DNC Bookends: $16 Trillion In Debt & A Bad Jobs Report

The Democrat's convention, characterized by Mitt Romney as a "celebration of failure," now has brutal reality for its bookends.

First there was the debt clock ticking over $16,000,000,000,000 on day one of the DNC. It is another step on the march to becoming Greece. Any question of the import of this was highlighted by the Democrat's refusal to acknowledge this dangerous milestone at any point during their convention.

And less than 12 hours after Obama's speech asking for reelection on his vision rather than his performance, the BLS has released a very bad August jobs report. It shows only 96,000 new jobs created. Note that it takes our economy creating approximately 150,000 new jobs each month just to keep us treading water, so this actually puts us on a downward trajectory.

And worse, even the 96,000 new jobs were dwarfed by the report that 368,000 people stopped looking for work. Because of that, the U-3 unemployment number was reported by BLS as 8.1% - an illusory .2% "improvement" over last month. But as AEI points out, "if the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%." Further, "if the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate" would have risen to "8.4%." It also means that the number of work age Americans working or actively looking for work is now at its lowest point in 30 years.

Image via Instapundit.

Mitt Romney responded to the jobs report:

If last night was the party, this morning is the hangover. For every net new job created, nearly four Americans gave up looking for work entirely. This is more of the same for middle class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. After 43 straight months of unemployment above 8%, it is clear that President Obama just hasn’t lived up to his promises and his policies haven’t worked. We aren’t better off than they were four years ago. My plan for a stronger middle class will create 12 million new jobs by the end of my first term. America deserves new leadership that will get our economy moving again.

This election is shaping up to be a real world referendum on post modernism versus objective reality that is there for all to see. What makes this so different then past years is that only willful ignorance can allow one to ignore the objective reality.

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What Labour Hath Wrought

LIke the RMS Titanic, the UK's ship of state is sinking. British journalist William Shawcross, writing at the NRO, tells why in a damning indictment of Labour and its 12 year stewardship of Britain. This from Mr. Shawcross:

A Foreign Office diplomat’s proposal to mark the Pope’s visit to Britain with Benedict condoms and by having him bless a gay marriage, open an abortion clinic, and set up a hotline for abused children is a perfect example of the ruling Labour party’s degradation of Britain. Former ambassador Sir Ivor Roberts said on Sunday, “I cannot think of a papal visit anywhere in the world where the host government has had to apologize so profusely and abjectly…for the appalling behavior of one of its officials.”

The truth is that the Foreign Office is no longer fit for purpose after 13 years of New Labour dogmas and a succession of weak if not feckless ministers, in particular the incumbent, David Miliband. Under New Labour, the idea that the Foreign Office should actually fight for British interests is considered passé, if not racist and imperialist. Instead, New Labour has forced Britain to become a mere piece of the bland but increasingly oppressive Bambiland of the E.U., promoting such PC global issues as gay rights (except in Muslim lands) and man-made climate change. . . .

Charles Crawford, a distinguished ambassador who retired early in despair at New Labour’s destruction of British diplomacy, says that in Euroland, “religious pieties plus national identities and symbols, and thus the role of national embassies, are all essential targets of postmodern pastiche.”

He is right — “postmodernism,” the disastrous creed that there is no objective truth and that everything is relative, is the defining characteristic of New Labour. The only force of which Labour (like most E.U. ruling parties) seems to be in awe is Islamism. No Foreign Office official would have drawn up a document mocking Islam. “Postmodernism” is in effect a form of appeasement.

And Gordon Brown has been a disaster for this country. As the all-powerful chancellor, he spent the first ten years of New Labour undermining what might have been sensible Blairite reforms to education, health services, and welfare. Brown and his allies wanted no success for Blair — instead, they simply threw money at unreconstructed and inefficient structures. Billions upon billions of taxpayer money is still being squandered. Perhaps most tragic is the lack of welfare reform. Brown has perpetuated the growth of a wretched, demoralized underclass, unwilling and increasingly unable to work.

At the same time, Labour has continually expanded its client state (70 percent of the workforce in Northern Ireland), which produces nothing. Every person in the U.K. now has £40,000 of national debt to his or her name.

The list of horrors is endless: Brown sold our gold at about the lowest price imaginable, he destroyed the country’s strong pension system, he broke Labour’s promise for a referendum on the E.U.’s Lisbon Treaty, and he has mortgaged Labour back to the trade unions. Harold Wilson had more courage.

Unforgivably, Brown has treated our soldiers with contempt. He has never given the armed forces the resources they needed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many men have died in battle because of inadequate equipment. Recently Brown was forced to correct a lie he told the Chilcott Iraq Enquiry when he claimed that under him, defense spending had risen every year.

Labour boasts that 3 million new jobs have been created — but most went to immigrants. Labour deliberately let immigration rip but never put this controversial policy before the voters in a manifesto. Some leaked Labour documents suggest this was a deliberate policy “to dilute Britishness” and create a new class of voters grateful to Labour.

It is an outrage that the British people were never told the truth about Labour’s immigration free-for-all. Instead, Labour apparatchiks denounced anyone as racist if he or she complained. Those who hate the rise of the British National Party should blame Labour, not the poor white voters whom Labour abandoned and whose lives have been changed forever by uncontrolled immigration. Last week, two London taxi drivers told me that they were going to vote BNP because it’s the only party that cares at all about them.

It’s not just about immigration that they complain. People are grossly offended by the drunken anarchy that Labour has encouraged in so many town centres, with 24-hour drinking, the litter that everyone now feels free to throw, the noise, the anger, the increasing incivility. The quality of millions of peoples’ lives has really suffered.

This government has made countless attacks on our civil liberties and has constantly, carelessly undermined our constitution, which has been carefully crafted over centuries to protect us. The Lord Chancellor has gone, the Law Lords have gone, now the House of Lords, one of the last bastions of independent expertise, is also threatened by Brown, who wants to create an elected clone of the Commons. Nick Clegg would do the same.

Labour’s bullying “multicultural” ideology has been a catastrophe. The government has cosseted extremist Islamist preachers of hatred to a shocking degree. No wonder French security officials talk of “Londonistan.” At the same time, under New Labour’s “progressive” laws, ordinary Christians have been persecuted for their views. Gordon Brown boasts of being “a son of the manse,” but he cares far more about leftist ideology than he does about the religion of his father. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has now taken up the cudgels on behalf of Christianity, its followers, and the fine tradition of British tolerance. It is a measure of the illiberalism of this government that he should have to do so.

“Orwellian” is an overworked phrase, but at least everyone knows that it means something destructive to society. It is a fitting description of the debasement of language, the ignorance of history, and the oppressive culture of “postmodern progress” controlled by thousands of highly paid apparatchiks that Labour has forced upon us. . . .

In his conclusion, Mr. Shawcross calls for people to vote for the Tories as their best option to right Britain's sinking ship of state. Perhaps if anyone heard from David Cameron words similar to Mr. Shawcross, they might be able to do so with some confidence. But by all measures, David Cameron is nothing more than a base political opportunist himself who has, once having promised a referendum on EU membership, reversed himself not long ago. Unfortunately, it appears that the only real conservative party in Britain, the UKIP, is rudderless at the moment. The upcoming election will no doubt be interesting, but I seriously doubt indeed if it will result in a positive change in direction for Britain.

Just to highlight one other point, note that Mr. Shawcross credits "Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury" as being the nation's best defender of Christianity, That is because the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, elevated to his current position by nomination of Labour PM Tony Blair in 2002, has proven utterly worthless in standing up for Christianity and the Anglican Church.

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A Wanted Ad For Our Times - Paper Seeking Reporter With No Belief In Objective Reality

Heh. This is postmodernism at its core. This from Slate:

Add to the list of reasons why journalists now lose their jobs: a belief in "objective reality." Atlanta Progressive News senior reporter Jonathan Springston was let go last week after he failed to live up to the paper's standards, namely, by reporting on events based on facts. In a statement issued to the Fresh Loaf blog, the APN explained that "[Springston] held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News." . . .

Only in academia, journalism and Hollywood can such people exist.

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Scandal, Lies & Post-Modernism In Full Fury

Several days ago, an attorney and Democratic Party campaign contributor, Thomas Lauria, went public with allegations that the Obama administration was using extortionate threats to convince secured creditors of Chrysler to, in essence, give up their rights in favor of the UAW. It was an incredibly serious charge. The White House immediately denied it and, to the best of my knowledge, only Jack Taper followed up on the charge. The left wing has gone nuclear on Taper for refusing to take the White House denial at face value and following up on Lauria's allegations. Now, more people are going public, confirming Lauria's allegations and adding to the story.

This from the Business Insider:

Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as "a farce," saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said.

. . . The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say they were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person described the administration as the most shocking "end justifies the means" group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama was "the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger." Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration's tactic was to present what one described as a "madman theory of the presidency" in which the President is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way. The person said this threat was taken very seriously by his firm.

. . . These allegations add to the picture of an administration willing to use intimidation to win over support for its Chrysler plans--and then categorically deny it.

Hope and Change, eh? Has the administraton violated any laws - no. That said, strong arming creditors to forego their constitutional right to property so that the Administration can reward Big Labour is a scandal, as are the White House categorical denials.

And in a clear example of intellectually dishonest post-modernism in action, The Business Insider also reports that the "Left Wing [is] Losing Its Mind . . ." over this story.

When we started writing about the allegation that Steve Rattner had threatened to use the White House press corps to ruin Perella Weinberg if the firm didn't drop its opposition to the Obama administration's Chrysler plan, we never expected it to become a political football. But on the left-wing of the political blogosphere, the story is quickly picking up steam. It's being portraryed as some kind of plot by political conservatives.

Left-wing blogs Think Progress and Media Matters have both attacked ABC News reporter Jake Tapper for picking up the story. Here's Think Progress's complaint::

By reporting the story, Tapper chose to accept the validity of Lauria’s claim that the White House could get 'the full force of the White House press corps' to threaten a private company. Despite the fact that the parties with direct knowledge — the White House and Perella Weinberg — denied to ABC that any threats were made, Tapper still reported Lauria’s false accusation on his 'Political Punch' blog. Drudge and other right-wing outlets are glad he did.

By our count there are at least two important errors in those two sentences.

- Your don't have to accept the validity of the claim that the White House could get the White House press corps to do its bidding to accept the possibility that Steve Rattner would make the threat. . . .

- Perella Weinberg hasn't denied that the threats were made. . . . [To the contrary], it seems that PW went out of its way not to deny that it was threatened. . . .

It boggles the mind to see progressives deciding that because the White House and a corporation deny a charge, that the charge must be false. Imagine, for instance, these folks accepting a version of events simply because it had been put forth by the Bush White House and Halliburton. But this is exactly what Think Progress and Media Matters are doing. It's as if their cognitive critical apparatus had simply stopped functioning sometime in January. . . .

Read the whole article. And welcome to the world of post-modern thought, where you are objectively and knowingly lying if you make a statement at odds with what the far left wants to believe. It is not that their "cognitive critical apparatus" stopped functioning in January, its that intellectual honesty is not a part of their core post-modernist paridigm.

H/T Hot Air. Find more links on this story at Memorandum.

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Moonbats Flying Over Georgia

John McCain, who has a long history of concern over Russian designs on its former satellites, and especially Georgia, has been on top of the crisis posed by the Russian invasion of Georgia since day one. He issued another statement today in the WSJ outlining the steps the world should be taking to respond to Russia's invasion. Obama's initial response to the Russian invasion was, to put it kindly, feckless. And now both the Obama camp and the far left have just gone into the moonbat stratosphere trying to spin all of this.
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The left's reaction to Russia's invasion of Georgia is an exercise in appeasement and moral relativism on an insane level. We start with Jack Cafferty, who displays a degree of insipid moral relativism that is rarely seen outside of a Kos Diary:

McCain condemns Russia, supports Iraq invasion

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

“In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.”

So says John McCain, as part of his tough talk about Russia’s attacks on Georgia. In calling for Russia to get out, McCain says he doesn’t think we’ll reignite the Cold War, but that you can’t justify the “extent and degree” of Russia’s intervention in Georgia. The presumptive Republican nominee insists that we need to make sure that in the 21st century, we all have respect for the sovereignty and independence of nations.

Say what? The United States invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq more than 5 years ago. And you, Senator McCain, were all for the idea. You voted for the war, remember? At the time, McCain insisted that the U.S. needed to act before Saddam Hussein could develop more advanced weapons. And since then, McCain has remained steadfast in his support of arguably the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of this country. At one point, McCain said U-S troops could remain in Iraq, a sovereign nation, for 100 years.

When it comes to punishing Russia for its actions, the Arizona Senator says its potential membership in the World Trade Organization should be reviewed along with its membership in the G-8. He believes an international peacekeeping mission should be sent to Georgia and that NATO should re-consider adding Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance.

Here’s my question to you: Is John McCain hypocritical to condemn Russia for invading Georgia when he voted to invade Iraq?

Wow. How far in the post modern tank do you have to be to exhibit this degree of moral relativism? Leaving all else aside, if McCafferty actually needs someone to spell out the differences between the invasion of Iraq taken in response to a belief that Iraq was a rogue nation with WMD and Georgia, a pro-Western democracy that is under attack from an imperialist Russian oligarchy (or mafia, take your pick), he is utterly clueless. And one wonders why Cafferty is picking out McCain when Cafferty's chosen One is parroting McCain now?

Then there is Andrew Sullivan, who obscenely attempts to tries to paint the fact that McCain knows foreign policy and is acting with decisiveness as a negative:

He's despatching Lindsey and Joe as emissaries to the country immediately. He's on the phone with Sakashvilli daily. He's giving press conferences. He's warning of a new Tsarist empire. You can tell what sends him into high-energy zones: a clear enemy abroad. He knows black and white; and he knows war. It gives him clarity and strength. Up next: Iran and China. Oh, the conflicts we can have ...

If this is the dynamic you want to see in the next president, McCain is your man.

That's right Andrew, Obama's feckless initial response to Russia's invasion is just what we want in a President. God forbid we have someone in the White House who understands what is happening on the foreign stage and is willing to defend democracy. Sullivan seems to be so smitten with Obama that his columns these days amount to political pornography.

These are only a part of what's going on as the left ascends into the moonbat stratosphere. Hot Air has the story of Susan Collins claiming that McCain's "beligerance" has made the situation worse, while Obama's measured approach is the appropriate one.

The AP's Peter Yost ran an insane story accusing McCain of crafting his pro-Georgia policy based on the advice of one of his campaign staff, a person who worked for a firm that has lobbied for Georgia. The fact that Georgia is a pro-Western democracy apparently does not enter into the equation. Likewise, Mr. Yost fails to note that McCain's positions have been consistent for over a decade and that McCain's staff also has sevral people who have, in the past, lobbied for Russia. Even the NYT, who argue for appeasement and who equate McCain's long distrust of Russia with the "neocon" position, doesn't take jump off into the deep end with Mr. Yost on that one.

Big Lizards has a must read on this. He takes on the AP article as well as the many others on the moonbat left who are attacking McCain for, as he puts it, "democracy mongering."

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