L.A.’s Failed Mayor Getting Promoted by the Democrats

The city of L.A. is sinking of the captain is busy cutting ribbons, traveling, and dating hot local reporters.

The once great L.A. is in bad shape for a number of reasons:

• high taxes make it hard for people to buy homes
• high taxes and regulations are driving businesses out of the city
• government employee unions are draining the city of resources
• the liberal Democrat-filled City Council that wastes time passing resolutions condemning talk radio hosts rather than solving real problems

And, then of course you have L.A.’s mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. I won’t go through the whole list of his ineptness since much of that was covered in a previous post titled The 11% Mayor. You can check it out here if you want to see how the mayor spends his day: http://tiny.cc/9qn4cw

The fact is, the horribly destructive policies of Villaraigosa and the left-wing city council have put the pedal to the metal as the city speeds toward bankruptcy. Villaraigosa is pulling all sorts of tricks such as borrowing against future revenue to keep the city above water a bit longer, and he knows it will soon catch up to L.A. A couple years ago he uttered this infamous line:

“The fact of the matter is this city will never go bankrupt.” And then added: ”It will never go bankrupt under my watch.”

As Tom Gray points out in City Journal:

Miguel Santana, the city’s top budget officer confirms what critics of Villaraigosa have been saying for some time: if L.A. continues on its present course it will go broke.

So, in his recent State of the City address, he must have addresses this huge issue, right? Nope. That address was just a video resume for another government job where he can mess up something bigger.

And, since Villaraigosa is doing such a bang up job, the Democrats are giving him a larger presence on the nation level. In a recent radio interview with Doug McIntyre on 790AM in Los Angeles, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was trying to explain why the Democrats are giving L.A.’s failed mayor Antonio Villaraigosa such a big roll at the Democratic Convention this year. You’ve got to hear this:

http://youtu.be/V7oiZFMRA8M

Apparently, all you need to do to make a great impression with national Democrats is to bankrupt the second largest city in the country.

Brown’s Green Train Fantasy

Jerry Brown and the Democrats are at it again. They are pushing the fantasy of high-speed rail in California. Now, admittedly it sounds nice, zooming along on a train from L.A. to San Francisco, sipping a martini, until you realize flying there is faster, cheaper, and easier. But, that doesn’t deter liberals. Because, on the bullet train just like everything else, the Democrats don’t let facts and common sense get in the way of their ideology.

Despite all of the protest from consumers, groups, budget experts, and even former members of the High Speed Rail Board, that the project is not feasible, especially in the light of California’s disastrous fiscal situation, Brown and the Democrat’s keep pushing it. The whole project is now projected to cost $100 billion! The state has between $3-$5 billion. They want to start the project and hope the rest of the money will magically appear. How crazy is this? Does any sound business say we have enough money to build 5% of a new factory, so let’s start building now and hope the money comes in some how?

Aside from this, every aspect of this project is a joke.

Chris Reed of the City Journal reports:

The bullet train’s “reasonableness of financial estimates” is questionable, beginning with the project’s revenue forecasts. The LAO noted a projection of 44 million riders a year when the L.A.-Bay Area line is complete. That’s down from the hallucinatory claim of 117 million passengers that proponents of Prop. 1A offered in 2008, but it’s still ridiculous. In reality, 44 million passengers would be 50 percent higher than the number of people Amtrak carries to and from more than 500 stations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces each year.

Reed goes on:

How was the estimate derived? Elizabeth Alexis, a Palo Alto finance expert and co-founder of Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design, looked into the methodology and discovered, among other things, that the rail authority assumed that the future cost of gasoline would top $40 a gallon. Alexis also noted that the public-opinion polls that bullet-train backers crafted to gauge potential passenger interest were heavily biased. For example, 96 percent of commuters surveyed were already train riders. But unlike commuters in other states, only a tiny percentage of Californians rides the train.

You can read the full article at http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0321cr.html

So, they basically only interviewed current train riders to determine if they would ride a bullet train? How crazy is this? Again, no sound organization would conduct research like this. But, that’s the point. California is not a sound organization. It’s a state with huge Democratic majorities running the political structure. And, this is what you get. Ideology trumps logic.

Obama’s Energy Policy is a Dry Well – Part 3

While the economy continues to struggle, with very small, if any, growth in the key economic indicators now is a good time to examine President Obama’s claim that green jobs would lead the U.S. to economic utopia.

When President Obama was running for office, he rallied voters behind him by playing on their sense of patriotism and competitiveness, saying other countries are taking the lead in green energy. How can we let nations like China and Spain! (Spain the land of great ham sandwiches, but not known for their industrial might) beat us to all of these great jobs of the future?

But as Jonah Goldberg points out in The Los Angeles Times:

Barack Obama came into office insisting that Spain was beating the U.S. in the rush for green jobs. Never mind that in Spain — where unemployment is now at 21% — the green jobs boom has been a bust. One major 2009 study by researchers at King Juan Carlos University found that the country destroyed 2.2 jobs in other industries for every green job it created, and the Spanish government has spent more than half a million euros for each green job created since 2000. Wind industry jobs cost a cool $1 million euros apiece.

Wow! WHat a deal. If only the U.S. could create millions of green jobs just like Spain! Then we could be just like Greece. Broke.

Goldberg goes on:

The record in America has been no better, Obama’s speeches notwithstanding. The New York Times, which has been touting the green agenda in its news pages for years, admitted that “federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show.” Even Obama’s former green jobs czar concedes the point, as do other leading Democrats, including Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles.

But like a typical liberal, Obama doesn’t let facts get in the way of ideology. He still pushes spending billions and billions on the green initiatives.

There are dozens of stories of wasted billions from the Stimulus Package funneled to green projects that were going to create hundreds of jobs, that ended up creating just a few jobs, of programs invested in that never materialized, and then of course you have the green scandals like Solyndra. That’s the company that the Obama Administration gave $535 million to after they were warned by their own Department of Energy that Solyndra was in financial difficulty and likely to go bankrupt. But being the Green President he is, Obama went forward with the massive loan and he and Joe BIden made appearances at Solyndra promising (you guessed it) that the loan would create a thousand new, permanent jobs as Joe Biden put it. To watch his promises, check out the video below and start watching at 4:28. Don’t worry, you only need to watch 10 seconds of Biden to get the point.

But its not hard to figure out why the administration keeps focusing on green jobs, while the unemployment rate remains way too high. It’s not about green (in terms of the environment) it’s about green (as in dollars). You see, many of these loans including Solyndra went to companies owned by, or with investors that heavily contributed to Obama’s campaign. So, he really doesn’t care about the jobs, it’s a payback, plus a nice photo op for him to show that he’s doing something, anything, jobs related.

And, then most of the loans not given to his friends companies are given to state and local officials, most of who supported his campaign, so they can dole out the money as they see fit and spend a couple million dollars to create one $40,000 a year job. That’s government efficiency for you.

Once you realize Obama’s green promises are not about the environment, but about payoffs and politics, then him ignoring the facts, makes a lot more sense.

Obama’s Energy Policy is a Dry Well – Part 2

Part One of this piece focused of the double standard in how the Democrats and media discuss high gas prices under Bush vs. Obama. Now, let’s look how cynical it is for Obama to take credit for increased oil production in the U.S. during his administration.

In fact, oil production on Federal land (that he controls) is down 40%. since he has actively pursued policies that limit production. The production increase has been on private lands and state lands where he has limited control. Plus, it has come from technological advances in drilling and extracting oil made by private companies.

The Obama Administration is pursuing policies that they know will drive up the price of gas since that fits their ideology of fewer cars and less industrialization that is the crown jewel of the far-left environmentalists. Steven Chu, Obama’s Energy Secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in 2008, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”<a This would put U.S. gas prices at $8-$10 a gallon. And, three weeks ago he made similar comments in testimony before Congress.

Obama’s real record on oil is summarized well by Conn Carroll of the Washington Examiner:

Immediately after taking office in 2009, Obama canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah.

In January 2010, Obama issued new regulations making it more difficult to develop energy resources on federal land.

Under Obama, in 2010 the federal government issued the lowest number of onshore leases since 1984.

Under Obama the federal government has leased less than half of the offshore acres that President Clinton did.

Obama is also blocking access to 19 billion barrels of oil in the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, another 10 billion barrels estimated in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast, and another 10 billion barrels of oil in the ANWR.

So, you see, Barack Obama taking credit for increased oil production is like Wil E. Coyote taking credit for the anvil missing the speeding Roadrunner.

Further, higher gas prices are disproportionately hurting the poor and working class, the very people the liberals pretend to champion. The Dem’s also show their insensitivity to these groups by introducing the government-subsidized “green” light bulb this week – it only costs $50. That is roughly 2500% more than a standard bulb. Gas going to $8-$10 a gallon and $50 light bulbs, now that’s an energy policy!

Part three will focus on the “green” energy boondoggle.

Obama’s Energy Policy is a Dry Well – Part 1

Gas prices are soaring again. So, I guess it’s time to blame the oilmen in the White House. Oh wait! Bush and Cheney are no longer in the White House! They haven’t been in the White House for over three years.

But how can this be? High oil prices with Barack Obama and Joe Biden leading the country? Democrats and the media told us during the Bush years that high gas prices were Bush’s fault. That Bush was helping rich Texans and big oil companies get richer at the expense of working families. There are countless examples, but a Nancy Pelosi quote during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in 2008 sums up the commentary:

The price of gas “is directly attributed to two oilmen in the White House.”

Although prices are even higher now, Pelosi has not made a statement about gas prices lately. We haven’t heard Pelosi say the high price of oil is “attributed to the community organizer in the White House who has wasted billions of dollars on bankrupt solar energy companies run by his friends.”
Further, why aren’t CNN and Wolf Blitzer howling to ask her who she blames now?

The typical liberal media bias has kicked in just as sure as Rosy O’Donnell eating her 25th Twinkie of the day and blaming Hostess. According to Newsbusters, network newscasts linked Bush to “skyrocketing” gas prices 15 times more than Obama. If liberals and the media think the president can control oil prices when a Republican is in the White House, why would they not expect the same from a Democrat?

When Bush was in office the headlines were:

“High Oil Prices Putting Pressure on the Economy”
“High Gas Prices Hurting the Poor Most”

Now, with Obama in office, more typical headlines are:

“Wall Street is to Blame for Rising Gas Prices”
“Country is Better Prepared For High Gas Prices.” (a whopper from the NYT)

What a difference it makes having a liberal in the White House. And, gas prices aren’t just up a little. They are up a lot:

National average per gallon:

When Obama took office: $1.87
After three years of Obama: $3.69 (as of 2/26)

That’s almost double! And, this is before the summer months when gas prices typically hit their peak. Yet, it took the media a long time to start mentioning it, and not too often do they point the finger at Obama. Now, the point is, there is a huge double standard in how the media covers Liberals and Conservatives.

If you know anything about the oil market, you know the president cannot control the price of a global commodity. However, there are ways for the president to mitigate the impact. On this, Obama’s policies have failed miserably. Those will be discussed in Part 2.

Harry Reid – The Gaffemeister

Well, Harry Reid did it again! The Senate Majority Leader and member of the liberal triad of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, made yet another gaffe. It’s not surprising, since when Harry Reid opens his mouth you’ll usually hear one of three things:
1. A lie
2. A rant that ignores facts and logic
3. A gaffe

In his latest line of insanity Reid said: “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist.”

Really, who does Harry Reid thinks creates jobs? Maybe people on food stamps? Ahhh, so that’s why liberals are trying to get as many people on food stamps as possible, since that will get the economy booming. Now, I get it!

Silly me (and almost every economist) for thinking that successful people who own small and mid-sized businesses create jobs. Not only through their businesses, but through consumption, you know, buying houses, SUVs, clothes, and going to restaurants.

But Reid’s latest moronic statement made me think now would be a good time to review just a handful of the Reidmeister’s gaffes during the last few years.

On Obama Running for Office in 2008
Reid said during the 2008 election, that Barack Obama would be helped by being a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Later Reid apologized for the comment.

Can you imagine a Republican coming up with this whopper? The media and every liberal organization in the nation would be circling like sharks until this racist resigned.

On Voters Daring to Question the Wisdom of Obamacare
Reid said town-hall protesters angry about healthcare reform were “evil-mongers” who use “lies, innuendo, and rumors” to drown out productive debate.

Compare that to the praise heaped on OWS protestors, by the Liberal Triad. The OWS thugs are responsible for hundreds of crimes including murder, rape, robbery, and for tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to public areas and businesses.

On Unemployment
Commenting on the jobs report in March 2010, Reid said on the Senate floor: “Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.”

With a GOP leader this would have been played by the media continuously with the analysis that “he must not care about working people if he thinks 36,000 people losing their jobs is a good thing. Wow! How out of touch is he?” But, with Harry, this was barely reported.

On the Iraq War
“This war is lost,” Reid said in 2007, right before a positive turnaround brought about by the surge – which he did not support.

On a Local Business that Leans to the Right
“I hope you go out of business.” Reid told an executive at The Las Vegas Journal Review.

Apparently the Gaffemeister doesn’t care about jobs or a free press

On Senator Gillibrand – Democrat NY
Reid referred to her as the “hottest member” of the Senate.
Where was the National Organization for Women (NOW) on this one? Not that it matters. NOW has about as much credibility as Sylvestor the Cat, saying he didn’t eat Tweety Bird while yellow feathers are hanging from his mouth. NOW has ignored more Democratic sexist transgressions than Hillary Clinton.

So, the next time the media showcases a Conservative gaffe, ask; “where’s Harry?”

Liberal Media Bias Example #436

NBC’s Brian Williams referring to the tarmac encounter between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and President Obama: “who have you ever seen anyone talking to the president like this before.” Hmmmm. We can think of one example Brian. http://www.mrctv.org/videos/brian-williams-shocked-jan-brewers-finger-pointing

The Liberals Special Voters

The liberals are screaming foul again and whining louder than a greased pig being chased by a ravenous Michael Moore, as some states are passing laws requiring people to show a photo ID when voting. For most Americans, showing a driver’s license or state ID seems perfectly reasonable for this important duty. In fact, the first time I voted, when I was 18, I was amazed at the fact that the poll worker didn’t ask me for ID. I had my driver’s license in hand, ready to go, and she said “no that’s necessary.” I was shocked, since even at that early age, I thought of the myriad ways people could cheat the system and commit voter fraud.

But, liberals claim, showing a photo ID is an attack on minorities and elderly people. Really? Are they saying that minorities don’t drive? That the elderly have never driven? That people from these groups have never had the need for a state ID? That seems preposterous. Yet, that’s the liberals’ illogical stance. My question is, if you think requiring a photo ID for the important task of voting is discriminatory, why aren’t these:

• Showing a photo ID for using a check at the grocery store

• Showing a photo ID for using a credit card at a department store

• Showing a photo ID to buy liquor

• Showing a photo ID at the bank

• Showing a photo ID to get a discount for being a local resident at businesses such as golf courses

If Democrats want to stand by their illogic, why aren’t liberals in the streets protesting all of these circumstances that require a photo ID? Why isn’t Keith Olbermann spewing his venom? Where’s the outrage? There is none, because this is not about discrimination. This is about liberals wanting to keep an underhanded advantage at the ballot box by using their minions in organizations like the now defunct Acorn and others to steal close elections. For a thorough list of Acorn voter fraud, check out http://rottenacorn.com.

Acorn and other liberal organizations have:

• registered dead people, convicted felons, illegal aliens,
• shipped people in from a neighboring state to influence the election in another state by using bogus names,
• told people they register, to vote for Democrats, (which is illegal since many of these groups receive Federal funds)
• committed voter intimidation and participate in other unscrupulous activities.

Next, the Occupiers will be registering rats in their filthy encampments. Think about all the close elections in 2008 and 2010. How many of those were influenced by these tactics? Especially the election in Minnesota that put the unfunny, obnoxious Al Franken in the Senate. By the way, what, the Dems couldn’t recruit Carrot Top to run?

It’s no wonder the Democrats are fighting such a common-sense idea. They don’t want to give up the illegal edge they’ve enjoyed in the last few elections.

Pelosi’s District: “We Don’t Need no Stinkin’ Obamacare!”

Ahhh, it seems like just yesterday Nancy Pelosi was espousing the benefits of ObamaCare and how great it would be for the country, how businesses would save money, how 400,000 new jobs would be “created almost instantly” with ObamaCare. All of her assertions were completely without merit of course, which is why she had to ram the bill through the House with arm-twisting and bribes. Most Democratic members never read the bill, and didn’t really even know what it contained in terms of health care policy. It was about this time that Pelosi uttered her infamous line “we have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it.” Now, if it’s so great, why not tell us what’s in it?

But, let’s focus on the present. The Obama Administration has been giving waivers from ObamaCare to their pals in the unions and liberal-friendly businesses. Apparently, Pelosi and the ultra-liberal district in San Francisco she represents, believes Obamacare is great for everyone else, but not for them. According to Matthew Boyle at the Daily Caller; “Pelosi’s district secured almost 20% of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide.” So, 20% of the total waivers given out nationwide, were in her district!

“Of the 204 new ObamaCare waivers the Obama administration approved in April,” Boyle reports, “38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.”

Now, it would seem that these high-end liberal businesses would be just the type of establishments that would embrace ObamaCare and further, the type of businesses that would actually have the money to spend on ObamaCare. If these big revenue generating businesses can’t afford ObamaCare and need waivers, how is a dry cleaning business, a small factory, or a family-owned construction company supposed to pay for this beast?

But, like many other liberal policies and programs, the Democrats are basically saying: “we know what’s best for you and we’ll decide what’s best for us.” Usually, these are two entirely different things.

So, the next time a liberal tells you how great a new program is, ask them if they’re willing to be the first to try it. The silence you’ll hear will be similar to what Nancy Pelosi hears after she delivers a gem like “we have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it.”

Obama is Ready for His Crown

Welcome to the Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama. I not only mean Imperial Presidency in the sense of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger’s book, The Imperial Presidency, which focuses on the growth of presidential powers over the years. Rather, imperial in the sense that President Obama apparently wants a crown. And, not the paper crown you get at Burger King when you order a Whopper, but rather a real crown, with gold and jewels. After all, he is living like a real king.

Consider just a few imperial facts:

1. While the number of people on food stamps has gone up 44% under Obama, the number of government limousines has increased by 77%! Yeah, this is the man of the people, the poor, the middle class, the same way Donald Trump is shy and understated.

2. While the south was enduring the worst tornadoes in decades, Obama was at Buckingham Palace eating caviar and sipping $1200 a bottle wine. Just imagine how the media would have covered that juxtaposition with a Republican president.

3. On Memorial Day, Obama placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And rather than continuing on to visit Veterans Hospitals or such, like most presidents do, he quickly headed out to hit the links, for his NINTH straight weekend of golf! Most people I know who have regular jobs can’t squeeze that much golf into their schedule. Why isn’t the media asking the question they would of a Republican president, “How can you play that much golf, when unemployment is so high, when gas is $4.50 a gallon, when people are losing their houses, when the U.S. is headed for bankruptcy?

4. And, there’s this curious fact, for a president that rips millionaires and billionaires on a daily basis, he sure does spend a lot of time with them when he plays golf, goes to Martha’s Vineyard, has a stay in L.A., or accepts campaign cash. Oh yeah, and his new Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, used to oversee hedge funds for Citibank.

The problem with all of this, is most of the media treats Obama like a king and doesn’t ask tough questions on key issues, which is the real danger of this imperial presidency.

This list could go on and on with more examples, but I think I’ll follow the king’s lead and try to get 18 holes in.