The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Of Course Not, Mr. President

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“But I want you to know that what you’re doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation — a sacrifice you may not have chose to make, but a sacrifice you were nevertheless called to make so that your children and all of our children can grow up in an America that still makes things; that still builds cars; that still strives for a better future. ”

So said President Obama during his press conference about the bankruptcy filing of General Motors on Monday.  Those words really mean something coming from the man who spent some $24,000 of taxpayer money to take his wife on a jet-set “date” to New York City the previous Saturday night, don’t you think?

“What we are not doing — what I have no interest in doing — is running GM. GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team with a track record in American manufacturing that reflects a commitment to innovation and quality. They — and not the government — will call the shots and make the decisions about how to turn this company around. The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions. When a difficult decision has to be made on matters like where to open a new plant or what type of new car to make, the new GM, not the United States government, will make that decision.”

So that explains why President Obama called Detroit mayor Dave Bing on Sunday night, just hours before that bankruptcy filing, to reassure the mayor that you “support” GM’s headquarters remaining in its downtown Renaissance Center buildings, rather than wisely consolidate to its nearby Technical Center property in Warren, Michigan.

It also explains why a key member of the auto task force and charged with dismantling GM is a 31-year old with absolutely no business experience, let alone any experience in anything that even remotely resembles the automotive industry.

Birds of a feather, Mr. President?

An Example Of Empathy?

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It was just a little news blurb tonight, one of those “fluff” fillers intended to make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

The President took his wife on a promised “date night” to New York City tonight.  Dinner at a swanky restaurant and then a Broadway show; nothing different than what millions of husbands do for their wives every weekend.  Or used to do, anyway.

But those other millions of husbands aren’t preaching to everyone else that “climate change” is a Big Serious Matter and then turning around and leaving yet another big carbon footprint just for fun.  Those millions of other husbands aren’t preaching fiscal responsibility and then going off to have that fun on someone else’s dime.

Words mean something all right.

And the word that comes to mind is:  hypocrite.

Respect Must Be Earned

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Though it seems that the majority of people focus on this long holiday weekend as being the start of summer and therefore the perfect excuse to party, Memorial Day is when we remember those who “gave it all” in service to this great nation.  From the first moment of the American Revolution, there have always been those willing to take up their arms and make manifest our collective belief in the principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” against those who would seek to destroy it. 

It is not an easy thing to die in defense of one’s beliefs.  Ask any veteran who has experienced combat or ask any family who has watched their son or daughter, father or mother, husband or wife bravely wave one last time as they walk onto the ship or airplane or bus that will take them to join their comrades; we may shed a tear at the news of the fallen, but it is they who must forever live with the real nightmares.

In yesterday’s radio address, President Obama said:

“Our fighting men and women – and the military families who love them – embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us.

And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear – and all who have worn – the proud uniform of our country.”

While I agree with his first sentence, I take great offense at the audacity of his second.  Perhaps this is an example of the blindness of self-righteousness; having been raised by socialists and raised abroad, a life lived in the bubble of “progressive” liberal academia and buddied-up with radicals, it seems that President Obama doesn’t remember what disrespect of our fighting men and women really means.  I do remember, though.  The protests against the war in Vietnam, the horrible, rude treatment of returning service personnel – including being spat upon and called “baby killers” – and then the collective mea culpa that came with Desert Storm.  We, the people, made a vow we would not repeat our mistakes.  We, the people, may not have liked the decision that led to sending our military service personnel to the Middle East but, despite Obama’s convenient memory lapse, we supported our troops.  Just the other day I came across an old sweatshirt lovingly stashed away; it is proudly emblazoned with the words, “These Colors Don’t Run”.  Those words, and that support, still rings true today.

I, like many others, have been touched personally by both World Wars, by Vietnam, by Desert Storm, and by 9/11.  I, like many others, hold our military personnel in high regard.  I know of no veteran – including my own spouse – who does not in turn respect former President Bush and former Vice-President Dick Cheney.  They know full well that they had the unwavering support of both men, and they know that support continues to be unwaveringly demonstrated.  They see Obama’s continuing slander against the Bush administration for what it is – a sly and snarky attempt to demand what is, quite rightly, unearned and therefore undeserved respect, and hence a back-handed slap of them, too.

And so by disrespecting his predecessors and our troops, on this Memorial Day weekend, President Obama speaks ill of the dead.  Like so much of his incoherent, nonsensical rhetoric, it is yet another shameful example of the dangers we now face within our own borders.

As the long weekend rolls on, and especially tomorrow, it is those who are no longer able to raise their glasses in a toast to freedom of whom I will be thinking.  Haunted by chairs and tables that are not empty, but instead filled with the greatest courage.  And remembering the words of this one soldier, who so eloquently spoke out against the election of Barack Hussein Obama.

Another Missing Village Idiot Is Found

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We may bitch and moan about having less time off than our more Ivy-League-envied-as-fashionable European counterparts, but the American work ethic, that striving for “bigger, better, more” has always kept our noses to the grindstone and can be seen as the backbone of the American Way of Life.  You know, the reason that there’s a McDonald’s even in the most remote parts of the world.

But in the latest move towards progressive socialism, bright-bulb-Biden-wannabe Florida Democratic Representative Alan Grayson has decided that the government should make it federal law that all employers with more than 50 employees must provide at least one week of paid vacation.

Sure thing, Alan.  Smack in the middle of a recession that’s sliding quickly downhill towards a full-out depression with double-digit unemployment you want to force employers to spend even more money to stay in business than they are spending today?  Despite the fact that I honestly don’t know of many jobs where sick days and vacation days aren’t already given, unless you are self-employed and then it’s rather a no-brainer.

That this revelation occurred to you during a trip to Disney World would be funny if it wasn’t so bloody pathetic.  How many average, hard-working Americans can afford to take their family to Disney World this year?  Do you really think that having a week off is really going to stimulate the economy?  Most average Americans are not like your buddies in Congress, they aren’t going to take their vacation time and spend money they don’t have.  While I’m sure there are some who would benefit from the downtime, the overall loss of productivity is only going to stimulate a backlash os negative consequences.

Put your hands back in your pants, Alan, and play with your own change.  Not ours.

House Considering Encouraging Members To Continue To Pollute

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Who really cares if the United States is broke?  It’s just another “do as I say, not as I do” day in Washington.  Despite the fact that not even the bill’s sponsor, the dishonorable Henry Waxman, actually read all 900+ pages of his cap & trade tax legislation before voting it out of committee (the very same legislation that is intended to “curb” pollution, particularly that of automobiles), the House apparently thinks it might be a good idea to spend at least $68 million to renovate two parking garages used ONLY by members of Congress and their staff.

Do the math.  There are 435 members in the House of Representatives so it works out to spending $156,322 per Representative for private parking.  Just like the most tender of pork, it’s being baked into the proposed $753 million renovation of the Cannon House Office Building since the garages are just south of it.

Of course, estimates for renovations could be off by as much as “40 percent,” Terrell Dorn, the director of physical infrastructure issues for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified to the House Committee on House Administration.  So do a little more math and that means spending a whopping $218,850.57 per Representative.  For private parking.

The great irony?  This is all right next to a Washington Metro subway station.  Which is a most convenient way for all of these hasty “green” Representatives to save on fossil fuel and cut down on carbon emissions.  But just like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, and all the other breast-beating “environmentalists”, any sacrifice required to be “green” is only a sacrifice to be made by everyone else.

Do I really need to even mention it’s also yet more waste of our tax dollars?

Obama Eyeing Another Unqualified Nominee?

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The Committee for Justice is reporting that Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm headed to Washington last night.  She’s been noted as being on President Obama’s “short list” of nominees to replace Supreme Court Justice Souter; a big, blatant nod to Obama’s big debts to labor unions.

Jennifer Granholm is completely and unequivocably unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court.  Not the least little overlooked fact being that she has never, ever sat on the bench as a judge anywhere. 

And, like so many of Obama’s choices, among other equally noteworthy scandals, Granholm has failed to pay her taxes.  And let’s not forget that during her tenure as governor, Michigan’s economy plunged into a recession long before the current economic collapse.

So although she may be Obama’s kindred spirit, but she has absolutely NO business on the United States Supreme Court.

President Uses IRS Audit Of ASU As “Joke”

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So exactly what DO words mean?  In yet another shining example of this administration’s “do as I say, not as I do” policies, President Obama shows his Chicago-based political colors by attempting alleged “humor” during his commencement address at Arizona State.

University of Tennessee law Professor Glenn Reynolds writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:

At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU’s point by remarking, “I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”

I find no fault with Arizona State’s decision; indeed, I applaud is as absolutely appropriate (in contrast to Notre Dame).  And I also take offense at the President’s blatant stupidity.  Professor Reynolds nicely sums up the dangerousness of Obama’s mindset and it is today’s recommended reading.

Obama Tells New Yorker To Not Run In 2010 Senate Race

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President Obama’s Chicago-based political training has not only raised eyebrows, but also the hackles of even his lapdog Democrats when it was reported that he personally telephoned New York State Democratic Senator Steve Israel to tell him to stand down on challenging governor-appointed Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in next year’s Senatorial race.

This was done at the behest of Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), in order to “clear the field” for Gillibrand’s run in 2010. 

Does this controversial junior Senator have naked pictures in her desk drawer or does the administration feels she’s the more maleable choice in what is shaping up to be an extremely ugly midterm election cycle?

No matter what, this is uncalled for and completely out of line.  Chicago back-room politics have no business being used anywhere else.  Not only President Obama, but Senators Schumer and Menendez deserve nothing but the boot from Washington for such blatant mockery of our election process.

SEIU President Brags About Power, Unwittingly Bares Corruption

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“We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it.”

I wonder if anyone has ever told Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that pride goeth before a fall?  The Las Vegas Sun recently interviewed Mr. Stern and it’s a fascinating, though decidedly chilling look into “entitlement mentality” and the greed and corruption that inevitably results when power and influence replace original good intent.  With the use of some mighty fine weasel words, Stern makes it clear that the SEIU has paid for their place at the White House table and, because of Obama’s resulting debt to them, will not let anything stand in their way. 

And when you understand that the SEIU is nothing more than the flip-side of ACORN (though with more and more of this coming to light they are going to great pains to try to hide it), this, of course, means the loss of freedom for workers in America, as well as the continuing loss of jobs when business after business is run into the ground by union demands that cannot be met.  (Remember that service workers are far more expendable than those who perform skilled trades.)  But all the while, those at the top of the unions, who have no qualms about skimming union dues for their PAC efforts to gain perceived power and influence, will live fat and happy.

Just like Jimmy Hoffa.

For as Stern notes himself, “It’s been a historical failure of the labor movement, that egos get in the way of what’s best for the membership.”

Now substitute “citizens” for “membership” and “President” for “labor unions”….

When Life Gives You Lemons…

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… pour yourself a shot of tequila and suck it up, buddy.

At least that’s the word on the street these days when it comes to buying a defective vehicle from Chrysler.  The L.A. Times reports that settlement checks issued under states’ “lemon laws” are bouncing like Nancy Pelosi during an Obama speech and complaints are being given as much attention as were the nationwide Tea Parties on April 15th.

Chryler’s Chapter 11 filing means that any settlement incurred before April 30th must must now be approved by the bankruptcy judge, but Chrysler has stated it has no plans of its own to ask the judge to approve any of them.  So just like everyone else holding unsecured Chyrsler debt, if you’ve ended up buying a defective Chrylser vehicle, well, in plain English you’re S.O.L.

And despite President Obama’s bold claims that the government will honor Chrysler warranties and such, according to consumer advocacy groups, the automotive task force has more important matters to handle.

Remind me, please.  Who thought having an uncle by the name of Sam in the car business would be a good thing?

Pass the Cuervo.