy after the financial meltdown of 2008. Passage of his Small Company Capital Formation Act in April – to help employers raise money for expansion – could have been done two years ago and sped up the recovery, he said.

While I like that Tester is saying this, and it will make a great ad for Romney or a Super PAC to run, I don't think he is correct. The sluggish economy isn't because Obama forgot to focus on it enough - it is because he tried to use his recession as a way to further expand the power of the government.

Instead of making it easier for companies to form and to hire, Obama used his recession to push for an expensive, government controlled health care system. He poured hundreds of billions of dollars into make work programs that are neither stimulative nor effective ways to promote long term growth. He has strangled businesses with new regulations and the threat of taxes so that they don't know if they will be able to afford to open a new plant or hire new employees.

Basically everything Obama has done during his recession has only helped prolong it. If Obama would stop trying to use his recession to further government control then the economy would improve but we all know that will never happen. Thanks to Obama's "never let a crisis go to waste" policy America will continue to suffer for as long as he is President.

Obama thinks Romney is a traitor.

Not really, but since the left went crazy over Romney not immediately castigating some lady who said Obama should be tried for treason it stands to reason that Obama should be castigated for yelling out that Mitt Romney is a traitor, right?

The shout from the crowd was clear. As President Barack Obama gave the first official campaign speech of his re-election bid at a sports arena in Ohio last weekend the first mention of his Republican opponent Mitt Romney prompted a male voice in the throng to yell: “Traitor!”

Do I think that Obama believes that Romney is a traitor or that every thing his supporters say should reflect back to him? Of course not, that would be absurd and idiotic. Then again, the Obama campaign claimed that everything Romney supporters say reflects back on him so fair is fair right?

By then, Obama's spin machine was in high gear, accusing Romney of a lack of leadership for not disagreeing with the questioner's accusation of treason.

"Time after time in this campaign, Mitt Romney has had the opportunity to show that he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric and time after time, he has failed to do so," Obama campaign spokesman Lis Smith said in a statement.

What's good for the goose.

Obama Should Apologize

Fresh off the heels of the beginning of a new national nightmare, that is Mitt Romney engaging in the type of high school pranks and hazing that every normal high school guy has engaged in, comes new information that Obama pushed a little girl once. As chronicled in "his" autobiography Dreams From My Father

There was one other child in my class, though, who reminded me of a different sort of pain. Hre name was Coretta, and before my arrival she had been the only black person in our grade. She was plump and dark and didn't seem to have many friends. From the first day, we avoided each other but watched from a distance, as if direct contact would only remind us more keenly of our isolation.

Finally, during recess one hot, cloudless day, we found ourselves occupying the same corner of the playground. I don't remember what we said to each other, but I remember that suddenly she was chasing me around the jungle gyms and swings. She was laughing brightly, and I teased hre and dodged this way and that, until she finally caught me and we fell to the ground breathless. When I looked up, I saw a group of children, faceless before the glare of the sun, pointing down at us.

"Coretta has a boyfriend! Coretta has a boyfriend!"

The chants grew louder and more kids circled us.

"She's not my g-girlfriend," I stammered. I looked to Coretta for some assistance, but she just stood there looking down at the ground. "Coretta's got a boyfriend! Why don't you kiss her, mister boyfriend?"

"I'm not her boyfriend!" I shouted. I ran up to Coretta and gave her a slight shove; she staggerd back and looked up at me, but still said nothing. "Leave me alone!" I shouted again. And suddenly Coretta was running, faster and faster until she disappeared from sight. Appreciative laughs rose around me. Then the bell rang, and the teachers appeared to round us back into class.

To this day he has never apologized publicly to little miss Coretta. Since it is now big news what our candidates for President did before they were adults shouldn't we be discussing this incident? And if not, why?

Updated Unemployment Revision numbers for the entire Obama Presidency

An updated version of my most recent chart comparing the initial weekly unemployment claims vs the revisions put out by Obama's Department of Labor.

I found some interesting information while I was compiling this data. For instance, 5 of the 14 downward revisions came during a 2 month period from November 2009 to January 2010 and there hasn't been a downward revision since February 19, 2011. That means during Obama's time as President there has been an upward revision 88.2% of the time.

How does that compare to Bush? Well, in his last 55 weeks in office there were 8 downward revisions and 6 spot on estimates for an upward revision 74.5% of the time.

For a larger version click the images.

Perpetual Victimhood and the Decline of Personal Responsibility

I've been thinking about this for a long time but something that Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Massachusetts, said today really upset me.

After being caught shamelessly lying about her "cherokee heritage" she attempted to shift the conversation away from her brazen lie to an attack on how Scott Brown hates women. Amazingly, in the fantasy world that Elizabeth Brown lives in it is now sexist to call a proven liar a liar - if she happens to be a women.

“The only one as I understand it who’s raising any question about whether or not I was qualified for my job is Scott Brown and I think I am qualified and frankly I’m a little shocked to hear anybody raise a question about whether or not I’m qualified to hold a job teaching,” she said, pushing to put Brown on defense. “What does he think it takes for a woman to be qualified?”

Of course, Brown never once questioned her qualifications; he only questioned her credibility, which as Warren's history of being a liar seems like a fair question to ask.

Warren's descent into perpetual victimhood is one of the most disgusting things about modern American society. Nobody wants to take personal responsibility anymore because it is easier to blame someone else and it protects your ego by blaming your failures on outside forces.

I don't know exactly when the perpetual victimhood mentality really started to take hold but I suspect it took root during the movement to claim that any time something bad happens to a minority then it is because of discrimination and bigotry.

Did I get fired from my job because I lacked a strong work ethic? Of course not, I got fired because my boss hates handicapped people. Did I not get hired because I am slightly less qualified than someone else? Nope, it was because of racism. Am I not getting paid as much as John Doe because I work fewer hours and receive more health benefits? Absolutely not, it's because my employer is a sexist.

Over and over again we see our goverment openly rooting for people to give up personal responsiblity and to join the brotherhood of perpetual victims. Just a week or so ago we saw the Department of Justice file a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville because the city firefighters partly base their promotions on how well the firefighters do on a written skills test. The DoJ claimed that the test is racist because the black firefighters don't do as well as the white firefighters do.

It seems to me that crying racism or sexism or any other form of bigotry simply implies that the "victim" is unable to rise through the ranks or survive in the world without mamma government there to treat them as children unable to care for themselves. That to me is much more of a bigoted mindset than just about anything the government is fighting against.

There is a reason that liberal politicians seeks to expand the brotherhood of perpetual victims though - it not only keeps them in power it gives them even more power. Why do you think Obama, Pelosi, etc... have expended so much of their energy on the myth that the GOP is engaged in a "war on women" or "war on minorities?" They have no positive record to stand on so the only way they can win is by getting a huge segment of America to believe that they are the victims that only an ever expanding government can protect and keep safe.

I will never understand why someone would let themselves be conned into the becoming perpetual victims. Is there genuine racism and sexism out there? Yes and we should fight to eradicate those evils from our world but when the brotherhood of perpetual victims chimes in and makes every negative comment out to be the work of nefarious agents it diminishes actual victims.

Initial Weekly Unemployment Claims vs Revised Claims

Every week that the Department of Labor publishes the new unemployment claims for the week it seems that the previous weeks number has been "unexpectedly" revised upward. In fact, 64 of the last 68 weeks have seen upward revisions. For those of you who are more visually inclined here is a handy chart I made that includes the official DoL numbers going back to January 1, 2011.

For a larger version click here.