When your name is Barack Obama, it’s always going to be tight.

There was much laughing and whooping in response to his statement.

It is clear what he meant… he has a funny name (he then threw in “Hussein” at the end) and because Americans are racist or xenophobic it would be difficult for him to win.

We don’t need to belabor the point too much… it’s pretty self-explanatory and divisive.

Coming from a U.S. president it’s pretty sad, too.

Share/Email

It’s sort of like the guy who is always hogging the tennis courts or reserves the pool every Saturday so his kids and their friends can have a birthday party.

After a while, it’s just rude but if you complain it might be awkward when you’re having dinner and are seated next to his friends.

But, like any club, its members have to follow all sorts of rules like emissions for cars, energy.  They have to follow the same standards for food and weights and measures, etc…  If they don’t follow the rules then the other members of the club can gang up and vote to fine the ones not being agreeable.

The main target in the EU club is usually England because they don’t want to be a full member largely because the British are what the Continentals call Euro Skeptics.

They don’t like that, those faceless bureaucrats in Brussels.  But despite the hard time England gets from the EU they pay (and pay and pay) to be a member.

How much countries pay is relevant because it looks as though Greece might trigger a partial or total collapse of the EU.

The chart below shows what countries gave (column 1) what they got (column 2) and what the difference was (column 3) for the period of 2000-2006:

The givers and takers of the EU.

In order to really see what is going on we need to take a look at the top takers from the European Union:

1. Spain:  €44,840,000,000.00  ($57,086,677,244.04)
2. Greece:  €28,090,000,000.00  ($35,761,926,043.38)
3. Portugal:  €17,460,000,000.00  ($22,228,882,727.33)
4. Ireland:  €9,380,000,000.00  ($11,942,438,098.30)
5. Belgium:  €7,950,000,000.00  ($10,121,789,219.77)

That’s about €138 billion ($175 billion)!

It should be noted that the first four countries are in major financial distress and the fifth one, Belgium, operated for 541 days without a government.

This situation has been going on for many years.  The takers with the “inefficient” budgets and the givers who have stronger economies.

But boiling it down what it really means is that every man, woman, and child in the donor nations is working to subsidize those in the taker countries.

The taker countries mooch off the giver countries.  The taker countries tend to spend way more on social benefits than they can afford but they figure there will always be more money in the pot from which they can take.  Meanwhile the other countries could be using the money they spend to prop up the weaker ones on their own population.

Countries like France, Italy, and Germany are not doing so hot themselves after all.

The European Union began life as a trading zone and that is where it should have stayed.  Big Government Liberals grew it into the monstrosity which we see today that may very well implode under its own weight (as it should).

Share/Email

“We have reviewed applications from proponents of renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar power facilities, for programmatic permits to authorize eagle take that may result from both the construction and ongoing operations of renewable energy projects. During our review, it became evident that the 5-year term limit imposed by the 2009 regulations (see 50 CFR 22.26(h)) needed to be extended to better correspond to the timeframe of renewable energy projects.”

Currently these permits are for 5 years.  The 5 year permits were passed under Obama’s tenure.  Extending them to 30 years obviously grants carte blanche to the “green” energy companies which are granted them.

It is disgusting to read these documents and see terms like “eagle take” and “programmatic nest take permits” which make everything seem to sanitary.  Sort of like “Overseas Contingency Operations” versus Bush’s “War on Terror.”

And the oil, gas, and coal industries are supposed to be evil and destructive but wind and solar farms are going to be allowed to kill this nation’s symbol, the Bald Eagle?

Hot Air continues:

We anticipate issuing programmatic permits for wind, solar, and other energy projects, as well as electric utilities, timber operations, and others.We expect that most oil and gas operations are better able to take measures to prevent ongoing eagle mortalities, so we do not expect many will need to seek permits. However, permits may be issued to any type of entity that cannot avoid taking eagles.

This is even worse than when the Obama administration authorized the killings of Barred Owl in order to save the Spotted Owl.

Killing our nation’s symbol for “green” energy?

I’ve seen mature and immature Bald Eagles in the wild… when I was rafting down the Snake River in Wyoming and let me tell you… they were the most impressive animals I’ve seen.

How low can you get?

Share/Email

If you build it, they will come.

But because we’re dealing with Socialists and Europeans we need to modify that slightly:

If you bend the rules enough and allow accounting tricks they will come but won’t stay long.

Okay, that’s not as catchy, but it pretty much sums up how countries like Greece came to be in the EU and why they should  leave soon:  Reality.

Greece never really met the financial criteria for joining the EU, they simply used accounting tricks to make their deficits look smaller… sort of like politicians in America using money from Social Security to make the debt look smaller.

Everybody knew it, of course, but it was important to look the other way for, you know, the idea of Continental unity.

The main reason for the EU in the first place was always the fear of the French that Germany would march down the Champs-Élysées (again).  So tie the Germans down in a monetary union and they’ll be less likely to go NAZI on the French (again).

For the Germans it seemed like a good deal.  You’ve started two world wars and you’re good at exporting so why not form a common market with your neighbors and achieve economic stability for your nation’s workers?

Well, that’s how it seemed in the 1950s when work on the common market first began in the heads of European leaders.

So, after many years of living high on the hog, sucking money out of the stronger partners, and paying their workers extravagant (by U.S. standards) benefits, things began to crash.

“Austerity” became the new word of the day.  Trouble is, “austerity” means cutting things that people have become accustomed to having.  So you had your riots and other temper tantrums and then those leaders fell out of favor.

Nobody likes being told to “eat your peas” as Obama is fond of saying.

The Germans, with their huge economic powerhouse and high savings by their population has the most to lose if the house of EU cards falls down.  So Germany’s leader, Angela Merkel, is putting her foot down:

I believe it’s better for the Greeks to stay in the euro area, but that also requires that we set out a path on which Greece gets back on its feet step by step.

Trouble is, “step by step” includes more cuts.

France’s new president, the Socialist François Hollande (who condemns the rich but owns three houses), thinks he can use stimulus to get out of a sticky wicket.

Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble explained why he’d prefer Greece to stay in the EU:

The price if they decide to leave the euro is very high. It would cause a huge amount of turbulence for all of us.

If we translate this what he’s really saying is:

It’ll create a lot of paperwork, we’ll all be voted out of office, and we’ll never tie all the nations of Europe down by one Government.

All of these leaders are like spouses caught in physically abusive relationships… they think if they just do one more thing that their loved one will quit giving them black eyes.

Greece (and Italy, and Spain, Portugal, and Ireland) have had decades to do what’s right and haven’t.

They won’t start now and they just might bring the rest down with them.

Share/Email

The storyline the journolists push is that Mittens was a rich, snobby kid who crushed people and when he grew up he did the same thing, laying off untold numbers of people who then had their lives ruined.

Mittens was a bully then and he’s one now whereas Barack Obama, you know, loves gays, women, blacks, whomever.

I grew up in Washington, D.C. and the public schools there are worse than horrible.  It wasn’t easy but my parents sent me to private school.

From 7th grade through 12th grade I attended an all boys school.  Mittens also went to an all boys school but I didn’t board there.

My school wasn’t quite like Lord of the Flies but sure, kids got teased.  One classmate even got held down (by his friends) on the public bus on his way to school and had his rat tail chopped off.

I remember sitting in 1st period English and he walked in with a bandage on his neck.

You’re a teenager, your hormones are raging, there’s no girls around, you have pimples, maybe you’re too short or too tall or too thin or too fat… you get teased, beat on, mocked, whatever.

I got picked on and I picked on kids.  Sometimes I punched my classmates but they were my friends and they punched me back.  Sometimes we got into fights and weren’t friends for a week.

The point is, I can understand what Mittens did and why.  That’s what happens at boys schools.  Hell, it’s what happens at any school.

Girls aren’t really any nicer to each other having listened to some stories from my fiancée.

The press is simply filled with a bunch of hack, biased, journolists intent on getting Mittens at any opportunity even if it blows up in their faces.

Share/Email