A second oil rig is reported to have exploded in the gulf and Twitter is going nuts. The best comment yet comes from Comrade Scott:

I wonder what will come up on the Obama magic 8-ball with this oil rig disaster? “Blame Bush”, “Regulate”, “Deploy SWAT”, or “Play Golf”?

It’s funny because it’s both sad and true.

Technorati Tags: Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amateur in Charge

Whether you are for, against, or ambivalent about the mosque at Ground Zero, you might enjoy Joseph A. Gallant’s solution to the issue. Non-violent yet conclusive.

Pigs blood. Nice.

Technorati Tags: Ground Zero Mosque, Pigs Blood, War on Islamofascism

The Washington Times notes that 10 percent of Americans believed Obama to be a Muslim in April of 2008, but recent polls puts that number has swelled to 18 or possibly even 24 percent. Why?

• In Feb 2008, Obama told the NY Times that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset” and then proceeded to recite it “with a first-class [Arabic] accent.” It includes the passage, “There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God.”
• Obama was born of a Muslim father and raised by a Muslim stepfather, which makes him Muslim under Shariah law.
• In Sept 2008, Obama told ABC that “John McCain has not discussed my Muslim faith.” Truly clumsy phrasing from the amateur politician.
• In July 2008, Obama told People Magazine that he and his wife don’t give Christmas presents to their children.
• Obama took a harder line on Israel.
• Obama continues to regard Islamofascists as “violent extremists” rather than terrorists.
• In April 2009, Obama bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

In short, more people believe Obama is a Muslim because of Obama. Or, as the Washington Times puts it:

The uncomfortable fact for the White House is the more the American people get to know Mr. Obama, the more they think he is a follower of Islam.

And the more they come to realize that he has no experience and is not equipped for the burden they have entrusted to him.

Technorati Tags: Muslim in the White House, Bankrupting America, Stimulus and Other Failed Policies, Jobless Recovery, Double Dip Recession, Rising Unemployment in America, Stagnant Economic Conditions, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amateur in Charge

Today’s must read comes from Kevin Hassett writing for Bloomberg, who discounts the theory that a larger stimulus would have fared any better:

The fact is, the U.S. stimulus was the largest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the biggest ever tried in the U.S.

Nor does the academic literature support what we might call these Not-Enough Keynesians.

A 2002 study by economists Richard Hemming, Selma Mahfouz and Axel Schimmelpfennig of recessions in 27 developed economies from 1971 to 1998 found that increased spending by government had, in almost all cases, a barely noticeable impact, and sometimes a negative one. Heavily indebted countries that spent more in recessions grew about 0.5 percent less, relative to trend, than countries that didn’t, the study found.

Read it all.

Technorati Tags: Bankrupting America, Simulus and Other Failed Policies, Jobless Recovery, Double Dip Recession, Rising Unemployment in America, Stagnant Economic Conditions, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amatuer in Charge

The blogosphere is abuzz with news that market indicators met the requirements of the Hindenburg Omen twice this month, only 8 days apart.

Glenn Beck does a fair job of explaining the implications of the phenomena:

Looking back at history — the probability of all these things happening means that there is a market move greater than 5 percent to the downside after confirmed Hindenburg Omen. That means we’re going to have a market go down at least 5 percent and the chances of that, with all of these things happening, is about 77 percent.

So, a “market crash” is not a “mortal lock” when the omen is in effect, but every New York Stock Exchange crash since 1985 has been preceded by the Hindenburg Omen. And the 5 percent move usually takes place within the next 40 days.

Forty days — 40 days, why does that sound — you know? We’ll almost be in October in 40 days. October — October, why does that one ring a bell?

I remember! The last time the Hindenburg Omen conditions were met in a big way was October 2008, when the market crashed. And then before that, it was October of 1987 and then October of ’29. Oh, the humanity!

I don’t suggest reading the whole thing, because there is some empty rhetoric, not to mention that the unemployment numbers that he quotes are too low (I prefer the seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate rather than U-6).

For those wishing an alternative view of the accuracy of this particular Hindenburg Omen, read MarketWatch and (even better) iStock Analyst.

One thing is certain: the Fed has little to no idea what it’s doing. Bernanke is using a “majority rules” strategy with a deeply divided committee of bankers.

The talking heads are little better. Martin Sosnoff, writing for Forbes in the excellently-titled piece Bernanke’s Fed Full Of Blind Mice, calls for a “huge shot of quantitative easing”. Charles Hugh Smith, writing for Daily Finance, makes the eminently sensible suggestion of dropping the quantitative easing and instead dropping money into household bank accounts. Goldman Sach’s Jan Hatzius wants the Fed to pour another $1 trillion into the economy in an effort to further ease monetary policy, yet predicts unemployment rising to 10 percent next year. But former IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan wants the Fed to boost interest rates by as much as 2 percentage points to avoid fanning asset bubbles or propping up inefficient companies (what would that do to unemployment rates?).

And if the Hindenburg Omen occurs again by September 22nd, there will be panic on Wall Street. Or, at least, in the media which – in the end – usually means the same thing.

Related topics:

• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans says
  the likelihood of a double-dip recession is not high, although
  admitting that it is higher than it was six months ago.
• My favorite Fed, Kansas City
  Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig, declares “too big to fail”
  places smaller banks at a competitive disadvantage and tells investors
  to stay away from the housing market.

Technorati Tags: Hindenburg Omen, Bankrupting America, Bernanke’s Folly, Jobless Recovery, Double Dip Recession, Rising Unemployment in America, Stagnant Economic Conditions, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amatuer in Charge

Latest video from Arizona to go viral. Hint: see if you can count how many people jump out of this sucker.

Technorati Tags: Illegal Immigration, Illegal Aliens

Via Michelle Malkin’s Twitter stream:

Technorati Tags: Most Transparent Administration in History and Other Lies, Nancy Pelosi and Other Fascists, Harry Reid and Other Socialists, Culture of Corruption, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Barack Obama the Amatuer in Charge

This little bit of humor is going viral. Whether you believe gold is overvalued or continues to be a great investment, the video is still funny.

Technorati Tags: Gold, I Love Gold, Bankrupting America, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amateur in Charge

The biggest earmark in American history is going to a “green” initiative in Obama’s home state of Illinois.

President Obama is earmarking $1 billion in Stimulus money “to build FutureGen 2.0, a clean coal repowering program and carbon dioxide (CO2) storage network” in his home state of Illinois.  …

The Department of Energy projects 1,900 jobs as a result of $1,000,000,000 in new spending.  This works out to $526,315.79 of your tax dollars spent per job.  A half million dollars per job seems to be a bad deal for the taxpayer. Of more concern to the taxpayer, Senator Tom Coburn believes this project to be more about bringing home pork to Illinois than providing stimulus to average Americans.

Stunning, even given the vast hubris of the man that once said:

Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.

Technorati Tags: Earmarks, Another Broken Obama Promise, Ignoring Small Business, Jobless Recovery and Other Myths, Stimulus and Other Government Lies, Bankrupting America, Declining Jobs in America, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amatuer

Michael Shulman, writing for Seeking Alpha, points out that you can’t call it a double dip if (as he predicts) the GDP numbers end up negative for 2010:

It is time to start feeling bad for we are not only in a recession, it is going to get worse before it gets better. We are in a period of radical asset deflation unmatched since the Depression.

Why the prediction of another deep recession? A gigantic drop-off in the workforce participation rate, leading to a fall in national income. A 75% drop in new home building (the source of more than 40% of new jobs between 2002 and 2007); massive credit contraction among consumers; more than two thirds of the economy and one in four homeowners underwater on their mortgages; more than six million foreclosures looming in the next 24-30 months; Europe about to go into an austerity driven recession; governments at all levels in the US facing voter demands for austerity, not stimulus; the Fed out of ammunition.

Meanwhile, Paul Price notes the historic lows of the small business optimism index and states:

Our political leaders are NOT helping small businesses in any of their legislative activities.

Now that’s an understatement. Billions in stimulus and nothing to really help the people that made this country great.

And let’s not forget that actual unemployment is ticking back up to 22 percent.

Technorati Tags: Double Dip Recession, Jobless Recovery and Other Myths, Stimulus and Other Government Lies, Bankrupting America, Declining Jobs in America, Barack Hussein Obama the Dangerous Choice, Obama the Amatuer