On The Economy, Obama Doesn't Know His "Stuff"

The man with the plan!  Real Clear Politics has this clip of Obama demonstrating his economic genius:

Obama: I Want An Economy "Where We're Making Stuff And Selling Stuff And Moving It Around"

"On Tuesday at the State of the Union, I laid out my vision for how we move forward," President Obama said at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada. "I laid out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last, that has a firm foundation. Where we're making stuff and selling stuff and moving it around and UPS drivers are dropping things off everywhere."

Obama's vision for an economy with a firm foundation built to last: move stuff around.  Brilliant!  Such mastery and understanding of intricate economic systems!  What a sound explanation of his economic proposals and philosophies!  Clearly this man knows his stuff and deserves another 4 years to build on his economic success!

On a serious note, this embarrassing kindergarten-level concept of trade wouldn't be so bad if Obama had any idea of HOW to get "stuff" made, sold, and delivered.  He thinks the government picking winners and losers by handing out billions in taxpayer money will get this process moving, but it's the free market that best sorts out what consumers want, at what cost, and from where.  Some people may know this as "supply and demand."  In Obama-speak maybe it would be "want stuff, get stuff."

A recent example of Obama's government failing to be able to judge what "stuff" people want and would get, is the Government Motors' Chevy Volt.  Through various incentives the government (i.e. us taxpayers) subsidized the cost of the Volt to the tune of $250,000 per car!  The result of this government economic engineering? Only 8,000 Volts were sold, and now ALL of them are being recalled for a faulty combustible battery!

If there was a public demand for a car like the Volt, all the major car manufacturers would be tripping over each other to build the best, cheapest, safest version.

The Chevy Volt example is a microcosm of all that is wrong with Obama's Big Government economic prescriptions and we see the results with credit rating downgrades, low economic growth, 8.5% unemployment, and $15 trillion debt.

Some people say that Obama is hurting our economy on purpose, but maybe it's just that he doesn't know his "stuff."

A Visual Representation of the 2012 State of the Union Address

A word cloud of the most used words in tonight's State of the Union using President Obama's prepared remarks, as published by USA Today.

Created with Wordle

Update: Text of Gov. Mitch Daniel's GOP Response:

Wordle link

Related post:

What's in the Bill: A Visual Representation of the "American Jobs Act"

Watch the #ProLifeCon 2012 Live Webcast

As I wrote last week, I (@AlexaShrugged) will be participating as a featured tweeter (hashtag #ProLifeCon) in ProLifeCon: The Premier Gathering of Online Pro-Life Activists.

Beginning at about 8am ET and ending at 11:30am today, please watch the online live webcast HERE:



Participate with me on Twitter:

The Obama Presidency In One Picture

Yep, pretty much sums it up:

Complete with teleprompters and adoring media crowds - all in Fantasyland!

via BuzzFeed 13 Photos Of Barack Obama At Disney That Will Probably Turn Up In Attack Ads

Update: 9/14/12 - New Obama Presidency In One Photo

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#ProLifeCon 2012: @AlexaShrugged To Be Featured Tweeter

On January 23, the day after the 39th anniversary of the horrific Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and the morning of the national March for Life in DC, the Family Research Council will be hosting ProLifeCon: The Premier Gathering of Online Pro-Life Activists at their headquarters.  It will also be available to view online beginning at 8am and running through 11:30am.  I (@AlexaShrugged) will be participating online as a featured tweeter - hashtag #ProLifeCon on Twitter. 

Pro-life activists like Lila Rose, Jill Stanek, Kristan Hawkins, and others will present about how to make a difference on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the rest of the online world.

Sign up now at: ProLifeCon.org. - the embedded live webcast will be here on AlexaShrugged.com - please watch and participate at 8am Monday, January 23rd!

You can also get the embed code for your blog here.

Cuteness on Ice!

Daily dose of SQUEEEEEEEEEE from the Daily Mail UK:

These pics give me Happy Feet!  :-D

DNC Chair Blames Tea Party for Shootings, Embraces OWS Criminals

Today DNC Chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (DWS) gives us the latest outrage against the Tea Party.

In response to a question about a lack of civility in Congress, DWS' initial response was, "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago..."

It is sick and disgusting for DWS to dredge up the slanderous and infamously false accusation that somehow political rhetoric - especially from the Tea Party - inspired the Arizona shootings that almost killed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  

To follow this she talks about the discourse in America and Congress and says, "I hesitate to place blame [YEAH, RIGHT!!!], but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement."

She continued, "You had town hall meetings that they tried to take over, and you saw some their conduct at those tea party meetings."

Seriously??  DWS is condemning the many constituents who expressed their opposition to bills like Obamacare to the officials elected to represent them?!

The Tea Parties not only were peaceful protests by law-abiding Americans petitioning their government, but they were convents compared to the filth and lawlessness coming out of the Occupy Wall Street movement that she supports.

Of these thugs, whose rhetoric has actually included calls for the murder of elected officials, DWS said on January 3, 2012: "I’ve been publicly supportive of them. I think that they are well within their rights to be frustrated.”  (But apparently the Tea Party activists who took to Town Hall meetings to vent their frustrations were NOT within their rights.) 

DWS conveniently ignores the REAL crimes perpetrated by OWS, including murder, rape, and theft - not to mention the trespassing and health violations inherent in their permit-less occupations.  Assault and threats are common at the encampments and arrests have been in the thousands.  Just today, the WaPo carried this headline: Child cruelty charge after baby found alone in Occupy camp.

Instead of railing against imagined Tea Party boogeymen, maybe DWS needs to take a look at at the real monsters in her midst.

Related post: 8+ Defamations and Threats Against Tea Party in Last Month

Update: I was alerted through reading Sundries Shack that DWS tweeted a response to the RNC Chair's tweet calling for her to apologize by saying that those outraged by her comment lacked civility:

.@DWStweets should apologize immediately for her reckless comments blaming the Tea Party for the horrific Tuscon shooting.

— Reince Priebus (@ReincePriebus) January 11, 2012

.@ReincePriebus I'd NEVER politicize Tucson-my close friend was shot. Your comment=lack of civility was talking about. bit.ly/Afqg7j

— D Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) January 12, 2012

So apparently, to quote @PoliticalMath, "if you quote @DWStweets on incivility, that's proof of your incivility." Pot, meet kettle.

And Verum Serum says:

The real question is this: What is the connection between political civility and the irrational actions of a diagnosed schizophrenic, i.e. Jared Loughner? Answer: There isn’t one. That’s why people like me are bent out of shape by Tucson being bandied about in this context.

Simply put, civility or lack thereof had nothing whatsoever to do with Tucson. That may not have been clear in the early days when hacks like Paul Krugman were stumbling all over themselves to lay blame at the feet of folks on the right, but it’s clear now. Given the facts, we’re not having any more of this nonsense from the left.

Precisely!

Youth Misery Index At All-Time High

Fitting in perfectly with yesterday's post Youth Vote: Our Future, Laughed Off Stage, Young America's Foundation (YAF) spoke at Heritage's Bloggers Briefing today about their initiative on the Youth Misery Index.

The Youth Misery Index is a modern take on Jimmy Carter's Misery Index and today stands at a record 90.6!

Here's how they calculate the number:

The Youth Misery Index adds together youth unemployment, average graduating student debt (in thousands), and national debt per capita (in thousands).

Youth unemployment is at 17.4 percent—one of the highest levels since World War II. Average graduating student debt has reached a record-breaking $26,300. National debt per capita is $46,900—the highest ever. Add it up, and the Youth Misery Index comes out to 90.6 (17.4 + 26.3 + 46.9 = 90.6). 

YAF's call to action reflects my point yesterday that my generation can't depend on short-sighted politicians in DC to represent our interests:

To fix these problems, young people must become more active; we cannot expect policy makers in Washington to fight these battles for us.  

YAF encourages campus activism to get students involved in reaching out and teaching their peers about conservative solutions to the issues most important to them.

...In other youth misery news, George Scoville points out that the Obama Administration has reversed its position on unpaid internships at for-profit companies.  Now Obama has unveiled a new "We Can't Wait" summer jobs program.  The problem?  Most of the positions will be "unpaid training opportunities."  I guess internships are fine since Obama hasn't figured out how to create jobs.  Obama's message to young people: We CAN wait for real jobs, we CAN'T wait for empty gestures designed to win back the youth vote in 2012.

Youth Vote: Our Future, Laughed Off Stage

Read this article on a young voter's question to a candidate being laughed off by a crowd of older people at a campaign event in New Hampshire.  I understand the laughter when he began his question, as it was said in a surprising, funny way:

“I know that many people in this room are on their way out,” the unidentified man said.

“I say that in a respectful way, that in maybe ten years, a lot of people in this room will have passed away.”

That line drew laughter from the crowd, as the man said, “I’m serious.”

I'm sure some in the crowd were laughing because they felt awkward and uncomfortable at the bluntness of the statement, but he was simply, if inartfully, stating a fact of life.  But his following statements and questions did not deserve to be laughed at and brushed off so easily:

“I noticed that in my age bracket no one cares about politics because it is something for old people, I say that respectfully,” the man continued, “because it seems like a lot of the issues are catered to them.”

...“I would like to know what hope I have as a hard-working, young individual, what change will you actually accomplish in Washington? What can be done in eight years that will affect the life that I have yet to live, that you have already lived?”

That drew more laughter and applause from the crowd.

He is right.  Politics IS something for old people because the issues ARE catered to them.  But this is because older people are the most engaged and likely to vote.  Politicians know this and thus pander to senior groups like the AARP at the expense of issues that will affect today's youth.

Perfect example: DC politicians are terrified of touching "the third rail" - Social Security, which is unsustainable and fast becoming bankrupt.  Washington is trying to deny that anything is wrong because any mention of reforming SS or other entitlements is met with hysterics from people who take SS for granted, with dire warnings of grandma being pushed off a cliff, in the snow, while eating cat food.  Meanwhile, everyone of my generation - across the political spectrum - treats it as a common fact that we will never see any of the money we put into SS.

To Washington, our retirement is eons away.  In politics, there's no future other than the short term: until the next election.  As the young man indicates, our future is more than 2, 4, 6, or even 8 years away.  My generation is facing a growing economic crisis made worse every day with outrageous spending, deficits, and debt piled up by politicians who will never live to see the disastrous results of their actions.

We need action to be taken NOW to prevent our demise in the decades to come, but the immediate demands of the "old people" who vote will ensure that nothing will be done in the next eight years that will affect the lives we have yet to live, that they have already lived. 

The young man's questions echo the hopelessness and cynicism of my generation.

The youth of America are disillusioned by politics.  For many of them, their first time voting in a presidential election was for an exciting, historic man promising hope and change but ended up delivering the opposite.  No wonder this young man asks if he has any "hope;" if "change" can actually be accomplished in Washington.  Never before have so many become so jaded, so quickly, so young.

What is to become of us?  Because of the short-sighted selfishness of our parents and grandparents, we are faced with becoming the first generation to be left off worse than the last.  Our future looks bleak.

Meanwhile, our legitimate concerns about our future are being laughed off the stage.  

Related: Youth Misery Index At All-Time High

Religious Player Hating: Tebow and Suggs

As a Ravens fan and a big Tim Tebow fan, I was VERY disappointed to hear Terrell Suggs (T. Sizzle, from Ball So Hard University) mocking Tebow for his prayer and focus on God.  Criticize his play all you want, but don't go after his religion. 

Tebow may not be a very good quarterback but he seems to be one of the most nicest, most sincere people in the world and shows amazing work ethic and heart. It is amazing how many lives he's touched and hearts he's opened at such a young age. I have no doubt that his faith is sincere and I don't like people mocking it. It's not as if he is the first pro athlete to honor God on the field, why do people insist on acting like he is some kind of freak?

T. Sizzle has to have seen his teammates praying on the sidelines before, during, and after games so it is ridiculous that he goes after Tebow for doing so. Wonder if Sizzle ever saw this Sports Illustrated cover of Ravens future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis calling him "God's Linebacker":

And here's video of Ray Lewis talking about the Raven's last second win against the Steelers on November 6, 2011 and telling the team: "Position yourself so that when God is getting ready to pour out blessings, you’re in position to receive those blessings...  I kept going to them and saying, 'It's His will, let His will be done.' ... God is amazing!"

 

Now, the religious player haters say God doesn't care about who wins or loses football games, but God does care about each one of us individually and has a plan for us through every success and defeat in our lives.  The players who are sincere and mature in their relationship with God are not praying to win games but praying/thanking God for physical protection for themselves and the other players, the blessings He has bestowed upon them, the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability, and that His will be done through them.

I see nothing wrong with players thanking God after wins (and they should thank him after loses, too) because at the very least it is displaying a humility that is not seen enough in sports or today's world.  It is important to acknowledge that there is a higher being greater than oneself and that your accomplishments are not yours alone, the glory is to God. 

That's why it saddens me that one of the best players on my favorite team seemed to mock it.  I hope Suggs' eyes are opened and he embraces the power of prayer and faithfulness, which is greater and more everlasting than any Super Bowl win here on earth.

Happy 2012, Time To Kick Out Obama!

Happy New Year! Still can't believe it's 2012! May this be the last year of Obama and a step toward a recovery for our nation!

Here's a great video from the RNC ahead of tonight's Iowa Caucuses to get you pumped!



"Years from now, you'll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began." - Obama in Des Moines, Iowa, January 3, 2008