“Of all tyrannies, tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive...better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. A robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep but those who torment us for our own good will never stop for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
__C.S. Lewis
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
A PAGE FROM DR. SEUSS
I do not like this Obama fam,
I do not like their health care scam.
I do not like these dirty crooks,
or how they lie and cook the books.
I do not like when Congress steals,
I do not like their secret deals.
I do not like this speaker Nan ,
I do not like this 'YES, WE CAN'.
I do not like this spending spree---
I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.
I do not like your smug replies,
when I complain about your lies.
I do not like this change and hope.
I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!
No more change and hope with this dismal White House dope.
I do not like their health care scam.
I do not like these dirty crooks,
or how they lie and cook the books.
I do not like when Congress steals,
I do not like their secret deals.
I do not like this speaker Nan ,
I do not like this 'YES, WE CAN'.
I do not like this spending spree---
I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.
I do not like your smug replies,
when I complain about your lies.
I do not like this change and hope.
I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!
No more change and hope with this dismal White House dope.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
BEAUTIFUL WOMEN ARE ON FOX NEWS
I just had a Facebook conversation with my darling niece, Maureen. In the course of our back and forth discussion of the standards of beauty, I pointed out to her that if she were to watch Fox News, she would see more beautiful women than can be seen in Hollywood or anywhere else.
Monday, September 6, 2010
LETTER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
To the Democratic National Committee:
Thank you for sending the President’s Message asking me for my money and my vote. While I did vote for Democrats in past elections, and I did contribute to Hillary Clinton the maximum that the law allowed, I will never again vote for a Democrat or give even one dollar of my hard earned money to a Democrat. That begs the question, Why? I’ve decided to tell you why. First of all, the Democrats in both the House and the Senate have followed Obama and his agenda like lemmings. Secondly, they foisted huge government control over our lives without taking the time to read the bills, to consider the consequences, and to consider the wishes of the American people. Because of the reckless actions of this president and the Democrats who have carried out his agenda, we are about to go over a cliff. Sadly, most Americans who voted for Obama are poorly informed or so enamored with his campaign rhetoric that they are still traveling on those deceptions. I’m taking valuable time to enumerate all the things that Obama has done that should outrage every decent American.
1. When Obama wrote his books, he admitted he was mentored as a youth by Frank Marshall Davis who is an avowed Communist.
2. Obama’s grandparents were strong socialists who sent Obama’s mother to a socialist school where she was introduced to Frank Marshall Davis and she later introduced her son, Barack Obama, to him.
3. Barack Hussein Obama was enrolled as a Muslim child in school. Both his father and step-father were Muslims.
4. In his book, Obama said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college.
5. In his book, Obama said “I will stand with them (Muslims) should political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
6. After college, Obama traveled to Pakistan. At that time Americans could not enter Pakistan. He did enter on an unknown national passport.
7. In 1996 when Obama ran for the Illinois Senate, he sought the endorsement of the Marxist Party.
8. Obama sat in a Chicago church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America, for Jews, and advocate for black liberation theology.
9. As soon as Obama announced his decision to run, the Palestinians in Gaza set up a fund-raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign.
10. Obama has consistently supported gun control that would prohibit gun ownership in cities where guns were outlawed in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
11. Obama refused to disclose who donated money for his election campaign as other candidates have done.
12. Obama received endorsements from the most radical people: Louis Farrakhan, Kadaffi, and Chavez.
13. Obama had no job experience except as a community organizer and now that he has been in office almost two years, his lack of experience shows. He does not know how to govern.
14. His friendship with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn raises the specter that Obama is comfortable with people who engage in revolutionary violence against Americans when it serves their ends.
15. Obama refused to wear a flag in his lapel and only did so when there was a public outcry.
16. Obama had children in school singing his praises and treating him as a Messiah. This is the worst form of indoctrination.
17. Obama stood with his hands over his groin during the playing of the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. It speaks volumes, especially taken together with his bow to the Saudi King and his countless apologies to the world for America. No other president has ever done that nor should they.
18. Obama picked radical people to be a part of his administration, those who were perfectly in accord with curtailing freedom of speech in order to silence his opposition.
19. Obama advocated for sex education in Kindergarten that included homosexual information.
20. Obama has spent nearly $2 million to hide all documentation of his personal background so that no one can find out who he really is. As a former Judge, I know when people go to such lengths to hide information, it’s because they have something to hide.
21. When the place of his birth was called into question, a person with nothing to hide would have produced his birth certificate and all his college applications which would include information about where he was born.
22. Obama had a close relationship with Tony Resko, Rashid Khalidi and others of questionable character. Resko gave him a sweetheart deal on land to build his residence. Resko is now in prison. Khalidi is a radical anti-Semite.
23. The Marxist billionaire George Soros spent millions to get Obama elected. Why?
24. Obama trained ACORN workers in Chicago and was their attorney. He used them, and their thug ways to corrupt the caucuses during the primaries.
25. Obama stated to Joe the plumber that it was his aim to redistribute the wealth. He has been engaged in class warfare all of his adult life.
26. Obama selected Valerie Jarrett as Senior White House Advisor, and she is an avowed Socialist.
27. Obama selected Anita Dunn as White House Communications Director. She said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher.
28. Obama put Carol Browner, a well known socialist to head his Global Warming initiative and to work on Cap and Trade, which would be the largest national tax our nation has ever known. He also picked Van Jones as his Green Energy Czar. Jones had to resign when his Communist beliefs came to light.
29. Obama has shown over and over again that he is anti-Israel and will favor Palestinians and Muslims at every turn.
30. Obama has supported the building of the Mosque at Ground Zero in defiance of those who have lost loved ones, in defiance of the will of the people.
31. Obama pushed a health care plan that the people don’t want. It will lead to higher costs and rationing. He advocated taking one half billion dollars from Medicare to give health care to illegal aliens.
32. Obama has sued the state of Arizona who only want the federal government to do its job and protect our borders from violent illegals crossing to sell drugs and engage in human trafficking.
33. Obama took $20 million to resettle Gaza residents in the USA.
34. Obama upset our European allies by removing plans for a missile defense system that they counted on to ward off Russian aggression.
35. Obama took a huge spending bill under the guise of a stimulus and used it as a pay off for organizations, unions and individuals that helped get him elected.
36. Obama took over insurance companies, car companies, and banks. He gave control to the unions at the expense of bondholders and shareholders.
37. Obama closed dealerships all over the country based on racial and political discrimination. He gave minorities and Democrats the dealerships he took away from white Republicans.
38. Obama took student loans from banks and gave them to the government in order to control who gets the loans, giving priority to minorities.
39. On tapes that have come to light, Obama admits to Muslim groups that he was raised a Muslim, educated as a Muslim and is a Muslim.
40. Obama reported our country to the Human Rights commission of the UN to be put on a list of human rights abusers for not allowing government employees to unionize in every one of the 50 states. On that list include Muslim stoning of adulterers, suicide bombers, etc. And now, thanks to Obama, we are included. Outrageous!
41. Obama violated his campaign promise to have all major bills posted on the Internet in advance of a vote.
42. Obama insulted Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, by hiding him in a room at the White House, and left Netanyahu to sit alone in that room while Obama went to have his dinner.
43. Obama insulted our best ally, the UK, by returning the Winston Churchill bust that they gave us as a gift for our aid during WWII and which sat in the White House ever since until the Obama removed it.
44. During the time of our present economic crisis when so many of our citizens are jobless, Obama and his extravagant wife (with 23 personal assistants) have lavishly entertained themselves at the White House and on more vacations than any of his predecessors, and all in just the first two years of his term.
45. And last but not least (and more will come) Obama continues to divide our nation, to engage in class warfare, and to thumb his nose at the American people.
For all of the reasons stated, I am not ever going to vote for another Democrat. Take me off your list.
Barbara LeBey
Thank you for sending the President’s Message asking me for my money and my vote. While I did vote for Democrats in past elections, and I did contribute to Hillary Clinton the maximum that the law allowed, I will never again vote for a Democrat or give even one dollar of my hard earned money to a Democrat. That begs the question, Why? I’ve decided to tell you why. First of all, the Democrats in both the House and the Senate have followed Obama and his agenda like lemmings. Secondly, they foisted huge government control over our lives without taking the time to read the bills, to consider the consequences, and to consider the wishes of the American people. Because of the reckless actions of this president and the Democrats who have carried out his agenda, we are about to go over a cliff. Sadly, most Americans who voted for Obama are poorly informed or so enamored with his campaign rhetoric that they are still traveling on those deceptions. I’m taking valuable time to enumerate all the things that Obama has done that should outrage every decent American.
1. When Obama wrote his books, he admitted he was mentored as a youth by Frank Marshall Davis who is an avowed Communist.
2. Obama’s grandparents were strong socialists who sent Obama’s mother to a socialist school where she was introduced to Frank Marshall Davis and she later introduced her son, Barack Obama, to him.
3. Barack Hussein Obama was enrolled as a Muslim child in school. Both his father and step-father were Muslims.
4. In his book, Obama said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college.
5. In his book, Obama said “I will stand with them (Muslims) should political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
6. After college, Obama traveled to Pakistan. At that time Americans could not enter Pakistan. He did enter on an unknown national passport.
7. In 1996 when Obama ran for the Illinois Senate, he sought the endorsement of the Marxist Party.
8. Obama sat in a Chicago church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America, for Jews, and advocate for black liberation theology.
9. As soon as Obama announced his decision to run, the Palestinians in Gaza set up a fund-raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign.
10. Obama has consistently supported gun control that would prohibit gun ownership in cities where guns were outlawed in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
11. Obama refused to disclose who donated money for his election campaign as other candidates have done.
12. Obama received endorsements from the most radical people: Louis Farrakhan, Kadaffi, and Chavez.
13. Obama had no job experience except as a community organizer and now that he has been in office almost two years, his lack of experience shows. He does not know how to govern.
14. His friendship with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn raises the specter that Obama is comfortable with people who engage in revolutionary violence against Americans when it serves their ends.
15. Obama refused to wear a flag in his lapel and only did so when there was a public outcry.
16. Obama had children in school singing his praises and treating him as a Messiah. This is the worst form of indoctrination.
17. Obama stood with his hands over his groin during the playing of the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. It speaks volumes, especially taken together with his bow to the Saudi King and his countless apologies to the world for America. No other president has ever done that nor should they.
18. Obama picked radical people to be a part of his administration, those who were perfectly in accord with curtailing freedom of speech in order to silence his opposition.
19. Obama advocated for sex education in Kindergarten that included homosexual information.
20. Obama has spent nearly $2 million to hide all documentation of his personal background so that no one can find out who he really is. As a former Judge, I know when people go to such lengths to hide information, it’s because they have something to hide.
21. When the place of his birth was called into question, a person with nothing to hide would have produced his birth certificate and all his college applications which would include information about where he was born.
22. Obama had a close relationship with Tony Resko, Rashid Khalidi and others of questionable character. Resko gave him a sweetheart deal on land to build his residence. Resko is now in prison. Khalidi is a radical anti-Semite.
23. The Marxist billionaire George Soros spent millions to get Obama elected. Why?
24. Obama trained ACORN workers in Chicago and was their attorney. He used them, and their thug ways to corrupt the caucuses during the primaries.
25. Obama stated to Joe the plumber that it was his aim to redistribute the wealth. He has been engaged in class warfare all of his adult life.
26. Obama selected Valerie Jarrett as Senior White House Advisor, and she is an avowed Socialist.
27. Obama selected Anita Dunn as White House Communications Director. She said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher.
28. Obama put Carol Browner, a well known socialist to head his Global Warming initiative and to work on Cap and Trade, which would be the largest national tax our nation has ever known. He also picked Van Jones as his Green Energy Czar. Jones had to resign when his Communist beliefs came to light.
29. Obama has shown over and over again that he is anti-Israel and will favor Palestinians and Muslims at every turn.
30. Obama has supported the building of the Mosque at Ground Zero in defiance of those who have lost loved ones, in defiance of the will of the people.
31. Obama pushed a health care plan that the people don’t want. It will lead to higher costs and rationing. He advocated taking one half billion dollars from Medicare to give health care to illegal aliens.
32. Obama has sued the state of Arizona who only want the federal government to do its job and protect our borders from violent illegals crossing to sell drugs and engage in human trafficking.
33. Obama took $20 million to resettle Gaza residents in the USA.
34. Obama upset our European allies by removing plans for a missile defense system that they counted on to ward off Russian aggression.
35. Obama took a huge spending bill under the guise of a stimulus and used it as a pay off for organizations, unions and individuals that helped get him elected.
36. Obama took over insurance companies, car companies, and banks. He gave control to the unions at the expense of bondholders and shareholders.
37. Obama closed dealerships all over the country based on racial and political discrimination. He gave minorities and Democrats the dealerships he took away from white Republicans.
38. Obama took student loans from banks and gave them to the government in order to control who gets the loans, giving priority to minorities.
39. On tapes that have come to light, Obama admits to Muslim groups that he was raised a Muslim, educated as a Muslim and is a Muslim.
40. Obama reported our country to the Human Rights commission of the UN to be put on a list of human rights abusers for not allowing government employees to unionize in every one of the 50 states. On that list include Muslim stoning of adulterers, suicide bombers, etc. And now, thanks to Obama, we are included. Outrageous!
41. Obama violated his campaign promise to have all major bills posted on the Internet in advance of a vote.
42. Obama insulted Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, by hiding him in a room at the White House, and left Netanyahu to sit alone in that room while Obama went to have his dinner.
43. Obama insulted our best ally, the UK, by returning the Winston Churchill bust that they gave us as a gift for our aid during WWII and which sat in the White House ever since until the Obama removed it.
44. During the time of our present economic crisis when so many of our citizens are jobless, Obama and his extravagant wife (with 23 personal assistants) have lavishly entertained themselves at the White House and on more vacations than any of his predecessors, and all in just the first two years of his term.
45. And last but not least (and more will come) Obama continues to divide our nation, to engage in class warfare, and to thumb his nose at the American people.
For all of the reasons stated, I am not ever going to vote for another Democrat. Take me off your list.
Barbara LeBey
Monday, August 23, 2010
OBAMA'S AGENDA: THE ONE HE WON'T REVEAL
OBAMA DARE NOT BE OPEN ABOUT HIS AGENDA. If he were to be honest, you would't like it. But here it is for those of you who haven't read his books, studied his work history or followed what he has been doing since being in office.
* He wants to redistribute the wealth from those who work hard, pay their taxes and who don't depend on government enttilements. He wants to give the wealth he steals to the 47% who pay no taxes and take whatever they can for free.
* He wants to allow as many illegal aliens to enter the country and to give them amnesty in order to get their votes.
* He wants to enlarge government so that we become a socialist state.
* He wants to help the Muslims infiltrate our country in large numbers, and to allow the spread of Islam.
* He wants to eliminate the American ideology from our textbooks, and to elevate the role of minorities in history while diminishing the status of the real founders of our nation.
* He wants to align our country with all those rogue nations that wish to destroy western civiliztion--Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, etc.
* He wants to have government decide what medical treatment should be permitted and that will include rationing.
* He wants to level the playing field by giving what he steals from the producers to those who freeload.
* He wants to make sure that minorities are favored in institutions of higher learning by giving them many freebies and financial aid as he can get away with.
* He wants to destroy Israel in keeping with his promise to Egypt's foreign minister that was inadvertently picked up in their private conversation.
* In short, he wants to do what he told you he would do--transform America to the Saul Alinsky neoCommunist state where government takes over as many companies as they can.
* He wants to raise taxes, increase regulations and benefit unions to the detriment of business, who are, after all, the ones who must create the jobs that produce revenue.
* He wants to increase government jobs...they cost us money and produce no revenue.
Those who failed to investigate Obama's background are now covering for themselves by covering for him.
* He wants to redistribute the wealth from those who work hard, pay their taxes and who don't depend on government enttilements. He wants to give the wealth he steals to the 47% who pay no taxes and take whatever they can for free.
* He wants to allow as many illegal aliens to enter the country and to give them amnesty in order to get their votes.
* He wants to enlarge government so that we become a socialist state.
* He wants to help the Muslims infiltrate our country in large numbers, and to allow the spread of Islam.
* He wants to eliminate the American ideology from our textbooks, and to elevate the role of minorities in history while diminishing the status of the real founders of our nation.
* He wants to align our country with all those rogue nations that wish to destroy western civiliztion--Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, etc.
* He wants to have government decide what medical treatment should be permitted and that will include rationing.
* He wants to level the playing field by giving what he steals from the producers to those who freeload.
* He wants to make sure that minorities are favored in institutions of higher learning by giving them many freebies and financial aid as he can get away with.
* He wants to destroy Israel in keeping with his promise to Egypt's foreign minister that was inadvertently picked up in their private conversation.
* In short, he wants to do what he told you he would do--transform America to the Saul Alinsky neoCommunist state where government takes over as many companies as they can.
* He wants to raise taxes, increase regulations and benefit unions to the detriment of business, who are, after all, the ones who must create the jobs that produce revenue.
* He wants to increase government jobs...they cost us money and produce no revenue.
Those who failed to investigate Obama's background are now covering for themselves by covering for him.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
THE LEFT IS THE ENEMY OF JEWS AND ISRAEL
The world is in a sorry state, but only Israel stands like a beacon, denying its enemies the chance to destroy it. It is the old story. Collusion and lies abound among the left, and the weak liberals launch relentless campaigns to delegitimatize Israel and Jews. However, the world must remember this: it starts with the Jews (being hunted and maligned) and it ends with them. If this country and the media can’t stand up to be counted, speak for Israel, and for moral justice, and not fall victim to the moral bankruptcy sweeping the world like a virus, then what does America stand for? It is time for us lead the way. Make no mistake, Muslim anti-Semitism is particularly toxic, and spews endless ammunition aimed at the destruction of the West and of Israel. Stop the insanity, the foolishness. Recognize that Muslims are determined to spread their barbaric beliefs and Sharia law all across the West. By allowing Mosques (where indoctrination occurs) to proliferate, we are aiding them in their mission: convert the infidel or kill them. This notion of religious tolerance must go two ways or not at all.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A FAILED PRESIDENCY
OBAMA: A FAILED PRESIDENCY
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.
But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
Attribution: The American Thinker
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.
But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
Attribution: The American Thinker
Sunday, August 1, 2010
A LETTER TO THE JEWS WHO SUPPORT OBAMA
A Letter to the Jewish People Who Still Believe in Obama and that Peace Can Be Obtained By Giving Up More Land:
When Israel gave up Gaza for Peace, they received more violence and a Hamas government in power to do them as much harm as possible. If Israel abandons Judea, Samararia, the Golan, the Jordan Valley and parts of Jerusalem, they will have violence and missiles coming at them from all sides, and in closer proximity.
The Koran mandates that infidels (non-Muslims) be converted to Islam or be killed--also that the Middle East be pure and free of all infidels. That the annihilation of Israel. Muslims don't want peace even when they say they do. They want conversion or death.
The West should not expect peace from a primitive people who produce nothing of value except the oil extracted from their land by others via contracts.
Muslims cling to a pagan mythology which embodies all manner of conquest, murder, torture and child molestation. They believe it is justified to indoctrinate hatred in their people. If Jews expect that Muslims will abandon the mandate of Mohammed (Allah) or the Koran they are living in la la land. Of all people, Jews should recognize aberrant behavior and ideology when they see it, considering they have been the victims of it throughout human history.
It didn't start with Islam. It started in ancient times when Jews refused to accept the many gods of both the Greeks and the Romans. Then it traveled to the Christians during the time of the Crusades, when a dead Jew on a Roman Cross was their reason to wantonly kill so many Jews. Each group of killers had their high priest from the early Popes to Hitler and now to Mohammed. Soon the goodness of Christianity prevailed and that kind of destruction is anathema to true Christians, but expect no such change from Muslims. Only a complete genocide will quench their blood lust which is why the Muslim "Ummah" people cannot be pacified no matter how much Israel panders or gives up. Remember this well: Islam cannot be appeased.
Amazingly, their are so many Jews, mostly American Jews, who are gullible fools who either can't remember history or are too ignorant of it. Understandable that Jews want peace after centuries of being hunted, killed, vilified and denied their human dignity. Of course they want to have a land of their own to be safe from this violent scourge against them that has never stopped.
Any rational Jew who knows history and understands the Muslim mindset knows that Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem will be used as Gaza is used--launching pads for missiles to be fired into their neighborhoods. And these missiles are now accurate and have the capacity to reach every part of Israel.
A dismal picture. Are there any real solutions? First, it must be realized there will be no permanent peace in the Middle East, not for Israel, not even for other Muslim nations if Israel is obliterated. Shocking that American Jewish leaders are listening to an arch killer of Jews, the very person who facilitated Arafat's schemes to destroy Israel. Who is this person? Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority who now lies in English just as Arafat did. Jews listen to him with rapt attention, polite applause--the very same man who was Arafat's bag man who assisted in the Munich massacres of all the Israeli athletes who participated in the Olympics among and in so many other acts of terror. And these same dumb Jews are now buying into the falsehoods of Barack Hussein Obama, who is pressuring Israel to surrender their defensive territory in their rightful ancient homeland.
Finally Israelis have awaken to their own naivete. They know Netanyahu will not be pushed around as Ehud Olmert, Tzippi Levni and Ehud Barak have been. And as Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peris was in their gullible dealings with Arafat and the Oslo fiasco.
The Torah says Jews are not to adopt the gods of others nor use images to worship. Yet Jews are honoring the false messiah in America...Obama, who is leading both America and Israel into national suicide, one by an economic measure and the other by surrender to a hateful enemy.
Groveling never works and has never brought peace to Jews wherever they are. For those who have forgotten or for those who never knew, paying bribes to the local Commissars of Russia or Poland or Germany gave them deaths in the millions. Everything they had was taken away from them leaving them destitute or dead.
In 2005, before Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians, they had turned that land into bug free fertile soil and greenhouses where the best organic fruits and vegetables were grown along with beautiful flowers. As soon as these Gaza Muslims got the land they looted, burned, and destroyed everything that the Jews built, the greenhouses, the buildings, the cemetery, the schools. They destroyed the pipes, valves and electronic controls of all the greenhouses. Then these same idiots tried to grow produce on the arid soil as the Jews had done. But they couldn't. They didn't know how. Now these same Muslims live on the largesse of the Israelis and others for their survival. Stupid beyond what anyone could have imagined. The dumbest of dumb. And they have set up rocket launchers on that land to shoot 10,000 rockets, missiles and mortars into the Jewish civilian population. They will never stop until they are taken out.
Imagine if Canada or Mexico were doing the same thing to us. What would we do? I take that thought back because in this Obama administration we see that the Mexican drug cartel can kill our people and face no real opposition from the Obama administration. And when the Governor of Arizona tries to protect her people, Obama fights her instead of the Mexican illegal criminals. And this Obama is who the people of American elected. "What fools we mortals be." Shakespeare.
If Israel concedes to Obama's wishes and gives up Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and parts of Jerusalem, there will be a bigger Palestinian Muslim State of Terror than what they now have in Gaza. Jews must stop believing that the Muslims want peace. They don't. And neither does Obama. He just wants to redistribute American wealth to his constituency, regardless of the destructive effect to our nation. Israel means nothing to him except he must pretend to insure the dumb Jews that he is sincere in order to get their votes and their money.
Islamists and Arabists inhabit this White House in large numbers.
Remember the Koran demands that true Muslims should lie to infidels to get what they want. Mohammed was a master of deceit. He made false treaties while building his military strength and then breaking the treaties and slaughtering those who believed his contractual promises.
As this is written, weak and gullible American Jewish leaders are buying into the lies of Obama and Islam to the detriment of Israel and ultimately to their own detriment.
So we come to the last part of my letter. What can be done?
Jews must look at their own history, the 1967 war and the 1973 war and also look at what it took for us to win the Second World War. You can't fight a war with one hand tied behind your back. When the Muslims launch rockets and missiles, destroy every last one of them even the human shields. Take out your enemy. We flattened Berlin, Dresden and the German war machine. That's how we won. If we hadn't done that, Hitler would have been victorious. Now America is losing every war we engage in and spending billions in the process. When an enemy goes to war to destroy a nation, that nation has every right to destroy the enemy first if they can.
Survival of the fittest is part of the entire animal kingdom and humans are part of that kingdom.
When Israel gave up Gaza for Peace, they received more violence and a Hamas government in power to do them as much harm as possible. If Israel abandons Judea, Samararia, the Golan, the Jordan Valley and parts of Jerusalem, they will have violence and missiles coming at them from all sides, and in closer proximity.
The Koran mandates that infidels (non-Muslims) be converted to Islam or be killed--also that the Middle East be pure and free of all infidels. That the annihilation of Israel. Muslims don't want peace even when they say they do. They want conversion or death.
The West should not expect peace from a primitive people who produce nothing of value except the oil extracted from their land by others via contracts.
Muslims cling to a pagan mythology which embodies all manner of conquest, murder, torture and child molestation. They believe it is justified to indoctrinate hatred in their people. If Jews expect that Muslims will abandon the mandate of Mohammed (Allah) or the Koran they are living in la la land. Of all people, Jews should recognize aberrant behavior and ideology when they see it, considering they have been the victims of it throughout human history.
It didn't start with Islam. It started in ancient times when Jews refused to accept the many gods of both the Greeks and the Romans. Then it traveled to the Christians during the time of the Crusades, when a dead Jew on a Roman Cross was their reason to wantonly kill so many Jews. Each group of killers had their high priest from the early Popes to Hitler and now to Mohammed. Soon the goodness of Christianity prevailed and that kind of destruction is anathema to true Christians, but expect no such change from Muslims. Only a complete genocide will quench their blood lust which is why the Muslim "Ummah" people cannot be pacified no matter how much Israel panders or gives up. Remember this well: Islam cannot be appeased.
Amazingly, their are so many Jews, mostly American Jews, who are gullible fools who either can't remember history or are too ignorant of it. Understandable that Jews want peace after centuries of being hunted, killed, vilified and denied their human dignity. Of course they want to have a land of their own to be safe from this violent scourge against them that has never stopped.
Any rational Jew who knows history and understands the Muslim mindset knows that Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem will be used as Gaza is used--launching pads for missiles to be fired into their neighborhoods. And these missiles are now accurate and have the capacity to reach every part of Israel.
A dismal picture. Are there any real solutions? First, it must be realized there will be no permanent peace in the Middle East, not for Israel, not even for other Muslim nations if Israel is obliterated. Shocking that American Jewish leaders are listening to an arch killer of Jews, the very person who facilitated Arafat's schemes to destroy Israel. Who is this person? Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority who now lies in English just as Arafat did. Jews listen to him with rapt attention, polite applause--the very same man who was Arafat's bag man who assisted in the Munich massacres of all the Israeli athletes who participated in the Olympics among and in so many other acts of terror. And these same dumb Jews are now buying into the falsehoods of Barack Hussein Obama, who is pressuring Israel to surrender their defensive territory in their rightful ancient homeland.
Finally Israelis have awaken to their own naivete. They know Netanyahu will not be pushed around as Ehud Olmert, Tzippi Levni and Ehud Barak have been. And as Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peris was in their gullible dealings with Arafat and the Oslo fiasco.
The Torah says Jews are not to adopt the gods of others nor use images to worship. Yet Jews are honoring the false messiah in America...Obama, who is leading both America and Israel into national suicide, one by an economic measure and the other by surrender to a hateful enemy.
Groveling never works and has never brought peace to Jews wherever they are. For those who have forgotten or for those who never knew, paying bribes to the local Commissars of Russia or Poland or Germany gave them deaths in the millions. Everything they had was taken away from them leaving them destitute or dead.
In 2005, before Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians, they had turned that land into bug free fertile soil and greenhouses where the best organic fruits and vegetables were grown along with beautiful flowers. As soon as these Gaza Muslims got the land they looted, burned, and destroyed everything that the Jews built, the greenhouses, the buildings, the cemetery, the schools. They destroyed the pipes, valves and electronic controls of all the greenhouses. Then these same idiots tried to grow produce on the arid soil as the Jews had done. But they couldn't. They didn't know how. Now these same Muslims live on the largesse of the Israelis and others for their survival. Stupid beyond what anyone could have imagined. The dumbest of dumb. And they have set up rocket launchers on that land to shoot 10,000 rockets, missiles and mortars into the Jewish civilian population. They will never stop until they are taken out.
Imagine if Canada or Mexico were doing the same thing to us. What would we do? I take that thought back because in this Obama administration we see that the Mexican drug cartel can kill our people and face no real opposition from the Obama administration. And when the Governor of Arizona tries to protect her people, Obama fights her instead of the Mexican illegal criminals. And this Obama is who the people of American elected. "What fools we mortals be." Shakespeare.
If Israel concedes to Obama's wishes and gives up Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and parts of Jerusalem, there will be a bigger Palestinian Muslim State of Terror than what they now have in Gaza. Jews must stop believing that the Muslims want peace. They don't. And neither does Obama. He just wants to redistribute American wealth to his constituency, regardless of the destructive effect to our nation. Israel means nothing to him except he must pretend to insure the dumb Jews that he is sincere in order to get their votes and their money.
Islamists and Arabists inhabit this White House in large numbers.
Remember the Koran demands that true Muslims should lie to infidels to get what they want. Mohammed was a master of deceit. He made false treaties while building his military strength and then breaking the treaties and slaughtering those who believed his contractual promises.
As this is written, weak and gullible American Jewish leaders are buying into the lies of Obama and Islam to the detriment of Israel and ultimately to their own detriment.
So we come to the last part of my letter. What can be done?
Jews must look at their own history, the 1967 war and the 1973 war and also look at what it took for us to win the Second World War. You can't fight a war with one hand tied behind your back. When the Muslims launch rockets and missiles, destroy every last one of them even the human shields. Take out your enemy. We flattened Berlin, Dresden and the German war machine. That's how we won. If we hadn't done that, Hitler would have been victorious. Now America is losing every war we engage in and spending billions in the process. When an enemy goes to war to destroy a nation, that nation has every right to destroy the enemy first if they can.
Survival of the fittest is part of the entire animal kingdom and humans are part of that kingdom.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
OBAMA'S DIABOLICAL PLAN
Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.
As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to
20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.
As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to
20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
OBAMA IS AMERICA'S GREATEST DANGER
MY ASSESSMENT OF OBAMA IS BASED ON HIS RECORD OF FAILURE. Obama has been cut throat, calculating, aloof, arrogant and divisive "from day one". He and his liberal political elites think they know what's best for the people and the bigger the government the better. He has routinely ignored the will of the people (debt, health care, borders), and while his most noticeable feature are his big ears, he lacks the common sense to use them.
For most Americans, Obama means 13 trillion dollars in debt and rising to 17-19 trillion before he is through. Debt service of up to $ 1 trillion a year. A permanent reduction in the lifestyle of all of our descendants. The end of American exceptionalism and the gross reduction of American power. Double digit unemployment. An ever smaller number of productive people supporting an ever growing number of government workers. Massive inflation. Abandoning the dollar as the world's reserve currency. And the laughter of China, Russia and every two bit dictator in the middle east, Asia and South America. And his scorn for Israel in favor of his beloved Muslims is putting the country in grave danger as he emboldens the terrorists in their jihad against Israel and us.
Every day I turn on TV and there is more thing evidence of what the Obama administration and the Democrats are doing to take over the country and destroy our freedoms. Obama is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of "The People" he was hired to serve, instead, he is dragging America into the alternate universe of his Socialistic ideology. He thrives in the ether of platitudes, having no interest in or ability to perform actual leadership. We are now experiencing the effects and may well be in for a very rough ride these next 2 years.
As Lou Holtz says, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” The issue is how Obama and his bumbling, finger-pointing, evasive group of academic administrators fully and completely bungle their jobs demonstrating daily their inability to handle almost anything.
For most Americans, Obama means 13 trillion dollars in debt and rising to 17-19 trillion before he is through. Debt service of up to $ 1 trillion a year. A permanent reduction in the lifestyle of all of our descendants. The end of American exceptionalism and the gross reduction of American power. Double digit unemployment. An ever smaller number of productive people supporting an ever growing number of government workers. Massive inflation. Abandoning the dollar as the world's reserve currency. And the laughter of China, Russia and every two bit dictator in the middle east, Asia and South America. And his scorn for Israel in favor of his beloved Muslims is putting the country in grave danger as he emboldens the terrorists in their jihad against Israel and us.
Every day I turn on TV and there is more thing evidence of what the Obama administration and the Democrats are doing to take over the country and destroy our freedoms. Obama is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of "The People" he was hired to serve, instead, he is dragging America into the alternate universe of his Socialistic ideology. He thrives in the ether of platitudes, having no interest in or ability to perform actual leadership. We are now experiencing the effects and may well be in for a very rough ride these next 2 years.
As Lou Holtz says, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” The issue is how Obama and his bumbling, finger-pointing, evasive group of academic administrators fully and completely bungle their jobs demonstrating daily their inability to handle almost anything.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
OBAMA: A STRANGER IN OUR MIDST
I found a opinion piece that is important enough to include here.
A Stranger in Our Midst
By Robert Weissberg,
Professor of Political Science - Emeritus at the University of Illinois , Urbana
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America 's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics. After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-sync values never surfaced. The term I settled on is "alien rule" -- based on outsider values, regardless of policy benefits -- that generates agitation.
This is what bloody anti-colonial strife was all about. No doubt, millions of Indians and Africans probably grasped that expelling the British guaranteed economic ruin and even worse governance, but at least the mess would be their mess. Awareness began with Obama's odd pre-presidency associations, decades of being oblivious to Rev. Wright's anti-American ranting, his enduring friendship with the terrorist guy-in-the-neighborhood Bill Ayers, and the Saul Alinsky-flavored anti-capitalist community activism. Further add a hazy personal background -- an Indonesian childhood, shifting official names, and a paperless-trail climb through elite educational institutions. None of this disqualified Obama from the presidency; rather, this background just doesn't fit with the conventional political résumé. It is just the "outsider" quality that alarms.
For all the yammering about George W. Bush's privileged background, his made-in-the-USA persona was absolutely indisputable. John McCain might be embarrassed about his Naval Academy class rank and iffy combat performance, but there was never any doubt of his authenticity. Countless conservatives despised Bill Clinton, but nobody ever, ever doubted his good-old-boy American bonafides. The suspicion that Obama is an outsider, a figure who really doesn't "get" America , grew clearer from his initial appointments.
What "native" would appoint Kevin Jennings, a militant gay activist, to oversee school safety? Or permit a Marxist rabble-rouser to be a "green jobs czar"? How about an Attorney General who began by accusing Americans of cowardice when it comes to discussing race? And who can forget Obama's weird defense of his pal Louis Henry Gates from "racist" Cambridge , Massachusetts cops? If the American Revolution had never occurred and the Queen had appointed Obama Royal Governor (after his distinguished service in Kenya ), a trusted locally attuned aide would have first whispered in his ear, "Mr. Governor General, here in America , we do not automatically assume that the police were at fault," and the day would have been saved. And then there's the "we are sorry, we'll never be arrogant again" rhetoric seemingly designed for a future President of the World election campaign.
What made Obama's Cairo utterances so distressing was how they grated on American cultural sensibilities. And he just doesn't notice, perhaps akin to never hearing Rev. Wright anti-American diatribes. An American president does not pander to third-world audiences by lying about the Muslim contribution to America. Imagine Ronald Reagan, or any past American president, trying to win friends by apologizing. This appeal contravenes our national character and far exceeds a momentary embarrassment about garbled syntax or poor delivery. Then there's Obama's bizarre, totally unnecessary deep bowing to foreign potentates. Americans look foreign leaders squarely in the eye and firmly shake hands; we don't bow.
But far worse is Obama's tone-deafness about American government. How can any ordinary American, even a traditional liberal, believe that jamming through unpopular, debt-expanding legislation that consumes one-sixth of our GDP, sometimes with sly side-payments and with a thin majority, will eventually be judged legitimate? This is Third-World, maximum-leader-style politics. That the legislation was barely understood even by its defenders and vehemently championed by a representative of that typical American city, San Francisco , only exacerbates the strangeness.
And now President Obama sides with illegal aliens over the State of Arizona , which seeks to enforce the federal immigration law to protect American citizens from marauding drug gangs and other miscreants streaming in across the Mexican border. Reciprocal public disengagement from President Obama is strongly suggested by recent poll data on public trust in government. According to a recent Pew report, only 22% of those asked trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest figures in half a century. And while pro-government support has been slipping for decades, the Obama presidency has sharply exacerbated this drop. To be sure, many factors (in particular the economic downturn) contribute to this decline, but remember that Obama was recently elected by an often wildly enthusiastic popular majority.
The collapse of trust undoubtedly transcends policy quibbles or a sluggish economy -- it is far more consistent with a deeper alienation. Perhaps the clearest evidence for this "foreigner in our midst" mentality is the name given our resistance -- tea parties, an image that instantly invokes the American struggle against George III, a clueless foreign ruler from central casting. This history-laden label was hardly predetermined, but it instantly stuck (as did the election of Sen. Scott Brown as "the shot heard around the world" and tea partiers dressing up in colonial-era costumes).
Perhaps subconsciously, Obama does remind Americans of when the U.S. was really occupied by a foreign power. A Declaration of Independence passage may still resonate: "HE [George III] has erected a Multitude of new Offices [Czars], and sent hither Swarms of Officers [recently hired IRS agents] to harass our People, and eat out the Substance."
What's next?
A Stranger in Our Midst
By Robert Weissberg,
Professor of Political Science - Emeritus at the University of Illinois , Urbana
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America 's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics. After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-sync values never surfaced. The term I settled on is "alien rule" -- based on outsider values, regardless of policy benefits -- that generates agitation.
This is what bloody anti-colonial strife was all about. No doubt, millions of Indians and Africans probably grasped that expelling the British guaranteed economic ruin and even worse governance, but at least the mess would be their mess. Awareness began with Obama's odd pre-presidency associations, decades of being oblivious to Rev. Wright's anti-American ranting, his enduring friendship with the terrorist guy-in-the-neighborhood Bill Ayers, and the Saul Alinsky-flavored anti-capitalist community activism. Further add a hazy personal background -- an Indonesian childhood, shifting official names, and a paperless-trail climb through elite educational institutions. None of this disqualified Obama from the presidency; rather, this background just doesn't fit with the conventional political résumé. It is just the "outsider" quality that alarms.
For all the yammering about George W. Bush's privileged background, his made-in-the-USA persona was absolutely indisputable. John McCain might be embarrassed about his Naval Academy class rank and iffy combat performance, but there was never any doubt of his authenticity. Countless conservatives despised Bill Clinton, but nobody ever, ever doubted his good-old-boy American bonafides. The suspicion that Obama is an outsider, a figure who really doesn't "get" America , grew clearer from his initial appointments.
What "native" would appoint Kevin Jennings, a militant gay activist, to oversee school safety? Or permit a Marxist rabble-rouser to be a "green jobs czar"? How about an Attorney General who began by accusing Americans of cowardice when it comes to discussing race? And who can forget Obama's weird defense of his pal Louis Henry Gates from "racist" Cambridge , Massachusetts cops? If the American Revolution had never occurred and the Queen had appointed Obama Royal Governor (after his distinguished service in Kenya ), a trusted locally attuned aide would have first whispered in his ear, "Mr. Governor General, here in America , we do not automatically assume that the police were at fault," and the day would have been saved. And then there's the "we are sorry, we'll never be arrogant again" rhetoric seemingly designed for a future President of the World election campaign.
What made Obama's Cairo utterances so distressing was how they grated on American cultural sensibilities. And he just doesn't notice, perhaps akin to never hearing Rev. Wright anti-American diatribes. An American president does not pander to third-world audiences by lying about the Muslim contribution to America. Imagine Ronald Reagan, or any past American president, trying to win friends by apologizing. This appeal contravenes our national character and far exceeds a momentary embarrassment about garbled syntax or poor delivery. Then there's Obama's bizarre, totally unnecessary deep bowing to foreign potentates. Americans look foreign leaders squarely in the eye and firmly shake hands; we don't bow.
But far worse is Obama's tone-deafness about American government. How can any ordinary American, even a traditional liberal, believe that jamming through unpopular, debt-expanding legislation that consumes one-sixth of our GDP, sometimes with sly side-payments and with a thin majority, will eventually be judged legitimate? This is Third-World, maximum-leader-style politics. That the legislation was barely understood even by its defenders and vehemently championed by a representative of that typical American city, San Francisco , only exacerbates the strangeness.
And now President Obama sides with illegal aliens over the State of Arizona , which seeks to enforce the federal immigration law to protect American citizens from marauding drug gangs and other miscreants streaming in across the Mexican border. Reciprocal public disengagement from President Obama is strongly suggested by recent poll data on public trust in government. According to a recent Pew report, only 22% of those asked trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest figures in half a century. And while pro-government support has been slipping for decades, the Obama presidency has sharply exacerbated this drop. To be sure, many factors (in particular the economic downturn) contribute to this decline, but remember that Obama was recently elected by an often wildly enthusiastic popular majority.
The collapse of trust undoubtedly transcends policy quibbles or a sluggish economy -- it is far more consistent with a deeper alienation. Perhaps the clearest evidence for this "foreigner in our midst" mentality is the name given our resistance -- tea parties, an image that instantly invokes the American struggle against George III, a clueless foreign ruler from central casting. This history-laden label was hardly predetermined, but it instantly stuck (as did the election of Sen. Scott Brown as "the shot heard around the world" and tea partiers dressing up in colonial-era costumes).
Perhaps subconsciously, Obama does remind Americans of when the U.S. was really occupied by a foreign power. A Declaration of Independence passage may still resonate: "HE [George III] has erected a Multitude of new Offices [Czars], and sent hither Swarms of Officers [recently hired IRS agents] to harass our People, and eat out the Substance."
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