Note: You might want to start at the Barack
Obama Index Page, especially
if you arrived here by using a search engine.
Mr. Obama has never competently managed any business or organization in his life. (See
this page for details.)
There is only thing he has proven to be really good at — spending other people's
money. The American people aren't very excited about that aptitude.
The people who voted for hope and change — TWICE — are getting very little of either.
The Progressive Regression. An Affordable
Care Act whose premiums just exploded by more than 20 percent despite massive deductibles, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner meddling in Syria, Libya,
and points beyond, and a post-racial presidency coinciding with Ferguson, Baltimore, and Dallas all give lie to the promise of hope and change.
Obama's distorted rhetoric.
Obama has brought no hope to the Middle East. To the contrary it has changed greatly for the worse under his presidency. The
region is now far more chaotic than it was when he became President. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the Middle
East during the Obama presidency, mainly in Syria, but also in Iraq and other countries. The U.S has conducted airstrikes on seven
countries from 2009 until today: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria.
Gallup:
Satisfaction With Country Under Obama Is Lowest Since Carter. According to Gallup, Americans' satisfaction
levels with the way things are going in the U.S. are low and President Obama will be leaving office with a lower overall
satisfaction average of any president since Jimmy Carter. Only 29% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are
going in the U.S. according to the Gallup poll conducted during the first week of June.
America under Obama will
see one crisis after another. We interrupt this financial crisis to bring you a gargantuan federal power grab
masquerading as an economic stimulus. Tell me, does the following sound at all familiar? We've GOT to act.
NOW! There's NO TIME for debate. We're on the PRECIPICE. We're staring into the ABYSS. The
government has to spend BIG and it has to spend FAST, before it's TOO LATE!
What's the rush? More than a few
pundits have pointed out that the president who ran on a platform of "hope and change" is availing himself of
fear and hysteria to have his way. Mr. Obama's admonition that immediate action on the economic stimulus
package is required, lest the current crisis turns into a "catastrophe" betrays the fact that "hope and change"
were mere rhetorical devices used to gain election, but when the pedal hits the metal it's fear mongering and
business as usual.
The only thing we
have to fear is catastrophe itself. The public discourse style of Barack Obama underwent an
abrupt shift when hope and change gave way to threat and forewarning. Early on during the campaign,
audiences at Obama's primary post-election rallies cried and swooned during his speeches, and the media
heralded him as a new kind of politician. Transformational. Near epiphanic. An inspirational
language event. Obama the President has morphed into something different. Obama the Scolder.
'Doom'
talk scored as 'not presidential'. From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark,
darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon. President Obama and top
Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through
their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President
Jimmy Carter's watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the
$800 billion-plus bailout bill.
"Yes We Can" becomes "No We Can't" After
Election. "No We Can't" would seem to be a more realistic chant for the ongoing campaign that
continues after Barack Obama was elected President. Chief among his campaign promises and the brightest
star in the sky was a pledge to "lower healthcare costs and ensure affordable, high-quality healthcare for
all". Like many things out on the campaign trail, sounds good in theory; all but impossible once safely
in office.
From hope to doomsday.
The way things are going, we can expect to wake up one morning to find the president of the United States wandering
the streets of Washington in sack cloth with a placard predicting, well, the end. He's already given us
everything but the exact date on which the world will end as he leads a chorus of his supporters demanding that
Congress adopt his every nostrum lest our economic crisis transform itself into a "catastrophe," as Mr. Obama
put it, or "absolute collapse," as Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) warned, or even "Armageddon," in the words of
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.).
Doom and gloom replace hope. With
everything at his disposal, Obama chooses to be callous. Callous in allowing a health czar under the
misnomer of a National Coordinator of Heath Information Technology to oversee an aging population. It's
not as if there was any discussion about it. The health czar was merely slipped in to the controversial
Stimulus Plan. Obama has also been callous toward any who would disagree with him; callous toward news
reporters who happen to ask the wrong question, seemingly callous toward even the very history and ideals
that have upheld the country he was elected to serve.
Obama stimulates fear, doom and gloom. The running
narrative that only a trillion-dollar-plus stimulus package can fend off near-term disaster apparently
did not inject sufficient fear into the masses. The president, long used to crowds falling like
plums at his feet, thus needed to ramp things up to prod skeptics who have failed to defer to his
redistributionist instincts. Invoking a "crisis" that "we may not be able to reverse," Obama
last week sought to alarm the numbed millions whose attention span goes no broader than "economy's
bad, government's gotta do something." This stunningly craven scam continued in his Monday
night news conference.
Brakes Needed On A Stimulus Stoked By Fear.
The president, convinced that the only thing America has to fear is an insufficiency of fear, has warned that "disaster" and
"catastrophe" are the certain alternatives to swift passage of the stimulus legislation. One marvels at his certitude
more than one envies his custody of this adventure.
Obama's shock
doctrine: "Profound economic emergency," the president says. Failure to pass his spending plan could "turn a
crisis into a catastrophe". Any delay will mean "paralysis" and "disaster". It's all out of the "shock doctrine"
playbook: scare people to death and then demand that your agenda be enacted without delay.
Obama's new deal is the
same old blunder. President Barack Obama declared last week that "if we don't act immediately, our nation will
sink into a crisis that at some point we may be unable to reverse". As The Economist commented, with some alarm
"The notion that [America] might never recover was previously entertained only by bearded survivalists stockpiling beans and
ammunition in remote log cabins." Obama's dire assessment was on the surface the more surprising — wasn't
he supposed to be the great uplifter of the national mood, in the spirit of Franklin D Roosevelt's "The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself"?
President Obama and
the Politics of Fear. Obama's use of fear and coercion to implement his plan of loading the
country with insurmountable debt is shockingly reckless and blatantly inappropriate, to say the least.
With the exception of the housing and mortgage industries (which were corrupted by government intervention for
social "reinvestment") the aggregate economy was not at crisis level in 2008.
Package
stimulates socialism, not economy. Hitler played upon the fears of Germans to achieve power.
Some even claim Bush used fear to further his agenda of fighting terrorism. ... Now the Democrats capitalize on
fear to push their socialist ideology.
It's Obama spreading
panic. President Obama, in his pursuit of liberal big-government spending, has totally neglected
the role of the president of the United States in reversing global panic. To the contrary, his every
remark and the constant preoccupation of his Cabinet is to heighten the sense of crisis and to escalate the
predictions of doom if we do not do as they tell us and raise spending now and taxes later. Instead of
being a firewall, reassuring Main Street even as Wall Street crashed, he has become a conduit of panic,
spreading the mood of desperation from the stock exchange floor to kitchen tables across the world.
Is
it amateur hour at the Obama White House? [There has been] a six-week succession of
miscues, oversights, miscalculations and outright errors that suggest things have gone seriously awry in the
White House. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells a European Union gathering that American democracy
has been around a lot longer than European democracy. This no doubt particularly surprised the Dutch,
whose republic commenced years before the U.S. won its independence. ... The president remains personally
popular, but nothing so erodes public confidence as the perception of ineptitude. Policy differences
are one thing, but Americans won't accept incompetence in the Oval Office.
Why
is the Prez Snuffing out Hope? Barack Obama wrote a book about hope and be came president
promising it. So why's he doing everything in his power to snuff it out? Think about it: In
Obama World, what are we supposed to "hope" for? Certainly not vast riches. What would be the
point? His budget swipes massive amounts of wealth from top earners.
Obama Uses 'Politics of
Fear' He Once Criticized. President Obama frequently railed against the Bush-era "politics of fear"
on the campaign trail. In his inaugural address, he said, "We got here because we have chosen hope over
fear." ... But he has had no trouble issuing fear-inducing warnings himself. President Obama has simply
exchanged his predecessor's fear-inducing rhetoric on national security for fear-inducing rhetoric on the economy.
Peanut Farmer Allergies. Many of
America's largest cities have been controlled by the Democrats for decades and now lay in ruins. Look
at the condition of cities such as my beloved hometown Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis and so many
others. Our cities are sometimes as violent as what many of our soldiers face in war. Industry
and jobs have moved to the suburbs for any number of reasons. And our fearless leader is using the
most devastated cities in America as models for his hope and change. Phenomenally stupid.
How
Many Fights Will Obama Pick With America? There is little doubt that Obama faced a divided
electorate when he first took office and a difficult economic climate. Rather than start with a limited
agenda designed to build consensus, Obama did the opposite. Obama chased too many rabbits at once and
preferred ideological fights over practical solutions. As a result, the Country is more divided than
ever — not less.
Beyond Hope and Change.
According to a recent Rasmussen poll (January 24), only 29% of Americans believe the country is on the right
track. This loss of confidence is driven not only by the dire prospects of the debt time bomb and the economic
and security devastation that would bring, but by the fear of government intrusion into every aspect of daily life.
Scaring
a president straight isn't easy. Barack Obama dropped by the White House press room the other
day to stick it to the Republicans in the name of comity and fellowship. He offered to cooperate with
the Republicans in the Mafia spirit of making an "offer you can't refuse."
The Party of No Government Takeover.
Voters' distaste for the Democrats' national socialist approach to health care now translates into a decisive
53-37 percent preference for Republicans over Democrats on the health care issue. That isn't all, of
course. Rasmussen finds that voters now strongly prefer the Republican approach to issues pretty much
across the board.
Obama's Approval Rating Hits New
Low. Last week, President Obama signed historic health care reform legislation into law —
but his legislative success doesn't seem to have helped his image with the American public.
The Editor says...
Notice that the CBS News assessment of Obama's approval paints a much happier picture than
the Rasmussen poll.
The Most Profound Victims
of the Obama Hoax. The Fourth Great Awakening in American history continues to expand among those
who drank the Obama Campaign Kool-Aid. Statistically, the most zealous believers in hope and change
are the most profound victims of the Obama Hoax — poor, young, unemployed blacks.
Travesty
Of The Justice Department. Those who thought hope and change meant equal enforcement of the law
were wrong. A top DOJ official testifies about a deliberate policy of not prosecuting minorities or
protecting the rights of anybody else.
Obama's First Two Years a
Disaster for America. Based on the facts, we are no better off as a nation than we were when Obama
took office. The average American citizen has failed to see an improvement in his or her lifestyle versus
two years ago. This is a presidency, up to this point, that has been an absolute disaster for our nation and
our people.
Restoring America's
Standing. "I think that we've restored America's standing in the world."
[ —Barack Obama, November 18, 2009] Was this the simply the usual prevarication of a
President with a massive ego, or something he truly believed? In any event, the panorama of the world
today is far different as America is increasingly finding itself isolated, vilified, and ignored as never
before in its recent history. The heady days of "hope and change" have given way to cynicism and
mockery within the international community.
How's
That Hope and Change Working Out for Obama Supporters? When Barack Obama assumed the position of
President of the United States, the average price of gasoline was $1.81/gallon. Going into the past
weekend, the average price nationwide was $3.72/gallon. That's a mere 106% price increase under Obama.
Energy prices, as a proportion of income, naturally impact lower income families more than middle class or upper
class families. We've also seen a substantial increase in food prices, including corn and wheat, which
again impact the lower income group more than the overall population.
African American
unemployment at 16 percent. The economy and jobs will be big issues in Washington again this
coming week. While unemployment among the general population is about 9.1 percent, it's at
16.2 percent African Americans, and a bit higher still for African American males.
Obama's
Journey From "The Audacity of Hope" To, Simply, Audacity. As [President Eisenhower] observed,
"I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle." ... As things stand now, hordes of business builders throughout
our nation are depressed or, worse yet, enraged that they are being thwarted from "doing their thing." You
don't get people through hard times by rubbing the pain they must face in their faces. What you do is spur
them to action. If you tell an entrepreneur, "eat your peas," likely as not you'll get vegetables thrown
in your face.
Food stamp use rises to
record 45.8 million. Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according
to the United States Department of Agriculture. The number of Americans using the government's Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) — more commonly referred to as food stamps — shot to an all-time high
of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That's up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two
years ago.
Whispering the Truth in Obama's America.
The other day, I called a friend and interrupted her mid-cry. She'd just returned from putting her only son on a plane to China, where he was moving
after giving up on getting a job here. The next day in the supermarket, I bumped into another friend, looking downcast. She told me her only
son was planning his move to Hong Kong, after a fruitless year-long search for a job in the financial sector. "Obama's destroying the economy," she
told me; then she looked nervously around at our hyper-Blue State neighbors. "I feel like I have to whisper, or they're going to come and
arrest me."
The Left's
Neverland. The left, which I used to see as misguided but mostly benign, has built for itself —
because it knows it can't convince Americans to throw away freedom — a make-believe utopian country. It has
constructed, ex nihilo, a nation that has no borders, no laws, no specific language, and no recognizable
morality. When Barrack Obama said he wanted to "fundamentally change" America, he wasn't bluffing. When he'd
stick out his chin and say, "That's not who we are," he wasn't talking about us; he was talking about the citizens of his
make-believe land which I'll name "Neverland." The name is suitable in many ways. In the first place, it isn't
real and never will be.
How Obama
Destroyed Black Wealth. The Obama presidency was a disaster for middle-class wealth in the United States.
Between 2007 and 2016, the average wealth of the bottom 99 percent dropped by $4,500. Over the same period, the average
wealth of the top 1 percent rose by $4.9 million. This drop hit the housing wealth of African Americans particularly
hard. Outside of home equity, black wealth recovered its 2007 level by 2016. But average black home equity was still
$16,700 lower. Much of this decline, we will argue, can be laid at the feet of President Obama. His housing policies
led directly to millions of families losing their homes.
Basking
in Obama's 'afterglow' could burn Biden: 'We cannot return to the past'. While the Democratic base still
harbors enormous goodwill toward the country's first black president, some early state voters say Mr. Obama failed to
deliver on many of his promises, leaving the political battleground virtually unchanged a decade after his historic ascent to
the White House. "We saw what happened with Obama. There's no change yet," said Democratic voter Derryl Mitchell
II, 27, who owns a media marketing firm in Charleston, South Carolina. "We had a chance in 2008 and not much came from
it. We're still here — same issues."
'Change' We Never Imagined.
[Mr. Obama,] your words ring hollow and your actions speak volumes. Every policy you promise to implement does
exactly what you've denounced. Both your actions and your words very much pit Red America against Blue America.
For all the talk of "hope," "change," and "coming together," it's becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama's
administration will be the most leftist, divisive and discriminatory in recent memory.
Promises,
Promises: No lobbyists at WH, except ... Barack Obama promised a "clean break from
business as usual" in Washington. It hasn't quite worked out that way. From the start, he made
exceptions to his no-lobbyist rule. And now, embarrassing details about Cabinet-nominee Tom Daschle's
tax problems and big paychecks from special interest groups are raising new questions about the reach and
sweep of the new president's promised reforms.
Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case.
The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday [1/22/2009] when it urged a federal judge to
set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a
program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.
Obama Stiffs the Left.
In the run-up to the presidential election, Obama made no secret of his disapproval of the Iraq war, or of his intention to
pull American troops out of that venture. During the campaign, he at first pledged that he would end our involvement in
2009. Then he backed off a bit and has recently been talking about 16 months as an appropriate deadline.
More recently still, even that date has begun to wobble.
Partisan
dirt-digger joins WH office. Amid the furor over controversies regarding Cabinet-nominee tax
problems and the seismic battle over a nearly trillion-dollar economic rescue bill, President Obama made a
little-noticed appointment that is now generating intrigue. Shauna Daly, a 29-year-old Democratic
operative, was named last month to the new job of White House counsel research director. ... "Daly does not
have the qualifications to be holding a significant position in the White House counsel's office," said Mark
Levin, a conservative lawyer and radio-show host who worked in the Reagan White House and as chief of staff
for Attorney General Edwin Meese. "Her only qualification is that she knows how to dig up dirt on
other people," he said.
Where Are We
Heading? [Scroll down] The next pillar to crumble was the promise of "new politics." We
saw it with the announcement of new ethics rules barring lobbyists from working in the Obama Administration on issues
that fell under their lobbying bailiwick — followed by waivers for lobbyists working on issues that fell under
their lobbying bailiwick. In defense, press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the standard, as if violating the
standard was of secondary importance.
Government overreach isn't
stimulating. It's a scene not unlike the conservative populist revolt in 2007 against the Bush Amnesty
Bill — which was a rare victory for grassroots citizens over our arrogant government keepers. Then,
like now, politicians who portend to know better than us uninformed yokels were just a few votes shy of forcing a
disastrously ill-considered immigration 'reform' glob down our collective throats. And with this stimulus package
they're seeking to do it again, led by our new president who campaigned based on "hope" and "change you can believe
in." Barack Obama's notion of change has proven to be anything but — a bloated, pork-filled spending
orgy that only politicians and lobbyists would love.
Senate confirms ex-lobbyist as Pentagon
No. 2. The U.S. Senate approved William Lynn, a former Raytheon Co lobbyist, to be deputy secretary of
defense after he received a special White House waiver from strict new rules meant to close a "revolving door" between
government and big business.
Obama administration goes to bat for
secrecy. For the second time this week, the Obama administration has gone to court in San Francisco to argue
for secrecy in defending a terrorism policy crafted under George W. Bush — in this case, wiretapping that
President Obama denounced as a candidate. In papers filed Wednesday night, the new Justice
Department asked a federal judge to suspend action on a suit challenging the wiretapping program, arguing that proceedings
would jeopardize national security.
So far,
'SuperTeflon' coat protects Obama. [Scroll down] Two key slogans emblematized [the Obama] campaign:
Hope, and Change. He was going to bring Hope to the American people, and Change the way things are done in Washington.
The voters clearly thought these were excellent ideas. Change went by the wayside almost immediately. Virtually
all of his appointees to key posts in the government and on the White House staff were Washington insiders, many of them
old-timers, who seem to have little to recommend them in their new posts other than the fact of being insiders —
people like Leon Panetta in charge of national security, and Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. New blood?
Hardly.
Want "Hope and Change"? Buy a Goat. Although
the mainstream media won't report it as such, Obama's approval numbers are shrinking. Which means that elsewhere,
certain numbers are growing — the unreported-by-the-MSM growing numbers of Americans who are kicking themselves
for not having bothered to read the small print underneath the word "change."
Obama team take
gloves off for fight with radio host Rush Limbaugh. A ploy by the Obama White House to depict
the inflammatory conservative talkshow host Rush Limbaugh as head of the Republican Party has triggered a
furious partisan battle — just the style of bareknuckle politics the new President promised to end.
Not The Change
They Voted For. President Obama is only doing what the voters asked for. That's how he
defends his budget with trillions in new spending and few offsetting cuts in old spending. ... But in many
ways, he is neither doing what he advocated nor what voters were seeking. The American people voted for
change. But there's little or no evidence they were eager for the sweeping, liberal change Obama is now
bent on delivering when they elected him last November.
BHO Giving Up? The Wall Street
Journal today reported President Barack Obama has decided to give up fighting for "change" in Washington,
instead acquiescing to the demands of the Democrat controlled Congress. During his campaign, BHO
promised to curb earmarks. He promised to end the use of presidential signing statements — a
president's way of rejecting parts of a bill without entirely vetoing it — something President
George W Bush did very often. WSJ reports he even promised to open an investigation of Bush's 1,200
signing statements. But, today, BHO decided to break both promises when he signed the omnibus spending
bill into law. The bill contains more than 8,500 pork barrel earmarks worth over $7.7 billion in
tax dollars.
Obama administration missteps indicate
a disturbing and dangerous trend. It is painfully obvious that Obama is yielding to old-style
political demands when the country is expecting real leadership. First-term presidents never get too far
away from their political tool kit, but as a candidate, Sen. Obama was uniquely successful with his pledge to
eliminate "business as usual" if elected. He forged a special bond of trust with a huge number of voters
who saw him as a genuine agent of "change we can believe in." President Obama is now retreating from
that pledge, and "business as usual" is seen as a serious weakness because of the voter backlash it will
inevitably generate. That backlash could ultimately render the Obama presidency impotent.
The Republicans can take heart as Barack Obama staggers to the
Left. The question of who Mr Obama really is, and what he truly believes, underlies
the growing list of Very Odd Things that seem to be happening under his administration. Among
the most perplexing of these mysteries is why, when he went to such pains to assemble a huge and
widely experienced team of White House economic advisers ... he then handed over the actual drafting of his
economic policy to the old Democratic fixers in Congress. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate
majority leader, Harry Reid, are now, for all intents and purposes, running the Obama recovery plan.
We've Got Company. The Washington
Post reports that the new president has undertaken a sharp break from his predecessor's foreign policy. Oh wait,
actually that overstates the case. The policy is the same, but the semantics are new.
The Obama
era brings boom times for lobbyists. Early numbers suggest that the first quarter of 2009 has seen
lobbying in the nation's capital spike by nearly 22 percent over last year, which would be the largest ever
increase in lobbying activity — and a strong indication that President Barack Obama has helped usher
in a Golden Era for K Street.
Joe
Biden's merry band of lobbyists. Vice President Biden's latest fundraising e-mail asks for
help battling "corporate interests." "By spending an unprecedented amount of cash to support Republicans,"
Biden writes, "they're doing their best to buy their way back into power." This is the style of Obama's
White House: Never grant that your opponents disagree in good faith and always accuse them of corruption.
Beyond being unfair, it's dishonest, because it ignores the White House's coziness with corporate lobbyists.
National debt hits record $11 trillion. The
eye-popping national debt surpassed $11 trillion Monday [3/16/2009], the largest in U.S. history. The new Treasury Department
figures on the national debt were released as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to project that the
annual budget deficit will be higher than previously estimated by the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
The debt, which refers to the cumulative amount of money the government owes, hit $10.9 trillion on Friday.
The Angry Left. Hey
Obama, yes we can. Troops out of Afghanistan, chanted the crowd. Barack, Barack, Barack, Afghanistan's
the same as Iraq. ... But the frustration of the activists was hardly canned. "It doesn't look like
Obama is changing anything," said Kyle Quigley, an Iraq War veteran who had traveled from Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, to attend the rally.
Playing President. The Obama
campaign promised "Hope" and "Change," but delivered neither. Instead, the same, old socialist-democrat
agenda put on a new costume and a face. Eleven of the 12 members of Obama's advisory board came from
the Clinton administration, as did 31 of the 47 members of his transition team. Obama's administration
is almost a repeat of the Clinton team. And there's a good reason. ... The Council on Foreign Relations
and, since 1973, the Trilateral Commission, have produced the people who have shaped public policy. These
are the people who tell Obama's teleprompter what to say.
Democracy in action: The
degree to which the Obama administration is responsible for sagging employment might be debatable, but the president
and his team definitely deserve credit for the boom in job growth at political action committees. As the
government expands in every direction and stimulus spending is dispensed like candy, an increasing number of
lobbyists is being drawn to Washington to try to get a piece of the pie.
The great divider. President
Obama is becoming the most divisively partisan president in history. ... After a little more than two months in office,
Mr. Obama has created the widest partisan gap in America since pollsters started measuring this in the 1960s.
Obama, aided by media, falling
short on pledge for change. Candidate Obama promised to end earmarks in legislation which leads
to pork barrel spending. In the middle of March, President Obama signed the spending bill so government
could continue to fund its programs and included in this spending bill was all the former earmarks and pork
barrel spending intact. ... Candidate Obama campaigned for a quick withdrawal of troops from Iraq. ... Candidate
Obama promised action to get the economy going in the positive direction.
Civility
and Tolerance in the Age of Obama. They told us if Barack Obama were elected, the nation would come
together. Souls would be fixed. Spirits would be healed. Public discourse would be elevated.
Welcome to civility and tolerance in the Age of Obama.
Political Wind Blowing Against
Unions. When Barack Obama won the election, Big Labor's ambitions soared. It spent
$400 million to elect Democrats and expected an easy ride ahead. A hundred days into the Obama
administration, it's playing defense.
Obama Outsources His Presidency.
The first 100 days can reveal a pattern of behavior that comes to characterize a presidency. In this
respect, there are two emerging habits of Team Obama worth watching. One is the gap between what Mr. Obama
said he would do and what he is doing. His administration is emphasizing in its official 100 days
talking points steps he has taken to "deliver on the change he promised." During the campaign, Mr. Obama
denounced the $2.3 trillion added to the national debt on Mr. Bush's watch as "deficits as far as the eye
can see." But Mr. Obama's budget adds $9.3 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.
What happened to Obama the deficit hawk?
Obama
gives the far Left 99 dreamy days. Obama was elected as a different kind of candidate who could
be trusted to deliver genuine change. But virtually every one of his 99 days in the nation's highest
office have revealed him to be just another Washington pol who talks a good case but acts no differently when
it comes to keeping promises.
Chump Change. After
hearing the Democratic Party lay into President Bush last year for his "profligacy," "record spending" and
"soaring deficits," we can't be blamed for expecting something else from the party now in power. Instead,
we get a 19% rise in domestic spending in 2010 from 2008 (2009 has been wildly inflated by stimulus spending),
coupled with $17 billion in bogus "cuts" and record amounts of pork-barrel spending.
US govt hydrogen highway
runs out of road. The Hydrogen Highway has just become a B road. The Obama
administration has announced that the Federal government's $1.2bn (£788m/€880m) plan to develop
hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars and infrastructure is to end. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the
government preferred to target more immediate energy-saving solutions and so funding was "moving away from
vehicular hydrogen fuel-cells to technologies with more immediate promise" — read plug-in
electric vehicles of one form or another.
Obama's eight
bogus budget arguments. Assertion No. 1: "I pledged to cut the deficit in half" by
2013. Fact: The president doesn't mention that the deficit has quadrupled this year. Merely
cutting it in half from that bloated level would still leave budget deficits twice as high as under President
Bush. This is like eating a 5,000 calorie meal, and then pledging to halve your calories from that level.
Obama
Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some. President Obama acknowledged publicly
for the first time yesterday [5/21/2009] that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without
trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious
issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba.
What's the Hang-Up?
If the Bush administration's transgressions were so obvious, why are the fixes so hard to figure out? The
kind of outrage we saw over Guantanamo Bay surely was backed by a certainty of purpose, right? After all,
holding terrorist suspects there wasn't a mere matter of inexact solutions; it showed an anti-American disregard
for human rights and due process. The answer should be a simple matter of course correction.
Obama in
Bush Clothing. If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on
previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within
125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush
program.
Saint Barack bids adieu — Enter Bush
lite. The saint is no longer quite so saintly. Barack Obama began his presidency promising a sea
change in the way America handles civil liberties. Now, four months later, and after a masterful — if
unconvincing — attempt this week to explain his contradictions, he's shown that he's till an old-time
Chicago pol.
Obama
Lifts Ban on Lobbyists! Back to Business as Usual. Roll Call is reporting that during the typical Friday
afternoon document dump — a practice used to hide actions that might prove somewhat embarrassing to the White
House — the administration quietly announced that some of the former restrictions on lobbying ballyhooed about
during the late campaign have been lifted. And now, we have to wonder: will the media notice this sudden
change? I mean, a whole day has gone by and so far only Roll Call has mentioned it.
Republicans
Desperately Need a Star. Turns out Republicans were right all along. Hellbent terrorists around the
world really do want to kill Americans, and the best place to keep those we catch is Gitmo. Just ask Democrats in
Congress. And the best way to try the relentless bastards is through military tribunals. Just ask President
Obama.
Barack Hussein Bush. Mr.
Obama also offered a robust defense of the war in Afghanistan, calling it "a war of necessity" and promising
that "America's commitment will not weaken." That's an important note to sound when Mr. Obama's left
flank and some Congressional Democrats are urging an exit strategy from that supposed quagmire. On Iraq,
he acknowledged that "the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein" and
pledged the U.S. to the "dual responsibility" of leaving Iraq while helping the country "forge a better
future." The timeline he reiterated for U.S. withdrawal is the one Mr. Bush negotiated last year.
Now He Even Sounds Like Bush.
It's old news that Barack Obama has held onto or reinstituted vast swaths of George W. Bush's national security
policy. From staying the course in Iraq to re-starting military tribunals, so many controversial Bush-era decisions
have proved to be simply the best way forward in a legally and militarily treacherous gauntlet. ... But the president's
sudden embrace of Bush's foreign policy ideology is something no one could have foreseen.
What's old is
new again, Obama remarks mirror Bush's. Take away the willingness to negotiate with Iran without preconditions
and the president's newly rediscovered Muslim roots, and the "new beginning" in U.S.-Islamic relations outlined by Barack
Obama in his Cairo speech Thursday has an awfully familiar ring to it.
Obama blocks list of visitors to
White House. The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the
White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes
calling to influence policy decisions. Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of
transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret
Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the
present.
Good
Government Group Sues for White House Visitors' Logs. The good-government group Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, filed a lawsuit today [6/16/2009] to force the President Obama to share
White House visitors logs with the public. "We're suing because the Obama Administration has made it
clear that they are continuing the policies and practices of the Bush administration and claiming that White
House visitors' records are off limits to the public," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW.
Obama Closes Doors on Openness. As a senator,
Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the
White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a
Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had
visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such
records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House
counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against
public disclosure.
Quid Pro Quo. We noted here that the
drug companies intend to spend $150 million -- more than the McCain campaign's entire television
advertising budget -- on ads supporting Obamacare. Today on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked Linda
Douglass whether the ad campaign was part of the deal that the drug companies struck with the Obama
administration.
Oh yeah, this is a BIG change. Obama
wants to make America more like Europe. [Scroll down] In the end, Americans will live in smaller
houses, drive cars more like those to which Europeans are accustomed, and will rely on European-style healthcare. ... Women
will be "empowered" to bring more lawsuits if they feel discriminated against, either now or in years gone by; more
Americans will work in the public sector as it expands relative to the private sector, and as Washington displaces
New York as the nation's financial capital. Love him or loathe him, Obama will leave an America vastly different
from the one he inherited.
Young
voters should take another look at Obama. Congratulations. You have truly changed America.
Those of you under 30 voted 66 percent to 32 percent for Barack Obama, an unprecedented margin. ... You
want policies that will enable you to choose your future. Obama backs policies that would let centralized
authorities choose much of your future for you. Is this the hope and change you want?
What Went Wrong:
[Scroll down] Even skeptics are surprised at the partisan cynicism. A year ago, Democratic leaders such as Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama praised organizing, dissidents, and protest. Today they have become near-Nixonian
in demonizing popular resistance to their collectivized health-care plans as mob-like, inauthentic, scripted, Nazi-like, and
un-American. There are still ex-lobbyists in the government. High officials still cheat on their taxes.
Hacks in the Congress still profit from their office.
National Suicide.
Remember when the deficit was so bad that Democrats said we (or more accurately the Republicans) were placing
a terrible burden on our grandchildren? That was several trillion dollars ago. Democrats now
appear perfectly fine with extending the growing deficit and national debt to their great-grandchildren.
Hope
and Change Has Become Predictable Liberalism. If a revolution takes root throughout the country
and no one in Washington hears it, does the revolution exist? In our representative system, the answer
is yes — and members of both parties ought to start paying attention if they hope to survive the
2010 midterm elections intact.
Ingrates!
The Angry Left is angry at the president of the United States. That makes it official. Nothing
changed when Barack Obama became president.
Bush-Era
Policy Kept To Search Travelers. The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era
procedures allowing the government to search — without suspicion of wrongdoing — the
contents of a traveler's laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new
policies would expand oversight of such inspections. The policy, disclosed Thursday [8/27/2009] in a
pair of Department of Homeland Security directives...
Obama supports extending Patriot Act
provisions. The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot
Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made
public Tuesday.
Mr. Obama
Punts. Like President George W. Bush, President Obama now asserts that the 2001 Authorization
for the Use of Military Force gives him the right to hold some terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial.
At Guantanamo, this is expected to affect 50 or so prisoners who, the administration has determined,
can be tried neither in federal court nor before a military commission but are too dangerous to release.
The Limits of
Reinvention: [In Europe,] Barack Obama, the man who practically invented reinvention, is himself
being reinvented as an ugly American. Not because he's seen as loud and aggressive, but because he's seen
as weak. The events that have transpired since Obama took office nine months ago have been watched with
widening eyes in Europe, and what they're seeing isn't what they had in mind when they too asked for "change."
Obamanoia. Oil is climbing back
over $80 a barrel; the dollar is falling against the Euro to 1.50. The annual deficit is already over
$1.6 trillion and may go well over that. The tab for health care will hit right under $1 trillion.
Unemployment may be headed over 10%. The people who voted for Obama were mad over Bush's bailouts, unemployment,
deficits, and supposed divisiveness. And? They got greater bailouts, higher unemployment, larger deficits,
and Chicago politics.
The Post-Gracious
President. Nine months after Barack Obama entered the Oval Office, his most adamant critics must
concede he's delivered on "change." And we see it in our first post-gracious presidency. The most
visible manifestations of the new ungraciousness are the repeated digs the president and his senior staffers
continue to make against George W. Bush. Recently, the administration has given us two fresh examples.
For sale: White
House perks. Clinton set the precedent. Bush continued the practice, And it appears now that
Obama is perfecting it. I'm talking about selling access to the White House in exchange for
cash — a lot of cash.
Follow the Money.
We have yet to see a bill from the Democratic Congress or the Obama White House that is not actually a
payoff to a key constituency. The tsunami of dollars unleashed by the Obama Treasury Department in
coordination with the Fed has obscured the fact that many of those dollars are ending up in the
pockets of Friends of Obama or Friends of Nancy or Friends of Harry.
Exclusive:
Democratic donors rewarded with W.H. perks. During his first nine months in office, President
Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private
briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.
Is the White
House for Sale? Obama supporter Lanny Davis says the president has little choice but to continue
business as usual — even though Obama as candidate implied things would be different. "When it
comes to fundraising I never heard Barack Obama say 'I believe in unilateral disarmament.' So long as
Republicans are raising money we have to raise money, and we won the White House, we ought to take advantage
of that," Davis said.
Obamaland.
[Obama] promised "change" and to stop the polarized politics of the past. He asserted America was on the
brink of death by division. We needed to come together. But now President Obama stands at the edge
of the same abyss. And many believe he has fallen into the same swamp of bitterness and polarization he
promised to end. Recent poll trends support this conclusion.
The
Obama White House: Bundlers' Paradise. Perks for deep-pocketed donors? Presidential
meetings for sale? The stale Chicago odor of pay-for-play wafting from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Knock me over with a feather. Despite the president's claimed distaste for the campaign finance practice
known as "bundling" (rounding up aggregate contributions from friends, business associates and employees), the
House of Obama has been a campaign finance bundlers' paradise from Day One.
Barack
Obama accused of 'selling' access to the White House. President Barack Obama has been accused
of betraying his campaign promise to change the culture of Washington by "selling" access to the White House
to prominent donors. Leaked Democratic National Committee documents showed the party had offered up to four
briefings a year from senior presidential advisers in exchange for a personal donation of $30,400 or a
commitment to raise $300,000 for the 2010 midterm elections.
A pay-to-play White House.
In the months since Mr. Obama took office, his administration has showered the Democratic Party's key fundraisers
with insider briefings from administration staffers, access to the president and top aides and all the social
perks that only the White House can bestow. The president, who ran for office saying he wanted to clean
up fundraising, is perfectly happy to wallow in the cash-for-access mud pit.
Obama and
'Special Interests'. At the same time that the White House has demonized lobbyists, it has
allowed itself to be infiltrated by a different army — one made up of campaign contributors.
These individuals can breeze past defenses designed to repel lobbyists. Campaign contributors,
especially those who bundled large contributions from others, have been embraced by this administration.
Because they aren't formally registered or regulated in the way lobbyists are, they enjoy the benefits and
privileges of serving in the heart of the administration.
Bush or Obama: The
Quiz. [Question #6] Obama criticized Bush for Guantanamo, military tribunals,
wiretaps, troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "signing statements." Which one of these Bush
practices has Obama ended?
Why
it's a mistake to bring Gitmo prisoners here. Of all the changes Barack Obama is trying to
bring about, there is one that would have stunned and dismayed his most ardent supporters, had they foreseen
it during the presidential campaign. After all his talk of American values and loyalty to the
Constitution, Obama is positioning himself to become the man who brought indefinite detention to the
United States.
Pay to play. White House
logs point to donor access. Newly released visitor logs show that more than two dozen of
President Obama's top-tier campaign fundraisers visited the White House during his first nine months in
office, providing more evidence of the administration's quiet effort to reward donors with VIP access
including private briefings with presidential advisers.
Obama delivers a cynical speech to a cynical nation.
President Obama's invocations of Sept. 11 in his West Point speech on Afghanistan landed with a clatter. ... It
came as a particularly cruel irony for many of the president's most ardent supporters when he argued for
escalating a war most liberals believe should be ended, framing his argument in the same terms that
launched the Bush doctrine.
Promises, Promises:
Friday is still WH 'trash day'. President Barack Obama entered the White House promising a new
era of openness in government, but when it comes to bad news, his administration often uses one of the
oldest tricks in the public relations playbook: putting it out when the fewest people are likely
to notice.
The Un-Bama. [Scroll down] "Change"
has been Obama's calling card. And, as with any hypnotic induction, vagueness can powerfully bind many a
subject when left to the mind of the listener to clarify. Nevertheless, many Obama supporters are beginning
to realize that the "change" he or she imagined the president to have suggested is different from the almost
complete overhaul of our national fabric that Obama and his minions have been pounding out.
Trial
lawyer lobbyist to head traffic safety for Obama. A former lobbyist for the nation's largest
trial lawyer industry group, the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers
of America) is Obama's nominee as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Anti-war activists losing patience with
Obama. Abby Tomlinson voted for President Barack Obama, hoping that he would help end the war
in Iraq quickly. But the Lubbock woman said she's disappointed in what the "peace" candidate has
accomplished along those lines, nearly a year after taking office. Two wars continue.
Rude
awakening for naive Left about big government. To watch the Left turn against President Obama's
health care reform is to watch the shattering of an illusion. Liberals' high-minded plan for insuring
all Americans has devolved into a congressional orgy of pork. It has produced a bailout for insurers and
a generous subsidy for drug makers — and both industries are backing this bill to the hilt.
Danny
Glover Sees No Difference Between Obama and Bush. "I think the Obama administration has followed
the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don't see anything
different," the activist movie actor said of Obama's policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.
Powerful
Chicagoans on White House Visitor Log. Among the visitors: Penny Pritzker, leader of Obama's
campaign fundraising efforts. She visited 15 times between Obama's inauguration and mid-June.
The Great Dictator. The
cry of the left against Obama is directed against his failure to go far enough. Why haven't US troops
already withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan? Why wasn't Gitmo closed instantly? Why wasn't the
public option passed? That these things weren't feasible is something they don't want to hear. ... And
now the left is disappointed because Obama hasn't been quite the Great Dictator they imagined.
The Once-Appealing Barack
Obama. [Scroll down slowly] That was what we were promised. What we got instead
is a president who increased the divisions in our nation, the most partisan and polarizing figure in the
history of polling, one who is dogmatic and has been as generous to special interests as any we have
seen. The efforts to buy votes in pursuit of the Obama agenda has added sewage to the cesspool.
This would hurt any president under any circumstances; for Barack Obama, whose allure was based almost entirely
on his ability to convince the public that he embodied a "new politics," it has been doubly damaging.
Change,
yes, but not the change Americans wanted. Mr. Obama had set his sights on the transformation of
American society. For most Americans, however, change was a matter of how, not what. Social
revolution was the last thing on their minds. They ascribed the failed policies of the Bush years to the
glaring defects of a political process dominated by special interests and partisan bickering. So what
did Mr. Obama do? He poured kerosene on both.
Whose Business Is It?
During last year's presidential campaign, Democrats blasted "sweetheart deals" for companies like Halliburton and
vowed to end no-bid contracts. Now the Democrats' political donors are reaping them. Monday [1/25/2010],
Fox News found that Checchi & Company Consulting was awarded a $24,673,427 no-bid contract for "rule of law
stabilization services" inside Afghanistan. And by coincidence, its president, Vincent Checchi, donated
$8,350 to Obama's campaign, according to opensecrets.org.
State
Department Admits No-Bid Contract 'Violates' Obama Campaign Pledges. The recent awarding of a
lucrative federal contract to a company owned by a financial contributor to the Obama presidential
campaign — without competitive bidding — "violated" President Obama's many campaign
pledges to crack down on the practice, a top State Department official told Fox News.
U.S.
Cancels No-Bid Contract for Afghan Work Given to Democratic Donor. The U.S. has canceled a
$25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan awarded to a company owned by a Democratic campaign
contributor who did not face competitive bids. The cancellation comes after Fox News first reported on
the details of the contract last week, prompting lawmakers to make inquiries into the deal.
Obama
picks another fight he can't win. President Obama has adopted a new kind of bipartisanship —
daring Republicans to offer their policy views so that he can discredit them. You might call it
punching-bag bipartisanship. The president and his party believe that by eliciting Republican
policy ideas they can remind Americans how much they hate the GOP.
The Administration, Rebutted.
In what must seem a bitter irony to many who voted for Obama, the administration is now at great pains to
justify its anti-terrorism policies by claiming that they are the same as those of the once-dreaded Bush
administration.
How
can I miss you if you won't go away? [Scroll down] While the Bush Administration was
colluding with telecommunications companies, such as AT&T, to eavesdrop on American citizens without any
evidence of wrongdoing and devoid of any judicial check, Senator Obama provided necessary cover, voting in favor
of retroactive immunity to those same telecom corporations and to permit such warrantless surveillance.
Privacy. Remember all the
caterwauling by the Democrats and then Senator Obama about the Bush Administration's deliberate attempt to pry
into the lives of Americans using the war on terror as an excuse. The protection of privacy was the
battle cry against the dastardly Republicans in the White House. In a matter of less than 13 months
the Obama administration has taken steps that show its true colors and allegiance to the "big brother'
philosophy exposed in George Orwell's "1984".
Obama's bundlers
occupy dozens of key positions. [Scroll down] An analysis by the American Foreign Service
Association, for example, found that Obama has stuffed the diplomatic corps with more political appointees (i.e.,
cronies) than any president in the past 40 years. Only a year into the administration, close of half
of the president's biggest donors already have federal jobs.
No
Nukes! Unless Obama Wants Nukes... I don't want to start a new conspiracy theory but a
small and dedicated group of Americans has gone missing. Vanished without a trace! Where are the
American anti-nuclear people? What has happened to the "No Nukes" crowd?
Senate votes to extend USA Patriot
Act for 1 year. The Senate voted Wednesday [2/24/2010] to extend for a year key provisions of the
nation's counterterrorism surveillance law that are scheduled to expire at the end of the month.
Shhhhh,
Don't Tell Anyone — The Patriot Act Was Reauthorized. After a lot of huffing and puffing,
about the need to add more civil-liberties protections to a law already teeming with them, the Democrat-controlled
Senate quietly voted to extend the three Patriot Act provisions that would have expired without reauthorization.
Although beating back Patriot and its sensible national-security provisions has been a rallying cry for the Left,
Senate Democrats agreed to a clean reauthorization on a voice-vote.
Obama
Signs One-Year Extension of Patriot Act — on a Saturday Night Of Course. With virtually zero
debate — or media attention — President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension for what many
considered the most crucial and controversial aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act. For many on the left, the Patriot Act
is the defining pillar and symbol of the previous administration, emblematic of a totalitarian police state they allegedly
suffered under George W. Bush.
Scrap ObamaCare Today. In terms
of both policy and process, this health care bill has been fundamentally flawed since the start. Now,
desperate to ram through a health care bill at any cost, President Obama and his allies are preparing to use
reconciliation, which would prove once and for all their inability and unwillingness to fix Washington and
responsibly manage the people's business. Going down this road will also make clear that the poetry and
promises of 2008's campaign have completely evaporated and given way to the dark side of Washington's
politics as usual.
Govt. Transparency Down in
'09. When President Obama took office, he famously aspired to be the leader in administrative
transparency, but now he finds himself struggling to enforce it within his own government. In fiscal
year 2009, 17 major governmental agencies refused to release information, claiming legal exemptions, 466,872
times, an increase of nearly 50 percent from the previous year, according to a review of requests
conducted by The Associated Press.
Breaking the Obama
Code: The Green Money Machine. [Scroll down] As a few dozen dot com billionaires
gathered in a Palo Alto living room one evening in early 2007, then-Senator Obama rallied potential new donors
over the speakerphone. After the call, the host John Roos, a prominent lawyer, emphasized what most of
his guests already knew. The clean-energy revolution was gaining momentum. The election in 2008
would be the critical moment. The ethics-based green revolution could be passed into law and Obama was
their guy. Roos raised much money and opened many doors for Obama that evening. In May 2009, despite
initial criticism from Japan, Roos was given the plum appointment of U.S. Ambassador.
An Obama secret:
Here's a not-so-tiny tidbit of data that's getting lost in the White House-driven public frenzy over healthcare
legislation this week: The White House Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his
presidential predecessor George W. Bush as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom
of Information Act requests than the Republican did.
A
little secret about Obama's transparency: The current administration, challenged by the
president to be the most open, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than Bush did.
America's
new standing in the world. Barack Obama promised to change America's standing in the
world, and he has delivered results. Unfortunately for us, the change has made us a
doormat — a nation whose Secretary of State can be humiliated in front of the world's
press with impunity.
Government Secrecy
Increases Under Obama. Government agencies keep finding excuses to keep an alarming number of
public records secret as President Obama sits idly watching his promise of unprecedented transparency repeatedly
mocked. The commander-in-chief's open-government guarantee has turned out to be a big joke that has actually
led to more secrecy than under the Bush Administration.
Obama
Thanks U.S. Troops for Sacrifice as Force in Afghanistan Grows. President Obama told
U.S. troops in Afghanistan Sunday that America did not ask to be at war there, but he has ratched up
the fight to make sure the Taliban and Al Qaeda can not experience a resurgence that would threaten
U.S. national security.
Obama
makes surprise trip to Afghanistan. President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to
Afghanistan on Sunday [3/28/2010] for a firsthand look at the 8-year-old war he inherited and
dramatically escalated.
President Obama Gets Back on the War
Wagon. Fresh off his historic and defiant passage of health care reform and barnstorming across
the country soliciting popular support to combat Republican and Tea Party opposition, President Obama got back
on the war wagon. After a surprise 13-hour flight, Mr. Obama made his first presidential visit to
Afghanistan.
Dems
break spirit of law when enacting law. What happened to the victory lap Obama was supposed to be
taking? What happened to the spike in the polls for both him and for health care, for his acclamation as
being a man who could govern, and his party, as being able to lead? What happened to being allowed to
"move on," once health care was done with? What happened to his coronation — as some bloggers
had it — to being our cooler and new FDR?
Turning the Obama
Tide: No president in the history of modern polling has lost so much support in so short a
period of time as Barack Obama. Most of his policies are deeply unpopular -- and the most
unpopular policy of all is his signature domestic initiative, health care. ... Yet Mr. Obama is
unmoved by any of this.
Note
to Doctors: Now I'm "Entitled" To Your Services. [Scroll down] But thinking about
this situation more broadly, one has to ask "what is fair?" ... Is it "fair" that Barack Obama and Joe Biden
and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and every elected member of Congress and their respective staff members and
members of the United Auto Worker's union are all exempt from the heavy handed mandates of Obamacare, while
the mandates are imposed on the millions of the rest of us? Is this the "change" we were "hoping" for?
Obama
embraces the trappings of a war presidency. Having campaigned on a tough critique of former
President George W. Bush's conduct of the two wars and promising to end them, Obama has more recently
embraced the military cause.
Under
Obama, a diminished sense of opportunity. Last summer I wrote a column framed as a letter to a
young Obama voter. It concluded, "You want policies that will enable you to choose your future.
Obama backs policies that would let centralized authorities choose much of your future for you. Is this
the hope and change you want?" It seems that some young Obama voters have decided it isn't.
Countering Violent Extremism.
It's funny how the search for euphemisms — nobody wants to say we're fighting Islamist fanatics —
leads the current gang to adopt a nearly identical version of a slogan coined by their bête noire. Perhaps
that's fitting because on many fronts — especially in the use of targeted assassinations via Predators,
in wiretap authority, in renditions, and in holding terrorist suspects indefinitely without trial — the
Obama administration has continued the policies of its predecessor.
In just one year Obama has doubled Bush's drone kill rate. Obama's Increased Use of Death From the
Skies, Where's the Anti-War Left? The Washington Think Tank New America Foundation has been
reporting on drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq for quite some time and its tally of kills
by U.S. drones reveals an interesting thing. It shows that drone kills under President Obama are far
and away higher than those under Bush.
GE's Big Brother. The Obama
administration has come under scrutiny for its ties to several large corporations, including the auto industry
giants General Motors and Chrysler, whose bailout it engineered last spring. But one corporate connection
has not received similar scrutiny. Since 2008, General Electric has been cozying up to the Obama
administration.
General Electric:
Obama's Halliburton? The hypocrisy permeating the policy decisions emanating from the Obama White House
continues. General Electric will directly benefit from Obama's decision to renege on a deal to provide Eastern
Europe with missile defense systems.
Obama
helps strengthen General Electric-Putin ties. General Electric may be the company with the
closest ties to the Obama administration (if not, GE is second only to Goldman Sachs), and here we see the
company benefiting from an abrupt foreign policy change made by President Obama.
Liar. The electorate is waking up and unlike
Carter's days, they have a ready source of rapid information. Perhaps this is why Obama has begun expanding the
Patriot Act so he can act against US Citizens by claiming that they are "domestic terrorists". I find it interesting
that a party that is so quick to cry "privacy is a right" found it important to eliminate that right in Obama's
extension. It should also be noted that the extension was largely bipartisan.
Why reporters are down on President Obama:
Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship — as contentious on a day-to-day
basis as any between press and president in the past decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even
basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to
be more open than its predecessors, and reporters feel it doesn't live up to that pledge in several key areas.
W.H. waives ethics rules for counsel.
When Bob Bauer replaced Greg Craig last year as White House counsel, it seemed inevitable that he'd be working
on some of the same issues he had in his previous job as President Barack Obama's personal and campaign lawyer.
So late Friday afternoon [5/7/2010], in recognition of that reality, the White House issued Bauer a waiver to
ethics rules established by Obama that prohibit officials in his administration from working on issues
affecting their former clients for two years.
Obama plugging the wrong holes in BP Disaster?
[Scroll down] President Barack Obama's take on the ongoing environmental disaster is "Plug the d---
hole!" His order to the minions who were briefing him on the latest Deep Water Horizon horrors.
Plugging the d--- hole could be a Freudian slip for Obama, who has, figuratively speaking, at least may be
plugging other big holes in the BP story: The largest shareholder (institutional of BP stock in the
USA at least is Vanguard Mutual Funds). The Barack Obama family has Vanguard funds as their
top — in fact — only investment in funds. It was Michelle Obama's favorite
mutual fund, too.
Obama's border
plan looks similar to Bush's. President Barack Obama's plan to send as many as 1,200 National
Guard troops to the US-Mexico border appears to be a scaled-down version of the border security approach
championed by his predecessor.
Can a president make it legal?
[Scroll down] Aside from the obvious legal issues that offering someone what amounts to a bribe in an effort
to manipulate an election could present, there is a broader and symbolic issue at heart. After winning the
South Carolina Democratic primary, then-candidate Barack Obama proclaimed: "We're looking to fundamentally
change the status quo in Washington."
Barack Obama's credibility hits rock bottom after oil spill and
Sestak scandal. George W Bush's unpopularity and perceived incompetence was encapsulated by the
way he dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Candidate Obama branded it "unconscionable incompetence".
Central to Obama's appeal was his promise to be truly different. His failure to achieve that is now at the core
of the deep disappointment Americans feel about him.
Barack Obama didn't part the
waters — he just made them dirtier. On the day of the memorial service for the
11 dead on the oil rig last week, Barack flew to San Francisco for a fund-raiser on behalf of the hideous
Sen. Barbara "Botox" Boxer. It was held in a mansion owned by a member of the Getty family, of Big Oil
infamy. And yet nary a word among the usual Ivy League pukes on MSNBC and in The New York Times.
President
Obama's Change Looking Like More of the Same. [Scroll down] "What's amazing is that this
administration wants to talk about not doing business as usual, and then this is clearly business as usual," Rep.
Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said today on "Fox
News Sunday." [5/30/2010] "The question is, has this been transparent? No. Has there been
stalling? Yes. Is there a possibility that what we're being told now is not true because it's
not so plausible? Yes. Should there be independent investigation so we can move on? Yes."
Change
That We Can Deceive In. A presidency that promised to take the high road on ethics has veered off into
scandal after scandal — Sestak, Romanoff, Blagojevich. Whatever happened to changing the ways of
Washington?
Hope, Change &
Sleaze. Barack Obama wasn't like Bill Clinton pledging "the most ethical administration in history."
Anyone who had paid attention to Clinton or his campaign knew to hide the silverware, and maybe the interns. Obama
made high-minded, ethical politics absolutely central to his appeal, and yet hasn't betrayed the slightest reflex to
deliver on it.
Across From White House, Coffee With
Lobbyists. There are no Secret Service agents posted next to the barista and no presidential
seal on the ceiling, but the Caribou Coffee across the street from the White House has become a favorite
meeting spot to conduct Obama administration business.
White
House, Google violate lobbying pledge. Maybe a millionaire who spends his days leaning on policymakers
to benefit his company isn't a lobbyist if he calls himself an "Internet evangelist." Or maybe Google's
cozy relationship with the White House — exposed more clearly by e-mails recently made public
through the Freedom of Information Act — is just one more instance of the administration's actions
contradicting Obama's reformer rhetoric about battling the special interests and freeing Washington from
lobbyist influence.
Closing Guantánamo Fades as a
Priority. Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama
administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that
President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.
Podesta
clan's close ties to Obama pay off big. John Podesta, chief executive officer of the liberal
Center for American Progress, may be President Obama's closest confidant outside of the administration —
he ran the transition and has visited the White House at least 37 times according to visitor logs.
Tony Podesta, John's brother, is a corporate lobbyist and a leading fundraiser for Democrats.
Obama's
Coffee House Loophole. President Obama is finally uniting the left and the right —
in joint opposition to his administration's chronic sabotage of transparency and public disclosure rules. ... K Street
influence peddlers told The New York Times last week that they've met routinely with Team Obama officials
over the past 18 months to discuss policy matters — at Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, even on a
side lawn — with the express purpose of circumventing the public's right to know.
Wait -- it gets better! Tea
With Terrorists? According to the New York Times, prominent K Street lobbyists are
buttonholing Obama officials at a Caribou Coffee shop on Pennsylvania Avenue, raising far more than just
ethics questions. What the Times story neglects to mention is that Caribou Coffee is a Shariah-compliant
firm owned by an Islamic bank based in Bahrain. One of its founders and a current adviser are leaders in
the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Barack
Obama's 'politics as usual' revealed by Rod Blagojevich trial . There is no suggestion that
what Obama was doing was anything illegal, improper or even out of the ordinary, at least in Illinois.
He was simply engaging in politics as usual. Unfortunately, politics as usual is what Candidate Obama
promised to bring to an end.
The War
On Coal. President Obama journeyed to Wisconsin last Wednesday ostensibly to tout the success
of his failed stimulus package(s). On the same day, the Ex-Im Bank announced it was reconsidering a denied
loan guarantee affecting a Milwaukee-based company that sought to export coal-mining equipment to India. A
coincidence? We think not. Wisconsin is in play in November and so is the Senate seat held by
incumbent Russ Feingold.
Obama Decried, Then
Used, Some Bush Drilling Policies. Less than four months after President Barack Obama took office,
his new administration received a forceful warning about the dangers of offshore oil drilling. The
alarm was rung by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which found that the government was unprepared
for a major spill at sea, relying on an "irrational" environmental analysis of the risks of offshore drilling.
The April 2009 ruling stunned both the administration and the oil industry, and threatened to delay or cancel dozens
of offshore projects in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
President Obama's loose change.
President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 to unite the country, transform Washington and inspire Republicans
and Democrats to work together. Now he looks more like a typical partisan pol, battering the opposite party
with the kind of vitriol almost never displayed by the man he was sent to replace, former President
George W. Bush.
Incumbents: meet Horatio Bunce.
Sounding more like a campaigning candidate than a proud President, Obama said that voters will have to choose
whether to go backward to the failed policies of the past, or to go forward to the future with him. Wait
a minute: where's the choice? The failed policies of the past are precisely the same policies that
Obama and his Marxist majority have rammed down America's throat since the last election, which he promises
to continue until he has totally "transformed" the United States of America.
Our Divisive
President. During the election campaign, Barack Obama sought to appeal to the best instincts
of the electorate, to a post-partisan sentiment that he said would reinvigorate our democracy. He ran on
a platform of reconciliation — of getting beyond "old labels" of right and left, red and blue states,
and forging compromises based on shared values. ... And yet, it has not been realized. Not at all.
Democrats
Take Lobbyist Cash as Obama Knocks Special Interests. As President Barack Obama thrashes
Republicans for allowing "special interest takeovers of our elections," his Democratic Party is benefiting
from millions of campaign dollars brought in by lobbyists. Lobbyists raised at least $1.5 million
in the first six months of the year to help elect Democrats to the House, according to a report from the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That was the most of any congressional fundraising
committee and almost three times as much as House Republicans.
ACLU
slams Obama's security policies. The ACLU on Thursday excoriated President Obama for
continuing the Bush administration's strictest national security policies, including indefinite detention,
military commissions and a "targeted kill" program that authorizes the government to take out suspected
terrorists anywhere. The American Civil Liberties Union warned Mr. Obama, in a report based on a
review of his 18 months in office, that his administration was on course to institutionalize the
policies of his predecessor.
A Liberal Judge Lights
a Fuse. Look what the culture war has done to liberals. Seventy years ago liberals set out
to fight against the white Southern obsession with race. Now, after America elected a black president,
liberals can think of nothing but race.
Hope
and Change: Obama eliminates transparency czar. Barack Obama made a big deal about creating
the Most Transparent Administration Evah in the 2008 Hope and Change campaign, and after taking office
appointed a transparency "czar," which is in itself a contradiction in terms. Eighteen months later,
Obama has eliminated the position.
Barack Obama, war
criminal. Mr. Obama's increasingly public dirty little secret is that he has widened the use of
covert actions against terrorists that were pioneered by his predecessor, President George W. Bush.
Mr. Obama's secret war is disturbing mainly to his left-wing base, whose members apparently believed the
sanctimonious rhetoric of the early days of the administration, when it seemed that war-crimes show trials
against members of the Bush national security team were imminent.
Can
Obama order executions of citizens abroad? Last April, the Obama administration let slip that
it had targeted an American citizen living abroad for summary execution. When the target's father
sought legal help, he learned it is now a crime even to file suit on behalf of a federally designated "global
terrorist." Earlier this month, though, the administration relented, letting the challenge proceed.
Shakedown Street.
Lobbyists all over Washington are privately complaining about getting undue pressure to contribute to House
Democrats, who are frantically dialing for dollars to save their House majority. One of those insiders
has now made available a fascinating tape showing how at least one member may be stepping over ethical lines
in securing money. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi started the unseemly treasure hunt in August when she and
other top leaders wrote members saying: "We need to know your commitment is to maintaining a strong
Democratic majority now" and pleading with them to call "to let us know what you are able to do and when."
Explaining the New Democratic
Logo. The new Democratic Party has abandoned the first unalienable right, seems eager to suffocate
the second under the weight of a metastasizing nanny state, and has come to equate the pursuit of happiness with
the pursuit of handouts coerced from the political minority. Nor are many of its members any longer
comfortable with the Creator doing anything so public and political as undergirding our fundamental human
rights. Change that matters? Indeed.
Now Obama Offends Australia.
The Obama administration's determination to unnecessarily damage America's relations with its best friends and
allies apparently continues unabated. Britain has been infuriated by America's "neutrality" over the
Falklands or Malvinas, relations with Israel have reached the lowest point in 50 years over new buildings
in Jerusalem, many see as a betrayal the cancelling missile bases in Eastern Europe, and there has been the
pointless and destructive interference in Honduras. As well as damaging relations with old friends,
there is not the slightest indication that any of this has won a single new friend.
What Is a
Narcissist To Do? [Scroll down] Don't forget that a major part of his appeal to the young
and minorities was his promise of a new era, a new type of politics, a different atmosphere in America.
But he has given us the most partisan and divisive administration in recent memory. How can going back to
the well with yet more empty rhetoric help him when he has completed a two-year record directly contradicting
his promises?
The Democrats' Pledge (to
Lie) to America. Since taking over Congress in 2007 and the White House in 2009, the Democrats
really have brought change that has mattered: Unemployment near double digits, a housing crisis that
could have been avoided but for intervention from the likes of Barney Frank, a trillion-dollar stimulus that made
unions richer while leaving the rest of us poorer, corporate takeovers that shut down hundreds of auto dealerships
that just happened to have been owned by Republican donors, and a health care takeover passed over the objections
of a majority of Americans that has politicized our relationships with our doctors to an unprecedented degree.
They're letting clowns give fake testimony in Congress while real national security goes unaddressed.
Media Quits Obama.
The mainstream media, it seems, are cutting their losses. They invested enormous time, credibility, and
emotion in bolstering their chosen candidate. But he hasn't panned out, and new power players are headed
to Washington. So it's time to scramble back to some semblance of realistic coverage and concede that
all those "accomplishments" in the past two years didn't accomplish anything — not an economic
recovery, not political ascendancy for Obama, not electoral success for Democrats, and not an era of
bipartisan harmony. Just the opposite.
By
the Numbers: The Democrats' Deplorable Record. 9.6%: That's the latest unemployment
figure from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the African-American community, the number is
16.1% — and for teens, it's 26%. Given these figures, perhaps it's understandable that many
in President Obama's base aren't terribly enthusiastic about turning out to vote this year. Note that
in 2004, when state senator Barack Obama mocked George W. Bush's "jobless recovery," unemployment
was 5.8%.
All The News That Is
Unfit to Print. [Scroll down] For over a year of hope and change, we were told by Obama that
renditions, preventative detentions, and tribunals were anti-constitutional, that Guantanamo was synonymous with a
gulag, that Iraq was lost, that Predators were a sort of airborne terror, that KSM and other terrorist killers
should be tried in civilian courts — and what happened? Suddenly the world was turned upside down and
what was once bad was now tolerable. And not a whimper about why, just the quiet assumption of "that was
then, this is now."
It's
a good thing Obama closed Gitmo so KSM can stay there forever. As Byron York reports, Obama has three
options for dealing with the highly inconvenient Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: try him in a civilian court, try him
at Gitmo, or just hold him at Gitmo until somebody figures out what to do with him or he dies of old age, whichever
comes first.
Obama's
DOJ is a freedom of information disgrace. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
(CREW) just issued what is probably its unkindest press release so far about the Obama administration, comparing
its Justice Department to the Bush administration when it comes to transparency.
The Gitmo Follies.
The Obama White House has absurdly called closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison "a national security
imperative." The administration's own analysis shows the opposite to be the case.
The Bum's Russia.
[Scroll down] It has become popular among nuclear peaceniks to claim that Barack Obama holds the same
position on nuclear weapons as Ronald Reagan. President Obama has pledged "America's commitment to seek
the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." Ronald Reagan, in his 1984 State of the Union,
addressed the unfree people of the Soviet Union and asked, "Would it not be better to do away with them
entirely?" President Obama and the ex-KGB operative who runs Russia under the illusion of democracy say
they will "do away with them entirely" through a negotiated agreement.
Man of
War. How does Barack Obama differ as a commander in chief from his swaggering predecessor?
A lot less than you might think.
The Constitutional
Hypocrisy of the Left. It was only a few years ago that Democrats accused George W. Bush of
"shredding our Constitution" by monitoring international phone calls of suspected terrorists. (The Constitution
prohibits "unreasonable" searches. Apparently Democrats think monitoring communications of foreign terrorists
is "unreasonable," but full-body scans and pat-down searches of the traveling public at airports is quite
reasonable). And how could you forget that Bush "shredded the Constitution" by keeping terrorists detained at
Guantanamo Bay without trials? ... Never mind the fact that Barack Obama hasn't closed Guantanamo as he promised,
has he? Not that many shrieks of protest from the political Left.
Obama —
Making it up as we go along. Gone is Bush the great Constitution-shredder. Tribunals,
renditions, Predators, wiretaps, Iraq, Guantanamo, preventative detention — these are now either
embraced or expanded. Iraq ("the surge is not working") is Obama's "greatest achievement." The
public I think believes Obama demagogued all those protocols for political advantage, then as commander-in-chief
looked at the intelligence, and quietly adopted them all. OK, politicians do that. But how can one
"virtually" oppose all that he embraces? Does he just make things up as he goes along, assuming we all
have collective amnesia?
Liberals
in denial about Obama's 'achievements'. [Scroll down] Then there's the problem of President George W.
Bush. If Obama is so much smarter than Bush is, how come he can't come up with new ways to do things but
ends up instead with the Bush tax cuts, with the Bush protocols for the war on terror, with the Bush wars, the
Bush generals, the Bush surge strategies, and the Bush policies on Guantanamo Bay?
Obama —
Making it up as we go along. Gone is Bush the great Constitution-shredder. Tribunals,
renditions, Predators, wiretaps, Iraq, Guantanamo, preventative detention — these are now either
embraced or expanded. Iraq ("the surge is not working") is Obama's "greatest achievement." The
public I think believes Obama demagogued all those protocols for political advantage, then as commander-in-chief
looked at the intelligence, and quietly adopted them all.
Is Obama a war criminal
yet? President Obama quietly signed an executive order on Monday [3/7/2011] instituting a
system for indefinitely holding terrorist detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo),
Cuba. The administration also announced that terrorist trials by military commission would recommence.
This is a win for U.S. security, but the country has paid a heavy price for Mr. Obama's on-the-job training in
counterterrorism. The low-key announcements stand in marked contrast with the bombast with which
Mr. Obama approached this issue just a few years ago.
Federal Agents Told
They Can Delay Miranda Warnings in Some Cases. The FBI has issued new guidance to its agents
in terrorism investigations, emphasizing that law enforcement investigators can question suspected terrorists
without immediately reading them their Miranda rights in some instances.
So Long, Miranda.
The left is already up-in-arms claiming that President Obama is leading "Bush's third term," and this news
isn't likely to dispel that notion. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Obama administration
is scrapping Miranda rights for terror suspects, which is a step farther than Bush went with his
counter-terrorism policies.
Obama's Libyan War.
Think of all the militant anti-war types who were thrilled at the removal of the Bush "war machine" in 2008,
only to see President Obama's strained endorsement of military action in Libya. Oh, how the political
wave of the hard left has crashed ashore. It seems like only yesterday when they were celebrating Cindy
Sheehan as she flagrantly called President Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world." ... Over the last two
years, these chagrined radicals have watched in stunned disbelief while their hero Obama continued the Iraq
War wrap-up on the generals' timeline and then added more troops in Afghanistan. They listened in shock
as Team Obama announced it was reversing itself on indefinite detentions at Guantanamo. And now he's
started his very own kinetic military action.
What is Obama trying to hide?
Small businesses are responsible for over 90 percent of net new jobs, half of GDP, over 90 percent
of U.S. exports, and over 90 percent of all innovations. It's irrefutable. Small businesses are
America's economic backbone, and its chief job creators. Despite these facts, the Obama administration has
given virtually none of the stimulus funds to small businesses and continues to give an estimated $100 million
an hour in small business funds to some of the biggest companies in the world. Since President Obama moved
into the White House, some of the firms that have received small business contracts include Boeing, Lockheed
Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Dell Computer, Xerox, SAIC, General Dynamics, Bechtel and John Deere.
O-bomb-a. Obama, the anti-war
president who harped on America's trigger-happy ways while he was campaigning, has suddenly become
Rambo. There must be something about proximity to the Pentagon, inspecting honor guards and flying
on Marine One that changes presidents. They seem so reasonable and measured when they are running
for office.
Reporters
continue to be snookered by Obama. Even among the nuzzling press here in Washington, the shine of
President Obama has worn off. Hope and Change has crashed upon the craggy shores of reality. Gitmo
is still open and open for trials — a perfect double backflip rare even by Washington standards.
Melting Like a
Snow Cone in Summer. Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday [4/4/2011] that the mastermind of
the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be prosecuted in a military tribunal at
Guantanamo Bay. ... What Holder neglected to mention is that (as the Wall Street Journal
inconveniently points out) for the first two years of the Obama presidency Democrats controlled
Congress — and Democrats passed a law that blocked the funding for civilian trials
for Guantanamo detainees.
Is Barack Obama
George W. Bush? On the issue of foreign policy, Obama has not diverged at all from the
Bush Doctrine — the same Bush Doctrine that made the entire primetime lineup on MSNBC foam
at the mouth. Obama has doubled down in Afghanistan, where, under his leadership, more U.S. soldiers
have been killed than during the near-decade under George W. Bush's presidency. In Iraq, the
war of choice, President Obama declared in August 2010 that the last full combat brigade had departed.
But 25 American troops have been killed in Iraq since then, and our military base and embassy in Iraq are
among the largest in the world. In fact, 50,000 troops remain there.
Obama ran against
Bush, but now governs like him. He ran as the anti-Bush. Silver-tongued, not tongue-tied.
A team player on the world stage, not a lone cowboy. A man who'd put a stop to reckless Bush policies
at home and abroad. In short, Barack Obama represented Change. Well, that was then. Now,
on one major policy after another, President Barack Obama seems to be morphing into George W. Bush.
Did The Obama
Administration Just Commit A War Crime? Many people are glad that Osama Bin Laden was shot last Sunday.
Others think he's still alive while others think he died years ago. But one idea that hasn't been talked about much
yet deserves an answer because of something President Obama did in January of 2009.
Obama
the cowboy. Eight days ago, President Obama charged into Pakistan unilaterally, guns ablaze.
He blasted an unarmed Osama bin Laden to kingdom come — and then dumped the corpse into the sea.
Then he took a mission-accomplished victory lap around Manhattan, followed by a stop at Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
to say "job well done" to troops and gloat about how "we have cut off the head" of the enemy. Meanwhile,
he was sending drones to fire missiles at bin Laden wannabe Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. And they called
George W. Bush a cowboy? All Obama lacks is a Stetson.
Top 10 Bush Terror Policies Continued by Obama:
After campaigning vigorously against President Bush's terror policies, Barack Obama continued a good many of them
after assuming the presidency. To those policies, along with the Navy SEALS who entered the Abbottabad compound,
go the credit for the long-awaited, bullet-to-the-head takedown of Osama bin Laden.
Obama
Breaks His Promise to Respect Medical Marijuana Laws. During his presidential campaign, Obama
repeatedly said he would call off the Drug Enforcement Administration's raids on both medical marijuana
users and their suppliers. ... Yet the DEA's medical marijuana raids not only have continued but are more
frequent under Obama than they were under George W. Bush.
What Obama's MENA Speech
Means. Herewith President Obama's May 19 Middle East speech, annotated: ["]It will
be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.["]
With this Barack Obama openly, unreservedly, and without a trace of irony or self-reflection adopts the Bush
Doctrine, which made the spread of democracy the key U.S. objective in the Middle East.
Barack Obama, Neocon? President
Obama delivered a speech on the Middle East at the State Department today [5/19/2011]. If one takes it seriously,
it signified — with one key exception — Obama's transformation into a virtual clone of his predecessor.
President Bush's democracy agenda, which Obama once scornfully rejected, has now been adopted as Obama's own.
At
NEA convention, mixed feelings among teachers for Obama. When her union endorsed Barack Obama
for president in 2008, retired Montgomery County teacher Jane Stern wrote checks to his campaign and spent
hours calling voters in swing states to support a Democrat she though would stand strong for public schools
and break from a federal education policy of "testing, testing, testing." Three years later, all the
standardized tests are still there.
The Gods of Socialism. In my former life, I walked in all
kinds of Marxist moccasins over many miles and for many years, and I know for a fact that Marxism, no matter how disguised, always begins its way to
power by preaching the need to change — a society, a country, a group of countries, the whole world. Of course, people everywhere want
their leaders to do a better job than their predecessors did. But "change" is also the very quintessence of Marxism, which is built upon the
dialectical materialist tenet that "quantitative changes generate qualitative transformations."
The K Street President.
Finally, mainstream journalists are onto Barack Obama's game. Their breaking-news shocker? Turns out
all that "hope and change" stuff was just hot air. A new report from the D.C.-based press shows
that — gasp — the White House is infested with Beltway lobbyists. [...] The
"most transparent administration ever" is playing disclosure-dodging renaming games to hide lobbyists'
grubby paw prints. By officially de-registering as corporate lobbyists and morphing into "consultants,"
"counselors" or "advisers," Obama's K Street operators can maintain the fiction of upholding the Great
Agent of Change's grand ethics pledge.
