Goodbye 2009

With the ending of 2009 in a few days, we will see the end of year one of the age of Obama. While the first year was not an unmitigated disaster, I think it best described as a mitigated disaster. Here's what we got: 1) A stimulus bill that did not stimulate, but rather made payoffs to favored Obamacrat groups and wasted precious federal assets. 2) A healthcare "reform bill" that does not accomplish any of Obama's main objectives but still cost trillions of dollars and sets up 29 new federal agencies to control or monitor the health system with little or no benefit for the American people. Oh, and a bill that got passed despite heavy opposition from the American people themselves. 3) A House passed cap and trade bill that would cripple the economy to deal with a problem which may or may not be real. Anthropomorphic global warming may be a creature of phony science if the hacked e-mails from East Anglia are to be believed. Instead of having the courage to organize an immediate transparent review of the underlying science by the federal govenment, Obama played the ostrich and put his head in the sand. 4) A foreign policy long on apology and short on accomplishments. Probably the biggest accomplishment in the sphere of foreign policy in 2009 is that we are not yet in another war. 5) In Afghanistan, a dithering president who decides on his policy in March and orders an action plan to carry it out, only to rethink the objective for months and months once that plan is presented to him. Resolute? I think not. 6) In the War on Terrorism (sorry, but I still call it that), a purported leader who wants to ignore it and go back to the very unsuccessful methods used by Clinton. It is just a law enforcement matter, even if that leaves the country much less safe than before. And finally 7) a man who is so certain of his infallibility, that every time (and there were many) that bad news came forward in 2009, Obama managed to try to blame George W Bush for it. To say the least, it is getting a old. I doubt that the American people even hear it much anymore. Obama has managed to take his persona, probably his greatest asset, and transform himself from a smart, insightful, reasonable centrist who is beyond partisanship (remember "there are no red states or blue states on the United States?") and turn himself into an old fashioned ward politician who sees every problem as the fault of the other side. One who will not even speak to the opposition to see if they have any ideas worth using. One who will never say I accept responsibility for this event. One who will never use the truth whena lie would be more convenient for his narritive.

So, although none of items 1-7 are good, at least 2 and 3 have not yet passed and we are still here. Let's hope 2010 will be better. I feel reasonably confident that the high point will be in November, but time will tell.

No, but they could run the Health care system

The news that a known terrorist was allowed on a flight to Detroit with a bomb strapped to his leg (thankfully one that did not work) is a wake up call to those who believe in the ability of the federal government to manage things. Clearly, a man who boarded the flight under his own name and who was on a terrorist watch list should not have been allowed to gain access, or, at least, he should have been thoroughly searched so that the bomb would have been uncovered. Instead, he just seems to have fallen through the cracks. The fact that the bomb maker was sufficiently inept so that there was no harm to anyone other than the terrorist himself from the blast (or the fizzle) of the explosive, does not mitigate the threat revealed when the airport security failed in its basic task. Had the bomber succeeded, there would have been hundreds killed (maybe thousands depending upon where the plane crashed.)

Right now, the same people who cannot control something as simple as a list of terrorists are angling to take over one-sixth of the US economy which is the healthcare system. When they prove themselves unable to control healthcare, there may be thousands dead. What will it take for the Obamacrats to realize that the government is just not up to this task?

Health care passes the senate

I could not let today's "historic" vote in the Senate go without comment. first, isn't it strange that every time the Obamacrats pass something it gets called historic? Obama's presidency was historic. His Nobel peace prize was historic (or more aptly hysterical). The stimulus bill was historic. The cap and trade bill in the House was historic. You get the picture. In the media, however, unemployment is not historic; rather, it is the highest since 19__ -- and you fill in the blank just to show that it is not all that bad. The fraud by the global warming "scientists" was not historic, it was just normal science. The tea party movement was not historic as the first broad based political movement to spring up spontaneously in this country since the 1960's anti-war movement. No, the tea party goers were dangerous bigots motivated by racism and ... Again, you get the picture. I think it is time for the media to retire the word "historic". Otherwise, it will come to mean nothing.

Second, I find it disgusting that the bill passed on a party line vote. It tells me that the goal of the legislation was not to do something good for the country. Instead, the bill is designed to help the Obamacrats. It cannot be that 60 Obamacrats disagree with 40 Republicans completely on the issues here. Every other major new program in history has been passed with some support from both parties, usually a large amount of such support. Every other program like this has been passed with a great deal of public support. there has never been a program passed with unanimous opposition from the minority party and a large majority of the American people opposing the bill as well. Maybe that is why the bill is historic.

One thing is certain. The Obamacrats have shown that they do not care what the American people think. Nor do they care what is good for the country. Nor do they have principles upon which they rely -- after all, look at all the so-called moderates who sold out for a few pieces of silver. I hasten to add that Joe Lieberman, at least, did hold out for changes in policy positions. He did not oppose the bill for personal gain like Ben Nelson or Blanche Lincoln (not to mention Mary Landrieu). Still, the overarching description of the Obamacrats must now be greedy, uncaring, unpatriotic and self absorbed. And the good thing is that the American people have been there to see this truth become self evident.

If the country is lucky, this will be the end of Democrats in power for many decades to come. Who knows, maybe the Whig party will make a comeback.

Sliding lower and lower

President Obama's poll number hit a new low in the daily Rasmussen job approval poll today both in total numbers and among those who either strongly approve or strongly disapprove. The difference between strong approval and strong disapproval is now -21%. this is much higher than it has ever been. I suppose that the medical hope and change is not proving so popular among the American voters. Overall, Obama's approval numbers are now at 44% approval and 56% disapproval. These numbers are nowhere near the lows achieved by George Bush, but they are still disasterously low for a President. If these numbers do not change much, Obama's days as a political force will soon come to an end.

The amazing thing is that no one on the Obamacrat side seems to understand what is happening. The Obamacrats think that words alone will change things. They are stuck in permanent campaign mode. After all, during the campaign, Obama moved people with his speeches. Now, however, he is president and actually has to perform. This is where his problem comes in. He still gives a nice speech, but he is in danger of being totally blotted out by the public. Why listen to yet another Obama speech when he still does nothing good? Why care what obama says when more and more people are unemployed. Didn't he promise an 8% maximum for unemployment if only the emergency stimulus bill were passed? The administration cannot even spend the stimullus money or--even worse--keep track of the portion that has been spent. And unemployment remains over 10%.

No one knows what 2010 will bring. The truth, however, is that unless there is a marked change in direction in the actions of the administration, not just the words of the persident, 2010 will surely bring big gains for the GOP.

Himes is a deficit hawk

The vote on the new so-called jobs bill that the House passed this week was remarkable in that it included a no vote by congressman Jim Himes. Apparently Himes was one of those new Congressmen who were allowed to vote no in the hope that they could use the vote to help keep their seats. Of course, the bill still passed by a close margin. The bogus claim that shovel ready projects would create jobs was trotted out even though about three quarters of the money for shovel ready projects under the first stimulus bill remains unspent. In truth, the bill is really a payoff to the teachers' unions so that teachers will not have to share in the current economic downturn through cutbacks or layoffs.

Himes must be a moron if he thinks that the district will fall for this ploy. First he voted for the main stimulus bill. Then he voted for cap and trade. Then he voted for the monstrosity of a healthcare bill that passed the House. He also voted for all the spending that has pushed the deficit to record highs and then he voted to raise the debt ceiling to accomodate the news profligate spending. Suddenly, he votes against a payoff to the teachers' unions and he is a deficit hawk. Himes should know this: he already lost reelection in 2010. This is too little too late.

Shovel ready jobs -- what are the shovels for?

Last night the House of Representatives approved a bill for $155 billion in additional funding that was described as being for shovel ready jobs and also funding for states and localities to prevent the layoffs of teachers and other public workers. I think that the shovels are for the BS. Remember the stimulus package and all the shovel ready jobs that were supposed to be funded? Well we have yet to see even half of that money get spent. There were not enough shovel ready jobs to get funded under that law. So now the house passes a bill to help the teachers union avoid necessary pay cuts and streamlining of school budgets and they trot out the claim once again that it is for shovel ready jobs. It is hard to imagine that anyone in Washington believes the US public to be so stupid that they will not understand what is happening. Indeed, the fact that they passed this payoff at a time when it will get minimum coverage in the news cycle shows that Pelosi and her cronies actually do understand that the more people hear of this bill the less they will like it.

It will be fun to see how Obamacrats in the Senate spin this pile of garbage. I am sure it will be a "compassionate" payoff. I am also sure that bills like this will play well with the Obamacrats new concentration on "deficit reduction". The Obamacrats spending to control the deficit reminds me of the old Vietnam era adage that it is like screwing for virginity.

Health care or utter Nonsense

As I am writing this, there is a supposed compromise in the Senate that will allow a bill with no public option or medicare buy-in to pass with the required 60 votes. Of course, there was a supposed compromise with the medicare buy-in as part of the legislation that Harry Reid announced would pass just days ago. That fell apart quickly. Senator Burris of Illinois has now announced that he will not vote for a bill that does not accomplish the ends of the public option. Indeed, it seems that the next likely thing will be Chris Dodd announcing that he will not vote for the bill unless Obama arranges a new mortgage for Dodd for a 30 year fixed rate of 1% or lower. And with all of the brouhaha on Capitol Hill, the only clear losers are the legislative process and the American people. Why clear losers? Because as of this moment no one other than maybe Harry Reid knows what is in the bill. We are watching the spectacle of United States Senators signing on to pass a bill whose contents are unknown to them. The process is once again revealed to be basically nothing but BS, like the commitment to transparency made by Obama. And we get a bill that is not thought out, but rather one that is just passed so that they can say they did something.

Isn't it time that the American people elected folks to the Senate who took their jobs seriously? This is not some club that exists for photo ops and public relations. These people are supposed to make the hard choices after studying the problems and weighing the alternatives.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am no fan of the Obamacrats. Two months ago I would be hard pressed to think of a reason to like them less than I did then. Amazingly, their conduct with regard to health care has managed to lower my opinon of them. These are incompetant fools. Unfortunately, we gave them the power to do great damage to the country.

An incredible switch

Today's Rasmussen poll on Obama's job performance contains a really amazing result. Every day since Obama became president, Rasmussen has run a tracking poll regarding the public's perception of Obama's Job approval. On his first day in office, Mr. O had 44% of the public who rated his performance as excellant and 16% who said it was poor. These are the strong partisans. Today, these numbers have switched so that 42% now rate his performance as poor and only 23% rate his performance as excellant.

These numbers are important since they show the people who are most fired up about the president and therefore those who are most likely to vote in the elections in 2010. They are amazing numbers sinced there are more than 23% of the people who would normally be considered Democrats. Indeed, the 23% figure means that a large group of Dems no longer give Obama an excellant rating, an ominous sign for the party in 2010.

Obviously, a one day result means next to nothing for the results next November. It is important to remember, however, that trends begin with a single day.

what a difference a year makes

Last year at this time, the Obamacrats were on top of the world and the media was writing the obituary of the GOP. Conservatism was dead, or so we were told. The country wanted big government and was willing to pay for them -- or so we were told. The Republicans were just a regional permanenet minority party that would waste away as demographic trends moved against them.

Now just one year later, everything has reversed. The GOP won big in last November's elections. The wins were not just in the the Southern regional base announced by the media, but also in places like New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania that the GOP has permanently lost - or so we were told. The current polls show the likelihood of major Republican gains in November. True, these gains are nearly all in the Southern regional base announced by the media: those Obamacrats in biggest danger of losing come from Dixie states like Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Illinois, Nevada and North Dakota. Oh wait! These are not southern states. Maybe they are planning to move.

The point is that the Obamacrats have overinterpreted their mandate. What they won was a mandate for not beinig George Bush. It was not a vote for big government. It was not a vote for national healthcare. It was not a vote for new taxes to fight the possibility that man is causing global warming. Indeed, it was a vote to get someone who would focus on getting the economy back on track and lowering unemployment.

What the Obamacrats have done is to throw away their political capital on issues that most people do not care about. Obama has managed to look weak, act weak, and even hurt himself in foreign affairs when he does the right thing. The apology tours have not helped here at home or with those abroad. The failures to support the protesters in Iran or the democrats in Honduras have also hurt, just like the idiocy of injecting the settlement issue into the Arab Israeli peace process (sorry to use the wrods Arab-israeli and peace proces in the same sentence. The decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, while correct in my opinion, was accompanied by confusion as to the end date of the commitment and by a major show of dithering for months on what to do. The answer was easy to reach; yet, Obama took over 100 days to come to the only logical conclusion.

At home, Obama has manged to mess up the things he touched and really mess up the things he tried. Thus, he let Pelosi and friends write a stimulus bill that he very little stimulus in it. Then he tried to sell the bill by promising that it would keep unemployment under 8% with a great focus on shovel ready projects, etc. In truth, the only shovel needed for the stimulus bill was the one to shovel away the BS that came out in support of its passage. As a result, the US has spent nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars in support of various Obamacrat interest groups and unemployment broke through 10%. Indeed, last month Obama hailed the decline in the rate to 10% even though the decline was due not to more jobs (the was a net reduction in jobs) but rather to more people just leaving the workforce for good since there were no jobs available.

Cap and trade is another issue where Obama has made a mess. Again, Obama did not write the bill but left it to Congressmen like the wacky Waxman to decide what the bill should contain. Obama's failure to lead on this issue let the bill become another christmas tree of nonsensical plans to reduce greenhouse gases by things like farm subsidies and low income housing. If the conection to global warming is not apparent, that is because there is no connection. Now, with the discovery that the science behing the theory that man-made global warming exists may have been phony, obama has not wavered for a moment. Imagine if he had come forward and announced a US effort to put together the true climate data. Instead he responded in the way that would make the ever green (for the money he is scamming) Al Gore proud. Obama simply ignored the whole controversy.

Then there are Obama's strong commitments like ending don't ask don't tell, closing Gitmo, etc. Those have not gone as planned.

Finally, there is healthcare. Obama and his cronies are still pushing ahead with a plan which changes daily. The public opposes the effort according to the poll data, but that makes no difference to the Great Barack.

My guess is that the obamacrats have signed there own death warrants. come next November the GOP will be truly regional, but the region will be the entire USA. I still think that it is too much to ask for the GOP to take back Congress, but the days of unbridled Obamacrat power will be over.

Senate votes down anti abortion language

The Senate vote to kill the amendment offered by Senator Nelson of Nebraska which would continue the ban of federal funding for abortions may be the last straw in the debate of the healthcare bill. Nelson has said he will not support hte bill without the antiabortion language. Of course, he is hedging a bit now that he has lost. Still, if he is true to his word and opposes the bill, nothing can pass without one of the Maine Republican senators. That means there cannot be a public option in the bill. It also means that the supposed compromise to pass the bill with no public option but with a big increase in the coverage of medicare and medicaid also will not pass. there may be some increase in medicare coverage, maybe to age 60, but that is about it. I guess that the goal is to see how fast medicare can be bankrupted. After all, the Democrats bill would take half a trillion dollars out of medicare but then would increase those covered by the plan by about 65%. sounds like a total failure to me.

Harry Reid -- to call him a jerk does not do it justice

The latest in the long line of stupidity and offensiveness that seems to regularly emanate from the mouth of Harry Reid is today's bon mot in which he compares opponents of his healthcare bill to those who supported slavery. I was wondering when we were going to get the racism card played in the healthcare debate. and now it is here. Those evil Republicans (who of course only have 40% of the seats) are blocking the Democrats with 60% from passing this great bill. What BS! The truth is that the public does not support anything like the Reid bill. As support levels for the bill continue to fall (along with Obama's approval ratings and the Democrats chances of retaining control of Congress), Reid is, as usual, blaming all of his shortcomings on the other side. there has been no Republican input whatsoever into the current Senate bill. Harry and friends wrote the bill behind locked doors and kept all Republicans out. The bill is a christmas tree including presents of billions of dollars for Democrat senators whose votes are needed, and even with all the pork, Reid cannot find 60 votes to keep the bill afloat. I think we are seeing the end game in which Reid prepares for defeat which he wants to blame on the Republicans. He might do better to simply acknowledge that the bill does not have public support and table it for now.

In truth, the only good coming from the healthcare debate right now is that it continues to sink Reids approval numbers in Nevada. He is at best a 50-50 shot to be reelected. Reid's defeat would be one of the best possible consequences of a healthcare fiasco.

Chris shays campaign manager indicted

A friend of mine just sent me the link to the article on the arrest of Chris shays campaign manager for stealing a quarter of a million dollars from the campaign. To say the least, the campaign manager Michael Sohn is a slime if he did this. Faithin government is low enough right now. there is no need to add the theft of campaign dcontributions to the list. Given the high ethical standards set by Shays while in office, it is even more reprehensible that this would happen.

I do wonder how the campaign manager thought he could get away with this. In a campaign for congress it is hard to overlook the loss of $250,000 especially with all of the forms that have to be filed.

polls of interest

In recent days, there have been a number of interesting polls. Senator Lincoln of Arkansas is well behind all of her potential challengers. Will this motivate her to vate against the healthcare bill (which is extremely unpoplular in Arkansas)? Mike Caslte is leading Beau Biden by a bunch in Delaware. Harry Reid is behind all opponents in Nevada. Chris Dodd is way behind in Connecticut. the generic congressional vote is swinging strongly towards the republicans. Obama's job approval numbers are at all time lows with those which poll likely voters (as opposed to all adults) showing a majority disapproving of his performance.

What does all this (and more ) mean? In truth, the answer is "not much!" Still, the Obamacrats in Washington must be getting indigestion watching their numbers fall lower and lower as the Great leader takes them over the edge of the cliff. My guess is that passing healthcare would be the end of the democratic majority for quite some time.

Unemployment figures

The numbers are in for November unemployment based upon the payroll companies. They show a loss of 169,000 jobs for the month. This is worse than the 155,000 expected by the consensus of economists, but, more important, they continue the major job losses of the last year.

Despite the continuing losses, the numbers got portrayed in the media as an improvement in the economy. After all, we lost fewer jobs in November than in October. Isn't it time for the numbers of jobs to start going up? Every month, new people join the job market and fewer jobs exist. Every month it gets harder and harder to find a new job. Every month we hear about how things are getting better and about all the jobs created or saved by the stimulus. The truth is that there is no credible evidence that any jobs were created by the stimulus outside the government. There is also no proof that any jobs were saved. so for three quarters of a trillion dollars, Obama created about 10000 jobs. What a fiasco!

The week to come

Given the disconnect between the many polls showing the public dead set against the healthcare bills and the headlong rush in the Senate to obtain passage, it will be interesting to see if the Thanksgiving recess has had any effect on those wavering Democrats who a crucial to the passage of the bill. Will Blanche Lincoln, up for reelection in November of 2010, decide that she cannot support the bill after listening to constituents complain for a week? Will Mary Landrieu vote for the bill just to get the 300 million bribe that was put into the bill to get her vote so that it could make it to the floor? Will Senator Nelson of Nebraska decide that he has to vote the way his state wants? Indeed, will some other senator announce that after reflection he or she has decided to vote no?

It would be a triumph of democracy if this were to be the case. Still the most likely vote is that the obamacrats fashion some monstrosity that is just a little less monstrous than the current version and pass it. The only good thing about the games the Obamacrats have played is that by 2012 when Obama himself is up for a vote again, we would have had 2 years of additional taxes and restrictions which come from the bill but none of the supposed benefits. In other words, all pain and no gain -- assuming there ever will be any gain. The negative impact on the economy will have been felt, albeit not fully. The push of higher premiums would have hit. Indeed, even though they have not had any input into the bill at all, the Republicans could not have designed a more anti-Democrat bill in my opinion.

Maybe the best thing for the country would be to have the Obamacrats pass the bill and then get thrown out decisively in 2012 so that the new Republican Administration and Congress could then repeal it.

dubai dubai du

The news of the potential default by Dubai World has roiled markets all over the world. Strangely, one of the side effects has been a plunge in the price of oil -- thereby making the situation for the oil rich area worse. It will be a real test of the world markets to see if the drop is a temporary one or if it presages the start of a longer term decline based upon financial fears. We will soon see if upset in the Gulf is sufficient for nervous traders to dump positions and then to dump more around the world.

A Thanksgiving note

I just want to take a moment today to express my thinks for the many blessings in my life. There is something noble and wonderful about our precious national holiday that is aimed at people giving thanks for what they have and not just seeking more. Let's remember that before all of the myriad of crises that we are constantly barraged with by the media (the healthcare crisis, global wrming, the economic crisis, etc), our founding fathers realized that those who lived here were truly blessed and gave thanks for this. I agree with them!

Health care myths

Obamacare (the Senate version) supposedly is designed to bring the total number of Americans with insurance coverage up to 94% of the total. Right now, there are supposed to be about 31 million uninsured Americans (not including illegal immigrants). This means that the bill will result in insurance for something in the area of 14 million more people. And the cost for this gain will be something like a trillion dollars over the first ten years and much more after that. Still, these figures for costs and results are a sham.

In the first place, the uninsured include about 7-8 million people who simply choose not to buy insurance. Most of these folks are in their 20's and they have decided that they would rather not have the insurance. The Obamacrat bill in the Senate requires these people to buy their own insurance. Thus, they get coverage, but this cost is not included in the cost figures for the bill. That means that there will only be a net pick up of 6-7 million insured people for the trillions spent in the bill.

But there is more! There are supposedly another 3-4 million people who already qualify for government assistance in obtaining insurance who do not take part in these programs. Just by locating these folks and enrolling them in existing programs, we could get the number insured up by another 3 million or so. That means that the number to be insured by the Obamacrats Senate bill is really an additional 3-4 million. If the cost is one trillion dollars (and we ignore the second decade of the program), it means that for 4 million people we will be spending $250,000 per person to get these additional 4 million people insured for 5 years ($50,000 per year). A cost of $50,000 per year for insurance in absolutely ridiculous in any world other than Washington.

The biggest dope of them all

Today's prize to the biggest dope of them all goes to Wisconsin Democrat David Obey. In a week dominated by the healthcare debate and Obama's futile trip to China, Obey wins for his remarks on Afghanistan. This morning Obey opined that the USA was "being asked to get involved in a civil war [in Afghanistan] just like in Vietnam, and, also like in Vietnam we do not have a reliable partner" in the Afghan government.

Where to start? Obey says that we are bing asked to get involved? How dumb is that. Last time I looked, the USA has been involved in the Afghan war since 2001 when we entered the country to drive out those who facilitated the attacks of 9-11. So Obey is off by 8 years in his timing. Then Obey claims it is a civil war. Again, this is nonsense. The US involvement is part of the global war on terrorism that the Obamacrats want to rename into something like "the foreign contingency action that has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism". Nevertheless, the US is not taking part in a civil war, but a global one. That is why we have drones attacking in Pakistan. Indeed, it is futile to try to list all of the fronts of this war.

Then Obey pulls out the Vietnam reference which seems to be the beginning and end of his understanding of foreign policy. All wars are Vietnam to Obey. Look, any idiot is allowed to have his view, but the troubling thing is that Obey is an important part of the Obamacrat hierarchy that will decide policy in Afghanistan.

I fear for the republic.

Obama still does not get it

The news today is that President Obama used his interview with Fox News as a platform to cricize Israel for going ahead with plans to build a few apartment buildings in Jerusalem. This act allows the Israelis to have housing for a few hundred families in their capital city.

It is no wonder that Obama criticizes this act. Just imagine! there will be a few hundred more Jews in Jerusalem. think of it in American terms. Today, Washington D.C. has a majority of black residents. African Americans control the local government. Just imagine the outcry if the D.C. government issued building permits to allow construction of more housing for blacks on land in currently white neighborhoods. My guess is that no one would say anything, and I am quite sure that I am correct.

This is a close parallel to the issue in Israel. There are certain neighborhoods that the Palestinian Authority wants to claim for itself in a future state, although there is no particular basis for this claim besides the fact that the area was administered by Jordan fifty years ago. It has been under Israeli control for nearly 50 years and has been officially part of the state of Israel for close to that length of time. Residents in the area are Israeli citizens whether they are Arabs, Jews or others.

Why is it that Obama repeatedly criticizes Israel for not allowing the Palestinian complaints to act as a bar to Jewish habitation of certain areas. In Obama's view, if the PA complains, all the Jews have to move out of an area. That is true even if the area is a neighborhood of Israel's capital city.

We have heard speech after speech after speech after speech from the man who believes himself to be the greates orator in world history. Usually, Obama tells us about himself; after all, how can that tale not lead to world peace? We have heard points that could best be described as uneducated or naive. At worst, one could call them meaningless garbage that serves no purpose whatsoever. Still, Obama goes on and on and on and on and on with his speeches and complaints.

Interesting enough, however, is one salient fact: by blaming the Jews for all the problems in the area, Obama has finally found a problem which is not the sole cause of the USA.

The man just does not get it.

what happened to us?

Last night I was watching the excellant documentary on the History Channel, "World War 2 in HD" (poor name but good film). While showing film clips of the invasion of Tarawa by the marines, they explained that the marines were coming to the beaches in landing craft that needed four feet of water, but that the coral reef around the island had only three feet of water above it. As a result, the 5000 marines had to jump into the water and wade over 700 yards to the shore while carrying their equipment and being sprayed with machine gun fire from Japanese pill boxes on the shore. By the end of the day, 30% of the marines were dead or wounded. Nevertheless, more marines were landed on the second day, and they went on to take the island from the Japanese defenders.

The idea that men would brave intolerable conditions under fire and go on to victory is a testament to the bravery and grit of the marines. It made me wonder, however, what happened to us as a country. I believe that the marines could still carry out an operation like this, but I doubt that our political leaders could even imagine such an event. Right now, Obama is dithering about whether or not to send additional troops to Afghanistan, all the while leaving those already there is ever increasing danger. Since the delay seems to be politically motivated, on has to wonder if the president is even remotely concerned about our brave men and women in that country. Similarly, the obamacrats are in the process of conveying constitutional rights on the terrorists who killed thousands on 9-11 as part of their war on us. This recipe for disaster is likely to result in the release of these monsters (which will no doubt be praised by the Obamacrats as a victory for the constitution). It will be interesting to see how they explain away the deaths of more Americans as these monsters go back to the old jobs as jihadists.

When did we lose our way? When did the crazies start running the country? How could those who are at best delusional end up in control? Sad questions to ponder indeed.

Bob Herbert and reality

In the New York Times, the ever-left Bob Herbert is lamenting that the "recovery" has not included those who voted Obama into office, namely the victim list of Democratic politics: blacks, single women, union/blue collar workers, etc. Instead, according to Herbert, it is the financial elites who have proclaimed the "recovery" and who are feeling no pain as they watch their investment portfolios soar. After reading Herbert's views, one would fairly ask if Herbert is somehow living in an alternate reality.

First, the so-called "recovery" is not being claimed by financial elites; rather, it is the Obama Administration that never misses an opportunity to tell us all how we have turned the corner and things are getting better (and how it is all due to those jobs that were created or "saved" due to the stimulus.) Indeed, after listening to Robert Gibbs speaking non-stop about all the great economic news, you expect him to suddenly burst inito a chorus of "Happy Days are here Again"! Most of the financial firms are talking about signs that things are not getting as bad as quickly as they were a few months ago. There is also discussion of the fact that the GDP increase in the last quarter for the first time in quite a while (although there is a question how much of this increase is just activity pulled forward from later quarters due to cash for clunkers and housing tax credits.) In fact, those whose economic position Herbert laments are basically the unemployed and underemployed. According to the latest government figures, over 16% of the working population falls into this category. Obama's stimulus was passed with the express promise from Obama himself that the program would keep unemployment under 8%. After the program was passed, the unemployment rate sailed way past that figure and is still rising. We may soon see the highest rate since the Depression.

Strangely, Herbert does not ask why so many jobs are being destroyed and so few created. He just puts forth his usual class warfare harrangue and leaves it there. The truth is that Obama and the Obamacrats have injected a great deal of uncertainty into the economy on top of the recession itself. Will employers have to give health insurance to all workers? Will the required health insurance be more expensive than the plans now offered? Will energy costs soar once cap and trade is passed? Will state and local governments now living off of stimulus funds be forced to lay off thousands with the resulting contraction of the economy pushed out into the future? Will tax rates on capital investments go up so that one needs a surer and bigger return to make job creating investments profitable? Will an Obama appointed Czar come into more industries to set pay levels? Will card check pass so that many more industries will be forced to unionize on the strength of the appearance of union thugs? Herbert seems oblivious to all of this, but the truth is that these concerns have frozen investment in business, particularly in small business which generates most of the new jobs in this country.

On top of this, Obama and the Obama crats have spent the USA into enormous debts, all but unthinkable in 2008. The government is now borrowing nearly 50% of what it is spending. Will this debt at some point soak up all the capital available for investment? Will China and India and other nations stop buying dollar denominated bonds from the Treasury, thereby driving up interest rates and choking off investment? Will the sinking dollar, fear of inflation (resulting from the deficits) and uncertainty as to the economic future drive people into investin in hard assets like gold and other commodities -- thereby taking away funds which could otherwise be used for investment in the economy?

The problem with all of these question is that they relate to problems created by Obama and his team together with the Pelosi-Reid democrat team in the Congress. In truth, this dream team is a nightmare.

Herbert should open his eyes, recognize the extraordinary damage that Obama and the Obamacrats have done and then state this clearly.

I am not going to hold my breath, however, waiting for him to do so.

A Jury trial in New York

Today, Obama announced that terrorists including the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks will be give trial in federal court in New York City. As the Church lady on SNL used to say, "Isn't that special!"

Givng these terrorists jury trials and the full rights which come with a trial in federal court is a rather crazy response by the White House to the terrorist attack at Fort Hood. Surely, the Obamacrats will deny any linkage between the two events, but one owuld need to be deaf, dumb and blind to miss the connection. First, Obama dithers for nearly a year on what to do with the folks in Gitmo. Then, last week, we have the first terrorist attack in the USA since 9-11. Obama's reaction was a non-reaction. First he went on with his speech to an Indian group and only stuck in a reference to the terror attack in the middle of his remarks. (looks like he is truly lost without his teleprompter). Then, after it became clear that Major Hassan was an Islamic terrorist, Obama still failed to condemn the attack as an act of war by a terrorist. Despite the uproar in the country about his silence, Obama left for Asia still failing to call this a terror attack.

My initital view regarding Obama's behavior was that he did not want to offend the Muslim community worldwide by calling this terror. Now, with the announcement of the full criminal trials in New York, Obama has confirmed that this, indeed was his naive outlook. Actually, to call it naive does not do it justice. It is closer to delusional than naive. Obama apprently thinks that by giving jury trials to the terrorists, he will be able to convince the remaining terror organizations that we mean them no harm. Surely, the Taliban and Al Qaeda will lay down their arms and make peace now that they know that their compatriots will have full legal rights in their trials.

It is hard for me to imgine that the President of the United States could actually hold this view, but there is no other choice. Obama and his advisors think that the War on Terror (sorry for using the proper name), is more like a high school debate than a war. It will be won by speeches and gestures and not by bullets and bombs. Guess again guys! All you have succeeded in doing by giving these terrorists trial in New York is to give them a great media stage from which they can spew their propaganda. Some victory. Who knows how many other Major Hassans are out there in the USA just waiting to be radicalized by what they hear from these ridiculous trials?

I just hope that the administration does not end up releasing these terrorists since they cannot give up all of the confidential evidence that has been gathered about these folks. Truly, if that is the result, Obama should be impeached or, at least, voted out of office promptly.

Decisions about Afghanistan

We are approaching 120 days since the commanding general in Afghanistan requested 40,000 more troops for that war. the request was made with the agreement and support of the commander of the theater (General Petreus). The request came from General McChrystal who was hand picked by Obama as an expert in counter - terrorism. The request came with regard to the War of Necessity that Obama said he supported whole-heartedly.

Obama's response has spoken volumes about the administration and who Obama really is. Thus far, the response has been delay, delay and more delay. That means that the US forces are proceeding with fewer troops than necessary, but with no change in strategy. The net effect of this is to put those troops who are in Afghanistan at greater peril of injury or death.

While it is safe to say that there are those who would oppose a decision by Obama to increase the troop levels and those who would oppose a reduction in troop levels or a complete pull out, there has been essentially no one who argues that we should continue with the current strategy but with no more troops. given the plethora of self proclaimed experts on military strategy who appear with regularity on the various news outlets, one would think that there would be some support for keeping the strategy but not sending more troops if this course made any sense. the only conclusion possible is that the USA either needs to increase its troops or reduce troops and change the mission.

Why can't Obama come to a conclusion that keeps more troops safe. Well first, he wanted to wait until after his healthcare bill was passed. In other words, domestic politics was more important to the president than the lives of US servicemen. Then, when the healthcare bill was delayed, he wanted to wait until after the elections. Well the elections have now passed. Where is the decision?

It is outrageous that Obama cannot decide what to do on this matter. Obama was able to outsource the stimulus bill to Congress and to do the same with healthcare. He also tried with cap and trade to avoid making the final decisions. On matters of war and peace, however, the president has to actually make decisions. Not give speeches, but make decisions! Obama should be ashamed of his lack of decision making.

the truth, however, is that the USA is less safe since we do not have a commander in chief, but rather a delayer in chief. Sometimes, you actually have to make a decision!

Not the times for Himes

Today, Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) held a so-called telephone town hall regarding health care. The main goal of the call seemed to be to allow Himes to speak and answer pre-screened questions. In that way, Himes could appear to be responding to the public without actually having to do so. Amazingly, Himes began by calling the opponents of the health care bill "liars". I had to laugh to hear Himes criticize his opponlents as liars while he was busy hiding from both the public and the truth.

Connecticut deserves better.

Hood - winked

The massacre at Fort Hood last week has spawned a plethora of articles in the main stream press about the traumas that poor Major Hassan suffered and how they led to his attack on his fellow soldiers. Huh? Where are the articles on the people he murdered? How about the articles on those he wounded? How about the articles on the foolishness of PC mandated overlooking of Hassan's internet rantings on the merits of suicide bombings? Why does this get coverage in only a few outlets?

We have just seen what appears to be the first major terrorist attack in the US since 9-11 and the media seems unwilling to recognize this. Similarly, the Obama administration seems likewise blind. We can survive another bout of media myopia. Blindness in the government, however, is just what led to 9-11 in the first place. At least Bill Clinton recognized the attack on the Cole as terrorism, not just the expression of mental illness due to the collective trauma suffered by the bombers.

Unemployment and incompetence

The unemployment numbers released this week were terrible, but they do not tell the whole story. The truth is that the numbers are much worse than they should have been and are very much worse than what came before. Right now, the number of unemployed is still rising continuing a trend that has lasted for 22 months. The overwhelming bulk of this rise in the unemployed has come since Obama had his so-called stimulus bill passed as an emergency measure. If one looks at the effect this bill had on unemployment (rather than on the fantasy of jobs "saved" which is used by the White House since it is unverifiable), one sees that the numbers of unemployed are much higher than the Obama administration predicted for peak unemployment WITHOUT the stimulus. It sems that the stimulus has had the opposite effect from the one that Obama promised -- namely, unemployment is worse than it otherwise would have been. And this was done all at a cost of a little less than a trillion dollars. What a bargain!

There have been ten other recessions since World War 2. The current one now has the highest number of jobs lost. Indeed, in 7 out of the ten previous recessions, job growth had kicked in well before 22 months and had already brought total employment higher than at the start of the recession. This even includes the recesson during the Truman Administration which was feared to be the start of another depression.

In short, by mismanaging the economy, Obama has managed to make the job losses much more severe and to delay the recovery! Now that is change we can all believe in!

What has happened is that Obama has injected so much uncertainty into the business system that companies are afraid to hire or invest. After all, will there soon be new energy costs under cap and trade? Will there be massive tax increases for owners who use Sub S or LLC structures? Will health costs for business get pushed so high that new employees do not make sense? Overarching these specifics is the concern whether or not all of the new debt from Washington will drive inflation or interest rates much higher. And every single one of these problems can be laid at the door of Obama. The Administration is destroying business growth and raisiing unemployment all in the name of progress and fairness. My guess is that in 2012 Obama will abandon "Yes we can" and switch to "We did! and misery loves company!"

Virginia and New Jersey

Today's results from Virginia are startling in the extent of the swing towards the Republicans in Va. Clearly, a GOP victory is not a surprise there, but the size of the margin is awesome. Much is being made on cable networks like MSNBC that 56% of voters said in exit polls that their votes were not meant to send a message to Washington. That means that 44% of the vote was intended to instruct Washington, again and extraordinarily large group. Clearly, Democrats in congress from red states like VA need to worry that they may be next to be defeated if they go along with the more radical policies of the Obama Administration.

The results in New Jersey, are even more startling than those in Va. The garden State is about as blue a state as can be, and the incumbent governor (who spent a gadzillion dollars on his campaign) has just been thrown out by the voters. that means that Democrats in even Blue districts need to worry about their re-election in 2010.

My guess is that the Obamacare plan just lost a fair number of votes.

It will be interesting to see just how the legislatures in Va and NJ end up. If there is a strong GOP tide in those bodies, it will be an extra sign that the Dems are in trouble.

Elections matter

For the last year, we have been repeatedly treated to justifications from Democrats that they had won in 2008 and therefore could carry out policies which had not even been mentioned during that election campaign. Now that the Republicans have swept the important races in Virginia and New Jersey, does that mean that the government has to do what the Republicans say?

NY -23 take 2

with the republican candidate in NY-23 not only withdrawing from the race, but also endorsing the Democrat, it becomes clear that she was a RINO (republican in name only). There is no point to having a republican party if it is just the democrat party with a different face. There are true philosophical differences between the parties and the Scuzz did not fall on the correct side of the divide to qualify to be a Republican candidate in my opinion. aparently, the voters in NY-23 agreed, since her poll numbers collapsed once the voters learned her views.

The Series

Witht the World Series tied a t 1-1, I have to say that all of us in Connecticut are rooting for the Phillies to win in 5.

NY 23

Today's announcement by the Republican candidate suspending her campaign in the 23rd district of NY was simply a bow to her inevitable loss. Still, it is strange for her to suspend without endorsing the Conservative candidate, Hoffman. There are no polss telling us what effect her move will have, but I believe that the likely result is that GOP party stalwarts will now have the choice of four courses of action: voting for Scozzafava even though she has withdrawn, not voting, voting for the Democrat, or voting for the Conservative who has been endorsed by many national GOP figures. My guess is that the Conservative is likely to get a substantial boost from this move. If he gets half of Scozzafava's voters and 20% still vote for her, it should provide enough of a boost for the Conservative to win (assuming of course, that the Democrats do not manage to steal the election).

Taking a break

I will be away for the rest of this month. Don't be too distraught.

Congratulations to Charlie Rangel

Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York has accomplished something that I never thought could happen: Rangel managed to get pundit Margaret Carlson to say something sensible. Today Carlson called upon Rangel to resign due to his various ethical (and allegedly criminal) lapses. After reading her column on Bloomberg news, I drove down to the beach to see if the waters had parted. Strangely, they had not, but it still seemed as if a miracle had happened. Margaret, who never says anything bad about a Democrat or good about a Republican, actually called on Rangel to go. This is even more surprising than Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

the Nobel Prize for Peace

President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I can only say congratulations to him. It is quite an honor.

My question actually goes to the committee that awarded the prize. How could you possibly award this prize to Obama when he has done essentially nothing to merit it? The peace prize certainly has to be connected to foreign policy -- I do not think that the stimulus package could be the cause. So what has Obama done? In the Middle East, he has managed to destroy the ability of the United States to affect Israeli public opinion. He has solidified the position of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister despite his attempts to undermine Netanyahu. He has managed to delay Israeli-Palestinian talks for nine months by raising the settlement issue.

In Latin America, he has accepted a book from Hugo Chavez (maybe that's the reason for the prize). He has supported the legally ousted former president of Honduras who violated that country's constitution, albeit that support has had no effect of restoring the ousted president.

In Iraq, he has followed George Bush's policies exactly.

In Afghanistan, he has increased the level of the war (certainly a peaceful move) and is now vacilating on whether or not to follow his generals and increase troops further. In the meantime, casualties continue to mount.

In dealing with Iran, he has been uniformly unsuccessful in moving forward with stopping the Iranian nuclear program.

In Northeast Asia, he has not managed to put any check on the North Korean regime. Nor has he moved closer to peace with that regime.

In Europe, he has sent the Czechs and the Poles into near hysteria by removing the missile shield designed to deter war. Again, this is not a move towards peace.

The only thing I can figure out that Obama has done that may support this award is his meeting between Professor Gates and the Cambridge Policeman who arrested Gates. He was supposedly trying to bring about peace between them. At least that was the cover story. Actually, he was trying to repair his damaged image after he falsely accused the police of racism.

I guess the truth is that the Nobel committee in Norway that gives out the peace prize is just hoping for a role in the upcoming remake of a hollywood favorite: Clueless.

Fall

Here in Southwestern Connecticut we have moved into Autumn with the nights getting colder and the leaves beginning to turn colors. It is a particularly beautiful time of year, not quite up to the levels of May, but still impressive. Unfortunately, we are faced with impending winter, and this winter is predicted to be especially cold, notwithstanding global warming. Who knows, maybe some day global warming will be something other than a scare tactic. For now, however, we will have to deal with the cold.

The MLB playoffs begin

This afternoon, the major league playoffs began with the Phillies beating Colorado on the strength of a masterfull pitching performance by Lee. All I can say is that some things are still right with the world.

SNL sees the realities

Last night, SNL's opening segment was a parody of a speech by president Obama in which Obama listed, at great length, his lack of accomplishment. They even had a check list of his campaign promises which he ticked off while proudly announcing that he had done nothing with regard to all of them.

The truth of the skit is not big news. What is big news, however, is that SNL now not only realizes this truth, but it accepts the premise that enough Americans also accept it so that SNL can use it for the basis for a parody. In short, even NBC (or as it should be called: Obama Central) has come to the conclusion that America recognizes Obama as a failure so far. My guess is that the Olymipcs fiasco pushed NBC over the edge on this point.

The Chicago Olympics

Well, the news is in. After a personal appeal by president Barack Obama, the International Olympic Committee has rejected Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Games. Clearly, Obama had no clout at all with the IOC. In fact, not only was Chicago rejected, but it was the first city whose bid was rejected. It seems to me that the IOC was sending Obama a message. Let's hope that Obama heard it and finally realizes that his ability to convince people to do what he wants is limited.

Maybe now that this farce is over Obama can actually get down to the job of being president and focus on what to do in Afghanistan. After all, doesn't he owe it to our troops who are fighting and dying in that country to at least decide on the proper course of action there?

William Safire

The passing of William Safire reminds us all how insignificant the New York Times has become. Safire was a giant of a columnist. He was a conservative at a liberal newspaper. He was a reasonable man in the world of journalism where reason now has taken a back seat to partisanship. He was someone who loved the English language and who could turn a phrase with the best speechwriters of his day. Safire will be missed, and his accomplishments should be recognized. One last thing of importance here, hwever, is not personal to Safire. Rather, it is that he was just one of many Times columnists who carried on an intelligent commentary on the issues of the day.

Today, the Times no longer has intelligent columnists. Rather it has people like Maureen Dowd whose goal seems to be finding new ways to insult people. MoDo is no deep thinker; her columns could as easily appear in People magazine. Then there is Frank Rich. Perhaps the best way to describe Rich is to point out that for years he was a theater critic. He views almost every issue by determining how it fits within his storyline, his worldview. To Rich, national issues are theater, not items which actually affect the lives of millions. David Brooks is now the Times token conservative (although nearly every conservative in America would contest that description). In truth, Brooks is the Times warped view of what a conservative should be. Actually, Brooks is just not as far left as his fellow columnists. And these are the better columnists at the Times. The others do not even merit a mention here.

The strange truth is that the columnists at the New York Post are now more interesting, more imaginative and more informed than those at the Times. for someone who lived through an era when the Post almost failed (repeatedly) and the Times was the last word on most issues, it amazes me still to see how badly the current management has tarnished the Times quality and reputation. This icon of journalism should adopt a new and more accurate motto: "All the news that fits the prejudices of the current editor". My guess is that unless something drastic happens, the Times will not be around to see another editor. In a startling turnaround, the Times will fail and the Post will endure.

It is sad that

Iranian nukes

After the first rush of news reports about the Qom enrichment facility, we are now getting more accurate ones that seem to agree that the USA has only known about the facility for months, not years. While this lets the Bush administration off the hook for inaction, it does point out the limits of intelligence activities. The CIA missed the North Korean built nuclear weapons plant in Syria until the Israelis destroyed it last year. The CIA also missed this Qom facility for years as well.

Now that the facility has been found, we have to consider what the USA, UK and France are likely to do. Not much is the likely answer. There are times when military action is called for. Not immediately, but after lesser options have been exhausted. The problem is that Obama is unlikely to ever do anything more than talk. Oh, he may agree to sanctions without bite (can't upset the Russians or the Chinese).

The truth is that there is no good answer. We now have a problem which has only bad answers. My guess is that Obama will choose not to answer. After all, he is stalling on the Afghan troop levels even after he campaigned on the need for victory in this "war of necessity". If he cannot even follow through on his stated campaign promises, how can we expect him to make a decision on Iran that might lead to conflict. The man has no courage of his convictions. Actually, it may be more correct to say that when it comes to the defense of the USA, the man has no convictions other than that the USA is at fault no matter what problem we are discussing.

Hopefully, the Israelis will be able to act to destroy the Iranian nuke plants. It does seem strange that the USA is dependent on a little country like Israel to protect clear American national interests. Indeed, it would be much more effective for the US to lead the effort (like in the Gulf War) than for Israel to determine what will be done and when.

We should all pray for Israeli success.

Iran's second nuke facility

The disclosure of Iran's second nuclear facility seems to put the lie to much of what has been said on the world stage in the last year. According to news reports, the USA, UK and France say that they have been aware of the second nuke facility for years. Further, this second facility is of a type that could only be used for nuclear weapons, not peaceful nuclear power. So that means that for years, the Western powers have known that Iran was moving towards nuclear weapons but they have not made this public or taken any concrete actions to stop the mullahs. Only now that Iran has become aware that their secret was known has anything been said about this facility.

I realize that there is a need to protect intelligence gathering capabilities. This may lead at times to keeping secret the findings from that intelligence. Still, nothing excuses the lame attempts by the US, UK and France (if you even want to call them attempts) to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Indeed, it is hard to fathom why nothing meaningful has been done to keep the madmen in Teheran from getting nukes.

The Unibama

Today President Obama unvelied his new persona for the United Nations. I think it should be called the Unibama. Actually, Obama was so nutty today in his comments that I think that the Unibomber would be offended to have this new personality named after him.

Moving closer to our Allies

During the Bush Administration, the Democrats consistently criticized that administration for not working more closely with our allies. Democrats claimed that they would certainly act in a more multilateral way than a cowboy like Bush.

Today we have been treated to headlines in the Financial Times and other European papers in which lack of progress in combatting global warming is blamed upon a widening rift between the USA and the EU. since our principal allies are almost all part of the EU, we should be acting very closely in concert with them if the Obamacrats actually were able to conceive of a multilateral foreign policy. According to the europeans, however, the Obama Administration does not even seem to have the time to pay attention to matters of foreign policy.

Previously we learned that only 4% of the people in Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, now consider Obama to be a friend of Israel. So, in merely 8 months, Obama has managed to estrange the population of our only close friend in that region.

The recent Japanese elections bounced out the government that advocated close ties with the USA for one that wants Japan to keep its distance from the USA. Again, the conduct of the Obama Administration towards Japan was a big issue in that election. It seems that Japan does not matter to the Obamacrats either.

In Latin America, the US has been supporting the ousted former president of Honduras, even though he was removed from office by that country's Supreme Court and Legislature for a clear violation of that country's Constitution. All of our allies in the area are dismayed by this position with only Chavez and Castro acting in full support. Here too, Obama has alienated our allies and reached out to our enemies.

At least there is one area where Obama has not alienated US allies. So far, no one in Antarctica has complained about treatment from Washington. Of course, there are no countries on that continent, but it is nice to know that there is one area to which Obama can point to success in not alienating allies.

It is going to be a long four years.

Obama's greenhouse emissions

Today at the United Nations, that paragon of honesty Barack Obama announced to the world that the United States had done more to reduce greenhouse gases inthe last nine months than in the rest of history combined. the man is the President of the United States, but the only reasonable response is still the one from Congressman Wilson: "You lie!" Since the begining of the Obama administration, no new laws have passed regarding greenhouse gases. Indeed, the cap and trade bill is fading into the background in the Senate with harry Reid himself saying that action this year is unlikely. There have been no new regulatory initiatives either, so nothing the government has done has targeted greenhouse gases.

It is true that because of the collapse of the US economy which obama's stimulus package was supposed to prevent, there has been a diminution of industrial activity which probably reduced greenhouse gas emissions. If this is the reason for Obama's statements, then it still was untrue. During the great depression in the 1930's, industrial production fell by many times the reduction of the last year. Thus, the 1930's would have seen a greater reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The simple point here is that Obama comes to New York and announces a big success for his administration in reducing carbon emissions despite the fact that his administration has done nothing at all to even try to reduce those emissions. Once again Obama lies.

For a while there was a reasonable feeling in the USA that it was inappropriate to state outright that the president was lying. Obama, however, keeps right on lying and lying. As a result, nearly everyone in the country now recognizes that Obama either cannot perceive reality or else is intentionally lying. In either case, it is going to be a long four years.

Obama and Jobs

In an interview on CNN, President Obama said "I want to be clear, that probably the jobs picture is not going to improve considerably -- and it could even get a little bit worse -- over the next couple of months." My comment has to be : There you go again!

So far during the Obama presidency there has never been any month that had a net gain in the number of jobs. The true unemployment rate, which considers those who have given up looking for work as well as those who are out of work and still looking, is well in excess of 15%. Even the more limited unemployment rate which only considers those still looking for work is now closing in on 10%. Every month, the employment figures get worse and worse. And Obama says that it could get a little worse.

Does Obama think that we have all forgotten his promise when the stimulus bill was rushed through? It was an emergency to get that bill through Congress in a week because if there was any delay, unemployment would get over 8%. Obama promised, however, that the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8%. Boy was he wrong!

Of course, Obama will blame everything on Bush and point out that he inherited his problems. While the recession certainly started during Bush's term, it was Obama who promised that the stimulus would limit unemployment to 8%. So Congress agreed to spend nearly a trillion dollars to limit the recession which is now much, much worse than Obama promised it would be. No sane person could contradict that either Obama lied about unemployment and the stimulus or he did not understand the true nature of the stimulus bill. One has to wonder how a bill that gave about 8 billion dollars to ACORN could possibly keep unemployment down. Was that money supposed to be used for pimps and hookers?

So, if Obama either lied or was totally wrong with regard to the stimulus, why would anyone believe him with regard to health care? Wouldn't it be prudent to conclude that he is either lying there or else, once again, does not truly understand what he is talking about.

H1N1

In a new report leaked to the press, the UN Health organization opines that the poorest countries in the world will be hard hit by the H1N1 flu unless the richer countries come up with billions of dollars to pay for vaccines for those poor countries. I know it will shock some, but the UN has missed the mark with this report. The biggest problem with the availability of flu vaccine is not the cost but rather the supply. Even with all out production, there will not be enough vaccine to cover all of the high risk populations in the USA, let alone in the rest of the world. Similar situations exist in Western Europe, Japan and the other developed countries. It is not likely that the developed world will leave their own citizens at risk in order to ship large quantities of vaccine to other sections of the world. Indeed, both the UK and the USA have pledged to sell 10% of their supplies to other countries; this is about as high as anyone could expect. After all, if H1N1 proves to be a major killer, Gordon Brown and Obama would not want to have to explain why they sent the one preventative abroad and denied it to the citizens of teh UK and USA.

So far, contrary to screaming headlines in the media, the H1N1 flu has not proven to be a much different threat than all of the other forms of flu out there. While the populations hit by H1N1 have generally been younger than other flu strains, mortality rates have not exceeded usual flu norms. Indeed, H1n1 has been a bit less dangerous than "normal" flu. this is not a reason to let down our guard against this disease, but certainly there is no reason for panic either. Let's hope that nothing changes here.

settlements unsettled

The news today is that Obama's Middle East Czar George Mitchell has been unable to reach a settlement settlement. In other words, there is no deal between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority with regard to Israeli settlements.

What a surprise! Obama publicly calls for the Israelis to freeze all settlements and then expects that his envoy (excuse me czar) will be able to reach a deal on them. why would the arabs ever agree to anything less than what Obama called for: a complete freeze on Israeli settlements. Indeed, since we now know that according to people like Jimmy Carter and Nancy Pelosi, Obama is the victim of constant racist attacks, it makes perfect sense for this paragon of equality to come out in favor of Jewish free zones in territory controlled by Israel. Carter supports this strongly; yet, he accuses the Israelis of apartheid. Any casual observer would understand that the settlement freeze is apartheid. So Carter endorses Obama's call for segregation in the Middle East while criticizing the Israelis for segregation that they do not carry out. After all, if the Obamacrats can claim racism here at home against people who do no more than point out the obvious idiocy of many of Obama's policies, it makes sense that they would promote segregation in the Middle East while calling those who do not segregate segregationists.

Once again, the common thread for the Obamacrats and their fearful leader -- they lie, and constantly!

yard sales need regulation

The drudge report contains a link to the news that the Obama administration has now issued proposed regulations which would govern the sale of used items. Sellers would be required to check to see if the items might be harmful or if they have been the subject of a recall. Failure to do so would subject the seller to a fine of $100,000 per item up to a maximum of 15 million dollars.

It sounds to me like the profit in yard sales just disappeared. After all, who would risk 15 million in fines just to empty the garage of old junk?

On the horizon, the Obamacrats next move apparently is the issuance of regulations on the amount of toilet paper which can be used for each wipe (and, I suppose, the proper number of wipes). Those who undermine the ecology through the use of excessive wiping will be wiped out by federal fines. There will be a new federal agency which will patrol bathrooms around the country to enforce the regulations. The buzz right now is that Barney Frank is Obama's choice to head this new agency.

A true disgrace

Today's news that Obama is scrapping plans for a small missile defense system for Poland and the Czech Republic is a true black mark for the United States. Not only has Obama abandoned these two allies in the face of Russian pressure, but he managed to do so on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland at the start of World War II. So first we have to give the Obamacrats kudos for picking the single worst day in the year to make the announcement. 70 years ago, the world watched as the Russians took over half of Poland in collaboration with Nazi Germany. Now, we are abandoning them in the face of Russian pressure.

Second, this decision is one which has no grounding in reality. The missile defense system was planned to defend Europe against a few missiles coming from a rogue state like Iran or North Korea. It would have no meaningful impact on any attack by Russia. Putin just did not like the defense system since he still wants to have hegemony over the former satellite countries of the USSR. So he put pressure on the USA to back away from the plan. President Bush rightfully explained to the russians that the system was no threat to them and went forward with plans for deployment. Obama, however, has caved to Russian pressure. What a great signal to send to our allies -- the USA can get pushed around by Russia. That should do wonders in building confidence in the USA in Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, and all of the other countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union. Indeed, the fact that the USA crumbled to Russian pressure regarding two countries that are member states of NATO may also spread the unease to Germany, France, Spain and Britain. After all, the missile defense system in question was not just to defend Poland and the Czechs. Rather, it was designed to be part of a larger system to defend all of Western and Central Europe against small scall missile attacks from rogue states.

Obama may want to take the focus away from health care at the moment to try to stop Obamacare from crashing and burning. this is not the way to do it. Hopefully, the American people will realize what a doublecross Obama's decision truly is. So far Obama's foreign policy has been a disaster. Unfortunately, we will have over three more years of this.

Jimmy Carter -- update

In the first post about Jimmy Carter, I omitted the fact that he is on Osama Bin Laden's favorites list. Just the other day, Osama issued a tape in which he recommended that Americans read three books. One of those three is Carter's latest screed in which he applies his critical analysis to the Middle East. To say that Carter presents a blatantly biased point of view does not do it justice. Carter's bias is on display in a way truly amazing for a former president of the USA. Even more amazing is that Carter has a fan in Osama.

It is also strange for the Obamacrats to trot out Carter to complain about racism. His administration was not very hospitable to appointing blacks in top positions. Only one member of Carter's cabinet was African American (although she held two different positions over time). By contrast, George W. Bush had five times as many blacks in the cabinet. Seems like a poor choice to bring out an old man who could not bring himself to appoint African Americans to his cabinet as the voice to criticize others for being racist. Sound like the pot calling the kettle "unfair to blacks."

Jimmy Carter

Last night's statement by former president Jimmy Carter that the outburst by Joe Wilson during the Obama speech to congress was "racist", makes me remember yet again why Carter was one of the worst presidents in modern times and why he has been the single worst ex-president ever. Carter is a man who could fairly be called antisemetic. We get additional examples of Carter's bias on a regular basis. Indeed, the latest remark is further proof of how off base Carter really is. The only racism on display is Carter's own use of racist propaganda to try to stop opponents of Obamacare.

The Democrats save the Republic

Today, the House voted to rebuke Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina. Hooray! After all, Wilson shouted out that the president was lying when he actually was merely not telling the truth. Fortunately for all of us the vigilence of the Obamacrats has led to this rebuke. Unfortunately, these same Obamacrats do not seem to be able to rebuke, censure or expell Charlie Rangel, the chairman of Ways and Means, for his "forgetting" to report a long list of properties and income that he had over the last ten years. Oh, and Rangel also forgot to pay incometaxes on the money earned from these properties. And now, Rangel says that those who criticize him for what is arguably criminal activity only do so because they are racists. Never fear, however, the obamacrats have reined in the lack of decorum shown by Wilson. The Republic is safe!

It has been about a week

It has been about a week since President Obama went before Congress to tout his health care plan. Since then nearly 100,000 angry racists gathered as a threatening mob in Washington (sorry, I get my news from the New Yrok Times and MSNBC); Representative Wilson of South Carolina apologized personally to the president for yelling out that the president had lied in his speech. The Obama administration shifted its position on coverage for illegal aliens so that these folks will not get coverage unless they can verify that they are here legally (strange, this was the point that Wilson yelled about); ACORN staffers in three different cities gave a bogus pimp and prostitute advice on how to scam the banks and government so that they could borrow funds to set up brothels for underage women smuggled in from Latin America; and Nancy Pelosi came out in favor of censuring Joe Wilson for not apologizing often enough to Obama. Taken together, the prospects for passage of obamacare do not seem to have been improved very much, if at all, by the Obama speech to Congress.

It seems that no one other than the true believers in Obama paid much attention to the speech. Indeed, I cannot understand why anyone would care that Obama has given another speech. No matter how well he says things, people have started to listen to the words to see if they make sense. This is deadly for Obama. He can no longer spout generalities about the need for change and make any progress. Once people realized that Obama's vision of change meant reductions in health care for most of the nations elderly (they can just take the pain pill), people started listening for details that were not forthcoming. Once people relized that obama's vision for health care meant that millions would lose their current health plans and millions more would see huge increases in their premiums, people started listening for details. All they got was a promise that if you like your doctor or plan nothing in the bill requires that you change them. It is another non-answer. I could go on and on, but the truth is that Obama has lost the trust of the people. Not all of the people, but as P T Barnum said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time."

It has been a blessing to the USA that Obama started out with his flop of a stimulus plan. By saving all of those jobs and keeping the unemployment rate under 8% (actually by losing over 4 million jobs and seeing the unemployment rate soar to about 10%), Obama lost his ability to convince the public with generalities. The economic mess which Obama has created has served to undermine him. It can be undone in the future. Obamacare would do structural damage to the US health system that would be nearly impossible to undo in the future. Hopefully, the stimulus has stimulated Obama care and cap and trade to death.

why not try the truth

Last week President Obama went before Congress to try to sell his health care "plan". Of course, there is still no plan that has been made available with the official Obama seal of approval. Indeed, it is hard to tell exactly what the "plan" is that Obama was talking about. Nevertheless, I have a modest proposal to obama as to how he can sell his "plan". My suggestion is that the president tell the truth to the American people about what he is proposing. I realize that this runs countrary to most of the efforts by the administration so far, but it still might work. Stop fighting against those who want to do nothing -- who are these people anyway. Instead of fighting straw men, try telling the truth.

Here's a good example: Over the last months, Obama has repeatedly announced that all those who like their doctors and plans will be able to keep them. this is false and Obama know s that it is false, Nevertheless, Obama repeats this just a little bit less than he says "Yes we can!" Since most Americans have now recognized the lie, Obama needs to change his statement. Before congress Obama tried to soft pedal this point -- it morphed into nothing in the plan will require anyone to change their present plans or doctors. Modifying the slogan, however, was change that no one could believe in.

There is no doubt that many people will have their plans changed in major ways if Obamacare passes. For example, there are literally hundreds of thousands of college students who buy a plan through their universities that covers healthcare costs up to $150,000 for the year. This is much lower cost insurance that most regular plans. The healthcare savings here allow families to offset some of the high cost of college. Under the Obama plan, no policy could have an upper limit. As a result, the cost of these plans would likely double. the students would have a different plan that would be much more expensive. The current plan would be outlawed and no one could keep it. Result: Obama was lying.

why is it impossible for Obama to treat Americans like responsible adults and to give us the true facts? why must everthing be done in a dishonest way? Why can he not admit, for example, that health care will be rationed in his purported assault on waste and corruption. No Obama has to lie here too. Will we soon see posters announcing that Obama lied and old people died???????????

Acorn out at the census bureau

In its Friday night outpouring of news that it wants to see buried, the Obama administration announced that the census bureau was severing ties with ACORN. This severing of ties is not surprising given the recent outpouring of news exposing ACORN as a quasi-criminal enterprise. ACORN staffers in two different offices gave undercover activists posing as a pimp and a hooker advice on how to get bank loans and government assistance to set up brothels which were to be populated with underage illegal alien girls from central America. These advice sessions were caught on vidoe and have been in the media like Fox News and the internet for the last few days. Earlier, there have been a series of exposes on Fox of how federal money was being siphoned off to over 200 ACORN phantom organizations that all purportedly operate out of an abandoned house in New Orleans. This, of course, is in additiona to the multiple investigations and indictments of ACORN in connection with voter fraud in many states. Indeed, continuing the open relationship with ACORN was not a viable option for the Obamacrats in connection with the census.

It will be interesting to see if the many other ties to ACORN are also severed. Willl the checks stop going to that house in New Orleans? Will there be a meaningful federal investigation into ACORN's alleged criminal activities? I doubt it. Nevertheless, even though the census action was as much a public relations move as a real one, those undercover activists who caught ACORN on video giving advice how to set up criminal activities to exploit underage women deserve our hearty congratulations and thanks. Most likely, they have made it much more likely that the 2010 census will actually count people rather than making up numbers that will fit ACORN's political agenda.

It did not take a genius to realize what ACORN is or what its goals are. We still have to wonder how Obama could find them acceptable as government participants. Of course, this is the same Obama Administration that thought Van Jones was a proper Czar despite his avowed Marxism and his many other aberrations.

Public universities and healthcare

Lately, the Obamacrats have picked up the mantra of pointing out how public universities and private ones coexist in order to support their claim that a government healthcare plan could coexist with the private insurance industry. While it sounds good, this argument is actually a non starter.

Public universities and private ones are different products. Students get different educations depending on what school they select. Those attending private colleges (and paying for the privilege) believe that they are getting a better product than would be available from a state school.

Government run health care and private insurance do not provide different products. Both provide health care for the individual. What is different between the two plans is the price. According to the Obamacrats themselves, the government run plan will be a less expensive way to get healthcare equal to that available from the private plans. Any rational person will want to get equal healthcare for less cost. This will drain people out of the private insurance industry and into the government plan.

If the government plan could actually reduce the costs of care, it would be a major benefit to this country. Unfortunately, the government plan will not reduce costs; rather, it will subsidize its members costs through tax revenue and by running up the cost of those in private plans. It is just shifting the burden to the government, not reducing the cost. Once the government shifts this burden back to the people through increased fees and taxes (as it must), the total cost for health care will actually increase over the present as the waste and fraud prevalent in government programs and the inefficient financing methods take hold. Over the long term, the government plan will both destroy the private insurance industry and bankrupt the country.

One thing is clear: no one in the White House understands economics.

Obama's healthcare speech

Tonight's oration to a joint session of Congress was remarkable to me in its simplicity. I thought that Obama (or at least his advisers) would undestand that America wanted to have details on the plan for healthcare. And not just details, but true details. All we got was more of the same. When the President announced that he would not sign any bill that did not pay for itself, "PERIOD", I knew that truth was not playing a large role in Obama's statements. After all, here he is advocating increaseing the number of patients by the millions, forcing incurance companies to accept all pre-existing conditions while setting no maximums for insurance coverage, promising to lower the cost of coverage for most Americans and, nost fantastic of all, paying for this by cutting waste out of medicare. Of course, Obama never explains why, if there is so much waste and fraud in medicare, the governemnt has not done anything about that for all these years.

The truth is that while there is undoubtedly a great deal of waste in teh medicare system, it is not enough to pay for obamacare or even a large portion of it. the truth is further that Obama relies on gimmicks to claim that there will be no net cost for this new system -- for example during the first decade of the proposed plan there are ten years of increased taxes and other revenue generation but on about seven years of increased costs. Even with this gimmick, the CBO still says that we will see about a quarter of a trillion dollars of additional expenses added to the deficit. My guess is that this figure from the CBO is low in the extreme.

Why can't obama address this problem in an incremental fashion. Let's start with reducing waste and fraud and see what savings are really there. Let's also make changes to cut defensive medicine and malpractice insurance costs through tort reform. Those two changes could be done starting immediately. They should reduce costs for everyone immediately. And they should give us some sense of how much fat there really is in the medical system that can be cut and used for expanding healthcare for the uninsurables.

I realize that an honest statement about healthcare from the obamacrats is not likely any time soon. Still, I can dream.

congress is back -- now comes the trouble

Congress is back in Washinton after a well deserved (for the country) vacation. Our elected representatives were forced to meet and deal with the views of actual constituents rather than the distilled nonsense fed to them by pollsters and pundits, not to mention lobbyists. Of course, now that they are back in Washington all that reality can fade into the background once again. They can resume the fantasy that they know better than the American people what it is that those same people want and need. I think we should all hope for a recess as soon as possible.

Van Jones - II

Wow! That did not take long! Van Jones "resigned" in the middle of last night. His 'resignation was timed to be too late for the Sunday papers and tool early for the news cycle after Labor Day. He claims to have "resigned" because he was being subjected to malicious smears from right wing nut jobs. Of course, the big weapoons being used against Jones were videos of his own earlier statements. Imagine! How dare those right wing nut jobs actually quote what he said over the last five years. What a smear tactic!

The truth is that Jones was dumped by the White House at the most opportune time to avoid publicity. Indeed, those who get their news from the main stream media probably had no idea of any controversy about Jones at all, as the MSM had not covered this matter prior to Labor Day weekend.

The Jones affair is actually a very telling matter about the Obama White House. There is no way that Jones could have been appointed to his position without the administration having knowledge of most if not all of his bizarre past statements. The real truth is that the Obama Administration did not see Jones' past comments as a problem. Indeed, they agreed with them. Whites dumped all polution on people of color. The capitalist system was the cause of suffering and polution. A convicted murderer of a policeman was a hero! etc.

I wonder who will be uncovered next.

Van Jones -- truly amazing

The stories about White House green jobs Tsar Van Jones keep getting stranger and stranger. First, Glenn Beck came out with video where Jones proclaimed himself a Communist. Then we got more video about how Jones wants to remake the American system. Then came his background as a 9-11 Truther who claims that the attacks on 9-11 were an inside job perpetrated by the US government. Now he is on tape telling us that white males are demented unlike black males who never shoot up suburban schools. And the videos keep coming. Indeed, I find it truly amazing that Jones has not yet been dumped by the Obamacrats.

Even more amazing is the fact that the main stream media has not been covering this story. Nothing on NBC or in the New York Times. Nothing on the other networks until today. It is as if a White House Tsar with radical and clearly crazy views is not news to these people. Did they really think that if they did not report about Jones, the issue would go away? Apparently so. And apparently, the self proclaimed gurus who run these media outlets still do not understand that they no longer have a monopoly on the dissemination of news in America. So, in about ten days, the story has changed from the boycott of advertisers on the Glenn Beck Show (which got big press in the main stream media) -- a boycott promoted by Van Jones' organization -- to one about how long Jones can survive as a crazy in the White House.

Amazing what a little truth can do when applied directly to a problem.

Smell the desperation!

the announcement that Obama is going to address a joint session of Congress with regard to health care is a sure sign of panic at the White House. After all, the big gun of the administration is the teleprompter - reading skill of the president. He trotted out his speechifying on a number of occasions in July and August to support Obamacare. He also addressed a number of purportedly unscripted questions at town hall meetings. The net effect of these appearances was a decline in support for both the president and his proposals. The American people finally have woken up to realize that when the big O (pronounced big zero) steps out on the stage to read his poll tested lines (which have no relation to the truth), they should not take him at face value. We have to read the text of the bills and not listen to the pablum spouting from the big O.

My guess is that the ratings for this address to congress will not be very good. After all, how many times do we need to hear the same thing over and over from this man. Perhaps, if he would put forth an actual proposal and distribute it to the country via the media, he might have some better success. Indeed, if Obama could speak in specifics, he might be helped in some quarters. At least the irrational fears of many might be lessened. On the other hand, with a concrete proposal, the talking points used by the Obamacrats would have to be modified to reflect reality. That ought to be enough to kill any chance for passage of this bill.

Obama tried to get this proposal through congress based upon nothing more than a smile and a load of BS. He lost the trust of the majority of the people. He will not get their trust back with another in his endless series of speeches. He will have to produce some results first. Who knows, maybe by next week, unemployment will have been brought down to 6% due to the stimulus bill. Maybe the war in Afghanistan will end. Maybe aliens will land on the White House lawn. The longer this mess goes on, the worse it gets for the Obamacrats. It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.

Himes -- a true loser

Tonight, Congressman Jim Himes had his very first town hall to discuss healthcare. To say that Himes was a smug apologist for the obamacrats who seemed unable to answer the simplest question with facts rather than talking points does not do justice to the terrible performance of the Congressman. I truly wonder how Connecticut actually elected someone this vapid. In the entire meeting, Himes seemed unable to come forward with any benefit to passing the Obamacrat proposals.

Ted Kennedy

The death of Senator Edward Kennedy is cause for thought about his impact on America. Probably his most important contribution to this nation is never mentioned: In 1980, Kennedy ran a close battle against then president Jimmy Carter. While Carter won the nomination, Kennedy's fight was sufficient to wound Carter severely. The end result was the election of Ronald Reagan in November. We will never know if Carter could have survived Reagan's challenge had the Democrats been truly united. Nevertheless, both for his contribution in the removal of Carter and for bringing the age of Reagan, Kennedy deserves a nation's thanks.

Platitudes for all

After a month of town hall meetings, press conferences, presidential speeches and other events intended to explain the healthcare proposals in congress, all we have gotten are platitudes -- including many which appear to be blatant lies. Obama and his Obamacrats have told us over and over that if we like our current coverage we can keep it; yet, they never explain how that can be in the face of language in the bills which seems to contradicts those statements. Obama and his minions tell us again and again that there are no death panels in the bills; then they call the people talking about these panels liars and crazies; and, finally, Obama and his toadies agree that the panels will be taken out of the bill. Of course, never are we told how they are taking something out of the bill which they claimed was not there in the first place. Obama claims again and again that he will fund the cost of these bills by tightening up medicare, so as to remove a half of a trillion dollars in expenses from that program in the next few years. Obama, however, never explains how he can take out half of a trillion dollars without reducing the scope of the medical care received by the elderly. this is not a 2% reduction which will not be felt. It is a half trillion dollars. Even in Washington, that is still a very big number.

The truth is that Obama simply does not want to give details to the public about the healthcare plan That is why he was in such a rush to pass that bill. It is also why he never misses an opportunity to use glittering generalities and NO specifics in discussing healthcare. Obama realizes that if the American people fully understand his vision for our healthcare, his presidency will be at an end, his political capital shot, and his chance for re--elction nil. Obama's problem is that many around the country have come to realize just this fact.

How low can O go?

Today's Rasmussen poll on Obama's job approval puts the number who rate his performance as excellent at just 27%. That's down from 44-45% in January and from the high 30's as late as mid June. So in two months fully 10% of the electorate no longer thinks that obama has done an excellent job according to this daily poll. More important, 41% of the electorate now rates Obama's job performance as poor. These folks are not likely to switch their opinions any time soon. It takes an active dislike of the president's policies for someone to rate his job performance as poor. To have 41% of the voters in this category is an ominous sign for the administration. The congressional democrats are not blind to these results, and it will become progressively harder for Obama to win his battles if his political standing continues to deteriorate or even stays constant at this level. After two years of non-stop criticism of Bush by Obama, Obama is now turning into Bush -- at least as far s his approval ratings are concerned.

The real question at the moment is whether or not Obama can stabilize his ratings. while his job approval is sinking, his approval on specific issues is going even lower. The issue questions are usually a leading indicator of where the overall job approval is going, so we may soon see Obama with overall ratings in the low 40's or even the high 30's. Clearly, Obama's speeches about health care are not making much difference. He is out there so often saying the ame thing again and again, that no one much is listening anymore. Obama says that we can keep our insurance plans if we want. Then he says it again and again and again. By now, anyone who was paying attention has heard that the statement he is making is basically false. Even the CBO agrees. But it does not stop Obama. He also has a routine that he does about not pulling the plug on Grandma, but he still has yet to explain how he can cut medicare by half a trillion dollars without rationing care for those who are too old or infirm to benefit much from treatment. In other words, he says he won't do it, but his plan basically calls for pulling the plug on Grandma. In short, Obama has forfeited his credibility by attempting to win approval for his plan based upon demonstrable lies. That is a harsh way of stating it, but the only alternative one can have is that Obama simply does not understand the terms and the impact of the plan he is pushing. The choice: Obama is either a liar or an idiot. I do not believe he is an idiot, so that leaves liar as the likely choice.

As more and more people come to realize this basic truth, Obama's number will continue to fall along with all of the other Obamacrats. The bleeding could stop if Obama throws in the towel on health care and cap and trade. He could then try to tinker around the edges of health care and announce a victory that many in the media would pronouce historic. It is too late to regain his status as the chosen one. Fast action could restore support to him, but delay will strip that away for the rest of his term