Wednesday, July 22, 2009

There's something about Erin


Jammie has a story on ESPN's Erin Andrews, a hotel, a Peeping Tom and a scandal. I didn't bother to read it, but here's a picture.

Feel free to click through. I'll wait here.

Cars no match for mud


Last week, residents of Busan, South Korea emerged from their homes to survey the damage from a major mudslide.





The only question that remains: how long will it be until Al Gore references these storms as 'proof positive' of global warming climate change?


"We are now in the early stages of a depression"


More uplifting news from Sprott Asset Management in a report entitled "It's the real economy, stupid" (via Zero Hedge). Highlights (eh, lowlights, I mean):

"We are now in the early stages of a depression. The economic indicators we follow to track real economic activity are all signaling a slowdown of massive proportions. You wouldn’t know it reading the mainstream papers of course – they all focus on the relative decline in the slowdown’s intensity."

In short, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Stimulus package that was passed, sight unseen, is an unmitigated Keynesian disaster:

Government Tax Revenue Declining:
· 32 of the 46 states whose fiscal year ended midnight July 1, 2009, did not have budgets signed by their Governors. States are grappling with deficits totaling a collective $121 billion...
· Personal income tax, which accounts for more than a third of state revenues, dropped by 26% in the first four months of 2009...
· The US government has spent $2.67 trillion thus far in fiscal 2009, but has only collected $1.59 trillion...
· The US government collected $685.5 billion in individual income taxes so far this year, a 22% drop from the $877.8 billion the government took in during the first nine months of 2008...
· US corporate income taxes plunged 57% to $101.9 billion in 2009, down from $236.5 billion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2008...

Retail Sales Slump:
· The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)/Goldman Sachs same-store sales tally for June was down 5.1% from June 2008, worse than the latest forecast for a 4.5% decline.
· Privately held luxury department store Neiman Marcus Group Inc. posted a 20.8% drop in same-store sales. Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s same-store sales fell 32%, even more than the 26.6% decline Wall Street had projected. 6

Unemployment Catastrophe:
· The June 2009 jobless rate reached 9.5%, the highest since 1983.
· 4 million Americans have been looking for work for more than 26 weeks, representing 29% of the unemployed – the most since records began in 1948.
· During the last 30 years, Americans who lost their jobs took an average 15.8 weeks to find new positions. In June 2009, the average duration of unemployment was 24.5 weeks, the longest since records began in 1948.
· The number of people collecting unemployment benefits reached a record 6.88 million in the week ended June 27, 2009.
· Approximately six people are seeking work for every job opening, the most since the government began keeping such records...

US Housing Market Failure:
· The annual pace of new home sales is now 342,000, a whopping 32.8% below the rate in May 2008. At the current sales pace, there is 10.2 months worth of inventory overhang sitting on the market, dragging down prices and encouraging potential buyers to wait it out as prices deflate...
· New home sales are down 73% from the all time high of 1,283,000 new homes sold in 2005 (mild recession?)...

Rail Car Loadings Suffering:
· For the first 26 weeks of 2009, US railroads reported cumulative volume of 6,806,892 carloads, down 19.2% from 2008. An excellent quote included in the June report from the Association of American Railroads stated: “Whenever Americans grow something, eat something, mine something, make something, turn on a light, or get dressed, freight railroads are probably involved somewhere along the line. Unfortunately, right now there’s not enough mining, manufacturing and buying going on. So railroads, like most other business sectors, are suffering because of it.”
· Carloads are down 22.5% from the all time high set in the first 26 weeks of 2006.

Stock Market
...at the end of June 2009, the S&P 500 traded at an inflation adjusted P/E ratio of 16.08, implying that investors were willing to pay an average of 16 times earnings for a share in the S&P 500 index. Sixteen times earnings is well below the all time, inflation-adjusted high of December 1999 (44 times), but also well above the lows of 1932 (5.57) and 1982 (6.64). As it turns out, 16 times is almost exactly at the 109-year monthly average P/E ratio – so stocks are trading at their long-term average P/E level in the current environment.

...If this is average – how low is low if investors turn their backs on stocks? There’s the real economy which generates the earnings, and then there’s the investor sentiment/perception which dictates the multiple they are willing to pay for those earnings. We already know that the real economy is in severe decline. What happens if investor sentiment changes?

Sprott foresees one of three stock market scenarios: S&P 500 at 378, 506 or (depression scenario) 189. For comparison's sake, the S&P closed at 954 today.

So the Obama Democrats just rammed through a giant Porkulus package, sight unseen, because it was going to keep unemployment from hitting 8%. It was a complete, abject failure -- just like every other socialist experiment that has ever been tried. Because a central planning model simply can not compete with the free market.

And now the Democrats want to destroy healthcare by nationalizing it.

Shouldn't only one multi-trillion dollar failure be the limit for this vintage of Democrats?



Linked by: Hot Air, Ace, BizzyBlog, Ed Driscoll, Behind Blue Lines, Black Republican, Gina Cobb, Ghost of a Flea, Right Rainbow, Novus2 and Secular Apostate. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: "A good day for the Chi-Coms"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email or reply via Twitter.

Nation

Say Agh: Obama Paid Off the AMA: Ace
Why the Obama Stimulus Plan Must Fail: Forbes
Detroit goes for all-time homicide record!: BlogProf

A most savage compassion: Breath
Cumpulsory Care: Against It Before He Was For It: LegalIns
Dodd Tries to Fix the Wrong Problem!: Bulletin

No, you CAN'T see the numbers: Anchoress
Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) healthcare forum: MoneyRunner
Obama: I care whether we'll "be saddled with debt": SIGIS

The Three Big Lies of Obamacare: Post
Voters terrified of Obama's rushed 'experiments': York
We'll get less for more: Post (Pipes)

Senate kills F-22: "A good day for the Chi-Coms": Ace
Radical Islam Checks In: WSJ (Dhume)
Polls show trust for the One is dropping like a rock: AT (Moran)

Economy

More Good News for Cali: Pension Fund Loses $57 Billion: LA Times
Paulson Pwned: Zero Hedge
President HooBama: Denninger

Wriston's Law Still Holds: PJM (Karlgaard)
Avoiding Zimbabwe-like Inflation: Blodget
Reich: Economy will never recover: Clusterstock

Climate & Energy

Palin 1, Obama 0: CA budget deal allows drilling: Ace
Midwest will be hit hardest by Cap-n-Tax: AIP (Hoft)
Record low temps in 31 states: GWP

A Czar Too Far: NoisyRoom
Al Gore's hometown experiences coldest July on record: WHNT

Media

One Giant Leap: Yon
Obama circles the wagons with lefty bloggers: Surber
Peggy Noonan has Palin Envy: AT

What's behind Russia's Journalist Killing Spree?: PJM (Mauro)
"The world that radical Islamists, both violent AND NONVIOLENT, seek to create": Corner

World

Media silent on evidence of planned Honduras vote fraud: PJM (de la Cruz)
Sleep Soundly: Hillary's on the Job: Sense
The Perks of the Job: World

Iranian Jokes: Crittenden
Al-Kadi's ownership of Ptech acknowledged: TerrorFinance
Day 38 of the Revolution: Atlas

Sci-Tech

The 4 Types of Branded Facebook Campaigns: AllFacebook
Microsoft Linux move puts pressure on VMware: NetWorld
Engineering Lessons from Apollo: EE Times

Cornucopia

Full text: Obama's address to the nation: American Digest
'Lifeclock' to Reduce Federal Health Care Costs: Charlie Foxtrot

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Finally: Universal Healthcare for Everyone!


I'm Barack Obama and thank you for watching my forty-second prime time broadcast over the course of my young administration. Tonight I'll be discussing two issues important to all Americans: Universal Health Care and immigration.

I'll be frank: when we say that 47 million Americans don't have health care, we're including a sizable chunk of undocumented immigrants -- you may know them by the term "illegal aliens".

Ever since the era of Lyndon Baines Johnson, we Democrats have promoted open borders, amnesty for illegals, chain migration and a path to citizenship for anyone who enters the country.

And the Reds beat the Braves, 9-3 behind a complete game from -- dammit, Rahm, my teleprompter is picking up ESPN again!

Uh, ehm, with Mexico's government crumbling under the twin weights of a global economic meltdown and brutal drug cartels, the President of Mexico -- Vicente Fox -- and I have come up with a simple, but effective, plan.

It combines universal health care, an open border with Mexico and a "superhighway to citizenship" for anyone entering the country.

Because of this policy, there will be no need for politically incorrect designations like "illegal aliens", because anyone entering the country can automatically become a citizen of the United States and Mexico.

So instead of the loaded term "illegal aliens", we'll simply call them "Democrats".

Suck on that, Rove!

Best of all, everyone in the United States and Mexico will get the same free, high quality health care. Partying in Cancun and catch the Swine Flu? No problemo, mi amigo!

Visiting your relatives in San Antonio and sprain your ankle? Simply walk into any convenient Social Security Office or Bureau of Motor Vehicles location, take a number, and enjoy the free Muzak and complimentary General Motors Magazines while you wait.

We call this tremendous new program: La Raza-Care.

La Raza-Care combines all of the benefits of open borders with a multi-country health care system second to none.

Now to pay for this, I am sorry to report that the massive tax cut for 95% of Americans that we recently implemented will have to be dismantled. Along with that, we will be making a few, minor changes to the tax code. So minor, in fact, you will hardly notice them.

* Under the new tax code, your refund check goes directly to ACORN.

* For a vacation to Mexico to count as a business trip, you must return with 100 or more pounds of government-grade marijuana.

* Attorney General Eric Holder gets to write off the entire United States Constitution.

* I can claim my teleprompter as a dependent.

* Finally, all registered Democrats will get a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

I'm sure you have a lot of questions about this tremendous new program. So we've set up a website to explain your benefits at LaRazaCare.gov and, in español, LaRazaCare.mx. Happily, both sites accept donations for my 2012 campaign.

We'll soon be enjoying the same wonderful care that our veterans receive at the VA thanks to the leadership of Congress. I'd like to personally thank Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel and Diane Feinstein who rammed this through using an arcane procedural loophole without debate, transparency or discussion!

Best of all, La Raza-Care will have the same firm economic foundation enjoyed by Medicare and Medicaid!

So bless you my friends, and may the Lord keep you safe from harm. You'll need it. Adios, Amigos!


Globe saved by the bell


Reeling and punch-drunk, The Boston Globe was just saved by the bell. The Globe's predominant union approved a package that slashed wages and benefits to enable its beleaguered owner -- The New York Times -- to sell it.


Labor and management had battled over a contract since April, when Times management told the Globe that the paper would lose more than $80 million in 2009 and was on track to be shuttered.

Fascinating: Econotards like Paul Krugman insist that unions are good for the economy. Just not for the health of his company.

Let Them Eat Cheese


Your Stimulus dollars at work.

On second thought, I'm truly glad I didn't get a chance to read the Porkulus bill before the Democrats jammed it down our throats, sight unseen.

Had I perused it ahead of time, I'd have pulled out what little hair that remains.

Obama's Ominous Implication: Euthanasia of the Elderly May Be Necessary


Gee, socialized medicine sounds great -- don't you think so, grandma and grandpa?

THE PRESIDENT: ...I actually think that the tougher issue around medical care — it’s a related one — is what you do around things like end-of-life care —

Yes, where it’s $20,000 for an extra week of life.

THE PRESIDENT: Exactly. And I just recently went through this. I mean, I’ve told this story, maybe not publicly, but when my grandmother got very ill during the campaign, she got cancer; it was determined to be terminal. And about two or three weeks after her diagnosis she fell, broke her hip. It was determined that she might have had a mild stroke, which is what had precipitated the fall.

So now she’s in the hospital, and the doctor says, Look, you’ve got about — maybe you have three months, maybe you have six months, maybe you have nine months to live. Because of the weakness of your heart, if you have an operation on your hip there are certain risks that — you know, your heart can’t take it. On the other hand, if you just sit there with your hip like this, you’re just going to waste away and your quality of life will be terrible.

And she elected to get the hip replacement and was fine for about two weeks after the hip replacement, and then suddenly just — you know, things fell apart.

I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. If somebody told me that my grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of her life — that would be pretty upsetting.

And it’s going to be hard for people who don’t have the option of paying for it.

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: ...you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

In other words, faceless bureaucrats in Washington -- not your family -- will decide whether your grandparents live or die.

While our health care system is certainly imperfect -- because all humans are imperfect, including doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies -- they are more perfect, more competent, more informed, more capable than all of the bureaucrats to whom they'll be forced to report: a bureaucracy that will make all decisions about your health care.

Obama and the Statist Democrats promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it.

And we know this, because this is what occurs in Canada and Britain and other centralized bureaucracies, where you simply can not have access to advanced health care, period.

And where will Barack Obama be in ten years, when the rest of us are struggling with a massive, out-of-control, federalized medical system that doesn't give a damn about individuals and is busy rationing care, denying care to the elderly?

He will be retired as a very young man; a very wealthy young man, who will have imposed his Marxist ideology upon this society and then walked away from it.

Because the politicians don't last. But their policies live forever.

So much power for a faceless set of bureaucrats who can't possibly have the best interests of your family in mind. And yet they're going to take those decisions away from you and your doctor. And they've been lying every day to justify what they're doing.

They've been lying about the number of people without health care. They've been lying about whether the public is satisfied with health care. They've been lying about every aspect of health care.

They unleashed the slip-and-fall lawyers on the medical system, causing untold higher costs for medical practitioners. They've attacked the health care system relentlessly, driving up costs just like they've attacked the energy industry and the automakers.

And even when they have complete monopolistic control of a system, like the educational system in America, they want more control. It's never enough. They want more money, more regulations. More. They need to "invest". They need to raise taxes. They need to repress. They need to compel.

Because the Statist cannot make the imperfect perfect, even though he says he can. The Statist is more imperfect than anyone else.

I ask you to consider something: what kind of people can Obama and the Democrat leadership be, to think they can do these things when history tells them they can not?

The answer is simple. They are power-hungry Statists.


Must read: Democrat Health Care By the Numbers.

Diatribe credit: Mark Levin. Hat tips: The New Bankrupt Times and SavannahWinslow. Linked by: Gateway Pundit and One Big Dog. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Four Long Years In Six Short Months

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email or reply via Twitter.

Nation

99% of my professors are Democrats: CSM
Minneapolis struggles with rise of Somali gangs : Chron
DeMint thrashes Dear Leader: GWP

On the Fly Audacity: NROH
Dealergate: Congress reverses Obama: Malkin
Democrats Will Teach You to Die With Dignity: Red State

Mayo Clinic: House Plan Is Bad Medicine: Times
The Sotomayor Charade: New Editor
Racial Preferences in Dem Health Care Bill: AT (Favish)

In Search of Independents: Doc Zero
The Racist Assumptions of Boxer and Obama: PJM (Grabar)
Sonia Sotomayor La Raza: STACLU

Economy

Distinction without a difference: Cold Fury
Four Long Years in Six Short Months: Dinocrat
Gaffetastic: Obama forgets who controls Congress: GWP

Governors fear Medicaid cost explosion: Fausta
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan b***slaps Henry Paulson: Six Meat Buffet
Dude, Where's My Budget?: RightPundits

Climate & Energy

Self-righteous drivers are lousy drivers: Ace
Everybody's Talking About The Weather But No One Is Betting On It... Yet: JOM

Media

New York Times hits bottom, digs: AT (Kemp)
One-Way Free Speech: AT (Levy)
Americans no longer trust Barack Obama: Macsmind

Now you see it, now you don't: Budget Trickery: PJM
Harry and Louise: Least Successful Comeback Since Mike Tyson: Corner
No, It Wasn't Racial Profiling: LegalIns

World

New era as British hostility reaches crescendo: JPost
What the Colonization of Europe Means for Us: Atlas
Hillary Needs a New Deal: Mullings

Et tu, Africa?: AT (Ikenga)
Obama misses Gitmo deadline: Surber
Hillary gets panned as Secretary of State: Surber

'Human Rights Watch' Cozies Up To Saudis: PJM
Do Obama's Jewish Backers Have Any Red Lines?: Tobin
Jerusalem Heartburn: Hazony

Cornucopia

Onion Bought By Chinese: LGF
It Was Forty Years Ago Today: Cube
Classic Obama Albums: IOTW

Monday, July 20, 2009

Newsreel from the near future


Universal International News, in conjunction with the Obama administration, presents Government Newsreel number 903.

Under cover of darkness, GM's top secret new vehicle -- the 2012 Buick Bureaucrat -- arrives at the New York Auto Show. Powered entirely by green energy sources, this beautiful Buick turns heads as it hits a top speed of 200 feet per minute.

Not to be outdone, Chrysler's luxurious Dodge Deficit offers a unique eight-door design, which means your entire family will arrive in style at the soup kitchen.

Good news at the National Healthcare Service: President Obama has promised to airlift hundreds of doctors from Cuba later this month to address the long lines in hospitals. Government officials have also promised to remedy medical priorities that currently place undocumented citizens at the front of the line.

And more positive news on the economic front: the rate of unemployment increases has slowed, moving from 17.1% to 17.4%, a tenth-of-a-percent less than analysts had predicted! Proof positive that Stimulus Seven is working!

As for financing the $45 trillion national debt, great progress this week as leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China have agreed to meet next month in Beijing. Topic one will be answering President Obama's request to buy more Treasury Bills.

Blackouts continue to plague the industrial Northeast as wind production farms have missed their quotas for the third month in a row. The Department of Energy promises to find new green energy sources by 2013 that should help alleviate the troublesome outages.

The velvet cloak of night did not stop President Obama from introducing his new volunteer corp uniforms. The new cadre combines elements of ACORN, Organizing for America, Change.gov, the SEIU and Americorps into a single, cohesive unit! First job on the list: internal national security to ensure safety for all Americans!

Lastly, a well-deserved comeuppance for hate-speech specialists Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds. They were convicted last week of 800 counts of inciting hatred and sentenced to 20 years in Leavenworth. Hate-mongers beware: expect internal security forces to be knocking on your doors shortly!

Join us next week for more approved news stories, only from Universal International News, the patriotic channel!


Other Items of Interest

La Raza Care: "If the American People Found Out..."
Somali Coast Cruise Brochure
Dealergate: 40 Democrat-friendly Dealerships Become 42
Star Trek: The Stimulus Doomsday Machine
Rx for Disaster
An open letter to Colin Powell
Illustrated Results of Barack Obama's Community Organizing
True Life Fannie Mae Testimony
Jamie Gorelick, Mistress of Disaster
Unintended Consequences

Linked by: Instapundit and Camp o' the Saints. Thanks!