Unions Thrive!

Well, they thrive where the boss man doesn't have to compete:

Two contributing factors: (1) unionized companies in the private sector continue to disappear, and (2) the government continues to grow.

In a few years?

Chart courtesy of Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson

While Obama Wants To Throw Tax Dollars At Our Problem ...

... the private sector shows us how innovation and quality control actually bring about success:

Ford Reports $2.7 Billion Profit for the Year

The company that the Treasury Department Henry Ford built was even profitable - very profitable - in North America.

Ford rocks.

Some Common Sense Regarding The Supreme Court Ruling

George Will:

Cleta Mitchell, Washington's preeminent campaign finance attorney, rightly says that few for-profit corporations will jeopardize their commercial interests by engaging in partisan politics: Republicans, Democrats and independents buy Microsoft's and Pepsi's products. If for-profit corporations do plunge into politics, disclosure of their spending will enable voters to draw appropriate conclusions. Of course, political speech regulations radiate distrust of voters' abilities to assess unfettered political advocacy.

Mitchell says the court's decision primarily liberates nonprofit advocacy groups, such as the Sierra Club, which the FEC fined $28,000 in 2006. The club's sin was to distribute pamphlets in Florida contrasting the environmental views of the presidential and senatorial candidates, to the intended advantage of Democrats. FEC censors deemed this an illegal corporate contribution.  [link]

I can see it now.  Leftists in this country who, just days ago, were whining about the decision opening the floodgates to corporate cash and corporate influence, when they find out that in fact advocacy groups like the leftist Sierra Club will benefit far more than Halliburton! will, can be expected to reply with ...

... well, that's okay then.

Such rock-solid intellectuals they are.

Silence

Where are those New York Times reporters who roundly criticized George W. Bush for his "go-it-alone" strategy in our War on Terror?

France risks diplomatic row after snubbing Obama's call to send more troops to Afghanistan

Looks like Barry is going to go it alone.

I can just hear the howls of derision coming from the Times.

I can just hear ...

Solving the 'Undesirables' Problem

Oh, well.

Details Emerge on Hispanic New York Woman Killed in Botched Legal Abortion

Alexandra Nuñez was only Hispanic.

Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger, would say her plan is on track.  One less undesirable.

In a civilized world, tears would flow.

Magic Wand Won't Make It Better

I was struck the other day as I was watching President Obama deliver a teleprompting to his White House Task Force on Middle Class Families how few of the recommendations that he and the members thereof had come up with that actually related to job creation and growth.  Most could be labeled as "welfare as we know it," and some had to do with tax breaks, which are certainly needed.

But what about jobs?  Does he have any answers besides "stimulus"?  He didn't in that speech.

I didn't watch the State of the Union address last night (I have things I have to do early in the morning, ahem), but some people who are experts in the field of economics did.  And they have this assessment:

Staying the Course
The same agenda in more humble clothes
Wall Street Journal editorial

So much for all of that Washington talk about a midcourse change of political direction. If President Obama took any lesson from his party's recent drubbing in Massachusetts, and its decline in the polls, it seems to be that he should keep doing what he's been doing, only with a little more humility, and a touch more bipartisanship.

Mr. Obama's economic pitch ... differed little from last year, when the jobless rate was 7.2%. He offered a spirited defense of the stimulus, though the jobless rate is now 10%, and he promised more of the same this year, especially on "green jobs." He also offered some minor if welcome tax cuts for small business, and $30 billion in handouts for "community banks" to be able to lend more.

Yet at the same time, he couldn't resist more banker baiting, and he promised that he's determined to see tax rates rise for millions of Americans next year when the Bush rates are set to expire. He also pushed more exports while saying he'll raise taxes on some of our biggest exporters, otherwise known as multinationals that "ship our jobs overseas." Mr. Obama believes he can conjure jobs and a durable expansion from the private sector while waging political war on its animal spirits. It can't be done.

This reflects a larger problem, which is his belief that economic growth springs mainly from the genius of government. Thus Mr. Obama presented a vision of an economy soaring to new heights on "high-speed railroad" and "clean energy facilities" and 1,000 people making solar panels in California. He seems not to appreciate that what really drives growth are the millions of risks taken each day by millions of individuals, far from the politicking and earmarks of Congress or the Department of Energy. [link]

You read here the other day about the foolishness that guys like Obama call "green jobs."  Governor Kaine here in Virginia is proud, according to the Roanoke Times, that he was able to create five green jobs here in Southwest Virginia at a cost of millions during his tenure.

Five jobs.

Costing millions of taxpayer dollars.

Even the Big-Government types at the Times had trouble defending that bit of hooey.

The experts at the Wall Street Journal seem equally unimpressed with the recommended solutions to our problems that Obama delivered last night.  After liberals throw money at a weak economy and the economy only worsens, what's a liberal to do?  Something that might actually work?

No.

Obama wants to throw more government money at government driven programs - green jobs - and, as if they haven't been punished enough, he intends to tax the living hell out of the rich, until they too are in our boat.

What's that term that General Honoré came up with a few years ago for people who are bashing their heads against a brick wall?  I'm trying to remember ...

Is Chris Matthews' Show Still On The Air?

Glenn Harlan Reynolds on that groupie whore's latest embarrassing pronouncement ("You know, I forgot he was black for an hour"):

"Good grief. Why is this guy still on the air? Oh, wait, he’s not — he’s on MSNBC . . .."

Is he?

Here's the latest cable news ratings, published by the Drudge Report:

Where's Matthews?

Must have been off somewhere doing someone something else.

But It Got Him His Gig

A Reaction to the speech last night:

On His Last Day in Office Obama Will Still Be Talking About What He Inherited

I think he's learning that "BUSH!," though a great election year tactic, does not policy make.

Teleprompter Should Be On Mt. Rushmore For That Speech

Fineman: Obama Should Be On Mt. Rushmore For That Speech

Gosh, I'm Sorry I Didn't Stay Up & Watch

Michael Gerson on the State of the Union speech last night:

"For much of the speech Obama sounded like a commerce secretary at a professional conference on a particularly uninspired day."

Ouch.

Giving Credit Where It's Due

On Virginia Senate Bill 268, which provided "that the governing body of any locality may, by ordinance, make it unlawful for any person to possess a dangerous weapon upon the property, including buildings and grounds thereof, of any facility that is owned or leased by that locality and used by it for governmental purposes," which would have voided that which we call preemption, was defeated in the Committee on Local Government by a vote of 6 yea and 9 nay on Tuesday. 

Put in terms that everyone can understand, the bill would have voided a portion of the Bill of Rights should some liberal city council somewhere decide to ban possession of firearms on their (actually the taxpayers') property.

Included among those who voted to support the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution -

Roscoe Reynolds, D-20.

Here's to ya, Roscoe.

The Left Reacts

You know Obama is in free fall when his most loyal newspaper has this for a lead headline:

Hope!  Change!  Stop!  Don't retreat!