Coke CEO: China Friendlier To Business Than Obama’s America

Sad, but darned right:

Coke CEO Muhtar Kent told the Financial Times that U.S. states don’t fight one another for investment opportunities, while Chinese provinces clamor to compete for foreign investments. “In the West, we’re forgetting what really worked 20 years ago. In China and other markets around the world, you see the kind of attention to detail about how business works and how business creates employment,” he said.

 Kent isn't the only CEO either: Ex-Amex CEO: My Grandson Knows More About Capitalism Than Obama

Harvey Golub: "His understanding of capitalism and free markets and how free people operate in free markets is less than my oldest grandson's. It is evident in almost everything he does."

And remember this recently:

TALK ABOUT YOUR JOB-KILLING REGULATORY POLICIES: CEO Tells Congress He Was Fined For Hiring Too Many People. “I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to mitigate a more severe regulatory outcome as a result of hiring too many workers. I have also been prohibited from opening up additional offices. I had a major expansion plan that would have resulted in my creating hundreds of additional jobs. Regulations have forced me to put those jobs on hold.”

Related: Week in Blogs: Create a Job, Get Fined and Pay Legal Fees. Plus, Dwarf Porn Badger Den Mishap

CEO Peter Schiff's stunning testimony to US House: I Was Fined For HIRING TOO MANY PEOPLE

An update on Obama's war on business: "Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, provided stunning testimony to the House Oversight Committee and explained how President Obama's ideas of government stimulus are not the solution to the unemployment problems, they are the problems":

8 Amish Guys Jailed For Refusing To Attach Orange Safety Triangles To Their Buggies

No matter how small the issue, rest assured that there is a bureaucrat out there ready to mind your own business. From The Smoking Gun: Meet The Eight Amish Guys Jailed For Refusing To Attach Orange Safety Triangles To Their Buggies

Here are the booking photos (click to enlarge) of the eight members of an Amish sect who were ordered jailed by a Kentucky judge after they refused to pay fines for failing to affix orange safety triangles to their horse-drawn buggies.

The men, who were booked Monday night into the Graves County jail, refused to pay the fines on grounds that their religion bars them from wearing or displaying bright colors. Jailed for misdemeanor contempt of court, the inmates were provided dark-colored jumpsuits in place of the standard issue orange coveralls.

The defendants were hit with a range of time in the county lockup (between three and 10 days) by District Court Judge Deborah Hawkins Crook.

While members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect will affix reflective tape to the rear of their buggies, they eschew use of the bright safety triangle, which they consider too modern.

If the government has time for this, then they're getting far too many taxpayer dollars. Where to make cuts in this day and age of deficits? This would be a good start - stop wasting our money and time running in innocent people that won't toe the bureaucratic bs that city halls routinely churn out.

Home Depot Co-Founder: "Very Few Of Them Every Created A Job. They Don't Know What They're Talking About"

And it's not just the founder. From a post of mine back in October 2010: Home Depot CEO: I never could have started The Home Depot with these guys in power (videos of that at the end of this post). These 3 videos are recent ones of the Home Depot co-founder and CEO: Marcus: "Very Few Of Them Every Created A Job. They Don't Know What They're Talking About."

Home Depot Founder Calls Dodd-Frank Regulations The "Bonnie & Clyde Bill"

I'm assuming Frank would be Bonnie. Home Depot Founder: "Unemployment Is Low As Hell" In Obama's DC Never Neverland

Even liberals seem to understand that Obama has launched a war on business: "YES!" Business Leaders See Obama As A Socialist & Think A GOP President Would Be "Great Thing"

And from my prior post above: Here is one clip where he says that Obama portrays businesses as "Monsters & Villains:"

Here's another where he says that the out of touch Obama administration are all tenured w/lifelong insurance:

Probably my second favorite of the 4-segment series is this one where he says that Larry Summers needs to step aside and let him teach "Courage 101" at Harvard: 

And my favorite of the bunch, where he pitches a reality TV show: "Timothy Geithner Does Small Business:" 

Heh. Just an afterthought here, but is he aware of this?: "One nation under God" button gets man fired from Home Depot.

UPDATE: Saying the opposite of what he's doing: Obama: There Are Regulations Holding Back American Job Creators 

Video of Union President Jim Hoffa: American Businesses Are "UNPATRIOTIC"

The thought comes a bit before the 3:00 mark (and then outright admits it at the 3:47 mark), and is typical of statist thinking in this day and age:

Where did this notion ever come from that not spending (!) is unpatriotic? Remember that satire The Onion ran about the money hole being patriotic? This, sadly, is no longer parody, but union reality:

Olbermann On Obama Scrapping $90B Ozone Regs: "What The Hell Is Going On?"

Poor Keith - a $90 billion regulation that will do nothing to improve air quality but will hurt business, consumers and the economy at large goes down the tubes due to a community organizer-in-chief running scared for his political life, and Olbermann's head is exploding:

Via RCP:

Keith Olbermann says President Obama is giving his supporters a "whack at the knees" for his reversal on stopping an environmental regulation against smog.

And here I though that Olbermann himself had been pushing that 'new tone' against violent rhetoric directed towards Obama (he was... back in January).

UPDATE: Via Instapundit: Paul Krugman and the Ozone Fairy.

Pres. Obama abandoned a controversial new proposed EPA rule regarding so-called ground-level ozone on Friday, angering lefties in general and environmentalists in particular. Nobel Prize-winning economist and former Enron adviser Paul Krugman is among those in despair, arguing the decision is “definitely a mistake” as a matter of economics:

[T]ighter ozone regulation would actually have created jobs: it would have forced firms to spend on upgrading or replacing equipment, helping to boost demand. Yes, it would have cost money — but that’s the point! And with corporations sitting on lots of idle cash, the money spent would not, to any significant extent, come at the expense of other investment.

The proposed EPA rule did contemplate that a lot of money be spent. Indeed, House Speaker John Boehner singled out this proposal in a recent letter to Obama precisely because the estimated cost ran as high as $90 billi0n per year. But Krugman’s argument has at least one itsy-bitsy little flaw: the technology required to meet the standard EPA proposed does not exist. Yes, really.

Also, check out this story of regulatory hell out of the Golden State: California Dems Move to Regulate Babysitting Out of Existence

The folks at The Onion may be moonbats, but they come up with some great parody news stories, like the one about the authoritarian do-gooders who run California pushing through a demented law that would effectively outlaw babysitting.

Hold on — this is from The Union, not The Onion. The parody is actually real:

How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for … babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco) will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies, housekeepers and caregivers.

Not a single Republican supports this lunatic bill. None needs to. It is sailing through the Dem-controlled legislature. Governor Moonbeam had better sharpen up a crayon; it will soon be ready for his signature. ...

Good grief...

SC Gov Nikki Haley: Obama 'Cowardly,' NLRB 'Un-American' and 'A Rogue Agency'

Gov. Nikki Haley discusses South Carolina's dispute with the NLRB

And: S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley: Obama 'Cowardly,' NLRB 'Un-American' 

A week before President Barack Obama is set to deliver another jobs speech to the nation, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called him "cowardly" for not taking a position about the National Labor Relations Board stop Boeing from bring 1,000 jobs to her state, calling the agency "un-American."

Via memeorandum: S.C. Gov. supports crippling ‘un-American’ NLRB, including resignation of lone GOP member

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Thursday that she supports calling for the National Labor Relations Board’s only Republican member to resign. If Brian Hayes steps down immediately, she said, the Board wouldn’t be able to assemble the quorum required to take any actions, including its case targeting The Boeing Company.

During a conference call Thursday morning, Haley called the NLRB an “absolutely un-American … rogue agency” with a “bully mentality.”

“I would support anything that would disband the NLRB,” Haley said in response to a question from The Daily Caller asking if she would back calls for Hayes to resign. “The only use that it has is trying to allow the unions to be relevant and they just aren’t. It’s a desperate attempt for them to get attention and they’re doing it the wrong way.”

“I’d be the biggest cheerleader for [getting rid of the NLRB],” Haley added.

A Hayes resignation would cripple the NLRB because a 2010 Supreme Court ruling requires the NLRB to have a three-member quorum before it can make policy.

Hate the tactic, but Haley is right, and the Democrats have done far wore themselves. Then again, if the lone Republican resigns, wouldn't Obama just replace him or her?

Video of Maxine Waters: ‘Gangsta’ Banks Should be Taxed Out of Business

Funny coming from a gangsta US Rep that uses her power to steer bailout money to a bank that her hubby has a huge stake in:

Via BreitbartTV

Audio of Obama: Long-term unemployed (that he's responsible for!) are being discriminated against by employers

I should point out that Obama discriminates against employers,businesses, and capitalism in general. Also, those long term unemployed are his creation! Via BreitbartTV, our community organizer in chief's continued War on Business:

First Legal Food Truck Now Operating in Detroit After 60 Trips to City Hall for Permits

In Detroit, regulatory hell and corruption as politicians continue with the absurd function of protecting one legitimate business (brick and mortar restaurants) from another(mobile restaurants). Yet after all the artificial boundaries, one business got to the other side in an effort akin to Lemmiwinks making it through Mr.Slave's digestive tract:

From Crains Detroit via Carpe Diem:

"Today marks the first day that hungry Detroiters will be able to order lunch from a legal food truck in downtown Detroit. El Guapo Fresh Mexican Grill, downtown's first fully sanctioned food truck, will be stationed at 301 Monroe St. at Randolph, serving tacos, burritos and several kinds of salsas.

While other food truck operators in downtown Detroit have set up shop without permits, Anthony Curis and Doug Runyon, co-owners of El Guapo, made dozens of trips to City Hall to find a path to legality. Curis said he visited City Hall about 60 times over the past six months, working closely with Kim James, director of the Buildings, Safety, Engineering and Environmental Department, to secure a locale to operate legally."

No wonder Detroit is in the dumps. And here Obama is Detroiting America: Good Grief: Feds Raid Gibson Guitars looking for Illegal Wood

Good Grief: Feds Raid Gibson Guitars looking for Illegal Wood

That soft tyranny we live in via over-regulation? It's coalescing under Obama into a hard one.Via Red State: DOJ Raids Gibson Guitars looking for Illegal Wood. They refuse to enforce our immigration laws, and sue states to do the opposite, but somehow have time for this:

Via press release from Gibson:

The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.

Unbelievably enough, this was not the first time that the Gibson factories have been raided for this same reason.

In 2009, more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons invaded the Gibson factory in Nashville. The Government seized guitars and a substantial amount of ebony fingerboard blanks from Madagascar. To date, 1 year and 9 months later, criminal charges have NOT been filed, yet the Government still holds Gibson’s property. Gibson has obtained sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government and these materials, which have been filed in federal court, show that the wood seized in 2009 was legally exported under Madagascar law and that no law has been violated. Gibson is attempting to have its property returned in a civil proceeding that is pending in federal court.

Again, Holder refuses to enforce our laws but has time to enforce laws from other countries? Good grief. Related: Gibson Guitar Corp. Responds to Federal Raid

Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., has responded to the August 24 raid of Gibson facilities in Nashville and Memphis by the Federal Government. In a press release, Juszkiewicz said: "Gibson is innocent and will fight to protect its rights. Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of ANY wrong doing. We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence."

UPDATE: Gibson Guitar CEO on Obama DOJ Raids: ‘We’re Being Persecuted’

UPDATE #2: More from the WSJ via memeorandum: Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear. More from Hot Air, Proof Positive, Right Wing News, Michelle Malkin and Don Surber. Plus, more regulatory overreach to kill businesses: Team Obama Regulates Goat Herders' Workplaces

The Obama administration is setting new workplace regulations to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S. , including employee-paid cell phones and comfy beds.

These new special procedures issued by the Labor Department must be followed by employers who want to hire temporary agricultural foreign workers to perform sheep herding or goat herding activities. It describes strict rules for sleeping quarters, lighting, food storage, bathing, laundry, cooking and new rules for the counters where food is prepared.

“A separate sleeping unit shall be provided for each person, except in a family arrangement,” says the rules signed by Jane Oates, assistant secretary for employment and training administration at the Labor Department.

“Such a unit shall include a comfortable bed, cot or bunk, with a clean mattress,” the rules state.

Diane Katz, a research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation, unearthed the policy in the "Federal Register​," the massive daily journal of proposed regulations that Washington bureaucrats publish every day.

Under the Obama Administration, the nanny state has imposed 75 new major regulations with annual costs of $38 billion.

“This captures what is wrong with government,” Katz said. “I could not have made this up.”

Good grief...

UPDATE #3: Even more on Obama's War on Business: Regulators Gone Wild: Two lessons in how to kill an economy and ruin enterprise

Reason TV looks at the regulatory war being fought against residents of Antelope Valley, where the county of Los Angeles appears to be making a concerted effort to push residents out of their homes through harrassment — and armed raids:

The Antelope Valley is a vast patch of desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles County, and a segment of the few rugged individualists who live out there increasingly are finding themselves the targets of armed raids from local code enforcement agents, who’ve assembled into task forces called Nuisance Abatement Teams (NATs).

The plight of the Valley’s desert dwellers made regional headlines when county officials ordered the destruction of Phonehenge: a towering, colorful castle constructed out of telephone poles by retired phone technician Kim Fahey. Fahey was imprisoned and charged with several misdemeanors.

But Fahey is just one of many who’ve been targeted by the NATs, which were assembled at the request of County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in 2006. LA Weekly reporter Mars Melnicoff wrote an in-depth article in which she exposed the county’s tactic of badgering residents with minor, but costly, code violations until they face little choice but to vacate the land altogether.

“They’re picking on the the people who are the most defenseless and have the least resources,” says Melnicoff.

Reason.tv collaborated with Melnicoff to talk with some of the NAT’s targets, such as retired veteran Joey Gallo, who might face homelessness if he’s forced to leave his house, and local pastor Oscar Castaneda, who says he’s already given up the fight and is in the process of moving off the land he and his wife have lived on for 22 years. And, while Antonovich declined an interview, we did catch up with him at a public meeting in order to ask the big question at the center of all this: Why the sudden enforcement of these codes against people living in the middle of the desert, who seemingly are affecting no one?

If you had to destroy the US economy from the inside out, would you be doing anything different at this point than Obama?

UPDATE #4:Via Instapundit:

MORE ON THE GIBSON RAID: “Why would the government use armed agents to attack one of the few major manufacturers of anything remaining in the United States?” It’s like they don’t want to see the economy recover or something.

UPDATE: What a coincidence! CEO of Gibson Guitar a Republican Donor. And their Democratic-donating competitor, Martin, uses the same wood but wasn’t raided. Well, when you’ve got a President who jokes about tax audits as revenge for a personal slight, it’s hard not to be suspicious, isn’t it?

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.