Archive for the 'Obama' Category

I once read about someone saying that her favorite day of the year was March 4th, because it’s a complete sentence. Technically, that’s not true, since the sentence is “March forth!” and the date is “March fourth”. But for what it’s worth, they sound the same. In history, March fourth was America’s original Inauguration Day, before being changed by the 20th Amendment, and was the birthday of Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. So without further ado, I give you the news on or around March fourth.

PETA has decided to forgo their plans for a billboard depicting Tiger Woods.

How much of a chance does this have of passing? Congressmen Jeb Hensarling and Mike Pence propose an amendment to limit spending to 20% of GDP.

If you’re a car nut, but also would like to consider yourself “green”, you might like this. Ferrari has unveiled a hybrid auto.

In the Netherlands, a pilot who was not licensed for passenger flights was arrested just before takeoff.

Students protesting cutbacks in Davis, California got close to blocking an interstate highway. (H/T CDC Journal)

Earlier this evening, two police officers were shot at the main entrance of the Pentagon.

From Atlas Shrugs: In San Francisco, three muslims have been charged with shooting a gay man in the face with a BB gun.

From A Catholic View: Maryland Catholic Conference backs state plan to fund adult stem cell research. Historically, Maryland was founded to provide a refuge for Catholics who were mistreated in England.

Because of falling real estate values, spouses facing divorce are now telling each other “No, you take the House.”

From the Weekly Standard: Is Obama offering a congressman’s brother a position as judge in exchange for his vote on health care?

From Yahoo News: The Chilean quake’s effects on the earth include shortening its rotation period.

Yet more geologic activity. Fox News reports a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan.

Yesterday, President Obama and leaders of both parties had a “health care summit”. Reaction from the right includes the following: According to ARRA, the GOP had a good day at the summit. Jonah Goldberg at National Review pretty much agrees, but also says that the summit was incredibly boring. My Auburn instead focuses on Obama, claiming that for him it was a failure.

From CNS News, Obama’s four appointees to the “Debt Panel” include Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.

According to Hugh Hewitt, Democrats say that Obama’s problem is gridlock, not his policies.

From Okie Campaigns, a board member of CAIR has been deported for supporting Hamas.

From Gateway Pundit, Van Jones isn’t just a truther and a communist, but was also a supporter of Saddam Hussein.

From CNN, a magnitude 7 earthquake has struck east of Okinawa.

From Infinite Unknown, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg thinks that the U.S. will undergo an economic meltdown in 5 to 7 years.

Speaking of economic meltdowns, billionaire financier Jim Rogers predicts that the British Pound will collapse.

Some Brits are taking a cue from us Yanks, and have launched a Tea Party movement.

Meanwhile, HotAir reports that back on our side of the pond, lefties who disagree with the Tea Party have launched the Coffee Party.

Another weekend come and soon to be gone. This one featured about 4 inches of powdery white stuff, a small amount by this winter’s standards. Here in Maryland, every few years or so, we seem to get what I call “Winter in December”, where December is cold and snowy, but January and February are milder. This past December certainly fit the bill, but there’s been very little let-up in January, with a long spell of below-freezing temperatures early in the month, and a snow storm to close it out. It looks like this will be a real winter, from start to finish. Just stay in your hole, Punxatawney Phil. Looking for your shadow doesn’t seem to be worth the effort this year. Meanwhile, here’s a bit of what’s been going on:

Ice Age Now reports how NASA and NOAA have been “cooking the data” on global warming, er, climate change. Such climate monitoring is now what the Obama administration wants from NASA, instead of going back to the moon.

The Washington, DC Metro had a horrible year in 2009, as 24 people were killed in the system.

From Atlas Shrugs via Newsbusters: Eleventh graders at an Ohio high school get a chance to earn school credit by becoming interns for Organizing for America. Suggested readings include Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

According to Michael Medved, trying to emulate Truman will not work for Obama.

Want to take a ride on a military airplane, at taxpayer expense? It helps if you’re related to Nancy Pelosi.

Obama bows again! Not to a king or emperor, but to an American mayor. (H/T Snooper Report)

From Gateway Pundit: Illinois gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, whom Duncan noted a few posts ago, has surged to within two points of the lead among Republicans vying for their party’s nomination. (Rock-n-roll trivia: Name the female vocalist whose maiden name is Andrzejewski.)

According to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, the Obama administration is determined to have Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists tried in New York.

Oh the other hand, Bill Burck and Dana Perino, writing in National Review, claim that KSM and four others will instead be tried by military commission.

The Egyptian government has announced plans to reveal the results of DNA tests from the Pharoah Tutankhamun. I wonder if “King Tut” was anything like Steve Martin’s portrayal.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, and you follow politics, then you are aware of the dust up surrounding the recent U.S. Supreme Court CITIZENS UNITED, APPELLANT v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION decision. It comes complete with President Obama chastising the Justices during his State of the Union, and Justice Alito’s equally firm “Not True”.

Anyways, its causing a big stink on the left right now, pretty much being pushed as an example of what happens when you get a conservative majority on the court and why its important to get the true judicial activists back in charge.

But what caught my eye the most in the dissent, written by Justice Stevens, was this bit of “logic”…

“If taken seriously, our colleagues’ assumption that the identity of a speaker has no relevance to the Government’s ability to regulate political speech would lead to some remarkable conclusions. Such an assumption would have accorded the propaganda broadcasts to our troops by “Tokyo Rose” during World War II the same protection as speech by Allied commanders. More pertinently, it would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans: To do otherwise, after all, could ” ‘enhance the relative voice’ ” of some ( i.e., humans) over others ( i.e. , nonhumans). Ante, at 33 (quoting Buckley, 424 U. S., at 49). Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that corporations are not permitted to vote, given that voting is, among other things, a form of speech.”

Really? If logic has ever been tortured, it has been now, and therefore I must assume that Justice Stevens supports torture. Or something.

Still, its an interesting argument… on the surface anyways. Dig a little deeper and it is not so analogous.

Tokyo Rose was providing aid to the enemy during a time of war, easily an act of treason by trying to sabotage the war effort by attempting to demoralize soldiers and sailors. While I understand that the counter-argument is that now “foreign” companies can give money to campaigns after the ruling (ChinaGate being a better example), the particular act of Tokyo Rose is more of a non-sequitur in this instance…

I wonder if Justice Stevens is aware that Article 88 of the UCMJ would prevent the general officers in his example from saying anything contemptuous concerning the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense, or the Governor of Texas, just to name a few. (Link to Article 88 of the UCMJ here: CLICK!), even contemptuous political speech. Free speech is not exactly “free” in the military. While I know that it isn’t readily enforced (as I’ve heard many times military members disparage Clinton, Bush and Obama during a heated political debate in the office and no one thinks to turn anyone in), it has been before when such speech was made public and by high profile individuals… such as generals..

Another problem I find with his argument is that of “voting” as a matter of “speech”. Why would we need the 15th and 19th amendments if people, regardless of the race or sex, have the freedom of speech, through voting, in the 1st!

Now, I know I’m not an expert in constitutional jurisprudence, nor do I claim to be an expert in platonic logic. However, I have read a book once or twice (Run Dick Run and a Star Wars : A Phantom Menace [LARGE PRINT EDITION} if you must know) in my life, and the Justice’s argument has a hole in the side of it caused by quite a massive iceberg methinks.

With the Holiday season, things have been pretty slow around here. This is certainly understandable, since we all have our familial duties this time of year. But someone has to get in the first post of 2010.

For me, Christmas means visiting with my parents and seeing the extended clan down in Virginia. This year, it also meant getting rid of snow on the side of the street in front of their house, and from on top of dad’s car. Various siblings had already shoveled their driveway. Meanwhile, I had cleared about 20 inches of snow from my sidewalk and car back in Maryland, and thus brought some recent experience to the task. Fortunately, the day was sunny, with temperatures above freezing, allowing me to leave some of the snow to melt away.
Read the rest of this entry »

“President Obama, for whom I voted because I believed he was the best choice available, is a profound disappointment. I now regard his campaign as a sly bait-and-switch operation, promising one thing and delivering another. Shame on me.“

Dude. It wasn’t like no one was saying that Obama was an empty suit at best, and a rabid leftist running as a hawkish centrist at worst. Shame on you? No Mr. Goodwin, sir. You don’t get off that easy, complete with a editorial in the NY Post that will somehow absolve yourself from being partially responsible for the lunatics currently in charge of the asylum. From watching the plethora of (pinatas?) youtube videos with Obama spouting off his leftist agenda (It’s not that I WANT to punish your success he tells Joe the Plumber, but he’s going to anyway for “greater good”) to his associations with the “Reverend” Wright and Bill “I’m gonna blow stuff up” Ayers, it was quite evident what we were getting into. Only those who had the equivalent of 10 year old puppy love massaged by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC and were so easily bedded are now waking up from their infatuation with “making history”. Just because you guys now have a rabid case of coyote ugly the morning after doesn’t really make me feel sorry for your poor decision that we all get to now equally “enjoy”. Thanks douche…

(/rant off)

The Big Picture feature at Boston.com has 120 photos looking back at the events (so far) of 2009: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Meanwhile, in other news, opinion and humor:

The Fort Hood shooting suspect’s condition has improved, enough for him to be moved from intensive care into a private hospital room.

Andrew McCarthy at National Review explains why Gitmo, contrary to what the Obama administration and Sen. Dick Durbin might think, does not cause terrorism.

A nine-ton temple pylon from the palace complex of Cleopatra has been pulled out of the Mediterrean Sea near Alexandria, Egypt.

Communists and (other) socialists protest near the climate change conference in Copenhagen, proudly carrying red flags and even a bust of Karl Marx. I wonder if they stayed around for the snow storm.

Speaking of Copenhagen and socialists, the Obama administration appears ready to offer $100 billion to a fund that would help developing nations deal with climate change.

Closer to home, Obama might be asked to testify in defense of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of scheming to sell or trade Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat, campaign fundraising abuses and other offenses.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. A family in Fort Belvoir, VA sends 1550 gift bags to Iraq.

Cops in Arizona apprehend 130 drug dealers and seize $7 million in contraband.

From ARRA News Service, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) claims that Congress can force Americans to buy health insurance.

Political cartoon – What if Rudolph the red-nose reindeer were to meet Al Gore?

The massive spending bill known as “TARP” didn’t prevent the economy from going into the toilet. The massive spending bill known as the “stimulus” didn’t pull the economy out of the toilet. What, then, is Obama now proposing for the economy? Another massive spending bill.

Meanwhile, Obama has decided to cut short his trip to Norway to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize, to the consternation of some Norwegians.

The upcoming visit from Obama is not the only strange thing that Norway has had to put up with.

Back at the White House, cookies served at the Christmas party were shaped like acorns.

Over at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Congress has decided not to re-authorize the Washington Scholarship Fund.

On the other hand, a House subcommittee has approved legislation that could force the NCAA to determine its football champion, in Division 1-Bowl Subdivision, via a playoff system. As if there aren’t more important matters.

Possible Darwin Award nominee. A 25-year-old Ukrainian man blows his head off – with exploding chewing gum.

Cue Van Halen. I remember Hot For Teacher, but not quite like this.

Global warming/climate change has been blamed quite a few unpleasant things, such as polar bears drowning as the Arctic ice melts under them. But now, it’s being blamed for polar bear cannibalism.

In Scott County, Virginia, a church has its own zoo.

Some families of fallen troops will get an early Christmas present – a ride on the Snowball Express.

Read this first.

Reaction??

Some things speak for themselves:

First:

President Obama is becoming a great disappointment, as the Democrats slowly dismantle Medicare and Medicaid.

…then:

And I am disappointed, hurt, worried, and depressed that the Democrats were the ones who got the cuts passed. I feel sure they wouldn’t have done so if Teddy Kennedy had been there. And Obama, what do you have to say for yourself? Were you sitting cozily in front of the fireplace too, watching a Walt Disney movie with your adorable daughters?

I smell a fox, in fact several. We are in a democracy; I accept that we don’t all agree. But I worked hard to get Obama elected. I have fought hard to encourage others to support health care reform, and to support Obama’s plan, and now I feel betrayed.

..and so on. There are many disappointed people. But who cares? They’re all old, or have some vested interest in our elderly.

Obama’s losing his mojo. If he keeps pissing people off, he’s going to be fired.

Un. Freakin’. Real.

“The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 … so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers,” Obama will say, according to excerpts from his speech at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Obama will say that the additional U.S. forces “will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011,” according to the excerpts released by the White House.

The president has a goal of withdrawing most U.S. forces by the end of his current term, senior administration officials told CNN Tuesday. Obama’s first term ends in a little more than three years.

The President is planning to get those 30,000 troops into theater in six months, which gets his “surge” to full strength around June 2010. The President then plans to begin the withdrawal of American troops in July 2011, with the majority of troops to withdraw by the end of 2012.

They have ONE year to do the job, and the message is loud and clear to the Taliban and Al Qaeda that all they have to do is hold out ONE year, and the U.S. will then declare VICTORY, and then get to enjoy “peace with honor”, much like our experience in Vietnam.

Sigh.