The United States of Obama?

There is a disturbing trends in Obama’s cult of personality, a trend started as far back as his first campaign for President.  His use of the ol’ Red, White and Blue to evoke a sense patriotism along with personal logo.  Unfortunately, more and more, his campaign has felt free to adopt imagery and slogan clearly copied wholesale from many of histories failed Marxist experiments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I honestly have to wonder if he gets re-elected, if we can expect a bid to have his face on stamps and currency before the year is out.  He clearly sees himself as this visionary, the revolutionary who will right the wrongs of capitalist excesses….as his forebearers attempted to do.

Thanks, but no thanks, there B.O.

 

 

SILENCE! or I keeeeeell you!

So, apparently, under the Obama Administration, it’s more important to placate xenophobic islamicist temper tantrums than the defend one of the foundational tenets of our political system and way of life known as “free speech.”

Can we impeach him NOW?!?!

WHY do you MAKE me DO this?!

Is it just me, or does the political rhetoric and milquetoast responses we seem to be getting out of the current administration in response to current events unfolding in the Middle East seem almost like the responses of a battered spouse?  An angry mob storms our embassy and desecrates our flag, and our embassador apologizes?

I can’t help but picture some drunk, ill-bred mouth breather in a sweat stained t-shirt who rolls in after a particularly bad bender and just lays into his poor wife, beating her and throwing her around.  “WHY do you MAKE me DO this?!” he screams, with blow after blow.  “You JUST. DON’T. LISTEN!!!!”

She cowers in a corner, covering her face, and sobs out, “I know, I know.  I’m sorry. It’s my fault.  I’ll try harder. I promise!  Just…please…don’t hit me again.”

Time and again radical islamic terrorists attack our people, our facilities, our country’s honor, and “we” opt for a “measured response.”  We don’t want to make them angry.  We strike a conciliatory tone, hoping to “defuse” the tension and forestall another confrontation.

Which only ensures that there WILL be another confrontation, because, really, what’s to stop them? Time and again we prove that we won’t fight back, that we won’t respond with the kind of overwhelming, crushing force which would actually serve as a deterrent.

In other words, we act like a victim.  Hoping to placate our attackers so they won’t hurt us.  Or at least, won’t hurt us as often, maybe.  Or, you know, as bad.  If we just make sure to say the right things, to do the right things, to make sure we make his dinner just like he likes it, and don’t dare talk to him during his football game, because we know how angry he gets when we forget our place.

Me, on the other hand, I’m thinking it’s time for a little “Burning Bed” action instead.

The always engaging Sobek has a brilliant post up over at Innocent Bystanders that pretty much says it all.  Highly recommended reading!

The Oppulent Lifestyles of the 1%

Michelle’s ski trip marks 16 Obama vacations (costing millions of dollars)

You know, I think we’re all grown-ups here, and I don’t think any of us begrudge the leader of the free world and his family a little time off now and then.  I’m even willing to suggest that, despite our rough-n-tumble anti-aristocratic roots, we are more than willing to allow the Commander In Chief to engage in a certain amount of pomp and ceremony as part of the Presidential milieu.

The problem comes when you have a man so completely devoted to fomenting class warfare, so completely dedicated to painting the current socio-political/economic environment as a case of ”Us v. Them”, clearly painting himself with an “Us” colored brush, who then turns around and flagrantly engages in such oppulent self-indulgence.  There’s taking some well-deserved time off (time which fewer and fewer of us can afford to take these days), and then there’s soaking the US Taxpayer for millions of dollars to support your whimsical flights of fancy for you and 24 of your family and friends on a junket to Rio, or Hawaii, or Indonesia or Vail or…shall I continue?

You can’t point to G.W. Bush and say, “Yes, but HE did it too, and worse!” if you ran on a platform of being everything Bush wasn’t, and not being everything he WAS.  If Obama made his case to the American people as being their advocate, by promising to “Change” all the selfish, destructive and wastefully expensive things G.W. is supposed to have done, then HOW does B.O. justify the lavish, jet-setting lifestyle he and his family are maintaining?

He doesn’t justify it.  Because he doesn’t think he needs to.  He thinks he’s entitled to it because he’s the President, and the “Magical Negro” who can be both the voice of the downtrodden minority AND the darling of the gilded Hollywood millionaires, all with no appearance of contradiction or cognitive dissonance.  Why? Just because, that’s why.  And don’t ask me again. Hater.

There is a strange sort of fugue or delirium which seems to have dropped across the eyes of so many of America’s voters, who seem fundamentally unable to ascribe anything but the noblest of intentions to Mr. Obama, forgiving any misstep or mistake, chuckling with a smirkish disregard and a dismissive, “Oh that silly thing?  Pshaa.  He gave us Health Care, didn’t he?!”  This guy is more President Teflon than Bill Clinton was.

Even as we head into the meat of the 2012 election season, there is almost no talk of any Democrat trying to run against him.  He’s the presumptive nominee, who apparently still enjoys the annointing  of the media and political elites who can envision nothing more ideal than four more years of his regal beneficence and royal patronage.  Despite all the actual evidence of policies and conduct bordering on malfeasance, Obama still seems surrounded by this glimmering shield which protects him from any criticism, stigma, or potential responsibility for the calamaties he is surely bringing about. 

Pres. Obama is quoted as saying, “I think at some point, you’ve made enough money.”  Well perhaps, Mr. President, we should amend this to say, “I think at some point, you’ve gone on enough vacations.”

Or, you know, fundraisers sandwiched conviently between a couple of meet-and-greets so that he can justify using taxpayer funds to support his campaining, in likely violation of campaign finance laws. 

But hey.  It’s good to be King.

If this doesn’t bother you, you’re not paying attention.

Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was signed by Obama on October 1 2011, yet is currently the subject of a White House petition demanding Senators be forced to ratify the treaty. The White House has circumvented the necessity to have the treaty confirmed by lawmakers by presenting it an as “executive agreement,” although legal scholars have highlighted the dubious nature of this characterization.

Under the provisions of ACTA, copyright holders will be granted sweeping direct powers to demand ISPs remove material from the Internet on a whim. Whereas ISPs normally are only forced to remove content after a court order, all legal oversight will be abolished, a precedent that will apply globally, rendering the treaty worse in its potential scope for abuse than SOPA or PIPA.

Once again, Pres. Obama demonstrates his hostility to Congress, the concept of Separation of Powers, and the personal liberties we in this country have, until now, assumed were inviolate.

A Poor Mechanic Blames His Tools

So say, for example, that you take your car to a mechanic.  The car’s not running all that great, and you’d like to get it a tune-up.  Your mechanic takes on the job, and promises you that your trusty automobile will soon be running better than ever before.

You pick the car up later that day, and drive off, expecting great things.  Funny though, something isn’t quite right.  Now it’s got a clank and a shimmy it didn’t have before.  So you take it back the next day to have it looked at again.

Noooo problem, insists the mechanic.  We just need a little more time with it.  Soon it’ll be like new.  You’re somewhat skeptical, but the mechanic seems confident, competent, so you entrust your family wagon to him one more time.

Later you pick up your vehicle, accompanied by the smiles and assurances of the maintenance staff that all is well.  You drive off with a renewed sense of confidence and optimism.

Funny though, now not ONLY does it have a clank, and a shimmy, but the radio doesn’t work and it stalls at stop lights.  You’re a bit miffed, and limp it back to the dealership to demand that the mechanic set things aright.

The mechanic clucks and sighs, and shakes his head, and informs you that you just have to be patient with him.  These things are complicated, they take time.  It might even appear to get worse before it gets better, but really, he’s the mechanic and you’re just the driver, so you need to trust that he’s doing what’s best for you.

Properly humbled, you entrust your sole mode of transportation to this august, if slightly condescending professional and hope for the best.  Later, you pick your car back up, and the mechanic’s beaming smile assures you that all will be right, no really, this time he means it. 

But, as you go to pull out of the parking lot, the muffler falls off, the tires blow out, and the engine catches fire.  You bail out of the burning wreck of what was once a perfectly serviceable automobile, and storm up to demand an accounting from the so-called “mechanic” who trashed your car.

It’s not my fault, he insists.  As a matter a fact, it was the old mechanic you had that caused all the problems.  There was too much wrong with it to fix in the time you gave me.  You should blame him, not me.  As a matter of fact, wouldn’t it be better if you just rode the bus?

Now, at some point in this scenario, wouldn’t you figure out that this so-called mechanic had no real idea what he was doing, had no idea how to actually fix your car, and was really just pretending to repair things in order to soak you for the cash you kept paying him to “fix” these problems, many of which HE HIMSELF CAUSED?!

That said, WHY, oh WHY do we keep looking to Pres. Obama and his administration to somehow “fix” the economy?  Every time he’s tried, he’s given us back something worse that what we started with.  Why do we overlook behavior in a President that we wouldn’t stand for in a mechanic?

We really, really, REALLY need to find a new pit crew.

Obama “willing to work” with Congress. Mostly. Ish.

White House: When Congress Won’t Cooperate, Obama Will Take ‘Small, Medium and Large’ Executive Actions

Carney said the president wants to work with Congress, but if the House and Senate don’t, Obama will.

“He’s going to take the actions that he can take using his executive authority to help the cause here, to help Americans deal with this challenging economy. And they can be small, medium or large actions and they don’t have to be just executive authority actions,” Carney continued. “They can be things we can do working with the private sector. So he’ll pursue all tracks.”

Carney added the president still would like to work with Congress (emphasis mine).

 “But it is not accurate to suggest that he doesn’t want to engage with Congress and that he won’t engage with Congress,” Carney said. “He wants to continue to work with Congress. He and his advisors believe there will be opportunities to cooperate with Congress this year. We believe, as a purely political matter, that some members of Congress that have pursued an obstructionist path may begin to see it in their political interest to actually demonstrate to their constituents that they can get some things done.”

To me, the two bolded passages reflect a strange perception on the part of our current President that working “with” the Senate and the House of Representatives is somehow optional.  That it’s sort of the preferred method, but by no means the only method of getting legislation passed and implementing national, federal policy in this country.

In other words, Congress has relevance only as long as the Emperor deigns to give it such.  If it gets in his way, gets inconvenient, slows down his agenda, well then it’s time to shoulder the thing aside and get down to the real business of running this country the way HE thinks it oughta.

Folks, anywhere else, that’s called either a monarchy, or a dictatorship.  And for all their talk about George Bush and his “imperial” presidency, I see President Obama showing a much more overt, fundamental, and arrogant disregard for the rule of law and the concept of separation of powers than any previous member of the White House.

Congress is explicity empowered and mandated BY THE CONSTITUTION as the body which make the laws in our country.  NOT THE PRESIDENT.  If the President is only willing to work with the Congress when they are doing what he wants, then they are no longer “of the people, by the people, for the people,” but rather, merely the steno pool for the CEO.

Scary, scary stuff.

via Protein Wisdom.

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Well, I sorta “missed” the Fourth of July this year.  It just doesn’t have the same verve when you are living in a foreign country.  Folks here in Germany do New Years better than the Chinese by far, but the Fourth of July just doesn’t seem to be on their radar for some reason.  So, we had a bar-b-cue, drank American Beer, and called it good.

I’ve spent today kinda cruising through my blogroll, and reading everybody else’s FOJ posts.  The one that really struck home to me was Michelle Malkin’s.  She put the text of the Declaration of Independence out there, and encouraged, nay, even demanded that people read it.  It made me realize how long it’s been since I actually read it myself.  And it got me to thinking.

Can you imagine if someone published this text today?

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government

Look at it. Look at it in light of the DHS report on “right wing extremism” and the almost formally-sanctioned modern view that supporting States rights or a limited and constrained form of government qualifies as subversion bordering on domestic terrorism.

Our Founding Fathers UNDERSTOOD the dangers of a large and corpulent government populated by an entrenched ruling class severely removed from the experience of the common man.   A system into which our once noble Experiment has unfortunately devolved in modern times.  It is almost as if we have come full circle.  And yet, what now is our recourse?  Where I to publish a text simliar to the Declaration of Independence, and call it my “manifesto,” I would undoubtedly be placed on numerous watch lists as a fringe extremist!

Our Founding Fathers put into place mechanisms whereby the PEOPLE — you, me, us — could take direct and effective steps to curb the abuses of an entrenched, nepotistic ruling body that had become unaccountable to the electorate.  Measures designed to PREVENT the need for violence.

We. Are.Not. Using. Them!

Impeachment. Recall Elections. Notices of Censure.   I propose that “term limits” were assumed to be self-evident to the framers of our Constitution.  The idea that one man (or woman) would remain as his or her state’s representative for 10, 15, 20 years would have likely seemed not only ridiculous, but dangerously counter-intuitive. 

Our Framer’s wanted no kings, no dukes or earls, and no kingdoms or feifdoms.  Our modern view seems to have shifted to the point where we see ourselves serving at the mercy of Congress and the President, not them serving at OUR discretion!

We are losing our independence.  It is not being taken by force, but rather, lost through inaction, lethargy, and simple ignorant confusion. 

If our government has ceased to meet our needs, if our elected representatives have ceased to represent our interests, then WE, The People, need to take the legal, Constitutionally MANDATED actions to correct the situation.  We need to rise up from our morose, incontinent stupidity and begin kicking people out of office!  Don’t just wait for the next election, can them NOW.  Impeach judges who legislate from the bench, and who reinterpret the clear meanings of our Constitution in any other context than that intended by the Framers!

Our country was founded as a loose confederation of independent and in many ways autonomous states, with the Federal government being intended to provide only those things the states themselves could not.  Having the Federal Government dictate policy at the state level, to include what may or may not be on a state seal, or what may or may not hang on the wall of the state capitol or Supreme Court, is a VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

To whit, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution:

Amendment 10: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Federal Government has ONLY those powers specifically granted it by the Constitution. EVERYTHING ELSE is meant to be handled at the state level!  The EXPECTATION is that people are the best judges of what is for their “general welfare,” not a bushel of overpaid career bureacrats with a vested interest in preserving their own power.

Remember:  Our country is not a democracy.  Pure democracy is actually antithetical to our system of government! We are a Representative Republic, which is at best a “democracy by proxy.”  We trust our representative to defend and stand for our states’ interests in the national Congress, to include preventing undue federal interference in matters of state government.  This is quite simply no longer happening in most instances.

So, this Fourth, rather than waxing poetic about a bid for independence 233 years ago, I suggest we would be better served focusing on how our liberties and independence are being threatened today.

As Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787:

Q: “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

A:  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Benjamin Franklin seems to have known the dangers of the new system, dangers we seem to have forgotten.  They had best be remembered, or we will lose that for which so many have paid so dearly.

How much is a trillion dollars? – Updated

If you haven’t seen it already, the UK Sun does a great job of breaking down how much actual money is a “trillion” dollars:

72 years to print a trillion dollars

The US Bureau Of Engraving And Printing produces 38million notes a day, so printing one trillion new notes from scratch and working seven days a week would take just over 72 years.

If the world’s leaders spent the one trillion dollars at the rate of a dollar a second, they would still be spending it in 31,689 years. On the other hand, if they want to get through it all within ten years, they would need to spend 3,169 dollars a second.

It also costs 6.4 cents to print each note – so it’s a good job the massive sum will be passed on electronically.

Otherwise there would be a 64billion dollar black hole in the leaders’ historic bailout package, which would rather defeat the point.

Pretty disturbing, all in all.  How many tons of paper, gallons of ink?  In a way it’s too bad that most of these transactions take place electronically.  If Obama had to print it all off, the environmentalists never would have let the thing pass.  It would have killed too many trees!

UPDATE:

A trillion dollars in $1 bills would weigh approximately 1.1 Million TONS!

A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier weighs in at around 97 thousand tons.

So, doing the math, $1 Trillion dollars in $1 dollar bills would weigh more than 11 aircraft carriers!

Keep in mind that Obama’s Spendulous deficit is forecast to be as much as 7 TRILLION or higher.  So, 77 aircraft carriers stacked up.

That’s a helluva lot of money.

Or, how about this:

If we figure that 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees, and figuring that since money is printed on some pretty high-end paper that this is probably a fair equivalent, that means that, printing off 1 trillion dollars in $1 dollar bills would require 26,400,000 trees!

Agenda 21: The Birth Parent of Cap and Trade

 Well, since the ”Cap-n-Trade” Bill, code named H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, aka the Waxman-Markey contribution to national decline has passed into law, thanks quite literally to the eight Republicans who voted for it, Republicans who it will be shown, I’m sure, to have some sort of financial interest to gain, I thought it my duty to sully the shiny venier of this thing a bit by giving you some of the background of the philosophy behind this movement.

It’s called “Agenda 21.” As early as 1992, the UN passed a resolution called the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.  This was the framework around which the much more detailed and ambitious “Agenda 21” was constructed.  Though it is the form of an “advisory” resolution, bearing no legal weight with non-signatories, its content and verbiage are clearly reflected in a great deal of the “green” legislation still being forced on American citizens over 15 years later.

Below are some of the “Principles” of the Agenda in which I think you might be interested (all emphasis mine):

Principle 2

    States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, {{and here’s the “but”}}and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or ontrol do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Which can, of course, be taken to mean almost anything, because under current definitions, any “greenhouse gas” emissions affect global climate, and so anything you “emit” affects “other states.  So this clause is in effect, self-nullifying.  You can can do whatever you want as a nation, as long as you can guarantee that your pollution won’t cross national boundaries. Right.

Principle 5

    All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world.

Because the “disparities” in standard of living are somehow “unfair.”  What this fails to consider is that one absolutely essential elements of eradicating poverty is dragging people kicking and screaming into the 21st century, not returning us to the stone age through misguided and counterproductive environmental do-goodedness!  You notice it says, “decrease the disparities.”  I doesn’t mention which direction you should move to close the gap!  Make the poor rich by making the rich poorer, and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle.  Doesn’t this sound like Obama’s “spread the wealth around” idea? Gee, I wonder where he got it?

Principle 13

States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage.

Look at that for a sec.  We are encouraged/required to codify into national law procedures for compensating “victims of pollution.”  How delightfully vague!  So now we move beyong hate crimes, to environmental crimes.  Or maybe that’s now redundant, eh?

Principle 15

    In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities.  Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

BINGO!  Lack of scientific certainty shouldn’t stand in the way of passing a whole boatload of environmental policies designed not so much to save the environment, as to generate cash for social programs and politicial agenda setting.  Is this sounding oh so vaguely familiar, when our POTUS appoints an “environmental” czar with no scientific training, but lots of financial experience?  With the “global warming” scare being debunked by more and more of the scientific community, and yet still being ramrodded into law by a compliant legislative branch?

Principle 21

    The creativity, ideals and courage of the youth of the world should be mobilized to forge a global partnership in order to achieve sustainable development and ensure a better future for all.

AmeriCorps anyone?  Mandatory service in exchange for tuition?  This ringing any bells?

Here’s a nice one:

4.22. They should also encourage the emergence of an informed consumer public and assist individuals and households to make environmentally informed choices by:

 (a) Providing information on the consequences of consumption choices and behaviour so as to encourage demand for environmentally sound products and use of products;

 (b) Making consumers aware of the health and environmental impact of products, through such means as consumer legislation and environmental labelling;

Think about how everything you hear these days is about “being green.”  It’s green construction, and green products, and green this and green that.   It’s not merely a reflection of a growing social consciousness about these issues, it is a carefully managed and orchestrated campaign to INSTILL this “consciousness” in society.  What, don’t you care about the environment?  Well, then, give up phosphates in your dishwashing detergent, hater!

In short, we are being brainwashed.  According to a plan, and a schedule.

The clincher is right here in paragragh 4.25, labelled “Moving towards environmentally sound pricing.”  And I quote:

4.25. Some progress has begun in the use of appropriate economic instruments to influence consumer behaviour. These instruments include environmental charges and taxes, deposit/refund systems, etc. This process should be encouraged in the light of country-specific conditions.

Cap & Trade, as billed and promised, is a mechanism whereby we force consumers to consume less by imposing “environmental charges & taxes” on both products and the means of production.  Obama wasn’t kidding around when he said, quite clearly, that he intended to destroy coal-based electricity in this country.  Captain Trade is certainly powerful enough to do it!

You owe it to yourself to read up on Agenda 21, and the other UN-”mandated” programs that are behind all this green mania.  If it doesn’t shock you, then you are one of “them.”

Bill Clinton tried to push through the Kyoto Protocol, but Congress was at least semi-conscious enough at the time to see what a nightmare that thing would have been economically for our country.  Now Pres. Obama has managed to push through the Waxman Cap & Trade nightmare, which will accomplish much the same thing.

If your realize nothing else from this post, realize that all that is being promoted under the auspices of “enviromentalism” has, at its core, the goal of compliance with global mandates designed to bring us more and more under the authority of organizations like the UN. 

Locally, as in, in this country, it’s also about using a mechanism against which they’ve already made it hard to argue, and nearly impossible to oppose, in order to generate new revenue streams for funding socialist welfare programs like the “health care plan” and all the other things rolled up in the stiumulous packages.

You were wondering how they were going to pay for all that?  Here ya go.

These people care far less about preserveing the environment than they do about getting their hands on your money.  What little they will leave you.

THIS IS NOT ACCIDENTAL.  This is a premeditated, long-running agenda.   And it is Euro-style marxist dialectic to its core.

To sum up:  It is the stated intention of the marxist environmental movement which is slowly ruining this country to pass legislation and impose fees and fines to the point where goods and services become so expensive that you are forced to use less.  The money made from all these extortion schemes will then be funnelled to the “poor” countries via mechanisms such as, you guessed it, the United Nations…the very organization pushing these agendas.  A rather suspicious conflict of interest, wouldn’t you say?

And all those companies poised to make millions trading in carbon offsets.