Thursday, April 30, 2009

Open Letter to Barack Obama

Open letter to Barack Hussein Obama on your 100-day celebration:

As is your wont, you relied on a lot of misinformation and misdirection to keep the faithful eating out of your hand, didn't you? Let's revisit some of those, shall we?

We began by passing a recovery act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs...


This little bit of political sleight-of-hand has been trotted out a number of times, but you never seem to tire of using it, Barack. Others have document the fraudulent nature of the so-called "saved" jobs but for the sake of argument, let's assume that 150,000 jobs were "saved" by your pork-barrel-palooza (they certainly weren't created). Crowing about "saving" 150,000 jobs at this point is roughly equivalent to your boasting $100 million in cuts when the budget is trillions in the red. Earlier in the year, economists predicted that the US would lose 2 million jobs in 2009. That prediction has been proven to be extremely optimistic since the economy has shed over 2 million jobs in the first three months of the year alone (651,000 in January, 706,000 in February, and a record 742,000 in March). 150,000 jobs is a drop in the bucket when compared with the rate we are losing them right now. That number of "saved" jobs looks even punier when you consider that you've strapped us and our children with unimaginable debt. Good boy Barry, you've saved 150,000 jobs and only spent, what, about $1 million per job? Here's your gold star.

It contains new investments in education that will equip our workers with the right skills and training...


Oh yes, we will throw money at the schools and they will churn out workers with the right skills and training. If you believe that, I've got this bridge to sell ya. The US already spends more money per student than almost any other country on the planet. What do we get for that huge investment? Not much. In a ranking of students from the 30 richest countries, our students' test scores in science lag behind 16 of those countries. In math, it's even worse: 23 of the 30 had better test scores. Coming in 17th and 24th out of 30 isn't much to celebrate.

It also isn't very heartening to think that one of your few stints outside of government was serving as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was supposed to work to reform education. The CAC gave out millions to Chicago-area schools and tests scores went down. Is that the kind of "skills and training" that you intend to equip our students with?

...new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses, and new savings that will bring down our deficit...

I think one basic principle that we know is that the more we do on the prevention side, the more we can obtain serious savings down the road.


This is a pipe dream at best and pure sophistry at worst. The AP reports that the New England Journal of Medicine, back during the campaign, poured cold water all over the idea that preventative medicine will save huge amounts of money; it certainly will never save enough to make any kind of dent in our current deficit. The fact is, nothing that you have proposed will bring down the deficit in any significant way, and that is before we start spending to pay for all of your other pet projects.

We've begun to end the war in Iraq...


Ahem, the withdrawal in Iraq was already planned and the draw-down in troops had already begun before you even took office, in spite of your shameful attempt to scuttle those plans during the campaign.

...and we forged with our NATO allies a new strategy to target Al Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan.


What strategy was that, Barack? It sure looks like the same strategy to me: we supply the bulk of the troops and the majority of Europe gets a free pass. What was the response to your request for more European troops in Afghanistan (even after you sold out your countrymen during your "apology" tour)? "No" in any language is still no.

We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and banning torture without exception.


Please explain the "false choice," Barack. Also, whose ideals are you talking about. Certainly not mine or those of most of the people I know. Our ideals say that we have the right to defend ourselves from evil madmen that have masterminded the deaths of thousands of our fellow citizens and that boast about beheading others of those citizens. Our ideals say that those "enhanced interrogation" techniques are NOT torture. The worst of these "tortures" was water-boarding, a technique that has been administered to thousands of our own soldiers as part of their training. The other techniques ranged from placing these scum into an enclosed space with a live caterpillar to grabbing their collar (oh, the horror!). Ann Coulter has a very informative (and comical) column that details each of these "tortures".

Your ideals include denying medical care to infants who are born alive after botched abortions (clearly infanticide) and kissing up to ruthless dictators (and standing idly by while they slander our country) while you spit upon long-time democratic friends and allies. Clearly, we don't share the same ideals and I would prefer that you quit pretending otherwise.

And we've renewed our diplomatic efforts to deal with challenges ranging from the global economic crisis to the spread of nuclear weapons.


Yes and what have those diplomatic efforts produced? The Russians laugh at us when we ask for help in halting the Iranians' drive to possess nuclear weapons and the Chinese laugh at us when we request help in checking the North Koreans' ability to deliver their nuclear weapons to some far-flung location across the globe. Yeah your vaunted diplomatic efforts are really paying off.

About Chrysler & GM: What we've seen is the unions have made enormous sacrifices on top of sacrifices that they had previously made.


Oh yes, huge sacrifices. While investors who spent billions on Chrysler and GM bonds get pennies on the dollar, the unions, who haven't invested squat get a majority stake in Chrysler and a huge stake in GM. On top of that, the American taxpayer gets to pick up the tab of guaranteeing their pension and health care deals while Chrysler is in bankruptcy. A lot of sacrificing there, sure.

On water-boarding: I am absolutely convinced it was the right thing to do, not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees who were subjected to this treatment, but because we could have gotten this information in other ways, in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are.


Nice bit of Monday-morning quarterbacking there, Barack. What makes you so sure we could've gotten the information in other ways? Especially in a timely manner? Remember, we had picked up a high level of chatter (greater than that picked up around 9/11) amongst the terrorists that indicated that they intended to hit us again soon. KSM had to be water-boarded, what, about 180 times before he broke, right? Chances are, if we had relied on asking "pretty please give us the information we need," we would've gotten the information about one hour after the terrorists flew another high-jacked plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles. The truth is, there is absolutely no way you can be sure we could've gotten the information in other ways. That's why you only released the memos that discussed the interrogation techniques without revealing that those techniques saved hundreds if not thousands of lives in LA. You're just speaking out of your anal sphincter again, aren't you Barry?

And Churchill said, "We don't torture," when the entire British -- all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat.


You got this little "factoid" from some left-wing blogger, didn't you Barry? When will you learn that you can't trust those nuts to report anything accurately? The British threatened to hang captured Nazi spies if they refused to transmit false information to Germany. I think hanging is just a tad more brutal than water-boarding, don't you Barry? Plus, your very own family tells stories of your grandfather being tortured by the Brits, don't they? I don't understand why you would try to leverage Churchill anyway, since you clearly have disdain for him his country. Was it just desperation on your part? Was it the only way you could think of to dupe the American people?

Part of the reason why I called for a gradual withdrawal as opposed to a precipitous one was precisely because more work needs to be done on the political side to further isolate whatever remnants of Al Qaida in Iraq still exists.


You really are quite the liar revisionist, Barack. During the campaign you never called for a gradual withdrawal. You never called for a gradual withdrawal until it was clear that the surge was going to be successful. Remember, the surge that you and your leftist cohorts (the slimey Reid and maleficent Pelosi) opposed?

I do think that our administration has taken some steps that have restored confidence in the American people that we're moving in the right direction...


Oh yes, that is why all of the latest polls show that, despite your personal popularity, the majority of voters are against all of your initiatives.

Well, I think our -- our first role should be shareholders that are looking to get out. You know, I don't want to run auto companies. I don't want to run banks.


You keep saying this Barack but then you do things like: refuse to allow banks to pay back the bail-out money they received or take a huge chunks of equity in the car companies while giving other huge chunks to your cronies in the unions. Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

I know you've been hearing all these arguments about, oh, Obama is just spending crazy, look at these huge trillion-dollar deficits, blah, blah, blah. Well, let me make a point. Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit -- that wasn't from my -- that wasn't me.


You really are pathological about passing the buck, aren't you Barry? You're like some petulant 4-year-old, always pouting, "it wasn't my fault." Fortunately, the AP has again been helpful in pointing out this lie. Congress controls the budget and you and your leftist comrades have controlled both houses of Congress for the past two years. You gave us the current deficit and you are making it much, much worse.

So, you know, when you see -- those of you who are watching certain news channels that -- on which I'm not very popular -- (laughter) -- and you see folks waving tea bags around -- (laughter) ...


Pardon me, but what a whiny little puke you are, Obama. Why don't you grow up and quit mocking the people you're supposed to be serving. Pres. Bush, for all his faults, never belittled code pink or the other goofey war protesters, no matter how much they deserved it. You promised to be the "great uniter." One hint: making fun of good, hard-working people that have legitimate grievances against the government is not the way to unite the country. Of course, you really don't care, do you? That "great uniter" bit was just some good-sounding campaign slogan meant for the kool-aid drinkers, wasn't it?

We are going to have to tighten our belts...


ROFLMAO!!! Yeah right. Us little people will definitely have to tighten our belts (or already have tightened them) but you and your fellow elitists will never do it. Just like when you declared during the campaign that we won't be able to keep our thermostats at 72 degrees year-round and then you kept the white house warm enough to, in the words of your own staff, "grow orchids." Well, just keep on enjoying your expensive dinner parties and wasteful jet flights around the country and other extravagant perks. Hopefully your profligacy will turn enough of your acolytes so that we can throw you out of the honorable office that you've besmirched these last 100 days.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Lies and Statistics

Benjamin Disraeli is responsible for the quote that Mark Twain popularized: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." This administration excels at all three, but the current con game that Obama perpetrated at his first ever cabinet meeting definitely ranks as the worst kind.

Obama trumpeted his plan to force his cabinet to find $100 million to cut from the budget as if $100 million meant anything. To put that number into context, here are some comparisons:
  • $100 million is only 0.0029% of Obama's 2010 $3.5 trillion budget

  • $100 million is only 0.013% of Obama's $700 billion Porkulus stimulus bill

  • $100 million is only 0.77% of the $13 billion in pork in the omnibus spending plan

Put another way, let's say that I go out and buy a $100,000 stereo system. I bring it home and my wife says, "you paid what for that stereo?! How can we pay for it?!" And I (very calmly of course) respond, don't worry honey, I'll just return these $2.90 speaker cables. I bet that would reassure her, right?

But, hey, at least it's a start, right? Wrong! It's a con just as I stated above and here's why: psychologists tell us that people, in general, can't understand these huge numbers without some context. Beside that, we all instinctively know that $100 million is a lot of money, so the cuts seem pretty impressive. However, many don't recognize that $100 million is a drop in the bucket, compared to Obama's profligate spending. The administration is counting on the general public to miss that fact.

Even though they'll never admit it, the hundreds of Tea Parties held across the nation seem to have rattled the Obama administration. In response to the Tea Parties, the administration trotted out its press secretary, the hopeless Robert Gibbs, to crow about it's great accomplishment of cutting $100 million. However, in a rare showing of journalistic backbone, the press corp pointed out that the $100 million was nothing compared to current spending. It was even pointed out that just a week prior, the self-same press secretary had claimed that $8 billion in earmarks was nothing.

Let's hope that the general public will realize what the White House press corp recognized while Gibbs was trying to slip one by them: this government is spending us and our children into oblivion. We currently pay about $50 million per day on just the interest on our national debt (so the $100 million cut that Obama is so proud of will pay for about 2 days of interest, gee thanks). Our current dept is $11.2 trillion and Obama's spending is expected to add another $1 trillion to that debt in the year 2010 alone. Before long, the interest on our debt could be the largest item in the budget. This is debt that we will never be able to pay off without a huge amount of pain and suffering. Piddling $100 million "cuts" will never change that fact.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Arrogant Apology Tour

I know this will come as a surprise to many, but I've had it with our arrogant buffoon of a president. This latest moronic apology tour should've been the last straw for any non-Obama-koolaid-drinker who thinks this guy gives one wit for the country he's supposed to represent.

He started out apologizing to Europe for American "arrogance." Let me see if I've got this straight: Because of America, Europeans are not doing the Nazi goose-step across the continent. Because of America, Europe can afford to coddle its citizenry in cradle-to-grave socialism because they haven't had to spend on their own defense. Because of America, Germany is no longer divided. Because of America, the wall came down. Because of America, the French can sniff autocratically and deny us the right to fly our warplanes over their airspace when we need to speedily attack a madman in Libya. Oh yes, how "arrogant" of us.

Next he moved on to Turkey where he felt the need to assure Muslims that we are not at war with Islam. Oh good, I guess ole George W. didn't make that clear as he bent over backwards to assure the world that Islam was a religion of peace. Beside W's rhetoric, America has done nothing but aid Muslims in the last few decades. First, Russia would never have been defeated in Afghanistan without American weapons that were smuggled to the mujaheddin (something we would later come to regret but that's beside the point). Then we tried to help feed starving Somalis which turned into Black Hawk down. Next we sided with the Muslims in Kosovo and bombed their enemies back to the stone age. Finally, we liberated millions of Muslims in two countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) and helped them create constitutions that enshrined Sharia Law. Yep, it's a good thing that Obama was there to clarify this country's position vis-a-vie Islam.

With his latest tour, Obama has proven that he is nothing more than a narcissist that cares little for his country beyond it's usefulness as a foil to gain the world's love for himself. "Come on," the Obamabots will protest, "he shows his care for his country by improving its standing in the world." Okay, but the president is supposed to protect the interests of his country. So did Obama's groveling promote America's interests; did America gain anything with that "improved standing in the world?"

The answer, in a word, is nein or non or nyet or however you say "no" in Chinese or Turkish. When Europe was asked to pony up more troops for Afghanistan, we were rebuffed. When the Russians were asked to help with Iran, they assured us, "America has nothing to fear from Iran." When the Chinese were asked to help with the North Korean rocket, we got the cold shoulder.

Obama's apology tour shows that he views himself as more "a citizen of the world" than a citizen of America. He is clearly willing to abrogate America's interests in favor of the so-called "interests of the world." When he was elected, I feared that this would be Jimmy Carter's second term. Instead, it appears that it will be much worse than that. Heaven help us.