Author Archives: Admin

Fleeing failure

Editorial:  Over the past few weeks, it has become undeniably clear that those supposedly in charge of our government: a) are totally unqualified to be in charge; b) have hidden policy agendas that most Americans would call treasonous; c) have instituted policies that have resulted in the deaths of at least one ambassador, two government agents, three embassy staff, hundreds of Mexican citizens, and hundreds of American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere; and d) have brought the nation to the brink of economic and perhaps social collapse. Moreover, they have consistently and repeatedly lied, and attempted to cover up all of it. It has also become despicably clear that those supposedly in charge of our government have no intention of taking responsibility for their actions.

With both Fast and Furious and the disaster in the Middle East, particularly Libya and Egypt, investigations and indictments for at a minimum negligent manslaughter are warranted. However, given the make-up of Congress, especially the Senate, the Injustice Department, and the historically leftist and nearly always inept State Department, I doubt we will see anyone other than a few low-level scapegoats held accountable. Indeed, other than a few of us out here on the “extreme right fringe,” not one serious call has been made for Holder or Clinton to resign, much less for the Marxist Fraud in the White House to be impeached.

Add to this the largely hushed up military debacle that Afghanistan has degenerated into, under the direction of Leon Pinetta at the Surrender Department, and the aforementioned Marxist Fraud. If I recall, this is the only military action that the “winner” of the Nobel Peace Prize thought worthy of pursuing when he was running for the office many believe he usurped. The Ministry of Propaganda, aka the “mainstream” media, has aided and abetted in hiding this growing military disaster, apparently fearful of adding losing a war to the already lo-o-o-o-ng list of Barack Hussein Obama’s failures. News of the death toll of brave American sons and daughters reaching 2000 passed without a whisper. Were it not for the Internet and “alternative” media like talk radio, these heroes would have just been more of B. Hussein’s “bumps in the road.”

It turns out, too, that the pro-Muslim Obama administration has been lying about the military destruction of al Qaeda. With the long overdue look into actual intelligence reports from the Middle East and Muslim ruled countries, we find that not only has Obama failed to defeat al Qaeda, but al Qaeda is alive, active, and has grown and spread itself and its influence into new, hitherto uninfected areas.   

On the economic front, too, failure is the name of the game. The destruction of the American economy was intentional. In spite of their lies and protestations of being defenders of the middle class, a major goal of both Marxism and fascism is the elimination of the middle class and its replacement with a permanent underclass, a lumpen proletariat, dependent on the government for all its needs. From the looting of the treasury to the government take-over of large chunks of the private sector, Saul Alinskyite Marxist Obama and neo-fascists Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi wreaked havoc on the middle class, but, ultimately, failed to destroy it.

Which brings us to the Sock Puppet’s latest failure: his complete and utter defeat in the presidential debate. His absolute inability to function without a script flashing on his teleprompters stunned his self-deluded leftist supporters. One was prompted to suggest that Obozo the Brilliant has become bored with being president, and therefore didn’t even try. Close, but not quite.

Now that Obama is finally being confronted directly with his massive string of failures, he appears to be reacting the way pathological liars and people with a narcissist personality disorder typically do. He is quitting. If he doesn’t try, then he can’t fail. If he backs out, people will shift their focus to the winner, and away from him, and he will never have to take responsibility for the death and destruction that have resulted from his absolute inability to do anything right.

People with mental afflictions like his rarely finish anything. We have seen this throughout Obama’s career. He gave up his law license and never got it back. His community organizer career was short, dumped as soon as his radical, big money contacts created a political career for him. However, he was only in the Illinois Senate for a short time, and did very little of note. He served in the U.S. Senate only 146 days, again producing little of note. And as President of the United States, his record is one half-baked policies leading to destruction and death, and pandering to the enemies of his country.

Let us, then, grant this traitorous fool one last wish, and with a landslide vote, relegate him to the garbage dump of history, to become a forgotten footnote, a bump in the road leading us back to the Shining City on the Hill that we were before he was thrust upon us.

Small-Business hiring plans plunge

OKLAHOMA CITY – September was another month of low expectations and pessimism for small businesses, with the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index losing 0.1 points and falling to 92.8.

The recession-level reading was pulled down by a deterioration in labor market indicators, with job creation plans plunging 6 points, job openings falling one point and more firms reporting decreases in employment than those reporting increases in employment. Since the commencement of NFIB’s monthly surveys in 1986,  the Index has been below 93.0 a total of 56 times; 32 of which have occurred since the recovery began in June 2009.

State-specific data isn’t available, but Jerrod Shouse, state director of NFIB/Oklahoma, said small businesses here and across the country are reluctant to hire or expand until after the election.

"Small-business owners are telling us they’re more concerned about the election than they are the economy right now," he said. "They don’t want to spent any money unless it’s absolutely necessary. They aren’t hiring, expanding or ordering more inventories until the future becomes more certain.” NFIB/Oklahoma is the state’s leading small-business association.
 
“The election is just weeks away and essentially a horse-race, and its outcomes would have vastly divergent policy implications," said William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist.

“Everyone is waiting to see what happens, especially small-business owners who have a lot at stake in the outcome—which could mean higher marginal tax rates and more deficits, OR lower marginal tax rates and less government," he said.

The outlook for expansion did improve slightly; those who view the current period as a “good time to expand” gained 3 points, and the number of owners expecting business conditions to be better in six months gained 4 points, landing at a net two percent. While the readings are improved, they are still below historical averages.        

There was almost no news for credit markets, where most owners reported no interest in a loan. Only eight percent complained that they didn’t get all the credit they wanted. Two percent say credit is their top business problem compared to 21 percent each citing taxes, regulations and red tape, and poor sales. Sales and profit trends were negative with little sign of improvement in the third quarter.

Some other highlights of September’s Optimism Index include:

Capital expenditures: Small-business owners are still in “maintenance mode,” with the frequency of reported capital outlays over the past six months falling 4 points to 51 percent. Of those making expenditures, 34 percent reported spending on new equipment (down 7 points from the previous month), 16 percent acquired vehicles (down 5 points), and 14 percent improved or expanded facilities (unchanged). Four (4) percent of owners acquired new buildings or land for expansion (down 2 points) and 12 percent spent money for new fixtures and furniture (unchanged). Overall, there was a substantial reduction in capital spending activity. The percent of owners planning capital outlays in the next three to six months fell 3 points to 21 percent. While the number of owners who characterized the current period as a good time to expand facilities went up 3 points (seasonally adjusted) to seven percent, this is only half of the 14 percent of owners who said the same in September 2007. The net percent of owners expecting better business conditions in six months rose 4 points to two percent after posting a 6 point improvement last month, albeit still registering a pessimistic collective view. Not seasonally adjusted, 15 percent expect an improvement in business conditions (up 1 point), and 20 percent expect deterioration (down 4 points). A net one percent of all owners expect improved real sales volumes.

Sales: Weak sales continue to be an albatross for the small-business community. The net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales over the past three months was unchanged at a negative 13 percent, cementing the 17 point decline since April and affirming weak GDP growth for the second quarter. Twenty-one (21) percent still cite weak sales as their top business problem—historically high, but down from the record 34 percent reached in March 2010. Seasonally unadjusted, 23 percent of all owners reported higher sales (last three months compared to prior three months, down 1 point) and 30 percent reported lower sales (up 1 point). Consumer spending remains weak and high energy costs continue to “tax” consumer disposable income. The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales was unchanged at one percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted), down 11 points from the year high of net 12 percent in February. The weak reading is unlikely to trigger orders for new inventory or business expansion. Not seasonally adjusted, 24 percent expect improvement over the next three months (down 4 points) and 31 percent expect declines (up 3 points).

Job creation: Job creation plans showed that small-business owners created fewer jobs in September than in the two previous months. Not seasonally adjusted, 10 percent plan to increase employment at their firm (down 3 points), and 11 percent plan reductions (up 2 points). Seasonally adjusted, the net percent of owners planning to create new jobs fell 6 points to four percent, a historically weak reading, especially in a recovery. Essentially, hiring is keeping up with population growth, but not exceeding it. Seasonally adjusted, 10 percent of the owners reported adding an average of 2.2 workers per firm over the past few months, and 13 percent reduced employment an average of 3 workers. The remaining 77 percent of owners made no net change in employment. Fifty-one (51) percent of the owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 41 percent (80 percent of those trying to hire or hiring) reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions. The percent of owners reporting hard to fill job openings fell 1 point to 17 percent of all owners. The only region of the country that saw any positive job growth was the West North Central states, largely because of energy production.

The report is based on the responses of 691 randomly sampled small businesses in NFIB’s membership, surveyed throughout the month of September. Download the complete study at http://www.nfib.com/sbetindex.

NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends is a monthly survey of small-business owners’ plans and opinions. Decision makers at the federal, state and local levels actively monitor these reports, ensuring that the voice of small business is heard. The NFIB Research Foundation conducts some of the most comprehensive research of small-business issues in the nation. The National Federation of Independent Business is the nation’s leading small-business association. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its members in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals. 

Lankford: State Department fails to tell consistent story

After attending yesterday’s House Oversight Committee’s hearing entitled, “The Security Failures of Benghazi,” Representative James Lankford (R-OK) expressed serious concern over the State Department response to the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

In that attack, four Americans including the ambassador were killed in a planned, well-organized, complicated terror action on American soil.  President Obama and his administration blamed a mob motivated by an obscure video, but records recently revealed show the administration knew there was no mob protest and that they could have anticipated such an attack on the anniversary of 9/11 had they not been so driven by  domestic politics. 

The following is a transcript of the Congressman’s remarks:

“I’m Congressman James Lankford from Oklahoma’s Fifth District. I’m just stepping out of the hearing on what happened in Benghazi, Libya from this hearing for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. There are lots of unanswered questions we’re trying to get answers to today. And some of them we have gotten answers, too, but there are still many more to come.  

“Issues like, we had four Americans that were killed when there’s a lot of terrorist activity that was happening in Benghazi but doesn’t seem to be any preparation for that in our facility there. The American Red Cross had already pulled out because of multiple terrorist attacks in Benghazi. The United Kingdom had already pulled out their facility from Benghazi. But we still sat there with this smaller force that was well below what was requested by the security personnel on the ground. They had requested at least 18 additional people than what was actually there. And we’re trying to figure out why those requests were turned down.

“We’re also trying to get answers to the question of why the story has changed so much afterwards. I understand that there’s been a major terrorist attack that has occurred there. But these initial stories about a video don’t pan out with what happened on the ground, and what we now know, the State Department was tracking it form their command center live when the attack was occurring and from Tripoli as soon as it was over. So, they knew immediately, yet five days later, seven days later, the story was still coming out this was from some protest that we now know there was no protest there at all.  It was just a straight-on terrorist attack. So, we’re trying to get answers on why that story changed and why that story came out at all from there.  

“So, lots of questions. We’re getting some answers. But this will affect our foreign policy in the days ahead and how we plan and how we secure our facilities overseas. So, it’s important we get these answers so we move forward in safety.”

To view the video of his remarks, click here.

For a video of the Congressman’s questions to witnesses, click here.

Russia refuses agreement

Reuters is reporting that Russia will not renew a decades-old agreement on dismantling nuclear and chemical weapons when it expires next year, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Wednesday.  So much for President Obama’s "reset" of our relationship.

The death of the 1991 agreement, which had been renewed twice, is the latest in a series of hitches in relations between the United States and Russia and casts doubt on the future of the much-vaunted "reset" in relations between the Cold War-era foes.

"The basis of the program is an agreement of 1991 which, by virtue of the time when it was conceived, the way it was worked out and prepared, does not meet very high standards. The agreement doesn’t satisfy us, especially considering new realities," Interfax quoted him as saying.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, a veteran disarmament campaigner, was in Moscow in August to push for the renewal of the program, known as the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which he helped launch.

The project, intended to dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons in the former Soviet Union, was last ratified by Russia in 2006 and is due to expire in 2013. Aides said it had resulted in the deactivation of more than 7,650 strategic warheads.

Click here for more.

 

Ok legislators file to defend drug regulation

In a bi-partisan show of support, 57 Oklahoma legislators yesterday filed a brief in the Oklahoma Supreme Court defending a state law regulating abortion-inducing drugs.  

Last year, the Legislature approved House Bill 1970, which required Oklahoma physicians to administer such drugs in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.  At least 8 women are known to have died following use of abortion-inducing drugs in an off-label, unapproved manner.  No women have died from bacterial infection following FDA-approved administration of the drugs.

An out-of-state abortion advocacy group immediately challenged the law, and a District Court struck the regulations from state statutes.  The case is now before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  The amicus curiae, or “friend of the court”, brief was filed in support of reversing the previous decision.  

Sen. Greg Treat, co-author of HB 1970, said the law enacted critical protections for pregnant women and common-sense regulations for dangerous drugs.

“The regulations outlined in our legislation fall well within established judicial parameters, and the decision of the District Court represents an unfortunate departure from precedent,” said Treat, R-Oklahoma City.  “Sadly, the decision could eliminate critical protections for pregnant patients and their unborn children.  The District Court’s decision is reflective of an ongoing shift in liberal thinking on abortion.  No longer is it important that abortion be safe, rare and legal, but instead it is a right and a priority that must be asserted even above the health and well-being of pregnant patients.  This is a great shame, and we are hopeful the decision will soon be reversed.”  

In addition to Sen. Treat and Rep. Randy Grau, principal authors of HB 1970, nearly 40 percent of the Legislature and the advocacy group Americans United for Life joined the amicus brief.  Rep. Grau, also an attorney, is representing the legislators in the Supreme Court.  The brief details evidence in support of regulating abortion-inducing drugs, and demonstrates that such regulations do not represent an undue burden on women seeking abortions.  

The Legislators filing the Brief are:

Representative Randy Grau (sponsor)
Senator Greg Treat (sponsor)
Senator Brian Bingman (President Pro Tempore)
Senators: Cliff Aldridge; Mark Allen; Don Barrington; Josh Brecheen; Rick Brinkley; Bill Brown; Greg Childers; Brian Crain; Kim David; Eddie Fields; John Ford; AJ Griffin; Jim Halligan; Rob Johnson; Clark Jolley, Ron Justice; Bryce Marlatt; Mike Mazzei; Dan Newberry; Steve Russell; Mike Schulz (Majority Floor Leader); Ralph Shortey; Frank Simpson; and Gary Stanislawski.
Representatives: Don Armes; Gary Banz; Dennis Casey; Josh Cockroft; Donnie Condit; Ann Coody; Marian Cooksey; David Dank; George Faught; Elise Hall; Tommy Hardin; Dennis Johnson; Sally Kern; Scott Martin; Steve Martin; Mark McCullough; Skye McNiel; Lewis Moore; Glen Mulready; Jason Murphey; Tom Newell; Charles Ortega; Leslie Osborn; Pat Ownbey; Marty Quinn; Dustin Roberts; Sean Roberts; Mike Sanders; Todd Thomsen; and Paul Wesselhoft.