Let me screw up your state, too

The cartoon I posted this morning at IMAO kinda hits a nerve with me.

I thought I told this story earlier, but I can't find that I did. So, you're gonna have to put up with it now. And you have no one to blame but yourself for reading it.

Anyway, I was driving into work one day -- this was a couple of years ago -- and I got behind a car with a Michigan tag. It also had an Obama sticker on it.

I prepared to turn at a light, and the vehicle in front of me, with the Michigan tag and Obama sticker, turned the same way. Next light, same thing. And, sure enough, drove into the parking area at work just ahead of me.

Now, I'm thinking, sure, our company is doing good, and hiring people from all over. But this is going too far.

Somebody from Michigan been voting Democrat, and then they're having economic issues because, and then they need to move 800 miles south to get a job?

Okay, I'm fine, so far. They screwed up -- screwed up bad -- and now know better, right? No, they dumb as ever. They brought their Obama sticker with them.

That politics that screwed up their state, they're bringing to my state, and now they're going to screw it up, too.

Anyway, that's why the cartoon last hour kinds resonates with me. The image of the dominoes falling worries me, if they make my state one of those dominoes, too.

Maybe something will fall on them. The most appropriate thing for what to fall on an Obama voter? Dorothy Gale's house.

Heat map

Have you seen the new meteor impact heat map?

Well, there's a map that plots all of the recorded meteorite impacts on Earth since 2300 BC. Note, this is recorded impacts. If no one saw it or found evidence of it, it's not recorded. That's why there aren't a whole lot shown over the oceans. So, it's not a full mapping of every meteor impact, just those we know about.



You can go to the interactive map and zoom in or select any place on earth. It contains information about each strike. I found it interesting.

Naturally, it's inspired by the recent meteor strike in Russia. But, it's not the only map inspired by recent events.

Here's a map of areas of the United States that are victims of the economic impact of Obama and Democrat policies. Those adversely affected are shown in purple.



It's a little more accurate than the meteor map. And a lot more scary.

Cartoon of the Day - Relief?

[Source: Steve Kelley - GoComics]

Cartoon of the Day - Crisis Averted

[Source: Michael Ramirez - Investors.com]

Cartoon of the Day - Weak

[Source: Michael Ramirez - GoComcis]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.

Cartoon of the Day - Crisis

[Source: Lisa Benson - GoComics]

Cartoon of the Day - Winning

[Source: Michael Ramirez - Investors.com]

It's all about winning. It's not about doing what is right. It's not about what is doing what is best for the country. It's about winning. And the other side losing.

Any questions?

Cartoon of the Day - Blame

[Source: Lisa Benson - GoComics]

Cartoon of the Day - Addict

[Source: Michael Ramirez - GoComics]

I have a friend who says liberalism is a disease. He's not wrong.

Cartoon of the Day - Kick the Can

[Source: Michael Rameriz - GoComics]

Remember that problem about which it was decided that we'd deal with on another day? Those days are numbered.

Cartoon of the day - unions

[Source: Lisa Benson - GoComics]

When I think unions and automakers, I think Michigan. And Michigan -- particularly Detroit, home of the automakers -- has had some serious troubles.

But, Detroit -- and Michigan -- aren't the only places vehicles are made. Just up the road from Columbus, in West Point, Georgia, Kia makes vehicles.

There are other vehicles made in other states, of course, but I bring up Kia for a reason. Georgia is a right-to-work state. That is, you don't have to belong to a union. You can be, but if you're not, you aren't denied the right to work.

Earlier this year, I was heading to work, and got behind a vehicle with a Michigan tag that had an Obama sticker on it. I ended up behind that vehicle all the way to the company parking garage.

That's when I realized that someone from Michigan, where the policies of the left have made it so difficult to get or keep a job, had moved down south to work in Georgia. And, had brought their politics with them.

Those same politics that made unions so powerful and government so big and had brought the economy up there down? Yeah, they wanted to spread that around here.

Some people just don't get it.

The beatings will continue until morale improves

You've heard that phrase -- "the beatings will continue until morale improves" -- in comics or on signs or in statements made by coworkers.

Well, you're about to live it. Or, if you already are, others are, too.

Government regulations are the beatings on the economy. And when the government regulations cause the economy to falter, the government will simply issue more beatings, in the form of regulations.

Obamacare is one of the major problems. It's causing business expenses to increase, and businesses are cutting where they can. That includes wages.

Some businesses are reorganizing internally and reclassifying some positions so that jobs that were salaried are now hourly. Businesses are also cutting back on hours for some employees; some cuts to simply reduce wages, others to exempt those employees from full-time status and the requirement to cover them under Obamacare. Those employees get to pay the Obamacare tax -- they call it a fee or a penalty, but it only passed Constitutional muster because it's actually a tax -- so they are covered, as required by law.

When this impacts people, particularly people who voted for Obama, two things will happen.

1. Karma
2. More regulations

What will the new regulations do? Make it worse. And then more regulations. And more problems with the economy.

Now, everyone on the left will say how great the economy is because of all the number of people with jobs, even though more of those jobs will be part-time, and even though more and more will stop looking for work because it's not worth it.

The numbers, because of the way they arrange them, will look good. Well, not all numbers. The numbers on people's paychecks and in their bank accounts won't look so good.

But rest assured, the government has a plan to deal with the economy: the beatings will continue until morale improves.

How the Stimulus saved us

In case you weren't aware, Barack Obama is teh awesomest person in the whole wide world. Just ask him. Or Nancy Pelosi.

The former Speaker of the House and current Minority Leader who represents Planet San Francisco, told The Weekly Standard that, without Obama's 2009 Stimulus, we'd be in worse shape than we are now:

"Without the Recovery Act and accompanying federal interventions, whether from the Fed, or Cash for Clunkers, or other initiatives, the unemployment rate last year at the time of the election would have been fourteen and a half percent, not nine and a half percent," said Minority Leader Pelosi.

You see? You see? The Stimulus was a good thing. Crazy Aunt Nancy said so.

I wonder why she stopped there, though. Because there must have been more that the Obama Stimulus did. Because Obama and the Democrats are so awesome you know.

We did some digging, and found out that, not only did the Obama Stimulus save 8.3 million imaginary jobs, it did a bunch of other things, too.

• It helped Steve Jobs invent the iPad.
• The stimulus kept the asteroid 99942 Apophis from striking the Earth.
• It killed Osama bin Laden.
• The stimulus won Super Bowl XLV.
• It blew up the Death Star.
• The stimulus is what gave the Old Spice Guy his job.
• That thing you thought you lost? The stimulus actually found it and put it there on the table for you.
• It kept the sun from burning out.
• Remember when Global Warming was going to melt all the ice caps by 2011? The stimulus stopped it.
• The stimulus saved Chuck Norris.
• It kept Windows 7 from sucking as bad as Windows Vista.
• The stimulus kept Pluto from leaving the solar system after scientists fired it.

There are so many wonderful things the stimulus has done, we need a new one every month.

Economic advice

What can we do for you, Mr. President?


Poll numbers are down, unemployment's up, and it looks like I'm going to have to go back to Chicago after next year.


You need to give a speech!


Speech! Give a speech!



Hey, that's a great idea! I haven't given a speech in -- gosh -- it seems like days.

It's all so clear to me now

Thanks, Nancy Pelosi.

Without her brilliance, I would be a simple conservative Neanderthal that thought that more people getting unemployment meant that more jobs were being lost.

Silly me. And you, if you thought the same way.

Turns out that, according to Pelosi, when more people are paid unemployment, that means more jobs are being created, not lost:


[Direct link]

Now, don't you feel silly?

This new awareness got me to thinking. If more people getting unemployment checks means that more jobs are being created, what else having I been wrong about?

I've compiled a partial list:

• Rain falling from the sky means we're in a drought.
• People flying planes into our buildings means that we are evil.
• Water flows uphill.
• You can get out of debt by borrowing more money to spend.
• Record snowfall means it's hotter.
• All your base are belong to us.
• You can secure the borders by leaving them wide open.
• You can lose weight by eating more and exercising less.
• Government money is really free money that doesn't cost anyone anything.
• Resistance is futile.
• Cats are not evil.

I wonder what other lessons are there for me to still learn?

Why Obama should abandon his socialist agenda

Obama might want to rethink his plan to socialize everything.

If he succeeds in turning America into a socialist country, he just might be in trouble. Look what happened in North Korea:

North Korea has executed a senior official blamed for currency reforms that damaged the already ailing economy and potentially affected the succession, a news agency in South Korea reported today.

Pak Nam-gi was killed by firing squad last week, said Yonhap, citing multiple sources. The Workers party chief for planning and the economy had not been seen in public since January.

The 77-year-old was put to death as "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy", the agency said.

Tip: The New Editor.

In socialist countries like North Korea, you can get the firing squad for destroying the economy.

If Obama finds out, even he'll hope he fails.

We have too much not-enough-unemployment

The Associated Press is reporting that Friday's unemployment report will be ... bad (tip: Don Surber). But the administration says it's the weather's fault. (At least it's not the climate's fault.) The AP calls shenanigans.

The report can't just be dismissed. Once the snow effect is filtered out, they say the data will still signal weak hiring: Little if any job growth, and an unemployment rate predicted to rise to 9.8 percent or more from 9.7 percent.

While everyone's getting their panties in a wad over the number of unemployed, they don't realize that there is an easy way to solve the unemployment problem.

Make more people lose their jobs.

Now, sure, this sounds like a Barack Obama solution. He's one to address a problem of too much government by having more government.

But, this isn't the same thing. You see, I'm thinking that we could get more people back to work if a few certain select people joined the ranks of the unemployed. I can think of 257 people that need to lose their jobs, and things will get better.

Wait! I just thought of 59 more!

This will work.

You're welcome.

Note to the stomping grounds: Beware socialists bearing gifts

I grew up in southeast Georgia. What growing up I did, at least, occurred over there. I lived there nearly 40 years. And I'll always consider that part of the state "home."

So, I want to warn the good people of that area to beware. Barack Obama is coming.

I didn't grow up in Savannah, but my high school was in the same sports region with most of the Savannah schools. When we watched TV, it was one of the stations in Savannah. So, though Savannah isn't home, it's near there.

The president will be in Savannah Tuesday. According to a Washington Post story, Obama wants to sell his stimulus package.

Obama plans to visit this charming coastal city on Tuesday to lead a day of meetings aimed at highlighting his economic policies and shoring up support for his ambitious but endangered domestic agenda.

I can only assume his TelePrompTer will be there, too. Although it would be funny as hell watching Obama stumble around without it. His TelePrompTer has a mastery of the English language; Obama has a mystery of the English language.

But selling his stimulus in person? Well, considering that Obama has only been on TV ... every day for the past two years ... it's no wonder people haven't heard what he had to say.

It's true that Obama is having trouble selling his plans. Savannah's mayor, Democrat Otis S. Johnson, says, "The speed in which the applications have been approved has really been a little frustrating." And he's an Obama supporter.

Maybe Obama is having trouble because his Obama's spend, spend, spend policy means that the deficit is getting larger, larger, larger. And how will Obama and the Socialists wearing Democratic clothing solve it? Taxes, taxes, taxes.

So, what do you do about it?

I'd suggest to the people of the area that they ignore Obama. Go about your business. Act like he's not even there.

On the other hand, after January 20, 2013, you might not ever see him again. This may be your last chance.

Maybe people would listen if Obama said "I inherited this Democratic Senate"

Barack Obama keeps saying he inherited problems. And, the statistics show that, just maybe, he did.

Look at this graph from the Bureau of Labor.


[Source: Bureau of Labor]

Notice that unemployment was on its way up before he took office. It looks like Obama did inherit rising unemployment.

But then, take the statistics from this source -- the Unites States Senate -- showing which party controlled the Senate, and apply it to that graphic.

What do you get? This:


[Source: American Thinker]

So, when you go to criticize Barack Obama for his dismal performance, keep in mind that it's not just his fault. It's the Democrats' fault.

And the fault of those that keep electing Democrats.

Job losses

The job numbers for August are out. And they don't look good. Unemployment is now at 9.7% -- the highest it's been since 1983. The "underemployment rate" -- the unemployed rate plus part-time workers who prefer a full-time position plus people who want work but have given up looking for a job -- is at 16.8 percent, a record. What does all this mean? Obviously, nearly 1 in 10 Americans are out of work. But what else does it mean? It means that the wrong people are losing their jobs. We need to fire some elected officials. I'm thinking the entire Obama administration would be a good place to start. But then, I said don't hire those rascals to begin with. But did America listen to me? No. 52% of American voters went and did something stupid. Oh, sure. They were frustrated. They didn't like how things were. But not putting any thought into a solution is a bad solution. So, we have unemployment near 10%. I think we ought to give Congress a 10% unemployment rate. That would mean 10 Senators losing their jobs. And 43 or 44 Representatives being sent packing. Some say to throw them all out. But, as a Representative said yesterday, there are downsides to doing that. Remember, that's basically what happened to put Obama in office: a desire to get rid of who was there. They seemed to forget that Bush wasn't running for a third term. Stupid Obama voters. So, which 10% of Congress should be unemployed? Oh, I have some ideas. Senators who are up for reelection in 2010: Harry Reid (D-NV) Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) Dodd, Christopher J. (D-CT) Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Patty Murray (D-WA) Schumer, Charles E. (D-NY) Specter, Arlen (D-PA) Leahy, Patrick J. (D-VT) Lincoln, Blanche L. (D-AR) Representatives: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Barney Frank (D-MA) Steve Cohen (D-TN) Corrine Brown (D-FL) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) Alcee Hastings (D-FL) Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) Maxine Waters (D-CA) Charles Rangel (D-NY) Jim Moran (D-VA) ...Oh heck, I could go on and on with Representatives. But I'd start with this group. If 10% of Congress lost their jobs ... the most useless 10% ... then unemployment might not be a bad thing after all. Imagine this group having to work for a living. Or even trying to find a job.