tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86736093255947491912024-03-04T21:33:56.919-08:00Obama MeltdownJack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.comBlogger401125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-70293242888820066562012-01-19T08:56:00.000-08:002012-01-19T08:56:36.958-08:00When you can't say it better .........................<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5oPth6nBfXl3FpTGn2jHy13RJ631MSXBjnamzxMtbvvC2Pil0iR2IDrTxeAh8LzBOFt3aKa9GWXUJ1rGT456-oBx445TPNewf_aiDei6yy8pevwhja3gSosESiqdySQZcSCFZd2evjjM/s1600/cat.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5oPth6nBfXl3FpTGn2jHy13RJ631MSXBjnamzxMtbvvC2Pil0iR2IDrTxeAh8LzBOFt3aKa9GWXUJ1rGT456-oBx445TPNewf_aiDei6yy8pevwhja3gSosESiqdySQZcSCFZd2evjjM/s1600/cat.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is rare but not unknown that I reproduce an article by a third-party writer. When in doubt, if you can’t say it better, let the man do his thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">August 18, 2011 Obama: The Affirmative Action President <br />
by Matt Patterson (columnist - Washington Post, New York Post, San Francisco Examiner) <br />
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"Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? <br />
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Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions. He left no legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator. <br />
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And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president? <br />
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Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: <br />
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To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass. <br />
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Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -- held to a lower standard -- because of the color of his skin. Podhoretz continues: <br />
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And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest? <br />
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Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -- affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves. <br />
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Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. <br />
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Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self-esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Yes, racist. <br />
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Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -- that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is. And that is what America did to Obama. <br />
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True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary. What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? <br />
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In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people -- conservatives included -- ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth -- it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years. <br />
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And, what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. But really, what were we to expect? The man had not been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly? <br />
<br />
In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office."</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-9625721994192226712012-01-09T07:08:00.000-08:002012-01-09T07:08:46.433-08:00Just One Damn Thing After Another!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqamA8OSJNENjZoMjze_ZOu3XPDzDpDHh5SI3mz6sL7eAwqJr7JFI_u2uNDmI-TxT8te30Iy9gexe77gzOcgEekwmde1ZMr6AijnARXQywdHrwl4tE1PeDgl5QfL2uTMRJoHhRxfeju0/s1600/mrz081511dAPC20110812074526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqamA8OSJNENjZoMjze_ZOu3XPDzDpDHh5SI3mz6sL7eAwqJr7JFI_u2uNDmI-TxT8te30Iy9gexe77gzOcgEekwmde1ZMr6AijnARXQywdHrwl4tE1PeDgl5QfL2uTMRJoHhRxfeju0/s320/mrz081511dAPC20110812074526.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Barack Hussein Obama has a tough job. In between rounds of golf, fancy vacations, basketball games, workouts, sporting events, concerts in the White House, fundraisers, date nights and all the other things he loves for us to pay for him to do, he’s pledged he “will not rest until businesses are investing again and businesses are hiring again.” It’s a thankless job.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(READ: He’s never once thanked us.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But somehow, in addition to tirelessly relaxing, he still finds time to complain about Republicans in Congress not giving him what he wants.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a taxpayer-funded campaign trip to the swing state of Ohio last week, the president finally announced he’s no longer interested in the oath he swore to the Constitution and will bypass the Senate to appoint whomever he likes to whatever positions he wants.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He called it a “recess appointment,” even though Congress isn’t in recess, and it’s part of his “We can’t wait” campaign to justify his dictatorial desires. The thing about totalitarians is that they’re never content. No amount of power is enough. They’re like those junkies addicted to meth on<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Intervention</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– only with better teeth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In their typical style, his top stooges in Congress, Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, rolled over and “presented” in response to this presidential power grab. They’re power junkies too, only their “source” dried up, thanks to the 2010 elections.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They understand President Obama is a busy man. Plus, it’s winter, which means fewer hours of sunlight, which means he must dispense with duties quickly if he is to squeeze in 18 holes when the weather cooperates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That means not just this new definition of recess, but, of late, an “executive order” spree as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In an effort to help our president remove some of the stress he’s under, I decided to write down a few ideas I suspect are rolling around in his head. That way, when the temperature goes above 50, he can just copy and paste them into an executive order and hit the links without delay. Don’t thank me. I’m a giver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – The Preamble to the Constitution is henceforth changed from “We The People” to “I ‘The One.’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – The 22nd Amendment is hereby changed to read “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than once…and that term shall be for his natural-born life.” This is effective retroactively to the last Presidential election.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – In golf, the president gets one mulligan per hole, not per round like everyone else. This will be known as the Bill Clinton Amendment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – Every house is required to have a box of cake mix that can’t be used unless and until the First Lady accidentally utters the words “Let them eat cake.” It must be a low-fat, tasteless cake mix.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – When I fill out brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament, that’s how the teams will finish. Period!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – Fox News is illegal and Roger Ailes is public enemy No.1. Freedom of speech is too important to be exercised by people who disagree with me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – The Supreme Court is expanded from nine justices to 15 with the additional positions to be filled on a rotating basis by editorial board members of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>New York Times</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and MSNBC hosts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – All copies of the movie “Fast and Furious” and all its sequels are to be destroyed. I don’t ever want to hear that phrase again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – The necessary funds are hereby allocated to begin adding my face to Mt. Rushmore. You know it’s going to happen. Why wait?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Executive Order – Hereafter, not only is criticizing my policies racist, but criticizing those who call criticism of my policies racist is racist. Also, criticizing this executive order is racist. This is to be enforced by the media. Wait. Scratch this one. Already happening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are just a few ideas that should get him through the end of the month…or at least the week. When he runs out, I’ll write more. After all, we can’t wait!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being president is a thankless job, which to progressives means we haven’t thanked the president enough for ignoring the Constitution. As he said when announcing his recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), “…when Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them. I’ve got an obligation to act on behalf of the American people.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That pesky oath of office aside, don’t you feel better knowing we have a president willing to overwrite our entire system of government for our own good? Sure, it’s the exact same sort of executive power grab progressive Democrats decried when a Republican was president, but a Republican isn’t president now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now “an obligation to act” for our own good, as he determines it, ranks right up there with “for the children” in the progressive lexicon. And who knows better what you need; a man you’ll never meet, living a life of luxury on your dime, and a faceless bureaucracy created by him and his “well intentioned” political allies, or you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It can’t be long before the president issues an executive order declaring that, so you better just accept it now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(If you have any suggestions for Presidential Executive Orders to help Obama save time, send them to the White House. Isn’t it time that the name was changed? Or laugh hysterically at them. Either way, it’s win-win.)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-74743188745131923092011-12-24T13:01:00.000-08:002011-12-24T15:51:42.344-08:00Hope Springs Eternal!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqPdUVHLAt1I3EiOKFMifLiOoC2f3TQMjVHMLJkpqJxxwNdSXktuaVpoINMb_hy4ub_zVN_p6wLpkDKsgzk3dbsY8b29-L9S5hwGZu_F4iczWbEWXmuQPdL1KgGhOa8hti4qPVOt6ISI/s1600/110912+polls+RGB20110912073545.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqPdUVHLAt1I3EiOKFMifLiOoC2f3TQMjVHMLJkpqJxxwNdSXktuaVpoINMb_hy4ub_zVN_p6wLpkDKsgzk3dbsY8b29-L9S5hwGZu_F4iczWbEWXmuQPdL1KgGhOa8hti4qPVOt6ISI/s320/110912+polls+RGB20110912073545.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know all this takes time and I also know one has to wait in order to snare all the “goodies” coming from the White House. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sure, limiting the list to the nine worst mistakes of the Obama administration in a year that saw so many of them was a tough proposition. But in the spirit of Christmas, I decided to be merciful and not pile on. Plus, you know, you probably have company coming over.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So for now, nine will have to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why nine?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quoting Bluto from Animal House, “Why the hell not.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve included links and snippets from various columns addressing each topic:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">9) Sending a budget to Capitol Hill that didn’t get one vote</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Calculate the man-hours that went into presenting to Congress a budget that didn’t muster even one vote in the Senate. If that didn’t cry out that Obama is a one-term president, certainly the rest of the year’s events did. The question that I have for the political geniuses at the White House is: “After getting elected primarily on the strength of the financial crisis, how could you be so ignorant of fiscal issues?” Nothing better represents the disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country as Obama’s attitude towards passing a budget. They didn’t even pretend to take the process seriously. And then they thought no one would notice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">See:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama Goes Doh!</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Mr. Irrelevant, the man formerly known as president, was in France when news came that the Senate unanimously rejected the Jerry Lewis gag budget that the administration submitted to Congress in February.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The vote was 0-97 against, with three Senators voting “not present.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Can you blame them?</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> If John Kerry’s misshapen theme was “Reporting for Duty,” Obama’s is: “I’m AWOL: Ha. Ha. Ha. You can’t catch me.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">If Kerry’s presidency was still-born, Obama’s died of crib-death. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Can you imagine any other president in history being satisfied with sending up a budget that couldn’t muster even one vote from his own party?</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">8) Predicting the economic recovery:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Presidents are notoriously bad financiers and economists. They take a big chance getting caught with their pants down when bragging about accomplishments in an economy that has been as tentative as this one has been. That’s especially true when they aren’t following any coordinated economic program, but rather making it more difficult for businesses to create jobs. Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, MACT and the Keystone Pipeline show an administration that will pick narrow, special interests every time over real results. Given the strutting and puff Obama does, it’s hard not to blame him when things go wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">See:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/03/16/obama_the_great_fabricator"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama: The Great Fabricator</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">As economists predict that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami will contract the third largest economy’s GDP by between zero percent and 3 percent, Obama has responded by filling out his bracket for the NCAA tournament.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And golfing. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">If Reagan was the Great Communicator, Obama is the Great Fabricator. For Obama, every day is just another episode of the Beltway Unreality show, where acting is much more important than actually doing something; where pop-culture trumps substance. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Time’s senior correspondent Michael Crowley complains, “[A]t a moment when it feels that the world is reaching a full boil, it's hard for the president not to speak.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Crowley’s got it half right.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s hard for Obama not to speak irrelevantly.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">7) Spiking the “football” on Osama bin Laden:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama has made too many references to “getting” Osama bin Laden. He’s done it in such a way that he claims too much credit. The proper thing to have done was to give the US Intelligence Community along with our armed forces all of the credit. Since 2001, there has been a small group of people fighting a war while the rest of us remained safe at home. As one reader who served in the military put it, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have gone to war, while the rest of the country has gone to the mall. The intelligence gathering that eventually “got” bin Laden started a long time before Obama was president. Obama’s never learned the hard lesson, often lost on the “special” child, that no one likes a braggart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/05/20/obama,_your_jimmy_carter_is_showing"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama, Your Jimmy Carter is Showing</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama interrupted his “Osama bin Laden is still dead” cross-country tour yesterday to give another major policy speech bereft of new ideas. But first the president let us know that “Osama bin Laden is still dead.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Four times.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">As Jimmy Carter manipulated the teleprompter in the background, Obama put on his best professorial airs and spit out his trademarked clipped delivery in a room full of State department staffers and diplomats who applauded tepidly when the “applause light” went on.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">He talked about what he called self-determination in the Middle East.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">If you covered your ears hard enough you could barely tell that the speech was largely a plagiarism of Carter’s 2009 book, “We can have peace in the Holy Land: a plan that will work,” updated for recent developments. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">6) Solyndra:</span></strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The economic futility of the regime in Washington was best displayed by the decision to “invest” US taxpayers’ hard-earned money in Solyndra, even knowing that the company would fail. This at a time when Obama was lecturing the half who actually pays taxes that we are not paying our fair share. Even after getting caught, then lying and getting caught in the lie about the decisions surrounding the DOE program that made the Solyndra investment possible, Obama doubled down on stupid to put billions, yes, billions more into the program. I suspect that after all the dust has settled and the market has crushed many of the rest of these companies, that somehow, somewhere, you’ll find GE picking up the left-over pieces of the “green” energy industry at bargain prices.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/09/06/obamas_solyndra-gate_wont_go_away"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama's Solyndra-Gate Won't Go Away</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">It doesn't help the administration that the decision to make the loans in the first place has crony capitalism written all over it.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Big time Obama donors and bundlers have a financial interest in Solyndra. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In May, the left-wing leaning Center for Public Integrity blasted Obama for putting the welfare of donors above that of taxpayers by killing important safeguards in the process of making the loans.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">"The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc. a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals," wrote CPI. "An independent federal auditor who has reviewed the energy loan program said moving so quickly without completing thorough reviews exposed the program to perceptions of political influence and put taxpayers at greater risk.” </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Fast and Furious:</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Admittedly I’m no fan of Eric Holder’s. But even I’m amazed at the breathtaking cynicism shown by our top law-enforcement officer as he lied to Congress about what he knew and when he knew it regarding Fast and Furious. It shouldn’t have taken the death of a federal agent to know arming drug gangs in Mexico would lead to no good. But that just shows the depths to which progressives will go to dupe people into supporting policies that progressives know are “for the best.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/12/09/what_do_you_call_2000_holders_impeached_a_good_first_start"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Eric Holder Impeached is a Good First Start</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Republicans have alleged, if not from the first, then at least for a long time, that operation Fast and Furious was a callous attempt by progressives in the plutocracy that we now call America at creating an artificial gun crisis so that the plutocracy could abridge citizens' 2nd Amendment rights.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">I mean further than they’ve already abridged them.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Now even liberals are getting the memo- or at least email evidence- that it’s true.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">CBS News has reported that new documents show that officials in the ATF discussed using the fallout from Fast and Furious as means of introducing “controversial new rules about gun sales” even as they forced gun dealers to let illegal transactions occur.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">4)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Vacations 1, 2 & 3</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t begrudge the president taking his family someplace, you know, once. But $4 million dollars for a Christmas vacation? And despite what some progressives are claiming, yes that amount is the tab picked up by the US taxpayers for Obama’s 17-day Hawaiian vacation with Mary Todd Lincoln Jr. And the money part isn’t the worst of it. This year Obama was notably absent during the start up to the war in Libya and during the aftermath of the debt ceiling negotiations- remember the ones he really didn’t take part in in the first place? He promptly decamped to Martha’s Vineyard while S&P downgraded US debt. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/08/11/just_in_time,_another_obama_nine-day_vacation"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Just in Time, Another Obama Nine-Day Vacation</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last time the market was this spooked was when Mr. Obama decided to start a war with Libya. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">While on vacation.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">At that time, the presidential family headed to Brazil where the HuffPo Entertainment section told us that the “First Family watched local performers during their tour of the Cidade de Deus Favela in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Sasha went sporty with sneakers, while the first lady showed her support of the country sartorially, in an outfit comprised of yellow, green and blue--the colors of the Brazilian flag. They later changed into pants to tour the Christ the Redeemer Statue at night.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">This vacation happened while the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was in full force, because Japan had been rocked by the tsunami of the century. Obama also chose the vacation to start serving up cruise missiles in Libya, a war he made his very own and that he still hasn’t won.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Libya<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>for crying out loud. That’s like invading Wisconsin.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Here was the moment when the next Great Recession began.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">We saw in that crisis the epitome of a failed presidency: the listless leadership, the lack of direction, the lack of pretension in being presidential (or even pretending to be), disregard for the consequences of policy. And the certainty that vacations would always come first. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">3)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Keystone Pipeline</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Keystone Pipeline demonstrates the dilemma that all Democrat presidents face. It’s one thing to get elected; it’s another to govern while keeping your whack-job coalition together. Lyndon Johnson couldn’t do it, Carter couldn’t, Clinton could, but Obama is having a hard time of it. That’s why he punted on making a decision on the Keystone Pipeline. He’d either have to defy the saucer people who pass as progressives these days or the American people who want jobs. In the end, he’s only succeeded in making everyone mad. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/08/31/the_fragile_obama_whackosystem"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The Fragile Obama Whackosystem</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Another guy with nice hair and a good tan is working on the Obama job plan. He’ll be a great addition at Martha’s Vineyard.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">This ought to work out as well as Geithner doing his own taxes. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">This week, Obama announced his new econ czar would be Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist who figured out that if you gave billions away to the auto industry in price incentives, auto sales would go up.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">OK. Sales only went up temporarily. But he’s the only member of the Obama administration who possesses an understanding of the relationship between price and sales. Maybe that’s progress for an administration that seems to sabotage every economic plan they come up with.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">However, count me as skeptical.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Krueger likes taxes.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">He likes them a lot.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">He likes taxes on the rich, the poor, carpools, employers, employees.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Did I say he likes taxes? He really, really does.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">2)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Libya</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nothing cried hypocrisy more than Obama’s decision to start a time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military activity- whatever that is- in Libya over European oil. Up to that point, progressives supported him. After that? Not so much. Obama’s decision on Libya made it much easier to say that both the GOP and the Democrats criticize when out of power and hypocrisize when in power. The GOP needs to avoid that trap this time around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/04/15/obamas_time-limited,_scope-limited,_kinetic_presidency"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama's Time-Limited, Scope-Limited, Kinetic Presidency</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">I don’t know that Obama will be a one-term president.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the glamour days are done for him. His scholarship has about run out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">On that, even people on the left are starting to agree.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">We can no longer afford to treat the presidency as if it were a reality show starring Barack Obama as the chief contestant.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In order to turn the country around, we have to elevate the presidency above the level of American Idol, and turn it back into the American ideal.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s apparent every time the “president” makes a “big” speech, that he’s not up to the moment, that Obama can’t do the job the presidency demands.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">He’s a man of limitations. For all his seeming worldliness, his experiences have limited the scope of his vision, instead of broadening it. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">He has become the kinetic president, famous for only the sound his movement creates.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Sure, there was a short romance, when some in the country were in love with the speeches and yearned for Camelot. But speeches aren’t a destination. More often than not, the sound of his voice has been a distraction; or too often an outright distortion. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Eventually, even Barack Obama’s life has to get judged on results.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">1) Debt Ceiling:</span></strong><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s hard to pin this completely on the president. But really you have to because here’s the un-get-aroundable fact. In February, Obama presented a budget that called for more deficit spending, more borrowing, more debt. In July he was pretending to be concerned about the deficit. He wasn’t and isn’t. That was just a bid to raise taxes. Super, epic, utter fail, dude. Thanks for playing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/07/11/obummer_the_tax_scam_faileth"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">O'Bummer: The Tax Scam Faileth</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Obama’s into big stuff, says chief of staff Bill Daley on ABC’s This Week.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">"I do firmly believe that one of the wet blankets on this economy and on companies, on the system right now is a question as to whether or not our political system, whether the leaders can get together, whether they can solve big problems," Daley said.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">So let’s define the “big, wet blanket problem” in which Obama and his Chicago friends now find themselves:</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">They are addicted to big taxes, big spending and big government, and none of it- NONE. OF. IT. - has a darn thing to do with what’s best for the public and the economy.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">All of it- ALL. OF. IT. - has to do with funneling money into Democrat Party coffers.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And it's sitting like a wet blanket over our economy. And Daley's right. Democrat leaders can't solve it. They couldn't solve it when they ran the tax scam in Chicago and they can't solve it now.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The results are showing in our two parallel economies: One for the Democrat Party and one for the rest of us. In order to keep the Democrat Party’s economy humming along, they are going to need a new injection of taxes, because the public won’t write them a blank check again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had dinner a few weeks ago with two liberals. I asked them if they agreed that most of our drive-by media were of the left-leaning variety. This they agreed to and then I asked them why that media was forcing themselves to look so hard at the Conservative wanna be’s but had done nothing four years ago to look at Obama. Their answer was amazing. They claimed, quite accurately, that the media did nothing because they didn’t know anything about the man in question. Then when I asked them why they had voted for such an unknown man, they said they “hoped”.</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-2596677822763027262011-11-05T11:33:00.000-07:002011-11-05T13:31:11.568-07:00Worst not First!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NdW1AGRqM8DHC9Lv0Ge4kgxNiS9q0Td0xexGgf7vEUuYRKdTLw83uNvF-UNOLFNvThYPE8Sc3kZyUo-vSkHzW_v-HRX68VESsu2s9BnAmEA7TEyi7pi6HoQV14njvIbaA-uq5PsQ4Fs/s1600/lb1104cd20111103080005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NdW1AGRqM8DHC9Lv0Ge4kgxNiS9q0Td0xexGgf7vEUuYRKdTLw83uNvF-UNOLFNvThYPE8Sc3kZyUo-vSkHzW_v-HRX68VESsu2s9BnAmEA7TEyi7pi6HoQV14njvIbaA-uq5PsQ4Fs/s320/lb1104cd20111103080005.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s just stick to skills. Let’s not talk about how bad his policies are.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because I can’t think of a person who is less suited and less interested in being president of the United States than Barack Obama is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m reminded of this as I see Europe drift from debt to crisis to dissolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Events in Greece over the past 24 hours have underscored the importance of implementing the plan, fully and as quickly as possible,” said the US president according to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Euronews.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn’t understand that there was a real plan for the Greek debt crisis. If there is one, certainly Obama has nothing to do with it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People like to pretend at times that who our president is doesn’t matter. They say presidents get either too much blame or too much credit. Can’t say much about the credit part, but it’s not possible to blame Obama enough for the poor state of the United States and the lack of leadership and confidence the United States engenders around the world today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our economy, our relations with other powers, our reputation around the globe, we’ve become a laughingstock under Obama. “Hope and Change” has become a hackneyed punch line of lost chances, hopes destroyed and dreams knowingly betrayed by golf vacations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama has offered us nothing but our blood, our toil, our tears and our sweat; and for what?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So public employees can continue to bust public budgets on Cadillac benefits that you and I can’t afford. All this while he pushes austerity down the throats of a sovereign Greece.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m tired of Obama’s “leading from behind.” That’s not leading, that’s pushing<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don’t think for one minute that Obama would accept for his union friends the type of cuts he says he favors for Greece. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’ve gone from each according to his means to each according to his union. We’ve gone from a post-partisan, post-racial America, to all partisan, all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The president of the United States once, not long ago, stood up to Communism when they tried to take over South Korea- in this, he was sustained by the whole world. Today we’re left with the president being lectured to by Chinese Communists regarding reckless spending; and after being lectured to by Chinese Communists, in return, all Obama can offer to Europe is lectures about their own profligate ways. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s inconceivable that a Reagan or a Kennedy would let things drift with a world in crisis. A Reagan or a Kennedy would have acted, if only in a moral sense. Both George Bushes had enough sense for that. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I am confident that Europe has the capacity to meet this challenge. I know it isn't easy, but what is absolutely critical, and what the world looks for in moments such as this, is action," said Obama after a G20 meeting on Europe’s debt crisis, according to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> Wall Street Journal.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But don’t look for action from Obama. If he could attack Greece with a covert drone missile strike, he’d probably do so in order to avoid having to exercise real leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He’s been the "drone" president on fiscal issues here in the US too, having dinner with his family and getting a haircut while his aides bickered about bailouts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a day when the US could help exercise some leadership on the European stage. But if Obama’s interested in the European debt issue, then that’s news to me, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Sarkozy, members of the G20, fans of All My Children or anyone with electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama has become the absentee landlord of the world, not presiding over the budget; abstaining from the debt ceiling; absent from Europe during the debt crisis; issuing a bull against a tsunami as he enjoyed his own National Lampoon’s Brazilian Vacation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I were Greek, I’d be worried about the missile strike. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-47530066658422289172011-09-14T16:04:00.000-07:002011-09-15T11:09:10.376-07:00Ten Years Hence!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1A5V75xvFyhRVXXqe2tx08m2UL6dWD4wPSL8-wKB7PfzQsrwkvKrhOZE1jpQ8x-uCCsjrVp1h7wUtUlgDnMYidMZIfWs8KSS8m21WG4Ic20kQWjjiC4Tlx4QmWO-_dZgNZU8V49Qcy8/s1600/gv050311APR-A20110503044519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1A5V75xvFyhRVXXqe2tx08m2UL6dWD4wPSL8-wKB7PfzQsrwkvKrhOZE1jpQ8x-uCCsjrVp1h7wUtUlgDnMYidMZIfWs8KSS8m21WG4Ic20kQWjjiC4Tlx4QmWO-_dZgNZU8V49Qcy8/s320/gv050311APR-A20110503044519.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No matter what the record shows, there will always be those who have no trouble ignoring facts as obvious as the noses on their faces.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Monday was the 10th anniversary of the horror we call simply by the numerals that mark its point in time. Anyone who watched the minute-by-minute film record of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center buildings broadcast by cable networks such as Fox, MSNBC and CNN -- and had any doubts about what happened and who made it happen -- has a serious gap in their ability to process information clearly presented.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They exist, however, laughably calling themselves "truthers" despite their obvious inability to recognize the truth even when it stares them straight in their clouded eyes. How they can look at the films showing such horrors as the suicidal leaps of our fellow human beings trapped in the flames and still convince themselves that the whole thing was a hoax thrust on us by the Bush administration and the federal government is simply an astounding reaction to the plain truth faithfully recorded by plain citizens with cameras.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those who fail to understand that this was an act of war committed by terrorists fail to understand that there are those who hate us, and hate our way of life, and are willing to go to any lengths to inflict serious harm on this nation and do it for all the world to see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The idea that recognizing that a state of war exists between the people of the United States and those who would inflict a worldwide Islamic dictatorship on the people of the United States seems to have escaped the notice of the self-described "truthers."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prominent among them is an academic, ultra-leftist and somewhat disoriented New York Times columnist, one Professor Paul Krugman, who viewed the ceremonies surrounding the recognition of 9/11 as mere hucksterism. In a column called "repugnant" by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Krugman pilloried as shameful those who want to commemorate this great American tragedy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll tell you what is really shameful -- it's the vision of this leftist academic dancing on the graves of the victims of 9/11 from the safety of his office. Civilians, firefighters and other first responders willingly went into the jaws of certain death in an attempt to rescue their fellow New Yorkers trapped in the two doomed towers. We all know of their heroism and stand in awe of their willingness to serve in those dark hours. Demeaning those who celebrate the heroism of those who risked their lives -- or died trying to rescue their fellow human beings -- is simply beneath contempt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm certain that the souls of these heroes of 9/11 willingly forgive the likes of Professor Krugman from their refuge in paradise. Down here in the trenches of the war against terrorism, forgiveness doesn't come all that easy. We are entreated to pray for our enemies. So mutter a prayer for Professor Krugman. Although he probably doubts the power of prayer, he needs all the prayer he can get.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-60358819755674984902011-09-07T15:50:00.000-07:002011-09-07T15:50:36.572-07:00They Tax the Poor!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2pfromug4Wm7TuhU1dJgzJM2saxFTddeZi4sJvyb6DB_Pj5zj5nQJ8HOKWG46j_Ekk1yQatZo7tEmrEKW6KQnLE0HNcSAEtYwj0BDLMOiBhQ4OmEtp4WAGZ_HKjEGm_WEJ-qlN5YpAQ/s1600/gv090511dAPR20110902034517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2pfromug4Wm7TuhU1dJgzJM2saxFTddeZi4sJvyb6DB_Pj5zj5nQJ8HOKWG46j_Ekk1yQatZo7tEmrEKW6KQnLE0HNcSAEtYwj0BDLMOiBhQ4OmEtp4WAGZ_HKjEGm_WEJ-qlN5YpAQ/s320/gv090511dAPR20110902034517.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Another guy with nice hair and a good tan is working on the Obama job plan. He’ll be a great addition at Martha’s Vineyard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">This ought to work out as well as Geithner doing his own taxes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">This week, Obama announced his new econ czar would be Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist who figured out that if you gave billions away to the auto industry in price incentives, auto sales would go up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">OK. Sales only went up temporarily. But he’s the only member of the Obama administration who possesses an understanding of the relationship between price and sales. Maybe that’s progress for an administration that seems to sabotage every economic plan they come up with.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">However, count me as skeptical.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Krueger likes taxes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">He likes them a lot.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">He likes taxes on the rich, the poor, carpools, employers, employees.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Did I say he likes taxes? He really, really does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">He proposed a national sales tax- he calls it a consumption tax- that would be a hardship on the poorest Americans and be a direct drag on the economy, as even he admits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The main downside of this proposal,”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">he said of his sales tax scheme, “is that taxes reduce economic activity. But the government must make critical trade-offs, and a consumption tax could be the most efficient means to raise revenue to finance essential government functions.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Taxes reduce economic activity? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">A startling admission from an Obama administration official, especially one who is an economics professor. I never thought they’d figure that part out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">But then Krueger goes on to strain credibility by claiming we have “essential government functions.” I didn’t know we had a government that functioned at all, yet alone essentially.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">They don’t work off a budget; they don’t pass bills that accomplish what they propose to do; they fight more wars even as they condemn the cost of war; they shut down energy production even as they decry our increased dependence on foreign oil; they kill jobs in industries they don’t favor, like oil even while they complain that rich people aren’t doing their fair share to help create jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“That’s our money,” the government’s ketchup-stained court jester<span class="apple-converted-space">, Michael Moore told us.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">How about we just stop killing jobs? No?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“The Administration believes that it is no longer sufficient to address our nation's energy needs by finding more fossil fuels,” says Krueger, “instead we must take dramatic steps towards becoming a clean energy economy.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Forget finding new oil. Can we just use the oil we have?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">We are sitting on 4.3 trillion barrels of oil in the western US, enough to keep us going for 600 years without importing another drop. This is oil that would keep $400 billion in our economy every year and reduce our trade imbalance by 2/3rds. And the economics professor says no?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Did he use TurboTax to deduce this? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">They strained might and main to raise taxes on the rich most of this year- which conservatives opposed- yet now, by appointing Krueger as the new czar of the Obama whackosystem, they seem to be signaling that they will be willing to compromise by agreeing to raise taxes on everyone, rich and poor alike.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“Another downside is that a consumption tax,” Krueger says as an aside, “is a greater burden for the poor, who spend a relatively high share of their income.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">But the government really needs the money so that they can help the poor, says Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The poor being taxed to help the poor. Finally the Obama administration has come full circle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Now you know what happens when socialists run out of other people’s money:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">They tax the poor! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-42445858198812533882011-08-29T15:30:00.000-07:002011-08-29T15:30:21.190-07:00No Tuts or Pharoahs<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWCjeG86l_cZo9da5D4zCnjqItMQPt67aqgsx4AdNrMD2kg2H2tU7SDxpS0xkNgSVlcrdI3LR7SSJj-8XpleqEME2T9uihX192fs_El9poVofqGOSsIPu4cqVrb_xx5Gt0PfcaIwLG8k/s1600/%2521cid_ii_12fe024844a9babc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWCjeG86l_cZo9da5D4zCnjqItMQPt67aqgsx4AdNrMD2kg2H2tU7SDxpS0xkNgSVlcrdI3LR7SSJj-8XpleqEME2T9uihX192fs_El9poVofqGOSsIPu4cqVrb_xx5Gt0PfcaIwLG8k/s320/%2521cid_ii_12fe024844a9babc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember when every Joe Schmo out there was giddy as a schoolgirl telling us that Egyptian “freedom fighters” were getting rid of that old meanie Mubarak and were headed for a “democracy” in the land of Pharaoh? I sure do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I particularly remember the reporters selling us that smack during the outset of the Arab Spring: “Revolutionaries,” they called the Egyptian dissidents—veritable “mutineers from Mubarak’s mayhem, sick of servitude and longing for liberty, just like Paul Revere!” They flung that noise, or something to that effect, at us with goggle-eyed glee each day for weeks on end.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personally, I never bought this “freedom fighter” bull shiitake we were all being sold, and I said so from day one of this uprising on my amazing show,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>ClassRadio.com. Indeed, this “democratic” thang reeked of nutty radicals to me, and I believed it had zilch to do with “Egyptian young folk just wanting to live la Vida Loca.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That said, however, I must confess that I did question myself as to whether or not I was being too harsh on the newscasters’ spiel and the motivations of the “freedom fighters.” Perhaps I had become too much of a jaded skeptic when it came to the jacked-up scat in Cairo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That personal inventory regarding the wrongness of my perturbation with the “democratic revolt” lasted about two days. I believe I second-guessed my naughty heart right up until two hundred “democracy seekers” gang raped CBS’s foreign correspondent Lara Logan. I thought that was a strange thing for lovers of democracy to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, another thing that made me think that maybe I was dialed into what was truly going down was the Muslim Brotherhood started popping up all over the place, gaining control over the “secular” Egyptian military.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And one more thing that ended my brutal introspection was that after Mubarak got deposed, the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>“new democracy” reestablished<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with Iran and Hamas and officially told Israel to blank off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was at that point in time that I ceased my second-guessing and formally realized that I am a genius. Radicals hijacked Egypt, and the Egyptians who truly long for freedom—at least as defined by sane standards—are now more SOL than they were under Hosni’s boot.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And lastly, this past week the “freedom folks” in Egypt have put forth their liberty legislation that includes bans on bikinis, mixed bathing on beaches, and drinking beer in public—and they’re even yapping about getting rid of the Sphinx, the pyramids, and other ancient Egyptian archaeological wonders.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Call me weird, but that doesn’t sound like liberty to me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-41149268839990099582011-08-29T15:14:00.000-07:002011-08-29T15:14:08.016-07:00Bad, bad, bad ..................<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXRXXMZ__1HiCWihPJJBpjad2HjErYOXrmAhkoBAWsTmXnUztRsNasltOeE1RfFuOz1YyvBkLWYH1tZcFLwWo57TAE-wvizj9mELEFakLciGO9CojLoTBHU6MOMxQsfiZA3_KP5u8P5Q/s1600/%2521cid_006101cc1582%2524a57f0ac0%2524136644D9%2540JimPC.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXRXXMZ__1HiCWihPJJBpjad2HjErYOXrmAhkoBAWsTmXnUztRsNasltOeE1RfFuOz1YyvBkLWYH1tZcFLwWo57TAE-wvizj9mELEFakLciGO9CojLoTBHU6MOMxQsfiZA3_KP5u8P5Q/s320/%2521cid_006101cc1582%2524a57f0ac0%2524136644D9%2540JimPC.gif" width="206" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Since we determined that Obama doesn’t deserve to be a President now, we know also that he doesn’t deserve a second time around in November 2012</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">So, since people have asked I will answer with five reasons based on substance, although I could probably come up with twenty reasons easily.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">But for now, five will do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Each reason will come in two parts. The first part will be substantive arguments as to why Obama is a bad president because of a failed or flawed policy. The second part will put that argument into context with a campaign promise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reason Number One</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: Obamacare<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part One:</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Obamacare legislation is flawed. Badly flawed, it doesn’t address the real need to bring down costs in the healthcare.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">There were two reasons to reform healthcare in this country. The first purpose was to bring down runaway costs; the second was to expand coverage. At this point, it’s fair to say that even if fully implemented, no one knows what the exact outcome of Obamacare will be as to costs, although it’s safe to say coverage will expand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Then-House Speaker Pelosi was right when she said that no one would really know what was in Obamacare until it was enacted. If that’s not an indictment of the legislation crafted by the president, I don’t know what is. I think at a minimum legislation ought to have<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>known</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>outcome, especially something as ambitious as Obamacare.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Instead of the “less than trillion dollars” figure that was trumpeted when Obamacare finally passed, the CBO says that the figure for the first ten years will come in north of $2 trillion. The increase will have to come from tax increases and benefit cuts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">This isn’t a “narrative” or message problem. This is continued unease by the American public that was relatively happy with their healthcare choices and costs. And they were forced to take a replacement that isn’t going to work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">And more and more evidence is cropping up that suggests that Americans’ fears that they would not be able to keep their current insurance under Obamcare was a legitimate concern. Because of the mandate provision, businesses are starting to make the simple decision to get rid of coverage, which is what critics said would happen. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Poll after poll shows that 70 percent or more of Americans were already happy with their health coverage. And candidate Obama promised to make sure that Americans could keep their insurance if they were happy with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It was a key difference between the candidates Obama and Clinton during the primary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“But the big difference is mandates,” wrote Paul Krugman in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/opinion/04krugman.html"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">the NYTimes</span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in February 2008, “the Clinton plan requires that everyone have insurance; the Obama plan doesn’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“If Mr. Obama gets to the White House,” continued Krugman, “and tries to achieve universal coverage, he’ll find that it can’t be done without mandates — but if he tries to institute mandates, the enemies of reform will use his own words against him.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Because of the mandates that candidate Obama said he didn’t favor- and that is the key provision of Obamacare- the legislation is the largest expansion of federal government power since the Great Society, maybe ever. It imposes draconian measures on people who refuse to buy something from the federal government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">This is something that candidate Obama said he wouldn’t do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad president, bad, bad president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part Two:</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“Under my plan to reform healthcare,” says candidate Obama under this hypothetical, “we’ll imprison anyone who doesn’t buy health insurance. And to enforce the requirement we will put 16,500 more IRS agents on the street.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reason Number Two</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part One</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Say what you like about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Bush did secure Congressional approval for the military actions there. Obama didn’t even bother to consult Congress before fighting a de facto war in Libya.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">You can try sophistry to argue why Obama took the measures he did, but it’s only that, sophistry. Any other president would come under the same scrutiny, especially when they argued previously that to fight a war without Congressional approval would be unconstitutional.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad president, bad, bad president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part Two</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“As president of the United States,” says candidate Obama in the hypothetical, “I will deploy our forces in and around Libya. I will authorize the use of force in Libya for a period not less than six months without first- or ever- securing the approval of Congress because you can’t make me.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reason Number Three:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If You Can’t Budget You Can’t Govern<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part One: </span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Despite having big majorities for the first two years of his presidency, Obama has failed to get any budget passed. Ever. His last budget didn’t even get one vote in the Senate. Not one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama’s Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36988.html"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">said in 2006</span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“If you can’t budget, you can’t govern.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">That might be the reason why we have historic budget deficits without much to show for it. The reason why the public got so involved in the debt ceiling debate is directly tied to the indiscipline shown by the White House when it comes to budgets. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">There is give and take in any budget process that’s key to building support in any organization. Too often it’s Obama’s way or the highway. And the country ends up drifting. <i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">John Spratt was defeated for reelection in 2010 after first being elected to Congress in 1983. That was Obama’s bad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad president, bad, bad president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part Two:</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under my plan for economic growth and recovery,” says our hypothetical candidate Obama, “we won’t even pass budgets. We’ll run up historic deficits and raise the debt ceiling, something that I condemned my opponents for. But we’ll do it without any systematic support or budget process.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reason Number Four:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regulatory Overhang<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part One</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">We’ll leave aside the great uncertainty that Obamacare is creating amongst businesses and concentrate on two other industries that are vital to economic recovery: Banks and Energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Like it or not, banks and energy are vital parts of the economy. If you want to understand why the economy is struggling to create jobs, you only have to look at what’s happening in those sectors to get why Obama’s policies have failed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Banking</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: The president has used the full faith and credit of the United States to essentially guarantee the banking industry and below that real estate, which is the cornerstone of banking. Despite the guarantee and despite huge amounts of cash, banks aren’t loaning money. Part of that is demand driven, but part of it is the uncertainty surrounding Dodd-Frank banking reform.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It was clear from the mortgage crisis that banking needs better regulation. But it was also clear that part of the problem in banking was that the federal government became a partner in crime, so to speak, along with taxpayers and home buyers. Everyone was happy that the price of homes and real estate was going up. And the government created the framework for that to happen by originating about half the mortgages in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The sub-prime mortgage market that was created was inconceivable without the government providing the inflationary oomph that only government liquidity can really stoke.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Dodd-Frank was supposed to fix that. But it hasn’t tried to address the systemic problems of too-big-to-fail in any real way. In fact, the administration has pandered to public outrage by demonizing bankers while keeping the banking system intact, warts and all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">We now have fewer banks in fact with larger pools of concentrated assets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">What could Obama do differently? He could break up the banks. He could bring back Glass-Steagall. Glass-Steagall was specifically designed to prevent the too-big-to-fail scenario by allowing banks to operate only in contiguous states and by forcing them out of the investment business. And it worked, until European mega-banks, not encumbered by Glass-Steagall, forced US banks to lobby for repeal saying this time things were different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The way to address too-big-to-fail is not through Dodd-Frank, which doesn’t really touch the subject, but to make sure any one bank isn’t so big to force the rest of the system to fail. Dodd-Frank regulates every part of the banking business except for the part that keeps it from failing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Included in that reform should be the break up and private sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government should be out of the mortgage business entirely with the exception of VA loans.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">You can only get rid of too-big-to-fail by addressing the too-big part first.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad president, bad, bad president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Energy:</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The president- and the left- has a huge ideological blind-spot when it comes to energy. The result of his policies in energy have been to make energy more expensive, to kill jobs in the US in energy and subsidiary industries at a time the country can’t afford it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">But really, there is no time the country can afford the rainbows and unicorns plan the left is following. Despite decades of research and promise, the magic bullet of renewable, plentiful, without-cost energy isn’t attainable. Ever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">After a much ballyhooed speech on energy policy that was supposed to lay out a new vision for energy in America, the New York Times was forced to issue the following correction:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The president can’t have it both ways.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">He can’t claim that his sole focus is on jobs while he’s shuttering the power plants and oil rigs, sources that account for most of the energy we produce while he has no viable alternative of his own. America has the resources to be importing less foreign energy while creating real jobs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The president should stop getting in the way of developing those resources. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad president, bad, bad president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part Two: </span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">"We won’t pursue natural gas, oil, coal or any other fossil fuel development under my administration. Instead we’ll focus solely on developing ‘alternative’ energies like solar and wind power by giving select companies loans, grants and cash subsidies. It hasn’t worked before but this time is different. We’ll make the alternative energy business so big that it will be too big to fail.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reason Number Five:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Selective Presidency<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Obama is president when he wants to be, and AWOL when things are hard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Here’s an example.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">On the debt debate he was unengaged until the last minute. Then he compounded his error by scolding members of Congress like they were lazy- all while he planned vacations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">I don’t begrudge a guy a vacation, but to pretend that when Congress goes into recess they are slacking off is playing politics with it. The president doesn’t come across as the offended innocent then when he packs off to Martha’s Vineyard as the stock market tanks because of dissatisfaction with the cuts in the debt deal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Where was Obama on the debt deal in February when he was presenting a budget that called for much bigger deficit spending?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Again: Obama wants it both ways. He wants to call for more spending in February, but in July he’s a deficit fighter. Which is it? People expect the president to have some core principles that he sticks to, that they can rely on. If he truly thinks that another $2 trillion in spending can get us out of the hole on unemployment, then he should argue for it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part Two</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition.”- actual statement of Obama from an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer on Feb. 1, 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Make a case for it, be presidential. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Instead, Obama lectures and preens and blames everyone else. It’s S&P’s fault, or Congress’, or George Bush’s, or the rich’s, or it’s the greedy bankers, or oil companies, or insurance companies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">He’s one of the most eloquent presidents that we’ve had during an age when eloquence can reach everywhere. Yet few people now believe<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">anything</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span>he says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">What does that say?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Bad, bad president.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-20357616376147798032011-08-19T16:35:00.000-07:002011-08-19T16:36:48.705-07:00The Stunning Decline of Obama!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I only do this rarely but it was so well-written and stems from a gentleman called Nile Gardiner who writes for the British newspaper called "The Telegraph".</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdYTrF7KFMqbTYvk7RcsGVQy8z85pQJSozy_7HclI0fdLkCs953r4nHF2okP4h1AdOYKF-v1TQG2iREqp0vwrBXnsvRIX6PQr4lI4UjXfbTPgaOlJedYWQAPGmVscOH-kVkdX1yZPnw8/s1600/mrz081511dAPC20110812074526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdYTrF7KFMqbTYvk7RcsGVQy8z85pQJSozy_7HclI0fdLkCs953r4nHF2okP4h1AdOYKF-v1TQG2iREqp0vwrBXnsvRIX6PQr4lI4UjXfbTPgaOlJedYWQAPGmVscOH-kVkdX1yZPnw8/s320/mrz081511dAPC20110812074526.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.9pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House. While the anti-establishment Tea Party movement has gained significant ground and is now a rising and powerful political force to be reckoned with, many of the president’s own supporters as well as independents are rapidly losing faith in Barack Obama, with </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/aug/10/robert-gibbs-crazy-liberal-critics-obama"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">open warfare</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> breaking out between the White House and the left-wing of the Democratic Party. While conservatism in America grows stronger by the day, the forces of liberalism are growing increasingly weaker and divided.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Against this backdrop, the president’s approval ratings have been sliding dramatically all summer, with the latest Rasmussen Poll </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">of US voters dropping to minus 22 points, the lowest point so far for Barack Obama since taking office. While just 24 per cent of American voters strongly approve of the president’s job performance, almost twice that number, 46 per cent, strongly disapprove. According to Rasmussen</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 65 per cent of voters believe the United States is going down the wrong track, including 70 per cent of independents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Realclearpolls now has Obama at over 50 per cent disapproval, a remarkably high figure for a president just 18 months into his first term. Strikingly, the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">has the President on just 41 per cent approval, with 53 per cent disapproving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">There are an array of reasons behind the stunning decline and political fall of Obama, chief among them fears over the current state of the US economy, with widespread concern over high levels of unemployment, the unstable housing market, and above all the towering budget deficit. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Americans are increasingly rejecting Obama’s big government solutions to America’s economic woes, which many fear will lead to the United States sharing the same fate as Greece.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Growing disillusionment with the Obama administration’s handling of the economy as well as health care and immigration has gone hand in hand with mounting unhappiness with the President’s aloof and imperial style of leadership, and a growing perception that he is out of touch with ordinary Americans, especially at a time of significant economic pain. Barack Obama’s striking absence of natural leadership ability (and blatant lack of experience) has played a big part in undermining his credibility with the US public, with his lackluster handling of the Gulf oil spill coming under particularly intense fire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">On the national security and foreign policy front, Obama has not fared any better. His leadership on the war in Afghanistan has been confused and at times lacking in conviction, and seemingly dictated by domestic political priorities rather than military and strategic goals. His overall foreign policy has been an appalling mess, with his flawed strategy of engagement of hostile regimes spectacularly backfiring. And as for the War on Terror, his administration has not even acknowledged it is fighting one. Can it get any worse for Obama? Undoubtedly yes. Here are 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in serious trouble, and why its prospects are unlikely to improve between now and the November mid-terms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. The Obama presidency is out of touch with the American people</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In </span><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100050002/the-obama-presidency-increasingly-resembles-a-modern-day-ancien-regime-extravagant-and-out-of-touch-with-ordinary-people/"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">a previous post</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I noted how the Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Régime, extravagant, decaying and out of touch with ordinary Americans. The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Spain at a time of widespread economic hardship was symbolic of a White House that barely gives a second thought to public opinion on many issues, and frequently projects a distinctly elitist image. The “let them eat cake” approach didn’t play well over two centuries ago, and it won’t succeed today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Most Americans don’t have confidence in the president’s leadership</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This deficit of trust in Obama’s leadership is central to his decline. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News Poll</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> “nearly six in ten voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country”, and two thirds “say they are disillusioned with or angry about the way the federal government is working.” The poll showed that a staggering 58 per cent of Americans say they do not have confidence in the president’s decision-making, with just 42 per cent saying they do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">3. Obama fails to inspire</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In contrast to the soaring rhetoric of his 2004 Convention speech in Boston which succeeded in impressing millions of television viewers at the time, America is no longer inspired by Barack Obama’s flat, monotonous and often dull presidential speeches and statements delivered via teleprompter. From his extraordinarily uninspiring Afghanistan address at West Point</span><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100018536/barack-obama-is-no-churchill/"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">to his flat State of the Union Address</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Obama has failed to touch the heart of America. Even Jimmy Carter was more moving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. The United States is drowning in debt</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Congressional Budget Office Long Term Budget Outlook </span><a href="http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11579"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">offers a frightening picture of the scale of America’s national debt. Under its alternative fiscal scenario, the CBO projects that US debt could rise to 87 percent of GDP by 2020, 109 percent by 2025, and 185 percent in 2035. While much of Europe, led by Britain and Germany, are aggressively cutting their deficits, the Obama administration is actively growing America’s debt, and has no plan in place to avert a looming Greek-style financial crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. Obama’s Big Government message is falling flat</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The relentless emphasis on bailouts and stimulus spending has done little to spur economic growth or create jobs, but has greatly advanced the power of the federal government in America. This is not an approach that is proving popular with the American public, and even most European governments have long ditched this tax and spend approach to saving their own economies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">6. Obama’s support for socialised health care is a huge political mistake</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In an extraordinary act of political Harakiri, Obama leant his full support to the hugely controversial, unpopular and divisive health care reform bill, with a monstrous price tag of $940 billion, whose repeal </span><a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/health_care_law"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">is now supported by 55 per cent of likely US voters</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. As I wrote at the time of his passing</span><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100030793/a-dark-day-for-freedom-in-america/"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">,</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the legislation is “a great leap forward by the United States towards a European-style vision of universal health care, which will only lead to soaring costs, higher taxes, and a surge in red tape for small businesses. This reckless legislation dramatically expands the power of the state over the lives of individuals, and could not be further from the vision of America’s founding fathers.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">7. Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill has been weak-kneed and indecisive</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While much of the spilled oil in the Gulf has now been thankfully cleared up, the political damage for the White House will be long-lasting. Instead of showing real leadership on the matter by acing decisively and drawing upon offers of international support, the Obama administration settled on a more convenient strategy of relentlessly bashing an Anglo-American company while largely sitting on its hands. Significantly, a poll of Louisiana voters</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> gave George W. Bush higher marks for his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with 62 percent disapproving of Obama’s performance on the Gulf oil spill.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">8. US foreign policy is an embarrassing mess under the Obama administration</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It is hard to think of a single foreign policy success for the Obama administration, but there have been plenty of missteps which have weakened American global power as well as the standing of the United States. The surrender to Moscow on Third Site missile defence, the failure to aggressively stand up to Iran’s nuclear programme, the decision to side with ousted Marxists in Honduras, the slap in the face for Great Britain over the Falklands, have all contributed to the image of a US administration completely out of its depth in international affairs. The Obama administration’s high risk strategy of appeasing America’s enemies while kicking traditional US allies has only succeeded in weakening the United States while strengthening her adversaries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">9. President Obama is muddled and confused on national security</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the War on Terror, Obama’s leadership has often been muddled and confused. On Afghanistan he rightly sent tens of thousands of additional troops to the battlefield. At the same time however he bizarrely announced a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces beginning in July 2011, handing the initiative to the Taliban. On Iraq he has announced an end to combat operations and the withdrawal of all but 50,000 troops despite a recent upsurge in terrorist violence and political instability, and without the Iraqi military and police ready to take over. In addition he has ditched the concept of a War on Terror, replacing it with </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032402818.html?hpid=topnews"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">an Overseas Contingency Operation</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, hardly the right message to send in the midst of a long-war against Al-Qaeda.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">10. Obama doesn’t believe in American greatness</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Barack Obama has made it clear that </span><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/28/opinion/oe-kirchick28"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, and has made apologizing into an art form. In </span><a href="http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/2009/september/129519.htm"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">a speech to the United Nations last September</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> he stated that “no one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold.” It is difficult to see how a US president who holds these views and does not even accept America’s greatness in history can actually lead the world’s only superpower with force and conviction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">There is a distinctly Titanic-like feel to the Obama presidency and it’s not hard to see why. The most left-wing president in modern American history has tried to force a highly interventionist, government-driven agenda that runs counter to the principles of free enterprise, individual freedom, and limited government that have made the United States the greatest power in the world, and the freest nation on earth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">This, combined with weak leadership both at home and abroad against the backdrop of tremendous economic uncertainty in an increasingly dangerous world, has contributed to a spectacular political collapse for a president once thought to be invincible. America at its core remains a deeply conservative nation, which cherishes its traditions and founding principles. President Obama is increasingly out of step with the American people, by advancing policies that undermine the United States as a global power, while undercutting America’s deep-seate</span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #282828; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">d </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">love for freedom.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #282828;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-73020113800136027022011-08-17T15:06:00.000-07:002011-08-17T15:06:50.634-07:00A Young Ronald Reagan?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSyiqGs2VbJdrOBfkH8Rq206nTRgQS1zmpLfn68NxglxlVFnWCQP1WDHxE8oJcl5Y8GVyBTUSl0r63fdmpXPgYoVULM8UYABZTZn6JFiSLR5T4HOeM7ABPP6_MaArmwnSu1juMqLxvCg/s1600/bg081611dAPR20110816074516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSyiqGs2VbJdrOBfkH8Rq206nTRgQS1zmpLfn68NxglxlVFnWCQP1WDHxE8oJcl5Y8GVyBTUSl0r63fdmpXPgYoVULM8UYABZTZn6JFiSLR5T4HOeM7ABPP6_MaArmwnSu1juMqLxvCg/s320/bg081611dAPR20110816074516.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Texas Governor Rick Perry scorched the political pot Tuesday with a red-hot rhetorical attack on Fed-head Ben Bernanke. When asked about the Fed's reopening the monetary spigots, Perry said, "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">And that wasn't all. In a more controversial slam, Perry said, "Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is almost treacherous -- or treasonous -- in my opinion</span></em>."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Pretty rough stuff. Very aggressive language. And undoubtedly way too strong. It was poorly received in the financial world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">No, Ben Bernanke is not a traitor. This is a policy dispute; it's not a matter of patriotism. However, and this is an important however, the rest of Perry's statement suggests that his<em><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">analysis</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of Fed policy is right on target. In other words, wrong words, right analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The Texas governor, who by some polls is the new Republican presidential front-runner, went on to say: "We've already tried this. All it's going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket. And we cannot afford that."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Well, to me that is exactly right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Let's take a quick look at Bernanke's QE2 record of pump priming: The dollar fell 12 percent on foreign exchange markets. The consumer price index jumped more than 5 percent at an annual rate. And the $600 billion cheapening of the greenback led to skyrocketing commodity prices, including oil, gasoline and food. That oil price shock is one of the principal factors behind the 0.8 percent first-half economic stutter. As a result of the jump in inflation linked to QE2, real consumer incomes slumped badly and consumer spending fell substantially.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Before QE2, the economy was growing about 2.5 percent, even though it already was blunted by numerous tax and regulatory obstacles. But the cheap-dollar oil shock came perilously close to pushing us into recession.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">So it turns out that Perry -- even with his overly strong language -- is a pretty sharp economic and monetary analyst.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">In fact, Perry's analysis actually channels recent Fed dissents by reserve bank presidents Dick Fisher of Dallas, Charles Plosser of Philadelphia and Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis. They object to a two-year extension of the Fed's zero-interest-rate policy and, in so doing, have set down an opposition marker to a potential new shock-and-awe quantitative easing that many fear will be announced Aug. 26 when Bernanke speaks to the Jackson Hole, Wyo., Fed conference.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">What makes Perry's position even more interesting is his disagreement with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. When I interviewed Romney this past April, he essentially defended Bernanke and dollar depreciation. "Well, you know, I think Ben Bernanke is a student of monetary policy," Romney said. "He's doing as good a job as he thinks he can do in the Federal Reserve."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Meanwhile, in tea party circles on the campaign trail, Bernanke is a much-disliked figure. Rightly or wrongly, he is blamed for bailing out Wall Street. Also, many view Bernanke's massive money creation, along with President Barack Obama's massive federal stimulus spending, as another failed big-government attempt to revive the economy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Tea partyers and many others fervently believe in lower spending, reduced tax burdens and a regulatory rollback to strengthen small businesses and the private economy. They're against Uncle Sam's just throwing money at problems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">So in this sense, Perry's red-hot riposte at Bernanke may be shrewd politics, as well as a much-needed defense of stable money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The former Air Force captain piloted C-130 missions in Central America, South America and North Africa and all over Europe. He's a fierce devotee of American exceptionalism and greatness. My hunch is that just like Ronald Reagan, Perry views a collapsing-dollar threat as more evidence of American decline. And he is very much opposed to any of that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-22833435283837110382011-08-12T11:34:00.000-07:002011-08-12T11:34:31.574-07:00Hey Libs: Obama is a Bad President!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsMGqiU0wLfQhx7dqeYCvGX3AWVEx7NJ4DpFr7oXpjuRVJe8rTaQUFK7LvDJLAWeE4AXpXHEOIq10vk-ZQrWXlmZ875NF33NvFKUKikZTfACN_NH8O-vrP8A7bupJM5DbXgMhYCsJhA0/s1600/%2521cid_6_2082336606%2540web51407_mail_re2_yahoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsMGqiU0wLfQhx7dqeYCvGX3AWVEx7NJ4DpFr7oXpjuRVJe8rTaQUFK7LvDJLAWeE4AXpXHEOIq10vk-ZQrWXlmZ875NF33NvFKUKikZTfACN_NH8O-vrP8A7bupJM5DbXgMhYCsJhA0/s320/%2521cid_6_2082336606%2540web51407_mail_re2_yahoo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve gotten a chuckle out of the liberal civility war that’s been going on since the debt deal was signed and S&P downgraded U.S. credit ratings. The Bolsheviks are trading salvos with the Mensheviks and hunkering down for the long war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;">On the one hand you’ve had some liberals who feel that Obama just appears weak</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;">; on the other you have some progressives who think that Obama’s been done in by a message problem and lack of conviction </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;">more than anything else.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;">So, today I read Colin Delany's</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"> peacekeeping article on the Huffington Post calling for a truce with some interest. Delany says that argument is about two sides of political operations: messaging and mechanics- by mechanics he’s talking GOTV. He argues that the message hasn’t been the problem, but rather the mechanics. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Delany’s delusional on both his general point and wading into the fray.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because after all the campaigning and advertising, all the stump speeches and robo-calls, politics still is about the one thing: the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And here’s the truth for you Democrats out there: Your candidate sucks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No, really. I mean it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m not saying that because I hate Obamacare and cap and trade and unions. I do hate those things, but I’m speaking from the perspective of a political professional with a background in message <i>and </i>mechanics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liberals are going to have a very hard time selling the candidate Obama again for the very same reason that they had an easy time selling him the first time around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the last presidential election, the country eventually went with the candidate who least reminded them of George W. Bush. This time around, I’m guessing they’ll do the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This comparison won’t favor Obama. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Voters will put up with a lot of things. They’ll put up with war that stretches on for five years too long; they’ll put up with a temporary downturn in the economy; they’ll put up with presidents who can’t keep their pants on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But they won’t put up with a con job. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don’t misunderstand me: I think George Bush was a good guy and a not bad president. But on the Iraq War there may have been a con-job in play. The Republican Party eventually paid a price for that con job by losing support in 2004, 2006 and ultimately in 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don’t get me wrong: I supported and still do support American involvement in Iraq, but if the Bush administration put together a strong argument for the war I missed it. My support came through my own reasoning that America would be stronger with 250,000 troops stationed within marching distance of Tehran. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But that doesn’t touch the Bush administration’s real sin, which was their screwing up of the prosecution of the war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We had a plan to invade Iraq. One that would have worked,” one retired U.S. general told me shortly after the invasion turned into an occupation. “It was almost as if they purposefully tried to screw it up.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Willfully for almost six years, the Bush administration stuck to the “other” plan until John McCain forced them, on the back of his presidential aspirations, to try the “surge” strategy that soldiers had been advocating for years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It worked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, fast forward to today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me, “You know, it’s almost as if Obama is purposefully trying to screw up the economy,” I’d be a wealthy man.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Very wealthy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t buy the conspiracy theory that Obama is screwing things up on purpose. But like George Bush, he’s guilty of not being honest with the American people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But here’s the difference: I think George W. Bush is an honorable man who had a messaging problem and poor execution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think Barack Hussein Obama is a liar <i>who also</i> can’t manage the presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama campaigned against the debt ceiling increase, higher taxes on anyone making less than $250,000, on war without congressional authorization, on not nationalizing healthcare; he bragged that if he couldn’t get the economy right in three years, he ought to be a one-term-president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lie yourself out of these lies, Mr. President. If I were a progressive I’d be pissed off too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m part of the vast right-wing conspiracy and I’m pissed off. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I may not have approved of how George W. Bush was blowing things up, but at least he was blowing up the <i>right</i> things. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So far the only thing Obama can take credit for blowing up is his fragile, incomplete ego.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He has no accomplishments, no legacy, except empty rhetoric and false promises.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the one thing that could have brought us all together, the honor killing of Osama bin Laden, he acted like such an ass by his “Osama bin Laden’s Still Dead World Tour,” that he fumbled his one legitimate opportunity to prove he could rise to the occasion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There’s a long time between now and election-day. Obama still has a chance to get reelected because a lot can happen to right an economy gone wrong. Eventually something has to go right, just by sheer happenstance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But his chances are diminished because he can’t be honest, probably not even with himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And for a man like that, there’s not much more to lose besides the presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-59079903420565445202011-08-08T15:24:00.001-07:002011-08-08T15:35:08.080-07:00It's been a long time!<div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of the recipients to this Blog will understand why while the rest must live with the fact that it’s been a while. I may take it easier for some time but what has to be must be.</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One week after Democrats drove us to the brink of default because they wouldn’t cut the U.S. budget deficit, White House officials tried to blame everyone from ratings agencies to the Tea Party for the economic woes they created.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The worst Treasury Secretary in our history, Timothy Geithner told a TV audience on Sunday: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"There is no risk the—the United States of America would ever not be in a position to meet its obligations,"<span class="apple-converted-space"> according to Business Insider.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Um, Tim. Where have you been the last month?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tim Geithner then also blasted the rating agency S&P for downgrading U.S. debt, saying they showed “terrible” judgment; that they didn’t understand “basic U.S. fiscal budget math.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Um, Tim. Where have you been the last two years?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The statement that S&P doesn’t understand “basic U.S. fiscal budget math” is so far out of touch that I wonder if Geithner even knows how to add or subtract. The economic results that Geithner and company have given us, tells us that at the very least the math the White House is using isn’t working. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember: This from the guy who predicted in the spring that there was virtually no way that any rating agency would downgrade U.S. debt at anytime.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The real problem here is that Geithner is once again showing which side doesn’t understand the “basic U.S. fiscal budget math.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or any other math for that matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here’s some more math that Obama and Geithner doesn’t understand:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gasoline prices are at $3.673 per gallon versus $2.776 a year ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unemployment is at 9.2 percent officially. Real unemployment is over 16 percent, not budging much from its peak of 17.4 percent despite record-shattering government spending.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Housing prices are still declining despite a much ballyhooed month-over-month increase in June of .01 percent. The average home price is now at $138,000 versus the $202,000 peak price.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The debt-to-GDP ratio is now over 100 percent for the U.S. It was this ratio more than any other that sealed the downgrade of U.S debt. Geithner knows this. At a time that rating agencies were warning that unless the U.S. significantly cut its debt, that a downgrade was inevitable, the administration, lead-or mislead- by Obama and Geithner put together a debt deal that made sure that debt-to-GDP went up, not down.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the debt deal was announced the stock market has been on a record losing streak, staunched by mixed trading on Friday. And nothing Geithner said over the weekend is going to give the markets confidence for the week. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s not just the debt deal that’s math challenged though.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Government economists have been forced to revise downward employment and growth estimates over the last few months. The recession isn’t officially on, but psychologically it’s on enough to spook the markets, sap consumer confidence and start a capital strike. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In short, this economy has a headache, and it’s got Geithner’s and Obama’s name written all over it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To make matters worse Geithner, who told the White House that perhaps he was leaving after the debt deal was sealed, has decided that he’s going to stay after all.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks Tim. Where have you been the last few months?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Predictably, Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod blamed the Tea Party movement on Sunday for the debt downgrade, which show that the White House isn’t just math challenged but maybe having group LSD flashbacks. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The S&P ratings moved downward because the debt deal didn’t go far enough in S&P’s estimation, which is exactly the position the Tea Party took on the issue. So at least in the estimation of professional rating agency that has 150 <u>years experience</u>, the Tea Party is right and the White House is wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Geithner knows this and that’s what has the White House so mad. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The White House has now blamed the Tea Party for the debt downgrade, racism, global warming, terrorism, SUVs, the coal industry, illegal immigration, incivility and obesity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By my math, that makes the Tea Party 100 percent OK with me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It’s nice to be back! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-9716268980681384222011-05-20T11:15:00.001-07:002011-05-20T18:22:42.576-07:00For almost 6000 years ...............<div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAKTcW7jxWt62drLaW0ZXecO1kmUSdoGKva0M-h6R4sZKk5m1jccudKOjT6n11NkOZzb-sNVoggYwagjppwjBSFQr0IU1_-l4rxA95hSAuX8eVamhyrtmLt2NqXD-wQ-hEY_8mRneP-Y/s1600/AI_Cartoons4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAKTcW7jxWt62drLaW0ZXecO1kmUSdoGKva0M-h6R4sZKk5m1jccudKOjT6n11NkOZzb-sNVoggYwagjppwjBSFQr0IU1_-l4rxA95hSAuX8eVamhyrtmLt2NqXD-wQ-hEY_8mRneP-Y/s400/AI_Cartoons4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just when you think you’ve heard it all, you haven’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just when you think that Obama cannot appall, he can.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last night I was fuming and I said to a recovering Obama voter, “He’s stupid.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the recovering Obama voter protested the adjective, I modified it to “naïve”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This morning, having slept on it, I’m ready to modify it yet again. He’s unfit for office!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday, Obama's major speech on the Middle East Thursday will come back to haunt him. He said nothing that will have any impact in deterring Syrian government violence against pro-democracy protestors, but the he did make pronouncements that threaten another state in the Middle East: Israel, America's strongest ally in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his speech Thursday, he paid lip service to Israeli security but laid down dangerous markers for restarting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. With this speech, Obama became the first American president to require that Israel accept its pre-1967 borders as a starting point to negotiations with the Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a dramatic departure from U.S. policy, which recognized that agreed-to final borders would be the end product of negotiations between the parties, not a precondition to starting talks. In essence, what Obama has called for is unilateral concessions from Israel without a single concrete concession from the Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What makes this even more dangerous is that a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel -- Hamas -- governs Palestinians in Gaza. On the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is in the hands of a Hamas-Fatah coalition, with the two groups having agreed to put aside their differences in order to demand recognition of a Palestine state by the United Nations this fall. If that happens, there will be no such thing as what the president termed "a secure Israel."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to respond, calling Israel's pre-1967 borders "indefensible." History proves he's right. In 1967, Israel was on the eve of an all-out assault by its Arab neighbors when it took out the Egyptian and Syrian air forces. Within six days, Israel had defeated Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon and gained significant territory, including the Arab-controlled parts of Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nonetheless, Israel was attacked again a few years later. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an offensive on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Again, Israel was successful in defeating both countries and gained more territory in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even though Israel was twice the victor, both wars were the result of Arab aggression. Yet Israel has proven its willingness to return territory gained in war. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt after negotiating a peace settlement with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Israel has been the one country in the area willing from the start to negotiate away land in return for recognition of its right to exist and a promise of peaceful coexistence from its neighbors. But instead of encouraging that precedent, Obama wants unilateral territorial concessions from Israel in return for empty promises.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The good news is that the Obama plan will go nowhere. There is no chance that Congress will support the administration's heavy-handed pressure on Israel. And the Israelis will never agree to such conditions as a prerequisite to peace negotiations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And Obama has hurt himself domestically as well. Jewish donors and voters were an important part of Obama's winning coalition in 2008. But many in the pro-Israel community are deeply disturbed at what they see as the president's lukewarm support for Israel and will not likely give him the same level of support in 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Sunday, Obama is set to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the most influential lobbying groups in the country. It is expected that t he'll say all the right things about how important an ally Israel is to the United States and that our two countries share common values and principles. The audience will applaud politely -- and some die-hard Democrats in the group may even tell themselves that Obama is a good friend to Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Obama can't have it both ways even though he may think he can. He can't give a speech next week that makes dangerous demands on Israel and pretend a few days later that his words have not damaged the important U.S.-Israeli relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And note that Obama made no mention of the Arab’s claim to “Right of Return.” Israel will never accede to that claim and the Palestinians will never abandon it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama has abandoned Israel. Now it’s time that Israel's supporters in the U.S. abandon him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What’s the Hebrew for “F*ck You?” I’m sure that today’s Oval Office tapes could supply the answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
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</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-71116881285087373492011-05-18T08:23:00.000-07:002011-05-18T11:04:16.534-07:00Stupid is as Stupid Does!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzay1RHtrcFk9ZEUASy8mjNALsn4TSjepPiHJ8ltqQnUU9JUf71xxneCppVUORTzoF6KEoeKTWl6FrY8ntlf7kxAKqZzejJUKBuLxJcPlji2Q6n2n9cyyCKI3e9yMZG1RWMbSFmFxfVI/s1600/cartoon_airplane_cool_funny_interesting_amazing_200907301859045313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzay1RHtrcFk9ZEUASy8mjNALsn4TSjepPiHJ8ltqQnUU9JUf71xxneCppVUORTzoF6KEoeKTWl6FrY8ntlf7kxAKqZzejJUKBuLxJcPlji2Q6n2n9cyyCKI3e9yMZG1RWMbSFmFxfVI/s400/cartoon_airplane_cool_funny_interesting_amazing_200907301859045313.jpg" width="326" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am indebted to a good friend for sending me the following tidbits. Some may be purely apocryphal but they are hilarious and even if only one is true the implication is terrifying. And it would explain a lot wouldn’t it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of why this country is in trouble:<br />
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<b> 1.</b> I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<b> 2.</b> I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts ..''<br />
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Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts , Capetown is in Africa. ''<br />
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His response -- click.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<b> 3.</b> A senior Vermont Congressman (Bernie Sanders) called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando .. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.<br />
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He replied, “Don't lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!''<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4.</b> I got a call from a lawmaker's wife (Landra Reid) who asked, ''Is it possible to see England from Canada ?''<br />
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I said, ''No.''<br />
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She said, ''But they look so close on the map.''<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<b> 5. </b>An aide for a cabinet member(Janet Napolitano) once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas . I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.''<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b> 6.</b> An Illinois Congresswoman (Jan Schakowsky) called last week She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.<br />
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I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<b> 7. </b>A New York lawmaker, (Jerrold Nadler) called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?'<br />
<br />
He replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!''<br />
<br />
After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, California is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<b> 8.</b> A Senator John Kerry aide (Lindsay Ross) called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?''<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b> 9.</b> I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, Bobby Bright (D) from Alabama who asked, ''How do I know which plane to get on?''<br />
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I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.''<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b> 10.</b> Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?''<br />
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I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola , FL on a commuter plane.<br />
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She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<b> 11.</b> Mary Landrieu (D) Senator from Louisiana called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. “Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those''<br />
<br />
I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa.<br />
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When I told her this she said, ''Look, I've been to China four times and every time they accepted my American Express!''<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b> 12.</b> A New Jersey Congressman (John Adler) called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.''<br />
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I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?''<br />
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“Yes, what flights do you have?'' replied the man.<br />
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After some searching, I came back with, ''I'm sorry, sir, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere."<br />
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The man retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!''<br />
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So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ''You don't mean Buffalo, do you?''<br />
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The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.''<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comment would be superfluous so I won’t.</span> <br />
<o:p></o:p></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-21990248947569097022011-05-17T07:11:00.000-07:002011-05-17T07:11:53.911-07:00The Devil is in The Details<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsK1SebTFfD74dxvgrWjlHmBv84aq9M5urqG7zO7a1rUyFnjsvGnX_FPebyhaXCWRNcjE_1uyQb8l5gbppKGu3cSOlW1g8jtq2Ike3PmvSJKaFAo1cIbxcCBZ0qnwZqJ3AePb0dLi9eA/s1600/rxfairrington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsK1SebTFfD74dxvgrWjlHmBv84aq9M5urqG7zO7a1rUyFnjsvGnX_FPebyhaXCWRNcjE_1uyQb8l5gbppKGu3cSOlW1g8jtq2Ike3PmvSJKaFAo1cIbxcCBZ0qnwZqJ3AePb0dLi9eA/s320/rxfairrington.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last Saturday I entered a post which leveled criticism at Obamacare on several fronts. One liberal reader was not happy with this and I can only assume that he reads this blog because he enjoys self-flagellation. Anyway, he challenged me for specifics and I love confounding liberals even though the task of analyzing the thousands of pages of legislative gobbledygook of HB3200 is a daunting one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, as luck would have it, another reader forwarded me part of the text which follows and I was able to concentrate on the taxation implications of the legislation. Note that the writer has translated the “legalese” into language for normal mortals but on an otherwise sleepless night you can cross check to your heart’s desire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b> Page 50/section 152:</b> The bill will provide insurance to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally. <br />
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<b> Page 58 and 59: </b>The government will have real-time access to an individual's bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts. <br />
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P<b>age 65/section 164:</b> The plan will be subsidized (by the government) for all union members, union retirees and for community organizations (such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - ACORN). <br />
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<b> Page 203/line 14-15:</b> The tax imposed under this section will not be treated as a tax. (How could anybody in their right mind come up with that?) <br />
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<b> Page 241 and 253:</b> Doctors will all be paid the same regardless of specialty, and the government will set all doctors' fees. <br />
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<b> Page 272. section 1145</b>: Cancer hospitals will ration care according to the patient's age. <br />
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<b> Page 317 and 321:</b> The government will impose a prohibition on hospital expansion; however, communities may petition for an exception. <br />
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<b> Page 425, line 4-12:</b> The government mandates advance-care planning consultations. Those on Social Security will be required to attend an "end-of-life planning" seminar every five years. (Death counseling..) <br />
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<b> Page 429, line 13-25: </b>The government will specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And here are some of the new ways we pay for all of this via tax hikes included in H.R. 3962, the revised House version of Obamacare, otherwise known as "The Affordable Health Care for America Act." The text of this bill runs to 1,990 pages, all of which can be read in pdf format. The page number references to each of the tax hikes noted below correspond to those in the pdf.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">Page 275, Employer Mandate Excise Tax</span></b>: If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 296, Individual Mandate Surtax</span></b>: If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 324, Medicine Cabinet Tax</span></b>: Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 325, Cap on FSAs</span></b>: FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped). <br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 326, Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions</span></b>: Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 327, Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D</span></b>: This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 336, Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses</span></b>: Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 339, Excise Tax on Medical Devices</span></b>: Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 344, Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting</span></b>: Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 345, Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest</span></b>: Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 346, Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments</span></b>: Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 349, Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine”</span></b>: Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.<br />
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<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Page 357, Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule</span></b>: Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Specific enough for you?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-9832724577472720812011-05-14T15:06:00.000-07:002011-05-14T15:06:16.476-07:00Is there a Doctor in the House?<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0m0NttO6JkCSe6NZ2NurP7yUI8VAzDwq3oHbKshmm_QZajGKy6fGqhDEADP2Mt588KBdXdATiaoMRD8G7fc5sxZV2_MvNwhbrsvmIvWGg5P4P-Jw_KOgmVHd7p_AuKd6m6RKHHRz2Q4/s1600/mrz042211dAPR20110422014527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0m0NttO6JkCSe6NZ2NurP7yUI8VAzDwq3oHbKshmm_QZajGKy6fGqhDEADP2Mt588KBdXdATiaoMRD8G7fc5sxZV2_MvNwhbrsvmIvWGg5P4P-Jw_KOgmVHd7p_AuKd6m6RKHHRz2Q4/s320/mrz042211dAPR20110422014527.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just when Obama thought that his bin Laden foray had diverted attention from things domestic we learned a couple of days ago that Social Security goes broke in 2036, a year earlier than thought in 2010 and the outlook for Medicare is even bleaker. That runs out in 2024 which is a full 5 years earlier than previous estimates. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All this gives Paul Ryan’s budget proposals to overhaul both programs even greater urgency and should make it harder for the other side of the aisle to bury their heads in the congressional sand. And surely, the last thing we need to do to pile onto Medicare’s misery is to add Obamacare with all its fiscal profligacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unlike the proponents of Obamacare, the opponents are often medical professionals including one Congressman Burgess. After spending nearly three decades practicing medicine in North Texas, Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D., was first elected to Congress in 2002, and re-elected in 2004, 2006, 2008, and most recently in 2010 and he is warning that pulling the reins on the Obamacare expansion of federal bureaucracy, costs and control over consumers is critical right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Burgess said during an interview last week that the longer the problematic legislation is left unaddressed the worse it will be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Oddly enough I year ago I wouldn't have thought this would be where we were today," Burgess, whose new book “Doctor in the House,” outlines what he sees as solutions America needs to embrace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We're looking at the courts actually to save us from this," he continued. "Defunding right now is critical because the rapidity with which it is being implemented is startling."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's only going to be more difficult to unwind in a year, when the Supreme Court finally rules," he continued. "It's bad from start to finish."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He referenced the political manipulation through which the bill was adopted: pressure that was applied to some Democrats who said they were pro-life and opposed the plan for its favors to the abortion industry. One key member changed his vote at virtually the last minute, greasing the way for Obama's plan to become law.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Right until that pro-life Democrat switched his position that Sunday night, no one thought this thing was ever going to go anywhere," Burgess said. "People really won't know how bad it is until 2014, 2016 when some of the major provisions kick in.”<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was referencing some of the provisions in Obamacare that raise taxes and delete consumer choice as the full spectrum of government boards, panels, rules, guidelines, demands, requirements and procedures, including details such as government access to bank accounts and medical records, become reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Obamacare law is also being challenged in a number of lawsuits, and more than half of the states are trying to prevent its implementation. Those lawsuits now mostly are at the level of appellate courts, probably en route to the U.S. Supreme Court. They argue that it simply is unconstitutional for the government to require consumers to purchase a product or face a tax penalty for not doing so.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One such is in Virginia where the challenge is the constitutionality of this president or any other to take over the healthcare decision-making processes in these United States. <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the arguments before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will go far beyond the dispute over health care and its related issues of privacy, federal limits on treatment, an unaccountable panel imposing its payment rates on doctors and others.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The appeals court will be hearing arguments in two cases. In the first, Liberty University’s Counsel is arguing that the law's individual and employer mandates are unconstitutional. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Furthermore, critics have argued that by expanding the definition of "interstate commerce" to include someone in his or her own home, not participating in any business transaction, there simply is nothing that the federal government could not do in pursuit of providing a "better" life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example, critics have said the government then could ban certain foods, or require consumers to buy others, ban certain vehicles or require consumers to buy those earning government approval. There even have been accusations that the government could restrict a person's purchases or activities based on a health profile that a person would be required to provide, in order to "protect" the person.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under the law, consumers must purchase the health insurance mandated by the government or pay massive fines and penalties to be collected by the Internal Revenue Service. Employers have mandates to provide certain levels of coverage – also all under the thumb of government bureaucrats who are scheduled to watch to make sure the government's demands are met.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><br />
</span>According to Mathew Staver, chief of Liberty Counsel, the fight really is about just how much of your life can Washington simply take control of and dictate.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This really is a major step toward centralized government," he emphasized. "This is government by coercive power."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There also remain several additional cases that are advancing on the appellate court level at this point, including one in Florida where the judge ruled the law unconstitutional at the request of more than two dozen states.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liberty University's challenge alleges both the individual and employer mandate are illegal while in a second case, Commonwealth of Virginia v. Sebelius, alleges only that the individual mandate is illegal.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under the law, consumers must purchase the health insurance mandated by the government or pay massive fines and penalties to be collected by the Internal Revenue Service. Employers have mandates to provide certain levels of coverage – also all under the thumb of government bureaucrats who are scheduled to watch to make sure the government's demands are met.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Staver said the issue of health care is significant, but he said the Obamacare plan, which is expected to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, moves far beyond what the Constitution allows.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The government's arguments cite the Commerce Clause, which allows regulation of "interstate commerce." Bureaucrats then defined someone sitting in his own living room, not making purchases or requiring services, to be part of the definition of "interstate commerce."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This massive health insurance law goes beyond the outer limits of the Constitution. It is a big step toward a centralized government. … This case goes beyond health insurance and is more about the role of the federal government to control private decisions and burden the free enterprise system,” Staver said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Am</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">en to that.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-91875162786602190532011-05-11T08:50:00.000-07:002011-05-11T08:52:18.776-07:00The Memory Lingers On ............<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAnN-iKUQqnggmmuvvc6NPho6-7M7KFHnBFXEPDn3s7d45I7-W1aDL3vdQokbo9p-7u7iPtIhi1F0dBtlD_NeNsD5lWB-bsJRNLXAFM0fMOx1UcQ8wKaKHacB3LCJvYx__nN-n9iCd2w/s1600/obama-and-israel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAnN-iKUQqnggmmuvvc6NPho6-7M7KFHnBFXEPDn3s7d45I7-W1aDL3vdQokbo9p-7u7iPtIhi1F0dBtlD_NeNsD5lWB-bsJRNLXAFM0fMOx1UcQ8wKaKHacB3LCJvYx__nN-n9iCd2w/s320/obama-and-israel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">So, Osama Bin Laden is dead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Good! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">But his legacy lingers still. For decades, bin Laden had two foci for his hatred. One of course was the West with special emphasis on us, the Great Satan, and the state of Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Thus we mustn’t lose sight of our major focus in the Middle East—stopping the advance and attacks from radical Islam and supporting our critical allies. As America moves forward in crafting a response to the changing landscape in the Middle East, there are questions we should be asking: Will our actions make the world more stable or less stable? Will our actions support our long-term allies? Will this stop the advance of radical Islam?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">While Hamas and Fatah groups have signed a unity pact in support of Palestinian statehood, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in Gaza, reacted to Bin Laden’s death: “We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood…. We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior.” In the days following Bin Laden’s death, it’s clear that many share such sentiments and let’s look at one version of that reality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Some in the Middle-East wish to perpetuate the hang-wringing over the situation in Gaza and elsewhere while their liberal counterparts in the West are ever eager to beat their anti-Semitic piñatas with claims like this:-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Jews stole the land from the Palestinians.</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
No, they didn't. After the Romans cleared out and decimated the mighty cities built by Jews like King Herod, Palestine was an arid, sparsely populated backwater that was eventually claimed (for land bridge reasons) by the Ottoman Empire, then by the British Empire. Jews have lived in the region continuously for well over 2,000 years. The British found themselves overseeing an indigenous population made up of Jews and Arabs-and sometimes Arab Jews. All were referred to as "Palestinians." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ownership of the land was a patch work. Much of the land was owned by absentee landlords who lived in places like Egypt, and farmed by local Arab Palestinians. This may have made many Palestinians believe it was "their land," but sorry, that just wasn't the case. As the Zionist movement gained traction in the early 1900s, Jews around the world contributed to a fund to buy up land. Much of the land for the future Jewish state was acquired this way. Once again, the poor Arabs living on and farming the land may not have been happy to give up the land they lived on, but it was not "stolen from them," because they didn't own it to begin with</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Israel is an </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apartheid State.<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
So that'll be why Arabs serve in the Israeli parliament as MPs (known as MKs for "Members of Knesset"); why they serve in the Israeli foreign service, in the government ministries, and even-in the case of the Druze sect who are not seen as having divided loyalties-in the Israeli Defense Force. Most signs are written in Hebrew and Arabic. An Arab woman has more rights in Israel than in most countries in the Arab and Muslim world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Arabs are degraded by the treatment meted out by Israeli Jews.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Look at the enlightened attitudes of those nice caring Palestinians of Hamas who recently banned women from riding on motorcycles.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Clearly their motivation was to protect the fairer sex from the myriad dangers associated with this most risky form of transport. No wonder liberal Americans prefer Gaza's gentle, sensitive feminist government to that of Israel, whose government callously treats its women folk as if they were no different from men. Why, Israeli women are even allowed to be a prime minister or disport themselves in revealing swimwear on the beach, exposing themselves to the lascivious stares of men who might at any time come up to them and say "Hi" and invite them for a drink, with goodness knows what terrible consequences.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Much better to live in Gaza, where the religious police protect girls from such horrors by giving them a sound beating if they are found to be improperly dressed!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It is against this kind of background that we must evaluate the strident voices of the Arab world and their liberal shills.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even though Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the attack that saw five members of an Israeli family stabbed to death in their home in a West Bank settlement "despicable, immoral and inhuman," a poll conducted by a team of Israeli and Palestinian pollsters that surveyed nearly 1300 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem found that 32 percent supported the attack. Palestinians talk of peace, but missiles are still being fired into Israel from Gaza.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span>There are more ominous signs. Egypt Airlines has stopped flights to Israel and taken Israel off their maps, the blockade of supplies into the Gaza Strip has been lifted, and the Muslim Brotherhood is well positioned to take advantage of early elections. The attacks on Christian churches, the merciless sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan by an Egyptian mob, and the presence of some Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups within the ranks of rebel forces in Libya cannot be overlooked.</span></div><br />
<div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The world desperately wants peace, but at what cost? Ronald Reagan reminded Americans, “Trust but verify.” With the turmoil racing through the Middle East and the temptation to support rebels high, it’s easy to accept words without actions and to forget to support Israel, our most important ally. Pressuring Israel to give up land gained in a war Arabs initiated to bring on an illusion of peace is nothing short of asking Israel to commit national suicide.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The pressure on Israel is growing. Even UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that unless Israel “engages seriously in a meaningful peace process” the U.K. will consider endorsing the Palestinian end-run for statehood through the United Nations General Assembly. Recently, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon termed the Israeli control of the territories obtained in the 1967 war “morally and politically unsustainable,” and called for the division of Jerusalem. Ban said, “A way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two states, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Israel is not the problem. Judge Richard Goldstone, Chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Council report on the 2008-2009 Gaza war that declared both Israel and Hamas guilty of war crimes, recently said that he now believed Israel isn’t guilty of war crimes. He said the report “would have been a different document” had he known then what he knows now. Israel had refused to participate in its own defense. Goldstone said he had now concluded that Israel had caused civilian causalities due to errors of judgment, not intentionally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Calling on the UN to rescind the Goldstone Report, Netanyahu said, “Israel didn’t intentionally harm civilians, its institutions and investigative bodies are worthy, while Hamas intentionally fired upon innocent civilians and didn’t examine anything.” In response to the recent Palestinian unity pact, Netanyahu observed, “How is it possible to achieve peace with a government, half of which calls for the destruction of Israel and even praises the arch-murderer Osama bin laden.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">When a Koran is burned by a Christian ministry in the United States, Christians from around the world condemn the act but Islamic extremists still killed UN staff and attacked churches in the Middle East. According to Asia News on March 25, a mob of Islamic extremists attacked a Pentecostal church in Hyderabad, India, killing two Christians and burning some copies of the Bible. Did Christians around the world kill Islamic believers for burning two Bibles? Of course not!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Where do you stand? Do you stand with people who attempt to create fear with their rockets and terrorist acts or do you stand with a country that has demonstrated restraint in the face of continuing provocations and limited retaliation to targeted attacks on terrorist leaders? Do you stand with the surviving members of the Fogel family or the people who condoned and celebrated their deaths? Do you support countries where gays are still tortured or one where they are free to exercise their preference? Do you support countries where religious conversion can get you stoned to death or do you support a country where you can bring in a Bible or the Koran and profess faith as a Jew, a Christian or an Islamic believer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully, not all members of the Islamic faith are radicals, but as Seth Godin writes,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The worst voice of the brand ‘is’ the brand</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, we either ignore your brand or we judge it, usually with too little information. And when we judge it, we judge it based on the actions of the loudest, meanest, most selfish member of your tribe. When a zealot advocates violence, outsiders see all members of his tribe as advocates of violence. … I wonder, then, why loyal and earnest members of the tribe hesitate to discipline, ostracize or expel the negative outliers. ‘You're hurting us, this is wrong, we are expelling you.’ What do you stand for?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">In America, the many supportive comments from many Islamic groups on the death of Osama Bin Laden and their outrage at the killing of Christians in response to the burning of the Koran by a Florida minister are welcomed, but such public sentiments seem rare in the Middle East.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Yes, America must support responsible Islamic leaders and believers, but let’s never forget to stand strong with Israel in this time of turmoil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Finally, I love crosswords and especially those which feature anagrams and I came across the two which follow:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>President Barack Obama = Arab base, pink Democrat.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>President Barack Hussein Obama = A Democrat speaks inane rubbish.</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-45421114833166003822011-05-07T11:56:00.000-07:002011-05-07T15:56:42.646-07:00I Have Directed Somebody Else to Order Everybody Else to Roll Except Me .......<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifLzMXyRjC9cKjX1kL4MbGjbIlE3AKgXYtOABeDsPA5kUwvgW9naeD6OCHnutdrT_WnlzJaslGJPqfnw7a6BtQXecn_67uj4HzeVfwBpDVvOz0MK8huGJoxbYWsPSGjn9AFdu489gmywM/s1600/gv032311dAPR20110323044521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifLzMXyRjC9cKjX1kL4MbGjbIlE3AKgXYtOABeDsPA5kUwvgW9naeD6OCHnutdrT_WnlzJaslGJPqfnw7a6BtQXecn_67uj4HzeVfwBpDVvOz0MK8huGJoxbYWsPSGjn9AFdu489gmywM/s320/gv032311dAPR20110323044521.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At first, I thought it was me. I have never made any secret of the fact that I detest Obama both for his beliefs as a socialist as well as my visceral disgust of his personality and character or rather the lack thereof. But then it seems that other people noticed it too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During Obama’s announcement last Sunday evening he used the words “I”, “My” and “Mine” more than a dozen times. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surely this was the time, if you have to do it all, to honor the unsung heroes of the intelligence community who planned it and the military personnel who pulled it off. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surely, it would have sent a stronger message to everyone including Al Qaeda and wannabes if bin Laden was just dead. Yes, of course, there would have been loads of clues, which even our enemy would have figured out. A bombed-out helicopter is hard to ignore even in a questionable neighborhood in Pakistan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, also, it would not have been necessary to protect the identity of the Seals if the White House just declared, “No comment,” when questioned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now while I have zero clout, some people do. One such is Todd Beamer, and even perhaps from his son’s grave, his father’s words have some import.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those readers who don’t know, David Beamer is the father of United 93 passenger and 9/11 victim and hero Todd Beamer, the author of “Let’s Roll.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clearly Todd cannot speak for himself but David found the time to do so for both of them when he had some harsh words for Obama this week.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Beamer feels Obama has inappropriate aggrandized his own role in the death of Osama, politicizing the moment for his own gain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beamer said he welcomed news of Osama’s killing, but that he feels “some chagrin” at the way Obama has handled the aftermath, claiming that the President put too much emphasis on himself while announcing the operation that took out Osama,.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“And frankly it started May Day 2011 when the president announced what had happened. The excessive use of the personal pronoun that he used in his remarks, I really felt that was the beginning of the Commander-in-Chief putting too much spotlight on himself, taking too much credit for what the remarkable Americans had done.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beamer also took aim at the mainstream media excessive praise of Obama’s decision to issue to go-ahead for the operation, describing the directive as a no-brainer that any commander-in-chief would have issue:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“It’s been hailed as one of the greatest wartime decisions, bold, gutsy, but quite frankly under the facts and circumstances I think it was anything but that.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beamer went on to say that once the CIA pieced together the intelligence about Osama's whereabouts -- intelligence gathered during the Bush administration -- Obama had no choice but to allow the military to enter the Osama compound to kill or capture the terrorist mastermind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No, it’s not just me, the guy is a political hack.</span></span> <span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-72027610983882937742011-05-06T10:44:00.000-07:002011-05-06T11:38:33.426-07:00Enough To Make A Cat Laugh ............<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYnWeniz6aeSziZ4rKIQtLwRb7TQF47i4QeeaFD7HdPN2RywXJhCPFBIt9intj9I9Q8mtfNdQI5z9nEvmjr1uw1_ZBE8sUzgTaMQsF1HiFEHrhkmJgeYYhYmnyKK4SfVb8kjTPfanL30/s1600/cat.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYnWeniz6aeSziZ4rKIQtLwRb7TQF47i4QeeaFD7HdPN2RywXJhCPFBIt9intj9I9Q8mtfNdQI5z9nEvmjr1uw1_ZBE8sUzgTaMQsF1HiFEHrhkmJgeYYhYmnyKK4SfVb8kjTPfanL30/s1600/cat.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the demise of bin Laden, governments around the world have warned of retaliatory action by Al Qaeda. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coincidentally with this, the United States has scrapped the old color-coded threat level system for two sound reasons. Nobody understood it and nobody paid any attention to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is clearly needed is something, which portrays an accurate picture, but is in line with national personalities and character. The rest of the world seems to understand this while it, and many other things, elude Janet Napolitano. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Okay, pop-quiz time. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who can define the new American system?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I rest my case. And so here are some examples from beyond these shores.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated," or even "A Bit Cross."<br />
<br />
The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since "The Blitz" in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.<br />
<br />
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.<br />
<br />
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.<br />
<br />
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's last remaining white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.<br />
<br />
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."<br />
<br />
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade thy Neighbor" and "Lose."<br />
<br />
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .<br />
<br />
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.<br />
<br />
Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’d love to claim that these are mine but the owner is one John Cleese of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers notoriety and, anyway, I figured we needed a break.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-8908570083860916332011-05-03T07:16:00.000-07:002011-05-04T06:26:01.501-07:00Ding Dong The Witch is Dead .......<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img height="259" src="http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal01/2011/5/2/11/enhanced-buzz-23049-1304351948-13.jpg" width="320" /> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to at least one of the liberal TV networks, school teachers across this nation are agonizing about telling their “little darlings’ that Osama bin Laden is dead and that we shot him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For a start, it’s their job to teach them to read, write and do math and Oh, let’s not forget the paramount goal of modern education namely, self-esteem. Well if that’s the aim of American teachers they’re doing a helluva job as it seems that so many kids are as dumb as a box of rocks but they believe they’re the cats meow.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps if we taught civics in school that might help and anyway isn’t it the job of the parents to at least play a part in their offspring’s education. As an aside, I always felt sorry for the parents of kids who were born around 1990 because their parents had to explain to a seven-year old what a blowjob was and why it was OK or not for Clinton to get one in the Oval Office depending on whether they had an R or a D in their resume.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why is it so hard to tell children that there are bad people in the world? After all, every teacher and parent is eager to warn kids about potential molestation. During my childhood, I was in no doubt that Hitler and the Germans were trying to kill me and all my friends and family. And even if we'd tried to pretend that wasn't true, the reality and the evidence was all around us; shattered buildings and lost nights due to air raids. Kids don't just learn to accept this stuff, it becomes part of normal life. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Heck we even played “English and Germans” instead of “Cowboys and Indians.” </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Children can handle reality and they can handle the existence of evil. Just look at the evil elements and the violence and death in so many fairy tales. Well now one more witch is no longer extant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember when Obama was on the campaign trail in 2008 and was in his usual “Pollyanna” mode when he declared that he “would not create a martyr by sanctioning bin Laden’s death but would want him captured and brought to justice.” When one considers the hoo-haw which accompanied the proposed trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed<span class="apple-style-span"> can you imagine the furor that would ensue if a trial of bin Laden had been scheduled for New York City?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fortunately for all of us, a couple of factors intervened. Firstly, bin Laden and his troops decided to fight and the commanders on the ground acted accordingly. Secondly, Obama has seen a little sense since 2008 and authorized those commanders to take whatever steps they deemed necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Naturally Obama didn’t mention his personal epiphany and he also conveniently overlooked the part that the wire-tap provisions of the “Patriot Act” had played as well as the interrogation techniques at our facilities at Guantanamo and elsewhere in the world. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of these and many others we should thank the efforts and the insight of President George W. Bush and his administration.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And let's not forget that, as recently as just a few years ago, the Democrats referred to Seal Team Six as "Cheney's Executive Assassins."</span><br />
<div><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God Bless America!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-31850084021591634942011-04-28T11:22:00.000-07:002011-04-29T19:18:21.625-07:00Love is Blind ................ for a while<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfg9zYNqdveVVWdjnCHvMDdWFdRj4o1n8E11OfqpU4irUJ2LN1pvmdOKSdCGo2WDrlN9NVxs8LVVkGQ04AsBqbWXuw6DcpV-0icUiz25lmFKLo6lmRuJzPPNhhr8iO1auvFtRvXZLgDA/s1600/kn041511dAPR20110412104601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfg9zYNqdveVVWdjnCHvMDdWFdRj4o1n8E11OfqpU4irUJ2LN1pvmdOKSdCGo2WDrlN9NVxs8LVVkGQ04AsBqbWXuw6DcpV-0icUiz25lmFKLo6lmRuJzPPNhhr8iO1auvFtRvXZLgDA/s320/kn041511dAPR20110412104601.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the eve of the non-event of the year in London to which Obama and his family were not invited and on the day after the “proof” that Obama is indeed mortal what do we talk about? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why: Polls of course!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For a start, can you come up with a good reason why Obama would now choose to produce his long-demanded birth certificate? There can be only one reason and that is because the polls said the suspicions were gaining traction. And the traction was not just among those who wouldn’t vote for his reelection in a million years but among those who voted for him in 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So having posted a blurry copy which will satisfy not one doubter, Obama declared that he had spent too much time away from the business of the people. Then he climbed onto Air Force One to fly to tape the May 2 edition of the Oprah show and to attend 3 fund-raisers in Chicago.</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Besotted lovers will stand for almost anything and will deny even the obvious but look out when reality begins to dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And it is beginning to dawn even with Obama’s cheerleaders in the mainstream media as the pundits start to hedge their bets about 2012. Check these out!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the Bush years, poll results that showed the American people losing confidence in their president were featured routinely on the front page of major newspapers like “The Washington Post.” But when the Post discovers that Obama's ratings are collapsing, you usually need a search party to find where inside the paper they're buried.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On April 26, the Post offered three stories on polls, each with bad news for Obama. The only one mentioned on the front page (in the very bottom right-hand corner) was a Post/ABC poll showing "rising gas prices are leading Americans to drive less, and hurting the president's popularity." From there, the reader would have to travel to page A-12.</span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Hurting" is an understatement. Only 39 percent of those who called gas prices a "serious financial hardship" approve of Obama's performance as president. Among independents who found hardship, 67 percent disapprove of Obama. Ouch.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Post said this hardship could "slow Obama's reelection campaign." Again, that's putting it mildly. Sixty percent of independents feeling the pain of gas prices said they would definitely not vote for Obama. In a match-up with Mitt Romney in that bracket, Romney wins by 24 points.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Turn the page backward, and on page A-10, there's another story. More Americans disapprove of Obama's management of the war in Afghanistan than support it: 44 percent approved, 49 percent disapproved. Once again, just focus on the independents: 53 percent disapproved of Obama's handling of Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember the daily barrage of George W. Bush (lack of) approval stories during the Iraq war? Where are those same "reporters" now? Turn the page backward one more time, and on page A-8, there's perhaps the most shocking poll story: Egyptians still disapprove of America. This poll came from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, created in 2002 by liberals at Pew to underline global dissatisfaction with Bush. Last spring, they announced with great fanfare -- this is their own press release headline -- "Obama More Popular Abroad than at Home, Global Image of U.S. Continues To Benefit."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whoops. What they're finding now is that when Pew sampled Egyptians to see if they had a favorable or unfavorable view of the United States, just 20 percent of Egyptians have a favorable view of the United States, compared to 79 percent unfavorable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How could this be, after our media hailed Obama's "historic" speech in Cairo in 2009, bowing deeply to what "the holy Koran tells us," telling how he loved as a child to hear "the call of the azan at the break of dawn," and playing up "civilization's debt to Islam"?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pew asked specifically whether Egyptians had confidence in Obama. Perhaps they loathed America but liked Obama? Nope. The breakdown was still slanted to the negative: 35 percent had confidence, while almost double that number, 64 percent, disagreed. By contrast, fully 75 percent of those surveyed had a favorable view of the radical Muslim Brotherhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and other Obama fans trying to credit Obama's Cairo speech for the Egyptian revolution? The Pew pollsters also asked if Egyptians thought the U.S. response to the Tahrir Square protests had a positive or negative impact on the current situation in Egypt. Almost twice as many picked "negative" impact (39 percent) as "positive" (22 percent).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is certainly not the reception that media liberals and Pew pundits expected. They couldn't imagine that perhaps people in other countries just have an anti-American animus regardless of the president. We elected a pandering leftist who apologizes for America and insists in Cairo that "this cycle of suspicion and discord must end," and disapproval of America in Muslim countries barely budged.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So where is the rest of the Pew poll? Inside this report, they reported polling in 23 countries around the world in their Spring 2011 survey, but there are no results yet as to how popular Obama is among our allies now. Days before the 2008 election, NBC touted a Pew poll, and from Istanbul, correspondent Dawna Friesen concluded, "If the world had a vote, Barack Obama would win in a landslide. ... Regardless of who wins, the world is clamoring for a new America in 2009."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">All that media hyperbole about the historically charismatic Obama healing those global wounds inflicted by the Bush-Cheney neoconservatives has crashed and burned. But the media pushing that discredited narrative now need to acknowledge that Obama can't work miracles, especially when half the time he waits around for someone else to make the miracle. He cannot be honestly portrayed any longer as an inspirational leader -- not here, not anywhere.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">It also occurs to me that it's probably for the best that the Obamas were not invited to the wedding. Can you imagine having to explain to Michelle that she and the Anointed One were not going to be the center of attention?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Ouch!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Off with their heads!</span></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-78847556781101022082011-04-27T07:13:00.000-07:002011-04-27T07:13:29.609-07:00"No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth." -- John F. Kennedy<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibYKw1YAQI25rxwQ7uJT-GoVNvJy-4rd4IXUd0OyEf1RT-luHNuGbqXBFYi6UzQh8lYrEJMCdV2pGea0VLrC5WicL-NS28VT2AjCUfoofy9iZVa0pxHiUWhBYK9jbwVMleB9jckyrfm8k/s1600/gv031111dAPR20110311024515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibYKw1YAQI25rxwQ7uJT-GoVNvJy-4rd4IXUd0OyEf1RT-luHNuGbqXBFYi6UzQh8lYrEJMCdV2pGea0VLrC5WicL-NS28VT2AjCUfoofy9iZVa0pxHiUWhBYK9jbwVMleB9jckyrfm8k/s320/gv031111dAPR20110311024515.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes, some people remember that quotation and attribute it correctly while others with slightly longer memories, me included, think of Josef Goebbels. Surely the greater likelihood though is that it predates both of these and that millions of politicians have borrowed the strategy, if not the actual words, from “Democrates the Mendacious” or some such obscure Athenian.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sad truth of the matter is that most Americans don't pay much attention to politics and those that do often just parrot doctrine instead of investigating issues with an open mind. This allows lies, myths, and dubious assertions to live on long after they should have shriveled and died in the light of day. Here are just a few of those diseased assertions that have continued to circulate in the body politic long after they should have been put to bed once and for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1) Affirmative Action is a pro-black policy.</b> Sure, there are a few black Americans who are helped by Affirmative Action, but the cost of the policy is enormous.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For one thing, no matter how talented or deserving a black American may be, Affirmative Action casts a shadow over his accomplishments. Did she get into the college because she deserved it or because of Affirmative Action? Did he get the promotion because he earned it or because he is black? White Americans often think this privately and it causes even black Americans who oppose Affirmative Action to question the worth of their achievements.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you want something more concrete than that, here's <a href="http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/culture/racism/1635-affirmative-action-and-college-graduation-rates.html" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Thomas Sowell giving a real world example</span></a> of how Affirmative Action leads to black college students failing to graduate from college.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“In other words, where the racial preferences in admissions are not as great, the differences in graduation rates are not as great. The critics of affirmative action were right: Racial preferences reduce the prospects of black students graduating. Other data tell the same story.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Compare racial preferences in Colorado, for example. At the flagship University of Colorado at Boulder, test score differences between black and white students have been more than 200 points -- and only 39 percent of the black students graduated, compared to 72 percent of white students. Meanwhile, at the University of Colorado at Denver, where the SAT score difference was a negligible 30 points, there was also a negligible difference in graduation rates -- 50 percent for blacks and 48 percent for whites.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How many millions of black Americans could have graduated from college, but didn't because Affirmative Action "helped" them get into a college they weren't ready to attend?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2) Being for Illegal immigration is a pro-Hispanic policy.</b> It's intriguing that being pro-illegal immigration is supposed to be the key way to appeal to Hispanic Americans because they're being hurt much worse than the average American by illegal immigration.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because illegal immigrants often don't buy health care, don’t pay for auto insurance and cheat on their income taxes, they can afford to work for much lower wages than American citizens. There are no "jobs Americans won't do," although there may be jobs they won't do at the same price as an illegal alien who doesn’t have to pay the same bills.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a particularly big issue for Hispanic Americans because they're more likely than other Americans to end up directly competing with illegals. Take a look at the industries that are <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/apr/01/01budig/?print" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">dominated by Hispanic workers</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hispanic workers are the backbone of industries like meat-packing, food service, construction, agriculture, and domestic services. Hispanic workers land two out of every three new construction jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then there are the industries that are <a href="http://www.niu.edu/law/faculty/columns/SchmallLorraine_8_20_08.pdf" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">swarming with illegals</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement, as of March 2006 almost twenty four percent of all construction workers in the country were foreign born. Most of the immigrant construction workers are Hispanic, although not all Hispanic construction workers are immigrants, of course. In March 2006 a little over twenty-four percent of the construction workforce was Hispanic, compared to approximately six percent in 1980. Seventy percent of the 1.4 million Hispanic construction workers in the U.S. in 2000 were born outside the United States, and fifty-seven percent were not U.S. citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Farmers likewise stress that access to migrant labor is critical for agriculture. There are about 1.6 million full-time farm workers in the US. About 80 per cent of those workers are foreign born and nearly seven out of 10 are working illegally.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are still roughly <a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/apr/23/ICE-deportations-illegal-immigration-trends/" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">11 million illegal aliens</span></a> in this country. If they weren't here, the <a href="http://wwwnew.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/2011/04/maryland-among-best-for-lowest.html" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Hispanic unemployment rate, which is at 12.5 percent, would probably be much closer -- or perhaps even better than the white unemployment rate of 8 percent.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>3) We can fix our deficit problems by taxing the rich.</i></b><i> </i>This has become the de facto position of the Democrat Party. Forget spending cuts! We don't need 'em! We'll just tax the rich until the budget is balanced and we've paid off our debt.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's one huge problem with that: It <a href="http://viralfootage.com/?p=13209" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">won't work, it can't be done, it's impossible</span></a>. No matter how you massage it, the math won't add up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even if we took all the profits, all the salaries, all of the assets, all of the expenses, all of the revenues and holdings of the rich and we liquidated them we’d pay of the interest on our national debt for that one year. Then what ……………?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Put another way, if we were to pull a "full Stalin" and take everything "the rich" in this country makes and owns, it would pay off the interest on our debt for a single year. Then, when the next year rolls around, we would have another trillion dollar plus deficit on the way, but with no tax revenue from the rich, no one who could invest in new businesses, and no entrepreneurs willing to bust their behind to make money the government would confiscate from them. Hello, new Depression. Hello, Doom.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can discuss whether the rich should pay higher taxes, but what you can't truthfully argue is that the government can get spending under control without dramatic spending cuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4) The more money we put into education, the better our schools will perform.</b> We see the exact same scenario repeated again and again in this country. We hear claims that education is underfunded and it's causing our schools to perform poorly. We respond by ramping up spending dramatically. There's no improvement in performance. A few years later, the cycle repeats.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, if money were really the problem, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/264674/cometh-hour-punteth-man-mark-steyn" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">we'd already have at least the second best schools in the world</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to the most recent OECD figures (2007), the Koreans spent $5,437 per primary-school pupil; we spent $10,229. For education as a whole, the Koreans spent $7,325 per pupil; we spent $14,269. They not only “outpace our kids in math and science”; they do it by only spending half as much. ....We spend more than anyone but the Swiss on education, and by any rational measure at least half of it is entirely wasted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what do we get for the second highest spending level on planet earth? It's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">not so impressive</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The three-yearly OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year- olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can debate the reasons why our public schools do such a mediocre job until the cows come home and then we can spend twice as long trying to figure out how to fix it, but what we can't rationally do anymore is blame it on our schools being underfunded.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5) Being tough on crime is a racist policy.</b> It is true that percentage wise, black Americans are arrested and go to jail at a higher rate than other ethnic groups. So, some people look at that and declare that being tough on crime obviously must be racist.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, they're missing the all-important other half of the equation. Black criminals are, for the most part, <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/black_leaders_ignore_blackonbl.html" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">preying on other black Americans</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blacks are only 13% of the population, but over 40% of the murder victims. Ninety-Three percent of those black victims are killed by other black people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other words, nobody benefits more from a black criminal going to jail than other black Americans. The same goes for <a href="http://www.heraldstandard.com/united_states_ap/pew-study-prison-recidivism-rates-remain-high/article_a64762d1-af72-5d35-9229-dc1e965e7b10.html" target="_top"><span style="text-decoration: none;">keeping black criminals in jail</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About 43 percent of prisoners who were let out in 2004 were sent back to prison by 2007, either for a new crime or for violating the conditions of their release, the study found.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If racists really were in charge of our justice system, being soft on crime would be one of the most effective ways that they could hurt black Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gotta lie you wish were true? Get a job at MSNBC or the New York Times and knock yourself out!</span><o:p></o:p></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-800713874024381572011-04-21T11:57:00.000-07:002011-04-22T07:01:11.818-07:00Render Unto Caesar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAMpLeVvBf6JQCW1IrDqCs_Q3vEj0GmGfJfMuJomYDZav0g6T1MeSk6RiIv3tA7Jjt8ShvUDmNVX73Asg7qVQENFXn3tTp_MxKymHNT8cwef-fyMV_9xo3qrl_VJE5hgT0-ioz81d7KI/s1600/bg042011dAPR20110420024526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAMpLeVvBf6JQCW1IrDqCs_Q3vEj0GmGfJfMuJomYDZav0g6T1MeSk6RiIv3tA7Jjt8ShvUDmNVX73Asg7qVQENFXn3tTp_MxKymHNT8cwef-fyMV_9xo3qrl_VJE5hgT0-ioz81d7KI/s320/bg042011dAPR20110420024526.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This coming Sunday is Easter, surely the most important day of the year for Christians around the world for without the events that it celebrates, there is no Christianity. Relatively few, especially in this country, will concern themselves with things spiritual but will concentrate instead on temporal fripperies such as chocolate eggs and baby rabbits, which, a week or two from now will find themselves discarded to find their own way to survive.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Something else though happens this coming Sunday morning unless my first grade arithmetic has deserted me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This country runs out of money or, perhaps more accurately, it runs out of credit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Early last Tuesday morning I resisted the temptation to take a smart person to task. He contended that we must, as a nation, attend to the debt limit. I said that we must attend to the debt. Well that too he agreed but we must increase the debt limit first.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was in someone else’s house, it was the owner’s son who proposed this “bassackward” approach to economic reality, and so I kept my peace. But how I wanted to propose this scenario ……………<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's say a </span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">guy has a good job and has a delightful wife and a couple of kids. Through his bank and his credit union he has a line of credit worth a million dollars while on the other side of the ledger, he owes $500,000 in mortgage, car loans etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One day, the delightful wife and he decide that they should rearrange things so that they can retire some of their debt and so they sell one of their cars and cut out a planned expenditure on a camper. Because of these efforts, they reduce their debt by $50,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where then is the justification or the need to go to their bank and apply for an increase </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in their credit line?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where then is the justification for the US to go to our bankers around the world if we are serious about reducing our deficit?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The answer is that the Democrats are not. Why else would Obama announce his budget with GOP leaders in the front row including Paul Ryan and castigate them as ideologues? Well, the answer is that Obama’s resume tells you who and what he is which is more than you can say about his birth certificate wherever that is.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is a Chicago community activist, which is Midway liberal-speak for a street thug.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not that he’s necessarily the enforcer in person. After all, Capone didn't always wield the baseball bat himself. Sometimes he sent a czar or, in the case of Standard and Poor’s, Obama sent Timmy Geithner. You remember him? He is the "genius' we couldn't manage without but yet this "wunderkind" found Turbo Tax too complicated and is now the Treasury Secretary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For once, in a very long time, this White House was rattled when that reporting agency proposed to downgrade their assessment of US bonds to a negative. The White House huffed and puffed but S&P, to their credit, did not budge. Nor should they because their credibility is on the line with governments and corporations around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why would a highly intelligent and well educated man such as the straw-man I cited hold the views he does? Why would he discount the Tea Party as “weirdoes” and “sickoes”?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He’s a liberal. He’s a lifelong Democrat. He depends on his union. And, he’s scared. And so he should be but the remedy he seeks will not be found where he's looking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-70950871169498123962011-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:002011-04-20T11:24:52.975-07:00The Not-So-Special Relationship<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJG9BHy965efRYoDtRKJlCZxUCD2KfmRuxBt-2yyyFhAJqzTK9ZsaGM2Pu2sn3i-z77H6GcwMe25wbuTCebA0WQnjLJ7QT_mzlbOkIFijpit62ArXVY01xA_TRf407-ZSGEMdgApoX2s/s1600/lb0125cd20110124082200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJG9BHy965efRYoDtRKJlCZxUCD2KfmRuxBt-2yyyFhAJqzTK9ZsaGM2Pu2sn3i-z77H6GcwMe25wbuTCebA0WQnjLJ7QT_mzlbOkIFijpit62ArXVY01xA_TRf407-ZSGEMdgApoX2s/s320/lb0125cd20110124082200.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was in England not too long before the 2008 election and at least twice since then. And I did not visit just as a tourist, even though I may have felt like one. Instead, I actually talked to people, most of which were voters. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back in 2008, many Brits gazed upon Obama with the same Messianic adoration we saw here. However, not anymore. There was a shift almost immediately after his occupation of the White House but 3 weeks ago I felt a sea change and this is seen in the article that follows from The London Daily Telegraph Editor On Foreign Relations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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"Let me be clear: I'm not normally in favor of boycotts, and I love the American people. I holiday in their country regularly, and hate the tedious snobby sneers against the United States . But the American people chose to elect an idiot who seems hell bent on insulting their allies, and something must be done to stop Obama's reckless foreign policy, before he does the dirty on his allies on every issue." <br />
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One of the most poorly kept secrets in Washington is President Obama's animosity toward Great Britain , presumably because of what he regards as its sins while ruling Kenya (1895-1963). <br />
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One of Barack Hussein Obama's first acts as president was to return to Britain a bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office since 9/11. He followed this up by denying Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on his first state visit, the usual joint press conference with flags. <br />
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The president was "too tired" to grant the leader of America 's closest ally a proper welcome, his aides told British journalists. <br />
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Mr. Obama followed this up with cheesy gifts for Mr. Brown and the Queen. Columnist Ian Martin described his behavior as "rudeness personified." There was more rudeness in store for Mr. Brown at the opening session of the United Nations in September. "The prime minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure five minutes of face time with President Obama after five requests for a sit down meeting were rejected by the White House," said London Telegraph columnist David Hughes. Mr. Obama's "churlishness is unforgivable," Mr. Hughes said. <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The administration went beyond snubs and slights last week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the demand of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, a Hugo Chavez ally, for mediation of Argentina 's specious claim to the Falkland Islands , a British dependency since 1833. The people who live in the Falklands, who speak English, want nothing to do with Argentina. When, in 1982, an earlier Argentine dictatorship tried to seize the Falklands by force, the British -- with strong support from President Ronald Reagan -- expelled them.</span> </span><br />
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"It is truly shocking that Barack Obama has decided to disregard our shared history," wrote Telegraph columnist Toby Young. "Does Britain 's friendship really mean so little to him?" One could ask, does the friendship of anyone in the entire world mean anything to him? <br />
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"I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office," wrote Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, on Monday. " A lot of hemming and hawing ensued." One official named French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but his contempt for Mr. Obama is an open secret. Another named German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But, said Mr. Diehl, "Merkel too has been conspicuously cool toward Obama." <br />
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Mr. Obama certainly doesn't care about the Poles and Czechs, whom he has betrayed on missile defense. Honduras and Israel also can attest that he's been an unreliable ally and an unfaithful friend. Ironically, our relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have never been worse. Russia has offered nothing in exchange for Mr. Obama's abandonment of missile defense. Russia and China won't support serious sanctions on Iran . Syria 's support for terrorism has not diminished despite efforts to normalize diplomatic relations. The reclusive military dictatorship that runs Burma has responded to our efforts at "engagement" by deepening its ties to North Korea . <br />
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And the Chinese make little effort to disguise their contempt for him. <br />
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</b>For the first time in a long time, the President of the United States is actually distrusted by its allies and not in the least feared by its adversaries</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Nor is Mr. Obama now respected by the majority of Americans. Understandably focused on the dismal economy and Mr. Obama's relentless efforts to nationalize and socialize health care, Americans apparently have yet to notice his dismal performance and lack of respect in the world community. <br />
They soon will. <br />
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--London Daily Telegraph editor -- Alex Singleton</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: navy;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How's that hope and change working for you?</span></span></div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673609325594749191.post-83701397891973096072011-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:002011-04-14T12:36:28.094-07:00The Case of the Autumn Crocus<div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-q_ndq9YslJbWhg-u9UZpojWuqGNC4zQicNfZC4oE-7fvBARg-v0rrxT-kqL9ku_8EURnd0kuh133uT7jU5u_bUo2QzsPLDnVaHKtbDIMLDz521BUvo4bOJO9FSwnhLywjiIww_kmEtM/s1600/120px-Colchicum_autumnale_Luc_Viatour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-q_ndq9YslJbWhg-u9UZpojWuqGNC4zQicNfZC4oE-7fvBARg-v0rrxT-kqL9ku_8EURnd0kuh133uT7jU5u_bUo2QzsPLDnVaHKtbDIMLDz521BUvo4bOJO9FSwnhLywjiIww_kmEtM/s320/120px-Colchicum_autumnale_Luc_Viatour.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know this sounds like a Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie title but it’s not. For a start it’s a sneaky way to explain the absence of many posts since my return from Europe because I’ve been sick and I’m still not close to 100%.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s also a way to get into a topic that presents a graphic example of Government’s involvement in the healthcare business.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the years I’ve been supportive of and sympathetic to the pharmaceutical industry’s much criticized pricing policies. The companies spend years trying to develop new medications and treatments. Sometimes that research does result in a product but more often than not it doesn’t because it doesn’t work as hoped or because it’s too toxic or because some competitor has beaten them to it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which brings me to the main topic which was forcibly thrust down my throat as an all too graphic example of government involvement in healthcare. Since the first century of the Common Era, practitioners have used an extract from a plant called Colchicum Autumnale, the Autumn Crocus for the treatment of conditions as varied as gout and familial Mediterranean fever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now those early practitioners may not have understood the chemistry or the pharmacology of the product we know today as colchicine but they knew it worked and they knew all about dosages, side effects and possible toxicity. In our time it was produced by several manufacturers at an average cost per pill of 9 cents. I know because I’ve been prescribed it in the past. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of its long history, it was one of a substantial list of so-called “orphan drugs” and now we come to the part which can be paraphrased by the oft-used phrase, “I’m from the Government and I'm here to help.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: solid #AAAAAA 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #AAAAAA .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 2.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: .1in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #AAAAAA .75pt; mso-outline-level: 2; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 2.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a drug predating the FDA, colchicine was sold as a generic in the United States for many years. Then in 2009, the FDA approved a brand name called Colcrys and awarded its manufacturer a three-year term of market exclusivity in return for government-approved testing. Now some people might think that being handed a 3 year monopoly might be enough but they’d be wrong for, in addition to exclusivity, the FDA prohibited existing manufacturers from continuing generic sales.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: .1in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #AAAAAA .75pt; mso-outline-level: 2; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 2.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And to top it all, the sole anointed company gained approval to up the price from 9 cents to $4.85 per pill, <b>a 54-fold increase</b>. 54-fold note, not 54%. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: .1in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #AAAAAA .75pt; mso-outline-level: 2; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 2.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thus it was that my co-pay went from $5 to $106. And that's after Government approved prescription insurance.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: .1in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #AAAAAA .75pt; mso-outline-level: 2; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 2.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, yesterday, while everyone else was focused on Obama bashing Paul Ryan, I was still concentrating on government healthcare and I noticed that he took full ownership of death panels yesterday. Naturally, Obama did not call them death panels. He called them “an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers.” But his description hits dead on with what his death panels will do.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to Obama yesterday, the death panels “will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We already know what they’ll recommend as “the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending”. Obama’s own advisers have told us. They will prioritize giving health care to healthier people and let sicker people die. At end of life, they will deny people life sustaining treatment because, after all, they’re going to die anyway. Note his phrasing: “protecting access to the services seniors<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">need</span></em>.” </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dying people, according to Obama’s advisers, need hospice not hope. They certainly do not need expensive treatments that may buy them time to see the birth of a new grandchild or other reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We will change the way we pay for health care – not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. . . . If we’re wrong, and Medicare costs rise faster than we expect, this approach will give the independent commission the authority to make additional savings by further improving Medicare,” Obama said. At a time Democrats are saying Republicans want to starve old people to death, Democrats are intent on embracing a cost savings model for Medicare that incentivizes doctors to encourage people to die and, when all else fails, gives a death panel “the authority to make additional savings by” ensuring the dying elderly die quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Our approach lowers the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself,” Obama said. Really? The only way that will happen is by rationing. You may not like the use of the phrase “death panel,” but make no mistake about it — at the end of your life, in Obama’s America, his death panel will throw you under the bus in a way much closer to reality than metaphor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My travelling companion in the UK was appalled to hear a BBC radio report that a woman local to where we were had been denied a treatment for her terminal cancer. Even more poignant was the revelation that if she’d lived 15 miles away in the jurisdiction of another “death panel”, the treatment would have been approved. It seems that once we simply had to choose to live in an area that afforded us the best schools. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now we have to factor in the benevolence of the local "death panel."</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Me? I’m going to tend my crocuses!</span><u style="background-color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Jack Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16891605030324419698noreply@blogger.com0