Tag: Barack Obama

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

Asian Markets Slide

The ripple effect of Government Socialism spreads:

Asian stock markets slumped Monday amid resurgent concerns that a recovery in the global economy is unlikely to materialize until next year and worries about the global financial sector following fresh government bailouts for the insurance giant American International Group and Citigroup.

The Nikkei 225, Japan’s benchmark index, was down 4 percent and the Kospi in South Korea fell 3.6 percent, while the key index in Hong Kong sagged 3.8 percent. Singapore’s stock market fell 3.3 percent, and the markets in Australia and Taiwan dropped 2.8 percent. Stocks in mainland China declined least, falling 0.2 percent by Monday afternoon.

Stock in banks like Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial Group were more than 4 percent lower in Tokyo because of fears about the health of the global banking system, after the United States government moved to take a larger stake in the ailing banking giant Citigroup and was set to give an additional $30 billion in taxpayer money to AIG.

And in Hong Kong, trading in HSBC was suspended in the wake of reports that the British bank will announce on Monday that it is tapping investors for about £12 billion, or about $17 billion.

“It’s pretty despondent everywhere,” said Dwyfor Evans, a strategist at State Street Global Markets in Hong Kong. “Okay, there are signs that some of the leading indicators have stabilized to some extent, but it’s at a very, very low level, and we’re not seeing corporate investment picking up, or consumers starting to spend again – in other words, the traditional mechanisms by which economies come out of a recession are absent at this time.”

via Asian Markets Slump in Monday Trading – NYTimes.com.

While Barack Obama might be the President that saved the working class family in America, he might very well go down as the President who destroyed the free market capitalist system in America and around the World. Although, I will admit, that he did have help. Bill Clinton’s polices, along with the inaction of the Republican Congress of 2003, did nothing to stop this mess.

The bad part about is, I and everyone else will be most likely dead before it is all straightened out.

Welcome to the 21 century. 🙄

The President's Weekly Address

I offer this without commentary…

Video:


2/28/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

President Obama explains how the budget he sent to Congress will fulfill the promises he made as a candidate, and assures special interests that he is ready for the fight. (this video is public domain)

Transcript: (Via White House)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Washington, DC

Two years ago, we set out on a journey to change the way that Washington works.

We sought a government that served not the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few, but the middle-class Americans I met every day in every community along the campaign trail – responsible men and women who are working harder than ever, worrying about their jobs, and struggling to raise their families.  In so many town halls and backyards, they spoke of their hopes for a government that finally confronts the challenges that their families face every day; a government that treats their tax dollars as responsibly as they treat their own hard-earned paychecks.

That is the change I promised as a candidate for president.  It is the change the American people voted for in November.  And it is the change represented by the budget I sent to Congress this week.

During the campaign, I promised a fair and balanced tax code that would cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, roll back the tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year, and end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.  This budget does that.

I promised an economy run on clean, renewable energy that will create new American jobs, new American industries, and free us from the dangerous grip of foreign oil.  This budget puts us on that path, through a market-based cap on carbon pollution that will make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy; through investments in wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient American cars and American trucks.

I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt.  This budget keeps that promise, with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable health care for every American.

I promised an education system that will prepare every American to compete, so Americans can win in a global economy.  This budget will help us meet that goal, with new incentives for teacher performance and pathways for advancement; new tax credits that will make college more affordable for all who want to go; and new support to ensure that those who do go finish their degree.

This budget also reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.  Given this reality, we’ll have to be more vigilant than ever in eliminating the programs we don’t need in order to make room for the investments we do need.  I promised to do this by going through the federal budget page by page, and line by line.  That is a process we have already begun, and I am pleased to say that we’ve already identified two trillion dollars worth of deficit-reductions over the next decade.  We’ve also restored a sense of honesty and transparency to our budget, which is why this one accounts for spending that was hidden or left out under the old rules.

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy.  Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.  I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.  I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable.  I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries.   In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this:

So am I.

The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t.  I work for the American people.  I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November.  That is the change this budget starts to make, and that is the change I’ll be fighting for in the weeks ahead – change that will grow our economy, expand our middle-class, and keep the American Dream alive for all those men and women who have believed in this journey from the day it began.

Thanks for listening.

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

The Southern Avenger on "Affirmative Action GOP"

How Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s awful Republican rebuttal to President Obama’s speech before Congress represents a wrongheaded and ill-fated GOP strategy of minority and gender identity politics.

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger’s Blog @ Taki’s Magazine

Burris Bombshell!

Now this is going to leave a huge mark!

Via the Chicago Sun Times:

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Blagojevich’s administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state’s housing authority Sept. 10 — about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II’s employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.

Burris II’s hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris’ interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Blagojevich appointed Burris to that seat in late December after Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell the vacancy to the highest bidder.

Sen. Burris, 71, is fending off calls for his resignation and is the subject of a Senate ethics probe and a perjury investigation by the top prosecutor in Downstate Sangamon County. Those probes stem from conflicting testimony Sen. Burris provided to the House panel that drafted impeachment charges against Blagojevich, who was removed from office Jan. 29.

Separately, federal authorities have been investigating hiring decisions by Blagojevich’s administration. Authorities, however, have not expressed any interest in Burris II, Housing Development Authority spokeswoman Rebecca Boykin said.

“Roland Burris II was hired by the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Legal Department based on his qualifications in response to a published job posting,” Boykin stated. “As an employer, it is not IHDA’s practice to request financial information from applicants.”

Sen. Burris’ office, Burris II and Sen. Burris’ lawyer, Timothy Wright III, did not return telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment. Blagojevich’s publicist also did not respond to questions about Burris II’s hiring.

Now if Burris does not resign after this little nugget of information becoming public, he is crazy. There’s no way that the Senate will allow him to stay. His creditability is shot! Should be really interesting to follow.

Others:  Michelle Malkin, CBS News, The Swamp, Chicago Breaking News, Political Machine, The Moderate Voice, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Emptywheel, Katablog, Sweetness & Light, PoliGazette and Founding Bloggers

President Obama to conduct class warfare to pay for Nationalized Healthcare

Which is what I figured President Obama would do, if he were elected. So, this really should not be a big story, but it is the headlines. So, here we go! Big Grin

Via the New York Times:

President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.

The tax proposal, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

The president will also propose, in the 10-year budget he is to release Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy — a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps — to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people.

The combined effect of the two revenue-raising proposals, on top of Mr. Obama’s existing plan to roll back the Bush-era income tax reductions on households with income exceeding $250,000 a year, would be a pronounced move to redistribute wealth by reimposing a larger share of the tax burden on corporations and the most affluent taxpayers.

Administration officials said Mr. Obama would propose to reduce the value of itemized tax deductions for everyone in the top income tax bracket, 35 percent, and many of those in the 33 percent bracket — roughly speaking, starting at $250,000 in annual income for a married couple.

Under existing law, the tax benefit of itemizing deductions rises with a taxpayer’s marginal tax bracket (the bracket that applies to the last dollar of income). For example, $10,000 in itemized deductions reduces tax liability by $3,500 for someone in the 35 percent bracket.

Mr. Obama would allow a saving of only $2,800 — as if the person were in the 28 percent bracket.

The White House says it is unfair for high-income people to get a bigger tax break than middle-income people for claiming the same deductions or making the same charitable contributions.

The officials said the resulting increase in revenues, estimated at $318 billion over 10 years, would account for about half of a $634 billion “reserve fund” that Mr. Obama will set aside in his budget to address changes in the health care system. The other half would come from proposed cost savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs.

This is just more of the “Robin Hood” style of Democrat policy, steal from the rich and give to the poor socialism, that I knew would happen, if Obama were elected. There also seems to be a bit of “Rob Peter, to pay Paul”, kind of stuff in there too, which does not surprise me at all. That whole “cost savings” thing there, that’s political mumbo jumbo for, “We’re going to rob someone out of their coverage, to give to the people signed up on nationalized healthcare.” In essence, it is basically legalized thievery. But then again, so is socialism.

Another way of putting that “Cost Savings” bit would be to say this; “We’re going to rob some old poor White Guy or disabled White Woman, out of his rightful coverage of Medicare and Medicaid, to give it to some welfare queen, so she and her 25 kids under different daddies can all have health coverage from the Government.” But, again, that is the essence of Socialism; Rob the Rich White man or Woman, (Like my disabled Aunt) and give to the black Welfare queens with the 25 kids by 25 different daddies.

Welcome to Communist America people, we’ve got four long, hard, cold, years of this stuff. Get ready to open your wallets and pay the welfare queens.