The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Meanness Is Not A Leadership Quality

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President Obama is a mean man.  One can almost understand giddy election-elation arrogence and so forgive his infamous and snarky, “I won” comment.  But now it’s been reported that, in the infamous style of his Chicago mentors, he warned Representative Peter DeFazio, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.”  Why?  Because DeFazio voted against the administration’s stimulus bill.  And during a recent meeting about compensation he warned bankers, “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”  (An interesting perspective on the roots of this mean example can be, should be, read here.)

How’s that for working without a teleprompter?  It’s obvious he thinks he holds all the aces and so, as was demonstrated by his chiding Congress to not listen to Rush Limbaugh, he becomes a churlish little schoolyard bully when faced with something that doesn’t tell him what he wants to hear.  It’s like some bad, late-night B version of “The Godfather” with German subtitles.

But the problem here is that President Obama is as much to blame for what happened to our economy as Wall Street and Congress.  Perhaps if he’d been doing his job serving as Senator of Illinois and not spent his electorate’s time and the taxpayers’ money on the campaign trail he would know this.  Instead he continues down some “Do as I say, not as I do” yellow-brick road towards total American economic devastation, then puts on his community organizer hat and goes pandering for European applause by apologizing to them for America’s refusal to play along in their socialistic sandbox. 

I’ll tell you what – the American people are keeping score, too, and the American people are, indeed, sitting on a pile of figurative pitchforks but they have the names of Senators and Representatives and members of the administration engraved on them.  Not willing to use them unless absolutely necessary, and hoping things never reach that point.

Don’t tread on me.

Government, Pelosi-Style

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Q.  How many people does it take for President Obama to take part in the G20 summit?

A.  Almost 500.  Including senior officials, staff, support personnel , news reporters and some 200 Secret Service agents.  And let’s not leave behind the president’s new armored limousine and several presidential helicopters for those short jaunts.  How is this is being accomplished?  By using military aircraft, which is causing our military to hire more foreign contractors to help resupply U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.

One official said the problem was not only the vehicles and helicopters that were needed for presidential security, but also the unusually large number of people traveling with the president (which includes a team from the White House kitchen to prepare his food, a White House medical unit, and, of course, assistants that include a secretary, a press officer and several bodyguards for the First Lady). The official said U.S. taxpayers are paying twice for airlift, once for Air Force jets that are not available for a war zone and again for foreign contractor aircraft that are.

Q.  What’s the most effective way to get a criminal to squeal?

A.  Give them immunity, of course.  ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) has been giving illegal immigrants work visas in exchange for testimony against their employers.  At a hearing last Thursday, it was revealed by ICE director Marcy Forman they are targeting only businesses that exploit illegal immigrants with low pay and subject them to harsh working conditions.   “We’re seeing history here today,” Representative Harold Rogers said. “A new policy now says we will not raid or prosecute … an employer, so long as the employer does not exploit the worker. That is de facto amnesty. If you are treated fairly, we’re not going to prosecute,” Mr. Rogers said, who added that he was “disgusted.”

Phone Sex For Journalists and Other Government Giggles

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Sending journalists to a phone sex outfit when they dial a phone number to connect to folks at the G20 meeting gives the administration’s claims of transparency a whole new meaning.  Of course, the administration once again demonstrates that caring about accuracy – especially in cases like this, when news needs to be reported – is something to be sarcastically dismissed.

There was better transparency in the administration’s warnings that this year’s budget was going to be “expensive”.  And though many of us told them we didn’t want it, both the House and Senate have gone ahead and put multi-trillion dollar deficit budget proposals on the table anyway.  Burying our nation’s as-yet-to-be-born grandchildren under an incomprehensible amount of debt.

This goes splendidly with today’s announcement that unemployment has reached 8.5% nationwide, the highest it has been since 1983 (when we had 23% less people living here).

But if Representative Jack Murtha has his way, that niggling little problem won’t affect some people.  He’s trying to score some $20 million in earmarks for current or former clients of PMA; included in the $134 million he’s earmarking overall. 

I had to laugh at an article about the still-undecided Senatorial election in Minnesota.  Politico reports that Democrats are loading their guns against Norm Coleman (R), on the chance he prevails and so adds another Republican voice in the Senate.  J.B. Poersch, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is quoted as saying, “These [several unresolved investigations] are really serious ethical issues, and the longer Republicans entangle themselves with someone like Coleman, the more damage he does to them.  We’re going to bring them up anyway, but they would be better off if he was out of the Senate.”

He could have been talking about almost anyone in Washington.  Exactly how do they manage to say such things with a straight face?

Why Is Murtha Hiding Under Pelosi’s Skirt?

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That’s the question asked by Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ).  He’s raised a motion several times asking for an investigation into the correlation between campaign donations and earmarks, notably those concerning defense lobbyist organization PMA (raided by the FBI earlier this year).

Not surprisingly, his motions are inevitably tabled, silenced by the Democrats; though more and more “Blue Dogs” are going on record as agreeing that this is a matter worth consideration of the House Ethics Committee.

But House Speaker Pelosi seems to be keeping Representative John Murtha – poster child of PMA lobbying efforts – under her skirt…heh.  While it’s not her place to force an investigation, what with the incestuous relationships that now make up the administration, as an alleged “senior” member she can certainly make it known that investigating ties between lobbyists and earmarks is overdue and encourage Democrats to at least offer their own version of the Republican requests.

But then she’d have to lift her skirt and you can bet that Murtha’s “problems” won’t be the only thing found hiding there.

Putting Congress On Notice

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Normally being generous in my assessments of others, it has taken an empty suit combined with even more loudly echoing empty heads doing their darndest to turn this country inside-out to make me realize that I am very, very comfortable in my previously-unacknowledged Conservative skin.  And part of being a Conservative is being responsible.  Responsible for my own actions.

I have been thinking a lot about civic responsibilities.  These are very basic and inherent with being a citizen of the United States; we use a hierarchy called elected representation to get done all those things that must be done to protect us as a collective.  When we elect people to represent us in Washington, we are, however, in effect hiring them to do a job.  A job that today has become little more than never-ending campaign trail and a pathetic pandering to criminals, using the sacred responsibility for spending American taxpayers’ money to do little more than buy votes at the expense of the laws and freedoms of this land.

Each of us is responsible for sending these people to Washington.  Whether or not we voted for them directly, or allowed them to get there because we failed to exercise our right to vote, we have been extremely negligent bosses and our business has now been run into the ground and is just this short of being ground into the dirt by a fascist’s gleeful heel.

I have decided that it is time to stand up and let these employees know that their services are no longer considered satisfactory.  In fact, if you would do your homework and check on what YOUR personal employees have been doing in Washington, I suspect you will find that, like mine, their performance is not only sub-par, but so bad that it calls for nothing short of immediate firing.

 To that end, I have prepared a letter of dismissal to send to my employees.  It is being sent first to those who are up for reelection in 2010.  Along with Tea Parties, letters, petitions, and other means of making our voices heard, this is a critical step in taking back our power from those who would use it only for their own selfish gain.  It will be printed and sent by regular U.S. postal mail since email is nowadays so often too easily ignored.

Dear Senator or Representative Wanker,

As the new administration moves forward to enact an ideology of “hope and change” that seems to have nothing to do with the Constitution of the United States or the Bill of Rights, I have been closely monitoring your efforts on behalf of those who sent you to Washington to represent us.

What I have been seeing bears no resemblance to our wishes, nor to anything except moving this country deeper into debt and stripping its citizens of their rights.

You voted for the stimulus package and apparently only read enough of it to make sure it included a nice helping of pork ribs for yourself – an embarrassing frivolity considering current economic conditions.  You voted in favor of the EFCA, thereby effectively removing the right of business owners to run their company as they see fit and subjecting workers to union dues that only line the pockets of union organizers.  You voted to give the District of Columbia voting rights in Congress, thereby removing the neutrality of the district as is intended in the Constitution.  And included in that vote was your support for the “Fairness Doctrine”, which seeks to remove your constituents’ right to free speech. 

You also agreed to tax corporate bonuses, even though you agreed to hand them out in the first place; effectively removing “free” from the free market and stripping capitalism of the inherent balance created by supply and demand.

Though I gave you and the new administration the benefit of the doubt, after these first 60 days I am even more disappointed and more truly alarmed than I could ever have imagined.  From your actions, you make it clear that you support the President’s goal that the Republic of the United States turn its back on its hard-won, globally-envied history of independence and freedom and instead embrace the slavery inherent in socialism. 

That, however, is not the wish of this constituent.  Therefore, I hereby put you on notice that you will never again have my support.  In fact, it is my duty as an American citizen to strive to remove the dangers you pose by seeing that you are not given the opportunity to return to Washington ever again.

In your post-Congress life, I suggest you join the rest of us and try to embrace the failure.  Remember, it’s patriotic.

Sincerely,
Your Utterly Disgusted Constituent

     

 This is the list of Congress critters whose terms are ending in 2010.  Is one of yours here?  If so, and you are not intimately familiar with how they have voted to represent your rights and interests, you can find that information easily enough here.  Feel free to copy my letter and replace paragraphs 3 and 4 with the problems applicable to your specific employee.  Conversely, if you have a good representative, let them know you will support them in 2010; praise for good work can never be said too much.

State   What Congress Critter Party   Status (as of this writing)
AK Senate Lisa Murkowski R  
AL House  Artur Davis D To run for Governor of Alabama.
AL Senate Richard Shelby R Running for reelection
AR Senate Blanche Lincoln D Running for reelection
AZ Senate John McCain R Running for reelection
CA Senate Barbara Boxer D Running for reelection
CO Senate Michael Bennet D Running for election
CT Senate Chris Dodd D Running for reelection
DE Senate Ted Kaufman D Retiring
FL House  Kendrick Meek D To run for the U.S. Senate.
FL Senate Mel Martinez R Retiring
FL House  Adam Putnam R To run for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture.
GA Senate Johnny Isakson R Running for reelection
HI Senate Daniel Inouye D Running for reelection
HI House  Neil Abercrombie D To run for Governor of Hawaii.
IA Senate Chuck Grassley R  
ID Senate Mike Crapo R  
IL Senate Roland Burris D  
IN Senate Evan Bayh D  
KS Senate Sam Brownback R Retiring
KS House  Jerry Moran R To run for the U.S. Senate.
KS House  Todd Tiahrt R To run for the U.S. Senate.
KY Senate Jim Bunning R Running for reelection
LA Senate David Vitter R Running for reelection
MD Senate Barbara Mikulski D  
MI House  Pete Hoekstra R To run for Governor of Michigan.
MO Senate Kit Bond R Retiring
MO House  Roy Blunt R To run for the U.S. Senate.
NC Senate Richard Burr R  
ND Senate Byron Dorgan D  
NH House  Paul Hodes D To run for the U.S. Senate.
NH Senate Judd Gregg R Likely retiring
NV Senate Harry Reid D Running for reelection
NY Senate Chuck Schumer D  
NY Senate Kirsten Gillibrand D  
OH Senate George Voinovich R Retiring
OK Senate Tom Coburn R  
OK House  Mary Fallin R To run for Governor of Oklahoma.
OR Senate Ron Wyden D  
PA Senate Arlen Specter R Running for reelection
SC Senate Jim DeMint R  
SC House  Gresham Barrett R To run for Governor of South Carolina.
SD Senate John Thune R Running for reelection
TN House  Zach Wamp R To run for Governor of Tennessee.
UT Senate Bob Bennett R Running for reelection
VT Senate Patrick Leahy D  
WA Senate Patty Murray D  
WI Senate Russ Feingold D Running for reelection

     

I hear so much that basically tells me many people are feeling paralyzed by fear.  But we don’t have to take the destruction of our country laying down.  This is just one simple and effective step towards making things right again and all it will cost you is a stamp.

The New Mafia

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Everybody has a story.  Everybody has something to teach others.  And most often it is our failures that give us the best stories and provide us with the biggest lessons to share.

This is a rather interesting Fox News interview with a former mob boss, Michael Franzese.  He was extremely successful yet rightly ended up in prison.  He paid his dues, gave up “the life” and now writes and does motivational speaking, sharing his story and its lessons. 

Pay particular attention to the analogies he draws between Congress and the Mafia.  It is an “offer” you can’t refuse.

Baffle ‘Em With Bullshit

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Do you actually read the news?  I mean really read the news; not just looking at the pictures, skimming over to the gossip or entertainment sections so you can then get to the daily cartoons.  Read to the point you know about what’s going on in your town and in your country.

I talk to a lot of people and am often surprised at just how little they know about things that stand to change their very way of life.  So much is taken for granted yet there are times I can’t blame them for wanting to stick their heads in the sand and choose instead to obsess over the next American Idol.  Not only do current events sorely test those few lessons in civics through which most of us nodded so many years ago, the sheer number of them coming at us today is unprecendented.

But maybe that’s the way the new administration and those working behind the scenes of it planned it all along.  Baffle ’em with bullshit about crisis after crisis and then leverage the overwhelming despair to sneak in and steal everything of value.

Today is a day when there’s surely plenty of it.  First and most importantly, there’s the fundamental insanity of “rephrasing” the terms by which we measure what’s going on in the world around us.  That’s a really good way to get yourself in through the backdoor; just don’t let ’em know what you really mean.   The “war on terror” has now become the “ongoing struggle against terror” (courtesy of those alleged-as-nebulous ties to Bill Ayers, we presume?)  On a global level, it’s being referred to as an “overseas contingency operation”. 

Yeah, right.  Where I come from, it’s called fighting those who wish us dead.  In other words, it’s war.

There’s the ongoing saga of government bailouts and the endless AIG ping-pong blame game to take our minds off such insensibilities.   But in an unprecedented move, Treasury Secretary Geithner has proposed a sweeping set of regulations that could well spell the end of business as we know it.  He thinks we need an “independent” agency to monitor “major institutions” or payment systems whose failure “could” present a “destabilizing effect” on the economy.  The stated intention is to restrain companies whose size or complexity “could” threaten the financial systems’ stability, with the power to control all this to be spread among the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and SEC.  Color me an alarmist or color me practical, but there’s nothing to define any of this; much is being left up for “discussion” over the next few weeks.  What is there to discuss?  It’s all being directed at private businesses, where in a free market business operates according to Darwin’s theory – the survival of the fittest (there is a reason the dinosaurs went extinct).  I can easily imagine a government takeover of, say, Microsoft when some hacker unleashes the virus-to-end-all-viruses and manages to take down computers from coast to coast, businesses large and small, and portions of government operations.

This comes from the very same Tiny Tim who was unable to tell anyone just how much TARP money is left.  I can’t help but now wonder if that failure to pay all those taxes didn’t stem from simple stupidity after all. 

And did you know that the IRS is setting up a sort of clemency program, designed to get the wealthy to spill the beans about their oversees bankers?  The government made up rules that allow this sort of thing, but now we’re going to tell other countries that they can’t allow Americans to play by them. 

It isn’t going over very well.  The World Trade Organization is warning about the creeping protectionism now being displayed around the world, but the finger is being pointed at the United States and the European Union for starting the financial crisis.  Suggestions about replacing the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency with some mish-mash to be managed by the International Monetary Fund were given a semblance of credence by none other than, yes, Tiny Tim, when he told the Council on Foreign Relations “We’re actually quite open to that.”  Thereby setting off yet another panic in the financial sectors, both nationa and global.  Though it is reported that he’d not even read China’s proposal. 

I fear it is simply a precursor to the latest U.N. proposal for “climate change”, complete with a global shift to a “world economy”.  Though the proposal is still rather vague in terms of dollars, the scope should frighten anyone with a modicum of sense for it will affect absolutely everything from goods to the ability to provide services to utilities through mandates like cap and trade and a shift in the use of subsidies.  The Obama administration is for anything that uses the weasel words, “global warming”, and there is obviously no concern on their part that the “bank” for all of the monies that will involved will be none other than the inept U.N.

Anyone else getting the feeling that reading is somehow something just a bit too plebian for this administration?  Despite all the talk about transparency, they don’t want anyone else to read anything, either.  Fox cable news won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of the Treasury seeking documents related to the Troubled Asset Recovery Program.  Some 10,000 pages were finally received but, guess what?  The majority of them were redacted.  Thereby continuing to cloak the government’s role in the compensation agreements at AIG and Citigroup, etc.

Meantime, North Korea is preparing to launch what they are calling a satellite and the rest of the world is calling a missile test.  A test to see if whatever-you-choose-to-call-it is capable of reaching the United States.  Japan is preparing to intercept debris over the ocean and the U.S. has 2 warships deployed in southwestern Japan while the inevitable threat of sanctions is being made by allies.  Not that the North Korea contributes to the stability of the region, but this is not just a diplomatic nightmare.  It contains all the potential for the very same ugliness with which we are already heavily involved in the Middle East.  But at least the Middle Eastern leaders aren’t (yet) attempting to launch missiles at us.

But there are some missiles already hitting close to home.  My home.  Your home.  If the technology exists, someone will figure out how to make a buck with it.  And red-light cameras are the latest trick in the revenue-collecting arsenal.  Mississippi,  Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and West Virginia all ban them, though about half the states authorize their use.  Now Chicago – surprise, surprise – is considering using them to not only catch people who run red lights, but to also check to see if they are driving an insured vehicle, since there is big money to be made collecting fines for driving without insurance.  Big money for government and for a Michigan-based company, InsureNet, who would charge up to 30% in collection fees for tying into the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, an information-sharing network that links some 35,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.  Though being sold as an adjunct check for drivers who break the law, there is nothing to stop a check of every single car passing through an intersection to see if they are insured.  In fact, that’s still on the table.  Maybe it’s just me, but I fail to see how this makes the roads safer.  Certainly driving is a huge act of faith – that other drivers will obey the rules of the road – but whether or not other drivers are insured has nothing to do with how they operate a vehicle.  The only thing being guaranteed is someone’s pockets are being lined.

And this is just the ones that come readily to mind.  There is legislation pending in the House for reparations to American slaves (worth a rant of its own since, among other things, it speaks to slaves not having been allowed to repatriate – to the very countries and the governments that sold them in the first place, and what about the same discriminations having been made towards women…heh); Senator Dodd is being stripped of more and more of his protective covering to reveal what a slimey mess he really is, national health care is being discussed despite a stern warning from Daniel Hannon (member of the British Parliment and former Obama supporter) last night to Sean Hannity about the dangers of it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  we’re being sold down a river.  De Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt but it’s not a place any of us can afford to swim in any longer.

Whatever Barry Wants, Harry Gets?

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I fear the Democratic majority in Congress is starting to feel the heat building up around them as the American people begin to see that all the campaign rhetoric was just that – rhetoric.  To understand that it is the administration’s intention to destroy this country.

And so in all due haste to do as much damage as possible before the Democrats rightly lose their Congressional majority in 2010’s mid-term elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now pulling out the final stops and making the decision to include a little procedural tactic called “reconciliation” in legislation intended to, this time, nationalize health care and institute cap and trade.  What this does is allow extremely limited time for debate about a bill, effectively preventing a fillibuster by the minority party and forcing something through to law. 

This is a budget-targeted procedure, and there are provisions to call for exceptions.  You know, those invaluable checks and balances upon which this country was founded and intended to operate.  It could be argued that the fiscal changes to the budget that would accompany nationalizing health care is an exception.  As could the “trickle down” effect of implenting cap and trade in the form of higher prices for everything (since what will be considered “dirty” energy production and therefore become a commodity to be traded for profit will impact the cost of everything from utilities to transportation costs of goods).

Some Democrats are actually – and rightly – concerned about this particular bit of high-handedness from the man who personally supersized the deficit through his heavy hand in crafting the TARP and stimulus packages.  Guess they’ve been reading those cards, letters, and emails from their out-of-change constituents.  There is hope that enough Democrats have begun to recover from their Kool-Aid stupor; however it needs to be a good number because should there be a tie vote, guess who gets to break it?  Yup.  The President’s own little shadow, Vice-President Biden.

We can only hope that his propensity for misspeaking will cause him to say the wrong thing when it would really make a positive difference.

But I’m not going to hold my breath.  It’s time to put pressure on those who work for us – particularly if they are of the Demon-crat persuasion – to stop this one in its tracks and tell Harry that this time he’s gone way, way too far.

In Plain English: Obama Is Incompetent

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Just over half the Americans eligible to vote and who chose to do so (well, at least it was presumed that all votes cast were by those who were both living and eligible – some even 77 times eligible – since there were numerous charges and indictments against Obama-campaign-funded ACORN) went to Barack Hussein Obama and in a flash we ushered in what continues to be called a new era of “hope and change”.

The problem is that the hope is now that this man resigns or otherwise disappears and that the change we’ve seen has been nothing but negative.

But I fear that Obama’s audacity (read:  ego) and the fact that too many in this country, including the First Lady, are still willing to covertly or overtly play the race card is going to keep us sliding down the thinly-veiled razor blade he proffered, too many accepted, and for which he continues to campaign.  And that is a sadness even more tragic than the economic meltdown that has the real middle class of this country wondering just how they’re going to manage to survive.

Let us consider for a moment the definition of the word “incompetent”.  There are those claim only worm-eaters make any criticisms of President Obama, but do they really understand what it means?  Merriam-Webster defines it thusly:

Main Entry:   incompetent 
Function:   adjective
Etymology:   Middle French incompétent, from in- + compétent competent
Date:   1595
1: not legally qualified
2: inadequate to or unsuitable for a particular purpose
3 a: lacking the qualities needed for effective action b: unable to function properly
 
Arguments continue to be made that Barack Obama is not legally qualified to hold the office of President of the United States, based on questions about the circumstances surrounding his birth.  While the courts continue to refuse to hear cases on this, that the President continues to allow the question to be asked is at direct odds with all his calls for honesty and transparency.  Like the old saying goes, “He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing.”  Surely it would be a simple matter to allow the release of records and thereby properly refute claims by his family of a Kenyan birth to a mother not old enough to confer U.S. citizenship upon him.  His college records remain protected as well, which again gives, at best, yet another appearance of impropriety.  Like the best of cases made up purely of circumstantial evidence, something both his Harvard law degree and his $800,000 worth of lawyers fighting to keep all his records sealed surely must know, many people have a hard time believing the answer would be something as simple as he doesn’t want anyone to know his grades in school were even worse than those of our much-ridiculed former President George W. Bush.
 
That President Obama is inadequate in his role as President has become a matter of daily course.  While both Hugo Chavez and the Ayatollah Khomeini aren’t exactly leading anyone’s list of reputable advisors, that they have both come out in the last week to blatantly blast Obama with both barrels in derision of his policies and his lack of concrete “change” speaks to the low level of regard with which the United States is now held.  And that is a dangerous place for us to be, yet President Obama continues to attempt to soothe the savage beasts with lullabies of cooperation and dialogue while treating our allies with casual disregard and in some instances outright disrespect.  As if it never occurs to him that no matter what America says or what America does, there are some people in this world who wish for nothing less than America to disappear off the face of the Earth.  
  
Further inadequacy is demonstrated in his insistance – despite rumblings from Europe that the dollar should no longer be taken seriously – that taking trillions and trillions from zero will somehow magically transform the raging rivers of federal red ink into a viable and stable national budget.  
  
The qualities required for a President to be effective are not consistent with the actions of Barack Obama.  He shows more concern about winning a game of oneupmanship with people like Rush Limbaugh and doing late-night comedy with Jay Leno (a trip paid for by the taxpayers) than properly addressing, say, the economy.   Effective leaders care enough to know the facts at hand and are able to speak intelligently most of the time without the aid of a teleprompter.  Functioning properly in the role of President is not resorting to “gallows humor” when asked legitimate questions; indeed, these never-ending media appearances only serve to show that President Obama lacks the maturity required to lead the United States.  He shows the world that he is more enamored with the color of authority and privilege he perceives his role confers upon him than he is with the grave responsibilities it brings.  This immature perspective is reinforced by alleging to have been “blindsided” by the AIG bonuses.  I don’t know very many people who find out what it was they did at work by watching the evening news, do you?  Oh, but I forgot.  When he was to have been serving as a Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama was out campaigning instead of working to represent those who had elected him so apparently couldn’t be bothered to know just what he was voting for or what his colleagues were doing.  Along the same lines he couldn’t be bothered to read the stimulus bill.  The applause of the crowds apparently meant more to him – and still does – than actually doing real work.
  
President G.W. Bush may not have been the brightest bulb in the drawer and though his business ventures were all failures, at least he had legitimate experience from which to draw when he was elected.  Including military experience, such as it was.  Barack Obama cannot make the same claim.  Since coming of legal age he has done nothing of real value, he has never gotten his hands dirty doing what anyone might recognize as a regular job.  He is the stuff of debates and models and multi-layered theories, of myths and fantasies that have never known the hard knocks from application in the real world.  Yet he feels entitled to sit in the Oval Office and to make a mockery of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and with the stroke of several pens – because of course it’s all about creating historic souvenirs – destroy the free market.
  
It is no longer a case where the silly Emperor has no clothes on.  It is that the Emperor is, whether naked or clothed, dangerously incompetent.

We’re Aren’t As Stupid As You Think, Mr. President

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In his Saturday message, President Obama said that the people who attended his townhall meetings in California this week “weren’t as concerned about the news of the day in Washington as they were about the very real and serious challenges their families face every day”.

Perhaps he was following Nancy Pelosi’s lead and addressing illegal immigrants who don’t speak English well or at all, or perhaps it is merely testament to the depth of the financial mess in California, created in part by taking care of all those illegal immigrants, but the “ordinary Americans” with whom I speak on a daily basis are extremely concerned about what’s going on in Washington.  They watch the spiraling debt, the dropping Dow, past and future generations of good money being thrown after bad; they watch those who should be most concerned about the mess they have created spending their time lobbing self-perceived pithy comments at radio hosts and television commentators or making hurtful jokes, and alternately shake their heads in amazement or shudder in revulsion.

The “ordinary Americans” with whom I speak on a daily basis know full well that what goes on in Washington holds grave ramifications for not only this, our beloved country, but for them, as individuals.  They understand that it is impossible to spend money that you don’t have to pay off debts you don’t need to incur, they understand that government involvement in private business is socialism, they understand that hamstringing those who own companies by ever-increasing taxes on their incomes and unionizing their businesses spells death to free enterprise, personal choice, and everything upon which this country was founded.  They understand that our sovereignty is threatened by the President’s enchantment with the U.N., and that our safety is threatened by a foreign policy that even – shamefully – the Ayatollah Khamenei rightly derides, saying, “They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice. We haven’t seen any change.”

Yet President Obama continues to dare to carry on campaigning about fixing the “fiscal mess” he and the Congress critters inheirited – from themselves.  He expects to send the deficit to some $9.3 trillion in 10 years yet cut it in half in what he euphamistically now refers to as his “first term”.

We, the “ordinary Americans”, watch and we listen, and then we, the “ordinary Americans”, hope and we pray that the gods help us all and give us the time we need to vote this kind of audacity out with a thorough house cleaning in Washington.