Tag Archives: Obama

FALKLANDS GO UNDER THE BUS

Argentina is agitating again to take the Falkland Islands. Oil is involved and Argentina needs the money to keep their socialist government running a little longer

Down through the years America has had no greater or more reliable ally than Great Britain. Sure, we had a spat in 1776 but what family doesn’t. Since then a very special relationship has existed between us, a kinship.

Some 70 years ago Hitler decided he wanted to own England. Hitler was a menace but we saw little threat to our homeland. The world was a lot bigger then and 3000 miles of ocean offered significant protection. And then we had our own day of infamy with the formidable task of replenishing a devastated Navy and building a military to defend our own nation. But that special relationship came to the fore.

Together we ended the atrocity that was World War II. Two hundred thousand flag draped boxes came back. A hundred thousand more lie forever away from home, interred where they died. It is what brothers do for brothers.

When we asked for help to drive Iraq from Kuwait the British were the first to respond. When we sought support for the Iraq war it was British combat troops who took responsibility for the southern portion. They have always been there when we needed them.

Now they need us. They need us to stand with them, not with troops, not with money, just a few spoken words of support. Obama’s response? Bug off Britain! You are on your own. If Argentina, with backing from Hugo Chavez, wants to blockade the Falkland Islands, let them. Excuse my paraphrasing but this abandonment is beyond contempt.

Obama insults the Queen with a gift of his speeches on CD’s that will not play on European players. Michelle gives the Queen a condescending pat on the back. Barack in turn gives a gift to the Prime Minister equally as disrespectful as the one to the Queen. Obama knows what he is doing, and if he didn’t there is a White House department of protocol to advise him. His insults are intentional.

That’s not all. Obama refused to meet with Prime Minister Brown at the G20 Summit, at the UN and on at least three other occasions. Yet he is ready to meet with Ahmadinejad anytime. As if to leave no doubt where he stands, Obama ordered the premature banishment of the bust of Winston Churchill from the White House, sending it back to the British people in a gesture of no thanks.

The British drink tea instead of coffee and eat fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. Other than that they are normal, peaceable, very fine folk. Whatever is it that Obama could have against these Anglo Saxons who represent such a significant part of Americas’ heritage?

FRIEDMAN’S FAT LADY

Thomas Friedman has penned an article for the New York Times declaring The Fat Lady Has Sung. Friedman’s fat lady is the bounty provided by the generations preceding us. But the glory days are over. “We are eating through the prosperity that was bequeathed to us like hungry locusts.”

He sees the problem and offers a solution – more government spending and higher taxes. Of course he didn’t say “more government spending”, but he advocated for deployment of Obama’s programs as part of the solution. And what is that if not more government spending? Einstein’s definition of idiocy immediately comes to mind. But Friedman is a very intelligent man. If idiocy is not the answer, then how is it that repeating the cause of the problem comes to be seen as the solution?

If you have read A Conflict of Visions you know the answer. It lies in an uwavering belief in the superiority of conceptual planning over the empirical evidence of experience. Reagan came close when he simply said “Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.”

It is clear that Friedman sees government to be the solution. I wonder what he sees as the cause.

Bob B

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AT THE BOOK STORE

While “gone fishing” I visited the book store. I was in Bernie Sanders country so you can imagine the titles on display in the Political Science section. I chose one at random, A Long Time Coming by Evan Thomas of Newsweek Magazine. It was thin with a hard cover. Thin books are always inviting. The title aroused my curiosity. Just what was it that the author thought was a long time coming?

There was no need to read beyond the first chapter to find the answer. This was a contemporary book occasioned by the election of Barack Obama. One could almost hear the gentle sound of air wafting from the lungs of Mr Thomas of Newsweek Magazine as he heaved a great sigh of relief and brought the news, finally “the undoing of the work of Nixon, Reagan and the Bush years” has begun. So this is what was a long time coming.

Undoing Nixon, Reagan and Bush? Pray tell, what did Nixon do that must now be undone? Reagan faced up to the Soviet Union and was instrumental in bringing down the Berlin wall. At home, his administration reversed spiraling inflation. Are these to be undone? And Bush? He spent like a Democrat and started a war. About the only thing these presidents have in common is they were all elected on the Republican ticket.

A sentence or two later in the book we find Thomas sees redemption at hand for the United States in that “a nation whose Constitution has enshrined slavery has elected a black man” to the Presidency. Continue reading

UNCIVIL SOCIETY

Bonfire of the Bureaucrats
Why did Communism fail in Eastern Europe?                              
Because the establishment ran out of steam.

The above three line header appeared recently in the New York Times Review of Books as introduction to a review by Serge Schmemann of the book, Uncivil Society by Stephan Kotkin and Jan Gross.

The authors attribute the failure of Communism in Eastern Europe to the bureaucracy in charge. There is no mention, not even a hint that there may be something about Communism itself that played a role in its failure. It was simply that, in this case, the bureaucrats messed it up.

If you have ever wondered how in the world some people still believe in the ultimate socialist society known as Communism after all its so obvious failures, here’s your answer. The right people have never been  put in charge. All socialism needs to make a better world is the right leader, a messiah if you will.

Enter from stage left, Barack Hussain Obama. A man of vision, a man of diversity, a man who promises to Change America. A man who promises to bring new Hope not just to America, but to the entire world.

If you have ever wondered  why there was so much enthusiasm for Obama, enthusiasm that bordered on worship, caused women to faint and sent tingles up a man’s leg, here is your answer. The democratic election to the Office of President of the sole superpower in the world is heady stuff to believers in the cause.

But be ye not dismayed. Obama is not a messiah nor will he change America from the land of opportunity into some sort of drab socialist nation. He may cause that shining light on the hill to blink, but it will come back on as brilliant as ever.

Bob B

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BUSH MADE ME DO IT

A group of Republican Congressmen snookered Obama into meeting with them in Minnesota on January 29th. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked the President why he had found it necessary to increase discretionary spending by 84%.  Obama said – Bush made me do it!

The exact words he used to say this were ” The fact of the matter is, is that most of the increases in this year’s budget, this past year’s budget, were not as a consequence of policies that we initiated but instead were built in as a consequence of the automatic stabilizers that kick in because of this enormous recession. So the increase in the budget for this past year was actually predicted before I was even sworn into office”

I can see it now. The year is 2012. The location is Iowa. The speaker is incumbent President Barack Obama. He speaks…” My fellow Americans, unemployment is touching 20%. The stock market is the lowest it has been since I took office, and mortgage foreclosures hit an historic high last month. I have said it before and I will say it again, I inherited this mess. As you know, the prior administration left this nation in such dreadful shape that even I could not put it back together in just 4 years.

When you walk past the SEIU polling place peacekeepers in November remember, what the world needs now is more Hope. Vote for more Hope. Your vote is important. Every vote counts. Vote as often as you can.

I have delivered on my promise. Scientists all agree, the oceans have not risen since I came to power. I can do the same for this alleged great nation as I did for the seas, but, as I said from the beginning it will take time. Give me 4 more years and you will see even greater Change.

(With a wave of the hand he departs ) Glad to be with you! And May God Change America”

EXECUTIVE ORDER WATCH

Wm F Buckley said “A liberal is someone who wants to reach into your shower and adjust the water temperature.” In today’s political environment, timid soul that I am, I’m reluctant to step into the shower totally nude.

Their hand has not touched my faucet yet but I do see it reaching for my wallet. This time it is not to take some money. They are doing that already with taxes. It’s not about controlling on what it may be spent. They are doing that already from light bulbs to automobiles. This time they want to tell you how to invest it.

According to Investment News, Obama signed an Executive Order on Friday creating a council whose advice will decide which financial products are to be supported by the government. The council will consist of approximately 20 members, all appointed by the President. The Council will support “those products and services deemed beneficial to consumers”. Deemed not by you the investor, the one who earned it, the one who saved it, but as deemed by the government to be best for you.

If given a choice, I would prefer they just adjust the water temperature.

Bob B

SOTUS SITS

United States Supreme Court justices fail to applaud their being insulted, all of them. If Obama was trying to gain populist favor by his remark it was neither the time nor target for it. Attacking the Court does not elicit populist cheers like attacking banks, insurance companies or lobbyists.

Obama has been very critical even of the liberal Warren court. Why does he do it? He does it because the Constitution was written to protect the American people from those with an agenda like Obama’s and the Supreme Court is the peoples defender of the Constitution. The Constitution was an impediment to Wilson who tried to change its composition. It was an impediment to FDR whose NRA the Court declared unconstitutional. It is an impediment to Obama’s big government agenda for America.

Hooray for the Supreme Court !!

And so it sat.

THEY BROKE IT. I’LL FIX IT

They broke it. I’ll fix it. Such was the gist of Obama’s State of the Union address last night. The title I had in mind for this post before the speech was “The Good. the Bad and the Ugly”. I scrapped that idea because there was not enough of any of those qualities in the speech to justify it. It was a lot of whining and not much more.

Clinton’s first State of the Union address was inspiring and full of encouragement. Reagan’s was uplifting and turned the mood of the nation from one of embarrassment over the Nixon affair to a vision of America as a shining light on a hill. Obama’s speech last night was very much the opposite. It was a downbeat presentation of the President’s view of America as a struggling and suffering nation in need. A loser, if you will allow the vernacular.

He blamed the need on reckless actions by banks, speculators, insurance companies, and failures of prior administrations.

There is a time and place to criticize the Supreme Court if you are so disposed. Obama seemed not to realize this was neither the time nor place. The Supreme Court of the United States of America is without doubt the most respected of the three branches of our government. The President’s broadside was an insult to that august body.

Obama said “The best anti-poverty program around is a first class education”. I liked that. In an effort to appear open to Republican input regarding health care reform he said if others have ideas  “Let me know. Let me know. Let me know.  “I’m eager to see it” (sic). Does he not know Republicans were locked out of a health care deliberation room? Did he forget he his own refusal to allow CNN to televise proceedings despite his promise otherwise? Is he not aware  of the attempts to  limit health care debate in the Senate to 48 hours? And that Republicans were not to be given a copy of the bill in advance of that 48 hours?

Given such history it takes a lot of hubris to claim you are open to other ideas. Then again, it may not be hubris, just humble dishonesty.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

When Obama refers to “social justice” he is lamenting the truth that some people are better off than others. There are the very rich and the very poor and that to him is the great injustice. Obama, I think sincerely, seeks to eliminate that inequality,an inequality of status.

Opposing thinkers do not use the term “social justice”. But if they did it would be defined as equal treatment. To create equal status you must take from the haves and give to the have-nots. This is not equal treatment. It requires force or coercion against one individual and charity to another without regard to merit. It is a great injustice.

Equal status vs. equal treatment, that is the Great Divide.

“A society that puts equality- in the sense of equality of outcome – ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests”   Milton Friedman

Bob B