Brandon

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Another Obama Cabinet Nominee Admits "Errors" in Taxes and Pays $7,000

Why is it that these Democrats raise taxes higher and higher on the rest of us then don't pay their own?

Sebelius admits errors, pays $7,000 in back taxes
By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press
Tue March 31,2009

WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors" — the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee. The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

Sebelius said she filed the amended returns as soon as the errors were discovered by an accountant she hired to scrub her taxes in preparation for her confirmation hearings. She and her husband, Gary, a federal magistrate judge in Kansas, paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest to amend returns from 2005-2007.
Several Obama administration nominees have run into tax troubles, notably the president's first nominee for HHS secretary, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. He withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., quickly issued a statement supporting Sebelius.
Oh don't worry, it's ok Kathy! It's just a mistake. Heck, it could happen to anyone. But if anyone else did it and the IRS found out that person would be in alot of trouble and not likely to be nominated to a cabinet post any time soon.

But rules are rules only when we are talking about Republicans. For Democrats, rules are merely suggestions!

Special Election for NY Congressional Seat Gives 65 Vote Edge to Democrat!

Maybe the GOP can hire the same folks who have been helping Al Franken manufacture votes in Minnesota to help with the recount!

Don't let anyone tell you their vote doesn't count...

This was the special election for the congressional seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand(D) who was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.

March 31, 2009 - 11:04PM ET
U.S. House - District 20 - General
Scott Murphy(Dem) 77,344 50%
James Tedisco(GOP) 77,279 50%

100% of precincts reporting
Results from 2008 election gave Gillibrand the win with a 75,620 vote margin (~24%) making this a pretty spectacular comeback for the GOP in this district but still missing it by a hair. Viewed as a referendum on Obama, this shows a high level of voter dissatisfaction which spells trouble for the Dems in the congressional elections in 2010.

There may be remaining absentee ballots before an official winner is declared, so cross your fingers.

Miss Universe Had Faboo Time at Guantanamo Bay

Maybe they can hold the pageant there after Obama closes the detention facility!

Miss Universe says had "lot of fun" in Guantanamo
By Pascal Fletcher
Reuters
Tue Mar 31, 2009

MIAMI (Reuters) - A "relaxing, calm, beautiful place" may not be everyone's description of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds about 240 prisoners in a detention center that has drawn condemnation from around the world.

But this was the opinion of reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, who visited the U.S. naval facility in eastern Cuba this month on a trip organized by the United Service Organizations (USO) which supports U.S. troops.
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The Guantanamo Bay base, whose presence Cuba's government has contested as illegal for years, is used by U.S. authorities as a prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects. Critics have condemned it as a symbol of abuses in Washington's war on terrorism launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Caracas-born Mendoza, 22, who visited the facility March 20-25 along with Miss USA Crystle Stewart, 27, enthused about her Guantanamo trip as an "incredible experience" in a blog entry posted on the Miss Universe website dated March 27, 2009

[Note: The web site has apparently been scrubbed. This is the only mention you will find.]

"It was a loooot of fun!," Mendoza wrote, describing how she and Stewart met U.S. military personnel and took rides around the camp, which is encircled by a barbed-wire fenced, minefields and watchtowers. She said they also visited a bar on the base and the "unbelievable" beach there.

"We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the(y) recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting," she wrote.

"I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful."

Q: What do PETA and Al Gore Have in Common?

A: They're both HYPOCRITES!

I'm Al Gore, I'll leave the light on for you...

So, how did Al Gore, Mr. Save the Planet from Global Warming, observe Earth Hour when good liberals everywhere were told to turn off all their electric lights? The same guy in Tennessee who broke the story about Al Gore's astronomic use of energy drove by Gore's Nashville mansion and what did he see? Plenty, as all the floodlights for Al Gore's landscaping were still blazing even though the huge floodlights on the front of the 9,000 square foot home were dimmed.

PETA Kills Puppies and Kittens at Slaughterhouse Masquerading as Animal Shelter!

PETA Killed 95 Percent of Adoptable Pets in its Care During 2008
Hypocritical Animal Rights Group’s 2008 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 21,339

WASHINGTON DC – Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters.

According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers.

Despite having a $32 million budget, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginia’s State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse.

See more at Peta Kills Animals, including the new ad suggesting celebrity supporters of PETA have "blood on their hands."

Just two more examples out of dozens of libs who want to run OUR lives but refuse to live by the same rules!

Monday, March 30, 2009

The Latest Installment of Cradle to Grave Socialism: Obama Takes Over Car Warranties for GM & Chrysler!

Imagine getting your car serviced with all the efficiency of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles!

From Obama's Monday morning news conference:

"Let me be clear: the United States government has no interest or intention of running GM."

And yet, moments later Obama declared:

"Starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee."

SCARY!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Economic Freedom Under Assault as Obama Forces General Motors CEO to Resign

When you take Obama's dollar, you will do what Obama says!
GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest
By MIKE ALLEN
Politico
March 29, 2009

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

The surprise announcement about the classically iconic American corporation is perhaps the most vivid sign yet of the tectonic change in the relationship between business and government in this era of subsidies and bailouts.

Wagoner has been CEO for 8 years and at GM for more than 30. The company has not said who will replace him. GM has received $13.4 billion in government aid, and has been seeking $16.6 billion more.

Industry sources had said the White House planned very tough medicine in Monday's announcement, which turned out to be an understatement. And it went to the very top. The measures to be imposed by the government will have a dramatic effect on workers, unions, suppliers, bondholders, shareholders, retirees and the communities where plants are located, the sources said.
Poor Rick Wagoner. Even though Obama was the #1 recipient of GM contributions, ole Rick personally gave the maximum to Mitt Romney in the primary and didn't get smart and make the required payoff to Obama later on.

Will Obama Force Union Prez to Resign?

Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers Union has been a key stumbling block preventing General Motors from regaining profitability. Monday we will learn what "dramatic" actions Obama will take to change that sorry state of affairs.



Federal interference in the management of America's corporate giants is the downside of accepting federal dollars for bailouts. But it's worse than that. With the Obama Administration capping executive pay while demanding dictatorial powers to seize businesses economic freedom and the basic prosperity which is the driving engine of American life and what peace that exists throughout the world as a result is under assault.

Years from now when the damage to our political and economic system is clear for all to see will we sit back and ask ourselves why no one did anything to stop this? Or will we do something about it now while we still can?

Basic Training for the Conservative Comeback!

The steps YOU can take that make a difference TODAY!

A while back one of the commenters at Flopping Aces observed that we often spend too much time complaining about the latest Obama outrage while not doing much about it. The comment reminded me of a T-shirt our gal Skye was wearing when she was photographed with Michelle Malkin at the very first Gathering of Eagles in Washington D.C. to support VICTORY in Iraq. Skye's shirt declared: "Stop bitching. Start a Revolution!" That may be something of a lefty call to arms but there's no reason we can't use it too!

I cite Skye here for another reason. She's proof that one person can make a difference. She hopped in her car one day and drove the two plus hours to Washington to attend the Gathering of Eagles and next thing we know she joined with other like minded individuals in weekly demonstrations in West Chester, PA and started a grass roots conservative group to advance the agenda on the state and local level.

Here's how YOU can make a difference:

In February, I wrote the "Blueprint for the coming GOP Revolution." That post mainly addressed GOP leaders and the need to embrace new technologies and modes of communicating our message. But the most important component of that blueprint is the need to build a GOP community. If you are a regular commenter at this blog and others with similar themes you are already part of that community. The challenge now is how to channel your energy toward making an impact beyond your online circle of acquaintances and the regular contact you have with family and friends regarding conservative issues.

Each of us can do something and it's up to the individual to choose which path is best for them. Here are a few suggestions:

I. Contribute to aspiring conservative candidates

Money is the mother's milk of politics and that's even more true for conservatives who must overcome the free media advantage usually accorded to liberal candidates. If John McCain had received the same media attention Barack Hussein Obama did during the election Sarah Palin would be Vice President today!

So, donate to candidates or conservative organizations that best match your beliefs. The best $50 I ever spent was when I donated to John Thune in South Dakota in his bid to unseat then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. I'm looking forward to tossing some more coin in the hat to unseat Harry Reid in 2010 and some to Pat Toomey, if he runs in the primary to boot RINO Arlen Specter out of office in Pennsylvania.

II. Write Letters to the Editor

All those who comment at this blog have the skill set required to compose a short letter to the editor of your local newspaper and it's vital you do so. Newspapers are deluged with letters from liberals and the more letters from conservatives the more these left leaning editors will be on notice that you are paying attention. With newspaper circulation dropping to all time lows, the pressure is on for them to demonstrate greater representation of the views of ALL their readers, not just the ones they agree with. Check the paper's online web site for the email address and make sure to keep your letter's length under the paper's requirement. Short letters are more likely to be printed.

III. Write Your Senators and Representatives

I have worked in politics and government at every level from the Court House to the White House and I can say from experience that your letters to elected officials do have an impact. You may only get a form letter reply in return, but your concerns are tabulated and reported to the boss. Emails and phone calls are fine, but they don't carry the weight of an original letter (don't send form letters). Just like letters to the editor, keep your letter short and to the point. The most impactful letters address a single topic that is currently before congress. And make sure to get the letters on their way ASAP when the muse strikes you. It won't do much good if it arrives after the vote on your issue is taken.

IV. Attend Town Halls Meetings, Other Events

If your Congressman, Congresswoman or Senator is hosting a Town Hall meeting in your area make it a point to take family or friends to attend. If you have the moxie for public speaking stand up and ask a question.

VI. Seek Out Like minded Locals

Tens of thousands of Americans have been taking to the streets in recent weeks for "Tea Parties" to protest Obama's economic policies. Attend one in your area and make sure to sign up for more information if the group is planning other events or activities. This may be the first step many of your friends, family or neighbors take to getting more involved in a larger and sustained grass roots effort. It's also a lot of fun.

You may also wish to contact your county Republican Party (do they have a web site?) Some open their meetings to the public and all have events throughout the year that you may wish to attend. You may even wish to volunteer to serve as a precinct organizer in your neighborhood.

Reader Ideas?

What additional ideas do you have to recommend to help folks get more involved and make a difference?

The bottom line: Actions speak louder than words. Make your voice heard and make it count!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Earth Day Saturday Celebrates Death of Freedom

Turn out your lights for Earth Day and prepare to live like a North Korean peasant!

The watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) comrades at Earth Hour want you to celebrate Earth Day by turning out your lights for an hour on Saturday. I say celebrate FREEDOM and turn your lights ON!

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The real motivation behind these save the Earth, save the whales, save the _______ (fill in the blank) neocoms is to take away more and more of your freedom to decide how YOU want to live your life. They're not content just to do as they please. They want to force us all to live by their rules.

Today's environmentalists have succeeded in dictating what kind of car you can drive, and soon what color it is to be painted. They banned incandescent light bulbs, told us all what kind of toilet or shower head we can use and what kind of washing machine to buy.

How long will it be before Saturday's one hour self imposed power outage is mandatory and imposed by the state? Not long....

Utilities in California are already experimenting with "smart meters" that permit the utility, or the state, to monitor your power usage and shut off appliances or air-conditioning to save power. And with environmentalists continuing to block development of any and all new power sources it's only a matter of time before electricity is rationed.

Day by day, our freedom to choose how to live is being eroded. We can either accept this slow road to serfdom or we can do something about it.

What are YOU doing about it?

Grilling Geithner: Two GOP Reps Talk Truth to Treasury

Michelle Bachman(R-MN) is another Pit Bull with lipstick!

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Constitutionally Clueless

Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) asks Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner what authority he has under the U.S. Constitution for the radical actions he is taking. The look on Sec. Geithner's face is tinged with vintage Obamesque arrogance matched with the deer in the headlights cluelessness that has become a hallmark of Poor Timmy's short tenure at Treasury.

It's as if he doesn't even understand the question. The Constitution? What's that got to do with my plan to seize private property?

And Bachman doesn't let it go at that. See the video here (start at 55 seconds).

Rep. Manzullo Calls Geithner's Power Grab "Radical"

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) grills Geither on the lack of specifics for the radical plan to allow the federal government to seize businesses it deems a risk to the financial health of the U.S. economy (anyone remember the Bolshevick Revolution?)


Rep. Manzullo: "You realize how radical your proposal is...you're talking about seizing private business and if it's a prudent and carefully designed proposal you would have the answers to some of my questions."

Two more GOP Reps who show they aren't afraid to take on the Obamalith!

Our leaders are doing their job. What are YOU doing to help?

Thursday, March 26, 2009

New Ad From American Issues Project

30 seconds of solid truth....

Across the board the GOP and conservatives are firing back on all cylinders. What are YOU doing to help?

Will Obama's Chief of Staff Return Money From Stock Options He Got While Helping to Drive Freddie Mac Into the Ground?

The Chicago Trib reports how Rahm Emanuel scored big at Freddie Mac!

The collapse of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were key elements in the financial meltdown of 2008. It's no secret that Democrats under Bill Clinton had used both organizations as personal piggybanks to reward loyal friends. Note: President Bush put a stop to such gross patronage during his Administration.

We all know about the tens of millions in bonuses Fannie Mae paid to Franklin Raines, former Clinton White House Budget Director and Jamie Gorelick, former Clinton Deputy Attorney General. (So far no angry ACORN protests outside their palatial homes and no demand by Democrats in Congress that the money be returned).

But what continues to go largely unreported is the role that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel played at Freddie Mac and the compensation he earned for showing up for board meetings six times a year. Later, as a candidate for congress Emanuel received more in campaign contributions from Freddie Mac than any other candidate.

Rahm Emanuel's profitable stint at mortgage giant
By Bob Secter and Andrew Zajac
Chicago Tribune
March 26, 2009

...Because of Freddie Mac's federal charter, the board in Emanuel's day was a hybrid of directors elected by shareholders and those appointed by the president. Photobucket

In his final year in office, Clinton tapped three close pals: Emanuel, Washington lobbyist and golfing partner James Free, and Harold Ickes, a former White House aide instrumental in securing the election of Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Senate. Free's appointment was good for four months, and Ickes' only three months.
...
Freddie Mac board did most of its work in committees. Yet proxy statements that detailed committee assignments showed none for Emanuel, Free or Ickes during the time they served in 2000 or 2001. Most other directors carried two committee assignments each.
...
[B]uried deep in corporate and government documents on the Freddie Mac Freddie Mac scandal is a little-known and very different story involving Emanuel.

He was named to the Freddie Mac board in February 2000 by Clinton, whom Emanuel had served as White House political director and vocal defender during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals.

The board met no more than six times a year. Unlike most fellow directors, Emanuel was not assigned to any of the board's working committees, according to company proxy statements. Immediately upon joining the board, Emanuel and other new directors qualified for $380,000 in stock and options plus a $20,000 annual fee, records indicate.

On Emanuel's watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass.

The accounting scandal wasn't the only one that brewed during Emanuel's tenure.

During his brief time on the board, the company hatched a plan to enhance its political muscle. That scheme, also reviewed by the board, led to a record $3.8 million fine from the Federal Election Commission for illegally using corporate resources to host fundraisers for politicians. Emanuel was the beneficiary of one of those parties after he left the board and ran in 2002 for a seat in Congress from the North Side of Chicago.
...
Freddie Mac reported recently that it lost $50 billion in 2008. It so far has tapped $14 billion of the government's guarantee and said it soon will need an additional $30 billion to keep operating.
...
Federal campaign records show that Emanuel received $25,000 from donors with ties to Freddie Mac in the 2002 campaign cycle, more than twice the amount collected that election by any other candidate for the U.S. House or Senate.

With all the outrage over AIG bonuses why no outrage over the role Democrats played in the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac mess?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Obama: Damn the Icebergs! Full Speed Ahead!

From President Obama's news conference Tuesday night:

"This is a big ocean liner. It's not a speedboat. It doesn't turn around immediately. But we're in a better place because of the decisions we have made."

So, full speed ahead on the most massive federal spending spree of all time!

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Something tells me the HMS Obama doesn't have enough life boats either!

Summoning the Ron Paul Brigades

The U.S. Constitution is under threat!

George Will has a great column this week titled "The Toxic Assets We Elected." In it he describes the anti-constitutional moves taken by the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress.

A summary:
  • The Supremacy Clause in the United States Constitution, article VI, paragraph 2 states that treaties are the "supreme law of the land" and yet Obama is violating the North American Free Trade Agreement with his unilateral decision to ban Mexican trucks from American highways as a favor to the Teamsters Union.
  • Article I, section 2 states that "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States" yet Democrats in the House are readying a plan to give full voting privileges to a Democrat Representative for the District of  Columbia, which by any definition is NOT a state. 
Will Concludes:
This is but a partial list of recent lawlessness, situational constitutionalism and institutional derangement. Such political malfeasance is pertinent to the financial meltdown as the administration, desperately seeking confidence, tries to stabilize the economy by vastly enlarging government's role in it.
Ron Paulians who rail against what Will calls this sort of "situational constitutionalism" have only one viable course of action: rejoin the GOP coalition. That's right. No more wasted time pursuing some impossible ideological purity. No more idle wankering about third party movements that only serve to enable Democrats.

Time for Ron Paul supporters to come home to the GOP. Don't worry, you'll be welcome. Just sit at the back and be quiet for a time. We're all working for the same cause.

GOP Fighting Back

What a shame the Obama cheerleaders in the "news" media won't cover this!

In the wake of the AIG bonus scandal the House Republican Conference put together this video of Democrats in both the House and Senate expressing confidence that Obama's stewardship of public funds used in the stimulus bill would be oh-so-much better than during the Bush years. What a laugh!

"Congress and the new Administration will ensure that TARP funds are used for lending to American workers and small businesses – so we can lift our economy out of recession – and not for the enrichment of a privileged few." -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, January 21, 2009

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See The House GOP Conference site: Holding Democrats Accountable for more.

Curt posted the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) video contrasting the fiscal responsiblity promises of candidate Obama with the "business as usual" attitudes policy of President Obama.

The NRSC also has this video which answers the question: Just who was it that protected the AIG bonuses?

Republicans are united in resisting the Obama disaster. You should be proud. They deserve your support!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Media Covers ACORN Rent-a-Mob in AIG Protest; Mostly Ignores Thousands at Tea Party Protests

Just in case you still aren't convinced there is a media bias favoring the left....

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Mark Dziubek of Southington Conn. steps off a bus in Fairfield Conn. on Saturday March 21, 2009 as members of the media wait outside at a AIG executive's home. A busload of activists outnumbered 2-to-1 by reporters and photographers are paying visits to the homes of American International Group Inc. executives in Connecticut to protest tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the company.

Today we learn that the group which organized and paid for the bus tour is nothing but a front for ACORN, the infamous voter fraud group whose most famous "community organizer" is none other than President Obama.

There are 294 Google News hits for this charade in Connecticut. Tens of thousands of Americans have risen these past few weeks in Tea Party Protests in large and small cities and towns all over this nation and they rate a paltry 492 Google News hits. Proof positive that a rent-a-mob with a bus can garner nearly the same mainstream media attention as that of spontaneous nationwide movement.

I searched the same news photo resource which carried several of ACORN protest photos looking for photos from any of the tea parties. Not a one was listed. In the news business, if you don't have a picture it's like it never happened.

Tired of being ignored? Make some noise!

Blogs and You Tube postings are spreading the message that the Tea Parties are a huge phenomenon. But unless or until that story gets reported on the front pages of your local newspaper and headlined on television the average American will likely never know that a groundswell of opposition is out there waiting for them to join.

So, plan to go to a Tea Party in your area, but more than that write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and ask why they have downplayed this huge story or ignored it altogether? It's easy to email your local paper. Just check their online web site for information.

If you don't speak up, don't complain when the story is ignored!

Comedian in Chief?

The latest Mike's America video!

Obama's "punch drunk" performance on CBS's 60 Minutes shows he is out of touch with the economic hardship endured by the American people. One minute & 20 seconds:


What's so funny Barack?

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Q: How Many Times Can I say I TOLD YOU SO Over the Remaining 46 Months of Obama?

A: About once a day!

Two months in and things in Obama-land don't look so good. All that hype about hope and change looks empty as the reality of governing demands more than sloganeering or a working teleprompter.

It seems every week more and more people recover from the hopey-changey hangover. The latest in this homecoming to sanity is Peggy Noonan, who went off the reservation before the last election but is now returning.

Readers may recall how dear Peggy gushed only a few short months ago on November 28 when she wrote:

Mr. Obama's cabinet picks and other nominations suggest moderation, also maturity, and his treatment of Joe Lieberman shows forbearance and shrewdness. Politics is a game of addition, take the long view, don't throw anyone out as you try to hit 60.
What a laugh riot! And now, on March 20th:

He is willowy when people yearn for solid, reed-like where they hope for substantial, a bright older brother when they want Papa, cool where they probably prefer warmth.
...
These are the two great issues, the economic crisis and our safety. In the face of them, what strikes one is the weightlessness of the Obama administration, the jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day. Isaiah Berlin famously suggested a leader is a fox or a hedgehog. The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In political leadership the hedgehog has certain significant advantages, focus and clarity of vision among them. Most presidents are one or the other. So far Mr. Obama seems neither.
For the Record: Peggy, I told you so!

Many of us warned the risk America would take if it elected the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate to the presidency. A man without any prior qualifications or experience for the office and one whose association with radicals offered us the only glimpse into who and what he truly is.

Obama dismissed all those points by claiming we were out to scare the American people:

"What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky." --Barack Obama, August 1, 2008
What a brilliant campaign ploy that was. What a shame the man can't govern like he campaigned.

But it's clear that Obama is NOT a centrist. All those moderates and so-called conservatives had a rude awakening as they realize they were fooled and the rest of us who warned them time and time again were right.

Sometimes it takes someone with a bit of distance from the scene to understand what is really going on. David Warren, a Canadian columnist writes with his perspective:

[Obama] is a free soul, but he is also the product of environments in which even moderately conservative ideas are never considered; but where people on the further reaches of the left are automatically welcomed as "avant-garde." His whole idea of where the middle might be, is well to the left of where the average American might think it is. To a man like Obama, as he has let slip on too many occasions when away from his teleprompter, "Middle America" is not something to be compromised with, but rather, something that must be manipulated, because it is stupid. And the proof that it can be manipulated, is that he is the president today.

It is at this point that the phenomenon known as "too clever by half" sets in. Technically, it is indistinguishable from arrogance and hubris, but it is unnecessary to stress the point. Sixty days into his first term (and I begin to doubt there'll be a second), he would seem already to have dug a hole from which no rhetorical skill can lift him.
46 months remain of what may be the first and only term of the Obama-Biden aberration. The quicker voters wake up to the fact they were conned the better we can contain the damage.

Congressional elections in 2010 are approximately 20 months away. The time to organize at the local level, recruit and support candidates for both House and Senate is now! Stop complaining. Get involved and make a difference!

Friday, March 20, 2009

The New Presidential Seal?

We know Obama's a big fan of seals of office so why not this one?


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Source: A Moody Blog

WH Press Secretary Gibbs Sets New Record for Stuttering As He Spins Answer on Geithner

Does the White House Press Secretary need a teleprompter too?

Watch as Robert Gibbs sets a new Obama Administration record (and that's saying something) for the most "uh"s and "um"s in a single sentence as he struggles to find the right spin to explain why Treasury Secretary knew all about the AIG bonuses a week before telling us this week that he was just as surprised as the rest of us (full story with video at Hot Air)....


Gibbs makes Scott McClellan, who held the job for a time during the Bush years, look downright competent by comparison. In fact, everything about the bumbling, incompetent Obama Administration makes Bush look better by comparison.

Remember that these are the guys making jokes about the Special Olympics!

To all you hopey-changey Kool Aid drinkers out there, just remember we warned you that change isn't always a good thing!

Bonus Video:

If you haven't seen the Shep Smith smackdown on the whole Bonusgate issue, it's a must see:


Thursday, March 19, 2009

Bonus Gate: How Obama, Geithner and Dodd Misled the Public on AIG Bonuses

PhotobucketWill Obama, Geithner or Dodd pay a price for their deception?

Remember back in February when the House and Senate rammed through the massive stimulus bill without even giving our elected officials the time to read the final version before voting on it? We were told this was an emergency and yet the bill was passed and then sat around for four days before Obama's big photo op in Denver to sign it.

Many of us thought that the reason for the bum's rush through Congress was to prevent a popular uprising from erupting over the hundreds of billions of pork and wasteful spending in the bill. Many feared there may be other surprises tucked into the bill which would come back to bite us later. Little did we know how soon that would happen.

Congress was all in a lather this week over the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG executives, presumably made possible with the $165 BILLION the U.S. Government has given the insurance giant to help it with it's financial woes.

Lost in all the congressional caterwauling is the fact that Democrats voted FOR the final bill which contained a provision to protect the AIG bonuses. Tucked away behind all those billions in pork was this:

From page H1412 of the Final Stimulus Bill, “SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:

“(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.”
Q: How did those few lines get inserted into the bill at the last minute which no one had the time to see before voting on it?

A: Democrats did it!

Readers may recall that Republicans overwhelmingly voted against the bill in both Houses of Congress. Republicans were shut out of the conference between House and Senate leaders which led to the final version of the bill which Democrats overwhelmingly voted for.

And it was in that conference that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd inserted the provision above. It's worth noting that Dodd was the number two recipient of campaign contributions from AIG at $103,900. The number one recipient of AIG money was BARACK OBAMA at $104,332.

How do we know Dodd inserted the language in the bill? He admitted it. But only after a day of making adamant denials that he had anything to do with it. It's one of the most blatant lies ever told on an issue of this magnitude in some time.




But of course Dodd insists that he was only acting at the behest of Treasury officials. Just who are those officials? Well, there is only one Treasury official confirmed by the U.S. Senate at the level that would interact with a U.S. Senator on a critical legislative matter and that is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Out of 24 top appointments at Treasury, he is the only one who has been confirmed and only 3 minor nominations have been made for the remaining offices. There is no one else at the department with the authority to make this request to Dodd.

But both Geithner and Dodd are now blaming unnamed "staffers" for the whole mess. Do these people have no shame?

Obama's Role

President Obama has apparently been too busy bashing Rush Limbaugh and throwing expensive White House parties to bother much with little details like trillion dollar stimulus bills or making sure his economic team at the Treasury Dept. is in place.

But Obama did take time off from picking a winner in the NCAA Basketball championship to defend his embattled Treasury Secretary with the usual straw men defense that has become a hallmark of his young Administration. On the White House lawn Obama held an impromptu press conference defending Timmy Geithner in which he compared him to Alexander Hamilton (the guy on the $10 bill) and said "Tim Geithner didn’t draft these contracts with AIG." No one ever said Geithner did draft those contracts, but he, or Treasury officials working for him, did intervene directly in the legislation which protected them.

Later at a town hall meeting in California Obama insisted "We didn't draft these contracts. We've got a lot on our plate," and went on to say that "it's my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don't make them."

He's got a lot on his plate? What kind of job did he think he was getting into? And to say that he didn't make this mess? It was his Treasury Dept. which protected these bonuses and he is responsible for the mess they have made of not only the AIG bonus business but the mishandling of nearly every economic initiative coming from his Administration. Writing at the Washington Post Michael Gerson summed it up this way: "So Obama seems to be saying: I'll take credit for taking the blame for something that is entirely the fault of others. Positively Clintonian. "

What Next?

They say the cover up is the worst part of any scandal. While that certainly would apply if a Republican were involved, somehow I doubt the same will be true in the AIG Bonus scandal and resulting Democrat cover up.

It's clear Dodd is a liar, Geithner, the man Democrats said was indispensable, is an incompetent failure. But the real failure here is that of President Obama. He's spent more time bashing Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans than he has managing the business of government.

And worse still, his clever but transparent deception shows us that he has contempt for the truth and the American public he believes he can continue to fool even as he continues in his deceptive, bungling, and yes, FAILING performance.

No matter how much he would like to Obama cannot blame the AIG mess on President Bush. It was Obama, not Bush, who signed the bill which protected the AIG bonuses. And it is Obama's, not Bush's, understaffed Treasury Dept. that hasn't been doing such a poor job in managing the hundreds of billions of assets the government has undertaken to stabilize the financial system.

Finally, it shows a real weakness of character for Obama to insist the final responsibility lies with him while insisting that his action or inaction isn't responsible for the mess in the first place.

But then, what else would you expect from an untested, inexperienced young man with no prior qualifications to the high office he now holds?

Just remember, we told you so!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Obama Reads Wrong Speech on Teleprompter at WH St. Pats Party

Who knew my little video spoof on Obama's 3 AM call would take this turn?

I can't wait for the video of this blooper!

Obama Thanks Himself, Irish PM Repeats Speech in Teleprompter Meltdown

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen reads word for word a speech that Obama had just read from a teleprompter, while the president apparently thanked himself for the invitation.
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.

Cowen was set to speak twice at the White House on Tuesday night because there were two different parties going on at the executive mansion. No matter -- he would give the same speech to the two different audiences.

But Cowen was 20 seconds into his second address when it dawned on him that he was giving word for word the speech that Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.

Cowen stopped and looked back at the president to say, "That's your speech."

Obama laughed and returned to the podium to offer what might have been Cowen's remarks. In doing so, President Obama thanked President Obama for inviting everyone over.
Makes you wonder if Obama hadn't had a few too many green beers? So much for the smartest guy in the world!

Reader Poll: Who Will Be the First Obama Official To Go? Gibbs or Geithner or ???

Incompetence in the Obama White House stems from the top down. That's all the more reason a scapegoat will be sacrificed!

Who will it be?

Treasury Secretary Geithner? The Doogie Howser of the Treasury Dept. The man who it was said was too important not to confirm but whose lack of competence has contributed to continued economic difficulties? The man who engineered the AIG bailout which included bonuses for executives?

or

WH Press Secretary Gibbs who seems to want to talk about Rush Limbaugh more than he wants to assure Americans Obama has a plan, let alone a clue, for dealing with the economic crisis.

What's your guess for who gets the axe first?

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It's 3 AM. Do You Know Where Your Teleprompter Is?

Don't be the last Obamaton in your neighborhood to admit you made a mistake!

The latest Mike's America production. One minute:

Thanks to Flopping Aces commenter Philly_NJ for the creative catalyst!

Today's Reading Assignment:
  • End of the Honeymoon, By David S. Broder in the Washington Post
  • More than a bad day: Worries grow that Barack Obama & Co. have a competence problem, By Michael Goodwin in the New York Daily News
  • Does Obama Know What He is Doing?, by Dick Morris, Syndicated column

White House Slams Vice President Cheney Personally From Press Podium

So much for the pretense of a civil political discourse!

If you missed Dick Cheney's no holds barred interview with John King on Sunday it's here: Part one, two, three, four, five. Transcript here.

Cheney's comments were direct, highly critical and in response to the "blame Bush" rhetoric so common in Obama's speeches. But Cheney's critique wasn't personal. The White House response was:

Asked about Cheney's remarks by a reporter Gibbs said: "I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy, so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal."

Even the New York Times called the sneering remark "caustic" and added "say goodbye to all that inaugural-era goodwill."

Another reporter followed up by describing Gibb's answer as "hard hitting, sarcastic" and asked whether "that was the [Administration] attitude, the sanctioned tone towards the former Vice President of the United States? (video here).

Like Rush, Cheney spoke a powerful truth and the White House knows that it must attack any and all who dare to criticize Obama.

No hope and change on display here. Nothing more than the usual Democrat gutter politics!

Obama Fundamentally Unsound!

Whoops! Used the wrong video in this post. It's fixed now.

Remember when Obama said McCain was "out of touch" for saying the fundamentals of our economy are sound? See the attack ad here. Obama said the exact same thing recently at a time when the Dow Jones average is 4,000 points lower. Is Obama out of touch or was John McCain right?

One wonders if McCain had been elected whether the Dow might still be around 11,000?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Despite Global Warming Scare, Hurricane Activity Lowest in 30 Years

PhotobucketAnother nail in the coffin for global warming hysterics!

Remember when Hurricanes Rita, then Katrina devastated the Southern U.S. in 2005? The globaloney crowd used that misfortune to pump up their scaremongering campaign and warned of worse to come if we didn't agree to their plans for a massive socialist reconstruction of Western society.

Fortunately for those of us who live along the coast warnings that the sky is falling proved to be false. We've had some of the quietest hurricane seasons in decades.

Good News for Coastal Residents. Bad News for Globaloney Alarmists

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2009 Global Tropical Cyclone Activity

Ryan N. Maue
PhD Student
Department of Meteorology
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
Florida State University

Tropical cyclone (TC) activity worldwide has completely and utterly collapsed during the past 2 to 3 years with TC energy levels sinking to levels not seen since the late 1970s. This should not be a surprise to scientists since the natural variability in climate dominates any detectable or perceived global warming impact when it comes to measuring yearly integrated tropical cyclone activity.

How long before the rest of the globaloney fraud comes crashing down?

PhotobucketIn 2007 the UN's International Panel on Climate Change admitted that the other big scare of a 20 foot rise in sea levels inundating the coasts was nowhere near close to reality even if the rest of their assumptions about CO2 and warming were true (see IPCC 2007 Policy Summary, PDF page 8). Under their most dire scenario sea levels over the next hundred years would rise two feet or less (my bet is on less. Much less.)

One reason holding back the UN IPCC from recognizing that increases in CO2 is a reaction to rising temperatures, and not the other way around, is the fact that governments like the Obama Administration are knocking themselves over to pass new taxes based on the amount of carbon used for energy. No link between CO2 and warming, no reason for new taxes. No new taxes, no more government grants to environmentalists or money for international climate panels.

But as pointed out in the post discussing Obama's cap and trade program, Americans are increasingly coming to the correct conclusion that fears of global warming are exaggerated and the need for government programs to address a non-existent problem is less urgent.

Concern About Obama Policy Begins to Sink In at Local Level

Hope and change only gets you so far...

Filling the front page of the Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer:

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Full front page image here.

Is Obama taking on too much at once, at economy's expense?
By Steven Thomma and David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers
March 15, 2009

WASHINGTON — Is President Barack Obama trying to do too many things at the expense of focusing on Job One: the economy?

While the world awaits a coherent plan to fix America's banks, the president also is urging a vast overhaul of health care, a plan to tax and thus limit tailpipe and smokestack emissions thought to cause global warming, the development of alternative energy systems, a dramatic shift of the nation's tax burden, ambitious new education initiatives and a rewrite of financial regulations.
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If that weren't enough in his first 50 days, he's also found time to create a White House council on women and girls and to travel weekly to politically key states. This week, he heads to California for two days to talk about the economy.

If he tries to do too much, some analysts say, he could end up a modern-day Jimmy Carter, blazing into town and throwing the kitchen sink at Congress, only to end his first year in office with a pile of broken plumbing.
...
William Galston, a top adviser in Democrat Bill Clinton's White House, noted that Carter, like Obama, thought it critical to enact his entire agenda as soon as possible when he took office in 1977.

"Everybody has warned me not to take on too many projects so early in the administration," Carter wrote in his diary. "But it's almost impossible for me to delay something that I see needs to be done."
That isn't the first time we've heard comparisons between Carter and Obama. What a shame voters weren't paying attention.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Is Obama the New Nixon?

How long before full White House involvement in enemies list and attack politics is revealed?

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Previously we learned that the White House was actively involved in a strategy to tar and feather Rush Limbaugh and distract the country from Obama's failure to lead on the most vital economic issues. This revelation about a president who promised to put aside the old politics of personal destruction is one of many factors currently causing Obama supporters to have buyer's remorse.

But now, we have reason to ask if the tactic that Obama once derided hasn't become standard operating procedure. First it was Rush, then Rick Santelli, then Jim Cramer, then, then, then....

Anyone who dares to criticize Obama can expect to be attacked directly from the White House or by dozens of liberal/socialist attack dog groups funded by George Soros whose leaders have direct personal and professional ties to the White House.

Evidence of just how low these people are willing to go came this week:

The new left-wing conspiracy
By BEN SMITH
Politico
March 10, 2009

The vast new left-wing conspiracy sets its tone every morning at 8:45 a.m., when officials from more than 20 labor, environmental and other Democratic-leaning groups dial into a private conference call hosted by two left-leaning Washington organizations.

The “8:45 A.M. call,” as it’s referred to by members, began three weeks ago, and it marks a new level in coordination by the White House’s allies at a time when the conservative opposition is struggling for a toe-hold and major agenda items like health care reform appear closer than ever to passage.

The call has helped attempts to link the Republican Party to radio host Rush Limbaugh, and has served as the launching ground for attacks on critics of Obama’s policy proposals. It springs from a recognition of what was lacking in the Clinton years, said Jennifer Palmieri, the senior vice president for communications at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, one of the groups hosting the call.
...
The call has proved particularly effective at coordinating attacks on critics, said Jacki Schechner, the national communications director for Health Care for America Now, a labor-backed alliance of groups that support Democratic efforts to expand health care.
...
When a new group called Conservative for Patients Rights, for instance, launched an ad campaign featuring former health care executive Rick Scott, “There was a discussion about what do we know about this guy and in a very quick period of time we were able to come up with his background,” she said.

Scott, as progressive groups quickly informed reporters, had reportedly been forced to resign as head of the company became known as Columbia/HCA amid fraud charges,
and the company eventually paid a massive settlement in the case.

When Betsy McCaughey, best known for her attacks on Clinton’s 1993 health care plan, published a column criticizing Obama, groups on the call coordinated attacks on her recalling questions about her 1993 article and noting her seat on the board of a medical device maker, in which she also owned stock.
...
Though White House officials do not participate in the calls, Palmieri said, the new infrastructure is closely tied to the White House. Podesta directed Obama’s transition, and Americans United for Change exists largely to run ads promoting the White House agenda.
You'll note that the attacks are mostly personal and have little relation to any policy dispute which is at the core of the criticism being leveled at Obama.

Is is Unpatriotic to criticize Obama?

Raising Obama to the level of a patriotic icon is a new low for the left which trashed patriotism during the most difficult moments of the Iraq war. But now they embrace fallen angels like author Frank Schaeffer who said this on MSNBC Live recently:

SCHAFFER: Republicans have become to our war against economic collapse, what Jane Fonda was what she was in Vietnam rooting for the other side. We're in another war now! This is an economic war, and everybody who loves this country has to stand together and back our president.
So now, the left which constantly reminded us it was their patriotic duty to oppose U.S. policy during the war in Iraq is now saying we must support Obama in this "economic war" or we don't "love this country?"

It reminds me of something Hillary Clinton, who herself decried the "politics of personal destruction," said about the right to dissent:






Enemies list, orchestrated attacks, big money slush funds.... Sounds like Nixon has been reincarnated as a socialist!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Obama Honeymoon Ending as Former Backers and Media Realize WHO He Really Is

Just remember WE TOLD YOU SO!

Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign war room prominently displayed a sign which declared "It's the economy stupid!" James Carville, who coined that legendary reminder to keep one's focus on the most important issue, has apparently forgotten it as he advises the Obama Administration which appears to be more interested in using the financial crisis as a tool to advance their radical agenda.

While nearly every business leader is pleading for Obama's attention on economic issues his top priority the past few weeks has been to attack Rush Limbaugh. It started when Obama told GOP congressional leaders "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done." The attack soon shifted to his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and most recently to Obama's campaign strategist David Plouffe.

These attacks on Limbaugh and other critics are not random events but a coordinated campaign being directed by the White House at the suggestion of James Carville. Does President Obama have nothing better to do?

Wayward "Conservatives" Seeing the Light

The impact of the White House's inept leadership on economic issues has accelerated the drop in Obama's approval rating first started when wayward Republicans and so-called "conservatives" who got hooked on the Hope and Change Kool Aid began to recover from the hangover.

These were the folks who jumped off the GOP ship and onto the Hope and Change parade when it looked like the smart thing to do. They believed Obama's campaign rhetoric and expected him to govern as a centrist. They are only now coming to their senses.

It was a shock to many conservatives when Chris Buckley, the son of the late William F. Buckley Jr. announced he had seen the light and was pulling the lever for Obama. Here's what Chris said in his announcement:

President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.
Buckley, who also claimed in the same column to be "a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets" has now come to his senses. About Obama's plans he wonders "[Obama] tells us that all this is going to work because the economy is going to be growing by 3.2 percent a year from now. Do you believe that? Would you take out a loan based on that?"

Next on the turncoat parade is New York Times "conservative" columnist David Brooks. Readers may recall Brooks was an early admirer of Obama. He too appears to be over the hopey-changey hangover:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice.
Sadly, Brooks, who is no fan of Limbaugh, still believes the best plan forward would be a revolution of moderates. Can anyone point to a time when that's worked?

Democrat Business Leaders Bailing Out Too?

And who can forget early Obama backers like billionaire Warren Buffet? Obama embraced his support in an effort to ease voter's concerns about his lack of experience in leading on economic issues:

"On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker ... who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House." Barack Obama (Monica Langley, "Volcker Makes A Comeback As Part Of Obama Brain Trust," The Wall Street Journal, 10/21/08)
Here's some of what the Sage from Omaha had to say about Obama's leadership in a recent interview:

BUFFETT: Now, just rephrase that and since it's, in my view, it's an economic war, and--I don't think anybody on December 7th would have said a `war is a terrible thing to waste, and therefore we're going to try and ram through a whole bunch of things and--but we expect to--expect the other party to unite behind us on the--on the big problem.' It's just a mistake, I think, when you've got one overriding objective, to try and muddle it up with a bunch of other things.

Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, another Obama backer had this to say:

The Obama administration has given way to growing worry and frustration. I find myself wringing my hands, not over the goals President Obama has set but over the ineffectual ways the administration has pursued them.
...
I believe by now, the people are eager for the administration to rein in chaos. But this is not happening.

Until the administration does this, we should not embark on attempting to fix another major part of the economy.
Elected Democrats Wavering

While avoiding any direct criticism of Obama's leadership some Democrats are expressing concern with Obama's apparent indifference to the same big spending Washington ways he ran against.

Senators Russ Feingold and Evan Byah were outspoken in their opposition to the pork laden omnibus spending bill which Obama signed in secret this week. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Byah went as far as to suggest that Obama's "fiscal credibility" was at stake since he had run against earmarks.

On the House side, cracks in the wall of Democrat unity were evident early on as a handful of members joined Republicans in bipartisan opposition to the stimulus bill. In fact, the only bipartisan aspect of that bill in the House was the oppostion.

Now, more cracks in the latest round coming from House Democrats like Jane Harman (D-CA) who said: "The hardest part of this is Congress' digestive tract, which is rather challenged. We're not used to this," referring to the crisis atmosphere and attempt to ram all kinds of legislation through before the American people are fully aware of what is happening.

"News" Media Seeing the Light?

Perhaps the biggest shift of opinion has occurred in the "news" media where, like many above, the hopey-changey hangover is just about over.

Financial pundit Jim Cramer was happy to jump on the Obama bandwagon when it was feel good rhetoric about hope and change. He fell off that wagon in spectacular fashion when he realized Obama was "following a radical agenda" that led to the "greatest destruction of wealth by a President."

For this heresy, Cramer was attacked by the White House and dismissed as someone who was rarely correct in his market analysis. But it would seem that Cramer's inability to see through Obama's smoke and mirrors early on was a bigger liablity than his current opinions which are widely shared.

Like many Obama supporters writer Camille Paglia feels torn about what is happening. She has yet to connect the dots to the man himself but she's almost there:

Free Barack!

Yes, free the president from his flacks, fixers and goons -- his posse of smirky smart alecks and provincial rubes, who were shrewd enough to beat the slow, pompous Clintons in the mano-a-mano primaries but who seem like dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship.

Heads should be rolling at the White House for the embarrassing series of flubs that have overshadowed President Obama's first seven weeks in office and given the scattered, demoralized Republicans a huge boost toward regrouping and resurrection.
Disappointment between what Obama said during the campaign and his actions now is very troubling to the "news" media that drunk the Hopey-Changey Kool Aid. Michael Scherer writing at Time Magazine's blog Swampland:

"The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future. . . . We have real problems in this country right now and the American people are looking to us for answers, not distractions, not diversions, not manipulations." -- Barack Obama, Norfolk, Va., September 10, 2008

President Obama won the presidency by promising to be a different, more substantive, less gimmicky leader. He said he would not waste our time on "phony outrage," like fulminations on the meaning of "lipstick on a pig," or silly characters like "Joe The Plumber," a guy who was actually named Samuel and was not even a licensed plumber. No, Obama said he was going to solve problems instead.

At a time of unprecedented threats to the United States, a time of financial collapse, bank failures and record layoffs, at a time when the credit crisis has not been solved, and the stock market is in free fall, at a time of stagnating wars, rising terrorism in Pakistan and growing nuclear potential in Iran, the White House has done the easy thing. It has asked the American people to focus their attention not on solving the problems, but on a big-mouthed entertainer in Florida. This may be smart politics. But it is also the same petty strategy that John McCain employed during the presidential campaign, the one that our new president promised to rise above.
The idea that Obama would govern as a centrist is now in the process of being discarded completely. Don't say we didn't warn you:

Clive Crook writing in the Finacial Times:
If Mr Obama were a centrist he would be positioning himself to the right of the congressional Democrats, with a plan to be walked back in their direction. In fact, his budget has delighted the left of his party. Far from pulling him to the centre, most Democrats will resist that move if he tries. Or am I missing something?
Stuart Taylor at National Journal:

Obama's Left Turn
Centrists fear that the president's budget reveals his liberal leanings.

Having praised President Obama's job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be deepening what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control of the economy as to leave most Americans permanently less prosperous and less free.

Other Obama-admiring centrists have expressed similar concerns.
...
The house is burning down. It's no time to be watering the grass.

Obama's inability to live up to his campaign promises to control spending seem to bother some liberal pundits more than his leftward lurch.

This from Maureen Dowd at the New York Times:

In one of his disturbing spells of passivity, President Obama decided not to fight Congress and live up to his own no-earmark pledge from the campaign.
...
Team Obama sounds hollow, chanting that “the status quo is not acceptable,” even while conceding that the president is accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork.
And one wonders how Andrew Sullivan feels for being taken for a sucker:

We are being presented with what can only be described as a massive increase in government spending and power with the only fiscal balance being wringing much more money from the successful. The president predicted a tight budget and spending control in his non-SOTU, and he appealed to fiscal conservatives by promising a long-term attack on entitlement spending. I see nothing here yet that fulfills that promise.
Even Paul Krugman, the New York Times resident Bush hater is concerned:

Among people I talk to there's a growing sense of frustration, even panic, over Mr. Obama's failure to match his words with deeds. The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern.
Every day the list of disillusioned Obama supporters grows and grows. And as it does, Obama's poll approval numbers will continue to worsen as more and more people become aware of just who and what they voted for.

They voted for hope and change and all they got was more of the same failed radical left wing ideas that have already been proven the world over to be the enemies of freedom, prosperity and ultimately peace.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Economists Give Obama a Failing Grade

He is apparently unable or unwilling to focus on specifics to address fiscal crisis!
Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists
By PHIL IZZO
The Wall Street Journal
MARCH 11, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.
...
On average, they gave the president a grade of 59 out of 100, and although there was a broad range of marks, 42% of respondents rated Mr. Obama below 60. Mr. Geithner received an average grade of 51. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scored better, with an average 71.
...
E]conomists' main criticism of the Obama team centered on delays in enacting key parts of plans to rescue banks. "They overpromised and underdelivered," said Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital. "Secretary Geithner scheduled a big speech and came out with just a vague blueprint. The uncertainty is hanging over everyone's head."

Mr. Geithner unveiled the Obama administration's plans Feb. 10, but he offered few details, and stocks sank on the news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down almost 20% since the announcement, as multiple issues have weighed on investors' confidence. The Treasury secretary has since appeared before Congress and offered more specifics but has said action on key parts of the plan still is weeks away.
...
The economists' negative ratings mark a turnaround in opinion. In December, before Mr. Obama took office, three-quarters of respondents said the incoming administration's economic team was better than the departing Bush team. However, Mr. Geithner's latest marks are lower than the average grade of 57 that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson received in January.


Yikes! You know Obama is headed for trouble when experts actually think Bush's Paulson did a better job!

Obama's Cap And Trade Policy: An Urgent Need to Save the Planet or Collect More Taxes?

Program is more about income redistribution than saving the environment!

New poll shows the manufactured crisis for action on global warming is wearing thin!

Every manufactured crisis has a sell by date. That date for the global warming scare is arriving shortly. The latest Gallup Poll shows a dramatic rise in the number of people who believe the scare over global warming is “exaggerated.” That explains why Democrats are ramping up the scaremongering on global warming as they prepare to ram Obama's cap and trade policy through Congress. The longer they wait the more people will learn what a fraud global warming is.

As part of that orchestrated campaign:

Democratic Senator John Kerry warned on Wednesday that deferring potentially costly actions to combat climate change because of the global economic slump amounted to "a mutual suicide pact." "Climate change is not governed by a recession, it's governed by scientific facts about what's happening to Earth. And you either accept the realities of the science or you don't," Kerry said .

Kerry spoke one day after the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change (program PDF, Highlights) had concluded in New York. The number of attendees at this year's conference was double that from 2008 with hundreds of scientists and political leaders in attendance. Interestingly, their views of what Kerry calls the "realities of the science " is somewhat different.

Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic told the Conference on Sunday that the real motivation behind the great global warming scare are the "political rent-seekers... interested neither in temperature, carbon dioxide, competing scientific hypotheses and their testing, nor in freedom or markets. They are interested in their businesses and their profits--made with the help of politicians."

It's About MONEY, Not the Environment!

Like most other things in life, it's all about the money. And there's is big money to be made in the global warming fraud. And government is no exception. Obama's plan for cap and trade is not designed to save the environment. It won't significantly reduce CO2 emissions, but it will significantly increase energy costs paid by the consumer.

Who Pays for Cap and Trade?
Hint: They were promised a tax cut during the Obama campaign.
The Wall Street Journal
MARCH 9, 2009

Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be distributed across regions and income groups.

Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing "polluters," not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs would inevitably be passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices. Stating the obvious, Peter Orszag -- now Mr. Obama's budget director -- told Congress last year that "Those price increases are essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program."

Hit hardest would be the "95% of working families" Mr. Obama keeps mentioning, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with the caveat "unless you use energy." Putting a price on carbon is regressive by definition because poor and middle-income households spend more of their paychecks on things like gas to drive to work, groceries or home heating.
...
But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey -- come from California or the Northeast.

Coal provides more than half of U.S. electricity, and 25 states get more than 50% of their electricity from conventional coal-fired generation. In Ohio, it totals 86%, according to the Energy Information Administration. Ratepayers in Indiana (94%), Missouri (85%), New Mexico (80%), Pennsylvania (56%), West Virginia (98%) and Wyoming (95%) are going to get soaked.

PhotobucketAnother way to think about it is in terms of per capita greenhouse-gas emissions. California is the No. 2 carbon emitter in the country but also has a large economy and population. So the average Californian only had a carbon footprint of about 12 tons of CO2-equivalent in 2005, according to the World Resource Institute's Climate Analysis Indicators, which integrates all government data. The situation is very different in Wyoming and North Dakota -- paging Senators Mike Enzi and Kent Conrad -- where every person was responsible for 154 and 95 tons, respectively. See the nearby chart for cap and trade's biggest state winners and losers.

Democrats say they'll allow some of this ocean of new cap-and-trade revenue to trickle back down to the public. In his budget, Mr. Obama wants to recycle $525 billion through the "making work pay" tax credit that goes to many people who don't pay income taxes. But $400 for individuals and $800 for families still doesn't offset carbon's income raid, especially in states with higher carbon use.
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Cap and trade, in other words, is a scheme to redistribute income and wealth -- but in a very curious way. It takes from the working class and gives to the affluent; takes from Miami, Ohio, and gives to Miami, Florida; and takes from an industrial America that is already struggling and gives to rich Silicon Valley and Wall Street "green tech" investors who know how to leverage the political class.
The cap and trade argument makes the assumption that if energy costs more people will use less of it. Will workers now drive to their jobs 4 days a week instead of five? Will we heat or cool our homes six days a week instead of seven? Those of us already conserving because of high gas prices will be stuck with paying more in taxes to be given to people who work less.

John Stossel of ABC's program 20/20 debunks the global warming fraud in this short video:
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