Saturday, January 31, 2009

Can the Democrats be Saved from Destruction?

The Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate for three weeks and the White House for just over a week. During that time, they have promised bi-partisanship and working with the Republicans. Then they immediately changed the rules in the House blocking out the Republicans.

Obama nominates a Secretary, who drops out before the nominating process begins due to a scandal in New Mexico that he's involved in. Obama nominates a man as Secretary of the Treasury, who owed back taxes and only paid them off a day before his nomination. This is not discovered until just prior to his confirmation hearing in spite of Obama's pledge to have an open government. After setting new rules for the White House regarding lobbyists, saying that if they were a lobbyist, they could not work where they lobbied, then it's discovered that the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury was a lobbyist in the area he'd be working. The Secretary of the Treasury was still nominated and confirmed, although 30 Senators voted against him.

There are also questions still lingering about Bill Clinton's donors, which becomes important because Hillary Clinton was nominated and confirmed as Secretary of State. Nothing new here. If a Clinton is attached to it, we all know that it's only a matter of time before there are more scandals.

Now we're finding out that former Senator and majority leader, Tom Daschle also has a tax problem. Again, he paid his taxes and penalties just days before his nomination as Secretary of HUD. This too was kept very private in this new "Open" government of Obama's.

As if this isn't enough, the stimulus package which is nothing more than a spending bill passes the House without any Republicans voting for it and with 11 Democrats voting against it. That puts the bi-partisan aspect of this bill on the side that is against the spending bill.

The bill now goes to the Senate. As it stands now, if the bill isn't dramatically changed, the Republicans won't support it. They don't have enough votes to vote it out, but they do have enough votes to stop the cloture vote on it. The question, once again, becomes, will John McCain, his puppet Lindsay Graham, and the two Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins remain with the Republicans or will they put the American economy in the dumper by joining the Democrats?

In two weeks time, we've had problems with four cabinet members or proposed cabinet members and one deputy, along with what can only be called a liberal spending bill, and promised openness in the White House which fell by the wayside within hours of being announced. It's reminding me of the Clinton years and their scandal a week ways.

Today, the story comes out that Obama's half brother has been arrested for drug abuse in Kenya. His brother George is the brother that was found in Kenya living on $12 per year income. Does this remind anyone else of Billy Carter? In forty years we've gone from Billy Beer to Georgie's Pot.

Inauguration day was an embarassment with the screwup of the Oath, the poor inauguration speech and the acting out of the music rather than really playing it. I hope it's not discovered that Aretha Franklin lip synched her singing. I've always liked Aretha Franklin and her music. Inauguration day was topped off by the new President being the first President to skip the ball of Medal of Honor winners.

In the first week, Obama showed us his cut and run policy in Iraq, has decided to close Guantanamo with no plans on what to do with the detainees, and he signed the executive orders placating liberals with their feel good issues. If things go bad in Afghanistan, I expect he'll cut and run from there as well.

In his second week, he wrote a letter to the President of Iran. You know, the guy that he first said he'd talk to, then backed down and said he'd begin low level talks but not talk directly with them after he was embarassed by the other candidates, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Now he goes back on his second position and actually does begin a dialogue by writing a personal letter to a terrorist.

This next week promises to be a fun one with the Senate taking up the spending bill that the Democrats and the liberal media continue to call the "stimulus" bill. I think that if they wrote a bill that said everyone was required to wear sneakers from now on, that they would call it a "stimulus" bill and demand that it be passed because they called it a stimulus bill.

At this rate, the Democrats will be in the minority in two years and in four years, the liberal media will be asking, "does voting out the first black president mean that America has become racist again?"

Brett

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Democrats Pass Huge Spending Bill

Today, the Democrats in the House passed the bill that spends nearly $900 Billion. Only the Democrats passed this bill. Not one Republican voted for it and 11 Democrats joined the Republicans in an attempt to defeat it.

Many call this a stimulus bill but it's not really a stimulus bill. 34% of the money doesn't even get used until after 2010. Daily we hear that the economy is the worst since the Depression. It's not true, but that's what the liberals and the liberal media pound into the American people's TV sets daily. The economy is in the worst shape since the late 70's and early 80's, but it's no where near the levels of the Depression. That really is bad. So if it's so bad and the American people need immediate relief and it's supposed to create jobs, why is it that much of the bill doesn't take effect for nearly two years? That is not immediate.

This country has gone through many recessions throughout it's history. Each time, the recessions have been ended by either tax cuts, or war or both. Never has a recession ever been ended by massive government spending.

The bill that passed today could be called an anti stimulus bill with the $335 Million to be spent on STD education. Not much can be considered stimulating about STD's.

This bill is loaded with government spending on liberals pet projects. I seem to remember that Barack Obama the candidate promised tax cuts for 95% of Americans. This bill doesn't approach that.

I'm amazed that the Republicans actually stood up against this bill. Not one of them voted for it. If this makes it through the Senate, the Democrats and Barack Obama will own the results. The economy will immediately become Obama's responsibility. That's not good for him because this bill will not do as the liberals keep promising. Never have we spent our way to prosperity. This is just another example of liberals saying 'it's never worked before, but we can make it work this time.'

The Democrats have complained about the deficit and how it hit record levels under President Bush and how the Bush administration doubled the debt. This bill will make the debt and deficit under Bush look like change laying in a fountain.

They conveniently forget that from 2002 through 2006 the economy in this country was performing better than it had in 25 years. It's also interesting that 34% of the spending explodes at the end of 2010. This is exactly when the Bush tax cuts expire. So when they increase spending, they also raise taxes on the American people. Either one of those things would drag the economy down. Both of them together will make what we're going through now look like prosperity.

Obama also claimed that there would be no pork in this bill. Yet, when you look at it, there is pork in there for the STD's as mentioned before, as well as money to attempt to move the nation towards Universal Health Care among other things.

The answer to the economic problem is to lower taxes and cut spending. Those lower taxes would generate more money for the Federal Government. The only problem with lowering taxes is that when the government does get more revenue, they won't be able to resist spending it. When they actually get control of themselves and lower taxes, and cut spending (not decrease the percentage of spending, but decrease the actual dollars in spending) we will then go into a period of prosperity like we've never seen before.

It's time for the government to quit asking the American people to sacrifice and to start implementing the sacrifice on the government by reducing their spending and eliminating their expenditures that are wasted. Save the health industry by stopping health care for illegal immigrants. Cut welfare when you cut spending and cut taxes. Jobs will be created. There's a myriad of things that could be done. Didn't we learn anything from the Republicans who spent like Democrats from 2000 to 2006? Didn't we learn anything from having a President that refused to veto spending bills that came from his own party?

I will give two examples: 1. Michigan has tried to spend their way out of the long recession here. It's failed for six years. Michigan just gets worse with each statewide economic report. 2. Louisiana was given billions of dollars since the Reagan years. That money was for the levy's. The Democrats received that money, but didn't use it for what it was meant for. The result. Hurricane Katrina came and the levy's gave way and over 1,000 people died.

Spending your way out of a recession never works. Cutting taxes and cutting spending always works.

Brett

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Five Days of Obama

We are now in the fifth day since the Coronation....errr inauguration. What have learned in this first week?

Obama's first act as President was to screw up the oath of office. He started out by interrupting Chief Justice John Roberts during the administering of the Oath. That set off a chain of events that had the Oath out of order on some of the words.

He followed the easiest part of the day by giving his inaugural speech. It was not a typical Obama speech. 2 million people showed up to hear the most boring and cynical Inaugural Address since Jimmy Carters Malaise speech in 1977.

Speaking of the 2 million people. Thousands of ticket holders were not allowed onto the mall. They traveled from as far away as California only to be told to go back. The 2 million that did make it in, left 130 tons of garbage to be picked up, including souveniers and small American flags. Garbage I expect, but to leave little American Flags tossed away just shows the lack of pride and love for country. It reminded me of the Convention in Denver where they had all of those American Flags just tossed around and into the garbage.

In the past 24 hours, it's been discovered that the group playing the music faked it. It reminds me of when Jan and Dean returned to concert again years after a devastating auto accident that nearly took a life. It was discovered that they were lip synching their old music. This was basically the same thing. They faked the cello, the violin, the piano, all of it. The music was instead piped in.

It's interesting that there were many complaints about the Pastor of Saddleback Church giving the Invocation, which was very good, but the Reverend Lowry gave a racist benediction.

During all of this, the so-called reporters were having a love-fest with Obama's historical moment, historical day. I hope we don't find out next that John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones were all phony's too. Please tell me they weren't part of the Simpson's cartoon but were the real deal.

Even a past President got in on the pettiness of the day. Former President Jimmy Carter snubbed Former President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary. Later, Hillary got into a row with Senator John Cornyn because he dared to hold up her confirmation for a day due to some additional questions he had.

There was some dignity to the day however. President George W. Bush came out to the platform with Hail To The Chief playing. As he took his seat and new song started from the crowd near the platform. Angry liberals sitting nearby started singing nyah nyah nyah nyah, hey hey, goodbye. President Bush was very dignified and made no expression and no acknowledgement of the lack of taste of those angry liberals.

Obama made some very uncharitable references to the Bush years during his speech. However, both President Bush, (former President by that time) and former Vice President Cheney, sat their listening politely, without making any expression. They let Obama have his day as the new President.

The following day, Wednesday, Obama announced new guidelines for his staff. Ceilings on salary, and a new rule on lobbyists. If you were a lobbyist, you won't be permitted to work in an area that you lobbyed in the past. If you leave the administration, you won't be allowed back as a lobbyist until the Obama is administration is out of office. But then it was discovered that that rule is being broken because a Deputy Secretary was a lobbyist but is still going to be in his new position despite the new lobbying rules.

His Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, asked that the previous speakers names not be used by the press, instead to call them senior White House Staff, then he promptly used their names several times.

Obama was also administered the Oath of Office again, this time behind closed doors and no bible in his hand. They also couldn't or wouldn't answer whether there was a war on terror. Obama has announced that he's closing Guantanamo Bay with no idea on what they are going to do with the detainees currently there. This as we learned that 60 former detainees have been released and have returned to the middle east and again working with Al Queda including one who is the number two Al Queda man in Yemen. Yemen is where the USS Cole was attacked in October 2000.

Obama's first week in office was not uneventful. The events were embarassments however. This is the guy that's going to steer us out of a recession? Protect the country from terrorist attacks? So far, he's talked to the generals about getting out of Iraq, he's overturned an abortion policy, and broken his own lobbying rules. Then there is his Treasury Secretary that didn't pay taxes for a few years but quickly paid them just prior to his nomination as Treasury Secretary.

It's also now just coming out that the Bill Clinton foundation was given stock as a donation, the stock was sold for nearly $500,000 even though it was pretty much worthless which amounts to a donation but that the donor is being kept anonymous. Transparency?

So a weeks summary of the new Obama Administration gives us, a botched oath, a poor speech, fake music, a racist prayer, broken rules, a new oath, our first indication of the "cut and run" that everyone was worried about during the campaign, a completely lost Press Secretary, a Treasury Secretary that evaded paying taxes until a day or two before his appointment, a promise of transparency from behind a cloak, a secretary of state nominee who promised access to donors for her husband's foundation except for one (that we know of) and terrorists to be moved but nobody knows to where. Not bad for a week.

Maybe we can look to the New York Senate appointment and see if Caroline Kennedy gets a nice smooth move into the United States Senate. What's this headline? A nanny and tax problem for Kennedy? A problem with her marriage? Uh oh.

Well, there is one happy note. Today is my daughters birthday. She enters her teen years today. Happy Birthday, Rachel.

Brett

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hyphenated Americans

The following speech was given by former President Teddy Roosevelt in 1915.




There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.


The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.


For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.


Americanization


The foreign-born population of this country must be an Americanized population - no other kind can fight the battles of America either in war or peace. It must talk the language of its native-born fellow-citizens, it must possess American citizenship and American ideals. It must stand firm by its oath of allegiance in word and deed and must show that in very fact it has renounced allegiance to every prince, potentate, or foreign government. It must be maintained on an American standard of living so as to prevent labor disturbances in important plants and at critical times. None of these objects can be secured as long as we have immigrant colonies, ghettos, and immigrant sections, and above all they cannot be assured so long as we consider the immigrant only as an industrial asset. The immigrant must not be allowed to drift or to be put at the mercy of the exploiter. Our object is to not to imitate one of the older racial types, but to maintain a new American type and then to secure loyalty to this type. We cannot secure such loyalty unless we make this a country where men shall feel that they have justice and also where they shall feel that they are required to perform the duties imposed upon them. The policy of "Let alone" which we have hitherto pursued is thoroughly vicious from two stand-points. By this policy we have permitted the immigrants, and too often the native-born laborers as well, to suffer injustice. Moreover, by this policy we have failed to impress upon the immigrant and upon the native-born as well that they are expected to do justice as well as to receive justice, that they are expected to be heartily and actively and single-mindedly loyal to the flag no less than to benefit by living under it.


We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being. We cannot afford to build a big industrial plant and herd men and women about it without care for their welfare. We cannot afford to permit squalid overcrowding or the kind of living system which makes impossible the decencies and necessities of life. We cannot afford the low wage rates and the merely seasonal industries which mean the sacrifice of both individual and family life and morals to the industrial machinery. We cannot afford to leave American mines, munitions plants, and general resources in the hands of alien workmen, alien to America and even likely to be made hostile to America by machinations such as have recently been provided in the case of the two foreign embassies in Washington. We cannot afford to run the risk of having in time of war men working on our railways or working in our munition plants who would in the name of duty to their own foreign countries bring destruction to us. Recent events have shown us that incitements to sabotage and strikes are in the view of at least two of the great foreign powers of Europe within their definition of neutral practices. What would be done to us in the name of war if these things are done to us in the name of neutrality?


One America


All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. We must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and small. We must insist on the maintenance of the American standard of living. We must stand for an adequate national control which shall secure a better training of our young men in time of peace, both for the work of peace and for the work of war. We must direct every national resource, material and spiritual, to the task not of shirking difficulties, but of training our people to overcome difficulties. Our aim must be, not to make life easy and soft, not to soften soul and body, but to fit us in virile fashion to do a great work for all mankind. This great work can only be done by a mighty democracy, with these qualities of soul, guided by those qualities of mind, which will both make it refuse to do injustice to any other nation, and also enable it to hold its own against aggression by any other nation. In our relations with the outside world, we must abhor wrongdoing, and disdain to commit it, and we must no less disdain the baseness of spirit which lamely submits to wrongdoing. Finally and most important of all, we must strive for the establishment within our own borders of that stern and lofty standard of personal and public neutrality which shall guarantee to each man his rights, and which shall insist in return upon the full performance by each man of his duties both to his neighbor and to the great nation whose flag must symbolize in the future as it has symbolized in the past the highest hopes of all mankind."

Headlines of the Day

The lack of Class displayed by the Democrats.



Rahm Emmanuel the White House Chief of Staff. Is this an adult in the White House?

Obama flubs the oath

Oy. It's a simple oath and he can't get it right.

Bush Mocked on Dais

This shows the lack of class of the Democrats. Regardless of how you feel about the incoming or outgoing President, they are the President and President elect, then at the end the Former President and the New President. For anyone to show disrespect for the office of the President is classless at best.

Carter Snub Clintons

More pettiness from Democrats.

Clinton and Cornyn wrangle in Rotunda; Confirmation delay


It is the responsibility of Congress to confirm the cabinet. If Cornyn has questions still, he is doing his job, following his responsibility. This again just shows that Clinton has no respect for anyone that disagrees with her.


We had childishness during the Clinton administration and even to the end of the Clinton Administration. From all appearances above, we're in for more of the same. This is the Unity that Obama spoke of?

Brett

An Inauspicious Beginning

A few minutes past noon today, President Barack Hussein Obama began his first obligation as President. The Oath of Office. In his first official act, he stumbled over the words.

Chief Justice, John Roberts administered the Oath of Office. The Chief Justice began and Obama interrupted him right after his name was stated and stopped as Chief Justice Roberts continued. Roberts began, “I Barack Hussein Obama do…” and President Obama began “I Barack Hu…..” and stopped as Roberts continued, then stopped.

I hope that in the coming days, we can laugh about this, and not have it as an omen of things to come.

I have no choice but to worry. In the past couple of days, Vice President Elect Biden said on Oprah that he had the choice between Secretary of State and Vice President. The Obama people immediately said “well, that’s not quite right”. Then we have the Oath of Office screwup.

Not an auspicious beginning.

Brett

Monday, January 19, 2009

President Bush Quietly Exits; Obama Praised but has Done Nothing

Today is the last full day of the George W. Bush Presidency. If you turn on the news, you wouldn’t hear much about that. Instead, what you hear is how Barack Hussein Obama is going to save the country. You hear about how he’s Abraham Lincoln reincarnated, or that his words from his inauguration speech are going to be etched in stone.

If we remember back to when George W. Bush was about to be inaugurated, we didn’t hear this praise heaped on a man that had not yet done anything as we do with Obama. What we heard was an end to an era now that Bill Clinton was going to be gone.

In Bush’s campaign of 2000, he promised to be a uniter and not a divider. He said he could and would bring bi-partisanship back to Washington DC. It was a noble idea, but it had one flaw. No man can bring a Congress together that is so set in party division. For President Bush to be that uniter, he needed the cooperation of the Democrats. He didn’t get that and we knew he wouldn’t. What we didn’t know was the extent of that lack of cooperation.

This lack of cooperation began almost immediately. The dispute was in Florida. Al Gore wanted a recount in a few select counties. The courts were brought in. The Florida Supreme Court was brought in and after all of the recounts, and another recount desired by the Gore team, the United States Supreme Court finally put a stop to the process being repeated over and over. In each recount, George W. Bush won. However, it took 35 days to settle it.

That 35 days delayed the transition process that is needed for a smooth transition to a new administration. Furthering those problems, when Bush was sworn in, and his team took the White House, they discovered many items stolen by the Clinton’s including the W’s taken from the keyboards.

Within 7 ½ months of the Bush administration, five years of planning by Al Queda came to fruition on September 11, 2001 with their attack on New York, and Washington. We had been attacked 8 times during the Clinton administration and he treated it as a criminal matter. However, Bush had one attack in his first 7 ½ months in office and he took the fight to the terrorists on October 7, 2001. Less than 30 days following the attacks he started bombing Afghanistan. We have not been attacked since.

Bush had his tax cuts go through which stimulated the economy to a growth rate that hadn’t been seen in 25 years. The people paid a lower tax rate, yet the government was taking in record amounts of revenue.

Unfortunately, Congress passed budgets with increased spending and to President Bush’s discredit, he didn’t veto any of them. In 2004 President Bush was re-elected garnering over 50% of the vote which was the first time an election was decided with over 50% of the vote for the first time since his father had won in 1988.

In 2004 and 2005 President Bush warned of a coming economic collapse if we didn’t get a handle on regulating and correcting the credit markets, particularly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina was coming. President Bush declared the southeast, Louisiana in particular, a disaster area five days before the hurricane hit. On the Tuesday following the hurricane, the Democrat Governor of Louisiana said she needed 24 hours to decide whether she wanted the help that President Bush offered. The Democrat Mayor of New Orleans let 2,000 buses drown in the water rather than using them to save lives of those that couldn’t or wouldn’t get themselves out.

In 2006, the Democrats won the election and prepared to take over the Congress. In 2007 the economy began to collapse culminating in the emergency that happened in September 2008.

President Bush managed to unite the country at one point. Following the attacks on September 11, 2001 and it lasted until September 15, 2001. But then the Democrats returned to their old ways. The media decided it wasn’t a good idea (you decide the reason) to show the attacks that we saw on television.

There is no review of the past eight years by the media. They are all focused on Obama. President Bush hadn’t done anything yet prior to his election, yet people weren’t told that we had to give him a chance. In fact, the Democrats actually went to extremes the opposite way.

We don’t need to give Obama a chance. He’s gotten his chance by virtue of his election. Now it’s up to him to deliver. The press is heaping all of this praise on a man that has done nothing yet. With all of this praise for doing nothing, they have raised the bar for Obama. If he makes a mistake, it will be magnified to the American people. It won’t be to the press, they’ll make excuses for him. It will be seen by the American people however.

The Presidency is not about one man. It’s about an office and how it’s handled. No man is greater than what that office stands for. I am more worried about what the Democrats will do to the aura of the office of the President. We have a sizeable amount of the Clinton group coming back to the White House. We already know how the Clinton administration stripped the dignity from the Office of the President. It’s already begun with some of Obama’s choices. His Commerce Secretary had to withdraw due to a scandal in New Mexico. Hillary is the new Secretary of State and we’ll all be on pins and needles to see what sort of trouble she’ll be in or that her husband will cause. The treasury secretary has a tax problem which they (Obama and the press) are calling an “honest mistake”.

President George Bush leaves office making another great decision in Commuting the sentences of the two border guards. President-Elect Obama comes in, heaped in praise when the only thing he’s done so far is give us a peek that his administration will be scandal laden as was Clinton’s. I wonder why nobody has mentioned yet in the press that Sandy Berger has been working for Obama. Actually, I don’t have to wonder. The press doesn’t report any more. They have become part of the story.