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Taxpayers Paid $24,000 Per Car For ‘Clash For Clunkers’
From CNN:
A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
…The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.
It doesn’t matter how these jerks in Congress (from both parties) try and spin it. Once again, the American tax payer took it up the ass for a program we all knew was BS from the beginning. Every single thing our government has done to allegedly alleviate the recession has been about paying off special interests. The phony stimulus was one of the greatest thefts in world history. It was $787 billion dollars of pork and special interest bribes.
“Cash For Clunkers” was total horseshit from the moment it was conceived. It turned out exactly like many of us knew it would — as grand theft auto. It was smoke and mirrors just like everything else coming from the federal government.
You think this is bad, just wait until ObamaCare kicks in.
Apple Quits Chamber Of Commerce Over Phony Climate Change
Apple made a big show of quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today, because the business group refuses to drink the Kool-Aid and embrace Al Gore’s junk science.
Apple Inc on Monday became the latest company to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because the technology company disagrees with the business group’s climate change policy.
"We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis," Catherine Novelli, a vice president of government affairs at Apple, wrote in a letter dated Monday to the business group.
Novelli wrote that Apple resigned its membership in the business group "effective immediately."
Last month three big power utilities, Exelon Corp, PG&E Corp and PNM Resources Inc, said they were leaving the chamber over the group’s stance on climate.
Everyone knows the Apple folks are a bunch of tree-hugging libs — so this is no great shock. What I find amusing and even a little disturbing are the power utilities who left The Chamber.
How bizarre is it that power companies are embracing an ideology that seeks to shut them down? I can’t believe they could really buy into the climate change BS. I suspect this is about politics. They figure if they pretend to tow the line maybe Obama won’t regulate them out of business. Sadly, they’re mistaken. The environmental whack jobs are running wild right now and they’ll destroy our country if given the chance.
Global warming is phony and the science behind it is phony. The environmental extremist movement has nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with redistribution of wealth and “social justice”.
The earth is actually cooling right now — not warming.
That said, I plan to embrace the green movement by saving some, and not buying any Apple products.
Video: 50 Cent Talks Investing On CNBC
Great interview with 50. He’s a marketing genius. As a social media consultant I often look at what 50 is doing in terms of social media and adopt some of the same strategies for my clients.
-Chris Jones
Sarah Palin To Speak At CLSA Forum In Hong Kong
From the AP:
Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, once questioned about her lack of foreign policy experience, will make her first trip to Asia in September.
The former Alaska governor will visit Hong Kong to address the CLSA Investors Forum, a well-known annual conference of global investment managers, the host announced Monday.
Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Alan Greenspan have spoken at the event, hosted by brokerage and investment group CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
Good for her. It’s about time the financial big wigs of the world got a refresher course in free market economics.
GM Preparing Bankruptcy Plans
According to Bloomberg, GM is speeding up plans for bankruptcy even as the board prepares another restructuring plan for Obama. GM is going to end up going into bankruptcy, because they still have the albatross around their neck called the UAW. The union has destroyed the American car industry and no amount of “restructuring” by the Obama administration is going to cure that.
The fastest way for the American auto industry to become profitable and competitive again is to get the hell away from unions. That’s never going to happen especially under this administration, therefore the auto companies are destined for bankruptcy.
Video: Mark Levin Talks About Tim Geithner On Cavuto
Anheuser-Busch Sold To Belgian Brewer InBev
According to the AP, Anheuser-Busch has agreed to a takeover by Belgian brewer InBev SA. The deal reportedly worth $52 billion dollars will create the worlds largest brewer. InBev is the maker of Bass, Becks, and several other well known beers. The newly formed company will be called Anheuser-Bush InBev.
Cramer: Drill For Oil Next To My Beach House
Liberal KSAC Radio Station Moving To Gospel Format, Cites Lack Of Advertisers
From Sacbee:
Nationally syndicated talk show host Mike Malloy just called to confirm that the KSAC (1240 AM) rumors are true:
The station is changing to a gospel format Monday morning.
“I got the call from (KSAC general manager) Paula Nelson today — she told me it broke her heart to have to make the change,” Malloy says.
The Atlanta-based talk show host, whose show has been carried daily on the station, says he first heard about the switch earlier this week via his boss, Nova M Radio CEO John Manzo.
Manzo, on the phone from Phoenix, also confirms the switch.
The reason? Economics.
“They don’t have the revenue to support the format,” Manzo says.
Malloy put it in even clearer terms.
“It’s not a ratings thing — we have plenty of listeners,” Malloy says. “KSAC is experiencing what most other liberal talk show format stations are experiencing – it’s not a lack of audience, it’s a lack of business support.”
In other words, not enough advertising dollars.
Big-name, deep-pocketed businesses, Malloy says, are turned off by the station’s progressive format.
“If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, you’ll hear (plenty) of national ads,” he says. “If you listen to someone like me or Randi Rhodes, there’s a complete lack of those types of sponsors.”
It’s a problem plaguing liberal talk radio in markets across the United States, he adds, noting that stations in San Francisco and San Diego have been forced to make similar changes.
There’s a reason that big business doesn’t get behind so-called “progressive radio” and it’s painfully obvious to everyone except progressives.
What respectable business is going to send millions of dollars in ad revenue to people who bash the President, the country, and the war on a constant basis?
Not only that, but liberals never miss an opportunity to bash corporations as evil and crooked. Why the hell would big business support the enemy?
Probably the biggest reason that big business doesn’t support left-wing radio is that there’s no benefit to it. The audience for Mike Malloy or Randi Rhodes is so tiny that it’s not worth it.
Only a very tiny sliver of America enjoys listening to hate progressive radio and it’s unlikely that will ever change. Companies flock to Sean Hannity, Bill O’reilly, and Rush Limbaugh because they have the largest radio audience’s in the United States.
Rush has the largest radio audience in America, followed by O’reilly, and then Hannity. O’Reilly and Hannity also have the highest rated news programs on cable television.
In fact the same comparisons you find between left-wing radio and conservative radio carry into television. MSNBC is far and away the most left-wing news channel in America, and it’s also dead last in the ratings night after night.
If liberals didn’t club listeners over the head with the same “America sucks” mantra 365 days a year they may actually get an audience, and maybe even a few sponsors.
-Chris Jones
Motivational Waterboarding?
A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.
That’s right, “motivational waterboarding” is what this guy allegedly did! Now the guy who was waterboarded is suing the company claiming that he’s in therapy now as a result.
I find this story to be hilarious! For one, because a motivational speaker would actually do something that outrageous. Secondly, because the guy actually allowed himself to be waterboarded.
The whole story sounds a little over-the-top, but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in court.
-Chris Jones
Some Stores In NYC Now Accepting Euros
Some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
“We had decided that money is money and we’ll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank,” Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, said.
The weak U.S. dollar has brought scores of European tourists to NYC with money to burn. Obviously, the falling U.S. dollar is not a good thing, but the reality is that we now live in a global economy.
Even if the dollar were strong it makes good business sense to accept euros anyway if that’s what your customers are carrying.
Not far from Chu’s downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy’s Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, “My God, I should take euros in at the store.”
-Chris Jones
Social Security is Not Broke
I’ve heard that Social Security is out of money. The Cold War was completely financed by the money withheld between 1946 and 1986. Trillions of dollars were taken from the general fund for spending on the military.
By not isolating Social Security deductions from hundreds of millions of paychecks our elected leaders had all the money they needed to do whatever they wanted. If there was never a separate account – IT CAN’T BE BROKE! The beneficiaries of this spending were stockholders and upper management of the defense industry.
Had this not happened, there would be a surplus so large it would pay larger checks with complete medical coverage and prescriptions for generations to come.
So what can we say about people that knew they were ruining our country while they passed their midnight acts where no could see what was going on? For that matter why doesn’t the government make sure their spending is below their income like we have to do all our lives. If they over-spend, all they do is ask the Federal Reserve to print a few billion and then agree to pay 13% interest. Wouldn’t it be smarter to not over-spend? I’d go without a lot before I would borrow at 13%.
The corruption that builds up over 200 years is so entrenched that another constitutional convention is called for. It could take quite some time to develop an alternative to the current system but it would be well worth the effort. Something extreme needs to happen or America will end up looking like a fourth world country indebted to the world.
By Lloyd H. Frye
Op-Ed Columnist
The Hot Joints
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