White House = the new Room Full of Mirrors

A Room Full Of Mirrors

First Jimi Hendrix sang about one. Then Bruce Lee fought Mr. Han in one. Now President Obama lives in one!

According to this transcript of a radio discussion with people who have been inside the White House recently, the entire building has been virtually turned into A Room Full of Mirrors where the President sees his own face wherever he looks. Photos of Dear Leader are everywhere. The people's house has become the people's shrine to Obama. It's suggested that they might have even removed paintings of former presidents and replaced them with photos of Obama. Even the Oval Office is plastered with images of Obama, neck-problem and all.

I think the toughest task Obama faces in his life is tearing himself away from the mirror in the morning.

Demon Sheep: The Legend of Tom Campbell

I'm no fan of Carly Fiorina. I've seen her speak at a lunch, I've read her book, I've read all about her time at H-P.  People who worked with her at H-P hate her. She worked on the vile John McCain campaign.

Still, I've got to give her credit for this ad, which uses silliness and hyperbole to expose Tom Campbell's fake "fiscal conservatism."



My one quibble is that it's a little weird that almost all of the "us" people in the ad are white. At 0:57, there are three consecutive shots of white people, then at 1:00 a shot of four white people and a token light-skinned black woman (Harry Reid was not available for comment as to whether she had a Negro dialect). No Hispanics or Asians in California? My guess is that the ad creators were thinking "Our target audience of fiscal conservatives means cranky old racist white guys. Let's show a lot of unhappy white people." Carly's a saleswoman, through and through. Whatever the marketing hacks tell her will sell, she'll push.

Chuck DeVore is the real fiscal conservative in the race, though he doesn't have the money Carly does, and he seems to come with a lot of icky social conservative stuff. [That was uncalled for. DeVore is not running on social issues, and as I've said before, fiscal issues are the only thing that matter this year. Chuck DeVore for Senate!!!]

Gold down

Gold took a beating today along with stocks and is back down near $1000 an ounce. People are freaking out over possible sovereign defaults in Greece, Portugal and elsewhere. Instead of heading for gold, they are dumping all assets and heading for Zimbabwe Ben dollars. I don't think faith in fiat currencies will last forever. If I weren't already betting the farm against the dollar by buying a house with a 30-year-fixed mortgage, I'd be adding more gold at these levels.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Every single human being should short Treasuries

BusinessWeak:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan,” said “every single human being” should bet U.S. Treasury bonds will decline, citing the policies of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the Obama administration.

It’s “a no brainer” to sell short Treasuries, Taleb, a principal at Universa Investments LP in Santa Monica, California, said at a conference in Moscow today. “Every single human being should have that trade.”

Taleb said investors should bet on a rise in long-term U.S. Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, as long as Bernanke and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers are in office, without being more specific.

The Fed and U.S. agencies have lent, spent or guaranteed $9.66 trillion to lift the economy from the worst recession since the Great Depression, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. marketable debt to a record $7.27 trillion as he tries to sustain the recovery from last year’s recession. Obama projects the U.S. budget deficit will rise to a record $1.6 trillion in the 2011 fiscal year.

Retarded people angry about being compared to liberals

Politico:

The Special Olympics is disputing the White House claim that its chairman, Tim Shriver, accepted Rahm Emanuel's apology for calling liberals "retarded."

The Extinct Middle Class Get (Secretly) Backdoor Taxed

In case you missed it, Reuters pulled an article about new Obama initiatives to tax the middle class to death. After a little digging, we find that it was at the White House's request. Really? Like we weren't going to find out.

Anyway, for posterity's sake and because we don't take orders from White House rats, here is the article in its entirety. JDA encourages ALL bloggers, threats to the regime, sound money advocates, and patriots to repost it - Reuters may not have a pair but we certainly do.

Original:
Backdoor taxes to hit middle class

By Terri Cullen – Mon Feb 1, 4:09 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.

If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 -- though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year's levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy -- the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;

* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;

* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;

* Individuals who don't itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;

* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

Like I said, the middle class has been eliminated anyway so does this actually matter? What is our buddy OMG so afraid of?

Update: Reuters is defending itself. Hahahahahaha "fair and impartial" mainstream media my ass.

Land of the formerly free

America drops from "free" to just "mostly free" on the Index of Economic Freedom.

The latest index of economic freedom shows America falling fast, being ranked for the first time as "mostly free." We've fallen behind Canada, and it's look out below.

Our accelerating descent into a command-and-control economy with government pulling the strings is taking its toll.

The Heritage Foundation's 2010 index of leading economic indicators shows that the land of the free is only mostly free, falling to eighth in the world from sixth last year, now sandwiched between Canada and Denmark.