For those who voted for Obama ... well you screwed all of us! We don't thing the "changes" that Obama has made were what you were expecting.
Now you have the opportunity to facilitate a change - in November. Vote out the arrogant, elitist, freedom and rights robbing Democrats in the upcoming elections.
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In the following editorial, David Limbaugh details the unprecedented level of arrogance and condescension spewing from members of the Obama Administration. Their demeanor is one of a ruling elite in an autocracy rather than of a representative government serving at the pleasure of the public.
Then add to this unabashed racism of black on white and unequal justice and what results is a noxious mixture that will be destructive to our country.
Unprecedented Arrogance
David Limbaugh 7/2/2010
The Obama administration grows more arrogant, cavalier and fundamentally dishonest every day. Just in the past few days, we've seen a number of troubling examples. Frankly, sometimes it's hard to keep up.
In a speech in Wisconsin, Obama was bragging about how wonderful the terrible economy is. You'll recall that during both of President George W. Bush's terms, Democrats, including Obama, castigated him for destroying the economy, despite the existence of empirically verifiable robust growth during some seven of those eight years.
Now that Obama has been in office for a year and a half and his economy is failing by all objective measures, he and his Democrats demand, once again, that we ignore the empirical evidence in front of our faces and bow down to them in reverent gratitude for ensuring that things are not worse than they are.
Everyone knows Obama promised -- he was hardly tentative about his prediction -- that if the nation followed him over the cliff with his harebrained "stimulus" scheme, unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. When unemployment soared above 10 percent, he insisted we be patient to allow his plan to work. Now that it stubbornly remains in the high 9s, he tells us that if he hadn't implemented his stimulus bill, the economy would be much worse (12 or 13 or 15 percent), so we not only are forbidden from criticizing him for this disaster but also must genuflect because only three of the four wheels of the economy are teetering over the edge of the cliff.
He said, "There may be some roads that not only were repaired but also were ... linked up to create a new industrial park that would facilitate long-term economic development beyond this immediate crisis."
Can you imagine the reaction of the liberal media had a Republican president uttered such gibberish? There "may be some roads"? How's that for a non-statement? That were linked up to a new industrial park to facilitate long-term growth? How about some facts here, Mr. Intellectual? Then again, how can you blame him for citing nebulous "facts" and failed economic theory when neither the real facts nor the economic evidence substantiates his claims.
He also said that every economist who's looked at it has said that the recovery did its job. Would someone please get this man a link to The Heritage Foundation's website or any other credible conservative think tank or economist? Time and time again, Heritage scholars have not only argued but also demonstrated why Obama's economic policies don't work in theory and haven't worked in practice. As noted many times before, they have not helped avert a crisis, but have exacerbated already bleak conditions. Sure, all economists agree with him, just as all Americans agree with his socialistic policies.
Moving on, in the past few days, we've also heard from former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams, who has confirmed -- from the belly of the beast -- our worst suspicions about Obama and Eric Holder's Justice Department's dismissing a slam-dunk case for voter intimidation against New Black Panther Party members for racial reasons. This is an egregious trampling on the rule of law, an outrage that would subject any Republican president to charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, a scandal of the first order for which this administration isn't even bothering to develop "plausible deniability."
Next, we read about Obama's reaction to Sen. Lamar Alexander's reasonable suggestion that any energy discussion between the president and a "bipartisan" group of senators should include a focus on the oil spill and BP. Obama said, "That's just your talking point," and flat-out refused to discuss the subject. Is he king or what?
Finally, we've also witnessed this week another outburst from that paragon of smugness, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, whom I criticized earlier for mocking members of the press corps for their legitimate questions in lieu of attempting to answer them in good faith.
This time, this little smarmy nerd-thug mocked Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona for claiming Obama told him in a private meeting he would not secure our borders because it would disincentivize Republicans from supporting his effort to pass "comprehensive immigration reform" (read: amnesty). Gibbs accused Kyl of changing his story and basically arguing with himself on the matter, even though Kyl has not retreated an iota from the only relevant assertion: that Obama made the statement in question. Watch the video in which Gibbs clearly intends to create the false impression Kyl had vacillated on his charge and tell me with a straight face we're not dealing with an entirely unprecedented level of arrogance in this White House.
http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2010/07/02/unprecedented_arrogance/page/full
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Oblivious to historical equivalents, benighted and belligerent, Obama and Congressional Democrats fervently continue to pursue and implement disastrous policies on the American public which will have apocalyptic effects on our country.
It seems to be an unimaginable possibility to have so many incompetent, arrogant and uninformed people in one place. Unfortunately, they are the ones passing and imposing irresponsible and reckless legislation.
The Last Refuge Of The Incompetent
Investors Business Daily 07/01/2010
Unemployment checks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday with a straight face, create jobs "faster than almost any other initiative you can name." AP
Leadership: With their own economic policies in complete disarray, Democrats have turned to a tried-and-true tactic: Blame the opposition for your failure. It may be too late — their incompetence is starting to show.
Recent events, along with the continued bleeding of the U.S. economy and Wall Street, underscore the desperation of the party in power to escape responsibility for its failures.
Case in point: The president, speaking in Wisconsin on Wednesday, lashed out at Republicans: "We already tried the other side's ideas. We already know where their theories led us. And now we have a choice as a nation."
We must have missed the Democrats' attempt to enact broad-based tax cuts, for instance, to boost the economy like they did each time they've been tried in the past. Truth is, "the other side's ideas" have been studiously ignored in our financial crisis and recession.
Unemployment remains close to 9.7% and, based on even White House estimates, is unlikely to improve much. Vice President Joe Biden himself has noted that, under current Democratic policies, "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."
Of course, he too blames the GOP, though his party has controlled Congress since 2006 and its earlier policies, such as the Community Reinvestment Act and the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were responsible for the 2007-08 financial meltdown.
Democrats like to style themselves as the party of the little guy. But small businesses are going bankrupt in droves while unemployment among black males is averaging 16.3% — well above last year's 14.8%. In March, 1.8 million African-American men were without work — the most on record.
Now we see signs the economy's improvement may soon stall — and perhaps even slide backwards. On Thursday, we learned that June auto sales dropped 4.3% while May pending home sales plunged 30%. Consumer confidence has fallen sharply, and financial markets are in a tailspin.
Also this week, the Congressional Budget Office reported that federal debt by year-end will soar to 62% of GDP — highest since World War II, when the U.S. went deeply into the red and killed off the private economy in order to beat the Nazis.
Worse, the CBO said debt will hit 87% of GDP by 2020, rise above its record peak of 109% by 2025 and hit a stunning — and financially ruinous — 185% by 2035.
CBO chief Doug Elmendorf told the White House's deficit commission this week that those rising levels of debt, fueled by uncontrolled federal spending, might lead to "higher interest rates, more foreign borrowing, less private investment and lower income growth, if not a full-blown fiscal crisis."
While there's been modest job growth this year, business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable warn that government policies of higher taxes and big spending will squeeze future private-business sales.
Without private-sector growth, there will be no recovery and no sustained rebound in job creation. Compassion for the little guy comes from understanding this very simple point — not from pointing fingers and mouthing vacuous economic platitudes.
The fact is, $700 billion in TARP bailouts, $862 billion in economic "stimulus," $70 billion in auto industry aid, $1.2 trillion in Fed money-printing and $146 billion spent on bailing out insolvent government mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done nothing to restore our economy's vigor.
This is among the most incompetent series of economic policy moves in U.S. history — all the more unforgivable because similar Keynesian pump-priming was tried during the Great Depression and in the 1970s, failing miserably each time.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said unemployment checks create "jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name."
We are not making this up. This is what passes for economic wisdom in the Democratic Party.
The current mess is a result of policies in place now — not those put in place years ago. Watching this nightmare unfold, and then listening to our leaders blame the opposition, is getting more grotesque by the day.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/539183/201007011901/The-Last-Refuge-Of-The-Incompetent.aspx
http://www.investors.com/image/Web_IssuesPelosi0702.jpg.cms
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"Remember in November"
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This is Democratic Congressman Pete Stark of California
He is just one more example of the arrogance, condescension and disdain that the Democrats have for the American people. They comport themselves as royalty and treat the public as guttersnipes.
This must not be tolerated by us. We need to clean house of these cancers - starting in November.
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Obama’s dereliction of duty regarding expeditiously and appropriately responding to the Gulf oil spill is now being compensated for by strong-arm threats from him and other Administration officials. The American public, including much of his fawning liberal support base, find these to be offensive, unwarranted and not constructive. They are repulsed by his initial actions of sending lawyers through Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate legal infractions rather than marshalling clean-up and stop-up crews.
His most recent response was to form a committee filled with his appointees to deal with the spill two months after it occurred. And who are the members of it? Oil industry experts? Individuals with maritime expertise?
Of course not! They are bureaucrats, environmentalist and political insiders – Obama ideologues. There is no real world experience related to this scenario but that is not the least bit surprising with this arrogant, corrupt, incompetent and ideologically rigid and radical administration.
And these are just a few of the infinite reasons that Obama’s support continues to plummet even among his previously most ardent supports.
This fiasco is just one more reason that Obama needs to be impeached or removed from office. (See yesterday’s post, Obama’s International Reputation is Deservedly Abysmal, for another reason.)
Obama's thuggery is useless in fighting spill
Michael Barone June 20, 2010
Thuggery is unattractive. Ineffective thuggery even more so. Which may be one reason so many Americans have been reacting negatively to the response of Barack Obama and his administration to BP's Gulf oil spill.
Take Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's remark that he would keep his "boot on the neck" of BP, which brings to mind George Orwell's definition of totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." Except that Salazar's boot hasn't gotten much in the way of results yet.
Or consider Obama's undoubtedly carefully considered statement to Matt Lauer that he was consulting with experts "so I know whose ass to kick." Attacking others is a standard campaign tactic when you're in political trouble, and certainly BP, which appears to have taken unwise shortcuts in the Gulf, is an attractive target.
But you don't always win arguments that way. The Obama White House gleefully took on Dick Cheney on the issue of terrorist interrogations. It turned out that more Americans agreed with Cheney's stand, despite his low poll numbers, than Obama's.
Then there is Obama's decision to impose a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf. This penalizes companies with better safety records than BP's and will result in many advanced drilling rigs being sent to offshore oil fields abroad.
The justification offered was an Interior Department report supposedly "peer reviewed" by "experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering." But it turned out the drafts the experts saw didn't include any recommendation for a moratorium. Eight of the cited experts have said they oppose the moratorium as more economically devastating than the oil spill and "counterproductive" to safety.
This was blatant dishonesty by the administration, on an Orwellian scale. In defense of a policy that has all the earmarks of mindless panic, that penalizes firms and individuals guilty of no wrongdoing and that will worsen rather than improve our energy situation. Ineffective thuggery.
And what about the decision not to waive the Jones Act, which bars foreign-flag vessels from coming to the aid of the Gulf cleanup? The Bush administration promptly waived it after Katrina in 2005. The Obama administration hasn't and claims unconvincingly that, gee, there aren't really any foreign vessels that could help.
The more plausible explanation is that this is a sop to the maritime unions, part of the union movement that gave Obama and other Democrats $400 million in the 2008 campaign cycle. It's the Chicago way: Dance with the girl that brung ya.
Or the decision to deny Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to deploy barges to skim oil from the Gulf's surface. Can't do that until we see if they've got enough life preservers and fire equipment. That inspired blogger Rand Simberg to write a blog post he dated June 1, 1940: "The evacuation of British and French troops from the besieged French city of Dunkirk was halted today, over concerns that many of the private vessels that had been deployed for the task were unsafe for troop transport."
Finally, the $20 billion escrow fund that Obama pried out of the BP treasury at the White House when he talked for the first time, 57 days after the rig exploded, with BP Chairman Tony Hayward. It's pleasing to think that those injured by BP will be paid off speedily, but House Republican Joe Barton had a point, though an impolitic one, when he called this a "shakedown."
For there already are laws in place that insure that BP will be held responsible for damages and the company has said it will comply.
So what we have is government transferring property from one party, an admittedly unattractive one, to others, not based on pre-existing laws but on decisions by one man, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg.
Feinberg gets good reviews from everyone. But the Constitution does not command "no person . . . shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law except by the decision of a person as wise and capable as Kenneth Feinberg." The Framers stopped at "due process of law."
Obama doesn't. "If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so," write the editors of the Economist, who then suggest that markets see Obama as "an American version of Vladimir Putin." Except that Putin is an effective thug.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama_s-thuggery-is-useless-in-fighting-spill-96684389.html
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This video captures examples of greatness and the rising to the occasion of previous Presidents versus illusions of grandeur by Obama.
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The Obama administration “accidentally” revealed on June 18th that the federal government will be filing a lawsuit against Arizona challenging the constitutionality of its new illegal immigration law, S.B. 1070. Given their already selected position, the fact that Obama didn’t have the courtesy to inform Arizona’s governor as promised and that this information was released in a back handed way, we feel this was a despicable and arrogant move on his part.
Of course, that comes as no surprise as such is his modus operandi with those he disagrees with except, of course, our enemies.
We encourage Americans to donate money to defend this legal challenge. Hopefully, Arizona can ultimately sue the federal government for legal costs (and punitive damages?).
The state should also sue to recoup the billions of dollars that Arizona taxpayers have paid to deal with all facets related to illegal immigrants.
Facing Federal Lawsuit, Arizona Governor Stands Her Ground on Immigration Law
FOXNews.com June 19, 2010
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer refused to flinch after Obama administration officials confirmed Friday that they plan to file a lawsuit challenging the state's anti-illegal immigration law.
In a statement issued late Friday, Brewer called Obama's decision "outrageous" but "not surprising."
"Our federal government should be using its legal resources to fight illegal immigration, not the law-abiding citizens of Arizona," she said.
Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office plans to withdraw as the state's lawyers in legal challenges to the law, leaving Brewer's attorneys to defend it. Brewer had complained that Goddard's criticism of the measure raised doubts about his ability to defend it.
Brewer said with Goddard out, "I will ensure the immigration laws we passed are vigorously defended all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary, where this reasonable law will ultimately be found constitutional."
The law takes effect July 29 and requires officers to question a person's immigration status if there's a reasonable suspicion that he or she is in the country illegally.
At least five legal challenges have been filed to the law since April.
The lawsuits generally allege that Arizona's law will lead to racial profiling and argue that it's the federal government's responsibility to regulate immigration.
On Friday evening, Brewer's defense team asked a federal judge to throw out the suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that challenge the law's constitutionality.
Obama officials confirmed plans to file their lawsuit after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a TV station in Ecuador earlier this month that the administration would challenge the law in court, though officials had long said the issue was under review.
Administration officials initially would not confirm Clinton's statement. But an official told Fox News on Friday that while the review is still underway, the decision has already been made that a Department of Justice suit will be filed. The administration at this point is just building its case.
Another official said there are still "substantial" issues to address and work out before the Justice Department knows that it has a strong enough case to file a lawsuit. The official said the department intends to file suit, but that any court action is contingent on the final review.
Clinton's announcement was met with outrage Thursday by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the law. Brewer told Fox News she's ready for a fight.
"What a disappointment," Brewer told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Thursday, saying she was shocked the administration would make such an announcement on foreign TV without giving Arizona officials the news first.
"We are not going to back away from this issue," Brewer said. "We are going to pursue it, we're going to be very aggressive," Brewer said. "We'll meet them in court ... And we will win."
She added: "The population of America agrees with Arizona."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/19/facing-federal-lawsuit-arizona-governor-stands-ground-immigration-law/
http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/brewer_060310_monster_397x224.gif
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We noted in Danger In Our Own Land, how the federal government States has essentially ceded southern Arizona to Mexico due to the rampant, uncontrolled violence associated with the drug trafficking and human smuggling. Because of the abdication of its Constitutional responsibility to secure the borders of the United States by Obama and Congress, Americans are faced with such a dire situation.
Of course, the violence and crime doesn’t end here. It is then dispersed all across the country so that this is not just a local problem for Arizona.
In order to begin to better protect itself and its citizens, Arizona passed S.B. 1070 which deals with the illegal immigration but not directly with border security. Arrogantly, duplicitously and irresponsibility and with prevarication, Obama will challenge the Constitutionality of the law – that is, file a lawsuit against Arizona.
He won’t send the military or national guard to actively protect the borders.
He refuses to take constructive steps to create a barrier at the border. In fact, he terminated the ongoing building of a fence along the border which had been effective.
No, Obama will destructively deal with the issue and increase the vulnerability of Arizonans and Americans in general.
Wouldn’t it be nice if he was forced to live in these areas for a few week period of time.?
We actually then may get two major problems solved…
Five Federal Lands in Arizona Have Travel Warnings in Place
Joshua Rhett Miller FOXNews.com June 18, 2010
Imagine the federal government closing a section of the Lincoln Memorial because it was under the control of Mexican drug lords and bands of illegal immigrants.
That scenario is playing out as reality in southern Arizona, where parts of five federal lands -- including two designated national monuments -- continue to post travel warnings or be outright closed to Americans who own the land because of the dangers of "human and drug trafficking" along the Mexican border.
Roughly 3,500 acres of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge -- about 3 percent of the 118,000-acre park -- have been closed since Oct. 6, 2006, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials acknowledged a marked increase in violence along a tract of land that extends north from the border for roughly three-quarters of a mile. Federal officials say they have no plans to reopen the area.
Elsewhere, at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which shares a 32-mile stretch of the border with Mexico, visitors are warned on a federally-run website that some areas are not accessible by anyone.
"Due to our proximity to the International Boundary with Mexico, some areas near the border are closed for construction and visitor safety concerns," the website reads.
On another page titled "Border Concerns," the website warns that visitors should be aware that "drug smuggling routes" pass through the park.
"If you see any activity which looks illegal, suspicious, or out of place, please do not intervene," the website reads. "Note your location. Call 911 or report it to a ranger as quickly as possible. Each year hundreds of people travel north through the park seeking to enter the United States."
Visitors are also warned to be mindful of illegal immigrants within Ironwood Forest National Monument, a 129,000-acre federal parkland in the Sonoran Desert.
"All suspected illegal activities should be reported to [the Bureau of Land Management] or local law enforcement authorities," Ironwood Forest's website reads. "Visitors should stay safe by avoiding contact with persons exhibiting suspicious behavior or engaged in dangerous activities. Drive with caution and look for fast-moving vehicles and pedestrians on back roads."
Dennis Godfrey, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management's Arizona office, said roughly a dozen signs were posted earlier this month along the Sonoran Desert National Monument advising that travel in the area is not recommended due to "active drug and human" smuggling. The signs are not far from where a Pinal County deputy was shot and killed during a confrontation with marijuana smugglers in April and the fatal shooting of two men suspected to be drug smugglers.
"It is a corridor for smugglers of all types," Godfrey told FoxNews.com.
Similar signs have been posted at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Coronado National Forest, which covers nearly 1.8 million acres in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
Estimates of exactly how many acres of federal land are closed due to safety concerns near the border were not immediately available, but at least one lawmaker told FoxNews.com that the policy of "ceding" federal land to drug and human trafficking is unacceptable.
"This is one of those things that the Department of Interior does not want to publicize," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, ranking Republican on the House Parks and Public Lands Subcommittee. "These bad actors are now being channeled into federal lands along the border because it's so easy to make that access. The situation is getting worse on federal lands and will only get worse until we make some proactive activity to change the status quo."
"Frankly," Bishop continued, "the status quo is failing. We are failing to control our borders."
Bishop, who has introduced legislation that would remove environmental restrictions the Department of Interior imposes on U.S. Border Patrol agents, questioned the message sent by federal authorities by closing off part of the Buenos Aires Refuge.
"That is a ludicrous message," he said. "That policy in unacceptable. That strikes of running a policy of appeasement to drug cartels instead of fighting back. Someone has to say that not one inch of American property will be given to the bad guys and not one death is acceptable."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/18/federal-lands-arizona-travel-warnings-place/
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The above image, posted on www.imaksim.com, captures the essence of the depravity and arrogance (with humor), that suffuses our government under total Democrat control.
For the large interactive image with descriptions, click here
URL http://www.imaksim.com/large/128-party.html
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Obama has unequivocally displayed a criminal dereliction of his duty as President to appropriately address and assist in the BP oil disaster. As detailed below, he was informed within the first 24 hrs. of the magnitude of the spill and the potential extent of the environmental damage.
What were his responses?
Very little, initially. It took him close to 2 weeks even to visit the area. None of the government’s contingency plans were implemented early one. In fact, his most forceful response within the first several weeks has been to assign Attorney General Holder the task of looking into criminal charges and sending attorneys to the area.
We are betting that these lawyers can actually plug the hole – using all the paper they will generate in their documenting the legal liabilities and constructing a case against BP! May be they can also add the waste produced from Obama’s myriad White House galas during this period of time into the hole.
Even more criminally and just more evidence of why he should be impeached/removed from office:
In this seven week period of time, he has yet to directly talk to the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward. Unbelievably, it was beneath him to talk to the head of this multibillion dollar company in order to strategize and work together for a solution. Obama’s response as to why he hasn’t called the CEO was that words don’t mean anything, action does.
Ironically, Mr. Pretender President, it is YOUR WORDS THAT DON’T MEAN ANYTHING.
YOUR ACTIONS CLEARLY REVEAL WHAT AND WHO YOU ARE.
INCOMPETENT, ARROGANT, NARCISSISTIC, RACIST, HEDONISTIC and ANTI-AMERICAN
AND …
UNFIT TO BE PRESIDENT!
Butt Stops Here
Investors Business Daily 06/08/2010
Leadership: The president says he went to the Gulf to find out whose derriere to kick. After he gets his foot out of his own mouth, perhaps he can talk to us about that Coast Guard memo.
Scapegoating has become a hallmark of this administration. Certainly BP was responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of Deepwater Horizon. But after an accident in federal waters the federal government, which has a plan to save the entire planet from greenhouse gases, had no plan to save the Gulf from a single gushing well, with the possible exception of finger-pointing. In this administration, "BP" stands for "buck-passing."
In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer on Tuesday, President Obama said: "I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago, I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain. ... We talk to these folks because they potentially had the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."
The talking heads were talking about the Gulf in the two weeks it took the president to make his first appearance there. But Fox News and talk radio had no fire booms to instantly deploy — booms the government was supposed to have, according to a 1994 plan.
The president who has said he would not rest until the hole was plugged has had time to entertain celebrities from Bono to Paul McCartney, get in a few rounds of golf, attend concerts and fundraisers, and even yuk it up at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. He did not have time, apparently, to expedite Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's request for additional sand berm construction.
The president was quick, however, to send Attorney General Eric Holder to the Gulf to threaten BP oil executives with prosecution. On April 29, Jindal declared a state of emergency and begged federal officials for permission to build a network of sand berms to protect Louisiana marshes and beaches. A month later Jindal got permission to build 2% of the berms requested.
British Petroleum has been accused of lying about or at least of not knowing the true extent of the disaster. But documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity shed new light on what the president knew, and when.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has released documents indicating that on April 21, less than 24 hours after the BP rig exploded, the administration knew the magnitude of the disaster we were facing in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Potential environmental threat is 700,000 gallons of diesel on board the Deepwater Horizon and estimated potential of 8,000 barrels per day of crude oil, if the well were to completely blow out," the Coast Guard logged in the immediate aftermath.
Documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that within 72 hours, President Obama and his administration knew the BP spill could exceed the environmental damage caused by the Exxon Valdez running aground off Alaska in 1989.
"Americans have a right to be enraged by the spill, by top government officials caught off-guard and by the facts the White House omitted in explaining what it knew and when it knew it," said Issa.
They also have a right to be outraged by an administration that places blame instead of sharing it, and by a president who has time for commencements and fundraisers while passing the buck to a commission.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536738/201006081848/Butt-Stops-Here.aspx
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Obama’s has acted more like a hedonistic, narcissistic banana republic dictator who can do as he pleases and answers to virtually nobody rather than the President of the United States. Except for Fox, some talk radio and bloggers, the news media has deemed his sybaritic indulgences as deserved and off limits for coverage. He is their man, come hell or high (or oily) water.
The extent of his abuse of power and profligacy of taxpayers’ money, particularly in a recession, are egregious and inexcusable. He is partying like there is no tomorrow while tens of millions of Americans are suffering and there are numerous critical events that need scrupulous attention.
Not even mentioned in the following article are the countless rounds of golf he has played since taking office.
Obama has made it quite clear that pleasure takes precedence over his responsibilities as President of our country.
Like:
Playing rounds of golf in Hawaii and not wanting to be interrupted rather than obtaining appropriate information and taking charge regarding the Muslim terrorist psychiatrist killings at Fort Hood in Texas.
Or not visiting the Gulf region for nearly two weeks after the BP oil disaster.
Not even mentioning, never mind even visiting, the calamitous “500 year” floods in Nashville.
This list goes on ad infinitum. Yet he still puts on obscenely and inexcusably expensive events at the White House or spends time trying to aggrandize his personal image and power while feeding his pathological narcissism and unsated hedonism.
To paraphrase the famous saying about Nero: “Obama is fiddling while America burns.” (And he was an arrogant narcissist as well.)
And the last of the Caesars...
Obama Wastes Millions of Taxpayer Dollars on Personal Entertainment
President and First Lady are partying like rock royalty
Fred Dardick Monday, June 7, 2010
The same hypocrite who says our energy costs must “necessarily skyrocket” to fund his political ambition, is giving Marie Antoinette a run for her money when it comes to spending national treasure on personal luxuries.
While much of the country is struggling to pay their bills, the President and First Lady are partying like rock royalty. The collection of talent that has made the pilgrimage to the White House to entertain Obama and friends is nothing less than amazing: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennet, Paul Simon, Marc Anthony, Herbie Hancock, Martina McBride, Queen Latifah, The Foo Fighters, Faith Hill, and recently foot-in-mouth Paul McCartney to name a few.
This has the makings to be the greatest ongoing concert series ever to be seen on this Earth just to entertain one man … all paid for by the American taxpayer.
Let Them Eat Cake
How much does this world-class entertainment cost? Assuming the artists themselves forgo appearance fees, I highly doubt Paul Simon would perform with just a karaoke machine as backup.
Professional equipment needs to be brought in - sound engineers, stages, lights, etc… Even small scale performances by these artists can be very expensive.
Add booze, food, security, invitations, social secretaries, wait staff, and hangers on to the tab and the price for one of these events could easily top $75K. With over 27 concerts hosted thus far, the total cost to taxpayers is in the millions of dollars.
The executive branch does not provide detailed information regarding entertainment expenses, however, it has been estimated the Obamas spent at least $10 million on “drunken White House parties” in 2009 alone.
The Audacity of Food Stamps
Considering the country is at war and a record 40 million Americans rely on food stamps to eat, Obama should show some class and skip the expensive partying.
Whether it’s the world’s greatest concert series, multi-million dollar date night in New York or taxpayer funded shopping in Europe for the First Lady, the Obamas are exposing themselves as nothing more than greedy, self-serving politicians.
While the President and First Lady insist the rest of us endure economic hardship for the greater good, they are living like a king and queen on our dime.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23988
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There are many parties that own considerable responsibilities regarding the uncontrollable BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as enumerated below by Charles Krauthammer. Clearly and inexplicably, BP didn’t have any contingency plans that would have been able to deal with disasters such as we are witnessing now. They bear substantial responsibility.
Here are some questions and issues that we must ponder regarding the Federal Government’s role in various levels of this disaster:
1. Once again, the government reveals its utter ineptitude in regulating and overseeing businesses/ industries. In this BP situation, it had just completed its inspection of the rig and deemed it to be safe. Of course, this same government was clueless about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the banking industry, Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme that it had been warned about for years, etc.
2. Why didn’t the Federal government have plans in place to deal with such potential disasters? Clearly, the government is not the answer as we have seen.
3. Obama displayed boundless ineptitude, absence of leadership, abysmal “judgment”, arrogance and demagoguery. He is a rank amateur when it matters in the real world.
4. If it weren’t for unfettered legal issues and radical environmental influences, there would have been no need to drill for oil in 5000 feet of water where there are much greater costs and risks as we are witnessing. Such restrictions led to potentially uncontrollable disasters as evidenced in the Gulf.
5. Why weren’t the appropriate government agencies mobilized immediately? Why did a few of the heads of these agencies go on vacation despite knowing the scope of this disaster?
6. Among the earliest government moves, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder sent a team of attorneys to the region. Were they going to cap the well?
Once again and in yet another area, the Federal government's inexcusable and embarrassing incompetence is on display. And Liberals state that the government is the answer for all our problems!
It seems to have problems in all that it is asked to do.
Oil spill culprits run deep
Charles Krauthammer 5/27/2010
Here's my question: Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place?
Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production.
(President Obama's tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we've had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
So we go deep, ultra deep – to such a technological frontier that no precedent exists for the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
There will always be catastrophic oil spills. You make them as rare as humanly possible, but where would you rather have one: in the Gulf of Mexico, upon which thousands depend for their livelihood, or in the Arctic, where there are practically no people? All spills seriously damage wildlife. That's a given. But why have we pushed the drilling from the barren to the populated, from the remote wilderness to a center of fishing, shipping, tourism and recreation?
Not that the environmentalists are the only ones to blame. Not by far. But it is odd that they've escaped any mention at all.
The other culprits are pretty obvious. It starts with BP, which seems not only to have had an amazing string of perfect-storm engineering lapses but no contingencies to deal with a catastrophic system failure.
However, the railing against BP for its performance since the accident is harder to understand. I attribute no virtue to BP, just self-interest. What possible interest can it have to do anything but cap the well as quickly as possible? Every day that oil is spilled means millions more in losses, cleanup and restitution.
Federal officials who rage against BP would like to deflect attention from their own role in this disaster. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department's laxity in environmental permitting and safety oversight renders it among the many bearing responsibility, expresses outrage at BP's inability to stop the leak, and even threatens to "push them out of the way."
"To replace them with what?" asked the estimable, admirably candid Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander. No one has the assets and expertise of BP. The federal government can fight wars, conduct a census and hand out billions in earmarks, but it has not a clue how to cap a one-mile-deep, out-of-control oil well.
Obama didn't help much with his finger-pointing Rose Garden speech in which he denounced finger-pointing, then proceeded to blame everyone but himself. Even the grace note of admitting some federal responsibility turned sour when he reflexively added that these problems have been going on "for a decade or more" – translation: Bush did it – while, in contrast, his own interior secretary had worked diligently to solve the problem "from the day he took office."
Really? Why hadn't we heard a thing about this? What about the September 2009 letter from Obama's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accusing Interior's Minerals Management Service of understating the "risk and impacts" of a major oil spill? When you get a blowout 15 months into your administration, and your own Interior Department had given BP a "categorical" environmental exemption in April 2009, the buck stops.
In the end, speeches will make no difference. If BP can cap the well in time to prevent an absolute calamity in the Gulf, the president will escape politically. If it doesn't – if the gusher isn't stopped before the relief wells are completed in August – it will become Obama's Katrina.
That will be unfair, because Obama is no more responsible for the damage caused by this than Bush was for the damage caused by Katrina. But that's the nature of American politics and its presidential cult of personality: We expect our presidents to play Superman. Helplessness, however undeniable, is no defense.
Moreover, Obama has never been overly modest about his own powers. Two years ago next week, he declared that history will mark his ascent to the presidency as the moment when "our planet began to heal" and "the rise of the oceans began to slow."
Well, when you anoint yourself King Canute, you mustn't be surprised when your subjects expect you to command the tides.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/obama-250766-oil-deep.html
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The following is an incisive assessment of the scandalous and reprehensible attitudes and of Obama and the Democrats. In fact, Obama’s inept, corrosive and seditious body of work of should earn him consideration for impeachment after the November elections.
Obama Administration and Democrats Kowtow to Other Countries While Scorning Those Who Have Died For Ours
Posted by Lori Ziganto 5/26/2010 from RedState
In the past week, the Obama administration and fellow Democrats have let their true feelings for America known more than ever before. Well, at least more blatantly. They aren’t even bothering to hide it now and have lost all shame. No longer content with merely worshipping at the altar of multiculturalism, they are now going out of their way to boast that they believe that practically any other country is actually superior to America, and that the men and women who have died fighting for our country aren’t worthy of honor and respect.
This has been clear for many years, to those who were paying attention, evidenced by the ever growing cries for some ill-conceived, thinly veiled diversity and tolerance objective, as well as the constant touting of the concept of “citizens of the world”. Our own Supreme Court started using European laws on which to base their decisions on American law, for goodness sake. Any complaints were met with “You just don’t understand, being philistines and all. Also, shut up.
Racists.”
But the current crop of Democrats have taken it to new lows; they are past rock bottom and are now frantically burrowing through the Earth’s crust. Since attaining power, everything they’ve done has been an attempt to fundamentally change our “defective” Constitution and country. They are trying to create a federal government involved in and in control of every aspect of our lives, even the foods we eat. They have attempted and continue to attempt to morally equate America with those who wish to kill us . They have actively tried to weaken our military and are attempting to further their belief that America is not special. We don’t need no stinkin’ Exceptionalism! Only, we do. And we are.
Obama took to it right away, and started it off with his incessant and seemingly involuntary reactive bowing, done whilst jetting off on his “Apologizing for America” tour. Then, this week, Democrats showed their true colors, in a way that can no longer be ignored, even by the most stubborn. Congressional Democrats cheered - and gave standing ovations - to Mexican President Calderon, as he demonized Arizona and its citizens and denigrated this country as a whole. As I said then, not only do the Democrats fail to figuratively stand up for America, but they literally stand up for and applaud those who seek to condemn it. Worse, they were wearing bracelets, protesting and bashing American citizens, while cheering a foreign leader who was doing the same. From our House floor.
Earlier this month, Joe Biden, always the last to know things, took the diminishing of America on tour. No one bothered to inform him that was no longer necessary. We now invite foreign leaders here to do the bashing for us. Poor Joe. Always in the dark. Biden spoke before the European Union and informed everyone that he believes that Brussels, not Washington, DC, is the “capital of the free world.” What’s wrong with all you patriots? America being the shining city on the hill and the beacon of freedom for the rest of the world is so old school!
Worse, not only does the Obama administration believe that America is passe, they scorn the very men and women who have been, and still are, the greatest force for good in the World - Our military. Our President will not be honoring the fallen, nor those currently serving, at Arlington cemetery on Memorial Day. In wartime no less. The for real kind, not the Dick Blumenthal kind. He needs a vacation, you see. He needs some rest after all that complex thinking and nuanced insight that resulted in his deep analysis of “just plug the damn hole” as a fix for the BP oil spill. Over a month later.
That’s the spin, at least. But, it’s not even the point. It’s his pattern of behavior and the reasons for it. He first showed his disdain for the military when he decided to jet off to Copenhagen to try to score the Olympics while troops were dying in Afghanistan. And he had talked to the Commander once. In two months. He cared more about serving the Olympics up to Chicago than he did about our soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He continued dithering over that same troop increase decision while he instead chose to focus on his whiny pants “war” on Fox News. At war with the Fourth Estate, he abandoned the 4th Infantry Division. As Commander in Chief, he chose to worry more about Fox News than foxholes. While our men and women died. While still in the midst of his raging indecision, he further showed what little respect he has for those who serve with this flippant remark at, yes, a photo op.
Obama arrived on the base 3:19 p.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time), and received a rousing welcome from 1,500 troops in camouflage uniforms, many holding cameras or pointing cell phones to snap pictures.
“You guys make a pretty good photo op,” the president said.
Do you know what you make, Obama? A pretty awful example of a leader and, frankly, a man. In your defense, at least you are succeeding at being a pretty good example of a Worst President Ever. I suggest you stay far away from Jimmy Carter; he’s going to be ticked that you stole that crown from him. Although, at least even Carter could pronounce the word Corpsman, I suspect.
There is a pattern. A pattern of pandering to other nations and attempting to apologize for America’s greatness. Now, they are also unforgivably scorning those who bravely help to make the entire world a better place. Who, at the bare minimum, give up their young adulthoods and the innocence of that age to protect and defend their Country, their Countrymen and to aid countless others around the World in their struggles against tyranny, genocide and other atrocities.
The greatest force for good that the World has ever known is powered by those men and women. Those who lost their lives, cut short in their prime, while in the line of duty deserve honor and respect.
Our President is not doing so; he can’t even be bothered to lay a wreath at Arlington cemetery. Perhaps it would help if he had a protest bracelet to wear, proclaiming America is meany pants? Maybe he could force himself to care then.
http://www.redstate.com/snarkandboobs/2010/05/26/obama-administration-and-democrats-kowtow-to-other-countries-while-scorning-those-who-have-died-for-ours/
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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer distills the incompetence, arrogance and abdication or the Obama Administration’s responsibilities regarding the immigration problem with a video message that even a child can understand. This can be found on the site www.securetheborder.org which we suggest that you visit.
The following is associated with this site:
Arizona Sing-A-Long: Reading Helps You Know What You’re Talking About
While broken borders are not a laughing matter, Washington’s
failure to read Arizona’s immigration law is laughable
PHOENIX –– Two weeks ago, Governor Jan Brewer took President Obama to task for making Arizona’s unsecured borders and illegal immigration crisis a laughing matter. However, since then, Washington’s comedy of errors has grown far worse, with top cabinet officials admitting that they haven’t even read Arizona’s new immigration law. Broken borders are not a laughing matter, but the failure by Obama’s trusted officials to read Arizona’s law before commenting and condemning it is laughable. As a result, SecuretheBorder.org is using a little bit of humor to remind everyone in Washington of the importance of reading. Watch the latest video below:
“Our message is simple: reading helps you know what you’re talking about. That’s why we put Arizona’s immigration law up on www.SecuretheBorder.org,” said campaign spokesman Doug Cole. “Arizona is trying to do the job that the federal government has failed to do, and members of the president’s cabinet condemn it without even reading it. They have time to apologize to China and give President Calderon a standing ovation, but they don’t have the time to read Arizona’s law. Just more examples of how Washington is broken.”
The video features Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Assistant Secretary of State PJ Crowley admitting that they have not read Arizona’s immigration law.
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There is something very, very wrong with this picture:
Obama attacking the Arizona immigration law in a speech given on the White House lawn with visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderon who then proffers his own criticisms of the law.
So we have the President of the United States assailing one of the states and then countenancing and applauding a foreign head of state who does the same.
This is not Presidential nor is it rational under standard circumstances. No sane, patriotic head of state trash talks his own country nor does he allow a foreign leader to do so. And Obama did so blithely, persistently and as a matter of fact.
This behavior is one of a dangerous and nefarious leader which Obama is. Such actions should be considered not just in bad taste but bordering on sedition particularly when combined with his body of work.
OBAMA MUST BE IMPEACHED AND REMOVED FROM OFFICE!!
White House, Democrats Applaud Mexican President Slamming Arizona Law
FOXNews.com May 20, 2010
WASHINGTON -- As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law.
And that isn't sitting well with officials from states along the border.
"It was extremely disappointing to have a foreign head of state on the floor of the U.S. Congress exhibiting willful ignorance" over the new law, Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams told Fox News.
"But I'll tell you what's even more galling is to have members of the White House staff standing and applauding something that is absolutely wrong," he said. "Arizona's law does not introduce racial profiling. Quite the contrary."
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said "those who encourage criticism of the Arizona law are on the wrong side of the American people."
"When you peel back the inflammatory rhetoric and the baseless accusations of those who oppose the Arizona law, you find that Arizona has taken a reasonable, constitutional approach to dealing with a problem that the federal government hasn't," he said.
Despite confessing to not reading the law, Holder and Napolitano are among those who have criticized it, saying the law would promote racial profiling and may be unconstitutional.
In the first address to Congress by a foreign national leader this year, Calderon delivered a message Thursday that the two countries must cooperate to improve security along the often-violent border and control the flow of immigrants into the United States.
While Republican lawmakers welcomed Calderon's call for improved relations between the two countries, they jeered his lecture on how to fix the U.S. immigration system and his criticism of Arizona's new law.
"I think it's inappropriate for him to come in and criticize our law," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News. "When we go down to Mexico, we don't do that to the Mexicans."
"The Arizona law is not the problem," he added. "The problem is the growing violence down the border and securing the border and the Obama administration enforcing federal law."
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee's immigration, refugees and border security subcommittee, said it was "inappropriate" for Calderon to "lecture Americans on our own state and federal laws."
"Arizona's immigration law has been amended to make clear it does not authorize racial profiling by law enforcement," he said.
In his remarks Thursday, Calderon said he is "convinced comprehensive immigration reform is crucial to securing our border."
"But I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona," he said. "It's a law that not only ignores reality, but also introduces racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement."
Calderon said his "government does not favor the breaking of the rules" and that he respects the right of any country to "enact and enforce its own laws."
"But what we need today is to fix a broken and inefficient system," he said. "We favor the establishment of laws that work and work well for all."
Smith said he was "disappointed that President Calderon did not use this opportunity before us to talk about what more Mexico will do to discourage illegal immigration and improve conditions so that good, hardworking Mexican citizens will want to stay home instead of coming to America."
"The economic and tax reforms that President Calderon discussed are important, but they are not enough to curb the flow of illegal immigration," he said in a written statement. "Instead, President Calderon continues to mischaracterize and criticize domestic policies of the United States. It is not right for the president of another country to come here and criticize our nation or our states for wanting to stop human smuggling and drug trafficking, or secure our border."
Calderon's state visit comes at a time of renewed furor over the flawed immigration system from Mexico into the United States. From border security troubles to questions about how to deal with the millions of illegal migrants living in the United States, the immigration debate remains politically vexing, frustrating and volatile.
Obama is lobbying lawmakers to get moving on legislation that would seek to deal with the security, employment and citizenship issues at once. He concedes, however, that he does not yet have the Republican support he would need to get such a complex deal done. Whether any progress will happen this year is unclear.
Stoking the matter is a new law approved by Arizona lawmakers and set to take effect July 29 unless derailed by legal challenges. It requires police, in the context of enforcing other laws, to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the United States illegally.
Calderon calls that discriminatory, and Obama agrees the Arizona law could well be applied that way. He has ordered a Justice Department review.
Calderon also told Congress Thursday that the fight against narcotics traffickers along the border can only succeed if the United States reduces its demand for illegal drugs. Calderon called on Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban. "The Second Amendment is not a subject open for diplomatic negotiation, with Mexico or any other nation," Cornyn said.
He said the United States must stop the flow of assault weapons and other arms across the border.
The Mexican leader found an ally at the White House Wednesday, where Obama is pressing lawmakers to take up legislation that would deal with security, employment and citizenship issues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/20/mexicos-calderon-takes-case-congress/
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The following incident is just another example of why our borders need to be protected and why, in the face of federal government inaction, Arizona was forced to pass the recent immigration legislation. Not only do our border guards and policeman face these threats every day but so do the citizens of Arizona.
Those who oppose Arizona’s law intended to protect its citizens and enforce federal law are largely arrogant (Obama), elitist (government of Los Angeles and San Francisco), morally corrupt (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton), uninformed or just plain dishonest or guilty (illegal aliens).
Arizona Authorities Find Wounded Deputy in Desert
April 30, 2010 NewsCore
Pinal County Sheriff's Lt. Tammy Villar says the deputy radioed in to say that he had encountered a group in the desert and had been shot with an AK-47 assault rifle in the abdomen.
A Pinal County sheriff's deputy shot by a suspected illegal immigrant Friday was airlifted to hospital while authorities tried to apprehend a number of suspects who had also started shooting at a police helicopter, according to local media reports.
At about 4:30 p.m., the deputy radioed in to report that he was shot in the abdomen with an AK-47 assault rifle during a traffic stop after pulling over a vehicle containing a group of suspected illegal immigrants on the Interstate 8 west of Casa Grande, Arizona.
The deputy was investigating a shipment of marijuana in the desert and was confronted by five suspects, Lt. Tami Villar told 12 News.
Police believe at least two people were armed with long guns and at least one handgun, AZCentral.com reported.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office dispatched a helicopter and members of its SWAT team to assist, department spokesman Lt. Brian Lee told AZCentral.com
At about 5.45 p.m. there were reports over the police scanner that suspects were shooting at a police helicopter, he said.
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office tactical team were searching for the five suspects. So far, two people have been caught, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported.
The deputy was found in the desert more than an hour after he radioed for help and was airlifted to the Casa Grande Regional Medical Center. He was expected to survive.
Customs and Border Protection agents stationed in Tucson were also on their way to help in the search, and were equipped with night-vision technology in case the manhunt extended into the night.
Traffic in the area is also being impacted.
The shooting comes on the heels of the passage of a controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/30/arizona-authorities-searching-deputy-shot-desert/
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Glenn Beck presents the Obama National Anthem - performed to the Russian anthem
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The following essay captures so well the essence and dangers of Obama Delusion Syndrome. The damage done if Obama were just another nameless inconsequential loser would be minimal. Unfortunately, he is the President of what was once the greatest country ever. His delusional disorder together with his narcissistic personality disorder, and some outside political help have in a little more than a year wreaked severe and incalculable damages to our rights, freedoms, attitudes, America’s security, economy and future and have poisoned relationships with our long standing allies and have emboldened our sworn enemies to exploit our increased vulnerabilities.
Not a pretty picture! This must not be allowed to continue.
Obama Delusion Syndrome
Kevin McCullough April 18, 2010
Few things are less tasteful than arrogance amongst the empowered. Few things are sillier than believing one's own praise. Few people are more misguided than those who teach false doctrine, and few pose more danger than those who willfully deceive in order to gain power.
On all four points President Obama stands head and shoulders above us all.
It seems, however, that he saves his ugliest bit of guile, disdain, and self-exultation for when he is forced to deal with "We The People." For as much as he would like to believe it to be the case, he is not higher than us, but rather our servant. And though he bristles at the notion that anyone should be allowed to instruct his behavior or review his job performance, in November of this year the voters of America will do both.
Realizing this, if I were one of President Obama's advisors, I would caution him greatly on his continuing smug and arrogant defiance of the voters, especially as they express their thoughts on the greatest domestic crisis we face nationally: the economy.
This week, when addressing Democratic supporters who paid him (at least his party's campaign fund) between $250-$1250 dollars to hear him speak, the President dropped the curtain and let another shade of his true colors show.
Last year, when the tea parties began forming and the first of what would be over 5000 of them took place across the nation, he claimed to have barely been made aware that they were there. He claimed so despite the fact that the most watched cable news company reported live from gatherings that ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands of attendees. (Attendance at these events was a fact that the White House would directly misguide people concerning throughout the year of 2009.)
But this year, instead of playing dumb, the President took a different tactic: arrogance and marginalization. Speaking to people who paid big money to hear him, he said, "I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you."
Thank you? For what, exactly, Mr President?
Since unemployment, which you pledged to never let grow past 8%, has been near 10% for the better part of your Presidency, should we thank you for the stimulus bill you passed that has made underemployment worse in dozens of states?
You do know Mr. President, don't you, that under President Bush nearly one in twenty families worked but did not have enough to make ends meet, but under you that percentage has, for the duration of your time in office, held fairly steady at one in five families?
Or should we thank you for the federal takeover of private industry, and the artificial propping up of some companies, while the indiscriminate failures of others went unheeded?
Perhaps we could thank you for removing the terms "terrorist, war on terror, and islamic radical" from federal usage in any official reference. After all, refusing to label what the terrorists really are, or worse yet their true intentions will create a more peaceful world... right?
Perhaps we can thank you for your repeated attempts through the Health Care Reform bill, your still-not-dead Cap & Trade legislation, and, coming soon, your legislation to normalize illegal aliens to put repeatedly harsh burdens upon the small businesses of America. After all small businesses only creates 2 of every 3 new jobs in the nation.
Mr. President there is also the matter of how you treat our allies. You assumed a posture, from the moment you were sworn into office with our closest ally Great Britain, and most recently our most important ally in the middle east Israel, to treat them with contempt. Yet you smilingly shake the hands of dictators, accept their socialist dogmas as gifts, and even tell them that your own nation is a bad player in world affairs, even though if it were not for your nation--America, most of the freedoms on the planet presently enjoyed would be non-existent.
President Obama, it has become clear to anyone with an ounce of objectivity, that you are engaged in a great delusion.
A delusion that sees your own policies as euphoric, when in reality they are significantly dangerous. It is a delusion that seems to think our allies are bad, and our enemies are good. A delusion that even has given you the "right" to arrogantly mock and marginalize those of us who know the law: that you work for us.
Mr. President how are we supposed to see "hope and change" in your actions that mock our needs, priorities, and desires?
In reality we'd prefer you to focus on attempting to heal the sick economy, restore our standing to one of respect amongst our allies and fear amongst our enemies, and in nearly every other area keep the long reach of government out of our lives. Then we'd have reason to thank you!
Unfortunately for us all, it is doubtful your delusion will allow you to see the need.
Copyright © 2010 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.
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In another reprehensible example of Obama’s arrogance, Messiah complex and unrestrained hedonism, instead of attending the state funeral of Polish President Kaczyńskis who was killed in a horrific plane crash, Obama played a round of golf.
That’s right!
Poland is a stalwart ally and strong pro-democracy country and Obama couldn’t avail himself to show even the minimum of diplomatic etiquette.
Leaders from many other countries including Russia found ways to attend but not Obama. No, golf was far too important – even more than being respectful to an important ally.
Russia has earned good will points and consideration for reconciliation with their attendance at the funeral. Conversely, Obama’s conspicuous absence and concurrent hedonistic actions can only be interpreted as his intentional public derogation of Poland which portends poorly for future relations at least while he is still President.
Liberal politicians and the news media have been intentionally, misleadingly and wrongly using the term “sedition” when talking about conservatives and their protests against the federal government. That term, however, is immensely appropriate for Obama as well as Pelosi and Reed. These individuals are intentionally destroying our country in myriad ways and should face appropriate charges and actions. Impeachment of Obama would send the appropriate message.
They’re in essence traitors and should be treated as such.
Obama goes golfing instead of attending Kaczyńskis' funeral
April 18, 2010
The Icelandic volcano travel debacle left an open spot in the US president's schedule
US President Barack Obama went golfing at the Andrews Air Force Base yesterday, it was reported, just hours after Poles had laid their late president to rest.
"On a cool but sun-drenched day, the president and three golfing companions head[ed] to Andrews Air Force Base on Sunday to play 18 holes. It is the 32nd time Mr. Obama has played golf since taking office Jan. 20, 2009, according to CBS Radio's Mark Knoller," reported the Washington Times on Sunday.
In an article posted on its website, the newspaper also reported that while US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden had taken the time to visit the Polish Embassy to sign a book of condolences, President Obama had not yet taken the time out to do so.
The plumes of volcanic ash that ruined travel plans throughout Europe last week kept other world leaders away from the funeral, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy - though there was no word as to whether they too had taken to the links.
Other world leaders found ways to attend the funeral, including Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who made an 18-hour drive, while Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus travelled by car and train. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych also attended.
The late president's close friend, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, also managed to attend, flying in from Georgia through Rome.
http://www.wbj.pl/article-49272-obama-goes-golfing-instead-of-attending-kaczynskis-funeral.html?typ=wbj
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Rush enumerates a quite impressive collection of Obamanations in this tongue-in-cheek thank you which was in response to Obama arrogantly asserting that the Tea Partiers should be thanking him for their taxes. Really!!
Rush: We Will Really Thank You in November, Mr. President
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With ever increasing arrogance, Obama actually believes and stated that Americans should be happy about paying their income taxes and should be appreciative that he “lowered” them for a vast majority of Americans. We know that he is still smoking but maybe they are not regular cigarettes and are the cause of his hallucinations. Otherwise, he is a liar or has completely lost touch with reality. (Actually, both of these are irrefutably true!)
Taxes not only haven’t been reduced for productive Americans but will be increased massively almost immediately. He surely has increased the number of Americans not paying any taxes to 47%. Outrageously and unacceptably, 40% of Americans now actually receive money (get paid) from the government rather than pay any taxes as a consequence of a multitude of handouts including earned income tax credits.
Productive Americans are forcibly supporting the lazy. And this will only worsen with Obama’s reckless ideology.
We have become slaves.
THIS MUST BE REVERSED!!
Obama's Mockery of Tea Party Stirs Tax Debate
Major Garrett April 16, 2010 FOXNews.com
Political strategists debate President Obama's mockery of the Tea Party Movement.
For 20 seconds on Thursday, President Obama basked in applause from donors in Miami when he mocked the nationwide Tea Party rallies that caused an eruption of angst on Tax Day.
"I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you," Obama said to a group of Democratic supporters who shelled out between $250 and $1250 to attend.
But it remains unclear who will get the last laugh: the president or the Tea Party?
"What the president said last night was arrogant and smug and a perfect example of why the Tea Party is so intense and so organized" said Republican strategist Terry Holt
Democratic strategist Peter Mirijanian defended Obama's statement by saying if you take a look at the middle class voters, contrary to protesters' claims, you'll see that their income levels and their taxes have actually not gone up.
Larry Summers, the president's top economist, blogged for the Huffington Post that in 2009 the middle class and poor were showered with $173 billion in tax cuts, resulting in average federal refunds of $3,000 -- up 10 percent from the previous year.
This largess, the White House says, has arrived via payroll tax refunds, college tuition relief, and the first-time homebuyer credit, and energy-efficiency credits.
But Tea Partiers are protesting against deficits, debt, and taxes, not to mention the tax implications of financing
the mounting federal debt: $12 trillion and rising.
"The protests on Tax Day is one thing to stage," Mirijanian said."It's another thing to mobilize and vote. That's the true test."
Tea Party members also fear a drift toward socialism -- a trend a majority of the country also sees.
The latest New York Times / CBS news poll shows 92 percent of Tea Party members fear moves toward socialism. Fifty-two percent of 1,580 adults surveyed saw the same drift but 38 percent did not.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/16/obama-amused-tea-party-rallies/
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Americans by the millions vehemently oppose what our Federal government is doing to America. Obama and Congressional Democrats are essentially perpetrating a bloodless coup including abrogating many of our rights and freedoms while legislating numerous ways to take more of our hard earned money. Adding insult to injury, they also denigrate us at any opportunity possible.
Such arrogant elitism along with fiscal recklessness and a host of other issues has precipitated the genesis of the Tea Parties, increasingly outraged and vocal opposition by even average Americans who previously had no interest in politics.
Obama, the Democrats and the news media arrogantly portray those Americans who use their democratic First Amendment right to peacefully oppose their radical policies as fringe elements, racists, terrorists and many other derogatory epithets.
We must continue and even elevate the decibel level of discourse and disagreement.
One individual who is garnering increased recognition both in Florida where he is running for Congress and across the country is Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. He is a successful self-made man who is outstanding public speaker - motivating, intelligent, well informed and sincere.
And the antithesis of Obama’s robotic, cold and monotone ones.
Below are two videos of Lt. Col. West in Action. A third video captures the typical media race baiting but with the individual responding with the quintessential answer.
Congressional Candidate Lieutenant Colonel Allen West speaking at the America Freedom Tour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Oct. 21, 2009
Lieutenant Colonel Allen West West Palm Beach Tea Party Speech April 15, 2010
White NBC Reporter Confronts Black Man at Tea Party Rally
Such a question intending to degrade this individual and the Tea Parties is reprehensible and entirely typical of the far-left biased and corrupt news media.
They would never think to ask a white person a similar question if they largely surrounded by crowds of blacks - it would be considered to be racist. A clear double standard.
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Obama: 'Whether We Like It or Not, We Remain a Dominant Military Superpower'
Obama’s reprehensible statement is, unfortunately, consonant with his myriad previous derogatory or apologetic ones regarding the United States. This is a person who should never been the President of this country or of any other country, for that matter, with that attitude.
The political leader of any country should want to maximize its stature, reputation, strength, etc. in the eyes of the world. They all do and have done so except for Obama. We can’t recall any other modern day example of a country’s leader relentlessly denigrating his/her own country.
Obama is a colossal embarrassment to the United States and its citizens. His behavior is intolerable and not conducive to being President and he should be removed from office ASAP.
Obama: America a Superpower 'Whether We Like It or Not'
FOXNews.com April 15,2010
In a little-noticed remark at the close of the two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., this week, President Obama suggested the United States was somehow burdened by its military might.
President Obama speaks at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington April 13. (AP Photo)
Being a superpower ain't all that, at least according to President Obama.
In a little-noticed remark at the close of the two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., this week, President Obama suggested the United States is somehow burdened by its military might -- a comment that drew a stern rebuke from his former rival in the presidential campaign.
Obama was responding to a question Tuesday about how the summit would play into peace-making efforts in the Middle East when he addressed the downsides of -- by virtue of America's world stature -- being obligated to intervene in international conflicts.
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them," Obama said. "And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
The remark got little attention in mainstream coverage of the summit, but was picked up on several conservative blogs, which panned the president for suggesting Americans had grown weary of superpower status.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slammed the leader of the free world Thursday, calling the remark a "direct contradiction to everything America believes in."
"That's one of the more incredible statements I've ever heard a president of the United States make in modern times," McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, told Fox News. "We are the dominant superpower, and we're the greatest force for good in the history of this country, and I thank God every day that we are a dominant superpower."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/15/obama-america-superpower-like/4/
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The following hilarious, creative and hard edge and incisive video is a must see if you are disgusted with what Obama and Congressional Democrats have done to healthcare specifically and to our country in general. It is wholely therapeutic – and is performed to classic Stones.
Take It Back
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Few in Hollywood are Conservatives and even rarer are those who are outspoken on these beliefs. One of those individuals is Jon Voight. Given that most people associated with Hollywood are supporters of the far-left and with many zealots among them, opening admitting that one is a Conservative often is a career killer.
Jon Voight was a guest on the Mike Huckabee show on April 10th, 2010. On the show he read an open letter to America and to Barack Obama where he discussed the future of America and the need for us all to get involved in our individual states Tea-Party movement in order to save our nation.
The following is the text of the letter:
“In one year, the American people are witnessing the greatest lie that is cleverly orchestrated by President Obama and his whole administration. The lie is a potent aggression that feeds the needs of people who either have not educated themselves enough to understand the assault upon us all or the very poor and needy who live to be taken care of.
President Obama feeds these people poison, giving them the idea that they are entitled to take from the wealthier who have lived and worked in a democracy that understands that capitalism is the only truth that keeps a nation healthy and fed. Now the lie goes very deep and President Obama has been cleverly trained in the Alinsky method and it would be very important that every American knows what that method is.
It is a socialistic, Marxist teaching and with it, little by little, he rapes this nation, taking down our defenses, making new language for the Islamic extremists. The world looked up to us as a symbol of hope and prosperity now wonders what will become of the entire world if America is losing its power.
The American people who understand exactly what is taking place have come together in the thousands, vowing to try to stay together as a unit of love and freedom for all men and women, from all walks of life, shivering to think that this once great nation will be a third world country.
This will be the first president to ever weaken the United States of America. President Obama uses his aggression and arrogance for his own agenda, against the will of the American people when he should be using his will and aggression against our enemies.
Every loving American for peace and truth and the security of our nation must come out and join the Tea Parties in their states. The opposition will continue their tactics; they will lie and plant their own bullies amongst us. Everyone must pay close attention to who stands next to them. We can weed out the liars and agitators.
Let us all stay in Gods light. Let no man put asunder. We can and we will prevail. God bless us all!”
Jon Voight, April 10th, 2010
http://www.thefoxnation.com/jon-voight/2010/04/11/watch-jon-voight-reads-letter-american-people
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The following essay on Obama was written by Alan Caruba in January, just before completeing his first year in office and before the passage of the pernicious healthcare reform legislation. It has gone viral on the internet but was incorrectly attributed to another individual and claimed to have been published in the Wall Street Journal.
It eloquently and concisely captures the essence of Obama’s “charmed” and choreographed life where he exploited advantages uniquely available to him along with serendipity to become President. He has a track record of zero significant accomplishments and little practical worldly experience but does serve as a paragon of narcissim. In many ways, he is the Paris Hilton of politics.
Unfortunately, he is now the President of the United States.
Obama's Make-Believe Life
By Alan Caruba January 2, 2010
I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he’s led a kind of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.
In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry. Who else do you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45? “Dreams of My Father” was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The “Audacity of Hope” followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did write them himself. There are some who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a “communist with a small ‘c’” was the real author.
His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be deemed controversial. He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having Mayor Daley’s formidable political machine at his disposal.
He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital. How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever even heard of him before?
He outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took Iowa by storm. A charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black population, he oozed “cool” in a place where agriculture was the antithesis of cool. He dazzled the locals. And he had an army of volunteers drawn to a charisma that hid any real substance.
And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole. And then John McCain did something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female governor from the very distant state of Alaska. It was a ticket that was reminiscent of 1984’s Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went down to defeat.
The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin, was extraordinary.
Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.
Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to “wish away” some terrible realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy America and enslave the West. Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam initially spread. It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a foothold in Spain.
The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign “world tour” were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.
Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk, has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party’s hold on power in Congress because in the end it was never about the Party. It was always about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family, mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.
Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston police officer who arrested an “obstreperous” Harvard professor-friend, but would warn Americans against “jumping to conclusions” about a mass murderer at Fort Hood who shouted “Allahu Akbar.” The absurdity of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded this by calling the Christmas bomber “an isolated extremist” only to have to admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.
He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to the battlefield against America. He could even instruct his Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity. And he is a man who could wait three days before having anything to say about the perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first statement was so lame.
The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any problem on the Bush administration or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.
Knock, knock. Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama exists only as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered and manufactured this pathetic individual’s life.
When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this man has spent over a million dollars to deny access to his. Most other documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered from review. He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain hidden.
We laugh at the ventriloquist’s dummy, but what do you do when the dummy is President of the United States of America?
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/obamas-make-believe-life.html
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Once again firebrand Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is spewing irresponsible, incendiary and groundless charges against the Orlando, Fla. Area urologist who posted a sign on the door of his office recommending that those who voted for Obama seek care elsewhere. In fact like many other uber partisan Democrats of his ilk, he has now transformed this freedom of speech issue into a racist one.
Despicable!
The level of hatred and intolerance which Grayson exhibits regarding this situation (as well as many others in the past) shows him to be emotionally and rationally challenged and not fit for his job as Representative. He should be investigated and censured as well as removed from office by those in his district.
As we unequivocally stated on April 3rd in Orlando Physician Expresses Sentiments Regarding Obama and Obamacare, this urologist was entirely within his legal, ethical and moral rights in our Democracy to post that comment.
Any attempt to silence this free speech is an attack on us all. Furthermore, we must prevent the government from using bullying, heavy handed or legal tactics to challenge our rights of expression and freedoms in general. By the way, where are all those demagogue Democrats who speciously claim that there is unwarranted vitriol in American discourse yet won't rein in one of their own? (They won't because they would level the same charges!)
As for you, Alan Grayson, we have an open question indirectly related to this case:
How can you reconcile the fact that 95% of all blacks voted for Obama and yet not charge that this constitutes racism?
There can be no other rational explanation for this yet we have not heard one word about this from any Democrat regarding this racist vote.
What if 95% of whites had voted for McCain? We are sure that you would vehemently consider that to be egregious racism!
Grayson: Doctor shooing away Obama backers will deny treatment to blacks
By Jordan Fabian - 04/03/10 11:28 AM ET
A doctor who posted a sign at his practice asking Obama supporters to seek care "elsewhere" will end up denying service to many African Americans, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Friday.
Dr. Jack Cassell, an opponent of the healthcare law President Barack Obama signed last month, put up the sign at his office in Grayson's district.
"Well, in fact, where he lives, in Mount Dora, which is in my district, many, many of the Democrats who live in Mount Dora happen to be African-Americans," Grayson said on CNN. "So, by saying that he will not treat somebody who supported Obama, he's saying that he's not going to treat a large number of African-Americans in the community."
Grayson, a freshman who represents a Republican-leaning district, gained national attention during the healthcare debate last year when he said the GOP's healthcare plan was for seniors to "die quickly."
Cassell has said that he is not violating medical ethics rules.
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Cassell, 56, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
But Grayson said that he was violating the rules and that he will probably be disciplined by medical licensing authorities.
"How many people walked in -- walked up to his front door, saw the sign, and turned away?" he asked. "How many people referred from other physicians in the community, including primary care physicians, how many patients saw that sign and walked away?"
Asked what kind of punishment Cassell should receive, Grayson said "Well, whatever the medical authorities think he should get. But it is a clear violation of ethics, and it's a particularly ugly one. Why is it that the right wing is so preoccupied with denying people health? Why is that?"
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/90467-rep-grayson-anti-obama-doctor-will-deny-treatment-to-blacks
The CNN Interview Video:
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In a little over 14 months, Obama has displayed an unparalleled combination of incompetence, dishonesty, arrogance and narcissism that far exceeds that of any previous President. Placing the assessment in perspective, this excludes his far-left/radical ideological positions which would then position him in a faraway galaxy.
Another reason for Jimmy Carter to smile. There is actually a President that is worse than he was.
In this brief period of time, Obama has offended or disrespected nearly all of our close allies – from Great Britain and Israel to even Poland. Other countries with whom we have had close ties in the past don’t trust us because of what he has been stating and doing (such as Honduras). Our enemies and less than friendly countries such as Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran, see Obama as extremely weak and vulnerable.
These flaws and weaknesses are manifestly apparent to most. Conservative commentator, Burt Prelutsky, wrote the following in his column:
"I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran."
This wasn’t written in response to Obama’s reprehensible treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during his recent visit to the White House. It was actually posted last year, on June 12, 2009.
Obama is getting worse, not better…
http://townhall.com/columnists/BurtPrelutsky/2009/06/12/being_taken_for_a_ride
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Rightful Anger
Investors Business Daily 03/25/2010
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., warned that politicians should “be very careful ... that our rhetoric doesn’t incite to violent...
Health Reform: Should Americans feel ashamed for being angry that those who rule Washington thwarted the popular will? No more than colonial Americans at the trampling of their freedoms.
If the president and the leaders of his party in Congress think the American people are going to roll over and play dead after the biggest government power grab in history, they don't know this country.
And if they think those on the side of economic freedom will be intimidated by their attempts to caricature them as a bloodthirsty mob of Timothy McVeighs, they underestimate the powers of a free people.
A new CBS News poll finds that 62% of Americans want Republicans to keep fighting the Democrats' health legislation even now that it has passed.
Only 16% believe the new law will "mostly help" them.
Democrats are portraying that majority as a violent minority, being inflamed by the speeches of GOP congressmen and Sarah Palin. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in an appearance on the CBS "Early Show" on Thursday, warned that politicians should "be very careful ... that our rhetoric doesn't incite to violent acts."
Does that include the rhetoric of former House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., who this week told a Detroit radio show that "it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people"?
Control the people?
This is a country that went to war over onerous taxation by the mother country. We took up arms and sacrificed our sons "to dissolve the political bands" that attached us to King George, and "to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God" entitled our Colonial forebears.
Dingell has again earned his longtime nickname, the Truck. But it will take more than a couple of hundred congressional eighteen-wheelers to turn the Spirit of '76 into roadkill.
Where were Hoyer and his colleagues, now so concerned about inflammatory rhetoric sparking violence, a couple of years ago?
As Victor Davis Hanson points out, "write a book in which you muse about killing George Bush, and its Knopf imprint proves it is merely sophisticated literary speculation; do a docudrama about killing George Bush, and it will win a Toronto film prize for its artistic value rather than shock from the liberal community about over-the-top discourse."
Knopf's defense was that it was "not the first time a novelist has chosen fiction to express their point of view about American society or politics." Newmarket Films' defense of its computer-rejiggered news footage depicting Bush being assassinated was to call it "quite a compelling political thriller. In many ways it is sympathetic to George Bush."
Nor do you even have to go back years ago.
Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy on Monday said of the Tea Party protesters: "I want to spit on them, take one of their 'Obama Plan White Slavery' signs and knock every racist and homophobic tooth out of their Cro-Magnon heads."
Politically motivated violence is to be condemned as long as America can peacefully be kept free.
Our bet is that as Americans increasingly feel the impoverishing effects of last Sunday's big step toward socialized medicine, they will indeed repeal it — without firing a single shot.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=528481
http://www.investors.com/image/Web_hoyer0326.jpg.cms
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It seems that wherever one looks at in the Obama Administration, there are quixotic ideologues and corrupt, arrogant, contemptuous, radical and inept individuals. Rather than serving the public, they are elitists that see the American public as their servants. Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are quintessential examples but unbelievably, may not be the worst offenders. This dubious distinction goes to Attorney General Eric Holder. Not enumerated in the following editorial was his galling and indefensible dropping of voter intimidation charges by the Dept. of Justice against two individuals of the New Black Panther Party who were already prepared to plead guilty. His racism appears to be the only motivation behind this action which he refuses to elaborate on.
The Self-Righteous Haplessness Of Eric Holder
By Michael Gerson 03/18/2010
Attorney General Eric Holder is controversial on the left for preserving much of the Bush administration's legal structure for conducting the war on terror. He is controversial on the right for overturning portions of that structure in ways that seem both clueless and reckless.
But Holder is the most endangered member of the Obama Cabinet for a different reason: Just about everything he has touched has backfired. The list is oddly impressive.
First, there was the decision to release Bush-era interrogation memos and reopen the investigation of CIA interrogators after they already had been cleared by career prosecutors. Holder assumed that these actions would rally public outrage. Instead, he started a national security debate he has pretty much lost.
Seven former CIA directors — serving under Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43 — sent Holder a letter warning that his actions could "help al-Qaida elude U.S. intelligence and plan future operations." Holder opened a serious, ongoing rift between the Department of Justice and the intelligence community.
Trial Of The Century
Second, there was Holder's repudiation in the matter of John Yoo and Jay Bybee — the Bush administration lawyers who provided the legal justification for enhanced interrogations. Holder appointees had determined the two lawyers guilty of professional misconduct. But the Justice Department's senior career attorney cleared Yoo and Bybee of the charge, embarrassing Holder in the process.
Third, there was the handling of the underwear bomber case. It is fortunate that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab eventually resumed cooperation. It is also evident that Holder's decision to Mirandize him after 50 minutes was hasty and based on minimal consultation with intelligence officials. Holder treated a national security judgment as a purely legal one.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair later told Congress: "That unit (the High Value Interrogation Group) was created exactly for this purpose — to make a decision on whether a certain person who's detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means. We did not invoke the HIG in this case; we should have."
In fact, Blair was unaware that the High Value Interrogation Group did not yet exist.
Fourth, there is the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 conspirators in Manhattan. Under Holder's direction, this process has collapsed.
There is no serious plan to close Guantanamo. Holder has been unable to articulate reasons why some terrorism cases are referred to civilian courts while others are tried in military tribunals. And his groundwork for a "trial of the century" was botched in almost every respect.
The White House, having lost faith in Holder's ability to manage terrorism trials, has assumed direct control of the process. Civilian trials for the 9/11 terrorists now seem unlikely anywhere in the U.S.
But backing down on that commitment will have a cost. "If this stunning reversal comes to pass," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, "President Obama will deal a death blow to his own Justice Department, not to mention American values."
While a military trial for KSM would hardly be a mortal blow to American ideals, Holder's initial announcement has created a political expectation on the left that may be impossible to fulfill.
Finally, there are the Supreme Court briefs filed by Holder that he failed to disclose to Congress during his confirmation — likely to be the focus of a congressional oversight hearing in which Holder will testify on Tuesday.
Public Blunders
Holder's spokesman says this omission was inadvertent. But one of those briefs opposed the detention of Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant, leading Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to wonder, "Are we expected to believe that then-nominee Holder, with only a handful of Supreme Court briefs to his name, forgot about his role in one of this country's most publicized terrorism cases?"
Holder's briefs preview his later decisions on the underwear bomber and KSM. Few in Congress or the White House have leapt to defend Holder's convenient omission.
Add to all of this a series of public gaffes. America is a "nation of cowards." The possibility of capturing Osama bin Laden alive "simply does not exist."
Sometimes haplessness can provoke sympathy. But Holder mixes ineptness with self-righteousness. Critics of his questionable choices, he says, "cower." They lack "confidence in the American system of justice."
But there is another possibility. Perhaps Holder's critics — in Congress, in the country and even within the White House — just lack confidence in his judgment.
• Gerson, a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, was head speechwriter and a policy adviser for George W. Bush from 1999 to 2006.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527780
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Unfortunately, the degree of adherence to baseless ideology by Obama is only exceeded in magnitude by his ignoble narcissism that passage of healthcare reform will cement a deified legacy. As a consequence and facilitated by other far-left, corrupt, like minded elitist individuals like Pelosi and Reid, America’s economy in addition to its healthcare will suffer irreparably. We will all pay the immense price in freedom, rights, choices and ability to advance from our individual efforts.
We need to fight to overturn or annul this legislation.
Let the second revolution by the American people begin …
Health Overhaul's Assault On Business
Investors Business Daily 03/19/2010
Taxes: If ObamaCare becomes permanent, no one will suffer more than U.S. businesses. They'll face higher taxes, more regulations and a higher cost of capital. But don't take our word for it. Go ask Caterpillar.
The heavy-equipment giant reckons its insurance costs will go up 20%, or $100 million, the first year after the health care system is overhauled, and may go even higher. Multiply that by literally tens of thousands of companies nationwide, large and small, and you can see how costs will soar.
"We can ill-afford cost increases that place us at a disadvantage versus our global competitors," said Greg Folley, a Caterpillar vice president. "We are disappointed that efforts at reform have not addressed the cost concerns we've raised throughout the year."
If you don't care how this affects businesses, you should. Some 15 million people in this country don't have jobs — and another 12 million work part-time but want full-time positions.
If America's major employers are hit with huge, government-mandated cost increases during an economic downturn, do you really think they'll hire more when the economy starts growing on its own again? Of course not.
Despite this, the White House predicts its plan will "cut costs" for businesses. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even makes the bizarre prediction that passage of health reform will lead to 400,000 new jobs "immediately," and millions more down the road.
Such claims don't hold water because health reform includes $569.2 billion in new taxes, at last count 160 new bureaucracies and regulations, and 16,500 new IRS agents to collect all those taxes. Tax hits on businesses and industries include:
• $52 billion on companies that do not provide what the government deems "acceptable" or "affordable" insurance for workers.
• $60.1 billion on health insurers.
• $27 billion on drugmakers and importers.
• $20 billion on makers and importers of medical devices.
• $2.7 billion on the tanning industry.
And of course the companies themselves don't pay. You do — both as a consumer, through higher prices, and as an employee, through lower wages.
As the Tax Policy Center, a center-liberal think tank, noted recently, "Economists generally believe that the burden of payroll taxes is borne by workers in the form of lower wages, regardless of whether the tax is levied on the employer or employee."
But that's not the end of it.
A new Medicare tax on capital gains, dividends and other investment income has been raised from 2.9% to 3.8%. Supposedly, this is a tax on the "wealthy," those with $200,000 or more in income. It's really a tax on small business, entrepreneurs and investors.
This provision will push the top cap-gains rate from 15% to almost 24%, while the dividend rate will rise from 35% to 43.4%.
This amounts a big new tax on the very people who are most likely to own or start a new business and hire workers. Health reform will tax large numbers of job creators out of business — and no one in the White House seems to know, or even care.
But it will have an enormous impact. As a result of the Obama-Care taxes on successful individuals and companies, investment in new companies will slow, and old companies will face a higher cost of capital. New jobs will be created offshore in places such India and China.
Economist Steve Entin of the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation estimated the Medicare tax would reduce GDP by 1.3%, capital formation by 3.4% and after-tax incomes of those who don't pay the tax directly by 1.2%.
And those estimates came when the tax was "only" 2.9% — not the 3.8% it is in the current bill. So the economic losses would in fact be even larger than Entin estimated.
Because of these taxes and other faults in the plan, a group of 130 economists last Thursday sent President Obama a letter imploring him not to sign the bill, saying that it would be a job-killer.
"In our view," the economists wrote, "the health care bill contains a number of provisions that will eliminate jobs, reduce hours and wages, and limit future job creation."
Health reform's taxes and huge new costs will lead to semi-permanent stagnation in the U.S. economy, marked by higher unemployment and lower standards of living.
Is this how Americans see their future? Based on the Tea Party movement and growing anger at the government for seizing control of the economy's high ground, we doubt it.
The only real question is, are the White House and Congress listening?
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527934
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The preliminary estimates publicized by the Congressional Budget Office have no basis in reality. Though we don't know exactly how they arrived at their artificially low number, it was unquestionably affected by the incomplete and deceptive information that they were provided with. Of course, this does not account for bald faced fraud perpetrated by the Democrats in attempting to reduce the ostensible costs with maneuvers such as removing the Medicare fix costs from the legislation.
Five Reasons The CBO Figures Are Phony
Ed Carson 3/18/2010
The Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary “score” says the health care overhaul will cost $940 billion over the first 10 years, saving $138 billion over that time. But the CBO must assess legislation as written, rather than whether it will actually be carried out. Or, as the Economist put it, “The CBO is required to pretend to believe many impossible things before breakfast.”
1. Medicare cuts
The Senate health care bill relied heavily on unprecedented cuts in Medicare spending increases. If implemented, this would have a huge impact on seniors’ care. But Congress has always balked at Medicare cuts. (See No. 3).
2. Delayed start
To make the budget math work, Democrats plan on delaying the start of subsidies and other costly provisions for several years. (The bill spends just $17 billion through 2013). The true 10-year cost is far higher.
3. The “doc fix” is excluded
The Sustainable Growth Rate imposes automatic cuts in Medicare payment rates to doctors.
For several years, fearing a revolt by doctors — and seniors — Congress has suspended those cuts. The original draft of the House health care bill included a permanent “doc fix.” But that ballooned deficits, so Democrats dropped it, even though everyone knows Congress isn’t going to slash doctors’ rates. The CBO has estimated a “doc fix” would cost $247 billion over 10 years.
4. Student loans are included
Doctors’ payments are excluded from the health bill, but major student loan program changes are included? Yep. The reconciliation bill will end student loan subsidies to lenders. The CBO says this will save $19.4 billion over the first decade, accounting for virtually all of the $19.8 billion in deficit reduction from the health care reconciliation bill. Reconciliation bills must cut the deficit by at least $1 billion. So, without the non-health care items, the health care reconciliation bill would not pass muster.
5. It’s a CLASS act
In the Senate health bill, a new, voluntary long-term care insurance program called CLASS accounted for some $72 billion of the deficit reduction. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program is supposed to be deficit-neutral long-term. But Democrats are counting the upfront premium surplus in the short term and ignoring the significant operating deficits after 2029. Update: Democrats also are counting on projected additional Social Security revenues from payroll taxes on higher wages in lieu of lower health benefits. Again, those benefits have to be paid out.
But wait, there’s more! Let’s assume that the cost savings materialize as planned. It still makes the long-term fiscal outlook worse. Why? Democrats are using up a lot of tax hikes, spending cuts and upfront payment just to get barely better than deficit-neutral. That leaves future lawmakers less scope to bring the nation’s finances into order.
On a related note, Democrats continue to maintain the health bill would extend Medicare’s solvency by several years. But they plan to use those as-yet-unrealized Medicare cost savings for a huge new entitlement and to reduce the overall deficit.
http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/1524-five-reasons-the-cbo-figures-are-phony
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Hey There Obama (Drink the Kool Aid)
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Both Harry Reid and Ahmadinejad of Iran may very well pursue the nuclear option. They also despise the citizens of their respective countries and will impose whatever legislation and controls that they deem fitting regardless of their citizens' sentiments.
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It is difficult if not impossible to find a period of time in our history where our government is as corrupt and hell-bent on abrogating the freedoms and rights of its citizens. This is the anathema of a one party rule without countervailing opposition. What we are witnessing is a revolution by corrupt and unconstitutional legislation perpetrated by “our” government which must be stopped.
The next few days are the most critical for all of us. We urge you to call, e-mail and fax Senators and Representatives across the country and give them a piece of your mind. Then in November, these corruptocrats need to be ousted wholesale.
Not Even A Vote?!
Investors Business Daily 03/16/2010
Health Reform: Using a parliamentary trick ironically known as the "self-executing rule," Democrats plan on passing their massive health bill without voting. In November, they'll learn just how "self-executing" it was.
Just when you thought Washington couldn't get more corrupt, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week seems intent on trampling representative government itself. Unable to get the votes to pass their U.S. health care revolution, she and her fellow Democratic leaders have figured out a way to pass it without a vote.
The "self-executing rule" has been "used to adopt concurrent resolutions correcting the enrollment of measures or to make other technical changes to legislation," according to the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress.
It's "a two-for-one procedure," as the CRS describes it, because the House of Representatives always must pass a rule, written by the House Rules Committee (where Democrats hold a 9-to-4 majority), setting the terms of debate on a particular piece of legislation. In this case, it's been rigged so that if the rule passes, the legislation passes too.
The trick has been used before, as cited by the CRS, on obscure measures like the prohibition of smoking on airline flights in 1989, an employee verification program regarding illegal aliens in 1996, the blocking of the use of statistical sampling for the 2000 census until federal courts could determine its constitutionality, and an IRS overhaul in 1997.
But never on anything approaching such landmark legislation.
Amy Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, is among a number of legal scholars who believe this Slaughter Solution, named after House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., "would stand a very good chance of being tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court."
In the 1998 Clinton v. City of New York ruling on the line-item veto, liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for a 6-to-3 majority, "laid a likely road map for how the court might rule on a challenge to the constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution," according to Ridenour.
Stevens made note of "three procedural steps" that must be taken before a bill becomes law: The "exact text" must be "approved by a majority of the members of the House of Representatives"; the Senate must approve "precisely the same text"; and the same text must be "signed into law by the president. The Constitution explicitly requires that each of those three steps be taken before a bill may become a law."
Indeed, Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution couldn't be clearer: "The votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively."
Michael McConnell, a former federal judge and director of Stanford University's Constitutional Law Center, writing in the Wall Street Journal this week, declared the trick unconstitutional because "this means that no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form." Talk radio host and Landmark Legal Foundation President Mark Levin warned of its use sparking "the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War."
The president, the speaker and the rest of those involved in one-party rule in Washington may think they know what's good for the American people better than the people do.
Do they also think they know better than the framers of the Constitution and their naive ideas of one man, one vote?
If anything could swell the ranks of the populist Tea Party movement and make it friendlier to Republican candidates this November, it's executing the "self-executing rule."
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527493
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Even with overwhelming public sentiment against his plan, Obama arrogantly refuses to budge or listen. He just keeps making demands and derogatory statements against the Republicans and the American people.
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