Category Archives: Politics

Economy, Politics

Nothing Left To Give

It wasn’t a slip of the tongue when candidate Obama said something like ‘the United States is the greatest country in the world, that’s why we need to change it.’

To a socialist, the very fact that America has become as great as it is in under 200 years, while Europe and Asia go back thousands of years, just gets under their skin. So as not to miss the obvious question, why do you suppose that is? Two words, freedom and liberty.

Because of our freedom and generosity, Americans have become the greatest producer and contributor of foreign aid in the world, and by a long shot. Not only in terms of money given but in terms of the ability of American farmers and industry to feed the world and for our military to provide aid after natural disasters wherever they may occur. Right, we need to change that.

Click to enlarge. And read what the grandfather of Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, Norman Mattoon Thomas, said about socialism and the Democrat Party.

A look at the numbers of where we are going is in an article by Alan Aronoff at American Thinker entitled Stimulating America’s Decline and begs your reading.

The fundamental change that the Obama administration has in mind will cripple the economy and suppress capitalism by suppressing risk taking and investment.  There is already a lengthy history of government involvement in private industry whether by ‘bailout’ (democrat-speak for ‘takeover’) or takeover, where this administration is concerned.

For years Democrats in Washington have been pre-occupied with our image in the world. I wonder what our image in the world will be when the ‘land of plenty’ has nothing left to give?

Media, Politics, Race Relations, Supreme Court

Supremes Overrule Sotomayor's Empathy

It comes as no surprise to many that the Supreme Court would overturn the decision made by Sonia Sotomayor. That’s what happened today.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

It is instructive to watch how the Supreme Court decision will be reported. Headlines like these should be a clue.

The storyline will be less about Sotomayer being overruled, less about the fact that the plaintiffs prevailed in getting equal protection under the law, and more about stoking the racial fire and accusations that the court wants to ‘wind back the clock.’

And, more importantly, less about the fact that the court’s solution to the case was only that. A solution of the case. Plaintiffs prevail, end of story. There was no constitutional question regarding racial preferences to be decided.

The constitutionality of racial preferences under the law will come before the Supreme Court some day. And you can bet that a court with Sotomayor and one more ‘sympathetic’ judge would codify government-approved racial discrimination once and for all.

related links: Sotomayor, Equality Or Pay-Back | It’s The Supreme Court, Not Oprah

Politics, Venezuela

Honduras Defends Its Democracy, The Nerve

While the Honduran government is trying to stabilize and preserve its democracy and its constitution, they are meeting with objections from the likes of Fidel Castro, the hemisphere’s idiot Hugo Chavez, who has already threatened to overthrow their government, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. What?

Hugo Chávez’s coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation’s constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

So what happens when the people take a stand for law and order, and the support of their own constitution? For one thing, you can be sure this administration will be consistent and come down on the side of the dictators instead of the people. It has already happened to the people in Iran.

It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya’s next move will be. It’s not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.

Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating “the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter” and said it “should be condemned by all.” Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.

Where’s the next uprising against constitutional abuses going to come from? And how will the Obama administration react?

link: Honduras Defends Its Democracy, Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object.

Energy, Media, Politics

Barnum & Bailey Congress

This is where the heated debate in Congress has gotten to. As usual for all of this administration’s emergencies, this bill called ‘Cap & Trade’ has to be voted on, TODAY. And the 1000 page bill grew to 1300+ pages around 3AM this morning. And, the 1000 or so pages were released last night. The members of the House don’t yet have the 300 page amendment that was slipped in it but are expected to debate and vote on. Huh?

Oh it gets better. Did you know that the Speaker Pro Tempore, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) just said that providing representatives with physical copies of the bill is not her job. Digest that one for a moment.

When asked if she had a full copy of the bill, she wasn’t sure.  Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) asked to see for himself if the entire bill was physically at the Speaker’s desk. His request was objected to by a democrat and no physical verification occurred. But hey, we need to vote on this. It’s important. It’s so important that they can’t risk anyone knowing what is in it.They were told, it’s on a website. What?

Didn’t we just do this with the porkulus bill? Didn’t we just mortgage our grand children’s future on legislation that no body read or even had the time to read?

Can you appreciate the Democrat’s interpretation of ‘full disclosure? ‘ It goes along the line of, we’ll disclose what we want to disclose and when we want to disclose it. Shut up and lay down.

First we have to follow Rahm Emanual’s ‘Rule One.’ Not to let a crisis go to waste. Even if we have to create a crisis to do it. Any problems will be up to future generations to fix. Don’t worry, be happy.

Anyone that votes for this Cap and Trade bill should be shunned at the polls next time around. That your U.S. Representative needs to be a conservative next time goes without saying.

Tomorrow’s headline, if it passes the House today, ‘Obama administration advances energy bill to the Senate’ or something like that. This bill is more of an economy killer, at a time when we are in economic upheaval, than it is an energy bill. It won’t be reported as another railroad job same as the stimulus (porkulus) bill was not reported that way.

The bill gets ZERO new energy from fossil or nuclear sources. It does nothing to reduce our dependancy on foreign oil. Instead, it chokes the economic engine of the country in the name of catastrophic man-made global warming while killing jobs and raising prices of everything, especially electricity. Oh, and it also puts virtually all industry under the thumb of government by  taxation.

Florida, Pensacola, Politics

Who Is Marco Rubio?

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He was the Speaker of the House in the Florida legislature in Florida’s 111th district. Now Marco Rubio is running for the senate seat currently being wasted by Sen. Mel Martinez.

If all I know about Marco Rubio is what I see in these two videos, this is the kind of republican that conservatives appreciate. And as an added bonus, he can communicate conservatism well. And with a passion that does not come from a teleprompter.

The first video is his farewell speech on the floor in the Florida House. The second is a TV interview on MSNBC. In these videos, his principle core beliefs are laid out in a sincere and heart-felt manner. The third video is a big endorsement for Rubio, Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Unlike his challenger and current favorite Gov. Charlie Crist, from what I’ve seen here, I feel I can trust that Rubio will cast votes consistent with those principles.

MSNBC TV interview . . .

Mike Huckabee sees the good in Rubio too and is endorsing his candidacy.

Update 06/25/09: My Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) District 1 came out today and also endorced Marco Rubio. And for all the right reasons.

“This race has tremendous implications for the future of Florida and the very foundation of conservatism in America. Marco Rubio possesses an impressive combination of idea-driven, principled leadership and the ability to communicate conservative values in ways that resonate at the kitchen table. Americans deserve better than the current big government, borrow-and-spend road we are on, and I believe Marco Rubio will be a compelling voice to lead us to a stronger and more prosperous America.”

link: PNJ, Jeff Miller backs Rubio

Politics, War On Terror

Homeland Security Secretary Attacks Patriot Act

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Consistent with what President Obama and others in his party ran on, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is taking a valuable tool out of the war-on-terror toolbox.

Let’s try this again. The head of Homeland Security, that’s the new cabinet level position in The White House responsible for preventing terrorist attacks and keeping us as safe from terrorists as possible. That one.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to kill a program begun by the Bush administration that would use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law enforcement, a government official said Monday.

Napolitano recently reached her decision after the program was discussed with law enforcement officials, and she was told it was not an urgent issue, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.

The program, called the National Applications Office, has been delayed because of privacy and civil liberty concerns.

Tearing up the Patriot Act by removing the tools from the toolbox means Obama is willing to take a gamble with your life where his predecessor would not.

link: AP, DHS to kill domestic satellite spying | Free, But Not Free To Kill, Patriot Act

Media, Politics

President Obama’s Gift For King Abdullah

I guess one could say that President Obama is making some progress in gifting heads of state. But you would never know it from the US media.

Obama has a record on this since becoming President. One of the first things he did to outfit the Oval Office was to give the bust of Winston Churchill back to Great Britain after the offer to keep it for at least the next four years was turned down by The White House. That was in February.

A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government’s art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

How far that move helped our image around the world is debatable. British diplomats were not impressed.

Considering the reason the gift was offered in the first place says more about Obama’s views of the war on terror and the attacks on 9/11 than his sensibilities for international diplomacy and relations with Great Britain.

The first gift exchange came later when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had his first State visit to The White House.

Brown presented Obama with a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President (whose sister ship, HMS Resolute, provided the wood for the Oval Office’s desk), Obama offered up … 25 DVDs of American movie classics.

Then came Obama’s trip to Great Britain where he and the first lady met the Queen.

The president, who was accompanied by the first lady, gave Her Majesty an iPod loaded with video and photographs of the queen’s 2007 visit to Jamestown, Richmond and Williamsburg, Va. He also gave her a songbook signed by composer Richard Rodgers.

In return, the queen gave the president a silver-framed, signed photograph of her and her husband, Prince Philip, which is reported to be a standard present for visiting dignitaries.

I'm not bowing. I'm not bowing.The next gift exchange happened in Saudi Arabia when the King presented the President with the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, which is the country’s highest honor. From the picture, it could be easily confused with bling from MC Hammer or MC Obama. But to the Saudi Arabian people, it is a high honor bestowed on special people.

What has not been reported in the US media, strangely enough (I’m kidding), is the kind of gift that President Obama gave King Abdullah. No, this time it is not something off an end-cap in Best Buy. For this visit, the president put a lot of thought into this gift, which took 5 months to make. So at about the time Great Britain was being insulted by all the above, a gift based on the Quran for Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was being made. It’s not that he doesn’t know any better.

President Barack Obama’s invaluable gift to King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has a noble connotation.

It is a Qur’anic verse which says: “O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is the most righteous of you. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (Qur’an, 49:13)

From the picture it looks like a nice gift. So why is it that the US media hasn’t reported on it? You have to look at Saudi media to find out. Doesn’t it show that the president has made some progress in gift giving? Besides, it does go a long way to reinforce the president’s sensitivities to Islam that he spoke of in his speech in Cairo. Do you think that’s why?

More pictures here.

Media, Politics, War On Terror

It's What Passes For Safe That Matters

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That the Obama administration has made America less safe in the war on terror isn’t even debatable, but you’re welcome to try.

Starting with

  • conferring constitutional protections afforded to US citizens to foreign terrorists
  • to trying to dismantle the most effective parts of the Patriot Act that the Left calls domestic spying
  • to the apology tour where the words terrorist and terrorism were not mentioned
  • to the revelation (whether or not they are ultimately released) of more 6 or 7 year old fun pictures of terrorists being uncomfortable
  • to closing Club Gitmo (11 months remaining) and trying to put the jihadists in the American prison system, where they can do some recruiting
  • to re-defining acts of terrorism as a ‘man made disaster’ for the purpose of not offending the enemy that wants us dead
  • to limiting missile defenses and halting development of missile defense systems while North Korea fires off ICBMs and nuclear bombs
  • to the seismic shift from fighting a war to a law enforcement task where the FBI will be mirandizing terrorists captured alive on the battlefield
  • to putting a lawyer/professor/politician in charge of the CIA.

Putting people with no experience in top positions seems to be a hallmark of this administration. Leon Panetta was Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1994-1997. With change like this, hope is all that’s left.

Taking all that into consideration, you’d have to be a fool to think that what vice president Cheney said was not true. He said the policies of this administration have made and will make America less safe. Fact is, Cheney didn’t say he hopes we get attacked again.  That is the Left’s spin of what he said which, the AP dutifully repeats as an unchallenged fact.

Which brings us to this article in the AP where CIA director Leon Panetta is doing what liberals are quick to do. Ignore the message, attack the messenger. Close debate, end of discussion.

CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism almost suggests “he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

The reason Cheney spoke up to call it as he sees it was because no other elected Republicans were. He loves this country and believes the people need to know what this administration is up to, including its attempt to re-write history. Which is especially important right now because the media will not. The Liberals in charge of Washington don’t like that inconvenient truth but, it is what it is.

Remember the infamous 911 Commission’s report that liberals were quick to pounce on in some areas, while ignoring other parts? The parts that the Left chose to ignore speak directly to Cheney’s remarks and our security at home and abroad.

They (the terrorists, al-Qaeda) were at war with us and we were not at war with them. And, it is not a matter of if but a matter of when another attack will come.

The same article quotes Vice President Biden on the NBC show ‘Meet the Press’ this morning who said ‘I think Dick Cheney’s judgment about how to secure America is faulty, I think our judgment is correct.’

What say you?

related links: CIA head says Cheney almost wishing US be attacked | Cheney Responds to Panetta

Economy, Politics

Small Business Loan Program (ARC)

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Compared to the trillions of dollars being dumped on future generations of Americans to grow government and to create temporary jobs with make-work programs, here is one program, maybe the only program, that is designed to help small business. Emphasis on small.

America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) Loan Program is a new temporary guaranteed-loan program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act). ARC Loans provide small businesses access to the capital needed to drive economic recovery and to retain and create jobs.

ARC Loans are deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000 available through SBA’s 7(a) participating lenders. Potential borrowers are viable, for-profit small businesses located in the United States that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing, qualifying loans. ARC Loans are interest-free to the borrower, 100% guaranteed by SBA to the lender, and have no fees associated with them. SBA pays the interest to the SBA 7(a) lender making the loan. ARC Loan funds are to be used for payments of principal and interest for up to six months on existing, qualifying small business loans.

The program sounds good to those that don’t own or run a small business,  though not near as bold as the programs the administration is implementing to grow government.

The practicality of a program like this is limited in scope and effectiveness. $35,000 would only last a few months at best for a typical small business, depending on the overhead, number of employees, and benefits associated with employment. It is fair to say that the economic troubles this economy is in will last a lot longer than a few months. However, it does account for the ‘save or create’ rhetoric coming out of Washington.

Why this program isn’t in the news is another story.

Below is a communication sent to SBA employees by Eric R. Zarnikow, Associate Administrator for Capital Access.

Continue reading Small Business Loan Program (ARC) →

Media, Politics

When Good Is Bad, Obama Fires IG

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In what will become the most unreported action by President Obama, in his supposedly open and honest administration, Chicago-style politics rears its ugly head yet again. The president removed the Inspector General in charge of overseeing how government grant money is spent after he found discrepancies. After he found the abuse of public funds, the U.S. Attorney balked at having the justice department take a look at it.

Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star, into the misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group that Johnson headed.

Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled an investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy, a nonprofit group that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National Community Service. The corporation runs the AmeriCorps program.

The IG becomes the focus of the story, that the matter wasn’t handled right, instead of the corruption of the person responsible for handling the public funds.

Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) felt an explanation was needed, since the IG had identified millions of dollars that were mis-appropriated.  White House Counsel Gregory Craig, in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, cited the U.S. attorney’s criticism of Walpin to an integrity committee for inspectors general.

In the end, Chicago style politics takes the day. The bad guy is good, and the good guy is bad. Keeping the matter out of the courts and out of the media, the U.S. Attorney worked out a ‘deal.’

The U.S. attorney’s office reached a settlement in the matter. Brown cited press accounts that said Johnson and the nonprofit would repay half of nearly $850,000 in grants it received.

This is not change. This is more of the same.