Quote of the week

As a very astute movie audience member stated on the Colorado carnage...

Let’s face it, there are a few Fruit Loops out their that are going to kill regardless of the means, bombs, guns, gas whatever. You’re not going to stop this kind of thing unless you completely control ever single member of society.

With liberty and freedom comes a certain degree of risk. Personally I’ll take that risk, thank you.

Amonix: Another Obama-Subsidized Solar Company Fails

Yet another example of the Obama White House's failed attempt to pick winners and losers and doing so by gambling with our our tax dollars, this time to the tune of $6 million in tax credits and $15.6 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy.

This company, Amonix, is only 14 months old.

How in the world did it qualify for that kind of tax dollar windfall without any kind of track record?

Evergreen Solar
SpectraWatt Solyndra (received $535 million)
Beacon Power (received $43 million)
AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy
Nevada Geothermal (received $98.5 million)
SunPower (received $1.5 billion)
First Solar (received $3 billion)
Babcock & Brown (an Australian company which received $178 million)
Ener1 (subsidiary EnerDel received $118.5 million)
Amonix (received 5.9 million)
The National Renewable Energy Lab
Fisker Automotive
Abound Solar (received $400 million)
A123 Systems (received $279 million)Willard &


Kelsey Solar Group (received $6 million)

That’s 16 of Obama's gems that are  failing or have filed for bankruptcy.

U.S. Retail Sector Now at Worst Level Since Summer 2009

As retail goes, so goes the economy.

The retail sector reports that sales for June, for stores open at least one year, gained an anemic 0.1%, the slowest rise since August 2009.

This was the third month in a row of significant weakness in the retail sector!

When compared to the 6.7% rise in sales in the same period last year for the retail sector, this 0.1% rise in retail sales from last month reveals how weak consumer spending in this supposed economic recovery is. Remember, dear reader: 70% of gross domestic product (GDP) is composed of consumer spending.

ABC News Admits 'Incorrectly' Linking Tea Party to Mass Murder in Colorado

So typical of the MSM.

Three hours after reporter Brian Ross attempted to connect a mass killing in Colorado to the Tea Party, ABC News admitted that the story on Good Morning America was "incorrect." The retraction was added to the top of an existing online article about the murders.

The story conceded, "An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect." Update: Ross has now admitted his error on live ABC coverage.

Jobless claims rise by 34k to 386k

At least it wasn't "unexpected".

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rebounded last week, returning to levels consistent with only modest job growth after a seasonal quirk caused a sharp drop the prior period.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims had dropped by 24,000 in the prior week and a combined 36,000 over the previous two weeks.

America Heading Towards a Collapse Worse Than 2008 AND Europe!

The light bulb finally goes on...

According to CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff, the U.S. economy is heading for an economic crash that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. Stimulus programs can delay this day of reckoning, but only for so long and only at the expense of making the eventual meltdown much, much worse.

Schiff, who famously warned investors about the housing and financial crisis in his 2007 book Crash Proof, says the Fed's palliative efforts during the housing meltdown have made the next crisis inevitable.

"We've got a much bigger collapse coming, and not just of the markets but of the economy," Schiff says in the attached clip. "It's like what you're seeing in Europe right now, only worse."

U.S. Economic Confidence Falls to Lowest Since January

Wonder who the first MSM imbecile to state that this was "unexpected" will be.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged -27 for the week ending July 15, down four points from -23 each of the prior two weeks. This extends a gradual decline in confidence that has been underway since late May, when the index was at a four-year best of -16. The index was nearly this low a month ago -- at -26 in mid-June -- and now stands at the lowest weekly average since late January of this year.

U.S. retail sales sink 0.5% in June

Another summer of recovery.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. retail sales fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in June to mark the third straight decline, the first time that's happened since midway through the last recession in 2008, according to the latest government data. Excluding autos, sales dropped 0.4%, the Commerce Department said Monday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.2% increase in overall retail sales and no change excluding autos.

Gasoline stations reported the biggest drop, down 1.8%, but almost every sector of the economy posted a decline. In the past 12 months, retail sales have risen 3.5%, but they fell in each month of the second quarter. Sales in May were unchanged at a 0.2% decline, while sales in April were revised down to a 0.5% drop from -0.2%.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Amid latest European bailout, warning signs in US debt figures

Liberal legacy.

While debt and deficits have fallen off Washington's radar screen a bit, in favor of debate over the federal health care law and other issues, U.S. finances remain alarmingly out of balance. And by some measures, it's worse than it is across the pond.

Consider this: Per capita debt in the United States is higher than in all -- or at least some, depending on how it's calculated -- the European nations that have accepted bailouts to date.

Based on official 2010 International Monetary Fund data released earlier this year, the U.S. debt per capita is $46,208.

Ireland: $41,906 Greece: $38,159 Portugal: $19,686 Spain: $18,162

Poll: Obamacare Ruling Makes Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Vote for Obama

Be sure to send John Roberts a thank you note.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that — by a 15-point margin — the Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling makes voters less likely, rather than more likely, to cast their vote for President Obama. Twenty-seven percent of registered voters say that the ruling makes them “less likely” to vote for Obama, while only 12 percent say that it makes them “more likely” to do so. Only 9 percent of independents say that they are “more likely” to vote for Obama because of the ruling, compared to 27 percent who are “less likely.”

Graphic of the Day

Poll: 83% of doctors have considered quitting because of Obamacare

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

A perfect example of the law of unitended consequences.

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Obama raises $71 million in June, trails Romney

Previews of coming attractions.

(CNN) – President Barack Obama's re-election campaign announced Monday that it, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised $71 million in June from more than 706,000 donors.

The amount lags far behind the $106 million Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised last month, a number the campaign made official early Monday.

JUNE JOBS REPORT MISSES EXPECTATIONS, UNEMPLOYMENT 8.2%

"Unexpectedly" pathetic

U.S. payrolls expanded by just 80,000 net jobs in June keeping the unemployment rate flat at 8.2 percent, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

The private sector only expanded by some 84,000 positions. Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast a gain of 100,000 positions during the month, with private payrolls advancing 106,000.

The disappointing report, which follows several months of weak economic gains, has sent U.S. markets sharply lower.

Happy Independence Day!

Wages drop, only 5th time in 33 years

The damndess recovery I've ever seen.

Unemployment ebbs and flows, but one measure of the nation's economic health, average weekly wages, rarely dips.

Until now. In the latest demonstration of the struggling economy that threatens President Obama's reelection, average weekly wages fell in 2011, one of only five declines since the category was created in 1978 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In a just-released review of employment in the nation's largest 322 counties, BLS found that weekly wages dropped over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from a high of $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010.

US manufacturing shrinks for first time in 2 years

We are all now Europeans.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly two years, a troubling sign that the economy is faltering.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, says its index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.7. That's down from 53.5 in May and the lowest reading since July 2009. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.

Stocks fell immediately after the report was released.

Over Half of All Obamacare Waivers Given to Union Members

If Obamacare is so wonderful why are all his closest allies exempted?

In what is fast becoming a weekly event, the Obama administration granted 200 more companies waivers from the Democrats' sweeping health care law in the Friday night news dump. That brings the number of companies receiving waivers to 1,372. (You can get a full list of the companies exempted here.)

Not surprisingly, it helps to be a Democratic ally when seeking a waiver. The Republican Policy Committee reports that over half of the workers that have been exempted so far belong to unions:

The plans newly approved for waivers cover more than 160,000 people, bringing to nearly 3.1 million the number of individuals in plans exempted from the health law’s requirements. Of the participants receiving waivers, more than half – over 1.55 million – are in union plans, raising questions of why such a disproportionate share of union members are receiving waivers from the law’s requirements. The percentage of participants receiving waivers that come from unions also continues to rise – the number was 48% in April, and 45% in March.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.