Randomotomy

Mr. Obama today stated: ‘I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess’

Funny that Mr. Geithner who helped create this mess has a job as the head of the Treasury Department and still talking.

Funny that Ben Bernanke, who continued Greenspan’s easy money policies, is head of the Federal Reserve and still talking.

Funny that Lawrence Summers, who helped deregulate the industry that Obama wants to regulate is the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council and still talking (and even considered to replace Bernanke when his term expires).

The list meanders onwards…

Waiting for the pink slips to flutter.

H.M. Fitzgibbons is on a hiatus of some sort for an undetermined amount of time.

(Reuters) A portion of the revenue from any U.S. system capping carbon emissions must go toward softening the impact of higher energy prices on consumers, a White House official said on Wednesday.

…

Obama’s proposal would use most of the revenue generated from the sell of carbon permits for tax breaks, offsetting costs for consumers.

Okay, looks like it’s time to do some detective work. Say a lightbulb costs $1 today. Tomorrow, the government tells the lightbulb companies that they owe $0.25 for each light bulb they sell. Not so shockingly, lightbulbs the next day go for $1.25.

So along comes Santa Claus who says, “Fret not troubled soul – I will give you $0.25 so that the lightbulb will only cost you $1.00.”

Well that works nicely – maybe they can do one of those programs for every expense. In fact, why not have Santa Claus give us refunds of all our purchases? If a car costs $15,000, Santa Claus can give us $15,000 to cover the cost?

Let’s follow the adventure of the quarter. The company has to give the quarter to Santa Claus. Then Santa Claus is promising that he will give the quarter, or maybe a little less, to the consumer. Of course, with the stroke of a pen, Santa Claus doesn’t have to give anything to the consumer – but that’s an article for another day.

In effect, what we have, is what is really just a tax increase on businesses. So why not just do that? Because, Santa Claus knows that this tax increase will be trashed by the consumer. So Santa Claus cuts the consumer in on the deal.

You know those stories where Jimmy the Pipe hires Billy the Club to go beat up Loanshark Larry – but Sally the Sham watches the assault so Billy the Club tells her that for $100, she should keep her mouth shut? Sort of the same thing going on here.

In the middle of economic calamity, when businesses are struggling with their cost structures, etc. and when employees are being laid off, this administration wants to push forward with a business tax increase. What do business tax increases do? Well, they make it more beneficial for companies to move to other countries. They make it more difficult to pay for things like employee salaries so you get wage cuts and layoffs. And it ultimately stifles creativity.

This has nothing to do with climate change or the environment. This has everything to do with giving the government more money through tax increases, and more control through regulation.

The same company that is running social security and medicare into bankruptcy, and the same company that created this massive economic imbalance, and the same company that owns a subsidiary which is the “biggest polluter on earth” is the company we want to use to clean up the air and water through this plan. That company happens to be the United States Government.

CommonDreams.org says “The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined”.

Say you are standing next to an odor-saturated bum in the drugstore. Would you ask him for recommendations on which soap is best? Probably not.

Yet here we have the same entity that pollutes to no avail telling us how to clean up pollution. And funny enough – the plan is for one polluter who produces things to give money to the other polluter who doesn’t.

My stance on the matter: I want a clean environment, and thus, I am totally against this plan. Just so happens I’m also for lower taxes. Imagine that.

Have you noticed the crime?

Of course not.

Back, just a half year, juice cartons were nice and sturdy. You could grab them and they offered stiff resistance against your fingers & thumb. However, recently, I have noticed that Tropicana, and Welch’s (and I’m sure there are many others as these places don’t make juice containers, they make juice) juice containers are made of very thin cardboard.

You reach in to grab the juice and now it collapses against your grip. It is like grabbing a balloon of juice. And the reason its a problem is because the sturdy cardboard carton will become total history.

Forgotten.

In fact, I bet virtually no one has noticed this change because people in general are in such a rush to complete their lifes in a blur.

So next time, take a second, and grasp your orange juice container and understand what I’m talking about.

If you want to be real smooth, go into the store and go down the line of various cartons to see if you can find an old school one.

And since we are on the topic of juice – make sure what you are buying is a half-gallon. Companies like Florida Natural stopped (a while ago) putting juice into half-gallon jugs. So rather than getting 64oz you get something like 59oz. All the other juice companies will follow just as the ice cream makers did when they decided to shaft people with their not-quite-a-half-gallon scheme. And just like the terrible-coffee-grind companies did with their 16oz coffee tin becoming something less and less.

That concludes my juice box jukebox announcements.

From the Obama is looking out for the little-guy book we have this insight from John Hussman who runs various mutual funds

(Hussman) Meanwhile, in a bizarre convolution of reality reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, the Financial Times reported last week: “US banks that have received government aid, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, are considering buying toxic assets to be sold by rivals under the Treasury’s $1,000bn plan to revive the financial system.” And why not? They can put up a few percent of their own money, and swap each other’s toxic assets financed by a bewildered public suddenly bearing more than 90% of the downside risk. The “investors” in this happy “public-private partnership” keep half the upside while ordinary Americans take the downside off of their hands. Some partnership.

Sounds like a great deal for the blue-collar workers of America huh? Change we can give up.

(Reuters) An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

Smooth move.

(King Obama) It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way towards answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can — if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warrantee will be safe.

In fact, it will be safer than it’s ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee.

Was there a 28th Amendment that snuck into the Constitution lately that gave the executive branch the power to protect auto warranties? I must have been sleeping…

(Reuters) Support grew on Friday for insurance industry demands that all Americans be required to obtain coverage as part of a planned healthcare system overhaul, with a senior Senate Democrat and a coalition of business and consumer groups promoting the idea.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat who is helping write healthcare legislation, said an insurance requirement, or mandate, would help the market function better and reduce premium costs for everyone.

Baucus argued that the cost of medical care for people with no insurance is being shifted to those with insurance, forcing costs higher.

I have been sitting here eating a slice of watermelon trying to understand how this works and the short answer is that this magical cost benefit explanation is ridiculous.

For example, Jimmy Bob (with no insurance) goes to the emergency room and has a $1000 procedure. The argument is that this $1000 is then shifted to those who pay insurance through increased premiums. Yet, costs have not been forced higher – that is an invalid assertion. Jimmy has saved $1000 and insured collectively pay an extra $1000. Net difference = $0. Rather, costs on the insured have been forced higher to the benefit of the uninsured. In other words, the insured are paying for the uninsured.

If we are to believe that this is a great solution, then we also must believe that all citizens who earn an income should pay taxes. Currently, about a third of people pay zero income tax. Yet, rather than ensure that these people are taxed to reduce the costs on the currently taxed, we hear nothing but silence. Well, actually that isn’t true, we actually hear the complete opposite. We hear that the people paying the most in taxes should pay more for the betterment of those who pay nothing or less.

So why is it then that this notion of making everyone share equally in the expense of healthcare is all the rage but of no good plan in taxation?

And, if this healthcare plan really reduced costs, do you think all the major health insurance companies would really be for it? Do you think that they’d be spending millions of dollars and lots of time lobbying Congress for this?

If you required everyone to buy a bicycle once a year, do you think the bicycle companies would be complaining? And if you passed that law – what would happen if all the bicycle companies just started producing absolute trash but with elevated pricing? You wouldn’t have much of a choice – you’d have to buy an overpriced bicycle by mandate of law.

I would argue that if everyone has health insurance, you will see costs rise dramatically. Why? Because people will utilize the healthcare system more frequently for things that previously they did not, and insurers will raise prices after being hammered with elevated costs – and this opinion of mine takes into account preventative medicine.

Then the government will come in and write law after law to force the insurance companies to jump through hoops and eat fire (much as they do now). Eventually, the masses will move over to governmental programs for healthcare which will promise better coverage and lower rates. Except they won’t be lower – they will just be hidden.

And that is the wonder of the political machine.

(AP) Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth said he flashed his car’s headlights to warn a pedestrian before fatally striking a man in Miami Beach last month, according to a report released by police.

Lesson 1: if a car is racing towards you and flashing its lights, perform a magic trick whereby you appear instantly back on the sidewalk from whence you once were.

Lesson 2: the laws are designed so that if you blink lights at a pedestrian, you are no longer liable for plowing into that pedestrian. Afterall, this is the whole reason behind blinking spaceships. You never saw an alien get charged with rape and mutilation have you?

(WSJ) Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners.

So effectively, to fight “terrorism”, we have trolled around the world to capture terrorists so that they could be released into the US. Or, at least captured random people, accused them of terrorism, tortured them silly, decided that the fun was over, and, now that they probably have a good amount of resentment built up, released the innocent people into the US.

Reminds me of when I was younger and trapped unicorns and sold them to bearded ringmasters for premium bread crumbs.