Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle …

dancingczars.wordpress.com2/7/12

This entry was posted in Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle down economics and tagged conservative blog netowrk, Progressives are economic morons, Socialism doesn't, Trickle down works.

Another Record for Obamanomics | Wizbang

wizbangblog.com2/3/12

Another Record for Obamanomics. February 3, 2012 | Filed under Economics,Employment | Posted by Rodney Graves. And like all such records, it's not one that's doing the nation a damn bit of good.

President Obama has frequently justified his policies and judged their outcomes in terms of equity, justice and fairness.

All of which begs an obvious question,

How does our existing system and his own policy record stack up according to those criteria?

1) Is it fair that the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes, and the richest 10% pay two-thirds of the tax?

2) Is it fair that the richest 10% of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country’s income tax burden than do the richest 10% in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?

3) Is it fair that American corporations pay the highest statutory corporate tax rate of all other industrialized nations but Japan, which cuts its rate on April 1?

4) Is it fair that President Obama sends his two daughters to elite private schools that are safer, better-run, and produce higher test scores than public schools in Washington, D.C. while millions of other families across America are denied that free choice and are forced to send their kids to second-rate schools?

5) Is it fair that Americans who build a family business, hire workers, reinvest and save their money—paying a lifetime of federal, state and local taxes often climbing into the millions of dollars must then pay an additional estate tax of 35% (and up to 55% when the law changes next year) when they die, rather than passing that money onto their loved ones?

6) Is it fair that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and other leading Democrats who preach tax fairness underpaid their own taxes?

7) Is it fair that after the first three years of Obamanomics that the poor are poorer, that the poverty rate is rising, that the middle class is losing income, and some 5.5 million fewer Americans have jobs today than in 2007?

8) Is it fair that roughly 88% of political contributions from supposedly impartial network television reporters, producers and other employees in 2008 went to Democrats?

9) Is it fair that the three counties with America’s highest median family income just happen to be located in the Washington, D.C., metro area?

10) Is it fair that wind, solar and ethanol producers get billions of dollars of subsidies each year and pay virtually no taxes, while the oil and gas industry which provides at least 10 times as much energy pays tens of billions of dollars of taxes while the president complains that it is "subsidized"?

11) Is it fair that those who work full-time jobs, and sometimes more than one in order to make ends meet have to pay taxes to support up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits for those who don’t work?

12 Is it fair that those who took out responsible mortgages and pay them each month have to see their tax dollars used to subsidize those who acted recklessly, greedily and sometimes deceitfully in taking out mortgages they now can’t afford to repay?

13) Is it fair that thousands of workers won’t have jobs because the president sided with environmentalists and blocked the shovel-ready Keystone XL oil pipeline?

14) Is it fair that some of Mr. Obama’s largest campaign contributors received federal loan guarantees on their investments in renewable energy projects that went bust?

15) Is it fair that federal employees receive benefits that are nearly 50% higher than those of private-sector workers whose taxes pay their salaries, according to the Congressional Budget Office?

16) Is it fair that soon almost half the federal budget will take income from young working people and redistribute it to old non-working people, even though those over age 65 are already among the wealthiest Americans?

17) Is it fair that in 27 states workers can be compelled to join a union in order to keep their jobs?

18) Is it fair that nearly four out of 10 American households now pay no federal income tax at all, and is a number that has risen every year under Mr. Obama?

19) Is it fair that Boeing, which is a private company, was threatened by a federal agency when it sought to add jobs in a right-to-work state rather than in a forced-union state?

20) Is it fair that our kids and grandstands and great-grand-kids who never voted for Mr. Obama will have to pay off the $5 trillion of debt accumulated over the past four years, without any benefits to them?

What do you think? Was it fair?

Related posts:

1. Obama Owns The Economy Now
2. What’s The Tax Debate All About?
3. Would Cain’s 999 Have Beeen A Good Thing?

Largest Ever, Upcoming U.S.-Israel Joint Drill Sending Message to …

www.theblaze.com1/8/12

Arrow 3 Defense Missile Launch Test (Photo credit: Israeli Defense Ministry via Israel Hayom). A planned American-Israeli missile defense exercise is receiving special attention on the heels of a 10-day Iranian naval exercise …

Israel and US to hold joint missile drill | Aerospace & Defence News

aerospace.firetrench.com1/9/12

Israel and the United States are to hold a joint missile defence exercise, the Israeli military said late on Thursday. ASDNews … Last week it test-fired three missiles during war games east of the strait at the entrance to the Gulf. …

An upcoming American-Israeli missile defense exercise is receiving special media attention because it comes on the heels of a ten-day Iranian naval exercise, plus Iranian threats of closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli Defense Forces played down the timing of the announcement, calling such periodic exercises “routine:”

“These exercises, which are part of a long-standing strategic partnership, are planned in advance and part of a routine training cycle designed to improve the interoperability of our defense systems. Like other bi-lateral exercises, Austere Challenge 12 represents another milestone in the strategic relationship between the US and Israel, as well as a step forward in promoting regional stability".

“The exercise scenario involves notional, simulated events as well as some field training, and is not in response to any real-world event".

“The exercise has been planned for at least two years and therefore has no relevance to any world events".

The AP quoted a senior military official who said on condition of anonymity:

"Thousands of American and Israeli soldiers from different units will take part, and the drill will test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets".

In a speech last month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta previewed the exercise, citing it as an example of what he called,

"The administration’s unprecedented levels of defense cooperation with Israel to back up our unshakable commitment to Israel’s security".

And on Sunday’s Face the Nation, Panetta stated two red lines for the U.S.:

"Our red line to Iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us. I think they need to know that, that if they take that step, that they’re going to get stopped. We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz. That’s another red line for us and that we will respond to them.".

See also, What Would Trigger A US Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?

And Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on the same show said he believes,

" Iran has the capability, for a period of time to block the Strait of Hormuz, but we would take action and reopen the Straits".

Efraim Inbar, who is director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, says that even if it’s not intended as a response to Iranian moves:

“Any military exercise has political implications. The military organ is always connected to political even if that’s not the intention on the part of the Americans or Israelis. It’s a clear political signal to the bad guys. After we saw the military exercise by the Iranians last week, everybody with political sensitivity tends to believe this is a counter-flexing of muscle".

Inbar also addressed expressions of isolationism in the U.S., something which has been gaining more media attention due to the presidential campaign of GOP candidate Ron Paul:

“This type of exercise expresses the importance of Israel to the U.S. particularly when the U.S. is seen as being weak in the region. It is leaving Iraq, it is on its way out of Afghanistan. Israel is probably the only place a U.S. military airplane will eventually be able to land in the Middle East".

“U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation is beneficial to both sides. The U.S. is a super power and we are a small state but in our area contrary to what isolationists say in the U.S., we all still need allies, or what used to be called ‘calling stations’. Israeli ports are open to the U.S. In fact, the only port where the U.S. can probably bring ships safely in the Eastern Mediterranean is to Israel. Looking at the other countries: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, the Mediterranean is becoming an Islamist lake".

And an Israeli Air Force officer emphasized that not only Israel gains from the relationship:

“The Americans are eager to conduct this exercise, we are their laboratory in the field of missile defense. A laboratory because Israel has extensive firsthand experience of absorbing incoming rockets and missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah and regularly activates its Iron Dome system to combat the threat".

The Telegraph reported from London that the UK will deploy its largest warship, the HMS Daring, to the Persian Gulf to,

“send a significant message to the Iranians”.

The UK destroyer is due to arrive in late January.

And Oil Supplies?

Western powers have agreed a contingency plan to tap a record volume from emergency stockpiles which could replace nearly all the Gulf oil that would be lost if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz.

Related posts:

1. Is Israel A Significant Asset To US National Interests?
2. Is The End Of The Ahmadinejad Regime Finally In Sight?
3. The Wall Of Lies

Israel – Light onto Nations: Growing forests in the desert

israel-lightontonations.blogspot.com11/30/11

Once the trees are mature, it's possible that they could become a renewable source of biofuel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This is another area of great interest to Israel and just about every other country on the planet …

Technion LIVE: Cornell – Technion – Together in Vision

www.technioniit.com12/3/11

During his visit, he planted a now-famous first palm tree that still stands in front of the old Technion building in Hadar. … Its graduates helped to build the county's infrastructure and started the high-tech industries that today make Israel a modern country with the greatest concentration of high-tech startup companies anywhere outside of Silicon Valley. More than 70 percent …. Israel's 10th Nobel laureate on his way to Stockho. … Technion Nanocrystals for Solar Power …

Please note that it was made 6 years ago.

Israel is certainly no angel, and both its politicians and its army make their fair share of mistakes.

But regardless of whether you’re pro or anti Israel, you’ve surely got to admire its upside and wish that other countries could or would achieve the same positive results.

Please post your comments, and if they don’t flame or use abusive and/or hateful language, then they’ll be approved.

Related posts:

1. Prof. Dershowitz Says Obama Wrong Again on Israel
2. Israel Recognizes South Sudan
3. Ed Schultz Used Edited Video To Misrepresent Rick Perry

The Danger Newt Gingrich Poses . . . to Mitt Romney | RedState

www.redstate.com12/2/11

75% of the Republican voters have wanted someone who can hold their own in a debate with Obama and who is not named Mitt Romney. Suddenly Gingrich, by virtue of these several thousand debates we've had, has … If Newt Gingrich can avoid his historic fate of imploding at the pinnacle of success, Mitt Romney will stay the bridesmaid at Newt Gingrich's wedding in August in Tampa. Sponsored Content. Category: 2012, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ramesh …

BREAKING NEWS: Romney won't debate Newt one-on-one

www.letfreedomringblog.com12/2/11

Human Events magazine and RedState.com, both part of Eagle Publishing, tried to make history by inviting Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to one Lincoln-Douglas-style debate. The stunning news is that Mitt declined. …

At the time of writing, December 3, 2011, the Republican presidential primary appears to be narrowing down to a two-man contest between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

Both Human Events and RedState moved quickly to lock down a date for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

And the two groups went out on a limb last Monday, and firmed up the Annenberg Theater, at the Newseum in Washington as the venue for Dec. 19 – after another debate that was scheduled for that date canceled.

Only One Problem

The Newseum was excited to host the pre-primary forum but there was just one problem.

While Gingrich was ready to take his place on the stage, the Romney campaign politely declined in a series of mostly e-mail exchanges.

And as Joe Guerriero, publisher of Human Events and Red State, put it:

“Newt was all over it, but the Romney camp basically said no. It wasn’t a harsh no, but it was a no".

Romney Should Have Accepted

A Gingrich spokesman confirmed that the candidate was interested and had accepted the invitation, but a Romney spokeswoman failed to return a request for comment.

Guerriero explained that the impetus for the debate was this:

"Romney has long been presumed to be the nominee. But with Gingrich surging in the polls, why shouldn’t the Republican base get a chance to see the two top candidates go toe-to-toe?”.

“No disrespect to any of the other candidates. Given the state of the country, the economy, and the race to date, if Romney is to be the nominee, he needs to go against the best debater with the deepest understanding of policy both domestic and foreign, and that appears to be Newt Gingrich".

Both Rommey And Gingrich Are Good Debaters

So What’s To Be Afraid Of?

It’s no secret that Gingrich loves debates, and he has performed exceedingly well in them, but so has Romney.

Guerriero and his colleagues believe Romney would stand to benefit from a two-person format featuring his toughest opponent to prepare him for debates against President Obama if he does win the GOP nomination.

Guerriero added;

“It looks like Newt’s made a real run at this, and the Romney camp is trying to run out the clock, and we don’t think that’s necessarily a wise strategy. The base should be able to see the top candidates answer the tough questions that these conservative publications don’t believe are being asked".

"Gingrich is itching to do it, but the Romney campaign has been more circumspect".

Right now it seems unlikely that there will be a debate until after the Iowa caucuses.

If Romney does win the nomination, will he refuse to debate Obama?

Related posts:

1. Would Newt Gingrich be a good President?
2. Would Mitt Romney be a good Republican presidential candidate?
3. Newt Gingrich Will Defeat The Liberal MSM

Barack Obama Vacations In Martha's Vinyard While Job Crisis, Debt …

www.huffingtonpost.com8/17/11

WASHINGTON — Is there ever really a good time for the president to go on vacation? President Barack Obama's summer getaway to Martha's Vineyard has reignited a seemingly annual debate.

Town Hall Patriots: Michelle Obama Vacations – While America …

thpatriots.blogspot.com11/14/11

"Everybody's going to have to give a little bit. … If you're a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, you might put off a vacation." President Barack Obama Barack Obama has been President over …

A great many people are now asking what President Obama, his family and his political supporters are getting paid for.

Their Vacations?

His Reelection?

To Fulfill His ideology?

Or What?

And now Gov. Chris Christie wants to know what Obama is being paid for!

"I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the super-committee".

"The president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved".

"Well, then what the hell are we paying you for?

"It’s doomed for failure, so I’m not getting involved?".

"Well, what have you been doing, exactly?".

It’s been a slow steady decline, but President Barack Obama‘s job approval rating has finally dipped below Jimmy Carter’s, earning Obama the worst approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern history.

Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index puts the current president‘s job approval rating at 43% compared to Carter’s 51%.

And US News adds:

Back in 1979, Carter was far below Obama until the Iran hostage crisis; something that is being eerily duplicated in Tehran today with Iranian protesters storming the British embassy.

The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

According to Gallup, these are the job approval numbers for other presidents at this stage of their terms, a year before the re-election campaign:

– Harry S. Truman: 54%.

– Dwight Eisenhower: 78%.

– Lyndon B. Johnson: 44%.

– Richard M. Nixon: 50%.

– Ronald Reagan: 54%.

– George H.W. Bush: 52%.

– Bill Clinton: 51%.

– George W. Bush: 55%.

And to make matters worse for Obama, Gallup reports that his overall job approval rating ranks among the worst in American political history, averaging 49%.

And only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage:

Carter, Ford, and Harry S. Truman.

Related posts:

1. New Poll Says Obama’s Base Is Crumbling
2. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?
3. Obama’s Reelection Chances Don’t Look Good

Occupy: the sad reality and the mad fantasies | Sean Collins | spiked

www.spiked-online.com11/23/11

Occupy: the sad reality and the mad fantasies. Far from being clear-eyed, … Many liberals, especially liberal pundits in the major media outlets, present an idealized account of the Occupy protesters. Their vision of what the …

Commentarama: Liberals to Obama: “Quit!”

commentarama.blogspot.com11/22/11

That right there is why liberals lose wars, folks. ….. A liberal friend of mine posted a letter to Obama about how he was sad that there wasn’t more done and how he was joining a moderate independent party instead. November …

Many people told me over the years that many Liberals are mentally sick people, and I always thought that it was way over the top.

But having watched Mika Brzezinski fall apart on MSNBC when Gingrich suggested that the "OWS demonstrators get a job after taking a bath"; and now having seen this Karen Finney video.

I have come to the conclusion that many Liberals are definitely very sick people!

Man’s (or woman’s) most basic instinct is most likely survival, but they just don’t have it.

It seems that they lack something that every other animal on the planet has.

Gingrich wasn’t talking about “young kids”, but about the wasted money that goes to Universities that make money out of students striving for a degree that they will never use.

And about the time that those students waste, when they could otherwise be contributing to society.

In the foreseeable future, there will always be a need for people to do menial jobs; so why should these self-same people spend time and money at a University when they could be working.

And that was Gingrich’s point, but perhaps it was to difficult for Karen Finney to grasp.

Related posts:

1. Why Obama Will Lose In 2012
2. Jon Huntsman For President?
3. What Does Obama Fear The Most?

Martin Bashir | Newt Gingrich Bashing | MSNBC | Video | Mediaite

www.mediaite.com11/21/11

Monday afternoon, during his United States of Anger segment, Martin Bashir led Karen Finney and William Cohen in a heated hammering of Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich, set off by his telling Occupy protesters to …

MSNBC Consensus: Gingrich Is 'Disgusting' | The Weekly Standard

www.weeklystandard.com11/21/11

Read conservative news, blogs and opinion about 2012, 2012 Elections, media, MSNBC and Newt Gingrich from The Weekly Standard, the must read magazine available in online edition.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski is so pathetic and unprofessional here that for a few moments I thought I was watching Saturday Night Live.

And what’s more grotesque is that the other members of the panel come across as supporting cartoon characters.

"Go get a job after you take a bath!".

Gingrich said to raucous applause at the Thanksgiving Family Forum in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Ratings

Take a look at how MSNBC news network fared Thursday, November 17, 2011

As you can see from the numbers published by TVNewser Friday, CNN beat MSNBC every hour throughout Thursday’s extended prime time, with the only exception being Lawrence O’Donnell at 8PM.

And closer inspection reveals that even that ray of light in the darkness slipped below Olbermann’s typical average of roughly one million viewers.

Rachel Maddow’s numbers in the following hour are also well off her normal million, and Ed Shultz at 10PM is almost embarrassing.

A Major Loss Of Revenue

A major concern for MSNBC executives should be the network’s loss to CNN of all of the hours in the crucial demographic of those aged 25 to 54, because that is a big determinant of advertising rates.

And viewed in that light the numbers were a disaster!

So What’s Went Wrong?

Perhaps the worst news, or at least the most embarrassing for MSNBC was Cenk Uygur’s 6PM show.

Not only is he getting easily beaten by CNN’s Situation Room, but he’s close to getting quadrupled by Fox’s Special Report.

Both Maddow, O’Donnell, and Schultz had passable audiences in their previous time slots, for MSNBC, that is!

But by moving Schultz to 10 and O’Donnell to 8, the momentum was effectively lost.

Cenk against Bret Baier?!

Pitting Cenk against Bret Baier was foolish because he’s clearly not a man that’s ready for prime time.

And placing him on the brink of television’s most-trafficked hours is way beyond his present talent and experience at this point in his career.

The Upshot

MSNBC is almost giving this hour to Fox and CNN whilst destroying any momentum that the network used to get from Schultz.

What’s more, the time is probably ripe for MSNBC to reconsider, "Hardball" at 5 and 7.

With Uygur’s lousy numbers sandwiched between Matthews’, MSNBC is basically forfeiting three straight hours leading up to the supposed heavy hitters in their lineup.

Has MSNBC Saved CNN?

Just two short months ago it looked like CNN was fast becoming irrelevant.

*CNN became irrelevant to me during the first Gulf War.

But MSNBC trailed CNN in average total viewers throughout last Thursday and it was tripled in this stat by Fox.

A Mouthpiece For The White House

But with this new pathetic lineup, and performances similar to Mika Brzezinski’s, it’s likely, and apt, that MSNBC will become irrelevant instead.

And MSNBC should go because as Newt Gingrich said, "MSNBC Essentially Acts As The Obama Re-Election Team", and that isn’t how it ought to be!

Related posts:

1. Did Liberals Lose Their Self-Survival Instinct?
2. Newt Gingrich Will Defeat The Liberal MSM
3. Is Gingrich A Better Debater That Romney?

Occupy Heckles Newt Gingrich | News | The Harvard Crimson

www.thecrimson.com11/21/11

Former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich spoke of American exceptionalism and his views on the country's political and economic issues. Republican Presidential Candidate and Former …

Newt Gingrich to Occupiers: Take a Bath and Go Get a Job! | Mother …

motherjones.com11/19/11

At Saturday's GOP presidential forum in Iowa, newly minted frontrunner Newt Gingrich tore into the Occupy Wall Street movement, pointing to it as a symbol of exactly what's wrong with America. "All the Occupy movement …

Newt Gingrich has the experience and the intellect to know that now that he’s a front-runner in the GOP primaries that he will come under a relentless attack by the 80% liberal MSM.

But why such a high percentage of journalists are still so staunchly pro-Obama I don’t understand, since they got Obama elected and there are at least 80 good reasons why Obama shouldn’t be reelected.

If you know, or think you know, then please tell us.

And Newt knows that they’re going to go after him even harder than they went after Bachmann, Perry or Cain because he had the audacity to call them out for their liberal bias and simplistic and inane questions during the debates.

He also understands that the demise of the power of the mainstream media has been greatly exaggerated, and realizes that’s it’s a real force to be reckoned with.

Obama Will Be Hard To Beat

Anybody who thinks that this election is already over and Obama is destined to lose, is grossly underestimating, not only the resources attached to the office of the president, but also the record amounts of money that he will spend as he travels the low-road in his desperate search of a second term.

And perhaps more importantly, the president knows that he has something in his back pocket that the Republican nominee won’t have, and it’s what got him elected the first time.

He will have the ill conceived loyalty and support of untold numbers of so called journalists across the country.

So How Will Obama Attack?

He won’t be bi-partisan or promise hope and change because almost the whole country understands that their lives, and America’s standing, changed for the worse; far worse!

Instead he’ll use his assets to run a one billion dollar smear campaign on whoever gets the GOP nomination.

* That said, it needs to be asked is, "Is the US is really a democracy" if you need close to a billion dollars to be elected President.

How Informed Are The Voters?

Large numbers of Americans are now working longer hours to not only try and stay afloat but to also support the fast growing number of people that are getting hand-outs.

Which means that many Americans, if they still have an Internet connection, don’t have the time to go to their favorite web sites, blogs or conservative talk shows to gain a more balanced opinion of what’s going on in the political realm.

Many only know what they get from 15-20 minutes of MSM news

Why Is Newt Gingrich Rising In The Polls?

He’s experienced, articulate and knowledgeable.

This Is Newt Without A Teleprompter

Now contrast his confidence and prescience with say, Mitt Romney’s and you’ll understand why Team Obama is hoping to face the former Massachusetts governor in the general election.

Newt’s the next duck in line for the liberal media firing squad, but he not only knows how to shoot back, but he relishes the challenge and it should be a very telling next couple of weeks.

Related posts:

1. Would Newt Gingrich be a good President?
2. Is Gingrich A Better Debater That Romney?
3. Obama Is Trying To Save His Liberal Base

Putin Wins China Peace Prize

www.huffingtonpost.com11/15/11

China's on-again, off-again answer to the Nobel Peace Prize is back this year, and more outlandish than ever. The China International Peace Research Center announced the winner today: Russian premier and returning …

Putin Wins Chinese Peace Prize for His Gentle Invasion of Chechnya

gawker.com11/15/11

Thankfully, the China International Peace Studies Center has stepped forward to bestow its prestigious Confucius Peace Prize on Putin for the "iron hand and toughness" he peacefully displayed in his invasion of Chechnya.

Just four days after telling many distinguished dinner guests at a dinner in Moscow that Russia could destroy the U.S. in half an hour or less, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was named the latest winner of the Chinese peace prize that is intended as a counterweight to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize.

It should be noted that,

Arafat.

Obama.

Al Gore Jnr.

Mohamed ElBaradei !!

And Jimmy Carter.

all received the Swedish prize which means that the Chinese list is no more stupid than the Nobel one!

The organizers behind the Chinese prize told news agencies on Tuesday (November 15, 2011) that Mr. Putin was chosen to receive the Confucius Peace Prize at a December 9, ceremony in Beijing, which is just one day before the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.

The Chinese Award?

The Chinese award was quickly launched last year after imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo was chosen for the Nobel, which incensed the Chinese.

And to make things even worse, or better, depending on your point if view, the first person picked for the Chinese prize, former Taiwan vice president Lien Chan, failed to appear last year to collect his award, which reportedly comes with about $15,000 in cash.

Besides Putin, this year’s shortlist included:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

What peace did she try to bring about?

Many German businesses are still heavily trading with Iran.

South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma was charged with rape in 2005, and acquitted under very bizarre circumstances.

He also fought a long legal battle over allegations of racketeering and corruption.

He has been married five times, and has at least twenty children.

And did the Anti-Israel Durban 1,2,3 conferences which were held in S. Africa somehow add to world peace?

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan?

He and his son Kojo left the UN surrounded by the stench of corruption.

And Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates.

Of the Chinese list, I guess this would make the most sense, but I can personally think of many people that have done more to promote world peace in the last year than Gates.

Can you?

Related posts:

1. Should Obama Have Refused The Nobel Prize?
2. Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Resigns Over Global Warming
3. Do Moderate Muslims Want Peace Or Jihad?

Early Jobs Projections Could Haunt Obama in 2012 – NYTimes.com

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com11/4/11

Friday's tepid jobs report brings a fresh reminder of the stubborn difficulty President Obama and his team face in overcoming the argument that his administration has failed to address unemployment.

Droves Of Democrats Balking On Obama 2012 | Politicons

politicons.net11/14/11

Radioactive Obama… Politico has a piece highlighting the droves of Democrats that are refusing to back Obama in 2012. …

Just one year from the 2012 election and President Obama is in an extremely perilous political situation.

The poor economy he inherited hasn’t recovered and has most likely worsened.

Published unemployment is stuck above 9% with real unemployment being around 18.5%

Long-term unemployment is at record post-war levels.

The housing sector, where most people’s personal wealth was and is concentrated, remains mired in deep recession.

The scandals surrounding Republican-led investigations into Solyndra and Operation Fast and Furious are deepening.

Obama Had Overwhelming Majorities In Both Houses Of Congress

Although the President had overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress in his first two years, he has only two major legislative achievements to his credit:

The stimulus bill.

And Obamacare.

The stimulus bill is generally perceived as having been worse than a total failure, because it’s perceived as having been motivated more by politics than economics, and because much of the $800 billion was directed towards public service union members and liberal causes; i.e. "green energy", rather than real economic recovery.

Obamacare also remains deeply unpopular with the general public and is headed for the Supreme Court, which could well find its key provision unconstitutional next summer, just as the election gets into high gear.

The Economy And America’s Status

Budget deficits soared during the Obama years, with three trillion-dollar-plus deficits in a row.

And this has caused the national debt to swell to a level that, relative to GDP, has not been seen since the end of World War II and for the first time ever, the United States lost its AAA credit rating, which was a deep embarrassment for the country and also the administration.

Obama’s Ratings

So it shouldn’t be surprising that under these circumstances, that the President’s approval ratings have been in sharp decline, with some of his key supporting groups, including the youth and Hispanic voters to a greater or less degree abandoning him.

Obama’s Re-electability

No recent President was re-elected with unemployment above 7.8%, and that was in 1984, when unemployment was falling rapidly as a major economic boom accelerated.

So What Happened?

How did a man who three years ago won a higher percentage of both the popular and electoral vote than any Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson’s landslide almost fifty years ago find himself fighting such uphill odds to keep the White House?

The answer to that seems to lie in the somewhat exceptional circumstances that existed during the 2008 election, and Barack Obama’s personality which fitted the times.

In 2008, the American electorate was thoroughly tired of both the Bush administration and the Republican Party, which had lost its majority in Congress in 2006 for the first time in twelve years.

The Republican field of presidential candidates in 2008 was a weak one, with the eventual winner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, widely perceived as being too old for the job.

So Obama, who was only forty seven years old, seemed in contrast, like a breath of fresh air.

He seemed personable, articulate (nobody had yet focused on his TelePrompTer) and he was the first ever bi-racial candidate for a major-party nomination with any serious chance of winning.

His biggest opposition was Sen. Hillary Clinton, the first woman candidate who also had a serious chance of winning, but she was already well known to the American people, having been First Lady for eight years; and she carried a lot of baggage from her husband’s administration.

Obama, in contrast, was a blank slate and to some extent still is because of the main stream media which is still protecting him.

Obama Hid His Tracks

Obama only served a little over three years in the US Senate, where his record was thin, and he mostly voted "present” rather than take a stand on issues.

Which we can now see was because he didn’t want evidence that could later be used against him.

How Obama Won

The Obama campaign used his lack of Washington experience to the fullest, much like Herman Cain is using his now.

They cultivated an image of a new kind of president, one who would cut through the old Washington merry-go-round of partisan bickering and special-interest pandering.

He would be post-partisan, a President who would throw the special-interest moneychangers out of the temple of the nation’s capital.

Obama’s biggest advantage in the 2008 election however, was that the mainstream media, failed to reveal any of his major negatives, such as having been and active member of the New Party (communist) and promoted all of his seeming positives; simply because it so desperately wanted to see an extreme left-wing, bi-racial candidate elected.

So What Happened To Candidate Obama’s Promises?

Running for President and being President, are two entirely separate matters however, and once in the White House a new Obama emerged, one who was quite different from the post-partisan, special-interest-bashing one.

What metamorphosed, was a hyper-liberal ideologue who attended to his special interests, such as labor unions, as assiduously as any other Washington politician had ever done before.

And what’s more, an arrogance and a rigidity that had not been seen in the candidate before, became increasingly evident, and expressed itself in such things as his State of the Union speech in January 2010, wherein he publicly criticized the Supreme Court, many of whose members were sitting in front of him for one of its decisions, which was totally unprecedented behavior.

Soon Gone Was The Bi-Partisanship

"I won the election”, he bluntly told Rep. Paul Ryan when the latter tried to negotiate regarding Obamacare, and it resulted in his two major pieces of legislation passing with almost no Republican votes in either house.

The Tea Party

What happened next was a groundswell of opposition to the Obama administration’s big spending ways which quickly became known as the Tea Party, and it’s something that Obama naively or arrogantly ignored for too long.

Obama Vainly Ignored The Clear Writing On The Wall

Republican candidates did extremely well in the off-year elections of 2009, winning the governorships in both New Jersey and Virginia with control-the-spending campaigns, and even greater evidence of voters’ dissatisfaction was when Scott Brown, who was a little known Republican, won the special election to fill the Senate seat of Democratic icon Ted Kennedy in deep-blue Massachusetts in January, 2010.

Obama Has Been Slow To Learn

Obama simply made a few token political adjustments, and in November, 2010, a tidal wave election gave decisive control of the House back to the Republicans and added seven Senate seats to their column, with Republicans also winning races for governor and state legislative seats across the width and breadth of the country.

Obama did admit that he had taken a shellacking, but he seems no more willing to change his ways than before because his latest plan to stimulate the economy is little different than his first one, and it has no chance of being enacted.

Can Obama Win Reelection?

Unlikely unless:

The economy turns around.

The Republicans nominate another weak candidate, which is possible.

The Supreme Court upholds Obamacare, or avoids making a decision before the election.

Obama’s biggest problem however seems to be that he’s totally egocentric and believes that his way is the only right way.

It’s highly unlikely that he’ll change, and increasingly likely that he’ll be a one term president, which is something that he said that he’d prefer.

"I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president".

And if that comes to be, then he’ll be able to say that he was right about that too!

Related posts:

1. More Than Eighty Reasons Why Obama Shouldn’t Be Reelected!
2. New Poll Says Obama’s Base Is Crumbling
3. Obama’s Reelection Chances Don’t Look Good