Click “CC” on the lower right of the video pane to turn on the captions.

Webmasters and pundits: You can embed this and start playing at any point in the video using this simple embed code, where the “&start=xxxx” refers to the start point in seconds.  So for example, if you want to embed straight where justice Kennedy describes the blind man precept, you would use this embed code.  In this example, Kennedy starts his evisceration at 32 min, 19 seconds, which is 32 * 60 + 19 = 1939.

<object width=”420″ height=”315″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GLGc2mlqjww?version=3&cc_load_policy=1&amp;hl=en_US&start=1939“></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GLGc2mlqjww?version=3&cc_load_policy=1&amp;hl=en_US&start=1939” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”420″ height=”315″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed></object>

Example:

The embed code above also turns captions on by default.

There is more on embedding this way at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/start-youtube-video-minutes-seconds/.

The quality of captioning is an issue of increasing importance to activists for the hearing impaired. Emma Harrison of the British advocacy group Action on Hearing Loss in October urged “all broadcasters to monitor the quality of their subtitling to ensure high standards.” In the U.S. the National Association for the Deaf filed a lawsuit in June against Netflix for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing a level of captioning that is considered substandard by its hearing impaired subscribers.

Shabby treatment of the hearing impaired could have been avoided for $20.

Deaf activists find the offense glaring in its disregard because accurate captions for a 17 minute YouTube video can be produced for less than $20 by web-based providers such as Protranscript.com. The cost of the video was reported as $345,353 in records filed by Obama for America with the Federal Election Commission. Statistics provided by the Gallaudet Research Institute suggest there are anywhere from 3 to 7 million Americans living with severe hearing impairment.

The decision to provide slipshod and inaccurate captions for the video offends many in the hearing impaired community, who, according to Karen Peltz Strauss, a leading telecommunications policy advocate in Washington, DC., have fought an uphill struggle against “the paternalism of the hearing-oriented telecommunications industries [who] slowed support for technology for deaf users.” (A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans). That such a slight comes from the sitting U.S. president’s reelection campaign is ironic because, according to Peltz Strauss, it was to the U.S. government that deaf rights pioneers Edmund Burke Boatner and Dr. Clarence D. O’Connor turned after Hollywood rebuffed their efforts to popularize captioning of movies.

Experts in YouTube captioning speculate that the transcription had gone through one or more format conversions before being uploaded to the video streaming service, which may account for more than 100 errors involving the use of the apostrophe. The captions were apparently never proofread, as even a casual viewer can spot errors quickly. Only 32 seconds into the video a newscaster is quoted as saying “This is an economy right now that cant find the bottom of bad news.” Here, as in the rest of the subtitles, the apostrophe is missing and so hearing impaired viewers were presented with quotes from President Obama such as the following:

“Dont bet against the American worker, dont bet against the American people.”

and

“Even if youve got a strong spirit, if youre out of work for a long time, it can wear you down.”

When the apostrophe does appear, it is used incorrectly as in this quote from Rahm Emmanuel:

“The financial sectors kind of the heart that pumps blood into the economy’s was frozen up and in cardiac arrest.”

In addition to the dozens of errors in punctuation, in places there are random numbers and symbols, as in this quote from the Vice President Biden describing the decision to kill Osama Bin Laden:

“We sat down in the Situation Room\’97the entire national security apparatus was in that room\’97″

Editors notes appear to have been left in the captions, such as “page Axelrod”, which appears prior to a narration by David Axelrod, Communications Director of the Obama campaign.

Media experts close to the president defend the action by pointing out that once a video has been uploaded to YouTube, further changes are impossible without changing the URL of the link. They assert that such a change would have risked the carefully timed Thursday, 8 p.m. launch of the president’s most expensive campaign video to date.  Our YouTube consultants report however that captions can be removed and re-uploaded at any time without changing the brittle links that the Obama campaign has promoted to popularize the video.

An anonymous YouTube publisher, whose videos critical of the president have been seen by millions, said “These captions–that frankly are an insult to all of those hearing impaired Americans who rely on accurate captioning in order to participate in the political process–can be replaced at any time. Even now, if they wanted to. ” He said “what’s with this group? Aren’t these the geniuses who rejiggered our health care options with a thousand page bill? I hope they read bills better than they read captions.”

Full Transcript

Below is the complete transcript as retrieved from YouTube.com using the Google API to capture the captions as originally uploaded on Thursday, March 16, 2012 by YouTube account holder “BarackObamadotcom.”

Narrator: What do we remember
in November of 2008? Was it this moment?

Or this?

Newscaster: This is an economy right now that
cant find the bottom of bad news.

Newscaster:

Ten years of saving completely gone. Vanished.
Poof.

Newscaster:

Watching the Dow Industrial Average has been
like watching the heart monitor on a critically

ill patient.

Narrator:
How do we understand this President and his

time in office?
Do we look at the days headlines or do

we remember what we, as a country, have been
through?

Austan Goolsbee:

The President elect is here in Chicago and
hes named the members of the economic

team and they all fly in for the first big
briefing on the economy. Many of the leading

financial figures of the world are taking
the subway in from the airport and traipsing

through the snow to get to the transition
office.

David Axelrod:

There was a screen set up for slides, but
we might as well have been showing a horror

movie because what was described in that meeting
was an economic crisis beyond anything anybody

had imagined.

Rahm Emanuel:
You had people telling you that the auto industry

was literally days from collapse. The financial
sectors kind of the heart that pumps blood

into the economy’s was frozen up and in cardiac
arrest.

Goolsbee:

The six months surrounding January 2009 is
the worst six months ever that we ever

had in the data. It was the biggest crash
of household wealth that weve ever had

in the United States.
page Axelrod:

Christi Romer, the incoming head of the Council
of Economic Advisors, Mr. President, thisll

be as deep as anything weve experienced
since The Great Depression, and millions of

people are going to lose their jobs.Tim
Geithner, the incoming Treasury Secretary

said the Financial systems locked
up and Mr. President, it could collapse.

And then Peter Orszag, the Budget Director,
was the cleanup hitter, and said this is gonna

add trillions of dollars to our debt. All
I was thinking at that moment was, Could

we get a recount?

Narrator:
Not since the days of Franklin Roosevelt,

had so much fallen on the shoulders of one
President.

And when he faced his country, who looked

to him for answers, he would not dwell in
blame or dreamy idealism.

POTUS:

Our time of standing pat protecting
narrow interests and putting off unpleasant

decisions that time has surely passed.
Starting today, we must begin again the work

of remaking America.

Narrator:
As President, the tough decisions that he

would make would not only determine the course
of the nation, theyd reveal the character

of the man.

The first decision where to begin?

Emanuel:
Which is one, which is two, which is three,

which is four, which is five? Where do you
start?

What I love about the guy he says, Were

gonna do em all. Because we gotta do em
all, we dont have a choice to pick.

Narrator:

He acted quickly with the Recovery Act, giving
help where it was most urgently needed. The

country had been hemorrhaging jobs more
than 3.5 million lost in the six months before

he took office. Middle class jobs and economy
security were vanishing.

The funding would keep teachers in the classroom,

cops on the street, and first responders ready.
And for those who were hurting, small business

incentives, tax cuts for the middle class,
and job training building bridges, highways,

and infrastructure laying the groundwork
for a new economy, and restoring the possibility

of growth. But another immediate crisis confronted
the President.

Narrator:
Auto executives had asked for another bailout.

And there was pressure to act.

Newscaster:
Tonight, a top GM executive warned,

Without help, the company will default.
There is no Plan B.

Elizabeth Warren:

If the auto industry goes down, what happens
to Americas manufacturing base? What happens

to jobs in America? What happens to the whole
Midwest?

President Bill Clinton:

If you closed all these car dealerships, and
you killed all these auto parts suppliers,

people have no earthly idea what wouldve
happened not only to the economy, but to our

self image.

Emanuel:
You know, a lot of conventional wisdom wanted

to do what Mitt Romney did let it go. Cant
be saved. Why put good money after bad?

VPOTUS:

Everybody. Democrats, Republicans, I mean,
it was overwhelming look at the polling

number do not rescue the automobile industry.

Warren: The President faced a real risk either way

he went. He fails to invest in the auto industry,
it implodes, the economy goes further down,

and blood is on his hands. The President invests,
and the auto industry just cant pull it

out. Thats on the Presidents hands
as well.

Narrator:

But he knew who it would hurt the most and
how devastating the loss of a job can be to

an entire family.

POTUS:
My grandparents taught me that a job is about

more than just a paycheck. They grew up during
the Depression, so, they tell me about seeing

their fathers or their uncles losing jobs.
Even if youve got a strong spirit, if

youre out of work for a long time, it
can wear you down.

Narrator:

He decided to intervene. But in exchange for
help, the President would demand action.

The Bush Administration had given the car

companies thirteen billion dollars, and the
money was now gone.

Clinton:

He didnt just give the car companies the
money. And he didnt give the UAW the money.

He said, You guys gotta work together
and come up and everybodys gotta have

some skin in the game here. You gotta modernize
the automobile industry.

POTUS:

So dont bet against the American worker,
dont bet against the American people.

We are comin back!

Narrator:
Because of the tough choices the President

made, the stage was set for a resurgent U.S.
auto industry.

And it wouldnt be the last time this President

would face a crisis that others would rather
avoid.

Newscaster, John Chancellor:

One of the most worrisome problems facing
Americans these days is the cost of healthcare

and the rate at which it has increased.

Narrator: It had been an issue that both parties had

struggled with for more than three generations.

Clinton:

This is a huge economic issue because we spend
seventeen and a half percent of our income

on healthcare. No other big, wealthy country
spends more than 11.8%. And almost all of

them have better results than we do.

Narrator:
Healthcare costs had been rising three times

the rate of inflation, crushing family budgets
and choking business. And he knew that he

couldnt fix the economy if he didnt
fix healthcare. And he wanted to bring Washington

together to share the tough decisions.

Protestors: Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill! Kill the bill!

Narrator:

But he faced a fierce opposition, hostile
to compromise.

Man at Town Hall:

Itll be a cold day in hell before he socializes
my country.

Narrator:

After months of negotiation, it was unclear
whether he could get the necessary votes.

Narrator:

Some advised him to settle. He could still
claim victory if he accepted less.

Emanuel:

I regularly told him, Look, you dont
have to spill this much political blood. You

wont get the healthcare accomplishment
youre seeking, but you will have something.

Narrator:

But he knew from experience the cost of waiting.

POTUS:
When my mom got cancer, she wasnt a wealthy

woman. And it pretty much drained all her
resources.

FLOTUS:

She developed ovarian cancer never really
had good, consistent insurance. That

tough thing to deal with, watching your mother
die of something that couldve been prevented.

I dont think he wants to see anyone go
through that

Narrator:

And he remembered the millions of families
like his who feel the pressure of rising costs

and the fear of being denied or dropped from
coverage

POTUS:

When you hear people saying that this isnt
the right time, when you hear people more

worried about the politics of it than whats
right and whats wrong, I want you to think

about the millions of people all across this
country who are looking for some help.

Narrator:

And when the votes were counted, that help
would come.

Nancy Pelosi:

The bill is passed!

Narrator:
Beyond the crises at home, among the toughest

calls that he would make, he would make as
Commander in Chief.

He had promised to bring a responsible end

to the war in Iraq, and bring the troops home.
It was a promise kept.

Newscaster:

After nine years in Iraq, all the troops are
returning.

POTUS:

Welcome home! Welcome home! Welcome home!

Narrator:

And it was part of his broader plan to refocus
our efforts on those that had attacked us.

Intelligence reports locating Osama Bin Laden

were promising, but inconclusive, and there
was internal debate as to what the President

should do.

VPOTUS: We sat down in the Situation Room\’97the entire

national security apparatus was in that room\’97and
the President turns to every principal in

the room every secretary, What do you
recommend I do? And they say, Well,

forty-nine percent chance hes there, fifty-one…
its a close call Mr. President. As

he walked out the room, it dawned on me, hes
all alone. This is his decision. If he was

wrong, his Presidency was done. Over.

POTUS:
Today, at my direction, the United States

launched a targeted operation that killed
Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida. A

small team of Americans carried out the operation
with extraordinary courage and capability.

No Americans were harmed.

Newscaster:
Theyve been planning this operation for

more than eight months, but in the end it
came down to a period of just forty minutes

when it could either be a major success or
a disastrous failure.

POTUS:

A lot of people have asked, How did you
feel when you first heard that it was Bin

Laden and he had been killed? And the
truth is, I didnt have time for a lot

of feelings at that point because our guys
were still in that compound, and it wasnt

until I knew that they were across the border,
they were safe, everybody was accounted for including

the dog uh, that I allowed, some satisfaction.

Clinton:

He took the harder, and the more honorable
path. When I saw what had happened, I thought

to myself, I hope thats the call I
woulde made.

Narrator:

It was the ultimate test of leadership, a
victory for our nation.

And there would be many others.

His satisfaction, not in Washington, but
with the millions of families who would feel

for the first time, the security of coverage.

2.5 million young adults now have coverage.
17 million kids could no longer be

denied for preexisting conditions.

He expanded drug discounts for seniors.

And with a Patient’s Bill of Rights, Americans
no longer will see their coverage dropped

or capped when illness strikes.

Title: Restores Stem Cell Research Funding

He restored science to its rightful place.

Title: Doubles Fuel Efficiency Standards

He announced historic new mileage standards
that will reduce oil imports, and the countrys

now on track to double production from renewables.

Title: Race to the Top
Raising expectations in our schools with higher

standards in forty-six states.

Title: Making College More Affordable

He reformed the student loan system, shifting
billions in subsidies from banks and middlemen,

to millions of young Americans.

Title: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act

Cracking down on credit card companies and

mortgage lenders so the American people would
never have to bail out Wall Street again.

And when Washington stalled, he would take

action, protecting everyday Americans from
predatory lenders.

Title: Appoints Richard Cordray to Head of

Financial Consumer Protection Bureau

POTUS: Im not gonna stand by while a minority

in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of
the people that we were elected to serve.

Not at this make or break moment for middle
class Americans.

Narrator:

They changed the way the world sees us.

And brought fairness to soldiers who want
to serve their country, regardless of who

they love.

Title: Dont Ask Dont Tell repealed

POTUS: Thank you. Yes we did.

Narrator: And a landmark law so that a woman who does

the same job as a man can get the same pay.

Title: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passes

POTUS:

And we will make sure that our daughters have
the same rights, the same chances, the same

freedoms to pursue their dreams as our sons.

Judge:
Judge Sotomayor, are you prepared to take

the oath?

Sotomayor:
I am.

Narrator:

He placed two experienced jurists on the Supreme
Court.

Narrator:

And while the economic crisis proved to be
more severe than experts had predicted, month

by month there was progress over 3.5
million private sector jobs in two years and

welcome news from Detroit.

Diane Sawyer:
It is a banner day for the resurgent US auto

industry, less than two years after coming
out of bankruptcy, General Motors announced

today it is investing two billion dollars
in seventeen plants.

Narrator:

And with business booming, they repaid their
loans.

Lawrence ODonnell:

Tonight. General Motors is once again number
one in sales worldwide.

Narrator:

Time and time again, we would see rewards
from tough decisions he had made; not for

quick political gain but for long term and
enduring change.

Narrator:

So when we remember this moment and consider
this President  then and now lets

remember how far weve come and look forward
to the work still to be done.

Thankfully, there is so much slow motion, dramatic pauses, and um’s and ahh’s from you-know-who that you won’t miss much and you’ll come out 7 minutes ahead.

Welcome, Nice Deb and The Blaze readers. If you like to watch academics and the media beclown themselves in their zeal for making conservatives look bad, you may like this video that presents their comic distortion of a behavioral study.

** UPDATE **

Since the white house has not provided a full transcript, here it is below.

Note: The transcript below is taken directly, character for character, from the original YouTube video. It is not your imagination if you think that Team Obama has gotten very poor work for the $345,000 investment since the transcript below is shockingly bad.

Examples of the shoddy transcript:

• “The financial sectors kind of the heart that pumps blood into the economy’s was frozen up and in cardiac arrest.”
• “So dont bet against the American worker, dont bet against the American people.”
• “We sat down in the Situation Room\’97the entire national security apparatus was in that room\’97and the President turns to every principal….”
• Search for “Title:” and you’ll see that the video editor’s notes have found their way into the subtitles.
  

Hey guys, give Protranscript.com a call. They can do transcriptions with 99.999% accuracy for pennies a minute. For less than a sawbuck you could have published your $345,000 video with accurate captions. But what am I thinking? It’s not your money you’re spending.  (Or should I say youre spending.) And besides, the subtitles you provided are close enough for government work.

And these are the geniuses who want more control over our health care.

Full Transcript

The timestamps are indexed to the original video, which can be viewed at Weasel Zippers.

Search tip: Team Obama doesn’t know how to manipulate text files to properly escape single quotes, so if you’re looking for that  moment of high drama with the president framed alone against the window with the weight of the Osama decision on his shoulders, you’ll have to search for “hes all alone”.

0:00:19.420,0:00:26.550

Narrator: What do we remember in November of 2008? Was it this moment?

0:00:28.029,0:00:32.610

Or this?

0:00:32.610,0:00:39.180

Newscaster: This is an economy right now that cant find the bottom of bad news.

0:00:39.180,0:00:39.680

Newscaster:

0:00:39.680,0:00:43.100

Ten years of saving completely gone. Vanished. Poof.

0:00:43.100,0:00:43.650

Newscaster:

0:00:43.650,0:00:47.040

Watching the Dow Industrial Average has been like watching the heart monitor on a critically

0:00:47.040,0:00:48.430

ill patient.

0:00:48.430,0:00:53.610

Narrator: How do we understand this President and his

0:00:53.610,0:00:59.489

time in office? Do we look at the days headlines or do

0:00:59.489,0:01:06.489

we remember what we, as a country, have been through?

0:01:06.560,0:01:08.320

Austan Goolsbee:

0:01:08.320,0:01:12.149

The President elect is here in Chicago and hes named the members of the economic

0:01:12.150,0:01:18.280

team and they all fly in for the first big briefing on the economy. Many of the leading

0:01:18.280,0:01:22.909

financial figures of the world are taking the subway in from the airport and traipsing

0:01:22.909,0:01:25.569

through the snow to get to the transition office.

0:01:25.569,0:01:27.060

David Axelrod:

0:01:27.060,0:01:31.600

There was a screen set up for slides, but we might as well have been showing a horror

0:01:31.600,0:01:38.600

movie because what was described in that meeting was an economic crisis beyond anything anybody

0:01:39.049,0:01:40.049

had imagined.

0:01:40.049,0:01:43.630

Rahm Emanuel: You had people telling you that the auto industry

0:01:43.630,0:01:50.630

was literally days from collapse. The financial sectors kind of the heart that pumps blood

0:01:51.890,0:01:56.259

into the economy’s was frozen up and in cardiac arrest.

0:01:56.259,0:01:57.920

Goolsbee:

0:01:57.920,0:02:04.850

The six months surrounding January 2009 is the worst six months ever that we ever

0:02:04.850,0:02:10.329

had in the data. It was the biggest crash of household wealth that weve ever had

0:02:10.330,0:02:12.700

in the United States. page Axelrod:

0:02:12.700,0:02:17.339

Christi Romer, the incoming head of the Council of Economic Advisors, Mr. President, thisll

0:02:17.340,0:02:21.730

be as deep as anything weve experienced since The Great Depression, and millions of

0:02:21.730,0:02:27.310

people are going to lose their jobs.Tim Geithner, the incoming Treasury Secretary

0:02:27.310,0:02:33.909

said the Financial systems locked up and Mr. President, it could collapse.

0:02:33.909,0:02:38.739

And then Peter Orszag, the Budget Director, was the cleanup hitter, and said this is gonna

0:02:38.739,0:02:45.110

add trillions of dollars to our debt. All I was thinking at that moment was, Could

0:02:45.110,0:02:47.750

we get a recount?

0:02:47.750,0:02:50.819

Narrator: Not since the days of Franklin Roosevelt,

0:02:50.819,0:02:54.849

had so much fallen on the shoulders of one President.

0:02:54.849,0:02:58.590

And when he faced his country, who looked

0:02:58.590,0:03:03.980

to him for answers, he would not dwell in blame or dreamy idealism.

0:03:03.980,0:03:05.780

POTUS:

0:03:05.780,0:03:11.409

Our time of standing pat protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant

0:03:11.409,0:03:18.230

decisions that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must begin again the work

0:03:18.230,0:03:19.379

of remaking America.

0:03:19.379,0:03:24.260

Narrator: As President, the tough decisions that he

0:03:24.260,0:03:29.620

would make would not only determine the course of the nation, theyd reveal the character

0:03:29.620,0:03:32.049

of the man.

0:03:32.049,0:03:35.030

The first decision where to begin?

0:03:35.030,0:03:37.840

Emanuel: Which is one, which is two, which is three,

0:03:37.840,0:03:40.120

which is four, which is five? Where do you start?

0:03:40.120,0:03:42.180

What I love about the guy he says, Were

0:03:42.180,0:03:46.760

gonna do em all. Because we gotta do em all, we dont have a choice to pick.

0:03:46.760,0:03:47.420

Narrator:

0:03:47.420,0:03:53.890

He acted quickly with the Recovery Act, giving help where it was most urgently needed. The

0:03:53.890,0:03:59.458

country had been hemorrhaging jobs more than 3.5 million lost in the six months before

0:03:59.459,0:04:05.290

he took office. Middle class jobs and economy security were vanishing.

0:04:05.290,0:04:08.328

The funding would keep teachers in the classroom,

0:04:08.329,0:04:15.329

cops on the street, and first responders ready. And for those who were hurting, small business

0:04:16.608,0:04:23.609

incentives, tax cuts for the middle class, and job training building bridges, highways,

0:04:25.130,0:04:31.750

and infrastructure laying the groundwork for a new economy, and restoring the possibility

0:04:31.750,0:04:38.020

of growth. But another immediate crisis confronted the President.

0:04:38.020,0:04:41.409

Narrator: Auto executives had asked for another bailout.

0:04:41.410,0:04:43.220

And there was pressure to act.

0:04:43.220,0:04:46.990

Newscaster: Tonight, a top GM executive warned,

0:04:46.990,0:04:51.170

Without help, the company will default. There is no Plan B.

0:04:51.170,0:04:51.980

Elizabeth Warren:

0:04:51.980,0:04:57.170

If the auto industry goes down, what happens to Americas manufacturing base? What happens

0:04:57.170,0:05:01.100

to jobs in America? What happens to the whole Midwest?

0:05:01.100,0:05:02.580

President Bill Clinton:

0:05:02.580,0:05:07.659

If you closed all these car dealerships, and you killed all these auto parts suppliers,

0:05:07.660,0:05:12.350

people have no earthly idea what wouldve happened not only to the economy, but to our

0:05:12.350,0:05:13.310

self image.

0:05:13.310,0:05:16.550

Emanuel: You know, a lot of conventional wisdom wanted

0:05:16.550,0:05:22.580

to do what Mitt Romney did let it go. Cant be saved. Why put good money after bad?

0:05:22.580,0:05:23.099

VPOTUS:

0:05:23.100,0:05:28.250

Everybody. Democrats, Republicans, I mean, it was overwhelming look at the polling

0:05:28.250,0:05:32.280

number do not rescue the automobile industry.

0:05:32.280,0:05:36.659

Warren: The President faced a real risk either way

0:05:36.660,0:05:43.660

he went. He fails to invest in the auto industry, it implodes, the economy goes further down,

0:05:45.360,0:05:52.360

and blood is on his hands. The President invests, and the auto industry just cant pull it

0:05:52.740,0:05:55.760

out. Thats on the Presidents hands as well.

0:05:55.760,0:05:56.849

Narrator:

0:05:56.850,0:06:02.630

But he knew who it would hurt the most and how devastating the loss of a job can be to

0:06:02.630,0:06:03.690

an entire family.

0:06:03.690,0:06:07.540

POTUS: My grandparents taught me that a job is about

0:06:07.540,0:06:13.490

more than just a paycheck. They grew up during the Depression, so, they tell me about seeing

0:06:13.490,0:06:20.340

their fathers or their uncles losing jobs. Even if youve got a strong spirit, if

0:06:20.340,0:06:24.830

youre out of work for a long time, it can wear you down.

0:06:24.830,0:06:25.080

Narrator:

0:06:25.050,0:06:32.050

He decided to intervene. But in exchange for help, the President would demand action.

0:06:33.530,0:06:35.150

The Bush Administration had given the car

0:06:35.150,0:06:39.870

companies thirteen billion dollars, and the money was now gone.

0:06:39.870,0:06:40.290

Clinton:

0:06:40.290,0:06:44.440

He didnt just give the car companies the money. And he didnt give the UAW the money.

0:06:44.440,0:06:47.830

He said, You guys gotta work together and come up and everybodys gotta have

0:06:47.830,0:06:51.240

some skin in the game here. You gotta modernize the automobile industry.

0:06:51.240,0:06:51.490

POTUS:

0:06:51.370,0:06:56.860

So dont bet against the American worker, dont bet against the American people.

0:06:56.860,0:06:59.350

We are comin back!

0:06:59.350,0:07:02.630

Narrator: Because of the tough choices the President

0:07:02.630,0:07:07.680

made, the stage was set for a resurgent U.S. auto industry.

0:07:07.680,0:07:09.490

And it wouldnt be the last time this President

0:07:09.490,0:07:12.120

would face a crisis that others would rather avoid.

0:07:12.120,0:07:13.560

Newscaster, John Chancellor:

0:07:13.560,0:07:19.150

One of the most worrisome problems facing Americans these days is the cost of healthcare

0:07:19.150,0:07:21.510

and the rate at which it has increased.

0:07:21.510,0:07:24.640

Narrator: It had been an issue that both parties had

0:07:24.640,0:07:27.930

struggled with for more than three generations.

0:07:27.930,0:07:28.960

Clinton:

0:07:28.960,0:07:33.750

This is a huge economic issue because we spend seventeen and a half percent of our income

0:07:33.750,0:07:40.210

on healthcare. No other big, wealthy country spends more than 11.8%. And almost all of

0:07:40.210,0:07:42.780

them have better results than we do.

0:07:42.780,0:07:45.710

Narrator:

Healthcare costs had been rising three times

0:07:45.710,0:07:52.710

the rate of inflation, crushing family budgets and choking business. And he knew that he

0:07:53.090,0:07:58.830

couldnt fix the economy if he didnt fix healthcare. And he wanted to bring Washington

0:07:58.830,0:08:01.460

together to share the tough decisions.

0:08:01.460,0:08:06.330

Protestors: Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill! Kill the bill!

0:08:06.330,0:08:06.909

Narrator:

0:08:06.910,0:08:10.220

But he faced a fierce opposition, hostile to compromise.

0:08:10.220,0:08:11.930

Man at Town Hall:

0:08:11.930,0:08:16.630

Itll be a cold day in hell before he socializes my country.

0:08:16.630,0:08:16.900

Narrator:

0:08:16.900,0:08:21.210

After months of negotiation, it was unclear whether he could get the necessary votes.

0:08:21.210,0:08:26.299

Narrator:

0:08:26.300,0:08:31.750

Some advised him to settle. He could still claim victory if he accepted less.

0:08:31.750,0:08:32.760

Emanuel:

0:08:32.760,0:08:37.429

I regularly told him, Look, you dont have to spill this much political blood. You

0:08:37.429,0:08:41.239

wont get the healthcare accomplishment youre seeking, but you will have something.

0:08:41.240,0:08:43.959

Narrator:

0:08:43.958,0:08:47.069

But he knew from experience the cost of waiting.

0:08:47.070,0:08:51.810

POTUS: When my mom got cancer, she wasnt a wealthy

0:08:51.810,0:08:54.369

woman. And it pretty much drained all her resources.

0:08:54.370,0:08:56.529

FLOTUS:

0:08:56.529,0:09:03.529

She developed ovarian cancer never really had good, consistent insurance. That

0:09:03.740,0:09:08.069

tough thing to deal with, watching your mother die of something that couldve been prevented.

0:09:08.069,0:09:12.769

I dont think he wants to see anyone go through that

0:09:12.769,0:09:13.540

Narrator:

0:09:13.540,0:09:19.370

And he remembered the millions of families like his who feel the pressure of rising costs

0:09:19.370,0:09:22.850

and the fear of being denied or dropped from coverage

0:09:22.850,0:09:23.149

POTUS:

0:09:23.149,0:09:29.189

When you hear people saying that this isnt the right time, when you hear people more

0:09:29.189,0:09:35.420

worried about the politics of it than whats right and whats wrong, I want you to think

0:09:35.420,0:09:40.669

about the millions of people all across this country who are looking for some help.

0:09:40.669,0:09:41.029

Narrator:

0:09:41.029,0:09:44.929

And when the votes were counted, that help would come.

0:09:44.929,0:09:47.389

Nancy Pelosi:

0:09:47.389,0:09:52.310

The bill is passed!

0:09:52.310,0:09:55.709

Narrator: Beyond the crises at home, among the toughest

0:09:55.709,0:09:58.888

calls that he would make, he would make as Commander in Chief.

0:09:58.889,0:10:03.040

He had promised to bring a responsible end

0:10:03.040,0:10:08.790

to the war in Iraq, and bring the troops home. It was a promise kept.

0:10:08.790,0:10:10.949

Newscaster:

0:10:10.949,0:10:14.430

After nine years in Iraq, all the troops are returning.

0:10:14.430,0:10:16.660

POTUS:

0:10:16.660,0:10:23.660

Welcome home! Welcome home! Welcome home!

0:10:30.040,0:10:32.279

Narrator:

0:10:32.279,0:10:39.279

And it was part of his broader plan to refocus our efforts on those that had attacked us.

0:10:40.620,0:10:43.439

Intelligence reports locating Osama Bin Laden

0:10:43.439,0:10:48.360

were promising, but inconclusive, and there was internal debate as to what the President

0:10:48.360,0:10:48.959

should do.

0:10:48.959,0:10:52.800

VPOTUS: We sat down in the Situation Room\’97the entire

0:10:52.800,0:10:58.519

national security apparatus was in that room\’97and the President turns to every principal in

0:10:58.519,0:11:05.519

the room every secretary, What do you recommend I do? And they say, Well,

0:11:07.089,0:11:13.410

forty-nine percent chance hes there, fifty-one… its a close call Mr. President. As

0:11:13.410,0:11:20.410

he walked out the room, it dawned on me, hes all alone. This is his decision. If he was

0:11:26.149,0:11:30.689

wrong, his Presidency was done. Over.

0:11:30.689,0:11:37.689

POTUS: Today, at my direction, the United States

0:11:38.480,0:11:45.060

launched a targeted operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida. A

0:11:45.060,0:11:50.989

small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability.

0:11:50.990,0:11:52.170

No Americans were harmed.

0:11:52.170,0:11:54.060

Newscaster: Theyve been planning this operation for

0:11:54.060,0:11:58.529

more than eight months, but in the end it came down to a period of just forty minutes

0:11:58.529,0:12:03.059

when it could either be a major success or a disastrous failure.

0:12:03.059,0:12:03.810

POTUS:

0:12:03.810,0:12:07.998

A lot of people have asked, How did you feel when you first heard that it was Bin

0:12:07.999,0:12:12.899

Laden and he had been killed? And the truth is, I didnt have time for a lot

0:12:12.899,0:12:17.089

of feelings at that point because our guys were still in that compound, and it wasnt

0:12:17.089,0:12:23.029

until I knew that they were across the border, they were safe, everybody was accounted for including

0:12:23.029,0:12:29.279

the dog uh, that I allowed, some satisfaction.

0:12:29.279,0:12:31.519

Clinton:

0:12:31.519,0:12:38.519

He took the harder, and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought

0:12:40.970,0:12:47.290

to myself, I hope thats the call I woulde made.

0:12:47.290,0:12:47.930

Narrator:

0:12:47.930,0:12:54.930

It was the ultimate test of leadership, a victory for our nation.

0:12:58.269,0:12:59.269

And there would be many others.

0:13:02.699,0:13:07.729

His satisfaction, not in Washington, but with the millions of families who would feel

0:13:07.730,0:13:11.550

for the first time, the security of coverage.

0:13:11.550,0:13:17.729

2.5 million young adults now have coverage. 17 million kids could no longer be

0:13:17.730,0:13:19.709

denied for preexisting conditions.

0:13:19.709,0:13:25.268

He expanded drug discounts for seniors.

0:13:25.269,0:13:29.779

And with a Patient’s Bill of Rights, Americans no longer will see their coverage dropped

0:13:29.779,0:13:31.529

or capped when illness strikes.

0:13:31.529,0:13:34.019

Title: Restores Stem Cell Research Funding

0:13:34.019,0:13:36.189

He restored science to its rightful place.

0:13:36.189,0:13:38.379

Title: Doubles Fuel Efficiency Standards

0:13:38.379,0:13:44.559

He announced historic new mileage standards that will reduce oil imports, and the countrys

0:13:44.559,0:13:47.290

now on track to double production from renewables.

0:13:47.290,0:13:51.569

Title: Race to the Top. Raising expectations in our schools with higher

0:13:51.569,0:13:53.360

standards in forty-six states.

0:13:53.360,0:13:55.029

Title: Making College More Affordable

0:13:55.029,0:14:00.990

He reformed the student loan system, shifting billions in subsidies from banks and middlemen,

0:14:00.990,0:14:02.279

to millions of young Americans.

0:14:02.279,0:14:05.860

Title: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

0:14:05.860,0:14:07.779

Cracking down on credit card companies and

0:14:07.779,0:14:12.349

mortgage lenders so the American people would never have to bail out Wall Street again.

0:14:12.349,0:14:16.430

And when Washington stalled, he would take

0:14:16.430,0:14:19.608

action, protecting everyday Americans from predatory lenders.

0:14:19.609,0:14:20.360

Title: Appoints Richard Cordray to Head of

0:14:20.360,0:14:20.790

Financial Consumer Protection Bureau

0:14:20.790,0:14:21.748

POTUS: Im not gonna stand by while a minority

0:14:21.749,0:14:28.749

in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve.

0:14:28.790,0:14:34.189

Not at this make or break moment for middle class Americans.

0:14:34.189,0:14:34.689

Narrator:

0:14:34.689,0:14:40.939

They changed the way the world sees us.

0:14:40.939,0:14:47.939

And brought fairness to soldiers who want to serve their country, regardless of who

0:14:49.259,0:14:49.759

they love.

0:14:49.759,0:14:50.959

Title: Dont Ask Dont Tell repealed

0:14:50.959,0:14:52.849

POTUS: Thank you. Yes we did.

0:14:52.850,0:14:55.619

Narrator: And a landmark law so that a woman who does

0:14:55.619,0:14:58.519

the same job as a man can get the same pay.

0:14:58.519,0:14:59.649

Title: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passes

0:14:59.649,0:14:59.899

POTUS:

0:14:59.809,0:15:04.069

And we will make sure that our daughters have the same rights, the same chances, the same

0:15:04.069,0:15:06.819

freedoms to pursue their dreams as our sons.

0:15:06.819,0:15:09.279

Judge: Judge Sotomayor, are you prepared to take

0:15:09.279,0:15:09.949

the oath?

0:15:09.949,0:15:11.439

Sotomayor:

I am.

0:15:11.439,0:15:11.939

Narrator:

0:15:11.939,0:15:15.099

He placed two experienced jurists on the Supreme Court.

0:15:15.100,0:15:18.209

Narrator:

0:15:18.209,0:15:23.540

And while the economic crisis proved to be more severe than experts had predicted, month

0:15:23.540,0:15:30.540

by month there was progress over 3.5 million private sector jobs in two years and

0:15:32.459,0:15:33.868

welcome news from Detroit.

0:15:33.869,0:15:37.350

Diane Sawyer: It is a banner day for the resurgent US auto

0:15:37.350,0:15:41.869

industry, less than two years after coming out of bankruptcy, General Motors announced

0:15:41.869,0:15:45.459

today it is investing two billion dollars in seventeen plants.

0:15:45.459,0:15:45.709

Narrator:

0:15:45.660,0:15:49.880

And with business booming, they repaid their loans.

0:15:49.880,0:15:51.069

Lawrence ODonnell:

0:15:51.069,0:15:58.069

Tonight. General Motors is once again number one in sales worldwide.

0:16:00.540,0:16:05.248

Narrator:

0:16:05.249,0:16:12.249

Time and time again, we would see rewards from tough decisions he had made; not for

0:16:12.249,0:16:16.819

quick political gain but for long term and enduring change.

0:16:16.819,0:16:22.040

Narrator:

0:16:22.040,0:16:29.040

So when we remember this moment and consider this President then and now lets

0:16:32.449,0:16:37.709

remember how far weve come and look forward to the work still to be done.

Here is a video that demonstrates that Barbour’s defense of his pardons is straight from Hollywood–in a bad way.

Ignorant misunderstanding of religion and justice or
well-reasoned argument by a former governor?  You decide.

Barbour’s pardons are what you get when you believe in the “humanitarian” view of punishment. It demonstrates that if a murderer gets close to a friendly bureaucrat for a few years and convinces him that he has been rehabilitated, he will be released without regard to whether or not he has fully paid for his crimes as specified by the justice system.

C.S. Lewis warned us about the humanitarian theory of punishment in The Problem of Pain:

Some enlightened people would like to banish all conceptions of retribution or desert from their theory of punishment and place its value wholly in the deterrence of others or the reform of the criminal himself… What can be more immoral than to inflict suffering on me for the sake of deterring others if I do not deserve it..? And what can be more outrageous than to catch me and submit me to a disagreeable process of moral improvement without my consent, unless (once more) I deserve it?

Barbour in the same interview says (at 4:56)

When my grandchildren are over at the governor’s mansion, we trust them to play with and be looked out for by these people.

I think the governor forgets that when these men killed their victims, they were not at the time servants on the estate of a man who had the power to pardon them if they behaved themselves or bring down the wrath of a powerful grandfather if they did not. I dare say that Governor Barbour would not want his grandchildren to be with these men in the same vulnerable surroundings that their victims were in when these murderers killed them.

WELCOME Nice Deb readers!

Study Accidentally Reveals Psych Differences of Liberals and Conservatives

A study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) shows that there are measurable psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. However, don’t expect to get a fair reporting of the results from Scientific American or even from the researchers themselves. Both have published comically contorted interpretations of the data.

Is Obama ‘12 chief Jim Messina Psychologicaly Predisposed to Liberalism?

VCU faculty Natalie Shook and Russ Clay did two studies that show that progressives and conservatives form attitudes in ways that are markedly different. Conservatives appear less willing to show a positive response to positive stimuli than liberals. Both are equally prone to associate negative stimuli with negative responses. But liberals are more likely to associate positive stimuli with a positive response. Because behavior is far more strongly influenced by the choices a person makes than by his psychological predispositions, it would be foolish to draw conclusions from this one data point. As you will read below, however, that is exactly what Scientific American and the researchers themselves did about conservatives.

The studies were charmingly simple: participants who believed they were being tested for language skills were shown both negative images (such as spiders and sewage) and positive images (such as puppies and rainbows). Following each image a Chinese character was displayed. The order of the Chinese characters was arranged so that certain characters–all unfamiliar to the non-Chinese speaking subjects–consistently followed either a positive image or a negative image. This is the “stimulus” part of the experiment.

When later asked to choose whether they liked or disliked a specific character, subjects typically disliked the characters that consistently followed negative images. This is the “response” part of the experiment.

It was no surprise to researchers that subjects had a negative response to the characters that followed a negative stimulus and a positive response to the characters that followed a positive stimulus. Also unsurprising was that the correlation between negative stimulus and negative response was stronger than the correlation between positive stimulus and positive response, as is well established in the literature.

What surprised the researchers is that liberals had a much stronger positive response to positive stimulus than conservatives. From the abstract:

Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals.

In short, those with a politically left tendency showed a stronger tendency to associate a positive visual with a positive response. This tendency to more strongly associate good responses with good stimuli was not shown by conservatives. To use a practical example, if the two groups were shown two television ads, one about a healthcare program that may destroy the most advanced healthcare system in the world, and a second that shows that the same healthcare system may increase the number of people covered and lower costs, both groups would be more strongly affected by the negative ad. However, the liberals would be more strongly affected by the positive ad than conservatives would.

Study says liberals like this campaign worker are
“…susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli.”

More fascinating than the results however may be the effort that the authors Shook and Clay of VCU and Sarah Estes Graham and Jesse Graham of Scientific American chose to flip the study outcome on its head by emphasizing what this says about conservatives. In the abstract Shook and Clay use this fascinating paragraph to place the emphasis on conservatives:

Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology.

In other words the correlation between positive stimulus and positive response was strong for liberals and the same correlation was either absent altogether or much weaker for conservatives. But Shook and Clay say this by first saying that the conservatives were more susceptible to its opposite.  You would be hard pressed to find another study abstract that more quickly contradicts itself than when Shook and Clay write that “conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli…” and then 22 words later write “…conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology.” To their credit, Shook and Clay do write plainly that “conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning.”

Graham and Graham have no such honor as it takes very careful reading of  “The Ideology of No” to learn the truth. Framing the article as a way to explain conservative opposition to raising the debt ceiling, they offer a paragraph that obfuscates the truth:

Most strikingly, both studies showed that this negativity dominance was especially true for conservative students. In other words, those on the political right showed more of a “bad is stronger than good” bias than those on the left. Surprisingly, the political difference wasn’t to be found in the negative images, which had a strong effect on everyone across the board. If you can wrap your mind around psych study jujitsu for a moment: the differences stemmed from participants’ responses to the positive images, which carried more weight with liberal students.

Did you catch that? Let me paraphrase: Conservatives were more negative dominant. But this isn’t because they were more negative. It’s because they weren’t as positive as liberals. If you can wrap your mind around the linguistic jujitsu for a moment, this is equivalent to saying “Mr. A’s nose suffered damage when it came into contact against Mr. B’s fist. Surprisingly, it was the rapid acceleration of Mr. B’s fist that accomplished this differential in speed.”

Study says liberals like those in this Organizing for America video have a
markedly stronger positive response to positive stimuli than conservatives.

If Shook and Clay had substituted The Beatles for puppies and rainbows and The Rolling Stones for spiders and sewers, they could have reported their results like this:

Political conservatives were bigger fans of the Rolling Stones than fans of the Beatles as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less fans of the Beatles than liberals. Interest in the Rolling Stones did not differ by political ideology.

The Grahams at Scientific American could have then picked up this theme of conservative affinity for the Rolling Stones like this:

Most strikingly, both studies showed that this Rolling Stones dominance was especially true for conservative students. In other words, those on the political right showed more of a “bad-boy rocker” bias than those on the left. Surprisingly, the difference wasn’t to be found in the images of the Rolling Stones, which had a strong effect on everyone across the board. The differences stemmed from participants’ responses to the Beatles images, which were liked more by the liberal students.

Note that once you change the study to Beatles versus Stones, the contortions of logic to arrive at these conclusions are obvious. The mystery here is how, when the subject is politics, everyone can be so obtuse to these same contortions while actually writing about the psychology of bias.

This study,  like recent studies that demonstrate conservatives’ greater awareness of threats to safety and security and penchant to value the lessons learned by previous generations, appears destined to be misrepresented in the press. But if a conclusion can be drawn from the study, it is that the conservative complaint that progressives tend only to see the good outcomes from social welfare programs may have a basis in psychology. There were no politics–indeed, no humans–in this study. There were only pictures of cuddly or threatening animals mapped to unfamiliar Chinese characters. Yet with such emotionally inert input liberals were influenced more than anticipated to respond positively to a positive stimulus.

One only has to guess with what additional fervor progressives would attach their hope for a better outcome if such multipliers as personality, politics, race, and class were added to the mix. We should have compassion for the progressive who, no better or worse informed than any other player in American politics–and no less sincere–must nevertheless struggle with a psychological makeup that makes him believe more easily, hope more fervently, and in general be more strongly affected by the pitiless stimulus/response urgings buried within all of us.

** WELCOME NiceDeb readers!

** WELCOME The Minority Report readers!

One thing they do is to publicize when customers customize the plain canvas versions of the $40 canvas casual shoe with their own artwork. They post pictures of custom shoes on their web site. It is now a genuine phenomena that can be seen on campuses around the country. There is such interest that third parties will customize your Toms Shoes for you.

This interview withToms Shoes founder, Blake Mycoskie, portrays an energetic and socially conscious entrepreneur.  Not stated in the article but equally impressive is that he has figured out how, in this day and age,  to sell shoes manufactured in third world nations to Americans at a high markup. Wikipedia reports that Toms Shoes are manufactured in Argentina, China, and Ethiopia.

So what does Mycoskie answer when the interviewer asks about manufacturing overseas? Of course that question never comes up. I wish it had because then Mycoskie could explain how exploiting cheap labor markets brings those markets up by providing jobs to the locals. And this in turn provides customers to the local merchants. With luck Mycoskie could explain all the benefits that manufacturing brings to a locality. And he could do it with the charm of the “I’m a Mac” guy. And thus at long last maybe some progressives will learn that business is not the enemy but the friend of poor people.

It goes without saying that if  Mycoskie looked like Dick Cheney the press wouldn’t be asking him questions like “…can you explain the driving force behind your seemingly endless energy and passion?”

Effective September 30, 2011, this charge will not apply in statement cycles during which one or more of the following requirements is met:

- Maintain a $5,000 combined average daily collected balance….

The delta change from $2,000 to $5,000 is impossible to determine because the former number is not mentioned. Apparently that is left for the interested student as an exercise.

But you have to have some sympathy for Mulkin. He is passing on fee increases that point directly back to the Obama administration’s rejiggering of what banks can charge merchants for ATM transactions.  The Birmingham News reports that

Banks across the country have started implementing new fees in response to a new federal regulation that will reduce the amount banks are reimbursed for debit card use from an average of 44 cents to 25 cents per transaction….

No doubt the fee-tweaker in chief believed that he was protecting the small businessman from the banker who at some point has already made enough money. But as the fee hikes illustrate, when you push down in one spot it pops up in another spot and the net result is a waste of time and overhead. Mulkin’s hints in his letter that this should really be no mystery to anyone:

Due to changes in financial regulations over the last year, BBVA Compass has been evaluating the features and pricing of our accounts and services.

BBVA Compass states it more plainly here:

Regulatory changes have had a significant impact on the way all banks do business, reducing revenues while expenses have remained steady or even grown. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to continue to offer our customers many of the free benefits and optional features we have provided in the past.

So after wanting to chide Mulkin for the less than forthcoming letter, I’d like to offer some assistance by providing a translation into plain English what he wanted to say about this situation in his video message to customers:

What the banks wish they could tell you about all the new fees.

Update: Welcome readers of the Scott Baker’s editor’s blog at The Blaze. If you didn’t see Richard Wolffe beclown himself while trying to disrespect Sarah Palin about C.S. Lewis back in December, see it on the Blaze.

There are occasional hopeful moments: we hear some particularly galling bit of rascality described by Mark Steyn, or Dick Morris, or Ann Coulter, and it heartens us–surely something will come of this? Someone will be held accountable now. Occasionally a youngish reporter with a flip cam will track down one of the big spenders on the street to ask on our behalf why he’s giving our money to corn farmers or GM or cowboy poets, and for a second we are hopeful that finally, one of these guys will have to account to us. But then nothing happens. Ignoring critics works.

But on Saturday July 30th Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions did something I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. He made a speech in the senate that calmly and reasonably but not without some anger explained what a bunch of idiots the big spenders have been. And continue to be.

No, this isn’t talk radio, it’s the senate floor, finally.

Can this also be ignored? I rather hope not. If John Kerry were to try to use his self-perceived gravitas to try to bat down Senator Sessions like he tried to do to Marco Rubio then I would be tempted to watch that on pay-per-view.

We should not let up the pressure on congress at this point. I’ve never seen their arguments appear so weak and flimsy, and the country so angry. In my memory criticism of the type Senator Sessions is making here has never made it past the front doors of either houses. They lapped up against the walls of the institution but it held firm. But when the flood starts entering the building, I think we may be in store for some watershed moment.

Please thank and encourage Senator Sessions by e-mail or phone (202 224-4124).

Competition and nothing else is what should run the economy. The economy has to be based on something. If it’s not based on merit only, then it will be based on something else. If bureaucrats are the deciders, then it is your relationship to the bureaucrats that is the currency of the land.
See: Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged

Central planning has never worked well. In the economy, consequential information is held not in one place but instead is held by thousands of individuals who in acting in their own self-interest direct markets eventually in directions that reflect the truths that are divided among the partipants. Broad strokes that interfere with that pricing model produce unintended and inefficient consequences.
See: Thomas Sowell

When governments interfere with the free market, they create booms and busts. Government spending in reaction to booms and busts usually worsen the situation.
See F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom.

Deciding to take more money (i.e. cost) is diffuse and remote but deciding who to give it to (benefit) is concentrated and local. Those who represent us are far away from us in Washington. Not coincidentally, so are the lobbyists who with their very presence try to influence the representative who is supposed to be representing you.

Government action that allows inefficiencies to continue interferes with the normal market mechanisms for resolving inefficiencies through competition. This includes bailouts to any players who through miscalculation or poor day-to-day management are not profitable.

** UPDATE **

A very big thank you to Gerard Schneyer who assembled the quotes that go with each video and the links to the source of the quote.

1) The Cash For Clunkers program was like….

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

F.A. Hayek
http://cafehayek.com/2009/08/just-say-no-to-unintended-consequences.html

2) Watching Congress increase spending like….

Once legislators really understand that they can tax people, get money, and then spend it—getting accolades.. and little “Legislator of the Year” plaques—spending even more is almost too great a temptation to resist. The Appropriations Chairman always has the most plaques.

Curt Leonard
http://www.jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/188.pdf

3) The Hank Paulson Bail Out

I would blame… the politicians… who pushed the lenders and the banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into lending and buying mortgages based on people who didn’t meet standards that evolved in the marketplace and which had worked.

Thomas Sowell
http://reason.com/archives/2009/05/20/the-housing-boom-and-bust

4) Supporting a political party without reservation…

To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.

Mark Twain
http://www.yingyudaxue.com/books/tells-of-the-defeat-of-mr-blaine-for-the-presidency-and-how-mr-clemenss-mr-twichells-and-mr-go

5) If your spouse wastes all your money…

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, &c. The result would be an Encyclopaedia of Error.

–Lord Acton
http://www.archive.org/stream/letterstomarygla00acto/letterstomarygla00acto_djvu.txt

6) If you believe the government can improve the economy…

There’s nothing that does so much harm as good intentions.

Dr. Milton Friedman quoted by John Stossel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpDjxIPpFc&#t=11m44s

7) Centralized planning is like…

Although government is often called “society”… there is no concrete institution called “society,” and what is called “social” planning are in fact government orders over-riding the plans and mutual accommodations of millions of other people.

Thomas Sowell
http://ourdinnertable.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/five-excellent-paragraphs-from-thomas-sowell/

8) RE: To Steve Foley of “We Know” and the debt ceiling

Quick shout out to Steve Foley at the Minority Report Network and the “We Know” facebook page who sent us this idea.

http://bit.ly/qsBBX2

9) A successful agenda-driven politician is…

Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.

Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

10) Watching the spending in congress is like…

[T]he federal government… can waste money like no other entity ever seen on Planet Earth. Fiscal restraint has of course been a problem for decades, but the spending that has occurred under congresses controlled by Democrats since 2007 has taken this country to the edge of a fiscal and economic precipice.

Tom Blumer
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/its-the-spending-stupid/

11) Central planning can be described as…

Central planners in the days of the Soviet Union had to set over 24 million prices. Nobody is capable of setting and changing 24 million prices in a way that will direct resources and output in an efficient manner.

Thomas Sowell
http://www.creators.com/opinion/thomas-sowell/amateurs-outdoing-professionals.html

12) Central planning is like…

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Thomas Sowell
http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Optional-Essays-HOOVER-PUBLICATION/dp/0817992626

13) The mortgage crisis is like…

There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.

F.A. Hayek
http://mises.org/daily/3940

14) The federal stimulus is like…

Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they preempt.

Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2010/07/27/how_smart_are_we

15) Government regulations are like…

Across America, regulatory policies are actively inhibiting the economic activity that produces revenues for the government. The only way to change that is to lift the burden of regulation.

J.E. Dyer
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/06/we-have-a-regulation-problem-not-a-revenue-problem/

16) Listening to politicians lecture businessmen…

Today, in the Twenty-First Century… the mentality with which many presumably educated, intelligent people approach matters of economics and business is, however astonishing it may seem, still that of the Dark Ages.

George Reisman
Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University
[Link]

17) The government spending money is like..

Supporting failed programs is moral vanity.

Mona Charen
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/261532/impervious-evidence-mona-charen

18) Noteworthy recent cuts in federal spending

Despite repeated warnings by most mainstream economists that cutting government spending at the conclusion of WW 2 would bring back the Great Depression, the Congress dramatically lowered government spending between 1945 and 1950.

Dom Armentano
Professor Emeritus at the University of Hartford (CT)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/armentano-d/armentano25.1.html

19) The government bailouts are like…

The unintended consequences of each market intervention are economic distortions, which generate further interventions to correct them.

Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. on H.A. Hayek
http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/pr-nd-gd.html

20) Watching congress debate entitlement spending…

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

Various (Alexis de Tocqueville, Alexander Fraser Tytler)
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

21) The government’s approach to regulation…

[T]he sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.

The Alabama Constitution as quoted by
Ezra Taft Benson in The Proper Role of Government
http://www.zionsbest.com/proper_role.html

22) Special interests engage politicians instead of voters…

Interest groups tend to lobby the government to redistribute money to them because people face concentrated benefits and diffuse costs.

Wallace Forman
http://www.commentarius.org/?tag=concentrated-benefits-and-diffuse-costs

23) The big spenders in congress…

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.

Mark Twain, Notebook, 1902.
http://www.twainquotes.com/Tax.html

24) Congress passing bills into law and a misprint in a health book

Without prudent regulation… the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will result in unintended and devastating consequences to manufacturers of children’s products that pose little to no risk of lead exposure to children.

Petition, Handmade Toy Alliance (HTA)
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofcpsia/

25) The mortgage crisis was like…

Mortgage lending took that “reckless and unsustainable turn” because of regulation – regulation driven by liberals and progressives, not free-market “deregulators.” Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.

Stan Liebowitz
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_S6MsT275m3Ybbsm3TdxIxN

26) A politician who has had a modern education in history

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.

H. L. Mencken
http://www.phnet.fi/public/mamaa1/mencken.htm

27) The mortgage crisis is like…

Anyone who has spent any time mentoring or working with poor families is familar with the maddening sensation of watching someone you care about make a devastating decision that no middle class person in their right mind would ever assent to.

Megan Mcardle writing as Jane Galt
http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005450.html

28) Embracing central planning and trying to comprehend Jersey Shore…

People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together… [F]or the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge.

Thomas Sowell
http://freedomkeys.com/pricecontrols7.htm

29) When an administration says that it won’t raise my taxes…

The power to tax involves the power to destroy.

Chief Justice John Marshall
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-power-to-tax-is-the-power-to-destroy/

30) Congress spending money is like…

The individual legislator must remember that the elixir for all that ills is economic growth. And economic growth is spurred by low taxes, limited regulation, equitable justice, and the ability to raise capital.

Curt Leonard
http://www.jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/188.pdf

31) When you are in a congressional hearing…

There is something fascinating about science.
One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture
out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainlife/twain.html
On p. 208 you can read this quote in context.

32) Centralized planning is just like…

…Friedrich Hayek explained how societies, like markets, develop organically into what he called “spontaneous orders.” No single person possesses anything close to the invisible collective knowledge held by the society as a whole.

Jonah Goldberg
http://old.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200408200923.asp

33) Congress spending money is…

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

Robert Heinlein
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress

34) Being Barney Frank

Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.

Ayn Rand
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6136

35) Congressional spending reminds me of…

Government spending is a classic case of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs… Since the tax burden is spread among millions of taxpayers, the additional tax burden created by each new program is difficult for people to quantify….

Carrie Lukas
http://www.iwf.org/files/208b234094c08b442dfd810d3b28c305.pdf

36) Centralized planning is like…

Perhaps the most important point of all is that government officials operate in a fog … it is important to remember that the information that government has is often no better than what is available to private individuals.

Arnold Kling
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11990

37) Being in congress is kind of like…

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Thomas Sowell
Available at http://www.hooverpress.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=138

38) Raising taxes to fix the deficit…

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Winston Churchill
http://www.safehaven.com/article/20767/standing-in-a-bucket-trying-to-pull-yourself-up-by-the-handle

39) Collecting taxes is like…

If we want the whole world to be rich, we need to start loving wealth. In the difference between poverty and plenty, the problem is the poverty and not the difference. Wealth is good. … wealth is not a world-wide round-robin of purse snatching, and … the thing that makes you rich doesn’t make me poor…”

P.J. O’Rourke in Eat the Rich
http://solohq.solopassion.com/Articles/Cresswell/Loving_Wealth.shtml

40) Congress is very much like…

There is nothing quite so depressing as waking up to face a day when you know that you are going to have to deal with a government office or bureaucrat.

Neal Boortz

41) Centralized planning is like…

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.

Yiddish Proverb

42) Central planning is like a box of chocolates…

But the knowledge that has consequences in the world includes vast amounts of knowledge that I call mundane knowledge and probably no one on earth has 1% of that knowledge. Yet that knowledge is consequential, and it includes knowledge that is in no way intellectually challenging but is nevertheless crucial.

Thomas Sowell
http://bejohngalt.com/2010/02/thomas-sowell-intellectuals-leading-us-off-the-cliff/

43) What young people know about congress, part 1

44) What young people know about congress, part 2

45) The Debt Baby: Introduction

Today, 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed — much of it from foreign nations whose interests are not our own. The national debt exceeds $14 trillion, which translates to roughly $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

Ted Cruz
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271265/time-leadership-spending-ted-cruz

46) The Debt Baby: Scary Ceiling

Today, 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed — much of it from foreign nations whose interests are not our own. The national debt exceeds $14 trillion, which translates to roughly $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

Ted Cruz
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271265/time-leadership-spending-ted-cruz

47) How congress decides what to buy for us.

Government spending is a classic case of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs… Since the tax burden is spread among millions of taxpayers, the additional tax burden created by each new program is difficult for people to quantify….

Carrie Lukas
http://www.iwf.org/files/208b234094c08b442dfd810d3b28c305.pdf

Here is the original, lame table with links I created, on the odd chance that someone linked to it.

And at the BulletPeople YouTube channel you can watch some of our other videos.

***

Starting this Thursday 14 JUL we are launching the “Mock the Spending” video marathon when we make 100 videos in 24 hours that mock what’s going on in Washington. Read more about it here. Go watch the videos at our YouTube Channel starting Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT.

We think these love letters to Washington will be better if you get involved. If you’ve got a mock-worthy take on government spending, send it to us and we’ll make it into a video and give you a shout out. We’ll be on facebook and twitter (hashtag #bulletpeople) starting Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT and all day Friday.

But why give us your good idea when you can make a video yourself? We think anyone can make a short, clever video that absolutely destroys some careful house of cards Washington has built up over the years.  If it turns out well, you’ll discover that the world has an insatiable appetite for irresistible videos that make a point. While you are at it, submit it to the PowerLine Prize Contest and you could win one of two $5,000 awards, a $15,000 second place prize, or the $100,000 grand prize.  All you have to do is stumble upon that magical funny story or poignant remembrance or merciless evisceration that captures the imagination.

Here’s a preview of Thursday’s marathon.

When the government starts to pick winners and losers, as Ayn Rand wrote, people quickly learn that the currency of the land is relationships with those in power. Not content to do this only in real life, the administration is bringing this new play mechanic to the world’s largest online role playing game, World of Warcraft. Here’s a preview of the new “World of Washington” upgrade.

The administration’s “World of Washington” patch to WOW.

As this in-game shot shows, in the World of Washington, any deficiency in judgment or planning can easily be remedied if you know the right people.

Knowing the right people is the key to thriving in the World of Washington

In this video the ill-advised Cash for Clunkers program sounds more silly than ever when explained in terms of trading video games.

The irrationality of Cash for Clunkers is easily explained.

In this video, we describe the essence of the Hank Paulson bailout as described excellently by Salman Khan of Khan Academy in the detailed videos at this playlist.

The Paulson bailout as seen by those who pay full price for their mistakes.

So come by our YouTube Channel Thursday night and all day Friday to see 99 more videos.

Why funny videos? As always, Mark Twain said it best:

[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.

UPDATE: Welcome, Nice Deb readers.

UPDATE: Welcome Mommy Life readers.

UPDATE: Welcome TheBlaze readers.

Have you all seen C.S. Lewis school Richard Wolffe on Sarah Palin?

UPDATE: YouTube today reported that all video viewcount statistics from last week are inaccurate. So we really don’t know how many people came by to watch the videos.

Actually, inaccurate is saying it mildly. YouTubers have been reporting frozen view counts for several days now. This explains why we got such a tremendous amount of penetration throughout the conservative blogosphere yet the views on our videos remain low, most hovering around the worrisome 300 range (which is the viewcount at which YouTube switches their accounting method).

Details are provided by YouTube here.   The upshot: “Public viewcounts are missing some viewcount data…All views from the outage period (7/11-7/18) will slowly be added back, however this may take some time….”

If you want to read some stinking mad folks who rely on YouTube for various promotions, see this thread. People are reporting what we noticed: view counts stall near 300.  Since 4 a.m. on Friday the 15th half of the marathon videos hovered at 300 views. They still remain there. The rest are doing little better.

We were pretty sure something must have gone wrong. Whenever we’ve been lucky enough to have a video featured on the front page of conservative web sites like those listed above, they would shoot into the 10s of thousands of views very quickly.

So thank you so much, all of you who watched the videos.  If you too wondered whether this kind of marathon could attract an audience then be reassured–the test of whether it will work or not hasn’t really been done.  I really hope we get a chance to do this again soon.

Our consolation is the tremendous support from conservative bloggers. If you click here and here you can see search results showing the hundreds of great folks nice enough to feature us on their sites.

UPDATE: For four days like an idiot I sat twiddling my thumbs while there was a very easy way to estimate the actual view count of the marathon videos. YouTube’s view counts are way off. Most of the video view counts are still frozen where they were at 4 a.m. on Friday morning, before the marathon was even half over.  But the “Likes” were reported accurately. You can estimate the view count if you know the average ratio of “Likes” to views. That’s something that stays constant pretty much across all of YouTube at around 1/3 of 1% of viewers. For our other videos it averaged .32%, or roughly one out of every 300 viewers “Liked” a video.

So given the number of “Likes” we got, the videos were viewed an estimated 170,000 times. See the spreadsheet here for details. So again, we can’t thank you enough for viewing these videos.

UPDATE: Oh well. I don’t know what was wrong with my estimate above but it ends up we got 75,000 views. At least that’s what YouTube is reporting now. Not sure if that’s correct. In any event, thanks for all the kind support.