FIAF- mystery musical guest artist edition

Strassel is always a must read:

Like Mr. Romney, Mr. Obama has presided over bankruptcies, layoffs, lost pensions, run-ups in debt. Yet unlike Mr. Romney, Mr. Obama’s C-suite required billions in taxpayer dollars and subsidies, as well as mandates, regulations, union payoffs and moral hazard. Don’t like “vulture” capitalism? Check out the form the president’s had on offer these past three years: “crony” capitalism.

The case study is the solar-panel maker Solyndra, which was part of a green-energy sector that even by 2009 was flailing. The president took one look at the industry’s utter lack of both profits and sellable products, and yelled “that’s my baby!” The stimulus bill shipped tens of billions of dollars to the Energy Department to pour into green companies via grants and loans. It promised five million jobs.

But that didn’t stop our President. He had an agenda, and being the smartest man in American he went FORWARD.

Unable to compete, the firm went bankrupt last year. And, oh, the carnage! It was kind of like . . . GST Steel! Only worse. Solyndra laid off 1,100 employees. It provided no severance, not even back pay due for vacation credits. But a bankruptcy judge would later approve $370,000 in bonuses for 20 employees.

Oh my. Well, that is an inconvenient fact.

So, on Thursday, Obama was at TPI Composites, a wind blade manufacturing plant:

“My takeaway is that the White House is very serious about getting an extension of the production tax credit,” he said.

TPI has 700 employees at its Newton facility, and the production tax credit has been instrumental in helping it an other companies develop wind industry, Lockard said.

“Without it, with the very low price of natural gas, we just couldn’t be competitive,” he said.

Ok, let’s disassemble that a bit. Without a government tax credit, they couldn’t be competitive.

BECAUSE IT’S NOT COMPETITIVE. It costs too much, so it’s currently being subsidized by the government. You know, our little store could be a TON more competitive with some money from Obama’s stash.

“If Congress doesn’t act, companies like this one will take a hit,” Obama said. “Jobs will be lost. That’s not a guess, that’s a fact. We can’t let that happen.”

@@

How much is this tax credit? Time for some effen knowledge:

The second tax credit, which has already expired, applies to manufacturers investing in clean energy in the United States. As the president often calls for America to compete in the 21st century though investments in renewable sources of energy, the Advanced Energy Manufacturing tax credit would apply to companies creating solar panels, wind turbines, and geothermal fuels. The tax credit, which was part of the Recovery Act, was over-subscribed in its funding. The White House would like to see an additional $5 billion to support projects that did not receive funding in the initial program.

Five BILLION dollars. A billion here … a billion there. Soon we’re talking about BIG money.

At issue is the PTC – or the Production Tax Credit. Operators get 2.2cents per kilowatt hour generated. Quick review: Turbines costs MILLIONS to produce and the sale of it’s power is only competitive if the government adds money to the kitty.

The Green energy boondoggle.

Heritage points out four big problems with Obama’s Energy subsidies.

Now, for a bit of music. Nobody likes MY stuff, so today I’ll pick something my kids have downloaded onto my iTunes library. I have no idea who she is. This, at least, is listenable.

Cocooning

See, this is why “you” suck at political debates. And, by “you” I don’t really mean anyone reading this blog. Cocooning is surrounding yourself with people who think just as you do. An echo chamber of thoughts, ideas, and “facts.” “Everybody” does it, but it has a different affect on liberals than conservatives.

[C]ocooning has an asymmetrical effect on liberals and conservatives. Even in a cocoon, conservatives cannot avoid liberal mainstream media, liberal Hollywood entertainment, and, these days, the liberal Obama administration.

They’re made uncomfortably aware of the arguments of those on the other side. Which gives them an advantage in fashioning their own responses.

Liberals can protect themselves better against assaults from outside their cocoon. They can stay out of megachurches and make sure their remote controls never click on Fox News. They can stay off the AM radio dial so they will never hear Rush Limbaugh.

The problem is that this leaves them unprepared to make the best case for their side in public debate. They are too often not aware of holes in arguments that sound plausible when bandied between confreres entirely disposed to agree.

Which is why, when debating liberals one of the first things they’ll attack you with is “Where did you hear that? ON FOX????”

See, the truth is that those facts and figures conservatives use in argument are completely new information to them. They can only assume you heard it from some biased news source, because certainly if it were a ACTUAL fact they would have heard it somewhere.

Perhaps during a John Stewert monologue. Or a SNL skit.

And, since liberals have pretty much eliminated any divergent thought from their daily lives, when they are actually confronted by it, they are lost.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asked whether Obamacare was unconstitutional, could only gasp: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

Super serious, Nancy.

Idiot.

Give this man a vacation

They’re all in, aren’t they? Today’s schedule for both the President and the VP:

12:10 AM

Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event.
11:30 AM

Obama attends a campaign event at the The Fairmont Hotel, in San Jose, Calif.
12:45 PM

Biden will attend a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1:00 PM

Obama departs San Jose, California en route Newton, Iowa.
2:30 PM

Biden attends a campaign event.
4:00 PM

Obama arrives in Des Moines, Iowa.
4:55 PM

Obama tours TPI Composites, a wind manufacturer.
5:15 PM

Obama delivers remarks on urging Congress to act on the ‘To Do List.’
6:55 PM

Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event.
9:20 PM

Obama departs Des Moines, Iowa en route Joint Base Andrews.
11:30 PM

Obama arrives at Joint Base Andrews.
11:45 PM

Obama arrives at the White House.

So … who’s running the country? HELLO?

I imagine he’ll be taking Friday off, after two GRUELING days of fund-raising. He was pretty tuckered out yesterday:

At a fundraiser earlier in the day in Denver, Baker reported that “the room at times felt a little flat and Potus seemed a little tired.” What’s more, the crowd at the Denver event was smaller than the Obama campaign planed on, totaling only 550 compared to the 700 who were expected to attend.

Obama’s slog began at around 7:00 am when he departed the White House for Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he gave the commencement address at the United States Air Force Academy. He then staged three fundraisers, culminating in the final one in Redwood city, which ended for him at 10:17 PM local time, but 1:17 am Obama Time – that is, Eastern Standard Time.

Gosh, I hope he’s ok. Poor dear needs his rest. Which I imagine is right around the corner.

Say what?

Michelle Obama in a speech to to a Nato group at the Gary Comer Center:

Way back when I was just starting out in my career in Chicago, I ran a little organization called Public Allies, where we worked to train 30 young people each year — many of them like you — for careers in public service. And since we started that program many years ago, leaders from that program have gone on to transform lives throughout this community and so many others not just here in Chicago, but around the country. But there are some very special ones who are here today, and I got to meet three public allies who are working here right now — Miguel Rodriguez, Maurice Wilson, and Sinya Hayes, who are here. You guys — are you here? (Applause.) Where are you? That’s my public allies. That’s like home.

This program was the reason — one of the reasons why I left practicing law — so you know I walked away from some money to do this work. But Public Allies will always have a special place in my heart.

She walked away from “some money” to to do this work? Yea, she walked away from “some money” over to a bigger pile of money.

Quick review of her history: Michelle Obama went to Princeton then to Harvard, and after graduating, she was hired as an associate at a Chicago Law firm. Following this:

In 1991, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.[19] She worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood 12 years after she left.[17]

Non-profit does NOT mean that she wasn’t well-paid, or that the salary was much different from her income as a law associate. Flopping Aces:

Michelle Obama had led the typical Mom life. She was given a job at a law firm following graduation, she married Barack Obama and almost immediately gave up her license to practice law. She then went to work for Public Allies, where she was founding Executive Director. While I have not been able to learn Obama’s salary at Public Allies, the website does offer a hint:

“Working for nonprofit organizations does not mean being poor. Unlike the humorous Onion headline “Nonprofit Organization Fights Poverty with Poverty,” many nonprofit organizations provide competitive pay and benefits for many positions.”

Her salary history remains murky until Barack Obama was elected to the Senate. Then her salary tripled to $316,000 per year. Her job apparently was to divert indigent patients away from the profitable University of Chicago. Michelle Obama’s total income for 2007 was nearly $500,000.

Seems like she really didn’t leave behind a huge pile of money.

Besides, let’s not pretend that Michelle’s leaving Sidney Austin was entirely altruistic:

The move was not without its benefits. Michelle Obama’s stint at the mayor’s office gave her, and her husband, access to Chicago’s political class. Combined with her own Southside roots — she went to high school with Santita Jackson, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s daughter — Michelle’s job gave her husband entrée into the best political machine in Illinois, augmenting her ties to Jackson’s powerful civil rights group, Rainbow Push.

It was political.

As Obama gradually moved further away from grass-roots organizing and into business and politics, Michelle seemed to fill the vacuum. After 18 months, she left the mayor’s office to head up the Chicago office of a new charity that was forming: Public Allies, which helps place young people at nonprofits.

About that paltry salary? This from an NPR article:

Obama was promoted to a vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals; her salary nearly tripled, from $122,000 to $316,000 a year.

$122,000 isn’t exactly chicken feed. This was a non-profit job. But it paid pretty well. Michelle was 29, and making $122,000. She sacrificed so much.

And then of course, Michelle hit pay dirt at the University of Chicago.

Eventually, the money she had initially walked away from in corporate law did come. Her salary last year between the university and six boards approached $500,000.

Bingo. By 2007, Michelle was a member of the 1%.

We all know how Michelle is doing now.

Knowledge is power

Socialist/Progressive Hannes Swoboda writes that Europe can spend its way to growth!. Especially now since, politically, the auterity measures have been shown to be in disfavor.

Europe is back on the right track. With François Hollande as the new French president, we have made a significant step toward growth and the revival of the damaged European economy. Mr. Hollande’s plan to present the June European summit with joint French-German proposals for a growth pact is right, and—in these turbulent times—finally a ray of political hope

YEA!!! Europe is SAVED.

n view of the rising levels of debt compared with gross domestic product in most European countries, we must take stock of the disastrous effects of the one-sided austerity politics and also recognize their antisocial character, proven by record unemployment figures. The collapse of some governments—notably in France and Greece—and the increasing strength of extremist parties further demonstrate the political danger. How many more facts does it take to end these austerity policies?

Humn … how about this fact?

Look at this chart. It is based on Eurostat data which you can find here. Following years of large spending increases, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and Greece — countries widely cited for adopting austerity measures — haven’t significantly reduced spending since 2008. As you can see on this chart:

* These countries still spend more than pre-recession levels
* France and the U.K. did not cut spending.
* In Greece, and Spain, when spending was actually reduced — between 2009–2011 — the cuts have been relatively small compared to what is needed. Also, meaningful structural reforms were seldom implemented.
* As for Italy, the country reduced spending between 2009 and 2010 but the data shows and uptick in spending 2011. The increase in spending represents more than the previous reduction.

The most important point to keep in mind is that whenever cuts took place, they were always overwhelmed by large counterproductive tax increases.

But, never mind. Progressive minds have bigger things coming up the chute.

We actually need to go a step even further. The EU member states should not only be forced to limit their debt in accordance with European treaties. The European institutions should enact legislation that requires all members to make public investments in growth and employment.

In addition to fighting unemployment, such investments would finally lead us onto the path toward a seriously environment-friendly economy. A shift toward more renewable energies is not taking off so far. We have agreed on great goals within the Europe 2020 strategy, but we hinder their achievement by tough austerity policies.

These additional investments need to be financed, one way or another. A financial transaction tax and a more efficient fight against tax evasion could channel additional funds into national treasuries. And once growth takes off, tax revenues will start flowing. Tax policy that favors lower-income classes and better regulation of financial markets would already be fostering growth.

Amazing. Truly amazing.

FIAF – it’s HERE, it’s HERE.

This FIAF is devoted to getting some effen knowledge.

Up first? Political posturing:

G.P. Morgan lost Two BILLION dollars and, of course, our politicians want blood. Not so fast.Some perspective:

First, consider the relative magnitude of the company’s trading loss: $2 billion on a $200 billion portfolio. A 1% trading loss is hardly the stuff that should make news, particularly in Washington.

Consider two other recent episodes. The Obama administration guaranteed a $535 million loan to Solyndra, then lost everything on its bet when the solar-energy company went bankrupt last September.

Then there is the auto-industry bailout. According to the TARP inspector general’s April 25 report, taxpayers have been paid cash and securities worth $50.9 billion on the $79.7 billion extended to General Motors, General Motors Acceptance Corp. (now Ally Financial) and Chrysler. That is a $28.8 billion loss.

But pay no attention to that. Congress will hold a show trail, posturing to support financial regulation, and this and that interference.

Quick note – the CEO, Jamie Dimon, is a big Democrat contributor.

****

Here’s some more effen knowledge; Kimbery Strassel on the truth regarding GS Technologies.

Obama’s been hitting Romney hard all week, via tweets, television ads, and a website for being a “vampire capitalist” when he worked for Bain Capital, buying up companies, destroying them, and killing jobs. GST was the steel company based in Kansas City.

That’s all very sad, but it’s not exactly the entire story.

Anyone who was aware of the state of the steel business in the 80′s and 90′s should KNOW that it wasn’t the most stable industry.

When Bain bought the Kansas City mill in 1993, steel was a scene of carnage. Global players were pouring out cheap products, and America’s high-cost steel plants couldn’t compete. The industry had lost 200,000 jobs in preceding years. In 1992 alone, the six largest U.S. steel mills had lost a combined $3 billion. Armco, the company Bain would buy the plant from, would lose $641 million in 1993.

GST in Kansas City was dying. It was down to 1000 employees, when it used to have more than four times that many at it’s height in the 70′s. But Bain saw potential, and bought it for $80 million, and upgraded the plant for another $100 million. And, for a while, things were good.

And then came the tsunami. The late 1990s saw a new outpouring of cheap steel from elsewhere around the globe. The Asian financial crisis walloped the mining industry, cutting demand for GST products. The price of GST’s electricity and natural gas skyrocketed. The union dug in, refusing to make concessions. By April 1997, it was on strike, shooting bottle rockets at guards. Labor costs spiked, and by 1999 GSI was reporting $53 million in net losses.

In 2001 it would become one of 31 steel companies that went bankrupt from 1993 to 2003. (Mr. Romney left Bain in 1999.) The steel crash was the economic drama du jour, with Congress railing about “dumping.”

Not exactly the narrative the Obama campaign is pushing.

*****

My friend Beasn is always talking about this.

Recently I had to run into that store and, sizing up the three lines, chose to stand behind a woman with one item in her cart. It was one of those large ice-cream cakes. When the checkout person said “Forty-one dollars,” I wasn’t the only one who blanched. The shopper’s son, around 12, repeated it as a question: “Forty-one dollars?”

I quickly calculated that the woman’s cake was eight times more expensive than the kind I make at home to celebrate birthdays. The mother ignored her son’s question.

She took out her benefits card, swiped it through the machine, and they were off. My turn.

A $41 dollar cake paid for by you and I. When a cheap one could be made at home.

Which is what you and I, who are watching our pennies, prolly have to do.

*****
I haven’t seen The Avengers yet, but this should cover it.

Sticking to the Narrative

What kind of effen nonsense is this?

When President Barack Obama took office, he inherited an economy that was losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month. As of April, private-sector jobs have now recovered to the number we had when he started. That’s 4.2 million jobs in the past 26 months.

So why the high unemployment rate? Largely because of public-sector job cuts — most in states that saw new GOP governors and legislatures elected in 2010 slash budgets for teachers, public safety and other service functions. Without these cuts, the Labor Department estimates our unemployment rate would be at 7.1 percent. Not the 8.1 percent it’s at now.

Democrats are job creators, says Granholm. Because they invest and they hire government workers. Duh.

It’s MATH, not politics.

Apparently she was on the weekend shows not too long ago, and this is what she said:

GRANHOLM: Let me put Michigan on the table as a counter example. Michigan had the toughest economy in the nation for the first decade of this past year (sic) because of the loss of automotive and manufacturing jobs. There was a decision by the Obama administration to intervene. At that point, we had hit bottom. Our unemployment rate was 14.5 percent. It’s now 8.4. It’s the second quickest — the second fastest drop of any state in the country. But the reason is, because there was a decision made to intervene (i.e., Government Motors) to save that industry, put it on solid ground. They had great management. There was a decision made to intervene to allow us to diversify the economy. And as a result, Michigan is now seeing a recovery. The hands-off strategy would not be working.

Michigan is in recovery? I beg to differ. Michigan BLED jobs under Granholm, and is still on very shaky ground.But you don’t have to take my word for it:

“Yes we’ve seen payroll growth and job growth,” he explained, “but at the same time we’ve seen labor force withdrawal.”

Some of the shrinking labor force can be attributed to people giving up looking for work temporarily or permanently. If those people, estimated at more than a million nationwide, were counted in the figures, the unemployment rate would show an increase.

In Michigan, the labor force (seasonally-adjusted) has shrunk 0.6 percent over the last year. In Detroit, the January data show the labor force decreasing by 1 percent, a figure Rhein said is significant.

“The labor force has declined, fewer people [are] actively seeking [jobs], and even with a lower rate, that means there are problems,” he said.

And …

Contrary to what Granholm says, General Motors is not on “solid ground.” The bailout money that GM received under TARP has not been repaid, to the tune of some forty billion dollars, including $14.5 billion owed by Ally Financial (formerly GMAC). Moreover, TARP funds were placed in an escrow account for GM, and GM used $6.7 billion of those taxpayer dollars to repay the money owed to the taxpayers. Neat accounting trick if you do not get caught. So at least some $46 billion of taxpayer funds went to benefit union workers and to help put the Michigan state financial house in order. Yes, if you can steal $46 billion from someone else, you can pretend that you have “great management” and that you are on “solid ground.” But it is still nonsense.

It’s a tad early to declare victory with the GM dealio.

Thursday is the day before FIAF

How Obama killed Osama.

Despite his “Gutsy Call” and football spiking, Obama isn’t doing so well in the polls.

California? Screwed. LA County has an all-time record of over a million food stamp enrollees.

Tuesday inconsequential stories …

Helpful link: Liar-in-Chief’s list of lies.
***

Gays are now a race?.

There is a part of the gay-lesbian-transgender conversation that is happening in San Francisco that’s not happening on the radio with NPR or any other station. And there are many gays and lesbians and transgenders who believe that we are a race of people. And the way that we are a race of people, is we’re distinctly different than any other race in the idea that we do not sexually identify as heterosexual. Now, if you take that idea of 10 percent of the population of the world, we equal 300 million people. That’s the population of the United States.

And with that amount of people, we are a race of people, not a type of person. And I don’t believe Barack Obama has gone far enough. All he has to do is say that the LBGT people are a race, and this whole conversation ends. We no longer have a difference between us and them. We are a race of people, and it needs to be addressed and it needs to be talked about.

uhm. Ok.

****

I wonder what the folks at Pandagon are on about; haven’t visited them in a long time.

Rejecting the “self-discipline” framework.

Wow.

If you actually want to fix the problems of STD transmission and unintended pregnancy, you have to deal with people how they are, not how they “should” be. Same with food consumption and exercise. I guess people “should” exert often-extraordinary levels of self-discipline, but they don’t, because they’re human. Meet them where they are, not where they “should” be.

We can’t fix people’s impulse control, but we can fix their environments through collective action.

Just. Wow. Extra-ordinary levels of self-discipline. We cannot expect people to be personally responsible for … anything. From their sexual behavior to what they eat … their housing costs, college tuition, health care expenses …

Really, people can’t be expected to be responsible for shit. We need “collective action” to solve these problems.

I need to go to my happy place now.

[insert title here]

First, a little music.

Mr. Sometimes-I-Forget-About-the-Recession is going to be busy collecting money from wealthy donors today.

9:35 am || Departs White House
10:45 am || Arrives New York
1:10 pm || Delivers commencement address at Barnard College
3:00 pm || Tapes an appearance on The View
5:05 pm || Delivers remarks at a fundraiser, Rubin Museum of Art
6:50 pm || Delivers remarks at a fundraiser; private residence
8:30 pm || Departs New York City
9:40 pm || Arrives White House

It’s a marvel he has time to do his job, given the demands of his campaign.

I wonder if I could get Obama to give a speech in front of my garage?

Of course, Treacher caption contest.

A bit more about one of today’s fundraisers from Mark Knoller.

Pres Obama willl also be attending two campaign fundraisers – including one hosted by singer Ricky Martin & the LGBT Leadership Council.—
Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 14, 2012

*****

Obama’s “Truth” Team goes after Romney’s record on job creation. I think this is going to be a MISS, since the economy has sucked MASSIVE BALLS OF FAIL since teh One ascended on high.

******

From Teh One’s Saturday address, item number four on his “to do” list for Congress:

Fourth, if Congress fails to act soon, clean energy companies will see their taxes go up and could be forced to lay off employees. These companies are putting Americans to work and helping break our dependence on foreign oil. Congress should extend these tax credits.

Quick review, clean energy record:

*

More:

For those who only hear about these failing companies one by one, the following is a list of all the clean energy companies supported by President Obama’s stimulus that are now failing or have filed for bankruptcy. The liberal media hopes you’ve forgotten about all of them except Solyndra, but we haven’t.

* Evergreen Solar
* SpectraWatt
* Solyndra (received $535 million)
* Beacon Power (received $43 million)
* AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy
* Nevada Geothermal (received $98.5 million)
* SunPower (received $1.5 billion)
* First Solar (received $1.46 billion)
* Babcock & Brown (an Australian company which received $178 million)
* Ener1 (subsidiary EnerDel received $118.5 million)
* Amonix (received 5.9 million)
* The National Renewable Energy Lab
* Fisker Automotive
* Abound Solar (received $400 million)
* Chevy Volt (taxpayers basically own GM)
* Solar Trust of America
* A123 Systems (received $279 million)
* Willard & Kelsey Solar Group (received $6 million)

Details here.