The Absurd Report

Why is consumer sentiment so low? As Democrats cater to dissatisfied voters with redistributive policy proposals, there may be an alternative explanation. Director of Economic Policy Studies Kevin Hassett discusses the relationship between high gas prices and the sour sentiment among American consumers. This analysis suggests that the Presidential candidate who can wield an effective plan to subdue gas prices may the one ahead in November.

Over the past two months, consumer sentiment has settled in at the lowest level in almost thirty years. The stark drop in sentiment is at odds with many other economic data points. Economists now believe, for example, that economic growth in the second quarter was around 2 percentage points, hardly a cause for deep depression. The unemployment rate hovers around 5.5 percent, about its postwar average.

What explains the low sentiment despite the moderate economy? Democrats and Barack Obama offer a populist story: While the economy as a whole has not done that poorly during the Bush years, the little guy has fallen farther and farther behind. Mr. Obama suggests that the weak sentiment is a call for a major change in economic policy. Americans yearn, the story goes, for massive new redistributions.

The attached chart suggests a stark and simple alternative story: high gasoline prices are killing the national mood.

Read more from American Enterprise Institute

Tags: Consumer Confidence

No Comments »

The average American voter is starting to come to grips with the fact that those who control the flow of their information, “the media,” are neither independent nor unbiased.

In a September 2007 Gallup survey of American voters, 45% said the media is too liberal, compared to only 18% who said the media is too conservative and 35% who said the media is about right.

The results of that survey demonstrate how far left 18% of Americans are today, and how uninformed another 35% are. Only 45% have a good sense of just how biased the media really is, before they follow the money and confirm their suspicions.

It’s the information age, so the media is made up of several sectors today. American thought patterns and political sentiments are influenced almost entirely by a combination of all of these sectors, collectively referred to as the media.

The Media Sectors and their to-date 2008 Political Investments

* Computer & Internet - $24,255,207 (62% to Democrats)
* Books, Magazines & Papers - $12,187,548 (78% to Democrats)
* Computer Software - $8,922,053 (61% to Democrats)
* Motion Picture Industry - $7,523,136 (88% to Democrats)
* Cable & Satellite TV - $6,303,046 (63% to Democrats)
* Music Recording Industry - $2,983,755 (79% to Democrats)
* Television Production and Distribution - $2,322,587 (86% to Democrats)

These numbers are 2008 total individual and PAC donations coming from the people who make up these media sector industries. But the picture is even more convincing when we begin to look at individual organizations.

Read more from NewsByUs

Tags: Media Biase

No Comments »

Federal “affordable housing” and “diversity” mandates helped spawn the mortgage crisis. Additional evidence comes from a Washington Post story, which notes that “even late in the housing bubble, Fannie Mae was drawn to risky loans by a variety of temptations, including the desire to fulfill government quotas for the support of low-income borrowers.” As Slate’s Mickey Kaus noted today, that shows that “government regulations . . . may also have been at least partly to blame for the risky subprime-loan-backed securities” that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased in vast quantities.

A Wall Street Journal news story and editorial today discuss the bad finances of the government-backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, over which taxpayers may take a huge hit because of federal mortgage bailout legislation.

Investment analysts believe the government may soon have to pump $20 billion into each of the two mortgage giants just to keep them afloat, according to today’s New York Times.

Read more from OpenMarket.org

Tags: Mortgage Crisis

No Comments »

Undecided swing-state voters have trouble supporting the Democratic nominee.

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, in a downtown high-rise conference room lined with two-way mirrors, 21 undecided Colorado voters sit trying to decide whether they have more doubts and reservations about Barack Obama or John McCain. It’s not easy.

The group has been convened by the pollster Frank Luntz, who usually does this sort of thing on live television but has instead organized the session at the behest of the American Association of Retired Persons and the related activist group Divided We Fail. As the voters answer Luntz’s rapid-fire questions, a small group of reporters watches from the other side of the mirrors. And after two hours of talking, and a pre-convention buildup here in Denver in which Democrats have received lots of positive coverage in this critical swing state, you’d have to say that the news is pretty good for McCain. The undecideds have plenty of problems with him, and they can’t stand George W. Bush, but they seem more deeply concerned about Obama than McCain, because they have still not answered the threshold question about the Democratic nominee: Is he ready?

Read more from NRO Online

Tags: Deep Doubts About Obama

No Comments »

No Comments »

No Comments »

Biden in October of 2002: “We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.” - Joe Biden

No Comments »

Economic Justice

In layman’s terms when Obama speaks of “Economic Justice” it is simply another phrase for “Redistribution of the Wealth” by using the power of government to take away earned money from people who have worked hard and give it to those who haven’t.

And how would he do it? By instituting punishing taxes which would force Americans to give their wealth away to the “less fortunate.” This is PURE SOCIALISM is its finest form.

Reparations

“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.” – Barack Hussein Obama

Did I just hear Barack Obama call for “reparations?” I think so. I have yet to hear him elaborate on just what he means by deeds but it not to far a reach to interrupt this to mean monetary compensation.

There is no question that slavery was brutal and inhumane by all our modern standards. The History of the World is a tail that tells of slavery of all types of people and ethic backgrounds that where conquered.

America paid a very bloody price already in a Civil War to abolish slavery. Any talk of monetary reparations is foolish and is aimed at putting “White America” on a guilt trip. Amerricans has already paid our debt with the blood of our forefathers.

Here is a map of the country at the time of the Civil Way (1861)

Red indicates the Union States (23), population 22 million
Green indicates Confederate States (11) population 9 million
Gray indicates Territories
Union Soldiers 2,200,000 (67%) Confederate Soldiers 1,064,000 (33%) Died in action over 600,000
Source: Wikimedia

SideBear: The 600,000+ death total is the highest total that this country every had in any war that includes two World Wars.

Global Poverty Act

Senator Barack Obama has introduced a dangerous bill and it’s on the fast track to Senate passage.

The bill is the “Global Poverty Act” (S.2433) and is not just a compassionate bit of fluff that Obama dreamed up to help the poor of the world. This bill is directly tied to the United Nations and serves as little more than a shakedown of American taxpayers in a massive wealth redistribution scheme.

In fact, if passed, The Global Poverty Act will provide the United Nations with 0.7% of the United States gross national product. Estimates are that it will add up to at least $845 billion of taxpayer money for welfare to third world countries, in addition to the $300 billion Americans spent for the same thing in 2006.

The Bottom Line – If you take all of the above considerations and add them up, we all will be in the poorhouse.

Related

No Comments »

Energy: Russia’s invasion of neighboring Georgia has revealed the West’s major weakness: Our dependence on questionable governments around the world for oil, the very lifeblood of our prosperity. So what do we do?

Rather than shrugging, as Congress’ defeatist Democrats would have us do, or groveling, as much of Western Europe seems content to do, America should seize its energy future now — by opening drilling not just in a few selected areas off our coasts, but everywhere there might be oil.

Offshore, onshore, in the Arctic, in the Caribbean, in the oil-rich waters off California, deep in the mountain shale deposits of the Far West — wherever oil is, we should be getting it out.

We owe it to future generations to ensure an adequate supply of energy to maintain our way of life and standard of living. But this is about much more than having affordable fuel to power our cars, factories and businesses. It’s also about national security.

Russia’s rampage in Georgia was calculated to intimidate the former Soviet slave states of Eastern Europe. But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also wants to control Georgia’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline — the main conduit from the oil-rich Caspian Sea to Europe. That would give him a chokehold on 25% of Europe’s energy supply — and veto power over EU diplomacy.

Read more from IBD Editorials

Tags: Drilling For Energy

No Comments »

George Skelton makes the case that Californians should “let go of the past and allow offshore oil drilling” in the Los Angeles Times:

California is the nation’s biggest consumer of gasoline — 45 million gallons a day, plus 10 million gallons of diesel. That makes us the third-biggest petroleum-consuming entity in the world, behind only the United States and China. We are the nation’s No. 3 oil-producing state, behind Texas and Alaska.

But California produces only 39% of the crude oil it uses. An additional 16% comes from Alaska and the remaining 45% is bought from foreign sources, according to the California Energy Commission.

So there’s a gusher of hypocrisy here: The state that is the biggest consumer of gasoline in the nation — but produces less than 40% of what it uses — is opposed to drilling for more oil off its shores. We’re slackers not pulling our weight. The continental shelf off California contains an estimated 10 billion barrels of crude oil, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

Offshore exploration opponents point out that if the federal drilling ban were lifted today, there’d be no immediate effect on gasoline prices. It could take 10 years to get any crude to the gas pump. Fine. Most people driving today still will be 10 years from now.

Environmentally, drilling is much safer than in 1969. There are new technologies. The rigs are ugly? They mar the sunset? That’s an elitist attitude we no longer can afford.

Source: The Foundry

Tags: Environmentally drilling

No Comments »