Guide to Stimulus funds

Let's face it: Recovery.gov is a government propaganda arm.
There is another way to track the stimulus funds, and its here, by state.

Its broken down in several ways. But this detailed list of spending is interesting.
For instance:
Comparative effectiveness research $300,000,000

That's from the Health Care bill, if I remember correctly.

Barack, and Jesus dying for his sins

I'll never understand why it is that when a conservative talks about Christ, he's obviously nutters. Yet, when a Democratic president talks about Christ... well, isn't that special?
From the New York Times:

“I’m a Christian by choice,” the president said. “My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brothers and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me, and I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes and we achieve salvation through the grace of God.”

Now don't get me wrong. I believe that everyone should be able to worship the God of their choice. I just don't get why, when a Republican talks about God, they are crazy people who believe in a fairy-tale. But when a Democrat says something about their faith? Well, you know...

Apparently, it doesn't matter because they don't actually believe it.

Brietbart confront activists at Right Nation

I want to work for Andrew Brietbart.
He seems to be the only one in the US willing to stand up to anyone and just ask the right questions. I love, love, love this video:



If you have a friend who is on the left, ask them to watch this video, and get their reaction.
If they tell you that it doesn't matter, because the source of the video seems to be on the right... then ask them why they believe the videos that portray Tea Party activists as ignorant.
Thanks to Founding Bloggers for the video.

57% of New York is angry with the government's policies?

Keep in mind: New York is one of the most liberal cities in the US. The state is pretty blue.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds that 57% are angry at the government’s current policies, including 36% who are Very Angry. These findings are slightly lower than those found nationally. Thirty-eight percent (38%) are not angry at these policies.

Roughly half (52%) of voters in the state say neither party’s political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree, while 12% are not sure. These findings, too, are lower than those measured nationwide.

Only 28% of voters in the Empire State feel that most members of Congress care what their constituents think. Fifty-seven percent (57%) don’t believe this to be true, and another 15% are undecided.

More on the US Debt

Here's some other ways of putting this into perspective.

From CNS:

In the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.

Read the article. Its a pretty good explanation of our debt.
ABC News explains more... even though it contains our president explaining away how he's trying to cut our debt.

Over the past year alone, the amount the U.S. government owes its lenders has grown to more than half the country's entire economic output, or gross domestic product.

Even more alarming, experts say, is that those figures will climb to an unprecedented 200 percent of GDP by 2038 without a dramatic shift in course.

You don't need to wait until 2038 to panic.
In the meantime, the poverty rate is rising? AP calls the timing 'unfortunate' for the administration:

The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama's watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

"Most Fiscally Irresponsible"

US News kinda sums it up for me:

It is unnerving to wake up and learn that you have a mortgage on your home that exceeds the value of the property. Or, and too often both, you have a credit card line that you cannot repay and the issuer has you on the rack for ever bigger compound interest on the debt. The lesson has been well and truly learned that debt catches up with you. Millions understand that they are just going to have to find a way to live within their means—and then still eke out some savings to pay down debt. And there are well over 14 million Americans without a paying job, so the level of discontent is very high. Just how are they going to regain control of their lives?

Stimulus didn't work

So say economists...
Of course, they also say that our economy is rebounding, so wtf do they know? From CNN Money:

The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government's stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with the rebound, according to a survey released Monday.

Christina Roemer is leaving

One of the WH advisers responsible for creating this chart:


















Is leaving.
About friggin time.

Missouri's vote on health care

About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

This is just the first step, but its important. It will force the federal government into a position where they will have to assert that insurance is a federal concern. Furthermore, they'll have to back laws that give the federal government a superseding right to fine you if you do not have insurance.

Debt, by state

As we all know, government spending is up. Not just on the federal level, but on the state level too.
So its worth knowing what your debt is, in the state that you are in, for the state that you are in.
CNN Money has provided this handy chart.

Take a look. Be informed.

The Kagan vote tally

From Real Clear Politics, the breakdown.
I had read that all but five Republicans had voted against her, and that one Democrat voted for her. So I wanted to know who those people were.

The Democrat was Nebraskan Ben Nelson, who was already targeted by the left.
The Republicans who voted against the grain of their party are:
Lugar from Indiana, Collins and Snowe from Maine, Gregg from New Hampshire, and Graham from South Carolina.

Naturally, East coast Republicans.

Old WH press seating chart

From 538, who got it from the WH.
For anyone who thought that it wasn't right that Fox was chosen for one of the front seats, note that they were the only cable news station that didn't have a seat up front.
Despite being #1 in the ratings.

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,245,000 viewers
CNN – 357,000 viewers
MSNBC – 367,000 viewers
CNBC – 184,000 viewers
HLN – 293,000 viewers

Chart of our health care

The GOP put out an updated chart of what our health care will look like.
This one is classic.

Click here to download the PDF.

Andy Griffith is pitching for Barack

Yet another thing that drives me crazy is when I find out that we've paid for ads to run on television telling people how to take advantage of an entitlement.

One such case is now running on cable, using Andy Griffith as a pitchman for medicare. Of everything that I find distasteful in my government, this is among the worst. I do not want to pay taxes so that the government can buy commercials to tell me all of the great things I'm getting in return for paying taxes. In theory, my representatives can do that themselves.

White House and their criminal guest

Yet another one of the White Houses' stage props have turned on them.
This time, its not a teleprompter, but Leslie Macko. The president was using her as an example of someone who kept sending out resumes, but who could not get a job.

The only problem with this?
Uhm.. it might be that she had two criminal convictions on her record. That might be why Leslie was having trouble becoming employed again.

The new "Blame the Republicans" Talking Points

I debate politics. A lot.
Lately, there is one argument that keeps coming up that is about as lame as it comes. Its a variation on blaming Republicans for everything.

On any topic, from cap & trade to running unprecedented deficits, the newest spin is to suggest that Republicans wanted to do it first.

Jill Lawrence dances this theme in her post on Politics Daily.

So many Republicans have changed their ideas on so many major issues that it's hard to keep up.

Jill then plays a very dangerous game of suggesting that some Republicans represent all of them.

Some examples of how Jill is distorting the truth:

1. Financial disclosure...."Republicans are in favor of disclosure," Sen. Mitch McConnell said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in 2000. Seven years later, on the same program, House GOP leader John Boehner declared: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
But Boehner voted no last month on the DISCLOSE Act, which requires corporations, unions and some other groups to disclose more information about their campaign activities.

So let's see what Boehner was asked:

WALLACE: But you have indicated — in fact, at one point, you used and then took back the word "childish" to describe this idea of all these bans on gifts and travel. Do you feel, in fact, that bans make less sense than just more disclosure of what happens?

BOEHNER: I think that some of the proposals that were out there — and there have been a lot of proposals offered by members, by outside groups. And I thought some of the proposals were outright childish, treating members like kids.

I think that what we need to do is we need to deal with the underlying problems that we have today. And I believe that disclosure of the relationship between those who lobby us, whether they be paid lobbyists here in Washington, those from agencies, or others — disclosure of those relationships — and let the American people take a look at how this relationship works.

Sunlight's the best disinfectant. I think it will help.

Interesting. So Boehner didn't favor laws that "require[s] corporations, unions and some other groups to disclose more information about their campaign activities."
Rather, Boehner favored disclosure of lobbyists and who they work for.

If you google the phrase "Sunlight is the best disinfectant", you'd swear that Boehner endorsed every and any type of financial disclosure. That's how strong this narrative has become.
More on this later.

But make no mistake, Jill Lawrence is trying to muddy the waters of real debate.

Center For Automobile Research, propaganda

Fox had this story about the president and the auto industry.
The president is going on a victory tour to discuss how great everything is now after he bailed them out.

While watching the video, I noted that part of the video seemed to be kinda cut in, by a guy named David Cole from the Center for Automobile Research.
Watch it, and note how David comes in to defend the auto industry.

Now I know that sometimes, special interest groups will supply television studios with pre-cut footage of them commenting on an issue. And this certainly seemed to be the case. But I googled to find out if it was.
That's how I found this, by the NYTPicker:

The center has been cited in 137 different Times stories since 2001, most of them quoting David Cole -- who has been variously identified by Times reporters as its "director," "executive director," "president," "chairman" and "head." (CAR's website give his title as "chairman.")

Clearly, its a special interest group that does a great job of feeding quotes the the NY Times.
I think they have outsourced their influence.

A very short history of the attack on Goldline

Its started with Color Of Change, and then moved to Media Matters.


Go to Media Matters and punch in the search term "Goldline". You'll get 9 pages of hits.

Most of them are labeled "So, who's still advertising on Beck?"
This is one of the first pages where they did this, back in August of 2009. They've been doing it nonstop for a year.

Media Matters for America has compiled a list of companies that did run ads on Glenn Beck this evening (August 26) in the order they appeared:

Goldline, of course, was on that list.

Here's one page on Media Matters that starts the 'Glenn Beck is trying to get you to buy gold' narrative. The money quote?

Eighty advertisers have reportedly dropped their ads from Beck's Fox News program since he called President Obama a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred of white people." The gold companies are among the last ones that still want to be associated with Beck.
Today, they got their reward.

Never let it be said that Media Matters holds back on the greedy people narrative. To their credit, Media Matters did not say anything about Shekels.

This narrative has continued for a year now.

Another page I've found along the way is from SEIU.
SEIU is one of Beck's favorite targets. Who woulda guessed that they'd start aiming at his show too?

Let's be clear about what the attack on Goldline is really about: the far left trying to shut Beck up.
Remember what Media Matters wrote a while back:

The gold companies are among the last ones that still want to be associated with Beck.

Well. We can't have that... can we?

More 'unexpected' economic news

My favorite new economic phrase is "unexpected". As in, "Unemployment was unexpectedly higher". Or, "GDP was unexpectedly down."

Now we get:

The recession was deeper than the government previously thought.

The Commerce Department, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year -- the steepest drop since 1946. That's worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated.

uh huh.

Blogger Brian Steltzer chastised Fox News for its low viewership among African Americans.
HuffPo, being HuffPo, followed suit.

This irony is clear when you find out that Brian Steltzer has the lowest readership of any media blog:

Interestingly, though, the media site where Stelter primarily blogs (New York Times' Media Decoder) suffers from the lowest percentage of African-American readers (4.6%) when compared to comparable media sites like Mediaite (5.8%), Gawker (6.4%), Mediabistro (9.2%), etc., according to Nielsen Media Research.

Congrats to Matt Lewis of Politics Daily for the catch.