Tag Archives: Obama

HOW LONG WILL THE STICKY RECESSION STICK?

Recessions are a natural element of the economic cycles in a free market society. They even serve a useful purpose. Recessions put a damper on the irrational exuberance that leads to boom and bust. Recovery from recession is just as natural as its recurrence.

MOTHER OF SEVEN Photo from FDR Library via National Archives and Records Administration

Since the end of the Great Depression the average length of a recession has been 11 months; the longest was 16 months in duration. The National Bureau of Economic Research is the universally accepted arbiter for determining when these periods began and when they ended. The NBER has set December 2007 as the start of the current recession. That makes it 2 years and 9 months old. It is by far, the longest recession on record.

Banks have cash to lend, corporations are flush, interest rates are low, labor is plentiful and cheap. These are the seeds for renewal of growth that naturally occur in any recession. But they are not taking root. It is the herbicidal policies of the Obama Administration we have to thank for that.

Taxes will rise but the details remain unknown. The rule of law has been subrogated to executive dictate. Assets have been acquired by government through intimidation. Unions are supported by government as seldom before. Obamacare has significantly increased the cost of adding new employees to a payroll. The Dodd and Frank Act for financial reform has given regulators carte blanche to make the law, no one knows what’s in store. Cap & Trade and Card Check hang as specters for 2011. The Federal debt is set to soar. Socialism is knocking at the door. There is no need to wonder why business is not rushing to expand and banks are reluctant to lend.

The collapse of the mortgage industry brought on this recession. It was the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the actions of the government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that fed the real estate bubble which, one day, simply had to burst. It was Andrew Cuomo, Secretary for HUD who threatened the banks because “only” 42% of their loans were to sub-prime lenders. This was not a naturally occurring recession. It was government induced and now it is being government prolonged. It is FDR redux.

What did Reagan say? “Government is not the solution to the problem. Government IS the problem”.

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911 VICTIMS SPEAK OUT

Freedom’s Lighthouse reports

The Drudge Report is leading this morning with the headline, “Shock Poll: 1 out of 4 Think Obama Muslim.” They link to a Time article that says 24% believe Obama to be a Muslim:

Considering his muslim roots, his statement that America is a muslim country, his de facto denial of Islamic terrorism and the sternness of his admonishment to Americans opposed to the infamous mosque, I ask, where is the shock in a poll that reveals that 24% believe Obama is a muslim?

From Time Magazine

The survey also revealed that many Americans harbor lingering animosity toward Muslims. Twenty-eight percent of voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nearly one third of the country thinks adherents of Islam should be barred from running for President — slightly higher than the 24% who mistakenly believe that the current occupant of the Oval Office is himself a Muslim. In all, just 47% of respondents believe Obama is a Christian; 24% declined to respond to the question or said they were unsure, and 5% believe he is neither Christian nor Muslim.

Mistakenly believe? Is that a fact? Does Time know something the rest of us do not? Put me in the 5%, at least for now. But I will not declare the 24% “mistaken” for they could be  right.

This video has already gone viral but it cannot be posted in too many places so we offer it here. If you have not seen it yet, view it now.

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OBAMA HAS SPOKEN, THE MOSQUE WILL BE BUILT

Ok, citizens, you’ve had your lecture, now toe the line! With a tightness of lip and bit of emotion in his voice your President has commanded you to respect all Muslims without distinction, including those who laud the killing of your sons, your daughters, your wives and your husbands on that fateful September day. He says that is the American way.

Mr. Obama, my response is a fervent as your command. I do not share your Muslim roots, Mr. Obama, but I do have something you don’t. I have on my desk my World Trade Center photo ID. I was not in the building that day but the horror is real to me. When you have seen people falling, story by story to their ugly deaths you lose all will to honor the technically legal rights of those who in turn, honor the Muslims who slit the throats of the pilots and flew the planes into the towers.

Mr. Obama, let me tell you a story, a true story. From an upper floor, above where the first plane hit, a young woman of Oriental descent phoned her mother. Upon conveying the agony of unbearable heat, her mother advised she put modesty aside and remove her blouse. I tried, the daughter replied, but I can’t. It’s melted into my skin. That young woman died that day. By what moral authority do you ask us to look the other way. That is but one story, I’m sure there are more.

I ask you, Mr. Obama, what do you know of the American way? You who wept and found your calling in the pew of the “God Damn America” church of Black Liberation Theology. Nothing but nothing, is more antithetical to the American way than the Marxist teachings of Liberation Theology.

We chose you for our leader. But you who promised so much have given so little. You promised to heal, then you salted our wounds. The greatest irony of all is that your Presidency may turn out to be the second worst thing for which America has only herself to blame. The first was slavery.

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VIRGINIA JOINS ARIZONA IN IMMIGRATION FIGHT

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR McDONNELL

Virginia Gov. McDonnell is paving the way for authorizing the VA State Police to check for immigration status when they stop individuals for other reasons. Virginia joins a growing list of States who see the need to step in and act where the Federal government has failed them.

Nine States have filed amicus briefs in Federal Court in support of Arizona in the pending case of the Obama government vs. the State of Arizona. Those States are AL, FL, MI, NE, PA, SC and TX. Five States have gone a step further and have introduced their own legislation in the same vein as Arizona’s. Those States are SC, PA, MI, MN and RI. Others expected to introduce similar legislation soon are FL, TX and UT.

If the first obligation of government is to keep its citizens safe, should not the second obligation be to keep the States United? It is the President’s responsibility to maintain such unity. Obama, however, has brought a bucket of gasoline to put out the fire.

In Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky taught that the first goal for a community organizer needs to be acceptance. The second is to agitate. Crisis and controversy are tools to be used to bring an increase of power. Obama is strengthening his position with his core following and shows no concern for the division he is feeding. This is wholly consistent with his Marxist leanings.

Bob B

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ROOSEVELT REDUX

ROOSEVELT

OBAMA

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is to liberals what Ronald Reagan is to conservatives, a hero for their cause. Roosevelt was more destructive in his own time than Obama has been in his… thus far. Roosevelt responded to the recession he inherited with a combination of massive spending on new government programs and sweeping controls over private industry, (sound familiar?). His thinking was, government spending would get people back to work, and controls over private industry would end deflation. Rules and regulations over private industry were put in place designed, incredibly, to increase the prices of goods. The President and his advisors saw deflation as one of the causes of continuing recession, not as a result.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were formed. The WPA was created to carry out infrastructure projects (sound familiar?) and the CCC to provide government jobs for young men by performing work of a conservation nature on government owned land. The WPA and CCC were the prime elements of FDR’s stimulus program.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was a government sponsored organization (GSO) structured somewhat like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The RFC was expanded by Roosevelt and served as the money conduit for bailing out failing banks. It was funded with over 5 billion dollars in taxpayer money, equivalent to 84 billion today after adjusting for inflation. According to Wikipedia, “The RFC was bogged down in bureaucracy and failed to disperse much of its funds. It failed to reverse the growth of mass unemployment.” (sound familiar?)

A Farm Board was created for the control of production and prices of crops and livestock. Crop farmers were required by the board to let land lie fallow and paid by the government for crops they were ordered not to produce. Six million young pigs were ordered to be slaughtered at government expense as a measure to reduce the supply and increase the price of bacon and pork. (Instead of pigs, Obama chose used cars).

Roosevelt’s first legislative victory was passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act administered by the National Recovery Administration (NRA). This law gave Washington vast new powers of control over private enterprise, even to the establishment of maximum and minimum wages and prices for various industries. It was the most contentious of all the programs in Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. Had it not been for the economic crisis then at hand such sweeping legislation could never have been enacted. (sound familiar?).

It turned out to be a step too far. As a strategy to end the controversy surrounding the NRA, Roosevelt chose to make an example of a Kosher chicken processing firm in Brooklyn, NY by arresting the proprietors who were found guilty of violating the new law and put in jail. The strategy backfired when the proprietors, known as the Schechter brothers, fought back. The issue went to the Supreme Court. The Court decided the National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional. The decision was unanimous. Roosevelt had no choice but to dismantle the NRA.

Today’s closest equivalency to FDR’s NRA is the system of czars, purse strings and intimidation currently being employed to control private industry. The fractured nature of this approach makes it more difficult to defeat. These methods also create greater uncertainty for the business community than when there is a clear cut law around which to plan, even though the law may be an unfavorable one.

FDR was first elected in 1932. Eight years later, as Roosevelt’s second term in office was coming to an end, the unemployment rate stood at 14.6%. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1934-1945, admitted to himself as he wrote in his personal diary that their stimulus spending programs had failed.

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work…  We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”

Then came the day reputed to live on in infamy, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941. Tanks and planes, guns and ships started rolling off assembly lines running 24 hours a day. Rosie was busy riveting away. Government debt soared but no one cared. The cause was shared by all. The American worker went back to work. FDR, already the only President to win a third term, went on to win a fourth.

Obama is treading the same path taken by FDR, with steps that prolonged a recession and gave us a depression. But take heart dear friends, we survived the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and World War II. We will survive Barack Obama as well.

Bob B

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RUSSIANS KNOW THE FOREST, AMERICANS CAN’T EVEN SEE THE TREES

"HA'PNY"

British half cent (half penny) coin

The other day, my wife and I were leaving a restaurant in a tourist town. As we stepped out the door, a couple was standing on the sidewalk looking at the menu in the window. They asked us what we thought of the food and service. We had just dined there, we should know. Hold that thought.

Pravda became internationally known as the propaganda organ of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s Glasnost gave them an independent, if not totally free, voice. Today’s Pravda is largely free to express the thoughts and minds of the Russian people.

There is a certain form of government we call Communism. The Russians call it Marxism; academics call it Central Planning or Collectivism; the Tea Party calls it Socialism; author Mark Levin, in Liberty and Tyranny calls it Statism. There is not a ha’pny’s difference between them. The Russian people know this form of government very well. They have been dining there for years. Here is what Pravda had to say three months after the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama.

American capitalism gone with a whimper
PRAVDA 27.04.2009

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters. First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger than for their constitutional rights.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress.

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.
Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.          Stanislav Mishin

I know, the author is disdainful, crude and given to overstatement. Even Barney Frank deserves a little more respect. But how is it so many in our land lack the vision to see where we are headed when someone 5000 miles away sees it so clearly? Somehow, I think, Stanislav Mishkin is equally perplexed.

The answer, of course, is that they have already been where we are just now going.

Bob B

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RACISM RISING UNDER OBAMA

Farrakhan, Shabazz, Bin Laden

When a black President comes from a Black Liberation Theology church, assumes its racism when a white police officer detains a black man in Boston, appoints a black Attorney General who intervenes to discharge a clear-cut case against black members of a black supremacist organization; and when the First Lady gives speeches to a black activist organization urging continuation of the fight against slavery and Jim Crow; when these things happen, people sit up and take notice. Racism is rampant. Thank you Obama.

Few white people realize the depth of ant-Americanism and disdain for whites that is promoted by the New Black Panther organization and its adherents, but Obama knows it very well.

One of the Black Panthers that Attorney General Holder freed from prosecution was the leader of the organization.Malik Shabazz. In this video, taped in 2202, a few short months after 911 , Shabazz praises Bin Laden and cheers him on for the boldness with which he has acted and the success he has had in bringing  Jihad to America. It is a disturbing video to watch, and especially chilling to know that this man has just been protected from prosecution, by our President, over illegal voter intimidation at the polls.

It is vitally important to make it clear that the vast majority of black Americans do not hold to the extreme views of Louis Farrakhan or Malik Shabazz.

Regular readers of Random Thots know I am a great admirer of Martin Luther King. Here are some notable comparisons between the two.

King descended from slaves; Obama did not.

King dreamed of a color blind society; Obama is creating a color aware society.

King lived in the South; Obama lived in the North, as well as in Hawaii and Kenya.

King lived  in the area and in the era when blacks in the South could not eat in white restaurants or quench their thirst at white ‘public’ drinking fountains. Obama did not. He formative years started after the tide had turned, when great progress underway and when King’s dream seemed it might be, miraculously, achievable. Yet it is Barack who appears driven by resentment and King who was able to live beyond it.


The shame of it all is that our first black American President is undoing the work of Martin Luther King and it is all to the detriment of his own black community.

Bob B

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WHEN NATIONS GO BANKRUPT

Have you ever wondered what happens when a nation goes bankrupt? There is no bankruptcy court for nations. A country cannot just fade away into non-existence as can a corporation. Merger is not a way out either.

A look at the country of Greece and at the city of Oakland, California will give us a clue. Neither is quite bankrupt but both are on the verge. In Greece riots over reduction in spending have already killed a few people. In Oakland the police chief threatens not to respond to telephone calls in cases of burglary, grand theft, vandalism or auto accidents, and a list of certain other offenses. This is no doubt a threat for political purposes, but it gives us a hint as to what can happen when a government entity truly cannot pay their bills.

Policemen, firemen and teachers, will they continue to work if they are not paid? They will not and chaos is the result. Sporadic riots and looting erupt. Some people die. If the nation is one with a single payer* health plan and can no longer pay its bills, everyone’s health care is in curtailed. Radical change in government becomes acceptable, even sought for by the people.

The change can take a turn to conservative rule such as happened in Chile, or it can be reliance on the grand promises of a despot as happened in Germany. It can revert to prosperity as have Chile and Germany, or continue to meander somewhere between mediocrity and misery such as was the case for the people of the Soviet Union and its satellites. These are the inevitable ends for nations that continue to spend beyond their means, right  into insolvency. Obama is accelerating our descent into this pit. He can be stopped. He must be stopped.

Bob B

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*propagandic – for fully government paid and controlled

UPDATE July 16
Philadelphia Mayor calls for closure of firehouses.

A HOUSE DIVIDED

Democratic state governors are disturbed over Obama’s stance against the states over immigration policy. The governors have expressed concern that it may cost them their re-election. What should really concern them is his intrusion on the sovereignty of the states. What should concern us all is the division Obama is fostering between the States now United.

“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”. Matthew, chapter 12 verse 25

We have found it appropriate to publish excerpts from Lincolns famous House Divided speech in our REFERENCE feature.

Looking back over history one might ask, why the new continent developed into a great world power but Continental Europe never did. The answer is clear. Europe remained balkanized while in America the states united. Our strength, indeed our very existence derives from our unity. Barack Obama is assaulting that unity.

What is it that drives this man???

Bob B

SHOULD WE WISH OBAMA TO SUCCEED?

The post will remain on the front page for a couple of days. Please scroll below it for current new articles.

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Rush Limbaugh took a lot of flak when he said of Obama on Inauguration Day, “I hope he fails”. Bombastic, irreverent, self aggrandizing though he is,  Limbaugh is worth a bit of one’s ear because, for insight, he has no peer. Many are the times I have dismissed his presumptions only to see with the passage of time his vision was correct.

To wish Obama continued success is to wish for more of what he already has done. He has subjugated the rule of law to the will of his own. He has dictated private property be diverted from the hands of its rightful owners to be given to labor unions having no legal claim on the assets. We have seen the creation of powerful czars who report to no one but the president. We have seen limits set on executive incomes in private industry at the whim of Obama.

We have seen Senators brazenly bribed to change their votes in order to enact legislation the American people clearly and fervently made known they did not want. We have seen the will of the majority ignored in wanton disregard for the spirit of democracy. We have seen expansion of government control over the care of our health and the advent of socialized medicine forced upon us.

We are watching a president inherit a recession then repeat the methods of Franklin Roosevelt who inherited a recession and turned it into a depression.

We have elected a president who has alienated our allies, Great Britain, Israel and Poland and chosen to appease our adversaries, Russia and Iran. We have chosen as our protector and Commander in Chief, a man who lays down our strongest arms in a vow not to employ our ultimate defense even in response to a nuclear attack.

We are led by a president and supported by an Attorney General who will not acknowledge the existence of Islamic terrorism, a president who appoints as a White House spokesperson a woman who names a genocidal dictator as one of the two philosophers she most admires, a president who nominates for a deputy position in the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools, an activist for public school teaching of homosexual activity among young boys.

We have elected a president who travels abroad bowing and apologizing to nations for the role America has played in the world. We have entrusted our States now United to a man who promised  healing, but instead, waters the seeds of unrest, who upon seeing conflict between states, acts not to quell the dispute but to join in the fight.

To wish Obama to succeed is to wish for more of what we have seen thus far and more of what Obama still dreams, – visions of card check for unions, cap and trade for industry, reparations for minorities, single payer health care for us all and the dimming of our light that has shined so long and so bright proclaiming and defending freedom for all.

Bob B

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I urge you to question the observations in this post. Google is a great tool for the job and readily available to all. Here are some links where you may start, (listed in random order, of course).

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/White-House-puts-UAW-ahead-of-property-rights-44415057.html

http://charlesrowley.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/june-10-2009-barack-obama-loots-chrysler-bondholders/

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTA5ZTE2MGFkMzNmNGNjNDNmNTg2ZmJkNDlkM2NiNTU

http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/25/do-obamas-czars-rule-america-oil-czar-ray-mabus-brings-total-to-37-according-to-daily-caller-count/

http://www.examiner.com/x-30890-Sarah-Palin-Examiner~y2009m12d22-Buying-votes-for-Senate-heath-care-bill

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/11/the-100-million-health-care-vote.html

http://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/2010/04/obama-says-us-will-not-use-nuclear.html

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-reparations-black-farmers/2010/02/21/id/350458

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=33737

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/05/eric-holder-jihad-what-jihad.html

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/10/18/anita-dunn-mao-establishment-press-predictably-mostly-muzzled

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/06/17/clinton-obama-admin-to-sue-arizona-over-immigration-law/

There are many more, but these will get you started.