Same Old Obama

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas gets it. Why doesn't the media? With his Super shout out for Obama's efforts to keep the country "stimulated", will understands that our president's policies represent more of the same. Because his earlier argument that spending is stimulus didn't sell with the public, we have "investments" to "win the future"(lifted from Newt). This is simply more big spending by Big Government that benefits Big Business(and his fundraising) at the expense of America's working and middle classes.

Appointing Jeff Immelt of GE as jobs czar has been hailed by the media as proof of the president's centrist bona fides. But Immelt personifies "crony" in the crony capitalism that is Obamanomics. "In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner." Those aren't the words of a believer in the free market or a champion of small business. Immelt supports cap and trade while pocketing a $400 million taxpayer subsidized loan to sell windmills. This administration is going all in on windmills and electric cars, but our 389 windfarms are producing electricity at less than 20% of their capacity. They aren't the path to prosperity, in fact Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that Cape Wind will result in over $4 billion in extra costs for consumers. Meanwhile, American drivers are paying over $3 for gas with analysts seeing it soon reaching $5 a gallon. To help promote our adoption of green technologies, Energy Secretary Chu wants us to be paying $7 or more.

The skyrocketing costs of education are threatening to put a degree out of reach for all but the wealthiest Americans. One hundred colleges now charge at least $50,000 a year, only five did so as recently as 2008. It may surprise students and their parents to learn that university administrative costs have increased 61%, essentially swallowing the massive increases in financial aid. All those extra bureacrats have been good to the president though, the University of CA was his number one contributor and Harvard was number three. Instead of pushing to reform the system, the president proposes to continue throwing more money at it, gauranteeing that costs will continue to increase along with his campaign warchest. The same dynamic applies to K-12 spending. The Mercatus Center found that we spend an average of $91,700 per pupil between grades 1-9, yet our students score lower than countries that spend much less. Again, the president just wants to throw good money after bad without making necessary reforms for fear of upsetting the teachers' unions and their PAC's that will contribute millions to his campaign.

We also have the 700+ waivers for Obamacare, 40% of them going to unions that contributed $25 million to the president. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

President Obama isn't, and will never be the pragmatic centrist of the media's fantasies. If this ploy to repackage the same failed policies that have done nothing but run up record deficits, $1.5 trillion this year, doesn't convince the American public to see the light, he'll try again, because he's never wrong. The next time there'll be $1 billion of Wall St., Environmentalist and Organized Labor dough to spend communicating to the bitter clingers of Middle America in borrowed Republican language that he's courageously standing(T-Paw), without apologizing(Mitt) for freezing his 24% increase in discretionary spending in place, cutting a pitiful $775 million when 40 cents of every dollar spent is borrowed(almost $5 billion a day) and rocketing our national debt to $20 trillion and beyond. All for our benefit of course.

Coakley Takes One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

In what must be the newspaper equivalent of the full Ginsberg the Boston Herald has three stories about our Attorney General today.

Starting with the good, AG Coakley takes National Grid to task for fleecing its customers:

“During the course of (reviewing National Grid’s rate-hike request), we found at least $300,000 worth of expenses that are outrageous and clearly provide no benefit to Massachusetts rate payers,” Jill Butterworth, spokeswoman for Attorney General Martha Coakley, told the Herald. “(And) we only scratched the surface.”

National Grid recently asked the state Department of Public Utilities to approve a $106 million-a-year rate hike for the company’s 850,000 Hub-area gas customers. That would raise ratepayer bills by about 4 percent to 11 percent, depending on where they live.

Some of the charges National Grid passed on to consumers:

$35,700 to send a senior vice president’s two daughters to the private British School of Boston

$30,000 for an executive’s personal medical bills

$4,363 for an employee’s trip to President Obama’s inauguration

$4,000 for company Christmas cards

$1,602 to matte and frame pictures for Grid President Tom King’s office

$1,433 for Rubik’s Cubes used in a team-building exercise

$1,254 to ship a wine collection across the ocean for a British employee who transferred stateside.

No employee expense was too small, with National Grid even passing on costs for $2 coat-check fees and $3.50 bottled waters.

Thank you Martha Coakley. Not only is the arrogance of National Grid executives a thumb in the eye of hard-pressed consumers, but the rate jump they are requesting isn't supported by the state of our economy. Sure winter is coming, but the economy is in big trouble, which means that natural gas supplies shouldn't be stressed, meaning prices should remain relatively stable. Even Obamanomics can't eliminate the basic rules of supply and demand. Natural gas futures fell slightly today.

Now for the odd:

After last week’s jailhouse suicide by accused Craigslist killer Philip Markoff - before he could be tried for the murder of erotic masseuse Julissa Brisman - Coakley reversed her earlier stance against interfering with the Web forum and demanded that Craigslist take down adult ads.

Coakley said the only reason for running the sex ads is to make money. “Craigslist should end the hypocrisy between its words and its practices,” Coakley wrote.

So, our AG is fine with the ads when a woman is murdered, but when her murderer takes his own life she changes her tune? Craigslist's popularity is based on the fact that it's free to the general public that are looking to post ads to sell a car, find a roomate, post a job etc. Without the revenue Craigslist makes from the adult themed ads, they will either need to start charging to post non-adult ads or go out of business. I'm sure the Globe wouldn't shed any tears if that were to happen.

I wonder when AG Coakley is going to go after "alternative" newspapers like the Boston Phoenix. After all, they make their money selling adult ads too. Maybe if Craigslist had a few reliably left-wing reporters on staff that could be counted on to write favorable stories about Martha, the AG would agree to continue looking the other way?

Finally, Jay Fitzgerald covers the downright indefensible:

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office is withholding key details from the public about how she arrived at her Cape Wind rate-cut deal.

Coakley - whose office recently negotiated a 10 percent reduction in how much Cape Wind and National Grid can charge customers for wind-generated electricity - submitted a report late last week full of blacked-out pages related to wind-project price comparisons associated with the multibillion-dollar Cape Wind project.

The report, which was Coakley’s official justification of her rate settlement with Cape Wind and National Grid, includes “redacted” words, numbers, sentences, paragraphs and charts. It even blanked out a question asked of an energy expert hired by Coakley’s office - and the expert’s response was also crossed out, records filed with the Department of Public Utilities show.

This is a project that will cost between $2 billion-$2.6 billion when it's all said and done. The public has every right to know all the details. We're the ones that will be paying for the over-priced electicity generated by this green boondoggle. What are the proponents of Cape Wind afraid of?

LiveShot Says "Only Peasants Pay Taxes"

From the Herald:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

Plus

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

Senator Kerry I get that you and the Mrs. wanted to avoid a hefty tax bill. Who wouldn't? But you ran for president demonizing companies that were "shipping jobs overseas" and you have your yacht built in New Zealand. You couldn't find a single shipyard in the U.S. that could build your pleasure boat and put some Americans to work? There is a reason that sailing trophy is called the America's Cup, we have a rich heritage of building the best boats in the world.

Now maybe the Herald is missing a major scoop here and you are planning to relocate to Newport permanently. After all, now that you lost the fight to keep Cape Wind from being built and the views in Nantucket sound will soon be despoiled, it's time to find a more pristine sailing locale. Or maybe you're growing bored coasting to re-election every six years and you believe a primary fight with "Big Sheldon" Whitehouse is just the ticket to get your mojo back?

However,if you plan on staying in MA pay your "fair share".