NYC Letter: Left Hand/Right Hand Messaging -- Food Stamp President

Day 1,155 of CHOPE

The Democrats never make bad policy. They just do bad messaging.

First a little table-setting.

FOOD STAMP USE RISES
TO RECORD 45.8 MILLION
NEW YORK August 4, 2011 (CNN)

GINGRICH: OBAMA "MOST EFFECTIVE
FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT IN HISTORY"
August 5, 2011 (RCP/FNC)

Good to go and three guesses where this goes. The first two don't count.

Left Hand.

JIM CLYBURN: NEWT GINGRICH
'DENIGRATES' THE POOR

January 17, 2012 (Politico) - Pressed on why the label was denigrating if Gingrich was simply trying to point out how much the program for low-income families has grown under Obama’s watch, Clyburn (D-SC, 6th) pushed back, saying the state of the country that the president inherited from George W. Bush cannot be ignored.

Ah, OK. Mr. Clyburn indicts Mr. Gingrich for denigration of the poor, then skirts the injury done to plead historical necessity. Oh, look! A squirrel!

JIMMY CARTER: GINGRICH
'HAS THAT SUBTLETY OF RACISM'
January 18, 2012 (Blaze)

DEM ACCUSES GINGRICH OF RACISM
WITH 'FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT' COMMENT

January 23, 2012 (The Hill) - Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN, 9th) on Monday afternoon accused Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich for making racist comments toward President Obama by calling him a "food stamp" president.

"Unfortunately, there's still people in this country who think that the President can't be their president because of his race," Cohen said. "Some even refer to him as a food stamp president."

Cohen did not name Gingrich, but Gingrich said earlier this month that Obama is the "food stamp president" because he has put more people on food stamps than any other president. Cohen said this is a sort of racial code against Obama because Obama is black. "We know that code is wrong," Cohen said.

PRESIDENT OBAMA, RESPONDING TO
FOODSTAMP LABEL, SUGGESTS NEWT
'TAPPING INTO SOME OF OUR WORST INSTINCTS'
LAS VEGAS January 26, 2012 (Politico)

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIRMAN CLEAVER:
GOP CANDIDATES ARE CAMPAIGNING ON
'SUBLIMINAL RACIAL MESSAGES'

February 2, 2012 (The Hill) - Rep. Emmanuel [sic] Cleaver (D-MO, 5th) said Thursday that the GOP presidential candidates need to "quit trying to send subliminal racial messages during the campaigns." ... Cleaver cited as examples Newt Gingrich’s recent comments on food stamps, including calling President Obama a "food stamp president," and Mitt Romney’s comments on "the very poor."

BIDEN HITS GINGRICH'S FOOD-STAMP
COMMENT AS 'INAPPROPRIATE'
TALLAHASSEE February 6, 2012 (The Hill)

REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ: BUSH IS REAL
"FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT," SLAMMING NEWT
WASHINGTON February 8, 2012 (Chicago Sun-Times)

And the Demo media minions do their bit to get the message out.

MARTIN BASHIR: STOP NEWT GINGRICH'S
FOOD STAMP TALK BEFORE SOMEONE GETS KILLED

January 6, 2012 (NewsBusters) - MSNBC's Martin Bashir on Friday offered an offensive, bewildering comparison, linking the murder of a black British teenager in 1993 to supposedly offensive comments by Republican presidential candidates in 2012. ... Bashir excoriated, "Let's cut out the food stamps rhetoric right now before things get any worse."

MATTHEWS: GINGRICH IS RACE-BAITING
CALLING OBAMA FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT -
'HE OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF'
January 17, 2012 (NewsBusters)

But Mr. Obama is the "Food Stamp President". No, really, he is.

OBAMA CREATES A NATION
OF FOOD STAMP DEPENDENTS

March 23, 2012 (IBD) - When New Gingrich called President Obama "the best food stamp president in American history," the media pooh-poohed it. But, in fact, Obama has aggressively pushed dependence on government for food.

... Not true, reporters shrieked. Obama's only added 14.5 million to food stamps. Under Bush, the number climbed "nearly 14.7 million." Case closed. Never mind that Obama managed this feat in less than three years, compared with Bush's eight.

... But the facts are on Gingrich's side.

• Food stamp enrollment climbed an average 153,000 a month under Bush. Under Obama, it's climbed an average 403,000 a month.
  
• As of last December, there were 46.5 million on food stamps. That's 65% higher than at any time in the past four decades.
  
• Today, 14.8% of Americans get food stamps. That's also a record-shattering number. In Bush's last year, the figure was 9.3%.
  
• Obama's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack even claimed that all this food stamp spending was accelerating economic growth. "It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times," he said last August.

Obama's defenders claim that this isn't his fault, but the result of the lingering effects of the recession combined with looser eligibility rules established under President Bush. But if that were true, why is enrollment in the food stamp program — officially called SNAP — continuing to climb? It was up by more than 2.3 million in 2011, even as the unemployment rate was falling.

Turns out, Obama hasn't passively stood by while people "became eligible." His administration has trolled for enrollees ever since he got into office.

When the narrative fails, change the narrative. Oh, look! A squirrel!

Right Hand.

JESSE JACKSON: 'IT'S AN HONOR TO BE
A FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT'
CHICAGO February 26, 2012 (NewsBusters)

PELOSI: FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT
'BADGE OF HONOR'
CHICAGO March 24, 2012 (Breitbart TV)

Dog whistle on. Dog whistle off.

Wait a minute. [Sixty seconds later.] That means the glory goes to Mr. Bush. Bummer, Mr. O. No winning for losing.

CHOPE.

Oh, look! A squirrel!

NYC Letter: Got That Wrong -- New York Times

Day 1,132 of CHOPE

Special Leap-Day Edition

The NYT appends a correction to the below article (via Michael Barone).

OBAMA LAYS OUT PLAN TO CUT
RELIANCE ON FUEL IMPORTS
WASHINGTON March 30, 2011 (NYT)

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 30, 2011

A previous version of this article misstated how many of the president's proposals to reduce the country's reliance on imported oil were new in his speech on Wednesday. None of them were, not one of them.

CHOPE.

Niggling pestiferous error.

NYC Letter: Got That Wrong -- AFP

Day 1,126 of CHOPE

The AFP matched this caption...

First Lady Michelle Obama welcomes 124 middle and high school students from across the country to take part in an interactive student workshop at the White House in Washington, DC, February 21, 2012.

...with the picture below.

WELCOME!
"That'S Been An Image That People Have Tried To Paint
Of Me Since The Day That Barack Announced
— That I'm Some Angry Black Woman."
[Picture source: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images]

[Hat tip: Weasel Zippers]

We are not so snarky as to think Mrs. Obama can't manage a friendly welcome to the White House, and we are sure the kids had a good time -- until lunch.

CHOPE.

$15,000 a day can't buy every shot in the camera.

NYC Letter: Trust Team Barry, Part XXI -- No Opinion

Day 1,115 of CHOPE

It has been 1,017 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a budget resolution. Prominent Democrats (and here) are blasé about the delinquency. Others think it is a serious lapse in need of remedy. The White House can't say.

BERNANKE: LACK OF SENATE BUDGET
HURTS ECONOMY

WASHINGTON February 7, 2012 (WaEx) - [Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke] chose not to comment on "parliamenary maneuverings," but addressed the particular effects of not having a Senate budget. "Is uncertainty about the future of the tax code, government programs, and so on, a negative for growth?" he said, rhetorically. "I think it is, because firms like to have certainty [and] like to be able to plan." He was responding to a question from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who had asked how "the uncertainty caused by the Senate not having passed a budget" affected the economy.

It sounds like a Senate budget is pretty important to steadying the economy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has repeatedly refused to pass a budget, which he could do even if only Democrats voted for his budget. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., recently said that "there's no excuse" for the refusal to pass a budget. "They don't want to risk the next election," he said of his party's Senate leadership.

THE WHITE HOUSE HAS NO OPINION
ABOUT WHETHER THE SENATE
SHOULD PASS A BUDGET
WASHINGTON February 8, 2012 (ABC News)

No opinion? The president is obligated to produce a budget. Surely the White House has an opinion about how that budget will be received and acted on. [Pause.] Nope. No opinion according to WH press secretary Jay Carney in the following amazing exchange.

Q: President Obama is going to be introducing his outline for a budget. Fed Chair Bernanke has said the lack of a budget having been passed by the Senate has had an adverse affect on growth because it’s created uncertainty. Harry Reid has said that he doesn’t think there’s a need to introduce a budget this year. Who do you — who does the president think is right, Harry Reid or Ben Bernanke?

CARNEY: Well, I think the president, as you noted, will be presenting his budget. That budget, it’s important to remember – and you all covered it — has spending caps set based on the Budget Control Act that was signed into law by this president last August. That spending — those spending — that spending — those spending levels represent significant cuts agreed to by Democrats and Republicans and by this president.

And his budget will reflect the need for that — will reflect those cuts, but also reflect the priorities that he thinks are very important, and, I think, the priorities that — to wrap in part of your question here — that Senator Reid believes are important as well, as do many members of the Senate and the House.

Q: So therefore, the Senate should pass a budget as well.

CARNEY: I don’t have a –

Q: I’m asking.

CARNEY: Well, I don’t have an opinion to express on how the Senate does its business with regards to this issue. The fact is because of the negotiations over the debt ceiling that resulted in the Budget Control Act, we have an unusual situation here in that the top lines for the budget going forward have already been set and agreed to by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Q: So the — I’m not actually asking your opinion, but the White House’s opinion, because it’s the White House’s –

CARNEY: Well, I mean, I don’t have a –

Q: The White House has no opinion about whether or not the Senate should pass a budget? The president’s going to introduce one. The Fed chair says not having one is bad for growth. But the White House has no opinion about whether –

CARNEY: I have no opinion — the White House has no opinion on Chairman Bernanke’s assessment of how the Senate ought to do its business.

What the president believes is important is that the Budget Control Act that was signed into law by him last year provides the top line spending caps for the coming budget, and he will obviously meet those in the budget proposal he puts forward. And he looks forward to the Senate acting on the policy initiatives contained within his budget that will reflect the priorities he laid out in the State of the Union and also will reflect the priorities he laid out when he put forward his deficit and debt reduction proposal back in September.

So I don’t — I don’t think there is any — there will be nor is there now any doubt about the president’s view on where we ought to move with the budget.

What's at issue is not how the Senate conducts its business but whether it will conduct the business it is Constitutionally enjoined to do. The White House has no opinion about that. No less a figure than the Federal Reserve Chairman has an opinion about it, but the White House has no opinion about his opinion. [Pause.] At the very least the White House might be of the opinion that the Senate fulfilling its Constitutional duties is a desired good. [Pause.] At the very least.

CHOPE.

Que sera sera.

NYC Letter: A River In Egypt -- Chuck Schumer

Day 1,099 of CHOPE

Tuesday night Mr. Obama read another version of his 2011 SOTU speech -- minus the Solyndra brags. If you have seen Mr. Obama read any SOTU address, then you are pretty much caught up: Inherited near depression, made all the right choices, [Exciting new addition!] I killed bin Laden, work to do, God bless America and good night and good night.

The state of our Union is getting stronger.

Mr. Obama,
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
WASHINGTON January 24, 2011 (White House)

Stronger and stronger and stronger. In fact it's in great shape!

SCHUMER ON STATE OF THE UNION:
'WE THINK WE ARE IN GREAT SHAPE'

January 25, 2011 (TWS) - New York senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) commented on Mitch Daniels' Republican response to the State of the Union Address at a press conference today on Capitol Hill. "The Republican speaker last night, Mitch Daniels, talked about Americans must talk about the state of the union as grave," Schumer said. "So, we think we are in great shape. We are in good shape."

Not merely good shape. Great shape. Mr. Schumer affirms the great shape of the union because he is confident you are this stupid. [Pause.] This is feeble dupery. As is apparent from his listless delivery in the video at the headline link, Mr. Schumer doesn't believe himself, and we suspect he knows you don't believe him.

The Democrat 2012 strategy is reading off the script for Weekend at Bernie's. That's a winner.

ANYTHING BUT GRAVE
Looking Great, Well, Good
[Picture credit: Michael Ramirez/IBD]

CHOPE.

State of the rerun.

NYC Letter: Team Barry Pisses Itself

Day 1,089 of CHOPE

US MARINES ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES
WASHINGTON January 11, 2012 (Guardian)

Oh no. This sounds very serious.

The US military command in Kabul, which was severely embarrassed last year by revelations that Americans soldiers were running a "kill squad" murdering Afghan civilians, said it would investigate the undated video, and that if it proved to be authentic, desecration of corpses would be regarded as a serious crime. Despoiling of the dead is illegal under the Geneva conventions as well as under US military law.

In the graphic short video, four soldiers in combat gear and carrying weapons are seen acting in unison as they urinate on three bloodied corpses. One of the soldiers sighs with relief, another says "yeah" and a third laughs. One remarks: "Have a great day, buddy". Another says: "Golden, like a shower".

A fifth soldier films the incident.

The video was posted anonymously on Wednesday along with a caption that said: "scout sniper team 4 with 3rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans".

That's it. [Pause.] Marines urinating on dead Taliban. [Pause.] No, really. That's it. [Pause.] The horror of it all is condemned by the morally fastidious.

MARINES URINATING ON TALIBAN
VIDEO CONDEMNED BY KARZAI

KABUL January 12, 2012 (canada.com/AFP) - President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that "the government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed" of what it called "desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans".

"This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms," said the statement.

"We expressly ask the U.S. government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime."

The Taliban, who have made recent moves to talk an end to the war, described the apparent abuse as "an inhumane and savage act by the American soldiers in Afghanistan".

Team Barry falls in with the Taliban and condemns the "inhumane and savage act".

PANETTA CALLS KARZAI, CONDEMNS VIDEO

WASHINGTON January 12, 2012 (WaPo) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta phoned Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai Thursday and promised full investigation of a video that purports to depict four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters — a video both men condemned as deplorable.

In a separate public statement, Panetta said such behavior is "entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military" and that those responsible will be held accountable.

HILLARY CLINTON SAYS MARINE URINATION VIDEO
'INCONSISTENT WITH AMERICAN VALUES'

January 12, 2012 (Telegraph) - Mrs Clinton expressed her "total dismay" at the video and promised that those responsible would be held accountable.

"It is absolutely inconsistent with American values, with the standards of behavior that we expect from our military personnel and that you know the vast, vast majority of our military personnel, particularly our marines, hold themselves to," she said.

U.S. MARINES INTERVIEWED BY NCIS
AS VIDEO RAISES TENSIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN

January 13, 2012 (Bloomberg) - Responding to a case that drew international condemnation, NCIS [scil., Naval Criminal Investigative Service] opened its probe on Jan. 11, "immediately after learning of the video’s existence," Maryann Cummings, a spokeswoman, said yesterday in a written statement. The incident raised tensions with Afghan leaders at a time when the U.S. is conducting talks with the Taliban.

The Washington Post editorializes that Mr. Bush (pointedly unnamed) is responsible for "this awful incident".

WE’RE ALL GUILTY OF DEHUMANIZING THE ENEMY
By Sebastian Junger

OP-ED January 13, 2011 (WaPo) - The U.S. military should be held to a higher standard, certainly, but it is important to understand the context of the behavior in the video. Clearly, the impulse to desecrate the enemy comes from a very dark and primal place in the human psyche. Once in a while, those impulses are going to break through.

There is another context for that behavior, though — a more contemporary one. As a society, we may be disgusted by seeing U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters, but we remain oddly unfazed by the fact that, presumably, those same Marines just put high-caliber rounds through the fighters’ chests. American troops are not blind to this irony. They are very clear about the fact that society trains them to kill, orders them to kill and then balks at anything that suggests they have dehumanized the enemy they have killed.

But of course they have dehumanized the enemy — otherwise they would have to face the enormous guilt and anguish of killing other human beings.

... There is a final context for this act in which we are all responsible, all guilty. A 19-year-old Marine has a very hard time reconciling the fact that it’s okay to waterboard a live Taliban fighter but not okay to urinate on a dead one.

When the war on terror started, the Marines in that video were probably 9 or 10 years old. As children they heard adults — and political leaders — talk about our enemies in the most inhuman terms. The Internet and the news media are filled with self-important men and women referring to our enemies as animals that deserve little legal or moral consideration. We have sent enemy fighters to countries like Syria and Libya to be tortured by the very regimes that we have recently condemned for engaging in war crimes and torture. They have been tortured into confessing their crimes and then locked up indefinitely without trial because their confessions — achieved through torture — will not stand up in court.*

"This awful incident" doesn't belong on Mr. Obama's watch, it rightfully belongs on Mr. Bush's.

Progressives love to spread it around: your wealth, their compulsive guilt, and the rich manure of liberal pieties. It is almost as if you, incontinent reader, are pissing on the dead Taliban, so pervasive is the guilt. Where is our outrage? Where is our indignation? [We search our jaded heart. Nada.] Our political correctness extends only to saying that peeing on the dead is not very nice. Beyond that we defer to Allen West (R-FL, 22nd) in his open letter to TWS:

I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart [sic] and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.**

All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?***

The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.

Not to excuse this "inhumane and savage act" -- Alllah (PBUH) forfend! -- but to remind the distraught and delicate exactly who the Taliban is and why we fight it, there is this:

AFGHAN BOY SUICIDE BOMBERS
TELL HOW THEY ARE BRAINWASHED
INTO BELIEVING THEY WILL SURVIVE
Child Suicide Bombers Say They Were
Told By Their Handlers That The
"Bombs Would Not Kill Us,
Only The Americans Would Die".
KANDAHAR January 13, 2012 (Telegraph)

CHOPE.

When disesteeming the enemy, observe the at-one-remove niceties.

------------------------------------
* For the record, not all detainees were rendered, less were tortured. None are locked up because confessions won't stand up in court. They are locked up because America is at war with them and they pose an existential threat (and this and this). Mr. Bush indefinitely locked up enemy combatants. Mr. Obama indefinitely locks up detainees who are not our enemies, per se.

** Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley J.K. Batalona and Michael R. Teague, shot, set ablaze, mutilated, dragged through the streets, and hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates.

*** Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, tortured, beheaded, and slaughtered near Youssifiyah by the Mujahedeen Shura Council led by al-Qaida in Iraq.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XVIII -- One Picture Says It All

Day 1,087 of CHOPE

CEOS MIA
Mr. Biden Fills Out The Back Rows
[Picture source: Donovan Slack/Politico]

If Team Barry wants to impress the media with its engagement with business leaders, it might put a little more effort into assembling a full house.

WHITE HOUSE EVENT MORE
FOR MEDIA THAN CEOS?

January 11, 2012 (Politico) - Dozens of journalists packed into the East Room at the White House today for the president's remarks on "in-sourcing," at least 60 of them lining the press risers and walls.

But what many couldn't see in press coverage of the event — held with roughly 120 executives to discuss bringing jobs back to America from overseas — were the dozens of empty seats in the audience.

At one point during Obama's speech, Vice President Joe Biden strolled to the empty section and sat in a row by himself, listening.

A White House spokeswoman, asked about the 49 empty chairs, said some invitees didn't show up.

Uh-huh. About 30% no-shows. Couldn't the White House have rustled up some supernumeraries or removed the empty chairs so that the absentees weren't so obvious? Team Barry doesn't even bother to make the effort. It's as if they've given up caring about their own appearances.

CHOPE.

Empty chairs. Empty seats.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XVII -- Easy Peezy

Day 1,085 of CHOPE

Joe Biden swans into New Hampshire with a message for you.

BIDEN JABS ROMNEY, COMPARES
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES TO 'BRUSH'

January 10, 2012 (ABC News) - As Mitt Romney delivered his victory speech in New Hampshire tonight, Vice President Joe Biden told state Democrats via video teleconference that the GOP front-runner is clueless when it comes to understanding the middle class.

"He thinks it's more important for the stockholders and the shareholders and the investors and the venture capital guys to do well than for those employees to be part of the bargain," Biden said.

... As for how he and President Obama will seal the deal in November, Biden compared the challenge of defeating Republican opponents to clearing "brush" off the road.

The country is ready to move. We've just got to clear the brush out of the way.

It's going to be that easy. Or maybe not. Campaign Barry is of two minds.

Meanwhile, Romney trained his fire on Obama-Biden in a speech to supporters who were electrified by the first-in-the-nation primary win:

The president has run out of ideas. Now he’s running out of excuses. And tonight, we’re asking the good people of South Carolina to join the citizens of New Hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time.

We remind you, dear ADHD-PIer, that Mr. Biden had the same blasé confidence going into the midterms, having warned the party faithful the year before that losing the House would be "the end of the road". How'd that work out?

Ignore the polls. Ignore the pundits. Ignore political realities. Ignore the future. Ignore your own discontent. Now. Go vote Obama-Biden 2012. Message delivered. Joe, over and out.

CHOPE.

Deja vu all over again.

NYC Letter: More Sniffles For Kim Jong-il

Day 1,083 of CHOPE

After 24 days, Kim Jong-il is still dead. All of DPRK is sad.

MAGPIES AND BEARS MOURN
NORTH KOREA'S "DEAR LEADER"

SEOUL January 9, 2012 (Reuters) - The passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies. State news agency KCNA reported on Monday:

At around 17:30 on December 19, 2011, hundreds of magpies appeared from nowhere and hovered over a statue of President Kim Il Sung on Changdok School campus in Mangyongdae District, clattering as if they were telling him the sad news.

KCNA reported last week that a family of bears who usually hibernate through the fierce Korean winter had been seen lamenting Kim Jong-il's death. KCNA:

The bears, believed to be a mother and cubs, were staying on the road, crying woefully.

... Mythmaking for Kim Jong-un [Kim Jong-il's youngest son and successor], believed to be in his late 20s, has already started. He is portrayed as the spitting image of his grandfather and has been dubbed the "genius of geniuses" in military affairs despite having no known military experience.

The snag with the Kims' apotheosis in life is their hard-to-explain wilt in death. Mr. Kim Jr. shot a 38 under par round of golf. Denying death should be child's play.

CHOPE.

Species come out of extinction to mourn Mr. Kim.

NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Nancy Pelosi IV

Day 1,066 of CHOPE

Nancy Pelosi, dominating the big stupid.

Nancy Pelosi lives in a world made terrible by Republicans and made sweet by Democrats. It is not the world we live in -- if you are not an irredeemable Democrat, most likely it is not the world you live in -- because it is an invented world, a phony world of phony alarms and phony facts and wand-waves and easy money and phony successes.

And behind the phony claims in Ms. Pelosi's phony world are Ms. Pelosi's phony numbers. From the office of the House minority leader:

PELOSI: HOUSE GOP WALKING
AWAY FROM TAX CUT FOR
160 MILLION AMERICANS

WASHINGTON December 19, 2011 (pelosi.house.gov) - Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn held a press availability tonight in the Capitol calling on Republicans to pass the bipartisan compromise passed by the Senate that would extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. Below are Leader Pelosi’s opening remarks, closing statement, and a transcript of the question and answer session:

And here’s what is at stake. 160 million Americans would have had a payroll tax cut, continue to have a payroll tax cut. Over 2 million people will lose their unemployment benefits if we don’t act upon the Senate resolution. 48 million Americans will lose the opportunity they have for choosing their own doctors under Medicare. This is very important. 160 million Americans, who are working, will get a tax cut. Over 2 million, who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, will now lose their benefit. And again, 48 million seniors will have something to lose in this.

... Mr. Hoyer can read a list as long as my arm about the times they have walked way, and right now they’re walking away from the middle-income tax cut for 160 million Americans.

According to the latest BLS employment survey the total civilian labor force (i.e., civilian noninstitutional population) is 153M of which only 140.5M are employed. Adding the total armed services brings the employed to 142M. To benefit from a suspension of an employment tax, a beneficiary would need to be subject to the tax. If you are not employed, you are not subject to a tax on a job you do not have. [Pause.] How to account for Ms. Pelosi's phantom 18M differential? It's not a misspeak as her office headlines the number and repeats it four times in its press release. It is a number that is meant to stand.

Ms. Pelosi got her number wrong when getting it right was as simple as the few checks required for numerous bloggers to catch it. The intriguing question is why push 160M over 140M? One hundred forty million is a sufficiently big number to carry Ms. Pelosi's talking point. Does inflating the truthful number by 12% really improve Ms. Pelosi's stridency?

As with all pronouncements from the House minority leader there is such a flood of errors, fantasies, distortions, and lies who can catch them all? Not the layers and layers of editors and fact-checkers at The Christian Science Monitor or Bloomberg/Businessweek or Forbes or CNN or CBS News or MSNBC or USA Today all of whom reported the bogus 160M number without challenge.

CHOPE.

Gilding the lily.

NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Nancy Pelosi III

Day 1,049 of CHOPE

She's back. [A thousand groans.] Ms. Pelosi enjoyed the high perch of power. Now she is perched lower, an irrelevancy. She takes care to dress nice -- not too nice -- and has time on her hands --when not fundraising* and squeezing in the people's business.

And she's a gossip.

PELOSI: I’LL REVEAL
INFORMATION ON GINGRICH
'WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT'

December 5, 2011 (The Hill) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding back some information on Republican Newt Gingrich that could detract from his presidential campaign, according to a report published Monday.

"One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich," Pelosi told Talking Points Memo. "When the time is right. … I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Wait, aren't findings not in the public record protected by confidentiality rules of the House Select Committee on Ethics? Why, yes they are.

NEWT FIRES BACK AT PELOSI:
BRING IT ON!

December 5, 2011 (therightscoop.com) - Newt today said that if Pelosi wants to disclose information about himself from when she was on the ethics committee, that the House should immediately file charges against her as that is a violation of the rules of the House:

First of all I’d like to thank Speaker [sic] Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift. If she’s suggesting she’s gonna use material she developed while she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.

Nancy Pelosi served on the then-Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for three terms (102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses, 1991-1996 inclusive). This gets a one line mention on her CD site. In all that time, the confidential nature of committee investigations never made an impression on her. Apparently.

PELOSI NOT SITTING ON TROVE
OF GINGRICH SECRETS

December 5, 2011 (ABC News) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi now says she is not sitting on a trove of opposition research on former House Speaker-turned-GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

In an interview conducted Friday and published Monday, Pelosi hinted that once the time is right she has some juicy stories to tell about her former colleague.

... But this afternoon, Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, suggested that her comments have been misconstrued beyond the leader’s intent.

"Leader Pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware," Hammill wrote in a statement.

That ethics report, which can be found here, examined allegations that Gingrich violated House rules by using his congressional staff to aide him on a college course he taught called "Renewing American Civilization".

Mr. Hammill is, no surprise, lying for Ms. Pelosi. The House Select Committee on Ethics Report on Mr. Gingrich runs a total of 136 printed pages, of which only 127 pages are the findings proper. Ms. Pelosi plainly claimed, "A thousand pages of his stuff." She was clearly bragging on privy knowledge and materials from her committee work. Ms. Pelosi wasn't teasing TPM's with a rehash of the public record -- TPM doesn't need a Pelosi "conversation" for that -- but her privy knowledge of the committee's investigation.

Mr. Hammill hopes you are this stupid. Ms. Pelosi is sure you are.

CHOPE.

Poised to cast the first stone.

------------------------------------
* According to WaPo (November 17, 2011):

Pelosi has worked overtime to take back the House — attending 311 fundraising events nationwide and bringing home $26 million for Democrats.

NYC Letter: What Does It All Mean? Part II -- Power & Influence

Day 1,043 of CHOPE

Power and influence. As president of the United States Mr. Obama has both. Yet he manages to turn this normally hand-in-glove proposition into a jarring juxtaposition.

THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE

November 2, 2011 (Forbes) - The ranking takes into account four factors. First, we measured how many people a person has power over.

... Then we looked at the financial resources controlled by each candidate...

Next we asked: Is a candidate influential in more than one arena, or sphere?

... Finally, we gave consideration to how actively the candidates wield their power.

Regaining the title of the World’s Most Powerful Man on this year’s list is President Barack Obama, who gave up the top spot last year to China’s president Hu Jintao (#3). Despite his current political weakness, Obama remains the head-of-state of the world’s largest, most dynamic economy, commander-in-chief of the planet’s deadliest military and, unofficially, the leader of the free world. Moreover, Hu’s relative power is decreasing as he starts giving up important political offices, including general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, to his successor Xi Jinping (#69).

Apparently power isn't what it's cracked up to be.

OBAMA MAKES 'LEAST INFLUENTIAL PERSON ALIVE' LIST

November 25, 2011 (WaEx) - President Obama ranks among the 25 "least influential people alive," according to GQ Magazine, which placed him in the company of House Speaker John Boehner and MSNBC host Ed Schultz

Forbes undoubtedly has it right and GQ is snarking.* Back off GQ. Them's our boots your pissing on.

CHOPE.

Little influence. No little accomplishment.

------------------------------------
* With perhaps a touch of buyer's remorse catching up to the editors.

NYC Letter: Owning OWS -- Democrats All In

Day 1,036 of CHOPE

In 2008 the Democrats swept into office promising change. There was change aplenty, yet going into 2012 the Democrats have nothing to brag on. Mr. Obama pleads he needs eight years to finish his four-year term. Bereft of popular accomplishments, Mr. Obama talks vision just the other side of December 2012. But Mr. Obama's tomorrow-morrowland sounds like more of the CHOPE he has already wrought.

It's all looking pretty desperate. What the Democrats need is a national distraction. [Dramatic soap opera organ chord.] Enter Occupy Wall Street.

God bless them for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective.

Nancy "Speaker No More" Pelosi (D-CA, 8th),
characterizing the Occupy Someplace movement
WASHINGTON October 6, 2011 (TWS)

Democrats of all stripes were early nuzzlers of OWS. Where the OWS mob was incoherent with no clear purpose, the Democrats helpfully shaped a message of the little guy against big financial interests, which the MSM cheerfully parrots. Alas, OWS is no respecter of the little guy -- or of the OWSers themselves. The OWS is a rolling horror show. It is a mob that trashes everything in its path.

To which the Democrats shrug and say, "Double-down perfect!"

DESPITE ATTACKS,
DEMS STANDING BY OCCUPY WALL STREET

November 22, 2011 (WaPo) - For weeks now, Republicans have attacked Democrats for voicing support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, in particular faulting the DCCC for standing up for them. And the incidents of violence and excess have led some neutral commentators to predict that Dems will pay a political price if they align themselves with the movement.

So it’s interesting to see that the DCCC is sticking by Occupy Wall Street. Indeed, the DCCC is now raising money off that recent report of a GOP-connected corporate lobbying firm’s proposed smear campaign against the movement. Nancy Pelosi has authored a DCCC fundraising email that presents this as proof that Republicans are on the side of Wall Street and against Dems and the protesters.

Nancy Pelosi, you may recall, was certain -- if you believed her -- the Democrats, against all forecast odds, would retain their House majority in the 112th Congress -- right up to the catastrophic bitter end.

And Mr. Obama, abandoning his trademark re-interpretable obliquity, is now all-in with OWS, too.

A few minutes later, Obama acknowledged the Occupy protest movement again, saying:

You are the reason I ran for office.

The Democrats can't control OWS but think they can control the OWS narrative in collaboration with a sympathetic press. The OWS has already made it plain they won't play to script. [Pause.] We eagerly look forward to next year's Occupy Charlotte. "God bless them."

CHOPE.

All in.

NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Mika Brzezinski

Day 1,034 of CHOPE

This Saturday past at the Thanksgiving Family Forum, Newt Gingrich slammed the OWSers, telling them to "go get a job, right after you take a bath". If you are old enough to remember Country Joe And The Fish you will recognize Mr. Gingrich's slam as the clichéd parental exhortation at the dinner table in the 70s. Sticks and stones -- and please pass the peas.

Of course, some people -- too beautiful for this world -- are excruciatingly umbrageous to even a whiff of meanness.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI'S ANTI-NEWT RANT
DRIVES HER TO EMOTIONAL BRINK

November 21, 2011 (NewsBusters) - Mika Brezinski began today's Morning Joe by tearing into Newt Gingrich for his recent suggestion that Occupy protestors should "get a job, right after you take a bath." ... So strongly ran Brzezinski's rage that more than once her voice quavered and she seemed on some sort of emotional brink.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow. It's really not surprising, coming from me,* but that's about the most arrogant and un-self-aware, and those are probably the only words I can use [inaudible] for any politician in this Republican field to say.

JEFFREY SACHS [income redistributionist and Columbia prof]: Disgusting.

BRZEZINSKI: Disgusting.

SACHS: Absolutely disgusting. No sense of any meaning at all of this. Absolutely revolting, actually. And especially when what they're protesting against is the incredible abuse of power, the criminality on...

BRZEZINSKI: That he participated in.

SACHS: ...Wall Street and so forth that he--he has taken his millions of dollars. It's shocking!

Mr. Sachs, was born in 1954. Apparently he was cocooned from the harsh rhetoric of the 70s -- and this year's Democrat rhetoric as well (and this and this and this). [Pause.] No. Mr. Sachs was not cocooned. He is pretending outrage to push Ms. Brzezinski beyond the Morning Joe proscenium.

BRZEZINSKI: Someone needs a bath, and I don't think it's the people from Occupy Wall Street. That's all I'm going to say. [Word meter on.] I've got nothing else. I'm so disgusted by that that something horrible is going to come ... I, I, am I alone here? [Tremolo.] Am I overreacting?

Overacting, Mika. You are overacting.

I'm sickened by that ... It's fair to say he's in the 1%, correct? He's telling the 99% to take a bath and get a job? Really?

Presto! Ms. Brzezinski, herself a one-percenter, has ever so gently folded you into the OWS. So very gently you may not have noticed the degraded OWS atmosphere that now envelops you.

Really, I wonder how they do that right now. How, given the state of this country, how anyone's going to just get a job and take a bath. Who is this man? Who does he think he is?

Obviously Marie-Thérèse, Queen consort of France and Navarre: « Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. »

And why is he surging in the polls? I don't get it. I mean, to hear Newt Gingrich standing on literally [sic, Ms. Brzezinski means something like "unbelievably"] his high horse, after taking advantage of the system, cashing in, being the biggest, literally [sic, Ms. Brzezinski means something like "certainly"] the biggest hypocrite in the Repubican field, probably in politics today. The biggest hypocrite.

Ms. Brzezinski evidently isn't keeping tabs on Nancy Pelosi. Or John Kerry (and this and this). Or these two-faced folks. And there is the structural hypocrisy of the OWS itself (and this).

And then to cast aspersions and to speak down to these people as if -- plghhh -- they should be flipped away? It's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. It's a very angry way to start the show. I'm extremely sorry. But it's the first time I'd seen that. And it literally made my skin crawl. I can't believe he resonates. [Word meter off: 196 words later.]

Has Mr. Gingrich's innocuous cliché really sickened Ms. Brzezinski? Is she really disgusted? Her skin crawled? Oh, puh-leeze. "Get a job. Take a bath." These are not crushing put-downs. These are not fell psychic blows.

Ms. Brzezinski's near-tears performance is meant to bolster the MSM portrayal of the OWS as latterday Joads. If your burg has been occupied by an OWS mob, you are more likely to be nodding with Mr. Gingrich than having an empathic vomit with Ms. Brzezinski.

OWS is not a serious force for social justice. It is a conglomeration of mobs. Ms. Brzezinski takes this conglomeration seriously, which is one of oh-so-many reasons (and this and this) not to take Ms. Brzezinski seriously.

CHOPE.

Sticks and stones, Mika! Sticks and stones!

------------------------------------
* NewsBusters notes this alludes to her acknowledged personal animus toward Mr. Gingrich. Mr. Gingrich apparently insulted Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former National Security Adviser under Carter -- and Mika's father -- in some forum with him in the audience. Celebrity politesse dictates that insults be made at a remove, for example, on a morning talk show empaneled with agreeable bobbing heads.

NYC Letter: Department Of Worship IX -- This Church Closed

Day 1,031 of CHOPE

Not Worth Mentioning
So We Mention It Edition

One less showcase for slobbering over the Obamas. [We dab at a pretend tear.]

JOY BEHAR’S HLN TALK SHOW
GETS CANCELED AFTER TWO YEARS,
CONFIRMS NETWORK

November 17, 2011 (NYDN) - Joy Behar’s HLN talk show will be signing off the air by the end of the year, the network announced Thursday.

... The final episode of "The Joy Behar Show" will air in mid-December, with the 10 p.m. time slot being replaced by one of HLN’s current programs.

Joy Behar is a comedienne whose funniest turns are displays of genuine outsized ignorance (and this and this and this). If you are among Ms. Behar's dozens of fans she can still be found warming a couch cushion at The View, giving the liberal deep-think on the important issues of the day (and this and this and this).

Being stupid and playing stupid are the scaffolding of the comedic arts. Alas, in Ms. Behar's case, they do double-duty as a scaffolding for her intellect.

We bid The Joy Behar Show adieu. Oh, boo hoo.

CHOPE.

Adieu.

NYC Letter: Reverse-O-Bama, Part XI -- Subpoena Druthers

Day 1,024 of CHOPE

Super Reverse Reverse-O-Bama Edition

Like day follows night follows day.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTE TO SUBPOENA
WHITE HOUSE FOR SOLYNDRA DOCUMENTS

November 3, 2011 (The Hill) - Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to subpoena the White House for all internal communications related to the failed solar company Solyndra.

The subpoena escalates the ongoing battle between the White House and Republicans over a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar-panel maker that filed for bankruptcy in early September, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

... Every Republican on the panel voted in favor of the subpoena and every Democrat voted against it.

Congressional oversight derives from its Constitutional charge "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." (Article I, Section 8) The Supreme Court has affirmed Congressional investigative powers severally and the means to conduct such oversight.

WHITE HOUSE FIRES BACK AT 'OVERBROAD' SUBPOENA
ON SOLYNDRA DOCUMENTS

November 4, 2011 (FNC) - The White House on Friday all but refused to turn over the documents House Republicans have subpoenaed on bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, firing off a letter saying the request would put an "unreasonable burden on the president's ability to meet his constitutional duties."

... White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, in her letter, scolded GOP lawmakers for demanding more documents, noting the Obama administration has already turned over 85,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. Without explicitly refusing to comply with the subpoena, Ruemmler repeatedly described the order as "overbroad."

"The Committee's extremely broad request for documents -- now a subpoena -- is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests," she wrote, saying she can only conclude the subpoena was "driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation."

Oversight by its nature is an intrusion. Consider for a minute that a subpoena is a demand in law, not a supplication. Ms. Ruemmler here posits a new test for compliance, to wit:

We have received your subpoena. After review we have determined we don't much care for its snoopy intrusions in the doings of the executive. Since no Democrat in his right mind would be part of such a subpoena served on a Democrat president, we conclude that our discomfort is sufficient to refuse said subpoena. Have a nice day.

Wait.

WHITE HOUSE AGREES TO HAND OVER
SOLYNDRA DOCUMENTS TO GOP

November 10, 2011 (The Hill) - Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee's investigative panel, said Thursday that the White House agreed to provide documents. But they offered no detail on whether the White House agreed to provide all internal communications, as the subpoena requested, or if they will provide documents in a narrow set of categories.

Wait, wait. Is it -- Friday night? Yes it is. [Suspenseful pause.] Time for the White House Friday night news dump.

WHITE HOUSE DELIVERS SOLYNDRA DOCUMENTS,
REBUFFS FULL GOP SUBPOENA

November 11, 2011 (The Hill) - The White House on Friday rejected House Republicans' subpoena for all internal communications related to the $535 million Solyndra loan guarantee, instead providing 135 pages of documents that administration officials say meet the "legitimate oversight interests" of congressional investigators.

... An administration official said the documents offer little new insight into the loan guarantee to the failed solar panel maker.

"The Bottom line: No news here. It’s the same stuff you’ve seen before," the administration officials said. "There’s no evidence of any wrongdoing."

Because the object of a subpoena duces tecum is to obtain documents the issuing authority already has reviewed.

In a letter to top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Friday, White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said the documents "do not contain evidence of favoritism to political supporters or any wrongdoing by the White House in connection with the Solyndra loan guarantee."

Ms. Ruemmler again comes up with an innovation in the procession of oversight.

OK. Here are some documents. We have examined the documents you want to examine and they're really not very incriminating. Legal opinion here continues to assert this administration's impeccable impeccability, which should suffice to reassure you. This administration remains committed to exacting compliance with all requests that do not compromise that reassurance. Have a nice day.

And this:

SUCKERS!

CHOPE.

Introspection as good as inspection.

NYC Letter: A Little Bit Of History Repeating -- 1939

Day 997 of CHOPE

Super Abrupt Needle Scratch Edition

On August 23, 1939 Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop inked the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. It didn't work out.

OBAMA PLANS TO TURN
ANTI-WALL STREET ANGER
ON MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICANS

October 14, 2011 (WaPo) - President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy.

The move comes as the Occupy Wall Street protests gain momentum across the country and as polls show deep public distrust of the nation’s major financial institutions.

So the brainiacs at Campaign Barry and the DNC are co-opting OWS. Brilliant. Hey, how about you own this.

NAZIS AND COMMUNISTS THROW THEIR SUPPORT
BEHIND OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENTS
BLOG October 15, 2011 (Gateway Pundit)

It's a good bet they won't be marching under an "Arbeit macht frei" banner. Nor a "Работать, строить и не ныть!" banner.

OCCUPY LA PROTESTER:
'ZIONIST JEWS' WHO RUN BANKS SHOULD BE
'RUN OUT OF THIS COUNTRY'
October 15, 2011 (Breitbart TV)

(A) They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.

(B) God bless them for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective.

Nancy "Speaker No More" Pelosi (D-CA, 8th),
(A) on hearsay stepping in Godwin's Law,
characterizing the Tea Party Movement
SAN FRANCISCO August 5, 2009 (Newsmax/RCP)
(B) characterizing the Occupy Someplace movement
WASHINGTON October 6, 2011 (TWS)

Back to the WaPo article for a minute.

"We intend to make it one of the central elements of the campaign next year," Obama senior adviser David Plouffe said in an interview. "One of the main elements of the contrast will be that the president passed Wall Street reform and our opponent and the other party want to repeal it.

"I’m pretty confident 12 months from now, as people make the decision about who to go vote for, the gut check is going to be about, ‘Who would make decisions more about helping my life than Wall Street?’ " Plouffe added.

This is what you will be gut-checking, according to Mr. Plouffe.

No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time.

Christopher J. Dodd (D-CN),
3 House terms, 5 Senate terms, 36 years total, retiring
teary-eyed plutocrat commenting on the unsprung mysteries
of the 2,300-page financial reform bill
WASHINGTON June 26, 2010 (WaPo)

Surprise legislation like Obamacare. That's a winner. Here's a Dodd-Frank surprise.

Mr. Plouffe arrives new and clueless on planet Earth every single day. [Pause.] Apparently he is unaware of this reform. Or this sissy-slap of "fat cat bankers". Or this quasi-legal fat cat deal.

CHOPE.

Pwn3d.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 10.16.11: A little bonus for the intrepid few who make it down this far.

NYC Letter: OK-By-Me Racism -- Goldie Taylor

Day 997 of CHOPE

As we remark elsewhere, it is not enough to be born black to be black. You must be certified black. And to be certified you must "think black", which ironically requires no thinking at all, just the embrace of the established agitprop of your black betters. To wit.

MSNBC GUEST: IF CAIN
"COULD BECOME THE COLOR
OF WATER, HE WOULD"

October 14, 2011 (RCP) - Goldie Taylor, writer for a website called The Grio, said if given the chance, Herman Cain would "shed" his skin color to appease conservative white voters. Taylor and other contributors to TheGrio.com appear frequently on MSNBC to discuss issues dealing with race.

... [Martin Bashir], the host, accused Cain of wanting to be white in order to please the "base" of white voters:

Bashir: Goldie you're almost saying that he's trying to denude and diminish his own ethnicity in order to win that base.

Taylor: That's exactly what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that if he could shed his ethnicity today, if he could become what I would call the color of water, he would do it. He would do it in an effort to prove that he, and people just like him could fit in anywhere and have the same level of success no matter what their race, ethnicity, or gender happened to be. That just doesn't happen to be the case. And so would he shed it? I think he would.

And why does Ms. Taylor think this? Because Mr. Cain is not black like Ms. Taylor, whose negritude consists of a collection of unchallengeable opinions. Forever preserved in amber.

CHOPE.

Not black like me.

NYC Letter: Evolving Views On The Left -- Nancy Pelosi Redux

Day 993 of CHOPE

Special Poor Man's Link-rich OWS Edition

(A) This initiative is funded by the high end - we call call it astroturf, it's not really a grassroots movement. It's astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class.

(B) God bless them for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective.

Nancy "Speaker No More" Pelosi (D-CA, 8th),
(A) characterizing the Tea Party movement
SAN FRANCISCO April 15, 2009 (TPM)
(B) characterizing the Occupy Someplace movement
WASHINGTON October 6, 2011 (TWS)

Oh, Nancy, you ignorant slut!

Let's walk Nancy through this ever so slowly.

"It's independent".

"OCCUPY WALL STREET"
GAINING MOMENTUM;
UNIONS PLEDGE SUPPORT
September 30, 2011 (Slate)

MOVEON.ORG MOVES IN ON
'OCCUPY WALL STREET' PROTESTS
October 3, 2011 (TDC)

HELP WFP #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
AND GET PAID $350 TO $650 A WEEK
BLOG October 6, 2011 (yourdaddy.net)

"It's young". Oh, please, Nancy, put away the bellbottoms.

No. Yes.

"It's spontaneous".

Occupy Wall Street is in its fourth week, Nancy. The hype:

THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS
TO 'OCCUPY WALL STREET' ON SATURDAY

NEW YORK September 16, 2011 (CNN) - Occupy Wall Street is a "leaderless resistance movement" spearheaded by activist magazine Adbusters. Organizers want people to swarm into lower Manhattan on September 17 and set up camp for two months, then "incessantly repeat one simple demand."

What's that demand? They haven't decided yet.

The very next day:

HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS
DESCEND TO 'OCCUPY WALL STREET'
NEW YORK September 17, 2011 (CNN)

SPARSE ‘DAY OF RAGE’

NEW YORK September 18, 2011 (NYPost) - Only about 300 protesters, mostly college kids and aging hippies, showed up near the Stock Exchange for yesterday’s anti-Wall Street rally -- far fewer than the 20,000 that organizers of the so-called global “Day of Rage” had predicted.

"It's focused".

OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST,
SWELLED BY RADIOHEAD HOAX,
MARCHES ON NYPD HQ, BUT GETS LOST
NEW YORK September 30, 2011 (NYDN)

'YOU’RE A BUM, JEW'; MAN BERATED BY
'OCCUPY WALL STREET' PROTESTER
October 4, 2011 (Breitbart TV)

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET PROTESTOR
BLAMES THE DIRTY RICH JEWS
October 5, 2011 (Twitter)

"OCCUPY WALL STREET" PROTESTER
SPEWS VILE ANTI-SEMITISM:
"THE JEWS CONTROL WALL STREET
F*CK THE JEWS, F*CK ISRAEL"
BLOG October 5, 2011 (Weasel Zippers/YouTube)

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET CULT CHANT:
'YOU CAN HAVE SEX WITH ANIMALS'
October 11, 2011 (Breitbart TV)

"And it's going to be effective."

CHEERING ECONOMIC TERRORISM –
SEIU GETTING READY TO ‘TERRIFY’ DC
October 5, 2011 (Blaze)

WALL STREET OCCUPIER SIGN:
"QUEER KIDS: KILL YOUR PARENTS"
BLOG October 6, 2011 (Weasel Zippers via rebelpundit)

'KILL THE COPS!' SHOUT REPORTED
DURING 'OCCUPY NEW ORLEANS' PROTEST
October 7, 2011 (TDC)

CLASSY:
OCCUPIERS DEPICT DECAPITATION
OF GOLDMAN SACHS CEO
BLOG October 8, 2011 (Weasel Zippers)

Maybe Nancy isn't up on the news.

TEA PARTY GROUPS CRITICIZE MEDIA
COVERAGE OF 'OCCUPY WALL STREET'

October 11, 2011 (TDC) - While reporters at first didn’t always cover tea party rallies, [Sal Russo, a strategist with the California-based group Tea Party Express] said, a California newspaper has recently been putting stories about the Occupy Wall Street on its front page. "The Sacramento Bee actually had a front-page story before the rally, telling people where it was and what time it was," Russo said.

... While there have been news stories about some of the more negative attributes of the Occupy Wall Street protests, these conservative activists say it’s nothing in comparison to the scrutiny the media applied to tea partiers.

"While a number of people have been arrested and there is even a photo of a protester defecating on a police car, there still is no really negative coverage from the mainstream media," [Judson Phillips, the leader of the Tennessee-based group Tea Party Nation] said. "Meanwhile, protesters in New York had a photoshopped image of the decapitated head of the chairman of Goldman Sachs on a pike and no one seems to be talking about that," he said.

The clueless Democrats think this is their lucky break, that unhappy white kids with unpaid student loans will turn the national mood to their advantage like the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s. Except in the 60s and 70s the unhappy white kids did not turn the national mood against the war in Vietnam. Walter Cronkite did that after misreporting the Tet Offensive.

DEMOCRATS SEEK TO OWN
'OCCUPY WALL STREET' MOVEMENT

WASHINGTON October 10, 2011 (ABC News) - The spread of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement was met with initial hesitation in both the Democratic and Republican parties. That might be an appropriate response to any protests aimed squarely at the establishment, particularly those with goals that are diverse and diffuse as those of the protesters.

But a consensus is emerging among Democrats that the "Occupy" movement is worth tapping into, even helping along and joining with in some instances.

"I support the message to the establishment," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on ABC's "This Week." "Change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way that does not -- that is not relevant to their lives. People are angry."

To Democrats eager for a liberal antidote to the Tea Party energy that lifted Republicans to power last year, the "Occupy" rallies that started in New York last month and have spread to cities nationwide are tempting to embrace.

Democrats are so befogged by their own desperate class rhetoric they can't grasp why the Occupy Someplace folk will not resonate with the larger public. Here are some reasons. First, a "leaderless" movement is either a fraud or a folly. Second, this is the nasty flip-side of the bailouts and just as ill-conceived, a government remedy to regulate the distribution of profit. Third, OWS has a visible, noisy antisemitic, and violent element to it. Fourth, the OWS manifesto seeks to create a privileged underclass. What is included here that wasn't rejected by voting Democrats out last November is too dopey for middle America ever to embrace.

The Democrats are going to be chagrined to discover OWS isn't Main Street.

CHOPE.

Giddy with Tea Party envy.

NYC Letter: Dodging The Counterfactual World -- Nancy Pelosi

Day 990 of CHOPE

The counterfactual world is the last retreat of failed policy. In such a counterfactual world everything is worse. The sky has fallen. Misery rules. Disaster strikes everywhere. The only thing preventing the counterfactual world being visited on you is some policy that -- although failed in its original purposes -- miraculously has twisted itself around to beat back the terrible imaginings of the counterfactual world.

The beauty of the counterfactual world is, because it doesn't exist, it only needs meet a standard of the possible (unlike the real world where hypotheticals are held to a standard of what's reasonable). In politics the counterfactual world must be horrific enough to push back policy criticisms but not so ridiculously horrific that it exhausts credulity. [Pause.] Then again, sometimes the ridiculous is all you have. To wit.

PELOSI SAYS UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
WOULD HAVE HIT 14.5%
WITHOUT 2009 STIMULUS
October 6, 2011 (TWS)

Fourteen point five percent? And that would be based on what exactly? Oh, nothing really. Just some big, scary number Ms. Pelosi has reached down and pulled from her nether wink to make us grateful for 9%+ unemployment. Oooh, so glad the Dems passed the stimulus. Oooh. Yeah. You may recall that Ms. Pelosi is stymied by numbers and arithmetic processes. You don't? We do. Here and here and here and here.

And let me be very clear: A lower job rate loss is not our goal. "Less bad" is not how we're going to measure success -- we're going to measure success here in the White House.

Joe Biden,
REMARKS ON THE ECONOMY
WASHINGTON June 5, 2009 (White House)

Removing the "less bad" yardstick completely spoils Ms. Pelosi's counterfactual brag.

Here is Ms. Pelosi's rambling surreal reply in full.

Q: Madame Leader ... do you think the Jobs Act will be more or less successful than the Recovery Act at creating jobs? And secondly, what do you think are the most significant differences between Jobs Act and the Recovery Act?

PELOSI: Well, let me just say that as a matter of fact that the Recovery Act saved* millions of jobs--or saved* or created millions of jobs for our economy. Without the Recovery Act and accompanying federal interventions, whether from the Fed, or cash for clunkers, or other initiatives, the unemployment rate last year at the time of the election would have been fourteen and a half percent, not nine and a half percent.** But if you're a voter and you don't have a job that doesn't mean anything to you, and that's right, because nine and a half percent is too high. But we were near a depression under the Bush economic policies. We were in a depression, we were in a meltdown under our fiscal situation. And we had deep, deep deficits. And now we have to dig out of that. So I believe the recovery package was a success in terms of job creation. It wasn't fully appreciated. The fact is that it made a big difference. It made a big difference in helping us have a running start on electronic medical records,*** which are going to be job creators and improve quality of care, lower cost, expand access, and, again, create jobs.

Four million jobs will be created by the health care bill and the associated initiatives like what was in the Recovery package on health care alone. So I think it was a success.

This is a much smaller package. But the president says it will create 1.9--not the president but those who... What is it? The CBO, whatever--have said 1.9 million jobs. That's a good start. But hopefully it will have an explosive effect that people with jobs will become consumers who help create jobs. Which takes us back to small businesses which is what we think if people have jobs and we have more consumers, our small businesses will thrive. People will be more entrepreneurial, take risks, keep us competitive, whether it's talking about making chocolate candy comes to mind, or children's clothes, or high-tech inventions in their garage as Steve Jobs did those decades ago.

Ms. Pelosi generously provides more nonsense than we can slog through here, so we'll stick with the jobs nonsense.

When Mr. Obama took office there were 11.6 million unemployed persons; the unemployment rate was 7.6%; the labor force participation rate was 65.5%; the employment-population ratio was 60.5 %; and the employed civilian labor force was 142,099,000.

Today there are 14.0 million unemployed (+2.4M); the unemployment rate is 9.1% (+1.5%); the labor force participation rate is 64.2% (-1.3%); the employment-population ratio is 58.3% (-2.2%); and the employed civilian labor force is 140,025,000 (-2.074M). (Change from 2009 in parens.)

After $862B of stimulus, each of today's metrics that Ms. Pelosi would have us expect to be up is down, each we'd expect to be down is up. [Pause.] We do not share Ms. Pelosi's confidence that electronic medical records and making chocolate candy are going to close a 2.4M jobs gap to get us back to January 2009.

Here is the bottom line, Mr. Obama had an 8M job loss problem. The most Team Barry claims in terms of job rescue is 3M jobs created or saved.* That leaves a 5M job loss problem, for which he is proposing a rosy 1.9M job solution. That leaves a 3.1M job loss problem -- if his stimulus creates any near-term jobs at all. It seems obvious to us that if you start with an 8M job loss problem you need an 8M job loss solution. Whittle 8M to 5M, you now need a 5M job loss solution.

The Democrats haven't produced the jobs, yet Ms. Pelosi wants to be applauded for sparing us her grim counterfactual fantasy.

CHOPE.

Shooing the 14.5% boogeyman.

------------------------------------
* Tiresome but obligatory reminder, there is no metric for Team Barry's "saved" jobs claims (and this).

** The election was November 2, 2010. The unemployment rate for October 2010 was 9.6% and trending up. Details.

*** Electronic medical records is an automated process. Mr. Obama believes automation is a jobs killer. Just saying.

NYC Letter: Pants On Fire XIV -- Nancy Pelosi

Day 983 of CHOPE

There are lies, damn lies, Team Barry on any given day, and then, in a class by herself, there is Nancy Pelosi.

PEERLESS LIAR
There Is No Higher Rating

Ms. Pelosi spends a lot of time lying, and yet she is not very good at it. Mostly she is not very clever about lying (and this and this and this). She is not very clever about lying because she thinks you are utterly stupid. You are so utterly stupid any old lie will do -- Ha! -- you'll never catch her out. Her contempt for your intelligence is boundless (oh, and this). To wit.

Back in May Ms. Pelosi posted the below chart (sans word balloons) on her Flickr site. It was later re-posted to MoveOn.org. This fantastic chart shows Mr. Bush (43) increasing the debt seven-to-one over Mr. Obama.

BOGUSITY
New Spin On Old Spin

PolitiFact debunked the chart's conceptual design, data selection, and an assortment of errors, concluding:

We find so much wrong with this chart that we don’t think it contains any significant approximation of the truth. It made a major calculation error that dramatically skewed the debt increase away from Obama and toward George W. Bush. It glossed over significant variations in time served in office. It cherry-picked the measurement that was favorable to its cause. And it is contradicted by statistics for GDP-adjusted debt, which show Obama to be the most, rather than the least, debt-creating president of the last five. None of this suggests that Obama can’t turn things around as the economy improves (and Democrats can also take some solace in the fact that Bill Clinton did remarkably well in all of our measurements). But in communicating which administrations contributed the most to growth of the debt, this chart is a failure. We rate it Pants on Fire.

MoveOn.org never removed the chart from its Web site and now this same chart is back via Facebook.

The Fact Checker
A BOGUS CHART ON OBAMA AND THE DEBT
GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

WASHINGTON September 29, 2011 (WaPo) - The person who posted this on Facebook noted: “From the US Treasury Dept — any questions?” But it actually is not a Treasury Department calculation, just manipulated data taken from the Treasury Web site.

... If the chart actually used public debt rather than gross debt, it would have put Obama and George W. Bush virtually in the same league — 60 percent increase (as of September 2011) for Obama versus 70 percent for Bush — even though Bush served as president much longer.

... If the chart were recast to show how much the debt went up as a percentage of GDP, it would look pretty bad for Obama after not even three years in office. In fact, Obama does almost twice as poorly as Reagan — and four times worse than George W. Bush.

Reagan: plus 14.9 percentage points
GHW Bush: plus 7.1 percentage points
Clinton: down 13.4 percentage points
GW Bush: plus 5.6 percentage points
Obama: plus 24.6 percentage points

... If MoveOn.org or Pelosi’s office had any sense of shame, they would have quietly removed this chart from the Web when PolitiFact gave it a “pants on fire” rating four months ago. The fact that an outdated version is still floating around — and that people are still deluded into thinking it to be correct — is doubly shameful.

CHOPE.

Misinformation for the sheeple.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XIV -- What's Relevant

Day 982 of CHOPE

There’s a lot of people in Florida that have good reason to be upset because they’ve lost jobs. Even though 50 some percent of the American people think the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant. What’s relevant is we’re in charge. And right now we are the ones in charge and it’s gotten better but it hasn’t gotten good enough. And in states like Florida, it’s even been more stagnant because of the real estate market. And so I don’t blame them for being mad. We’re in charge. So they're angry.

Joe "No Quarter" Biden,
having exhausted every possible dodge,
admits Team Barry has been running things
the past 2¾ years
MIAMI September 28, 2011 (RCP/WLRN-AM)

Mr. Obama is in a hole and true to his over-used ass-backwards metaphor, he keeps trying to dig his way out, which, of course, has buried him still deeper in his hole.

Over at Gallup, Mr. Obama is losing to "generic Republican"* by 8 points (38%/46%). More disapprove (51%) than approve (40%) of his job performance. The economic outlook is miserable (Getting better 20%/Getting worse 75%). Economic conditions are rated lousy (Excellent-good 8%/Poor 55%). And 6 in 10 do not expect economy to improve soon. Count us among the downers.

And then there is this:

DEMOCRATS DISPIRITED
ABOUT VOTING IN 2012

POLL September 29, 2011 (Gallup) - Democrats' muted response to voting in 2012 also contrasts with Republicans' eagerness. Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans, 58%, describe themselves as more enthusiastic about voting. That is nearly identical to Republicans' average level of enthusiasm in 2004 (59%) and higher than it was at most points in 2008.

... Democrats' net enthusiasm (+1) now trails Republicans' net enthusiasm (+28) by 27 percentage points. By contrast, Democrats held the advantage on net enthusiasm throughout 2008 -- on several occasions, by better than 40-point margins. Democrats occasionally trailed Republicans in net enthusiasm in 2004, but never by as much as is seen today.

... While Gallup has not been able to establish a statistical link between heightened enthusiasm and greater turnout in past elections, the party with the enthusiasm advantage generally tends to fare better.

To the last point, duh.

Elsewhere the Federal Reserve chairman has declared unemployment a "national crisis". Last month Standard & Poor's downgraded American credit for the first time in the history of the republic. This month the IMF cut its outlook for American GDP growth 40% in 2011 to 1.5% from 2.5% and 33% in 2012 to 1.8% from 2.7%.

And despite all that, Mr. Obama keeps digging.

Mr. Biden has come late to owning the Obama economy. Not so the DNC chair who doesn't want you mistaking any part of Mr. Obama's economy for Republican handiwork.

We own the economy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th),
DNC chair and proud owner of the Obama economy
WASHINGTON June 15, 2011 (Politico)

CHOPE.

Pwn3d.

------------------------------------
* Over at Rasmussen, "generic Republican" has beaten Mr. Obama 12 weeks running. Since Rasmussen began the weekly hypothetical match-up in May, "generic Republican" has outpolled Mr. Obama 18 weeks, tied once, and lost twice.

NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- AttackWatch

Day 979 of CHOPE

Special "Schild und Schwert der Partei"* Edition

Welcome to AttackWatch, Campaign Barry's new snitch site.

PRESERVE THIS ADMINISTRATION'S BLAMELESS REPUTATION
Report Critics, Complainers, Whingers, Whiners,
And Unflattering Pictures

The roll-out for this second or third attempt at fostering good citizen informers has been less than [We search for the mitigating word so as not to be reported as an "attack".] good.

ATTACK WATCH, NEW OBAMA CAMPAIGN SITE
TO 'FIGHT SMEARS', BECOMES LAUGHING STOCK
OF CONSERVATIVES

September 14, 2011 (WaPo) - As the 2012 presidential campaign heats up, President Obama’s campaign team has set up a new Web site, AttackWatch.com, to challenge negative statements about the president made by Republican presidential candidates and conservatives.

... The response to the site has been less than stellar.

On Twitter, where the Web site has an account to help Obama supporters submit evidence of “attacks” on the president using the hashtag #attackwatch, nearly every tweet about the site — mostly from conservatives — has ridiculed it.

... It’s safe to say that in its 24 hours of existence, Attack Watch has already backfired, becoming a tool for conservatives to use against Obama 2012.

NOW, IF IT WERE ‘BUNGLEWATCH’ ...

September 15, 2011 (NYPost) - President Obama’s campaign team has trotted out AttackWatch.com, a spooky new Web site that asks followers to report "lies" being told about the president. The apparent point is to drown out opposition to Obama and his policies by encouraging instant cyber-swarms aimed squarely at the critics.

... Online satirist IowaHawk wrote, "I’m grateful to live in a country where the totalitarians are so hilariously inept."

ATTACKWATCH TWITS

September 16, 2011 (IBD) - Calling on readers to "Get the facts. Fight the Smears," about President Obama's record, [AttackWatch.com] actually encourages all Americans to become snitches for Obama. That mimics the 2008 Obama campaign's "FightTheSmears.com" site, as well as the George Soros-funded MediaMatters.com. AttackWatch asks readers to "report" the "lies," presumably so the Obama team won't have to Google its own record.

On Twitter, this pompous, conspiracy-minded premise has managed only to attract an outburst of humor.

• "Watch out, monthly jobless report. @AttackWatch is onto you," tweeted SECupp.
• "I'd like to report my neighbour — Bob, for surreptitiously scraping the Obama sticker off the bumper of his Prius," tweeted AmeriPundit.
• "I saw 6 ATM's in an alley, killing a job. It looked like a hate crime!" tweeted ThorInAZ.
• "I just parked my private jet in a handicap space, left it running & bought lemonade from little girls in yard w/o a permit!" tweeted TheWrightWingy2.

These comments are the logical result of a presidency trying to dictate how people live, refusing to admit its economic policy has failed and fostering the sort of big-government socialist bent that believes in citizen snitches.

All it's done is backfire.

Allahpundit at Hot Air is running a dead pool in the comments thread here for when Campaign Barry pulls the site. Since this is all Campaign Barry has to counter its critics -- other than MSNBC -- the site will probably be left to wither on the Internet.

The Campaign Spot
WATCHING ATTACK WATCH...
DO NOTHING FOR THE PAST NINE DAYS.

September 23, 2011 (NRO) - The creators and managers of the Obama campaign web site “ATTACK WATCH” have not Tweeted since September 14, and the last “Attack File” was posted September 12. ... Yup, cleared the shark easily.

The surest sign that AttackWatch is a flop? The parody videos (Hat tip: Carine) that have gone viral, reducing the original to a mere point of reference. Our favorite is Hitler in the bunker ripping the AttackWatch Web design team.

SNAKEBIT
"It Will Be In The Cloud Forever..."
View video here.

CHOPE.

Report this site.

------------------------------------
* "Shield and Sword of the Party", motto of the defunct Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, or Stasi, snitch central of the GDR.

NYC Letter: The Accidental Truth XI -- Covering The Bases

Day 978 of CHOPE

Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes. Economists, small businesses, and politicians do not favor raising taxes during a recession, or, as Team Barry would have you believe, a recession in the guise of a recovery.

The 2009 beta version of Mr. Obama was of that opinion.

Q: Explain how raising taxes on anyone during a deep recession is going to help with the economy. And he's [town hall questioner] going to want you to look at historical markers where this has been, where you would say this has been a helpful thing...

Well...

Q: ...at a recession.

First of all, he's right. Normally you don't raise taxes in recession, which is why we haven't.* [Chuckle.] And why we instead cut taxes. So, I guess what I'd say to Scott is, his economics are right. You don't raise taxes in a recession. We haven't raised taxes in a recession.*

Q: But you might for health care. You might for the high, the wealthy.

The-a, we have not proposed a tax hike for the wealthy that would take effect in the middle of a recession. Even the proposals that have come out of Congress, which by the way were different from the proposals I put forward, still wouldn't kick in till after the recession was over. So, he's absolutely right. The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would suck up, take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.

Mr. Obama,
answering half a question**
WAKARUSA, Indiana August 5, 2009 (YouTube/NBC News)

More recently Mr. Obama demurred on raising taxes till after you re-elect him.

So when you hear folks saying, well, the President shouldn’t want massive, job-killing tax increases when the economy is this weak -- nobody is looking to raise taxes right now. We're talking about potentially 2013 and the out-years.

Mr. Obama,
running on a promise to raise your taxes
PRESS CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON July 11, 2011 (White House)

A difficulty with policy flux is keeping your demagoguery straight.

(A) Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it.

( B) And all I’m saying is that everything should be fair. ... So all I’m saying is that Warren Buffett’s secretary should not be paying a lower [sic] tax rate on her income than Warren Buffett. (Applause.) That doesn’t make any sense.

Mr. Obama,
perpetrating the fairy tale of
Mr. Buffet's unfairly taxed secretary
(A) REMARKS ON ECONOMIC GROWTH
AND DEFICIT REDUCTION
WASHINGTON September 19, 2011 (White House)
(B) Oops!
REMARKS ON THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT
CINCINNATI, Ohio September 22, 2011 (White House)

The quotes are as given by the White House. Please note the (B) quote is applauded and the (A) quote is not.

So Mr. Obama's position is he has been both for and against tax hikes in a weak economy, but is currently for them. When this proves unpopular, he will be against them again. [Pause.] For more of the same, vote him back in 2012.

CHOPE.

For. Against. On. Off. Depending.

------------------------------------
* Must've slipped his mind. And this.

** The answer to the second half of the question can be found here.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XIII -- Malarkey!

Day 974 of CHOPE

Special Walkback Preview Edition

America's most unaccomplished president looses his political whore on a weary nation.

'JUST GO BE JOE':
OBAMA LETS BIDEN LOOSE
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
September 20, 2011 (The Hill)

And off he goes.

BIDEN: WON'T TAKE 'NO'
ON JOBS BILL

SOLON, Ohio September 20, 2011 (Politico) - A few weeks ago, it was the White House urging compromise and bipartisan cooperation.

"I need you to send a message to folks in Washington," Obama said at a town hall meeting Aug. 17 in Atkinson, Ill. "Stop drawing lines in the sand; stop engaging in rhetoric instead of actually getting things done. It’s time to put country ahead of party; it’s time to worry more about the next generation than the next election."

But that was then, and now Republicans are sounding like jilted prom dates. Mr. Biden on the jobs bill, after touring a shrink-wrap factory:

We are not prepared to take no for an answer.

Mr. Biden talks tough like Team Barry holds a winning hand.

POLL: ECONOMIC PESSIMISM DEEPENS,
AND MORE BLAME OBAMA

POLL September 21, 2011 (USA Today) - Americans' pessimism about the economy and its future is deepening, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, and they are increasingly willing to hold President Obama responsible for hard times.

Eight of 10 say the economy is in a recession, and nearly as many say it hasn't improved over the past year. Even more ominous: Six in 10 predict the economy a year from now will be the same or worse than today, a downturn from the public's views last year and the year before.

... Twenty-four percent say Obama deserves a great deal of the blame, up 10 points since 2009. For the first time since he took office, a majority of Americans — including six in 10 independents — say he deserves a great deal or moderate amount of blame for the nation's economic woes.

Mr. Obama's jobs plan as presented has no chance of passing Congress. Mr. Obama knows this, though Mr. Biden may not grasp it. But Mr. Biden will carry any message he's told to carry. Today's message is "No". If Mr. Obama decides he really wants to pass a jobs bill (highly doubtful), Mr. Biden will be happy to peddle "Yes". Mr. Biden has already demonstrated there is no principled position he will not walkback if told to do so. To wit.

BIDEN: GOP TAX CUT CLAIMS
A 'BUNCH OF MALARKEY'

WASHINGTON August 25, 2010 (AP) - A series of sweeping tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush are set to expire in January. The Obama administration wants to renew only those tax breaks that affect middle-class and lower income taxpayers, those with incomes under $250,000. Republicans want the tax cuts extended for all wage-earners.

Vice President Joe Biden says Republican assertions that small businesses would suffer if all of the expiring Bush tax cuts aren't extended are a "bunch of malarkey."

BIDEN: WHITE HOUSE READY
TO DEAL ON BUSH TAX CUTS

October 22, 2010 (WaPo) - The White House is ready to do a deal with Republicans to keep tax cuts in place for the middle class, according to Vice President Biden - even if it means expanding the universe of taxpayers who benefit.

... And some liberal Democrats have begun to balk at any extension, saying they didn't vote for the tax cuts when they passed in 2001 and 2003 and don't see why they should vote for them now.

Such talk has raised the possibility that Congress could let all the cuts expire. But Biden seemed to dismiss that prospect in the Bloomberg interview. He also defended the president's position, arguing that the nation should not sink more deeply into debt to provide tax breaks to millionaires.

Yipes! Mr. Obama goes and cedes all the Bush tax cuts to the Republicans. Who can Mr. Obama deputize to sell the walkback to pissed Democrats?

OBAMA SENDS BIDEN TO CAPITOL HILL
TO SELL TAX DEAL TO ANGRY DEMS

December 6, 2011 (The Hill) - Vice President Joe Biden will go to Capitol Hill Tuesday to sell Democrats on the tentative deal President Obama struck with congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years.

... The tentative deal would extend all of the Bush tax cuts for a period of two years and federal unemployment benefits through the end of 2011.

... Biden has emerged as Obama’s chief flack in dealing with angry Democrats, who began reacting to rumors of a deal last week. The vice president will try to cash in on some of the goodwill he earned during the campaign by traveling across the country to stump and raise money for Democratic incumbents.

All in a day's political whoring.

CHOPE.

The messenger boy.

NYC Letter: Mr. Obama's Awesome Jobs Plan -- Where's The Love?

Day 968 of CHOPE

Super Important Jobs Bill Love Edition

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Barack!

I love you back. (Applause.) But first -- but if you love me -- if you love me, you got to help me pass this bill. (Applause.) If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill. (Applause.) It starts with your help. ... Already, you’ve got some Republicans in Washington who have said that some of this stuff may have to wait until the next election.

Mr. Obama,
REMARKS AT NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
RALEIGH September 14, 2011 (White House)

Mr. Obama implored a joint session of Congress, in a petulant do-my-bidding sort of way, 17* times to pass his jobs bill. It was so important that he urged passage 4 days before he actually delivered the bill to Congress and two weeks before presenting the offsets for its $450B $650B price tag (hint, begins with "T" -- no spending cuts -- and ends with "AXES"). And foot-dragging obstructionist push-grandma-off-the-cliff Republicans threaten to hold up passage. [Abrupt needle scratch.] Oh. Wait.

OBAMA JOBS BILL PICKED APART
BY CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS

September 14, 2011 (Politico) - As he demands Congress quickly approve his ambitious proposal aimed at reviving the sagging economy, many Democrats on Capitol Hill appear far from sold that the president has the right antidote to spur major job growth and turn around their party’s political fortunes.

"Terrible," Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) told POLITICO when asked about the president’s ideas for how to pay for the $450 billion price tag. "We shouldn’t increase taxes on ordinary income. … There are other ways to get there."

"That offset is not going to fly, and he should know that," said Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu from the energy-producing Louisiana, referring to Obama’s elimination of oil and gas subsidies. "Maybe it’s just for his election, which I hope isn’t the case."

... "There is serious discomfort with potentially setting up Social Security as a fall guy because you’re taking this contribution out," said Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, referring to Obama’s proposal to further slash payroll taxes.

... [Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK)]: "On the pay-fors, I have a problem."

SOME DEMOCRATS ARE BALKING
AT OBAMA’S JOBS BILL

WASHINGTON September 14, 2011 (NYT) - President Obama anticipated Republican resistance to his jobs program, but he is now meeting increasing pushback from his own party. Many Congressional Democrats, smarting from the fallout over the 2009 stimulus bill, say there is little chance they will be able to support the bill as a single entity, citing an array of elements they cannot abide.

"I think the American people are very skeptical of big pieces of legislation," Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said in an interview Wednesday, joining a growing chorus of Democrats who prefer an à la carte version of the bill despite White House resistance to that approach. "For that reason alone I think we should break it up."

Team Barry is not going to like that. Surely Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) can get his members behind the president's bill. And pronto. Because it's urgent.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has said he will put the bill on the legislative calendar but has declined to say when. He almost certainly will push the bill — which Mr. Obama urged Congress to pass “right now!” — until after his chamber’s recess at the end of the month; Mr. Reid has set votes on disaster aid, extensions for the Federal Aviation Administration and a short-term spending plan ahead of the jobs bill.

And bike paths. The Senate must act quickly on the bike path crisis the nation faces.

CHOPE.

[Plaintive. Whiny.] Where's the love?

------------------------------------
* Our count 16; Daily Caller count 17; Politico count 18.

NYC Letter: Soaring Oratory X -- Bow Wow

Day 966 of CHOPE

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

Psalm 46:9 (KJV)

Sunday Mr. Obama read Psalm 46 at the Ground Zero commemoration. No big words. Cantabile. An easy read. Average reading comprehension suffices. [Pause.] A read-through before delivery is still a good idea.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air does the carve up:

I noticed this on Sunday, and so did Jim Hoft,...that the President didn’t read through Psalm 46 carefully before reading it aloud at the Ground Zero commemoration of 9/11.

"Bow" is pronounced with a long O when discussing the weapon, rhyming naturally with "arrow," which is the context for God breaking the bow and spear. "Bow" in the way Obama pronounces it here means a gesture of bending at the waist, or the front of a boat. (One could include the homophone for a tree branch, but “bough” is spelled differently.) Had the President read through the Psalm for comprehension before addressing the crowd, he would have known which context of “bow” to use, and pronounced it accordingly.

As Jim says, "It sure is a good thing his last name isn’t Bush."

In reading "...he breaketh the bow (bou)...", perhaps Mr. Obama had this (or this or this) in mind, a reading derivative of his experience. But countless flubs, errors, howlers, gaffes (and these), gibberish, clichés, blanks, and "misspeaks" cannot blind Mr. Obama's fans to his fabulous oratorical brilliance.

I have a gift, Harry.

Mr. Obama,
explaining the magic,
as quoted by a star-struck Harry Reid
The Good Fight (New York: Penguin Group (USA), 2008)

CHOPE.

Selah.

NYC Letter: Big Important Jobs Speech -- Tune Out

Day 963 of CHOPE

Big Jobs Plan Speech Morning-After After Edition

I have a gift, Harry.

Mr. Obama,
explaining the magic,
as quoted by a star-struck Harry Reid
The Good Fight (New York: Penguin Group (USA), 2008)

It was a speech so historic it required a joint session of Congress to sit witness. A speech so urgent it was shuttled to the Wheel Of Fortune time slot. So crucial Harry Reid scheduled votes before and after to frustrate truants. So extraordinary no response was necessary.

Thirty months in the making, a jobless nation awaited the awesome awesomeness of Mr. Obama's big important jobs speech. Thursday night Mr. Obama delivered the goods.

The American people shouldn’t be forced to watch some politician they don’t want to listen to and frankly, most of them would rather watch a football game.

John Boehner (R-OH, 57th),
Speaker, commenting on showing stimulus reruns
before the NFL season opener
September 8, 2011 (TDC)

Mr. Boehner calls it. The American people didn't watch.

OBAMA TV RATINGS DROP
FOR JOBS SPEECH

September 9, 2011 (WaEx) - President Obama’s jobs speech represented the lowest ratings he’s received for any address to a joint session of Congress of his presidency.

The speech garnered 31.5 million viewers, according to the website TVbythenumbers, which was slightly lower than his Sept. 2009 health care speech to Congress, which drew 32.1 million viewers and is probably the fairest comparison.

But viewed against other addresses to Congress, it looks worse, and is part of a broader downward trend. During his first speech to a joint session of Congress in February 2009, Obama drew 52.4 million viewers. His first official State of the Union Address on January 2010 drew 48 million viewers and this year’s SOTU had 42.8 million.

And the speech didn't pack the House either.

Presidential addresses to Congress are often dramatic moments. This one felt like a sideshow. Usually, the press gallery is standing-room-only; this time, only 26 of 90 seats were claimed by the deadline. Usually, some members arrive in the chamber hours early to score a center-aisle seat; 90 minutes before Thursday’s speech, only one Democrat was so situated.

... Almost all Republicans ignored the calls of some within their ranks to boycott the speech. In fact, the empty seats were on the Democratic side.

Gone are Mr. Obama's heady SRO days.

For those who did attend or watch, Mr. Obama lifted their spirits with his trademark policy humor.

"You should pass this jobs plan right away!" Obama exhorted. Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) chuckled.

"Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary — an outrage he has asked us to fix," Obama went on. Widespread laughter broke out on the GOP side of the aisle.

"This isn’t political grandstanding," Obama said. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI, 1st) guffawed.

"This isn’t class warfare," Obama said. More hysterics on the right.

"We’ve identified over 500 [regulatory] reforms, which will save billions of dollars," the president claimed. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA, 7th) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA, 22nd) giggled.

CHOPE.

Thanks for the laughs.

NYC Letter: Big Important Jobs Speech -- Foirade*

Day 962 of CHOPE

Big Jobs Plan Speech Morning-After Edition

Mr. Obama gave his big jobs plan speech last night (transcript). He did not disappoint in that the speech was disappointing. Consider its sad tale of hype, notch-downs (and this), re-inflation, mismanaged staging, and its revealed boneless puniness against the grandiosity of a joint session of Congress, a venue for national business of great moment.

For those impatient with the color commentary, here is Mr. Obama's jobs plan:

1. Pass the plan.
   
2. Spend $300B $400B $450B.**
   
3. Make the Deficit Super Committee pay for the plan.
   
4. Cut & paste details from the Recovery Act.

That is the correct order. Mr. Obama has called on Congress to pass his plan (17 times throughout the speech) without having actually submitted the plan. You have to pass the plan to find out what's in the plan. Whatever the eventual details of the plan, the conceptual basis is the Democrats' same big idea for everything.

SPEND MONEY.

LOTS OF MONEY.

Fact Check
OBAMA'S JOBS PLAN PAID FOR? SEEMS NOT

WASHINGTON September 9, 2011 (AP) - President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.

It will only be paid for if a committee he can't control does his bidding, if Congress puts that into law and if leaders in the future - the ones who will feel the fiscal pinch of his proposals - don't roll it back.

The article goes on to debunk Mr. Obama's claims that everything in his plan is paid for (it's not), that the mish-mash of remedies has bipartisan appeal (it doesn't), that the plan won't add to the deficit (it will), and the plan will create jobs right away (it won't).

What has gone largely unremarked is that Mr. Obama wouldn't have had to deliver a big jobs plan last night if his first big jobs plan had created real jobs over the past two years. We are baffled, perhaps you are too, how this rehashed jobs plan at half the cost is going to best the original $862B flop.

CHOPE.

Pass the plan.

------------------------------------
* "Foirades" was the French serial title of some late works by Samuel Beckett. Mr. Beckett explained his word choice thusly: "One, foirade is a lamentable failure . . . something one attempts that is destined to fail, but must be attempted, nonetheless, because it is unquestionably worth the effort ... thus, a lamentable failure. [A pause.] Of course, foirade also means 'wet fart'!"

** Democrat Edward G. Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and mayor of Philadelphia, got the ball rolling back in August, pitching a $200B a year public works program over 10 years to Mr. Obama. That, dear innumerate, is a cool $2T thrown away in annual chump change increments.

NYC Letter: Loser's Corner -- Alan Grayson

Day 960 of CHOPE

Alan Grayson has his begging bowl out and to convince you to donate he wants you to know he called Newt Gingrich "fat". If that's not a winning message for a Democrat, what is?

GRAYSON: NEWT'S FAT,
'SMELLS OF SULFUR'

September 6, 2011 (Politico) - Alan Grayson devotes his latest campaign message to recalling the moment he insulted Newt Gingrich's waistline on the House floor a year ago.

The title of this email: "I Told Newt He Looks Fat." Here's the sell:

So Gingrich came to the Floor of the House a year ago. I went nowhere near him. I just don’t like the smell of sulfur.

But another member, whom I like very much, told me that she wanted to introduce me. I said, "no, that’s OK, thanks anyway. I really don’t know what to say to him." But she insisted.

She introduced me to Newt.

I said to him, "you look like you’ve gained a lot of weight."

Newt stared at me.

I said, "I remember you being much slimmer back in the 1990’s. When you were relevant."

Newt scowled at me, and walked away. Good comeback, Newt. By the way, Newt Gingrich scowls just the way you would expect Newt Gingrich to scowl. I would like to think that that light little love-tap on Newt Gingrich’s ego may have pushed him just a tiny bit toward running for President. Which is great. Because Newt is really going to be hammered. If it’s an eight-person field, Newt will finish ninth.

And Mr. Grayson knows something about losing. A one-termer, he was "hammered" in the recent mid-term elections, losing Florida's 8th CD seat to Daniel Webster, 56.2%/38.4%.

We did not cover Mr. Grayson's short but tiresome tenure. Examples of the quality of his mind are on display here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. If you can't manage all that, this one example should do.

At a fundraiser Mr. Obama once included Mr. Grayson, who was already an established embarrassment, in pro forma shout-outs as an "outstanding" Congressperson. What else could he say, "Among the outstanding Congressmen here tonight is Alan Grayson, who is not outstanding but stands apart, a graceless say-anything media clown"? [Pause.] Actually, yes, he could've said that. Should've.

CHOPE.

Fantasy comeback.

NYC Letter: The New Civility -- André Carson

Day 959 of CHOPE

Think back a scant eight months. Remember the "new tone of civility"?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ URGES
'NEW TONE OF CIVILITY'

January 17, 2011 (WINK) - In a statement Monday, Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th) says the [Giffords] shooting has reminded her that "words have the power to hurt and to heal." She says the country needs "a new tone of civility in our public discourse."

André Carson (D-IN, 7th) doesn't.

ANDRE CARSON: TEA PARTY WANTS
BLACKS 'HANGING ON A TREE'

August 31, 2011 (Politico) - Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the Congressional Black Caucus’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would "love to see us as second-class citizens" and "some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree."

And he meant it.

REP. CARSON DEFENDS
CONTROVERSIAL TEA PARTY SLAM

LOS ANGELES August 31, 2011 (CNN) - As members of the Congressional Black Caucus converged in Los Angeles for its final national job fair series, one of its ranking members responded to his own previous inflammatory comments in Miami about the tea party, comparing their movement to Jim Crow laws that segregated and marginalized African Americans in society.

... On Wednesday, Carson told CNN he stood by those remarks.

Well, I wasn't talking about the entire tea party. I think the tea party is absolutely right when they call for increased transparency in government, when they call for a cutback on excessive government spending. I am deeply concerned about some elements of the tea party who are extremist and who have reflected a mentality going back to the John Birch society, going back to George Wallace's Dixiecrats.

Carson said he was not regretful or in need of apologizing.

I stand on the truth of what I spoke.

And what truth might that be? Conjuring the racist boogeyman to a hopped-up crowd? What offends about race-baiters like Mr. Carson is how facilely racism is trivialized. Mr. Carson was born in 1974. He has been a life-long resident Indianian. It is unlikely that he ever saw a lynching, that a cross was burned on his lawn, was waterhosed while peaceably demonstrating, had his mosque firebombed, was required to use public facilities for "coloreds", or was barred from attending a predominantly white school.

Yet Mr. Carson is ever so sure that "some" in the Tea Party are ready to visit all that and more on him and his audience. He is sure to the point of truth. But where is Mr. Carson's evidence? Where the proof? Mr. Carson's truth is as phony as the boogeyman he conjures.

CHOPE.

Truth from the plantation.

NYC Letter: The New Civility -- Maxine Waters Update

Day 945 of CHOPE

Maxine Waters (D-CA, 35th) not only has wished the Tea Party to Hell straightaway, she is also ready to personally assist in its descent.

Via BreitbartTV:

While the media plays up the Los Angeles congresswoman's "the Tea Party can go straight to hell' comments from this weekend, they are ignoring what she said right after that. When the wild cheers of the audience calmed down, Rep. Waters then said: "And I intend to help them get there."

Is there any doubt that if a Tea Party representative had said that "the Congressional Black Caucus can go straight to hell and we intend to help them get there", we would be hearing loud condemnations about the hateful rhetoric from the extremists in the Republican Party?

The person to ask is Allen West (R-FL, 22nd), who recently characterized Ms. Waters among other black "perceived leaders" as overseers on the Democrat plantation.

CHOPE.

The road to Hell, paved with Democrat intentions.

NYC Letter: The New Civility -- Maxine Waters

Day 943 of CHOPE

It's our responsibility to, to make sure that we set the right example and set the tone of civility. ... But what--we do have to make sure that among our responsibility [sic] is to be civil to each other.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th),
DNC chair and reborn civility evangelist,
after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ, 8th)
remonstrating for care in public discourse
MEET THE PRESS
WASHINGTON January 9, 2011 (NBC)

American politics are brawling. After the Giffords shooting, the Democrats thought they could use civility as a club with which to beat Republicans over the head. The Democrats absolved themselves of incivility and proceeded to piously lecture the rest of us on the boundaries in public discourse. But civility has proved too much for Democrats (and this). Without nastiness, they had no message. No message, no headline. [Inhumanitas repete.]

REP. MAXINE WATERS:
'THE TEA PARTY CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL'

August 20, 2011 (LAT) - Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA, 35th) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood.

The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California's jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%. California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%.

Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. "I'm not afraid of anybody," said Waters. "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the 'tea party' can go straight to hell."

... According to the Employment Development Department, California employers added just 4,500 new jobs last month, a steep drop from the revised 30,400 jobs added in June.

CHOPE.

Success -- a headline!

NYC Letter: Got That Wrong -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Day 936 of CHOPE

We don't envy Debbie Wasserman Schultz her new job, the big-spin cheerleader for Democrat election efforts. It is a job that requires one humiliating public stupidity atop another, endless spin of bad news into not-so-bad news or, failing that, hysterical (and this) digressions pillow-punching the opposition. Or gimmicks. To wit.

GALLUP: OBAMA JOB RATING SINKS
BELOW 40% FOR FIRST TIME

August 14, 2011 (LAT) - President Obama's summer woes have dragged his approval rating to an all-time low, sinking below 40% for the first time in Gallup's daily tracking poll.

New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency.

Obama's approval rating has hovered in the 40% range for much of 2011, peaking at 53% in the weeks following the death of Osama bin Laden.

But Americans' view of his job performance continued to tick downward as the debt-ceiling debate heated up. By the time he signed legislation averting a federal default, he was mired in the low-40% range.

Same day Gallup released its numbers, Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

DNC CHIEF:
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S REELECTION BID
IN 'GOOD SHAPE'

August 14, 2011 (The Hill) - Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the DNC chief, said that she doesn't think the president's bid for a second term is in trouble.

"Not at all," Wasserman Schultz said on CBS's "Face the Nation" when asked if Obama was in political trouble. Ms. Wasserman Schultz:

The president is in actually remarkably good shape, given that he is still struggling to help pull our economy out of the Republican -- the Republican recession that he inherited. His numbers are still strong. He still has widespread support. If anyone is in trouble, it's the Republican Party.

The telling phrase is "still struggling to help pull out of the recession". DSW is saying, if we have parsed this correctly, for someone having a great deal of trouble while working against the mood of the country with no ideas other than taxes and spending, Mr. Obama is in "remarkably good shape". This is like saying, given the mismatch, that this year's Astros (32 GB) are in "remarkably good shape" to win their division and league.

We don't put much stock in polls this far out. Fifteen months is an eternity in politics. However when the numbers are weak, the candidate is weak, not in "remarkably good shape".

DWS speaks to script, not meaningfully. Or in Allen West's (R-FL, 22nd) succint 4-word summation: "Debbie. Is. Not. Smart."

CHOPE.

Other than that, doing fine.

NYC Letter: Blameless

Day 931 of CHOPE

If the sun comes up tomorrow, you can thank Mr. Obama. If the bank forecloses on your home, or you lose your job, or you pay $2 more for a gallon of milk than a year ago, the complaint line forms to the right.

OBAMA SAYS HE INHERITED
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

WASHINGTON August 8, 2011 (Reuters) - Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, where families paid $15,000 to get a picture with him, Obama defended his economic record and noted that problems in Europe were affecting the United States.

"We do have a serious problem in terms of debt and deficit, and much of it I inherited," Obama said. The financial crisis, he said, made the problem worse.

Mr. Obama also inherited a AAA sovereignty rating from Mr. Bush.

"What's absolutely true, even before these last couple days in the stock market, is that recovery wasn't happening fast enough," he said. "When you have problems in Europe and in Spain and in Italy and in Greece, those problems wash over into our shores," he said.

It's always something. It's just never the results Mr. Obama promised. So Mr. Obama plans to re-run his 2008 campaign against Mr. Bush in 2012. And why not? Mr. Obama can't run on any achievements he'll own (e.g., unemployment, foreign policy, economic growth), because everything Mr. Obama has achieved is Mr. Bush's fault. Better to trot out the Big CHOPE of 2008 and mop up the sucker vote.

A couple of reminders.

I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, well, this is Obama's economy. That's fine. Give it to me. (Applause.) My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and harp and gripe. (Applause.)

So I welcome the job. I want the responsibility.*

Mr. Obama,
problem-solver-in-chief,
forgetting at least one person
who helped get us in this mess
WARREN, Michigan July 14, 2009 (White House)

* Responsibility = credit

We own the economy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th),
DNC chair and proud owner of the Obama economy
WASHINGTON June 15, 2011 (Politico)

CHOPE.

Invoking the Democrat eleventh commandment.

NYC Letter: The Accidental Truth X -- Not Our Job

Day 927 of CHOPE

Q: Sort of to follow on that, why should Americans believe that the White House can create jobs when the unemployment rate has been so stagnant and the record is sort of anemic?

Well, the White House doesn’t create jobs.

Jay Carney,
letting the cat out of the bag
PRESS BRIEFING
WASHINGTON August 4, 2011 (White House)

This will be surprising news to the boss.

We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved* or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95 percent of all working families.

Mr. Obama,
bragging on his largely unspent $787B stimulus plan
claiming 150,000 undocumented jobs created or saved*
PRESS CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON April 29, 2009 (White House)

And the bossling.

(A) We need desperately to get this economy moving. We've got to create more jobs, ah, now. ... The most important thing that I want the taxpayers to understand though, is that we, these jobs that we're going to be creating are designed for not only the immediate impact of that job, but for the future prosperity of the country. ... It has to create jobs immediately.

(B) All in all we're going to be creating somewhere between 100 [scil., 100,000] and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict. ... Even some in the White House said, 'Hey, don't get ahead of yourself.' Well, I'm here to tell you, some time in the next couple of months, we're going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month.

(C) Thus far, we have allocated over $620 billion of the Act, and as a result, the Recovery Act is responsible for somewhere between 2.3 million and 2.8 million jobs that were either saved* or created.

Joe "Hi-Q" Biden,
(A) then-VP-elect and soon-to-be stimulus policeman,
emphasizing the Obama presidency's top priority
WASHINGTON December 23, 2008 (ABC News)
(B) predicting "Recovery Summer"
PITTSBURGH April 23, 2010 (WaPo)
(C) doing the numbers on "Recovery Summer"
WASHINGTON June 17, 2010 (White House)

Team Barry has been bragging on its feeble job creation since day one of Mr. Obama's $787B -- since operationally mushroomed to $862B -- shovel-ready government giveaway.

Government job creation is a an article of faith in the liberal catechism.

Alas. The government in the persons of Team Barry has not created the millions of jobs promised. It has not capped unemployment at the promised 8%. Far from net job creation, it still runs a staggering jobs deficit. So as with all Team Barry disappointments, Mr. Carney has thrown government job creation under the bus -- where you can also find Constitutional proprieties, signing statements, the ban on lobbyists, transparency, fiscal stewardship (and this), the closing of Guantánamo, the rejection of the Military Commissions Act, and "dumb" protracted wars.

CHOPE.

Not our job. Not our problem.

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* There is no metric for "saved" jobs (and this).

Posted by Damian at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)