Former Governor John Sununu speaks at New Hampshire Young Republicans Breakfast

Former NH Governor John Sununu (1983 - 1989) gave an impassioned speech to a breakfast gathering hosted by the Manchester Republican Committee and the New Hampshire Young Republicans.

"These are Very Important Times"

Watch the speech here:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks to New Hampshire Young Republicans at St Anselms College, Manchester NH

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), coming off a stellar performance on Thursday 2/25 at the Blair House Health Care Summit, spoke to a group of approximately 125 Republicans today at St Anselms College, in Manchester, NH.  Making his first visit to the Granite State since skiing Tuckerman Ravine when he was 18, Congressman Ryan described the critical "tipping point" we face in our nation and urged Granite Staters to action.

A special thanks to Kerry Marsh, Chairman of New Hampshire Young Republicans and Saint Anselms College for hosting this terrific gathering and speech.

Below, in three parts, are the remarks of Paul Ryan.

Cooking the Books at the Department of Labor

The chart at the left, courtesy of Data 360 reveals an amazing phenomenon that occurred in the first year of Obama's presidency.  For the first time since 1948 (the start date for this analysis) the number of people in the Civilian Labor Force, as reported by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, saw 7 of the 12 months report a decrease in the number of people in the Civilian Labor Force relative to the figure 12 months earlier.  Through all of the boom and bust times since 1948, one thing that remained inexorably constant was that the number of people in the US Civilian Labor Force always moved up, year after year.  Through wars, recessions, the dot-com bubble and burst...through 9/11.  Always, more people were added to the Civilian work force.  Our population grew, as did our projected life spans so it is reasonable that we would see an ever-upward march of this data.

Until 2009...

In the 20 years leading up to the Obama inauguration (Dec '88 - Dec '08) the number of people recorded by the US Department of Labor in the Civilian Labor Force grew from 122,612K to 154,587K - an average annual growth of 0.26%.  During the 8 years of the Bush presidency, the overall annual growth rate in the Civilian Labor Force was 7.19% with specific yearly growths of: 0.06%, 1.43%, 0.60%, 0.78%, 1.46%, 1.93%, 0.68%, 0.06%.

But in 2009, the number of people in the US Civilian Labor Force dropped from 154,587K to 153,059K.  Just as a reminder, these numbers define the size of the total civilian work force - not who is actually employed (that comes later). 1,528,000 people vanished from the Civilian Labor Force in 2009, according to the DoL numbers. 

Going back to 1948, there have only been 31 time within the 734 rolling-12-month periods in which the number of people documented by the DoL in the Civilian Labor Force was lower than it was 12 months earlier (once in 1949;  eight times in 1951; five times in 1952; once in 1954; once in 1955; once in 1957; and seven times in '61-'62 before the Kennedy tax cuts kicked in). 

There has not been a month since July 1962 in which the number of persons employed in the Civilian Work Force was lower than  it was 12-months earlier. That is, until Obama's DoL started reporting the numbers.

The numbers reported by Mr. Obama's DoL have had seven such "anomalies" out of 12.  Since June 2009, when the number of persons listed in the Civilian Work Force peaked at 154,351K (and at which time it became clear that the "stimulus" would serve only to retard private sector job growth), the DoL numbers for the Civilian Work Force have trended down every month since. The January jobs report was the first time since June '09 where the DoL reported a growth in the Civilian Work Force relative to the month before (In this case, 153,170K in Jan '10 - the same number it was in July '07.)

Whereas the nation as a whole could be counted on to report a growth in the Civilian Work Force over the preceding 12 months 95.8% of the time since 1948, in Mr. Obama's DoL, we see a reported growth in the Civilian Work Force only 41.7% of the time.

So, enough of this inside baseball stuff. What does this mean?

If, instead of accepting the numbers presented by DoL for 2009, we extrapolated the Dec '08 figure by the actual growth rate from '88 - '08, we would have seen a reported Civilian Work Force in Dec '09 of 154, 988K instead of the reported 153, 059K.  With only 137, 753K people actually working, we would have seen the reported unemployment rate jump to 11.12% (as opposed to the 10.0% reported by the DoL).  An 11.12% unemployment rate would have been politically poisonous for the Keynsian economic team surrounding Obama.

So instead, it appears that they have "changed the denominator" instead.  Go against the inexorable march of data and see if anyone is really paying attention. This just smells of cooking the books. 

What we do know, is in  Jan '09, when BHO began cramming down our throats, what would become the $787B  'stimulus" spending on pet liberal projects and, worse, on bribes to states into making Faustian bargains, there were 142,271K Americans employed.  One year later, and $3T deeper in debt, we have only 138,313K Americans working - a loss of 3.958 million jobs.  When you consider the number of government jobs created in that time frame (145,800 new Federal government jobs in 2009 - not including the Post Office), the impact to the private sector is even worse.

Radical Keynsian policy is the reason for this collapse in the private jobs market.  More government spending, like pouring gasoline on a fire, will only make matters worse - as history records in the 1934 - 1937 period shows.  

Cooking the books at DoL will only hide the lie so long.

Sources:

1. Data360 http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=264&count=all

2. Department of Labor Burea of Labor Statistics Economic Releases Table A-1. Employment Status of the Civilian Population by sex and age http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm

3.  Department of Labor Burea of Labor Statistics Economic Releases Table B.1 Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

4.  Families would take hit under HHS plan http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/statenewengland/597344-227/families-would-take-hit-under-hhs-plan.html

The stimulus law gave Toumpas’ agency (NH HHS) more than a $200 million windfall this year, but it came with strings attached. The law doesn’t permit states to cut benefits for those who had been receiving them or to change standards of eligibility. The only viable option in most cases is for Toumpas to try to get most of the savings by cutting payments to providers.

Main Stream Media and #P2ville Have Knickers in a Knot over Governor Palin's Speech at Tea Party Convention

The main stream media and the left wing bloggosphere didn't waste much time attempting to marginalize Sarah Palin's speech last night to a large gathering of Tea Party activists from around the world. (To see and hear the full speech carried on CSPAN, click here)

Sarah Palin assails Obama at 'tea party' gathering by Liz Sidoti, one of AP's National Political Writer

First of all, she leads with a marginalization of the Tea Party movement by putting the name in lower case letters inside quotes, as if to imply it doesn't exist?  By this standard should we see other stories similarly noted by AP that include 'job creation' or 'stimulus' or 'transparency' or, well... you get the idea...

Sidotu leads with:

Sarah Palin, in a speech that was short on ideas but big on enthusiam...

Let's see, I heard her speak about across the board tax cuts to create an environment in which sustainable private-sector jobs could be created...she talked about a vision of what a successfully prosecuted war on terror would look like ("we win, they lose")... she drew the clear distinction between the morality of the left (government serves to re-distribute wealth according to some model which promotes the 'greater good' (see, I'm catching on with these quoty thingies)) and that of the right (government serves to protect the rights of all Americans). Nope...no ideas there.

But then again, I'm sure were she around in 1776, Miss Sidoti would have said that The Declaration of Independence was 'short on ideas'.

I simply can't believe that Sidotu finished her hatchet job with the following quote:

Her fee was $100,000 for the appearance at the for-profit event.

What she failed to mention and what millions of Americans heard as she finished her Q&A session  on CSPAN last night, was that she was returning the speaking fee to the Tea Party movement. #P2 is on fire with Liberals in their echo chamber failing to acknowledge her commitment to return the speaking fee.

Can you believe that a grass-roots conservative movement would actually run a campaign "for profit".  OMG.  In the land of #p2 they are howling at the thought of an enterprise making a profit.  Afterall, in #P2ville money flows from the government whenever it's "needed".  Profits are bad and people who make profits are evil... except for those industrious people out there (who shall remain nameless in #P2ville) who, by their consent, allow themeselves to be fleeced to prop-up a corrupt government (that would be us, the minority who pay Federal Income Tax). 

Lastly, check out the photo that AP chose to run with its hatchet job story.  Could the liberals find a more perfect photo that aligns with their narrative of Palin as an angry hater? Personally, I would rather have seen a picture with those amazing shoes she had on!  Haa haa








And before we leave the AP story, for those of you who are morally confused about the virtue of profits, I highly encourage diners at Hugh Akston's Diner re-read the fabulous "Money" speech given by Rand's character from Atlas Shrugged, Francisco d'Antonia. 

As reported on NewsBusters and then picked-up by Breitbart, Democratic operative Bob Shrum had the following to say about Governor Palin's speech:

The difference with Ronald Reagan was that he always had an alternative vision of where America should go. And what we heard tonight was more a masterful exercise – masterful – in paranoid politics. I mean, she came across to me as a merchant of hate with an oh gosh smile...

The Liberal Blog 'Think Progress' (do the progressives also have blogs called 'Think Stimulus' and 'Think Jobs' or 'Think Reality'?)  posted a blog suggesting that Sarah Palin had answers to questions written on the palm of her hand!  #P2 is ablaze with Tweeters claiming she had crib notes in her palm during the Q&A.  YGTBSM...  that's the sum total of the Left's counter argument?  Really?

The newser site carried a brief story including:

President Obama and Democrats provided much fodder for Palin's $100,000, 40-minute speech... She concluded with a 15-minute Q&A session of pre-selected questions.

Joan Walsh wrote the following from a piece posted on Salon.Com:

This was the Palin we saw at the 2008 Republican convention, the snarling pitbull in shimmery lipstick.  I know journalists aren't supposed to use words like mean and dumb, but I can't help it. Palin is one of the meanest people on the public stage today. She wallows in it. She loves it! Also? Possibly one of the dumbest. But mean works, and so does dumb. And so do lies, and there were many mean, dumb lies in her speech.

The Left is applying some tastelessly pejorative labels to Governor Palin in its Twitter rantings last night and this morning ('Bimbostein', 'Carabou Barbie'). These are the same people who claim to want a fact-based, reasoned dialogue about issues but are thwarted in this noble effort by the knuckle-dragging name-calling morons on the right who are either too stupid or too nasty to engage in meaningful discourse.

 Out in #P2ville we find the following contributions toward a reasoned discourse:

So the pathological liar was back feeding raw meat to a crowd of 500 dumb schmucks who were so easily separated from their money tonight. What else is new?

I doubt she wrote any crib notes. How many brain cells does it take to memorize: “Blah blah blah”?

If she spoke more intelligently she would lose all her nascar fans.

Palin is a moron. Anyone with a lick of sense knows this. Obama WROTE his famous acceptance speech. Using a teleprompter is the way politicians have given speeches for a very long time. Only morons like YOU brainwashed by what Rush has TOLD you to think are trying to make hay out of the fact Obama like most everyone else uses a teleprompter. You are stupid and pathetic. Try to stop embarassing yourself so piteously 

Sarah Palin this Sunday! What do you want to ask her? // The square root of 4? Her answer: All of 'em!

How is #Palin allowed to criticize Obama on anything, let alone national security issues? Why does @nprnews think this is news? ARGH! (Akston's note:  It's called 'Free Speech', a natural right further guarded in our pesky Constitution's Bill of Rights)

Sarah Palin showed up at the national Tea Party convention in Nashville. Sarah thought she was invited for a Tupperware party.

Is no one else vaguely uneasy about her call for a revolution? Sure, it's the same old #Palin BS, but that should still be out of bounds. (Akston's note:  Getting a little nervous out there on the lonely Left?)

You guys, conservatives, in the US must be nuts to support Sarah Palin. That woman is to politics what impotence is to marriage.

"What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Al Sharpton? Lipstick."

I hope Sarah Palin does run for President so that she can get her ass handed to her.
C-Span's attention to Sarah Palin is a celebration of ignorance.

Watching airport CNN in Miami. Sarah Palin is George W Bush with hot flashes. What are you thinking America??? 

So, the fact-based reasoned dialogue has begun.  Well done, Governor Palin. Fight's On! 

Odds 'N Ends From Hugh Akston's Diner Today

• Why are liberals so condescending?  Gerard Alexander, Washington Post 2/7/10

It's an odd time for liberals to feel smug. But even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives. Many Democrats describe their troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative misinformation -- as when Obama charges that critics of health-care reform are peddling fake fears of a "Bolshevik plot" -- and the country's failure to grasp great liberal accomplishments. "We were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are," the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a recent interview. The benighted public is either uncomprehending or deliberately misinformed (by conservatives).

• Add @suziplasse to the folks you follow on Twitter...  a relentless female John Galt who, ironically, DOES live under the sign of the $. (Vegas)

• I sent the following letter on 2/5 to Jennifer Horn, one of the Republican challengers for the New Hampshire 2nd Congressional District seat:

I enjoyed participating in the rally on Tuesday with Stephen Moore at the Marriott Courtyard in Nashua.  The speeches were great and there was a terrific buzz in the crowd.

 

Terrific "stump speech" by you as well!  I took a couple extra copies of the Constitution and gave them to a few friends.  (I sent your campaign a donation this morning of $25 to help defray those costs.)

 

As a concerned citizen, whose interest in your campaign extends only to my unshakeable commitment to see a true conservative assume the seat of the NH 2nd Congressional District in November, I highly, highly recommend that you get connected to the exploding Twitter community.

 

I know what you're thinking, because before this past weekend I harbored the same skepticism you might have (your last tweet on NHJennifer was on 11/3/09).  Is Twitter just a way for people to say they're taking the dog out, or "OMG didja see Lost?"  Quite the contrary. When the history of the 2010 conservative landslide is written, the impact of Twitter will be showcased as the lubricant of the machine that proved to be unstoppable.  The first chapter in that history was written on 1/19 in Massachusetts.

 

This past weekend I attended, with about 500 other concerned conservative grass-roots organizers in NH, a forum at SNHU sponsored by Fred Tausch's Steward for Prosperity focused on the use of social media in organizing grass roots movements. 

 

So, I took the plunge, opened a Twitter account and started "tweeting".  As I saw how the information flowed my jawed dropped in awe at the power that Twitter enables. 

 

Everyday, the movers and shakers of government, conservatism, liberalism and everything in between are using Twitter to shape the messaging of the events of day - effectively emasculating the distorting and destructive power the main stream media has enjoyed and, by which, the liberal monster that we face today sits, nervously, upon Capital Hill.

 

I highly recommend that you get out there on Twitter.  The reach that you will have in a very, very short period of time will be far greater and cheaper than traditional Twitter-less campaigning.  Also, your ability to attract the attention of national-level support, as Scott Brown enjoyed (primarily through Twitter) will be exponentially enhanced.  Every day - every hour  - you will be able to imprint your position on the incredible events of the day and the folks following you will grow every day.  We will know Jennifer intimately because she will have been with us on Twitter every step of the way.

 

I would love the opportunity to speak with you or your staff about this. 

 

Best Regards,

 

Craig Powers

• Early Morning Thread: How to Destabilize and Destroy a Country, Michael Walsh, Big Journalism.com.   A chilling interview from 1985 with a former KGB agent who details with clinical precision. the four step process for destabilizing and destroying a country:  1.  Demoralize (15 - 20 years); 2. Destabilize (2-5 years:  Focus on economic destabilization, foreign affairs and defense); 3.  Crisis (6 weeks); 4.  "Normalization".  25 years ago, this guy was foreshadowing what we now suffer in 2010.

• "EXCLUSIVE HD" 9/12 Tea Party march on Washington...HIGHLY Inspirational!  An incredibly inspiring speech by Rev C.L. Bryant that I was fortunate to hear from the west lawn of the Capitol on 9/12/09 along with my son Erik and fellow patriots Frank Giudici and Craig Wilson.

  
  

• Don't Blame It on Our Coca-Cola Bottles Academy Award winning screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky on European contempt for Americans from the WWII era movie The Americanization of Emily  Courtesy of @suziplasse

Porker of the Month

Citizens Against Government Waste has announced the winner of its dubious "Porker of the Month" Award for January 2010 - none other than the Cornhusker kickbacker himself, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.  (Your constituents must be soooo proud of you.)

Call Senator Nelson (D-Neb) at (202) 224-6551 and let him know what you think!