More Administration Double-Speak

In the short time that he has been a political force in this country, Obama has proven that he is unrivaled in the world of Orwellian Newspeak. Just a couple examples:

During the campaign, as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president, he claimed to "humbly" accept the nomination and then went on to boast that, "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 … . This was the moment when we came together to remake this great nation." Did you notice the great amount of humility in that boast? Nah, I didn't either.

While claiming that he was bringing responsibility back to government, he did the following:

• Constantly blamed each and every problem on the previous administration (on one occasion he claimed to be taking responsibility for the economic problems in one breath while blaming those problems on the previous administration in the next).


• Forced passage of the biggest piece of government irresponsibility of our lifetimes (the "stimulus" bill). Not only did this legislation place our country into unprecedented debt, the bill was passed without a single legislator having read it.


• Claimied that the above "stimulus" bill contained no earmarks when it contained some 8000 of them.

Today's announcement, however, rivals anything he has done thus far. Obama claims that the government has no desire to run GM yet he announces that

• the government was firing the current GM CEO


• the government wasn't going to loan any more money until GM produced a government-approved business plan

Geez, what would the government have done if it did want to run GM?

AIG Updates

My previous post addressed the sliminess of the leftist politicians who were "righteously indignant" over 160 million in bonuses for the AIG employees who "helped bring down our financial system." In the post I pointed out that the bonuses were retention bonuses meant to keep valuable employees around to help transition the company. Here is a letter from an AIG employee that is now resigning which backs up that contention and sheds more light on the situation: I Quit!

This whole situation clearly demonstrates the evil of the current administration and leftist politicians in Congress. And I use that term intentionally because that is what their actions are.

All of the politicians involved, including Barack Obama, knew the details of the bonuses. However, they couldn't pass up the opportunity to direct the public's anger towards innocent targets in order to weasel out of their political problems. Because of these unscrupulous politicians, the AIG employees and their families received death threats. There were protests at AIG and at the homes of AIG employees.

The media breathlessly covered these "protests" but they didn't tell us who was behind them. The protests at AIG offices was organized by big labor: the Service Workers Union. Why would the Service Workers Union be protesting AIG? Can you say political payback to the Democrats? Even more egregiously, who paid for the buses that transported "protesters" to AIG employees' homes? It was ACORN. That's right, the same organization that is under indictment in more than 20 states for vote fraud and to which Barack Obama's "stimulus plan" gives hundreds of millions of dollars.

In my previous post I gave a few reasons why I thought the slimy politicians were trying to whip up public outrage. However, since then I see an even more sinister design behind their manipulation of the public mood: in order to move to socialism and government control, the people must be made to hate our businessmen. This is borne out by Obama's expanded bank take-over plan. With business people out of the way, the government will be the only entity we can turn to in order to get out of our economic malaise. This is the evil that we've been warned against by many of our previous leaders, both political and ecclesiastical.

This must be fought; don't fall for their smoke screen.

Lies and Diversions

The major news story of the day is the "righteous indignation" of politicians at the bonuses that AIG is paying to some of its employees after it took billions in bailout money. "How can AIG give millions in tax payer funds to it's employees when they've run the company into the ground?" is the general sentiment expressed by Washington.

Perhaps this discussion could benefit from a few facts that you won't hear from the "mainstream media" or from Washington:

• Washington has known for months that these bonuses were going to be paid.


• The bonuses are a contractual obligation of AIG.


• The bonuses are "retention" bonuses. A retention bonus is given to an employee that has been notified that he/she will be laid off but the company would like to have them stick around for a bit to help clean up loose ends. Without these bonuses, the employee would be off looking for other work instead of sticking around to aid in the transition to a smaller company.


• A provision of the bailout plan recently pushed through Congress by Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, exempted such bonus agreements from any restriction.


• This doesn't stop Dodd from feigning indignation and threatening to tax 100% of the bonuses (it's highly illegal to target private individuals for specific taxes, by the way).


• Christopher Dodd was the biggest recipient of campaign donations from AIG. The Obama campaign was second.

With the above information in mind, you might be wondering, "why would government officials be making such a huge sideshow out of this?" I can think of one reason: diversion.

1) Christopher Dodd's poll numbers are falling through the floor. He needs a distraction from his sweetheart mortgage deal from CountryWide (a company that is regulated by the committee that he chairs) and the little fact that he wrote the provision that allowed the bonuses in the first place.

2) Obama wants to push through more of his left-wing agenda. However, he is in danger of losing the approval ratings that allow him to easily get his way. Thus, this little brouhaha turns the public's anger away from him and onto those greedy evil capitalists. Political sleight-of-hand has always been his modus operandi.

3) Congressional leaders, whose approval ratings are currently somewhere between the Bubonic Plague and ambulance-chasing lawyers, need anything to divert the public's attention (especially after they just passed a 1,000-page bill without ever reading it).

Ignore the sideshows and keep your eyes on the one fact that stands unassailable: the government caused this entire mess, not the poor saps who work at AIG (who, by the way, are receiving death threats because of the heated rhetoric coming out of the government - way to go guys!).

A Good Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Before Obama was even sworn into office, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, made a statement that should go down in the annals as one of the most nakedly cynical statements ever made by a politician. “Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” he told the New York Times. “They are opportunities to do big things.” Little did we know at the time that this would become the new administration's motto.

Not only did the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, repeat this "rule 1," but the president himself repeated it in his Saturday radio and Internet address: "there is great opportunity in the midst of the great crisis” befalling America.

It is incredible enough that the "mainstream press" hasn't made much of this malevolent "Rule 1" and is further proof that the supposed "4th branch of government" is in the tank for Obama, but I don't want to address that here. Instead I'd like to analyze the administration's actions in light of this "rule".

First Obama leveraged the crisis to prophesy gloom and doom ("impending disaster" he called it) if his "stimulus" ("porkulus" more like it) wasn't promptly passed. Then the "porkulus" bill was jam-packed with things that had absolutely nothing to do with the causes of the crisis (Does anyone think that the lack of health care caused the economy to tank? Anyone? Anyone?). Obama not only leveraged the crisis but tried to stoke fears ever higher so that no one would notice that he had forced his socialist agenda onto the country without one word of debate.

Fresh off his success in ramming through his "porkulus" bill, Obama was asked by the press for details on his plans for the bank bailout plan. He dodged the question, promising that his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would unveil the plan when he testified before Congress. During his testimony, however, Geithner spoke only in vague generalities and gave no details about what the administration planned to do to shore up the struggling banks. The market promptly dropped like a lead balloon.

At the time, most thought that this was just a rookie mistake by what I like to call "our affirmative action president," but as the days have gone by, I'm not so sure. I think it was planned to extend the crisis as long as possible. The longer the crisis, the longer the administration could foist its leftist program on a public that was too frightened to object.

This conclusion is reinforced by other Obama actions. Every time that someone from the administration spoke publicly about the economy, the stock market plunged. Then the president told the press, "The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. ... if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong." Unfortunately for the president, investors knew that the market hadn't been bobbing up and down as he contended, but had steadily declined since his inauguration. The statement was also taken as a sign that the administration totally ignored the market which sent it tumbling further.

Since Obama's inauguration, this country has lost over $1.6 Trillion in wealth in the market and we have lost over 600K jobs. Obama's statements have been so negative during that time that even former president Clinton had to chide him on his constant negativity. Beside the negative statements, Obama refuses to focus on the economy, instead proposing some new initiative that is totally unrelated to the causes of the economic crisis. Thus we have a "health care summit" followed by an "education summit" etc. This combination of negativity and complete neglect, is an effective one-two punch that has succeeded in keeping the economy on the canvas.

FDR said, "all we have to fear is fear itself." But for Obama, the saying should instead be, "all we have to fear is the fear that the crisis will pass too quickly." His actions and statements seem directed towards prolonging this economic malaise while the Democrats in Congress are working on furthering the country in its left-ward slide. While the president is trying to "remake" this country in his leftist image, real Americans are suffering as markets plummet and unemployment skyrockets. That makes the actions of this administration not only cynical, but evil.

Update: With the economy totally tanking, it appears that the Obama team is thinking that they need to change course. Now Obama is saying, "oops, it looks like the economy isn't as bad off as we thought. It looks like it will turn around by the end of the year." Now that inspires confidence doesn't it? The man that was predicting catastrophe just a couple of weeks ago now says everything will be fine. Of course, this about-face on the economy wouldn't have anything to do with this administration's desire to raise taxes would it? Nah that would be cynical of me to assume wouldn't it?

With Obama in the WH, the World Will Love Us

You silly Brits, I spit in your general direction

Obama is sure acting as if he can do without one of our closest allies, England.

First, Obama rudely returned the bust of Winston Churchill that was loaned to President Bush by the British embassy. When Obama came into office, the embassy offered to continue the loan for another four years. The Obama Administration response? Thanks but no thanks. The Brits of course saw this as the snub that it was.

Next, Gordon Brown visited the new president amid great expectations. First Obama slapped down the Prime Minister's expectations and didn't even hold the customary activities of a usual state visit. Then he added a little spittle to the slap with the customary gift exchange.

Here is the list of very thoughtful gifts that Brown had for Obama:

• A pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa.


• A framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.


• A first edition of Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.

Here is the list of very thoughtful gifts that Obama had for Brown:

• A gift set of American classic movies on 25 DVD's.

Do you seen any problem as you compare these two lists? Brown's gifts were well-thought-out and intrinsically valuable. Obama's has the feel of a gift from a lazy boyfriend on Valentines Day that runs out at the last minute to buy the last-remaining wilted flowers. Brown, even if he is a movie buff - which is doubted, could've bought the same DVD's from Amazon.

Don't think that the British Press hasn't noticed the snubs. Just Google the terms "obama british snub" and see the fuss Obama has caused.

Just when is the world supposed to start loving us again?

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 3)

Some Obama supporters hoped that, despite his ultra-liberal voting record in Congress, he would govern as a centrist. The early months of the Obama administration has shown this hope to be vain as he has incessantly pursued the radical leftist agenda that he has in mind for this country. While the leftist nature of the administration is alarming, even more alarming is the corruption and dishonesty of many of the administration's early actions.

Below are some of the more egregious Obama actions that I have noted over the weeks. I am not listing the actions in any particular order and I doubt that the list is exhaustive since the abominable actions of this administration are coming so quickly that they are hard to keep track of. I will revisit some of these in later blogs to flesh them out but I wanted to at least list them now.

Corruption of Obama Administration

• Forced American taxpayers to finance foreign abortions (via executive order)


• Nominated 4 tax cheats to cabinet (one confirmed)


• Nominated (and confirmed) one (honestly) card-carrying Communist to cabinet


• Nominated (and confirmed) Attorney General that facilitated pardons of Mark Rich and Puerto Rican terrorists. (I'll probably follow up with a blog about this slime-bag's latest assertion about Americans being cowards because we aren't blathering on about race.)


• Nominated Bill Richardson for Commerce Secretary (later had to withdraw because of a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to a political donor - pay to play)


• Forced passage of a 1000+-page bill that *not one Congressman* read that is little more than a leftist wish-list (I'll list the more outrageous provisions of the bill that we are currently aware of below.)


• Politicized the census bureau (brought it into the White House)


• Lie – Promise: “I will not sign a bill until it has been posted 5 days on the internet for everyone to view it.” Real Life: “Stimulus” pork bill is never posted to the internet and is signed the Monday after it is passed by both houses on Friday. The only reason it wasn’t signed immediately is because the first couple was off on vacation.


• Lie - Assertion: The "stimulus" bill must be passed and signed quickly in order to avert impending "disaster." Real Life: Most of the spending in the "stimulus" bill will not take place until after this year so will have no affect in averting immediate "disaster."


• Lie - Obama crowed proudly that the “stimulus” package contained no earmarks when it contains at least 9,000 earmarks.


• Appointed numerous “czars” (high level administration officials) in order to get around Senate approval of administration appointments.


• Appointed board of economic advisors that includes a union executive that twice plead the fifth in a money laundering probe (11 of 15 board members donated more than $1 Million to the Obama campaign – pay to play anyone?)


• Lie – Claimed that he never discussed the replacement of his Senate seat with Illinois Gov. Blagojevich when there exists a news report from the time period that says that Obama was meeting with Blagojevich for that very reason. David Axelrod, a high-ranking campaign official said that Obama discussed his replacement with Blagojevich. He later said that he was “mistaken.” Right.

Contemptible "Stimulus" Bill Provisions

• Rolls back the Clinton welfare reforms so that we will once again pay poor women to have kids without a father. These types of payments have been shown to be a major force behind the enormous black illegitimacy rate and the destruction of the black family. In fact, since the Clinton welfare reforms became law, the black illegitimacy rate has dropped from 70.4% to 68%. Now watch for that rate to go back up.


• Creates a medical information czar (whole bureaucracy actually) to second-guess your doctor.


• Gives over $4 billion to ACORN, a group under investigation for vote fraud in almost every state in the union. Obama's ties to this evil group deserve a blog of their own; hopefully I'll have time to do it.


• As Rick Santelli (CNBC financial reporter), puts it, it promotes bad behavior. See his report here.


• Puts us further down the road towards socialism (read Ezra Taft Benson to see the evil socialism)
  

Hypocrisy of Obama (we follow the rules but he doesn't have to)

• Gave speech during election that said that Americans must learn that we can't keep our thermostats at 72 year round and then keeps the thermostat in the White House high enough that, according to one administration insider: "it's so warm in there that you could grow orchids."


• Talks about everyone needing to take responsibility but he refuses to do so, constantly blaming the Bush administration for the current mess. Plus, ramming through a bill without giving it the time to be debated is responsible government?


• He and his wife lectured us that we need to be more charitable and involved with the community when he and his wife gave less than 1% of their riches to charity and did no community service without being paid for it.


• Signed executive order forbidding any former lobbyists in high administration posts, and then nominated/appointed more than a dozen such lobbyists.


• Decried "pay-to-play" Chicago politics when he participated in them. Of course, his Chicago mansion and Michelle's 6-figure hospital job had nothing to do with politics. Never mind the Rezko connection with the mansion and the fact that since Michelle left her job, it has not been filled to this date. (This definitely deserves its own post.)

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 2)

Note: I remain totally amazed at the number of good, hard-working people that voted for and still support Obama. I don't believe that these people would ever have supported this corrupt man if it weren't for the media's dereliction of its duty. Anyone depending on the "main-stream" media for their information is largely ignorant of Barack Obama's shady past. See here... By exposing this man's white-washed past, I hope to show that he is "a corrupt tree" that must be resisted via all avenues provided by our constitution.

He's Just a Guy I Knew in the Neighborhood

During the Democratic primary campaign, a British newspaper reported on a connection between Obama and former (and unrepentant) Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. As was his wont whenever information damaging to his campaign surfaced, Obama lied and evaded. He claimed that Ayers was merely a "guy he knew in the neighborhood."

As more information trickled out about the Obama-Ayers connection, however, the Obama team changed tactics from lying to bullying. After the University of Illinois - Chicago was forced to release documents (140 boxes worth) pertaining to Obama's and Ayers' involvement with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), Stanley Kurtz went on WGN radio to detail what he found as he sifted through those documents.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. The campaign then followed up with another email urging supporters to call the radio station to complain. "Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse. It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves," the note continued. "At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies." Interesting, however, that the note didn't disclose that WGN had requested an Obama campaign representative to be on the same show but the campaign declined. Who's the liar and smear-merchant here?

In spite of the Obama campaign's lying and obstruction, the following facts finally emerged (although the "main stream" media mostly ignored them):

• When Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer decided to retire in 1995, she hand-picked Barack Obama as her successor. In order to introduce Obama to influential liberals in the district, she held a function at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This was the beginning of Obama's political career.


• Ayers founded CAC and was on the panel that picked Obama to serve as the chairman of the board of CAC


• While Obama/Ayers worked for the CAC, the group poured in more than $100 Million to community organizers and radical education activists.


• Ayers's steered CAC's agenda, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.


• Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down by CAC. Instead money was disbursed through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn - the same Acorn that has been prosecuted in many states for voter fraud)


• While Ayers/Obama worked at CAC, it gave $175K to Mike Klonsky, a confirmed Maoist, to set up a school dedicated to infusing Marxist ideology in students.


• During the tenure of Obama/Ayers at CAC, Chicago area test scores (of course) didn't improve one iota


• Not only did Obama serve with Ayers on the CAC, but also served three years with him on the Woods Fund.


• While Obama/Ayers worked for the Woods Fund, it granted $75K to the controversial Arab American Action Network, whose founder spoke supportively of Palestinian terror.


• Obama and Ayers appeared together on multiple panel discussions that were organized by Michelle Obama.

After the above information trickled out, the Obama campaign realized that they could no longer deny the Obama/Ayers relationship, so they changed tactics. They produced a "Fact Sheet" to try to downplay Ayers' radicalism. The "Fact Sheet" claimed this about Ayers: a) All charges against Ayers were dropped, and b) Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, are actually pretty "mainstream" these days.

Yes, the charges against Ayers were dropped but not because of lack of evidence. Ayers himself crowed upon his release, "guilty as sin... free as a bird." The charges were dropped only because federal authorities overstepped their legal bounds while pursuing Weather Underground members.

Hmmm, so Ayers is mainstream now? True, he is a college professor but does that connote mainstream? Has Ayers disavowed his radical philosophy or methods? No. In fact, in a newspaper interview that was printed on 9/11/2001 (yes that 9/11), Ayers is quoted as stating that he regretted not having performed more terrorist acts. Even more recently, Ayers and Dohrn appeared in a radio interview in 2007 where Ayers supports Mao and Dohrn calls the US the "belly of the beast." In fact, Ayers activities today are even more dangerous for American society than were his terrorist acts. That is because today he is passing on his hateful, radical philosophy to our children via his "education reform" attempts.

So tell me, is lying and bullying good fruit or evil fruit? Is working with radicals to tear down American society good or evil fruit? Is lying about working with radicals good or evil fruit?

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 1)

Note: I remain totally amazed at the number of good, hard-working people that voted for and still support Obama. I don't believe that these people would ever have supported this corrupt man if it weren't for the media's dereliction of its duty. Anyone depending on the "main-stream" media for their information is largely ignorant of Barack Obama's shady past. See here... By exposing this man's white-washed past, I hope to show that he is "a corrupt tree" that must be resisted via all avenues provided by our constitution.

Three Four Cheers for Infanticide

Barack Obama has consistently been an unabashed defender of abortion rights, no matter the gestational period. NARAL has given him nothing but "perfect" grades on his legislative record with respect to abortion since he has never voted to limit abortion. He was also a cosponsor (and has promised to sign into law if it passes while he is president) of the "Freedom of Choice" bill that would declare abortion to be a fundamental right. This bill would undo all the progress made by the right-to-life groups and would out-law parental-consent state laws, restrictions on abortions during certain gestational periods, partial-birth abortion bans, etc. This alone should be enough to disqualify him as a suitable candidate for any voter that values life, but his support of infanticide should definitely put him out of the running.

Obama voted four times against bills in the Illinois Senate that would've protected infants that were delivered alive after a "botched" abortion attempt. When this information first came to light, the Obama camp tried to float the excuse that he opposed the bills because they were back-door attempts to limit abortion. That excuse had to be shelved, however, when it came to light that the fourth bill was equivalent to a bill that passed the US Congress on a unanimous vote. With that excuse out the window, Obama then tried to say that Illinois law already protected infants born after "botched" abortions. A brief look at the Illinois events that caused these bills to come up will blow that last excuse out of the water.

In 1998, Jill Stanek, a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, held a 22-week old infant boy with Down Syndrome and sadly watched him die. The baby had been born alive after an induced-delivery abortion. This was not an isolated occurrence. Stanek says that she is personally aware of 4 infants that were born alive and allowed to die and hospital spokeswoman Sue Reimbold confirmed that the hospital performs 10-20 induced-delivery abortions a year and that 10-20 percent of those abortions result in live births.

An article detailing the above events in the Chicago Sun-Times contained a quote from the District Attorney that said the he could find no law that was broken by the hospital as it allowed unwanted infants to die. If the DA knows of no law that enforces the protection of these infants (I could no longer find the Sun-Times article online but I did find a reiteration from the DA here that no law was broken), what law is Obama talking about?

There is an Illinois statute that requires that an infant born alive as a result of a failed abortion be given medical attention if, in the opinion of the aborting physician, the infant is viable. The idea that this flimsy law would protect these infants stretches credulity and is shown by the events at Christ Hospital to be faulty at best. In order to address the obvious shortcomings of this law, a companion bill to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act was introduced in the Illinois legislature. This bill required that when an infant is born alive after a failed abortion, another physician must be brought in to determine the viability of the infant. Obama voted against both bills and argued against the companion bill on the floor of the Senate. The audio clip of his argument can be found here. So, a matter of life and death is not important enough for Obama to "burden" the mother or the aborting doctor. How is this any different than supporting infanticide?

The Savior said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. ... A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." So what were the reasons again for supporting Obama?