Obama avoids blaim for new unemployment

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment has risen to 9.8%, despite Obama’s entire team “working every single day… to accomplish” lower unemployment.

In a speech today, Obama avoided taking blaim or apologizing for the continuously rising unemployment, simply claiming that he’s still working to find new options and giving a little sentiment for those unemployed. Barack Obama attributes the fact that the unemployment rate has  gotten to only 9.8 because of his Keynesian initiatives.

I’m sure that after over eight months in office, the president with all the Congressional majority he needs should have been infinitely capable of saving the economy from the 10 percent figure, which is double what unemployment was just 9 short months ago. The president  needs to be capable of admitting that he made mistakes and that blame must be assessed.

Obama’s great stimulus, originally glorified as quick and effective recovery, is turning out to not be as such. The Real Gross Domestic Product has fallen and there have been no signs of recovery. The Keynesian belief that saving is inherently a flaw in the free market is crumbling, and it is growing evermore evident that the glorified Keynesian deficit spending cannot effectively be managed by government.

Dignity, honor, and respect are generally good qualities in a president, and not admitting failure shows one’s pride, but to not even apologize for a slow recovery seems heartless. If America is to have an honorable president, he shouldn’t be afraid to say he’s sorry.

The March on Washington

It appears that my proposal to the teaparty movement was successful. Tens of thousands of protesters, according to Fox News, marched on Washington to protest government expansion. It is officially the largest fiscally-conservative protest that has ever been brought to Washington DC. If not the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time, it is the most promising. Activism always leaves a mark, and hopefully this time it will be enough.

Unfortunately, and perhaps intentionally, Obama wasn’t in town for the event, according to the LA Times. Barack Obama was rallying support in Minneapolis for his healthcare overhaul and the government health insurance program while the TEA Party’s rally was under way. Humorously enough, more protesters came to Washington than supporters to Minneapolis.

Given this and the fact that polls have been overwhelmingly against the bill, Congress may not have the guts to pass Obama’s healthcare overhaul. Things are brightening up.

Using Ted Kennedy to Pass Healthcare Overhaul

Democrats, including Chris Dodd and John Kerry, have been calling for bipartisanship following the death of Ted Kennedy, according to CNN.

Why they expect Congressmen to drop all of their principles and support such a destructive and unread bill, not anyone would dare guess. When Karl Marx, one of the greatest historical advocates of communism, died, not anyone expected us to change our capitalist ways. The question remains: How is this any different?

It is fair to consider Marx intelligent and well-meaning, as we can consider Kennedy. Their both being lifelong advocates of sweeping reform of which most of the population opposes on ideological premises stands as another striking similarity between these cases. Both individuals worked on getting their reform passed, for decades even, and all in vain.

So, while we honor the dedication and contributions of Ted Kennedy, we shall continue to disagree with him posthumously, contrary to the wishes of the Democratic Party.

Recession Update: Economy Worsens

CNN made a decieving headline today: “Jobless rate down for first time in a year”. What is perhaps comical is that the only “jobless rate” that was down was the number of jobs being lost (“only” 247,000 jobs were lost in July). What the headline implied was that the unemployment rate had decreased, when in reality,  unemployment is still on the rise. Indeed, we are in the middle of the deflationary spiral. The same CNN article acknowledges that the national unemployment rate will likely increase to the double digits.

While it may be a little early to call Obama’s economic policy a failure (seeing as most of those “shovel-ready” projects will not begin until the end of next year), there certainly has been little to no recovery. In the middle of July, when the markets usually boom due to the spending of savings on family vacations, the only good news was that fewer jobs were lost than the month before and the unemployment rate fell 0.1%.

Obama’s manipulation of the the banking industry doesn’t appear to have done too much help, either. According to Fox Business, due to continued real-estate deflation and instability, banks are continuing to experience significant losses. Of course, Obama’s solution to this problem is another bailout, this time of the real-estate industry. Based off of our experience of past bailouts, the real-estate bailout will likely shift the instability elsewhere, while keeping the real problem in place.

Confidence in Washington Falling Considerably

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, thirteen states now have double digit unemployment rates. As a result of the lack of improvement, many Americans are now questioning Washington’s ability to combat this problem. In fact, a new Fox News Poll indicates that a majority of Americans doubt that the Obama Administration has any clear plan for fixing the economy. The poll results also indicate that 73% of Americans doubt that Congress has such a plan either.

As of Healthcare, the poll indicates that most Americans don’t believe that major health care reform can occur without increasing taxes and the budget deficit. In fact, 64% of Americans would rather have their ailments treated by private health insitutions than by the federal government. Further, only 3% of Americans consider thier current healthcare quality poor.

What was perhaps most interesting about this poll was the last question:  “Do you think members of Congress should be required to read and know the details of legislation before they can vote on it — even if the bill is thousands of pages long?” The bipartisan answer was a resounding 92% yes.

So what does this all mean? It means that America has lost confidence in Washington. America has even lost confidence in Obama. Change has failed. Hope has backfired. What do we have left?

Reasons Behind Palin’s Resignation

There are many reasons for Palin’s resignation, and this decision is much more complicated thanone simple explanation.

First, Palin was not going to run for re-election. Her prospects for the remainder of her governorship were not particularly promising either. There was a lame duck congress, and she wouldn’t be able to enact policies that she wanted. Her old position was essentially worthless, as she could have little remaining influence in Alaska.

Second, she wished to leave the media spotlight. It is well known that the media had been unfair to her. This is  perhaps an understatement. During her presidency, she was smeared as ignorant, uneducated, and radical. Saturday Night Live was most people’s first impression of her. This break from governorshiop will give her an opportunity to remake her image.

Third, many believe Palin wants a run in the 2012 Presidential Election. This, however, is not confirmed. There is a possibility that she will retire after this and return to a private life. Most don’t believe this though. Palin was a uniting factor for the Republican Party during the election last year. Some even consider her to be the face of the Republican Party.

Palin’s future is in question. The next few days will likely show Palin’s intentions, and possibly reveal any other motifs behind this sudden resignation.

Cap and Trade Bill Passes the House

Though it was only by 7 votes, the cap and trade scheme has finally been approved.

Let’s look at the facts. Cap and Trade has not significantly reduced Carbon emissions in any country that it has been enacted in. It has never created more jobs than it has lost, and it has never amounted to more than a tax on a harmless gas. All the taxes assessed by Cap and Trade will inevitably be passes onto the consumer. Gas prices will skyrocket again, and the cost of virtually everything will increase.

Despite this fact, Barack Obama believes that this bill will actually create jobs. Says Obama, “This is a jobs bill”. According to CNN, Obama believes that this bill will actually create “millions of new jobs” [1]. Perhaps Obama needs a quick economics lesson: When the cost of everything increases and wages remain the same, aggregate demand is less, because consumers cannot afford to buy as much as before.

What Obama thinks though is that this bill will cause some sort of quick change to a cleaner United States, because as the costs of “dirty” products increase, the public is more likely to buy less “dirty” products. However, it is not that simple.

Those “dirty” products include gasoline, oil, natural gas, and coal. These products are currently the main contributors to the power grid in the United States. There is no true “green” alternative source of energy. Biofuels and biodiesels are not profitable without massive amounts of subsidies. Solar energyand Wind energy combined constitute less than half of 1 percent of energy production and are impractical to expand to even 5 percent. Hydroelectricity can not expand much more either, as there can only be so many dams on a river while maintaining high energy efficiency.

So, ultimately, this Cap and Trade Program is a massive energy tax. As energy costs increase for all americans in the face of a recession, how is the little guy that Obama was going to protect going to make his next house payment?

This bill has not yet passed the Senate, so there is still hope for the American economy.

[1]  http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/26/house.energy/index.html

Iran’s Facade of Democracy

Iranian Democracy Is Like Fascism: The People Are Told What to Believe Happened

Iran’s government (ran by Ahmadinejad) declared Ahmadinejad the winner of the election with 85% of the vote count… Many of the members of the West have voiced skepticism. Says a Republican Representative from California,

There appears to be pretty good evidence that this is a cooked election

He is justified in saying this, as supporters of declared runner-up Mir Hossein Mousavi are now seen protesting and rioting in the streets of Iran. Mir Hossein Mousavi has declared himself the landslide victor and popular belief is that the election result has been tainted. 

I believe it is a fair conclusion to declare that Iranian Democracy is corrupt. It is, perhaps, also fair to say that something must be done. The United Nations has not taken any steps to rectify the situation, and as violence in Iran increases, the situation can only get worse.

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/13/official-obama-administration-skeptical-irans-election-results/

http://mideast.blogs.time.com/2009/06/13/iran-election-the-regime-cracks/