Monthly Archives: May 2012

A LIST OF BARACK OBAMA’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 1 comment

There is a list going around the Internet outlining an extensive number of things the President has accomplished since coming into office.  The author seems to be addressing Obama supporters who are disappointed in the President’s performance.  It’s an impressive list, well documented and straight forward in it’s presentation.  I thought I would check it out.

Here is an example from the middle of the list.

He signed an order banning anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years. He also put strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House.   http://nyti.ms/gOrznV

REBUTTAL. He did sign the ban, but continued to hire former lobbyists to serve the White House. Mega lobbyists Steve Ricchetti, Broderick Johnson, James Heimbach just to mention three.

Not to cherry pick, I started from the top.  Here are the first seven.  They are enough to tell the storey.  Here’s a link to the full list.

Legislative Prowess
Despite the characterizations of some, Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office.  Though he is often cited as superior to Obama, President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%.   http://n.pr/i3d7cY

REBUTTAL. True. With Democratic control of the House and the Senate, Pelosi, Reid and Obama had a radical’s field day.

Fiscal Responsibility
Within days after taking office, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse.   http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5

REBUTTAL. True. The Order added the requirement for contractors to disclose their political party affiliations when applying for government contracts making it easier to reward those who had done political favors for the President and his party. 

Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money.   http://n.pr/hcgBn1

REBUTTAL. True. But his appointee to initiate the post never served due to her personal income tax problems.

On his first full day, he froze White House salaries.  http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx

REBUTTAL. Not really. On his first full day it was a proposal and not a freeze.  And it didn’t stop federal employees from getting increases in their income.  It only stopped raises within grade. Increases could still be given as bonuses or the raising of pay grades without the need for promotions.  The proposal was more fanfare than substance.

He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending. http://www.cio.gov

REBUTTAL. True. Each government agency already had a Chief Investment Officer. The creation of this new layer of oversight provided the means to control all of the agency career CIOs by one czar appointed by and beholden to the President.  It also added and an unnecessary expense

He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems, and also signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system.  http://bit.
ly/hOw1t1     http://bit.ly/fz8GAd

REBUTTAL. Defense Secretary Gates called this a controversial move.  I am not qualified to judge the advisability of it. However one thing is clear; it dismissed one third of private contractors, replacing them with civilian government workers.

Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  http://bit.ly/hwKhKa

REBUTTAL. This is better known as the Erskine-Bowles commission.  The Commission made many recommendations for the President and the Senate to include in the Federal Budget.  None were adopted.  Harry Reid’s Democratically controlled Senate hasn’t presented a budget in 3 years, contrary to law.

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EX BLACK CAUCUS MEMBER LEAVES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Artur Davis was an early and very strong supporter of Barack Obama in his run for the presidency.  He held the position of co-chairman of the campaign and served as a Congressman representing Alabama’s 7th District from 2003 to 2011.

LA Times reports:

Renouncing the party “is no light decision on my part,” he wrote. “Cutting ties with an Alabama Democratic Party that has weakened and lost faith with more and more Alabamians every year is one thing; leaving a national party that has been the home for my political values for two decades is quite another.”

But “wearing a Democratic label no longer matches what I know about my country and its possibilities,” he said.

Although he may not have articulated it, Mr. Davis has recognized what other Democrats have not.  This is not the party of Roosevelt, Truman or Kennedy; it’s something else.  Mr. Davis has not left the Party, the Party left him.  In his youth, the former Congressman believed wholeheartedly in the principles upheld by the Democratic Party.  He has held fast to those principles and that is why he sees the need to leave.

Barack Obama is head of the Democratic Party and his platform is indistinguishable from Soviet style Socialism.

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OBAMA REFERS TO NAZI HOLOCAUST COMPOUNDS AS POLISH DEATH CAMPS

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

photo courtesy of The Drudge Report

The World War II death camps that were built in Poland were built by the Nazi’s not by the Poles.  The amateur in the White House spoke as if he didn’t realize that.  Polish officials are furious and demanding an apology.  In fact they have cast the usual diplomacy aside and said “America will apologize”.

It could have been an embarrassing but simple matter.  The President could have responded quickly saying the implications were unintended and apologized for using a thoughtless turn of phrase.  But that is not Barack Obama.  He just keeps his chin in the air and acts as though his remarks are Poland’s problem.

Of course it is possible he didn’t know the camps were built by Germany after they occupied Poland.  When it comes to history Obama has taken a greater interest in European colonialism and black history in the United States than he has in Central Europe and the events of WW II.  There is a lot he doesn’t know.

Here are some of the other things Obama apparently doesn’t know.  The links are mostly to short videos of the President speaking.

There are only 50 states in the U.S., not 57.

The borders of his home state.

Whether he is a Muslim or a Christain

Where he was born.

Dead heroes don’t come to hear his speeches.

Members of the US Navy are not corpse men.

How to deal with a teleprompter failure.

How to run a government.  No link required; this one is self evident.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES, MSNBC, DAN RATHER, KEITH OLBERMANN AND THE LOT

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 3 comments

It is easy for conservatives to fall into a gloom and doom trap.  Patriotism, Christianity and even capitalism are openly and widely ridiculed and rebuked.  We see nations in Europe falling into insolvency brought on by unsustainable spending rates with the United States following suit.  We are a democracy and have chosen a man to lead us who doesn’t believe in us.  Mom, apple pie and the flag are no longer sacrosanct.

Are we really doomed?  Is decline inevitable?  Is the light shining on a hill going out?  Sometimes the signs of hope lie in the signs of failure.

Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations argued that the collective wisdom of large masses of people over time far surpasses the intelligence of a few elites, no matter how astute the few may be.  In a free market society markets follow the collected wisdom of the people.  You buy the car you think is best.  You buy the clothes you like.  You shop at the stores that carry the goods you need at prices that represent fair value to you.  Those who offer real value succeed, those who don’t, fail.

It is no different with the media.  Whether it is time or money you are spending, you spend it where there is value.  The New York Times is failing fast.  The Times is selling assets left and right just to stay afloat.  The newspaper industry is a troubled one but given its history and prestige the Times should not be in the trouble it is.  But their content has become shoddy and biased beyond all reason.  John Hinderaker at the Power Line blog says “The Times is the newspaper equivalent of MSNBC.”  I have had the same thought myself.  MSNBC has but a fraction of the audience of FOX.  The people are free to choose.  As long as a majority see little value in the tripe put out by outlets selling the ideology of the uncompromising left, their failure is a sign of hope.

But I don’t wish them failure.  I wish them wisdom.

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RULES for RADICALS by SAUL ALINSKY – THE WAY AHEAD

Posted on May 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

RULES for RADICALS by SAUL ALINSKY – THE WAY AHEAD

Today we add Commentary to the final chapter of Rules for Radical

If you have read the full review you have gained insights that few others have into an important part of the political world as it is played out in America today.  You will grasp the political element behind Republican ridicules of Obama and his teleprompter and Joe Biden’s antics.  It becomes clear why the Democrats came up with the slogan “Republican War on Women”.  You understand that compromise is difficult because it is a solution.  And solutions deprive one or both sides of an issue that could be used to their advantage as long as it remains unresolved.  Rules for Radicals is a simple book but a highly enlightening one when you see how the author’s teachings are manifested time and again in current events.

Synopsis of the chapter entitled The Way Ahead
The middle class is the largest group in America. The focus, now and in the future, must be on winning the middle class.

These “are a fearful people, who feel threatened on all sides:”. “Seeking some meaning in life, they turn to an extreme chauvinism and become defenders of the ‘American’ faith”. “They don’t know what, if anything, they can do. This is the job for today’s radical – to fan the embers of hopelessness into a flame to fight”.

Students who come to college from middle class backgrounds must be taught to reject their parent’s values and way of life as “materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt”. No one is better equipped to organize, agitate and convert the middle class than those who have escaped it.

Commentary
How could this college professor possibly have developed such a dismally incorrect perception of the vast middle class? Psychological projection would account for it. According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a defense mechanism where a person “projects” their own unwanted motivations, desires, fears, feelings and opinions onto someone else – if most everyone else feels and acts with the same fears and emotions that I have then there can be nothing wrong with me.

Also note the lightly veiled contempt for American ideals expressed by adding cynical quotation marks around the words American faith. The author has no faith in this, his country. In fact, disdain for America is a theme that recurs again and again throughout the book. It should not be surprising to see the same attitude toward America coming from Barack and Michelle Obama because it was the Alinsky model of community organizing that Barack followed and briefly taught to ACORN activists in Chicago.

There many things very sad about this closing chapter. The author ends his work with the same hopeless view that he began it. The professor’s only vision for the way ahead is to the drag America’s youth down into the same hellhole he has created for himself. Presumably, then they would fight for…, fight for what? The author never says. I submit they would fight for those very things they so soundly rejected. But they would fight the opportunity to take them, not for the opportunity to earn them.

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HAVE A HAPPY DECORATION DAY

Posted on May 27, 2012 | 1 comment

Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed annually in the United States on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. (Southern ladies organizations and southern schoolchildren had decorated Confederate graves in Richmond and other cities during the Civil War, but each region had its own date.  By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

Let John Wayne tell you the story of the origin of the bugle tune TAPS.

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OBAMA’S BIGGEST LIE YET

Posted on May 26, 2012 | Leave a comment


Obama is making the claim that he is the one who is the fiscally responsible president.  He says it’s the Republicans who are the wild spenders and creating huge deficits that he is cleaning the mess up.  He must be operating on the theory that if the people aren’t believing the lies you have been telling it must be because the lies weren’t big enough.

Watch the video; listen to the reaction of the crowd.  The immediate thought is they are a bunch of useful idiots.  But they are not as much idiots as they are true believers.  Faith is immune to facts.  Here are some of the facts.

Obama’s budget proposals to Congress have been so irresponsible that not a single member of the House or the Senate voted for them. And then there is the deficit record.  The numbers at the left are millions (2012 is estimated).

The deficit figure for Obama’s first year (2009) would have been even higher had it not been for the fact that the TARP loans made in 2008 were paid back, reducing the deficit in 2009.

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BE BOLD, BUY STOCKS

Posted on May 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

The news couldn’t be worse.  That’s when stocks are the cheapest.  Five days from now or five weeks from now they could be a lot cheaper, but we don’t know which or whether.  But 5 years from now here is what we see.

The European crisis will have passed its nadir.  Barack Obama will no longer be running the United States into the ground.  Romney will have turned the country around, unemployment will be dramatically reduced.  Paul Ryan’s plan, or one similar to it, will be in place to harness the national deficit.  Revenues will be up as the economy improves.  The national debt will still be high but concern over it will have lessened because the country will be working again.  Consumer and business confidence will return just as they did when Reagan followed Jimmy Carter.  Americans will feel proud of their country and their president and not be embarrassed for having elected him.

Wishful thinking?  Yes, some of it, but nothing unrealistic.

Wall Street spends too much time projecting the future by looking through the rear view mirror.  Politics is taken with a grain of salt as presidents come and go while companies remain flexible, accommodating Washington’s policies.  The investment community still thinks the best bet is the assumption that Obama will be re-elected.  However, his re-election is quickly becoming more of a possibility than a probability.  Chickens should wait until the election.  Daredevils can buy now.  But stay away from solar panels and windmills.

UPDATE: For the record, the market as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial average closed at 12,529.75 on the date of this post.

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CANDIDATE OBAMA IS GETTING HIS CHICKEN FRIED IN KENTUCKY

Posted on May 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama has captured 57.9% of the votes cast in the Kentucky Democratic primary. That may not seem so bad until you consider he is running against nobody and nobody won 42.1% of the votes. Of course the ballot doesn’t say “nobody”, that would be silly. It says “Uncommitted”. It is understood that uncommitted is nobody. Any fool knows that. The Party’s primary voters know that.

The man is having trouble in Arkansas as well. It looks like he has won it 42% TO 51%. At least in Arkansas Obama ran against somebody. Arkansas, Kentucky, Obama and Hillary, the four have a mutual history. During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign Clinton was doing better than Barack was in Kentucky. Obama said it’s because Hillary’s home state of Arkansas borders on Kentucky (which it does not) whereas my home state of Michigan does not” (which it does). Karma anybody?

Obama has lost support of the Catholic Church, much of the Jewish community, those white blue-collar workers not working for the government, and many of the unemployed youth. And now he is losing his own party’s elected officeholders. Not one single Democrat in the House or the Senate voted in favor of Obama’s budget. The prominent black mayor of Newark, New Jersey has been blunt in his criticism of the President’s attack on capitalism in his Bain Capital push on Romney.

Who does he have left? He still has the solid support of voters from the black community who vote brotherhood loyalty above all else, ACORN, welfare recipients, Bill Ayers, Rev Jeremiah Wright and a majority of the illegal aliens and dead people who vote. Such a motley group would not be enough but Obama also still has academia, the MSM, Hollywood and all of those people who always vote Democratic because Republicans are so mean and greedy.

You can judge a politician by the constituency he serves. My vote will be cast for a candidate who supports live citizens striving to be self sufficient. My vote will be cast for the candidate who serves the common man with common sense. My vote will be cast for the candidate who is proud to stand and say “I am an American”. As you can see, I cannfor Barack Obama.

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WHAT’L YA DO IF YA GET SICK IN 2025?

Posted on May 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Richard Foster is the chief actuary for Medicare.  An actuary is someone who is a whiz bang with numbers and smarter than Einstein or even Paul Ryan.  Foster is the man behind the numbers of the recently released Medicare Trustee’s Annual Report.  At a conference hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Foster explained that his calculations show Medicare (with Obamacare included) will run totally out of funds in 2024 as it is currently structured.

Foster’s actuarial machinations assume the federal government will cut payments to doctors by 30.9% in compliance with mandates already written into the law.  But they won’t do that.  Without that reduction in government expense the funds will be depleted even sooner.  The assumption is unrealistic, but as Foster explains, government actuaries are not given the latitude to do their math on the basis that the government will not enforce the law.

In the name of extending coverage to include everyone, the Democrats created a plan that in 10 years will cover no one.  Something will have to change.  That’s not an opinion; it’s arithmetic.

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