Obama: abdicating, retreating and punting on a world-class level.

First, let's look at Obama's speech. Keep in mind:  Democrats (Progressive Socialists) held a super majority for most of the last 2 years, and had a responsibility to pass a budget last October (5 months ago); Obama hosted a Presidential commission months ago; and then ignored it's 'cut spending' results; Obama and those Progressives also failed to deal with the expiring Bush tax cuts until a very late "lame duck" session, and Obama hailed (though with a lot of ideological posturing) the eventual extension of those cuts as their "responsibility" and necessary to bring down the deficit and assist in the stunted and weak recovery of the economy; as of April, Progressives have still not presented any budget or plan for a budget, though still holding the majority in the Senate as well as the White House as the country slips closer to bankruptcy due to trillions in unprecedented spending and give-aways.  Obama did issue a "budget-like statement" in February, in which he ordered an additional 1.65 trillion in unnecessary spending - - and a "freeze at these inflated levels.

Obama had also shown leadership, while vehemently opposing any significant cuts, by telling congress that "his people" would be "available" to tell Congress how to pass a budget, as he left the country yet again (this time to give billions and oil contracts to Brazilians).  Later, he had V.P. Biden host another summit, whereupon he, too left town.  Congressman Paul Ryan single-handedly devised a 6 trillion dollar cut over 10 years (exempting seniors at or near retirement age and easing the rest into a simpler but protected program, and spreading the remaining cuts over all departments).  Obama's response (by his political commisar and press secretary) was "oh, yeah - well I'm gonna give a speech in a few days!  His speech promised 4 trillion (with no details) over 12 years.


Obama's  stem-winder - er, speech:


Obama promises more leader-like inspiration from Biden, on an even less ambitious budget-cutting effort 'sometime soon'.  Biden is chomping at the bit to get our economy and budget under control:


Biden's view of the negotiations and impending economic disaster:



Representative Ryan  discusses Obama's efforts to bring people together and solve the problems faced in responsibly and Constitutionally commanding the ship of State.


Charles Krauthammer gives a realistic appraisal of the inspiring, well reasoned, factual and "presidential"plan to cut the debt.

Obama, Holder & Co bravely turn tail

One of the first acts by President Obama (January 2009) was to order Guantanamo Bay Detention Center closed, to promote the “humanitarian” image of the U.S.  When he appointed Eric Holder as Attorney General, Holder immediately denounced the U.S. as “a nation of cowards.”  So much for the honeymoon.

Guantanamo Bay (Naval Base), or “Gitmo”, is the place where the U.S. houses alien, illegal combatants.  It’s in American-held territory on Cuba, to keep them away from you and yours.  They are tried by military tribunals under long standing U.S. and international law, since they are not citizens and their crimes and arrests originated outside America’s borders.  Khalid Sheik Mohammad had already submitted a guilty plea as a mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, resulting in the murders of 2,977 innocent American men, women and children of all races and beliefs.  K.S.M. (who also claims openly to have personally beheaded kidnapped American Daniel Pearl) and four conspirators were awaiting hearings on their pleas.  Those pleas were withdrawn on the terrorists behalf, so they could be tried in civilian courts.

Holder’s (and obviously, Obama's) idea was to re-try KSM and the others – and all other captured terrorists regardless of combat conditions of arrest, military interrogation, national security information, or security of the American courtroom neighborhood - in civilian courts in NYC.  These were projected to cost many millions of dollars and to give the terrorists a public forum for their hateful message, with full media coverage.  They would take many years and make many lawyers rich.  Security would cost more millions and disrupt many city blocks in New York.  They would be almost as close to Ground Zero as the Cordoba House Victory Mosque (whose 15 story building would literally cast a shadow over the World Trade Center Memorial on summer mornings).

The resultant outcry was overwhelming.  Progressives tried to support Obama and Holder, who spouted all sorts of groundless rationalizations and strained justifications for the civilian trials.  Holder made Americans everywhere proud of their Department of Justice by guaranteeing in advance that he would get convictions. Obama finished off any pretense of a fair trial by saying that 9-11 victims’ families, New Yorkers in general and fans of American sovereignty would not be offended once “they are all convicted and executed”.  Oops.  Not very American, let alone Presidential.  But he made it all better by adding, “…not that I’m trying to influence the trial – I won’t be there…”

Holder made noises about foolproof security (against people that are willing to “martyr” themselves along with entire neighborhoods with truck bombs or airliners).  That’s a lot of NYPD cops with their service pistols.  He pretended to have other U.S. venues available.  He then moved past the issue altogeher, seeming to forget about “swift justice for the victims”.  That was a year and a half ago.  Since then, he has: determined that whites simply cannot be the victim of crimes by minorities; imagined that bogus statistics would make millions of illegal aliens and rising crime rates disappear; sued a sovereign American State that passed a mild law (requiring local officers to cooperate with federal immigration agents);  and decided that a duly passed, signed, constitutional and publicly supported law will not be defended by his “justice” Department, usurping the judgment of the Supreme Court.  Busy guy.  Brave guy.

The world turned.  Terrorist attacks on the U.S., kept at bay since 2001, started getting through.  They were thwarted only by the incompetence of the underwear bomber, Times Square bomber and others, or the fortunate observations of civilians.  Holder and Homeland Security’s Napolitano took credit.  He also announced that increasing incidents of home-grown terrorism weren’t terrorist related, despite dozens of proven contacts with Al Qaida recruiters.  Other plots were blamed on “dangerous, right wing extremists”, though all participants had Leftist or Jihadist connections, hated the Constitution and denounced Christianity.  Hey, if they use a gun, they must be “Tea Baggers” (Tea Party members), right?  Comrade Kalashnikov MUST have been a Tea Partier.  Never mind that with many millions of conservative protesters in thousands of rallies, none of them has even littered, let alone threatened anyone, bitten off a finger, or shot a public official.  (For those starting to pronounce, “McVeigh”, better check on his being a strident agnostic who hated Bush and recited Socialist poetry on his way to the death chamber; he was at the most a bottom-of-the-circular-continuum-anarchist, nudging up against the Communist revolutionary). Meanwhile, the 9-11 victims’ families testified in Congress this week that they felt tortured by the total lack of respect, understanding and justice by Holder’s “justice” Department.

Now, reality has dawned on Obama’s Left, who has given up on closing Gitmo.  Actually, he announced last year that, if convictions were NOT obtained on the dozens of foreign terrorists we hold, they would be held forever anyway.  Hmm.  Seems like a different take on the U.S. civilian justice system to me.  It does go with his guarantee of convictions and executions, though.  Will it make anti-Americans feel better about our justice system?  Back to the ‘jailed indefinitely’ announcement: when asked where the not-guilty, detained-forever, civilian court acquitties would be held, he dithered about alternate sites before admitting that only the “closed” Gitmo is suitable.

So on April 4^th, Holder finally got around to announcing that Gitmo is in business permanently and that KSM will be tried (all over again) there.  He bravely sidestepped responsibility for the dangerous, expensive and humiliating civilian trials fiasco, and (apologies to the Eagles) points his crooked little finger at “interference” from Congress, like his boss.  That would be the same Progressive dominated Congress that wielded their two years of Super-majority like a cane to thrash minority conservatives (as well as the ignored and insulted American People) with.  Funny: two years of worsening economy (caused by a Congress dominated by Democrats since 2006) was all “Bush’s fault”, yet a Conservative Congress, opposed by a Progressive-dominated Senate and White House, are to blame for policy after being sworn-in only 2 months ago.

Obama is back from his Latin America tour, where he was when he snuck around congressional authority and the War Powers act by deploying No-Fly-Zone forces on the say-so of the U.N. (after weeks of dithering while the Libyan Rebels were driven back from the brink of victory).  He was in Brazil to promise the American purchase of Gulf Coast oil from them, to go with the billions of dollars in “aid” he gave them along with forcing our rigs into their hands.  The only new announcement he made since returning is that (brace yourself) he is running for reelection.  Obama has been in self-aggrandizing campaign mode without pause for 26 months.  He promises to raise a billion dollars for his campaign.  Billion.  We are missing hundreds of those from the TARP, automotive industry redistribution and stimulus bills.

Other brave deeds by those un-cowardly Socialists:

The budget that they are arguing about - - the one with a possibility of a “government shutdown”?  It should have been passed by last October.  Progressives feared publishing or voting on their spending spree just before November’s elections, and refused to present a budget.  The new, Conservative Congress has managed to pass a bill that will avoid bankruptcy, but Reid still refuses to submit a budget bill of any kind in the Senate.  Dems’ rhetoric only amounts to about 4.5 billion in imaginary cuts.  Obama’s orders added another trillion to this year’s debt before his hollow offer to “freeze spending”.  They all groan over fabricated “seniors not receiving meals; cops, nurses and teachers fired” etc.  Crying unicorns, puppies with tummy aches, fairies dropping out of the sky. The GOP has attempted to cut 60 billion (about 1.5% of this years’ deficit) from this year’s plan, in chunks of a couple billion for each 2-week continuing resolution. 

Now finally, there is a budget that is in scale with the magnitude of the actual debt.  Representative Paul Ryan (R) submitted a budget to cut 4-6 trillion dollars out of our 14 trillion dollar debt over 10 years.  It’s not another foot-thick Pelosi special, but a simple bill of reforms that cut non-essential programs and personnel from every department.  It preserves Medicare, implementing almost exactly the same system that our Progressive elected officials (who gave themselves and their union cronies exemptions from “mandatory” Obamacare) have.  Funny how Dems aren’t audacious enough to mention that, or the fact that those at or near retirement age can keep the current system.

Remember the gyrations that Progressives put everyone through about retaining the Bush tax cuts?  Progressives were afraid to allow a vote on a successful economic program of the dreaded Bush.  The IRS actually had to print another entire tax code (thousands of pages, thousands of copies) because of the histrionics, then scrap it and print the updated version.  Businesses wanting to add employees had yet another reason to be nervous about hiring.  Unemployment, which Progressive/Keynesian policies were guaranteed to keep below 8%, has finally fallen below 9% (if you ignore the additional 8% of Americans without jobs that the government has stopped counting) for the first time since Obama took office.  Ultimately, the cuts were extended, resulting in the modest improvement.  The remaining fear of hiring is due to Obamacare and E.P.A. threats to available energy.

Then there is the ‘flat’ rate of inflation.  Things officially cost no more than they did last year, though you know you are paying 30% more.  How’s that?  The White House ordered fuel and food to be excluded from the formulas that we have always used to figure inflation.  See, they have been going through the roof, and the majority is afraid that it makes their Keynesian policies look even worse than is already obvious.  You have noticed the increases, though you were told not to. Bad you!

And now finally, the “vote early, vote often” purchase of a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice by Unions, afraid to let the People speak.

To paraphrase Progressive Socialists Reid, Pelosi and Obama, ‘We won the election.  If you don’t like it, elect someone else.’  The American people aren’t afraid to step up and deal with that one.

The President of the United States speaks

Obama's better-late-than-never (or maybe not) speech on "why we need to intervene in Libya (a few days ago)"



...and echos from the past:






And finally, Obama's earlier speech saying that toppling a brutal, murderous dictator was not good enough.  In fact, he said it was "a dumb war" and should be opposed, and that he would have voted against the mandatory War Powers Act resolution.

Not "from" and "to", but "AND".

Thanks to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank.  In his 3-25 article, "Obama's quick trip from tyrant to Weakling", Dana  cites a lot of factual tidbits.  Unfortunately, he also carefully sidesteps big-picture reality.

Milbank leads with Obama being "called" a tyrant, followed by “charges" by would-be opponents of being a weak leader.  The simple fact is, both assertions are demonstrably true.  It was not a journey from one thing to another, but an interleaved, simultaneous set of traits.  Kind of like a shuffled deck of jokers and knaves.

Milbanks’ other notes about Obama (e.i. being in constant campaign mode rather than presiding Constitutionally over the entire United States; incomprehensibly playing footie or hoops with foreign kids while discussing the deaths of many thousands of Japanese, Libyan and other human beings; and how we should give him slack because he is "not on a 24 hour news cycle [big grin]") are true, so we will set these aside.

Obama's entire time in office has been marked with everything except presidential behavior.  He ordered Gitmo closed within minutes of being sworn in, only to learn that it is perfectly legal and cannot realistically be closed, yet he has blocked defense spending necessary to hold (efficient, economical military) tribunals for the detainees.  He declared Afghanistan "the good war" and appointed his own general, yet dithered and debated for four months on the urgent request for reinforcements, and still only sent 3/4 of the troops needed.  He ran withering campaigns via stooges Pelosi and Reid to pass bloated, dishonest bills (by deception, bribery, closed-door dealing and locked out minorities) that piled up trillions of dollars of unconstitutional and clearly wasteful spending and now has military personnel worrying about the cost of each missile they fire in the "no fly" mini war.  All of this is beyond his Constitutional authority and against the will of the majority of the American People, from whom all legitimate authority comes in the United States.  Add on all his insults and derision and the damage done to our economy, and you get tyranny.  He's just still trying to keep what's left of the lid on, to play the few unconvinced Independents and democrats.

Let's focus on that Libyan campaign; the kind Obama has no clue how to run. The Libyan no-fly zone [by the way, it's not a "war" or a "police action" or "humanitarian air cover"; it has officially been deemed a "kinetic military action" by the White House Office of Revisionist Double Talk].  Obama is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, but he only wields authority granted by the People via the Constitution.  Unless there is a "clear and present danger to the United States” as required by the War Powers act, he is required to get Congressional approval in advance for foreign attacks (as Bush 43 did before Afghanistan and Iraq).  His actual time-line of actions ran something like this.

A year ago, Obama talked (and did nothing) while thousands of actual freedom fighters under Iran's dangerous theocracy were gunned down by Ahmedinijad’s murderers. A naval blockade of their gasoline supplies and oil exports (they had no refining capacity) could have applied more pressure than his speeches or the endless U.N.  resolutions.  Obama has just allowed the same thing to repeat in the streets of Tehran.

Since then, he has apologized to the world (especially the Middle East) for our existence and bad-mouthed our history of leadership, generosity, sacrifices and freedoms.  Though American troops have always handed back power to those we liberated and come home, he promoted the idea that we are ‘colonizing imperialists’.  Terrorist attacks on Americans have increased; along with killings of police officers, violence along and infiltration of our borders, denigration of law-abiding citizens and instability in the Middle East.  Its as if open season on society has been declared.

This year, Obama denounced Khadaffi and said he must go.  He said that Khadaffi, always a murderous, usurper and tyrant, had "lost legitimacy" as if he ever had any [Khadaffi, not Obama; but now that I think about it...].  A mixed bag of Libyans rebelled and Khadaffi opened fire with heavy weapons and air strikes.  Obama then did nothing (again) for several weeks.  As Libyans (that we all hope and pray are fair-minded freedom fighters) died and Khadaffi regained control over most of Libya, Obama went on a nice business tour of Latin America.  You see, American taxpayers are now providing aid to Brazilian oil companies along with what had been U.S.-run oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico until his embargo, and Obama promised “America will be a major customer” for their American gulf-coast oil.  This, as the widening chaos in the Middle East threatens our imported supplies.  Obama played with the local kids and picked up souvenirs.

Back to Libya, a major oil exporter like Brazil.  Obama had 3 weeks to get Congressional approval for a well-defined no-fly zone mission to protect the hoped-for freedom fighters.  But Libyans died as the Arab League screamed for help.  Eventually, French Premier (and apparently, leader of the Free World) Sarkozy declared international support for the concept.  Obama signed up American pilots and troops without question (or an exit strategy, command structure, mission limits, etc).  Or an explanation to us* of why spending the billions involved and endangering our sons and daughters was the right thing to do.  Or getting Congressional approval.

A few days ago, at least part of the “plan” was decided (by France) and announced:  Command would go from Americans at the beginning to “a political commission”.  Some undefined committee of civilians from Socialist Europe would assume command of Americans and  the others in the attack our forces led.  And there is still no defining limit on the mission; some say “no fly” while others make it “regime change” and still others make it “assisting in the civil war”.  Slightly more than half of Americans approve of the idea to help freedom fighters, but it is not a clear thing. 

Many Leftists have denounced the entire mission.  Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D), a self-proclaimed Socialist, gave one of the toughest denunciations of the Constitutional violation (unlike his support for the many bills he voted for in the last 2 years).  Anti-Americans like George Soros and others now feel that Obama has not “done enough” toward placing the U.S. under global authority, and they favor Hillary “I’m a Progressive” Clinton to carry on after 2012.

So, though Obama is both tyrannical and weak, he is only a product of his ideology.  These “global justice” issues are complex; so hard to keep the stories straight.

 - - - - 
*and speaking of  "transparency" and respect for the citizens, how about the renewed war on FOX and the reporter in the closet?  Months ago, the Left (DNC, Leftist and Socialist outlets, and major Progressive Socialist elected officials including the former Speaker of the House Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid, White House operatives and Obama himself) launched a smear and exclude campaign against a single, legitimate and strenuously balanced News network.  The result was that more and more centrist and liberal Americans sought out FOX for the first time to see what "lies" they were telling; and stayed with them for their superior presentation of all sides of the arguments.  Over the 27th, the "selective" release of information by the Left was re-instituted, with the Secretaries of State and Defense releasing statements ONLY to the weekend news shows of the other, more Liberal and less balanced networks (including NBC, which trails all in ratings).

And a pool reporter (representing a 'pool' of many news agencies) was locked in a closet by Vice President Biden's staff to prevent his gathering and reporting news to the people.  The reporter (Orlando Sentinel's Scott Powers) was "shoved" into a storage room as rich and powerful Leftists gathered and mingled at the home of rich and powerful Alan Ginsberg.  While he was not actually "locked" in, he was ordered in and told to get back in when he peeked outside.  He was permitted out only for Biden's speech and then ordered back inside until the event broke up.  Property owner Ginsberg (the only one with standing to order people around on his private property) claimed no knowledge of the event. 
An "inexperienced" Biden Aide was said (by Biden's press secretary) to have "apologized for the mistake".  Let's be clear: this is NOT a "mistake".  What it is includes: major governmental violations of the First Amendment (both speech and press) and unlawful detention (false arrest) under color of authority.  What it shows, once again, is the arrogant disregard for our Creator-endowed (not politician issued and revoked) rights.  A reporter or other person may be asked to wait in a reasonable place, ordered out by the property owner, or arrested with cause by police.  A cop or other public official that did this would properly be suspended or fired and their agency would be a lot poorer.
Finally, Obama has now announced that he will address the People on Monday evening (3-28). As noted, many American already support the basic need to protect other humans against tyrants, but the United States operates by the rule of law and has other pressing needs.  Let's see if he decides to be Presidential for the first time in over 2 years.