Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Obama Earns a ‘Good Solid F’ For Protecting Americans

Barack Obama earned himself a good solid F for defending America against terrorism this year.

Since Barack Obama took office there has been an increase in terrorist activity in the US. There have been 33 terror-related “events” on these shores since 9-11. 13 of those events occurred in 2009.


Toby Harnden at The Telegraph blasted the radical young snorkler for his record on protecting America.

There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the marshalling of “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).

Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2008 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants. He said today that a “systemic failure has occurred”. Well, he’s in charge of that system.

The picture we’re getting is more and more alarming by the hour. Here are some key elements to consider:

1. Abdulmutallab’s father spoke several times to the US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria and visited a CIA officer there to tell him, apparently, that he feared his son was a jihadist being trained in Yemen. According to CNN, the CIA officer wrote up a report, which then sat in the CIA headquarters at Langley for several weeks without being disseminated to the rest of the intelligence community. This was not just a casual encounter. Again according to CNN, there were at least two face-to-face meetings, telephone calls and written correspondence with the father. If it’s true that the CIA sat on this then it beggars belief.

2. After 9/11, the huge bureaucracies of the Homeland Security Department and the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) were created. Inside the DNI, the National Counter Terrorism Center was created. These organisations were created to “connect the dots”. It may well be that the fault lay with NCTC and not the CIA – CIA spokesman George Little says here that “key biographical information” and information about “possible extremist connections in Yemen” was passed to NCTC. If NCTC knew about it, then did someone at the National Security Council within the White House? There’s a huge blame game beginning so we’ll no doubt know soon enough.

3. It wasn’t just the meeting with the father. According to CBS, “as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed ‘The Nigerian’ suspected of meeting with ‘terrorist elements’ in Yemen”. So there were other parts of the jigsaw that were not put together.

4. In his studied desire to be the unBush by responding coolly to events like this, Obama is dangerously close to failing as a leader.

There’s much more here.
Of course, it goes without saying that you never would see such an honest analysis on Obama’s failings in the corrupt US press.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Why is Obama still in Hawaii?


Five days after the Christmas Day bomber tried to blow up NWA Flight 253 over Detroit, President Obama is still on vacation in Hawaii. He has delivered two hasty, tie-less statements on homeland security from a makeshift podium in Honolulu whose underwhelming sum impact has been the equivalent of voting “present” (Obama’s career m.o.) By his own admission and in direct contradiction to his hapless DHS Secretary, the president acknowledged yesterday that “systemic failure” led to the breach.

Obama is not scheduled to return to Washington until Sunday. That’s four more full days of reinforcing his image as detached, aloof, and too damned tired to tackle the jihadi epidemic with the once-hyped energy and passion of a 48-year-old Super-Agent of Hope and Change.

Team Obama’s stage managers and image gurus are all about symbolism. Wouldn’t the president send a more credible message to jihadi plotters around the world (and to Americans) by cutting his holiday break short and getting back to work in the White House, rather than by phoning it in for the next four days?

And how many more tropical paradise pow-wows and basketball games with his Chicago cronies Valerie Jarrett, Marty Nesbitt, and Eric Whitaker does he need, anyway?

We’ve gone from “Blood, toil, sweat, and tears” to “Beach, golf, (gym) sweat, and (self-pitying) tears.”

Rough men stand ready to keep and defend our safety. As for President Obama, it’s still Me Time.

michellemalkin.com

Obama on Undie Bomber: “We Will Not Rest Until We Find All Who Were Involved… If You Need Me I’ll Be Snorkeling.”

President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to track down all those behind an attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day:

“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.”

Today Barack Obama called the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was an apparent “human and system” failure and a “catastrophic breach of security.”

Then he climbed in his SUV, took it down to the beach and went snorkeling.

No kidding.

More:

US Knew of Al-Qaeda Terror Plot Involving Nigerian Before Christmas


US officials knew about a Nigerian being prepared for a terrorist attack before Christmas!

FOX News reported:

The U.S. government had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda there were talking about “a Nigerian” being prepared for a terrorist attack, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

A senior official told the Times that President Obama was told in a private meeting Tuesday while vacationing in Hawaii that the government had a variety of information in its possession before the failed bombing on a Detroit-bound flight last week that would have been a clear warning sign had it been shared among intelligence agencies.

The newspaper said the information did not include the name of the Nigerian.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Monday, December 28, 2009

Obama’s statement on the Christmas Day jihadi attack; Perfunctory, hasty, and bloodless

Scroll for updates…

President Obama is scheduled to make a public statement this afternoon on the Christmas Day jihadi attack at around 3pm Eastern.

Sure bet: He won’t use the word “jihad.”

Via AP:

The White House says President Barack Obama is preparing to make his first public statement on the Christmas Day terrorist attack and describe U.S. efforts to protect the nation’s skies.

Obama is scheduled to speak soon after 3 p.m. EST about the government’s steps to protect the nation’s travelers and the reviews he has already ordered.

Deputy press secretary Bill Burton said Monday the president believes it is critical that the government learn from the attack on a Detroit-bound airliner and take the necessary measures to prevent future acts of terrorism.

Yes, try to suppress your snort: “Deputy press secretary Bill Burton said Monday the president believes it is critical that the government learn from the attack.”

No word yet on whether the DHS clown-in-chief will appear by his side.

As she insists on the plot being isolated, al Qaeda has formally claimed credit.

The Christmas Day would-be bomber says there are more like him coming.

And Foggy Bottom performed as usual in its visa procedures: Miserably.

Question: Will Obama perpetuate the myth of the poor, oppressed jihadist? Or has he learned nothing?

***

Update 3pm Eastern. Obama doesn’t bother to wear a tie. He hastily reads a belated statement describing the incident like a small-town sheriff’s deputy rather than the leader of the free world. He ticks off investigative steps in a perfunctory, plodding, bloodless manner. “We will continue to every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists…anywhere where they are plotting attacks against Americans.”

Eyes down on his paper the whole time — not looking at the camera and directing his statements at our enemies.

He talks about “resilience” as a foreign concept, not something he believes in in his heart.

Rushes through the end of his statement with a postscript about the violence in Iran.

Couldn’t get off the podium fast enough.

Inspiring.

“We will not rest.” Now, back to his vacation…

michellemalkin.com

Obama Speeds Away from Golf Course When Family Friend Suffers Minor Injury

Obama can shut down traffic and speed home when his friend’s kid is injured in a “run of the mill beach injury” but it takes him three days to respond to the Detroit plane terrorist attack.

thedanashow.wordpress.com

3 Days Later… Obama Finally Comments on Attempted Detroit Terrorist Bombing... 30 Minutes Later Plays Golf

It may have taken him 3 days but Barack Obama finally left the beach for five minutes to comment on the attempted terrorist bombing on Christmas Day.
It looks like somebody slipped him a jacket.



Reuters reported:

President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to track down all those behind an attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, confronting criticism that he had slipped up on national security.

“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Obama said, interrupting his year-end vacation in Hawaii to assure Americans that his administration was doing all it could to ensure security after a Nigerian man managed to smuggle explosives onto a Detroit-bound flight.

“The American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season,” he said.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is charged with attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it approached Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.

UPDATE: Thirty minutes later Obama teed off at Luana Hills Country Club.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

First Family to America: Everyone Must Sacrifice, Everyone Must Have Some Skin in the Game… We’ll Be In Hawaii

ack in January, before he signed his failed $787 billion stimulus bill into law, Barack Obama told America that everyone must sacrifice for the greater good. Everyone must have “some skin in the game.”



What he meant, of course, was that everyone would have to sacrifice to lift American out of the worst recession since the Great Depression except for Barack and Michelle Obama. This week the Obamas are staying at an $8.9 million estate for an estimated $4000 per night.
Kristinn at Free Republic reported that First Lady Michelle was photographed last night in Hawaii wearing $635 per pair designer shoes by Maison Martin Margiela.

The shoe style is called “Leather open toe flat pumps.” It features a “thin nude leather strap across the top of the toe.”

Remember: Everyone must sacrifice.
The First Family feels your pain.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Feeling Your Pain… Obamas Rent $8.9 Million Hawaii Home for Holidays

The president feels your pain.
The country is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate is at a 26 year record high at 10.0%. But, that didn’t stop the Obama family from renting an $8.9 million Hawaiian mansion for the holidays.



gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Obama Baby



Obama Baby, slip some money under the tree, for me
Just take it from your stash
Obama Baby and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Obama baby, a fancy new convertible, too
Light blue
Just make some other schmuck pay
Obama Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Think of all the fun I've missed
And think of all the union bottoms
that you kissed.

2012 could be so good for you, if you check off my Christmas list
ba, boo ba boo ba doo

Obama Baby, there's one thing I really do need, for free
and that's a house of my own
Obama baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Obama Baby, I want what they've got and really that's uh, not a lot
I've been an angel all year
Obama Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Obama Cutie, fill my stockings with a duplex and checks,
Sign your "O" on the line
Obama Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
with free food, free gas and electricity.

I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me
ba boo ba boo ba doo

Obama Baby, forgot to mention one little thing
A ring
I mean a new IPhone
Obama Baby
And hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Barack Hussein Obama & Family to Skip Christmas Services

Another stunner from the Obama White House.
BHO and his family will skip Christmas services this year.
Evidently, Rev. Jeremiah G-D AmeriKKKa Wright was not holding services in the DC area tonight.

But they did put up a Christmas Tree…

…Complete with Mao Tse-Tung balls.
Canada Free Press reported:

A writer for TIME magazine reports that the president and his family are not attending Christmas services. Gee, what a surprise! Barack Hussein Obama has consistently shown his lack of understanding of the Holy Bible, his disdain for the spiritual meaning of Christmas (no Nativity crèche in the White House), and his propensity to bow to Muslim leaders.

But the fact is that NO TRUE CHRISTIAN can support abortion and the federal funding thereof. Don’t give me the “representative of the majority” nonsense. Here we sit on the precipice of the massive mountain of federal control of the health care system in America. The vast majority, liberals included, are against this thievery—yet the arrogance of Washington and the Democratic sleaze presses on in total disregard of the American public it should be serving.

The Constitution is in the shredder and has been since the new administration began moving with Blitzkrieg speed to control the sure and certain enslavement of the people through ungodly spending bills and back room deals in which Representatives and Senators have sold what little soul they might have left.

How can a politician who claims to be a Christian—Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise—truly and with clear conscience vote for federal funding of abortion? The answer is they can’t IF they truly are Christians.


gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

A Year of Obama Love

The year 2009 might be classified as the year Barack Obama came down to Earth. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that 47 percent approve of the job Obama is doing, and 46 percent disapprove. Those are not exactly Messiah numbers.

And that's the big difference between the public and the press. The media do believe he's God.

Evan Thomas of Newsweek has a way of summing it all up. On "Hardball" in June, Thomas explained that while Ronald Reagan was just a "parochial" and "provincial" president of the United States, Obama can lead the whole world. "In a way, Obama is standing above the country, above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together." After the inevitable furor, Thomas said he "wasn't being literal."

No one thought Thomas was being literal. It would suggest the people at Newsweek believe in God. But all the verbiage surrounding this quote suggested Thomas thought Obama could lead the world into a calm new era. "He's the teacher. He is going to say, 'Now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.' And he has a kind of a moral authority that he can do that."

That's obviously not true in America, where conservatives continue to fight fiercely against his socialist agenda. It's also obviously not true abroad, since the world didn't exactly surrender to Obama's "moral authority" at Copenhagen. Many Third World countries still hate America's guts, and always will.

The Thomas literary levitation act won him "The Audacity of Dopes Award" for the wackiest media analysis of the year, one of the 17 winning citations in the Best Notable Quotables of 2009, as voted by a panel of 48 expert judges from conservative journalism, academia and talk radio. Ardor for Obama dominated the entries.

The year started with an intensely passionate winter of love around Obama's inauguration. ABC's Bill Weir captured the "Coronation of the Messiah Award" when he proclaimed, "Never have so many people shivered so long with such joy. From above, even the seagulls must have been awed by the blanket of humanity."

Media liberals seemed almost sad that Obama would have to step down from the comfortable platform they built him on Mount Olympus. ABC's Terry Moran took the "Barry's Big Brain Award" for journalists bedazzled by Obama's brilliance when he asserted, "Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office. I mean, from visionary leader of a giant movement, now he's got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way."

Perhaps the media will have to just stick with celebrating his legendary coolness. "The Obamagasm Award for Seeing Coolness in Everything Obama Does" went to the fan club known as MSNBC. John Harwood of CNBC almost glowed when President Obama successfully swatted a fly right in front of him during a TV interview. "It was a, you know, Dirty Harry 'make my day' moment." As if Clint Eastwood would glare at a fly and ask if he felt lucky.

MSNBC's David Shuster all but waved pom-poms when he chimed in with "An amazing interview ... it never fails -- great weather, rainbows, incredible speeches and three-point basket. A fly and he nails it. Unbelievable. Unbelievable."

Obama wasn't the only liberal politician to receive deep bows from the media. The death of Sen. Ted Kennedy prompted The Huffington Post to publish what the judges' panel found to be the Quote of the Year.

Melissa Lafsky, the deputy Web editor of Discover magazine, revisited the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, killed when Kennedy drove his car off Dyke Bridge in 1969 and left her behind. "Mary Jo wasn't a right-wing talking point or a negative campaign slogan," Lafsky wrote. "We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history."

What did Kopechne think? Unfortunately, Lafsky attempted an answer by wondering "what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded. Who knows -- maybe she'd have thought it was worth it."

The Left's infatuation with Ted Kennedy is so complete that this journalist was actually and very seriously suggesting that perhaps Kopechne would have wanted to be killed by Kennedy if she knew how her drowning death propelled his career. Never mind the fact that had it not been for her death, he'd probably have been elected president, rendering her vision utterly illogical. Just focus on the certifiable ends-justify-means nature of this argument.

The liberal mind is a mysterious place. It's a terrible thing to watch as it wastes.

townhall.com

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

UK Press Gives Obama an “F” for His Historically Low Approval Rating

Nile Gardner at The Telegraph reported on the historically unpopular president.

The Telegraph wades into waters off limits for the American state-run media.

Barack Obama gave himself a B+ on Oprah Winfrey’s White House Christmas Special on ABC, but the American public is far less generous. The latest influential Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll of likely US voters gives Obama a thumping 56 percent disapproval rating – an F grade by any measure. 46 percent strongly disapprove of the president’s job performance, while just 25 percent strongly approve. That’s a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 percentage points, a staggering figure for a president just 11 months into his term of office.

These are historically low approval ratings for a US president, that concur with those released by several other pollsters, including NBC News/Wall Street Journal, who recently reported a 47 percent approval for Obama, and Quinnipiac and Marist, both at 46 percent.

The latest Gallup Survey gives Obama just 50 percent approval, lower than any president in the first December of his first term in the post-war period, with the exception of Ronald Reagan in 1981, at 49 percent, who inherited a country literally brought to its knees by the Carter presidency before later restoring it to greatness. Reagan eventually left office with a 68 percent approval.

At the same stage of their presidencies, George W. Bush polled at 81 percent approval, John F. Kennedy at 77 percent, George H.W. Bush at 71 percent, Dwight Eisenhower at 69 percent, Richard Nixon at 59 percent, Jimmy Carter at 57 percent, and Bill Clinton at 53 percent.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Related:

Transvestites, Mao And Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree

Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.

These photos of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room were taken just days ago. Of course, Mao has his place in the White House.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without an ornament of legendary transvestite Hedda Lettuce.

And, so soon after collecting the Nobel Peace Prize, why wouldn’t the White House have an ornament super-imposing President Obama onto Mt. Rushmore:


All around, a very Barry Christmas!

biggovernment.com


More:

White House ‘Unaware’ That Mao Ornament Adorns Christmas Tree


Beltway Christmas: Cash for corruptocrats


My column looks at the year in Washington political bribery. And what a year it was for the Beltway’s reverse Santa Clauses, who are suspended simultaneously in mental states of denial and indignation. Democrat Sen. Mary “Louisiana Purchase” Landrieu defended her payoff while declaring that she “can’t be bought.”Democrat Sen. Tom “Iowa Bounty” Harkin dismissed the hundreds of millions of taxpayer-subsidized gifts to pols in the Demcare package as “small stuff.” And don’t even get me started on the 1,720 earmarks worth more than $4 billion in the defense appropriations bill. It’s nothing new, the Dems say in their defense. And that is precisely the point, isn’t it?

Related developments: More lawmakers — hello, Rep. James Clyburn — are lining up for Ben Nelson bonanzas — while attorneys general in seven states are investigating the legality of the deal.

Of course, sometimes it’s not what’s illegal in Washington, but what’s entirely legal, that perturbs…

***

Beltway Christmas: Cash for corruptocrats
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

The Democrats are right. Sleazy bribes and pork payoffs didn’t start with their government health care takeover bill. They’ve been doling out taxpayer-funded goodies for votes all year. Harry Reid’s latest Cash for Cloture deals are the culmination of Washington’s 2009 shopping spree at our expense.

Go back to January and February. The multi-trillion-dollar stimulus bill was the Mother of All Legislative Christmas Trees. The ruling party used the economic downturn to redistribute wealth from struggling Americans to favored congressional districts, phantom districts, special interests from golf cart makers to fly-by-night beauty salons. According to a new study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Democrat districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts – without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts.

In fact, the researchers found far more stimulus money went to higher-income areas than lower-income areas.

That includes Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backyard – where a $54 million no-bid contract was awarded to a firm with little experience to relocate a luxury Bay Area wine train due to flood concerns.

And it includes Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, which reaped the single biggest earmark in the porkulus bill – $1 billion for the dubious FutureGen near-zero emissions “clean coal” plant earmark championed by disgraced Democrat and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

And it includes Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s backyard – where he secured billions in high-speed rail stimulus earmarks from which he plans to fund a pie-in-the-sky public transportation line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

When taxpayers objected to business as usual masquerading as economic recovery, New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer sneered: “You lost.” And, he jibed on the Senate floor while wagging a grabby finger, “let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don’t care.” The “American people” Schumer referred to, of course, were the privileged minority of stimulus beneficiaries – not the rest of us “chattering” dissenters stuck with the bill for those billions in “little tiny, yes, porky amendments.”

No legislation has been immune to congressional shakedown. After the Congressional Black Caucus balked loudly enough, Democrat Rep. Barney Frank – chairman of the House Financial Services Committee – larded up the majority’s Wall Street regulatory “reform” bill with $4 billion in payoffs to minority special interests – including former failed Air America radio partner Inner City Broadcasting Corp. The cash-strapped firm is run by Percy Sutton – a New York City crony of Charlie Rangel and Al Sharpton. The money will come out of the ever-morphing TARP bank bailout fund – which went from a toxic assets purchase plan to a capital injection plan, back to a toxic assets purchase plan, to a life insurance company bailout, to an auto supplier bailout.

Leading the charge for the Cash for Cronies of Color drive: California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, who had already extracted $12 million in TARP funds for OneUnited, a minority-owned bank that is one of her key campaign donors and a company in which both Waters and her husband own massive amounts of stock.

Which brings us up to Demcare, the latest wealth redistribution scheme disguised as health care reform. In addition to the infamous $300 million “Louisiana Purchase” for Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu and the (at least) $45 million “Cornhusker Kickback” for sellout Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Harry Reid threw around other, less-publicized gobs of cash for cloture votes to cut off debate and ram the bill through. He tossed in a Hospital Helper of $100 million to Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd, whose re-election bid is in hot water.

There are bennies for insurance companies and hospitals in Michigan and “Frontier freebies” for hospitals in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. There’s a New England’s Special Syrup for Vermont and Massachusetts – who will get similar (though less generous) special treatment by the feds as Nebraska in covering Medicaid expansion costs. Combined with Nebraska’s tab, the exclusive clique’s payoffs will cost at least taxpayers $1.2 billion over 10 years. There’s an ACORN/community organizer-friendly provision for minority health bureaucracies that was sought by Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris, according to John McCormack of the Weekly Standard.

And there’s a $10 billion socialized medicine sop to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for “community health clinics” serving in essence as universal health care satellite offices. “We are talking about a revolution” here, Sanders enthused during the Senate’s sneaky Sunday session. No, revolution will come when taxpayers have a chance to kick these reverse Santa Clauses posing as saviors out of office. It can’t happen a minute too soon.

michellemalkin.com

Can Obama Open His Mouth Without Lying About Health Care?

In an interview with the Washington Post today, the president challenged all of us to comb through his 2008 campaign promises on health care. Check it out:

President Obama rejected in an interview Tuesday the criticism that he has compromised too much in order to secure health-care reform legislation, challenging his critics to identify any "gap" between what he campaigned on last year and what Congress is on the verge of passing. [...]

"Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill." [...]

He said the Senate legislation accomplishes "95 percent" of what he called for during his 2008 presidential campaign and in his September speech to a joint session of Congress on the need for health-care reform. [...]

Obama said the public option "has become a source of ideological contention between the left and right." But, he added, "I didn't campaign on the public option."

OK, kids, let's go look for what he said on the campaign about health care reform! Here's a good one:

I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.

Ya OK that didn't happen. Next!

We'll allow the safe re-importation of low-cost drugs from countries like Canada.

Bzzzt! Any others?

Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices.

Negatory, at least according to this blog post (which includes several other alleged broken promises). Still feeling lucky today, punk?

Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can't find affordable coverage with a real choice.

Note: That's from Obama's campaign website. It's like he doesn't expect us to check, or something.

To sum up: The president said he "didn't campaign on the public option," but it turns out he did. He said that there wasn't any "gap" between his campaign promises and the final result, but it turns out there were several, as detectable by the most cursory Google search. He said "every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill," but it turns out they're not.

This kind of brazen bullshit may play with Ezra Klein, but I can't imagine most other Americans enjoy being lied to every day.

reason.com

Monday, December 21, 2009

“Obama’s jokers”


I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of these posters between now at 2012.

And not just in Missouri.

As I noted last night, the Demcare cloture votes prove there are no such things as “moderate Democrats.”

Bad, bad jokes.

michellemalkin.com

Barack Obama Says We Can’t Continue to Spend As if Hard-Earned Tax Dollars Were Monopoly Money

Note: President Obama said this on the same day that democrats spent $1.2 billion to bribe fellow democrats for to vote for Obamacare!

From the Man who tripled the national deficit in less than one year we get a lecture on spending…
On the same day that democrats voted for the largest expansion of government in decades.

Obama says we can’t keep spending hard-earned taxpayer money like its Monopoly money.

Can we all agree now that this man has no conscience?
TIME Mag has the transcript:

When my administration walked through the door, the country faced a growing economic downturn as well as a deepening fiscal hole. Washington had passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy (producers) and an expensive new entitlement program without paying for any of it. Health care costs continued to rise, year after year. And little effort was made to cut wasteful spending. As a result, over the previous eight years, the national debt doubled — doubled. In January, the deficit stood at $1.3 trillion. And we had to make the difficult decision to add to the deficit in the short term to prevent the potential collapse of our economy.

But as I’ve said, in the long run, we can’t continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money. That’s what we’ve seen time and time again. Washington has been more concerned about the next election than the next generation. It’s put off hard choices in spending bill after spending bill, budget after bloated budget.

By the way… Obama lied about the CBO estimate in his talk.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “The Congressional Budget Office Now Reports That This Bill Will Reduce Our Deficit By $132 Billion Over The First Decade And By As Much As $1.3 Trillion In The Decade After That.” (President Obama, Remarks, 12/21/09) “CBO Has Discovered An Error” That “Reduces The Degree To Which The Legislation Would Lower Federal Deficits”

CBO: “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Has Discovered An Error In The Cost Estimate Released On December 19, 2009, Related To The Longer-Term Effects On Direct Spending Of The Manager’s Amendment To The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Senate Amendment 2786 in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3590 (as printed in the Congressional Record on November 19, 2009). Correcting that error has no impact on the estimated effects of the legislation during the 2010–2019 period. However, the correction reduces the degree to which the legislation would lower federal deficits in the decade after 2019.” (CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, Letter To Sen. Harry Reid, 12/20/09, P. 1)

CBO: “A Detailed Year-By-Year Projection For Years Beyond 2019, Like Those That CBO Prepares For The 10-Year Budget Window, Would Not Be Meaningful Because The Uncertainties Involved Are Simply Too Great.” (CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, Letter To Sen. Harry Reid, 12/19/09, P. 15)

This news was released yesterday.
Surely the White House heard the news before Obama gave his speech.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hannity Gives Obama 3 F’s and an A+

After tripling the deficit, nearly doubling unemployment and increasing the national debt to $12 Trillion, Sean Hannity hands President Obama his report card:

Obama's Safe School’s Czar Jennings’ Org Promoted Book Detailing Gay Sex Between First Graders

Scott Baker from Breitbart-TV.com and Co-Host of ‘The B-Cast‘ submitted a shocking report to Gateway Pundit blog back on December 4, 2009. The report detailed the reading list promoted to 7-12 grade students by Kevin Jennings’ GLSEN organization. This material has not been reported in detail at Big Government website. Remember as you read this that Kevin Jennings is today the nation’s Safe Schools Czar.

—-Warning on Content—–

I was recently approached by a team of independent researchers that I have known for some time and have come to trust. They prepared this report involving ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Kevin Jennings and the organization he founded, GLSEN, and asked that I find a way to help draw attention to what they uncovered. Knowing that Gateway Pundit has followed Kevin Jennings since his appointment, as we have on The B-Cast (here, here, and here), and on Breitbart.tv (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), I felt this would be an appropriate place for this report.

Warning: The following material is very explicit.

Scott Baker

Co-Founder, Breitbart.tv

Co-Host, The B-Cast

Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was the founder, and for many years, Executive Director of an organization called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN started essentially as Jennings’ personal project and grew to become the culmination of his life’s work. And he was chosen by President Obama to be the nation’s Safe Schools Czar primarily because he had founded and led GLSEN (scroll for bio).

GLSEN’s stated mission is to empower gay youth in the schools and to stop harassment by other students. It encourages the formation of Gay Student Alliances and condemns the use of hateful words. GLSEN also strives to influence the educational curriculum to include materials which the group believes will increase tolerance of gay students and decrease bullying. To that end, GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books that it claims “furthers our mission to ensure safe schools for all students.” In other words, these are the books that GLSEN’s directors think all kids should be reading: gay kids should read them to raise their self-esteem, and straight kids should read them in order to become more aware and tolerant and stop bullying gay kids. Through GLSEN’s online ordering system, called “GLSEN BookLink,” featured prominently on their Web site, teachers can buy the books to use as required classroom assignments, or students can buy them to read on their own.

According to GLSEN’s own press releases from the period during which its recommended reading list was developed, the organization’s three areas of focus were creating “educational resources, public policy agenda, [and] student organizing programs”; in other words, the reading list (chief among its “educational resources”) was of prime importance in GLSEN’s efforts to influence the American educational system.

The list is divided into three main categories: books recommended for grades K-6; books recommended for grades 7-12; and books for teachers. (The books on the list span all genres: fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, even poetry.)

Out of curiosity to see exactly what kind of books Kevin Jennings and his organization think American students should be reading in school, our team chose a handful at random from the over 100 titles on GLSEN’s grades 7-12 list, and began reading through.

What we discovered shocked us. We were flabbergasted. Rendered speechless.

We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.

We knew that unless we carefully documented what we were reading, the public would have a hard time accepting it. Mere descriptions on our part could not convey the emotional gut reaction one gets when seeing what Kevin Jennings wants kids to read as school assignments. So we began scanning pages from each of the books, and then made exact transcriptions of the relevant passages on each page.

Today we will focus on one of GLSEN’s recommended books for 7 to 12 graders–
Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story About Growing up Gay
This book is promoted at the GLSEN website and can be purchased there.

This book covers group sex between first graders and makes it sound completely normal.

Reflections of a Rock Lobster – Page 13

(At the age of six, the author frequently performed fellatio on his fellow first-graders in the school restroom, part of a “busy homosexual childhood.”)

My sexual exploits with my neighborhood playmates continued. I lived a busy homosexual childhood, somehow managing to avoid venereal disease through all my toddler years. By first grade I was sexually active with many friends. In fact, a small group of us regularly met in the grammar school lavatory to perform fellatio on one another. A typical week’s schedule would be Aaron and Michael on Monday during lunch; Michael and Johnny on Tuesday after school; Fred and Timmy at noon Wednesday; Aaron and Timmy after school on Thursday. None of us ever got caught, but we never worried about it anyway. We all understood that what we were doing was not to be discussed freely with adults but we viewed it as a fun sort of confidential activity. None of us had any guilty feelings about it; we figured everyone did it. Why shouldn’t they?
This is just one of the books promoted by the Kevin Jennings’ GLSEN organization.
Today Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama’s Safe School Czar.

FOX News reported on Kevin Jennings support of these pornographic books on Monday.

Gay Patriot wonders how the media would handle a similar story if the president were a Republican?

And, Verum Serum has the latest on GLSEN’s comic book for kids.

There is more to come.

Related Posts:
** Breaking: Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Is Promoting Child Porn in the Classroom– Kevin Jennings and the GLSEN Reading List
** Breaking: Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Is Promoting Porn in the Classroom– Kevin Jennings and the GLSEN Reading List (Part II)
** Breaking: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s Question to 14 Year Olds: “Spit vs. Swallow?… Is it Rude?” (audio-video)
** Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Promoted “Fisting” to Children (Video)
** Fistgate II: High School Students Given “Fisting Kits” At Kevin Jennings’ GLSEN Conference (Photo)
** Fistgate III: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s “Black Book” For Kids Included Tips on Fisting & Pi$$ing on Your Partner
** Fistgate IV: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Passed Out Gay Bar Guides to Teens at GLSEN Events
** Fistgate V: Youth Fisting Instructor Claims Kevin Jennings Knew About Class Content in Advance
** Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) Calls For Removal of Dangerous School Czar Kevin Jennings (Video)
** Fistgate VII: Explosive… After Years of Silence Mass. Teacher Speaks Out About What She Saw at Fistgate (Audio)
** FOX News: Chapter & Perverse? Safe School’s Czar Hit For Promoting Sex-Explicit Books

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Greta Van Susteren on Obama: He’s a Liar



Greta Van Susteren played a number of clips tonight from the 2008 campaign where Barack Obama told supporters that he was going to hold his health care talks on CSPAN. Obviously, that never happened. After playing the video Greta looked at Karl Rove and said, “It was a lie.”

'Obamaville' sign posted near homeless camp


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Someone has put a lot of thought into a welcome sign that may surprise you, it's in front of a homeless camp off I-25 in Colorado Springs.

Its message, "Welcome to Obamaville, Colorado's fastest growing community." Despite repeated calls no one could answer the question, who put up the sign?

To some homeless the sign's message says enough. Mark Limonez, a homeless man living in "tent city", says the sign doesn't make him feel good about trying to get back on his feet. "Guys are trying to work but there's not enough work out there, so they go pan handling or flag a sign" Limonez says, "I've never seen so many camps since I've been out in the streets - there's no money."

There are no logos on the front of the sign and no clues to where it comes from.

kjct8.com

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Obama Two Month Deficit Is More Than Bush Deficit For Entire 2006 Calendar Year

The Obama Administration is already $292 billion in the red this year.
This is more than the national deficit for the entire year of 2006 ($248 billion).
Not good.

President George W. Bush never did this.


Obama tripled the national deficit his first year in office and he’s off to a record-setting start in fiscal year 2010.

Despite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, the Clinton Recession he inherited, and the 9-11 attacks, President Bush brought down the national budget deficit from 412 billion dollars in 2004 to 162 billion dollars in 2007.

On July 11, 2006, the Bush Administration announced they were revising midyear budget estimates. They changed their projections after they discovered that greater than expected tax revenues would drop the deficit below 300 billion dollars. Budget Director Rob Portman drove home the message later that day telling reporters that this latest revision was proof that the administration’s tax cuts were working.

This wasn’t a one time event. During the Bush years, despite the 2000 Recession, the attacks on 9-11, the stock market scandals, Hurricane Katrina, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration was able to reduce the budget deficit from 412 billion dollars in 2004 to 162 billion dollars in 2007, a sixty percent drop. In 2004 the federal budget deficit was 412 billion dollars. In 2005 it dropped to 318 billion dollars. In 2006 the deficit dipped to 248 billion dollars. And, in 2007 it fell below 200 billion to 162 billion dollars. During the Bush years the average unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, the economy saw the strongest productivity growth in four decades and there was robust GDP growth.

For some strange reason the state-run media ignored these latest deficit numbers this weekend.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Previously:


Obama’s October Deficit LARGER Than Bush Deficit For ENTIRE YEAR of 2007

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Promotes Child Sex Books & Praised Man-Boy Sex Leader

Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings is not exactly a child advocate.
Jennings has a record of promoting child porn books to school children and praising NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) leaders.

The sign Harry Hay carried at the 1986 L.A. Gay Pride Parade on left (Zomblog) and Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings on the right.

Yesterday, Gateway Pundit blog came under at least two cyber attacks that shut down the First Things website.
This came after the report on Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s child porn books.

Scott Baker from Breitbart-TV.com and Co-Host of ‘The B-Cast‘ submitted a shocking report to this blog on Obama’s deviant Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings.

Scott Baker reported: I was recently approached by a team of independent researchers that I have known for some time and have come to trust. They prepared this report involving ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Kevin Jennings and the organization he founded, GLSEN, and asked that I find a way to help draw attention to what they uncovered. Knowing that Gateway Pundit has followed Kevin Jennings since his appointment, as we have on The B-Cast (here, here, and here), and on Breitbart.tv (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), I felt this would be an appropriate place for this report.

The explosive report posted here and here outed Obama’s ‘Safe Schools Czar’s sickening promotion of child porn books to school children.

But, that’s not all. Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar is also on record praising the founder of NAMBLA (The North American Man/Boy Association) as one of his heroes.
Regular Folks United reported:

Jennings publicly stated that he was inspired by one of the biggest promoters of pedophilia in the country—Harry Hay. Hay actively promoted sex between men and boys and supported the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). Transcripts of a GLSEN conference in NYC on October 25, 1997 indicate that Jennings said, “one of the people that always inspired me is Harry Hay.” Jennings also edited a book called Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School and College Students which included a biographical sketch on Harry Hay. One of GLSEN’s Education Department resources also lists a work on Harry Hay.

Is this a person you’d trust with your child?
Is this the type of person Barack Obama trusts with his daughters?

There’s more to come.

Previously:

** Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings Hid Pedophilia
** Audio: Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Admits Hiding Pedophilia From Officials
** Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Expresses Regret for Not Reporting Statutory Rape
** Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Praised NAMBLA Founder, Too
** White House Blames FOX News For Their Safe Schools Czar’s Slimy Past
**Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Slams Schools For Promoting Heterosexuality
** Report: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Wrote the Foreword to a Pedophilia Book
** Bill Ayers Endorsed Same Book as Obama’s Safe Schools Czar
** Jennings Wrote That Killing Someone Who Called You Names Was “Not Aberrant Behavior”
** Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Knew Harry Hay Was a Child Perp
** Pornographic Anti-Christian Harvard Art Show Funded By Obama’s Safe Schools Czar

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Obama Ecstasy Pills Hit Streets

President Barack Obama's approval rating may be hovering in the 50 percent range, but that doesn't mean America's Commander-in-Chief isn’t catching on with new constituents.

There is now a line of Ecstasy pills made in the image of the 44th president of the United States, according to Texas police who have snatched a batch off the streets.

Ecstasy is known for a sense of elation, diminished feelings of fear and anxiety, and ability to induce a sense of intimacy with others.

Perhaps a good Election Day strategy to get out the vote?

A stash of the brightly colored tablets was found Monday during a south Texas traffic stop.

Police in Palmview detained a driver after finding black tar heroin, cocaine, marijuana and several Ecstasy pills in the back of his car.

The drugs look like a "vitamin for kids," police spokesman Lenny Sanchez said.

cbsnews.com

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Cop Killer Clemmons: President Obama and LeBron James are my brothers and Oprah Winfrey is my sister

Prosecutors were expected Wednesday to charge Darcus D. Allen, the man accused of being the getaway driver for Maurice Clemmons as he fled the scene of the shootings at coffee shop in Parkland early Sunday. Allen served time in an Arkansas prison with Clemmons.

Two women accused of giving Clemmons first aid and rides also may be charged Wednesday in Tacoma.

Three other people appeared Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court. Two brothers, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis, are charged with rendering criminal assistance. A third man, Clemmons’ half-brother Rickey Hinton, was ordered held pending charges.

Clemmons, 37, was shot to death early Tuesday by a Seattle police officer…

…Court documents say police first suspected Clemmons after finding an abandoned pickup truck registered to a business address of his. A truck matching that description was seen fleeing the ambush scene by the baristas who witnessed the start of the attack.

“The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers,” Troyer said. Investigators also reported that Clemmons told others the night before the shooting that he was going to kill police and they should watch the news, but they wrote it off as “crazy-talk.”

At the time of his arrest in Washington state earlier this year, investigators said Clemmons had visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.

He also told the officer that President Obama and LeBron James are his brothers and Oprah Winfrey is his sister, and referred to himself as “the beast,” according to court papers obtained by The News Tribune of Tacoma.

Pelosi: Our Failing Economic Policies Are Bush’s Fault

“We continue to work with all members of the caucus and with the Administration to build on the recovery package and other initiatives to help create jobs and grow our economy after years of mismanagement by the Bush administration.”

Nancy Pelosi
On the Failing Pelosi-Obama Economic Policies
December 2, 2009

That’s odd.
Barack Obama and the Pelosi Democrats have nearly doubled the US unemployment rate in less than one year.
Not even after 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, the Clinton Recession, the Iraq War, etc. did Bush come close to what the democrats managed to do in one year. And, President George Bush never did this either…
Obama tripled the national deficit his first year in office and he’s off to a record-setting start in fiscal year 2010.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com


Obama aunt anguished by separation from Barack, loves “No. 1 man” President Bush

BOSTON – President Barack Obama’s aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish over no longer having contact with him and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH’-nee awn-YAHN’-goh) told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

Onyango, the half sister of Obama’s late father, said she has exiled herself from the family after attending Obama’s inauguration because she didn’t want to become fodder for his foes. Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.

“Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all,” said Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.

The Obamas are her only family in the United States, she said.

[...]

Onyango reserved special words of kindness for former President George W. Bush for a directive he put in place days before the election requiring federal agents get high-level approval to arrest fugitive immigrants, which directly affected Onyango. The directive made clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Onyango.

She said she wants to thank Bush in person for the order, which gave her a measure of peace but was lifted weeks later.

“I loved President Bush,” Onyango said while moving toward a framed photo of Bush and his wife standing with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House on inauguration day. “He is my No. 1 man in my life because he helped me when I really needed that help.”

Full story: Yahoo! News.

nobamablog.wordpress.com

West Point Cadets Told To Applaud Obama Before Speech But Fall Asleep Instead

The West Point Cadets were told beforehand to applaud President Obama.
They should have ordered them to stay awake instead:



Via Breitbart

The Germans weren’t impressed with Obama’s strange speech last night either.
Der Spiegel reported:

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America’s new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric — and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama’s speech would be well-received.

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond “enthusiastically” to the speech. But it didn’t help: The soldiers’ reception was cool.

One didn’t have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama’s speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.

An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan — and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war — and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.

More… Almost everyone hated Obama’s speech.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com