THE STIMULUS IS A STEP TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA
[Senator Coburn, R-OK, recently gave this speech on the floor of the Senate] With this Stimulus Bill, we are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing on the principles that made this country great. I want to make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think once they know what is in this bill, they are going to reject it out of hand. We are at a seminal moment in our country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest nation that ever lived. This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/06/09
The HFR can only raise a truly half-full glass to the Daschle Disaster this week. Exposing the former Democrat Senate Majority Leader as a tax cheat and millionaire political fixer was good enough. What compounds the benefits is that Zero's attempt to take over and destroy health care in America has been seriously damaged. The number of appointees in Zero's White House who owe their political lives to Daschle is very large. He was the guy who could shepherd and coordinate the health care takeover, and now he's gone. This is a fantastic two-fer. It's countervailed by the Dems not approving another tax cheat - one more blatant and disgusting to taxpayers than Timmy Geithner. For if Daschle had not withdrawn and had been approved with Zero saying he "absolutely" supported his tax cheating and making millions from influence peddling - and with every comic from Jay Leno on down making fun of him - then the one thing America most needs would have been greatly accelerated. A tax revolt.
OBAMA’S CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
When in the 2008 campaign Democrats spoke of a "culture of corruption" in Washington, few realized they were making a promise. The Obama administration is only a few weeks old, but already more senior officials in it have suffered from ethical taint than in any previous administration. You've heard of the ethics travails of Bill Richardson, Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, Eric Holder, and Hilda Solis. Now comes the most recent candidate in Obama's malleable ethics sweepstakes: Ron Sims, chosen Monday (2/02) to be the deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As King County (Seattle) executive, Mr. Sims was fined $124,000 for "blatant" violations of Washington state's state public records act for failure to release documents with regard to financing of the stadium where the Seattle Seahawks play. Last month the state supreme court said the fine should be increased.
THE SUBMISSION OF OBAMA TO ISLAM
How appropriate that Barack Hussein Obama featured Aretha Franklin in his inaugural festivities since her signature song is "Respect." Literally from the moment she finished belting out "My Country Tis of Thee" on January 20, the new President has been conveying his "respect" the Moslem world. Unfortunately, the way he practices it seems to be spelled S.U.B.M.I.S.S.I.O.N. Several observers have noted in recent days that Mr. Obama's outreach to the Moslem world is not only defensive and apologetic. It explicitly embraces a narrative that is factually erroneous and deprecating to his own country. What is really worrying is that Mr. Obama's actions and rhetoric are almost certainly being perceived by his target audience as evidence not of respect but of subservience-- precisely what Islam (the word "islam" literally means "submission" in Arabic) requires of all of us, Moslems and non-Moslems, alike.
THE RUSH TO REGULATE AND FINANCIAL DISASTER
If you knew -- "a few weeks ago, the federal government had to commit several hundred billion dollars for a guarantee of Citicorp's assets, though examiners from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have been inside the bank full-time for years, supervising the operations of this giant institution, under the broad powers granted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 to bank supervisors" -- what would you think about the effectiveness of U.S. bank regulation? The above quote comes from a thoughtful and important new paper, Regulation without Reason, by Peter J. Wallison, former general counsel of the U.S. Treasury and now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Wallison warned for years - in books and articles - that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were headed for disaster, and now he is taking on the ill-thought out proposals to increase regulation of the financial industry, both by politicians and people who should know better. The frightening thing is that many of the same intellectually and financially corrupt politicians - e.g. Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd - whose actions directly helped bring on the present crisis, have now been put in charge of the hen house and are tasked with "making reforms."
THE BEAUTY OF 2010
Right now, it is dawning on folks all over the country that Zero really isn't ready for prime time, that they were conned by the leftstream media to elect an empty suit who has never managed as much as a corner store and is a clueless naïve fool who doesn't know what he's doing. When the public has maniacally high expectations, only to see them thwarted and dashed to the ground, heroes turn into zeros very, very fast. What happens to Zero when he is no longer worshipped but hated instead? For someone whose personality consists primarily of empty narcissism and hubris, it could be psychologically catastrophic. When that someone is the single most powerful human being on earth, it could be catastrophic for all of us. This disturbing question was asked by a perceptive TTPer on the Forum, who notes that: "The One having a functional, emotional and psychological breakdown under the calamitous pressure and problems of office in the next year is a very serious possibility." Underneath that famously calm and cool exterior lies a fragile ego, like that of all narcissists. As his failures and flounders mount, as his inability to deal with the monumental problems and threats voters expect him to solve becomes obvious no matter how much the media covers for him, his ego could disintegrate.
THE AMERICAN OPTION
The stimulus bill that is being championed by Mr. Obama, which was passed by Democrats in the House last Wednesday (1/28), is the worst piece of economic legislation Congress has considered in a hundred years. Not since the passage in 1909 of the 16th Amendment--which cleared the way for a federal income tax--has the United States seriously entertained a policy so comprehensively hostile to economic freedom, or so arrogantly indifferent to economic reality. This bill is not a stimulus, ladies and gentlemen; it is a mugging. It is a fraud. Conservatives who fear proponents of this bill want to inch our economy closer to European-style socialism are kidding themselves. The proponents of this bill want to strap a big rocket on the back of our economy and launch it all the way to Brussels! This massive spending bill is fatally flawed. It will not rescue our economy; it will strangle it. That is why this bill must be stopped dead in its tracks. It cannot be fixed in the Senate by adding a few tax cuts or taking away a little spending. It must be scrapped entirely.
ELECTORAL VICTORY IN IRAQ
I don't suppose this will get much coverage in the States as the news is so good. No, the news is unbelievable. Something didn't happen in Al Anbar Province, Iraq today, Saturday January 31. Once the most violent and most dangerous places on earth, no suicide vest bomber detonated killing dozens of voters. No suicide truck bomber drove into a polling place collapsing the building and killing and injuring over 100. No Marine was in a firefight engaging an Al Qaeda terrorist trying to disrupt democracy. What did happen was Anbar Sunnis came out in their tens of thousands to vote in the first free election of their lives.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/30/09
The Age of Zero is only ten days old at this writing (1/30), and already this is a failed presidency. On the eve of Zero's Immaculation, his approval rating was 83%. Now Rasmussen reports it's 63%, a 20% drop in less than two weeks. The goofball mistakes are piling up, but here's the top three, a Stupidity Hat Trick. His first international interview is with a Moslem news outlet, earning him the label: "President al-Arabiya." He grovels and apologizes to the Moslem world for America being the target of their hatred, as only a liberal embarrassed to be an American can. In return, Mahmoud Ahmadinutjob spits in his face and demands that Zero beg for forgiveness for America's sins against Iran, the number one terrorist state on earth. Zero follows up this demonstration of brilliance by attacking Rush Limbaugh by name, petulantly demanding that Republicans not listen to him. Did Rush somehow bribe Zero to say this? Now, everybody is listening to Rush - who immediately takes maximum advantage of his Zero-provided megaphone and offers an extremely clever proposal:
THE BLANK SCREEN OF A DECEPTIVE DICTATOR
Barack Hussein Obama is a beguiling but confounding figure. As he said of himself in "The Audacity of Hope," "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." It is indeed audacious that he should proclaim this consciously disingenuous attribute. And as one reads his inaugural address, it is hard not to conclude that it was crafted shrewdly to perpetuate such confusion. Run-of-the-mill politicians try to hide their duplicity. Only the most gifted of that profession brag that they intend to confound and confuse the public. And it is working. Many of my fellow conservative commentators are embarrassingly eager to search Obama's words, groveling for hopeful signs that he is not a radical intent on changing the face and nature of our republic.