No Obama, Businesses are not obligated to help out your version of America.

Typical pompous Obama who believes that businesses social responsibility trumps basic fiscal common sense.

“If we make America the best place to do business, businesses should make their mark in America,” the president said. “They should set up shop here, and hire our workers, and pay decent wages, and invest in the future of this nation. That’s their obligation.”

The government on all levels are obligated to make an environment to help businesses(small to corporations) grow. They are not required because you say so to build their business in an environment they consider to be hostile to their end goal of being solvent. That is how a mixed market as America became a superpower in a relatively short period of time and a land that was marked with innovation and opportunity.

What you are proposing is basic Chicago mob mentality that you set up shop and they are obligated to do your bidding under your rules. That won't work and will only lead to more problems on top of the ones you have helped create in a short period of time as President.

Obama and the EPA kill off 800+ jobs in Alaska over air permits with Shell.

Obama's drive to use the EPA to kill off America's usage on its own oil is going along nicely.

Shell Alaska has dropped plans to drill in the Arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea this year and will concentrate on obtaining permits for the 2012 season, company Vice President Pete Slaiby said Thursday.

The recent remand of air permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency was the final driver behind the decision, Slaiby said at a news conference.

Alaska receives upward of 90 percent of its general fund revenue from the petroleum industry, and top state officials reacted strongly to the decision. U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, blamed the Obama administration and the EPA.

"Their foot dragging means the loss of another exploration season in Alaska, the loss of nearly 800 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs," Begich said. "That doesn't count the millions of dollars in contracting that won't happen either at a time when our economy needs the investment."

The EPA issued Shell an air permit, but the agency's review board granted an appeal because of limited agency analysis regarding the effect of emissions from drilling ships and support vessels.

Steven Coogan's puke inducing tripe over Top Gear's Mexican jokes.

The UK "comedians" who have come out against Top Gear over their Mexican jokes this week I guess to catch some publicity have all fallen into the same category. White politically correct liberals who think they know what makes good comedy.

Well here's some Twitter hot news: I don't have a beard, I'm not a vegan, I don't wear sandals (unless they're Birkenstocks, of course), and I have, I think, a sense of humour. I also know something about comedy. It's true there are no hard fast rules; it's often down to judgment calls. It's safe to say, though, that you can get away with saying unsayable things if it's done with some sense of culpability.

I've been fortunate enough to work with the likes of Peter Baynham, Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Caroline Aherne, Ruth Jones, and the Mighty Boosh – some of the funniest and most innovative people in British comedy. And Rob Brydon too.

It's a diverse, eclectic group of people with one common denominator: they could all defend and justify their comedy from a moral standpoint. They are laughing at hypocrisy, human frailty, narrow-mindedness. They mock pomposity and arrogance.
If I say anything remotely racist or sexist as Alan Partridge, for example, the joke is abundantly clear. We are laughing at a lack of judgment and ignorance. With Top Gear it is three rich, middle-aged men laughing at poor Mexicans. Brave, groundbreaking stuff, eh?

There is a strong ethical dimension to the best comedy. Not only does it avoid reinforcing prejudices, it actively challenges them. Put simply, in comedy, as in life, we ought to think before we speak.

Let me translate this self-righteous excerpt: "I only do politically correct jokes about white rich people and everything else is off-limits" Comedy rips into everything and everyone if there is something to mind. Comedy tears apart stereotypes but also is not afraid to call out anyone who engages in behavior that should be called out nevermind race, culture or gender.

Great Comedians are not afraid to go into areas most people fear to trend especially white comedians who these days limit themselves for fear of being branded insensitive.

This is why I find modern British comedy to be such a bore. Most of them stick to the generic durr durr lines about rich people or picking on Christians or just random white people who preening around the stage like Coogan with a false sense of superiority and self worth not measuring up to reality.

Praise to Top Gear and Screw people like Coogan.

Obama betrays the UK by selling them out to the Russians for START treaty.

Obama has always treated traditional US allies as pieces of shit, but this is the lowest I have seen done by an American President.

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

SEC leases $400 million in office space without a bidding process.

Who watches the watchdog?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission signed leases for $400m of office space without circulating the contract for competitive bidding, as would normally be required.

In internal papers filed to justify its decision, the SEC said the “unusual and compelling urgency” of its requirements for 900,000 sq ft of space “supports award of the lease without full and open competition”

The SEC issued the justification for the leases last summer, two weeks after Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, which authorised lawmakers to double the agency’s budget by 2015.

However, no extra money has been forthcoming from Congress and, facing a constrained budget, the SEC is now trying to dispose of two-thirds of the empty 900,000 sq ft on its hands.

Fiat 500 coming to America! Again! lord help us all..

Its starts off with a glowing writeup in USATODAY.

The 500, a Fiat signature model, will begin to test that strategy.

The goal is to gently re-establish Fiat in the U.S. over several years. Though the 500 is cute and attention-grabbing, Fiat wants to avoid it being seen as a fad.

"We need to weave ourselves into American culture," said Laura Soave, the executive tagged to head Fiat-brand marketing in the U.S., at a San Diego press event for the 2012 Fiat 500.

To do that, Fiat intends to portray itself as a purveyor of sophisticated European design, Soave says. Think Italian fashion models, gelato and designer leather goods, not red-checked tablecloths and the cast of Jersey Shore.

Buried in the article is this tidbit.

Reliability remains a brand issue, judging from J.D. Power and Associates' 2010 Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study in Europe. Fiats were rated third-worst among car brands sold in France, second-worst in Britain and at the bottom in Germany.

Though Fiat's surveys show most U.S. consumers have little memory of the brand's last foray here, executives beefed up the warranty to try to allay reliability concerns. The 500 will come with a four-year or 50,000-mile, bumper-to-bumper warranty. Routine maintenance is free for three years.