Brandon

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Why Obama Wants to Talk About Anything But the Economy

Chart shows the worst economic recovery in modern times. And it's all due to Obama's economic policy!

Here's the graphic from Investor's Business Daily that says it all:

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From the accompanying story:
In his recent speeches on the campaign trail and at official functions, President Obama typically touts the fact that over the past two years, the economy has created more than 4 million new jobs, with more than 1 million in the past six months alone.

At a fundraiser last month, he called this "extraordinary progress."

But the economic recovery that Obama has presided over has been far from extraordinary. It hasn't even been ordinary.

In fact, it's come in well below average on several key indicators compared with the previous 10 economic recoveries, dating back to 1949, according to an IBD analysis of various economic data.

And on several measures, the current recovery — which started five months after Obama took office and is now in its 35th month — is the worst on record since World War II.
Before the Obama Stimulus was passed in 2009 the Congressional Budget Office warned that it was "worse than doing nothing." I guess they were right!

In Boston to Trash Romney, Obama's Top Attack Dog Axelrod Gets The Solyndra Treatment from Hecklers

Chants of "Solyndra," "five more months," "where are the jobs" and "broken record" rattled The Chicago hit squad!

In 2008 then candidate Obama told his supporters to "get in their face" to make his case. Thursday, Mitt Romney's supporters took a page from the Obama playbook and showed up in large numbers at a Boston event where  Obama's attack dog David Axelrod planned to trash Mitt Romney.

Instead of a smear against Romney the tables were turned. Democrats aren't used to this kind of payback. Watch the video:



Chants of "Solyndra, Solyndra" a reference to the billions of taxpayer money thrown down the rat hole for green jobs that only ended up enriching Obama contributors!

The Romney campaign shows that the gloves are off. This won't be a repeat of McCain's half-hearted effort in 2008! No doubt the Obama campaign will retaliate but then, they were most likely already planning a similar stunt. Kudos to team Romney for taking the first shot! (oops! sorry for the "shot" reference. I forgot that only Democrats were allowed to use such language)

In YOUR FACE Obama!

Romney Goes to Solyndra

Standing in front of an empty factory of a bankrupt company to highlight Obama's failed green jobs policy!

And... video highlighting billions to big Obama donors whose green companies also failed!

Obama went after Mitt Romney for his connection to Bain Capital in which some firms were closed, losing jobs. Mitt's response? He goes to Solyndra where big Obama donors took $528 million in Obama Energy Dept. loans before declaring bankruptcy:
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On Thursday, Mitt Romney stands in front of an empty Solyndra plant in Fremont, California which was the poster child for Obama's green jobs program which lost billions in taxpayer funds and ended up losing thousands of jobs!
ROMNEY: “It’s also a symbol of a serious conflict of interest. An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded that the administration had steered money to friends and family – to campaign contributors.  
This building, this half a billion dollar taxpayer investment, represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team.”

“It’s also a symbol of how the president thinks about free enterprise,” said Romney. “Free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends.”
If you're not up to speed on the Solyndra story and the waste of billions for green jobs that never materialized but did line the pockets of Obama campaign contributors here's a video from the Romney campaign that puts it all in perspective:


 

What's the bigger scandal? Romney who ran a private firm that risked it's own money to create jobs or Obama who threw billions of taxpayer money to his friends for firms that went bankrupt?

Obama's Attorney General Plays Race Card AGAIN in Voting Rights

If his claims were true, where are these eligible voters who have had their right to cast a ballot denied?

Racebaiting is nothing new for Attorney General Eric Holder. He's the most partisan, political, racialist Attorney General in history. Who can forget that under Obama's Department of Justice, no voting rights violations by blacks will be prosecuted. Even glaring examples of a Black Panther in militia garb wielding a club outside a Philadelphia polling place wasn't enough to draw Holder's attention.

So, few will be surprised that A.G. Holder spoke to a gathering of black pastors. Here's what Politico reported:
Attorney General Eric Holder told a council of African American church leaders Wednesday that the "sacred" right to vote is under assault nationwide, with federal lawsuits and at least a dozen state laws that could weaken — or block — minority access to the ballot box this fall.
...
[Holder said]"For the first time in our [lifetimes], we are failing to live up to one of our most noble ideals" - the right to equal access to the vote.
Holder's prime concern appears to be the new voter I.D. laws that states have adopted to cut down on fraud. Also, some states are purging their voter roles of convicted felons and illegal aliens.

One of the states that is tightening voter I.D. laws is Virginia. A recent editorial from the Richmond Times Dispatch described the controversy this way:
Every registered voter in Virginia will soon receive a new ID card, thanks to a savvy and sensible order by Gov. Bob McDonnell. The governor issued the directive as he signed a new measure that slightly tightens voter-ID requirements.

That didn't mollify partisan Democrats and liberal activists, who blasted the measure as nothing less than the return of Jim Crow. They should take a few deep, calming breaths — because it is actually more like a return to the administration of Gov. Mark Warner. Virginia first adopted a voter-ID requirement in 2000, not long before Warner took office, and it has remained in effect since. Liberal Democrats screamed bloody murder then, too. "Let's not erect barriers!" insisted Del. Jerrauld Jones, joining a chorus led by then-Del. Donald McEachin and others.

Then, as now, they argued that there was little evidence of need for such a measure. It's a fair point — but it cuts both ways. Voter-ID measures have now been on the books for a decade. Where is the evidence of voter suppression? If the law thwarted anyone who should have been able to cast a ballot from doing so, then groups such as the ACLU and the NAACP would have brought them forward, held press conferences, and sued for the violation of voting rights faster than you can say George Wallace. That hasn't happened.
...
During legislative debate we opposed the voter-ID measure, citing a lack of evidence of any voting fraud that suggested a need for it. But a Virginia State Police investigation into felons voting illegally showed, after the session had ended, that fraud does exist — at least on a limited basis. The voter-ID measure does not address that problem directly, but it does go to the broader problem of voting integrity.
The lack of eligible voters being denied the right to vote contrasted with the clear evidence of vote fraud would lead sensible persons to suggest that the Attorney General should focus foremost on where actual crime is being committed.

The consequence, or perhaps the design, of Holder's remarks is to continue to stir up racial animosity in the run up to the fall election. But using scaremongering and false Jim Crow straw men is reprehensible in an Attorney General whose job it is to enforce the law, not engage in the lowest form of gutter politics!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Obama's Incompetence Offends Poland With Death Camp Remark

And you thought V.P. Joe Biden was a boob!

When presidential historian Michael Beschloss insisted that Barack Obama was the "smartest man ever elected president" people wondered where he got that idea. After all, unlike his predecessors Obama has refused to release his college transcripts.

But the evidence is mounting that not only is Obama not the smartest man ever to hold the office of President he's the least competent of the bunch.

It's one thing for Obama to say there are "57 states" during the 2008 campaign. If Bush had said that the comedians would still be making hay out of it. The same can be said for Obama's gaffe in a NATO press conference where he confused "Austrian" with an actual language. Talk about making the U.S. look dumb in the eyes of the world!

It's another for Obama to confuse the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean with the Malvinas, the Argentinian name for the Falklands Islands. The mistake was made in prepared remarks by Obama to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia this year. Even if Obama had gotten it correct and used Malvinas, it would have been an insult to our British allies since it would seem to justify the claim Argentina has for the islands. Nine hundred and seven people died in the Falklands War in 1982 the last time Argentina got confused over the island's sovereignty.

Now it's Poland's turn and no one is laughing. On Tuesday Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a several people at the White House including Jan Karski who smuggled news of the Nazi Holocaust out of Poland during World War II. Referring to the slaughter of Jews in Poland, Obama called the Nazi camp "a Polish death camp,” which is a huge painful insult to Poles. Six million Poles were killed by the Germans during World War II.

The Poles, who have been thrown under the bus by Obama on previous occasions have had enough:
“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped Barack Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”
Nile Gardiner writing in the British paper The Telegraph describes the screw up this way:
The president’s use of the term “Polish death camp” is hugely insulting to the Polish people, and will reinforce the growing image across Eastern and Central Europe of an American presidency that cares little for key US allies, especially against the backdrop of its controversial and weak-kneed “reset” policy towards Russia. For a US administration that likes to boast of “smart power,” this was an act of staggering historical ignorance as well as crass insensitivity.
It's one thing to have a verbal gaffe on the spot like "57 states" or mistaking Austrian for a language instead of a people. It's quite another to read prepared remarks from a teleprompter that are not only wrong, but insulting and damaging to our relationship with our allies.

Perhaps it's easy to blame it on the speechwriters but after all, Obama hired those speech writers and he ultimately bears responsibility for the words he utters. Anyone who has worked in the White House knows that every word prepared for presidential remarks should receive the closest scrutiny to avoid such errors. But Obama has surrounded himself with sycophantic staffers who are just as unqualified and inexperienced as he is.

No wonder Ed Klein's new book on the Obama is titled "The Amateur." Columnist Jack Kelly goes one step further and concludes that Obama is just not that bright. However you look at it, it seems that audacity can only get you so far. At some point incompetence, inexperience will be unmasked!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Massacre of Children in Syria the Consequence of Obama's Morally Bankrupt Foreign Policy

How many more children will be killed due to Obama's failure to lead and to act?

Little more than a year ago (March 28, 2011) Obama spoke of the looming humanitarian crisis in Libya:
OBAMA: Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.
At that time, the number of dead in Libya could be counted by the hundreds. Even with Obama's resolute words, the United States "lead from behind" and the effort to out Khaddafi dragged on for months while the death toll rose into the thousands.

Obama was also out front in demanding the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, America's ally in Egypt. Even though the death toll in Egypt there was much smaller.

But for month after month we see repeated stories of bloody atrocities coming out of Syria that make even the war in Libya seem tame by comparison. As of March 2012 the death toll was over 9,000. It is probably over 10,000 by now.

The latest atrocities are so horrible that any decent civilized human being should be sickened and outraged. Over the weekend 108 people in the village of Houla were killed. Dozens were children.

I have placed the video documentation of the massacre below the fold. You are safe to proceed and continue reading or watch the tape at your discretion:

Happy Memorial Day

Not just a day for picnics or the beach!
The Daniel Chester French Victory atop the Memorial to the First Division of the Army, the Big Red One, outside the White House (monument details here). Photo by Mike's America

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Madeline Grace Wallace, 4, carries flags at the National Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. , Friday, May 25, 2012. The girl and her mother visited the cemetery to place flags on graves for Memorial Day.
For more on the history of Memorial Day, classic lyrics, poems and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address see the Mike's America Memorial Day post from 2007.

This Memorial Day, honor the heroes who have sacrificed for your freedom!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Obama's Spending Whopper is SOOO Laughable It Won't Fool Anyone But Fools

Over $5 trillion in new debt is NOT George Bush's fault!

One of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill is "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." That's usually the case when the lie gets more attention than the later correction which many people seem to overlook or ignore.

But in this case, the lie is SOOOO absurd that it might as well be a joke for late night television.

At a campaign event in Iowa on Thursday Obama said this:
OBAMA: "Federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any President in almost 60 years."

“I don’t know how they've [Republicans] been bamboozling folks into thinking that they are the responsible, fiscally-disciplined party. They run up these wild debts and then when we take over we have to clean it up,” Obama said. “And then they point and say, 'Look how irresponsible they are.' Look at facts, look at the numbers.
Obama's ridiculous claim is based on commentary which magically appeared earlier in the week by a man named Rex Nutting. Nutting (the name should have been a give away) put together a chart which attempts to show Obama as the most fiscally responsible president of modern times.

O.K. now that you've cleaned the coffee off your keyboard and stopped laughing, let's look into the claim.

Wash Post Fact Check: Three Pinocchios
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The basis for Nutting's claim is that in Obama's first year in office the spending, which was at a record high, was all due to Bush's budget since the fiscal year 2009 started in October 2008 when Bush was still President. The claim is another variation on the "it's Bush's fault" theme that has been a hallmark of Obama's incompetent administration.

The problem is that most of the spending bills for FY 2009 were not passed by Congress until AFTER Obama took office so that Democrats could load them up like a Christmas tree with their favorite pork barrel projects. Here at Mike's America we sounded the warning bell at the beginning of the Democrat spendfest in February 2009. Bush signed only 3 out of 12 spending appropriations for FY2009. Obama signed the rest. Bush's budget proposed spending of $3.1 trillion for FY 2009. Obama ended up spending $3.5 trillion. A 17.9% increase.

A better way to look at spending is the percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) necessary to support it. Traditionally approximately 20% of all economic activity in the United States has gone to support government. Under Obama the lid was blown off that already high figure. James Pethokoukis points out that most of Obama's spending has been at 24% of GDP.

In giving the White House claim of fiscal restraint 3 Pinocchios the Washington Post Fact Checker said:
In the post-war era, federal spending as a percentage of the U.S. economy has hovered around 20 percent, give or take a couple of percentage points. Under Obama, it has hit highs not seen since the end of World War II — completely the opposite of the point asserted by [White House Spokesman]Carney.
Obama Claim "Whopper of the Year"

Columnist Charles Krauthammer called the Obama claim the "whopper of the year." But this may be the one time the big lie won't get around the world while the truth is still putting it's pants on. Americans who have paid a modicum of attention know that under Obama the debt has increased more than $5 trillion in three and a half years. Bush was long gone and chopping brush at the ranch by then. And perhaps we need to remind the uninformed in 2008 candidate Obama denounced $4 trillion in new debt under President Bush over eight years as "irresponsible...unpatriotic."

This time around the big lie is just soooo laughable that the truth won't even have to put it's pants on!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Obama's Biggest Problem: He's Losing Democrat Voters

In Democrat primary after Democrat primary the number of anybody but Obama votes is a troubling sign for re-election!

Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times points out that despite having his former GOP challengers still on the ballot Romney got 67% in Tuesday's Kentucky Republican primary. By contrast Obama got 58% of the vote with "uncommitted" getting 42%.

A similar result in Arkansas where a named challenger got 40% of the vote. And let's not forget how a man in a Texas prison got 42% of the vote in West Virginia.

No big deal since Obama will not win any of these states in November. The real problem is that he is underpolling in Democrat primaries across the country; even in states he won in 2008. In a Washington Post article titled "The anti-Obama Democrats" describes how in 16 states where an alternative to Obama is offered on the ballot an average of 15% of Democrat voters select another option. The average would be higher were it not for the 98% Obama received in Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

The problem is especially worrying for Obama's team in states that like New Hampshire and North Carolina which Obama won in 2008. In both states, more than 20% of Democrat voters picked "uncommitted" rather than Obama.

Just how many of these Democrat protest voters will hold their nose and pull the lever for him in November is unclear. But it is a very good measure of the weak enthusiasm for a candidate who can no longer run on hope and change and empty promises! Not even all Democrats can be fooled twice!

Obama a Failure in His Own Words

Shouldn't we hold him to the same standard of accountability as any Republican President?

Add this video to your favorites for the coming campaign.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Teacher Threatens Student with Arrest for Critical Comments on Obama

But the teacher felt no compunction about trashing President Bush! .

So get this. A teacher starts her class with the "fact of day" last week. On this particular day the "fact" was that Mitt Romney was a bully in high school. When students pointed out that Obama had his own bullying episode (of a little girl no less) the teacher demanded that the  comparison was invalid because Romney was a candidate for president and Obama actually was President.

The exchange got pretty heated:
As one student attempted to argue for a fair, two-sided debate on the history of the candidates, he was shouted down and talked over by the teacher. She continued:

“You got to realize, this man is wanting to be what Obama is. There’s no comparison.”

Once again, the students pressed for equal discussion of the histories of both men, with one saying:


“If you’re gonna talk trash about one side, you gotta talk trash about the other.”

The teacher just seemed to dig her heels in deeper and press her defense of Obama telling the defiant teen:

“You will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.”

Again the student persisted and invoked his First Amendment right.


“I’ll say what I want.”

The still unidentified teacher read the student her rules…her Obama rules.

“Not about him, you won’t!”

The back and forth continued and the most strident of the two students reminded his teacher that President Bush was constantly treated to negative statements about him while he was in office:

“Whenever Bush was president, everybody talked sh-t about him.”

To which the teacher responded:

“Because he was sh-tty.”
The teacher's angry rant went on for a good minute. How do I know? There's AUDIO of the event! Listen to this sorry display of ignorance laced with near hysteria!

If this was an isolated incident we might ignore it but it's not. This kind of thing happens far too often in taxpayer supported schools. Just in March we learned of an 8th grade class where students were told to do negative research on Mitt Romney (and not Obama) then forward their work to the Obama campaign. And who can forget the NC elementary school students forced to sing the Hopey Changey song in 2009.

This is just another in a long list of examples of how very different the rules are for Republicans and Democrats. Say something disrespectful about Obama and you can be threatened with jail time. Say something nasty about a Republican and you get a pat on the back!

We've all seen similar variations of this hypocrisy in our own lives. The left made an industry out of hating George W. Bush. Calling him "Chimpy McBush Hitler" or some such. Say that about Obama and you'll have Jesse Jackson and the NAACP on your doorstep.


Isn't it about time that we started demanding that public education, which after all is funded with tax dollars, stopped being a playground for angry left wing educators who abuse their position and their students?

Friday, May 18, 2012

Obama's Record on Jobs: 34 States with Fewer Jobs Than When He Became President

Only 16 states have seen positive job growth!

When Obama isn't trying to distract the public with his latest GOP war on (fill in the blank) he's making rosy claims about his economic program. Recently he boasted about the "extraordinary progress that we've been able to make," in job creation. Really?

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows just how deep the Obama Depression really is. Investor's Business Daily summarizes it:
Just 16 states have seen job growth since President Obama took office, according to state employment data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The remaining states have lost a combined 1.4 million jobs since January 2009.

Even 34 months after the recession officially ended in June 2009, there are still 11 states that have fewer people working now than at the start of the recovery.

Meanwhile, 20 states have unemployment rates at or above 8%, including nine with unemployment at 9% or higher, according to the BLS.

At the other end of the spectrum, Texas has been the leader in job creation under Obama, with 240,000 more people working there than when he took office. Since the recovery started in June 2009, Texas has added 474,000 jobs, which accounts for one in four of all the jobs created during the recovery.

North Dakota takes the prize for fastest job growth rate, with employment climbing 13% since Obama took office, due largely to the oil boom there.
Texas (run by Republicans) leads the way in job growth. California, saddled with Democrat leadership and Big Labor paralysis is the biggest job loser.

And no surprise that North Dakota has seen an explosion in job growth from the energy sector. This is the kind of growth that could be happening nationwide if Obama would stop blocking energy production on federal lands.

Democrats can spin all they want but the sad fact remains that millions who have lost their jobs during Obama's reign of error have yet to find work. They know the truth even if Obama won't admit it!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Obama Tries to Rewrite History on White House Web Site

The effort to compare him to other presidents, many of whom had a greater record of achievement, will backfire!

Writing at National Review, Victor Davis Hanson put together a fine essay examining the narcissism of Barack Hussein Obama. He pointed out how in the aftermath of the raid that killed bin Laden, Obama sought to take personal credit for the raid. This excerpt from Obama's remarks on the raid says it all:
OBAMA: “Tonight, I can report . . . And so, shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta . . . I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden . . . I met repeatedly with my national security team . . . I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action. . . . Today, at my direction . . . I’ve made clear . . . Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear . . . Tonight, I called President Zardari . . . and my team has also spoken . . .These efforts weigh on me every time I, as commander-in-chief . . . Finally, let me say to the families . . . I know that it has, at times, frayed . . .”
From the White House: great moments in Obama History!

To those who follow Obama this kind of self aggrandizement is nothing new. It borders on the pathological. As a variation on  that contention consider that on the White House web site the Obama team has rewritten bios of previous presidents and inserted statements attempting to link past presidential policies and actions with Obama. How desperate and sad is that!

The Republican National Committee pokes a bit of fun at this farcical act with it's own series of photos: Obama in History.  Here's an example from the RNC site:

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Jamie Weinstein, writing at the Daily Caller has a  top ten list of Obama's great moments in history. Here are the final three:
3.) The late dictator of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov — better known as Turkmenbashi — created an extensive cult of personality. Among other things, he had a gold-plated 50-foot statue of him built that revolved so it would always face the sun. He also named the month of January after himself, as well as several cities. In 2012, President Obama’s administration decided to write the president into every chapter of American history.

2.) In 1940, the novel “Lassie Come Home” was published. In 1943, the story about a fictional pup was made into a film. In 1954, “Lassie” became a TV series. As a child in Indonesia in the 1960s, Barack Obama ate a dog.

1.) At the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the Earth. In May 2011, Barack Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
I have my own favorite Obama moment in history photo:

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Obama as Neville Chamberlain. Nobel Peace Prize for doing zilch!

Obama, the nation's narcissist in chief!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Govt. Report: Green River Shale More Oil Than Entire World's Proven Reserves

And Obama who continues to mislead the public claiming U.S. has only 2% of proven reserves is set to block exploitation of this resource on federal lands!

When gas prices started to peak last winter Obama did what he usually does in response to a problem, he made a speech. Or in this case, a series of speeches in which he claimed he was for "all of the above" in energy production. Yet he continued to denigrate drilling for new sources of oil claiming we couldn't "drill our way out" of the energy crunch.

And at the same time that Obama claimed that under his Administration domestic oil production has gone up, critics pointed to the fact that on federal lands, production has dropped.

Now, in testimony [PDF] before a House of Representatives subcommittee on energy and the environment, Anu Mittal, the Government Accounting Office expert on natural resources and the environment revealed the following:
Being able to tap the vast amounts of oil locked within U.S. oil shale formations could go a long way toward satisfying the nation’s future oil demands. The Green River Formation—an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming—contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale. USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions.
...
This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.
Let's repeat that last sentence: "This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves." Approximately 1.5 TRILLION barrels of oil, perhaps much more with newer technology. But even at the median figure, it's enough to supply the entire petroleum needs of the United States at current usage for over 200 years!

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1.5 TRILLION barrels of oil.
"This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves."

Obama to block shale oil development in Green River basin?

Much of area where oil shale recovery would be ideal lies on federal lands. And right on cue, the Obama Administration has put forward a plan to block development of this resource on those lands. But this is nothing new. It adds to a very long and growing list of other actions taken by the Obama Administration to block American energy production.

Billions in lost wages and tax revenue that could reduce the deficit are just a few of the consequences of Obama's War on Oil. The worst consequence is the daily cost Americans pay at the pump for  gas with the money going overseas!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Two Great Ads: Obama Justice for Sale and Obama in His Own Words w/Broken Deficit Promises

Share these video with your Independent friends who might not pay as much attention to the news as you do!

First, here's Obama in his own words making repeated promises to cut the deficit in half during his first term in office. After seeing this, can you believe ANYTHING he says?


Second, last week I posted the story about how Obama's Dept. of Justice has yet to prosecute even ONE Wall Street Crook. Contrast that with the Bush Administration's aggressive prosecution of ENRON crooks.

Now that J.P. Morgan Chase has announced it "lost" $2 billion, we learn that the company's CEO is another big time contributor to Democrats. He's paid for his Get Out of Jail Free card. Meanwhile on Monday Obama is back to Wall Street for another fundraiser no doubt passing out more safe from prosecution promises.

With a record like this, no wonder Obama is desperate to change the subject!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bill Clinton: Obama "Incompetent," "Amateur"

And Bill encouraged Hillary to run against Obama in 2012!

Edward Klein, a former editor of The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek (hardly a right winger) is coming out with a new Obama biography titled "The Amateur" (Barnes and Noble). The title was based on comments from a secret meeting former President Bill Clinton held in the ex-president’s home office in Chappaqua last August with Friends of Bill and Hillary. The New York Post has the story:
Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims, “The country needs you!” the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein’s new biography of Obama. ...  
The withering criticism is incredible, given the fact that Bill Clinton is actively campaigning for Obama’s re-election. But according to the book, Bill Clinton unloaded on Obama and pressed Hillary to run against her boss during a gathering in the ex-president’s home office in Chappaqua last August that included longtime friends, Klein said. “The economy’s a mess, it’s dead flat. America has lost its Triple-A rating . . . You know better than Obama does,”Bill said.  
Bill Clinton insisted he had “no relationship” with Obama and had been consulted more frequently by his presidential successor, George W. Bush. Obama, Bill Clinton said, “doesn’t know how to be president” and is “incompetent.”
Of course the Clinton camp immediately issued a statement denying that any of this was said. Yet I can't help recall Bill Clinton's denial "I never had sexual relations with that woman...Ms. Lewinsky!"

I wondered where all those rumors came from suggesting Hillary was going to quit as Secretary of State and run against Obama. Now we know. And Hillary must be kicking herself for saying no after seeing how a convict in a Texas prison got 41% of the vote in the West Virginia primary against Obama last week.

Obama's Green Jobs Went Overseas!

Millions of Americans are out of work, yet Obama gave billions to foreign firms!

The following is a companion video for the post below "Why the Obama Stimulus Failed" but deserves to stand on it's own. From Americans for Prosperity it highlights how Obama's Stimulus ended up creating "green jobs" overseas instead of here where millions need them.



Why the Obama Stimulus Failed

Obama ignored what Margaret Thatcher called "fundamental truths" that history shows work to create economic growth!

In the wake of the farcical election in France which will end up forcing Europe to take a huge step backwards away from economic recovery I was reading an interview that Margaret Thatcher gave in 1976, a year after she became leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom and 3 years before she became Prime Minister. In the interview she famously said "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." The entire interview is a tour de force of economic truths that history has shown work every time they are tried. Thatcher knew intuitively that liberty and economic freedom are the keys to prosperity, not state control and massive spending.

After reading the interview I was left wondering whether there was a modern American perspective on the subject when I stumbled across a column by Louis Woodhill, an engineer and software entrepreneur. Experience and success have been his teachers. The article addresses the liberal desire for more of the stimulus spending that has been such a colossal failure.

Here's an excerpt from his article, which I encourage you to read in full:
Obamunism is failing, and its ongoing failure is reflected in the employment numbers. Obama's Keynesian mental model of how the economy works is simply wrong, so his remedies, which are based upon Keynesianism, aren't working.

Keynesians believe that economic growth is driven by spending, and that government borrowing and spending will increase total spending, and thereby boost RGDP. It isn't, and it won't, so it doesn't. Obama's signature remedy for our economic woes, "stimulus", was an $831 billion flop.

Keynesianism is a superstition, and no amount of real-world evidence can penetrate a mind in the grip of a superstition. When Obama's massive 2009 stimulus program had the same impact (i.e., none) as Bush 43's smaller programs in 2001 and 2008, Keynesians simply declared that, "It just wasn't big enough". Pop quiz: if your plan is to raise the water level in a pond by drawing out a bucket of water and pouring it back in again, how big a bucket would be "big enough"?

The reality is that investment drives economic growth. It is investment that creates productive capacity, and nothing can be purchased unless it is first produced. During the first 11 calendar quarters of the Reagan economic recovery, real nonresidential investment increased at a 9.4% annual rate, RGDP expanded at a 6.1% annual rate, and total employment grew at a 3.1% annual rate. The comparable numbers for Obama's (non) recovery are 6.0%, 2.4%, and 0.5%.

All of the major elements of Reaganomics, a strong dollar, marginal tax rate cuts, and reduced regulation, favor capital investment. Obamunism is the exact opposite of Reaganomics in these three areas, and it therefore discourages investment. When you discourage investment, you discourage employment. The result is the most discouraging jobs picture since the Great Depression.

But wait! There's more!

Right now, the economy is heading toward a "fiscal cliff", with massive tax increases scheduled for January 1, 2013. Could this be impacting capital investment now, and thereby RGDP and jobs?

Well, let's see. You climb in the back seat of Thelma and Louise's 1966 Thunderbird. Thelma floors it, and she begins racing for the cliff. How likely are you to say, "Hey, let's invest in a new carburetor"?
Through spending, tax and regulatory policy Obama has shown that his liberal/socialist ideology trumps the lessons which history has taught us. Ignore economic liberty, freedom and increase government interference and dependence and the result is as predictable as what happened to Britain in the 70's and the U.S. today!

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The Queen's Speech

Britain's pomp and pageantry at it's best in annual Opening of Parliament!

Here's one for the anglophiles:

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Grand entrance: The packed Palace of Westminster looks on as the monarch walks
towards her throne in the House of Lords.

Royal Weddings may be glamorous, but there's only one annual event where the Queen actually puts on her crown and flowing robes and speaks to members of Parliament. The State Opening of Parliament is similar to the State of the Union speech in the United States with the major difference being that the speech is delivered by the Queen but written by Prime Minister and is much shorter and less dramatic.

The Daily Mail has the full story along with some great large format photographs.

Obama Turns Blind Eye to Wall Street Crooks/Campaign Contributors

Yet another example of how his strong words are not matched by deeds!

When Texas energy giant ENRON went bankrupt following an accounting scandal billions in investor dollars were lost. Small investors with retirement savings were hardest hit. Democrats pounced and accused the Bush Administration of shielding ENRON because of close political ties and the campaign contributions given to Republicans by the firm's top executives. Never mind that the money went to Democrats too. It was a front page scandal that went on for years.

Despite any political ties the Bush Department of Justice acted aggressively. ENRON executives were put on trial and many convictions followed. CEO Jeffrey Skilling is currently serving a 24 year sentence for fraud and insider trading.

Obama's Wall Street buddies receive Get Out of Jail Free card with campaign contributions?

Fast forward to today. MF Global went bankrupt after the executives at the firm took investor cash to cover losses in it's trading. Over $1 billion is missing and unaccounted for. What the executives did was a crime but thus far, no prosecution. In one report "a number of federal prosecutors have expressed doubts to others involved in the case that anyone at MF Global — including the firm’s chief executive, Jon S. Corzine," would be prosecuted.

Funny, but Jon Corzine has much stronger ties to Obama than any ENRON executive did with Bush. Corzine, a man much richer than Mitt Romney, was the former Senator from New Jersey, a colleague of Obama's in the U.S. Senate. Obama campaigned for Corzine's re-election for Governor of New Jersey (he lost to Chris Christie) saying that as President he "worked together" with Corzine as a "partner" on the failed Stimulus in which many more billions have been lost.

And Corzine, who has raised millions for Democrats, is still listed as a campaign "bundler" (corralling large contributions from his contacts) on the Obama campaign web site.

I guess Obama knows who his friends are and takes good care of them.

If this was just about Corzine it would be bad enough. But not one Wall Street executive has been prosecuted by the Obama Department of Justice for financial fraud with all prosecutions in this area at 20 year low. A Newsweek investigation found the growing links between campaign cash for Obama and seeming immunity from prosecution for Wall Street crooks. The full report is well worth your time to read in it's entirety. Wall Street campaign contributions to Obama are second only to those of the trial lawyers.

I suppose that having an Attorney General and many of his top attorneys come from New York firms specializing in defending Wall Street criminals has nothing to do with it. Right?

Meanwhile, Obama continues to campaign as the tough guy who is going to clean up Wall Street and make those "millionaires and billionaires" play by the rules. But it would seem that the only rule he wants them to play by is the old Chicago "pay to play" rule of political corruption!

Monday, May 07, 2012

Campaign Kickoff Shows Obama's Army of the Uninformed is Dwindling

The voters have had nearly four years to realize what a sham Hope and Change was. They won't be fooled again by "Forward!"

Veterans of Obama's 2008 campaign must long for the good old days when they had huge overflow crowds and people fainting in the audience from the excitement. But that was before Obama's message of hope was exposed for the same old tax and spend liberal baloney that only makes things worse.

On Saturday, May 5 Obama went to Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to try and recapture the spirit of his 2008 campaign. There were 5,000 empty seats in a hall that was expected to be overflowing with eager young minds ready to be hoodwinked once again. Buzzfeed has the story.

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5,000 empty seats at a campaign kickoff for the empty suit President!

P.S. Is it more than a coincidence that Obama's new slogan "Forward" was borrowed from Soviet propaganda or that May 5th, the date of Obama's campaign kickoff is the birthday of Karl Marx?

Friday, May 04, 2012

Phony Unemployment Number Continues to Mask Obama's Poor Jobs, Economic Record

How can fewer Americans working result in a lower unemployment report?

Once again, the Obama Administration cooked the books for the April unemployment report. The official number of unemployed was lowered to 8.1%. CNBC looks behind the headline and finds:
Though the headline number indicated job creation, the total employment level for the month actually fell 169,000. The disparity likely emanates from a drop in the labor force participation rate — or the level of Americans actively looking for jobs or otherwise employed — from 63.8 percent to 63.6 percent, its lowest level since December 1981.

The amount of discouraged workers swelled from 865,000 to 968,000, an increase of 12 percent. Those working part-time for economic reasons surged 181,000 to more than 7.8 million.
Investor's Business Daily alerts us that in April 225,000 Americans applied for permanent disability benefits removing themselves from the job market. A record total of 5.4 million have followed a similar path since Obama took office. Under Obama twice as many Americans have been put on disability than have found jobs!

Bad jobs report matches GDP and Housing numbers, lower income

Further hints that we are close to a second recession came a week earlier with the news that overall economic growth was at a sub par 2.2%. This is basically half the economic growth predicted by the Obama Administration and a statistic which bears directly on budget forecasts for unemployment payments and the deficit.

Add to that the March report that median income (Middle Class) since Obama took office has dropped $4,300 and home ownership hit a record low for the decade.

Obama: mark his words!

Less than four years ago Obama promised things would be different:


In February 2009 Obama spoke about the need to turn around the economy before the next election. He said "If I don't have this done in three years there's going to be a one term proposition." [video] Time's up pal. Time for you to GO!

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Why No Outrage over Occupy Protests Domestic Terrorist Plot in Cleveland?

And where are Obama and Pelosi who praised and embraced this movement?

Readers will recall how in 2009 then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi labeled Tea Party protests as "Un-American" during the health care debate. Later after warning that "we have to take responsibility for our actions and our words" she broke into tears fretting that the Tea Party might lead to violence.

Obama and the Democrats repeatedly attacked Tea Party activists for being "extreme." Democrats constantly sought to portray Tea Partiers are racist and demanded that elected GOP leaders denounce the movement.

But when it comes to the Occupy movement Obama embraces it. Nancy Pelosi said "God bless them!" Even as the list of violence, vandalism and hate speech grows Democrats refuse to denounce the group or distance themselves from it.

So now this:

Occupy protesters arrested for plot to blow up bridge in Cleveland, Ohio

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The five suspects pictured above are directly linked to the Occupy movement. Not only were they well known to Occupy Cleveland organizers but they self identified as such on their Facebook pages. But you wouldn't know that if you listened to the mainstream news media. I first heard of the plot on the radio where the plotters were described as anarchists. That seems to be the general story line.

Matthew Sheffield at Newsbusters does a media roundup on the story and documents any mention of the terrorists Occupy affiliation:
USA Today? No mention at all.
Bloomberg? No mention at all.
CBS News? No mention at all.
Voice of America? No mention at all.
The New York Times? No mention at all.
CNN? The cable network notes that the language used by one of the suspects in reference to "the 1 percent" sounds like Occupy terminology, but CNN fails to mention that some of the suspects were actually involved with Occupy Cleveland.
The Associated Press? It mentions the Occupy connection but downplays it, letting an Occupy Cleveland spokesman's claim the men "weren't affiliated with or representing the group" go unchallenged.
It wouldn't require much imagination to guess how much the coverage would be different if Tea Partiers were engaged in anything approaching this level of criminality.

But since the Occupy crowd are Obama and Pelosi's favorite pets, you're not likely to hear much in the news about links to this plot. Or perhaps it's no big deal because people expect Democrats and their allies to behave in such a lawless and violent fashion. Can you say Obama's mentor Bill Ayers?

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

"Swiftboat" Obama!

The current president has even less claim to military achievements than Sen. John Kerry!

Veterans are ticked off with Obama's bin Laden victory tour. One group, Veterans for a Strong America put out this ad in response to Obama's blatant politicizing of the raid that killed bin Laden:



Veterans for a Strong America remind us that "Heroes Don’t Spike the Football!"

Let's just repeat Obama's words from the Iowa Steak Fry in 2006:
“I’ve had enough of using terrorism as a wedge issue in our politics...I think the war against terrorism isn’t supposed to crop up between September and November of even numbered years, and yet that seems to be the pattern. There is a sudden burst of activity, a sudden urgency about this whole thing three months before an election every other year.”

Obama's "Mission Accomplished" Campaign Tour in Kabul

Remind me again who is it that is politicizing this war?

Not content just to take cheap shots at Mitt Romney and lie about his view on hunting down bin Laden, Obama hopped aboard Air Force One and flew to Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday to do another round of self congratulations for the death of the terrorist mastermind.

It's all part of his perpetual campaign to convince as many gullible and uninformed voters as possible that he's really not the weakest Commander in Chief in history.

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Obama speaks to troops at Bagram Air Base in Kabul, May 2, 2012
After campaigning with the troops, Obama switched backdrops and delivered a speech for home viewers using two armored vehicles as props.

Remember how the left howled in outrage when President George W. Bush flew onto the aircraft carrier US. Abraham Lincoln with the "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background? Well, this is Obama's version of that and you won't hear a peep from the anti-war left this time around.

Obama has all but declared the war on terror over with nothing more to worry about except those evil rich Republicans and Big Oil executives. After all, anything that stands in the way of Obama's buddies getting rich off federal loans for phony green jobs is a bigger threat. Right?

Obama has broken all the rules that used to temper political campaigns. He's never stopped campaigning and as such has never truly been President for all. The rest of this campaign looks to be a long dirty fight with Obama leading the way down!

UPDATE: Obama Speech in 2006 denounces policization of war on terror...

From the Tom Harkin Steak Fry in Iowa, September 2006:
I’ve had enough of using terrorism as a wedge issue in our politics,” Obama told the crowd. “I’ve had enough of that. I’ve had enough of that. You know, I – I don’t know about you, but I think the war against terrorism isn’t supposed to crop up between September and November of even numbered years, and yet that seems to be the pattern. There is a sudden burst of activity, a sudden urgency about this whole thing three months before an election every other year.”

Oh well... he also promised hope and change, post partisanship and respect for the Constitution and our laws. And we know how that worked out!

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Obama's Tone Deaf Politicizing of bin Laden's Kill

Phony charge that Romney would not have ordered raid makes Obama appear ever more desperate!

It started with an ad from the Obama campaign featuring former President Bill Clinton in which it was suggested that if Romney were President he might not have ordered the raid with killed Osama bin Laden. Put aside for a moment the fact that when President, Bill Clinton passed up multiple opportunities to capture or kill bin Laden. Obama is clearly "spiking the football" in a heavy handed way to politicize the killing of bin Laden a year later just in time for the election.

That theme was confirmed in a press conference with President Obama on April 30 in which he tried to twist Romney's words again and suggest he would have left bin Laden alone.

But not only has Obama's blatant politicizing of this event angered Romney, and former Navy Seals but it exposes once again Obama's weakness in the war on terror that led to the raid which killed bin Laden.

The Hidden Heroes in bin Laden Raid

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA. He was agency official in charge of human intelligence with direct responsibility for the interrogation of captured Al Queda suspects. In his new book, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,  he discusses this important work. Interviews with Rodriguez, such as the 60 Minutes piece with Leslie Stahl are available on You Tube.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post Rodriguez writes:
[Obama's] administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration. Much of that work has been denigrated by Obama as unproductive and contrary to American principles.

He is wrong on both counts.
Rodriguez goes on to tell the story in some detail and concludes:
With some trying to turn bin Laden’s death into a campaign talking point for Obama’s reelection, it is useful to remember that the trail to bin Laden started in a CIA black site — all of which Obama ordered closed, forever, on the second full day of his administration — and stemmed from information obtained from hardened terrorists who agreed to tell us some (but not all) of what they knew after undergoing harsh but legal interrogation methods. Obama banned those methods on Jan. 22, 2009.

This past weekend, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin attacked statements made in May 2011 by me, former CIA director Michael Hayden and former attorney general Michael Mukasey regarding what led to bin Laden’s death. They misunderstood and mischaracterized our positions.

No single tactic, technique or approach led to the successful operation against bin Laden. But those who suggest it was all a result of a fresh approach taken after Jan. 20, 2009, are mistaken.
Obama and key Democrats fought against Bush efforts to win the war on terror and capture or kill bin Laden. Can they fool enough of the American people that this wasn't the case as Obama faces re-election?

Dem Senate Candidate Claimed Minority Status Based on 1/32nd Family Cherokee Tie

Did her grossly exaggerated claim take away jobs from more deserving minority applicants?

Elizabeth Warren is the Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate in the seat currently held by Scott Brown (R-MA). This is the Teddy Kennedy seat which Democrats hoped to pry back in a must win election if they are to have a chance of retaining control of the U.S. Senate after the 2012 election.

Warren is a darling of the left. A Harvard Law professor, guest on the Daily Show and appearing with the foul mouthed Bill Maher and worked in the Obama White House.

Throughout much of her career she has claimed status as a minority. The Boston Herald reports:
Harvard Law School and Warren herself had touted her tribal lineage and claimed she was a member of a minority for years.

Warren’s shaken campaign faced another crisis yesterday when it was revealed that beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1995, Warren had listed herself as a minority professor in the Association of American Law Schools desk book, a directory of law professors from participating schools.

Warren had flatly denied that she ever touted her Native American background professionally.
Just one problem, a genealogist found the only link Warren has to Native American ancestry is a great-great-great-grandmother. That makes here only 1/32nd Cherokee. I imagine if the genealogist took another look, he'd find she probably has closer ties to Josef Stalin!

There is no record that Warren used her claimed status for the purposes of affirmative action in hiring. But then, are such records kept? Warren certainly made the claim that she had minority status.

Native Americans are none too thrilled. Again from the Herald story:
Suzan Shown Harjo, a former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, expressed outrage yesterday after learning that Warren had identified herself as a Native American on law school records without documentation.

“If you believe you are these things then that’s fine and dandy, but that doesn’t give you the right to claim yourself as Native American,” said Harjo, who said Warren might have taken a job another Native American could have received.

No Surprise

Of course this isn't the first time a Democrat has made some undeserving claim of minority status. Another recent example is that of Washington, D.C. attorney and power broker David Wilmot, an African American to be sure, but one living in luxury yet claiming he should receive special consideration for contracts because of his minority status. As the Washington Times reported in February Wilmot: "lives in a $1.3 million house on a hill in a leafy part of Northwest, where he parks his Bentley, Range Rover and Mercedes."

Affirmative Action and minority set asides were designed to give an opportunity to qualified and deserving persons who may not be well connected enough to make it without a leg up. But as we've seen in these and other examples, the system is being exploited by Democrats who don't appear to mind at all that they are elbowing the disadvantaged out of the way as they grab more and more.

When Obama and the Dems talk about greed and unfairness. They need only look around them to know what they are talking about!
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