Joe et al:
see us at:
Our new address: http://johnltdo5455.wordpress.com/
May 14, 2009Ten Reasons The Republican Party Will Recover
May 13, 2009Here’s our Peace and Freedom list of the top ten reasons to expect the Republican Party to make gains over the course of the next two to four years:
1) The economy: Despite the huge spending measures already enacted by the Obama administration, including the stimulus and the many ‘bailouts,” the economy may not even start any really significant recovery until this time next year. Voters are already tiring of the recession and showing discontent.
Related:
Bank of England: Recovery will be slow, starting next year
2) Democratic leaders like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and John Murtha. There is already rumbling that our Congressional leaders are disappointing voters. Most polls rate congress very poorly even though some 60% like Obama. Scandals, a lack of integrity and broken promises on transparency can add to the woes of Democrats easily over time.
Related:
Pushy Practices of Pelosi, Murtha Back To Haunt Them?
.
Democratic Party a “One Man Show” — After Obama, It’s a “Second-Division Ball Club”
.
“Democratic Party is Bought and Paid For By The Unions” Lawmaker Says
3) National debt, deficit and spending.
Related:
America’s Ability To Borrow More Questioned, At Risk — Too Much Spending “Breaking the bank”?
4) Taxes. Taxes will go up. There is just no way to support all our current spending let alone the promises of overhauls to health care, education, and the environment without raising more money and that means raising taxes.
Related:
Taxes: People and Business Flee Higher Rates; Why Can’t Obama, Congress Get That?
.
Governors of Texas, South Carolina to Host “Tea Party 2.0″ This Week
Gov. Rick Perry, Texas
.
5) Unexpected world events. Just as nobody could have predicted 9/11, there could well be an event as yet unknown that unfolds to change the game for everyone before long. Just as Joe Biden predicted last year, this president will be tested….
6) Democratic Infighting. This is the party that has, for a long time, been unable to get along with itself, for too long, before all hell breaks loose….
7) Inflation. With all the borrowing of the federal government, inflation is indeed likely. Nobody will like that one bit. Which will hurt incumbents….
8) Loss of buying power and credit. Obama’s current campaign to rein in the credit card companies is admirable but it may result in millions of people unable to get the credit they’ve grown used to….Expect retail sales to lag other indicators of recovery…..
Retail sales remain slow in April:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Reta
il-sales-drop-apf-15227744.html?.v=3)
9) Broken Promises. “Green jobs” won’t be as numerous or high paying as once promised and work for good jobs will dry up as GM and Chrysler and others move more jobs overseas….The health care overhaul may actually harm enough people that there could be a backlash that wants to punish lawmakers…
Related:
Latest News On Social Security, Medicare, Debt Show Inability of Government To Make Accurate Financial Predictions
.
Obama, Daschle and Socialized Medicine: Care of GE
.
Fiat threatens to walk away from Chrysler deal unless unions agree to concessions
10) Desire for Change/Hope (The Pendulum): In our American system, the pendulum has been swinging to and fro; from Republicans to Democrats and back again for almost all of time. People will tire of our current way of doing business and even the euphoria over Obama will wane.
Related:
Republican Party Dead? Hardly. Polls Show Erosion and Doubt in Democratic Advantage
Bonus:
11) Traditional Republican Discipline. The Republicans in general have traditionally shown much more discipline and togetherness than Democrats. The current squabbling over Cheney, Powell, Gingrich, Rush et al can be expected to wind down as elections near.
12) The law of unintended consequences. President Obama has changed so much, so aggressively, so often, so soon in his presidency that the effort is unprecedented. But this could mean that there is trouble lurking that has not been foreseen. And we know how well our government foresees things: like the current recession….
13) Bad Obama planning and staff work. Nobody read the stimulus? This will come back to hurt the president and the Democrats in Congress. many other examples of stupidity an ineptitude come to mind…..
Related:
Republicans Determined to Lose?
.
Obama Backs Off Promise to Release Abuse Photos
White House Man Most Responsible For Air Force One Scare of NY Resigns; Investigation Ongoing, Photo Released
May 8, 2009Louis Caldera, the man who organized the low-flying Air Force One plane that panicked New York City, has delivered his resignation.
From Fox News
Louis Caldera, the man who organized the low-flying Air Force One plane that panicked New York City, has delivered his resignation.
President Obama accepted the resignation on Friday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
Obama has also asked Jim Messina, his deputy chief of staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates or his designee “to jointly review the organizational structure of the White House Military Office and the reporting relationship of its components to the White House and the Air Force, and to make recommendations to him to ensure that such an incident never occurs again, Gibbs said.
In this photograph released by the White House, Air Force One flies over the Statue of Liberty in New York in this undated photograph.
(AP Photo/The White House)
.
.
Caldera apologized for the April 27 incident.
Gates had ordered a review of notification procedures for high-visibility “training events” such as the Air Force One photo shoot that flew over the Manhattan skyline, striking fear in the hearts of New Yorkers.
Read the rest:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/0
5/08/white-house-release-new-york-flyo
ver-photo-friday/
New York Times:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/after-air-force-one-flyover-military-office-director-resigns/?hp:
In Obama Administration: Who Is Minding The Store? SecDef Critical Of Basic Planning
.
White House to Release Photo From New York Flyover
.
Air Force One Over NYC Sent By Political White House Hack — Pentagon Had No Say
.
Obama Terrific On Teleprompter; Bad On Planning
Weak Demand in Treasury Bond Auctions? Has The U.S. Put Too Much Trust At Risk?
May 8, 2009America’s economic recovery now depends upon debt. Debt we “sell” to people like China in the form of Treasury bonds.
The entire Obama budget is based upon debt. He swears he is for tax breaks but tax increases have got to be in the near future.
And the top earners like Donald Trump are already making noise about moving elsewhere — just as Brit tycoons are fleeing tax rates approaching 60%.
China holds more U.S. debt that anyone else. But China may not continue to buy.
And Obama is chasing busnesses away: by offering to tax offshore earnings and other now untaxed assets.
And by generally making business and Wall Street the enemy, in talk and in actions.
Even as we the U.S. Taxpatyers are paying billions to bail out GM, with the help of Obama and geithernew, GM is making plans to move a lot of its future auto production to China.
China’s recovery is coming along, fine, thank you; and there may be no need to take on more debt for the U.S.
China already makes much of what sells in the U.S. — and for right now, Americans aren’t buying. So China’s factories shut down. Now China is doing something new: encouraging the Chinese to become consumers.
This will be a long and slow process but the Chinese government is determined.
Michelle Malkin:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/05/
08/battered-hedge-fund-managers-syndrome/
Related:
Fed Tells California: Can’t Cut Pay of Union Jobs To Save Budget; Threatens Loss of Stimulus Money
.
Where Are The Jobs? Ask The Unions
..
Obama, Geithner Review Of Banks Says Multiyear Period of Economic Weakness Still Ahead
.
China, Asia Dig Out of Recession Much Faster Than U.S.
.
EU Leaders, Unions, Disagree On More Jobs Or Union Jobs
.
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas
.
Obama Promised 5 Million Green Jobs But Sierra Club Says “green jobs are not always good jobs” that can support a middle-class lifestyle
.
Unemployment 8.9%, Highest Since 1983, Hiring Slow, Many Taking “Less Quality” Jobs, Government Grows
Obama’s Bone Head Moves, First 100 Days: Add “Photo Op” Of Air Force One For $75,000 “Plus” Freaked Out New Yorkers
April 27, 2009Ah, yes, our government really cares about not adding carbon to the air.
Today, Air Force One, without the President of the United States, flew from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to New York City with two Air Force fighter jets in tow.
Te media was told the aircraft were part of a photo op.
Damn the carbon: full speed ahead!
******************************
The cost of this photo op was calculated by a friend in the Air Force at about $75,000…..
*********************************
W.H. Military Office head Louis Caldera has released a statement apologizing for the Air Force One fiasco in New York:
“Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”
Related:
Obama’s Dumb Moves Getting More Difficult to Ignore? On Friday Mainstream Media Realizes Monday’s Cabinet Meeting Was Laughable, Really
.
Obama as Dealer in Addiction: Federal Spending and Borrowing Can’t Solve All Our Major Problems All The Time
.
Obama’s 100 Days: $65 Billion in New Debt Each Day
.
One Hundred Days of Obama: 100 Mistakes
.
Obama White House Engineered Photo Ops, Publicity Stunts Not Always Honest, Well Conceived
.
If you had told me some of these Obama stories three months ago I would have said “impossible!”
We are told, the amount of carbon released by an aircraft is directly related to the amount of fuel they use, a little over three grams of CO2 being produced for every one gram of kerosene. Since figures for the amount burnt per hour are readily available from the manufacturers, it would seem a simple exercise to spot the best and worst models. However, as with so many issues of the whole carbon/climate debate, rating their performance is not as straightforward as it first appears.
To make a fair comparison, the energy required per person must be taken into account. A Boeing 747, for example, releases around 35kg of carbon dioxide per kilometer….But in today’s flight, since it had no purpose except posing for a picture, and the aircraft was just about empty, all the carbon should be paid by the U.S. government back to whom? The U.S. taxpayer, one would guess….?
Related:
“Mister Green” Obama Flies To Iowa on Gas Guzzling Jet To Visit Wind Factory On Earth Day
 |
| An F-16 fighter jet trails a larger military aircraft over Lower Manhattan Monday, April 27, 2009, conducting a photo shoot that panicked thousands of New Yorkers who believed the city was in jeopardy for another terrorist attack.
Photo: Christopher Talbot, WCBS-AM Listener |
************************
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he is furious that the federal government flew the planes near Ground Zero. Bloomberg says the flyover so near the World Trade Center site showed “poor judgment” and was insensitive. He says he is furious that the NYPD and another city agency were notified last week, but did not tell him.
If he had known, Bloomberg says he would have tried to stop it.
************************************
From Bloomberg News
An Air Force One backup plane swooping over New York Harbor, escorted by U.S. Air Force F-16 fighters for a Pentagon photo opportunity, frightened Wall Street workers and evoked fears of another terrorist attack.
Two F-16s and an Air Force VC-25 command-and-control aircraft, used as Air Force One when the president flies on it, flew over Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor today, an Air Force spokeswoman, Vicki Stein, said from the Pentagon.
.
“I thought, ‘Oh, hell,’ that it was 9/11 all over again,” said Kate Geraghty, a Verizon Communications Inc. sales executive who saw the jet from Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
“I saw this very large plane very, very low in the sky and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this plane is going to crash,’” Geraghty said in an interview. “And then it disappeared behind one of the buildings, and then I saw it emerge with a fighter plane in tow, right on its tail.”
The 30-minute sortie, from about 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., was a “normally scheduled training mission” coordinated with the White House and New York office of the Federal Aviation Administration, Stein said.
NYC Police Surprised
New York police, told by the FAA not to disclose information about the flight, assumed it would be at a higher altitude, Paul Browne, the deputy police commissioner, said in an interview.
“They said it was flying over the Statue of Liberty,” Browne said. “We presumed it was going to be an elevation that would cause no concern.”
Eyewitnesses reported the plane was flying below the level of some office towers along the river.
Officials at Jersey City Medical Center were meeting in a conference room to discuss the possible swine flu pandemic when they saw the planes fly by, said Mark Rabson, a spokesman for the hospital’s parent, Liberty Health System.
“We watched it go by once and then twice and then three times; it was very scary,” Rabson said. “We were all quite nervous and scared.”
Read the rest:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ne
ws?pid=20601087&sid=akIrJ9uez600
From the Wall Street Journal: Includes Video:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12
4084127590859371.html
We Hope Obama Learns, Some Bad Decisions and Lost Bipartisanship Can Never Again Be Retrieved
April 25, 2009Now we know, or learned again, why “seasoned” and experienced executives and lawmakers make good presidents.
For one thing, seasoned executives make good decisions.
And most governors and experienced lawmakers understand the fine art of bipartisanship.
Barack Obama catapaulted, or was thrust by an eager Democrat leadership, from community organizer to senator and then to candidate for president because, as Joe Biden said, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
So, Barack Obama became, without much experience at bipartisanship, and basically zero experience at executive decision making, the President of the United States.
So the decision to release the CIA torture documents turned out badly. The decision to allow Hugo Chavez to bushwack him turned out badly. You decide on other decisions like bowing to the saudi King and flying to Iowa and back to give a 20 minute talk on energy conservation on Earth Day and hosting a cabinet meeting to boast about saving jut $100 million….while spending $1 billion each day….which is mostly borrowed from China….
And bipartisanship is likely dead forever now that the senate will cram health care down Republican throats without even the possibility of a filibuster — which is a tactic used when the opposition is totally frustrated….
It seems to us at Peace and Freedom that the president never reakky knew “bipartisansip” means.
We went to a congressional staff in the early 1970s and learned back then that bipartisanship means:
(1) At the start of every piece of legislation, both parties meet to discuss, share ideas and formulate, at least conceptually, new law.
(2) That both parties treat the other side with dignity and respect, sharing ideas in order to get the best for the American people.
(3) Both sides tell the truth and neither tries to seize the high ground and gloat over the other before the media.
In the case of this stimulus, President Obama talked a good game of bipartisanship but he was clueless on how to achieve it.
His Williamsburg, Va., spa speech and his evening press conference in the White House were both partisan speeches….which included ugly distortions and lies.
Nancy Pelosi shut out Republican input at the start of the process to build the stimulus bill and minutes before voting on final passage there were still complaints that the bill had been “hidden” from lawmakers and the American people intentioanlly by the Democratic side.
Mr. Obama’s personal “bipartisan outreach” consisted of:
–”I won.”
–Efforts to give “goodies” to Republicans like a Super Bowl party, rides on Air Force One and a cocktail party at the White House as if they could be bought like children at Christams.
–”Cram this down throats” at the spa in Williamsburg.
–Campaign-style events at Peoria, Fort Myers, and Elkhart…
–Photo op sessions with Republicans in the House and then the Senate.
–Not one “roll up the sleeves” and negotiate session with both parties at the White House. The pseudo president in the movie “Dave” did a better job of this that Mr. Obama…..
–A big lie at Peoria: “Yesterday, Jim [Owens], the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off,” Obama said in Peoria.
But when asked if the stimulus could do that, Owens said, “I think, realistically, no. The honest reality is we’re probably going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again.”
So we have to expect some really bad decisions and some lack of bipartisanship from Barack Obama. He just didn’t have the experience to be [president and he is getting a lot of on the job training….That’s one of the major stories of the first 100 days….
Related:
Missteps by Obama, White House Created Interrogation Furor
.
Obama’s Team Stages Insane Looking Cabinet Meeting: Arms Them With Squirt Guns To Put Out Forest Fire in Economy, Fed Spending
.
If you had told me some of these Obama stories three months ago I would have said “impossible!”
.
Obama White House Engineered Photo Ops, Publicity Stunts Not Always Honest, Well Conceived
****************************
From Fox News
Mark your calendar: April 21, 2009. That’s when the Era of Bipartisanship died.
That’s what some Republicans suggested after President Obama opened the possibility of a congressional investigation and prosecution of Justice Department lawyers who authorized “enhanced” interrogation techniques on terror suspects during the Bush administration.
If the coffin needs a final nail, it will come if Democrats decide to fast-track Obama’s legislative priorities through a budget maneuver known as “reconciliation.”
Democrats in the House and Senate agreed Friday on a budget framework that would protect Obama’s health care plan from a Republican filibuster using the tactic.
Republicans and some Democrats oppose reconciliation because it would prevent a long debate on what they consider complex issues.
Bipartisanship was already on life support after Republicans largely opposed the president’s economic policies, and it took a turn for the worse on Tuesday when Obama said it would be up to his attorney general to determine whether “those who formulated those legal decisions” behind the interrogation methods should be prosecuted.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009
/04/25/saturday-open-thread-8/
Obama Crippling CIA, Former Director Says
April 25, 2009Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage. I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage. We can’t have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets. Americans have to decide now.
By Porter Goss
Former Director, CIA
Washington Post
A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation’s intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaeda. In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA’s “High Value Terrorist Program,” including the development of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.
Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.
Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:
– The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.
– We understood what the CIA was doing.
– We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.
– We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.
– On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.
I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed “memorandums for the record” suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately — to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president’s national security adviser — and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.
Circuses are not new in Washington, and I can see preparations being made for tents from the Capitol straight down Pennsylvania Avenue. The CIA has been pulled into the center ring before. The result this time will be the same: a hollowed-out service of diminished capabilities. After Sept. 11, the general outcry was, “Why don’t we have better overseas capabilities?” I fear that in the years to come this refrain will be heard again: once a threat — or God forbid, another successful attack — captures our attention and sends the pendulum swinging back. There is only one person who can shut down this dangerous show: President Obama.
Unfortunately, much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day “I have your back” only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it. After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation.
We must not forget: Our intelligence allies overseas view our inability to maintain secrecy as a reason to question our worthiness as a partner. These allies have been vital in almost every capture of a terrorist.
The suggestion that we are safer now because information about interrogation techniques is in the public domain conjures up images of unicorns and fairy dust. We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate. The terrorists captured by the CIA perfected the act of beheading innocents using dull knives. Khalid Sheik Mohammed boasted of the tactic of placing explosives high enough in a building to ensure that innocents trapped above would die if they tried to escape through windows. There is simply no comparison between our professionalism and their brutality.
Our enemies do not subscribe to the rules of the Marquis of Queensbury. “Name, rank and serial number” does not apply to non-state actors but is, regrettably, the only question this administration wants us to ask. Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters while opportunities to neutralize brutal radicals are lost.
The days of fortress America are gone. We are the world’s superpower. We can sit on our hands or we can become engaged to improve global human conditions. The bottom line is that we cannot succeed unless we have good intelligence. Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us.
The writer, a Republican, was director of the CIA from September 2004 to May 2006 and was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1997 to 2004.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/
04/24/public-to-white-house-move-on/
Revolt! Missouri May Give Federal Stimulus Money Back To State Taxpayers
April 24, 2009When someone said to Speaker of the Missouri House Ron Richard, “So you think people know best how to spend money and not the government?” Richard replied: “That’s a novel idea and we believe it in Missouri.”
********************************
From The Columia Tribune
With just two weeks to adopt a state budget, House leaders have drafted a major change in the use of federal stimulus funds, proposing a $1 billion cut in individual state income taxes instead of financing construction projects.
“Our intention is over a two-year period to reduce Missouri’s income tax rate from 6 percent to 5.5 percent,” said House Budget Chairman Allen Icet, R-St. Louis County. “At the end of the day, the Missouri taxpayer would be able to put more money in their pockets and decide how it should be spent to stimulate the economy.”
Icet introduced a new appropriations bill in the House last night proposing to direct $500 million in each of the next two years to cover the cost of the income tax cut. The money would come from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The move rejects the work of the House Budget Committee, which on Monday had hammered together a spending plan that included $20 million in maintenance and repair funds for the University of Missouri, $20 million for a new State Historical Society of Missouri building in Columbia and $10 million for a plant science center in Mexico, Mo. None of those projects is funded in Icet’s new spending plan.
The original bill also would have funded millions of dollars in maintenance and construction projects on public college campuses that were originally to be financed with the sale of student loan assets. Nearly all of those projects have been scrapped under the new bill.
Read the rest:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/ne
ws/2009/apr/23/house-leaders-scra
p-stimulus-spending-plan/
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/0
4/24/hot-air-exclusive-ja-no-apol
ogizes-to-american-legion/
If you had told me some of these Obama stories three months ago I would have said “impossible!”
April 24, 2009The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security got in trouble with U.S. military veterans and Canadians in just a few weeks time. And refused to say the word “terrorists” at her confirmation hearigs.
Today she had to apologize to the American Legion.
If you had told me that three months ago I would have said “No Way!
Way….
How about the President of the United States mugging with Hugo Chavez while hoding the numero uno anti-American text in the Latin American world — in Latin American history?
How about the first cabinet meeting (after 90 days) and bragging about saving $100 million?
Big deal. No way.
How about Numero Uno flying to Iowa to give a 20 minute talk on energy conservation and then flying home?
How about insulting the PM of the UK and the queen for foolish, ill- conceived gifts, like an IPod made in China and DVDs that don’t work in Britain?
Or giving a giant red reset button to Russia with the word mis-spelled so it says “discount”? Or was it “overcharge”?
If you told me a few months ago that the U.S. would barrow so much that China virtually owned the U.S. I would have asked: are you on drugs?
If you had said the government will own GM and Chrysler and most of the major banks I would have howled with laughter last Christmas….
Now that isn’t even funny….
If you had told me the U.S. economy was losing more than 600,000 jobs every month in 2009 I would have cried….
If you had told me the president suggested and the congress passed (without reading) the biggest government give-away of tax dollars in history and that didn’t even make a dent I can’t say what I might have done….
It is just too crazy….
If you had told me the president, this president, President Obama would pass and sign (in secret) a budget loaded with earmarks after he campaigned against earmarks I would have howled in protest….
If you had told me conservatives took to the streets with signs of protest? I would have laughed out loud (LoL).
But if you had told me three months ago that Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank were saying stupid stuff left and right I would have said, “What’s new?”
If you had told me the president begged for forgiveness of the french for America’s arrogance?
Sac Le Bleu!
And that Sarkozy would stab Obama in the back? That part I’d believe….
You can’t make this stuff up. Leno should sue: Obama has all the good material….
Yup.
They are kidding, right?
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/0
4/24/hot-air-exclusive-ja-no-apol
ogizes-to-american-legion/
Obama White House Engineered Photo Ops, Publicity Stunts Not Always Honest, Well Conceived
Revolt! Missouri May Give Federal Stimulus Money Back To State Taxpayers
http://hotair.com/archives/200
9/04/24/video-american-legio
n-gets-apology-from-napolitano/
US President Barack Obama (L) and French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet during the NATO summit arrival ceremony at the the Palais Rohan in Strasbourg. Obama threw his backing behind Turkey’s bid to join the European Union before being slapped down by Sarkozy for intervening in the bloc’s affairs. Sarkozy also said Obama was “unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated.”(AFP/Eric Feferberg)
Obama’s Dumb Moves Getting More Difficult to Ignore? On Friday Mainstream Media Realizes Monday’s Cabinet Meeting Was Laughable, Really
April 24, 2009The bad news is your president and his White House are so stupid that they think a cabinet meeting photo op boasting of savings of $100 million is a good thing; when in fact saving that little from spending $1 billion every day is laughable and sad.
It is also a chunk of bad news that much of the mainstream medi swallows horse sh** like this cabinet meeting and events like flying from Washington DC to Iowa on Earth Day to give a 20 minute lecure on (you guessed it) saving energy.
If you had told me some of these Obama stories three months ago I would have said “impossible!”
What’s the good news? The mainstream media can’t even stand itself in all this any longer. Today it just hit the Washington Post that Monday’s cabinet meeting was a laughable joke….
Maybe there is some hope yet.
Free Speech Failing or Under Assault in America
“Mister Green” Obama Flies To Iowa on Gas Guzzling Jet To Visit Wind Factory On Earth Day
.
Obama White House Engineered Photo Ops, Publicity Stunts Not Always Honest, Well Conceived
.
Obama’s Team Stages Insane Looking Cabinet Meeting: Arms Them With Squirt Guns To Put Out Forest Fire in Economy, Fed Spending
.
Obama Announces 1/35,000th Spending Cut!
***********************
By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 24, 2009
These tough times call for sacrifice. So the Obama administration has embarked on a belt-tightening plan that sounds, to some veteran federal budget watchers, like fodder for a Jay Leno monologue.
The Education Department will eliminate a Bush-era “education policy attaché” based in Paris — the one in France — whose annual salary, housing allowance and business expenses exceed $630,000. Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs will forgo their training junkets to hot spots such as Nashville and satisfy themselves with videoconferencing.
The Department of Homeland Security has started buying its supplies in bulk and — to the surprise and delight of bureaucrats — discovered it’s much cheaper that way.
This is not exactly the revolution in government efficiency that President Obama has promised. Nonetheless, he and the agencies trumpeted the changes, staples of any money-conscious organization, this week as examples of how they intend to cut $100 million over the next 90 days to try to trim a budget deficit projected to reach $1.4 trillion next year.
Experts said the cost-cutting measures will do little to restore fiscal responsibility and are at best a symbolic early move. At worst, they said, the savings, which amount to a fraction of 1 percent of Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget, are so obvious and picayune that by making them a major focus of his first Cabinet meeting, the president may have given the impression that he is not serious about controlling spending.
.
“You’re cherry-picking the base of the tree on stuff that is not innovative,” said Paul C. Light, a scholar of federal bureaucracy at New York University. “Purchasing in bulk? Wow, that’s a bold idea! Teleconferencing? Holy moly! None of this stuff is the kind of bold sweep you’re hoping Obama will bring to the management of government.”
Isabel V. Sawhill, a Clinton administration budget official who directs the Budgeting for National Priorities project at the Brookings Institution, said she feared the cuts would be “lampooned” on late-night talk shows.
“I’m not sure I thought it was a good step towards convincing people that he cares about fiscal responsibility,” she said.
The cost-cutting measures are just one part of the administration’s actions to curtail spending. The full federal budget that will be released next month may eliminate programs across many agencies that are deemed inefficient or wasteful, said Kenneth Baer, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.
“They’re not just looking for savings, but also looking for the larger game that’s out there in the wild: the programs that aren’t operating effectively or are no longer fulfilling the goal that’s set for them,” he said. The $100 million cuts, he added, are “by no means the entire approach to making an efficient and effective government. It’s just a small part, but it’s an important part.”
Asked at Monday’s Cabinet meeting whether $100 million is merely a drop in the bucket, Obama said the savings add up.
“None of these things alone are going to make a difference,” he said. “But cumulatively they would make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone. And so what we’re going to do is line by line, page by page, $100 million there, $100 million here, pretty soon, even in Washington, it adds up to real money.”
Light countered: “I think it’s more like $100 billion here and $100 billion there adds up to real money.”
Read the rest:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-d
yn/content/article/2009/04/23/A
R2009042304647.html?hpid=topnews
Peace and Freedom Global Future 