Here’s a prime example of why this country is suffering from a crisis of confidence. The people --- even the ObamaBots --- are learning that you simply can’t believe a durn thing that comes out of Dear Ruler’s mouth .. or should I say, that a speech writer enters into Dear Ruler’s teleprompter.

Just a few days ago, Barack Obama gave a speech announcing his grand plan to reduce our deficit. He spent much of the time demonizing the wealthy, harping on the millionaires and billionaires and corporations, and telling people to pay their fair share. Throughout it all he insisted, "This is not class warfare.” He said, “I reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare. I think it’s just the right the thing to do.” Hate to tell you this Obama but even if you think it is right, doesn’t mean that you aren’t waging war against the achievers in our nation. But he insists, “This is not class warfare. It’s math.”

However, just two days later during a speech in New York, Barack “this is not class warfare” Obama declares himself to be a warrior for the middle class.
“Now, you’re already hearing the Republicans in Congress dusting off the old talking points. You can write their press releases. “Class warfare,” they say. You know what, if asking a billionaire to pay the same rate as a plumber or a teacher makes me a warrior for the middle class, I wear that charge as a badge of honor.”

Folks, there are only so many ways I can say this. Barack Obama is full of shit. He is a warrior for the middle class because he is championing the idea that the government needs to use its police power of government to take stuff away from wealthy people and give it to people more likely to vote for him. Even if Obama succeeded in doing that, it would hardly make a difference to our spending/debt/deficit crisis … though it would certainly affect (negatively) jobs and investment, seeing as these evil rich people are the ones who invest in companies and create the jobs. The Tax Foundation has some more enlightening statistics for you using IRS statistics:

Taking half of the yearly income from every person making between one and ten million dollars would only decrease the nation's debt by 1%. Even taking every last penny from every individual making more than $10 million per year would only reduce the nation's deficit by 12 percent and the debt by 2 percent.
Not enough? Here’s another way to look at it!

If the highest rate of 35% were raised by a factor of 20% to 42%, then the additional tax revenue would be $43.5 Billion, not much of a dent in our $1.665 trillion deficit. So, let's raise the rate by a factor of 50% to 52.5%; the additional revenue would be $108.9 billion. Still nowhere near enough, so let's just tax it at a rate of 100%, bringing in an additional $404.8 Billion. Unfortunately the country is still $1.26 trillion in the hole for the year.

Despite the conventional wisdom in Libtardia, revenue is not the problem in this country. The problem with our system is not that we are allowing rich people to keep too much of their money … that’s lib logic, by the way … the problem is that we simply are spending too much. How can people forget that Obama increased government spending by more than 25% in his first two and one-half years? Just how does he get away with this? He increases spending by that amount and doubles our debt ... then he says that our problem is that the rich simply are not paying their “fair share” in taxes.

And by the way, the “fair share” term is all you need to understand that this is a class warfare campaign. It’s all he has --- he has no record of accomplishment to run on in next year’s election. Stirring hatred and resentment for high-achievers is his preferred method. Not that Obama cares, but America simply cannot afford a European welfare state without sacrificing our freedoms to pay for it.

Lore Pohlman

It appears that about 40% of the country makes up a core of blue… people who are wedded to their leftist philosophy as if it were a religion… they believe it will succeed despite all evidence to the contrary. From the economic malaise it has inflicted on the United States to the economic meltdown that is playing itself out in Europe to the wholesale abandonment of the leftist policies by governments from Beijing to Delhi to Hanoi. Despite the complete lack of a single demonstrable example of a sustained success of the Marxist / Keynesian / Alinsky philosophy, they still believe and it appears that virtually nothing anyone in the red corner can say can change their minds.

Today the aspirations embodied by their messiah are no longer just theoretical solutions and aspirational promises. This is not 2008 when the press could blame all of America’s woes on a reviled Bush White House. It’s not 2008 when Barack Obama could tell stories about how he plans on putting America back to work by rebuilding our infrastructure and creating green jobs. It’s not 2008 where Barack Obama could promise to make America respected again in the eyes of the world by closing Guantanamo and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s not 2008 where Barack Obama could rail against George Bush’s “years of unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility.” On the contrary, in the summer of 2011 President Obama finds himself in the middle of a perfect storm of failure, yet it seems to have no effect on his followers.

The most recent issue is of course Solyndra. The solar panel company that was the poster child for the green jobs that were the key to fulfilling his campaign pledge to future generations that (his election) “was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” In 2009 the Administration gave the company $535 million in loan guarantees and in March of 2010 the President toured the company, declaring “the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith.” Today the company sits bankrupt and taxpayers are out half a billion dollars. What’s worse for President Obama’s green jobs agenda is the fact that apparently each of those touted green jobs costs $5 million…

On the jobs front the President has just gone back to Congress and requested that they give him an additional $500 billion for a second stimulus program… because his previous $1 Trillion stimulus plan worked so well. The President suggested that his stimulus program (circa 2009) would bring unemployment down to 7.1% by August of 2011. In reality, his stimulus program did pass yet unemployment stands at 9.1% today. Fully two million more Americans are unemployed today than were promised by the President.

On the single most important issue of the day, jobs, President Obama has demonstrated not only that he is out of ideas, but that he wants to double down on the same bad ideas didn’t work in the past… and he wants to pay for the whole thing by raising taxes by $1.5 trillion. Unfortunately for him, things don’t look any better anywhere else. Domestically, inflation is on the rise, the economy is on life support and federal deficits are larger than at any time in history. Internationally, America’s leadership is once again so strong that the Palestinians are heading to the UN to ask for recognition despite US opposition, the Arab spring threatens to put Islamists in charge across the region, Europe is crumbling and Asian allies wonder about America’s commitment to the region as Taiwan is left twisting in the wind by the administration’s decision not to sell the island nation 66 new F-16 fighter jets for fear of offending the Chinese. Politically, the President’s leftist policies have so pummeled the citizens of New York that last week the GOP captured a house seat that had been held by the Democrats since 1923.

While the nirvana that was to be ushered in by Hope and Change has not materialized, it’s not because the administration has demurred from putting its policies in place. On the contrary, they’ve done so in most cases either by legislation or executive action. Despite all of this failure, a solid 40% of the electorate still supports President Obama and the discredited policies of the left. One wonders how is it possible that seeing all of this they could still believe? Then again, maybe it’s not so difficult to understand. A sign of a religion after all, is believing in something despite all empirical data that suggest it might not be true, or perhaps more accurately, the lack of empirical data that suggest it is true. The difference between a religion and the leftist policies of President Obama is that the former typically promises nirvana in the afterlife while the latter is supposed to be focused on this one. Nothing can prove Heaven doesn’t exist and therefore believers continue to believe. It’s called faith. History on the other hand, from FDR right up to Barack Obama, demonstrates clearly that the socialist, redistributive policies of the left simply do not work. Yet, the believers still believe, and vote accordingly. That fits Einstein’s definition of insanity. In this case it might just be called stupidity.

It's All Bush's fault

As you know --- every problem that Obama has faced – and failed to address successfully – is really Bush’s fault. It is rumored (not really) that Obama has a version of the Presidential Seal on his desk with a new slogan: “It’s Bush’s Fault.” You’re probably aware of the Solyndra scandal. Here’s my best attempt to simplify the scandal into bullet points: Obama decides that he is the one who will decide where the new jobs will be, and he wants green jobs. Green jobs make liberals happy. Since Obama thinks that green jobs are cool, he decides to throw taxpayer money to private businesses who promise him green jobs. Solyndra needs money. So Solyndra gets in line for some ObamaMoney. Obama thinks that Solyndra is the perfect backdrop for his green jobs program, so he designates Joe Biden to go make a speech at the groundbreaking for a new Solyndra facility. But wait! Solyndra has applied for a $500 million plus loan guarantee, and the application hasn’t been approved yet! Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget tells him that the loan isn’t a very good idea. Obama remembers, though, that Solyndra principal George Kaiser is huge contributor to his campaign. Emails fly at the White House. Some suggesting that the loan guarantee isn’t a good idea, some saying we need to move ahead on this project. Somewhere along the line the loan agreement is modified to protect Solyndra investors while putting the American taxpayers on the hook. Obama administration officials actually sat in on some Solyndra board meetings while all of this, and Solyndra finances, were being discussed. (Imagine of Bush administration officials had sat in on Enron board meetings.) The loan guarantee goes through. The administration gets their day in the sun with Joe Biden speaking at Solyndra headquarters. About a year later Solyndra is in the tank. The taxpayers take it on the chin for over $500 milllion. The Democrats blame Bush, saying that the loan application happened during the Bush administration, not Obama’s. The Republicans are rude enough to point out that the Bush administration rejected the Solyndra loan application. It only gained new life when Obama took office and started spouting off about green jobs. The FBI raids Solyndra headquarters. Democrats and the Obama folks go into pure defense mode. Where does this go from here? That is going to depend on whether or not the ObamaMedia is compelled to really cover the story.

Solyndra and Green Jobs

Lest we forget that in 2009, Barack Obama appointed an avowed communist, Van Jones, to be his greens jobs czar. That’s right, a communist was the president’s “special advisor” on one of the pillars of his economic plan: green jobs. Actyually … that was pretty much what you might have expected, since so many communists went running to the environmental movement when the world communist movement collapsed. I just want us to remember this mindset as we approach this story about how the Obama administration then went and “invested” $535 million in the now bankrupt solar company, Solyndra. In September of 2009, the Obama administration heralded a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra as a “game changer” for the green energy movement. Vice President Biden emphasized that Solyndra would be creating thousands of permanent jobs: “Jobs you can raise a family on, green jobs, jobs that will serve as a foundation for a stronger American economy.” Biden said, “These are the jobs that are going to define the 21st century and the jobs — going to allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.” So much for that. In January of this year, Solyndra was able to refinance its loan. During the time of the loan’s restructuring, the Energy Department kept a close eye on the company, even having DOE officials sit in on board meetings. Then in the summer of 2011, the CEO of Solyndra made several visits to Washington, apparently maintaining that the company was stable. Then just weeks later, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. Now we have federal agents scouring through documents from homes of Solyndra’s CEO and founders. There will be hearings in Congress this week as to whether the DOE was misled by Solyndra on the stability of their investment. Look, folks. This is what happens when you have government officials picking the winners and losers, all with your tax dollars on the line. Barack Obama wouldn’t know how to create a job if his own job depended on it. The fact that this iconic green jobs investment failed so epically is an extremely bad PR situation for Obama. But more importantly, it is bad for those people who lost their jobs on the false promise of a green jobs future.

Too cute by half.

The Big Zero caved. Now he'll deliver his usual shopworn leftists cliches on TV opposite the opening game of NFL football. He's also embarked on a desperation campaign to "run against Washington," as if he (or any) president isn't the very epicenter of what IS Washington.

Obama's cave-in is being played in some media as "bowing to Boehner." Well, why not? He's bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia and half the Muslim dictators of the middle-east, so why not the Speaker of the House?'

One wonders what the broader public reaction had been if he'd tried to stick with the date opposite the Republican presidential debate and no Republican House or Senate members even showed up and let him speak to a half-empty chamber. Of course, it would show a "lack of respect". But who's kidding whom? They don't respect this phony, anyway.

Let's see ... I can watch Obama blather liberal -- and failed -- economic cliches, or I can watch the Packers vs. the Saints. It may take me as long as one second to decide ...

This dyspeptic dude is the very antithesis of Churchill's classic description of an old British political hack as "a modest man, with much to be modest about." He flunks the first part, anyway. The second, he fills abundantly.