Brandon

Monday, April 30, 2012

Obama Held More Fundraisers than All Previous President Since Nixon COMBINED

No wonder the country is in such a mess. With Obama's record golf outings and Michelle's parties and vacations Obama doesn't have time to govern!

From the Daily Mail:
Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than every elected president since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.

Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.

The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.
And done less to deserve re-election than any of his predecessors!

UPDATE: Dana Milbank writing in the Washington Post plays off Obama's television appearance with Jimmy Fallon saying this about Obama's perpetual campaign: "The preezy of the United Steezy is making me queasy.... preezy is making me queasy because his nonstop campaigning is looking, well, sleazy"

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Environmentalist Who Made Big Bucks w/ Books on Global Warming Admits "I Made a Mistake"

But he's going to write another book and cash in on his mistake!

James Lovelock was hailed by Time Magazine as one of the global 13 "Heroes of the Environment." The same article which anointed him with that title described as having an "almost unparalleled influence in environmental science."

High praise indeed. Lovelock made big money in 2006 with his book “Revenge of Gaia.” Summarizing the book in an article with the U.K. Independent he postulated that climate change brought on by burning fossil fuels would mean that
"before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."
Lovelock went on to predict that the planet once warmed would remain largely uninhabitable for 100,000 years.

"I made a mistake"


In an interview with MSNBC, Lovelock admits that he had been “extrapolating too far." No doubt he relied on those infamous climate change computer models which haven't been right in more than 30 years. From the interview:
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.

“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.

“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising -- carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.

He pointed to Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” as other examples of “alarmist” forecasts of the future.
...
As “an independent and a loner,” he said he did not mind saying “All right, I made a mistake.” He claimed a university or government scientist might fear an admission of a mistake would lead to the loss of funding.
...
“Revenge of Gaia,” published in 2006, he said he had gone too far in describing what the warming Earth would see over the next century.

“I would be a little more cautious -- but then that would have spoilt the book,” he quipped.
As I have repeatedly said, it's all about the money and another of the Warmists had the courage to admit it!

Want proof that the left is still milking this issue? Obama announced in an interview with Rolling Stone (another joke) that climate change "will become part of the campaign" of 2012. Yep, got to keep those contributions rolling in from environmentalists before too many more admit the whole issue was a fraud!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Contrast the Romney Speech with Obama's Late Night Appearance

One serious, positive and presidential. The other, a joke that is no longer funny!

Tuesday night former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP nominee for President of the United States delivered the opening speech of the main presidential campaign. It was positive, tough and offered a vision for a better America. The full text with link to the video is below.

But contrast Romney's speech with the appearance by Barack Obama on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. Obama's performance was smooth, cool but completely unserious and devoid of substance. Which man appears more presidential in this contrasting video? Keep in mind as you watch this that the target audience for the Obama appearance are younger voters. Unemployment and underemployment for those under 25 is above 50%.



Here's how a leader spends his time:
"A Better America Begins Tonight"
Remarks by Mitt Romney
[video]
Manchester, New Hampshire
April 24, 2012

...Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.

For every single mom who feels heartbroken when she has to explain to her kids that she needs to take a second job … for grandparents who can’t afford the gas to visit their grandchildren … for the mom and dad who never thought they’d be on food stamps … for the small business owner desperately cutting back just to keep the doors open one more month – to all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I’ve met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you, I have a simple message: Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.

Tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every American who knows in their heart that we can do better! The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do!

Tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the Obama years and the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together.

This has already been a long campaign, but many Americans are just now beginning to focus on the choice before the country. In the days ahead, I look forward to spending time with many of you personally. I want to hear what’s on your mind, hear about your concerns, and learn about your families. I want to know what you think we can do to make this country better…and what you expect from your next President.

And I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. I’ll probably start out talking about my wonderful wife Ann – I usually do – and I’ll probably bore you with stories about our kids and grandkids. I’ll tell you about how much I love this country, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company. Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car.

I’d say that you might have heard that I was successful in business. And that rumor is true. But you might not have heard that I became successful by helping start a business that grew from 10 people to hundreds of people. You might not have heard that our business helped start other businesses, like Staples and Sports Authority and a new steel mill and a learning center called Bright Horizons. And I’d tell you that not every business made it and there were good days and bad days, but every day was a lesson. And after 25 years, I know how to lead us out of this stagnant Obama economy and into a job-creating recovery!

Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements…and rightly so. But because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now. It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid.


People are hurting in America. And we know that something is wrong, terribly wrong with the direction of the country.

We know that this election is about the kind of America we will live in and the kind of America we will leave to future generations. When it comes to the character of America, President Obama and I have very different visions.

Government is at the center of his vision. It dispenses the benefits, borrows what it cannot take, and consumes a greater and greater share of the economy. With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.

We’ve already seen where this path leads. It erodes freedom. It deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. And it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty. Other nations have chosen that path. It leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt, and stagnant wages.

I have a very different vision for America, and of our future. It is an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans. Because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hard-working, educated and skilled employees is intense, and so wages and salaries rise.

I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents - some successful even beyond their wildest dreams – and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.

This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; we will stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.

In the America I see, character and choices matter. And education, hard work, and living within our means are valued and rewarded. And poverty will be defeated, not with a government check, but with respect and achievement that is taught by parents, learned in school, and practiced in the workplace.

This is the America that was won for us by the nation’s Founders, and earned for us by the Greatest Generation. It is the America that has produced the most innovative, most productive, and the most powerful economy in the world.

As I look around at the millions of Americans without work, the graduates who can't get a job, the soldiers who return home to an unemployment line, it breaks my heart. This does not have to be. It is the result of failed leadership and of a faulty vision. We will restore the promise of America only if we restore the principles of freedom and opportunity that made America the greatest nation on earth.

Today, the hill before us is a little steep but we have always been a nation of big steppers. Many Americans have given up on this President but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.

In the days ahead, join me in the next step toward that destination of November 6th, when across America we can give a sigh of relief and know that the Promise of America has been kept. The dreamers can dream a little bigger, the help wanted signs can be dusted off, and we can start again.

And this time we’ll get it right. We’ll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad.

There was a time – not so long ago – when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. We were Americans. That meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. We knew it without question. And so did the world.

Those days are coming back. That’s our destiny.

We believe in America. We believe in ourselves. Our greatest days are still ahead. We are, after all, Americans!


God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Obama's Flimflam on Student Loans Won't Mask Economic Hardship for Younger Voters

If Obama really cared so much about student loans why was he campaigning in 2007 instead of voting on the bill he's now complaining about?

In 2007 Democrats controlled both the House and Senate. They passed a bill which temporarily cut the interest rates on student loans. That temporary cut is about to expire. And as that deadline approaches Obama is campaigning around the country trying to convince he's on the side of younger voters who may face a higher interest payment by blaming the Republicans in Congress for the mess.

Obama never mentions that it was a Democrat controlled Congress which passed the bill. He also doesn't mention that he was too busy campaigning for President to vote on the bill. Since after taking office he rarely stops campaigning long enough to play a round of golf or throw a party not many people will be surprised.

This latest campaign swing is no different from all the others. It involves the usual attempt to distract voters from the greater economic hardship they see all around them and focus on some wedge issue which Obama will use to bash Republicans. The student loan ploy is just another in a long line of distractions Obama used to deflect attention from his record.

And for the younger voters Obama is attempting to hoodwink, economic hardship is a painful reality that won't be swept away with a sleight of hand campaign trick. From Speaker Boehner's blog:
  • 53.6%: Unemployed or Underemployed Bachelor’s Degree Holders. “About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years.” (The Associated Press, 4/23/12)
  • 25.1%: Increase in College Tuition & Fees at Public Four-Year Institutions Over the Past Three Years. Published in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions averaged $8,244 in 2011-12, $7,613 in 2010-11, $7,050 in 2009-2010 and $6,591 in 2008-2009. (The College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing”)
  • 13.2%: Unemployment Rate Amongst 20-24 Year Olds. “According to the March jobs report, the unemployment rate for those between the ages 20-24 is a sky-high 13.2 percent, versus the national rate of 8.2 percent.” (The Chicago Tribune, 4/18/12)
  • 85%: New College Graduates Moving Back in with Their Parents. “Thanks to a high unemployment rate for new grads, many of those with diplomas fresh off the press are making a return to Mom and Dad’s place. In fact, according to a poll conducted by consulting firm Twentysomething Inc., some 85% of graduates will soon remember what Mom’s cooking tastes like.” (Time, 5/10/11)
  • 10%: Decrease in Starting Salary of College Graduates Today vs. 2006 & 2007. “The median starting salary of students graduating in 2009 and 2010 was 10% lower than the salary received by those who entered the workforce in 2006 and 2007. College educated women continue to earn less than college educated men.” (John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, “Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy,” 5/18/11)
It's no wonder that so many college age voters have become disenchanted with Obama. The old "Hope and Change" routine doesn't work (pun intended). Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio summed the matter up this way: “Five years ago, just like today, the President put campaigning before governing. As a result, 50 percent of new graduates can’t find full-time employment in this economy.”

Monday, April 23, 2012

Urging Readers to "Kill the Judge" and "Kill Zimmerman" in Trayvon Martin Online Comments

Where is Obama, "Mr. Civility?"

For years, President Obama has been lecturing the country on political civility. Well, maybe not the entire country. He seems to exempt his political supporters from the same standard of speech he demands of Republicans. We all remember the one way finger pointing directed at conservatives in the wake of the massacre in Arizona where six died and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was so grievously injured. Obama was on hand for the memorial where he said “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

Just six weeks ago Obama waded into the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke contraception controversy  admonishing Rush by saying “All decent folks can agree, that the remarks that were made don’t have any place in the public discourse." Of course he completely ignored the much more vile and hateful remarks of fellow Dems and campaign contributors.

Will Obama repeat his admonishment now that online conversations are demanding that the Judge who granted bail to George Zimmerman , charged with killing Trayvon Martin, be killed along with Zimmerman? Don't hold your breath.

Here's the story from the Weekly Standard:
Writing on a Twitter, someone named @Rick_Cobain writes, "Zimmerman released from jail someone kill the judge!!!!!"
Already 25 other people have retweeted @Rick_Cobain's call for murder.
And on Twitter:

George Zimmerman was released on $150,000 bail late Sunday night in what the Associated Press called a “low-key event.” Threats of death from the Twitter lynch mob were anything but low-key.
Others hoped someone else would take out Zimmerman so they wouldn’t have to dirty their hands.
One genius called for the mob to murder Zimmerman because she thinks charges just disappear when someone makes bail.
That last comment typifies the kind of blind, willful ignorance and hate which is the hallmark of this online lynch mob. And it's a safe bet that most of the people writing these comments also support Obama. So, that might explain why we don't expect to hear Obama condemn these kinds of statements.

Calling for a judge or a charged defendant to be killed is the same sort of mob justice that the Ku Klux Klan specialized in. Reading the comments above you just saw the face of the new KKK and once again, it's the "terrorist arm of the Democrat Party."

Sunday, April 22, 2012

MUST SEE VIDEO: "If I Wanted America to Fail"

You'll either stand up and cheer or sit down and cry!

I do not often say you MUST SEE a particular video. But you MUST SEE this one. Free Market America NAILS the entire Obama scam in under five minutes:



NARRATOR: If I wanted America to fail. To follow, not lead; to suffer, not prosper; to despair, not dream — I’d start with energy.

I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap, abundant energy. Of course, I couldn’t take it by force. So, I’d make Americans feel guilty for using the energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their businesses, and powers their economy.

I’d make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy would seem cheap.

I would empower unelected bureaucrats to all-but-outlaw America’s most abundant sources of energy. And after banning its use in America, I’d make it illegal for American companies to ship it overseas.

If I wanted America to fail …

I’d use our schools to teach one generation of Americans that our factories and our cars will cause a new Ice Age, and I’d muster a straight face so I could teach the next generation that they’re causing Global Warming.

And when it’s cold out, I’d call it Climate Change instead.

I’d imply that America’s cities and factories could run on wind power and wishes. I’d teach children how to ignore the hypocrisy of condemning logging, mining and farming — while having roofs over their heads, heat in their homes and food on their tables.

I would never teach children that the free market is the only force in human history to uplift the poor, establish the middle class and create lasting prosperity. Instead, I’d demonize prosperity itself, so that they will not miss what they will never have.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would create countless new regulations and seldom cancel old ones. They would be so complicated that only bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists could understand them. That way small businesses with big ideas wouldn’t stand a chance — and I would never have to worry about another Thomas Edison, Henry Ford or Steve Jobs.

I would ridicule as “Flat Earthers” those who urge us to lower energy costs by increasing supply. And when the evangelists of commonsense try to remind people about the law of supply and demand, I’d enlist a sympathetic media to drown them out.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would empower unaccountable bureaucracies seated in a distant capitol to bully Americans out of their dreams and their property rights. I’d send federal agents to raid guitar factories for using the wrong kind of wood; I’d force homeowners to tear down the homes they built on their own land.

I’d make it almost impossible for farmers to farm, miners to mine, loggers to log, and builders to build. And because I don’t believe in free markets, I’d invent false ones. I’d devise fictitious products — like carbon credits — and trade them in imaginary markets. I’d convince people that this would create jobs and be good for the economy.

If I wanted America to fail …

For every concern, I’d invent a crisis; and for every crisis, I’d invent the cause.

Like shutting down entire industries and killing tens of thousands of jobs in the name of saving spotted owls. When everyone learned the stunning irony that the owls were victims of their larger cousins — and not people — it would already be decades too late.

If I wanted America to fail …

I’d make it easier to stop commerce than start it — easier to kill jobs than create them — more fashionable to resent success than to seek it. When industries seek to create jobs, I’d file lawsuits to stop them. And then I’d make taxpayers pay for my lawyers.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would transform the environmental agenda from a document of conservation to an economic suicide pact. I would concede entire industries to our economic rivals by imposing regulations that cost trillions.

I would celebrate those who preach environmental austerity in public while indulging a lavish lifestyle in private. I’d convince Americans that Europe has it right, and America has it wrong.

If I wanted America to fail …

I would prey on the goodness and decency of ordinary Americans. I would only need to convince them … that all of this is for the greater good.

If I wanted America to fail, I suppose I wouldn’t change a thing.
Help get this message out! Donate money. Like Free Market America on Facebook. Email this video to your friends and family and say FINALLY, someone found a way to put it all into words in one short video. Watch this video and help spread the word BEFORE it's too late!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Photos of the Week: The Lion Lay Down with the Lamb. Plus, Last Flight of Shuttle Discovery

Be forewarned, the lion (leopard) and the lamb story doesn't have a happy ending!

From the Daily Mail. A young antelope only four hours old was discovered by a leopard in South Africa. The leopard played with the youngster, who had no sense of fear of the big cat for about 45 minutes as startled onlookers snapped photos. The one photo not included in the story is what happened after the leopard got either bored or hungry.

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The last flight of the Shuttle Discovery over Washington, DC atop a 747 carrying it to the Smithsonian museum outside the city. Story and more photos from the Daily Mail and the NASA Flickr.

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As a follow on to the NASA story Charles Krauthammer has a brilliant column in the Washington Post describing how this victory lap for the Space Shuttle is actually a funeral procession for America's manned space program and our predominance in space following Obama's cancellation of the Shuttle's successor which terminated manned space flight at NASA. The Russians and Chinese are only too eager to take up the slack and eventually make the U.S. a second rate power in space!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Top 1% of Income Earners Pay MORE Than Their Fair Share

Would someone please ask Obama why he continues to insist the rich are not paying their "fair share?"

Since Tax Day was this week, here are a few facts that readers may wish to consider next time they hear another Obama speech attacking millionaires and billionaires.

From a October 2011 Tax Foundation study:
The income earned by the top 1% of Americans has declined for the second year in a row while their average tax rate has increased, according to a new Tax Foundation study. The average federal tax rate for those reporting at least $343,927 in income has increased from 22.5% in 2007 to 24.0% in 2009, while the average income for the top 1% has declined from $1.4 million to $1 million over the same period.

Got that? Those evil 1%, who according to Obama are not "paying their fair share," have actually seen their incomes drop but their taxes go up. At one point the 1%ers were even paying more in total tax than the remaining 95% of tax payers. And for the super rich, the top one tenth of 1% who do pay a lower tax rate due to capital gains, it's rarely pointed out that "income derived from these sources has already been taxed once by the corporate income tax, which is not included."

Should we also mention that the U.S. has the highest corporate income tax rate in the world? The same is true for overall income taxes among the top 10%.

And a reminder of who actually pays income taxes (source National Taxpayers Union):
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Top 10% (those making $112,124 or more) pay 70% of ALL income taxes. Who is not paying their fair share?
100% tax on "the rich" won't pay for Obama's spending!

Last year at Tax Day I posted the following chart from the Wall Street Journal:

Take 100% of the income earned by roughly the top 10% (who by the way pay 70% of ALL income tax) and you won't have enough to pay for Obama's spending for one year let alone do more than dent the unprecedented five trillion in new debt Obama has managed to run up in 3+ years.

So where will Obama get the money to continue his spending spree for those so-called "investments" in green energy which don't create any jobs but do line the pockets of his campaign contributors? The only place left to tax is the Middle Class who have already suffered the most from Obama's corrupt and incompetent handling of the economy.

Want some "change" left in your pocket? Your only "hope" is to vote for Romney this fall!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Obama's Excuse Parade

It's NEVER his fault!

The RNC has a new video ad in which they start with Obama saying he won't be making excuses if his policies fail and then proceeds to do just that. It's a good reminder, not that one was needed, of how totally incompetent this Administration is.



And if you like that web ad, you'll love this one. It demonstrates that the Obama Administration does respect the U.S. Constitution. Or at least the 5th Amendment....

Obama's Grand Distraction

Can he keep this shell game going through the election?
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"I also know that real change has never been easy, and it won't be easy this time either. The status quo in Washington will fight harder than they ever have to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November."
-- Barack H. Obama, Pennsylvania Primary speech April 22, 2008
Obama's speeches are littered with the word "distraction." When Obama talks about distractions, he is speaking from experience. He is the master of the technique he frequently rails against. Like every good con man he knows that he has to offer some razzle dazzle to keep your mind off what is really going on.

For four years now we have been treated to an endless string of phony arguments and attacks all designed to detract attention from the failures of the Obama Administration. Or, as former Vice President Dick Cheney called it, an "unmitigated disaster."

Lately the technique has intensified and the entire Democrat political apparatus has been activated not to defend Obama's record but to keep the shell game going as long as possible. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summed up the rhetorical sleight of hand in a fundraising letter where she declared the GOP was waging "unrelenting war on women, seniors, and the middle class." Add to that Obama's class warfare and the race war being ginned up after the killing of Trayvon Martin and you might think the GOP is out to get just about everybody!

But just like the shell game, it's all a scam designed to keep your eye off what is really going on and separate you from your money.

The war on women (a theme repeated by numerous elected Dems)is a con game to take women's eyes off the fact that under Obama, women have suffered more during this recession than men. And Obama certainly doesn't want women talking about how the gals in his White House get paid 18% less than men. So, the Dems gin up a phony controversy over contraception and it's off to the races.

Same with the race wars. Black leaders  have been critical (1,2) of Obama for his failure to do more for his most loyal supporters. So, what do you do to keep blacks from complaining about the fact that unemployment is 6% higher than the national average? Get them angry about race issues. If Trayvon Martin's killer had been a black man, we would never have heard about the tragedy. Thousands of young black men and women are killed each year and Dems leaders do little more than give lip service to the carnage.

Obama's latest shiny object to distract the voters from economic hardship is the so-called Buffet Rule. Sounds good to make millionaires and billionaires pay more in taxes. Obama says it's a question of fairness but overlooks the fact that the top 1% pay 37% of all income taxes and the bottom 50% pay 2%. Obama also claimed that this new tax would help "close our deficits" and give him more money to spend on "investments" like more bankrupt solar energy companies owned by major Obama campaign donors.

But the new tax would only raise $47 billion over ten years at the same time new deficits under Obama will top $6 trillion. If Obama really cared about the deficit he trim back his spending plans for all those new "investments." Even if we confiscated 100% of the income of those making $114,00 or more it wouldn't pay for one year of Obama's spending and only slightly more than half the new deficits over ten years.

The big question is whether Obama can continue to run these various shell games through the election or will they backfire as voters start asking tough questions? For the answer I turn to the words of Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

Sunday, April 15, 2012

A Titanic Tragedy One Hundred Years Later

The ill-fated voyage of RMS Titantic still captures the imagination!

The largest ship afloat and reputed to be unsinkable left Southampton, England with 2,223 souls on board April 10, 1912. She sank 12,500 feet to the ocean floor early in the morning of April 15, 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland. 1514 people perished.

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RMS Titanic

National Geographic has a photo gallery of artifacts and remnants of the ship as she lays on the ocean floor.

UPDATE: A number of people on Twitter  just found out that the Titanic was an actual event and not just a movie. Where did they go to school? What do you bet most of them are Obama supporters?

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Obama's "War on Women" Meme Backfires with Dem Attack on Ann Romney

But we shouldn't be surprised. Dems regularly impugn Republican women!

So get this: Hillary Rosen, a key Dem operative with close ties to the White House and DNC said this about Ann Romney, wife of GOP presumptive nominee Mitt Romney:
His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why we worry about their future.
Apparently Ms. Rosen is unaware that Ann Romney raised five boys, survived breast cancer, suffers from multiple sclerosis. Never mind that Mitt and Ann Romney's first home was a basement apartment with a concrete floor where the couple pinched pennies while Mitt completed his education.

Rosen's assault on Ann Romney was an attack on all women who have chosen a different path from hers. Rosen is the same woman who in 2008 praised Michelle Obama for "taking care of the children, supporting the husband, doing everything she can because she loves him." In the same appearance Rosen said that attacking Michelle Obama was a "stupid strategy."

Of course we all know that there are two standards of accountability for speech and Hillary Rosen and the Democrats will never held to the same standard they daily demand of Republicans who might criticize the wife of a Democrat politician. Look no further than attacks on Laura Bush, Sarah Palin or the vile thing routinely said about conservative women if you need a reminder about the double standard.

Obama's War on Women

I can't end this post without commenting on Obama's war on women. Not the Republican war on women, but the Obama war on women. What? You haven't heard of that? You've only heard the Obama campaign's propaganda that the GOP is waging a war on women?

Let's put aside the rhetoric and look at the facts. Since Obama took office women have been negatively impacted to a far greater degree than men during Obama's recession. This applies to unemployment and participation in the workforce. At the same time, the number of women living in poverty has skyrocketed. In addition, female veterans returning from service overseas are hardest hit for finding affordable housing and new jobs.

Taking it to a more personal level, the Obama White House has been described as a "boy's club" which presents a "hostile" work environment for women. On top of all of that, women in the Obama White House earn 18% less than their male counterparts.

While Obama may campaign as the champion of women, his record speaks of a very different attitude towards. But then, this isn't the only disconnect between Obama's words and deeds!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Hope and Change Gives Way to Fear and Division

The man who promised to change politics is going to wage the most negative campaign of all time!

Another great video from the RNC:


"I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Barack Obama, June 2008
The gullible can look back on these words and wonder what happened. The rest of us knew America was being sold a pig in a poke! Have we learned our lesson yet?

UPDATE: In a related column, Victor Davis Hanson writing at National Review compares the moderate and relatively reasonable rhetoric coming from Obama's teleprompter (not sure I would agree, especially after the teleprompter said Republicans want to poison our children with pollution) with the unscripted moments that are caught on mic when he thinks no one is listening.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Cap And Trade by Any Other Name Still Stinks

Obama's attempt to get around Congress would kill coal power and make your electricity bill "skyrocket" and have no effect on climate change!

Obama has often said that if Congress doesn't give him his way he'll go around the legislative branch and find some other way to achieve his goals. Action on Cap and Trade is no different. After the 2010 election Obama said “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end. And I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

While we were all distracted with the health care case in the Supreme Court he did just that.

As we marveled at the incompetence of the Solicitor General while he fumbled in presenting the case for ObamaCare before the High Court, The Environmental Protection Agency released a new rule that would limit the amount of carbon a power plant could emit per megawatt to levels that are well below what coal plants currently discharge into the atmosphere. For now, the rule applies only to new plants but the goal is ultimately to make it apply to existing plants.

What this means is that no new coal fired power plants could be built and eventually all coal plants would be forced to shut down if the rule is made retroactive in the future. It would be the death of coal power in a country whose very economic foundation was built on cheap coal power. It's also a way of making green energy alternatives seem more competitive by jacking up the cost of fossil fuels.

This may be one of the few campaign promises that Obama has kept. Readers may recall that during the 2008 campaign Obama said that his plan would "bankrupt" any new coal plants. In that same interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he also said that under his plan "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket" as more expensive sources of energy are required to replace the power from coal and other sources. We've already seen rates skyrocket 32-54% where green alternatives have been mandated by government. That's just the beginning.

No Difference in Climate Change

Obama admitted in the SF Chronicle interview that to "take coal off the table" is "a [sic] ideological matter." It is not one that is founded on science. Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator admitted in testimony before the U.S. Senate in 2009 that even if the U.S. were to proceed with some form of cap and trade it would have no effect on global climate change. As we are learning, there is no link between CO2 and global temperature anyway.

Obama would "bankrupt" coal plants while electricity rates "skyrocket" all for an ideology that would have no positive effect on climate change. No thanks!

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Obama Recyles Attack Rhetoric on GOP Budgets

It's bad enough he has no new ideas. Can't he at least come up with something new to say?

Or is his telepromter stuck?


At National Review, Yuval Levin points out that:
On February 16, at a hearing of the House Budget Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was asked by committee chairman Paul Ryan to describe the administration’s plans for addressing the mounting risk of a debt crisis. His reply was: “We’re not coming before you today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.”
It's not just the Treasury Secretary that is short of ideas and can only tear down GOP ideas. Here's a video comparing Obama's speech attacking the GOP budget plan of Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) in 2011 with his speech attacking Ryan's plan for 2012:

Nearly identical word for word. No new ideas. No plan. No leadership. No responsibility!

And if you think this example is a fluke, I would remind you that his State of the Union speeches are like old reruns on TV.

Elsewhere in Obama's Tuesday speech he trotted out the same Chicken Little "the sky is falling" scaremongering about what would happen if the Ryan plan were enacted. I don't need to cite examples, you have heard them all before. Of course it doesn't matter that what he said was factually false or that he deliberately misled his listeners about the Ryan plan. We expect dishonesty from a Chicago politician.

In the video clip below, Mitt Romney called out Obama on his dishonest tactics by saying that Obama "railed against arguments no one is making – and criticized policies no one is proposing. It’s one of his favorite strategies – setting up straw men to distract from his record."

Yuval Levin concluded his brilliant summation of Obama's game:
He speaks as though the problem—our unsustainable entitlement state—were the solution, and as though the solution—a budget that restrains the growth of spending, modernizes and reforms our collapsing entitlement and welfare programs to avert their collapse, and charts a path toward economic growth—were the problem. In this upside-down, inside-out world, Barack Obama accuses Paul Ryan of putting the future of America’s younger generation in danger and inviting American decline.


A psychologist might call this projection. The president’s political advisors probably call it all they’ve got. Let us hope that voters will know what to call it this fall: reckless denial and cynical dishonesty from a failed president with nothing left to offer. Or, if we are lucky, perhaps the last straw.
Obama can't talk about his record and we can only expect that these attacks will get worse we get nearer the election. But really, is this the best Obama can do?

Romney Nails Obama for "hide and seek" Campaign and "straw men" Dishonesty

In speech delivered to newspaper editors and publishers. Will they listen and spread the word or continue to cover for Obama's candor deficit?

On Wednesday, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, coming off a three state sweep in Tuesday's primaries delivered a strong indictment of the dishonest campaign tactics Obama is using. In a speech to the Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of News Editors he said this:


...President Obama’s comments to President Medvedev are deeply troubling. That incident calls his candor into serious question. He does not want to share his real plans before the election, either with the public or with the press. By flexibility, he means that 'what the American public doesn't know won't hurt him.' He is intent on hiding. You and I will have to do the seeking...

...instead of answering those vital questions, President Obama came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making – and criticized policies no one is proposing. It’s one of his favorite strategies – setting up straw men to distract from his record.

And while I understand why the President doesn’t want to run on his record, he can’t run from his record either.

As I have said many times before, the President did not cause the economic crisis, but he made it worse. He delayed the recovery, and made it anemic.

When he took office, millions of Americans looked to him to turn around the economy and lead us back to full employment. He failed these Americans....

...President Obama’s answer to our economic crisis was more spending, more debt, and more government. By the end of his term in office, he will have added nearly as much public debt as all the prior Presidents combined. No President had ever run a trillion dollar deficit. The "New Normal" the President would have us embrace is trillion dollar deficits and eight percent unemployment...

...I’d be willing to consider the President’s plan, but he doesn’t have one. That’s right: In over three years, he has failed to enact or even propose a serious plan to solve our entitlement crisis...

"Nancy Pelosi famously said we would have to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it. President Obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy. He wants to reelect him, so we can find out what he'll actually do. With all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for President Obama's hide and seek campaign," .

President Obama has said that he wants to transform America. I don’t want to transform America; I want to restore the values of economic freedom, opportunity, and small government that have made this nation the leader it is.
Romney presented the Obama problem in a nutshell. If indeed Mitt does become the nominee for the Republicans he needs to hammer that message home every day from now until election day until the average American voter knows it by heart!
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