THE REVOLT OF THE SPOILED BRATS

by Bob Ward

The gatherings of malcontents in cities across the nation have been called “protests” by the participants and by the media.  A more accurate term would be “tantrums.”

These so-called “protesters” have been vague about what they want but the main complaint seems to be that some people are wealthy and others – specifically, them – are not.  They claim that this is somehow “not fair.” They resemble a three year old who cries, kicks the chair and holds his breath because he thinks his brother’s piece of pie is bigger than his. The main difference is that the Occupiers don’t hold their breath.

The image fits because of the infantilism revealed by their complaints and their stated objectives.  Frequently their statements reveal a failure to understand what they are saying. For example, a Pasadena City College student was quoted in the Austin American Statesman. “The banks,”  he complained, “are here to steal from us. Everybody is in debt, whether it’s medical bills, or school or loans.”

This guy considers it stealing if someone who lends you money expects you to pay it back, when, in reality, to borrow money and not pay it back would be stealing. But apparently they don’t consider it  stealing because, they are entitled to whatever they want and the rest of us have a duty to supply it. 

Accordingly, among their “demands” is the abolition of all debt – worldwide. We can only wonder if the people making that demand realize that every individual, business or institution that has lent money would simply lose the amount of the loan. That loss would include the money belonging to the bank’s depositors who are not the much-maligned one percent but are ordinary working people trying to build a nest egg by saving something out of their paychecks.

And we have to wonder if they realize it would put an end to the business of lending money thereby making  it nearly impossible for anyone to buy a home or a car or to attend a college unless he first saves up the money himself. To be fair, they did anticipate that last item by demanding free college so borrowing money to go to college would not be necessary – someone else would pay for it.

It would be a lot easier to save the kind of money that would make borrowing unnecessary if another of the demands on “The Collective” website were granted: a $20 an hour minimum wage and guaranteeing everyone a “living wage” employed or not.  Of course there is the problem of where a business would get the money it takes to pay such a wage and the answer comes immediately – it would have to raise the price of the goods or services it sells so high that $20 an hour wage would not be enough to live on.

But then, we already knew that consequences are not the protesters’ long suit.

And they want an end to immigration controls so that anyone can go anywhere “to work and live.”   This would certainly result in most people – from all over the world – going to places where the demand for a living wage – whether employed or not – has been satisfied.

What all this comes down to is a desire – backed up by threats and sometimes the fact of destructive  behavior – to have every need, desire and whim be accommodated while assuming no responsibility and contributing nothing. In other words, they want everything to be as it was when they were three years old and nothing was demanded of them beyond basic toilet training. In fact, there are indications they are now rejecting even that responsibility.

Some people may wonder where such unreal attitudes come from and how anyone could live in the real world for 20 years or more and not realize how wrong, unfair and unworkable such demands are. One answer is the welfare state we have cultivated for several decades. The historic link between work and reward has been severed by governmental policies as well as the popular culture. 

And we should not overlook President Obama’s contribution to this culture of entitlement, this attitude that if somebody won’t give me what I want, they are evil. The fact is that generating this kind of hostility toward anyone who is wealthy is the only thing Obama did professionally before being elected to the Illinois legislature.  His only real job was that of “community organizer” which is a euphemism for rabble rouser.

Nurturing resentment is the only thing he knows how to do and he hasn’t stopped doing it just because he’s in the White House.

And as long as he holds that office we can expect more of this kind of infantile outbursts.  

What Just Happened in the Lame-Duck Congress

"Appropriately, the tax bill passed and the spending bill died on the 237th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party." -NRO

Despite the attempts by Reid and Pelosi to govern against the will of the people as expressed on Nov 2nd, America did well yesterday. A very bad pork-filled spending bill was stopped, and the possibility of a massive tax hike on January 1 was stopped as well. Good news.

The New York Times spins hopefully, asking: Could the lame-duck be a big win for Obama?

These are not 'victories' for Obama, but a victory against folly. It's dishonest to talk of this compromise as a 'tax cut' bill, all it does is merely extend the current rates in place for 2 more years. It's a status quo tax rate extension. As such, any claims of immediate success or tragedy are wrong - it is more of the same. No, it will not be bad for the deficit - not compared with trillions in stimulus, spending, pork and govt takeovers that are the real cause of the deficit.

The good part of the tax bill is that with the continued Bush tax rates, the middle-class pays less than they would have (thank you President Bush for that middle-class tax cut that the Democrats seem to refuse to acknowledge you made happen back in 2003), and with the overall tax rates maintained and payroll tax holiday in place for a year, the economy is on surer footing, and economic uncertainty is less. Yet it's not as if this will instantly supercharge the economy. Unemployment benefit extension may indeed continue to do what his has been doing - induce slower returns of employees to the workforce at a time when a new job may mean a downsized salary for many. The rest of it - ethanol subsidies, some of Obama's trinkets - are of no use to our economy, and so only a 'win' for the deal-making that is so wrong with DC.

While the tax which is why the loss of the $1.1 trillion spending bill is both more consequential, important and GOOD for America. That pork-infested earmark-laden over-spending bill is everything that is wrong with DC politics, and Reid's attempt to cram it down the senate was an act of political and economic sabotage against American taxpayers and voters. The exposure of the earmarks had chastened Republicans to get off the gravy train and left the bill bereft of support, even though Reid wanted to continue the over-spending past the expiration date. Hint: The Expiration date for over-spending, massive deficits and Government overreach was Nov 2nd.

Now the lame-duck Congress has only one responsibility: Go Home.

The only win for Obama here is how the combination of incompetence and extremism on his own side made an easy tax deal seem hard (causing him to look smaller and less capable than his predecessor-advisor Bill Clinton), and how he avoided looking as foolish as Pelosi and Co. by actually realizing that the Nov 2nd election did have consequences. Yet his churlish, disrespectful and ungrateful way of talking about his Republican counterparts (after he made his deal) and even his liberal critics shows both his leadership skills and his skin are both quite thin. I am not the only one who noticed that Obama blew the politics of the compromise. It will be a rough 2 years.

Strama Pleads the 5th?

At a July 17^th “StramaRama” campaign fundraiser event with music legend Bruce Robison, Rep. Mark Strama made the introductions but waived his right to make a political speech. That is understandable. He is an incumbent and the less attention given that fact in these days of widespread “throw the bums out” voter sentiment the better for his campaign.

Of course as an incumbent, Strama has a record. If the dust covering that liberal record were stirred, bloggers, and perhaps some truth seekers in the mainstream media, would take note. Thus, Strama might very well incriminate himself (i.e. ID himself as a liberal) if he opens his mouth.

Note: By using the word “incriminate” in this blog post I do not mean to imply criminal behavior by liberals in general and Mr. Strama in particular. Mark Strama is, by all appearances, a law abiding citizen.

Here is a snapshot of Mark Strama’s voting record:

Voted NO on 04/24/2006 and 05/15/2006; on HB 2, Property Tax Reduction; Bill passed (82 - 66) and (89-56).

Voted YEA on 05/04/2007; on CSHB 10, Tribal Casino Gaming, Tribal Casino Gaming; Bill failed (66-66).

Voted NO on 04/24/2007; on HB 218, Voter Identification Requirement; Bill passed (76-69).

Voted NO on 05/26/2007 and 05/01/2007; on CSHB 3678, Religious Expression at Schools; Bill passed (107-28) and (121-10).

Not only is Mr. Strama’s voting record liberally incriminating, so is some of his “community work.” Here, for example, is a photograph of Mark Strama, with several other infamous liberal Democrats, at a ribbon cutting for Planned Parenthood, followed by the PP's report of the event.

From left to right: Representative Mark Strama, Representative Valinda Boln, Senator Kirk Watson, Austin City Councilmember Lee Leffingwell, Representative Eddie Rodriguez, Capital Campaign Co-Chairs, Robbie and Tom Ausley, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Ken Lambrecht, CEO of PPTCR and Brewster McCracken, Austin Mayor Pro Tem.

On Monday, Oct. 22, the ribbon cutting celebrated the opening of Planned Parenthood's new Education, Advocacy, and Administrative building and the successful completion of The Choice Project, a $6.6 million capital campaign. The Choice Project's flagship South Austin Clinic opened in 2004 and provides high-quality, affordable health care [*] to more than 9,000 of our 26,000 clients served each year. The new Education, Advocacy, and Administration Building hosts a library of educational resources for parents, educators and other community members seeking medically-accurate, age-appropriate sexuality education, and multiple community rooms for health educators, teen peer educators, and other Planned Parenthood volunteers to meet and attend workshops and other activities.

Source: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ppaustin/south-austin-clinic-ribbon-cutting-18027.htm

* Note: Such “heath care” provided by Planned Parenthood culminates in the taking of human life.

Then there are Strama’s Obama moments (for as long as they stay posted to the Internet):

(1) The endorsement video

(2) The report in the Austin American Statesmen of Strama's endorsement

(3) Strama-Obama campaign pins

Actually, I don’t blame Strama for only acting as the MC at his “StramaRama” fundraiser and not making a campaign speech, for anything he would have said would and could be used against him in his bid for re-election.

If Mark Strama publicly acknowledged that he is in his first real political fight since his election to the Texas House in 2004 he might draw attention to his conservative Republican opponent, long time Austin resident and Freescale engineer Patrick McGuinness. If that happened, Republicans and independents in District 50 who voted for Strama in the past might find out they actually have an alternative candidate whose life experiences match their own much better than their current Rep and thus who could better represent them at the Capitol.

Note: I do not mean to say that Strama has not had good Republican challengers in the past, both Jeff Fleece and Jerry Mikus fielded respectable campaigns against him. However, Strama has never been as politically vulnerable as he is now and Partick McGuinness seems to be poised to run a very strong race.

In Their Own Words: Obama and Biden Strike Out with the Elena Kagan Pick

Because I gamed the system one time by using the Internet organs of the Democratic Party to vent about Obamacare, I became attached to the receiving end of their email propaganda pipeline (a pipeline spewing more dangerous stuff than crude oil). So, from time to time I get emails from President Barack Obama and his loose/foul mouth side kick, Vice-President Joe Biden. Naturally, the deployment of these "communications" coincide with some pending lurch to the left, such as the shoving of Obamacare down Americans' collective throat or the proposed reform of Wall Street (by adding command and control mechanisms through "the broadest rewrite of the rules governing Wall Street since the Great Depression").

But the upside of getting these email communications is they they provide first hand unfiltered and timely access to the the words and reasoning of the most radical US Administration since FDR. First, I wish to highlight some things that President Obama wrote in his email and said in his 4:18 minute Organizing America (for Obama) sponsored video announcement about his choice of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court.

Her work as Solicitor General has allowed me to see firsthand just why Elena is particularly well-suited to the Court: She has not only a keen understanding of the law, but also one that is rooted in a deep awareness of its impact on people's lives. Last year, she made that clear -- choosing the Citizens United case as her first to argue before the Supreme Court, defending bipartisan campaign finance reform against special interests seeking to spend unlimited money to influence our elections.
(emphasis added)

Strike One: Kagan is an enemy of 1st Amendment (Free Speech) and that demonstrates to Obama why she "is particularly well-suited to the Court". So, Obama is against free speech if it involves political speech (especially speech against Democrats, no doubt).

Now, I look forward to the prospect of Elena taking her seat alongside Justice Ginsberg and Justice Sotomayor. For the first time, our nation's highest court would include three women, ensuring a Court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before.
(emphasis added)

Strike Two: So Kagan was picked because of her sex as much as the content of her character or of her perceived jurisprudence. The Court, which is not a representative but rather a judicial body, should not need to be made up of people from all genders, ethnicities, and walks of life (how could 9 people possibly be representative of the mosaic which is America?). How can having three women on the court, even assuming true the rumors that Kagan is gay, "be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of [America in determining matters of Constitutional law], than ever before?"

Vice-President Joe Biden added this in his email with the subject line, "A reason to smile":

She helped us confirm Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and even then, it wasn't hard to picture a day when we'd be helping Elena prepare for confirmation hearings of her own...Since that time, I've followed her career, and today, I believe Elena Kagan is an inspired choice for the Supreme Court.

Strike Three: Biden conjures up a Heavenly Mandate here. There was just something about Kagan way back when "she helped us confirm Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg". Joe pegged her for the Court back then. It is her destiny. It is as if God revealed this to him. Why, she is an inspired choice. The implication is that she is the Anointed One for the Supreme Court, just as Obama is for President. Joe, this is America, not China.....at least not yet!

Thus, in their own words the President and Vice President demonstrate that the Obama Administration has struck out in terms of their rationale for picking Elena Kagan for Supreme Court and thus Ms. Kagan should not be confirmed by the Senate.

ObamaCare becoming Stalingrad for Obama & Co.

Maybe Senator DeMint was wrong. ObamaCare isn't actually Obama's Waterloo, it's his Stalingrad.

Hitler made three big mistakes in 1942 fighting the Russians. First, he tried to do three things in the Russian South in the summer of 1942: Take Caucasus oil fields, take the black sea ports and take Stalingrad. He bit off more than he could chew. His 6th Army got bogged down in street fighting in Stalingrad, and a city that had a deadline to be taken in August, which slipped into October and then November, with the city not fully in his control. Then he underestimated the Russians, setting himself up for a trap. In November, the Russians under Genreal Zhukov counterattacked in a pincer movement and in a week were able to surround the German Army in Stalingrad. Hitler then made the third mistake that cost him the whole 6th Army - instead of having them try a breakout retreat, he forced them to hold their ground, as he didnt want to give up Stalingrad. But his Lufwaffe lacked the air superiority to supply the surrounded troops. He lost both the city and his army.

Far be it from me to make comparisons that invoke Godwin's Law, but President Obama and the Democrat leaders have made parallel mistakes this year to those made by German High Command in 1942: First, they were over-ambitious and put too much politically risky things on the plate. They went in three directions, instead of one consistent vector. The ambitious over-reach ignited a conservative reaction in Tea Parties, and pegged Obama as a left-liberal. The legistative division, in particular the cap-and-trade House vote in June, started to make the wheels fall off of Congressional discipline. Deadlines for legislative accomplishments have been blown, and the big-ticket legislative front - cap-and-trade, immigration amnesty, card check, big spending, ObamaCare - has had middling success, with only the "Stimulus" as the big ticket that has actually passed Obama's desk. Obama failed to "choose his battles."

Second, they underestimated the opposition, both disorganized and organized. They've insulted the "Teabaggers" and put Republicans they might have got on board bipartisan bills out in the cold, taking a very partisan approach simply because they felt the numbers insulate them. The failed to consider that an energized minority has powerful ability to shape, if not the final votes, at least the debate - as the August recess showed.

Now, they are on mistake number three: Holding on to the ObamaCare prize even as the legislative and lobbying street-fighting make it impossible to fully win a clean bill. Will they make it? Only yesterday, it seemed that maybe they had; they first tried a "Medicare buy-in" trial balloon, and that didn't work, and then, having given up finally on public option to win over Senator Lieberman, find that progressives are now off the reservation and calling for the bill to be killed. Oh, and Senator Nelson is still a "NO" too.

The bill without public option is the 'all-pain no-gain' version, as I mentioned three months back. That is why - even though the votes aren't really there - they are trying to put public option in. With it out, the liberals say stuff like: "I'll be D @ M N E D if I'm going to be forced to buy something that is costly and inefficient. " on HuffPost. The coup de grace may be Senator Burris being a 'no' vote if public option is excluded.

Obama's polling numbers are worse than ever, and the ObamaCare bill gets more and more unpopular. Must be something to do with the trillions it will tax and spend in the next decade. So trying to hold on to a bill for the sake of holding on to it could be the costliest and final mistake of a very mistake-prone first year for President Obama. A flawed reform will only energize and anger opponents, while at the same time demoralizing his own base who a defecting from the bill. Time has run out for Senator Reid's "A bill by Christmas" deadline.

The Bad Obamacare Bill should just be killed - kick it to January, get out a clean sheet, and do a tailored targeted bill that only does the minimum popular things. But Democrats will probably decide to throw good political capital after already-spent political capital in a desperate gamble of losing teams. Holding the ground didn't work in Stalingrad 1942 and it won't work here.

Hey Democrats, You're Screwed!.

45% rate Obama 'poor' on economics

Via Powerline, Obamanomics gets 45% 'poor' rating in Rasmussen poll:

1*How do you rate the way Barack Obama will handle economic issues as President….excellent, good, fair or poor?

20% Excellent
19% Good
15% Fair
45% Poor
1% Not sure

What are those other 39% 'excellent/good' folks thinking? Deficits are good?They haven't heard about latest job losses? Still in "Bush's fault" mode? (What's the expiration date on blaming the previous occupant of the White House?)

Reality check: Deficits stink,

How will Obama cure this lagging poll? Why, Call for a Summit (yawn). Advice/retort:

Obama: It’s important that we don’t make any ill-considered decisions — even with the best intentions — particularly at a time when our resources are so limited. Comment: You’ve already made bad decisions. Now un-make them. That will spur the economy.

Hope and Lies

"HOPE" poster artist lied about the photo source for his artwork. Nothing new here, RFK and Democrats since faked quotes from Aristotle.

But the Lies of Hope start at the top:

A Rant About Rio

A Debunking of leftists in massive post-Obama-olympic-fail spin mode:

#4 “I just don’ see how the GOP celebrating a loss of prestige as a long term winner. ”

Nobody is ‘celebrating’ except in Rio. As for ‘loss of prestige’ that is a true yawner. Didnt Obama tell the UN we are not above other nations now? shouldnt Obama supporters treat Rio’s win as no big deal then? Its no BFD in my view.

#7 “For Obama it was a no win situation because people would have complained about if he hadn’t shown up.”

Nonsense. It would have been a non-issue presidentially if he didnt put his personal charm on the line in the effort. I don’t recall a single personage outside his coterie of Chicago cronies calling on him to make that particular trip. In the end, it was a futile waste of his time. He made a mistake. Move on.

#12 “This was your typical right wing, transparent, whiny, hypocritical, mountain out of a molehill, sour grapes, white noise, anti-American, echo chamber issue to begin with”

Please … breathe into the brown paper bag … slooowly. 12 hours since the announcement, and you’ve gone ‘mountain out of a molehill’? Project much?!?

We now have MSNBC in full meltdown, falsely claiming right-wingers *wanted* Obama/Chicago to fail. (well, concern over taxpayer-bilking and corruption that could arise was out there, but nobody actively opposed Chicago’s bid, that’s nuts.)

And now the vapid “criticizing Obama means you want America to fail” meme. …

#12: “The right has been rooting for America to lose so they can blame Obama and his “leadership skills””

This kind of “Blame Righty” left-liberal spin is both predictable and utterly insane. Point out that Obama goofed up and you get called “traitor” by lobotomized lefties. Are they incapable of taking any criticism of The One? Or noticing he might just be The Clod Who Goofed? That “our country” and “our Goverment” and “the current occupant of the White House” are 3 different entities? Their skin thickness is measured in nanometers. Bizarre!

None of those on the right are ‘rooting for Obama to ‘fail’'. We are merely observers, akin to watching a drunk driver on the road, predicting and fearing the inevitable wreck that will follow. We lament not cheer the consequences of Obama’s leftism and ineptitude. Predicting Obama’s screwups, pointing out Obama’s screwups, and analyzing Obama’s screwups is NOT the same as ‘rooting for’ his screwups to happen. That ball is in Obama’s court. HE is the leader, and HE is responsible for what happens to him - not the powerless right.

Personally, I am rooting for Obama to get a visit from the ghosts of Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan and wake up tomorrow a changed man. I can only hope.

Another Radical Obama Czar

From the office of I Kid You Not, Obama Safe School Czar is a supporter of NAMBLA(North American Man-Boy Love Association a group that advocates homoesexual pedophilia. Wait, there's more:

David Jennings wrote the forward for a book called “Queering Elementary Education”. BTW, another person endorsing the book is Bill Ayers. There’s much more on Jennings’ overt promotion of teaching children how to perform homosexual acts. There’s damning video.

UPDATE: More Kevin Jennings saga - he failed to report a homosexual relationship that some called statutory rape, but which according to Media Matters was not statutory rape since the student Jennings advised was a 16-year-old sophomore in High School. Oh, so when the gay teacher Jennings "encouraged the relationship" between an older homosexual and a 16-year-old student under his care it was okay. The mind boggles.

Our schools are NOT safe, not safe at all.

Chicago Out, Unemployment Up

An Obama Fail moment. He diverts his attention and time from the more important issues like rising unemployment and Afghanistan to jet off to Copenhagen for a pitch to the IOC. Yet Chicago gets knocked out in the first round. The 2016 Olympics will not be held in Chicago; Madrid and Rio are the contenders.

This is also a Lamestream Media Fail moment, going gaga over the Obama speeches that were apparently unpersuasive, and apparently missing the boat completely that maybe other folks aren't Obma kool-aid drinkers like these journalists. CNN in disbelief as Chicago is eliminated. "The Ego has landed" touted Drudge.

Another angle on this news: He's a rookie, the President doesn't lend prestige to something unless its a done deal.

Meanwhile, back in reality, the unemployment numbers creep to almost double digits as both employment and economic activity in September shows tepid 'recovery'. The stock market has taken a hit past few days as disappointing economic news piles up. Obama fiddles while America is burning.

Obama - more to the Left than France

If Obama gets his way, the USA of 2016 would be to the *LEFT* of most of the European states - larger Government, higher taxes, tighter regulations, less freedoms than EU countries.

I made that statement on this blog and got challenged on it:

“I would disagree with your assessment. In what regards is Obama to the left of France or Germany?”

My response:

I was speaking of a trajectory that if continued might get crossed by 2016, should they tack right and we race left. I am speaking of trajectory not current position.
America’s heritage of freedom, and previous 28 years of Governance that has been overall centrist has kept us from trending left … but Obama is outside that historical envelope, and is seeking to move USA to a place we’ve never been.

And I think the assessment that Obama is racing USA to the left, to a massive Federal Government more bloated than any Government in history, is accurate. Disagree?

Perhaps you are unaware of how gargantuan ObamaCare, even with the Baucus all-pain-no-gain version, will be. The true ten-year cost once the program is fully loaded is about $1.7 trillion (not the $800 billion 10 year number they tout). That’s the CBO estimate, or as best we can get, since the Senate is arrogantly going to forge ahead without even the legislative language required to enable a real scoring.

Perhaps you haven’t accounted for the 50+ agencies that bill will produce, the squeeze on the entire healthcare industry it will create.

Perhaps you haven’t added in the added pestilence of “Cap and Trade” on industrial America, adding regulations, taxations and bureaucracies galore. That bill will shift another $200 billion per year through the Federal Govt over time, taxing/punishing some and rewarding others. This is another $2000/ year per family, or more, of either direct cost or Govt redistribution, depending on how the Govt set it up - and Govts get sticky fingers.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed that our deficit this year is - for the first time sine WWII - in double digits of GDP, and that the *lowest* deficit that Obama projects over the next 5 years is higher than the last Bush+republican budget in 2006.

Perhaps you havent noticed that every year the Pelosi Democrat Congress has passed budgets, they have increased discretionary spending by double digits. Perhaps you havent noticed that the Federal budget is a higher percentage at any time in USA’s history than in the last 50 years, jumping from historical 18-20% levels to over 28% of GDP.

Perhaps you havent noticed that if you take that higher number and include state and local Governments, the share of Government to GDP is now eclipsing the ratio in many of the European nations, exactly the metric some would use to assure us we are not as ’socialist’ as Europe.

Perhaps you haven’t considered the tidal wave of additional welfare state obligations that are inherent in Obama’s proposed amnesty legalization of 12-20 million illegal aliens, who will be on track for a plethora of Government assistance programs which they are currently legally excluded from.

And last but not least, perhaps you are not noticing the collapse and the discrediting of the left in Europe, the rise of conservative and right-wing / liberal-economics parties in that continent.

Meanwhile in USA, President Obama says that his ideal Justice is a leftwing agitator on the Supreme Court by the name of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she has disallowed the right of states to democratically protect unborn human life in law, and such judicial legislation will remain in force is so long as Obama nominates similarly leftwing Judges.

“His foreign policy is still tougher than Germany’s or France’s.”

Not really. Bush’s foreign policy trajectory continues, and I give credit to Obama for not bugging out on Iraq or Afghanistan (yet), but almost everything Obama has done new has been in the direction of weakness. His missile defense giveaway was positively Carteresque. I have France’s own Sarkozy in my corner on this, and any cogent reading of Obama’s dreadful UN speech backs up this assessment:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441402775482322.html
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2009/09/sarkozy-on-obama-naive-and-grossly.html

QOTD: MacArthur on Appeasement

“They are blind to history’s clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.” - General Douglas MacArthur

When Obama doesn't know his history, Team USA is condemned to repeat it.

Kids taught to praise Obama

Cult-of-personality-disorder alert!

The Frog Jumps Out of the Pot

"We should thank God for the overreach that caused the LobsterAmericans to leap from the socialist pot of boiling water." - Redstate blogger Mike 'gamecock' Devine. He excellent article pleads with conservatives to stop trying to save the Obama administration's agenda with 'helpful' advice.

It is after all, more than likely that a Snowe Job of a compromise will emerge and thereby destroy the next pillars of our freedom, forcing us to spend decades to undo the damage of one mere Obama term.

Obama Machine tries the "more cowbell" approach

I called Obama the "more-cowbell of American Liberalism" and now his team is trying the "more cowbell" communications strategy. That's almost as dumb as hiring a 9/11 Truther and letting the Truther lie about his past. Oh wait.

Mr Cult-of-Personality Disorder Plans Congressional Harangue

President Obama to address Congress on September 8. He will not talk about plans to save us from losing the war in Afghanistan, nor will he give us any plans to reduce the massive deficits his spending plans are creating - trillion-dollar plus deficits. Rather he will harangue us, yet again, on his ObamaCare healthcare plans. Apparently, he thinks talking about an issue that caused his poll numbers to go from 60% to 45% is his best shot at bouncing back.

Obama will surely try to 'debunk' 'lies' that are actually valid concerns. Just like (Via Weekly Standard) Newsweek's list of Obamacare "lies" that aren't lies.

This is like tying yourself to an anchor to stop from drowning.

Mr Cult-of-Personality Disorder has really dumb advisors.

Mr Cult-of-Personality Disorder talks to the kids

UPDATE: “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”
- Original White House suggestion for post-speech activity for students, which then got edited by the WH as criticism ramped up.

What criticism? "No Junior Lobbyist left behind" puts it in context.

Original post:

President Obama feels the need to talk to our kids. During school time. My diagnosis is Cult-of-Personality Disorder.

A brilliant dissection of what Obama might say to our children on Sept 8th.

Please, Mr President, stay away from the young'uns. Dana says: Keep your kids home Sept 8th.

UPDATE: The articulate Obama better hope the teleprompter is in working order. We wouldn't want him sounding like Biden.

UPDATE II: Data mining social networks is another recent brilliant White House plan. And I will have more to say on the white-washing (desecration) of 9-11 aka "Patriot's Day". (uh oh, is there a war on 9-11 remembrance underway by the left?) This whole White House operation is quite 'fishy'.

UPDATE III: Critics decry Obama's "indoctrination plan" for students:

Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”

Teachers are also given guidance to tell students to “build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.”

During the speech, “teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful.”

What is the problem? The problem is that the guidelines center on Obama - not learning, education, or anything else. Obama will spout motherhood-and-apple-pie about doing a good job in school, and the kids will be directed to get those "personally meaningful" phrases from Dear Leader, read a book about Dear Leader, and write about "they can do to help" Dear Leader. Not themselves, but the President! That is the giveaway for the disorder. The speech is wholly unnecessary and a waste of students time. The school football coach could give as meaningful and as important a pep speech on individual responsibility, discipline, setting goals and achieving them. But that wouldn't do for the Dept of Ed, after all, the coach is probably a Republican.

UPDATE IV: Whitewashing the Obama education speech guides. The offending guides have been cleaned up a bit but ...

What they can’t whitewash is the radicalism of many of the White House Teaching Fellows responsible for drafting the material — or the radicalism of the educational mentors with whom Obama served, starting with Chicago Annenberg Challenge/Woods Fund/neighbor Bill “education is the motor-force of revolution” Ayers.

UPDATE V: Kids required to watch video of 'patriotic' pledges that are "I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama". More on it here: "It's very inappropriate to show a radical, leftist propaganda piece that political to children."

It's an ... ObamaNation.

UPDATE VI: A friend has passed along that Leander ISD will NOT be catering to the ObamaNation of the broadcast:

Dear Parents of Leander ISD students:

We have received a number of inquiries about whether President Obama’s speech to the schoolchildren of America next week will be available “live” in Leander ISD. Due to the logistics of making a webcast available during that time of the school day, we will not be showing this address in LISD classrooms or campuses. However, as soon as the speech is available, we will place a link on the district website should you and your family choose to view the speech.

Doggett's ObamaCare Pep Rally

An account of the Doggett "pep rally". Having been unable to do real townhalls without in effect getting an earful from vast numbers of citizens outraged by ObamaCare, the liberals have instead been reduced to running pep rallies of the faithful that attempt to exclude ObamaCare opponents.

This rally was organized by among others Democrat operative and ACORN activist Mike Litt, who pumped the rally up on facebook and elsewhere: "Together, we will show the strength of support for President Obama's three reform principles here in Central Texas!" The Obama campaign (now "Organizing for America"), ACORN and the DNC have organized this rally using the same 'astro-turf' techniques that they accuse their opponents of using, and which the DNC is doing elsewhere, like Washington state.

How did the rally go down? A first-hand report from a non-liberal who attended and then walked out mis-speech on Doggett:

You didn't miss a damned thing ... at Doggett's health care rally. That's exactly what it was, a pep rally and not a town hall meeting. ... The capacity of the church was 1,200 but, by the time we got in, at least 900 of the seats were already filled by the Obama faithful. The lineup of speakers spewed nothing but b.s. about how un-Christian it was to be opposed to universal health care for everybody. The preacher, Jim Rigby, kicked off the worship service, falling all over himself expressing how terrible it is for people of faith to, "....even consider how awful it is to profess Christ and ignore the plight of the poor."

Than an attorney, Geoff Tudor, painted himself as a destitute emigrant from California and a victim of the insurance industry. He has a pacemaker battery that is about to wear out and, without health care, will surely die.

Our embarrassment of a mayor, Lee Leffingwell, talked about what a wonderful job he had done promoting universal health care in line with all the other mayors in the United States.

And then it was time for Doggett. When he declared that he didn't care what his constituents had to say and that he had his mind made up and that, ".....he was going to vote his heart", I got up and walked out.

I couldn't stand to sit through any more of the fecal matter and there were a lot of us who didn't stay for even as long as I did. I decided that the best way I could show my dissent was to leave in the middle of Doggett's speech and, since I was on the front row of the balcony and three of my similar-minded friends were with me, we were not invisible in our expression of our point of view. I can't say it for sure but I doubt if any of us managed to sit through the whole thing.

It was awful but I'm glad I went because it reinforces my understanding of the lemmings that continue to worship our liberal leadership and makes me more determined to resist them.

I would ask this liberal Rev Rigby if "universal health care for everybody" extends to the unborn, to those whose husbands want to pull the plug on them, and to the possible future victims of Government rationing of healthcare. If the answer is no, then perhaps the good Reverend is on the wrong side of the issue.

What the liberals don't seem to get is that having a successful rally in a liberal stronghold like central Austin will mean nothing. Preaching to the converted won't win anyone else to their side of the argument, and it's not like they needed this to get their talking points out there. The Democrats already have the Congressional majority. They already have the megaphone of the White House. Yet that won't change the realities of our $9 trillion deficit estimate for Obama's terms and the cold hard reality that ObamaCare would add more tax-and-spend burden on top of that unaffordable amount.

Doggett's failure to hold his own in real townhalls, his failure to allay concerns of senior citizens about Medicare getting squeezed and care getting rationed, and his willingness to create cheerleading rallies instead is a retreat. Which means this: The "Summer of Patriots" was a success for American freedom.

Statist of the Economy & the Summer of Patriots

What Hath Obama Wrought? The State of the Obama Economy:

• A 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion — more than the sum of all previous deficits since America’s founding. Liberals are reduced to saying it's not so bad because it's no worse than living through a World War.
  
• By the next decade’s end the national debt will equal three-quarters of the entire U.S. economy.
• Unemployment hit 9.4 percent in July and is estimated to go to at least 10 percent.
  
• The American economy will “shrink by 2.5 to 2.8 percent this year even as it begins to climb out of the recession.”

The pre-inauguration 'demo version' of Obama was Hope and Change. When we brought the box home, though, it became Hoops and Chains. We now have 9 trillion reasons to want to send it back.

UPDATE - but why is the stock market rising then? Let's stipulate that there will be no Great Depression but a recession that will be ending late this year. Unemployment is high, but is a lagging indicator. Another factor is the market is liking the failure of ObamaCare; as Obama falls, the market revives.

We had a wonderful happening this summer --- the Summer of Patriots. Patriots came to protests and townhalls and stopped the Obama machine.

Obama covered a lot of territory but, akin to stopping Hitler or Napoleon in moscow, patriots harried Obama's plans and he ended up beyond his supply lines and in a battle of attrition finds his agenda without needed support. This has FUNDAMENTALLY RESHAPED the future trajectory of American politics in the Obama era. Obama may indeed revive and pass something he can call an accomplishment, but the ground-shaking earth-shifting realignment that the liberals were hoping for is NOT supported by the 60% of Americans who are not liberals and hardcore Democrats. There will not be a New Deal II or massive Great New Society; you can put the LBJ and FDR analogies back on the shelf. Obama is stuck between Carter (choose one-term liberal incompetence) or Clinton (choose political face-saving triangulation).

Market watchers and political prognosticators are now observing the probability of a GOP rebound in 2010. Now the Obama agenda is known, quantified, and the bounds of it assessed, the smart money is able to predict - as Obama goes down the market will go up, and vice versa.

Big Govt Agenda goes Clunkety Clunk

Another government program goes Clunkety Clunk - Cash for clunkers has been beset with missed deadlines, massive mis-estimate of demand (ended up spending 3 times the original program case), and car dealers left in the lurch for now with many getting no payments. Sure it's popular, it's a program to buy dollar bills for 3 dollars... But who'd a thunk a 'free lunch' could be so complicated? As one sarcastic commenter put it: 'I feel quite comfortable giving the government control over healthcare. What could go wrong?'

These kinds of mishaps help Obama sink further in polls, and forces the elites to dissect what is going wrong with Obama and his Hindenberg Obamacare, which they thought was a slam-dunk. Some say his misread his mandate: "the subterranian longing for racial expiation can hardly be confused (by rational people, anyway) as a longing for socialized medicine." Others talk of his inability to sell programs rather than himself. Nor does it help that Liberals are starting to notice the shady deals Obama engages in, and the Obamessiah sheen is wearing off.

Yet the fundamental issue is simple: It's the Big Government stupid. Big Government bailouts, then Big Govt Stimulus, then Big Govt Cap & Trade ... The American people see DC running amok and they don't like it. They SHOULD be outraged, because the President is not. The announcement of a $9 trillion debt increase in Obama's term should be an instant and stunning wakeup call. We've maxed out the credit card and we simply CANNOT afford to splurge on yet another tax-and-spend-and-regulate massive Government program.

Matt Welsh wrote above about the big government problem and in it identified top 10 Government power grabs under Obama:

1. The Stimulus ($787 billion)

2. The Omnibus ($410 billion)

3. Health Care Reform ($1 trillion?)

4. Cap and Trade.

5. Antitrust lawsuits against Google, et al.

6. Pay Czar.

7. Turning Pell Grants into an entitlement.

8. Having the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco.

9. Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

10. Federal Trade Commission overreach.

If President Obama attempts to 'fix' his problems with salesmanship, he will fail. The problem is fundamental: Obama has the wrong focus, the wrong agenda, the wrong priorities, and the wrong ideas. It is an ultimate act of mis-leadership by President Obama, and an act of ideology triumphing over common sense, that he pursues his command-and-control programmatic agenda, including these ten items, while failing to focus on economic recovery and private sector job creation as Job One.

Obama's Big Government Agenda is a clunker. Time to trade it in before it breaks down.