Poll Shows Obama Misahandled Race Debate

It seems that Obama should have simply said "I do not have enough information to comment on this story at this time. Next question." and it will have all been behind him. Instead this screw up may have cost him in the short term.

The poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 41 percent disapproved of Obama's handling of the Gates arrest, compared with 29 percent who approved. The poll also found the incident and Obama's reaction saturated the public consciousness. As many as 80 percent of Americans said they are now aware of Obama's comments on the matter.

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The Market Rallies as the Obama Agenda Fails?

In other words go short anything that Obama pushes then wait until Congress screws things up and then you can go back long again. I did this with the Health Insurers by going short them when Health Care nationalization talk heated up. Then I covered and went back long as the debate wore on and took profits on the news that the Senate might strip the public plan out of the bill. Trading off Obama is sometimes quite lucrative.

Since then, the bankruptcy bill has fizzled and nationalization talk has died out. President Barack Obama did sign a credit card bill into law, but its provisions were much weaker than the industry feared.

Separately, healthcare reform has slowed while a climate change bill imposing taxes on businesses that emit pollutants has stalled in the Senate.

Stock markets, meanwhile, have rallied to their highest levels of the year. The Standard & Poor�s 500 Index began this week within striking distance of 1,000 points.

�It�s very much a factor in what�s driving the market over the last couple weeks,� Gardner said of the slowed agenda in Washington.

I think it has more to do with certainty going back into some sectors of the market that came from paying back the TARP money so quickly. Now traders can trade in peace without the government telling them what they should be paid or some uninformed person telling them about the Profit and Earnings Ratios of the market.

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ObamaCare Gets Stranger and Stranger: Now there is an Unelected Health Commissar?

You have to be kidding me. Mining these bills is like turning over rocks to see what sort of bugs are under them. This part should make every American shudder.

Republicans want voters to know as much as possible. "If I went to most people and said there was an unelected health choices commissioner, with the power to override state law on what should or should not be included in an acceptable insurance plan -- most people would not know that," says Camp. They wouldn't like it, either.

Yup, this Health Choices Commissar could pretty much have the power of life and death over vast swaths of the American public. In other words if you have end stage Prostate Cancer and Provenge can extend your life by 6 months then this unelected official gets to nix whether any insurance plan in the country will cover it or not. The doctor doesn't decide, the patient doesn't decide, Dendreon sure doesn't decide, but this Health Choices Commissar gets to decide.

I wonder if he gets the power to punish the Secretary of Health and Human Services if she goes against his iron commands as well? Lord Commissar "we wish to put Avastin upon the Master List of Approved Remedies." The Commissar replies in a cold, tone devoid of all emotion "it is not cost effective Ms. Sebelius. You are a fool to ask. Seize Her!"

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ObamaCare Taketh Away: Read the Bills they are Scary Stuff

I think these kind of articles where people actually sit down and read the bills being discussed do a people far more of a service then prime time press conferences talking about "you will keep your medical insurance and your doctor." I would love to see the Obama people go point by point against this article.

If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.

Yup it seems it is heavy handed rationing disguised as "reform." It also strait-up rips off younger more healthy people and gives the money to older more sick people.

So in other words that girl that runs 5 times a week and eats a diet free of saturated fats and sugar will be paying the health insurance of some morbidly obese dude that eats two Ultimate Cheeseburgers at a sitting and washes them down with a Super-sized Oreo Shake. Both of these people will pay nearly the same amount and have a health plan with the exact same costs. What is so fair about that?

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ObamaCare's Economic Fallout: The Keynesian

This is a great article talking about the uncertainty that ObamaCare is bringing to small and large businesses alike and how that uncertainty is slowing down the Recovery.

Prudent businessmen and prudent individuals alike have thus been given an additional motive for hoarding cash rather than investing and consuming. No one knows how his financial situation will be affected by health reform, if it is is enacted. There is enormous and I think justified distrust of the government's ability to design and execute so ambitious a program as the Administration and the congressional leadership envisage.

The problem too is that the Obama people are blasting uncertainty into the stratosphere. Consumers and producers already have to deal with the possibility of cap-and-tax and whatever unintended consequences that could still come out of the failed stimulus.

Plus, we are looking forward to massive inflation and debt loads in the future that people know are going to be huge but are uncertain how huge. So companies hold cash and fail to hire workers and we have a jobless recovery.

One irony is that if Obama simply waited until we were coming out of the recovery (2010 - 2011) things would be better and it would have been easier to pass his social agenda. Instead he jumped the gun and tried to cram everything down our throats. Now all of his bets are on a recovery in 2010 - 2011 that needs to be pretty robust. A jobless malaise will make him a one termer.

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Obama Lost At Least One Voter from Police "Stupidity" Attack

I think this officer, Ms. Kelly King should consider a run in politics.

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EA Viral Marketing Fails Again: Dante's Fondlers

I think it may be about time for them to change out their marketing people.

In an effort to promote the title at last week's San Diego Comic-Con event, EA decided to run a contest asking showgoers to "commit acts of lust" with any models working at the convention's myriad booths. They were then instructed to submit photos via social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. The winner would receive "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty," while five runners-up would have to make do with a copy of the game, a $240 gift card and assorted game merchandise.

Yup, this sure seems like a veiled threat to sexually harass the women working the Dante's Inferno booth. There is nothing like a bunch of sweaty Comic-Con geeks trying to win some prize that will make these "booth babes" jobs just a little bit harder. My money is on many asses grabbed, many breasts fondled, and hopefully many geeks with their noses broken.

Then this "top fondler" will actually get a chance to win a limo ride with what sounds like hookers on EAs dime. These so-called "hot girls" will probably be bored out of their mind and generally stare out of the limo's windows. These girls will probably wonder why they have to put up with the roaming hands of a sweaty geek that "grabbed the most ass to win a contest." Real classy EA.

The messed up part is what is wrong with handing out copies of Dante's Inferno? Too high brow for the gamer hoi polloi who are generally college educated and may have actually read the source material? Hell, they could make it all gory and put plenty of nudity in the thing to better reflect who EA thinks is their true customer.

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CBO Blasts ObamaCare Yet Again

It seems that ObamaCare keeps running into cold, hard, facts every time it tries to make claims that it cannot vouch for.

But on Saturday, the Congressional Budget Office said the proposal to give an independent panel the power to keep Medicare spending in check would only save about $2 billion over 10 years- a drop in the bucket compared to the bill's $1 trillion price tag.

"In CBO's judgment, the probability is high that no savings would be realized ... but there is also a chance that substantial savings might be realized. Looking beyond the 10-year budget window, CBO expects that this proposal would generate larger but still modest savings on the same probabilistic basis," CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Saturday.

My guess is that they are going try to force Elmendorf out of his job before too long. That will of course open up a whole new can of worms and it will dwarf any other political blunders of the last few decades. If that should happen then that would be the so-called "Katrina moment" for Obama and his people.

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Senate Group May Scuttle Public Option

Now this is a change that I can believe in. Especially if these are the things that they will get.

Like bills drafted by Democrats, the proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

But it jettisons other core Democratic provisions in a reach for bipartisanship on an issue that has so far produced little.

I think this would be called insurance reform instead of tearing down 20% of the economy and hoping for the best. If they can add a super cheap catastrophic option where a person will be covered if they get a rare disease or is hit by a car or something then it would be a good piece of legislation. Also expand the scope and funding of mini-clinics and doctor-in-the-box operations so the emergency room isn't used for preventive medicine.

The other things I would like to see are reforming Medicare and wringing the savings out of the system first and then talk about insuring the uninsured. Also they had better cap malpractice rewards so doctors don't have to practice defensive medicine.

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Mistrust of Government is Behind ObamaCare Resistance

I have noticed that this mistrust of government seems endemic in quite a bit of the populace and it might ultimately kill off ObamaCare.

One reason, of course, is that the mistrust is deeply ingrained now and not easily or quickly overcome. Recent events and the promise of big government help made things worse, however.

Americans have watched with frustration as their federal government has committed nearly $800 billion to stimulate the economy yet they've seen unemployment continue to rise. They've also watched their government send billions to Wall Street only to see financial firms give their executives big bonuses.

"Voters are in sacrifice overload," pollster John Zogby said. "They're dishing out trillions already and aren't seeing the return."

I think this is exactly the reason why ObamaCare is such a hard sell. They have seen trillions of dollars spent and have seen about $18 worth of return in their paycheck. I mean the stimulus bill was just money-wasting Democrat business as usual and didn't stimulate anything other then the national debt.

Now Americans are asked to pony up another trillion dollars to the same government that screws up on a nearly hourly basis. This is a government that pays for $1000 toilet seats, has a Veterans Hospital that is a decrepit joke, and seems to crash Amtrak trains every few weeks.

Now people are supposed to trust them with their very lives just for some savings on health insurance? I agree with Obama when he says "you rather stick with the devil you know then the devil you don't know." I think most Americans would rather see some tweaks the health insurance rather then a dismantling of the system.

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Blue Dogs Storm out of ObamaCare Meeting

Now this can't be good for party unity or for the moderate wing of the Democratic Party for that matter.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.�I�ve been lied to,� Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. �We have not had legitimate negotiations.

�Mr. Waxman has decided to sever discussions with the Blue Dogs who are trying to make this bill work for America,� Melancon said.

Um, I'm sure that Waxman understands that if these people take their "I'm all for higher taxes" vote back to their districts they will all be tossed out on their ear. One thing you can count on is that the Dems would rather self-destruct instead of working together. I'm just so tired of the "pass anything even if it destroys the country" attitude in Congress.

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Why Doesn't Health Care Reform Cap Lawsuits?

I have to agree with Charles Krauthammer when he says that why isn't there anything written into ObamaCare about reducing costs through this mechanism.

When a neurosurgeon pays $200,000 a year for malpractice insurance before he even turns on the light in his office or hires his first nurse, who do you think pays? Patients, in higher doctor fees to cover the insurance.

And with jackpot justice that awards one claimant zillions while others get nothing -- and one-third of everything goes to the lawyers -- where do you think that money comes from? The insurance companies, which then pass it on to you in higher premiums.

The problem is that it will mess with a key constituency of the Dems which is trial lawyers. So all this talk about savings and fairness but doctors are getting robbed by these lawyers and then pass on that cost to consumers. Also the whole idea of defensive medicine should be put right into the cost savings pile as well.

This reform would be an actual incentive that could actually sell the government plan to doctors who would then sell it to their patients. Say that any doctor putting in claims to ObamaCare also gets malpractice rewards capped at $250,000.

Suddenly they don't have to pay onerous fees to some malpractice insurer and they can practice medicine to help people and not write up a bunch of tests just so they don't get sued. Obama could actually win this thing by pitting doctors who most people like against lawyers who most people hate.

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Obama Says He Should Have "Calibrated" His Words Better on Police Slam

Well, at least he is trying to get this out of the news cycle that he inadvertently created.

"This has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up," he said. "I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge police department and Sgt. Crowley specifically. And I could've calibrated those words differently."

Seeking to lighten the situation further, he said he had invited both Crowley and Gates for "a beer here in the White House."

Now this shows he is the bigger man instead of rushing to judgment by saying that the Massachusetts State Police acted stupidly without any facts at all. I think Obama just needs to stick to the teleprompter or give an answer to a question like this as "I'm not sure of all of the facts of this case so I will offer more candor at a later date. Thank you"

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Bucyrus Follows Caterpillar and Smashes Estimates

It seems that mining equipment sales is started to become yet another green shoot in the economy according to these numbers.

U.S. mining equipment maker Bucyrus International Inc (BUCY.O) posted better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by growth at its surface mining original equipment and underground mining segments. For the second quarter, net income was $82.3 million, or $1.08 a share, compared with $62.3 million, or 83 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue was up 17 percent to $724.4 million. Surface mining sales rose to $356.0 million from $301.8 million.

Underground-mining segment sales rose to $368.4 million from $319.2 million.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 82 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $621.3 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

I was looking over their report and the only thing that caught my eye that you might be wary of is this part. Backlog seems like a very big deal when it comes to these sort of industrial companies so you can see project out earnings for the next few quarters.

Backlog as of June 30, 2009 and December 31, 2008, as well as the portion of backlog which is expected to be recognized within 12 months of these dates, was as follows:

                      June 30,     Dec. 31,
                        2009         2008      % Change
                     ----------   ----------    -------
                           (Dollars in thousands)
Surface Mining:
 Total               $1,146,534   $1,367,242    (16.1%)
 Next 12 months      $  652,642   $  906,884    (28.0%)

Underground Mining:
 Total               $  838,336   $1,135,212    (26.2%)
 Next 12 months      $  576,060   $  806,074    (28.5%)

Total:
 Total               $1,984,870   $2,502,454    (20.7%)
 Next 12 months      $1,228,702   $1,712,958    (28.3%)

But with commodity prices stubbornly high companies like Bucyrus and Joy Global (JOYG) might be seeing really good quarters for the rest of the year.

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Ried Pushes Back ObamaCare Until Fall

I have said lots of bad things about Harry Ried in the past but I have to give him credit for standing up to the Obama Hurry-up Machine and saying the Senate will not be rushed on health care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered the official pronouncement, saying, "It's better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through."

His words were a near-echo of Republicans who have criticized what they have called a rush to act on complex legislation that affects every American.

Maybe the Senate will actually read this bill instead of passing it in the dead of night like the failed Stimulus.

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