Last night, on Fox News, a debate, sponsored by the news channel, the Iowa Republican Party, and the Washington Examiner, was held featuring eight Republican Candidates for that party’s Presidential Nomination.

Unfortunately, after the debate was over, it left a lot of Conservative Americans saying:

Are these people all we have?

Allow me to summarize the evening’s excitement (and I use that term loosely):

Former Minnesota Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachman continued their personal battle during the debate, sounding eerily similar to Tony DiNozzo and Kate Todd in the early days of the TV Series NCIS:

Did not…did too…did not….did too…did not…did too…

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Representative and professional Pat Paulsen Impersonator (without the humor) Ron Paul went back and forth over Iran and nuclear weapons.

Grizzled Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, when asked about the meltdown of his campaign and his campaign staff heading for the hills, complained to the moderators about their “gotcha” questions.

Former Godfather’s Pizza C.E.O. Herman Cain continued to attempt to position himself as America’s solution to the Obama Economy:

It is clear from the discussion tonight that America needs a leader and a uniter. I represent growth. All the issues that we talk about, if we don’t get this economic engine moving by putting fuel in the engine, all of the rest of it won’t matter.

Jon Huntsman, making his presidential debate debut, admitted he had not offered an economic plan but cited his economic record as governor of Utah as evidence of what he would accomplish as president. He also defended his service as ambassador to China under Obama.

Basically, this goober spent the whole debate trying to convince everyone he was a Republican and not a Liberal Democrat.

He failed.

By now you’re probably saying:  But, KJ, what about the GOP Elite and Main Stream Media anointed front-runner, Mitt “The Legacy” Romney?

Basically, it appeared that Romney’s handlers advised him to “hold his own” during the debate, as evidenced by Mittens making such daring statements as this one, in which he replied to Obama’s Economic record:

If you spend your life in the private sector, you understand what President Obama has done is the complete opposite of what needs to be done.

Gee, Mittens…ya think? And, by the way, you’re a second generation politician.

Pawlenty (T-Paw) came after Mittens, in an attempt to call him accountable for the health care program he signed into law in Massachusetts, which is seen by the majority of Americans as the forerunner to Obamacare:

Obamacare was patterned after Mitt’s plan in Massachusetts, and for Mitt or anyone else to say they’re not essentially the same plan, it just isn’t credible. And that’s why I called it Obamneycare and I think that’s a fair label.

T-Paw also jumped on Romney’s record on spending and judicial appointments as governor.

Romney shot back by joking that he liked Pawlenty’s answer in the last debate better, eliciting a few laughs.  Romney then, once again, stood behind his government-run health care program, acknowledging there are similarities but also differences, using a states-rights argument.

We put together a plan that was right for Massachusetts. The president took the power of the people and the states away from them and put in place a one-size-fits-all plan.

Romney added that he would grant all 50 states a waiver from that law if he is elected.

Two of the biggest laughs of the night, albeit unintentional, came from the Republican Isolationist candidate, Ron Paul, who proclaimed:

It’s about time we talk to Cuba.

The elder statesman and Ob/Gyn also claimed the United States had created the hostile relations between it and Iran.

A short while later, he was seen sitting in a corner, underwear on top of his head, saying:

I like cheese.

Just kidding – A tip of the Jesters Hat to my buddy, Bishop.

Almost an hour into the debate Santorum raised his hand and said:

I haven’t gotten to say a lot.

Y’know, Rick, there may have been a reason for that.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is presumed to announce that he is jumping into the fray on Saturday.  The 61-year-old Perry is the longest-serving chief executive of the state in its history and has held elected office for almost 27 years.

As, I reported in my two posts, Rick Perry: The Eyes of Texas (and Everybody Else) are Upon Him and Rick Perry:  Governing Deep in the Heart of Texas, this cowboy measures up to the three-legged stool known as Reagan Conservatism.

Whether he has the charisma to win the Presidency is another thing entirely.

Then again, he may not be the last Republican Candidate to declare his/her intentions…

Know what I mean, Vern?

As President Barack Hussein Obama’s Ship of State sinks faster than the Titanic, his friends in Hollywood are trying to help him bail…and they’re not being very subtle about it.

And Obama’s people are responding in kind.

The movie studio producing an epic about the U.S. special forces raid that killed muslim mass murderer Osama bin Laden is getting help from the Pentagon, but, don’t worry, gentle reader, the Administration proclaimed on Wednesday that no classified information has been leaked.

Per weeklystandard.com:

Sony Pictures, the company distributing next year’s film, hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama on their studio’s premises in California last April. So far, Sony is the only major studio to hold a political fundraiser this cycle. According to Deadline Hollywood, Sony will release the bin Laden movie, directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, on October 12, 2012–less than a month before the presidential election.

“The eyebrow does go up when you see the release date,” says Douglas Urbanski, a Hollywood producer and conservative radio talk show host. Urbanski said he believes Bigelow’s movie will be straightforward and apolitical, much like her 2009 war film The Hurt Locker (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture). But Sony’s decision to release the bin Laden movie just weeks before the election, he says, is most likely “very, very deliberate.”

Urbanski was a producer for The Contender, a 2000 political thriller with a plot that sympathized with a sex scandal-plagued Democrat and demonized a conservative Republican member of Congress. The movie was released on October 13, 2000. “It was without a doubt a deliberate attempt to influence the election,” says Urbanski.

The movie, featuring the only good thing that has happened under Obama’s watch, will hit America’s movie screens in October 2012, in a blatant attempt to influence American voters.

Was Dan Rather a consultant on this film?

The chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King (R), called Tuesday for an investigation into contacts between the administration and the filmmakers. King wants to know whether special operations methods had been compromised.

According to White House spokesman Jay “Jaybird” Carney in a recent press briefing:

The claims are ridiculous.

We do not discuss classified information. And I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie.

“Shut up,” he explained.

Per Pentagon spokesman, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan, the Defense Department is cooperating with filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal as they work on a motion picture about the raid that killed bin Laden.

The two, who worked together on the Oscar-winning Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker,” had been developing the bin Laden film even before the al Qaeda leader was killed in May in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

In a statement, the pair said their movie covered a period of three different U.S. administrations that searched for bin Laden, including those of Presidents Clinton and Bush:

This was an American triumph, both heroic and non-partisan, and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise.

After a New York Times column saying the film was timed to give Obama a “home-stretch boost” in his re-election bid was published, King has called for an investigation into the claim that Bigelow had been given “top-level access to the most classified mission in history.”

Lt. Col. Lapan responded, saying that the Defense Department is “providing assistance with script research, which is something we commonly do for established filmmakers.” Lapan said the Pentagon attempts to help filmmakers and authors but “we do not discuss classified information.”

According to Carney, the information provided to the filmmakers “has been focused on the president’s role”:

There is no difference in the information that we’ve given to anybody who’s working on this topic from what we gave to those of you in this room who worked on it in the days and weeks after the raid itself.”

Sure, Jaybird.  Now about the timing of the release…

As of yesterday, gallup.com reported that Obama has tied his all-time low for job approval, sitting at 40%.

And, on a day that saw the Stock Market dropping (again) over 500 points , a Reuters/Ipsos poll was released, with results showing that

73% of Americans believe the United States is “off on the wrong track,” and just one in five, 21 percent, think the country is headed in the right direction.

The survey found that 47 percent believe “the worst is yet to come” in the U.S. economy, an increase of 13 percentage points from a year ago when this question was last raised.

This is the highest measure since March 2009, when concern peaked at 57 percent, at the height of the recession.

There is some good news for Obama and his handlers, though:

Eighty percent of Muslim Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, according to a newly released survey conducted by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, a partnership between Gallup and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately for our petulant president, the Muslim population of the United States (yes, Scooter, all 57 of them) currently stands at a mere 1.5 per cent.

As for the majority of Americans, well…we’re convinced that he stinks on ice…and no movie produced by a bunch of  Liberal sycophants in Hollyweird is going to convince us otherwise.

The world seems to be becoming more and more chaotic as flash mobs have sprung up from nowhere, rioting, attacking people and property, seemingly in response to the harsh worldwide economic situation.

In London, they’re recovering from three nights of rioting where hundreds of people rampaged through the streets, leaving several local neighborhoods destroyed. One man is dead, dozens injured and arrested, with the protests spreading to parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.

In Great Britain, in late June, half the public schools in Britain where closed down due to a massive protest over public pensions cuts, including three major teachers’ unions, customs and immigration officers, and air traffic controllers. 750,000 people took part in the protest.

According to the press in London, unrest among the urban poor has been brewing for years, in neighborhoods like Tottenham, where the riots started.

However, just like the recent flash mob in Wisconsin, the press covered it up. According to one citizen of “Londonistan”:

There was not a word in the press about our protests. Last night (Saturday) a bit of rioting and looting and now look around you.

In response, Prime Minister David Cameron has doubled the amount of police officers in the streets and instituted curfews for young adults.

His conservative government is under fire for spending cuts to social programs in order to help reduce the country’s debt. Among those hit the hardest are large numbers of minority youths who have been at the forefront of the unrest.

And spending cuts cause people to lose their ethics, morals, and their very minds?

In Israel, 250,000 people participated in protests in Tel Aviv on Saturday over the rising cost of living. Demonstrations actually began last month when a few people set up tents in an expensive part of Tel Aviv to protest rising property prices.

According to Reuters, the protesters want the following:

Increase personal tax brackets for top earners

Enshrine the right to housing in the law; introduce rent controls; boost mortgage relief

Stop further privatization of things such as health facilities

Provide free education for all from the age of three months

Raise the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage

In the Mediterannean countries of Spain, Greece, and Portugal,there have been protests in reaction to government austerity programs and horrible economic conditions.

Riots started in Greece last June over the country’s parliament’s vote to approve severe cutbacks in government spending.

Dozens of people were hurt and businesses were destroyed as police battled rioters with tear gas and night sticks.

Greek lawmakers made the decision to make the spending cuts so Greece would be able to receive more bailout money from the International Monetary Fund and European Union.

The protests in Spain occurred when thousands of people turned out in late May to protest the country’s 21 percent unemployment rate.

They were also protesting against government corruption and austerity measures to reign in the country’s debt. Hundreds of people set up tents in a Madrid square and spent a week there in protest.

Last March, Portugal saw massive strikes and protests over government spending cuts. At least 200,000 people protested in Lisbon.

In the Phillipines,in May, thousands marched for higher pay. They wanted better wages in order to cope with rising inflation and higher oil prices.

The government has held job fairs in a meek response to the situation.

In Communist China, around 1,000 cab drivers in eastern China stopped traffic and protested on Aug. 1 over rising fuel costs.

China is experiencing surging inflation, with food prices recently increasing 12 percent.

In June, there were reports of thousands of workers fighting for three days with police in the capital city of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, during a protest of declining living standards.

The protests actually began in February,in an attempt to copy the Arab Spring uprising. At the time, calls through Chinese social networks were sent out for an uprising in several local cities.

According to published reports, the turnout was small in comparison to the enormous police presence and there were actually more fights between reporters and officials than demonstrators.

In Syria,starting with the Arab Spring, protests and riots against President Bashar al-Assad have been going on for five months.

Again, according to published reports, at least 1,600 people have been killed by the Syrian Government.

This is nothing new in Syria. In 1982 then-president Hafez al Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad, sent troops into the Syrian town of Hama, slaughtering between 10 – 40,000 citizens.

Under siege by calls by Syria’s Arab neighbors as well as the United States, Assad says he has no intention of giving up his post as president.

And, before you reach the false assumption that this sort of Flash Mob Violence will not occur her, in the greatest country on Earth, allow me to draw your attention to this post from csmonitor.com:

State police are roaming the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee, looking for teenage troublemakers. Philadelphia is stepping up enforcement of a curfew for teens in the Center City business district. Chicago police have beefed up patrols along the city’s “Miracle Mile” district in response to recent teenage “flash robs,” some which police say were orchestrated via social media.

What connects the three city crackdowns are teen-perpetrated crimes that are part opportunistic, part thrill-seeking, and, some residents fear, part racially motivated: dozens of black teenagers collectively targeting, and attacking, white people they don’t even know. Resentment fueled by dogged segregation, poor unemployment opportunities for young black men, and historic inequalities may all be playing into an atmosphere of racial discontent, sociologists say.

“[Mob violence] certainly doesn’t seem to be a national problem, but [police are indicating] there’s now reason to believe that it could potentially emerge as a problem,” says Sean Varano, a criminologist at Roger Williams University, in Bristol, R.I.

On Monday, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said he would add street patrols and start enforcing a 9 p.m. weekend curfew for 13- to 18-year-olds for the Center City arts and shopping area. He took the step after a series of incidents over the past two years, including two in the past two weeks, in which black teens beat up on their victims, who were primarily white.

In a message Monday to the mob suspects, Mayor Nutter, Philadelphia’s third black mayor, said, “You have damaged your own race.”

“These are majority African-American youths and they need to be called on it,” the head of Philadelphia’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, J. Whyatt Mondesire, told the Washington Times.

So, the question I have, is: 

Are all these supposed Flash Mob Riots occurring spontaneously because of poor economic conditions, or, is all of this occurring as a result of behind-the-scenes forces using the downtrodden to implement their nefarious (be they secular or religious) plans?

Stay tuned and stay vigilant.

Yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) give his first public comment about Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt to AA-plus from AAA. When Obama began his speech, the stock market was struggling, with investors looking for a sign of hope, at -320.

Evidently, Wall Street was not impressed with the president’s pontification (or as Rush Limbaugh dubbed him, Debt Man Talking). Stocks immediately strated sinking like the Titanic, ending the day at – 634.

According to reuters.com, Obama tried to achieve the following points with his speech, which (of course) was delivered 40 minutes late:

* Reassurance. Obama wanted to underscore to Americans that the United States remains the economic envy of the world despite the credit downgrade and will work its way through its fiscal problems.

“Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be AAA country,” he said.

* Persuasion. Obama sought to use the S&P downgrade to his advantage in a long-running dispute with congressional Republicans over how best to stem Washington’s red ink.

Republicans want only spending cuts, a position Obama’s Democrats believe is unreasonable given the pressing need to maintain spending for the social safety net.

While a joint bipartisan congressional committee will chart a way forward on reducing deficits by late November, Obama made clear where he stands: he wants to increase taxes on wealthier Americans and an end to some corporate tax loopholes to ease the pain of spending cuts.

* Influence. Obama said he would lay out a specific vision for deficit reduction to help the congressional committee.

That was considered the big news from his remarks because, technically, the recent deal on deficit reduction puts the next phase in the process in the hands of lawmakers in Congress.

No, Reuters.   Just as your Personal Credit Rating depends on the wisdom and credibility of the one writing the checks in your house, so does America’s Credit Rating depend on the wisdom and credibility of the individual writing the checks in the White House.

And, as the Stock Market showed yesterday, Scooter does not measure up in either of those categories.

Here’s a question, though, gentle reader. Why did the president go golfing at Camp David this weekend, instead of dealing with this historically horrible Downgrade? 

I mean, after all, he doesn’t have any friends or mentors who might profit from a downgrade of America’s Credit Rating, does he?

Yep.  He sure does.

Per dailymail.co.uk:

A mystery investor or hedge fund reportedly made a bet of almost $1billion at odds of 10/1 last month that the U.S. would lose its AAA credit rating.

Now questions are being asked of whether the trader had inside information before placing the $850million bet in the futures market, or if the bet happened at all.

There were mounting rumours that investor George Soros, 80, famously known as ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’, could be involved.

The link has been made to Mr Soros in part because he has been tied to President Obama’s administration since 2008, reported The Examiner.

He also recently stopped managing money for outside investors, meaning he is under less scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commision.

But the mystery bet could easily have been made by another trader with similar resources, despite Mr Soros’s links with the Obama administration.

The bet also raises questions of whether President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner knew that a downgrade was on the cards.

Mr Geithner said in April there was ‘no risk’ of a downgrade – but the government now appears annoyed, not surprised, by last week’s decision.

He has since slammed S&P for showing ‘terrible judgment’ in their decision and a ‘stunning lack of knowledge’ of U.S. fiscal budget maths.

Hmmm.

On  the heels of Obama’s miserable performance, Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin published a Facebook post yesterday, titled, Conquering the Storm, in which she blasted our anti-American President, in a way in which only the Arctic Fox could.  I’ll end my post today, quoting her eloquence, with the words by which she ended hers:

Be wary of the efforts President Obama makes to “fix” the debt problem. The more he tries to “fix” things, the worse they get because his “solutions” always involve spending more, taxing more, growing government, and increasing debt. This debt problem is the greatest challenge facing our country today. Obviously, President Obama doesn’t have a plan or even a notion of how to deal with it. His press conference today was just a rehash of his old talking points and finger-pointing. That’s why he can’t be re-elected in 2012.

Our economic news is disheartening and the task before us can seem daunting, but we must not lose our sense of optimism. People look around today and may see only the negative. They see a culture and a nation in decline, but that’s not who we are! America must regain its optimistic pioneering spirit again. Our founders declared that “we were born the heirs of freedom.” We are the heirs of those who froze with Washington at Valley Forge, who held the line at Gettysburg, who freed the slaves, carved a nation out of the wilderness, and allowed reward for work ethic. We are the sons and daughters of that Greatest Generation who stormed the beaches of Normandy, raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and made America the strongest and most prosperous nation in the history of mankind. By God, we will not squander what has been given us!

Our destiny is still in our own hands if we pick ourselves up and act responsibly and quickly. We must all get involved. Concerned Americans must seek truth, work harder than ever, and be willing to sacrifice today to ensure freedom tomorrow. Please get engaged in 2012 electoral politics and support experienced, vetted, pro-free market fiscal conservatives who will dedicate all to preserving our Republic and protecting our Constitution.

– Sarah Palin

Ever since S & P downgraded America’s Credit Rating last Friday Evening, Democrat Politicians have been whining like little children caught by the principal cheating on exams, trying to blame it on the smart kid. Their whining echoed throughout our land as they proclaimed:

It’s the Tea Party’s fault!!!

That’s what King George said.

The Democrats shouted their lies from the mountaintop all weekend long, culminating on the Sunday talk shows, all moderated by hosts sympathetic to the Dems.

Democrats argued that the tea party made House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) shy away from a “grand bargain” that would have produced deeper cuts and significant entitlement reform.  Republicans, in turn, feebly attacked Democrats for not supporting more spending cuts, failing to support a balanced budget amendment and being gung ho on tax increases to try to make a dent the debt.

Per foxnews.com:

“I believe this is without question the Tea Party downgrade,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “This is the Tea Party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered even the will of many Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal.”

“I agree that there is dysfunction in our system, and a lot of it has to do with the failure of the president of the United States to lead,” responded Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “The fact is that the president never came forward with a plan. I was gratified to hear that he had plans, but it was never a specific plan, it was always the so-called leading from behind.”

…Kerry argued that if some Republicans are willing to default in order to reduce the size of government, then they are responsible for the downgrade.

“There were some people in the Republican Party — and (Senate Republican leader) Mitch McConnell even admitted this — who wanted to default. He said there were people in this party who are willing to shoot the hostage. In the end they found the hostage was worth ransoming. This is not about ransom, this is about our nation,” Kerry said.

But McCain, who followed Kerry on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said comments like Kerry’s aren’t going to increase solidarity.

“Talking about hostages? Lately the Democrats have been calling us terrorists. So, we need to lower that level of rhetoric obviously,” he said.

Which is funny, because McCain and the rest of the GOP Elite weres attempting to distance themselves from the Tea Party, and Conservatives in general during the negotiations, calling us “Hobbits”.  But, I digress…

Also, per foxnews.com:

Late Sunday, Europe’s central bank said it would “actively implement” its bond-buying program to calm investor concerns that Italy and Spain won’t be able to pay their debts. Last week, worries over the two countries’ ability to keep tapping bond markets contributed to the turmoil in global markets, which saw around $1.5 trillion wiped off share prices.

Seeking to avert panic spreading across financial markets, the finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 industrial and developing world also issued a joint statement Monday saying they were committed to taking all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth.

“We will remain in close contact throughout the coming weeks and cooperate as appropriate, ready to take action to ensure financial stability and liquidity in financial markets,” they said.

…Earlier in Asia, the repercussions of S&P’s downgrade weighed on stock markets.

Among the major markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 2.2 percent 9,097.56, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell the same rate to 20,490.50. South Korea’s Kospi ended 3.8 percent lower as did China’s main exchange in Shanghai.

In the currency markets, the euro was flat at $1.4308 while the dollar was down 0.8 percent at 77.69 yen.

Fears over the global economy are having a major impact on oil markets, with the main New York rate down another $2.87 to $84.01 a barrel.

Obama, his administration, and Congress can not say that they were not warned. Representatives from S&P briefed Republicans in mid-July about the consequences of a default, and warned them that an increase in the debt ceiling may still not be enough.

So, boys and girls, look for Republican Congressmen conservatives to request more cuts before October 1.

Plans are in the making for the House and Senate to approve a stopgap bill (known as a Continuing Resolution or “CR” in Congressional terms) whose purpose will be to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September. The thing is, with angry Conservative constituents pushing them, incensed over the package approved last week and now witnessing a credit downgrade, the GOP could be forced to reluctantly support more extreme cuts immediately.

As one Tea Party Freshman said:

We’re just getting started.

Of course, as long as the Dems control the Senate, Republicans will continue to run into a brick wall of whiny opposition.

As a Senior GOP aide snottily observed:

Tea partiers can think whatever they want. But no deal with the Senate will get down at a lower number than what was agreed to already.

And where was the President of the United States yesterday, as America was in turmoil over the S & P downgrade and all of his Congressional minions were desperately trying to cover for him?

He was somewhere between the 15th and 16th green…FORE!

 

 

 

The President of the United States of America made history on his watch, once again, yesterday.  And not in a good way.

Standard & Poor’s announced Friday night that it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in the history of our country, lowering our rating from AAA to AA.

Per S&P, “political brinkmanship” in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances “less stable, less effective and less predictable.” The company also explained that the bipartisan agreement reached this week to find at least $2.1 trillion in budget savings “fell short” of what was necessary to tame the nation’s debt over time and predicted that leaders would not be likely to achieve more savings in the future.

David Beers, head of S&P’s government debt rating unit said:

It’s always possible the rating will come back, but we don’t think it’s coming back anytime soon.

S&P came to their decision after a day of frantic negotiations with the Obama Administration.

Treasury Department officials slammed s&P during the negotiations. Their argument remains that the companyss political analysis was flawed and that it had made a numerical error in a draft of its downgrade report that overstated the deficit over 10 years by $2 trillion. Treasury Officials had reviewed the draft earlier in the day.

A pinheaded Treasury spokesperson proclaimed defensively Friday night:

A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself.

So does a country being downgraded to a AA Credit Rating, Skippy.

The downgrade to AA+ will send the already unstable global financial markets reeling, after a wild week in which panic over a worsening debt crisis in Europe and a faltering economy in the United States dropped America’s Stock Market like a stone, causing a loss of over 500 points on Thursday.

The AAA rating by Standard and Poors has made the U.S. Treasury bond one of the world’s safest investments

Through our history, the rating has allowed the leaders of our country to borrow at extraordinarily cheap rates to finance our government’s operations, including two wars and Social Security.

Treasury bonds have also been a fortress wall against the crushing economic tide of the last few years (say, since this Congress took over in 2007).

Before the Obama Administration lost it for us, America has had a AAA rating for 70 years.

According to those in the know, this downgrade could push up borrowing costs for the U.S. government, which would cost you and me, gentle reader, an additional tens of billions of dollars in taxes a year. It may also drive up interest rates for consumers and companies seeking mortgages, credit cards and business loans.

This downgrade to AA could also effect states and localities, including just about all of those in the Washington metro area. These local and state governments could lose their AAA credit ratings as well, which could raise the cost of borrowing for schools, roads and parks.

We’ll find out just how bad this downgrade is on Sunday night, when Asian markets open. However, the full effects of this financial body slam by S&P may not be felt for months. for months. The fact is, the initial effect on the markets may be minor, as they have been anticipating an S&P downgrade for weeks.

The following explanation is available in a pdf on standardandpoors.com:

We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating.

We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government’s debt dynamics anytime soon.

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.

America’s imperious Administration insisted that this would never happen.

In fact, Treasury Secretary, “Turbo Tax” Tim Geithner, said last Tuesday there was “no risk” the U.S. will lose its top credit rating amid a new analysis that revised its outlook on American debt to “negative.”

Per thehillcom:

Geithner took to the airwaves of financial news networks to push back against a report Monday by Standard & Poor’s that lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to “negative,” reflecting political uncertainty over whether lawmakers will reach an agreement to address long-term debt.

There is no chance that the U.S. will lose its top credit rating, Geithner said, forcefully disputing the notion that S&P or other ratings services might downgrade U.S. bonds from their current AAA rating.

“No risk of that, no risk,” Geithner said on the Fox Business Network.

“Washington is a hard place to read. And it’s hard for people to look past the political rhetoric and try to understand whether the leadership of Washington is going to take the tough steps necessary to get ahead of this problem,” the Treasury secretary explained. “I think the prospects for a bipartisan agreement are better than they’ve been in a long period of time. Of course, we have to turn that into action.”

Well, gosh.  I feel better now.  Hey, does anyone have a million dollars they can loan me?  I need to go buy a loaf of bread as we will soon be Zimbabwe West.

Barack Hussein Obama, President of these United States, celebrated his 50th birthday at the White House Thursday with a Rose Garden party, surrounded by his Senior Staff and his devoted wife.

After actually working yesterday morning (probably starting at 10:00) in the Oval Office, Obama went to the Blue Room of the White House for a barbeque birthday party with top aides. White House chefs had been seen earlier, cooking chicken and burgers on outdoor grills.

What, no prawns and arugula?

Later, Obama continued partying down with family and friends, including some of his buds from Chicago, in the Rose Garden.

Moochelle decided to poke fun at her hubby, composing a campaign email with the subject line “Gray Hairs” that she “asked” supporters to sign electronically for the president. According to Moocheelle, there is a reason for Scooter’s salt-and-pepper hair.

I see Barack make choices he knows will affect every American family. That’s no small task for anyone – and more proof that he’s earning every last one of those gray hairs.

Uh huh.

While the Obama’s and their sycophants were having a par-tahy…America’s Stock Market was doing it’s impression of the Titanic.

Per cnbc.com:

Stocks plunged sharply Thursday, with the Dow down more than 500 points, in its worst one-day drop since December 2008.

All three major averages tumbled into negative territory for the year as investors were rattled over an intensifying global economic slowdown and ahead of the widely-followed monthly unemployment report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 512.76 points, or 4.31 percent, to close at 11,383.68, led by Alcoa [AA 12.94 -1.32 (-9.26%) ] and BofA [BAC 8.83 -0.71 (-7.44%) ]. The last time the Dow dropped more than 500 points in a single session was in Dec. 2008.

The S&P 500 sank 60.27 points, or 4.78 percent, to end at 1,200.07.

The Nasdaq plunged 136.68 points, or 5.08 percent, to finish at 2556.39.

The major indexes are firmly in negative territory for the year. In addition, all three averages fell into “correction territory,” defined by a drop of 10 percent from its peak from its intraday high in Apr. 29.

…On the economic front, weekly jobless claims were little changed last week, edging down to a seasonally adjusted 400,000, according to the Labor Department.

“The jobless claims number was not too encouraging … we need to see more of a significant improvement than the data just squeaking by,” said Doreen Mogavero, president and CEO of Mogavero Lee & Company.

The claims news comes ahead of Friday’s government non-farm payroll data, which likely increased 85,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey, after rising only 18,000 in June. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.2 percent.

“We’ve reduced our equity exposure by half at the end of the second quarter,” said Rob Stein, portfolio manager and senior economist of Astor Asset Management. “We’ll need to see the economic data stabilize.”

The economic news just keept getting better.  Per marketwatch.com, the Stock Market did something historical yesterday, something it had not done for 323 years: it  has now experienced a decline for 9 straight sessions:

The last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -4.31%, did that, in fact, was Feb. 22, 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president and the country was struggling to come to grips with a period of anemic economic growth and high inflation.

Isn’t it comforting to know that we’ve made such progress over the last three decades?

Actually, about the only thing that is comforting in the historical data on Dow losing streaks is that many of them have occurred near major bear-market bottoms.

For example, before February 1978, the previous time the Dow declined for nine straight sessions was in October 1974. That came just two months prior to the end of the punishing 1973-74 bear market.

No worries, though.  Scooter has a plan!

From thehill.com:

President Obama will travel the Midwest by bus in August to talk up his job-creation efforts and try to shore up political support in battleground states.

Obama will embark on a three-day tour from Aug. 15 – 17. The administration said Wednesday that the trip had long been planned, but wouldn’t outline an itinerary beyond saying the stops would be in the Midwest.

The bus is a rare mode of travel for a sitting president. Commanders in chief usually travel in the comfort of Air Force One or Marine One, and on the ground, the president has a blast-proof limousine for all occasions.

The trip might help explain why the Secret Service purchased two armored buses for its fleet earlier this year. The protective agency told The Hill it planned to use the buses during the presidential campaign — with one bus designated for the Republican nominee — and also for large entourages of visiting dignitaries.

And by the way, gentle reader, we’re paying for it.

Courtesy of theblaze.com:

Taxpayers will be footing the bill when President Barack Obama sets out on a Midwest bus tour to visit some traditionally key swing states later this month, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

In the latest example of tension between Carney and the White House press corps, Carney told reporters the tour will be an official event as opposed to a campaign event and snapped back when reporters questioned whether taxpayers would be paying for it.

“So is it being funded by taxpayers in battleground states?” a reporter from CNSNews asked.

Carney paused for just a moment before saying with an exasperated smile, “He’s the president of the United States:”

And that, Jaybird, is a fact that Americans are all too painfully aware of.

By the way…great idea…a bus tour..waitaminute…hasn’t that been done before?  Oh, yeah…

 

Now that President Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be upon him during Ramadan) has gotten that pesky Debt Ceiling Thingy out of the way, and has partied down in celebration of his 50th birthday, doing what he loves best: taking other people’s money(fundraising), he has announced that he will turn his legendary laser-like focus to America’s Job Situation…again.

According to Obama, Americans “want us to get this economy growing and adding jobs”.

Gee, Scooter…ya think?

Y’know, I had a Frampton Comes Alive album that used to repeat itself like that…

Fox News reports that:

Since January 2010, the unemployment rate has averaged about 9.4 percent. On average, the economy is creating about 94,000 jobs per month — well below the at least 125,000 needed to keep pace with population growth. Not only is the jobless rate on the upswing, but those out of work are staying out of work longer. The jobless typically are out of work for nearly 40 weeks, which is 30 percent longer than in January 2010.

Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have had much success, and have no more ideas on how to fix the Job Situation, than they had on how to cut the deficit.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch “Grandpa” McConnell has a brilliant idea:

Quit borrowing. Quit spending. Quit trying to raise taxes. Quit over-regulating and let the private sector flourish.

What an original idea…

Repuplicans say that the key to their Jobs message is certainty.  According to Washington policies fuel the “uncertainty” in the private sector and keep businesses from hiring.  Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chimed in, saying that Obama has “made it worse.”

Republicans, trying to emulate the Tea Party Movement, have sounded the alarm.  They are emphasizing  reining in government, tackling spending, lowering tax rates, stripping regulations and whittling away at the federal health care overhaul to whatever extent they can  (repeal and replace, you RINOs!).  Also, yesterday, they called for more domestic oil production.

Per academic pinhead,Harry Holzer, a Georgetown University professor and Urban Institute fellow who used to work as a Labor Department economist, Obama and his administration are economic geniuses.

Holzer insists that the stimulus may be possible for keeping the jobless rate from rising even higher, though it is impossible to know. He also said the enormity of the economic crisis has made any government response tantamount to “spitting into the wind.”

TRANSLATION:  It’s not Obama’s fault!!!!

When you have this kind of recession caused by the collapse of a financial bubble, it’s always hard to recover from it.

According to the Harvard professor, the nation’s debt limits how much the U.S. government can spend on recovery, while the uncertainty in Europe and recurring “antics” in Washington make for a tentative business climate.

Democrats have joined in the IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!! chorus:

Senate Majority Leader Dinghy Harry Reid feebly explained:

If their [Republicans’] theory was right, the huge taxes that took place during the Bush eight years — the economy should be thriving.  These tax cuts have not helped the economy.

Well, you idiot, they sure as all-get-out haven’t hurt it!

According to the rocket scientist in the White House, economic growth

…isn’t just about cutting spending. It’s not about rolling back regulations that protect our air and our water and keep our people safe. That’s not how we’re going to get past this recession.

The afore-mentioned economic genius wants his minions in Congress to implemented several previously discarded proposals, ranging from patent reform to new trade deals to what he describes as an “infrastructure bank” aimed at helping private companies repair U.S. roads and bridges and airports — an idea that the academic pinhead from Harvard, Holzer, proclaimed a “winner.”

Obama said yesterday, that:

We have workers who need jobs and a country that needs rebuilding. An infrastructure bank would help us put them together.

Obama also ured Congress to extend Unemployment Benefits.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., chimed in, hawking clean-energy investment as well as currency reform to bring countries like China back on a level playing field with other trading partners.

He must have stock in General Electric.

Congress is on Summer Recess and will not return to plague us until September.

Thank you, Lord.

Yahoo News reports that:

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country’s spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

Public debt subject to the official debt limit — a slightly tighter definition — was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier.

If Obama, his administration, and the Clown College known as the United States Congress “help us” anymore, we won’t have a country left.

After a disappointing day for the majority of Americans, in which we felt like we had just watched a desperate political battle for the future of our nation’s economy turned into a professional wrestling match, whose outcome had been determined behind the scene before the match even started, Former Alsaskan Governor Sarah Palin appeared on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News.  Here’s the interview:

As you saw in the video, the following dialogue occured when Hannity asked about the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential Nomination (until she gets in the race), Mitt Romney:

This is gonna leave a mark.

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin:  [I’m] getting closer to making the decision, of course, for legal reasons, for practical reasons; but still haven’t made up my mind yet, Sean. But, doggone it, I want these candidates who are in there, I want them to not be sitting back. And bless his heart, I have respect for Mitt Romney, but I do not have respect for what he has done through this debt increase debate. He did this [puts finger in air]. He waited until it was a done deal that we would increase the debt ceiling and more money would be spent, more money borrowed and then spent on bigger government; and then he came out and he made a statement that ‘oh he didn’t like the deal after all.’ You know, you can’t defer an issue and assume that the problem is going to be, then, avoided. No, you defer an issue like not speaking out on how you really believe about an issue that we’ve just gone through as a nation and you are inviting a crisis. So Mitt Romney and other candidates, you need to get out there, you need to tell the electorate what you really feel about these issues. Don’t do this [puts finger in air]. Don’t just wait and sit back.

The Artic Fox sure nailed that one.  Romney, as is his practice, stayed down in his foxhole until the battle was over.  He then stuck his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing.  Finally, he issued a statement.

What a Profile in Courage, huh?

She also commented about a meeting on Monday (which I wrote about yesterday) in which Vice President Joe Biden said Republicans were “terrorists” during a closed-door meeting with Congressional Democrats about the debt compromise.

According to Gov. Palin, “enough is enough” and she’s “not going to sit here and take it anymore” when pontificating politicians like “Sheriff Joe” accuse the Tea Party Movement of being Raaaciiists:

It’s all talk and no real action. Otherwise he’d be on Biden and tell Biden to tone it down a little bit. Yeah, right, independent patriotic Americans who desire fiscal sanity in our beloved nation being called terrorists. Heck, Sean, if we were real domestic terrorists, shoot, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wouldn’t he? I mean he didn’t have a problem paling around with Bill Ayers back in the day when he kicked off his political career in Bill Ayers’ apartment.

Honest.  Direct…and to the point.  How…refreshing. 

Especially, as compared to these three nattering nabobs of negativity:

Three MSNBC hosts, at an appearance before reporters on Tuesday at a meeting of the Television Critics Association, predicted the winner of the 2012 Presidential Race…their messiah, the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, of course:  President Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be upon him, as he celebrates the holy days of Ramadan).

Lawrence O’Donnell, host of “The Last Word,” flatly predicted the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Rachel Maddow fell in line with O’Donnell, citing a thus-far weak Republican field as the reason for her pick.

But “Hardball” host Chris “Tingles” Matthews unexpectedly waffled, proclaiming that Obama’s fate will rest largely on the economy as well as whom the GOP nominates.

According to Chrissie, Mitt Romney, whom Matthews dismissed as “a mood ring,” would be a pushover for Obama and Michele Bachmann, whom Matthews can’t stand, because she told him off on live TV on the night of the Midterm Elctions, would fare even worse than Romney:

He’ll [Obama] just have a hoot.

EPILOGUE:  I have read that several of  my fellow posters on a well-known Conservative blog, supposedly feel the same way as Larry, Moe, and Shemp-ette from MSNBC do.  These posters claim to be Conservative, although I suspect that they are actually Libertarians, squishy Moderates, or just dyed-in-the-wool Liberals, whose sole purpose for posting is to spread negativity and disrupt Conservative dialogue (but, I digress…).

Gov. Palin’s statements, made on Hannity last night, have the potential to ignite a firestorm…and it’s about cotton-pickin’ time!  Reagan Conservatives need to get up off of it and start walkin’ real loud and talkin’ real proud again (courtesy of Charlie Daniels and the CDB).

As I posted the other day:

In a poll released on August 1st, 2011, gallup.com  reported:

Americans’ political ideology at the midyear point of 2011 looks similar to 2009 and 2010, with 41% self-identifying as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.

If this pattern continues, 2011 will be the third straight year that conservatives significantly outnumber moderates — the next largest ideological bloc. Liberalism has been holding steady for the past six years, averaging either 21% or 22%, although notably higher than the 17% average seen in Gallup polling during the early to middle ’90s.

Gov. Palin was not afraid to speak her mind last night.  The rest of us who proudly wear the mantle of Reagan Conservatives should not be either.