Rise & fall of the big 3

Want to start this off by saying I DID NOT WRITE THE BELOW ARTICLE! Only reason I’m posting the entire piece and not quoting it is because it’s actually a speech by Joseph B. White and I ran across it on Free Republic. It’s a long but very good read on how the big 3 went from kings of the road to teetering on insolvency. So settle in with a pack of smokes and bag of popcorn and start reading……

How Detroit's Automakers Went from Kings of the Road to Roadkill
Hillsdale College Imprimis | February 2009 Issue | Joseph B. White

Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 06:27:56 by IbJensen

JOSEPH B. WHITE is a senior editor in the Washington, D.C., bureau of The Wall Street Journal. A graduate of Harvard University, he has worked for the Journal since 1987, and for most of that time he covered the auto industry, serving as Detroit bureau chief from 1998-2007. He writes a weekly column on the car business and the regulatory and social issues that surround it for the Journal's online and print editions, and contributes new-car reviews to SmartMoney magazine. Mr. White is co-author (with Paul Ingrassia) of Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry, and won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1993.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on January 26, 2009, at a seminar on the topic, "Cars and Trucks, Markets and Governments," co-sponsored by the Center for Constructive Alternatives and the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series.

I'D LIKE to start by congratulating all of you. You are all now in the auto business, the Sport of Kings-or in our case, presidents and members of Congress. Without your support—and I assume that most of you are fortunate enough to pay taxes—General Motors and Chrysler would very likely be getting measured by the undertakers of the bankruptcy courts. But make no mistake. What has happened to GM is essentially bankruptcy by other means, and that is an extraordinary event in the political and economic history of our country.

GM is an institution that survived in its early years the kind of management turbulence we've come to associate with particularly chaotic Internet startups. But with Alfred P. Sloan in charge, GM settled down to become the very model of the modern corporation. It navigated through the Great Depression, and negotiated the transition from producing tanks and other military materiel during World War II to peacetime production of cars and trucks. It was global before global was cool, as its current chairman used to say. By the mid-1950s the company was the symbol of American industrial power—the largest industrial corporation in the world. It owned more than half the U.S. market. It set the trends in styling and technology, and even when it did not it was such a fast and effective follower that it could fairly easily hold its competitors in their places. And it held the distinction as the world's largest automaker until just a year or so ago.

How does a juggernaut like this become the basket case that we see before us today? I will oversimplify matters and touch on five factors that contributed to the current crisis—a crisis that has been more than 30 years in the making.

First, Detroit underestimated the competition—in more ways than one.

Second, GM mismanaged its relationship with the United Auto Workers, and the UAW in its turn did nothing to encourage GM (or Ford or Chrysler) to defuse the demographic time bomb that has now blown up their collective future.

Third, GM, Ford, and Chrysler handled failure better than success. When they made money, they tended to squander it on ill-conceived diversification schemes. It was when they were in trouble that they often did their most innovative work—the first minivans at Chrysler, the first Ford Taurus, and more recently the Chevy Volt were ideas born out of crisis.

Fourth, GM (and Ford and Chrysler) relied too heavily on a few, gas-hungry truck and SUV lines for all their profits-plus the money they needed to cover losses on many of their car lines. They did this for a good reason: When gas was cheap, big gas-guzzling trucks were exactly what their customers wanted—until they were not.

Fifth, GM refused to accept that to survive it could not remain what it was in the 1950s and 1960s—with multiple brands and a dominant market share. Instead, it used short-term strategies such as zero percent financing to avoid reckoning with the consequences of globalization and its own mistakes.

Competition from Overseas

In hindsight, it's apparent that the gas shocks of the 1970s hit Detroit at a time when they were particularly vulnerable. They were a decadent empire—Rome in the reign of Nero. The pinnacles of the Detroit art were crudely engineered muscle cars. The mainstream products were large, V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive sedans and station wagons. The Detroit marketing and engineering machinery didn't comprehend the appeal of cars like the Volkswagen Beetle or the Datsun 240Z.

But it took the spike in gas prices—and the economic disruptions it caused—to really open the door for the Japanese automakers.

Remember, Toyota and Honda were relative pipsqueaks in those days. They did not have much more going for them in the American market prior to the first Arab oil embargo than Chinese automakers have today, or Korean automakers did 15 years ago. The oil shocks, however, convinced a huge and influential cohort of American consumers to give fuel-efficient Japanese cars a try. Equally important, the oil shocks persuaded some of the most aggressive of America's car dealers to try them.

The Detroit automakers believed the Japanese could be stopped by import quotas. They initially dismissed reports about the high quality of Japanese cars. They later assumed the Japanese could never replicate their low-cost manufacturing systems in America. Plus they believed initially that the low production cost of Japanese cars was the result of automation and unfair trading practices. (Undoubtedly, the cheap yen was a big help.) In any case, they figured that the Japanese would be stuck in a niche of small, economy cars and that the damage could be contained as customers grew out of their small car phase of life.

They were wrong on all counts.

There were Cassandras—plenty of them. At GM, an executive named Alex Mair gave detailed presentations on why Japanese cars were superior to GM's—lighter, more fuel efficient, and less costly to build. He set up a war room at GM's technical center with displays showing how Honda devised low-cost, high-quality engine parts, and how Japanese automakers designed factories that were roughly half the size of a GM plant but produced the same number of vehicles.

Mair would hold up a connecting rod—the piece of metal in an engine that connects the piston to the crankshaft. The one made by GM was bulky and crudely shaped with big tabs on the ends. Workers assembling the engines would grind down those tabs so that the weight of the piston and rod assembly would be balanced. By contrast, the connecting rod made by Honda was smaller, thinner, and almost like a piece of sculpture. It didn't have ugly tabs on the end, because it was designed to be properly balanced right out of the forge. Mair's point was simple: If you pay careful attention to designing an elegant, lightweight connecting rod, then the engine will be lighter and quieter, the car around the engine can be more efficient, the brakes will have less mass to stop, and the engine will feel more responsive because it has less weight to move.

Another person who warned GM early on about the nature of the Japanese challenge was Jim Harbour. In the early 1980s, he took it into his head to try to tell GM's executives just how much more efficient Japanese factories really were, measured by hours of labor per car produced. The productivity gap was startling—the Japanese plants were about twice as efficient. GM's president at the time responded by barring Jim Harbour from company property.

By the late 1980s, GM's chairman, Roger Smith, had figured out that his company had something to learn from the Japanese. He just didn't know what it was. He poured billions into new, heavily automated U.S. factories—including an effort to build an experimental "lights out" factory that had almost no hourly workers. He entered a joint venture with Toyota to reopen an old GM factory in California, called New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., or NUMMI. The idea was that GM managers could go to NUMMI to see up close what the "secret" of Toyota's assembly system was. Smith also launched what he promoted as an entirely new car company, Saturn, which was meant to pioneer both a more cooperative relationship with UAW workers and a new way of selling cars.

None of these was a bad idea. But GM took too long to learn the lessons from these experiments—good or bad. The automation strategy fell on its face because the robots didn't work properly, and the cars they built struck many consumers as blandly styled and of poor quality. NUMMI did give GM managers valuable information about Toyota's manufacturing and management system, which a team of MIT researchers would later call "lean production." But too many of the GM managers who gained knowledge from NUMMI were unable to make an impact on GM's core North American business.

Why? I believe it was because the UAW and GM middle managers quite understandably focused on the fact that Toyota's production system required only about half the workers GM had at a typical factory at the time. That was an equation the union wouldn't accept. The UAW demanded that GM keep paying workers displaced by new technology or other shifts in production strategy, which led to the creation of what became known as the Jobs Bank. That program discouraged GM from closing factories and encouraged efforts to sustain high levels of production even when demand fell.

GM and the UAW

This brings me to the relationship between Detroit management and the UAW.

It is likely that if no Japanese or European manufacturers had built plants in the U.S.—in other words, if imports were still really imports—the Detroit carmakers would not be in their current straits, although we as consumers would probably be paying more for cars and have fewer choices than we do. The fact is that the Detroit Three's post-World War II business strategies were doomed from the day in 1982 when the first Honda Accord rolled off a non-union assembly line in Ohio. After that it soon became clear that the Japanese automakers—and others—could build cars in the U.S. with relatively young, non-union labor forces that quickly learned how to thrive in the efficient production systems those companies operated.

Being new has enormous advantages in a capital-intensive, technology-intensive business like automaking. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and later BMW, Mercedes, and Hyundai, had new factories, often subsidized by the host state, that were designed to use the latest manufacturing processes and technology. And they had new work forces. This was an advantage not because they paid them less per hour—generally non-union autoworkers receive about what UAW men and women earn in GM assembly plants—but because the new, non-union companies didn't have to bear additional costs for health care and pensions for hundreds of thousands of retirees.

Moreover, the new American manufacturers didn't have to compensate workers for the change from the old mass production methods to the new lean production approach. GM did—which is why GM created the Jobs Bank. The idea was that if UAW workers believed they wouldn't be fired if GM got more efficient, then they might embrace the new methods. Of course, we know how that turned out. The Jobs Bank became little more than a welfare system for people who had nothing more to contribute because GM's dropping market share had made their jobs superfluous.

Health care is a similar story. GM's leaders—and the UAW's—knew by the early 1990s that the combination of rising health care costs and the longevity of GM's retired workers threatened the company. But GM management backed away from a confrontation with the UAW over health care in 1993, and in every national contract cycle afterwards until 2005—when the company's nearness to collapse finally became clear to everyone.

In testimony before Congress this December, GM's CEO Rick Wagoner said that GM has spent $103 billion during the past 15 years funding its pension and retiree health-care obligations. That is nearly $7 billion a year—more than GM's capital spending budget for new models this year. Why wasn't Rick Wagoner making this point in 1998, or 1999, or even 2003? Even now, GM doesn't seem willing to treat the situation like the emergency it is. Under the current contract, the UAW will pay for retiree health-care costs using a fund negotiated in last year's contract—but that won't start until 2010. GM is on the hook to contribute $20 billion to that fund over the next several years—unless it can renegotiate that deal under federal supervision.

Quality is Job One

Rick Wagoner told Congress: "Obviously, if we had the $103 billion and could use it for other things, it would enable us to be even farther ahead on technology or newer equipment in our plants, or whatever." Whatever, indeed.

This is a good place to talk about the Detroit mistake that matters most to most people: quality. By quality, I mean both the absence of defects and the appeal of the materials, design, and workmanship built into a car. I believe most people who buy a car also think of how durable and reliable a car is over time when they think of quality.

The failure of the Detroit automakers to keep pace with the new standards of reliability and defect-free assembly set by Toyota and Honda during the 1980s is well known, and still haunts them today. The really bad Detroit cars of the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s launched a cycle that has proven disastrous for all three companies. Poor design and bad reliability records led to customer dissatisfaction, which led to weaker demand for new Detroit cars as well as used ones. Customers were willing to buy Detroit cars—but only if they received a discount in advance for the mechanical problems they assumed they would have.

During the 1990s and the 2000s, a number of the surveys that industry executives accept as reliable guides to new vehicle quality began to show that the best of GM's and Ford's new models were almost as good—and in some cases better—in terms of being free of defects than comparable Toyotas, Hondas, or Nissans. But the Detroit brands still had a problem: They started $2,000 or more behind the best Japanese brands in terms of per-car costs, mainly because of labor and legacy costs, with a big helping of inefficient management thrown in. To overcome that deficit, GM and Ford (and Chrysler) resorted to aggressive cost-cutting and low-bid purchasing strategies with their materials suppliers.

Unfortunately, customers could see the low-bid approach in the design and materials used for Detroit cars. So even though objective measures of defects and things gone wrong showed new Detroit cars getting better and better, customers still demanded deep discounts for both new and used Detroit models. This drove down the resale value of used Detroit cars, which in turn made it harder for the Detroit brands to charge enough for the new vehicles to overcome their cost gap.

GM, Ford, and Chrysler compounded this problem by trying to generate the cash to cover their health care and pension bills by building more cars than the market demanded, and then "selling" them to rental car fleets. When those fleet cars bounced back to used car lots, where they competed with new vehicles that were essentially indistinguishable except for the higher price tag, they helped drive down resale values even more.

So the billions spent on legacy costs are matched by billions more in revenue that the Detroit automakers never saw because of the way they mismanaged supply and demand. This is why the Detroit brands appear to be lagging behind not just in hybrids—and it remains to be seen how durable that market is—but also in terms of the refinement and technology offered in their conventional cars.

What to Build?

The recent spectacle of the Diminished Three CEOs and the UAW president groveling before Congress has us focused now on how Detroit has mishandled adversity. A more important question is why they did so badly when times were good.

Consider GM. In 2000 Rick Wagoner, his senior executive team, and a flock of auto journalists jetted off to a villa in Italy for a seminar on how the GM of the 21st century was going to look. Wagoner and his team talked a lot about how GM was going to gain sales and profit from a "network" of alliances with automakers such as Subaru, Suzuki, Isuzu, and Fiat—automakers into which GM had invested capital. They talked about how they were going to use the Internet to turbocharge the company's performance. And so on. But five years later, all of this was in tatters. Much of the capital GM invested in its alliance partners was lost when the company was forced to sell out at distressed prices. Fiat was the worst of all. GM had to pay Fiat $2 billion to get out of the deal—never mind getting back the $2 billion it had invested up front to buy 20 percent of Fiat Auto. GM said it saved $1 billion a year thanks to the Fiat partnership. Obviously, whatever those gains were, they didn't help GM become profitable.

At least GM didn't use the cash it rolled up during the 1990s boom to buy junkyards, as Ford did. But GM did see an opportunity in the money to be made from selling mortgages, and plunged its GMAC financing operation aggressively into that market. Of course, GM didn't see the crash in subprime mortgages coming, either, and now GMAC is effectively bankrupt.

GM's many critics argue that what they should have done with the money they spent on UAW legacy costs and bad diversification schemes was to develop electric cars and hybrids, instead of continuing to base their U.S. business on the same large, V8 powered, rear-wheel-drive formula they used in the 60s—except that now these vehicles were sold as SUVs instead of muscle cars. And indeed, Detroit did depend too heavily on pickup trucks and SUVs for profits. But they did so for understandable reasons. These were the vehicles that consumers wanted to buy from them. Also, these were the vehicles that government policy encouraged them to build.

When gas was cheap, big gas-guzzling trucks were exactly what GM customers wanted. Consumers didn't want Detroit's imitation Toyota Camrys. Toyota was building more than enough real Camrys down in Kentucky. GM made profits of as much as $8,000 per truck—and lost money on many of its cars. Federal fuel economy rules introduced in 1975 forced GM to shrink its cars so that they could average 27.5 miles per gallon. GM did this poorly. (Remember the Chevy Citation or the Cadillac Cimarron?) But federal laws allowed "light trucks" to meet a lower mileage standard. This kink in federal law allowed GM, Ford, and Chrysler to design innovative products that Americans clamored to buy when gas was cheap: SUVs. When Ford launched the Explorer, and GM later launched the Tahoe and the upgraded Suburban, it was the Japanese companies that were envious. In fact, one reason why Toyota is on its way to a loss for 2008—its first annual loss in 70 years—is that it built too many factories in the U.S. in order to build more SUVs and pickups.

One irony of the current situation is that the only vehicles likely to generate the cash GM and the others need right now to rebuild are the same gas-guzzlers that Washington no longer wants them to build. Even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has now come to realize that you can't ask Detroit to sell tiny, expensive hybrids when gasoline is under $2 a gallon. We have two contradictory energy policies: The first demands cheap gas at all costs. The second demands that Detroit should substantially increase the average mileage of its cars to 35 or even 40 miles per gallon across the board. How the Obama administration will square this circle, I don't know.

Thinking Anew

So now, where are we? GM has become Government Motors. With the U.S. Treasury standing in for the DuPonts of old, GM is going to try to reinvent itself. One challenge among many for GM in this process will be coming to terms with the reality that the U.S. market is too fractured, and has too many volume manufacturers, for any one of them to expect to control the kind of market share and pricing power GM had in its heyday. Today, according to Wardsauto.com, there are ten foreign-owned automakers with U.S. factories that assembled 3.9 million cars, pickups, and SUVs in 2007, before auto demand began to collapse. That's more than Ford's and Chrysler's U.S. production combined.

GM's efforts to cling to its 1950s self—with the old Sloanian ladder brands of Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, and Cadillac, plus Saturn, Saab, Hummer, and GMC—have led its management into one dark wood of error after another. Since 2001, GM's marketing strategy has come down to a single idea: zero percent financing. This was the automotive version of the addictive, easy credit that ultimately destroyed the housing market. Cut-rate loans, offered to decreasingly credit-worthy buyers, propped up sales and delayed the day of reckoning. But it didn't delay it long enough. The house of cards began tumbling in 2005, and I would say it has now collapsed fully.

Between 1995 and 2007, GM managed to earn a cumulative total of $13.5 billion. That's three-tenths of one percent of the total revenues during that period of more than $4 trillion—and those are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation. Between 1990 and 2007, GM lost a combined total of about $33 billion. The six unprofitable years wiped out the gains from 12 profitable years, and then some. But old habits die hard. Within hours of clinching a $6 billion government bailout last month, GMAC and GM were back to promoting zero-interest loans.

During the 1980s and 1990s, GM's leaders refused—and I believe some still refuse—to accept the reality of the presence of so many new automakers in the U.S. market, more than at any time since the 1920s. This hard truth means the company's U.S. market share going forward isn't going to return to the 40 percent levels of the mid-1980s, or the 30 percent levels of the 1990s, or even the mid-20 percent levels we have seen more recently. One thing to watch as GM tries to restructure now will be what assumptions the company makes about its share of the U.S. market going forward. If they call for anything higher than 15 percent, I would be suspicious.

Since all of you are now part owners of this enterprise, I would urge all of you to pay close attention, since what's about to unfold has no clear precedent in our nation's economic history. The closest parallels I can see are Renault in France, Volkswagen in Germany, and the various state-controlled Chinese automakers. But none of these companies is as large as GM, and none of these companies is exactly a model for what GM should want to become.

As I have tried to suggest, it's hard enough for professional managers and technicians—who have a clear profit motive—to run an enterprise as complex as a global car company. What will be the fate of a quasi-nationalized enterprise whose "board of directors" will now include 535 members of Congress, plus various agencies of the Executive Branch? As a property owner in suburban Detroit, I can only hope for the best.

Interesting scenario...what if Rush goes Galt?

Might seem far fetched but if Chairman O keeps going with his socialist policies and tries to reinstitute the fairness doctrine (it won’t be called that) then this scenario seems totally plausible. Hell if I was in El Rushbo’s shoes I’d do it!

The disappearances began four weeks ago when noted conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh ominously closed his radio show with the phrase, "Who is John Galt?" Since that day, the whereabouts of Mr. Limbaugh have been unknown even to his closest colleagues and friends.

His perplexing disappearance follows on the heels of months of criticism of the radio talker by the Obama administration over Limbaugh's outspoken concerns of the Financial Bailout, the automotive bailouts, the airline bailout, TARP I, II, III, and IV, and the institution of the Radio Equality and Airtime Parity Act (sometimes referred to as the fairness doctrine).

Going, Going, Going, Galt

Alan Keyes nails Chairman O

 

Alan Keyes brilliantly saying what a LOT of us are thinking. Why couldn’t a guy with beliefs like his be our 1st black president instead of the socialist we wound up with?

Bank of Obama

 

This website is simply brilliant.

Times like this I wish I could write code!

Bail out your friends today at the Bank of Obama

Another of the greatest generation marches into the mist of history

They die by the hundreds perhaps thousands everyday and with them go many stories of their heroic deeds in WWII that saved this country and the entire world from Nazism and Japanese imperialism. If anyone truly deserved to never grow old and feeble it is that generation who sacrificed so much to save the world in the twilight of their youth.

Below is a outstanding tribute to a ball gunner on a B-24J Liberator bomber in the South Pacific from his son.

If this doesn't bring a tear to your eye then check your pulse.

My father asks for nothing

Wealth producers starting to shrug

Ruh-ro! Looks like thousands of John Galt's across America are starting to say enough. No surprise to anyone with a ounce of common sense. This is what you get when you demonize and punish achievement. Unless Chairman O's wealth destroying polices are stopped we are in for some very dark days indeed.

From Michelle Malkin’s latest column:

"I have frozen hiring in my firm. ... No investments will be made in taxable accounts -- only 401k/IRAs. I am buying silver and gold instead of CDs or stocks with non-qualified money and savings. I have stopped taking new clients, thus freezing my income. I barter more and more. Spend less. I stopped leveraging assets (don't borrow)."

"I have cut WAY back -- I'm no longer buying retail, driving out of a 10-mile radius, spending money on eating out or putting my money in a savings account. I am using the money to pay off all of our debt. It has made our family closer, more appreciative."

"Going Galt": America's Wealth Producers Vs. Wealth Redistributors

Miss America Snowed out of globull warming rally

About puked from laughing when I saw this. Maybe next time the enviro-commies will wait until summer to have a rally. Would have a better chance of not looking like total MORONS.

(CNSNews.com) – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had to cancel an appearance Monday at a global warming rally in Washington, D.C., that was hit by a snowstorm because her flight was delayed, her office told CNSNews.com. 
 
Brianna Cayo-Cotter, the spokesman for the Energy Action Coalition that held the rally,  told a group of reporters that she had been in contact with Pelosi  and that her flight had been delayed because of inclement weather.
 
A blizzard Sunday night and early Monday morning blanketed the nation’s capital with snow, causing events to be cancelled and delayed across the city.

CNSNews.com - Pelosi Snowed-Out of Global Warming Rally

A golden voice is silenced

God bless Mr. Harvey, you will be missed by millions all over the world.

Paul Harvey's singular voice falls silent

Broadcasting pioneer Paul Harvey dies at age of 90

Paul Harvey,radio legend, has died

Radio Legend Paul Harvey Dies

Paul Harvey homepage

Wikipedia Entry

How do you get us out of recession?

 

Well if your a socialist or Liberal (one in the same) you tax the evillll rich and businesses of course! Problem with that is that sooner or later the so called evil rich are going to shrug and when they do it will be the death of this once great country. (If you don’t know what I mean by statement then you need to read this ASAP and you’ll see where Chairman O is leading us with this class warfare bullshit)

Another problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. Perhaps Dr. Adrian Rogers said it best, to-wit:

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

 

As I often do I wandered a bit off point but here are the stats that inspired this post to begin with.

From Jake Tapper:

Obama's Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011

February 26, 2009 12:00 PM

President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.

1) On people making more than $250,000.

$338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billion - eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion - capital gains tax hike

Total: $636 billion/10 years

2) Businesses:

$17 billion - Reinstate Superfund taxes
$24 billion - tax carried-interest as income
$5 billion - codify "economic substance doctrine"
$61 billion - repeal LIFO
$210 billion - international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
$4 billion - information reporting for rental payments
$5.3 billion - excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
$3.4 billion - repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
$62 million - repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
$49 million - repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
$13 billion - repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
$1 billion - increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
$882 million - eliminate advanced earned income tax credit

Total: $353 billion/10 years

10 facts on the Admin's 2010 Budget

 

Just un-fucking-believable spending. Brain hurts even attempting to wrap my meager mind around this mass of splattered feces they call a budget. Read it and WEEP or tilt the bottle. However you maybe inclined:

1.  The Administration’s projected budget deficit of $1.75 trillion is higher than the last five years of deficits combined, and under this plan, we will see three consecutive trillion dollar deficits between now and FY 2012.

2.  While it was purported to cut the budget deficit in half – from $1.75 trillion in 2009 to $533 billion by 2013 – this budget projects higher deficits in 2014 ($570 billion), 2015 ($583 billion), and 2016 ($637 billion).  In 2019, the final year in the budget, the deficit is projected to be $712 billion.

3.  Including the recently-enacted trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill, discretionary spending will soar by 24 percent this year under this budget.

4.  The budget projects that the national debt will increase from $8.4 trillion in 2009 to $15.4 trillion in 2019.

5.  The Administration’s budget contains $1.4 trillion in tax increases – tax hikes that will impact everyone, from small businesses, charities, and seniors to everyone who owns a 401(k) and anyone who flips on a light switch. 

If you can stomach it the rest is here:

10 Fast Facts on the Administration's FY 2010 Budget 

Yeah, yeah…I know the pic has nothing to do with the subject matter but that’s on purpose because I’d rather look at a cute kitty than any of the worthless douchbags we’ve elected in congress.

Cap & trade, bad idea when your economy is in the crapper

 

Or anytime for that matter.

The global warming, cap and trade scam rolls on and now it’s getting closer to rolling right over us. Yet another sot to the church of enviro-worshipping  moonbats it will do nothing to lower CO2 emissions while at the same time adding a entirely new tax on businesses that are already vastly over taxed.

As we all know(or should know if your not SLOW) businesses don’t really pay taxes. They pass those along to us so we’ll be paying for this just like everything else.

Cap and trade combined with this should just about finish off our economy all to save the planet from non existent global warming that we aren’t causing!

Grease up comrades, bend over and get ready for another royal reaming from our glorious nanny state let by Chairman O.

Obama Introduces Cap & Trade--- Finally a Solution to Pretend Global Warming

Obama counting on cap-and-trade

Carbon Trading Markets Collapse

KY Rep Introduces State Sovereignty Resolution

Of course this is a great idea:

On 02/24/09, Kentucky State Representative, John Will Stacy (D) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 168, which reads:

“A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION claiming sovereignty over powers not granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution; serving notice to the federal government to cease mandates beyond its authority; and stating Kentucky’s position that federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of loss of federal funding should be prohibited or repealed.”

For those history buffs out there, Kentucky was at the forefront in asserting the principles of State Sovereignty in the early days of the Republic.   The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 took what some consider to be the strongest position on this issue in our history.

But most likely nothing will come if it and even if it did you can bet your arse that our Governor will still greedily take our slice of the porkulas bill won’t he while at the same time raising taxes on our 2 largest industries, tobacco and alcohol? uhhh-hmmm.

Check it out here and here.

See also Stimulus watch: Projects in Kentucky

Ann shooting straight on the teachers unions

 

Wow this is brutal but brilliant. In other words typical Ann.

He was suspiciously verbose about saving the jobs of public schoolteachers. Because nothing says "economic stimulus" better than saving the jobs of lethargic incompetents who kick off at 2 p.m. every day and get summers off. Actually, that's not fair: Some teachers spend long hours after school having sex with their students.
As with the Clintons, Obama so earnestly believes in public school education that he sends his girls to ... an expensive private school. He demands that taxpayers support the very public schoolteachers he won't trust with his own children.
It is one thing to tell voters that school choice is wrong, because, you know, the public schools won't get better unless Americans sacrifice their children to the teachers' union's maw. But it is quite another for Democrats to feed their own kids to the union incinerator.
Consequently, no Democrat since Jimmy Carter has been stupid enough to send his own children to a public school.

If I could be that big of a smart ass I’d write full time

Read it all: THE CAL RIPKEN PRESIDENT

It’s really easy to cut the deficit…

when you have increased the deficit by over a trillion in only 1 month of being in office! Hell, all he has to do is not spend that much next year and he can claim he’s cut the deficit which in DC speak would technically be true.

We didn’t get in the mess because we spend to little so stop the spending! Let the free market work and let bad businesses fail. If the MSM were doing their job they would question the Chairman O administration on this obvious double talking out of both sides of his ass. But they won’t because they are all too busy kissing and slobbering all over his ass.

From Newsmax: WASHINGTON – Urging strict future restraint even as current spending soars, President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to dramatically slash the skyrocketing annual budget deficit as he started to dole out the record $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed last week.

"If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road," the president warned, promising to cut the yearly deficit in half by the end of his four-year term. "We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences."

Obama Pledges Decrease in Deficit — After Increase

Chairman O's EPA to regulate our breath

Despite the fact humans are NOT causing global warming and despite the increase in carbon emissions the earth has actually been cooling since 1998 the EPA will most likely start regulating Carbon Dioxide. Why you ask? Easy, as with most moves that the imperial federal Gov. has taken lately it's designed to take your money and freedom away.

This shill to the enviro-commies should kill what's left of our economy and finish off what's left of our freedom as well. Might seem like a doomsday conclusion but it's very easy make. To wit:

On average each human exhales about 2 pounds of Carbon Dioxide or CO2 everyday and once the Gov. controls your breath it controls your LIFE even more so that socialized medicine.

Most everything we do daily emits some sort of CO2 this means virtually all your activities will now be regulated by the central planners in DC and the cost of everything you do will increase as businesses are forced to pay more for their carbon emissions.

Oh almost forgot, power generation. Chairman O's hatred and desired abolishment of coal is about to be realized BIG TIME. This will either trigger the shutdown of the entire coal industry or greatly increase the cost of every coal fired power plant across the nation. Not such a great idea when over 50% of America's power comes from coal and in states like Kentucky (where I live) over 90% of our power comes from coal.

Hope you enjoy being dead broke setting in a house with no power because that's where we are headed, unless your one of the upper crust self appointed governing elite like AlGore then those rules don't apply.

Welcome to hopey-changey-smiley face socialism and we are just getting started. Regretting that vote yet?

E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide and Other Heat-Trapping Gases - NYTimes.com

EPA Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide for First Time - Foxnews.com

EPA to Start Regulating All Human Activity

Government spending WAY outta control

   I bagged me a liberal

Ted Nugent’s last few columns have been stellar and he keeps the streak going here. Just bloody brilliant. He needs to run for office like right NOW.

How about, for starters:

• Have the IRS to conduct an audit of overt tax cheats such as Treasury Secretary Geithner, former U.S. Senator Daschle, and Rep. Rangel.

• Force our Congress critters to actually read the 800 billion dollar Fedzilla Spending Bill before voting on the most expensive piece of legislation in our nation's history. The Heritage Foundation has calculated this mess will cost us over three trillion dollars over the next ten years.

• Have some member of the press (at least one of them who can actually get close enough) ask President Obama if he is willing to borrow and spend another trillion of taxpayer dollars on another Porkosarus Spending bill if the current Porkosarus Spending bill fails to do much of anything.

• For the entire Republican delegation on Capital Hill to demand the Three Stooges (Republican Senators Specter, Snowe and Collins) leave the Republican Party and shun them altogether until they do.

• Have the Fedzillacrats provide the most fundamental oversight and control of the financial institutions who were given $350 billion of our tax dollars in TARP funds.

Entire article: Stop Fedzilla

Global warming hysteria reaching new heights of scare mongering

Polls are typically worthless but every GW related one I see shows less and less of the public buying into the global warm swindle so those I'd like to beleive! People like Hanson and Gore realize they are running out of time to get their economy and frankly life destroying polices enacted so they are ratcheting up the scare and fear tactics almost daily to the point it's laughable. Apparently God isn't a fan of AlGore either because everywhere he shows up they have record cold and snow.

Hansen's latest off the rails apeshit crazy diatribe is just stunningly stupid:

In a wild rant in Sunday's Guardian responding to British Prime Minster Gordon Brown's green-lighting of the controversial Kingsnorth power plant, the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies managed to outdo even his own sophomoric guilt trips and fear-mongering.  Repeating last year's call for a moratorium on British coal-fired plants, which he has since extended to Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and others, Hansen branded coal as "the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet." 

He insisted "that the coal source must be cut off" as "a cap only slows the use of a fuel - it does not leave it in the ground."  Calling for a "phase-out of coal," Hansen even restated references to the plants as "factories of death," and trains carrying the black rocks to them as "death trains," the latter a toned-down adaptation of these outrageously offensive words he laid on the Iowa Utilities Board back in October of 2007: "If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains - no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria, loaded with uncountable irreplaceable species."

Just farking wow and that guy works at NASA! They must have really lowered their standards to let Forrest through the front door.

Entire article here: Has NASA's Hansen Finally Lost His Mind?
Alan Caruba here: Governement by Crazy People

Ronald Reagan - A Time for Choosing

Must watch video of a speech from Ronnie back in 1964 that might be the best political speech I've ever heard. Most of what he says here can be applied to today which really does enforce the old adage about history repeating itself.

Happy Valentines day!

Got my wife of almost 7 years 2 dozen tulips and she got me of all things a singing greeting that came yesterday. Will put up the video on youtube today hopefully. We are going to the olive garden a bit later and should have a nice quiet night at home and with any luck some hanky-panky will ensue! :-)

Margaret Thatcher Quotes

The ‘iron lady’ was President Regan’s sister in arms throughout the 80’s and thank god for that! I ran across a quote from Prime Minister Thatcher and thought ok, I did Reagan yesterday, let’s do Maggie today. So here we go. 1st is my favorite.

• The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money
• Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.
• Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
• Being prime minister is a lonely job... you cannot lead from the crowd.
• Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.
• I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.
• I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
• I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.
• I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.
• I just owe almost everything to my father and it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.
• I owe nothing to Women's Lib.
• I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.
• I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
• I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.
• If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.
• If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.
• If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
• If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage.
• It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
• It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.
• It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.
• It's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.
• Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.
• Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.
• Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.
• Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
• There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it.
• There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.
• There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.
• To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.
• You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

More Quotes from Ronaldus Maximus

A few months back I posted some quotes from my favorite President and this morning I ran across more.

Regan’s quotes always make me smile and recall the good old days of his administration when America was strong and far less dependent.

• Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. Ronald Reagan
• All great change in America begins at the dinner table. Ronald Reagan
• Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement. Ronald Reagan
• Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. Ronald Reagan
• Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. Ronald Reagan
• Don't be afraid to see what you see. Ronald Reagan
• Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan
• History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. Ronald Reagan
• How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin. Ronald Reagan
• I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting. Ronald Reagan
• I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress. Ronald Reagan
• I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life. Ronald Reagan
• I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon. Ronald Reagan
• I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'. Ronald Reagan
• Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man. Ronald Reagan
• Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. Ronald Reagan
• It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. Ronald Reagan
• It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available. Ronald Reagan
• Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. Ronald Reagan
• Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15. Ronald Reagan
• Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem. Ronald Reagan
• Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'. Ronald Reagan
• Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out. Ronald Reagan
• The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. Ronald Reagan
• To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy. Ronald Reagan

We are being force fed a crap filled pork sandwich

 

h/t to Yid with lid and All American Blogger for this list of PORK in the road to socialism bill or crap sandwich as Michelle Malkin calls it. This turkey should be scrapped and totally forgotten.

Apparently no one in the Gov. learned the lessons of the great depression because they are repeating the exact same mistakes.  Best thing thing the imperial federal government can do is NOTHING.

But that’s not really what it’s about is it? It’s about running us so far down the road to socialism & communism that we’ll never be able to pull out of it. I understood that’s who Obama was from the beginning, too bad enough of the glassy eyed Obmaton worshippers didn’t.

Wasteful and Non-Stimulus Spending Provisions

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defunded last year because the project was inefficient
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film
• $650 million for the digital television (DTV) converter box coupon program
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship)
• $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
• $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
• $400 million for the CDC to screen and prevent STD’s
• $1.4 billion for a rural waste disposal programs
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion
• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities”
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings
• $500 million for state and local fire stations
• $650 million for wildland fire management on Forest Service lands
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property
• $500 million for building and repairing NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the VA “National Cemetery Administration”
• $850 million for Amtrak
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint
• $75M to construct a new “security training” facility for State Dept Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.
• State Medicaid Bailout: $87.7 billion Through 3 different mechanisms, the bill would provide additional federal funds to state Medicaid programs over the next 3 years. This is nearly $70 billion more than the governors asked President Obama for in December, and should be a loan to be repaid by the states.

Much more here on Tom Coburn’s senate page.              Coburn Fights Generational Theft Act, AKA Senate Stimulus Bill

Very cool, I should have been a Archeologist

Couple pic's and nice story on Meresamum the mummy here
Images of 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy revealed by scanner - Telegraph

Wow, talk about serendipity, I just did some research and Meresamum is here in the USA right now! Going to be in the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago from February 10 - October 18, 2009. After I get laid off I just might have to drive up there.

Check it out here: The Life of Meresamun - A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt

Lost your job or hunting for one? Good luck, you’ll need it.

 

Excellent and amusing site Moonbattery brings up a good point here: Lost Your Job? Thank the Government 

Until the economy turns around the government should immediately freeze or totally end the H1B visa program. It just seems counterintuitive and frankly retarded to be importing 1.5 million Indians into America while our unemployment rate keeps rising by the week. Take those that are unemployed, retrain them and both problems are solved. High tech firms get workers and American’s get back to work.

Also we should enforce all immigration laws and deport as many illegal's as possible. As their housing, school and job choices dry up the rest will leave on their own. Yeah, I know the meme that they only take jobs Americans won’t do. I think that’s total shite but lets for the moment assume it’s correct. As the scarcity of jobs and the economy get’s worse and worse I think Americans will start taking anything they can get. To take care of my family I know I would.

February 3, 1959 – The day the music died

 

50 years ago today Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson crashed into a cornfield eight miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa. I wasn’t born until 1968 so no real connection with them but I’ve always liked their music and of course the Don McLean song American Pie.

Read a few interesting stories today and though I would share. Feel like blasting Peggy Sue right now but work kills that fun. Later when I’m at home going to crank up some Buddy.

The 'Day the Music Died' didn't kill music - it lived and grew bigger

The Day the Music Died

Louisville Ice & Snow storm 2009 II

From Ice storm 2009

[Above photo is looking out my moms back door]

Today at work ran across a bunch of stories about how King Obama has abandoned my state Kentucky and left all us white bread, bible clinging, gun toting crackers to die in the ice. It's obvious that these posts are mostly said firmly with tongue-in-cheek and are just proving a point about how the media eviscerated Bush for his handling of Katrina but are giving King O a free pass on this.

Since I'm living the Ice storm right now and busy taking care of my family and friends I hadn't really thought about it. (By the way, I'm typing this post from work. My power is/was out...read on)

But we don't need the help of FEMA or any other abbreviated Gov. agency. All they do is get in the way and gum up the works. We Kentuckians are pretty strong independent folks and are used to taking care of ourselves, our families and each other when needed and that's exactly what we are doing now. I haven't seen nor heard one person asking about when the Fed's are going to rush in and help us. We don't care because we help each other and don't worry about the rest.

Personally I have been pretty lucky. When the storm started my parents lost power almost instantly. Since my mom is on oxygen I packed them up and brought them to my house. Their power came up 24 hours later so I took them back and checked in hourly to make sure they were ok. The power in my neighborhood mostly stayed on until Friday when it(including my house) went dead around 11AM. After spending a brutally cold night at home trying to keep our mini zoo of animals alive I bought a generator on Saturday and we've been doing alright ever since.

Most everyone on my street locked up and left their homes Friday and it's very weird looking out your window at night and the entire neighborhood is pitch black. The only lights are yours and the house next door who had a generator. I've slept with a pistol at the ready every night just in case but so far not needed it thank god. I've heard rumors of punks out stealing generators but I think they are just that rumors.

With any luck our power will come on soon but if not, we'll survive just fine. That's what us redneck, inbred, hilljacks do best.

Links to various articles below:

• Is it racist to let white people freeze to death in Kentucky while Obama parties and FEMA doesn't help?
• Kentucky Still Powerless, Obama Dines on $100 Steak, Doesn't Send In FEMA
• Obama: "Let Them Eat Steak"
• KENTUCKY: No power, no FEMA. “Where is the outrage?”
• Here’s the Beef!
• Helping Kentucky ice storm victims
• ED ANGER SAYS: OBAMA HATES KENTUCKY!

History behind the global warming hoax

This is a absolute must read and email the link to everyone you know.

John Coleman (pictured above) founder of the weather channel has written a brilliant piece on the history of global warming and how it was a hoax from the get go. Just freaking amazing that so many people buy into this crap and most of them unfortunately are in positions of power that can and will do real harm to our freedoms and way of life.

Since I 1st heard of global warming I thought it was a scam. Invented just to take more money from our wallets and more of our freedoms away and with King Obama now in office it's becoming a very real certainty. The only people that will prosper from this is AlGore. Rest of us will be poorer, less safe and deal with reduced power generation.

So today we have the acceptance of carbon dioxide as the culprit of global warming. It is concluded that when we burn fossil fuels we are leaving a dastardly carbon footprint which we must pay Al Gore or the environmentalists to offset. Our governments on all levels are considering taxing the use of fossil fuels. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of naming CO2 as a pollutant and strictly regulating its use to protect our climate. The new President and the US congress are on board. Many state governments are moving on the same course.

We are already suffering from this CO2 silliness in many ways. Our energy policy has been strictly hobbled by no drilling and no new refineries for decades. We pay for the shortage this has created every time we buy gas. On top of that the whole thing about corn based ethanol costs us millions of tax dollars in subsidies. That also has driven up food prices. And, all of this is a long way from over.

And, I am totally convinced there is no scientific basis for any of it.

Global Warming. It is the hoax. It is bad science. It is a high jacking of public policy. It is no joke. It is the greatest scam in history.

The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam

Lousiville Ice & Snow storm 2009

Ice storm 2009

Just wanted to post some photos and videos of the snow and ice storm that's been hammering us for 2 days. Storm finally finished up today with about 4 inches of snow on top of roughly 1 inch of ice on top of more snow! Queue loud Sam kinison scream!

Kentucky seems to have been the hardest hit. Right now about 607,000 are out of power in the state and that number keeps climbing. We are really lucky or blessed if you will. Our power has flickered but never gone out while most of our neighbors are out. Small miracle if you ask me. We tried to go into Audubon park to get pic's but police had it blocked off at every entrance so it must have been a waste land.

Click on the pic above for my picassa album, video is below. Will add more as I make my way around town.

Quick facts on the bridge to socialism plan of 2009

Spendapalosa '09 keeps on rolling. It's hard to imagine a dumber group of people that the the idiots we have running our country. No one but ourselves to blame though.

Source: QUICK FACTS ON THE DEMOCRAT STIMULUS PROPOSAL

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

 

 Total Cost of Stimulus Legislation: $825 billion

• 
  
    How does this compare?
  
  

                  - In 1993, the unemployment was virtually the same as the rate today (around 7%). Yet, President Clinton’s proposed stimulus legislation *only* contained $16 billion in spending

 

                  - The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

 

                  - This
legislation nears a trillion dollars. President Reagan said the best
way to understand a trillion dollars is to imagine a crisp, new stack of $1000 bills. If you had a stack four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills would measure just over 63 miles high.

 

                   -
In $20 bills, a trillion dollar stack would be 3150 miles high. That’s
about the distance between DC and Trujillo, Peru.  

• 
  
  President-elect
  Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or
  save 3 million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about
  $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $42,000 a
  year.
  
  

• 
  
  This bill provides enough spending to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.
  
  

• 
  
  This bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.
  
  

• 
  
  Although this
  legislation has been billed and described as a transportation and
  infrastructure investment package, but only three percent ($30 billion)
  of this package is for road and highway spending.
  
  

• 
  
  Much of
  the funding within the proposed stimulus package will go to programs
  which already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the draft
  bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG),
  which already has $16 billion on hand. And, this year, Congress has
  plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not
  yet used. 
  
  

• 
  
  Deficit spending
  will not expand the economy. If that were true, then the current $1.2
  trillion deficit -- the largest in history -- would already be rescuing
  the economy. $800 billion more will not change that.
  
  

• 
  
  Trade groups
  state that every $1 billion in highway “stimulus” can be spent creating
  34,779 new construction jobs. But Congress must first borrow that $1
  billion out of the private sector. The private sector then loses or
  forgoes roughly the same number of jobs.
  
  

• 
  
  Japan
  responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 “stimulus” bills over 8
  years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world).
  Their economy remained stagnant and their per capita income went from
  the second highest in the world to the tenth highest.
  
  

The Messiah takes on the real King of media

Barry O tells Republicans that they have to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.

I thought the modern day messiah would have a thicker skin than to let a radio host get to him but apparently not. Someone needs to tell Obama the fact is Republicans stopped listening to Rush years ago. That's why they keep getting their collective asses handed to them in each election cycle so in that aspect he has nothing to worry about.

For a US president to go after a private citizen is petty and politically ignorant and going after Rush specifically is just STUPID. I've seen on other blogs this could be a precursor to bringing back the fairness doctrine but I doubt it. The more Obama goes after Rush the more attention and ratings it will bring him and that will make if difficult if not impossible to hush Rush so to speak. Believe it or not most Americans (even Liberals) are still on the side of free speech.

Can't wait until Monday at noon as Rush will have a freaking field day with this. His ratings should skyrocket as people tune in to hear what he has to say in rebuttal to Obama's comments and being the capitalist that he is I'll wager he's already hard at work thinking up new t-shirt designs to start selling on his website with Obama's comments emblazoned on them.

President Obama zings Rush

Great piece here from the Radio Equalizer

Update: about 1 hour after I posted this Rush responded and it's good!

Limbaugh Responds to Obama

US Gov, Dodd & Frank just as guilty as Madoff

 

Uncle Ted nails it and makes some very good points comparing the Gov or fedzilla as he calls it to Bernie Madoff.

To expand a bit I’ve always thought that Barney Frank & Chris Dodd should be perp walked to jail for their involvement in the Freddie, Fanny debacle that has crippled our and now the worlds economy. They knew it was coming and did NOTHING but lie saying Freddie & Fanny were just fine.

The shady, negligent and, in my opinion, criminal behavior by the crooks who ran Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are as guilty as Madoff. The elected bandits such as Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank who turned a blind eye to Fannie and Freddie in order to line their own pockets have also gotten away with the crime of the century. If their behavior wasn't malicious, reprehensible and criminal enough, these same elected bandits are now bilking taxpayers by making us pay to clean up their horrendous ethical and soulless behavior. If these thugs had any personal or professional ethics, they would have resigned.

Just As Guilty by  Ted Nugent

America’s enemies will love us now(while they still try to kill us)

 

Elections have consequences as Rush liked to say after the Obamessiah was elected and boy ain’t it the truth. Not even 24 hours into his presidency he goes about dismantling part of the security put in place by Bush after 9/11.

Have we not learned anything here? Is the messiah that stupid or so beholden to his base of moonbat anti-American loons? There’s a reason we have not been attacked in almost 8 years and it’s the laws, procedures and polices that the eeeevil Bush put in place that are responsible for it.

Eviscerating the CIA, closing Gitmo and any other ‘black sites’ the CIA operates will only hurt us. Sure, the rest of the world might freaking adore us but who cares if we get attacked again and next time it will be worse, far worse. Think nuclear.

The clock is ticking, the more he rolls back what Bush has done the higher the chances are we get nailed again. It’s a certainty.

Fox: Obama to Close Guantanamo, Foreign Prisons, Limit CIA

Fox: 9/11 Families Outraged by Obama Call to Suspend Guantanamo War Crimes Trials

StopACLU: Obambi-Closing Gitmo And CIA Black Sites

Jawa: CHANGE! Obama Sends Terrifying Messages to Enemies

Inauguration Burnout

The "one" hasn't even ascended to the throne yet and I am so done. Burnt out, no way in hell going to watch it.

Sick and tired of the 24 hour a day public masturbation of the drive by media touting our glorious new savior. Going by the media's unending worship of the moonbat messiah it's apparently a-ok to believe in God and pray in public again. Oh, as long as the God you are praying to is our glorious new leader. Retch, barf puke.

Apparently I'm not the only one feeling this way as evidenced by this post I found over at doubleplusundead.

Fuck the Inauguration

It's short and straight to the point. Like all good posts should be.

Better late than never: Ramos and Compean pardoned

About 2 years late but at least Bush had the stones to let them go.

These guys should have never gone to jail in 1st place for simply doing their jobs. They shot a illegal alien drug smuggler who ran from them. From my viewpoint they should have been given a steak dinner and key to the city for a job well done.

All you other border guards this should send a easy to understand message. In the future if you do shoot anyone in the line of duty bury their ass in the desert and tell no one because if you do you'll probably go to jail too.

Bush Commutes Sentences for Two Former Border Patrol Agents

Stomach turning, headache inducing....Democrat's spending bill

Just look at the article from Wizbang at how our useless leaders are planning on pissing our money down the drain.

A few very important facts about the Democrats' massive spending bill

Disgraceful hardly describes it. Criminally liable and negligent sounds closer to the truth.

The amount of money we are talking about here is astronomical. Unheard of since FDR's spenda palooza and it took WWII to pull us out of that mess. Guess we'll need WWIII to do the same now. Funny how history repeats itself isn't it?

Man, I need a drink before I rupture a blood vessel.

Bank of America suckling at the Gov. Teet

Well lookie here, the bailout mania keeps rolling along.

In the dead of night Bank of America got a 20 Billion bailout deal.

Wonderful how that works isn't it? Wait until the reporters have left for the day then print a few wheelbarrows full cash and like magic it’s another bailout.

Good news is this bailout of incompetence can't go on forever. It's a total charade that will collapse. Bad news is when it finally does our currency will be just like Zimbabwe's. Almost totally worthless.

Cheery thought for your Friday isn’t it?

Ricardo Montalban RIP 1920-2009

 

Very sad that Ricardo Montalban passed away but he lived a long good life and was loved by millions worldwide. Can't ask for more than that out of life.

For my generation he will always be known primarily for these roles: 

• The amiable, all knowing host Mr. Roarke with his ever present side kick Tattoo.
• As the evil but oh so cool villain Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II. (the best of the Start treks in my opinion)
• As Vincent Ludwig, the main foil to Leslie Nielsen in 1st naked gun movie

Or who could forget ultra hip car salesman trying to entice us into buying a Chrysler Cordoba with it's rich Corinthian leather.

Goodbye & God bless sir.

News of his passing here: Suave actor Ricardo Montalban dies

Check out IMDB for everything he was every in but it's a LOT of reading.

Cool cat photo

I love cat’s. Yeah, I’m a guy and love cats. Funny thing is that when I was younger I used to hate them. Could hardly stand to be around them let alone own any. As I got older my hatred softened to the point it turned into love. Weird how that works isn’t it?

We own 3 Cornish Rex cat’s and have a stray that I’ve name Gollum we feed about 3 times a day. When he 1st started coming around over the summer he was skin and bones, scared to death. Now he’s gotten rather plump from all the good cat chow we’ve gave him and even comes in the house to play with our cats and ferrets.

Anyway, kinda got off topic as I typically do. Ran across the above photo saved in my Google reader links of all places. It always make me smile so thought I’d post it on here.

Obamasiah to close club Gitmo during 1st week in office

Personally I think he's insane to do this but I understand why he's doing it. Has to placate his lunatic anti-war moonbat base with something to keep them happy and this is the sacrificial lamb so to speak.

What will become of these Muslim terrorist slimbag punks is anyone's guess. I've seen articles where they could be sent to several different countries in Europe or even Britain. Who knows. I'd just as soon they are kept at Gitmo until they can be tried by our military outside of the US justice system and let the shite fall where it may.

If closing Gitmo causes harm or death to anyone than this debacle is on his head. His followers might think he's our new savior but even he can't raise the dead.

Obama to Issue Order Closing Gitmo During First Week in Office - FOXNews.com Transition Tracker

Ronaldus Maximus farewell speech 20 years ago today

Saw this video over at the always excellent Flopping Aces blog and deemed it more than worthy of a re-post. I as a 12 year old kid lived through the Reagan revolution and remember it very well. After the 4 disastrous years of Carter, Regan was a godsend. He was the catalyst that got me interest in politics and have been ever since. Watching video of him makes me sad that the great man is gone and we'll never see the likes of him again. Times like this we could really use him.

Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Great article from Stephen Moore that I had to repost because it's so very true. I haven't read Atlas Shrugs in about 15 years but think I will read it again just to see how close it is to the reality we are living right now.

David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."


Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Flynt & Francis want 5 Billion bailout for porn

Sure, give them the money. Why the hell not?

The Washington weasels are handing out wheelbarrows full of (soon to be worthless paper) cash to anyone that comes begging for money so why not bail out the porn industry too?

We all know these porn guys are scumbags and unlike our ‘elected’ officials they don’t try to hide it and they offer a valuable service to any willing adult.

Porn industry seeking stimulus

The real history of Israel

Good historical piece from a guy I think should run for president Larry Elder. It's a brief history of the land that Israel and Palestinians now live on and who really has 'dibs' on it and guess what, it's not Muslims. If we had proper schools in Amerika then most everyone would know this already but anyway, that's another subject altogether.

Israel lies in the ancient Fertile Crescent's southwest corner, with some of the oldest archeological evidence of primitive towns and agriculture. Historians and archeologists believe the Hebrews probably arrived in the area in the second millennium B.C. The nation itself was formed as the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus, believed to be in the late 13th century B.C.

The 12 tribes of Israel united in about 1050 B.C., forming the Kingdom of Israel. David, the second king of Israel, established Jerusalem as Israel's national capital 3,000 years ago. Jewish kingdoms and states existed intermittently in the region for a millennium.

Read all here: Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David, Who's Goliath?

Stop the post! Right before I hit publish, ran into this nice companion piece: Palestinians Are Getting What They Voted For

It points out the obvious to those of use who pay attention to current events but should be informative to most.

Peace can be achieved through superior firepower

Must read from Uncle Ted, great as always.

What else can I say except he lays it totally on the line, telling it like it is about the Israel Vs. Hamas war. What led up to it and how to end it for good. Peace can only be gained when Israel pounds Hamas back into the stone age where they and their 6th century mentality belong. Don't stop or let up until it's done. No cease fires, no time-outs so Hamas can reorg & rearm. Just get it done once and for all.

Read the brilliance of Mr. Nugent here: Israel's Path To Peace

Okrah's hope-a-dope

This column is worth a repost for one line alone but all of it is great. As I was perusing it on wordlnetdaily silently nodding my head in agreement, I read this "free gas, free houses, global harmony, free health care and cute little cartoon bluebirds that flutter around whistling "Shiny Happy People" while pooping government checks that smell like roses"

Well I almost choked to death on the coffee I had just swallowed and was thinking of using that line in my email sig but I really like my Michael Crichton quote so I didn't change it.

Anyway, just a flipping brilliant and makes more sense when read in context here Oprah's 'hope-a-dope'

Big Lie and the True History of Palestine

Great video here showing the true history of Israel and Palestine.

If your not to terribly brainwashed by Islam & it's Western enablers watch and learn something.

New Years

Here's the obligatory happy new years post. My year is starting off pretty sucky as I'm losing the job I've had for the past 22 years in 30-60 days. It really blows but what can you do. The company made a lot of bad choices and went tit's up, was bought out by another and they have decided they don't need us anymore. It's happening to a LOT of others too but doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

Anyway, here's wishing everyone a happy New Year and here is a great song that I try and listen to every New years day and by a strange coincidence it's called new years day.