Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

In the budget message he sent Congress this week, Obama portrays himself as a president who led America back to economic good times . . . .

Is Obama the architect of an economic renaissance? A champion of the working man?

Is this what reasonable people a century from now will look back and see in the era of his presidency?

No. Nor should people see that now.

The truth is: Obama took office at a time when big-government liberalism had already put America on a downward trajectory. He not only kept this nation on that trajectory, he accelerated it.

For more on the Obama economic record, see "Obama Economy Destroying Businesses: Thousands of Stores Closed, Including Entire Shopping Malls."

Read the entire column by Terry Jeffrey.

Ben Shapiro writes at Breitbart:

On Tuesday, Burger King announced that it would spend some $11 billion to buy Tim Hortons Inc., a Canadian breakfast food chain, then merge Burger King into it, thereby turning what was once a major American company into a major Canadian one. As the Washington Post reports, Burger King would "move the company’s headquarters to Canada, where corporate taxes are significantly lower."

This process, called inversion, has been occurring more and more often, despite the fascistic suggestion by President Obama that headquartering outside the United States represents a betrayal of God and country. Members of the Obama administration have taken to labeling business inversions a lack of "economic patriotism" -- presumably under the assumption that to stay in America, cut jobs, and lose all profits in order to pay higher taxes represents a sort of higher moral value than moving one’s headquarters and continuing to pay millions of workers and reward consumers with better and cheaper products.

"Some 25 major companies have participated in tax inversions since President Obama took office," Shapiro concludes. "That trend will continue to accelerate as President Obama ratchets up the rhetoric and threatens harsher action against companies that dare to buck his high-tax priorities."

Citing examples from Israel vs. Hamas, Drudge vs. Geraldo, and the minimum wage vs. higher employment, Thomas Sowell observes: "Some have said that we are living in a post-industrial era, while others have said that we are living in a post-racial era. But growing evidence suggests that we are living in a post-thinking era."

Daniel Greenfield writes at Frontpagemag.com:

Shortly, New York may be ruled by a governor who helped cause the financial meltdown, while New York City may have a mayor who was forced to resign from Congress and its comptroller will be a former governor who was forced to resign for transporting a prostitute across state lines. He will be replacing the current comptroller who may go to jail for campaign finance fraud. . . .

New York State has the 33rd highest unemployment rate in the country. New York City’s unemployment rate is even higher at 8.3%. In June, New York City, with a population of 8 million, added just 3,100 jobs. Most of those jobs were in the city’s tourism trade which bulks up during the summer.

While Bloomberg was playing hooky, using city resources to push gun laws in other states, the specter of Motown was creeping over the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, "New York City comes in second on the list of cities with the largest unfunded pensions," Greenfield notes. "After Detroit."

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Nothing Better to Do? "Detroit's City Council has come under fire for spending time this week writing, voting and passing a resolution supporting a federal investigation into George Zimmerman instead of focusing on its own financial blunders and ballooning crime rate," reports FoxNews.com.

"The unanimous vote by the members of the Detroit council on a crime that took place six states and hundreds of miles away came just two days after the Motor City’s latest gun-related death -- its 176th homicide of the year," according to Fox. "Last week, Detroit, once hailed at as a symbol of American pride, was forced to declare bankruptcy."

Related
The People of Detroit: Creativity Amid the Ruins 
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As the bankrupt city collapses, people are taking matters into their own creative hands: 

The language of budget cuts, austerity, and sequestration seem to dominate the media's landscape these days, instilling fear into Americans of vital government services being cut and chaos ensuing if governments aren't allowed to spend and borrow infinitely. Conservatives decry supposed cuts to the military-industrial-complex, and liberals bemoan that without government welfare transfer programs, there would be social Darwinism. . . .

[But] one needs to look no further than the city of Detroit to find the spontaneous order, civic cooperation, and peaceful market forces that take over when government simply isn't around.

Just one example:

Dale Brown and his organization, the Threat Management Center (TMC), have helped fill in the void left by the corrupt and incompetent city government. Brown started TMC in 1995 as a way to help his fellow Detroit citizens in the midst of a rise in home invasions and murders. While attempting to assist law enforcement, he found little but uninterested officers more concerned with extracting revenue through traffic tickets and terrorizing private homes with SWAT raids than protecting person and property.

In an interview with Copblock.org, Brown explains how and why his private, free market policing organization has been so successful. "The key to effective protection and security is love," says Brown, "not weapons, violence, or law. It sounds a bit corny, yes, but the results speak for themselves."

Read about more projects to restore the city here.

HT: Cathe Ellis Cleveland

John Perazzo writes at Frontpagemag.com:

The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota -- whose population is composed of 63.8% whites, 10.5% Hispanics, and 18.6% African Americans -- has been governed exclusively by mayors from the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, the state affiliate of the Democratic Party, since 1978.

As of 2011, the poverty rate in Minneapolis was 23.5%, more than one-and-a-half times the national figure of 15%. This differential is consistent with a longstanding, well-documented trend: Virtually all of America’s poorest cities have been led politically by Democrats for many years, even decades.

In 2010, for example, not even one of the ten poorest large cities in the U.S. had elected a Republican mayor since the 1980s. In fact, 8 of the 10 cities had been led exclusively by Democrats for more than half a century.
. . .

Prior to the permanent Democratic takeover of Minneapolis in 1978, the city’s poverty rate had been consistently lower than the national average. . . .

Just as Minneapolis residents face significant economic challenges, so must they deal with the city’s sizable crime problem. . . .

"In a particularly ugly develoment, Minneapolis in recent times has been the scene of numerous incidents involving 'flash mob' violence, usually by large groups of black assailants targeting white victims," Perazzo writes.

Related 
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The Borking of Michele Bachmann

Elizabeth Harrington reports at CNSNews.com:

The number of Americans designated as "not in the labor force" in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January, according to the Department of Labor. This means that the number of Americans not in the labor force increased 296,000 between January and February.

James M. Roberts writes at The Foundry:

[Daniel] Hannan does not want conservatives to simply criticize leftist development aid policies complacently without offering an alternative.

There is a good one: economic freedom, including free trade, which is measured annually in The Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal’s annual Index of Economic Freedom.

Becket Adams reports at The Blaze:

Embattled French President Francois Hollande suffered a fresh setback Saturday when France’s highest court threw out a plan to tax the ultrawealthy at a 75 percent rate, saying it was unfair.

In a stinging rebuke to one of Socialist Hollande’s flagship campaign promises, the constitutional council ruled Saturday that the way the highly contentious tax was designed was unconstitutional. It was intended to hit incomes over €1 million ($1.32 million).

Sen. Mitch McConnell, via Shannon Bream of Fox: "I'm hopeful and optimistic."

Not Sen. J. Richard Pearcey: "Another comedian. But go ahead and quit your day job."

John Coleman explains:

Reading and writing poetry . . . develops creativity. [Poet] Dana Gioia says, "As [I rose] in business . . . I felt I had an enormous advantage over my colleagues because I had a background in imagination, in language and in literature."

Noting that the Greek root for poetry means "maker," Dana emphasizes that senior executives need not just quantitative skills but "qualitative and creative" skills and "creative judgment," and feels reading and writing poetry is a route to developing those capabilities.

Indeed, poetry may be an even better tool for developing creativity than conventional fiction.

Clare Morgan, in her book What Poetry Brings to Business, cites a study showing that poems caused readers to generate nearly twice as many alternative meanings as "stories," and poetry readers further developed greater "self-monitoring" strategies that enhanced the efficacy of their thinking processes.

These creative capabilities can help executives keep their organizations entrepreneurial, draw imaginative solutions, and navigate disruptive environments where data alone are insufficient to make progress.

When I was in college, English majors could take poetry, drama, or novels
-- but my advisor said the smartest students always came out of the poetry course. The intensity of interpretation that poetry requires seems to train the brain . . . So of course, I signed up! It turned out to be my favorite course in college.

CNBC reports:

The French politician who said Indian steel company ArcelorMittal should leave the country has told CNBC that his government is only acting like U.S. President Barack Obama.

Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, a member of the governing Socialist party, caused controversy last week when he said that the Indian company, which employs close to 20,000 people in France, should leave after it said it would have to close down a factory.

The French government announced on Thursday that it could nationalize the factory in question, with backing from an unnamed businessman.

Montebourg reportedly "told CNBC after a meeting with trade unions in Paris: 'Barack Obama nationalized. The Germans are nationalizing. All countries are nationalizing. I've also noticed the British nationalized 6 banks.'"

Hat tip: Drudge

Daniel Halper writes at the Weekly Standard:

With the latest jobs report, it is now the case that "Under Obama, Food Stamp Growth [Is] 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation," according to statistics compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. "For Every Person Added to Jobs Rolls Since January 2009, 75 People Added To Food Stamp Rolls."

"Since January 2009 . . . a net of 194,000 new jobs have been created. During that same time, 14.7 million have been added to the food stamp rolls," Halper writes.

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Actually, argues economist and author Walter E. Williams, it's quite the other way around: Against the run of history, our society has created an amazing answer to the problem of poverty. Blacks included.

Erica Ritz writes at The Blaze:

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reported Sunday that Arthur Allen, the founder, president, and CEO of ASG Software Solutions, recently emailed his employees asking them to vote for Mitt Romney for the sake of the company -- and their jobs.

The subject line for the September 30 email was, “Will the US Presidential election directly impact your future jobs at ASG? Please read below.”

Just last week, founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts Davd Siegel made a similar move, telling employees he’d have “no choice” but to reduce the size of the company if Obama wins.

"At least two economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have contributed to President Barack Obama’s campaign," reports the Washington Free Beacon.

That would be Harley Frazis of Bethesda, MD, and Stephen Phillips of Washington, D.C.

Hat tip: Drudge

Related
West Agrees With Welch: In Obama Job Numbers We Do Not Trust

Madeleine Morgenstern reports at The Blaze:

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is backing former General Electric CEO Jack Welch’s accusation that the Obama administration cooked the September jobs report numbers, saying he thinks “Chicago-style politics is at work here.” . . .

“Trust the Obama administration? Sure, and the spontaneous reaction to a video caused the death of our Ambassador . . . . . . and pigs fly.” . . .

John Merline reports at Investor's Business Daily:

During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.

But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama's vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.

LifeSiteNews reports: 

A Chicago alderman and homosexual activist who in July went public with his efforts to block Chick-fil-A from opening a franchise because its president, Dan Cathy, supports traditional marriage, is claiming to have gotten his wish. . . .

However, it is unclear how much has really changed.

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Fowl Claim About Chick-Fil-A?
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Daniel Politi writes at Slate:

After waiting six years and spending $4.5 billion, Shell took its first step in drilling in the Chukchi Sea, 70 miles off the coast of northwest Alaska in what could mark the beginning of a new wave of exploration in U.S. offshore Arctic waters.

Shell announced that it begun drilling the “top hole” of an exploratory well early Sunday morning, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The company will drill around 1,300 feet deep but will not be able to tap the hydrocarbon deposits until an oil spill containment barge is on site. That means the well could be completed next year.

Environmental groups have long opposed drilling in the Arctic. . . .

Amid news that GM (Government Motors) is suspending the production of the Chevy Volt, this:

The Volt was launched as GM’s car of the future. That future never came. . . . GM cannot get consumers to buy a vehicle that plugs in like a toaster.

Peter Ferrara writes at American Spectator:

With a second term for Obama, the world-leading America we have known and hoped to leave to our children will be gone.

Last Friday's jobs report confirms that Obama is well on his way to transforming America into a third world country, with declining living standards and perpetual economic stagnation.

Argentina enjoyed the world's fourth highest per capita GDP in 1929, on par with America at the time.

But then the nation lost its way in embracing a leftist, union allied government, which took control of the economy and imposed wildly irresponsible taxes, spending, deficits, and debt.

After World War II, the hugely popular Juan Peron came to power and institutionalized the madness. It has been all downhill for Argentina ever since. Do you recognize the pattern?

Charles Krauthammer pumps Obama for reality-oriented coherence on gas and oil and finds green slime instead.

Nationally syndicated columnist Krauthammer writes:

An oil crisis looms, prices are spiking -- and our president is extolling algae. After Solyndra, Keystone and promises of seaweed in their gas tanks, Americans sense a president so ideologically antipathetic to fossil fuels -- which we possess in staggering abundance -- that he is utterly unserious about the real world of oil in which the rest of us live.

High gasoline prices are a major political problem for Obama. They are not just a pain at the pump, however. They are a constant reminder of three years of a rigid, fatuous, fantasy-driven energy policy that has rendered us scandalously dependent and excessively vulnerable.

Michelle Malkin writes:

Obama's State of the Union address defiantly pitched a new round of clean energy spending orgies to help the "middle class."

But how have the serial bankruptcies and near-bankruptcies of several federally subsidized solar companies -- all under Obama's watch -- helped anyone but an upper-crust elite of eco-crats and their lobbyists and consultants?

BBC News reports:

Brazil has overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy, an economic research group has said.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said its latest World Economic League Table showed Asian countries moving up and European countries falling back.

Andrew Malcolm writes at Investors Business Daily:

The economy may be weak, unemployment strong and the first family soon to vacate the White House for another half-month of vacation in Hawaii.

But the Obamas have gone all out in decorating their house this year, including a nearly quarter-ton gingerbread White House.

They have also installed 37 different Christmas trees. Thirty of the trees are live, or were, including one nearly 19-feet tall from Wisconsin. Seven of the three dozen Christmas trees are artificial or homemade including, of course, one from recyclables.

"Can't afford it," says the employer. Here's the news story, with video.

Occupy the Rich! The class warfare of "economic justice" is a revolution that eats its children and is now nibbling at "Hollywood's Daryl Hannah, Alec Baldwin, Roseanne Barr."

Grant M. Dahl writes at CNSNews.com:

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh observed on his show yesterday that Mitt Romney’s views global warming mirror those of “the current regime,” so a Romney presidency could have a “huge” negative impact on the economy. 

Tonight's GOP presidential debate focused on economics, and that is good. However, the debate/discussion would have been much more lively, informative, and revealing if Charlie Rose and Co. had asked the following questions: 

1. Does man live by economics, or bread, alone? Why? Why not? And can you relate your answer to the founding ethos of the United States?

2. How does your economic philosophy differ from that of Barack Obama's?

3. As a constitutionalist (because when president you will have taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States), how would your economic policies, limited by constitutional governance so that freedom might grow and thrive, differ from those who reject the Constitution?

Prediction: If the Republican nominee articulates his or her vision for freedom, based on the Constitution and Declaration, over against the failed liberal vision of Barack Obama, the GOP will win with a huge mandate for freedom-oriented change in America. And we may even rediscover a basis for refounding the republic that liberals and secularists have been so busy trying to destroy since the 1960s.

If not, however, if the Republican nominee fails to articulate such a vision, Obama well win again. And there's no telling where that might end.

In this regard, the lessons of history offer little comfort. The human being does not live by bread alone.

John Rossomando writes at Human Events:

Job creation has been all over President Obama’s lips in the past few weeks, but GOP opponents say his Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory war on fossil fuels is costing the economy far more than the estimated $447 billion price tag of his jobs proposal.

“The President of the United States wants to destroy American energy,” said Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee. “His intention is to kill fossil fuels, which we rely on for 99% of the energy in America.

“All of this killing of our energy supply is not by accident. It’s on purpose.”

And at what income point -- with His being incomparably rich, transcendentally successful, and the very quintessence of excellence  -- should we begin hating Him? 

I mean, He does rake in a bit more than $200,000 per year. And it's all tax free.

But is it really only about money?

What about "fairness"? Is that not your real idol and ground of agony?

After all, Mr. Obama and all you true believers in class warfare (RINOs included), is there anything less "fair" than that He is the Creator and we are the creatures?

O, how the idol despises its maker.

Emily Miller writes at the Washington Times:

Pesident Obama took to the Rose Garden podium on Monday to unveil the latest in his series of misleading and unpopular plans to fix the stalled economy.

Now he wants another $1.5 trillion in government coffers from higher taxes, and he’s waging class warfare to get it.

Columnist Mona Charen writes:

President Obama and the Democrats are finally happy. Liberated from thoughts of compromise with Republicans, they can fully indulge their most lascivious pleasure -- trashing rich people.

No only is fly-over country in America swarming with terroristic families and terroristic individuals who insist on balancing their own budgets, and would like to see various levels of government do the same, but also "Tea Party terrorists in charge of both France and Italy are pushing balanced budgets there."

"Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says the GOP House should not have agreed to raise the debt ceiling, but instead should have prioritized spending so that the government would stop allocating money it doesn’t have," reports Newsmax.

With unemployment rising to 9.2%, let me be clear: Obama's ATM (Automatic Tax Machine) is the enemy of job creation and economic growth.

WND reports:

The United States ranks last among all nations in the world when it comes to its current account balance, astronomically lower than every other economy, the CIA reports.

According to the most recent figures in the CIA World Factbook, America sits at the bottom of 191 nations, with a listed account balance of an astonishing negative $561 billion.

Caroline May writes at The Daily Caller:

In his mid-April speech on the budget deficit, President Obama echoed conventional wisdom when he cited the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer as a reason to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to reduce the national debt.

Research, published at The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, from Cornell economist Richard Burkhauser, Joint Committee on Taxation economist Jeff Larrimore, and Indiana University economist Kosali Simon, however, suggests that the president’s piece of conventional wisdom isn’t entirely accurate.

According to the findings, while the rich have indeed been getting richer, for the last 30 years so too have the poor and middle class.

"The conservative movement and the Republicans are more to blame than the left for the state of the nation due to their past and current passivity, pessimism, and obsession with civility," writes Steve McCann at American Thinker.

Or put it like this: When a stranger enters your home at night and threatens wife, children, life, and limb, the loving thing to do (and the truly civil thing to do) is to kick him out with such force that he never tries that stupidity and immorality ever again -- whether against you, your family, or anyone else. Overcoming evil with good is true civility. 

"Regulations Leaves Coastal Economy Dead in the Water" -- "Radical greens are using the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan as an excuse to peddle their wacko, pet theories and push for more stringent environmental regulation. Such efforts literally ship U.S. jobs overseas," states an editorial in the Washington Times.

"If U.S. consumers are in the midst of a green revolution," writes Peter Whoriskey at the Washington Post, "the news hasn't reached car buyers."

Hat tip: FoxNation

"There was no 'official' announcement" to let Americans know what Barack Obama is doing to Big Oil, says Jane Jamison at American Thinker. "Not in so many words." 

But "connect the dots of what has occurred in just the past two weeks to deep-water oil drilling, shallow-water drilling and oil refining," and the "effect is the same. Barack Obama is shutting down Big Oil."

. . . "Don't become 'addicted to borrowing'," headlines Der Spiegel.

. . . New Zealand. "The brand has spread from the American south to having more than 600 stores around the world," which brings back memories of late nights on Walton Way in Augusta, Ga.

"Australian public opinion has made history," writes Peter Hartcher at the Sydney Morning Herald. "We have the distinction of becoming the first people in the world to name China as the world's leading economic power -- even before the Chinese themselves."

And "Spanish newspapers have finally called out the U.S. President for choosing a failed model for a 'Green Economy'," writes David Freddoso at Beltway Confidential.

This is just one of three sobering economic predictions regarding Obamacare that "financial guru Jim Cramer" made yesterday on "Morning Joe." Here's more from Mark Finkelstein at Newsbusters.

By the way, as Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia writes today at American Spectator, something in addition to money is at stake. A little thing call liberty. 

A human being with unalienable rights endowed by our Creator is a terrible thing to waste.

Or disrespect.

Or treat as fodder for political manipulation based on skin color.

To be put in its place should it get uppity.

But that doesn't stop the Washington steamroller from trying, usually with great success.

But not always, as in the recent case of Sen. Barbara Boxer vs. Mr. Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Boxer "was given a stern face-to-face reprimand . . . for trying to pit one black group against another instead of addressing issues on their merits.  It’s about time," writes Joseph Klein at Newsreal.

The rarity of a Mr. Alford's backbone in Washington indicates that America is long overdue for a huge dose of uppityness: "Red and yellow, black and white, they're all are precious in His site."

The Steamroller, of course, despises the fact of the preciousness of the individual in the eyes of our Creator.

The Streamroller religiously, yea, cultishly, demands that it decides who and what is precious, who and what has rights, and who and what benefits from "spreading the wealth around." 

You say you want a "human right"?

Show me the money.

Show me the power.

Show me the votes.

And maybe next week my friends and I and the powers-that-be can create a human right for your group. Welcome to the club of god. 

But the Creator's way, and the Founders' way, is a bit different from the current secular status quo.

So precious are human beings created in the image of God that British tyranny was shown the door ca. 1776. And tyrannical American slave-owners had to be undergo a significant attitude adjustment back in the 1860s.

One wonders how patriots of humanity and freedom and dignity under God from yesterday might respond to the challenges of today.

My understanding is that this is just the sort of thing making the rounds at those Tea Parties.   

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"Without a vote from shareholders, one of America's largest corporations has decided to grant its transgender employees special protected status," reports OneNewsNow.

Related:
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Perez Hilton: Foul Face of "Gay" Activism
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat

Moving its European HQ to Switzerland, over "tax concerns."

For millions of Americans who understand that freedom precedes profit, Wal-Mart's decision to support a "centerpiece" of Obamacare may mean "Good-Bye Wal-Mart, Hello Target." News and comment provided by Scott Miller at The Conservative Post.

"It seems America is catching on" to the "Bush and Obama administrations' incipient Fascist corporatism," concludes Matthew Vadum, referencing a Tea Party report by Cody Willard of Fox News.

See also:
How to Argue Like a Fascist
Fascism Is Back

From Eric Zimmerman at The Hill's Briefing Room.

People are beginning to take notice of Congresswoman Bachmann's defense of constitutional liberty against the rising socialist tyranny of the Obama era.

Here's a video of her questioning Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke on matters constitutional. 

Save the planet, right? Perhaps not, according to this report from CNSNews.com:  

Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, told the International Conference on Climate Change that the true aim of environmentalists is to stop global development, not save the planet.
 
Klaus, an economist by trade and a skeptic of the theory of man-made global warming, delivered the keynote speech to an audience of more than 600, including 75 scientists, economists, and environmental policy experts, as the conference got underway in New York City on Sunday.
 
“Their true plans and ambitions: to stop economic development and return mankind centuries back,” he declared. “It is evident that the environmentalists don’t want to change the climate. They want to change our behavior. Their ambition is to control and manipulate us.”

Here's the rest of the story from CNSNews.com.

Speaking of Churchill: When Obama Talks, the Market Drops.

Hat Tip: NetRightNation.