Savoy Brown - Tell Mama

Obama's Worst of 2011

Aaron Goldstein, on December 28th, 2011 - Since I highlighted President Obama’s lowlights for both 2009 and 2010 why should 2011 be any different? (1)(2) There is, of course, plenty to write about and I shall only scratch the surface. If I have omitted anything, I have no doubt that my readers will draw it to my attention. Rather than list examples one by one I shall group them together in three categories – disagreeable, out of touch and vain.

Disagreeable

In January, following the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, President Obama won high praise for a speech he delivered at the University of Arizona in Tucson. (3) He was praised for this passage in particular:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. (4)

Well, it’s a shame that President Obama has made little effort to follow his own advice this year. Three months after the Tucson speech, Obama delivered another speech at George Washington University concerning fiscal policy. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan was invited to sit in the front row. Although not mentioned by name, Obama blasted Ryan’s fiscal plan in a setting where he could not publicly defend himself:

The vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America. Ronald Reagan’s own budget director said there’s nothing “serious” or “courageous” about this plan. There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don’t think there’s anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill. That’s not a vision of America I know. (5)

While it is true that David Stockman criticized the Ryan Plan, he also said Obama’s attempt to reduce the deficit entirely on the top 2% of the population wouldn’t work either. (6) Yet President Obama managed to omit that small but crucial detail. But why let demagoguery be impeded by fact?

During the debt ceiling debate this summer, Obama told House Majority Leader Eric Cantor not to call his bluff, said he couldn’t guarantee that Social Security checks would be mailed out, and railed against tax breaks for purchase of corporate jets despite the fact they were in the Stimulus Bill which he signed into law. (7) (8) (9) By October, Obama was telling Americans that the Republican fiscal plan consisted of “dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance.” (10)

President Obama hardly confined his demagoguery to domestic matters. When Congress demanded to be consulted about American involvement in Libya, he questioned their patriotism. At the very same press conference where Obama ranted about corporate jets he also asserted that “no one should want to defend” Muammar Qaddafi and that Qaddafi had become a “cause célèbre” for some members of Congress. (11) This from a man who said during the 2008 campaign he would never question the patriotism of others. (12) It would seem that President Obama believes he is exempt from his own edicts. In other words, do as I say not as I do. ---Read more

The Ant and The Grasshopper...

American Thinker - ...An Allegory For The Country - Monty Pelerin

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE OLD STORY: Be responsible for yourself !

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green'. Occupy the Anthill stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the SEIU group singing, We Shall Overcome. Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake, while he damns the ants.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight. >>>>Read more

Former KGB Agent's Caution to America:

The dust of the "Cold War" has yet settled. In both media and education, pro-statist influence is still alive employing old weapons (class-warfare) and modern weapons (AlGore-ish Greenism). This interview took place in the mid-80's yet still relevant:


Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov was a journalist for RIA Novosti and a former KGB informant from the Soviet Union who defected to Canada. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and culture of India, while, at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned oppression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow's policies. He decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov is best remembered for his pro-American, anti-communist lectures and books from the 1980s. (source)

States Give Us Clues

"State Champions" - Wild Bill for America

Milton Friedman Forewarns Us of Socialism's Inertia

...Same ol' green-eyed monster keeps rearing its ugly head again despite Mr. Friedman's caution.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Mike Masse and Wendy Jernigan

'Silent Night' (Oíche Chiúin) - Enya