Is This a Recovery?

Americans’ Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ‘Recovery’ - Jeffrey H. Anderson

Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford.  New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.”  Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession.  Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.

Yet it gets worse.  Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more during the “recovery” than they did during the recession.  In fact, they’ve dropped more than twice as much as they did during the recession.  From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent.  From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent.  This begs the question:  What kind of “recovery” compares unfavorably with the recession from which it’s ostensibly recovering?

...

Moreover, we’re still not headed in the right direction.  Last month, American households’ real median annual income fell by another $543 — from $51,221 to $50,678.  Sentier’s Gordon Green, former chief of the Governments Division at the Census Bureau, says, “This latest decline in real median annual household income is indicative of a struggling economy.”  He adds that, while we are “technically” in a recovery, “real median annual household income is having a difficult time maintaining its present level, much less ‘recovering.’”

Similarly, the percentage of Americans who are employed has dropped during the Obama “recovery” — from 59.4 percent during the final month of the recession to just 58.3 percent last month.  That’s according to the Obama administration’s own figures. 

A New Ad

Obama Personality Cult Roundup

• Revolutionary goals? Check.
• Fawning media propaganda? Check.
• Heroic imagery? Check.
• Band of followers with pseudo-religious zeal? Check.

Yep. All of the elements are in place.

A short visual history of the creepy Obama cult - David Harsanyi

Go ahead. Click the link.

The Audacity of These Dopes - William L. Gensert

The media is on its knees.  It's the customary position of worship, and worship they do -- Barack Obama -- their chosen "one."

He is the man they told us would halt the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, the man who had game like Lebron, knew more than his advisers, was more brilliant than all brilliance, the smartest man to ever be president, the winner of a Nobel Prize and 2 Grammy awards, who was like Lincoln, then FDR, then JFK, then Reagan, the man who would make America loved and respected the world over, the man who would balance the budget and usher in a new era of racial tolerance -- no white America or black America, one America -- the man who would get us out of our cars and break our dependency on foreign oil, who would change the economy into a green energy powerhouse, the man who would solve all the ills of all the world, the man who would change everything.  He was new, he was different.  He was better than the common man; he was more than us; he was like a god.

Obama's Creepy Cult of Personality - IBD Editorials

The Presidency: Last week, the Obama campaign started selling a refashioned American flag with its logo replacing the stars, and then urged Americans to pledge allegiance to Barack. Did we just wake up in Mao's China?

The flag print, designed especially for the campaign by a pair of obviously incredibly hip artists, tries to improve the musty look of Old Glory by taking out a few stripes and swapping the star field for the Obama "O" logo. The campaign is selling the limited edition prints for just $35.

The Obama Cult of Personality - Candace de Russy

If indeed an Obama cult could enter our bloodstream, it behooves us to look more closely at the political meaning potentially similar cults and their consequences for societies in the past. The key point about personality cults, as summarized at Wikipedia (italics mine), is that in modern times they occur “when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise.” Moreover:

• A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders. Generally, personality cults are most common in regimes with totalitarian systems of government, that seek to radically alter or transform society according to (supposedly) revolutionary new ideas. Often, a single leader becomes associated with this revolutionary transformation, and comes to be treated as a benevolent “guide” for the nation, without whom the transformation to a better future cannot occur. This has been generally the justification for personality cults that arose in totalitarian societies of the 20th century, such as those of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. 

• Although more uncommon, democratic societies also have examples of political figures who have been noted to have some traits of a cult of personality [for instance, President John F. Kennedy and Argentina's Juan Perón and his wife Eva].

Obama supporters desecrate American Flag in Baltimore - Inside Charm City

Convention Roundup

Instapundit roundup of Obama's convention speech: OBA-MEH

The Spinal Tap 11 reference.

Obama's Convention - Yuval Levin

But even as he said this he persisted in the dominant trope of this convention—and, it seems, of contemporary progressive thought: the jump from the sheer fact of human interdependence to a defense of every federal program in precisely its current form. It’s the liberal welfare state or the law of the jungle, and no other alternative is imaginable. This mental gesture—which simultaneously offers an excuse for ignoring the imminent collapse of the liberal welfare state and for ignoring what conservatives are actually saying and offering—really deserves to be thought through. It is a fascinating indicator of the contemporary Left’s intellectual exhaustion.

The offensive theme was, however, far more ably developed, and it seemed to be the only part of the speech that the president really cared about. It was in part an outgrowth of the same self-righteous progressive error—of the sense that the Republicans are offering radical individualism and a cold and selfish you’re-on-your-own philosophy of government. And to this extent it was answered by a very revealing display of the left’s tendency to collapse all of society—all that stands between the individual and the state—into the state.

Transcript: President Obama's Convention Speech

We don't think the government can solve all of our problems, but we don't think the government is the source of all of our problems — (cheers, applause)

This is just one of many straw man arguments in the speech, but typifies the whole attitude. Since the Republicans assert that the government causes, or makes worse, many problems in our society, let's just say that Republicans think that government is the source of ALL of our problems.

These dishonest arguments inevitably lead to the false choice: Either accept the artfully packaged big government solution, or else face the dog-eat-dog, law of the jungle, every man for himself, radical individualism and heartless capitalism of the Republicans.

Grub and Wubi for Ubuntu

In order to configure Grub for Ubuntu, refer this documentation.

All I want to do is set Ubuntu as the default operating system when I start the machine. This is controlled by Wubi and it managed through Windows. See this Ubuntu forum entry for the answer.