An hour and a quarter I've lost forever (29%,5 Votes)
Greatest speech I've heard in years (18%,3 Votes)
Had a few good points (0%,0 Votes)
Pretty good for a slow Tuesday night (0%,0 Votes)
Total Voters:17
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Tuesday night President Obama issued his SOTC speech (State Of The Campaign). It was filled with platitudes,self-aggrandizement,exaggerations, half-truths,and outright lies by my count,but you have to recognize that I am not exactly one of the President’s groupies. It was performed to his smallest audience yet according to Lisa Mores of the Washington Post. Perhaps that is because we have all heard it before and knew what to expect so many watched reruns of I Love Lucy instead.
What was most notable in this speech was the almost total exclusion of any reference to Obamacare or his cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline. Why would he fail to even mention what he touted as his singular greatest success of the first two years of his presidency? Could it be that he has figured out that when two thirds of the people in the country want it repealed it might just not be a really popular idea? What about the pipeline which would create tens of thousands of jobs,add to US security by making us less dependent on oil from regions that hate our guts,create tax revenues,enhance trade with our closest neighbor,and would be totally privately funded and not cost the taxpayers a dime. Instead he wants to spend taxpayer monies and borrow more from China to promote “green jobs”like Solyndra and he did state that in his speech.
Instead he concentrated on the word “fair”. If you counted the number of times he said that word or a variant of it you would have been busy for most of the 75 or so mind-numbing minutes of the thing,and you probably would have surely lost count somewhere in the middle. Obama positioned Warren Buffet’s secretary,a woman that reportedly earns some $200K per year, by his wife Michelle so that he could point out that she pays a higher percentage of income tax than her boss which is,yep you guessed it “not fair”. That was so he could call for a new tax,“The Buffet Rule”that would say that you must always pay more percentage of your income in taxes than your secretary,or something like that or else you obviously are not paying your “fair share”.
In all “fairness”he did one thing worthwhile. He thanked and congratulated our US military for their service. He then went on to claim personal responsibility for the elimination of Osama bin Laden and drone attacks that have eliminated other terrorist leadership. Of course he conveniently forgot that the groundwork for the intelligence that led to those successes and the special equipment used was all laid by his predecessor. Much of that groundwork was the same things that he personally criticized when running for president,but what do you expect from our Community Organizer In Chief? Then he added further insult to the military by promising to cut military budgets to fund more of his social welfare spending programs,a proposal designed specifically to buy votes for himself and his cronies.
He then proceeded to sink into an exercise that will be the center of his great campaign strategy. That of dividing the American people by describing the US as a class-oriented society of the “haves”and the “have nots”. Pure unadulterated class warfare! It is an attempt to speak to the “have nots”about the evil “haves”that have at least $1 more than them and don’t want to give it over for redistribution to pay their “fair share”.
This was pointed out in Mitch Daniel’s Republican response to the speech,“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us,to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others” It is sad that the United States of America should have a president that attempts to limit the opportunity to excel in this country by describing our way of life in such blatantly Marxist class society terms.
America is better than that and historically there has been nowhere in the world where there was more upward mobility available for people to improve their lot in life. Newt Gingrich explained the alternate way well when he commented recently about jobs. Newt said he wanted everyone to,“have a job,get a better job,and someday own the job”. That is the American way to help people to get a job,help them to improve themselves so they can move up in their job and give them the opportunity to someday be able to own a business to give jobs to others. That is the reason people have emigrated to this country for the last 200+ years.
He did receive applause from the Republican side when he quoted Lincoln with the line “. . . government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves –and no more.” He then followed that with a huge defense of the regulatory nightmare that is Washington DC under the guise that it increased “fairness”. Along with that he promised more of the same to,yep you guessed it,make everything even more “fair”. Guess he just doesn’t understand Lincoln and didn’t take seriously that “no more”part. Heaven help us all.
At the conclusion of this exercise in trivia Obama took off on a three day,five state campaign tour of the US where he will take his show on the road to America,at the taxpayers’expense of course,but then what else is new?
Wow. What an exciting upset in South Carolina! Just over a week ago polls predicted Romney would win with over 40% of the vote and Gingrich would be in the teens. Tonight Newt had an almost unheard of gain of 20 points over those polls. This is a truly miraculous occurrence. According to exit polling he won the support of men,women,married women,and virtually all the demographic groups to achieve a landslide win that covered almost every county in the state. Out of that he will get most of the South Carolina delegates.
This year the Republicans changed the nature of their delegate selection process. No longer will they use a “winner takes all”method but use a complicated formula in each state that awards delegates based on 1) winning the state,2) winning in the various congressional districts,3) a couple other key items. Coming into the SC primary the delegate total based on previous contests was:Romney 15,Gingrich 15,Paul 9,and Santorum 6. To keep this in perspective,there are 2286 total delegate seats and it takes 1144 to win the nomination. With his big win in SC Newt will likely pick up 19 of the 25 delegate seats from there. The next is Florida with 50 delegate seats up for grabs. It is a long,long way to 1144 but it is now not going to be short changed and it may well be months before anyone gets enough delegates to claim the nomination.
After the SC event today Romney stated “It will be a long primary season.”and pledged that he is off to Florida to continue the fight. In Florida recent polls indicate he holds a 20 point lead,but could that possibly evaporate almost overnight just as it did in South Carolina? Only time will tell.
Some,including Gingrich,have indicated that Santorum and Paul should just get out of the race since they don’t have a clear shot at the nomination,an assertion that Santorum calls ridiculous. Paul,who had the lowest showing tonight is in it to go all the way to the convention. He is an issues candidate as he has been for a number of other campaigns in the past. His purpose is to present the message of “Liberty”to the American people. In his words tonight,“The message of liberty is being received by more people every single day.” He stated that he will go on promoting the message and picking up delegates because,“that is the way to promote the message”. He also stated that governments are going broke trying to provide the cradle to grave social welfare systems and they can not be depended on to support us in the future.
Santorum also pledged to continue on with the fight. He said it was a family decision for him to run to present the message that freedom is fundamentally at stake in this country today. “The government is taking and robbing every man,woman and child of their freedom in an attempt to control everything from bottom to top in our economy.” He is presenting a message to provide a “bold vision”to the country of freedom and opportunity. Like Paul,Santorum is on a quest to present a message,that of supremacy of conservatism and constitutional government. He too is in it for the long haul.
Gingrich has waged a most unconventional campaign so far. He was announced done for by the pundits twice so far,once back in May when most of his campaign staff left and again under a deluge of negative adds just before the I0wa caucus. He well could have that happen again before the convention. But in retrospect,McCain had to dismiss all his staffers in early summer of 2007 for lack of funding and his campaign was also pronounced dead prematurely.
In Newt’s speech to his supporters he said that the “elites”in New York and Washington don’t care at all about the common man today. Then he talked about American exceptionalism where anyone can aspire to become president. He stated that we “once had an actor who made movies with chimpanzees” as president and he continued, “once we had a peanut farmer / nuclear physicist who didn’t turn out to be quite as good.” He complimented each of his opponents for their efforts. Rick Santorum he cited for his “enormous courage”in Iowa where he had no resources and just kept campaigning to ultimately win. He lauded Santorum for d0ing a great job of articulating social conservatism. He stated Ron Paul has “been right for 25 years”on his issues of money and the Federal Reserve system. Gingrich also praised Gov Romney as being a hard working,successful advocate of the American system of free enterprise.
He went on to state,“We want to run not a Republican campaign but we want to run an American campaign.” . . . “If we unleash the American people we can rebuild the America that we love.” Newt emphasized that he got into the campaign because,“This is the most important election of our lifetime.” He stated that if Obama is reelected it would mortally wound America as we have known it and turn it into just another failed European model socialist state. He stated of the focus of his campaign,“The centerpiece of this campaign I believe is American exceptionalism vs the radicalism of Saul Alinski”.
Newt thanked Rick Perry for his support and endorsement and acknowledged Rick’s passion for re-implementing the 10th amendment. He pledged that he would work with Rick to get the power out of DC and back to the states where it belongs. He vowed to decrease the federal government and its involvement in the lives of the states and the people. He said,“I am committed to getting back to a balanced budget as rapidly as possible”and to work to run a surplus to pay down our debt so that we would never again be forced to accede to demands of lender nations like China and never again would an American president feel a need to bow to a Saudi king.
For an old conservative like myself this was an exciting night. In my first presidential election I voted for Barry Goldwater. I thought I was an independent voter,supporting the best man without concern for party until sometime in the 80s it dawned on me that I never seemed to find the best man in the Democratic party. That’s when it finally dawned on me that I must be a Republican. Then I actually read the party platforms and began to understood why. It is a real eye-opening exercise that everyone should do before they go to the polls.
In modern years I voted Republican,but the only Republican presidential candidate that I could actually enthusiastically support was Ronald Regan. This actor who made movies with chimps espoused the message of American exceptionalism that resounded with me in a way that the moderates who won the party nomination since simply did not do. Bush 1,Dole,Bush 2,McCain were not the conservative Republican standard bearers that I learned to love in Reagan. Romney seemed to be just another in that long list of lackluster moderates that was endorsed by the Republican hierarchy and he seemed to be destined for coronation,at least until tonight. Then tonight I heard that Reagan message again from both Gingrich and Santorum in a believable way. Yes,this was a good night for true conservatives.
Wow,what an exciting event! Romney wins with the same number of votes he got four years ago. Beats Santorum by ONLY 8 votes! Santorum considered the real winner since he was in single digits of approval only two weeks ago. Bachman decided to hang it up and Perry decides to hang in there for now. The left wing media describes the Republican line up as “weak”in comparison to their champion Barack Obama who has bought us unemployment that has remained in the 8.5 to 10.5 range for the past three years,disrespect internationally,a federal takeover of the US healthcare industry,three times the deficits of his predecessor which he called indefensible,and a steady march to turning this country into another Greece.
The primary season has been a real roller-coaster event for the past five months. In August Bachman won the straw poll in Iowa and then was passed by Perry who then faded to be surpassed by Cain when he failed to impress during the debates. Cain self-imploded under sexual allegations followed by Gingrich who then slid in the polls under a massive negative campaign from Romney,Paul and others who spent millions to slime him regardless of accuracy of their claims. The up and down phenomenon has been the effect of an attempt by the conservative Republicans to find an alternate to Romney whom they view as being a slick,establishment embodiment of the status quo.
Now it is obvious that the object of the next slimming will be Rick Santorum. It is questionable as to how effective that will be considering that Santorum does not have nearly the visibility in past activities as Gingrich to make him a good slime target and it is unlikely that with his background they could make sexual allegations believable. It is a shame that this form of negative adds actually works,but it obviously does. No one knows that more about that than Romney who himself was the victim of a false slime add by McCain just before the S Carolina primary four years ago that effectively ended his run. It is hard to recover from an unsubstantiated smear the night before an election when that gets massive coverage in the media.
Today Romney is the darling of the Republican establishment winning endorsements by Bob Dole,Chris Christy,George HW Bush,and John McCain. All these folk have two things in common:1) they are recognized influence dealers in the party,2) none of them would truly be considered “conservatives”in the party. I think this is very telling. Romney has attempted to convince the voters and caucus goers that he is a conservative,yet the majority of his endorsements and supporters are folks that are more identified as “moderates”. Perhaps Newt has a point about him being a “Massachusetts Moderate”.
What about Santorum? He has had been criticized by Perry and Romney for seeking earmarks for Pennsylvania when he was senator,yet both of these individuals were enthusiastic acceptors of earmark money when serving as governor. I am very much anti-earmark oriented,but the reality is that earmarks are a reality in the last 40 years in Washington. For a representative to refuse them brings on seriously damaging challenges from opponents on reelection. In all of congress there is only a tiny handful of representatives that have failed to seek them because today’s voter demands them to “bring home the bacon”. To stop that single-handedly would in most districts be political suicide. He worked with Gingrich in the 90s when they,with a Democratic president,balanced the budget and reformed the welfare system.
Romney on the other hand instituted “Romneycare”which today is apparently doing a lot to bankrupt the state of Massachusetts. With fairness he also balanced the budget in his state and did some other positive things much to his credit,especially considered he worked with a solidly Democratic legislature. He has done some good things and would definitely be a huge improvement over four more years of Barack Obama,but one thing he ain’t, is a conservative. He is just another Republican moderate being pushed by the hierarchy of the party because they fear a true conservative like Santorum,or Gingrich. These are the same folk that four years ago gave us a very “moderate”John McCain who in their view would bring in independents. Well,we all know how well that turned out.
Results like those in Iowa give us hope that the democratic process is still alive and well regardless of the media and the establishment. Perry spent over $400 for each vote he won in Iowa,Romney spent $74 per vote and Rick Santorum spent 78 cents. This is a true example of grass-roots politics that we should be proud of. Who do you think would be the fiscally most responsible president. One who spends $400 per vote,one who spends $74 per vote or one who spends 78 cents! It is so refreshing to see someone accomplish so much with so little.
Whenever a new face leads the polls the news media makes a concerted effort to destroy their name and reputation. For months it was claims of a “weak slate”of Republican contenders for the presidency. In one form or another we have listened to the talking heads on TV stating authoritatively,“Never in history have we ever had such a weak slate of presidential candidates.”
Four years ago Obama had no qualifying track record,no true leadership experience public or private,a series of associations with despicable people including self-avowed terrorists, and questionable personal qualifications yet was never really questioned about his qualifications by the media. Apparently their view was,“You can’t question the Messiah!”Look where that got us. A lackluster administration that will not enforce immigration laws,will not protect its own citizens,ignores our friends and bows to foreign kings. In three years it has created more new debt than the last administration did in eight,refused to submit an actual budget in the last two years and only wants to throw more taxpayer money into their same failed programs. Through operation “Fast and Furious”it apparently intentionally even funneled guns to Mexican gangs in order to press for its goal of more restrictive US gun laws causing numerous deaths in Mexico and some here as well. Even with this despicable record Obama and his administration in most cases gets a pass on the difficult questions.
On the contrary,any Republican challenger is immediately vilified as a bigot,a racist,or an ignorant stooge. This is the standard tactic of the left. They have no successful record to run on so the only resort is a series of baseless accusations to attempt to destroy the personality of their opponents and divert attention from their own failures.
Not a single one of the announced Republican candidates for president has the poor record of accomplishments that Obama had this time four years ago. Regardless of this reality,the media is attempting to couch them in derogatory terms of alleged incompetency. Romney is too “establishment”–“too liberal”. Cain is “inexperienced”due to his lack of previous election to a public job. He knows nothing about foreign affairs (like as if Obama as demonstrated by his dismal record of the past three years knows anything about the subject). Perry is too soft on immigration (as compared to Obama whose administration not only refuses to enforce the immigration law,but sues the state of Arizona who attempts to do so). Bachman is a know-nothing “Tea Party”type that is way too right wing. Paul is naive in foreign affairs. Gingrich is too liberal,too establishment,too pro-amnesty,too radical,etc. The list goes on “ad nauseam”.
These are all the same old worn out lies that the left and their buddies in the media have used for years. Remember all the accusations about George W Bush as “having the lowest IQ of any president in history”. My e-mail in-box was full of those for several years. Remember the way they ridiculed Sarah Palin even to the extent of attacking her family,even her Downs Syndrome child? What about the media furor about Dan Quail and his spelling of “potatoe”. These are simply personal attacks designed to attack the personality of an opponent that they can not repudiate with true facts.
The Soviet Union had an official “Office of Disinformation”(or Dezinformatsiya) that was operated by the KGB. Its job was to achieve Soviet goals by providing misinformation that would injure or destroy its opponents. This came directly from the teachings of the great communist leader Vladimar Lenin who stated, “The communists must be prepared to make every sacrifice and,if necessary,even resort to all sorts of cunning schemes and stratagems,to employ illegal methods,to evade and conceal the truth…The practical part of communist policy is to incite one [enemy] against another…We communists must use one country against another.. My words were calculated to evoke hatred,aversion,and contempt…not to convince but to break up the ranks of the opponent,not to correct an opponent’s mistake but to destroy him,to wipe his organization off the face of the earth. This formulation is indeed of such a nature as to evoke the worst thoughts,the worst suspicions about the opponent.”
Directly from the principles of Lenin the Soviets created the concept of “Dezinformatsiya”which they defined as “the dissemination of false and provocative information.” As they practiced it “Dezinformatsiya”includes the use of forged or fabricated documents or photographs and the spreading of misleading or malicious rumors all for psychological effect.
The Democrats,their liberal wing,and their willing accomplices in the media have simply adopted this tactic for the same reasons as stated by Lenin. They will stop at nothing to deceive, discredit, vilify and destroy their opposition. They are great at repeating a lie over and over until people begin to believe it. Thus the incessant chants by their “rent-a-mobs”such as today’s “Occupy”bunch.
Keep this in mind when you next hear the “talking heads”on TV discussing the weak Republican line-up of candidates. These leftist are simply following their great leader Vladimar,being good soldiers of their cause. We must recognize this tactic for exactly what it is whether it comes from Obama,George Soros,Nancy Peloci,Harry Reid,or one of their favorite media news commentators. These are the same people who create bills to strip the rights of workers to a private vote on unionization and call it the “Employee Free Choice Act”. They create a bill that will produce no jobs and call it a “Jobs Bill”and use the name to vilify their opposition. They call for the passage of questionable bills on the basis that “we have to pass it so we can find out what is in it.”
It is just Dezinformatsiya folks,nothing more,nothing less.
Tonight 9/13/11,history was made. Republican Tom Turner has been declared the winner of the race for the ninth district seat vacated by Anthony Weiner’s disgraceful resignation. This is Charles Schumer’s old congressional seat that includes parts of the districts of Brooklyn and Queens in NYC. This seat has not been held by a Republican since 1923!
The ninth district has been considered the most secure Democrat congressional seat in the nation in a district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by three to one in a strongly Jewish area. Former NY mayors;Democrat Ed Koch,and Republican Rudy Guiliani both supported Mr Turner in a race that was run as a direct referendum against Barack Obama. If the political climate is such that a Republican can win this unbelievably solid “blue”district,then a Republican can win any district in the nation! This is even more remarkable that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts in 2009. Ironically this district will disappear in 2013 with redistricting,but this the final lesson from New York’s ninth district is a strong one.
Elsewhere in Nevada’s second district special congressional election the Republican Mark Amodei tonight achieved a comfortable victory. With 70% of precincts reporting Amodei leads his opponent 57% to 37%. This is definitely not a good night for Obama and his policies and certainly does not bode well for his,or the Democratic Party’s prospects in November 2012. If I were a Democrat congressman tonight I would definitely be looking for a “Plan B”employment option for January 2013.
Well we got delivered a real diaper load at Obama’s recent joint session speech. This is the first time to the best of my knowledge that any American president has ever had the pure unmitigated gall of calling for a joint session of congress to launch a reelection campaign. Now don’t get me wrong,it is very reasonable for a president to take the occasion of a joint session of congress to deal with real national emergencies,but this just doesn’t add up! This was no attempt to deal with a national problem but only an event to feed his enormous narcissistic ego pure and simple.
“Pass this bill”he stated with a bill that he knows has zero chance of passage in either house of congress. “Its fully paid for”he claimed then when the details of this “paid for”part comes out it is the same stuff his own party rejected two years ago when he had control of both the house and a veto proof margin in the senate! “Its a jobs bill”he asserted while the content shows this is just another $465 billion “stimulus”bill like the one trillion one passed a while back that totally failed to create any meaningful jobs. Instead it primarily rewarded his base with thousands of earmarks for the party faithful. This guy doesn’t have a clue and obviously doesn’t care about the people he was elected to serve.
We have 9% unemployment,a stock market that is tanking (and tumbled after his speech),federal debt that is unsustainable,businesses that are shackled with over 40 thousand pages of regulatory dictates and unknown looming expenses due to the ogre of Obamacare,a social security system that is not stable over the long period,a post office facing default this month,medicare that will be out of funds shortly and was further robbed of $500 billion for universal health care,so what does he do? Well,yesterday he packed the rose garden with teachers and claimed how his “jobs bill”would save their jobs. Hmmmmm. Just how many teachers have you heard of being laid off in the past three years? We have some six million private sector unemployed,over a million unemployed returning veterans,but I have heard of no teachers and precious few other public employees being laid off recently. Yes some plush teachers’benefits have been challenged in some locales,but no actual lay-offs to speak of.
This was purely a political ploy aimed at his left wing and union base,not the needs of Americans who are enduring real hardships today. At least Bill Clinton would convincingly say “I feel your pain.” This guy doesn’t even make a half hearted effort to be convincing and his ideology will not allow him to actually deal with the real problems of our nation. With his stream of self-serving lies no wonder his approval has tanked. Even his own party doesn’t believe him any more.
For too long the Republican leadership,even when they had the presidency and substantial majorities in both houses, lacked the intestinal fortitude to attack the Democrats head on over fiscal responsibility as well as a host of other associated issues. As a direct result spending rates and debt soared and gave the Democrats the opportunity to blame the Republicans and GW Bush for our soaring debt. Sen Chuck Schumer and congressman Barney “Twinkle-toes”Frank along with other leading Democrats directly caused the housing crisis and banking failures which precipitated the current economic downturn. They did this by refusing to reign Frannie and Freddie with their sub-prime loans after being specifically and directly warned three times by GW Bush as early as 2002. With the aid of the liberal news media they then successfully blamed Bush for the banking failure and the economic downturn resulting in Obama’s election. They still are still blaming Bush although they have increased the debt triple the rate before they took over. Our country is suffering substantially as a result and will soon be in the position of Greece or Spain if this is not stopped.
It is about time that Republicans finally develop the “huevos”to stand up against these liberal socialist interlopers that have hijacked our country and threatened our very way of life. Obviously I am only one of many that no longer trusts our Republican legislators to stand up and actually stand for the conservative values that they ran on in their home districts. The “Can’t we just get along”whiners have ruled the day among the Republican party. When an issue comes up the Democrats demagogue it like crazy and the Republicans roll over and play dead for fear it will be used as a election time sound byte by their opposition.
To those members of the Republican leadership concerned about this I say,“GET OVER IT!!” The Democrats are always going to accuse Republicans of being the mean old hateful big business fat cats who want to starve little old ladies and children. They always blame their failures on the Republicans and if you go along with their cock-a-mamie schemes to keep peace,when they fail as they inevitably will,they will successfully blame the failure on you and the media will support them!
Use the truth to disarm them instead of going along with their socialistic schemes as has been the pattern in Washington. There are still a bunch of people that will understand and stand with you if you stand firmly for the principles that founded this nation and guided it for 200 years. If Republicans don’t stand up tall now for fiscal responsibility there will soon arise a true third party that will be true to the Constitution and the principles espoused by the various Tea Party groups. That would be a disaster as it would insure Democrats control of the White House for the next 20 years or more.
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Newsmax article reprint:
A significant faction of the tea party movement is prepared to revolt against any GOP deal to raise the debt ceiling – even if it is “revenue neutral” and cuts trillions from federal spending,grass-roots sources tell Newsmax.
For the most part,tea party leaders have coalesced around the “cut,cap,and balance” approach to raising the debt ceiling:Trillions in real spending cuts,a cap on how much federal spending can consume as a percent of GDP,and,ultimately,a balanced budget amendment that would prevent the federal government from running up future deficits.
But the fractious tea party movement actually consists of thousands of loosely affiliated groups. They generally support constitutionally limited government,but don’t always agree on specific policies. And they are by no means united on whether the debt ceiling should be raised at all.
The leaders of at least one major tea party organization,Tea Party Patriots,are adamantly opposed to any deal to raise the debt ceiling,under virtually any circumstances. Doing so,they say,only invites more deficit spending.
Some analysts call such fiscal hawks “debt-ceiling absolutists.” The absolutists say Uncle Sam must go cold turkey and swear off the spending binge that has saddled America with over $14.3 trillion in national debt. But labels aside,their influence within the GOP caucus is substantial.
“It’s a hard sell for [House Speaker John] Boehner,” Ryan Ellis,director of tax policy for Americans for Tax Reform,tells Newsmax. “Because the people that he’s having trouble rounding up,and that he had trouble rounding up for the CR [continuing resolution passed in April],are people who are just inherently skeptical of Republican authority in D.C. – and for good reason.”
Although most of the major grass-roots organizations,including Tea Party Express,FreedomWorks,Grassfire.org,and others have coalesced around the cut,cap,and balance approach,it is by no means clear that they have the support of the majority of their own members when it comes to raising the debt ceiling.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that more than 80 percent of self-identified tea party supporters oppose raising the debt ceiling. Even Democrats only favored increasing the debt ceiling by 49 percent to 45 percent. Independents also opposed increasing the debt ceiling,by a whopping 71 percent to 24 percent margin.
Several such polls suggest the Republican leadership has failed to win the confidence of its grass-roots conservative base. In fact,several recent GOP moves have probably eroded the tea parties’ trust in the GOP leadership.
The “secret” powwow held Sunday between Boehner and President Barack Obama administration,as reported by The New York Times,has left some tea party leaders more skeptical that the ultimate deal will be palatable.
“Somehow super-secret,double-secret handshake meetings in back rooms on the weekend when nobody’s watching don’t seem to me to meet any standard of transparency for any human being that I’ve ever met,” Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler tells Newsmax.
“Why aren’t these negotiations open to the American public?” demanded Meckler,who is always careful to stipulate that he doesn’t speak for all of his members. “Why are we not allowed to know how,and for what,they’re trading away our children’s future?”
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel tells Newsmax,“The speaker has made it clear that the American people will not tolerate – and the House will not pass – a debt-limit increase without spending cuts greater than the increase,and reforms that will bring down future spending. The only thing off the table is tax hikes,because tax hikes destroy jobs.”
The Republican Party’s relationship with its tea party base took another hit Wednesday when GOP Sen. Jon Kyl,R-Arizona,stated Republicans had put some $200 billion in new revenues on the table,in a good-faith effort to work out a deal with the White House.
Although Kyl said those revenues would be gathered through land sales and increased fees rather than higher taxes,his statement has triggered substantial angst on the right.
Ryan Hecker,the tea party leader who created the Contract From America document that served as the tea party’s manifesto in the 2010 midterms,blasted Kyl Thursday in an e-mail to Newsmax.
“I am dismayed that Republicans like Kyl continue to use doublespeak in an attempt to once again trick and fleece the American people,” Hecker wrote. “Calls to implement ‘user fees’ and close ‘tax loopholes’ are simply sly ways of calling for tax increases,” he added.
The escalating discontent on the right comes in the context of the April deal brokered by Obama and Boehner. ATR’s Ellis tells Newsmax that tea party members feel they “got played” in the continuing resolution negotiation.
Initially,the deal purported to shave $38 billion from federal spending. But a subsequent CBO analysis found it actually cut just $352 million for current-year spending. Then came the killer:When emergency military spending was included,the CBO found that federal spending would actually increase $3.3 billion above last year’s level.
Although Boehner’s staff defended the future savings that the compromise is projected to bring,it now appears the deal in April may make it much more difficult politically to get grass-roots buy-in on a grand bargain to elevate the debt ceiling. It proved so controversial that 59 House Republicans broke ranks and voted against the deal.
This time,some observers warn,the defections could be even worse. If Boehner has to rely heavily on Democratic votes to pass a debt-ceiling compromise,it could weaken his standing within his own caucus.
Some tea party members,meanwhile,complain that the Republican Party seems to have forgotten the lesson of the 2010 midterms.
“It astounds me that Republican leadership continues to operate under the assumption that they won back the House in 2010 because of their good looks and wonderful personalities,” Hecker stated.
“They won because they preached economic conservatism and no tax hikes. They were given a mandate,and yet they continue to operate from a defensive position. This failure of real leadership is why Republicans lost Congress and the presidency in the first place,” he added.
FreedomWorks chief Matt Kibbe has a more nuanced view. As much as he would prefer a more fundamental change in federal governance,he says,the GOP,with control of only one chamber of Congress,just doesn’t have the power it needs to impose its will. That’s why his organization is pushing for the more pragmatic cut,cap,and balance approach.
“The burden on Republicans is that they have to be bold because they don’t have credibility,” says Kibbe. “We don’t trust them to cut a good deal,so they have to stand firm.
“I think the impact of the tea party has been profound in this sense,” he adds. “We’re getting trashed by everyone from David Brooks of The New York Times,to Democrats,for not allowing Republicans to negotiate in good faith.
“Well,this is a spending problem. If you want to fix a spending problem,you’ve got to cut spending. If you want to talk about revenue to fix a spending problem you’re just changing the topic.”
ATR’s Ellis tells Newsmax that every tea party member he’s spoken with is “extremely skeptical” about the wisdom of raising the debt ceiling. To pass muster with the grass,he says,a deal at a minimum must:
Offer real cuts,not ones depending on elaborate accounting formulas involving spending projections and presumed rates of employment that extend beyond a five-year horizon. Both Meckler and Everett Wilkinson,the head of the Florida tea party,tell Newsmax that they simply don’t trust what they call the federal government’s “Enron accounting.”
Be front-loaded with cuts. That means immediate spending reductions mostly occurring within the next few years. Putting off cuts until long after current members of Congress have left Washington just won’t fly. “Of course Obama wants to punt it,to get it off the table until the next election,” says Wilkinson. “And I think largely the Republicans would like to do the same thing. Because I don’t think D.C. understands that the American people have had enough,and they want real cuts.”
Offer enforceable,hard caps on future spending. Once spending exceeds a certain portion of the Gross Domestic Product – perhaps 18.5 percent,compared to the current level of nearly 24 percent – cuts in spending would have to automatically ensue,activists say.
“They want a down payment,” Ellis explains. “They want a significant sign of good faith,and a down payment that these spending cuts are real,and they’re going to be enforceable going forward.”
Of course,there is no guarantee that Democrats would go along with the tea party’s bottom line. But this much is clear:The prospect is very real that any Republican politician who supports a deal unpopular with the GOP’s grass-roots base will pay dearly for it at the polls.
I didn’t know what “mobocratic rule”was till I read this man’s article. It is “rule by mob”which pretty well describes the current administration. Mychal Massie’s column is carried by WorldNetDaily.com and he is a frequent guest on regional and national talk shows.
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An article by Mychal Massie: http://www.wnd.com/speakers/mmassie.asp
At a time when many Americans can barely afford Burger King and a movie,Obama boasts of spending a billion dollars on his re-election campaign. Questioned at a recent appearance about the spiraling fuel costs,Obama said,“Get used to it”– and with an insouciant grin and chortle,he told another person at the event,who complained about the effect high fuel prices were having on his family,to “get a more fuel-efficient car.”
The Obamas behave as if they were sharecroppers living in a trailer and hit the Powerball,but instead of getting new tires for their trailer and a new pickup truck,they moved to Washington. And instead of making possum pie,with goats and chickens in the front yard,they’re spending and living large at taxpayer expense – opulent vacations,gala balls,resplendent dinners and exclusive command performances at the White House,grand date nights,golf,basketball,more golf,exclusive resorts and still more golf.
Expensive,ill-fitting and ill-chosen wigs and fashions hardly befit the first lady of the United States. The Obamas have behaved in every way but presidential – which is why it’s so offensive when we hear Obama say,in order “to restore fiscal responsibility,we all need to share in the sacrifice – but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.”
The American people have been sacrificing;it is he and his family who are behaving as if they’ve never had two nickels to rub together – and now,having hit the mother lode,they’re going to spend away their feelings of inadequacy at the taxpayers’ expense.
Obama continues to exhibit behavior that,at best,can be described as mobocratic and,at worst,reveals a deeply damaged individual. In a February 2010 column,I asked,“Is Obama unraveling?” I wrote that it was beginning to appear the growing mistrust of him and contempt for his policies was beginning to have a destabilizing effect on him.
At that time,I wrote that not having things go one’s way can be a bitter pill,but reasonable people don’t behave as he was behaving. He had insulted Republicans at their luncheon,where he had been an invited guest. I had speculated that was,in part,what had led him to falsely accuse Supreme Court justices before Congress,the nation and the world,during the 2010 State of the Union address.
It appeared,at that time,as if he were “fraying around the emotional edges.”That behavior has not abated – it has become more pronounced. While addressing the nation,after being forced to explain the validity of his unilateral aggression with Libya,America witnessed a petulant individual scowling and scolding the public for daring to insist he explain his actions.
But during an afternoon speech to address the budget/debt,he took his scornful,unstable despotic behavior to depths that should give the nation cause for concern. Displaying a dark psychopathy more representative of an episode of “The Tudors”television series,he invited Rep. Paul Ryan,R-Wis.,to sit in the front row during his speech and then proceeded to berate both Ryan and Ryan’s budget-cutting plan. Even liberal Democrats were put off by the act. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough questioned the sanity of Obama’s actions.
Today,criticism is coming from all sides. A senior Democrat lawmaker said,“I have been very disappointed in [Obama],to the point where I’m embarrassed that I endorsed him. It’s so bad that some of us are thinking,is there some way we can replace him? How do you get rid of this guy?”(“Democrats’Disgust with Obama,”The Daily Beast,April 15,2011)
Steve McCann wrote:Obama’s speech “was chock full of lies,deceit and crass fear-mongering. It must be said that [he] is the most dishonest,deceitful and mendacious person in a position of power I have ever witnessed”(“The Mendacity of Barack Obama,”AmericanThinker.com,April 15,2011).
McCann continued:“[His] performance was the culmination of four years of outright lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media,including some in the conservative press and political class who are loath to call [him] what he is in the bluntest of terms:a liar and a fraud. That he relies on his skin color to intimidate,either outright or by insinuation [against] those who oppose his radical agenda only add to his audacity. It is apparent that he has gotten away with his character flaws his entire life,aided and abetted by sycophants around him. …”
With these being among the kinder rebukes being directed at Obama,and with people becoming less intimidated by his willingness to use race as a bludgeon,with falling poll numbers in every meaningful category and an increasingly aggressive tea-party opposition – how much longer before he cracks completely?
The coming months of political life are not going to be pleasant for Obama. Possessed by a self-perceived palatine mindset,that in his mind places him above criticism,how long before he cracks in public? Can America risk a man with a documented track record of lying and misrepresenting truth as a basic way of life,who is becoming increasingly more contumelious?
The decision for our participation in a “no fly zone”in protection of Lybian rebels, right or wrong is now history. What we are left with is a reality of our current involvement in Lybia. Although Obama is receiving heat (rightly so) from both sides of the political spectrum. It is coming first because of his indecision and delay while Qaddafi made significant gains,then by his suddenly entering the fray at the last moment without benefit of consent of Congress. It is interesting that the most vehement words of condemnation are actually coming from his left wing base.
Rep Kasinich (D-Ohio) has even used the the “I word,(impeachment). Although Kasinich spews this venom wrapped in “love of the constitution”he expressed no similar concern for the sanctity of that document while he was supporting the blatantly unconstitutional Obamacare. This is mostly political grandstanding and self serving oratory not serious indignation over a real constitutional abuse of power.
Like it or not,we are stuck with the current state of things,at least for a while. Stuck is a great word here because neither the Arab League,France or NATO wants the responsibility for leadership that Obama states he will be relinquishing in a “few days”. Obama is a reluctant wartime president that was dragged to this thing kicking and screaming and lost the opportunity to vote “present”as has been shown to be his usual preference. Being Commander-In-Chief is only fun when you can sit home and make empty rhetoric and “double-speak”that you can use in your current political campaign. When you have to actually make real world decisions that you can not deny tomorrow it becomes a whole nother thing. Welcome to the real world of leadership Barack.
I pray for the safety of our military personnel and I pray that this strange operation will ultimately succeed. However,will someone please just stand up and clearly explain what “success”is? I hope it means Qaddafi’s 41 year reign of terror in Lybia is soon to be over,but that is currently unclear. I also pray that when it ends Qaddafi’s regime is replaced by one that treats their people better than did Qaddafi. All people deserve better than what these poor folks have received for the past 40+ years.
My fervent hope is that those “rebels”we are supporting there really want the kind of democratic reforms they are proclaiming and are not just another Alkada,Hamas,“Brotherhood”,bunch of Islamacist loonies that are so prominent in the Mideast these days. I am convinced that Obama doesn’t know the difference,I certainly hope Sarkozi does since he was the true leader here.
Incidentally:Note how “The Arab League”screamed incessantly for this “no fly zone”only to crawl away hiding under their normally accustomed rocks when the first shot was fired. Of course is that actually surprising to anyone? Their past history would have predicted no less.
For the past week we have been witness to the depths of depravity of liberalism in Wisconsin. Fourteen elected Democratic representatives in the state’s senate have fled to another state to protect their supposed right to prevent the legislative process while thousands of teachers abandoned their classrooms to wave signs accusing the governor of being a Nazi supporter of Qadaffi and Mubarac. Democratic congressman Rep. Michael Capuano from Massachusetts told union workers in Wisconsin,“Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.” Medical doctors from the University of Wisconsin pass out “sick notes” to union members that left their jobs to protest,some of them,teachers who took students with them closing down the schools while proclaiming they are “protecting the students”. This is not from minimum wage employees,it is from teachers and other public employee union members who are making upwards of $75,000 per year while forcing their state into bankruptcy!
These ridiculous tactics are being encouraged and orchestrated by the DNC with encouragement directly from the White House. Obama was quick to come out with comments about “ratcheting down the rhetoric”just a few weeks ago,but now totally turns a blind eye to the outrageous actions in Wisconson as well as similar events in Indiana, Ohio,and elsewhere as these states try to dig their way out of the looming likelihood of impending bankruptcy.
The national news media is quick to condemn the Tea Party and accuse them of everything from extremism to violence in their protests while they can produce not one single picture or video of such actions. All the while they say not a single word about the hundreds of documented and obvious extremist and fraudulent actions of the activists in Madison. They don’t even condemn Capuano for openly calling for violence in the streets of Madison!
Enough is enough. Everything possible should be done to strip these people of the public feedbag that they have strapped around their neck. The legislators that refuse to legislate should be stripped of their elected positions. Their seats should declared “vacated”by the governor and special elections scheduled to replace them with people that will actually show up to represent their constituents. Rep Capauno should be charged for attempting to incite a riot,a crime under federal law as well as in all fifty states! Teachers that were away from their jobs claiming “sick days”should be identified from the thousands of photos and videos available and fired for the fraud they perpetuated on the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Likewise for other public employees that participated illegally in this debacle should be terminated.
Physicians that falsified “sick notes” should have their licenses pulled and prohibited from practicing medicine in the future. That idiot that kept screaming “Fox lies,Fox lies” attempting to prevent Fox news reporters from accurately reporting the events should be deported just for extreme stupidity or perhaps referred to a local vet for neutering just to prevent the potential of spreading the insanity by breeding. Media representatives that turned a blind eye to the Nazi signs and rhetoric should,well since they are not public employees,they should be just ignored and their outlets boycotted by reasonable people.
We have a federal government that is $14 trillion (that’s a 14 followed by twelve zeros folks) and instead of making a serious effort to work on correcting that problem Obama submits a budget that perpetuates federal deficits for the foreseeable future. Obama and his Democratic cohorts ran up almost as much of that debt in two years as Bush did in eight yet continue to blame Bush for the current financial plight accepting none of the blame for themselves. Now when states attempt to correct for their looming bankruptcies he supports the status quo and advocates for the glutenous public service unions that are raping the taxpayers of the states of Wisconsin,Indiana,Ohio,and elsewhere with bloated contracts.
Enough is enough folks. We have teachers who can’t even spell,showing up with protest signs such as one I saw that proudly proclaimed “Sav are teachers”. They are illegally demonstrating with falsified claims for being out sick while protesting for the indefensibly bloated contracts that are bankrupting our states. Our schools are failing and children are graduating that are functionally illiterate while teachers in WI are protesting for contracts far in excess of what is found in the private sector. Nationally we are broke and quickly approaching the point of default and the situation is becoming more critical day by day. This insanity must stop or we will simply cease to exist as a nation.
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amendment that would prevent the federal government from running up future deficits.
SOTC Speach
Obama speaks to nation
How did you rate Obama's speech
Total Voters:17
What was most notable in this speech was the almost total exclusion of any reference to Obamacare or his cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline. Why would he fail to even mention what he touted as his singular greatest success of the first two years of his presidency? Could it be that he has figured out that when two thirds of the people in the country want it repealed it might just not be a really popular idea? What about the pipeline which would create tens of thousands of jobs,add to US security by making us less dependent on oil from regions that hate our guts,create tax revenues,enhance trade with our closest neighbor,and would be totally privately funded and not cost the taxpayers a dime. Instead he wants to spend taxpayer monies and borrow more from China to promote “green jobs”like Solyndra and he did state that in his speech.
Instead he concentrated on the word “fair”. If you counted the number of times he said that word or a variant of it you would have been busy for most of the 75 or so mind-numbing minutes of the thing,and you probably would have surely lost count somewhere in the middle. Obama positioned Warren Buffet’s secretary,a woman that reportedly earns some $200K per year, by his wife Michelle so that he could point out that she pays a higher percentage of income tax than her boss which is,yep you guessed it “not fair”. That was so he could call for a new tax,“The Buffet Rule”that would say that you must always pay more percentage of your income in taxes than your secretary,or something like that or else you obviously are not paying your “fair share”.
In all “fairness”he did one thing worthwhile. He thanked and congratulated our US military for their service. He then went on to claim personal responsibility for the elimination of Osama bin Laden and drone attacks that have eliminated other terrorist leadership. Of course he conveniently forgot that the groundwork for the intelligence that led to those successes and the special equipment used was all laid by his predecessor. Much of that groundwork was the same things that he personally criticized when running for president,but what do you expect from our Community Organizer In Chief? Then he added further insult to the military by promising to cut military budgets to fund more of his social welfare spending programs,a proposal designed specifically to buy votes for himself and his cronies.
He then proceeded to sink into an exercise that will be the center of his great campaign strategy. That of dividing the American people by describing the US as a class-oriented society of the “haves”and the “have nots”. Pure unadulterated class warfare! It is an attempt to speak to the “have nots”about the evil “haves”that have at least $1 more than them and don’t want to give it over for redistribution to pay their “fair share”.
This was pointed out in Mitch Daniel’s Republican response to the speech,“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us,to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others” It is sad that the United States of America should have a president that attempts to limit the opportunity to excel in this country by describing our way of life in such blatantly Marxist class society terms.
America is better than that and historically there has been nowhere in the world where there was more upward mobility available for people to improve their lot in life. Newt Gingrich explained the alternate way well when he commented recently about jobs. Newt said he wanted everyone to,“have a job,get a better job,and someday own the job”. That is the American way to help people to get a job,help them to improve themselves so they can move up in their job and give them the opportunity to someday be able to own a business to give jobs to others. That is the reason people have emigrated to this country for the last 200+ years.
He did receive applause from the Republican side when he quoted Lincoln with the line “. . . government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves –and no more.” He then followed that with a huge defense of the regulatory nightmare that is Washington DC under the guise that it increased “fairness”. Along with that he promised more of the same to,yep you guessed it,make everything even more “fair”. Guess he just doesn’t understand Lincoln and didn’t take seriously that “no more”part. Heaven help us all.
At the conclusion of this exercise in trivia Obama took off on a three day,five state campaign tour of the US where he will take his show on the road to America,at the taxpayers’expense of course,but then what else is new?