It is pure hogwash that Obama has no control over energy prices and he should be held completely responsible for the current price of gasoline. Remember Obama's statement that under his energy policies prices would necessarily skyrocket?
Obama and his intellectually challenged Energy Department head, Steven Chu, Phd. in Physics, have been doing everything they can to encourage increases in oil prices because they believe we are too dependent on fossil fuels and price increases will cause us to reevaluate alternative energy sources. Gas prices in Europe are now over $8 a gallon!
Now that the fruits of their labors have taken root they are too cowardly and dishonest to explain to America what they have done and take credit for their actions. Obama even had the audacity to defend and mislead his actions when he incongruously asserted "I'm going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future."
Fluctuations in the oil market encourage speculation. Fluctuations occur because supply is at or near demand. OPEC has an interest in keeping the situation at that juncture to keep prices high. Despite his claims otherwise, Obama and our own dear governmental regulators are limiting refinery production, limiting oil production, limiting where we can drill for oil and working against alternative delivery means like the Keystone Pipe Line. If we increase production, that means harvesting more oil by drilling in more locations, increasing refinery capacity by building newer more efficient refineries and diffusing demand by providing alternate energy sources like natural gas (which is substantially cheaper than gasoline), supply would increase and starts exceed demand. Excess supply would reduce demand and thereby reduce concerns over sharp changes in price thereby flattening fluctuations. Without sharp fluctuations the return on speculation would decrease and speculators would go look else where to find profits.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average annual salary of ALL government workers in 2009 was an incredible $74,403. The CATO Institute says the average salary in 2010 was $83,679, an increase of $9,276 in one year!!
The USA Today reports that the number of federal employees who earned over $150,000 has skyrocketed over 1000% in five years, from 7,420 workers in 2005 to 82,034 workers in 2010. I wonder how many more workers broke the $150,000 barrier the past two years? Regardless the numbers are obscene!
Worse still, IMO, the CATO Institute reports the total AVERAGE federal worker compensation in 2010 was a whooping $126,141! By comparison, the total average compensation of a private industry worker of far lower at only $62,757! Gee, don't you wish you worked for the federal government?
And yet The Washington Post reports that dimwit Dems Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and many more of their colleagues think the increasing federal workers pension contribution from 0.8% (yeah that's right, their current contribution is less than 1% of their weekly gross income) to an incredibly unfair 2.3% over the course of 3 years!
Let's try some math, to see exactly how much of a burden we are talking about. If I was an federal employee earning a $83,679 a year, my current pension contribution would be ... wait for it ... a whooping $13. WOW!!! Next year my contribution would be $21, the year after it would be $29 and the third year, I'm almost afraid to look, but ... the third year my contribution would be a mind numbing $37 each week! I think it's obscene they contribute so little.
It used to be that government workers were paid less than workers in private industry. No more.
The Prevaricator-in-Chief put on a stunning performance last night, once again obfuscating every bit of truth. Sure Obama-care will be everything to everyone ... so why wait 4 years to put it in place? Because, to paraphrase Rep Wilson, President Obama lied! He started out lying and kept right on lying all the way through. Well, he was right in that the bill doesn't say there will not be death panels, but it doesn't say there won't be either. Yeah Obama-care needs to be paid for before it’s enacted, but what if it costs over run the Obamanation’s incredibly optimistic cost estimates just like the Congressional Budget Office says they will? Does the bill also contain protections and prohibitions that would render it void and discarded? NAY NAY. For every half truth the Obamanation uttered there was an equal and most likely outcome that he denounced as a scare tactic; but, that sure doesn’t alleviate the inconsistencies and misery that exudes from this liberal progressive fantasy like stink on poo.
You know, I could embrace for Obama-care IF it included ironclad prohibitions or bill expirations for every evil that any thinking person knows will happen. Sadly Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the intellectually challenged Dimwitocrats won't include ironclad guarantees because they know the truth, that the criticisms against the bill are true or will come about because the bill just doesn’t make sense!
The Obamanation is so enamored of what he perceives will be and surely is his rightful place in history, he just can’t let this go. Yes he did make one hell of a pitch for Obama-care; but I just don’t believe what this liar is selling.
I know it would be pointless for me to attempt to educate the Obamanation, but still, if I had a moment to speak with him I would suggest that he embrace the free market reforms advocated by the Cato Institute. And I would stress that while they may not be as alluring as his fantasy, they make sense and cost nothing to implement! And from that standpoint alone they deserve a chance, unlike Obama-care which should be shuttered away and hopefully soon forgotten!
There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. What a beauty of a bird feeder it was, as I filled it lovingly with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere! On the patio, the chairs, the table. Everywhere!
Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be quiet, serene and no one demanding their Rights to a free meal.
Now let's see. Our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care and free education, and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.
Then the illegal's came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services, small apartments are housing five families, you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor. Your child's second grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English. Corn Flakes now come in a Bilingual box, I have to press one to hear my bank talk to me in English and people waving flags other Than Old Glory are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Just my opinion, but maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.
If you agree, pass it on; if not, just continue cleaning up the poop.
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them . . ." -- Sen. Barack Obama, quoted in the Puffington Host, April 11, 2008
In his nearly two years in office, President Obama has relied on a very small clique of advisers that serves as his most trusted sounding board on politics and policy. Members of his staff describe Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant to widen his inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, "the president doesn't like new people." -- Washington Post, Sept. 23, 2010
The veneer is coming off and we are learning that Obama is no more than a petty, egotistical politician. His acrimonious statements are a sad reflection of the pathetic individual therein. The more we get to know him, the more we find out we should not have elected him in the first place.
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!
The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.
As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.
Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ...
Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.
Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!
Have a garbage-free day!
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day the owner threw them a curved ball (or is that a curved beer!). "Because you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four Continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our Tax System works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, and even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am and work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we’re going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat asses land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?
