Samantha Pierce

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. Clock Ticks Down to Super Committee Failure Failure is an option, and one the Super Committee on debt reduction looks increasingly likely to end up with. A last-ditch meeting of lawmakers ended Monday afternoon with no smiles, no comments, but some vivid body language. Even a visit to the White House by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., co-chairwoman of the panel of 12 came and went without comment. Come on now. Who thought this would end any other way. This was designed to fail. It was clear from the beginning that this was just a way to kick the can down the road and kick it down the road again. Cinch up your belt a little tighter folks and count the days until November 2012.

Fuh real? President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10). To pa...

Hey all you Occupy whatever people, take a listen. Now I gotta get back to work.

I'm a bit late to the discussion about the scary evangelicals trying to take over the government. Honestly it seems like the usual boogie man created to scare people who want all of their worst stereotypes about evangelical Christians confirmed. Same old same old. This comment caught my eye the other day though. Bill Keller, Fiscal Conservatives and fear of a past that never existed “Unemployment is 9.1%, the economy is in the tank and you’re worried about a candidate’s position on how old the planet is?” After all to a guy who has just finished his 99 weeks of unemployment and is on food stamps no issue is more vital than if the world is 6000 or 600,000,000,000 billion years old! Well when you put it that way... Here's hoping that people recognize all of the fuss for the smoke and mirrors show that it is.

I saw this on Saturday and hoped it would end up on the internet somewhere so I could share it here. Seeing as how I'm working on becoming a small business woman myself I have to say that I agree with her. Check out the conversation going here about this clip. Via Instapundit .

Just some stuff to remember as we all discuss the downgrading to the US's credit rating by S&P. After beginning with a Clinton-era surplus in 2001, the Bush administration ran up deficits of $158 billion in 2002 ; $378 billion in 2003; and $413 billion in 2004. Then, with revenues pouring in, the deficits began to fall: $318 billion in 2005; $248 billion in 2006; and $161 billion in 2007. That 2007 deficit, with the tax cuts in effect, was one-tenth of today’s $1.6 trillion deficit. Deficits went up in 2008 with the beginning of the economic downturn — and, not coincidentally, with the first full year of a Democratic House and Senate. Read the whole thing . Via Instapundit who notes , "People complained about Bush’s spending, but if we could get back to the Bush-era spending and deficits now it would look like a triumph of fiscal responsibility — and Democrats would complain of 'austerity.'"

My credit score is better than the US government's. That's what happens when you don't spend more money than you have and you pay your bills on time. I'm just sayin'. S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating from AAA WASHINGTON — Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded the United States' credit rating first time in the history of the ratings. The credit rating agency said that it is cutting the country's top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation. A source familiar with the discussions said that the Obama administration feels the S&P's analysis contained "deep and fundamental flaws." S&P said that in addition to the downgrade, it is issuing a negative outlook, meaning that there was a chance it will lower the rating further w...

Here it is . Read it if you like. You can comment on it here . Oh, and some questions about the White House Fact Sheet .

Now: White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president would accept a short-term measure to raise the debt limit as part of a broader deficit reduction plan, conceding that extra time may be necessary for a sweeping bill to work its way through the legislative process. Then: Yesterday, Mr Carney said: "The President does not support a short-term extension of the debt limit, period. "The only exception to that is in the event that both sides reach a deal on a long-term extension of the debt limit plus significant deficit reduction, and we needed a very short-term extension to allow a bit of extra time for a bill to work its way through the legislative progress." With time running out, a temporary increase in the borrowing limit is looking more likely. Until now, Mr Obama has firmly opposed any short-term measure on the debt limit, saying he wants an extension that takes the US government past the presidential election in November next year and into 2013. Mr Ob...

When I first heard the murmurs and rumblings about the reporting errors at Recovery.gov claiming jobs created in districts that don't exist and what not I just rolled my eyes. Typical government ineptitude right? Reading our President's response to the criticism of the errors got me thinking a little more about my initial assumption that this was just more run of the mill government ineptitude. (Via Wizbang .) Obama Calls Stimulus Data Errors 'Side Issue,' Says Focus Is on Job Growth President Obama brushed off criticism over his administration's inaccurate reporting on job creation Wednesday, telling Fox News the accounting is an "inexact science" and that any errors are a "side issue" when compared with the goal of turning the economy around. He said job growth is his No.1 responsibility. Emphasis added. First thoughts, I wonder if the IRS will buy that accounting line come April 15? Well Mr. IRS Agent sir, you know the President did say that...

Listening to the President's press conference on Tuesday it struck me how flat and emotionless his voice was. He spoke about people dieing in the streets of Iran in the same flat tones that he used to speak about the economy and government run health care. It was really eerie. I wasn't the only one to notice either. I was impressed by the question that was asked on behalf of the Iranian protesters, even if it was asked by someone from the Huffington Post. That is until I learned that it was all staged . After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced. Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submit...

This child did not have to die. Only weeks after her birth Dana, the Lennox Head grand-daughter of former Kangaroo Ken McCaffery, contracted whooping cough. On Monday she died. She was only four weeks old. “We miss her so much and are devastated that such a beautiful, innocent child is the victim of ignorance. She never stood a chance against this epidemic.” Hat tip to Left Brain/Right Brain where it is also noted that this disease is on the rise in the US. How many more people have to die before we stop letting our actions be dictated by those spreading false fears about vaccines? We've been the "Great Satan" to Iran since at least 1979 so I'm not really surprised that this didn't go over too well. Iran’s Supreme Leader Dismisses Obama Overtures Iran's supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama's latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was responding to a video mess...

So the lifting of the ban on creating new embryonic stem cell lines wasn't really a lifting of the ban at all. This new new speak is hard to keep track of. Everybody is all up in arms over how AIG has spent the money that the government has been throwing at it. It's a bit late now to try putting the toothpaste back in the tube. The millions that have already been paid out are gone and we ain't gettin' it back. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Hopefully somebody is paying attention and will stop giving them money. So is the economy totally in the tank or are things starting to look up? I've lost track of what the message is supposed to be this week. There is an unsavory whiff of protectionist xenophobia about this: Amazing how Americans managed to get jobs with the glut of foreigners (we're talking legal workers here) taking all the good jobs before we started throwing money at failing companies. Mexico is disintegrating from within, has been for years. The border area...

Does having 16 senators holed up somewhere deciding how to spend $800 billion in taxpayer money sound like a good idea to you? Hat tip Wizbang .