The 12 Step Program for Liberals

The president said today that the jobs figure (88,000 added last month) is - "a step in the right direction." That's like an alcoholic saying - "I only had 5 scotches today as opposed to my usual 7."

Honestly, the White House should enroll in the 12 step (economic reality) program. And, being the good guy that I am I created for your reading pleasure the 12 step program for liberals who wish to end their addiction to stupidity:

1. We, progressives, admit we are powerless over applying disastrous Keynesian economic models over and over again and expect the results to be different than the previous twenty times.
2. We Came to believe that the power of the free market is greater than even Obama, and can restore economic sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Paul Ryan and the Tea Party.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and found ourselves in an echo chamber called MSNBC.
5. Admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our utter and total lack of economic literacy.
6. Are entirely ready to have the Paul Ryan and Tea Party remove all these defects of our character.
7. Humbly asked the Tea Party to make the government smaller and lower taxes.
8. Made a list of all future generations that we have harmed through our incessant borrowing and spending, and became willing to make amends to them all by cutting spending and shrinking government.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible by promising never - ever - ever to spout Keynesian nonsense and bogus social justice claims ever again.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and not yell RACIST every time we are confronted with irrefutable facts.
11. Sought through meditation to improve our conscious contact with The Tea Party, looking only for knowledge so that we have the power to understand that borrowing money and raising taxes will not get us out of a recession.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, so that the next time some dimwitted liberal starts spouting about social justice and big government we will use a reasoned argument describing in detail why taking from half of the country and giving it to the other half is a recipe for economic disaster.

Your welcome America - make sure you send this to your liberal friends so they can get started on their recovery today!

The Case of CA’s Missing Republicans

Charlie Mahtesian over at Polico has a mystery - how did the GOP in California fade into irrelevance?:

According to the latest figures from the Secretary of State's office, Democratic registration is 43.5% to 30.3% for Republicans.

The GOP actually has a majority of voters in 30 of California's 58 counties. But that number is misleading. If you look at the list of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of Democrats, they tend to be some of the more populous in the state – places like Alameda (Oakland) Los Angeles (LA), Contra Costa (Bay area), and San Mateo (Bay area) counties.

The 10 counties with the highest percentage of Republicans tend to be among the least populous counties, all of them located inland.

Wow - over a 13 point Democrat advantage in registration. How can this be when California is the state that gave us Reagan and Nixon both won two terms and carried the state each time? What has happened to cause the incredible turn around? Have the former GOPer's of the state finally seen the error of their ways and gone over to the dark side?

Well to answer this I put on my deerstalker hat and found an article by The Wall Street Journal's Allysia Finley who interviewed Joel Kotkin a leading U.S. demographer. In the article Mr. Kotkin makes the case that over the past 20 years the Democratic Party has done nothing short of running anybody who is productive out of the state:

Now, however, the Golden State's fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn't Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere.

And when Mr. Kotkin talks about red tape he means it. For example, look at the state's current cap-and-trade law AB32 will raise the cost of energy and drive out even more manufacturing jobs without making even a dent in global carbon emissions. Meanwhile California's electricity prices are already 50% higher than the national average. Golly, if I had a manufacturing company that relied on electricity to produce my product I might look elsewhere if I were looking to relocate.

But just how bad is the net population loss problem for California? I mean we are talking about CALIFORNIA here, the land of milk and honey for crying out loud, how bad could it be? Mr. Kotkin again:

Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families.

Of those 4 million that have left the state! - I'm just asking here, how many do you think were the homeless folks watching porn for free in a San Francisco Library? I'm gonna go with exactly zero. My guess is that the people leaving are those gosh-darn productive folks who are being punished with draconian regulations and taxes (10.3% top rate for millionaires and 9.3% top rate for those who earn over $48,000). More from Kotkin:

And Democrats want to raise taxes even more. Mind you, the November ballot initiative that Mr. Brown is spearheading would primarily hit those whom Democrats call "millionaires" (i.e., people who make more than $250,000 a year). Some Republicans have warned that it will cause a millionaire march out of the state.

That said, "It's really going to hit the small business owners and the young family that's trying to accumulate enough to raise a family, maybe send their kids to private school. It'll kick them in the teeth."

Well at least the GOP's loss isn't to conversion but rather flight. According to the United States Census Bureau Texas, Arizona, Washington and Arizona are the top destinations for Republicans Californians leaving the state. All of which coincidentally are much more business friendly. And I for one do not think it is a coincidence that both Republican numbers and the general population are decreasing in the Golden State.

Broccoli Flavored Ice Cream Anyone?

Wow! I am stunned that anybody in the world is stunned that the Chevy Volt is suspending production to 'align production to the lack of market demand'. Golly, you mean if you make something that is overpriced, underperforms and has no viable place in the market it fails? Knock me over with a feather.

This from GM Spokesman Chris Lee:

"We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand," GM spokesman Chris Lee said in a telephone interview.

That 'continue to meet market demand' is rich to say the least. I have written several times about this administration's attempts to manipulate the markets to better align with the their world view of exactly how Americans should behave. And just like every other attempt to rig the market it has become a colossal failure. Color me shocked! Between the technical failures and market price of this, um, product I'm surprised they sold as many as they did. But didn't P.T. Barnum once say 'there's a sucker born every minute'? Well apparently there were over 7,000 of them who bought this explosive lemon.

GM CEO Daniel Akerson has a different take on why exactly the Volt hasn't exceeded the paltry 10,000 unit mark:

"We did not develop the Chevy Volt to be a political punching bag," General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson testified before Congress in the same January hearing. "We engineered the Volt to be a technological wonder."

Do you see what he is trying to say here? The reason for the Volt's failure is not the fact that it's a rolling toxic bomb - no, the reason it failed is the fact that the bible toting/gun clinging public is too stupid to see the geniusness of this modern marvel.

News flash Mr. Akerson, your precious marvel didn't even make the top 12 Greenest Car list this year.

I would say this is a victory for the market, but given the billions of taxpayer dollars that were flushed down the toilet on this project let's just call it a draw.

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Who’s up for some more Keynesian Kool-Aid?

First we had White House press secretary Jay Carney telling us that unemployment checks were 'job-creators', now its Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack telling us its food stamps (from CSNSNews.com, emphasis mine).

"I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus," Vilsack said then. "Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times."

So according to this philosophy, we take money from the people who are producing (there by reducing their productivity or their ability to hire) give it to those who do not produce and magically, we get Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Okay that was a bit snarky. Their real philosophy goes like this. You give unproductive people some form of money and those people but something with that money. The businesses that sell goods to the unproductive then get a 'stimulus' because they sold something and get to keep the doors open and then will subsequently hire those unproductive folks.

The problem with this is that the money the government doles out has to come from somewhere. And, oddly enough, that money comes from the businesses that are not hiring anyone because the government keeps taking their money and giving it to unproductive people. These knuckle heads never acknowledgment that for the government to spend a dollar, it has to take it from the private economy that is then supposed to create jobs. The multiplier theory only works if you believe there's a fairy passing out free dollars.

I just wish these guys would stop and listen to themselves just once.

Now hiring! Apply in, um, September

This headline is from ABC news:

President Obama: I Will Introduce Specific Plan in September to Boost Economy -- and If Congress Doesn't Act, We'll Run Against Them

Sooo let me see here. He's pivoted on jobs almost as many times as Joe Biden has put his foot in his mouth and we will have to wait until September? You mean after 30 months in office you still don't have a plan champ?

This is so transparent. Here's the set up. The President is going to 'pivot' once again to jobs with a detailed, hehe, plan that will no doubt include more stimulus/QE3/investment in green jobs/tax hikes, etc. The 'plan' will be so insane that no one in congress will vote for it. And that will free the President up to do what he does best: campaign. He will then get to go on the road to campaign for re-election the 'plan' while blaming congress for the lack of jobs. Wait and see, then I can say I told you so.

Pivot time!

Obama to talk about Jobs in Michigan, Fox News has the story (emphasis mine, snarky comments in parentheses):

President Barack Obama was making a pitch Thursday about the (non-existent) job-creating potential of investing in clean energy before talking up his re-election at a pair of fundraising events with high-dollar campaign contributors

Obama planned to tour a Holland, Mich., factory that makes advanced batteries for alternative-fuel vehicles such as hybrids or all-electrics (That nobody wants).

Investing in clean energy, huh? Again, our socialist overloads are trying desperately to create a market that just does not exist. The so called 'green' technology is NOT viable. So the same nobody's that were lining up not to buy the Chevy Volt, will line up to not buy this piece of crap. But then he goes on to justify this nonsense:

In Michigan, where the unemployment rate was 10.5 percent in June, higher than the national rate, Obama was expected to talk about the benefits of spending (other peoples') money on producing such clean-energy technologies as advanced batteries: jobs and reduced consumption of foreign oil.

Ah, that sounds great. So electricity is free right? And since Obama's EPA is hell bent on shutting down all the coal plants in America, there will be no energy to charge the batteries for these lemons. Great planning!

He calls them "jobs of the future" (sounds like a Disney ride) and says the U.S. should lead the way in developing energy sources that pollute less.

Why? Why should the US lead the way into a dead-end, left-wing agenda driven, technology that is going nowhere? The arrogant presumption that this technology is 'right around the corner' is stunning in its naiveté and dangerous in its execution. Let's say this nonsense works to some degree. Has this genius figured out what the hell we are going to do with all these batteries when they go bad? Where the hell are we going to put them? Yucca Mountain Nevada? Do they think that maybe these spent batteries might, just might, be an eco-hazard? That the danger could quite possibly be far worse than burning evil fossil fuels.? Lastly the money quote:

Johnson Controls Inc., the energy company that owns the plant that was welcoming Obama, has received a $3 million federal grant and expects to create 150 (subsidized) jobs at facilities in Michigan and Wisconsin, White House energy adviser Heather Zichal said.

Really? Create 150 jobs. How the hell does he work that out? The rest of the country is giving the plant $3,000,000, that's not creating jobs, that subsidizing them my friend.

File under knock me over with a feather # 2

Yesterday Jay Carney, White House press secretary, said "The White House doesn't create jobs". And in other news it is confirmed that there is no Santa Claus. Okay, I'd like to give the man some slack here but, alas, I can't. This administration slammed an $800 billion Keynesian "stimulus" program down our throats, not to mention cash for clunker, dollars for dishwashers etc. that accomplished exactly squat unless you buy the company line that it saved or created 2.5 million jobs. A number that is virtually impossible to verify, yet they tout it as if an absolute number. They have pivoted to Jobs more times than gaffe-o-mattic Joe has put his foot in his mouth. At what point do these folks realize that, gasp, the Keynesian economic model is a steaming pile of crap?

As an example of this abject refusal to see reality, last week, the Nobel Prize laureate, Paul Krugman, was pushing the same nonsense on ABC's This Week. He was paneled with George Will, George Stephanopoulos and Grover Norquist. (Editor's Note: I was stunned to see that Norquist did not have horns and a forked tail as I was led to believe by the mainstream media). I swear I thought Will was going to reach over and smack Krugman on the head and say "Could you please smarten the F up?"

After Norquist made the point that Texas had created over half the net jobs over the last 24 months by deregulating the market (Texas has no income tax), the great and powerful Krugman said in his most peevish voice, "That's not true. The statistics just don't prove that." Well said sir, nothing to see here just move along.

Further, Krugman, after interrupting Will over and over again, said that the problem was that the stimulus was, ahem, too, small. That being said, George Will had the money shot at the 5:35 mark implying that the Democrats should run on the slogan "the government is too frugal." Brilliant.

I swear it is painful to watch Krugman on these panels. He looks like a shocked laboratory rat, trying to carry water for the Dems. You can see him physically pulling away from Will knowing he's about to get slammed. This Keynesian nonsense doesn't work huh? Well once again, knock me over with at feather.