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Barry Deceives Liberty – How Would You Respond to a Progressive?

Posted by Trent Derr on March 10, 2011 at 5:30pm

by: Trent Derr - American Exceptionalism Blog

 

My wife was seated in the airport waiting to catch her flight back home. So far so good. She was already past security waiting in the gate area. As usual, she was reading a book trying to pass the minutes until it was time to board. My wife can be as entertained by people watching as anyone. However if she has a good book, she would rather tune out the world and slip into a well written story, but not today. On this day, she along with everyone else in the gate area were going to have their concentration shattered by a guy on his cell phone. For sake of discussion, let’s call him Barry. Barry had a pretty deep voice, and he was talking loud.

 

It didn’t matter if you had on headphones, wore hearing aids or were half-deaf, you could hear Barry. His baritone voice blasted through the atmosphere at the gate such that everyone could hear every word he was saying. It became very clear, very quickly he was trying his best to get out of the dog house. It was obvious from his side of the conversation that Barry was in deep TROUBLE. He was in trouble with his girlfriend Liberty, and she was really ticked off. You couldn’t hear her side of the conversation, but it definitely was NOT PG-13. Barry was doing his best to convince his girlfriend over the phone that he wasn’t doing anything wrong. She wasn’t buying it.

 

That’s part of the reason why he was talking so loud. Continue...
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WWRD? Part 2 – What would Reagan do about immigration?

Posted by Trent Derr on February 28, 2011 at 5:30pm

by: Trent Derr - American Exceptionalism

 

As a continuing part of our series What Would Reagan Do, we’re going to discuss what Reagan would do to address our current immigration problems. Clearly Reagan would have been shocked by our current situation related to rampant illegal immigration, the violence across our southern border in Mexico, and the crime being brought into American cities by illegal aliens.

 

Addressing Reagan’s views regarding immigration is complex because he had two seemingly conflicting views. For one, Reagan believed in the integrity of the borders of the United States. This view would have been only reinforced by our current international terrorism risks in a post 9-11 world. In fact one of Reagan’s most well-known quotes is: “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

 

On the other side of the coin, Reagan believed the United States was the last great hope for the world. Reagan lived the American Dream and saw that dream as a gift from God for all free people. He fully understood the desire of the masses to come to America and to assimilate into the melting pot as Americans.  Continue...
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WWRD? (What Would Reagan Do) - How would Ronald Reagan address the challenges we have today?

Posted by Trent Derr on February 24, 2011 at 5:00pm

by: Trent Derr - Morning in America

 

Are you better off than you were two years ago? For most people, the answer is no. Compared to two years ago, more people are unemployed, the credit markets are still a mess, businesses are still being stymied by further federal regulation, and the global community has no idea what we stand for with our foreign policy.

 

What if we could roll the clock back? Roll it back a little more than two years to September 2008. At that time, the United States was at one of our more critical inflection points. We had military actions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, our southern border states were seeing a serious uptick in crime being committed by illegal aliens, the economy was starting to stagnate, and we had a looming credit crisis. Over a series of postings, we’ll address how Reagan would have addressed each of these issues. What Would Reagan Do?

 

The Credit Crisis

 

Reagan was a true believer in the free market. He believed in capitalism, American businesses, and most importantly the American people. Reagan knew that one of the key mechanisms of the free market is to correct imbalances that occur in the exchange of goods and currency. If you ever had any doubt about Reagan’s belief in free markets, look at how he handled the stock crash on “Black Monday”, stock market collapse of October 19, 1987.  Continue...
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Rajjpuut's Folly: More Obama Duplicity? GM’s "Paid in Full" Really Just "Full of It"

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on April 24, 2010 at 2:22am

In Elaborate TARP Funds Shuffle

GM Ads Claim Bailout "Paid Off"

A top Senate Republican is angry with the Obama administration for not refuting General Motor’s recent claim to having paid off its bailout five years ahead of schedule. Vice President Joe Biden immediately chimed in that GM’s effort was “a great accomplishment” as soon as the ads began running. And so far no one from the adminstration has admitted that GM is putting a hoax over on the taxpayeers. Once proud General Motors now finds itself in boiling hot water over a blatantly false advertisment featuring GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whiteacre claiming the troubled car company has “repaid” its bailout from the taxpayers “in full.” The Federal Trade Commission quickly moved to investigate the claim all the while Republicans on Capital Hill were going bonkers over the clearly murky statements. The Obama administration has not responded to charges that GM was falsifying advertising in order to gain unwaranted trust from consumers while government watchdogs say that the automaker may have “technically paid off the bailout money by dipping into a separate pot of bailout funds the equivalent of a slush fund which also came from the U.S. Taxpayers. “Truth in advertising” laws prohibit commercials which are “likely to mislead consumers.”
Supposedly “too big to fail,” GM’s TV spot irritated viewers with common sense. The former auto-giant since the bailout has shown very little profit, how was this possible? "We have repaid our government loans in full — with interest — five years ahead of the original schedule," said Whitacre in the ad, while asking Americans to give the bankrupt company “another look.” Top senate Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa said GM was misleading taxpayers by using a special escrow account to repay the loan. His charge was backed up by TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky who told Fox News as well as the senate finance committee that Grassley was correct, GM used bailout money to pay back the federal government. Grassley described the whole thing as “nothing more than an elaborate TARP money shuffling.”
Not only is all the TARP money NOT paid off by GM, but the company is not Whitacre’s company anyway. 61% is owned by the U.S. Government and 12% is owned by the Canadian Government and GM is definitely NOT yet solvent, still racked by debt and so far unable to turn a profit (and hasn’t done so since 2004) GM received a $52 infusion of money from the federal government in 2009. Grassley, meanwhile has written a letter with his findings to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and asked for more information about why the company was allowed to use bailout money to repay bailout money and how much of the remaining escrow funds GM would be allowed to keep. Since GM received the equivalent of over $14,000 per automobile in bailout funds, how it can keep from turning a profit is beyond Rajjpuut’s simple power to add or detract. Rest assured, however, no actual profit was made and no actual GM money was used in “paying off the bailout.” In fact, Rajjpuut, is betting that Chrysler, who received a bailout simultaneously with GM is no where nearer to solvency than it was a year ago and GM's solvency is still very much up in the air. Stupidity like Whitacre's little charlatan ad stunt is surely not going to be earning any consumer confidence for GM in the near future and Rajjpuut expects him to be handed his hat within a month.
Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut

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OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION FLUNKS SMALL BIZ TEST

Posted by Walt on February 21, 2010 at 8:08am

How has your small business been doing under obama’s administration?....

A recent USA TODAY/Manta.com survey askeda similar question of small business owners.....

11% of respondents said things were good.....

13% of respondents said things haven’t changed (“change you can believe in!”).....

77% of small business respondents said that obama’s small business policies have negatively affected their small businesses.....

This can’t be!....

As part of the non-spurring stimulus bill left to obama’s administration toimplement, $200 BILLION was to be used to assist small business owners.....

It was to be Main St. over Wall St.....

However, the owner of your favorite coffee shop down the street sat with his other smallbusiness buds and watched as obama’s great economic minds handed out TARP cashto banks and large corporations.....

Things were not going as obama’s treasury secretary Timmy Geitner had originallyplanned.....

So, in March 0f 2009, obama had another plan.....

Give them more money (since the money was notcoming directly from the Treasury, no Congressional approval would benecessary.)....

obama goes for political points as he makes a tiger woods-like public announcementthat $15 BILLION more would beallocated from TARP monies to help out small business guys.....

“This will unlock our frozen credit markets which is essential for economicrecovery,” obama assured us.....

obama’s chosen SBA chief, Karen Mills, said that small businesses “create 70%” of newjobs each quarter.....

The plan was to use tax-payer monies to back 100% of SBA loans. The thinking was that this would loosen upcapital, create jobs and give small business owners “change they can believein.”....

How’s that unemployment rate working out for ya?....

We’re not investment bankers, but we play them in D.C.....

To spur interest, obama signed off on removing the restrictions on executivecompensation for those receiving TALF (small business bailout plan) funds.....

Did it work?....

Between June 2008 and June 2009, 6 months after obama’s small business plan, small business bankruptcies were up81%.....

For the first 3 quarters of 2009 (latest for which figures are available), smallbusiness bankruptcies were up 13%.....

In October 2009, Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said, woa, we needmore cash for this thing. He proposes thatanother$50 BILLION be made available for this most excellent plan.....

Oh, it worked in some places.....

Back in Maine, where obama’s chosen SBA chief Karen Mills hails from in her pastlife as a venture capitalist; aluminum trailer maker Alcom, Inc easily receiveda $1.1 million dollar loan from obama’s government.....

But down in Fort Lee, New Jersey, small business owner James Daigle said that hewas “laughed off” when he attempted to get a loan for his business.....

They are cheering in Oman and Bahrain however.....

obama’s SBA announced in February of 2010 that they had just entered into a partnershipwith Middle East and African countries to provide access to capitol and tostrengthen small enterprise in those regions.....

Greaaaat; Oman, Bahrain. Those aren’t cities inSouth Dakota.....

Also in February of 2010, obama said an additional $30 BILLION should besent to little community banks around the country…I think he meant thiscountry, not sure. ....

It appears that too many banks that received the original funds for this most awesome plan were just hoarding the cash andnot lending it and the little guys were getting screwed…or so the storygoes. ....

Who’s ordering dusty daiquiris in Bahrain right now?....

Toyota wasn’t doing to bad with the plan.....

$750 million of the original plan funds were to go to World Omni Financial Corp, thecompany that makes loans through Toyota Motor Corp. And a great American company it is.....

Massive amounts of tax-payer money paid out in stimulus funds by the obamaadministration and we watch as large banking executives continue to awardthemselves billions in bonuses.....

Massive amounts of tax-payer money paid out by the obama administration for a jobsstimulus and unemployment rises; then billions more are asked for.....

Massive amounts of tax-payer money paid out by the obama administration for the homemortgage industry and still we see increases in mortgage bankruptcy filings.....

Massive amounts of tax-payer money paid out by the obama administration for a failedsmall business bailout; and still more money is allocated.....

I’ve got another plan. Let’s stop givinganything incorporated any of our money, and start giving the billions out toindividual tax-payers. We will spend,we’re good at that. We’ll savebusinesses, help the economy, and then travel to Bahrain to buy a Toyota.....

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