A Failed Presidency, the American Problem

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by ddoering

I predict he will make a fine ex-president. Perhaps he will be our first ambassador to the Taliban.

Your right on target with this,excellent post..........

Big Teddy

[Ret10Echo]

Thought this was interesting as it discusses the younger generation that was seen as one of the driving forces to seat the current Administration....

Pulled this off of Drudge... (article from RealClearMarkets)

The closing put it best:

It used to be that if you graduated from college with a degree you were assured of a job. For many in Generation O, this is no longer true.

It's not just bad luck, or President George W. Bush's fault, as Mr. Obama tries to suggest. Mr. Obama has promoted an Old Economy model that favors big corporations, labor unions and more government. But Generation O thrives best in a New Economy model that favors nimble start-ups, hard-charging union-free workplaces and minimal government interference.

Generation O voted for Barack Obama believing him to be a new kind of leader, but he has delivered them an Old Economy with European-style mandates (think Obamacare), sclerosis, and dysfunction. They put him in the White House, Barack Obama has consigned them to their parents' house. Clearly, only one side made out well on that deal.

[GratefulCitizen]

Speaking of failed presidencies...
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive...is-is-good.php

What is the definition of insanity?

[Ret10Echo]

Read through an article this morning titled "Obama defends American faith amid GOP critique" (AP) which is now everywhere in the MSM. (BTW the title of the article is not reflective of content)

Interesting quote from an earlier O speech in San Francisco:

"Well, we've lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam."

So the Depression is now an example of how to stimulate a population to be ambitious and imaginative?

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

So the Depression is now an example of how to stimulate a population to be ambitious and imaginative?

I think the Golden Gate Bridge project is a great 'ambitious and imaginative' example of what a regional community effort can accomplish when they agree the need is valid.

http://goldengatebridge.org/research/construction.php

Many ffolkes make the mistake of 'lumping' a project like the Golden Gate into the myriad Federal Government WPA style 'make work' or 'pump priming' or 'stimulus' projects of the Great Depression, and although it necessarily had some of those aspects to it, it wasn't the same thing.

FWIW - Charles A. Ellis was a cousin of my maternal grandmother, Helen Ellis Murray (nee Helen A. Ellis).

And so it goes...

Richard

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Richard

I think the Golden Gate Bridge project is a great example of what a regional community effort can accomplish when they agree the need is valid..........................

And so it goes...

Richard

I wonder if it or any of the big projects from that day could be built today? I don't think so.

What are the big projects of today that enrich mankind? A few billion here and a few billion there for grants to get state and local public workers on the Federal tit? Somehow I just don't see them as being equal.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Pete

I wonder if it or any of the big projects from that day could be built today? I don't think so.

What are the big projects of today that enrich mankind? A few billion here and a few billion there for grants to get state and local public workers on the Federal tit? Somehow I just don't see them as being equal.

You can't get an environmental impact approval to build a flat range, no way you can get one for a project of that scale.

Then the union workers would cause the price to triple over the duration of construction.

Lawyers would tie that up for decades and in the end, you would have nothing to show for it.

TR

[Box]

A dam project of that size would certainly impact the lifestyle habits of some obscure bottom dwelling fish...

No dam projects will be built without the proper level of bureaucracy to insure that the bottom feeders get something out of the deal.

...maybe some choo-choo trains could be built instead of some dam project that interferes with a bottom dwellers lifestyle. The administration did want to build some choo-choo trains at one point if I remember correctly.

Choo-choo trains are fun.

[Susa]

You mean this little train?

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov...money-20111123
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...2IN_story.html
http://laist.com/2011/11/30/californ...m_analysis.php

Is it just me, or does the logo on this train look strangely familiar?

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Richard

I think the Golden Gate Bridge project is a great 'ambitious and imaginative' example of what a regional community effort can accomplish when they agree the need is valid.

FWIW - Charles A. Ellis was a cousin of my maternal grandmother, Helen Ellis Murray (nee Helen A. Ellis).

Richard

Richard,

Thanks for the alignment...and piece of family history. I believe the discussion leads to what is pointed out in the follow-on posts where the "community" wouldn't be able to do the things that are claimed as "needed", "necessary" or "positive" for the country to move. ANY community project will have enviro-nutjobs and lawyers flying in from across the country to make money on other peoples ideas...with the hopes of crushing those ideas in the process so they will be able to crush the next "good idea" or "regional project" that comes up (as that helps keep the country-club dues paid and the stock of granola and Prius batteries at appropriate levels) (Check out Arizona Clean Fuels, West Virginia coal...Pennsylvania wind...etc..you know better than I)

Unless of course (as Billy points out) the brain trust in DC comes up (or latches onto) an idea, in which case vast sums of money can be flushed. High-speed rail was a hot commodity in Kalifornia because the masses demand it???? Amtrak is such a model of how high the demand for rail passenger transit is...

The very government the POTUS represents is mostly to blame for the inability of such projects to take shape and succeed.

BTW - Nice to see the Seasonal Avatar return.

R/10

[tonyz]

In this economy how could he not pursue the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline ?

Actions speak louder than words.


Obama Policies Seem Calculated To Kill Jobs

IBD
By LAWRENCE KUDLOW

Posted 12/15/2011 06:55 PM ET

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=594923&p=1

The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a very weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don't do anything for growth and jobs.

Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Barack Obama's leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels.

These are ideological positions. They support the Obama vision of class warfare and his attachment to radical environmentalism.

And the key to understanding this state of affairs is the disposition of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, which Republicans cleverly threw into the payroll-tax debate as the only real job creator.

By siding with the radical greenies and standing against the Keystone pipeline, Obama has turned his back on the most traditional voting bloc in the Democratic Party: blue-collar, hard-hat workers.

Manufacturing workers. Construction workers. Truckers. Pipefitters. Plumbers. The Keystone opposition coming out of the White House is completely alienating all these people, the folks who work with their hands. And it's these workers who have been decimated in the recession far more than any other group in the economy.
David Barnett, head of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, told me on CNBC that unemployment is currently running at 20% to 25% in this blue-collar sector.

He has repeatedly lobbied the White House to allow the Keystone pipeline to go through, and he notes high environmental standards in the work his men do.
And yet even now, three years after the initial Keystone reviews began, the issue is still unresolved.

How can you have a jobs bill without putting blue-collar workers back to work? Answer: stubborn ideological insistence.

The Teamsters support the Keystone. So does the AFL-CIO. So do the machinists. And along with the plumbers and pipefitters, so does the Laborers' International Union of North America.

And we're not just talking about the 20,000 jobs that would accrue directly from the pipeline, but the secondary and tertiary jobs from a long supply chain that total well over 100,000.

As of this writing, the White House may dump the millionaire surtax. But that's not much of a concession, since it never would have passed anyway.

Republicans are adamant. It's a nonstarter in the House, and probably the Senate too. Meanwhile, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told me the Keystone pipeline is the key to the payroll-tax-cut deal.

Both practically and symbolically, Obama's obsessive stance against the pipeline rips a huge split in the Democratic party, and in the country as a whole.

His manic support of clean energy — just think Solyndra — has blocked out any rational evaluation of the ongoing importance of oil and natural gas — including the oil-and-gas-shale fracking revolution that has become a huge jobs creator in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere.

The Obama administration recently shut down the Utica shale field in Ohio because of an Agriculture Department objection. Two-hundred-thousand jobs are at stake. A field in Wyoming may be shut down.

New York state desperately needs jobs and growth, but is wavering because of EPA actions elsewhere.

And with the Keystone ruling delay now extending for another year, the Keystone folks might give the whole project up in the U.S., in favor of a Pacific Ocean pipeline in Canada that will sell oil to the Chinese.

While the U.S. dithers, the Canadians are taking action.

As a shot across the unbalanced environmental bow, the Canadian government is opting out of the Kyoto global-warming treaty. As energy analyst Daniel Yergin writes, while the unstable Persian Gulf countries represent 16% of U.S. oil imports, Canada represents 25%.

Yergin also writes that by the beginning of the next decade, Canadian oil sands could double production to 3 million barrels per day. That means an even higher share of U.S. imports coming from our friendly neighbor and largest trading partner.
So in addition to being an economic-stability issue, this becomes and energy-independence issue, and even a national-security issue.

Obama's decisions on the pipeline and other new energy breakthroughs are inimical to U.S. interests. They also are hostile to Democratic-party hard hats who may desert the president in droves come next November.

On top of all that, what may be America's leading new source of job creation will be stifled.

[alright4u]

Originally Posted by tonyz

In this economy how could he not pursue the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline ?

Actions speak louder than words.


Obama Policies Seem Calculated To Kill Jobs

IBD
By LAWRENCE KUDLOW

Posted 12/15/2011 06:55 PM ET

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=594923&p=1

The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a very weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don't do anything for growth and jobs.

Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Barack Obama's leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels.

These are ideological positions. They support the Obama vision of class warfare and his attachment to radical environmentalism.

And the key to understanding this state of affairs is the disposition of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, which Republicans cleverly threw into the payroll-tax debate as the only real job creator.

By siding with the radical greenies and standing against the Keystone pipeline, Obama has turned his back on the most traditional voting bloc in the Democratic Party: blue-collar, hard-hat workers.

Manufacturing workers. Construction workers. Truckers. Pipefitters. Plumbers. The Keystone opposition coming out of the White House is completely alienating all these people, the folks who work with their hands. And it's these workers who have been decimated in the recession far more than any other group in the economy.
David Barnett, head of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, told me on CNBC that unemployment is currently running at 20% to 25% in this blue-collar sector.

He has repeatedly lobbied the White House to allow the Keystone pipeline to go through, and he notes high environmental standards in the work his men do.
And yet even now, three years after the initial Keystone reviews began, the issue is still unresolved.

How can you have a jobs bill without putting blue-collar workers back to work? Answer: stubborn ideological insistence.

The Teamsters support the Keystone. So does the AFL-CIO. So do the machinists. And along with the plumbers and pipefitters, so does the Laborers' International Union of North America.

And we're not just talking about the 20,000 jobs that would accrue directly from the pipeline, but the secondary and tertiary jobs from a long supply chain that total well over 100,000.

As of this writing, the White House may dump the millionaire surtax. But that's not much of a concession, since it never would have passed anyway.

Republicans are adamant. It's a nonstarter in the House, and probably the Senate too. Meanwhile, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told me the Keystone pipeline is the key to the payroll-tax-cut deal.

Both practically and symbolically, Obama's obsessive stance against the pipeline rips a huge split in the Democratic party, and in the country as a whole.

His manic support of clean energy — just think Solyndra — has blocked out any rational evaluation of the ongoing importance of oil and natural gas — including the oil-and-gas-shale fracking revolution that has become a huge jobs creator in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere.

The Obama administration recently shut down the Utica shale field in Ohio because of an Agriculture Department objection. Two-hundred-thousand jobs are at stake. A field in Wyoming may be shut down.

New York state desperately needs jobs and growth, but is wavering because of EPA actions elsewhere.

And with the Keystone ruling delay now extending for another year, the Keystone folks might give the whole project up in the U.S., in favor of a Pacific Ocean pipeline in Canada that will sell oil to the Chinese.

While the U.S. dithers, the Canadians are taking action.

As a shot across the unbalanced environmental bow, the Canadian government is opting out of the Kyoto global-warming treaty. As energy analyst Daniel Yergin writes, while the unstable Persian Gulf countries represent 16% of U.S. oil imports, Canada represents 25%.

Yergin also writes that by the beginning of the next decade, Canadian oil sands could double production to 3 million barrels per day. That means an even higher share of U.S. imports coming from our friendly neighbor and largest trading partner.
So in addition to being an economic-stability issue, this becomes and energy-independence issue, and even a national-security issue.

Obama's decisions on the pipeline and other new energy breakthroughs are inimical to U.S. interests. They also are hostile to Democratic-party hard hats who may desert the president in droves come next November.

On top of all that, what may be America's leading new source of job creation will be stifled.

I was just going to mention this pipeline. Your source writes much better then I.

[tonyz]

Originally Posted by alright4u

I was just going to mention this pipeline. Your source writes much better then I.

You’re welcome - Obama’s policies appear designed to secure as many people as possible to become dependent on government largesse.

Moreover, he has already appointed 2 Justices to The Supreme Court - if he succeeds in obtaining another term, his legacy will (when combined with the monstrosity ObamaCare) IMO burden our country for decades.

[alright4u]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Richard,

Thanks for the alignment...and piece of family history. I believe the discussion leads to what is pointed out in the follow-on posts where the "community" wouldn't be able to do the things that are claimed as "needed", "necessary" or "positive" for the country to move. ANY community project will have enviro-nutjobs and lawyers flying in from across the country to make money on other peoples ideas...with the hopes of crushing those ideas in the process so they will be able to crush the next "good idea" or "regional project" that comes up (as that helps keep the country-club dues paid and the stock of granola and Prius batteries at appropriate levels) (Check out Arizona Clean Fuels, West Virginia coal...Pennsylvania wind...etc..you know better than I)

Unless of course (as Billy points out) the brain trust in DC comes up (or latches onto) an idea, in which case vast sums of money can be flushed. High-speed rail was a hot commodity in Kalifornia because the masses demand it???? Amtrak is such a model of how high the demand for rail passenger transit is...

The very government the POTUS represents is mostly to blame for the inability of such projects to take shape and succeed.

BTW - Nice to see the Seasonal Avatar return.

R/10

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=594923&p=2

Here is another editorial by Kudlow. He is spot on as a friend told me about Wyoming and possibly losing those jobs. Sad as I recall the last few years on our flights to Vegas we have had a man or two going on to Wyoming after a few days in Vegas for an oil job. This is not just Wyoming. We are talking about a number of states here plus a lot of lost jobs due to one man's politics. Go to page 2.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by alright4u

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=594923&p=2

Here is another editorial by Kudlow. He is spot on as a friend told me about Wyoming and possibly losing those jobs. Sad as I recall the last few years on our flights to Vegas we have had a man or two going on to Wyoming after a few days in Vegas for an oil job. This is not just Wyoming. We are talking about a number of states here plus a lot of lost jobs due to one man's politics. Go to page 2.

Slow strangulation of business by an Administration that would burst into flames like a vampire if they were caught outside the Beltway in the sunlight.