A Crater Where a Robust Economy Once Stood

As has become common practice for the Obama administration, the really bad news gets released on Fridays so it's essentially forgotten over the weekend. Of course, they know that if they release it during half-time of the Superbowl (TM) the media will ignore it so they are going to extremes.

Anyway, here's the feeble state of our economy:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before and the largest shortfall relative to the size of the economy since 1945.

The number, while lower than forecast a few months ago, underscored the challenges ahead in shrinking the deficit even as the White House and Congress are considering more steps to stimulate an economy that is making a slow recovery. The political hurdles to finding a solution were evident on Friday as each political party immediately blamed the other for the growth of the deficit.

The shortfall for the fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, translates to 10 percent of the economy, according to a joint statement from the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter R. Orszag. For the 2008 fiscal year, the deficit of $459 billion was 3.2 percent of the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product.

Economists generally agree that annual deficits should not exceed 3 percent of the G.D.P., and that is the level President Obama had vowed to reach by the end of his first term in 2013.

10% of the economy? Three times what is generally considered healthy? This means nothing to those with liberal beliefs, they want to see the deficit somewhere north of 30% because it means an enormous government and one that more and more people are forced to rely on to survive.

Obama will have to raise taxes to get back any semblance of a stable economy but it's not going to happen in the next year prior to the mid-terms as the vulnerable Democrats will never pass any such increase that will come back and bite them.

So we're sentenced to an entire year an ever-spiralling economic situation and the second part of the double dip recession--inflation isn't even upon us yet.

This is the Obama economy and he owns it but hey, they can still blame Bush.

Hope and change my friends..Hope. And. Change.

Exit quote. Remember when Bush said that governing was "hard work?" I guess he's laughing down in Texas as Obama realizes just how hard the work is:

Liberals Can't Have It Both Ways on Iran

In the aftermath of 9/11, liberals and Democrats were quick to point out that it was Bush's responsibility because he had been in office for 8-months. They claimed this knowing full-well that the lawsuits pushed by Gore put the Bush transition team way behind when it came to filling key spots. They also brushed aside any conversation that Clinton had some responsibility when he allowed bin-Laden to escape capture or death. Bush had been in office long enough they driveled, he had sole responsibility.

My how times have changed.

Iran has copped to the fact that they have another nuclear facility and to underscore the point launched one of their long-range missiles; one capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe. Now libs are claiming it was Bush's fault for allowing Iran to develop this second site under his watch.

So which is it? Obama has been in office longer than Bush had been on 9/11 and if we go by precedent that was set back then; it's Obama's responsibility for the Ahmadinejad regime's middle finger extension towards both the IAEA and the US.

You can't have it both ways.

The Iranian revelation comes a week after Obama screwed over Poland and the Czech Republic and bowed to Putin by taking away the missile shield that was designed to stop...Iranian missiles carrying nukes.

Perhaps Obama can talk with Ahmadinejad without preconditions and persuade him using his magnetic personality to give up their nuke ambitions. Or he can just ignore the situation and go to Denmark to lobby for his home town with Oprah. I wonder which one he'll select. I mean, one of our oldest allies is now threatened with annihilation and a Mid-East conflagration just became much more likelier but but that's no reason to put off a quick jaunt to Denmark now is it?

Friday Morning News & Notes

Good morning. TGIF and enjoy the weekend.

Here's what's new:

--The Constitution seems more a set of guidelines and less protected rights in Obamanation. Here's example one and here's example two. Didn't the left criticize Bush incessantly for every perceived trampling of rights while they seem amazingly quite on this...

--Ahmadinejad: The ACORN of Iran. Neither care how legally or morally they get votes.

--Americans taking a look at the cap and trade scam scheme and increasingly saying "screw that".

--Even Ralph Nader thing the "Government Motors" plan is a bad one.

--Terri has thoughts on Sotomayor.

--Bush may be gone but BDS lives on and on and on...

Monday Afternoon News and Notes

On the road again...

I waited for weeks for spring to spring and instead we went right to summer. It was a scorcher in Rehoboth and throughout the northeast this weekend. If this global warming, I'm all for it.

Here's what's news:

-According to the Pakistani ISI, Osama is currently Satan's buttboy (or his enema giver)having left this Earth. Not sure if we can trust them but I've generally suspected he's been dead for a few years. Hey, one can hope.

-I saw the best bumper sticker this weekend on an SUV. It read "I already have a savior, I'm looking for a president". This would be why it was created.

-Us evil Republicans want everybody to get swine flu and die--provided those who do are heathen liberals don't you know. Or something like that. Hey, it's progress, they blamed it on Rove and not on Bush.

-DICK Polman is such a sycophant for Obama he knows what The Ones jockstrap smells like:

On the cusp of his first 100 days in office, the new president is fully embarked on his transformative mission, dominating the news cycle by sheer force of his telegenic cool, exuding confidence, and prompting downhearted Americans to feel better about their troubled country.

DICK evidently hasn't been paying attention to the first 100-days. Does anyone wonder why the Inquirer is losing readers at an alarming rate with bias such as this while the Wall Street Journal is gaining?

-Swine flu hits US, Obama team is woefully unprepared and understaffed.

The Obama Plan on Gitmo: Blame Bush

Obama promised to close Gitmo as soon as he took office. Once he realized the extent to which the inmates were involved with terror organizations, he realized that it wouldn't be feasible--especially since many turn up back with terror group upon release.

So what to do? He couldn't sell out his base and he couldn't not take some action. So he decided to leak a story about how the files were in "disarray" and it would take some doing to pull everything together, thus buying time and breathing space. In other words; blame Bush. The WaPo dutifully took up the meme and this morning published the following:

President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.

Instead, they found that information on individual prisoners is "scattered throughout the executive branch," a senior administration official said. The executive order Obama signed Thursday orders the prison closed within one year, and a Cabinet-level panel named to review each case separately will have to spend its initial weeks and perhaps months scouring the corners of the federal government in search of relevant material.

Easy enough with a compliant media; just find several "Bush administration officials" who may want to remain in Washington to agree and voila, you have an excuse for Obama not taking immediate action.

Note they included that some officials dispute that but most people read the headline and the lede and that's that.

The Blame Bush scenario will most-likely play out for at least six-months but probably more like a year or more. It's an easy way for a man who has never taken a stand to blame his predecessor who always made a decision and stuck by it. Plus, Obama knows damn well that Bush will not be like Clinton or Carter who broke the presidential tradition of not criticizing their successors or subsequent presidents.

It's a brilliant strategy even if it is underhanded, cowardly and shameless. Truman said the "buck stops here" while the new Obama credo is "blame Bush for all the bad". About what most of us on the right expected.

Jules Crittenden has more.