“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

From John Hammer of the Rhino Times October 20, 2011.

“I love to see President Barack Hussein Obama campaigning in North Carolina because he is wasting his time. There is just no way that Obama is going to win North Carolina again. This state sent Jesse Helms to the Senate for 30 Years. More recently it elected Sen. Richard Burr to represent it and when Sen. Kay Hagan finishes out her term in 2014 she will most likely be replaced with a Republican. That is if the Republican Party can stop being the Stupid Party long enough to realize that North Carolina voters like to be represented in Congress by people who have actually lived in North Carolina at some point in the past 50 years.

But Obama, who needs to win North Carolina to be reelected, wasn’t campaigning. The fact that he was riding around on his black campaign bus kissing every baby he could find doesn’t mean that he was campaigning. It looked like a campaign trip, and sounded like a campaign trip, but it wasn’t a campaign trip for one obvious reason: If it had been a campaign trip then the Obama campaign would have had to pick up a portion of the bill, and Obama wanted the taxpayers to pick up the full tab for this trip. I guess the difference is that he didn’t wear a “vote for me” button on this trip.

No, Obama was here to win support for his jobs bill, which, by the way, he couldn’t even get through the Democratically controlled Senate. It is incredible the amount of power the Republicans have in Washington right now. The Republicans have a majority in the House but the Democrats control the Senate and the White House. Still it would appear that Obama is unable to do anything because the Republicans are so powerful.

The reason Obama’s jobs bill has no chance, and the reason that there was the absurd standoff about raising the debt ceiling, is because Obama has no clue how to compromise. Presidents such at William Jefferson Blythe Clinton have been able to get a lot of legislation passed even though their party didn’t control either the House or the Senate. Clinton could do it because both sides want to take action. Very few go to Washington with the idea that they want to block all future legislation. Most everyone there wants to pass bills, and they are experienced enough in politics to know that you can get some of what you want or nothing, but you very rarely get everything you want.

Obama said from the beginning that he wanted his second stimulus bill, what he calls his jobs bill, passed just the way he presented it. There is zero chance that is going to happen.

Look at the trouble Obama had passing Obamacare. At the time the Democrats had a huge majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Obama could do anything that he could convince members of his own party to do, but it took him forever to get his Obamacare bill through Congress because he wanted to force everyone to vote for the bill exactly as he envisioned it. In other words he wasn’t willing to compromise in his own party to get the bill passed in a reasonable amount of time. Rather than compromise on the bill, he bought votes with enormous handouts to the districts represented by those who said they would vote no.

It cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for Obama to buy the votes to get Obamacare passed.

The debt ceiling crisis was only a crisis because Obama refused to compromise until he finally realized that some of the Republicans had principles and were not going to vote for any tax increases. Obama finally had to compromise because he needed more money to spend, and if he had not compromised, the money would have been cut off, which is something that some Republicans wanted in the first place.”

“Don’t feel too sorry for those poor Occupy Wall Street protestors in Zuccotti Park in New York. They may be protesting against corporate greed, but they are doing pretty well in the greed department themselves. According to the New York Post, they were raising about $10,000 a day and had raised over $300,000. The protestors have a finance committee and a checking account and all of that corporate America type stuff. An Occupy Wall Street check takes more than one signature for it to be good, just like in corporate America.

One of the biggest problems that they are having right now is theft. It may seem to all be love and brotherhood, but some of the people in that park are not there to protest whatever it is they are protesting; they are there to enrich themselves. One night $2,500 in cash was stolen from the kitchen as the kitchen workers slept. One might ask why the kitchen needed $2,500 in cash and whose idea it was to have it lying around for someone to walk in and pick up, but when you are out to take over, or reform or whatever they are out to do, then you might not have time to make sure that every single stack of $2,500 is locked up somewhere.

Protestors are also reporting that their property is being stolen. One woman said that her Mac worth $5,500 had been stolen. Since a new MacBook Pro is $1,199 that was one whale of a computer that she had stolen. She could probably track all the known satellites of earth and watch a movie on Netflix while the computer worked on the formula that allows some particles to travel faster than the speed of light. But it’s more likely she just used that computer for Facebook, Twitter and emails to Mom and Dad.”

Read more:

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-c-2011-10-20-209946.112113-Under-the-Hammer.html

The Rally began at 3:00 PM and marched through Downtown Greensboro,
Past the Civil Rights Museum and on to the Center City Park.

From Bloomberg September 22, 2011.

“Dow Posts Biggest Two-Day Slump Since 2008″

“U.S. stocks tumbled, giving the Dow Jones Industrial Average its biggest two-day slump since December 2008, amid investors’ concern that policy makers are running out of tools to avoid another global economic recession.

Caterpillar Inc. and DuPont Co. retreated at least 5.8 percent, pacing declines among companies most-tied to economic growth. Alcoa Inc. (AA) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) slid more than 4.1 percent as commodities erased this year’s gains on speculation that demand for energy and raw materials will slow. FedEx Corp. (FDX), operator of the biggest cargo airline and a proxy for the economy, lost 8.1 percent after cutting its profit forecast.

The S&P 500 fell 3.3 percent to 1,128.84 at 1:16 p.m. in New York, slumping 7.1 percent in four days, its longest decline since Aug. 2. The Dow lost 401.50 points, or 3.6 percent, to 10,723.34. The MSCI All-Country World Index slid 4.5 percent, extending a drop from its May 2 high to more than 20 percent.

“I don’t know how much further the market can go down,” David Kelly, chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York, said in a telephone interview. “The real problem is that policy makers keep on proposing solutions which either won’t be implemented or simply do not work. The Fed needs to express confidence on the economy itself.”

Between April 29 and Aug. 8, the S&P 500 fell 18 percent on concern about Europe’s debt crisis and an economic slowdown, closing within 29 points of a bear market, or a 20 percent drop. Since then, the index has risen 1 percent.

Taking a Toll
The S&P 500 yesterday fell the most in a month on the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the turmoil caused by Europe’s crisis is taking a toll on the economy. The Fed indicated willingness to do more to avoid a recession as it made the second move in as many months to lower borrowing costs. Stocks also fell as Moody’s Investors Service cut three U.S. banks.

“The storyline is that global growth is decelerating,” Mike Ryan, the New York-based chief investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management Americas, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $774 billion. “Financial stresses are rising and policy makers are finding few viable options to stabilize the real economy. When you’re concerned about recession risks, valuation takes a backseat.”

Global stocks fell on data that China’s manufacturing may shrink for a third month in September, the longest contraction since 2009, after a preliminary index of purchasing managers showed measures of export orders and output declined.

Jobless Claims
Stock futures extended losses after a Labor Department report showed that more Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence dropped last week to the weakest point since the recession ended in June 2009, Bloomberg data show. Equities trimmed declines after an index of U.S. leading economic indicators rose more than forecast in August.”

Read more:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22/u-s-stock-futures-drop-on-signs-global-financial-system-risks-are-growing.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/videogallery/64556355/live/LIVE-VIDEO-9-11-Ground-Zero-memorial-ceremony

From World Net Daily August 28, 2011.

“Brian Williams
The names are legendary: Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, Paul Harvey, Peter Jennings, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley.

All powerfully influential in their time because of their positions delivering the news to Americans.

Now follows NBC’s Brian Williams, picked in a new scientific poll as the media personality thought to be the most influential in America today – even though his liberal bent is so well-known President Obama himself publicly joked about being in bed with him.”

“”Why bother hanging out with celebrities when I can spend time with the people who made me one?” Obama asked the crowd of black tie journalists and media personalities gathered at the Washington Convention Center. “I know where my bread is buttered.”

And while the president’s joke was likely a reference to NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House” program, in which Williams and a camera crew shot a reported 150 hours of occasionally intrusive footage at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the double meaning of a reporter “in bed” with the president wasn’t lost on some critics of the press.

“Although this is a funny joke, it’s actually sad because the joke’s really on us,” Noel Sheppard, associate editor of NewsBusters, commented at the time, “for the underlying truth is that Williams and NBC are indeed in bed with the new administration, and everybody present including the guest speaker knows it.”

Read more:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=338205

From the US Labor Department August 25, 2011.

“In the week ending August 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 417,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 412,000. The 4-week moving average was 407,500, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 403,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending August 13, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the prior week’s revised rate of 3.0 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 13 was 3,641,000, a decrease of 80,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,721,250. The 4-week moving average was 3,701,000, a decrease of 19,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,720,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 341,436 in the week ending August 20, a decrease of 4,536 from the previous week. There were 384,955 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent during the week ending August 13, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,452,004, a decrease of 101,224 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.3 percent and the volume was 4,219,639.”

Read more:

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20111248.htm

From Bloomberg August 18, 2011.

“Consumer Prices in U.S. Increased More Than Forecast in July”

“The cost of living in the U.S. climbed more than forecast in July, which could make it harder for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to convince colleagues to immediately act to spur growth after manufacturing in the Philadelphia region plunged in August.

The consumer-price index increased 0.5 percent from June, more than twice the 0.2 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The Philadelphia Fed’s general economic index dropped to minus 30.7 this month, the lowest since March 2009, when the economy was in a recession.

Stocks slumped and gold prices soared to a record as the data showed the world’s largest economy was in danger of shrinking even as inflation picked up. Another report showed fewer Americans on average filed claims for unemployment benefits over the past month, indicating the job market is holding up for now.

“There’s a tremendous loss of momentum,” said John Herrmann, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston, who projected manufacturing would contract. “Increasing evidence that the economy is drifting closer to a recession could prompt Chairman Bernanke into action before year-end,” Herrmann said. At the same time, Herrmann said, the cost-of-living data may limit his options: “The inflation figures don’t yet give the Fed the ammunition to roll out a new round of non-conventional monetary easing.”

Shares Plunge
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 4.1 percent to 1,145.42 at 12:58 p.m. in New York on speculation the economy is slowing and European banks lack sufficient capital. Treasury securities surged, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 2.10 percent from 2.17 percent late yesterday, and gold futures for December delivery reached an intra-day high of $1,829.70 an ounce.

Other reports today showed the residential real-estate market continues to stagnate and consumers’ economic expectations plunged. Additionally, the index of leading indicators climbed, boosted by an increase in money supply that may reflect a flight to safety.”

Read more:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/consumer-prices-in-u-s-increased-more-than-forecast-in-july.html