Category Archives: Obamunism

Obamunism

Obamacare Blues

Health Care Law
63% Favor Repeal of National Health Care Plan

Support for Obamacare continues to slip:

Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in March.

Prior to today, weekly polling had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%. Currently, just 32% oppose repeal.

The new findings include 46% who Strongly Favor repeal of the health care bill and 25% who Strongly Oppose it.

While opposition to the bill has remained as consistent since its passage as it was beforehand, this marks the first time that support for repeal has climbed into the 60s. It will be interesting to see whether this marks a brief bounce or indicates a trend of growing opposition.

What happened to all those assertions from ObamaPelosiReid that once the bill passed and people knew what was in it that it would magically become popular? Oooops!

National Insecurity, Obamunism

Economic Recovery? Really?

Remember, the economy is on the way to recovery.  B.O. says so!

Stock market time bomb?

Even the world’s most savvy stock-market giants (e.g., Warren E. Buffett) have warned over the past decade that derivatives are the fiscal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) – potentially lethal. And the consequences of such an explosion would make the recent global financial and economic crisis seem like penny ante. But generously lubricated lobbyists for the unrestricted, unsupervised derivatives markets tell congressional committees and government regulators to butt out.

While banks all over the world were imploding and some $50 trillion vanished in global stock markets, the derivatives market grew by an estimated 65 percent, according the Bank for International Settlements. BIS convenes the world’s 57 most powerful central bankers in Basel, Switzerland, for periodic secret meetings. Occasionally, they issue a cry of alarm. This time, derivatives had soared from $414.8 trillion at the end of 2006 to $683.7 trillion in mid-2008 – 18 months’ time.

The derivatives market is now estimated at $700 trillion (notional, or face, value, not market value). The world’s gross domestic product in 2009: $69.8 trillion; America’s, $14.2 trillion. The total market cap of all major global stock markets? A mere $30 trillion. And the total amount of dollar bills in circulation, most of them abroad: $830 billion (not trillion).

One of the Middle East’s most powerful bankers conceded recently that even after listening to experts explain the drill, he still does not understand derivatives and therefore doesn’t trust them and won’t have anything to do with them. And when that weapon of mass destruction explodes, he explained, “Our bank’s customers, from all over the world, will be saved from the disaster.”

Keep those numbers in mind as you consider this:

Today’s massive new derivatives bubble is driving the domestic and global economies, far outstripping the subprime-credit meltdown.

Hopefully not belatedly, Congress is considering legislation to curb the use of derivatives and other methods that artificially boost returns. But 13 members of Congress or their wives used derivatives to magnify their daily moves.

“We have met the enemy and he is us!”

And one measure proposed by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat, would bar banks from trading in derivatives. This, in turn, would push almost $300 trillion beyond the reach of regulators. Derivatives would become still more opaque. Some say abolish derivatives trading in the U.S. and push it offshore.

Possible results?

The now-bloody Greek tragedy over its debt crisis is echoing through the Federal Reserve and the halls of Congress. Greece’s public debt exceeds 100 percent of its economy versus 90 percent (at $13 trillion) for the United States. If you add unfunded U.S. liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the long-term shortfall is $62 trillion, or about $200,000 for each American. At least that’s the estimate of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. And Peter Peterson himself says he’s now in the business of promoting awareness about public borrowing.

With probable trader error plunging the Dow Jones into a 1,000-point tailspin and back up in 16 minutes, economic and financial prognostication made astrology look respectable. Could Greece be a harbinger of ugly things to come for the rest of the world? Prominent investor Marc Faber, hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff told Bloomberg China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

Meanwhile the economic recovery continues apace, with the unemployment rate moving back to 9.9%, or 17.1% if ALL of it is counted.

This sort of progress can easily result in recovering the experience of the 1930.

Maybe that’s what B.O. means.  Isn’t Obamunism marvelous?

Obamunism

Obamacare: Costly Error

Report: Health overhaul will increase USA’s tab

President Obama’s health care overhaul law will increase the nation’s health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.

A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance — adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.

But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs. It also warned that Medicare cuts may be unrealistic and unsustainable, driving about 15% of hospitals into the red and “possibly jeopardizing access” to care for seniors.

The mixed verdict for Obama’s signature issue is the first comprehensive look by neutral experts.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Not.

Obamunism

Ron Paul v. B.O.?

Rasmussen poll results:

Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%

Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

There are other details of poll results in the article that are also interesting.
Ron Paul? Hmmmm. Looks like a bit of backlash to Obamunism.

Obamunism

Truth and Consequences

Obama and the L-Word
The president’s habit of telling untruths

Here’s how predictable the president’s slippery relationship with the truth has become: Hours before the State of the Union address, Washington Examiner reporter Timothy P. Carney posted a “pre-emptive fact check” that, among other things, prebutted any presidential claim to have “stopped the revolving door between government and corporate lobbying.” As it happened, that night Barack Obama made an even bolder (read: less truthful) claim: that “we’ve excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs.”

In fact, more than 40 former lobbyists work in the administration, including such policy makers as Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn (who was lobbying for Raytheon as recently as 2008), Office of the First Lady Director of Policy and Projects Jocelyn Frye (National Partnership for Women and Families), White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz (National Council of La Raza), and Treasury Secretary Chief of Staff Mark Patterson (Goldman Sachs).

There’s more of this kind of BS noted in the article…but you get the drift…

Obamunism

Obamascare Clears House

1 Comment

Sickening!

Congress clears historic health care bill

Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats.

SO…what will we REALLY get? (Besides inevitable national bankruptcy!)

Obamacare Means 159 New Gov’t Agencies

Oh, joy…just what we need. (NOT!)

The new government agencies that will be created as the result of Obamacare will worsen the quality of American medical care by restricting physicians and hospitals to use their best judgment, according to Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., a physician and chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

In fact, he says, the bill would create 159 new governemnt agencies to regulate insurance and medical care for Americans.

In Churchillian terms this will not be the end of the debate…it’s not the beginning of the end…it’s the end of the beginning.

Hatch Says It’s ’Nuts’ to Think House Vote Ends Health Issue

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are “nuts” to think tomorrow’s vote on health-care legislation will resolve the issue.

If the measure passes, Senate Republicans have enough votes on at least two points of order to alter the measure and send it back to the House for a second round of votes, Hatch said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

“If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts,” Hatch said as House Democratic leaders rounded up support before the scheduled vote on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

“Any stick will do when you want to beat a snake.”

Obamunism

B.O. Administration Goes After…Fishing?!

1 Comment

WTH?  What’s next?

Culled out: Obama moving to limit fishing access

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is “fluid” and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn’t issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.

That’s a disappointment, but not really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning.

This is an old strategy that was at the heart of the old Soviet system: solicit input, ignore it, impose whatever it was you were planning to do in the first place. (Since you DID solicity “input”, it is considered a “democratic” process…the people did get their say, not that it was really worth anything!)

There’s a precedent for this process:

“When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario,” said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.

“Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.

“In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President’s concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority.”

There is more detail in the article, and others linked from it, on what’s going on…with the usual suspects…enviro special interest groups with their collective noses up the backside of the bureaucrats who will be generating the executive order Imperial Decree that the “Dear Leader” eventually signs.

Typical progressive arrogant elitism once again. B.O. really has THAT routine down pat!

Obamunism

Obamascare Digest

There’s a LOT of stuff right now on this…because there is a lot happening. Follow the links for additional coverage on these…

Sen. Thune, to his credit, is leading out in the Senate opposition to Obamascare:

Thune: GOP preparing to slow or block health bill in Senate debate

Republicans are preparing to raise points of order and other roadblocks to the healthcare bill, a member of the Senate GOP leadership said Tuesday evening.

Like the African proverb says: “Any stick will do when you have to beat a snake.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the fourth-ranking Senate Republican who serves as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, said the GOP is prepared for a number of scenarios in which they would seek to slow down or halt passage of healthcare legislation once it comes back before the Senate.

“I still think it creates a lot of problems when it comes back to the Senate because there will be lots of points of order that will lie against the bill in the Senate, and obviously, we will, hopefully, have the opportunity to raise some of those,” Thune said of the health bill during an appearance on Fox News.

Obama Now Selling Judgeships for Health Care Votes

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

After the “Louisiana Purchase”, the Cornhusker Kickback”, and the Union exemption one had to wonder if there was any way for the abuse of Presidential power in the interest of partisan politics could be even more flagrent. Now we know. The Answer is yes. What’s next? More of the “Chicago Way” of business:

Barack Obama: I’ll steamroll health reforms through Congress

President Obama declared for the first time yesterday that he was prepared to steamroller his troubled health reform legislation through Congress with only Democratic support; a move Republicans denounced as the “nuclear option”.

Signalling that his patience had snapped after a year-long fight, Mr Obama laid the ground for Democrats in Congress to muscle the Bill through using a high-risk legislative manoeuvre known as reconciliation, which overrides a Republican filibuster. Although he did not use the word “reconciliation”, Mr Obama made it clear that that was the route he intended to take.

Democrats will, as a result, be able to get the health reform package through the Senate with a simple majority. Mr Obama’s party ceded their 60-stong majority in the upper chamber after losing the late Teddy Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat in January.

That shock defeat was due, in large part, to growing public hostility to Mr Obama’s health reforms, which many see as too expensive at a time of soaring deficits. Ramming the Bill through Congress is, therefore, a high-risk strategy that Republicans vowed to exploit.

In short, straight out of the progressive playbook: “Screw you people…you’re obviously too stupid to know what’s good for you, so I, as the leader, will drag you into the future whether you like it or not!”

Constitution Watch, Obamunism

Gov’t Threatens Rights? SHOCKING!

CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree. [emphasis added]

Apparently all that change isn’t quite what was hoped for!

According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken – though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed

…like, in November!

Obamunism

B.O. Tax Plans Revisited

The CHief commented on Baraq Hussein’s concession that he is abandoning his sacred campaign promises to avoid any middle class tax increases. This extends that discussion

Obama Begins His Assault on Your Life Savings

The welfare state and your life savings are two cars heading down a one-lane road in opposite directions. One must yield, or there will be a crash.

For Americans who believe in the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self reliance and respect for private property, the solution is obvious. The welfare state must yield.

For politicians who believe in the welfare state and redistributing wealth, the solution is equally obvious. Your savings must yield.

Barack Obama is of the latter group. In the new health care proposal he outlined this week, he suggested a series of unprecedented tax increases that would extend the greedy hands of government into the life savings of hard-working Americans.

Think this won’t have much effect here in SD?

More of the gory details are described in the article…the conclusion, referring to some of the planned revisions, caught the eye:
The new taxes Obama wants to impose on interest, dividends, annuities and rents to pay for his health care plan are in fact taxes on the life savings of the net payers — on their 401(k)s, savings accounts, paid-off mortgages and life insurance policies — to cover benefits for the net recipients. The redistributionists would ultimately need $435,000 from every full-time worker to cover the welfare state’s unfunded liabilities — even if Obama’s health care plan were never enacted.

Obama is pointing them down the road where they will find it.

Hmmmm. The Chief is a semi-retired public school teacher. Sound like one of those rich folks? (Surely you jest!)

We are living on a quarter-section that has been in the family for over a century — not eactly a land baron. Not being a professional farmer, the cropland on our homestead is rented out to a neighboring pro agriculturalist.

TA-DA! Now, according to B.O.’s reasoning, I am now suddenly by definition a wealthy plutocratic land-owner with “unearned” rental income that becomes worthy of paying extra taxes…and THIS is after already experiencing two successive years of actual tax increases due to IRS “tweaking” the rules.

With no apologies to ANYONE, the Chief has NO HESITATION to state unequivocally that anyone stating that B.O. is not going after the middle class for tax increases under the guise of the Obamacare is either (1) a total partisan hack kool-aid drinker, (2) incapable of rational analysis, (3) someone out for the extension of governmental domination as their primary policy goal, (4) a well-intentioned fool with a lack of situational awareness, or (5) some combination of the above.

Sorry folks, the proof of the puddin’ is in the outgoing increased payment checks to the I.R.S. — at the same time that income has significantly decreased!

How’s all that HOPE and CHANGE working out for YOU?

Obamunism

What a concept!?

Prez’s newest idea: Simply outlaw reality

Included in President Oba ma’s latest stab at health-care reform released yesterday is one of the more astonishing admissions of political deception in recent memory.

After months of swearing that his health legislation would lower the skyrocketing costs of insurance premiums, Obama finally acknowledged that actually it would not.

So, instead, he has included a new provision that can simply outlaw premium increases his administration deems “unreasonable and unjustified.”

This, in lieu of literally years of promises and proclamations about transforming the American hospital-industrial complex in a way that would drastically lower the cost of medicine in this country and leave insurance companies scrambling to lower the premiums they charge customers.

During his campaign, Obama flatly promised to lower families’ health-insurance premiums by $2,500 every year.

Then, after he ascended to the throne, Obama repeatedly insisted without any reservations that all the health-care alchemy inspired by him would magically lower those premiums.

Even in the face of congressional accountants who repeatedly raised doubts about those promises, Obama insisted.

Now the comes the truth.

There are more gory details in the original article…

Hmmmm. Isn’t there an account of an ancient Brit king named Knut (later Anglicized to Canute) who tried to change reality by proclamation?   I seem to recall it didn’t work very well .

Obamunism

B.O.’s Latest Lie

Read His Lips: Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year

Anyone who believed that middle class taxes would NOT be raised needs to do some work on something called “situational awareness”.

THEN:

In a Sept. 12, 2008 campaign speech in Dover, N.H, Obama said: “And I can make a firm pledge: Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase—not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your  taxes.”

NOW:

President Obama presented a new health care plan on Monday that calls for raising the Medicare payroll tax on some households earning less than $250,000, an apparent breach of his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on families earning less than that amount. The president’s plan also calls for increasing taxes on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

OK already! I’m converted! I now am hoping for a change…away from Baraq Hussein & his “progressive” ilk.

Obamunism

WV Senator Wakes Up, Smells Coffee

Dem Sen. Rockefeller On Obama: “He’s Beginning To Be Not Believable To Me”
Amazing event captured on video! Another Donkey Party pol discovers reality!

“He says ‘I’m for clean coal,’ and then he says it in his speeches, but he doesn’t say it in here,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. “And he doesn’t say it in the minds of my own people. And he’s beginning to not be believable to me.”

Welcome to daylight, Senator!

Obamunism

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class

This story was withdrawn by Reuters after complaints by the administration, but was still available on Yahoo…at least so for the time being…it may or may not continue to be so, but at any rate the cat’s out of the bag.

Advisory: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
Reuters

The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

I guess they have to be sure to get the Official Party Line from  Presidential Press Secretary Voice of Sauron Gibbs.

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class

The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

You just KNEW that this was going to be happening.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy — the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:
* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;
* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

So much for Baraq Hussein’s much ballyhooed middle-class tax cuts!

Obamunism

Baraq’s First SOTU: Seriously Flawed at Best

Well, Baraq Hussein’s first State of the Union is wrapped up and in the can for what it’s worth.  (Not much, IMHO.)

Firstly, Herr Doktor Professor Baraq Hussein would have gotten a serious downgrade in MY class for screwing up a fundamental reference, that one could venture to say is symptomatic of a deep lack of respect for the fundamental principles of the founding of the American Republic:

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we’re all created equal…”

First off, downgrading what is the one of the fundamentally unique principles of our Republic to a mere “notion”…words fail. Also…checking my trusty pocket reference copy of the Constitution and Declaraction of Independence indicates that said reference is NOT “enshrined in our Constitution”…but IS found in the Declaration, in close and immediate context of “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Key concept there: Our equality, and our “unalienable rights” are NOT granted by any act of man, even the Constitution! They are directly bestowed as a part of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”. Once that relationship is disestablished nothing is left except ultimately as Mao stated and one of B.O.’s appointed “czars” (and how American is THAT title!?) reiterated “Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun”, or the other one who stated that if they couldn’t prevail “by means of the power of persuasion, then they would use the persuasion of power.”

Otherwise, some additional highlights of the less-than-edifying experience:

FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission
There were also OTHER notable instances of B.O. playing fast and loose with reality:

President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won’t just be “one of those Washington gimmicks.” Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won’t have any teeth.

Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.

Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.

Go to the original piece for all the gory details…it’s a reminder of the old Warren Zevon lyric: “It ain’t that pretty at all!”

Another historic aspect of the SOTU is the dissing of the Supremes, and for that matter of Congress at the same time. The congressional part of this is here:

…the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.
Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I’ll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward…[emphasis added]

Without getting into the argument about this idea for a budgetary fig-leaf, the stated relationship here can be summarized as “I don’t need no steenking Congress, I’ll just do what I want by proclamation regardless of the vote of the people’s representatives.”

As far as the Supremes go, they were verbally flogged in an unprecedented display of inter-branch criticism reminiscent of some of the worst of FDR, but PERHAPS not as egregious as Jackson’s refusal to abide by the Marshall court’s decision on the Cherokee removal.

At least Justice Alito wasn’t buying B.O.’s mis-statements:
Justice Alito mouths ‘not true’

POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who was in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

So what was wrong? Approx. a century ago corporations were banned from making direct contributions to candidates for election funds. This was not addressed, nor affected by the current ruling. Also, foreign corporations are STILL banned from involvement in U.S. political campaigns (although admittedly the presence of Chinese money in Bubba Clinton’s and B.O.’s fundraising was noteworthy as cases of sometimes intercepted interventions.)
Result? Read on:
Supreme Court Historian: After President’s “Insult,” Won’t Be Surprised If Supreme Court Doesn’t Attend Next Year’s State of the Union Address

A noted Supreme Court historian who “enthusiastically” voted for President Obama in November 2008 today called President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address last night “really unusual” and said he wouldn’t be surprised if no Supreme Court Justices attend the speech next year.

“It was really unusual in my mind to see the president going after the Supreme Court in such a forum,” said author and Law Professor Lucas Powe, the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law, and a Professor of Government at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law. “I’m willing to bet a lot of money there will be no Supreme Court justice at the next State of the Union speech.”

Added Professor Powe, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, “you don’t go to be insulted. I can’t see the Justices wanting to be there and be insulted by the president.”

But this is just a negative reaction from a myrmidon of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, right?…er…not this time:

His opinion has nothing to do with animus towards the President, for whom Powe said he voted enthusiastically.

Chief’s overall grading: D-minus for content.

I won’t even approach what I actually thought of the delivery except to ask if you can pronounce a-r-r-o-g-a-n-t. ’nuff said.

Obamunism

Obamacare: Rationing from the Get-go

Medicare Rationing Begins in 2011

House and Senate Democrat leaders, and President Obama, argue that they can “pay for” health insurance “reform” by cutting $500 billion from Medicare spending over the next decade—largely through arbitrary reimbursement cuts,— without reducing the quality of care delivered to beneficiaries.

Yet, in January, 2011, Medicare will implement a new payment system for patients receiving dialysis for end stage kidney disease that will severely ration care to this vulnerable (and largely minority) population based on equally arbitrary payment reductions. These patients will be the unfortunate canary in the Medicare coal mine: “reform” legislation will expose millions of Medicare patients to rationing and reduced quality of care.

Several points to consider that are detailed:
– With the Medicare payment for dialysis below the cost of the treatment, and the pharmaceuticals required for said treatment, who will be left to provide the service when the providers (operating at a loss) go bankrupt?
– If the treatment is what is maintaining one’s life, the lowering of rates constitutes a de-facto rationing, and the resultant mortality of the patient as the result.
– The result is to impose administrative rulings (that enforce “price” limitation) to effectively speed patients on their way to their exit from life….hey….a backdoor way to have what amounts to a “death panel”.

The figures, and the gory details are spelled out in the rest of the piece.  Don’t take the Chief’s word for it, check it out yourself.

Any wonder why most polling indicated that Obamacare is NOT wanted by most Americans…not that the Congs (so far) care about THAT little thing!

Obamunism

Dirty Harry Keeps it Going

Reid doubles down on slavery analogy

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday defended his remarks from Monday comparing congressional Republican opposition to healthcare to the 19th-century debate over slavery, accusing his GOP critics of “distorting” his intent.

“At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and delay have certainly been present,” Reid said. “They’ve certainly been used to stop progress. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what’s happening here. It’s very clear. That’s the point I made — no more, no less. Anyone who willingly distorts my comments is only proving my point.”

WOW! I must have missed the section in the Constitution that states that the senate majority leader speaks ex cathedra, and any opposition is automatically and inevitably to be regarded as condemned for such politically incorrect heresy.

What Reid is also doing here is continuing to show his disingenuous lack of knowledge of American history.

His statement  “At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and delay…etc.” is incorrect.  In the past circumstances he has noted: slavery, women’s suffrage, and civil rights opposition was certainly present…but there was no distortion involved:  the opposition was unambiguously open in its advocacy of its views…but why be concerned with historical accuracy!

Obamunism, Uncategorized

Obamaniac’s Fears

7 stories Barack Obama doesn’t want told

Presidential politics is about storytelling. Presented with a vivid storyline, voters naturally tend to fit every new event or piece of information into a picture that is already neatly framed in their minds.

No one understands this better than Barack Obama and his team, who won the 2008 election in part because they were better storytellers than the opposition. The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist who stood for change in a disciplined and thoughtful way. This easily outpowered the anti-Obama narrative, featuring an opportunistic Chicago pol with dubious relationships who was more liberal than he was letting on.

A year into his presidency, however, Obama’s gift for controlling his image shows signs of faltering. As Washington returns to work from the Thanksgiving holiday, there are several anti-Obama storylines gaining momentum.

This is the list of items…for more of the details see the original piece, linked from the above header.

Here are seven storylines Obama needs to worry about:
He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money: Self-explanatory!
Too much Leonard Nimoy: Obama, a legislator and law professor, is fluent in describing the nuances of problems. But his intellectuality has contributed to a growing critique that decisions are detached from rock-bottom principles.
That’s the Chicago Way: This is a storyline that’s likely taken root more firmly in Washington than around the country. The rap is that his West Wing is dominated by brass-knuckled pols….The problem is that many voters took Obama seriously in 2008 when he talked about wanting to create a more reasoned, non-partisan style of governance in Washington.
He’s a pushover: If you are going to be known as a fighter, you might as well reap the benefits. But some of the same insider circles that are starting to view Obama as a bully are also starting to whisper that he’s a patsy. It seems a bit contradictory, to be sure. But it’s a perception that began when Obama several times laid down lines — then let people cross them with seeming impunity.
He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe: Politicians of both parties have embraced the idea that this country — because of its power and/or the hand of Providence — should be a singular force in the world. It would be hugely unwelcome for Obama if the perception took root that he is comfortable with a relative decline in U.S. influence or position in the world.
President Pelosi: The great hazard for Obama is if Republicans or journalists conclude — as some already have — that Pelosi’s achievements are more impressive than Obama’s or come at his expense.
He’s in love with the man in the mirror: No one becomes president without a fair share of what the French call amour propre. Does Obama have more than his share of self-regard?

Obamunism

Obamacare Live, It’s Saturday Night

Dusty Harry Reid has adopted the classic philosophy of high pressure salemen: “Money talks, and no body walks.”

Sweeteners for the South

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase.

On the eve of Saturday’s showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn’t secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.

And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote — and to trumpet the financial “fix” she had arranged for Louisiana. “I am not going to be defensive,” she declared. “And it’s not a $100 million fix. It’s a $300 million fix.”

Her Freudian slip was showing…”$300 million fix”…indeed!
Other critical Donkey Party votes in the Senate used the occasion to extract whatever political payoff was most dear to their hearts from Reid.

Meanwhile, all concerned with the deals political bribes were hastening to deny that their maneuvers had anything to do with re-elections:

….the usually quiet [Blanche] Lincoln, [Donk-AR] who emerged from the cloakroom two hours later to announce her decision. Her attire was school-principal prim — blue suit with knee-length skirt, orange silk scarf tied tightly at the neck — and she was clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight. She spoke with the diction of somebody giving a dramatic reading, and she stumbled more than once as she read, botching the crucial line: “I will vote to support, of, the, the, will vote in support of cloture on the motion to proceed to this bill.”

She argued, a bit too strenuously, that “I’m not thinking about my reelection” in 2010.

If you believe THAT, pleased see me about a GREAT deal on tropical beachfront in NW Moody County, SD!

Here’s hoping that the conclusion of this WaPo piece doesn’t come true:

By the time this thing is done, the millions for Louisiana will look like a bargain.

Obamunism

Too Late…It’s Spent!

Obama warns on US public debt pile

After doubling the budget deficit since he came into office, and pushing hard for a massive increase in public spending for a number of programs including the Obamacare health “hellth” bill, it takes nothing if not a massive display of chutzpah to make comments like this.

US President Barack Obama warned that the US economy could head into a “double-dip recession” unless urgent steps were taken to rein in mounting public debt.

“It is important though to recognise if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the US economy in a double-dip recession,” said Mr Obama.

Sounds like the ChiComs have been reading him the riot act about his spending…after all, they have a LOT of investment in U.S. debt to protect from a total fiscal melt-down. IMHO it may be too late. I hope not, but…

Obamunism

ObaMao!

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This is obviously a scurrilous attack of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VWRC) on Our Enlightened President designed to make him look like a Communist!

…uh…oh.  It’s not.  It’s the ChiComs themselves welcoming him into their club!

Chinese greet ‘Oba Mao’ with flaming statue, fakes

Obamao

The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves. Now President Barack Obama is finally coming, and he’s being greeted with “Oba Mao” T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames.

Is this a message? Do the ChiComs recognize a true spiritual brother?

Barack Hussein ObaMao, Hmmmm – hmmmm -hmmmm.

Obamunism

Another B.O. Advisor Run Down by Bus!

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Dunn to Step Down as White House Communications Chief

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn will step down by the end of November and be replaced by her deputy Dan Pfeiffer, Fox News has learned.

Dunn’s departure had been expected as she took the position on an interim basis earlier in the year. But her exit comes at a critical time for the White House, with the administration trying to push the Senate to follow the House of Representatives’ lead in passing health care reform.

Apparently cheerleading for mass murderer Mao Tse Tung also didn’t contribute to her remaining in office.

Looks to the Chief  like the B.O. White House waited just long enough to provide plausible deniability that the Mao comments were not in IMMEDIATE memory before throwing her under the same bus that took out Van Jones.

Obamunism

Pelosi Obamascare Budget Holes

Say it isn’t so!  A major new governmental program proposal (this one from the Donkey Party) that will exceed it’s initial estimated cost?

AHHEEEEEEE!  What’s the world coming to!

‘Fuzzy math’ could drive health bill cost higher

The official $1.1 trillion price tag for the House Democrats’ health care bill excludes dozens of unfunded programs that could drive up costs when future congresses look to fund them.

Republicans said the health care bill includes two dozen programs whose funding is listed as “such sums as may be necessary.” That amounts to legislative jargon, they said, for “We’ll bill you later.”

The list of projects ranges from the “No child left unimmunized against influenza” project to 10 programs in the Indian health care system. There are also programs to encourage people to go into nursing and to spur states to restrain medical-malpractice lawsuits.

Shocking! Simply Shocking! Who would have EVER expected this?…oh, yeah, anyone who pays attention to government. Right.

Obamunism

B.O. Appoints Fox to Guard Financial Henhouse

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Wall Street exec to lead SEC fraud branch

The Obama administration on Friday tapped a Wall Street executive to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charge against investor fraud in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal as it pushed anew for a regulatory overhaul to protect Americans from financial sector shenanigans.

The SEC announced Adam Storch, vice president of Goldman Sachs’ Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the its enforcement division, created earlier this year.

Goldman-Sachs AGAIN? Yeah. Right.

Although the Chief has some serious issues with Arizona Senator John McCain, on this one he hit the nail on the head:

“SEC names Goldman Sachs exec to enforcement post – you can’t make it up,” quipped Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, on Twitter, the popular social-networking Web site.

THIS is more “Change You Can Believe In” – at least if you’re with Goldman-Sachs.

This is the same Goldman Sachs involved with continuing to make massive bonus payments.

Conflict of interest?  What’s that?  (Nothing to see here folks. Move along.)

Obamunism

Donks Clearing Way for Middle Class Tax Increases

The Donkey party is throwing over another of B.O.’s repeated solemn pledges.

Senate Finance Committee dumps Obama’s tax promise

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which is considering President Obama’s health insurance reform plan, has voted down an amendment which provides that “no tax, fee or penalty imposed by this legislation shall be applied to any individual earning less than $200,000 per year or any couple earning less than $250,000 per year.” [emphasis added]

You might recall that President Obama promised no tax increases whatsoever, of any kind, on earners making less than those amounts. But don’t bet on him to veto this bill.

The committee vote on the amendment, proposed by Republicans Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Pat Roberts (Kan.), was 11 in favor, and 12 against. All Republicans and one Democrat voted in favor of the amendment. All 12 opposed were Democrats.

DANGER!  BEWARE of PICKPOCKETS
Ladies: Carry your purses tucked under your arms, with the strap over your shoulder.
Men: Do not carry wallet in your rear hip pocket.
Be alert at all times!

Constitution Watch, Culture Wars, Obamunism

Towards a State-Controlled Media

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill

The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.

Oh joy! Not only would we be subjected to the prevailing MSM tilt to the left, they would add injury to the insult by forcing us to pay for media crap that we don’t want!

They would LOVE the chance to be able to continue to indulge their political whims independent of the market pressure that is currently going through the process of rejecting their unashamedly biased stance as indicated my massive losses in advertising and subscription income.

“I haven’t seen detailed proposals yet, but I’ll be happy to look at them,” Obama told the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview.

Sure he would – for the same reasons.

Obama said that good journalism is “critical to the health of our democracy,” but expressed concern toward growing tends in reporting — especially on political blogs, from which a groundswell of support for his campaign emerged during the presidential election.

Right – good journalism IS critical…but to assert that the MSM is good journalism is laughably surreal.

“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” he said.

Fact checking? Hmmmm. Like CBS & Dan Rather CONTINUING to insist that a blatantly forged document provides valid information about President Bush? Or like maybe NBC using incendiary devices to set vehicles on fire in an “investigative report” on auto engineering safety?  Or how about most recently…with virtually ALL of the so-called “mainstream media” ignoring the exposure of widespread promotion of criminality by B.O.’s favorite ACORN, until the stench got so great that they were literally FORCED to take notice?

THIS is “fact checking”? This is supposed to be journalism worthy of being supported by tax dollars?

There IS a part of the Constitution that addresses free press…but it does NOT contain a clause that GUARANTEES that just because you print a newspaper that anyone will bother to read it…or, for that matter, that one is guaranteed the right to make a living at writing and publishing crap that is inaccurate, incomplete, and often offensive and directly opposed to the values and interests of the POTENTIAL readership or audience.

Let ’em join the fate of the buggy-whip manufacturers if they can’t make it on their own!

The alternative is to turn the media icons of the liberal establishment into the American equivalent of the old Soviet Isvestia and Pravda, or the Nazi Volkishcher Beobachter – dedicated solely to the service of the state.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity, Obamunism

B.O. Rolled by Putin on Missile Defense

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Given what any thinking person knows about B.O.’s history, associations, and evident ideological orientation, this is no surprise, but nevertheless is still regretable.

U.S. Shelves Nuclear-Missile Shield

The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed Thursday that a “major adjustment” is planned and said the decision was made to better protect U.S. forces and allies in Europe from Iranian missile attacks.

Let me try to parse this: we are canceling missile defense sites to better protect us and our allies from Iranian missiles…HUH? Logic check anyone?

The U.S. is basing its move on a determination that Iran’s long-range-missile program hasn’t progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental U.S. and major European capitals, according to current and former U.S. officials.

At least until the next Korean or bootleg Russian shipment makes port…

Now at least the Russians will play nicer though, right?

Russia on Thursday welcomed the news but said it saw no reason to offer concessions in return….”The Bush plans on the missile defense as we knew them until now were nothing more than a provocation of security in the European region,” said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a phone interview.

So, from their point of view, the U.S. has been a paper tiger all along…and B.O. has now officially confirmed this to be the case.

Meanwhile…what about the other Euro allies left swinging in the breeze?

Anger in Europe as Barack Obama ‘scraps missile defence shield’

The Wall Street Journal reported that the US is to shelve the plan, which was first mooted by the Bush administration and has been a source of friction with Russia ever since.

The move would be a cause of celebration in Moscow but of real concern to Eastern European countries which have looked to Washington for support against their former imperial master Russia. The US has said the shield is to guard against attacks by rogue states, such as Iran.

The former Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, said: “This is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence. It puts us in a position wherein we are not firmly anchored in terms of partnership, security and alliance, and that’s a certain threat.”

Not good for the U.S. and the west, as noted in the Brit press:

Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence

I blogged a couple of weeks ago that the Obama administration was about to abandon its plans for Third Site missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. I wrote then that “if enacted, this would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defence system, and a massive betrayal of two key US allies in eastern and central Europe. Such a move would significantly weaken America’s ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program, and would hand a major propaganda victory to the Russians.”

It now looks as though the president has surrendered to Russian demands to kill off Third Site.

After noting some more about the details of B.O.’s capitulation to the will of the the ex-KGB enforcer Putin, the real kernal of this all is summed up thusly:

This is bad news for all who care about the US commitment to the transatlantic alliance and the defence of Europe as well as the United States. It represents the appalling appeasement of Russian aggression and a willingness to sacrifice American allies on the altar of political expediency. A deal with the Russians to cancel missile defence installations sends a clear message that even Washington can be intimidated by the Russian bear.

What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

B.O.’s foriegn policy looks more and more like Carter’s 2nd term.

Obamunism

SD Donk Not Happy Camper

‘Losing patience,’ S.D. consultant says

A South Dakota campaign consultant who helped steer Barack Obama to victory last year said he and other Americans are “losing patience” with the White House’s inability to deliver the changes Obama ran on.

Steve Hildebrand in recent weeks also has criticized Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, including South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, for compromising with Republicans. Those compromises threaten to make Democrats the minority party in Congress because they are not enacting a progressive agenda on issues such as climate change and health care reform.

Tuesday, Hildebrand told Politico.com, a news site that covers politics, that Obama “needs to be more bold in his leadership.”

Steve Hildebrand in recent weeks also has criticized Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, including South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, for compromising with Republicans. Those compromises threaten to make Democrats the minority party in Congress because they are not enacting a progressive agenda on issues such as climate change and health care reform.

Looks to the Chief like Hildebrand has what could be described as a lack of situational awareness.

The problem B.O. and others of his and Hildebrand’s ilk are having is NOT that they are moving too far away from their preferred left-outpost positions pushing a so-called “progressive agenda” (i.e. an ever more intrusive and increasing role of government), but a repulsive reaction of most voters to this approach.