SAME PIG, DIFFERENT LIPSTICK
President Barack Obama evidently thinks he can solve his political problems by changing the lipstick on the pig. In his State of the Union speech last night (1/27), the president indicated he intends to press forward with the agenda voters in Massachusetts found so objectionable they sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate for the first time in 38 years. A CNN poll released Tuesday (1/26) indicated only 30 percent of Americans want Obamacare passed in anything approaching its present form. But in his SOTU, the president urged Congress: "Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close." A CNN poll released Monday (1/25) indicated nearly 75 percent of Americans think at least half the money in the "stimulus" bill passed in February -- which the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday will cost $862 billion -- has been wasted. But in the SOTU, Mr. Obama urged the Senate to pass a $154 billion second stimulus bill the House passed last month. Same pig, just different lipstick.
SHAPE UP AND START ACTING LIKE AN AMERICAN
Dear President Obama, My name is Harold Estes, I turned 95 on December 13 of last year. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during, and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country. One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes. I can't figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like: " We're no longer a Christian nation," and "America is arrogant." Your wife even announced to the world, "America is mean-spirited." I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House. So take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man. Shape up and start acting like an American.
THANK YOU, TIM TEBOW
What a ridiculous situation "women's rights" groups are getting themselves into now with their protest of CBS airing a pro-life ad during the upcoming Super Bowl game. The ad will feature Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mom, and they'll speak to the sanctity of life and the beautiful potential within every innocent child as Mrs. Tebow acknowledges her choice to give Tim life, despite less than ideal circumstances. Messages like this empower women! This speaks to the strength and commitment and nurturing spirit within women. The message says everything positive and nothing negative about the power of women - and life. Evidently, some women's rights groups like NOW do not like that message.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE WORLD
Frankly, the last thing in the world I'd like to talk with you about this week is the latest antics of Zero and the Zerocrats. They're like some group of high school kids practicing to be a rock band in their parents' garage. They don't know how to play but insist they do, and they only know one song which they play endlessly - a pathetically boring threnody featuring the leader singing the word "I" over and over and over again. So, can we please talk about something else - like, the rest of the world? It's a big place. Lots of cool - and uncool - things are happening in it. As a matter of fact, it's what I'll be talking about at the Remember The Alamo Rendezvous in San Antonio this weekend in my The Map of the Future presentation. Since most of you are unable to be there, I thought I'd give you a trio of the highlights.
PRESIDENT BARACK “RED HERRING” OBAMA
The performance of the stock market was the one bright spot in the otherwise dismal year for the economy in 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 65 percent from its March low, causing many to hope it was a harbinger of recovery. President Barack Obama has fixed that. Last week the Dow fell 552 points in the three trading days since the president announced his plans to "reform" the financial services industry. Of course -- solve the wrong problem, demonize Wall Street, and misdirect attention away from the real culprits, politicians in Washington. Perhaps this president should be nicknamed "Red Herring" Obama.
THE NEED TO PERFORM TRIAGE ON COUNTRIES
What do Haiti and Afghanistan have in common, other than the presence of our military? They're both profoundly failed states that we pretend just need the right encouragement. We told ourselves that in Somalia, too. And we soon may be telling ourselves whopping fibs about Yemen. Or Pakistan. Failed, failing and outright fake states come in different flavors, from societies in which tribes remain more powerful than struggling governments to those that are gang-plagued and anarchic. There's no single solution to the problem. But we and other successful states typically stand in the way of any solutions. We -- and the locals in failed or failing states -- would be far better off if competent powers engaged in a form of triage, categorizing them into:
THE FREEDOM FROM RATIONED HEALTH CARE ACT
A Special Announcement from To The Point With the victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts this week, the Democrats have abandoned their maniacal attempt to pass ObamaCare "health reform" legislation. Yet it is little known that a significant part of the ObamaCare program has secretly already been voted into law as part of the stimulus bill Congress passed in February, 2009. This is $20 billion for "death panel" health rationing boards. The mortal threat that ObamaCare poses to the health and freedom of all Americans cannot be eliminated until the sections of the stimulus bill authorizing funding for the health rationing boards is repealed. Today (1/22), Congressman Thad McCotter (R-MI) introduced legislation to do just that: The Freedom from Rationed Health Care Act. The Bill number is HR 4500.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/22/10
The obvious news headline for the week is: DEMOCRATS GET TEABAGGED Yes, I know just what this means and how vulgar it is. Nevertheless, it is the irresistibly appropriate response to the deluge of disgusting vileness we have been subjected to by the Democrat Party, the OPM Obama Propaganda Media, and the Moonbat Hate America Left. Democrat Chuck Schumer - a United States Senator - publicly calls Scott Brown a "far-right teabagger." MSNBC loudmouth Ed Schultz announces on his national radio show (1/16) that "I'd cheat to keep these bastards (Scott Brown and other conservatives) out" of power. Radical lunatic talk show host Mike Malloy denounces the voters of Massachusetts for electing "a theocratic madman as senator," and tells his audience that Hannity, Limbaugh & O'Reilly were the ones who really "bombed your goddamn country" on 9/11. Ultimate moonbat Keith Olbermann proclaims on MSNBC national television that Scott Brown is an "irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees." Well, sorry, schmucks. You all just got teabagged by America.
A PRESIDENT WHO CARES MORE ABOUT PROTECTING HIMSELF THAN HIS COUNTRY
There is a silver lining for Democrats in the Brown cloud that has descended upon them. It's distracted attention from testimony revealing that the intelligence failures with regard to the Christmas bomber were more appalling than we'd been told. Yesterday (1/20), as panicked Democrats wondered what Scott Brown's stunning win in the Massachusetts senate race portends for them, four senior intelligence officials testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee about the interrogation, such as it was, of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who had tried to blow up a Northwest Air Lines flight with a bomb built into his underwear. The officials were Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Admiral Dennis Blair, National Counterterrorism Center Chairman Michael Leiter, and FBI Director Robert Mueller. All three stated they weren't consulted before the decision was made to treat Mr. Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant. That decision was made by a senior official at the Justice Department who the Obama administration is unwilling to identify.
WHY HIGHER DEFICITS CAUSE HIGHER UNEMPLOYMENT
"So what?" is the implicit expression of much of the Washington political class when it comes to spending and taxing. The consequences of Washington's fiscal irresponsibility are not evident to many in the media and electorate - yet. But the pain will come - and it will hit almost every American. Last week, I explained how government deficits are strangling necessary capital formation. The following describes the impact on job creation and growth, and next week, I will present a way out of the mess. This past week, the White House claimed that the stimulus bill "saved 2 million jobs," but just before the stimulus bill was passed, the administration said the unemployment rate would peak at 8 percent with the stimulus bill and 9 percent without it. Now, we have both the stimulus bill and an unemployment rate of more than 10 percent, which shows that the White House is developmentally challenged when it comes to basic arithmetic.