I have a funny feeling we will be seeing a lot of this chart during the presidential campaign.

(PolitiFact) — A reader recently pointed us to a post on the website of MoveOn.org, a liberal group. The post features a bar graph titled, “Who Increased the Debt?” that offers figures for the past five presidents:

Ronald Reagan: Up 189 percent
George H.W. Bush: Up 55 percent
Bill Clinton: Up 37 percent
George W. Bush: Up 115 percent
Barack Obama: Up 16 percent

We can see why a liberal group would tout such numbers, since — if accurate — they offer powerful counterevidence to the claims by conservatives that President Barack Obama has been a spendthrift who’s set the nation on an unsustainable fiscal path.

But the reader who sent it to us was surprised to see the debt increase under Obama was so small. So we decided to check the numbers.

The chart actually comes from a Flickr page belonging to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who posted it on May 5, 2011. Specifically, the chart tracks “percent increase in public debt” for the five presidents during the following time periods — January 1981 to January 1989 (Reagan), January 1989 to January 1993 (George H.W. Bush), January 1993 to January 2001 (Clinton), January 2001 to January 2009 (George W. Bush), and January 2009 to April 2011 (Obama).

They gave it their “pants of fire” rating:

Reagan: Up 14.9 percentage points
George H.W. Bush: Up 7.1 percentage points
Clinton: Down 13.4 percentage points
George W. Bush: Up 5.6 percentage points
Obama: Up 21.9 percentage points (through December 2010 only)

So by this measurement — potentially a more important one — Obama is the undisputed debt king of the last five presidents, rather than the guy who added a piddling amount to the debt, as Pelosi’s chart suggested. Of course, all this goes to show that statistics can be used — and misused — to bolster almost any argument. . . .

But in communicating which administrations contributed the most to growth of the debt, this chart is a failure. We rate it Pants on Fire.

HT: Ed M.

And he couldn’t have been more correct.

Vice President Joe Biden in 2009: “But the one thing I want to say is the Recovery Act is working and you’re going to see it work right on that site. . . Part of our plan is to make sure that as we create these jobs we create jobs in the future like the ones you’re creating, jobs you can raise a family on, green jobs, jobs that will serve as a foundation for a stronger American economy. Which is why it’s so important we invest in Solyndra and invest in what Solyndra is doing. Not just to get us through today but to power our way to a much brighter tomorrow.”

Via BreitbartTV

You don’t say.

(CNSNews.com) — President Barack Obama told an audience of high school students in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday that he was “not always the very best student” and that ethics “would not have made it on the list” of his favorite subjects.

“I was not always the very best student that I could be when I was in high school, and certainly not when I was in middle school,” Obama said, speaking at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.

“I did not love every class I took. I wasn’t always paying attention the way I should have,” Obama said. “I remember when I was in 8th grade I had to take a class called ethics. Now, ethics is about right and wrong, but if you’d ask me what my favorite subject was back in 8th grade, it was basketball. I don’t think ethics would have made it on the list.”

Via Conn Carroll:

As this chart from a recent IceCap Asset Management report shows, over 20% of all disposable personal income in the United States now comes from government handouts. This money must be paid for by either adding to the national debt or dramatically raising taxes. Both would be economy killers.

God bless them.

NATO has released video of a firefight between U.S. soldiers and what they said were Taliban militants, two of whom were said to have been killed, in Kandalay village in southern Afghanistan. (Sept. 29)

Leave it to someone in this administration to say we can’t afford not to spend money.

(CNSNews.com) — Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said that in a global race for green technology, the United States “can’t afford” not to spend taxpayer money on such projects, and that the price of that spending is an occasional failure. One of those failures was a $535-million federal loan guarantee to the Solyndra company that makes solar panels but which recently filed for bankruptcy.

“The U.S. can’t afford to not be a major winner in this race,” Blank said Thursday on a conference call with reporters. “That necessarily means that there’s going to be some capital investment by the U.S. government. But it is new technology and that means that there is sometimes risks.”

Blank said that because green technology can sometimes be untested, the risk of failure will always be there when government subsidizes green companies.

Don’t worry, Joe, we’re counting on it.

Via Beltway Confidential:

On a South Florida radio station today, Vice President Joe Biden admitted that the 2012 election would be a “referendum” on their performance on the economy.

Biden encouraged voters, “not to compare him to the Almighty, compare him to the other guy,” admitting that the upcoming election would offer voters a choice.

“Right now, understandably, totally legitimate, this is a referendum on Obama and Biden, and the nature of the state of the economy. It’s soon going to be a choice.”

He’s not called the “food stamp president” for nothing.

(Judicial Watch) — In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls.

It’s part of the administration’s campaign to eradicate “food insecure households” by improving access and increasing participation in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps. Just a few months ago the federal agency that administers the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), launched a multi-million-dollar initiative to recruit more food-stamp participants even though the number of recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years.

This week Oregon officials bragged that the USDA has given the state $5 million in “performance bonuses” for ensuring that people eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.” The money comes on the heels of a separate $1.5 million award from the feds for making “accurate payments of food stamp benefits to clients.” So welfare recipients are clients?

It marks the fifth consecutive year that Oregon has been “recognized” by the federal government for “exceptional administration” of the entitlement program, according to the announcement posted on the state’s Department of Human Services web site. The state official who runs SNAP assures that her staff will “continue working very hard to exceed expectations” so that Oregonians can “put healthy foods on their table quickly.”

Could this be why the number of food-stamp beneficiaries in Oregon has increased dramatically in the last few years? Since 2008 the state has seen a 60% boost in the number of food-stamp recipients, which means that more than 780,000 people (one out of five Oregonians) get groceries compliments of Uncle Sam.

Keep reading…

(The Hill) — The only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said this week that it was “absolutely offensive” for President Obama to tell the African-American community to stop complaining and grumbling.

“This is not an Imperial Empire, he is not an emperor,” Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) told Conservative New Media after a recent town hall, seemingly making a reference to the villain of the sci-fi “Star Wars” films. “The First Amendment says that you have the right to redress your government for your grievances. . . . We have a right to say, in the black community, that we’re hurting. We need to hear more than hope and change.”

CBC members mostly responded cautiously to Obama’s remarks last weekend at the CBC’s Phoenix Awards Dinner, but indicated that his tone in addressing the group was unexpected.

“Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying,” Obama urged the crowd. “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.”

Thankfully we’re not fighting a bloody war half way around the world . . . no, wait?

(WaTi) — A new congressional report spells out in detail how the military would become “hollow” if automatic spending cuts of $1 trillion start eating away at force structure next year.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned repeatedly in recent weeks of a weakened, or hollow, military if a congressional super-committee fails to agree on deficit reductions by Nov. 23.

By law, the stalemate would require across-the-board slashing at all federal agencies, including the Pentagon.

Mr. Panetta has not offered many details. But a 14-page analysis by the Republican majority staff of the Housed Armed Services Committee is now filling in the blanks.

According to the report, the base defense budget, minus actual war costs, would plunge from a planned $596 billion in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2012, to $491 billion.

The report notes that the Army and Marine Corps would lose 200,000 troops, bringing active strength “well below” pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels.

The report bluntly states that the armed forces would not be able to carry out its essential mission.

“Resultant force structure is insufficient to decisively win an engagement in one theater while defending vital national interests in another,” states the internal report, prepared for Committee Chairman Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, California Republican.

Keep reading…

I blame da Jooooos.

(ABC News) — Iran is doubling down on the conspiracy theories after an al Qaeda magazine blasted Iranian president Mahmoud Adhmadinejad’s 9/11 claims, this time suggesting the true authors of the terror publication — which often instructs readers to murder Americans — are not radical Islamists, but secret agents for the CIA.

Sandwiched between lengthy anti-American editorials, an al Qaeda author wrote in the latest issue of an al Qaeda English-language magazine called “Inspire” that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued to spread the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks because Iran was jealous of al Qaeda.

“For them, al Qaeda was a competitor for the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised Muslims around the world,” the article says. “Al Qaeda. . . succeeded in what Iran couldn’t. Therefore it was necessary for the Iranians to discredit 9/11 and what better way to do so? Conspiracy theories.”

Responding to the article’s assertions today, Iranian state news repeated Ahmadinejad’s arguments and said “reports released by al Qaeda are usually believed to be produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).”

Noting the general content of “Inspire” articles, a spokesperson for the CIA told ABC News, “There are some allegations that don’t even deserve comment. This is one.”

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Via Weekly Standard:

Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies — including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve:

SolarReserve LLC, a closely held renewable energy developer, received a $737 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee to build a solar-thermal project in Nevada.

The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes project, near Tonopah, Nevada, will use the sun’s heat to create steam that drives a turbine, the agency said today in a e-mailed statement. SolarReserve is based in Santa Monica, California.

On SolarReserve’s website is a list of “investment partners,” including the “PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC.” As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG’s number two is none other than “Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives.”

Keep reading…

The left has never been a big fan of the First Amendment, why would they start now?

Note how there’s no hint of racism in the signs, just criticism of Obama’s policies and the man is still called a racist over and over again.

HT: Stephen Gutowski

Nothing gets between Democrats and their beloved taxpayer-funded abortions.

(LifeNews) — More members of Congress — all Democrats — have come out in strong opposition to the impending investigation a House committee launched this week, when the head of an oversight committee requested numerous documents from the abortion business. . .

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, has responded to the investigation with the kind of polemic comments similar to those Planned Parenthood issued in response. He follows the new chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, of the Democratic Party, who also condemned the investigation.

Blumenthal calls the investigation an “abusive witch hunt by Republicans” that is “an unconscionable waste of taxpayer dollars” despite the fact that planned Parenthood receives $363 million annually in taxpayer funding from all levels of government. He said the probe is “harassment of a trusted healthcare provider for millions of women and families in Connecticut and across the country.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, has also come to the defense of the abortion giant, which makes over $1 billion a year.

“With the recent announcement of their needless and politically motivated investigation of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, House Republicans continue to make their extreme agenda clear: to undermine women’s access to reproductive health care and attack the health providers they rely on in their communities,” she said, failing to note Planned Parenthood’s role as an abortion business.

“This is not about federal funding of abortion. This is about cutting off women’s access to affordable, quality care in an effort to score political points. Now is the time to be working on the issues that are most important to Americans — creating jobs and improving the economy,” she said.

Ohio congressman Tim Ryan, also a Democrat, complained as well about the probe to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for alleged financial improprieties and potential coverup of possible cases of sexual abuse and statutory rape.

Keep reading…

Props to Boehner.

(MSNBC) — Iran is drawing widespread criticism over reports that an Iranian pastor faces execution for refusing to recant his Christian faith and return to Islam.

House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement Wednesday asking Iran to spare Yusef Nadarkhani’s life.

“I urge Iran’s leaders to abandon this dark path, spare Yusef Nadarkhani’s life, and grant him a full and unconditional release,” said Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

“Religious freedom is a universal human right,” Boehner said. He said that the prospects that Nadarkhani could be executed “unless he disavows his Christian faith are distressing for people of every country and creed.

“While Iran’s government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith. This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity,” said Boehner.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he “deplored” the reports of the pastor’s sentence. He urged the Iranian government to respect its international human rights commitments and overturn the ruling.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s the militant atheists that give all non-believers a bad name.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A Northern California teacher says he doesn’t want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom.

He’s even lowering students’ grades if they say “bless you” after someone sneezes.

Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He’s banned saying “bless you” in his high school health class in Vacaville.

He even knocked 25 points from one student’s grade for saying the phrase in class.

Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time.

“When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body,” Cuckovich said. “So they were saying, ‘god bless you’ for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you’re doing doesn’t really make any sense anymore.”

After parents complained about students losing points for saying “bless you”, Cuckovich says he decided to stop the practice.