Even NPR Won't Propogandize Anymore

If they wish to keep their listeners, with donors writing checks to local affiliates, they must eventually tell the truth. Even liberals notice the smell, when you lie to them long enough.

And they report: No economic growth in June.

The pace of consumer spending stalled in June and personal incomes failed to increase, further evidence that the economic recovery slowed in the spring.

Personal spending was unchanged in June, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It was the third straight month of lackluster consumer demand. Incomes were also flat, the weakest showing in nine months.

The lack of growth for spending and incomes shows the economy ended the second quarter on a weak note. Many analysts believe growth will slow further in the second half of the year as high unemployment, shaky consumer confidence and renewed troubles in housing weigh on the year-old economic recovery.

Americans appear to be preparing for tough times. The personal savings rate rose to 6.4 percent of after-tax incomes in June, the highest reading in nearly a year. The savings rate is now about three times the 2.1 percent average for all of 2007, before the recession began.

Consumer spending is closely monitored because it accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.

Note to The One: If you ram through outrageous federal takeovers of entire portions of the economy (like health care), demonstrate your incompetence and venality when an oil well blows up (by not picking up the phone to call the oil company...), put 39 million people on food stamps, and generally create anxiety about the Brave New World you have planned for us all, guess what?

People lose faith in the future, and sit on their cash. Given events of the past sixty months, what sane person would finance a car for the next sixty?

Even NPR, lead cheerleader for The One, can't keep up the pretense anymore.

You on yoh' own thea, Missah Prezident.

We're Making Progress! Dodd And Dorgan Hit The Road

News this morning that Chris Dodd Democrat of Connecticut, and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota announced this morning that they will not seek re-election. 

Reality is settling in on the Senators who followed Himself over the cliff.  The voters back home are not amused.

Chris Dodd, especially, would be facing questions about why he took a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the most notorious of the subprime operators. The Wall Street Journal covered his 'disclosure' of the deal last February, in which reporters were allowed to view, but not copy or carry away any portion of, what he purported to be the documents attached to the sweetheart loan.

'Heck, we'd all love the kind of courtesy that would have saved Mr. Dodd $75,000 over the life of the two loans he refinanced to the tune of $800,000, according to an analysis by Portfolio magazine. The savings came from rock-bottom interest rates and a free "float-down" -- the right to borrow at a lower rate if interest rates fall before you've closed on the loan.'

The shame of it all is that the questions won't be coming from a federal prosecutor--Prez HopeyChangey's Justice Department has his back on that problem, so long as he votes the party line until retirement.

As for Senator Dorgan--well, North Dakota is a huge piece of real estate with not many people.  And the people that do live there are a hearty, self reliant lot.  On a state-wide level, they avoided many of the sins of the past twenty/thirty years, and have come through the Great Recession relatively intact, with oil drilling now underway in many parts of the state.  The good Senator would have great trouble justifying his support of the banksters and an administration that would love nothing more than to shutter the entire oil industry.  Look for a Republican to replace him.

And, speaking of Republicans to replace someone in the Senate, there is still time to send a few shekels in the direction of Scott Brown, the GOP candidate who appears to be closing on the presumed Democrat heir to Chappaquiddick Teddy's seat.

If Brown wins, Prez HopeyChangey loses his sixtieth vote for the health-care monstrosity, and cap-and-trade, and the next round of bail-outs, and the next stimulus, and the confirmation of Helicopter Ben, etc. etc... Senator Brown could be a game changer, at least until the Dems finish suborning GOP Senator Snowe of Maine.

Even if he comes close, Teddy's heir will have to be looking over her shoulder at an electorate that could easily turn on her.  Every little bit helps!

The Republican National Committee has been, let us say, lukewarm in its participation and support of Mr. Brown.  His win or very strong showing could help encourage a housecleaning in that corrupt organization, as well.

The special election in Massachusetts is January 19. 

Some Solutions on the Horizon for Health Care

This rolled out by Jeff Immelt at GE this morning.

I caught the first few minutes of the presentation, and it was enough to cheer the heart, at least a bit.

There are solutions to the health-care mess in this country. They are being created in the Third World, and exported back to us.

Now if the Federal Guv'mint will stay out of the way, and allow innovation to proceed.

Immelt made very clear: 'GE is not a charity. We're here to return profit to our investors.' But he also emphasized that countries with good health care in place, and a healthy citizenry, tend to be more wealthy.

He's right!

But, the national health care proposals proposed by Obama and the Congressional Democrats will overwhelm any creation of wealth resulting from improved health care.

We're already looking at 50-something trillion (that's with a 'T') in unfunded obligations at the Federal level. The 'solution' now traveling through Congress will not even be read, much less debated. No one knows, outside of the authors of the legislation, what mischief is contained within those hundreds of pages of numbing prose.

At least in the UK, they held an open debate on the subject, and the discussion continues to this day.

Do we really, really want our health care in the hands of the people who brought us Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, the TARP, and the current management of both our banking and auto sectors?

Are these people really trustworthy?