Category: Obama

Poor people, with cell phones

Seriously.

Via L.A. Times:

First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise and welcome volunteer at Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White House.

She brought with her some food donated by White House staff.

The first lady served up mushroom risotto and broccoli to a long line of homeless men and women during part of her lunch hour and in these photos poses for a picture by one homeless diner obviously excited to be in the first lady’s presence.

Obama said she hoped her service would cause other Americans to volunteer to help the less fortunate in their own communities.

6a00d8341c630a53ef01127939991b28a4-800wi And, of course, such images of need might also help build support for her husband’s economic and healthcare reform agenda, although a Miriam’s spokeswoman said their average “guest” has been homeless since about the time Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Miriam’s is a privately funded soup kitchen about seven blocks from the White House that has 1,200 volunteers and serves about 300, mainly men, each morning. Our colleague Mark Silva has more on the volunteer work in the Swamp here.

Both of these news photos were widely distributed across the country and even around the world.

It doesn’t detract from the first lady’s generous gesture or the real needs she seeks to highlight to ask two bothersome journalistic questions about these news photos:

If this unidentified meal recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cellphone?

And if he is homeless, where do they send the cellphone bills?

Unreal. I have a place to live, but I do not have a cell phone. By the way, where’s my stimulus? Where’s my Bailout? Oh, that’s right… I’m the wrong color. Because we all know those checks are going to non-white construction workers.

Update: Macsmind makes a very valid point:

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the poor here and there, soup kitchen details and even working with a non-profit for a bit. I can tell you that seeing a homeless person with a cell phone is nothing. I’ve witness so-called “poor” coming in during a toy drive to pick up donated toys wearing leather jackets, cell phones and sometimes driving pretty good cars – better than mine in fact.

The fact is that we have a really poor sense of the word “poor” in this country. Many of the poor would be wealthy in truly poor countries.

Same here. I’ve seen people show up at food distributions that I have volunteered in, when I was active in the Pentecostal circles; in brand-new looking Cadillac Cars and Lincoln Town Cars. So, that whole poor thing is a big misconception. I’ve met real poor people, and truth is, most so-called poor people are what other countries would call quite wealthy. Good point Jack, glad you brought it up. 😀

Others on this: Telegraph, Michelle Malkin, The Corner, Media Blog, Sweetness & Light, Connecting.the.Dots, The Swamp, PoliGazette and Don Surber

A New Parody "Barry's Farm"

Here’s the Original Song:


Update: It seems that some Fascist Socialist Liberal twit keeps going around getting my video yanked. No biggie, if they yank it. I will find it elsewhere and put it up. This is America and not fascist Germany and I have the RIGHT to express my opinions about the President and his fascist polices. You liberals don’t like it? TOUGH SHIT! 😡

History about the song and concert

New Lyrics:

Barry’s Farm

(Sung to the tune of Maggie’s Farm by Bob Dylan)

Written by Paleo Pat

I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
Well, I wake up in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray that I might keep my gain.
I got a bill full of Taxes
That are drivin’ me insane.
It’s a shame the way he makes me tip the whore.
Naw, I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.

I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Law’s no more.
I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Law’s no more.
Well, he hands you a Dollar,
Taxes you a dime,
Looks at you with a grin
While robbin’ you fuckin’ Blind,
Then he taxes you every time you open the door.
I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Laws no more.

I ain’t gonna be a slave for Barry’s Government no more.
No, I ain’t be a Slave for Barry’s Government no more.
Well, he puts a Tax Bill
in your face just for kicks.
His White House
It is made out of Bricks.
The Secret Service stands around his door.
Ah, I ain’t gonna be a slave for Barry’s Government no more.

I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.
No, I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.
Well, she talks to all the people
About Equality and Race and Law.
All the while the workin’ people
Are payin’ for other peoples bad calls
She’s a lying thief, but she says her honesty stands tall.
Naw, I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.

I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
Well, I try my best
To do the best I can,
But everybody wants you
To pay thier bills for them.
They eat steak while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.

Things are really swinging at the White House!

Well, for the Obama kids anyhow… Tongue

The AP reports:

First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama got a big surprise after school Wednesday: a brand-new swing set.

They squealed with delight upon seeing it, a spokeswoman for the first lady said.

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to work while the girls were at school, having the set installed on the south grounds of the White House within sight of the Oval Office, where their father spends plenty of time.

Late last year as the couple planned the family’s move to Washington, they had discussed with the chief usher at the White House ways to make the historic residence feel more like home for their girls, said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama.

Malia and Sasha, ages 10 and 7, had never lived anywhere but Chicago.

"Many first families have made these sorts of changes to make the White House feel like home," McCormick Lelyveld said. "This one is like their little mark."

The 100 percent cedar and North American Redwood structure has four swings, including a tire swing, a slide, a fort, a climbing wall and climbing ropes. There’s also a picnic table with brass plates etched with the names of all 44 presidents, she said.

"They ran right for it. They were really, really excited. All four of them," McCormick Lelyveld said.

I think, for once, this is good thing for the Obama Administration. My Friend Jazz Shaw over at the Moderate Voice weighs in here:

Before any of my conservative and Republican friends ask, yes… the Obama’s paid for the purchase, delivery and installation out of their own pockets, so the bill doesn’t go to the taxpayers. It certainly looks like a nice set… far better than the one I had as a kid. Also, it’s worth noting that I don’t find anything objectionable about this at all. I imagine that it’s pretty difficult growing up as a child in the White House with the entire world watching your every move and reporting on MSNBC what grade you got in English this semester. The West Wing is also a place of business with lots of serious, important adults running about at all hours. It doesn’t seem all that kid friendly. It’s nice to see that the kids will have someplace to play while dad is working.

I will be the first to say; I agree with the sentiments above, especially those underlined.  I, as a Conservative, feel that Children should be allow to be just that; Children, and not used a political props. Which did happen with the Obama Children during the election, and then Obama had the audacity to complain when his kids were being overexposed. However, I will give them a pass on the swing. Good on them for giving those girls something to do. Batting Eyelashes 

Um, Has everyone forgotten?!?!

It seems that some Brits are in a bit of a snit over Obama not giving British PM Gordon Brown the Royal treatment at the White House:

Via the U.K. Telegraph:

Why couldn’t President Obama have put on more of a show for his British guests? He looked like he simply couldn’t be bothered.

Number 10 may be content that they just about got away with the visit to the Oval Office yesterday, as Andrew Porter reports from Washington.

But on this side of the Atlantic the whole business looked pretty demeaning. The morning papers and TV last night featured plenty of comment focused on the White House’s very odd and, frankly, exceptionally rude treatment of a British PM. Squeezing in a meeting, denying him a full press brown.obama conference with flags etc. The British press corps, left outside for an hour in the cold, can take it and their privations are of limited concern to the public.

But Obama’s merely warmish words (one of our closest allies, said with little sincerity or passion) left a bitter taste with this Atlanticist. Especially after his team had made Number 10 beg for a mini press conference and then not even offered the PM lunch.

We get the point, sunshine: we’re just one of many allies and you want fancy new friends. Well, the next time you need something doing, something which impinges on your national security, then try calling the French, or the Japanese, or best of all the Germans. The French will be able to offer you first rate support from their catering corps but beyond that you’ll be on your own.

I realize it might have seemed a bit disrespectful. But perhaps this bloke should read the history of slavery and the colonization of Africa and the slave trade a bit more closely. I mean, wouldn’t you, being a African-American be a bit jittery about kissing the royal behind of those who oppressed your people? I would be.

While I think it is a bit rude and could have been handled better. I think that Obama is well within his rights to do what he pleases in his White House.

Others: Times of London, Don Surber, The Sundries Shack, Moe Lane, Pirate’s Cove, Flopping Aces, Hot Air, QandO, Jules Crittenden, Tim Shipman’s blog listings, Washington Post and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

ZOMG! New York Times reports that President Obama is getting gray hairs!

Oh the horror of it all…. What will the Nation do? Our President is getting old. 🙄

You know damned well that it’s a slow news day when they start this business.

The New York Times:

Well, that didn’t take long. Just 44 days into the job, and President Obama is going gray.

It happens to all of them, of course — Bill Clinton still had about half a head of brown hair when he took office but was a silver fox two years later, and George W. Bush went from salt and pepper to just salt in what seemed like a blink of an eye.

But so soon? “I started noticing it toward the end of the campaign
and leading up to inauguration,” says Deborah Willis, who, as co-author
of “Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs,” pored through 5,000
photographs of the first head over the last year.

Mr. Obama’s graying is still of the flecked variety, and appears to
wax and wane depending on when he gets his hair cut, which he does
about every two weeks. His barber, who goes by only one name, Zariff,
takes umbrage with bloggers who alternately claim Mr. Obama, 47, is
dyeing his hair gray (to appear more distinguished) or dyeing it black
(to appear younger). “I can tell you that his hair is 100 percent
natural,” Zariff said. “He wouldn’t get it colored.”

And for all of his 16 years giving Mr. Obama his “quo vadis” haircut
— black parlance from the 1960s for close-cut locks — Zariff said he is
not about to start ribbing Mr. Obama. “We do not tease about the gray
at all,” he said.

For a guy who prides himself on projecting a stress-free demeanor,
the changes above his temples are speckled evidence that perhaps the
psychological and physical strains of the job — never mind the long
process of winning it — are in fact taking something of a toll.
(Experts say stress can contribute to whitening locks.)

Mr. Obama seems to have noticed it at least as far back as last
summer. “I’ve been running for president for about 19 months now,” he
told supporters at a campaign event in Virginia in August. “Folks are
noticing that I’ve got a lot more gray hair now than when I started.”

But with the economy struggling, two wars raging and countless other
pressures facing him, the president is very likely to see additional
signs of wear and tear in the mirror each morning.

Good Lord. The man is 47 years old. I am quite frankly surprised he did not start getting Gray sooner. Hell, I starting seeing my gray hairs when I was in my early 20’s or so. Did I flip out? For about a second, it was more of a sobering realization that my younger days were over and I was becoming a older man; and that I should at least try and act the part. I’m still working on that. 😉 😛 😀

I would sure as hell hate to see the poor man slip and break his arm or something. Damn news world would come to a screeching halt! 🙄 Not that I want him to really do all that, I’m just saying, that’s all. 😀

Of course, because I’m a Conservative; I must be the one to say it. If President Obama doesn’t do something here really quick and um, smart, to pull our economy out of the toilet and get our stock market out of the basement, He is really going to have some gray hairs coming pretty quick. I mean, Obama just started and he is really not getting off to a good start.

Another Boneheaded move from the Obama Administration….

Another smooth move from the Harlem Globetrotter Administration. This time towards Michigan, The Detroit News laments:

President Barack Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gas emissions is a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation’s heartland — particularly Michigan. It is a multibillion-dollar tax hike on everything that Michigan does, including making things, driving cars and burning coal.

The president is asking for a system of government limits on carbon emissions. The right to emit carbon would be auctioned off to generate revenue for more government spending programs.

The president’s budget projects receipts totaling $646 billion through 2019 from the sale of these greenhouse gas permits.

The goal, according to the president’s budget outline, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide to 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Doing so will drive up the cost of nearly everything and will amount to a major tax increase for American consumers.

Such a tax will hit the Midwest particularly hard, which is why House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told the New York Times, “let’s just be honest and call it a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch, pure and simple.”

The carbon tax will be paid by energy companies, manufacturers and public utilities, who will pass the cost on to their consumers. Michigan will be especially targeted. It gets 60 percent of its electric power from coal plants, and the state’s economy is still reliant on heavy manufacturing such as car and truck assembly and auto parts production.

Michigan will lose as carbon tax money is shifted to states with a greater presence of high-tech and service businesses.

The proposed tax would take effect in 2012 and has the very real potential to throw the nation back into recession, if indeed the expected recovery has arrived by then. It’s impossible to raise costs for such basics as manufacturing and energy production by more than half a trillion dollars over a decade and not have the effects felt across the economy.

The nation’s gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in last year’s fourth quarter — the worst economic record in nearly three decades. Is this really a good time to be talking about a carbon tax? How will such talk impact investment decisions?

Obama promises to use some of the revenues for tax relief for certain workers and some of the rest for subsidies for alternative energy. But that won’t make up for the damage this huge new tax will do to the economy, especially in Michigan.

I would be willing to bet that many people here in Michigan, who voted for the magic moon bat are having a bad case of buyers regret today. This is what happens when you run a Presidential Administration that caters to special interests on the far, far, left and basically tells the rest of the Country to go to hell.

The liberals once made a movie called “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Pretty soon those same Liberals will be making a movie called “Who Killed the Detroit Auto Industry?”

Rush Challenges President Bambi to a debate

Not that I believe that the President will really do it, but it is noteworthy….

From the Big fat guy that has more money than me:

But I have an idea. If these guys are so impressed with themselves, and if they are so sure of their correctness, why doesn’t President Obama come on my show? We will do a one-on-one debate of ideas and policies. Now, his people in this Politico story, it’s on the record. They’re claiming they wanted me all along. They wanted me to be the focus of attention. So let’s have the debate! I am offering President Obama to come on this program — without staffers, without a teleprompter, without note cards — to debate me on the issues. Let’s talk about free markets versus government control. Let’s talk about nationalizing health care and raising taxes on small business.

However, anyone with a bucket of common sense knows that the President of the United States will not going on that show. That would be like Joseph McCarthy going on Edward R. Murrow’s to debate the existence of Communists in the Government. (Yes, Purists I know, He came on the show once in a pre-taped statement… I have watched “Good Night and Good Luck”) Better yet, it would be like Bill O’Reilly going on Keith Olbermann to debate Politics. Never.Gonna.Happen.

Um, No, I am not calling Obama a Communist, that’s Allan Keyes gig, and I don’t wanna put that guy out of a job. 😀

But then there’s this….:

I’m calling.  I’m ready.  I’ll do everything I can to facilitate it.  You’re a very courageous man, Mr. President.  I am, after all, just The Last Man Standing.  If you take me out, if you can wipe me out in a debate and prove to the rest of America that what I say is senseless and wrong, do you realize you will own the United States of America? You will have no opposition.  You have America’s media in your back pocket.  It’s amazing. In 1972, Richard Nixon had an enemies list, and the media was outraged by this.  They were outraged. At the same time, those who weren’t on it were a little jealous.  But they were outraged that a president would engage in this kind of behavior toward the media.  Now they go after a private citizen.

Rahm Emanuel is leading the team going after a private citizen, and the Drive-By Media applaud, get on board and help further the mission.  We live in different times.  So if you can wipe me out — and, by the way, Mr. President, and Mr. Emanuel: Don’t make the mistake of assuming I’m wiping myself out here in the process.  I want to thank you guys for elevating me beyond the stature I already earned and achieved, because now more and more Americans have the opportunity to learn who you really are, what your ideas will really accomplish, and what damage and harm I think your policies will bring for a very, very long time to them and to this country.  So I want to thank you for the opportunity.  Obviously, it’s a threat targeting me.  I’ve extended the invitation.  I’m looking forward to hearing back from whoever in your cabal one way or the other on accepting my offer.

Has anything bothered tell this meatball that he’s nothing more than the sideshow? I mean, I’ve had my heady moments in my day, but I am convinced that this guy sits around and jerks off to his own picture. Kind of like Sean Hannity, except with him, it’s nude pictures of 14 year old boys.

A Oddball Bunch, them Neo-Cons are…. 🙄

Edited to fix a rather humorous typo…. I had the right last name, just the wrong McCarthy! 😆 🙄 😛

David Brooks says "Ooopsie! I was wrong about Bambi!"

I must confess, I find this to quite laughter provoking….:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”

Moderates now find themselves betwixt and between. On the left, there is a president who appears to be, as Crook says, “a conviction politician, a bold progressive liberal.” On the right, there are the Rush Limbaugh brigades. The only thing more scary than Obama’s experiment is the thought that it might fail and the political power will swing over to a Republican Party that is currently unfit to wield it.

via Op-Ed Columnist, David Brooks – A Moderate Manifesto – NYTimes.com.

The smart mouthed punk part of me says, “Well then David… Why the fuck did you meet with that Communist shill for dinner then?!?!?”

However, I do try and conduct myself with a bit more decorum. (Well, I think so anyhow! 😉 :P)

The painful fact is that the Moderate Conservatives like Brooks and some Libertarians voted for the guy, because they were drawn into his slick style and smooth delivery of a speech.  I can cheerfully say, that I was not one of those people. I knew what Obama was about from day one. He was a Liberal. Any journalist or blogger who was not trying to swoon or slobber all over themselves about Obama could see this.

The facts are this; Obama tried to work with Conservatives, and tried the bipartisanship approach and it did not work. So, President Obama is going to further his agenda and quite frankly does not care what the Republican Party nor the Republicans and Conservatives who are in or out of power in D.C. think about it.

Is this wrong, evil, immoral, or fattening? Not necessarily.  Obama won the election. The Republican Party lost. Happens like that, when your past leader of eight years abandons his campaign promises and so forth.

The facts are that the Moderates got played, and played hard. Now they’re crying, “We were deceived!” Way I see it, that deception is a two way process. Takes actions on your part. Obama did not come by with a wand and go “Pwaaaang!” and put the Moderates under a spell and force them to vote for him. It took them to look at him and his record, and then they listened to his speeches, and decided to ignore his political record and voted for him.  I have zero pity for them, at all.

There’s ton of reaction to this on both sides of the political asle, and here it is: The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Donklephant, The Strata-Sphere, NO QUARTER, Right Wing News, The Other McCain, Grasping Reality …, Cold Fury, Crooked Timber, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, The Moderate Voice,  Matthew Yglesias, HotAir, Balloon Juice

Good News – United States pulls out of United Nations' World Conference on Racism because of hostility towards Israel

One word about this; Good.

Via The Politico:

White House aides told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the United States will boycott the United Nations’ World Conference on Racism over hostility to Israel in draft documents prepared for the April conference.

The aides, including an advisor to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Jennifer Simon, and longtime Obama advisor Samantha Power, said the administration will not participate in further negotiations on the current text or participate in a conference based on the text, sources on the call said.

They left open the option of re-engaging on a “much shorter, much different text,” a source said.

The draft outcome document, typically negotiated in advance and available here (.pdf), contains sharp and specific criticism of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, and Western European nations and Canada have also signaled that they may boycott the conference in Geneva.

The conference is known informally as Durban II after a 2001 conference in South Africa that included a heavy focus on Israel and calls to reinstate a U.N. resolution equating Zionism and racism. Libya is chairing the preparatory meetings for this year’s conference, one of several factors prompting boycott calls.

Obama is expected to issue a statement on the subject later this afternoon, and the participants were asked not to discuss the call until a formal statement is released.

At the risk of being tagged a Obama Cheerleader or a Zionist Zealot; let me say this. I think that this is an absolutely excellent move on the President’s Part. To be clear, I do not support the United States of America showing deference or favoritism to any nation, at all. However, hostility that is rooted in a Anti-Semitic mentality is just absolutely wrong and goes against the core values of the United States, that all men are created equal in the sight of God.

I find it absolutely heartening that Obama sees this and is pulling out of this sort of a conference. Further more, this says quite a bit about the United Nations that they would allow such a horrific event to take place within their building, when, in fact, they claim to be an organization of peace.

Others: Hot Air, Little Green Footballs and The Campaign Spot