Articles Tagged As “Barack Obama”:
2559.\\ The Greenroom ยป The Sweetness of Doing Nothing
This, folks, is what it looks like when government is doing too much. Government is too big. Some of us have been pointing this out for decades, but I think more and more of the Americans who don't pay much attention, as long as their lives don't have to change too much, are now waking up and realizing that government has gotten big enough to actually fulfill Michelle Obama's promise: to actually change our lives.The truth is, Americans don't want government to change our lives. Government that does less is what more and more people are realizing we need. We don't want government that's big enough to force us to buy health insurance - or to make lesser and cheaper medical treatments the "norm" in order to save "society's" resources. We don't want government that thinks it has some reason to care how many rooms there are in our homes, and how they are heated and cooled. We don't want government that's big enough to force talk radio, TV, or internet content into a state-approved homeostasis between "left" and "right." We don't want government that can kill our jobs by making it too expensive to employ us. We certainly don't want government that employs members of a thuggish service employees' union and caters to their demands - demands that can only be satisfied by confiscating more and more from the private sector's producers: those to whom the same union employees display a surly and unhelpful demeanor when the taxpayers have the misfortune to need to do business with the government.
The ugly face of big government is plastered across every facet and every communication medium of modern life, here in 2010. What we need to realize is that it isn't possible to have big government that looks and acts any other way. This is it: this is what activist government - government that won't let us go back to our lives as usual - looks like. The time has come for government to stop "fixing" things.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Big Government, Congress, HotAir, Liberty, Michelle Obama, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2556.\\ Obama's Health Care Illusions
If you think anything contained in Obamacare will reduce the cost of health care, you're delusional.
Blanket statements aside, there are a series of facts available to disprove anything Barry says about the monster socialist bill he's trying to ram down the throat of America. Robert Samuelson does the work the rest of the press ought to have been doing since last summer by neatly destroying any notion of Obama saving you money on health. The reality is that socialized medicine costs more, produces less and makes everyone unhappy.
Don't believe it? Think this reporter is a right-wing nutjob? Inclined to believe in ancient astronauts and 9/11 conspiracy theories instead? Well, read the piece and then argue the facts. And this article comes from the guy who hasn't voted in 30 years cause he thinks it interferes with journalistic integrity.
Best bit:
You probably think that insuring the uninsured will dramatically improve the nation's health. The uninsured don't get care or don't get it soon enough. With insurance, they won't be shortchanged; they'll be healthier. Simple.Think again. I've written before that expanding health insurance would result, at best, in modest health gains. Studies of insurance's effects on health are hard to perform. Some find benefits; others don't. Medicare's introduction in 1966 produced no reduction in mortality; some studies of extensions of Medicaid for children didn't find gains. In the Atlantic recently, economics writer Megan McArdle examined the literature and emerged skeptical. Claims that the uninsured suffer tens of thousands of premature deaths are "open to question." Conceivably, the "lack of health insurance has no more impact on your health than lack of flood insurance," she writes.
How could this be? No one knows, but possible explanations include: (a) many uninsured are fairly healthy -- about two-fifths are age 18 to 34; (b) some are too sick to be helped or have problems rooted in personal behaviors -- smoking, diet, drinking or drug abuse; and (c) the uninsured already receive 50 to 70 percent of the care of the insured from hospitals, clinics and doctors, estimates the Congressional Budget Office.
Though it seems compelling, covering the uninsured is not the health-care system's major problem. The big problem is uncontrolled spending, which prices people out of the market and burdens government budgets. Obama claims his proposal checks spending. Just the opposite. When people get insurance, they use more health services. Spending rises. By the government's latest forecast, health spending goes from 17 percent of the economy in 2009 to 19 percent in 2019. Health "reform" would probably increase that.
If you buy the Obama snake oil on health care reform, then you'd better pony up and get yourself some nice flood insurance too.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Failure, Fraud, Health Care Reform, ObamaCare, Obamanomics, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2554.\\ History's Verdict Coming Fast(er)
A number of interesting events this week that have totally slid under the collective radar. Frankly it is amazing given the level of discord on the subject of Iraq and George Bush just a few years ago.
Remarkable Newsweek cover for March 8.
And then there's this from the New York Times of all places:
At the same time, Bush profited from the fact that he kept a low profile and didn't snipe at his successor, a task left to his vice president, who therefore took upon himself the enmity and scorn previously directed at his former boss. Dick Cheney was, in effect, a lightning rod, and he was joined in that function by Sarah Palin, who slid neatly into the slot Bush had occupied in the mind of all good liberals for eight long years. Hatred and contempt of Palin is now the favorite pastime of those who have abandoned the cowboy from Texas and transferred their obsessive animus to the belle of Alaska (who, I say again, is more formidable than many in both parties believe.)Meanwhile, Bush's policies came to seem less obviously reprehensible as the Obama administration drifted into embracing watered-down versions of many of them. Guantanamo hasn't been closed. No Child Left Behind is being revised and perhaps improved, but not repealed. The banks are still engaging in their bad practices. Partisanship is worse than ever. Obama seems about to back away from the decision to try 9/11 defendants in civilian courts, a prospect that led the ACLU to run an ad in Sunday's Times with the subheading "Change or more of the same?" Above that question is a series of photographs that shows Obama morphing into guess who -- yes, that's right, George W. Bush.
And now, right on schedule, Bush has resurfaced (just as I imagined him doing a year ago last September ) to join Bill Clinton in a humanitarian relief effort. He is officially a member in good standing of the ex-presidents club, and the longer he lives the more his reputation will be burnished.
And then we hear about Bush being asked by Obama to help out in Northern Ireland. This in the UK's marxist Guardian:
Amid alarm in the US at the prospect of a UUP no vote, Bush telephoned Cameron last Friday to ask him to plead with the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, to endorse the deal. While the UUP does not have enough votes to scupper the deal, political leaders in the US fear a no vote from the UUP could undermine support for the settlement within the DUP and among the wider unionist community.The Guardian understands that the White House is so concerned that the US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, persuaded Bush to intervene. The former president, who took a close interest in the peace process during his years in the White House, telephoned Cameron to ask him to use his influence to persuade Empey to vote for the deal.
"There was a feeling that a conservative to conservative conversation was the right way to go about this," said one source familiar with the transatlantic negotiations. "This conversation was borne out of the concern that Empey is holding out." Another source familiar with the contact said: "This is the most active thing George W Bush has done in his post-presidency period. He has been incredibly restrained and diplomatic since leaving the White House. He has maintained radio silence."
One source familiar with thinking on Northern Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic added: "The fact that George W Bush has decided to intervene is really significant. He was interested in the peace process as president and appointed an envoy. It is a general sign of how concerned people are in the US about what David Cameron is up to."
Could it be that with everyone's hatred focused elsewhere and with a few years of history that people are looking back and thinking, "You know, he wasn't Satan after all. Hell, he may just have been right about that Iraq thing."
And here is what he said 7 years ago:
Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.
In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment -- yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage -- your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other -- made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of precision, and speed, and boldness the enemy did not expect, and the world had not seen before. From distant bases or ships at sea, we sent planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division, or strike a single bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350 miles of hostile ground, in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history. You have shown the world the skill and the might of the American Armed Forces.
This nation thanks all of the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause. We thank the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, who shared in the hardships of war. We thank all of the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country. And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld, for General (Tommy) Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done.
The character of our military through history -- the daring of Normandy, the fierce courage of Iwo Jima, the decency and idealism that turned enemies into allies -- is fully present in this generation. When Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of our servicemen and women, they saw strength, and kindness, and good will. When I look at the members of the United States military, I see the best of our country, and I am honored to be your commander in chief.
In the images of fallen statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a new era. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale. In defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, Allied Forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy leaders who started the conflict were safe until the final days. Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation. Today, we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from war. Yet it is a great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent.
In the images of celebrating Iraqis, we have also seen the ageless appeal of human freedom. Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love their oppressors or desire their own enslavement. Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food, and water, and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices. And everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We have begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We are helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. And then we will leave -- and we will leave behind a free Iraq.
The Battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the "beginning of the end of America." By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed.
In the Battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many terrorists, and the camps where they trained. We continue to help the Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals, and educate all of their children. Yet we also have dangerous work to complete. As I speak, a special operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail of the terrorists, and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan. America and our coalition will finish what we have begun.
From Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down al-Qaida killers. Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. And as of tonight, nearly one-half of al-Qaida's senior operatives have been captured or killed.
The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of al-Qaida, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.
In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused, and deliberate, and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.
Our war against terror is proceeding according to principles that I have made clear to all:
Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country, and a target of American justice.
Any person, organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.
Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups, and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction, is a grave danger to the civilized world, and will be confronted.
And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.
Our commitment to liberty is America's tradition -- declared at our founding, affirmed in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, asserted in the Truman Doctrine, and in Ronald Reagan's challenge to an evil empire. We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American values, and American interests, lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.
The United States upholds these principles of security and freedom in many ways -- with all the tools of diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence, and finance. We are working with a broad coalition of nations that understand the threat, and our shared responsibility to meet it. The use of force has been, and remains, our last resort. Yet all can know, friend and foe alike, that our nation has a mission: We will answer threats to our security, and we will defend the peace.
Our mission continues. Al-Qaida is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland -- and we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike.
The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. No act of the terrorists will change our purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on to victory.
Other nations in history have fought in foreign lands and remained to occupy and exploit. Americans, following a battle, want nothing more than to return home. And that is your direction tonight. After service in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of war -- after 100,000 miles, on the longest carrier deployment in recent history -- you are homeward bound. Some of you will see new family members for the first time -- 150 babies were born while their fathers were on the Lincoln. Your families are proud of you, and your nation will welcome you.
We are mindful as well that some good men and women are not making the journey home. One of those who fell, Corporal Jason Mileo, spoke to his parents five days before his death. Jason's father said, "He called us from the center of Baghdad, not to brag, but to tell us he loved us. Our son was a soldier." Every name, every life, is a loss to our military, to our nation, and to the loved ones who grieve. There is no homecoming for these families. Yet we pray, in God's time, their reunion will come.
Those we lost were last seen on duty. Their final act on this earth was to fight a great evil, and bring liberty to others. All of you -- all in this generation of our military -- have taken up the highest calling of history. You are defending your country, and protecting the innocent from harm. And wherever you go, you carry a message of hope -- a message that is ancient, and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah: "To the captives, 'Come out!' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!"'
Thank you for serving our country and our cause. May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless America.
You know, it just doesn't seem that controversial in hindsight.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, George W Bush, Iraq, Mission Accomplished, President
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PERMANENT LINK2542.\\ Value Proposition
Mr. Sowell has entered the building. And with him comes an overall elevation of the intellectual discourse of the day.
Best bit:
"Since the only resources that the government has are the resources it takes from the private sector, using those resources to create jobs means reducing the resources available to create jobs in the private sector."
Which is why government is almost never the answer to any problem involving the market.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Insurance, Thomas Sowell
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PERMANENT LINK2541.\\ Even the Monarchists Get It
I love reading the media in my native country when it is observing the happenings in my adopted country. There's something just delightful about the way Canadians write. It is sufficiently British in style to differentiate it from US English but not so much that it is self-righteous and patronizing (or is that patronising?).
Although it is sometimes annoying to have to listen to people with limited understanding of American society talk down to us, we seem to put up with it quite well coming from the liberal elite in this country.
So I enjoyed the Macleans article on our recent State of the Union address.
My favorite bit:
"Even dear old Justice Ginsburg seemed nonplussed and disapproving, though no doubt she seems much the same way when she's watering plants or eating a sandwich. I was hoping for Chief Justice Roberts to rise to his feet and lead the black-robed group right out of the building. Better still, perhaps, if they'd just dispersed in all directions like a murder of crows startled by a gunshot."
The language evokes imagery that makes me laugh for some reason. Why couldn't our media be more like this?
TAGGED AS: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Constitution, State of the Union
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PERMANENT LINK2540.\\ The Obama Contradiction
One of my favorites slices and dices the State of the Union address. Peggy always has a way of going beyond what other pundits have to say and putting the subject within a broader, more meaningful context.
Best bit:
"The central fact of the speech was the contradiction at its heart. It repeatedly asserted that Washington is the answer to everything. At the same time it painted a picture of Washington as a sick and broken place. It was a speech that argued against itself: You need us to heal you. Don't trust us, we think of no one but ourselves."
Exactly.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Peggy Noonan, State of the Union
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PERMANENT LINK2538.\\ It's Your Fault, America
Fresh from blaming George Bush for just about everything he thinks is wrong with the universe, Barry O pivots and blames... the American people for their failure to think big.
Nice.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Messiah
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PERMANENT LINK2534.\\ The Proletarian Vanguard
Charles Krauthammer puts a stake through the heart of Democrats' excuses for losing Massachusetts.
Aside from coining my new favorite descriptor, "The Proletarian Vanguard", the best bit has to be this:
"After Coakley's defeat, Obama pretended that the real cause was a generalized anger and frustration "not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years."
Let's get this straight: The antipathy to George W. Bush is so enduring and powerful that ... it just elected a Republican senator in Massachusetts? Why, the man is omnipotent."
Classic. I love this man.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, Democrats, Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Senate
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PERMANENT LINK2531.\\ Krugman Gives Up On Barry O
I have to say that this shocked me.
Channeling his inner ancient Hebrew Priest, Krugman declares that Obama is NOT the messiah leftist progressives have been waiting for.
Not all that surprising maybe, giving his persistent criticism of Barry O from the left. But even in his most critical pieces, Krugman is always the apologist.
Not anymore. As he says in the best bit:
"I have to say, I'm pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had"
Ouch.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Leftist, Paul Krugman
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PERMANENT LINK2515.\\ It's Called Afghanistan, Charlie Brown
Poor Charlie Brown. Even Barack Obama doesn't like him. Did anyone think that "Change" included moving the beloved airing of Peanuts? What an asshole. Luckily we have it on DVD and will be watching that tonight instead of listening to that muppet drone on about the military and Afghanistan (neither of which he knows anything about).
Thanks be to Youtube:
TAGGED AS: Afghanistan, Asshole, Barack Obama, Charlie Brown, Snoopy
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PERMANENT LINK2511.\\ Non Decisions and Leaks Aplenty
Gerson's article today is alarming and yet somehow pretty obvious.
Best bit:
"As an analogy," says David Kilcullen, an expert on counterinsurgency strategy, "you have a building on fire, and it's got a bunch of firemen inside. There are not enough firemen to put it out. You have to send in more or you have to leave. It is not appropriate to stand outside pontificating about not taking lightly the responsibility of sending firemen into harm's way. Either put in enough firemen to put the fire out or get out of the house."
TAGGED AS: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, General McChrystal, Liberals, Military, National Security, Pentagon
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PERMANENT LINK2507.\\ State Suicide
I don't have to say anything at all about this article...but I will anyway. This is exactly what will happen to the entire nation if we continue down the socialist path we seem hell bent on taking. Actually, what's happening on the Federal level is far worse than anything that happened in California. So I suspect the results will be much, much worse. Possibly catastrophic. Maybe apocalyptic.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, California, Disaster, Disgust, Economy, Finance, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2506.\\ Easy Fix For Economic Collapse
It is simple. More Obamanomics. More Government. More socialism. More spreading the wealth around a bit. All you have to do, silly Mayors, is raise taxes to cover the budget deficit.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Finance, Socialism, Taxes
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PERMANENT LINK2502.\\ Worse Than Taxes: The Spending
John Stossel has it right again. In an opinion piece today, he fingers the real culprit of creeping Statism in America.
The rallying bit:
"The politicians' spending schemes represent presumptuous interference in our lives. They are an assault on our autonomy."
Yes sir. Hoist the flag of protest
Many of these things have a amplifying effect. The spending, together with the taxing, together with the Orwellian paternalism of our new government, together with the systematic remaking of America into some minor European socialist utopia, will all add up to outright rejection by the people of this entire philosophy. Attempts to control the population like Obamacare, the nationalization of the transportation system, the ongoing disaster that is Government Motors, the transformation of terrorist enemy combatants into the equivalent of US Citizens, Climatofacism, thought crime laws, gun bans, religion bans, bans on free speech, the soda tax, the fat tax, the marriage tax, the death tax, the success tax, the tax tax; all of these will add up to an actual rebellion, I predict. States will simply refuse to implement these totalitarian diktats under the 10th Amendment. That is, if the citizens don't get there first.
TAGGED AS: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Climate Change, Congress, Constitution, Fascism, Freedom, Health Care, Liberty, Orwellian, Socialism, Taxes, Totalitarianism
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PERMANENT LINK2501.\\ Total Shit and Getting Worse
The Obama Economy at work. The only solution, is of course, total socialism, astronomic taxes, unending entitlements and nationalization of every industry. Replace the Individual with Unionized collectivization and all will function as it should in the enlightened thinker's model of economics.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Socialism, Unemployment
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PERMANENT LINK2500.\\ Holding Holder Accountable
My Alma Mater finally joins the ranks of the right thinking. The Dean Emeritus of the BU School of Law penned an article in which he points out the inherent danger of allowing KSM to be tried as if he were a common criminal.
Put one more up on the board under 'Lesson Not Learned' for the Obama Administration.
The most chilling part of the discussion, which I hadn't even considered (stressed and obsessed as I was with the granting of US Constitutional Rights to an unlawful combatant and a terrorist while I, a legal immigrant, sit without the same Rights), is the notion that 9/11 was in part successful because of the intelligence al-Qaeda obtained from the trial of the 1993 WTC Bomber in regular court. Doesn't this just seem to set up the obvious question of whether or not we're helping some other group plan another attack against us by lifting our kimono?
****UPDATE
And Thomas Sowell weighs in with his usual thoughtful take on the situation.
TAGGED AS: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Boston University, Eric Holder, KSM, Law, New York, Terrorists, Thomas Sowell
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PERMANENT LINK2499.\\ Even China Doesn't Believe It
When the world's finest purveyors of lies, propaganda, misdirection and outright fraud don't believe the snake oil you're peddling will work, then you've got a major, major problem.
What is more frustrating and depressing is that we're not even having the discussion of whether we SHOULD be doing this kind of health care reform at all. We're simply arguing over minute details about how MUCH we should mortgage, piss away, dump in the toilet. The debate in America isn't about our decline, but how fast we want it to happen.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, China, Debt, Deficit, Health Care
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PERMANENT LINK2495.\\ Why Isn't The American President in Berlin Today?
Modern Germany exists because of the United States. Yet the one world leader that won't be present to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is the American President. He's 'too busy' to attend, he claims. I'd use that excuse too if it took me an entire year to dither on strategy in just a single world hot spot.
Not too busy, I'm sure, to play basketball or make grandiose speeches as indoctrinated children chant his name in the background. Ich bin ein Kenyan.
JFK and Reagan are likely astonished, wherever they are. Barack Obama's absence is shameful.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Berlin, Berlin Wall, Europe, Germany, JFK, Ronald Reagan
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PERMANENT LINK2491.\\ Three Reasons to Reject Obamacare
As a rule, I don't believe insurance is the right model to pay for health care. I don't use auto insurance to pay for my gas each week, why should I expect to have health insurance pay for drugs I decide to take? Insurance implies a financial hedge against catastrophic events for which the expense is so high that I cannot pay it and therefore I need to spread that expense amongst other policy holders. It isn't a thing I use for routine events.
That being said, I don't believe in the direction the entire health care debate is taking. It should be about reducing the cost of procedures and making those costs transparent to me, the consumer, so that I can decide where to allocate my funds. I'm purchasing a good and/or a service. I deserve to know why it costs $25k for my wife to have a baby. Instead the true cost is hidden in premiums and deductibles and bureaucracy and regulation. If consumers knew the costs to them of various services provided by doctors, competition and Adam Smith's invisible hand would come to the fore and the system would self-regulate.
There's a shitload more to say on that topic and more explanation as to why treating the entire industry the same as any other goods/services industry makes sense. But I digress. While I may have dozens of reasons for rejecting Obamacare, the National Review gives you just three. Frankly they are the only three you need. What are the reasons? The reason you should reject Obamacare is that it doesn't meet any of Obama's own stated requirements. Pretty simple.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, Health Care, Nancy Pelosi, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2487.\\ Holy Christ This Man Loves Himself
And no I'm not talking about Rush Limbaugh (or myself for that matter).
No, I'm reacting to a growing story over at Big Hollywood. Remember the brainwashed children mindlessly singing the praises of dear leader? Well the march of the cult of Obama continues to build. I originally said Goebbels would be proud. At this point I think he'd just outright resign from the Nazi Party and join up with the people who obviously do propaganda so much better, the Obama White House. Mao would be only a step behind him.
Check out all the scary, scary details over here.
Along the same line, we find out today that Barry wasn't watching election returns last night, no. He was, in fact, WATCHING THE HBO SPECIAL ABOUT HOW GREAT HE IS. He is post-racial, post-partisan, post-achievement and now post-humility. Hopefully 2012 adds one more giant "post" to his long list of titles.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Creepy, Cult, Ego, Goebbels, Mao, Narcissism, Propaganda
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PERMANENT LINK2485.\\ Made Up Metric
I'd love to know how you calculate a 'saved' job. We've known of course that the 'created or saved' metric is total bunk made up of phony estimates and outright lies (as the Wall Street Journal recalls for us today). But I'd like to ask a new question. If the wizardry behind the stimulus created or saved 650k jobs so far this year, what do we call the 4 million jobs lost in the first 9 months of the year? Were those jobs just 'unsavable' ?
They were probably all dissenters and therefore it was determined by the jobs czar that they didn't need jobs.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Jobs, Lies, Unemployment, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2476.\\ What Kind of Car Would YOU Buy for $24k?
My list starts with the new Camero. Course I'd have to spring for the Autobot upgrade kit. I'd definitely not be buying anything through this program. Looks like that went totally as planned. Or not, as the case may be. Next time, just give every person with an automobile the $24,000 in cash.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Failure, Government, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2471.\\ One Author, Totally Deluded
I am slowly shaking off the rage that has prevented me from writing anything about this story so far this morning. I don't even know where to begin. First go read this morning's op-ed in the Boston Globe.
Where to start. First off, the entire premise of the article is that Americans are ignorant. Every single one of us is stupid and deluded with the exception of the few enlightened ones who know so much more than we do that they deserve to rule in a paternalistic style, taking care of us from womb to grave. They just don't want us to worry our pretty little heads about things we couldn't possibly understand (like the health care bill, for example, which Congress won't let us read before they ram it through the legislature). In reality they're much more cynical. They just don't want our petty natures and preferences for things like self-determination and liberty to get in the way of their well-thought out grand intellectual exercises in social re-engineering. You know, sort of like fascists believed.
From the beginning of this article I had my hackles up. I don't like people taking the piss out of this country. But I agree with the first paragraph of the text. There is pandering by politicians to the public about how great everything is all the time. But the part that turned me totally hostile and made me flew into a rage was the sentence "The fact of the matter is that whenever anything really significant has been accomplished by our government, it is precisely because it was better than the American people."
There is nothing about any government or any State that makes it better than the people by whose consent it governs and in whose interest it serves. Government is not a thing that grants nobility of action, purity of character or goodness of intention. It is a temporary social contract that exists to provide impartial equity in human interactions. It is a framework within which a society of people functions. It is not an end unto itself, it is simply an means to an end. It cannot be "better" than the public because it is made up of the public. It cannot be noble because it is nothing more than a framework of rules. It cannot be pure or good or evil for that matter because it is not a person or a sentient entity, it s a legal construct that can evaporate as soon as the will that brought it into being dissipates.
Government is not a person or a philosophy or a social experiment. It doesn't exist to advance any agenda other than that which the people have deigned to adopt. In short, therefore, it is not, has not and will never be better than the people who allow it to continue.
Offered up as some sort of proof to the contrary is FDR's goading America into WWII and wasn't the government so much more enlightened and noble than the moronic mob who opposed US entry into war.
This, of course, is ridiculous. Taking Roosevelt's leadership, principles and strategic thinking and transmuting it into some sort of beneficent action of an enlightened "Government" is nonsense. FDR was elected because people believed in his ability to lead. They trusted him when he laid the groundwork for support of the Allies. It wasn't an American Government, so much better than Americans, that got us into war. We entered the war because we were attacked by Japan and because we trusted our chosen leader to guide us in that war. The same goes for LBJ and his Great Society and for Obama's Nationalized Health Care. People elected these leaders because they believed in their principles, their agenda and their ability to lead (although in Obama's case it may simply have been Oprah's endorsement, who can say).
Now I may completely disagree with FDR, LBJ and Obama. That doesn't make them 'better' than me or somehow more enlightened than me because they have one vision and I have another. It simply means their vision is the one that counts because they were elected. Of course, their vision could be totally wrong. In that case, they are no more stupid than I nor more ignorant and I am no more better. I'm simply right and they are wrong. And since history is written or at least kindest to the victors, in 50 years I have no doubt that whatever happens over the course of Obama's (hopefully short) tenure will be viewed as 'right' and 'better' than whatever else would have happened but didn't.
In short, it is stupid to ascribe supernatural 'better' powers to events which happened over those which didn't. If Washington had been captured and hung and we were all British, we'd have a short lesson in our grade schools about the aborted rebellion that thank God was put down by the King. And this boob writing in the Boston Globe would be gushing at how much better the King was than the population which wanted to separate from Britain. Imagine if the King didn't have the courage to stand up to those who wanted a revolution! This is the same argument as the author seems to believe is a proper guiding principle.
I'm all for humility when dealing with people that cannot possibly compare in any metric of national greatness or who are our friends. But when it comes to despots, thugs, criminal and rogue regimes and belligerent potential enemies, then it is Go America time and we should be as pro-USA as possible. It is incumbent upon everyone in this nation to be as proud as possible and to lord it over any potential enemy. We know our faults, but just like a family we don't have to air dirty laundry and weaknesses for our enemies to pick apart and potentially exploit. We should be as boastful as possible. And so should our leaders. Because if neither we nor they believe that this is the greatest place on earth, the grandest experiment in history, the literal shining city on the hill, then we are totally at the mercy of our enemies' psychological manipulations. Just ask the USSR how things went when they actually began to believe they were the Evil Empire.
The author asks, by what standard is one nation greater than any other nation? He then proceeds to detail failings of our system in comparison to others. He's right. There isn't any one standard. It is a comprehensive standard that takes into account financial power, knowledge, scientific contribution, military capability, cultural impact, geography, morality, guiding principles of government, the legal system, technical prowess, businesses, literature, ecology, social mobility, national flexibility and capacity for change, material resources, historical impact, international esteem, immigration numbers, inventions and overall quality of life. By THAT standard there is no doubt who is number one. But if you still have a lingering question as to who is the best or by which standard we should judge such a superlative, then simply ask anyone in the world today: "What country is the most important in the world?" Nobody is going to say Sweden just because they have higher home ownership and greater wealth distribution. I defy you to find a person on the planet since Teddy Roosevelt sent the Fleet round the world who would claim the United States of America is something other than the most important single nation on the planet.
The author holds up healthcare as a reason why we are not the greatest country on earth. He claims we are the only industrialized nation without a national health care system. He clearly doesn't know his own government. Medicare and Medicaid are both national health care plans available to any and all Americans who need them.
But that point aside, the next argument is that immigration patterns demonstrate that every country in the world is just as good the next one. Yes Mexicans come to the US but Turks go to Germany and Indians go to Great Britain and Arabs go to France. So there you have it, every nation has people who want to go to it and therefore the USA cannot claim it is better because people are immigrating. Balls. Everyone from every nation comes to the United States. The Japanese don't immigrate to Germany. The Chinese don't immigrate to Italy. Tajiks don't flock in huge numbers to Brazil. The fact is that everybody in the world comes the United States. This is an immigrant nation and that regenerative power is the source of our great strength. We get the best, the most industrious, those with the greatest hunger and thirst for opportunity. They come to our shores in droves, by the shipload. They attend our schools and take that BETTER KNOWLEDGE back to whatever shithole they came from in an effort to improve their nations. And at the end of the day, anyone can become an American. A guy from Senegal can't move to Tokyo and become Japanese. A single mother from Mexico can't sneak across the border into Germany and become German. Anyone can come into this country and become part of it. They add their distinctive ability, experience and knowledge to the whole and THAT makes us the greatest nation on earth thank you very much.
The author continues his everyone-wins-a-prize train of thought. And I have to quote it here because it is just such rubbish:
"The point of all this isn't that America doesn't have a lot to be proud of. It does. The point is that just about every country has a lot to be proud of, and America has no more right to assume it is the greatest nation in the world than does France, Switzerland, China, or Russia."
Really? The United States isn't greater than Switzerland? That is ridiculous and ultimately beside the point. Any nation can say whatever it wants about its own national greatness. The proof is in the historical record and will be written by the greatest nation no matter what the others say or do. I'm claiming that this greatest nation is the US. If the Swiss want to believe they're the greatest then fine, let them do so. I would apply my comprehensive metric described above to blast that nonsense out of the water, but whatever. I would ask my future generations when they read the history of the 20th and 21st Centuries, which was the greatest of the great powers? They won't say Switzerland.
I had thought the most ludicrous argument was past at this point. But no. The author has more for me to tear to pieces. He claims:
"None of this would make much difference if the self-congratulation was just harmless bragging. But there are consequences. A country that believes it is the greatest in the world is also less likely to be constrained by that world. One could argue that the Iraq war was a direct result of a sense of national infallibility. So was our willingness to torture, our reluctance to admit our mistakes in Afghanistan, our culpability in the global recession, and our foot-dragging on global warming. Such a nation is also less likely to introspect or to strive for true greatness because it believes its greatness has already arrived."
Egad! It isn't harmless bragging for starters, it is legitimate belief. And a great nation has no obligation to be 'constrained by the world'. Can you imagine? We're suddenly in the business of constraining nations and subjecting them to the diktats of a bureaucracy someplace in Geneva. No nation should be constrained by the world. Nations constrain other nations. Nations coerce and force and lead and encourage other nations. Nations are the primary actors in global affairs. "The World" doesn't exist and even if it did, no entity has authority to constrain the United States. The United States is governed by one document that supersedes any and all laws. It is illegitimate the US Government that seeks to submit the United States to be constrained by the world. That is a US Government that has abrogated its duty, exceeded its authority and must be dismantled and replaced by one that adheres to the Constitution.
The Iraq war was a direct result of the strategic need to dispose of Saddam Hussein and ensure the Iraqi oil supply by creating the conditions for the long term stability and prosperity offered by a free form of government chosen by the people of that nation. That stability and prosperity will reduce the threat of Iraq becoming a reactionary power that disrupts an already unstable part of the world. And yes, our belief that we had the power to create that stable situation was a direct result of our belief in our national greatness and in our nation as a force for good. The author would imply that if we had only been smarter and more humble, we could have lived with total chaos in the middle east in perpetuity. He has a right to believe that, of course, until such chaos leads to the murder of anyone he loves. Then he might wonder why we didn't try to do something, given our great capabilities.
The final thoughts of the author require some analysis. He says that America can't take criticism and that Americans constantly need to be flattered and have their pride attended to. I completely disagree. One major part of our national greatness is our ability to change. Change isn't something that comes from the State or is organized by Presidents. Change is an unseen shift in attitude and beliefs that take place over time in the people that constitute the nation. Nobody forced Americans to recycle (as of yet). And who in the 1940s would have cared much for it? I'm not an environmentalist yet I recycle because I believe it is the right thing to do. Had someone tried to legislate that morality it would certainly have backfired in a person like myself. Lincoln freed the slaves in States not controlled by the Union, yes. But his actions, his enlightened wisdom, didn't create change in attitudes. That change had been brewing for decades and continued to brew for decades to follow. Change flowed UPWARD, not DOWNWARD from the enlightened ones.
Americans don't need flattery. We know our weaknesses and it is a sign of our greatness the degree to which we self-flagellate and wring our hands and agonize over flaws in our national character that a people such as, say, the French, would be aghast at. The Chinese don't sit around talking about how morally corrupt they are. The Russians don't agonize about being a nation of nationalists. The Germans don't sit around and wonder how on earth they got to be so racist. The Cubans don't have thousands of call-in talk radio shows where they debate the pros and cons of teaching evolution in schools. This is a nation in constant flux. Change is constantly flowing in various directions. It isn't all in a uniform march to a better society as progressives and end-of-historites would have you believe. There isn't a logical conclusion to the change ever flowing in a constant direction. But it is more ongoing and churning change than any people anywhere in time or place have ever seen. And that churn wasn't created by Barack Obama's executive order. Change is a feature, a characteristic of America and Americans.
In one final jibe at Americans, he despairs that American Government may be just as good as American people and therefore the end of times is near. I would argue that America's elected officials have always been, and are by design, the same or worse than the people they represent. It is precisely because the politician is a cynic or is a pretentious, self-righteous pretender, that they are elected in the first place. It is their ability to appear that they know what they're doing that encourages us to vote for them. The Constitution recognized this and the founders acknowledged the base morals of humanity and built into the system the ability for self-correction.
We should truly despair when the State becomes the ultimate achievement of mankind. The ultimate expression of our intellect. The basis for reorganizing society along the lines of those who are the 'best'. We should truly despair when the 'best' rule us. Their capabilities coupled with human nature and unchecked ego give rise to dictators and emperors.
TAGGED AS: America, Arrogant, Barack Obama, Boston Globe, Congress, Constitution, Democracy, Hubris, Leftist, Liberals, Liberty, Nation, Principle, State
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PERMANENT LINK2469.\\ The Universe is Laughing
I've spent the day swinging between incredulity and disbelief, outright uproarious guffawing and barely contained rage (albeit the rage was only after listening to Rush on my way to lunch and back).
I have nothing about the award to Mr. Obama, Peace Be Upon Him, that hasn't already been said a zillion times on Twitter and the other parts of the interwebs. And frankly I'm still angry and upset and tired after watching the Red Sox suck ass against the Angels last night.
So. I've read it all, absorbed it all, realized that I have nothing original to add and instead will let Benjamin Kertsein's gorgeously written article do all the speaking for me.
Aside from the fantastic use of the term "rhetorical flatulence" to describe the Nobel Prize Committee's announcement, the best and most salient bit is as follows:
"When powerful people make fools of themselves, it behooves us to remember that when the fools are powerful, there is a strong chance that we are all in serious trouble. Obama and Obamamania are a joke that, in the end, is also on us."
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2465.\\ Mr. Hume vs. Mr. Bentham
David Brooks puts on his latest subpar literary performance in the Opinion column of the New York Times. Honestly, why do they hire these guys? I know 100 better writers on the Internet they should be recruiting to prop up their laughable business plan.
At any rate, the stunningly obvious parable makes me shudder. It literally made me physically shudder when I read the best bit:
"The people on Mr. Bentham's side believe that government can get actively involved in organizing innovation....The people on Mr. Hume's side believe government should actively tilt the playing field to promote social goods and set off decentralized networks of reform, but they don't think government knows enough to intimately organize dynamic innovation."
Those are the two sides? One side thinks government should actively organize the people, society and the economy while the other merely wants the government to tilt the playing field to promote social good?
Holy shit. It sounds like both sides believe government is the ultimate expression of human evolution and by right and by nature should organize us all and promote some sort of utopian social welfare. God almighty.
Where's the side that believes the government should provide defense, deliver mail, ensure law and order, maintain a system of laws that enables fair play and DO NOTHING ELSE? Mr. Brooks makes no room in his model for any non-socialist. In his view, the entire world agrees with his progressive views and the mob that follows Fox News is illiterate, unwashed and cannot possibly conceive of the rightness and virtue of promoting social order and goodness.
It makes total sense that Mr. Brooks chose as his protagonist Jeremy Bentham. Here's a man whose first published work was an attack on the Declaration of Independence and America's freedom movement. If you believe that government exists to promote the greatest good for the greatest amount of people at the direction of the enlightened few, then Obama is your guy and Brooks is your muse. If you believe that government is created by the people in order to provide a loose structure for individual liberty, self-reliance and entrepreneurship to prosper, then... well there is no room for that in Brooks' model. The only acceptable mode in this post-modern era is the social progressive route that EVERYBODY agrees with and believes in.
The whole article makes me want to vomit. Not the least which because he sullies David Hume's name (and by proxy the entire Scottish Enlightenment, its philosophy and the guiding principles of our Founders).
David Harsanyi rebuts the entire notion with his opinion piece today at RCP. And thank God he does.
When will David Brooks realize he lives in a different, fantasy, world? I have no doubt that he and Jeremy Bentham have much more in common with each other than either has in common with the average American.
I strongly believe the average American would rather take the risk of going it on his own, work hard, suffer through and reap potential rewards for doing so than sit back idly, take no risk at all and have the 'greatest good' come his way by blessing of some remote government philosopher-bureaucrat charged with ensuring his welfare on the backs of others.
All one has to do to see the eventual effects of Brooks' favored approach is to cast your eye at some of the European countries today. Italy springs to mind. Nobody works. Everybody gets by through vast social welfare programs. The economy is crap. And nobody gives a damn.
Social engineering does not, has not, will not work outside of the university (or the newsroom).
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, David Brooks, David Hume, Elitist, Jeremy Bentham, Philosophy, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2457.\\ Well Everything's Going Fine...
Unemployment at nearly 10%, the highest in 26 years. Looks like Obamanomics is going swimmingly. Just like Stalin's, Mao's and Castro's state control of the means of production, our leftist economic policies are doomed to failure (as the French, Germans and British have begun to realize).
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Leftist, Obamanomics, Socialism, Unemployment
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PERMANENT LINK2454.\\ He Lies After All
Look no further than this bit by Jake Tapper of ABC News.
While fact checking the Obama administration, surely a first for ABC News, Jake discovered that holy shit! The President made up a bunch of crap to push his health care agenda. Who's using scare tactics now Barry?
A representative bit:
"But President Obama's description that Beaton's "insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne" is not accurate."
i.e. the President lied.
TAGGED AS: ABC News, Barack Obama, Congress, Health Care, Jake Tapper, Liar, Media
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PERMANENT LINK2451.\\ Go Patriot Act!
Sweet justice for more than just Zazi. If anything validated the last guy's efforts in the office, this does.
I wonder how many other events were or will be thwarted thanks to the Patriot Act and the efforts of the Bush team?
I wonder if Barry will have the balls to renew the Act's key provisions. I know he could never bring himself to admit that George was right. He thanked Ray Kelly for stopping the attacks. He should have called Crawford and thanked George too.
In the meantime, don't expect to see or hear any of this in the rest of the Media.
TAGGED AS: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, George Bush, Media, New York, Ray Kelly, Terrorists
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PERMANENT LINK2450.\\ Holding Out the Hand of Friendship
"...to everyone except your friends" should be the tagline. Daniel Henninger has a great analysis on Obama's peculiar outreach to thugs and dictators and his total neglect of legitimate friends, infant democracies looking for help and struggling democracy movements in critical parts of the world.
The critical bit:
"In trying to plumb why the U.S. won't promote or protect its own best idea, one starts with Mr. Obama's remarks at the "reset" visit in Moscow: "America cannot and should not seek to impose any system of government on any other country, nor would we presume to choose which party or individual should run a country."
Setting aside that no one is talking about the U.S. literally "imposing" a government in this day and age, what is one to make of a left-of-center American political leader taking such a diffident stance toward democratic movements? The people who live under the sway of the top dog in all the nations that have earned high-level Obama envoys are the world's poor, and one would expect the social-justice left to support them. That may no longer be true on the American or European left."
Good question. Why aren't we out there promoting the best thing about this nation? It is our greatest, original idea and we've thrown it in the dustbin. The world's poor and oppressed, the natural constituency of the liberal left, are thrown to the wolves and left to twist in the wind.
At least George Bush followed rhetoric with action by carpet bombing the African continent with billions in practical assistance to prevent the spread of AIDS and malaria and fund drug cocktails for those who already were living with HIV. Actions. Not just words.
When will America stand up for those that seek to attain our freedoms? When will we follow words of hope and change with action? We gin up these movements with rhetoric and grandiose speeches and then when the people actually rise against their overlords, we sit back and watch as they're mercilessly crushed.
At some point, the stock in Democracy and Freedom will fall so low that no one will bother listening to the words anymore.
TAGGED AS: Africa, Barack Obama, Democracy, Dictatorship, Freedom, Liberty, Rhetoric
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PERMANENT LINK2449.\\ While America Burns to the Ground
I've agreed with Margaret Carlson before. And this time she has it exactly right. In an article for Bloomberg, she points out how frivolous Barry's jetsetting off to Denmark is while everything is burning to the ground here at home.
Most damning is her revelation that she agrees with Republican Senator Kit Bond. His main point is that while Obama doesn't have a spare minute to meet with his own Generals to work out the situation in Afghanistan, he has plenty of spare time to be on every tv program, do spots for George Lopez's new show, fly around the world apologizing for America existing and hob nobbing with the G20.
As Bond put it:
"it's baffling that the president has time to travel to Copenhagen, to be on 'Letterman' and every channel except the Food Network, and, yet, he doesn't have time to talk with and listen to his top general."
So here's to Margaret for putting journalistic integrity first and calling a spade a spade.
On another note, I don't give a damn if the Olympics never happen again and I care much less about whether or not Chicago gets the games. I DO care, however, if we are defeated in the middle east since that will have impact decades beyond the memory of any games anywhere.
TAGGED AS: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Margaret Carlson, Media, Olympics, Politics
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PERMANENT LINK2448.\\ Where's the Help Barry?
Why haven't we responded yet to the tsunami in the Samoas? The level of death and destruction in an American territory would seem to warrant overnight reaction. Where are the C130s and C-17s and C-5s full of relief? Where is the Navy?
Why are we moving so slow (if at all) while Washington promises an 'aggressive response'. As of this afternoon, we've only offered 'sympathy' to the American citizens that have lost everything.
Why has no one in the media asked this question?
TAGGED AS: American Samoa, Barack Obama, Disaster, Tsunami
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PERMANENT LINK2447.\\ Success No Matter What
John Stossel can be a bit of a prick sometimes. But he's got it bang on with this bit today on RCP.
Best part is his reference to an earlier, quite prescient article he wrote:
Given time, the economy, unless totally crippled by government intervention, will regenerate itself. That's because an economy is not a machine that needs jumpstarting. It is people who have objectives they want to achieve. They will not sit on their hands forever waiting for government to 'fix' things. Instead, they work to overcome obstacles to get what they want. Some banks are struggling, but there are still people who want to lend money and people who want to borrow it. They will find each other without government help
Hear hear. The only thing missing are some hard numbers on the colossal waste of Cash for Clunkers, the various bailouts, the nationalization of GM, etc.
Additionally, I would extend his argument by suggesting that this isn't just the standard WH spin on the economy we always see. No this is worse. This is an actual liberal elitist philosophy, a cynical world view, that says if we lie enough to the morons out there on topics they don't understand, we'll eventually convince them of our words. Provided the lie is big enough and the charisma is strong enough. It extends beyond the economy and into the realm of health care, Iran, international trade, the Unions, taxes, and on and on. It is Obama's governing philosophy and he uses it with everything. Tell them enough times and with the right intonation that everything is great because I'm good looking and charismatic and smarter than you are and you will eventually believe me.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Finance, Jobs, John Stossel
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PERMANENT LINK2444.\\ Depends on What Your Definition of 'We' Is
Thomas Friedman's latest column in the New York Times is bang on in one key area and it is a notion previously put to paper by Pat Buchanan on his blog. That notion is the dissolution of the nation. There is no 'we' anymore and with interest diverging so dramatically there is a real danger of the entire project coming apart.
I normally don't agree with Friedman's pontifications as they are routinely patronizing, naive, ultra elitist and smack of big brother. But in this opinion piece, he is absolutely right (for the wrong reasons). He believes that a result of all this ill will and rot at the center of American politics will be the assassination of Obama. Unfortunately he falls into the trap he himself is describing when he attributes all these problems to the right wing extremists who are out to hurt his President. The President and his party are as much to blame, if not more so, for the current state of politics as the opposition. Their left-wing policies are outside the mainstream of centrist America and that is causing an absolute fury that they cannot see or comprehend (Friedman himself is in this category. He cannot fathom that the rage in America might be justified and directed at radically left leaning policies of establishing a nanny state).
I personally agree with Gore Vidal in this stunning interview from the London Times; Obama is a danger to Republic. Whether that danger is more from Barry being inept and inexperienced and naive or from an electorate that is hugely ignorant yet massively influential via technology (blogging, twitter, netroots, et al). Either way, American politics have gone off the rail and the future of the Republic is at great risk. There is a real danger of this becoming yet another point in World history where the closet dictators among us may rise to seize the reigns. Vidal's point: it may require dictatorship to simply hold the thing together.
I don't want a President assassinated. No matter how awful he may be. No matter that he may be destroying the very nation he promised to defend. But there is something powerful in Jefferson's exhortation to take up arms against tyranny. Even more to the point, there is an absolute civic requirement to throw off the shackles of an imposed system. We are less free today than we were under King George III. If the Stamp Act required us to take up arms then what on Earth would our historical revolutionaries say about taxing people for drinking soda, forcibly vaccinating the population and forcing citizens to pay for health care or go to jail? What would any person who valued individual liberty, any patriot, say about faceless bureaucrats thousands of miles away deciding what your employer should pay you because it is in the "interest" of the "nation" to keep you below a certain income level?
I increasingly suspect that the entire thing is coming off its wheels. The ancient Maya may have had the end of the world pegged correctly.
TAGGED AS: Assassination, Barack Obama, Dictatorship, Gore Vidal, New York Times, Pat Buchanan, Politics, Revolution, Thomas Friedman, Times of London
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PERMANENT LINK2442.\\ Eisenfrau Merkel
The world has a new Iron Lady. I've always found it interesting how Europe, America and Canada seem to be politically out of step with each other since the 1980s. When we've got a center-right government they have center-left and vice versa.
The Canadians, British, Germans and French are all leaning away from their socialist parties. We just elected ours.
I wonder who's ahead of whom on the curve?
Best bit:
"If the trend continues, we may even get a pro-American president in Washington."
TAGGED AS: Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Germany, Politics, US
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PERMANENT LINK2441.\\ Promise-Breaker-in-Chief
What the fuck is going on in Washington? Aside from human nature, unrestrained greed, rampant corruption and outright fraud, that is.
Funding that no one has asked for, for projects that the Pentagon does not want. And a President so weak he can't even live up to his own words by lifting a pen to strike down horrific wasteful spending at a time of unprecedented fiscal peril.
What a bunch of crooks we have running the place. Where's Patrick Henry when you need him?
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, Finance, Liar, Military, Pentagon, Revolution, Spending
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PERMANENT LINK2440.\\ Vivre Sarkozy!
Sarkozy takes it to Barry. When the President of France is tougher than you are, you might be a bit of a wuss.
Seriously though. In the dark days of the early 2000's, the French were weak and sniveling annoyances. Now they're leading the freaking charge while we read teleprompters and dream of futures where Americans are controlled from the District of Columbia to live and breathe and think in a manner consistent with the ideology of the ivory tower theorists.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, France, Iran, Nicolas Sarkozy, United Nations, US
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PERMANENT LINK2439.\\ He Ain't No Martin Sheen
Sad but true. Sad in that 48% of the electorate saw clearly what the other 52% didn't. I wonder what the world would be like without the liberal myopia of youth?
Best bit:
"This is the fine mess Barack Obama told us would never happen if Americans would elect him to soothe the fears of the frightened and bank the ambitions of evildoers of the world. Suddenly, the president has to deal with headaches, a thousand town halls, with hundreds of thousands of angry bigots, racists and Nazis of hysterical liberal imagination jeering his scheme to take over the health care of the nation, never prepared him for. He's got headaches no speechwriter can cure. "
He's got headaches no speechwriter can cure. I love that line.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, China, Europe, Iran, Russia, US, Washington Times, Weakness
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PERMANENT LINK2435.\\ Why the World Loves Barry
The British have a bead on the man.
I just don't quite understand why he's so virulently anti-Israeli.
Best bit:
"The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt. "
TAGGED AS: America, Appeasement, Barack Obama, Daily Telegraph, United Nations, War on Terror
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PERMANENT LINK2433.\\ Disarming the Responsible
In a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece, Bret Stephens lays out why America is doomed. Not just America but all western peace loving nations.
I would differ in my long term predictions, however. Appeasement and weakness in the West historically invites war and turmoil. And so it will again. A nation or group of nations will attempt to exploit our perceived or actual weakness. The war will be long and brutal and ultimately we will prevail. We'll undergo decades of self-flagellation for ever having been so gullible and naive. I'm a historian. Mark my words that it will happen.
The best bit:
"In 1943, Walter Lippmann observed that the disarmament movement had been 'tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament.' That ought to have been the final word on the subject."
TAGGED AS: America, Appeasement, Barack Obama, Economy, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2431.\\ Obama Forgets His Own Child's Name
As retarded as GWB was made out to be, at least he never forgot how to pronounce Jenna or Barbara's name.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama
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PERMANENT LINK2430.\\ Throughout this campaign...er...effort
I love this exchange. Since most people probably didn't see it (cause no one watches George's show), I invite you now. My favorite part is where Obama forgets he's President and thinks he's still on the campaign trail.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Health Care, Liar
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PERMANENT LINK2429.\\ Andrew Breitbart is my new best friend
...and he's a superhero to boot.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Liberals, NEA
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PERMANENT LINK2427.\\ Barone Beat
Totally agree. The elite is in a bubble and cannot tolerate the notion that people disagree with them.
It isn't the lack of communication folks, it's the message.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Media, Michael Barone
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PERMANENT LINK2425.\\ The Brits: "Obama is out of his depth"
I could have told them that a year ago. Aside from minor quibbles (missile defense is not an 'untried scheme' as it has been tested for 10 years and has a 80% kill ratio), the rest of the article makes a very good case.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, The Telegraph, UK, US
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PERMANENT LINK2423.\\ 72% of Nation's Doctors Are Racists
Because, you know, they oppose the President's policies and since he's black then that means they hate black people.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Health Care, Liar
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PERMANENT LINK2419.\\ So the Gitmo Closure is Going Well
Now the Dems are blocking the closure of Gitmo
That whole 'change agenda' thing doesn't seem to be going so well. Except, you know, where placing Americans in danger is the goal (i.e. canceling Missile Defense, F22 Raptor).
Oh the irony.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Guantanemo, Terrorists
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PERMANENT LINK2418.\\ Racists Under the Bed
My favorite sarcasm-soaked bit:
"Most Americans - even ones that don't pay income taxes now - would be more than willing to give 70% of everything they earn to the federal government when asked ... so long as they are asked by a white president."
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Racist
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PERMANENT LINK2416.\\ Obama the Weak
In a bold act of appeasement and surrender to our enemies, Obama has scrapped the missile defense shield.
Quite apart from being reckless and feckless and exposing us to nuclear threats, it also hangs our allies out to dry. Poland the Czechs will put this backstab on par with the last time they were bent over and fucked in the ass by the West, 1938 and 39.
We've just lost Eastern Europe to the orbit of the Russian Empire. Nicely done Barry. Anything else you'd liked to surrender? Let's do it now and get it over with.
Lot's of news on this here, here, here and here.
What is most distressing is the apparent assumption by the boobs in DC that by sacrificing the security of the American and European peoples, they'll get Russia to cooperate on a range of issues (Iran). A first year undergrad in European History knows better than this and is clearly more fit to run our foreign policy.
TAGGED AS: Appeasement, Barack Obama, Missile Defense, NATO, Poland, Russia
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PERMANENT LINK2415.\\ Geroge Will and the Brilliant Distill
This guy has a knack for his ability to boil a complex, thorny circumstance down to its basic elements. He's done so again in Newsweek. This time he devestatingly lays out the fundamental contradictions in Barry's proposals and explains why Americans don't believe anything he says.
My favorite part:
"On the 233rd day of his presidency, Barack Obama grabbed the country's lapels for the 263rd time--that was, as of last Wednesday, the count of his speeches, press conferences, town halls, interviews, and other public remarks. His speech to Congress was the 122nd time he had publicly discussed health care. Just 14 hours would pass before the 123rd, on Thursday morning. His incessant talking cannot combat what it has caused: An increasing number of Americans do not believe that he believes what he says."
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, George Will, Health Care, Liar, Mitch McConnell, Newsweek
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PERMANENT LINK2414.\\ Seems Like It's Going Well...
If you needed further proof that the current class of clowns has no idea what it is doing, read this story.
Obama's economic philosophy, borne of ivory tower theories and with a heavy dose of idealistic communal flower power, will end up God-Damning America just as his supporters desire.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, The Telegraph
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PERMANENT LINK2413.\\ Old News
I got most of these in my real time twittering during the speech. Nice to know I wasn't the only one.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Health Care, Liar, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2412.\\ Most Important Read of The Week (And it's only Monday)
Read this and argue with it. You can't! You can't!
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2411.\\ Three Cheers For The Three Amigos!
I have always liked all three of them. My own Senator the least if I'm honest. But this article is a seminal piece.
The bit that seals the deal for me? "The U.S. walked away from Afghanistan once before, following the Soviet collapse. The result was 9/11. We must not make that mistake again."
Hear hear.
TAGGED AS: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, George W Bush, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Taliban, Terrorists
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PERMANENT LINK2410.\\ So Basically He Did Lie
Facts are terrible things when they contradict the illusion you are trying to construct.
To wit, the President's assertions in his health care speech last week were false.
I believe that makes him a non-truth teller. Or, as some may say, a LIAR.
Best part (talking about Barry's claims that Alabama was an egregious example of how the evil insurance companies are killing Americans):
"In fact, the Birmingham News reported immediately following the speech that the state's largest health insurer, the nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, has about a 75% market share. A representative of the company indicated that its "profit" averaged only 0.6% of premiums the past decade, and that its administrative expense ratio is 7% of premiums, the fourth lowest among 39 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans nationwide.
Similarly, a Dec. 31, 2007, report by the Alabama Department of Insurance indicates that the insurer's ratio of medical-claim costs to premiums for the year was 92%, with an administrative expense ratio (including claims settlement expenses) of 7.5%. Its net income, including investment income, was equivalent to 2% of premiums in that year.
In addition to these consumer friendly numbers, a survey in Consumer Reports this month reported that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama ranked second nationally in customer satisfaction among 41 preferred provider organization health plans. The insurer's apparent efficiency may explain its dominance, as opposed to a lack of competition--especially since there are no obvious barriers to entry or expansion in Alabama faced by large national health insurers such as United Healthcare and Aetna. "
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Health Care, Liar, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2407.\\ Where Are You James Monroe?
He never would have let this happen.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Hugo Chavez, Monroe Doctrine, Russia, Venezuala
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PERMANENT LINK2406.\\ Peter Ferrara: The Keynesians Were Wrong Again - WSJ.com
A ha! In a giant fuck you to the enlightened thought leaders (including Poobah Krugman himself) The Wall Street Journal presents a view opposite to that of the Keynesians and the other Ivory Tower elitists.
Good read.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Keynes
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PERMANENT LINK2404.\\ Liberal Agenda Struggling
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, Economy, Health Care, Liberals
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PERMANENT LINK2403.\\ 'Public Option' Unlimited But Paid For, Leaving Number-Crunchers Perplexed - Political News - FOXNews.com
As if there were any doubt, now even his own CBO says the math is impossible.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Health Care, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2400.\\ Barone Gets it Right (Again)
With his usual direct style, Michael Barone points out the increasing absurdity of the plan(s) to change how health care works in this country.
My favorite part:
"There is an element of convenient fantasy as well in Obama's health care statements to date. We are going to save money by spending money. We are going to solve our fiscal problems with a program that will increase the national debt by $1,000,000,000,000 over a decade. We are going to guarantee you can keep your current insurance with a bill that encourages your employer to stop offering it.
The list goes on. We are going to improve health care for seniors by cutting $500,000,000,000 from Medicare. We aren't going to insure illegal aliens, except that we won't have any verification provisions to see that they can't apply and get benefits."
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Michael Barone, Washington Examiner
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PERMANENT LINK2398.\\ When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner
Well, this was to be expected.
Hypocrites, amuse thy selves.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Bias, George HW Bush, Media, Washington Examiner, Washington Post
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PERMANENT LINK2396.\\ Make Me World of Warcraft Czar
Oh great. We have a new, extra-constitutional government appointee this morning. Apparently Barry saw fit to put a union man in as manufacturing czar. Well. No one better than a union guy to oversee State control of the means of production in this dictatorship of the proletariat.
Marx would be proud.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Communism, Dictatorship, Marxism, Unions
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PERMANENT LINK2395.\\ The Curious Case of the Missing Van Jones
In today's Washington Examiner, Byron York asks what I assume to be a rhetorical question. Why did the media, in particular the New York Times, totally ignore the Van Jones scandal. And what's more, why does the New York Times only print news that is favorable to Barack Obama? And why have they consistently not printed any news, ever, that was not favorable to him?
Again, I assume it is rhetorical and that Byron knows how corrupted, elitist and ideological the 'news' room is at the New York Times. That they don't report news at all. They are the modern day Hearsts who see their role as educating the dumb folk out there who can't see the truth. Their truth. That kind of ego maniacal, systematic lying is nothing short of yellow journalism without any positive side effects.
My favorite bit from the article:
"Times readers didn't know it, but the causes for Jones' departure included the fact that he signed a 2004 petition supporting the so-called '9/11 truther' movement; that he was a self-professed communist during much of the 1990s; that he supported the cop-killer Mumia abu-Jamal; that in 2008 he accused 'white polluters' of 'steering poison into the people of color communities'; and that earlier this year, speaking to a friendly crowd in Berkeley, Calif., he called Republicans 'a--holes.'"
So he's not only a first class dick, he's also a communist, a racist and prone to conspiracy theories. Bet you won't find any of that in the New York Times.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Byron York, Elitist, Leftist, New York Times, Van Jones, Washington Examiner
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PERMANENT LINK2392.\\ Van Jones is a Lunatic
Just watch the video...
This guy is our leader's pick for high office? Questioning his judgment at this point. What's next, Reverend Wright for Racial Reconciliation Czar?
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Democrats, Racist
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PERMANENT LINK2391.\\ Joe Biden, Super Pseudo President
I love the sardonic tone of this summary of Joe Biden's activities over the past couple weeks while Barry is MIA.
Be sure to read the second page for the best bit:
"Declaring that 95 percent of all 'working families' have received tax relief (check your mailbox), the vice president also noted that more than 54 million seniors and veterans 'received a one-time check of $250.' Mr. Biden also asserted that the program 'saved or created 150,000 jobs in the first 100 days,' and reiterated the administration's pledge to save or create another 600,000 in the second hundred days."
I'm a veteran and I didn't get a check. I have a working family of 5 and didn't receive a dime from Barry. I do, however, fondly recall the 3 separate times I got checks from the Treasury during the Bush Administration...
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2387.\\ Candidate in Chief
Excellent analysis. My favorite bit:
"President Obama seemingly has no clue about what he is doing, and, increasingly, it shows. What will happen when things start to go sour in Afghanistan? Our Commander-in-Chief simply will not be able to blame President Bush. After Obama has effectively destroyed the CIA, what will he do when terrorists strike? War is a nasty business in which lawyers should have little role. Has Obama noticed that Islamic terrorists are now threatening him? Does he understand that these vicious men are still threatening America?"
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, George Bush, Politics, US
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PERMANENT LINK2385.\\ Holder Versus American Patriots
Ralph Peters does his usual job of verbally stripping his opponents of any philosophical legitimacy.
I like that he's framed the attack on American security not as a policy decision but as an ideological purge of the third world type. It is an interesting, but very subtle twist on this argument that resonates with me because I firmly believe that he's absolutely correct.
Dangerous times, my friends. Stay thirsty.
**** UPDATE:
Reading some of the comments. Didn't realize Eric Holder worked for Janet Reno and was involved in Ruby Ridge and Waco. Makes total sense that he'd seek to undermine our Liberty.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, CIA, Eric Holder, George Bush, New York Post, Ralph Peters, Terrorists
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PERMANENT LINK2384.\\ Bending Over (Backwards)
Go ahead and read this, now. Completely agree with the article. In fact, I suggest we launch an investigation into World War II abuses committed by American GIs against Nazis. Might make sense in the bizarro world we live in today.
Point to remember for the rest of the day:
"So many 'rights' have been conjured up out of thin air that many people seem unaware that rights and obligations derive from explicit laws, not from politically correct pieties. If you don't meet the terms of the Geneva Convention, then the Geneva Convention doesn't protect you. If you are not an American citizen, then the rights guaranteed to American citizens do not apply to you."
Amen brother.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Britain, CIA, National Security, Scotland, Terrorists
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PERMANENT LINK2382.\\ David Brooks and the Silent Majority
In an Opinion piece, (usually) conservative columnist David Brooks surveys the political situation we're in and does his best to say nothing of interest on the matter.
With a discernible sourness, for reasons I can't quite fathom, he rambles on about how much of a mistake Obama's left tilt has been (shocker) and the disaster of health care reform for the Democrats (another shocker).
Despite writing an obvious filler piece (probably Sunday afternoon or something), he can't avoid some gems such as this:
"Amazingly, some liberals are now lashing out at Obama because the entire country doesn't agree with The Huffington Post. Some now argue that the administration should just ignore the ignorant masses and ram health care through..."
Love it.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, David Brooks, Deficit, Economy, Harry Reid, Health Care, New York Times
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PERMANENT LINK2380.\\ Poor Panetta
After reading this article, I'm more convinced than ever that Barry & Co have no clue what they're doing.
I should temper that somewhat. I prefer to say instead that I am wavering between believing they're totally clueless and believing that they're utterly un-American and have a deliberate plan to destroy this country for some bizarre reason. For me, only either extreme can sufficiently explain the ongoing assault on the defense and intelligence capabilities of this nation.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, CIA, Eric Holder, Intelligence, Leon Panetta
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PERMANENT LINK2368.\\ Arrogant Egalitarians
Have always felt that those in power who decided that they were smarter than everyone else sought to impose their view of the world on those of us who were too dumb to take care of ourselves. And, as Thomas Sowell points out, there is significant egalitarian arrogance in power today.
My favorite part:
(Obama) may think of (limiting our freedom) in terms of promoting "social justice" or making better decisions than ordinary people are capable of making for themselves, whether about medical care or housing or many other things. Throughout history, egalitarians have been among the most arrogant people.
And imagine there was a time when Liberals promoted Liberty.
TAGGED AS: Arrogant, Barack Obama, Elitist, Liberals, Liberty, Media
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PERMANENT LINK2355.\\ Calling Leni Riefenstahl
Are you freaking kidding me? I feel like the lone Wiemar Democrat in January 1933 screaming "WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING!?!" Where is the media criticism? Where are the intellectuals on this blatant group-think mindlessness?
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Children, Communism, Creepy, Liberals, Politics, Self-Righteousness, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2351.\\ All in all you're just another brick in the wall
Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!
http://news.ionlinephilippines.com/2008/10/singing-obama-kids-video/
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Children, Communism, Creepy, Liberals, Politics, Self-Righteousness, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2344.\\ Stunned and Disgusted
It is a dark day for America. I'm not a liberal democrat by any definition. But I have to confess that I find Obama's candidacy exciting and different. I'm disgusted that the clinton machine has steamrolled him in New Hampshire. Everything about the clintons oozes phoniness and greasy self-absorbed self-righteousness. There is nothing at all about their character that balances the complete lack of moral guidance and complete lack of personal integrity. I find them to be the embodiment of everything that is wrong with American politics.
In stark contrast is Barack Obama. He is inspiring. He is someone I like watching. I don't agree with a thing he says, but I find him to be such a phenom and harbinger of difference that I cannot for the life of me understand why ANYONE would wish to travel back in time to 1992 and relive the depressing self-absorption and obsessive me-generation of the clintonian years.
The crying fit did it, I'm told. And yet no matter how many times I watch that performance, I can't figure out how any self-respecting American can observe clinton in all her fakeness complain that life for her is hard and actually believe she is genuine. Nothing about the clintons is genuine. Any of the advisers that have spoken candidly about the clintons note as a primary character trait their complete lack of honesty and that every single word and action is political in nature. Everything she does is engineered to play on emotion or place a doubt or raise a hope. She is the definition of fake. I hate her with such a passion that I would become a citizen and vote for Obama if I thought it would mean that no one named clinton would ever occupy the White House again.
Shock. Disgust.
How can machine politics so decisively overcome and defeat such a wave of hope and optimism? I don't think I'll ever understand people who support the clintons. People who think of the 1990s as the halcyon days. I just don't understand people who think of the clinton years with nostalgia. It doesn't make any sense at all to me.
They just won't go away.
I fear for the Republic when a hillary clinton can defeat a Barack Obama.
Now we have to suffer through her irrepressible 'comeback kid' nonsense where she talks about how she's a real person who has a heart and deeply wants to make a difference and how she has 35 years of experience and blah blah blah. God help us all.
Technorati: ChrisCam, webcam, Weblog, Blog, hillary, Obama, New Hampshire
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Clintonian, Democrats, Disgust, Hillary Clinton, Phony, Politics, Self-Righteousness
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