GM's Free Advertising

It is always a good thing when your CEO gets free advertising on TV for your struggling products....

It is even better when your CEO is the President of the United States, which forces the television news outlets to show your products that the CEO/POTUS is using as a backdrop...

TheMichiganView.com:
Standing in front of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Chrysler's Jefferson North Detroit assembly plant Friday afternoon, President Obama Friday declared that Chrysler "was building the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow." Come again? The visual non-sequitor was one of many jarring notes in his "Mission Accomplished" visit to Detroit automakers. At one point the president even compared Chrysler's bailout to winning the lottery -- hardly a model for planning long-term corporate security. Eager to claim credit for charting a new course for Detroit with "targeted investments making new technologies," the president strangely chose as his backdrop the iconic Jeep SUV brand that first launched the small truck craze in the 1980s. This the same vehicle that Obama and his green allies condemn as having laid waste to the planet.

Given the seemingly unfair advantage in having the most powerful politician in the world pitch your/his product on free & live TV, on might wonder if Ford might want to petition the Federal Communications Commission for equal time....

Who's Hanging at the Country Club??

So a major newspaper business columnist has the answer as to why the economy is not recovering....

ACCORDING TO WASHINGTON POST WRITER STEPHEN PEARLSTEIN ON NPR, we’re stuck in a recession because businessmen are dumb and just parrot whatever they hear in the country club locker room.

If you ask me, perhaps the economy isn't recovering because someone else is spending a little too much time in the country club locker room....





C'mon, its not like he's playing muni courses....

Conservative v. Liberal Fantasies

Jim Treacher lets us a little too far inside his brain, and reveals some dark fantasies. [H/T: Instapundit]

"They both seem like good people and I hope they’ll kiss and make up. I don’t even mean that in a dirty way. Much."

But heck, I'd take that in a minute over Tom Friedman's fantasies!

Powerline: "Thomas Friedman wishes that our democracy worked as well as China's dictatorship. He thus fantasizes about the U.S. being "China for a day.""

Jonah Goldberg: "China’s got us beat, suggests Friedman, because its leaders aren’t hung up on democracy, checks and balances, or any of the other dusty old impediments found in the American system. Friedman has proclaimed his envy for China’s authoritarian system countless times. It’s why he titled one of the chapters in his book “China for a Day.” The idea — he calls it his “fantasy” — is that if we could just be China for a day, the experts could impose by diktat what they cannot win through democratic debate."

So there is your choice. The School Boy's fantasy....or the School Headmaster's Fantasy.

Apparently Health Care Rationing is 'Important' to the Obama Administration

This past week the Obama Administration provided a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid.

According to ABC News, the White House says "Berwick Appointment 'Too Important' to Wait for a Hearing"

This morning on ABC News’ "This Week," Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod insisted that President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be the administrator of The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was simply “too important” to wait for a Congressional hearing.

“The Republican Party has made it a policy in the United States Senate to hold up... as many nominations,” as possible, Axelrod said. “This is too important. This position is too important,” he told host Jake Tapper. “In the midst of implementing health reform, it is too important to allow that kind of game-playing to go on.”

So let me get this straight... The Obama Administration considers the appointment of Berwick, a man who advocates "health-care rationing and using the health-care system to redistribute wealth", to be "too important" to held up by some silly constitutional requirement like confirmation.

If they keep this up, some people might start to think they have a hidden motive....

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 4

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Higher tax rates on savers and investors

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 3

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

The return of the Death Tax
This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

More on the Obama Administration's incentivizing death here. Or as Rob Long said, "Who needs Death Panels when we have a Death Tax?"

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

Poll Data Tailor-Made for GOP Ads

Polling data released by Rasmussen Reports today would seem to provide the GOP some ready-made script material for Congressional and state-level candidates.

Most Americans Not Willing To Pay Higher Taxes For Public Employees, Entitlement Programs

Most Americans would not pay higher taxes for specific public services in their states, but they are more supportive of paying for education and staffing law enforcement than supporting state employees and entitlement programs.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Adults shows that only 19% would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid layoffs of state employees. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they would not be willing to pay more in taxes for this reason. Another 11% are undecided.

Adults feel similarly when it comes to funding entitlement programs. Twenty-two percent (22%) would pay higher taxes to prevent cuts in entitlement programs for low-income Americans. Sixty-three percent (63%) say they would not pay more to keep these programs afloat. Another 15% are undecided.

I can imagine an ad with a candidate looking into the camera...

My name is John Doe, and I am running for _________. I think today's culture of goverment spending and entitlements is out of control. I believe in *smaller* government.

A government that provides for our defense, emergency services, and helps parents educate their children. But I refuse to stand by and watch bureaucrats raise our taxes and mortgage our children's future in order to support bloated government payrolls and spend Trillions on programs that most Americans don't want.

If you agree, vote for me on November 2nd. My name is John Doe, I am running for ________, I say *Enough is Enough*, and I approve this message.

Hey RNC....shoot it and run it!

Bees in Barry's Bonnet

From Instapundit:

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THE COMMON PEOPLE: The White House now has a beekeeper. “The idea for a White House hive came up not long after the Obamas moved in.”

Gee, and here I thought all the drones were down in the White House Press Room.

I guess they had to go somewhere after the Queen Bee was driven off....

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 2

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Higher taxes on marriage and family

The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 1

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Personal income tax rates will rise

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

"We Are Not The Enemy"

Here is a video of CNN's Anderson Cooper bemoaning the fact that the Obama Administration is restricting press access to oil spill clean-up efforts...


(H/T: Allahpundit at HotAir)

The best part is when Cooper repeatedly says "We are not the enemy here!"

Poor Anderson. Surely you have to be intelligent enough to realize you *ARE* the enemy here. Your reporting will no doubt show the recovery efforts in a negative light. Even if you only show a couple of oil covered gulls, that is enough to convey that after a month and a half progress is not being made, and that is not the narrative that this "transparent" Executive Branch wants on the airwaves.

Perhaps you felt a kinship because the President yucked it up with you a the Correspondents Dinners, or you are invested in the idea that things would be different because the President could give some idealistic campaign speeches. However understand this...no matter how much of a sycophantic acolyte you are, if you break their rules and go off of their narrative, you *ARE* the enemy here, and you will end up under the bus.

So you have two choices here....one, do your job and accept your place on the journalistic enemies list, or two, toe the line and enjoy the laughs and Crème brûlée at next year's White House Correspondents Dinner.