Wednesday Chronicle: Obama's Pink Slip Jobs Council

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Chronicle · June 15, 2011 The Foundation "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." --Thomas Jefferson Editorial Exegesis Obama's job council has experience in one thing -- handing out pink slips "[P]resident Obama says he's 100% focused these days on creating jobs. So why is he taking advice from a bunch of CEOs whose companies have been shedding jobs for years? In February, Obama chartered the Jobs and Competitiveness Council with a mission of leaving 'no stone unturned' in the search of ways to boost the country's anemic job growth. But you could tell from the start that this council would have trouble even finding those stones, let alone turning them over. After all, Obama stuffed the group full of Fortune 500 CEOs -- General Electric, American Express, DuPont, Time Warner, Eastman Kodak and Xerox, among them. While these may be good companies, they've hardly been roaring engines of job growth. In most cases, in fact, the opposite is true. ... [T]he board is made up of the heads of two big unions, an energy company, a railroad, an airline, a couple investment firms, and the like. Just one business represented on the board -- Facebook -- is a genuine growth company. And the council is all but devoid of the kind of small- and midsize firms responsible for two-thirds of the nation's new jobs. It's little wonder, then, that the list of immediate must-do, job-creating ideas the council came up with -- and outlined in a Monday op-ed signed by GE's Jeff Immelt and AmEx's Ken Chenault -- is so uninspiring. More money to retrain workers? More tax dollars retrofitting commercial buildings to boost energy efficiency? More government loans passed out by the Small Business Administration? That's the best the council could come up with after almost four months' work? ... How about an immediate cut in corporate and capital gains taxes?" --Investor's Business Daily Upright "We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation debate about the nature of the welfare state (entitlement versus safety net) and, indeed, of the social contract between citizen and state (e.g., whether Congress can mandate -- compel -- you to purchase whatever it wills). Let's finish that debate. Start with Obama's abysmal stewardship, root it in his out-of-touch social-democratic ideology, and win. That would create the strongest mandate for conservative governance since the Reagan era." --columnist Charles Krauthammer "Though the cost of gasoline and diesel eased a few cents with the opening of TransCanada's Keystone pipeline, the price of crude oil jumped again [last] week when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- chaired by Iran's oil minister, Mohammad Aliabadi -- rejected any increase in production. And of course, the U.S. still has no strategic energy policy. Little of this news garnered much interest from America's political princes and media elites [last] week." --columnist Oliver North "Because we are so out of practice at condemning even utterly shameful conduct, we look for security in law. 'Remember,' a constituent cautioned, '[Anthony Weiner] has broken no laws. He has not used campaign funds...' Ah, well, that's all right then. Weiner himself, explaining his decision not to resign, said, 'I don't believe that I (did) anything that violates any law or any rule.' Is legality the only relevant standard? The question is not whether Weiner deserves to go to jail, but whether he merits the honor of holding elective office. And actually, Weiner is mistaken on the matter of rules. According to the rules of the House of Representatives, members are required to conduct themselves at all times in 'a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.' Anyone think this is a close call?" --columnist Mona Charen "The problem is that Weinergate goes to the heart of the Democrats' cultural liberalism. Try as they might to disown him, he embodies the party's moral rot. Mr. Weiner is a progressive crusader. He has championed almost every secular leftist cause. ... The result has been a coarsening of our culture, the breakdown of the family and the disintegration of a moral consensus. Mr. Weiner is simply a product of modern liberalism -- self-absorbed narcissism combined with an obsession for sexual gratification." --columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner Help Us Help You The Patriot Post's Chronicle is a one-of-a-kind collection of the week's best conservative analysis of hot-button issues as well as the most outrageous comments made by assorted leftists in the media, politics and culture. Our team works tirelessly to consolidate all this content into a quick-reading information buffet that you won't find anywhere else. We depend on your support to keep this priceless resource coming to your inbox every Wednesday. Help us by making a secure online donation to The Patriot Post's 2011 Independence Day campaign. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form. Thank you and God bless! Nate Jackson Managing Editor The Demo-gogues The BIG Exaggeration: "Today the single most serious economic problem we face is getting people back to work. We stabilized the economy, we prevented a financial meltdown, an economy that was shrinking is now growing. We've added more than 2 million private sector jobs over the last 15 months alone. But -- I'm still not satisfied. I will not be satisfied until everyone who wants a good job that offers some security has a good job that offers security. I won't be satisfied until the empty store fronts in town are open for business again. I won't be satisfied until working families feel like they're moving forward again, that they're progressing again. That's what drives me every day when I walk down to the oval office." --Barack Obama "We were able to, under President Obama's leadership, turn this economy around." --congresswoman and DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) Patting himself on the back: "Targeting waste and making government more efficient have been a priority for my administration since day one. But as we work to tackle the budget deficit, we need to step up our game. ... No amount of waste is acceptable. Not when it's your money; not at a time when so many families are already cutting back." --Barack Obama Not a laughing matter: "Shovel-ready was not as, uh, shovel-ready as we expected." --Barack Obama in North Carolina making light of his shovel-ready lie Dezinformatsia Upside down "logic": "[A]t the moment there's a pretty good case that there is a kind of Laffer curve in which more is less and less is more. Namely, there's a good case that fiscal stimulus right now would actually improve the long-run fiscal situation, while fiscal austerity makes it worse." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman Saying Americans just don't get it: "A recent poll shows that a majority of voters -- a majority of whom don't really know anything about the economy -- don't believe that the economy is recovering and blame President Obama for the struggling economy." --MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Race bait: "There's also an economist at the University of Michigan who has studied diversity and decision making and has found that in every business decision diversity leads to better decisions. In other words, a group of all white men are not going to reach the best decisions." --ABC's Claire Shipman Straw man: "I'm not going to show up at the polls pretending to be Michelle Obama or Oprah Winfrey. That does not happen and that is what this Voter ID law purports happens, but it doesn't happen." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor Cynthia Tucker Sympathy for the devil: "Excuse me for asking, but why exactly should Anthony Weiner resign? He flirted with women in a crude, dorky and easily traceable way. And he lied about it, which is what married men usually do in such circumstances. Who cares? As far as we know, he violated no law or congressional ethics rule. There's been no allegation of sexual harassment. It's entirely possible that his constituents would reelect him if given the chance. So why is he being hounded from office?" --The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart Circling the wagons: "You won't meet any smarter people in politics than those two guys. Just won't." --Time Magazine's Mark Halperin on Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner Newspulper Headlines: Out on a Limb: "Gallup Poll Shows Republicans 2012 Focus on Beating Obama" --DailyCaller.com Shortest Books Ever Written: "Politicians Behaving Well" --The New York Times Questions Nobody Is Asking: "Are There More Weiners in Congress?" --The American Spectator website Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "China Genetically Modifying Cows to Produce Human Breast Milk" --Newscore Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate: "'Gay Girl in Damascus' Turns Out to Be an American Man" --NPR.org Bottom Story of the Day: "No Bodies Found in Texas Home After Psychic Tip" --Associated Press (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto) Village Idiots He's just so smart: "I see the sadness and worry that's creasing his face. He reads every word, every memo, so he is better prepared than the people briefing him. This man doesn't take a day off." --Michelle Obama Nothing to see here: "The president feels, we feel at the White House this is a distraction. As Congressman Weiner has said himself, his behavior was inappropriate, dishonesty was inappropriate. But the president is focused on his job which is getting this economy continuing to grow, creating jobs and ensuring the safety and security of the American people. ... We think it's a distraction from the important business that this president needs to conduct and Congress needs to conduct." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Hollywood excuses: "My thought on Weiner is that he is a very busy man. Like most, although not all, politicians, he probably spends a great deal of time going to meetings, raising campaign funds and seizing upon every opportunity to remind people of how great he is as a public servant and a human being. It's exhausting. ... Like other politicians, he needs something to take the edge off. ... Weiner is the modern, high functioning man. ... Appointment sex with your spouse doesn't always arrive when you need it most." --actor Alec Baldwin Gun grabber lies: "Your grandfather's shotgun has no place in today's civilian gun market. The gun industry has created a unique American civilian firearms bazaar which arms thousands of criminals, dangerous extremists, and drug traffickers throughout the world. If Congress wants to find the real causes of the gun traffic to Mexico, it needs to look upstream to the gun industry's callous transformation of the American gun market into one more suited to warfare than sport. The world's bad guys come here for their guns because they are cheap and plentiful." --Tom Diaz, Senior Policy Analyst at the Violence Policy Center Click Here The Commemorative Collection Choose the perfect gift from our selection of silver, bronze, pewter & glass collector's items. All purchases support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Services. Short Cuts "What America needs desperately today is massive economic growth. That's what will pay off our debt, sustain our entitlements and continue to improve the environment. Almost as important, it will annoy all the right people." --columnist Jonah Goldberg "Obama was in Toledo to 'celebrate' the sale of the government's remaining stake in Chrysler to Fiat. That's 'Fiat' as in the Italian car manufacturer rather than 'an authoritative or arbitrary decree (from the Latin "let it be done"),' which would be almost too perfect a name for an Obamafied automobile. ... This is Main Street, Obamaville: All bumps, no road. But shimmering on the distant horizon, beyond the shuttered diner and the foreclosed homes, is a state-of-the-art electric car, the new Fiat Mirage, that should be wheeling into town in a half-decade or so provided it can find somewhere to charge." --columnist Mark Steyn "The N.Y. Supreme Court ruled to allow a Times Square street vendor to sell condoms with the president's image on the packet. Everyone's buying them. Half the country wants to be protected by President Obama while the other half wants to be protected from President Obama." --comedian Argus Hamilton "President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have agreed to play a round of golf together. Imagine the two of them at the end of that golf game? Boehner will be crying over his score and Obama will be giving three explanations as to why his score is actually better than it appears." --comedian Jay Leno Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! The Patriot Post Editorial Team (To submit reader comments click here.) Patriot News Review Obama: ATMs Contribute to Unemployment for Eliminating Tellers Bernanke: Don't Tie Debt Limit to Spending Cuts Top Barack Obama Donors Net Government Jobs Supreme Court Reinstates Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law U.S. Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression Is There a 'Spying Device' in Your Car? More News The Right Opinion Ben Shapiro: Obama's Misdirection Strategy Tony Blankley: 'Brother, Can You Spare a Regulation?' L. Brent Bozell: Liberalism Lite with Ann Curry Michelle Malkin: Capitol Hill's Other Dirty Laundry Austin Bay: Robert Gates' Blunt Reality Jacob Sullum: The Price of Prohibition John Stossel: The Money Hole William Murchison: It's Debate Time in America Jonah Goldberg: Taken in by 'Gay Girl' Walter E. Williams: Our Moral Dilemma Cal Thomas: Media Hit Bottom With Palin Emails Paul Greenberg: The Last Domino: Syria More Opinion Grassroots Commentary Dithering and Caving Congressional Lack of Ethics WeinerGate: A Moral Distraction Bull Hook Politics That New ZiL Smell Sharia More Dangerous Than the Military? More Commentary Policy and Analysis Heritage Foundation Insider Heritage Foundation Research American Enterprise Institute Center for Strategic and International Studies The Cato Institute Hoover Institution National Rifle Association Ludwig von Mises Institute Citizens Against Government Waste National Center for Policy Analysis The Heartland Institute (Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) Follow The Patriot Post:

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