CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Joe Biden's number

According to President Obama, "nobody messes with Joe."

That's why Obama put Biden in charge of the White House’s oversight of the stimulus boondoggle funds.

So shouldn't Biden know how to access the recovery.gov website?

Yep, Joe's got the oversight thing covered.

Words 'ring hollow' in Obama's error filled speech

Calvin Woodward and Jim Kuhnhenn fact checked President Obama's non-State of the Union speech and found the speech so error filled that Obama's words "ring hollow."

I have already said I did not care for Obama's the government will do every thing speech. Another reason the Obama speech failed to impress me were the many misrepresentations Obama made as he tried to sell his anti-Reagan ever-bigger government vision.

These are just the examples the two Associated Press writers highlighted:

On Obama's Housing Bailout:

OBAMA ASSERTION: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."

THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn't said so.

Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.

"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."

Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.

"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.

We know Obama's housing bailout hit a raw nerve. Rick Santelli's now infamous rant inspired a tea party movement that extended all the way to Obam'a Chicago base.

Invention of the Automobile

OBAMA ASSERTION: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S., Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the first successful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

The Washington Times also called Obama to task for this error and uses the Library of Congress to show the President misspoke when he credited the U.S. with the invention of the automobile.

Oil Imports

OBAMA ASSERTION: "We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before."

THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels, and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9 billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nation is on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and government projections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over the next two decades.

Fiscal Responsibility

OBAMA ASSERTION: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."

THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.

Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.

This may be Obama's most galling misrepresentation. He continues to say one thing while doing another. He calls for fiscal responsibility while encouraging outrageously massive deficit spending. As for that deficit Obama likes to say he inherited, nearly one-fourth of the national debt was created since the Democrats took control of Congress just two years ago.



Deregulation

OBAMA ASSERTION: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."

THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

There is plenty of blame to go around here, including Obama and ACORN.

Proposed Budget

OBAMA ASSERTION: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."

THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.

Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.

Doubling Renewable Energy

OBAMA ASSERTION: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."

THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.

In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.

If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

Jobs

OBAMA ASSERTION: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."

THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.

I have written a good deal about Obama's quest for a job goal he can believe in. He has finally settled on the "save or create 3.5 million jobs" over the next two years. Unfortunately it is little more than a stroke of political genius expediency because it begs the question of how to measure jobs being saved.

All things considered this was not a very good performance for a president widely perceived as a truly great orator.

Obama's non-Reaganesque not-State of the Union speech

I suffered through watching President Obama's first not-State of the Union speech tonight.

Obama's very non-Reaganesque speech can be summed up very simply: Obama is determined to have the government do everything.

If you are a left-wing big spending liberal, you might like Obama's bigger government vision. It is a vision of false hope that will bankrupt our children, if not us.

Reagan got it right - government is the problem. Government is not the solution to every problem.

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned American self-reliance?

Governor Jindal: 'Americans can do anything'

Republicans chose Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to give the GOP's response to President Obama's first not-State of the Union speech tonight.

Based upon the excerpts that have been released, Governor Jindal's address, entitled “Americans Can Do Anything," there is good reason to expect the Governor's speech to be terrific:

• "As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country - and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty.  And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: 'Bobby, Americans can do anything.' I still believe that to this day."      

• "Republicans are ready to work with the new President to provide those solutions. Here in my state of Louisiana, we don’t care what party you belong to if you have good ideas to make life better for our people. We need more of that attitude from both Democrats and Republicans in our nation's capital.  All of us want our economy to recover and our nation to prosper. So where we agree, Republicans must be the President’s strongest partners. And where we disagree, Republicans have a responsibility to be candid and offer better ideas for a path forward."

• "The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens."

• "To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you - the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything."

• "Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt. Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need?  That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did. It’s irresponsible. And it’s no way to strengthen our economy, create jobs, or build a prosperous future for our children."

• "In recent years, these distinctions in philosophy became less clear - because our party got away from its principles. You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust - and rightly so."

• "A few weeks ago, the President warned that our nation is facing a crisis that he said 'we may not be able to reverse.' Our troubles are real, to be sure. But don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot recover - or that America’s best days are behind her."  

Jindal is one of the Republican Party's rising stars and there is speculation that the 37 year-old Governor may run for the presidency.

In the profile NPR ran this morning, Governor Jindal was portrayed as an "exotic" and "take charge" leader:

In his state, he's an exotic: An Indian-American who is a devout Catholic and a Rhodes scholar, Jindal reflects the academic bent of his mother and father, rather than the bloodline of Louisiana politicians or planters.

Jindal was quoted from his Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press":

"Look, our Republican party got fired with cause these last two election cycles. We became the party that defended spending, corruption that we never should've tolerated, and we stopped offering relevant solutions to the problems that Americans care about," Jindal said. "I think now is the time and it's a great opportunity for Republican governors and other leaders to offer conservative-based solutions to the problems."

It was noted that Jindal was the first governor to reject a portion of the president's stimulus package - $90 million in unemployment benefits, because it would have led to increased business taxes:

"Certainly, I think this could've been a very different stimulus bill written, truly targeted at infrastructure, focused on the kinds of tax credits that get investments moving in private sector," Jindal said Monday on the lawn of the White House.

NPR also found it remarkable that Governor Jindal is still enjoying a "honeymoon" after a year "on the burlesque stage of Louisiana politics."

Harry 'this war is lost' Reid: banks are 'very close' to being stabilized

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says "the banking industry is 'very close' to being stabilized."

Reid's comment, which has all the credibility of his April 19, 2007 "this war is lost" statement, was one of several things the Democrats' Senate leader said during his Monday appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

Asked about the Obama Administration's moves toward bank nationalization, Reid retorted:

"It’s not nationalization, it's protecting the taxpayers' interests."

Senator Reid also claimed that what the Democrats are doing with the banking industry is just like what the Federal Government has done with Highways.

The Nevada Senator the economy is "beginning to turn and I think the American people are going to feel that very soon."

Watch Reid's comments starting at about two minutes into the following video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

From Reid's lips to God's ear. No one I know thinks the economy is "beginning to turn," at least not for the better. New Gallup numbers show that contrary to Reid's delusional happy talk, American investor optimism plunged in February to a new low. Can Reid become any more out of touch?

Obama Administration tries to lower stimulus expectations

Obama's administration is spinning hard to try and lower expectations for the so-called "stimulus" bill.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to President Obama, tried to lower expectations for Obama's bailout boondoggle:

Signs that the $787 billion economic stimulus program is working will be obvious as work begins on infrastructure and other programs that are ready to begin around the country.

Yet, Axelrod warns, it's going to take time for the effects to register in employment statistics and the economy is likely to get even worse before it begins to rebound.

On CBS’s "Face the Nation," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also tried to lower expectations:

SCHIEFFER: When are we going to begin to see the effects of this legislation?

GIBBS: Well, Bob, we certainly hope that this money gets moved out to the states and localities to prevent them from having to cut police officers or teachers, that the money that comes down through unemployment insurance, and certainly the tax cuts to middle-class families -- we think that money can get out of the system and to people very quickly.

One caution I have, Bob -- I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’ve seen this economy has gotten worse just in the last few months. The acceleration in job loss probably means that this economy is going to get worse before it gets better.

But we’re happy that Congress, in a bipartisan way, took steps to make whatever happens in this recession easier to take for the American people.

They should be backpedaling.

Irwin Stelze points out that most of the money in the "stimulus" will not be spent soon:

It seems that most of the money will not be spent very soon. About 30% won't hit the economy until 2011, and the balance is likely to be tied up in the procurement processes of the federal and state governments until well into 2010, and beyond.

How long are people willing to wait to see some progress from largest spending package in history?

If progress isn't seen quickly, are people willing to accept another stimulus bill?

Not one member of Congress read Obama's bailout boondoggle

The Democrats rushed the so-called "stimulus" bill thorough Congress so quickly that not one single member had a chance to read the 1,000 odd page, bailout boondoggle:

“If all of that wasn’t enough, here I have, 1,100 pages, not one member of this body has read.  Not one.  There may be a staffer in the appropriations committee that read all of this last night.  I don’t know how you can read 1,100 pages between midnight and now.  Not one member’s read this.  What happened to the promise that we’re going to let the American people see what’s in this bill 48 hours?  No - we don’t have time to do that." -- House Republican Leader John Boehner

Boehner had a lot more to say in opposition to Democrats’ “stimulus” legislation and in support of the House GOP’s economic recovery plan, which will create twice as many jobs as the Democrats’ bill at half the cost. 

 “Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, the American economy needs help.  Our neighbors, our friends, our constituents, they’re hurting and there’s not a member in this body on either side of the aisle that doesn’t understand that.  And I think everyone in this chamber on both sides of the aisle understands that Congress needs to act and act now to help American families and small businesses and help bring confidence back into our economy.  

“The question is how do you do that?  The President, when he outlined his desires for this bill, summed it up simply when he said this bill needs to be about jobs.  I don’t think there is anybody in this chamber agrees that this bill needs to be about jobs, preserving jobs in America, helping to create new jobs and helping to get our economy rolling again.  But a bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that is all about spending, spending and spending.  This is disappointing. 

“The American people expect more of us.  They expect to have something that’s going to work for them - and my opposition to this bill isn’t the fact that we’re doing a bill, we need to act.  But how?  When you look at some of the spending in this bill, it will do nothing about creating jobs in America. 

[. . .]

“But our ideas weren’t considered.  We weren’t allowed in the room.  We weren’t allowed to participate at all.  And all the talk about bipartisanship that we have heard over the last several months went down the drain.

You can watch Boehner's entire speech here.

Obama throws transparency under the bus

With the so-called "stimulus" bill, President Obama has thrown the change he promised under the bus.

On his Change.gov website, Obama promised to "end the practice of writing legislation behind closed doors" - to "restore the American people’s trust in their government by making government more open and transparent. Obama will work to reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee mark-ups and conference committees, to be conducted in public. By making these practices public, the American people will be able to hold their leaders accountable for wasteful spending and lawmakers won’t be able to slip favors for lobbyists into bills at the last minute."

Just words.

On the campaign trail he was even more emphatic about promising transparency:

"Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant . . . No more secrecy . . .  And, when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have 5 days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it."

Just words.

Obama's "sunlight before signing" was the first promise Obama broke as President. But, "Obama's bloated boondoggle bailout broke seven Obama promises:

1. Make Government Open and Transparent

2. Make it "Impossible" for Congressmen to slip in Pork Barrel Projects -
The Washington Post reports "Democratic lawmakers and the White House added billions in new spending and tax breaks that will benefit a handful of specific companies and industries:

• $8 billion in unplanned spending specifically requested by President Obama for regional high-speed rail projects.
• Language that will save General Motors from paying up to $10 billion in taxes related to its acceptance of federal bailout funds.
• A tax credit that will primarily benefit Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson and RV manufacturers in Elkhart, Ind.

3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public - Democrats wrote the bill in secret, the meetings were not even open to Republican members of Congress, let alone the public.

4. No more secrecy.

5. Public will have five days to look at legislation - Obama will sign the bill on Tuesday. That won't even be four days.

6. You'll know what's in it - Even Congress didn't know what was in the bill.

7. We will put every pork barrel project online

Just words.

President Obama continues to say one thing and do another.

Obama the deficit hawk

"We are not going to be able to perpetually finance the levels of debt that the federal government is currently carrying." -- President Obama, February 12, 2009

That was yesterday, before the Congressional Democrats and three Senate Republicans gave President Obama his national debt-busting $787 billion bailout boondoggle, which will actually cost $3.27 trillion.

Now, with his so-called "stimulus" in hand, Obama will morph into a deficit hawk.

Obama' has scheduled his "fiscal-responsibility summit" for February 23, and according to the Wall Street Journal, three days later, Obama will start to pressure politicians to address the country's debt crisis.

Oh the irony hypocrisy Obama. How does this president get away with having everything both ways?

Using Obama sex to sell the New York Times

The mainstream media's Obamamania reaches a new, much lower, level.

The New York Times "Domestic Disturbances" blogger, Judith Warner, writes about dreams of illicit sex with President Obama - not just hers, but also a number of her female friends:

The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs. . . .

Watch Sean Hannity and Bernard Goldberg discuss this latest chapter of Obamamessiah in the following video:

What happened to the "The Gray Lady," which once was regarded as a national newspaper of record? Is there no lower limit to what the financially-troubled Times will allow in an effort to attract readers? How pathetic.