OBAMA'S ECONOMY

(Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

As the November 2012 presidential elections draw closer, voters will tire of excuses and begin to focus on the chilling facts that highlight the economic wasteland wrought by this administration’s policies. (Here are seven gathered by Wynton Hall at breitbart.com)

1. Every fifth man in America is out of a job. Indeed, black male unemployment is now at the highest rate it has been since the U.S. government began collecting statistics on the subject in 1972.  Just 59 percent of black men over the age of 20 are now working. 
2. Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk now relies on food stamps.
3. On the last day of President Bush's presidency, gas prices were $1.84 a gallon. Today under President Obama, the average price of a gallon of gas costs $3.94. (Much more in CA.)
4.  In 2006 and 2007, 90% of college graduates found a job.  Under Obama, just 56% of college graduates are able to find a job.
5. More than one in four U.S. homeowners are "under water" or owe more than their homes are worth, with many more foreclosures still to come.
6. President Obama has increased the national debt more in three years than President Bush did in eight.  Under Bush, the debt rose $4.899 trillion in eight years.  In three years, Obama has exploded the debt by $4.939 trillion.
7. A record number of Americans are no longer in the labor force.  When the number of individuals who have stopped looking for a job and/or who are working part-time but desire full-time employment is included--a figure known as the "underemployment rate"--real unemployment stands at 19.1%.

As President Obama said in a speech a week ago, "In three years we’ve begun to see what change looks like." 

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

FAWNING MEDIA

(Published as a letter to the Independent Coast Observer, Gualala, CA)

A common narrative among Democrats is that the Republican presidential candidates are not of very high caliber. Following this partisan logic, none of them would stand much chance against President Obama. This gives great comfort to many on the Left who view the Republican primary battle as a circular firing squad that will leave the incumbent President with a fatally-weakened opponent. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Firstly, the winning candidate will be immeasurably stronger as a result of parrying the repeated onslaughts of his opponents. Now, we should never “mis-underestimate” the creative abilities of the NFM (non-Fox media) to come up with new, clever attacks on a Republican candidate. (Remember Dan Rather’s faked documents against George Bush that “mysteriously” surfaced on the eve of the 2004 election?) Even so, the eventual Republican candidate for President should be ready, willing, and able to deal with the inevitable attacks from the Democrats and the media.

Secondly, President Obama now has a record he must defend, and it’s not a very good one. His supporters routinely trot out lists of his “accomplishments.” Ironically, most of the macro items on the lists have negative connotations to many voters  - - economic stimulus (unprecedented deficits, 5.5 trillion dollar national debt, high unemployment, no budget in 3 plus years), ObamaCare (Big Brother statism, cost overruns, $500 billion cuts in Medicare), Green Energy (Solyndra-type crony-capitalism scandals, denying Keystone pipeline, curtailing drilling, skyrocketing gas prices), entitlements (no ideas, no plans).

Thirdly, Obama’s naivete in foreign affairs (think serial apologies, “open mic” with Medvedev) will not sit well with the electorate. This un-vetted President has stumbled through his first term shielded from scrutiny by a fawning press. That changes soon, and his Republican opponent will expose the glaring weaknesses of an inept administration.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

Creationists and Warmists

(Published as a letter to the editor of the Gualala Independent Coast Observer)

Alice noticed that anthropogenic global warming and creationism are both belief systems, not science. She’s right. Creationists believe God created everything in the past 6,000 years, and you can’t disprove acts of an omnipotent God. Warmists believe current warming is unprecedented, explainable only by mankind increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Fortunately for we skeptics, science is on our side. The current warming began over 300 years ago, ending the Little Ice Age. Unfortunately for mankind, the current warming has stalled out, with none the past 17 years.

Historically, warming benefitted mankind, while cooling was detrimental. Civilization flowered after the end of the Ice Age just over 10,000 years ago, particularly during the Holocene Climate Optimum of 8,000 to 3,000 years ago. Global temperature then was three to eight Fahrenheit degrees warmer than now, and lakes and rivers abounded in what, beginning about 3,000 years ago, became deserts. However, mankind by then had developed agriculture and animal husbandry and was able to adapt to worsening cooling conditions.

The evidence of previous periods of greater warming globally is incontrovertible and easily demonstrated.  There are large stumps in northern, southern, and high altitude regions far from where such trees now grow which have been carbon-dated to the Holocene Climate Optimum. Similarly, retreating glaciers are now uncovering human habitation of the same period.

This only scratches the surface of natural climate change science. In opposition the warming alarmists have Michael Mann’s thoroughly discredited “Hockey Stick” based on small samples of tree rings from less than 15% of the Earth’s surface. It can’t even identify the Little Ice Age, and barely touches the Medieval Warm Period. The Hockey Stick covers only the past 1,000 years,  and features enormous error bars. It’s a foundation of beliefs built on sand.

Mike Combs

Gualala