March 9, 2010
February 23, 2010
February 19, 2010
Romney to Obama: Stop Blaming Others for Failure
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
 |
| Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) |
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Saying that America is not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said President Obama should stop blaming his predecessor and the American people for high unemployment and growing deficit and failure of the Democratic health care overhaul proposal.
“When it comes to pinning the blame, let’s pin the blame on the donkey,” Romney told a supportive crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in reference to the Democratic mascot.
Romney is expected to once again seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. He failed to win enough conservative support in 2008 because of having taken liberal positions on abortion, gun control and other matters before taking conservative positions on those issues when he campaigned in the Republican primary.
But Romney was on friendly turf, having won three previous CPAC straw polls. The straw poll gauges the presidential preference of CPAC attendees. Romney also has a forthcoming book titled, “No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness.”
When Obama is not blaming former President George W. Bush, he is blaming the Republicans in Congress, whom the president and Democrats have called the “party of no.”
“Of course, the president accuses us of being the party of ‘no.’ It’s as if he thinks that saying ‘no’ is by definition a bad thing,” Romney said. “In fact, it is right and praiseworthy to say no to bad things. It is right to say no to cap and trade, no to card check, no to government health care, and no to higher taxes. My party should never be a rubber stamp for rubber check spending.”
Romney continued that Democrats have said “no” on many things as well.
“But before we move away from this ‘no’ epithet the Democrats are fond of applying to us, let’s ask the Obama folks why they say ‘no’ —no to a balanced budget, no to reforming entitlements, no to malpractice reform, no to missile defense in Eastern Europe, no to prosecuting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military tribunal, and no to tax cuts that create new jobs,” Romney said.
“You see, we conservatives don’t have a corner on saying no; we’re just the ones who say it when that’s the right thing to do,” he said.
He stated that Obama has even blamed the American people for his failures.
“It seems that we have failed to understand his wise plans for us,” Romney said. “If he just slows down, he reasons, and makes a concerted effort to explain Obamacare in a way even we can understand, if we just listen better, then we will get it.”
Romney, whose own legacy as Massachusetts governor includes expanding a costly state health insurance program, said that Americans understand the Democratic health care plan too well.
“When he barred CSPAN from covering the healthcare deliberations, they saw President Obama break his promise of transparency,” he said.
“When the Democrat leadership was empowered to bribe Nebraska’s Senator [Ben] Nelson, they saw President Obama break his promise of a new kind of politics in Washington; and when he cut a special and certainly unconstitutional health care deal with the unions, they saw him not just break his promise, they saw the most blatant and reprehensible manifestation of political payoff in modern memory,” Romney said.
“No, Mr. President, the American people didn’t hear and see too little, they saw too much,” he added. “Americans said no because Obamacare is bad care for America.”
February 12, 2010
Wasting U.S. Taxpayer Money in Afghanistan
by Daniel Pipes
January 30, 2010
A 2009 critique found that the taxpayer has invested some $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, or about $9 billion a year. Most or all of it has been or will be wasted.
Nonetheless, here we go again, this time in Afghanistan, at least on a small scale. “Marines Invest in Local Afghan Projects” reads the New York Times headline and it provides details of American soldiers making nice, starting with an anecdote from Bograbad, described as an impoverished Afghan village, where American soldiers provided $1,200 for a mosque’s new concrete floor and two windows. (Beside the inutility of this gesture, I have severe doubts about its constitutionality, as I elaborate at “The U.S. Government Builds Mosques and Madrassahs.”)
U.S. Marines are paying for a new bridge over this canal.
The Marines’ investment, to pay for building materials and labor, was part of an outreach effort intended to reduce violence in Helmand Province. Following the emphasis on a more assertive counterinsurgency approach mandated last year by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, here on some of the country’s most dangerous ground, infantry units are using this winter to try a soft touch. In the province’s lower Nawa District, many conventional missions for now are a low priority. Airstrikes and high-explosive artillery fire are in disfavor. Even mortar fire is rare.
Instead, in places where it is able, the infantry is sending patrols to enter into development contracts with local men. The ambition is to use local labor to build bridges over canals, shore up irrigation systems, repair water gates or small dams and, in the most determined contest of influence against the Taliban, renovate mosques.
The effort rests on a simple premise: to fight the Taliban, money may be more effective than guns. “We’re trying to buy a little peace,” said Capt. Paul D. Stubbs, commanding officer of Company W, First Battalion, Third Marines, which operates in this area.… In all, the company has spent $50,000 on 20 projects since early December, and committed another $50,000. It anticipates spending $200,000 on as many as 75 projects by late spring.
Comment: “We’re trying to buy a little peace” exactly fits McChrystal’s “war as social work” approach. It also amounts to the worst war-fighting idea the U.S. military has yet come up. (January 30, 2010)
PA Accused of Embezzling Money Meant for Aid
Channel 10 reported on Tuesday night that a senior Palestinian Authority figure has accused top PA officials, including aides to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, of siphoning off international aid money meant for PA residents for personal use. According to the report, top PA officials used alleged real estate investments – made in the name of the Palestinian Authority – as a vehicle to embezzle money and deposit it in their own accounts. The report said that the corruption scandal reaches to the “top echelons” of the PA.
From VirtualJerusalem.com
Social Legislation
From an email:
*Your Social Security
Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn’t
know this. It’s easy to check out, if you don’t believe it.
Be sure and show it to your kids. They need a little history lesson on
what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat or Republican.
Facts are Facts!!!
Our Social Security
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
Security (FICA) Program. He promised:
1.) That participation in the Program would be
Completely voluntary,
No longer Voluntary
2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
Incomes into the Program,
Now 7.65%
3.) That the money the participants elected to put
into the Program would be deductible from
their income for tax purposes each year,
No longer tax deductible
4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent ‘Trust Fund ‘ rather than into the general operating fund, would remain in the “Trust Fund” and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other
Government program, but
Under Johnson the money was moved to
The General Fund and Spent
5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
would never be taxed as income.
Under Clinton & Gore
Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed
Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are
now receiving a Social Security check every month –
and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put
away’ — you may be interested in the following:
———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— —-
Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the
independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the
general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically
controlled House and Senate.
———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— –
Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ———
—–
Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, wit h Al Gore casting the
‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the US
———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— -
AND MY FAVORITE:
Q: Which Political Party decided to start
giving annuity payments to immigrants?
A: That’s right!
Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65,
began to receive Social Security payments! The
Democratic Party gave these payments to them,
even though they never paid a dime into it!
———— — ———— ——— —– ———— ———
———
Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn
around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security
away!
And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!
AND CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT FOR ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson*
The Obama Trap and the GOP
Posted by Erick Erickson
That picture above is a Reuters picture from this Politico column back in September. Remember that? Democrats returned to Washington after being battered all of August over the health care plans. Barack Obama decided to rebuild their energy and so he spoke at a joint session of Congress to talk health care.
Throughout the speech he said he wanted to hear about GOP counter-proposals and repeatedly accused them of having none. Every time, congressional Republicans held up their proposals so he could see they did have counter-proposals.
Nonetheless, from that speech in September until today, Barack Obama has insisted the GOP had no proposals. He insisted the Democrats work behind closed doors and shut out the GOP.
Now, because the House Republicans gave the President a chance to improve his image at their retreat, Obama wants to sit down with Republicans at his guest house in front of TV cameras and discuss the proposals the GOP has had all along that he pretends he knew nothing about.
If Barack Obama cannot be genuine and interested in Republican ideas when the cameras are turned off, there is absolutely no way he can be genuine and sincere with the cameras turned on.
The GOP is often referred to as the stupid party. Let’s pray they aren’t stupid enough to sit down with a President who has for six months dismissed them as having no ideas. Barack Obama says he wants a bipartisan approach to health care now. Well, there is bipartisan support for scrapping the current proposals and starting over.
Unless Barack Obama says they should scrap the present plans and start over, the GOP should not entertain his invitation to use a gaggle of Republicans to rehabilitate our socialist President.
February 8, 2010
World’s tallest tower closed a month after opening
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The world’s tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.
Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa’s viewing platform — the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire’s owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building — including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower’s more than 160 floors — was affected by the shutdown.
The indefinite closure, which began Sunday, comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health.
The Persian Gulf city-state had hoped the 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa would be a major tourist draw. Dubai has promoted itself by wowing visitors with over-the-top attractions such as the Burj, which juts like a silvery needle out of the desert and can be seen from miles around.
In recent weeks, thousands of tourists have lined up for the chance to buy tickets for viewing times often days in advance that cost more than $27 apiece. Now many of those would-be visitors, such as Wayne Boyes, a tourist from near Manchester, England, must get back in line for refunds.
“It’s just very disappointing,” said Boyes, 40, who showed up at the Burj’s entrance Monday with a ticket for an afternoon time slot only to be told the viewing platform was closed. “The tower was one of my main reasons for coming here,” he said.
The precise cause of the $1.5 billion Dubai skyscraper’s temporary shutdown remained unclear.
In a brief statement responding to questions, building owner Emaar Properties blamed the closure on “unexpected high traffic,” but then suggested that electrical problems were also at fault.
“Technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors and the public will be informed upon completion,” the company said, adding that it is “committed to the highest quality standards at Burj Khalifa.”
Despite repeated requests, a spokeswoman for Emaar was unable to provide further details or rule out the possibility of foul play. Greg Sang, Emaar’s director of projects and the man charged with coordinating the tower’s construction, could not be reached. Construction workers at the base of the tower said they were unaware of any problems.
Power was reaching some parts of the building. Strobe lights warning aircraft flashed and a handful of floors were illuminated after nightfall.
Emaar did not say when the observation deck would reopen. Ticket sales agents were accepting bookings starting on Valentine’s Day this Sunday, though one reached by The Associated Press could not confirm the building would reopen then.
Tourists affected by the closure are being offered the chance to rebook or receive refunds.
The shutdown comes at a sensitive time for Dubai. The city-state is facing a slump in tourism — which accounts for nearly a fifth of the local economy — while fending off negative publicity caused by more than $80 billion in debt it is struggling to repay.
Ervin Hladnik-Milharcic, 55, a Slovenian writer planning to visit the city for the first time this month, said he hoped the Burj would reopen soon.
“It was the one thing I really wanted to see,” he said. “The tower was projected as a metaphor for Dubai. So the metaphor should work. There are no excuses.”
Dubai opened the skyscraper on Jan. 4 in a blaze of fireworks televised around the world. The building had been known as the Burj Dubai during more than half a decade of construction, but the name was suddenly changed on opening night to honor the ruler of neighboring Abu Dhabi.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two of seven small sheikdoms that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi hosts the federation’s capital and holds most of the country’s vast oil reserves. It has provided Dubai with $20 billion in emergency cash to help cover its debts.
Questions were raised about the building’s readiness in the months leading up to the January opening.
The opening date had originally been expected in September, but was then pushed back until sometime before the end of 2009. The eventual opening date just after New Year’s was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the Dubai ruler’s ascent to power.
There were signs even that target was ambitious. The final metal and glass panels cladding the building’s exterior were installed only in late September. Early visitors to the observation deck had to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows caked with dust — a sign that cleaning crews had not yet had a chance to scrub them clean.
Work is still ongoing on many of the building’s other floors, including those that will house the first hotel designed by Giorgio Armani that is due to open in March. The building’s base remains largely a construction zone, with entrance restricted to the viewing platform lobby in an adjacent shopping mall.
The first of some 12,000 residential tenants and office workers are supposed to move in to the building this month.
The Burj Khalifa boasts more than 160 stories. The exact number is not known.
The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up on the 124th floor. Adult tickets bought in advance cost 100 dirhams, or about $27. Visitors wanting to enter immediately can jump to the front of the line by paying 400 dirhams — about $110 apiece.
___
On the Net: http://www.burjdubai.com
February 6, 2010
Sovereign Risk Meets Sovereign Reality
Santorini, Greece
The Wall Street Journal- After months of shrugging off debt problems in Dubai, Greece and other smaller economies, markets yesterday seemed suddenly aware of the risks of sovereign default.
Back in November, when the question of Dubai’s solvency came to a head, it was ultimately bailed out by its rich older brother, Abu Dhabi. Now, the European Union is doing its best to avoid promising a similar bailout to Greece, though in the end few believe Brussels will allow Athens to go under.
The current crisis in Greece is only the worst example inside the EU. The PIGS—Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain—all boast public debt above or headed for 100% of GDP. Though the PIGS acronym was apparently coined by British bankers, Britain, Ireland and Iceland also smell distinctly of bacon.
The problem isn’t confined to Europe. Japan and the United States, by most reckonings the world’s largest economies, also face pressing questions about their sovereign debt levels. To be sure, the U.S. and Japan can sustain such deficits more comfortably than small countries like Greece or Portugal where the government’s ability to curb public-sector spending is rightly suspect. Yet even in economic giants, bad policy could cause investors to move out of debt they have long considered a safe haven. The moment is approaching when the artificial line separating the wealthy from emerging markets will lose much of its relevance.
Countries like Germany, whose fiscal balances have deteriorated largely due to the economic downturn, might have a greater capacity to stabilize their debt ratio. The U.S. and Japan will also be among the last countries to face investor aversion. This is because the dollar is the global reserve currency, and the U.S. has the deepest and most liquid debt markets. Japan is a net creditor and largely finances its debt domestically. But over the next few years, investors will become increasingly cautious about even the U.S. and Japan if the necessary fiscal reforms are delayed.
Investor perceptions about how Brussels handles the current crisis will be a key factor going forward. European countries such as Spain and Greece have delayed reforms and face a severe competitiveness problem. Japan’s aging population and economic stagnation is reducing domestic savings. The U.S. is a net debtor with an aging population and slower growth.
For the U.S., the implications are clear. The annual fiscal deficit in the U.S. will remain close to $1 trillion over the next decade. Ultimately, concerns among foreign investors about a weak dollar will force Washington to put its house in order. The U.S. will have to raise taxes on most income groups and investors, close tax exemptions and loopholes, and reduce entitlement benefits.
Foreign creditors won’t suddenly move away from U.S. Treasurys—the trend will play out gradually. The same holds true for domestic investors who consider U.S. Treasurys a safe haven and remain confident about the country’s debt-servicing ability relative to other developed economies.
But as the Federal Reserve begins to raise interest rates to head off inflation—something likely to begin only in 2011—foreign investors and central banks will be willing to finance the U.S. only at higher yields. Rising interest costs will be one of the factors constraining U.S. policy. That’s where sovereign risk meets sovereign reality.
Mr. Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, is author of the forthcoming book “The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?” (Portfolio). Mr. Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and chairman of Roubini Global Economics.