The State of the Union Speech
The text is here. Some excerpts follow, prefaced with my summary.
We live in hard times, but it’s Bush’s fault.
One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted – immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed. But the devastation remains. ….
So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.
I am helping now and help can come faster, if only the wreckers and saboteurs get out of the way. Let me tell what things this administration has been doing to solve the nation’s problems.
For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. They don’t understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn’t; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. … We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent – a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can.
But their day is ending. First thing is we’re getting money back from Wall Street.
I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn’t keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.
You should have more money in your pocket now, or more than otherwise because of tax cuts and the economic stimulus.
Let me repeat: we cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college. As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven’t raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime. …
The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. That’s right – the Recovery Act, also known as the Stimulus Bill. Economists on the left and the right say that this bill has helped saved jobs and avert disaster.
And in case that’s not enough we’re taking money from the fat cats and giving it to you. For example, through government created community banks.
So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.
To make America like other advanced nations it will build high-speed rail, create green energy. It will put people to work building the future.
Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information. We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.
But that’s not enough because to be successful America needs fundamental change. Really basic changes. Not just the niggling stuff mentioned above. First, it needs financial reform. Government is going to watch over Wall Street to make sure they don’t do anything risky.
But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy. … The House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes. And the lobbyists are already trying to kill it. Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back.
Second, government is going to invest in more research.
Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history – an investment that could lead to the world’s cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy. You can see the results of last year’s investment in clean energy – in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.
Third, government is going to help America export more of our goods. There’s even a plan for it.
To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.
Fourth, it’s going to spend more on schools.
Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform – reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner-cities. In the 21st century, one of the best anti-poverty programs is a world-class education. In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than their potential.
And above all, America is going to get Health Care so it won’t have to spend so much in the future.
By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.
As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed. There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo.
And all this will happen under the umbrella of an enlightened security and foreign policy. America is winning the War on Terror, whatever it is called now.
Tonight, all of our men and women in uniform — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world – must know that they have our respect, our gratitude, and our full support. And just as they must have the resources they need in war, we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home. That is why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades. That is why we are building a 21st century VA. And that is why Michelle has joined with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to support military families.
And since the current administration is doing all these good things, it will stay the course. It won’t let the aforementioned saboteurs and wreckers stand in the way.
So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it’s an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern. To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership. … A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment – to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
So in summary, though we are still in bad shape remember George Bush caused that problem. We are fixing things now in little ways, but we’ll soon get to the big ways. We’ll bring the banks to heel, create jobs, give you health care, keep you safe. Don’t you believe those who say differently, because they’re just getting in the way. We have the largest majority in decades. We won. And we are going to stay the course.
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What a lot of rot. It was impossible to keep up with the lies, the spin, the distortions, the cant, the economic ignorance. I could only half listen, because I simply can’t bear the guy any longer.
And in today’s good news, the wretched Howard Zinn has dropped dead. Another old Leftie crank bites the dust!
Obama is doubling down. And you called it Wretchard, he’s irrelevant. A Lame Duck.
Voters will look at this and see: NOTHING relating to JOBS JOBS JOBS. Voters are uninterested in punishing Wall Street, blaming Bush, know they are PAYING HIGHER TAXES (both State and Federal, with more to come), don’t trust ObamaCare, find “green Jobs” and “green research” a scam.
Every Republican will ask, after two years of Obama, are you worse or better off than before? Are things getting better? And the answer will be no, and a Republican tidal wave taking the House and maybe even the Senate.
There is ZERO chance that Green crap and the rest will put ANY of the approximately 15 million since 2007 who lost their jobs back to work. So Obama is done. He might even get impeached. Power could flow to the Congress, as it did in the 19th Century, with dangerous consequences for the nation.
Wow, I think I just had a flashback–except I never had the misfortune of sitting through a Brezhnev-era Soviet plenary session….
Well, that is a part of my life I want to never have to go through again.
My daughter said she kept watching me because she was sure that the way I was acting I was going to have either a stroke or heart attack or kill the TV, which ever came first.
Can we start the impeachment proceedings now after he sets a world record of all time for the number of lies and “I”s and fist slapping?
I’m going to bed early, I can’t believe he represents America, I’m actually ashamed for him and our Republic.
Papa Ray
This is the only good thing he said:
This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.
He failed to see his own reversion to campaign mode when he said, “But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day.”
Then after Porkulus I, and talk of Porkulus II, he has the gall to say, “Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” O RLY?
Then he demonstrates the liberal fallacy of thinking that tax cuts have to be “paid for”: Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. How freaking expensive will socialized medicine be?
And after ClimateGate he’s still pushing Cap & Trade: …it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill…
This is actually good news for conservatives (Republicans and fiscal-conservative Libertarians like me). I thought he would tack to the center and gain re-election ala Clinton 1996. Not happening.
Dear Merciful God in Heaven, if you care the slightest bit for this miserable sinner let me hear Joey Hairplugs read the SOTU this time next year while Teh Won TIVOs his 2008 campaign speeches for the umpteenth time and feels good enough to–never mind. I already feel sorry for his existing daughters….
I don’t even know what to say. Lived down to my worst expectations. Not a dimes worth of statemanship in the damn fool. Then again, the only thing he’s ever been sucessful at was campaigning, though, well…
I expect a few more people are out in the garage tonight scraping the Obama/Biden bumperstickers off their cars. Can you be a lame duck with three years left in your first term?
It was a campaign speech, all the left/liberal shibboleths were there. He’s still running for President.
The other day Mark Steyn noted a Newsweek report that Obama gave 411 speeches during his first year in office. Amazing – and still he finds the time to read letters from children asking why o why must things be this way???
I do love the way he cites as evidence of economic recovery the 1,000 people in California making solar panels, (never mind the 1200 – nationwide, no less – making “advanced batteries”, whatever they are) … the magnification of their importance just emphasizes how badly this administration has done. I can imagine the speechwriters brainstorming over that one…
The headline over at the Huffington Post is “I DON’T QUIT”. Whether one regards Obama favorably or unfavorably, the objective nature of his plan means that if carried out there will be a short-term burst in expenditures until such time as the “growth” aspects of his plan kick in to provide a bigger tax base.
That was implicit in what he didn’t say. There is to be no large scale reduction in government programs. Instead there will be more governance. For regulating Wall Street, funding projects, giving grants to education and “funding” health care reform. These are ‘investments’ in the bright future that he paints. The question is whether they are likely to make a return on the outlay. And the nearly certain answer — whether one supports the President or not — is that none of them are going to make a material difference in the next six or seven months.
The next six or seven months of 2010 are likely to answer whether President Obama’s actions in the first year did any good. That’s when at least some of the return on his 2009 programs should come in. If they’re ever coming in. My own guess is that the next few months will still see more negative news, perhaps even more negative than otherwise because I don’t think much of his 2009 programs. But we shall see.
So if I’m right and 2010 is essentially a dog until October, all the President is going to have to going forward is expectation. If there’s nothing to show he’ll have to make up for it with glowing descriptions of things to come. So he’s in for a rough year because the cavalry is not going to ride to his rescue anytime before October and he must convince the public that, even with the ammunition running low and the arrows protruding from their hats that it can hear the witching call of bugles just over the hill. “Hold on boys, Hope is on the way.”
Sorry I started blogging this on the wrong thread. I intend to cheat on my blog and copy that 1 line answer below and to my comments on this thread.
Winky, Blinky and Nod on the podium. “Community” banks? I suspect more cheese for insiders like Rezco and poverty pimps.
He is doubling down on AGW. This will cost him because it is so unnecessary. The idea that we have to do something stupid because the other kids on the block, those tres sophisticated Europeans, are doing it was a passing fancy that helped get him elected. Now it clear that it was largely media hype even in the case of Europeans, who have dropped Obama like a 3 days dead fish. The idea that we should swallow it because India and China might get there first is a bold faced lie that is so easily refuted that he must be counting on Republicans being afraid to say it.
The Republican response should be a workmanlike dissection of every proposal. They should lay each out on the table before the American public and ask three questions;
1. how did this problem happen?
2. cui bono?
3. who is hurt?
Go through the exercise on each case.
A. The Auto industry seizure & Cash for Clunkers;
1. Union cost padding and environmental cost inflation,
2. The UAW at $80K/job, short sellers,
3. Everyone who could use a working used car, stock and debt holders.
B. The Health Care/Insurance debate;
1. Tort lawyers and Regulators,
2. The SEIU,
3. Doctors & patients.
C. AGW
1. What problem or the size of Al Gore’s house,
2. Fraudulent scientists, corrupt financiers and foreign agents,
3. Business, consumers and workers choked by taxes and regulation and unable to get investment in productive enterprises as $billions are siphoned away into shoddy green schemes and real scientists can’t get research grants.
Point out at every step that the people hurt aren’t the fat cats of Goldman Sachs but the widows and orphans whose savings were invested in insurance companies and auto companies and energy companies.
Rge Republican Governor of VA is good, he has a future.
I’ve replayed this part of the speech a dozen times now, and it still doesn’t make sense. I’ve transcribed what he said word for word:
“…in the last year hundreds of Al Qaeda spiders and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed. Far more than in 2008.”
I wasn’t aware that we were threatened by Jihadist arachnids! Thank god the Obama Administration is keeping us safe!
The real question isn’t what President Obama said. It’s how many people were listening to him. I had better things to do.
marymcl, that’s what I kept shouting at the screen, “This is not a SOTU speech!”
He spent a lot of time moaning about the pain that the universe seemed to hold for He, Obambus. I don’t want a state of Obama speech.
And he spent a lot of time criticizing others for the very political acts he commits every day and twice on Sunday.
The content was small. The whining large.
The attitude, I don’t care.
Did I hear somebody say something good about nuclear, coal, drilling off shore???
Yeah, that’s the ticket… drill ‘bama, drill!
Now, who wants to bet he means not a word of it?
I provided a sample of the lyrics I published yesterday to an Indian friend at my hangout just prior to the SOTU. The big screen had Fox on (surprisingly), but there was nothing but lead up.
Well, my buddy started singing it, in a very nice voice, a cappella of course. Less than a minute of that and a “lady” came up and insisted he stop singing “so she could hear the speech.” We asked around and virtually nobody had really heard him, but it was clear she heard and understood the lyrics. We figured that out and got quite a laugh out of it.
The woman was scowling. LOL.
Here’s a slight variation on the song. I hope to get my friend to sing it so I can record it and post it.
I was struck by the examples he held out for America to emulate to avoid being 2nd in the world: China and India. It’s as if America’s history begannly decades ago, not centuries ago. As if our greatness came about by emulating others rather than by blazing altogether new pathways in science, engineering, governance, freedom, commerce, and invention. It’s as if our greatness only came about through top down Soviet control rather than through bottom up individual grit and fierce independence.
This man is an alien intelligence, a foreign malignancy in the body-politic. Obama is not an American, he’s a Soviet Clerk sent on a mission to extract America’s national soul.
The headline over at the Huffington Post is “I DON’T QUIT”.
Methinks he doth protest too much.
Educate me please. I’m curious about why returning more power to congress is dangerous. And what happened in the 19th century?
Also, it was very foolish, I think, for obama to go after the court. It was very arrogant the way he did that and spoke volumes to me about his attitude towards the checks and balances we have. He’s too hip for his own good and came off, in that regard, as brash and uneducated about it.(not that I am but I would definately not have disrespected my peers in public like that). He sounded like a weird bizzaro world communist. Tax cuts AND more govt intervention. My God, went he went after the banks that way, it couldve come directly from Castro’s mouth. This is scary y’all.
I’m sure that the Iranians are really afraid of us now, now that Obumbler has shaken his finger at them and said ‘Bad Boy, play nice’
Obama’s right- every generation, Americans have stepped forward to fight for liberty and freedom. As he said in his SOTU speech, they did it in WWII, WWI, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War. Every time freedom and liberty has been challenged by statist regimes bent on regulation and taxes and control and power, Americans have stepped up and fought them off.
Now is the time for change, and hope. Obama is right- now is the time to fight tooth and nail against him and his policies.
BATTLE HIM FOR THE REPUBLIC
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of Our Lord
He is trampling out our freedoms
Calling us to climb aboard
Yes our wallets He is lightening
As debts terribly swift soared
His truth is marching on
Cho:
Glory, glory Christmas bomber
The system worked so let’s stay calmer
It was just a false Allahmer
His truth is marching on
We have seen him bow to Saudis
He says he will show us how
We have seen him claim that peace is ours
If we surrender now
We have seen the holy power
Of that intellectual brow
His truth is marching on
Cho:
Glory, glory Tony Rezko
Winds him up to watch the prez go
Soros smiles and then he says go
And O goes marching on
Yeah. He won’t quit racing to the bottom as fast as he can.
That stupefying, infantile speech left me shaking my head in disgust. This guy is the antithesis of ‘presidential’.
Apparently the phrase “made the largest investment” polled better than “squandered”, and rumor says the guy who suggested Obama use “boondoggles” rather than “programs” has been furloughed indefinitely (to save or create a better image of the administration).
A piece of fluff.
And petulance.
In his own mind, he thinks he hit one out of the ballpark.
But he’s shown no evidence that he knows what to do in those meetings he has with law makers, except scold imperiously. He had a year to invite the opposition in for discussions, but preferred to allow the most imperious and partisan Congressional leadership in his party to practice scorched earth politics.
Go away Obama, and take your party with you. What we’ve seen cannot be unseen.
All his “tax cuts” are targeted grants to create or rent special interests to further divide and rule.
His treatment of the Court while a guest in The House is outrageous. In a parliamentary system where the Head of Government is treated as a mere politician and is not the Head of State such conduct would not be tolerated. People would have responded with cat calls and walked out on him.
The Republicans should say, “We expected a State of the Union address and received a campaign speech. If anyone wants to know where the atmosphere of partisanship and incivility come from we are happy to tell them. Here is a large file of statements by David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel and other members of this administration. We request that a candid world examine them.”
Still I do expect him to get a 5 to 10 point bounce in the polls. That is not enough but it keeps his “Hope” alive for another month.
Ashen,
Oddly enough Woodrow Wilson wrote a book, proving he was a more genuine academic than Obama is. It was called “Congressional Government” and after the Civil War the Presidents were generally seen as ineffectual administrators while the countries energies were devoted to internal development. Congress played a large role in setting the rules and skimming off the graft for the creation of the rail network and the opening of the frontier. Once in office WW forgot everything he had said earlier and became a champion of a strong centralized Executive.
@14 Alexis
Fair enough, but some will listen in the hope that reality is sinking in despite his ideology. Others (like me) look to see our own prejudices confirmed and maybe find a cheap laugh or two. Seriously though, I’d take your assessment one step farther and say the real question is how many believe him. Still too many for comfort, I fear, but not so many as a year ago and hopefully fewer and fewer all the time.
On further reflection, the REAL question is who’s running the country while he makes speeches?
To me, the two most notable parts of the SOTU address were:
1. Going after the Supreme Court. Un-Presidential, imprudent, and probably unprecedented.
2. This line:
When he said the fragment in boldface, I felt nauseated. As the regulars here at the BC know, his “support” for the “human rights” of women marching in Iran was a big bucket of jack squat.
Shocking. Even to my low expectations.
L3
The headline over at the Huffington Post is “I DON’T QUIT”
Well, he hasn’t given up ciggies yet, has he?
The shocker from the speech: energy concessions, especially the dangling of nuclear energy expansion and more oil & gas exploration. The downside to that is, of course, that it seems to be premised on a cap ‘n trade deal, to the degree that in Obama lingo what we used to call “the energy bill” became “the energy and climate bill”. But this was an indication that he’s willing to negotiate on this issue, perhaps, and not try the Demikaze cram-it-down-your-throat tactics a la health care.
The speech did stress the importance of jobs, which is going to play well with electorate. That’s a point in his favor, even if it isn’t that clear what he’s going to do about it.
The disingenuousnes of a lot of it was unbearable, tho. The long intro chastized everybody for partisan bickering, and claimed platitudes that the American people had lost patience with that. But he followed that up with a shocking attack on the SCOTUS, a huge section lashing out at Bush, and numerous slapdowns on the GOP.
A lot of it was pure shamelessness, too. The critique of Congressional earmarks and of campaign finance irregularities were particularly so, coming from a man who signed the Porkulus Bill, perhaps the greatest obscenity on the earmark front in US history, and the man whose election campaign was noted for sloppy recordkeeping of contributions (if any at times).
A lot of it is going to wilt under fact-checking, too. All his budget numbers were crazy, and I mean over the top crazy. The claim that Bush left a $1.2 trillion deficit is flat wrong. It was more like $480 billion, which is bad enough, and a figure pilloried (rightly) by Obama during the campaign. But Obama’s response was to triple it. The only way he gets to $1.2 trillion is with TARP, which wasn’t in the budget, and did pass with the support and the vote of Senator Barack Obama.
The claim that health care reform is essential to economic recovery was made again, and it was flimsier than ever. Obama sold a kind of “holistic” recovery — we’ll never be firmly grounded for future growth without this historic, liberating reform. Still wasn’t clear why. This was incredibly weak, especially given all the attention this issue has gotten. It’s the signature issue of Obama’s first year, and he still can’t even tell us why. Again: we all debate why the economy went into the toilet and what’s to blame for that. But nowhere in that prospective discussion does the health care industry figure into it. Nowhere. Obama has doubled down on making what’s really a side-issue right now into a major one.
As with the gays in the military line, the “energy and climate” line, and the treatment of captured islamists, he’s running around introducing problems. Not focusing on jobs.
Agreed — the SCOTUS broadside was tasteless, un-Presidential and shocking.
Couple more things:
His claim that he’s cut taxes was also amazing. He has? When? The list of people he gave who had received tax cuts was a list of people who pay no net taxes. The Obama era has been marked by an increase in taxation already, especially on the poor, although this has not come by federal means (cigarettes, booze, soda, state fees and income taxes — btw, whoa, Oregon!)
His solution on higher education is a disaster. $10,000 tax credit to families (is that per child? what?) for tuition would have one guaranteed effect: send tuitions skyrocketing. How is it possible not to understand this? Did he learn nothing, nothing at all, from the housing bubble? If you throw big money at something, anything, its price will rise. That’s first year basic economics, come on. This is a bald subsidy — not to the students — but to the universities, their faculties, and their sphere of influence in American life. Nothing else.
Most people expected more of the same. They got it. The man is cunning. In my mind it was just a fluke that he got in. I’m glad that the good Ole AMERICAN people are finally waking up to the fact that the man doesn’t belong in the office that he holds. He is probably a great cummunity organizer because in my mind that’s what he is trying to do in the White House. Sorry, but he is not, nor will he ever be, my president. I have no respect for him. I would like to see what really goes on in that head of his. Not enough time spent on home security. I think, he thinks, there isn’t really that much threat. Immigration is another big subject with me. I wrote a letter to Tom McClintock, my representative from CA., he wrote me a pretty nice letter back. Being Hispanic, I have an interest in who comes here and who doesn’t just like everyone else. People think because a person is of Hispanic back ground they would be for open borders and lax laws concerning immigration. I am just the opposite. Anyway, I wish Mr. Obama would have addressed the immigration situation and home land security.
Concerned AMERICAN,
L.Velasco
Look at the Joint Chiefs sitting stone-faced as O threw the bone to the gay crowd.That’s a real winner. I bet the Blue Dogs in conservative districts aren’t thrilled with that one. Strange days!
Sociopathology on parade.
The most blatant and shameless inversion of facts I’ve ever heard from a single politician’s mouth in a single speech.
Black is White. Down is Up. Left is Right.
This man is dangerously delusional if he believes what he’s saying.
Frankly, I don’t think he can tell the difference between the lies and truth, if he ever could. He is so immersed in his fantasy, that his distorted logic simply rationalizes away any troublesome contradictions or inconsistencies occasioned by pesky realities.
Either way, rational sociopath or delusional idiot, this lying piece of flotsam is clearly determined to continue unabated on the same path.
And the Democrat Party has amply demonstrated that they are in lockstep with him as they surge toward the precipice.
L3,
why we support the human rights of the women marching through the streets of Iran
A 300 page dissertation will be written one day on how that single sentence on Iran got into the SOTU speech. Hypocritical as it was it means something. I’d follow what Michael Ledeen reports about this.
Hot Air has the video of Obama attacking the Court and it appears that Alito is saying “Not true” or words to that effect. A commenter there linked to the pdf of the decision and pointed out where it says differently, pg 31 and 46-47.
I believe the military avoided applause on all issues, by policy.
The NYT> says it was a confident speech before a skeptical audience. So to the choir the speech sounded Churchillian, defiant.
Josh are you implying that the military brass would have been applauding homosexuals openly serving in the military? If that is the case we’re way far down the road to ruin in my humble opinion.
Mad fiddler, bravo to your critique!
If I recall correctly the Joint Chiefs did stand and applaud when he mentioned support for returning vets.
Lifeofthemind @ Jan 27, 2010 – 11:03 pm:
Thanks for the heads-up. Sounds like I may be a step behind. I’ll look to rectify forthwith.
Cheers,
L3
trangbang68: the point is I have no idea what they would have applauded, they sat equally silent when Obama mentioned the troops, and I believe through the entire speech.
I *suspect* they were very happy to sit still through that particular part. Some might even be in favor of it, but applause might be asking too much.
The Big Zero came across as the Snake Oil Salesman in a traveling Medicine Show. I believe that most people were able to spot his transparent lies. For example, the Big Zero’s spending “freeze” that won’t take place until next year – because that’s how budgeting works” caused laughter. Everyone knew he was lying.
The Big Zero’s “Overwhelming evidence on climate change…” brought another round of laughter. Most people know the “evidence” and been doctored for financial reasons. The people can see he is a liar. Also, they can sense that he is out to get their money.
Most shocking was his direct attack on the Supreme Court. I watched as Altio said “Not True” to the Big Zero’s lie. Again, most people realize the Big Zero flat out lies. I view he Big Zero call to legislative action as a form of intimidation.
Unfortunately, like desperate cancer patients hungry for a cure, some will believe the big zero’s magic elixir of “Change.” That “Change” elixir will prove to be cheap opium that actually helps the cancer patients into their graves.
This SOTU speech pegs the liar meter at 10 out of 10. The Big zero is a disgrace to this country and one the worst examples of an American leader.
Wile E. Coyote, Super-Genius proves once again that he plays 3D chess while the rest of us play checkers.
Of course, it IS a lightning checkers tournament, 10 seconds to move, while he takes hours to study the 3D chessboard.
Taking a nasty, rude and factually incorrect swipe at a constitutional decision by Anthony Kennedy, the current swing vote on SCOTUS? Smooth strategy, there, Mr. Con Law adjunct. Did Roberts set a trap by asking Kennedy to write the opinion? Could Roberts be that smart and Obama that dumb??
And lying (surely he knows better) that the decision will open the floodgates to foreign money in campaigns… that’s just too precious coming from the guy whose 2008 campaign turned off the credit card address verification system on its website. Does he really think we’re all THAT stupid? Don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.
And he offers a bone on nuclear and offshore in return for cap-n-trade? Who in their right mind would trust this guy to keep a deal? I can’t imagine how you could word a bill to protect you from when he reneges on his end by having EPA or Interior or some other agency screw you on the energy development end after the cap-n-trade piece is in place.
It’s not so much that HE is lame, it’s that he thinks EVERYONE ELSE is stupid.
“Don’t lie to me; it insults my intelligence.” –Michael Corleone
Obama called for doubling America’s exports in five years. As the Corner noted, the exports in 2008 were about 1.8 trillion, in sales (not revenue), or about 13% of GDP. How feasible is it to double that figure in five years?
Given that the US is a loser on the service side, where about 80% of the workforce is employed? Since China and India will ALWAYS be cheaper and service exports are almost exclusively done on price? Is it feasible to expand agricultural and manufactured goods exports by another $1.8 trillion in five years? That amounts to increases of $360 billion a year.
Its ridiculous. The Global economy would have to grow, and the US suddenly become far more productive with a sudden burst of technology no other exporter had, to reach that goal. It is profoundly stupid.
That speech was all over the place. It was like he felt he could toss a bone to every single position and bring all and sundry under his tent, moments after attacking one to draw in the other. Attack banks for his base, then promise to build nuclear power, which only ever made lefties I’ve known foam at the mouth. More troops for Afghanistan, then throw the left a bone with DADT. “Drill here” for the repubs to tide them over, etc. Ticking boxes down a column. In the same breath he blamed Bush, he finger wags for partisanship and not getting along.
His poll numbers and the Mass. election loss of course have been turned into a virtue. He is (always has been) bravely swimming against the current, knowing full well he wasn’t in this for the poll numbers.
Someone at hotair counted something like 83 breaks for applause. This guy thinks he is some kind of Jesus, literally. Thinks he has magic powers.
can’t stand these state of the union type speeches in general, certainly can’t stand another Obama lie-fest. didn’t watch it. why watch a speech that you know will be 100% lies? what’s the point?
Did not watch, I think I have a tWUDS (teh Won Utter Disgust Syndrome), I simply can’t stand his voice. At all. It is probably cuz my lie detectors are always to the max on the scale when teh Won speaks (I would love to use another term, but can’t find a really fitting expletive, so using a neutral verb). Painful.
So, appreciate all of you that did watch, for your insights, thanks.
And it is as I thought… a confirmation that teh Won is a gonnabe.
The only difference between Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama is that Chavez got more than one term.
The SCOTUS comment is reprehensible and an unyielding indicator of the disdain this little man has for the U.S. Constitution.
Maybe Obongo intends to push for a larger SCOTUS, as per FDR. Diversity pretty much demands we add an Asian, a Disabled Veteran, a Homosexual, two Indians, and a partridge in a pear tree.
The answer to this nonsense is to “hit back twice as hard.”
Support a Tea Party candidate or anyone else challenging the GOP establishment, and we can fumigate the Capitol and rid the White House of black snakes.
black snakes
The PC police are gonna get you for that one. The correct term is “reptiles of color.”
The PC police are gonna get you for that one.
Interesting, isn’t it? I often feel the PC police chill, and all it does is make me “hit back twice as hard.” But these days, I feel like my country is a 747 piloted by a chimpanzee. And that makes you edgy.
I feel like my country is a 747 piloted by a chimpanzee.
With snakes on the plane, too. I think everyone is edgy. I notice a lot more comments on various blogs to the effect that Obama is cracking up, is coming apart at the seams, is freaking out, etc.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
–Marcus Tullius Cicero 42B.C.
Well our POTUS remains the biggest threat this country has at the moment.
Obama’s first State of the Union Address – washingtonpost.com
Listening to President Obama’s speech, I could not help wondering how different this night would have been had Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s bomb not malfunctioned. Four weeks ago our country was the target of a catastrophic terrorist attack. But for the grace of God, Northwest Flight 253 would have crashed into downtown Detroit, killing thousands. Yet just a month later, it is an afterthought for this president. His only mention of the failed attack was a passing reference that he was responding with “better airline security.”
Worse, the president’s brief discussion of terrorism focused not on what he was doing to defend the country but was, rather, a vigorous defense of himself. His first words on the subject were a chastisement of those who would dare criticize his handling of terrorism, declaring that “all of us love this country” and warning his Republican critics to “put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough.” It’s all about him. No acknowledgement of how close we came to disaster or praise for the brave passengers who subdued the terrorist. No, only this message for his critics: If you question the wisdom of telling a captured terrorist “you have the right to remain silent,” you are really questioning the president’s patriotism and engaging in childish taunts.
The fact is, the American people have real concerns about Obama’s approach to terrorism. They do question the wisdom of eliminating CIA interrogations, closing Guantanamo Bay, bringing the terrorists held there to this country, putting Khalid Shiekh Mohammed and his cohorts on trial in civilian courts, and giving captured terrorists Miranda rights after 50 minutes of questioning. Instead of acknowledging these concerns, Obama dismissed them. It was strange, defensive, arrogant — and un-presidential.
—
Andy McCarthy –
Transformation into the Mythmaker in Chief
We can all complain about the SOTU speech, but I want to know how will we undo the Health care bill that will be passed. We can change members of congress but we need to elect members who will undue this health care program. The Tea Party members must identify candidates who are determined to undo these programs. It would be nice if this group along with others could develop a series of questions to be ask of candidates about their concept of governing and their duty to the people they represent. The answers to those question could be video taped and posted on YouTube for all to see. The time to begin work on the next election is now.
I just watched the passage where Obama directly criticized the SCOTUS. A chill shot down my spine and my stomach clenched. I had forgotten the SCOTUS sat right down there in the middle of Congress at the SOTU speech. It was like watching a Communist show trial.
57. Salt Lick…
MSM focus is on
“Did Alito Roll his eyes, or didn’t he?”
—
John Boehner gaurantees that KSM
will not be tried in NYC.
—
Obama is a man-caused disaster.
The State of the Union Address from T. Jefferson to W. Wilson was sent in written form to Congress and read by the clerk. I believe jimma carter did his last one that way while cowering in the Rose garden or under his desk.
obama should revive the Jeffersonian method.
And who here does not believe obama does not have his Sandy Burger? Thief, purloining state secrets to later be peddled to the highest anti-American bidder?
“But these days, I feel like my country is a 747 piloted by a chimpanzee.”
Now you’ve gone and done it, you old salty dog.
Everyone knows deep in their subconscious that the icon Obumbler resembles most is Curious George. But you can’t just come out and say such a thing.
Obysmal stated he gave tax cuts to a cadre of Americans, and “as a result millions of Americans have more to spend….”
Uhhhhhh, my federal income tax went up a little, and probably a lot more when Obysmal’s programs kick in. I don’t have more to spend, and my utilities have gone up; I have less to spend. And soon I will be paying more in fees to my bank as a result of Obysmal’s blaming banks that he’s “not interested in punishing.”
I want to puke!
Each speech this guy gives is always better than the next!
.
Everyone knows deep in their subconscious that the icon Obumbler resembles most is Curious George.
I categorically deny making that comparison. Unlike Barry’s grandmother, I am no “typical white person.” I was just comparing the situation.
Everyone knows it’s George Bush that looks like a chimp.
One is reminded of the Thermians from the Klaatu Nebula,(“We need your help Commander”), who, hearing about Gilligan’s Island, their faces collapsed, “Those poor people”. Pres. B+ is just another “Historical document”.
Or, to any who watched this particular “Historical document”…you poor people.
Some more song lyrics, oh, so apropos, even almost 40 years after they were written:
Gimme Some Truth
I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
I’m sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama’s little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now
I’ve had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It’s money for dope
Money for rope
Ah, I’m sick to death of hearing things
from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
I’ve had enough of reading things
by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
John Lennon, off the album “Imagine,” 1971
“We can all complain about the SOTU speech, but I want to know how will we undo the Health care bill that will be passed.”
But I don’t think it’s going to be passed.
“It would be nice if this group along with others could develop a series of questions to be ask of candidates about their concept of governing and their duty to the people they represent.”
The problem with questions like this is the same with any test – the recipient is gonna get schooled in the “right answers” and just parrot whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear, ie what answers will give him the most advantage. This never tells you anything about the person underneath – I’m sure 2 years ago Gov. Sanford would have given all of the “right answers”. And a good manipulator a la Bill Clinton will always do better on a “test” like this than a more honest but less well spoken candidate will. Honest people often recoil at the idea of having to lie to make their followers happy, something the manipulators have no problem with. That’s why people who want to be catered to get taken in by crooks and liars over and over again.
If you want something to trust, look for a life of solid accomplishments and dedication to a consistent goal. Obama is the perfect example of a segment of the population falling for a well-spoken fraud. It would be pathetic for the right to make the same mistake.
A clear and present danger
What I saw last night is all about what president Obama wants, not what The People wanted. And I saw the most powerful man on earth becoming the world’s number one malcontent, because he still has to ‘work within the Constitutional framework’ for now.
Wherever he went and places he served, he sowed the seeds of discord and ill-will amongst the artificially divided classes. When he speaks, sometimes I imagined a forked tongue, but the so-called charm is gone. There is no question about it, this is a president truly bought by the marxists, unions, and special interests. And he is flaunting down the gauntlet declaring war against the American People.
Here is a third choice for the Diane Sawyer rhetorical question: How about a despised half termer? Seriously, doesn’t POTUS have to go through physical and mental examine every year to assure the public of his fitness to lead? He’s been on the job for more than a year now, where is the medical record?
Note to self: Get more ammo.
What a disapointment.
Billions of dollars for…trains? Where is the fun and excitement in that?
What we really need is a faster than light warp drive. That I would support. We spend this kind of money for centuries old technology when we should be exploring the final frontier.
No creativity anymore.
Well at least we still have guns and religion for consolation and I can read the bible and maybe shoot some buffalo while riding a train to my non-existant job in another city.
sigh.
Spindok
He spoke well and was very dignified in his presentation, yet the subject of the SOTU seemed to wander about with pats on the backs of folks who had done some deed or another mixed with slaps at folks that point out the failings of others then perhaps a jab at Bush then the congregation got all fired up and clapped hands a few times with standing to relieve leg cramps.
I watched until he made me dizzy looking left and right ever other word and the Generals sitting at heel in the front made me feel like it was part of the westminster dog show during the doberman, german shepherd event I then shook my head and changed channels to some version of CSI repeat and fell asleep.
The State of the Union is OK I guess.
Last night’s Statism of the Union can be summed up by, “I am diminished, lack direction, hate the free market, but trust me.”
Cowboy: The only way he gets to $1.2 trillion is with TARP, which wasn’t in the budget, and did pass with the support and the vote of Senator Barack Obama.
And TARP ended up only costing taxpayers $100 billion after all the ones who could pay it back did, so the number is more like half what Obama claimed.
Maineman: Everyone knows deep in their subconscious that the icon Obumbler resembles most is Curious George. But you can’t just come out and say such a thing.
Not everyone is race-centered. Race, in fact, is a competely human construct, exactly like the “Aryans” that the Nazis cooked up. Human beings comprise a single species and after about five hundred years of plane travel (and later after oil becomes rare, high-speed train travel powered by hydro, wind, nuclear or solar) there will not even be the minor variations that people focus on when they refer to “race”. Almost everyone will be brunets with a healthy tan. Very much like owner of this blog and this commentator.
“But these days, I feel like my country is a 747 piloted by a chimpanzee.”
Picture those little toy steering wheels that could be hung on the back of the front seat for the little man to pretend he is in the driver’s seat.
At Least The “Beep Beep” Horn is real.
“Have you heard my speech yet?
It’s good.”
– Obamanocchio
tomw
Marty: And he offers a bone on nuclear and offshore in return for cap-n-trade?
That’s painless for Dems. It would take a decade for a new nuke plant or oil platforms to come online (or longer with new regulations, more than enough time for amnesty to create 40 million new Democrats and renege on the nukes and drilling), while revenues from Kneecap & Tax come in NOW.
Spindok: What we really need is a faster than light warp drive
Einstein postulated that clocks go slower the faster they go, and at the speed of light they stop. If you could somehow go faster than light, it stands to reason that clocks would go backwards. Then what you could do is take video of the State of the Union address back to about late October, 2008, and maybe change the course of history.
L3,
As the regulars here at the BC know, his “support” for the “human rights” of women marching in Iran was a big bucket of jack squat.
I agree completely with you, but this illustrates a Sowellian difference between progressives and conservatives. Intent matters for progressives, he wanted to help them, he intended to help them, and therefore, he helped them in his worldview. He avoided the sin of staining them with the vocal support of the United States initially, and then said words later on that supported them a little less sub rosa than before. He moved his public position to be closer to their by a fraction of an inch (from “We support the legitimate government of Iran” to “You two play nice”) which is a HUGE sacrifice. Therefore, he supported them, dontcha see? He really wanted them to succeed for one (intent) and he moved his public position (a tiny drop of political blood on their behalf) as well. From a progressive standpoint, that’s worth more than a couple of carrier battle groups and MEUs, the protesters now have his support and legitimacy as well. Two-fer!
The converse of this is Pat Robertson, who demonstrated the opposite of support from the progressive viewpoint. Oh sure, he had some missions there in Haiti before the earthquake and his organization was feeding people and helping them before the earthquake and even before the UN could issue a statement, but he made a comment on television that was tone-deaf and unnecessary, and so he demonstrated negative intent. Therefore, he hates the Haitian people and must be eternally castigated.
It all makes sense from their worldview, but it makes no sense in mine. I agree with you, we should do at least for the Iranian protesters what Reagan did for Solidarity, and maybe more. It’s better to flip the government with the support of the people than to try to bomb their nuclear capability out from under them, but progs don’t understand that they are making the latter far more likely than the former.
I for one am cheered. I think the speech was wonderful, it sure beats the old meme of incremental, creeping progressive cancers. They’re not content with hiding under rocks any longer, so now we’re going to get this idiocy into the sunlight which will aggravate millions of fence sitters out of enui and into action. A few more miles down the road at this speed and perhaps we can bring this to a final point.
Regarding Hillary Clinton’s absence from the SOTU, I thought there was a tradition that one senior Cabinet Officer, SecDef, SecState, SecTreas or the AG, not attend to ensure the succession of the government in the event of disaster. Having the most junior Cabinet officer act as the designated survivor could result in Janet Napolitano trying to climb to the presidency by duplicating the efforts of Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets.
To be blogged under the title “Designated Survivor.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder went to a one-room schoolhouse out on the prairie 500 miles from anywhere and got a better education than any kid in an inner city. Teach reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic which requires books and chalk. Forget about schooling kids about transgendered sex acts, earth magic and basketweaving in the style of Kiukiu women on the Moteris Islands all of which seems to require a million dollars a year per student and they still don’t know how to tie their shoes.
I feel like my country is a 747 piloted by a chimpanzee.
Or, in homage to the original Saturday Night Live skit, the country is a car, Obama is “Toonces, the cat who could drive”, and his driving coaches are Pelosi and Reid.
Blood in the water: Rasmussen polling shows Feingold 4 points behind Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin in a match-up this coming November (Thompson hasn’t announced yet). Thompson is crushing Feingold with Independents 53% to 36%. After folks start digesting the SotU speech watch those numbers worsen for Feingold, and all the rest of Democrats in Congress. The attack on the SCOTUS in the speech I think is going to backfire big thing. As is the continued bemoaning by Obambi of how all the current problems the nation faces is all Bush’s fault. And last but not least the American people don’t like Presidential, as Sarah Palin put it in her assessment of the speech, lectures. All of us 50 years and older are having Jimmy Carter flashbacks. The sad thing is that Jimmy Carter would be an improvement right now.
I did watch the speech, though I admit zoning out when he talked about the letter from the kid asking for a crust of bread (or was it a remolded kitchen? — like I say, I zoned out). At one point I was sure President Obama had decided he needed a Republican Congress to govern effectively but felt he just could not come out and say it. I mean, I can see how looking out at 120 fresh faced new conservatives a year from now might be an attractive proposition after dealing with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Problem is, Nancy will still be around next year, though perhaps in a different capacity.
By the end of the speech I decided my initial impression was wrong. He seemed to strike a tough guy pose at the end — and I’m talking physically and “pictorially” here. It was the kind of look you might see in a young adolescent male who is trying to “intimidate” to get his way — an unspoken threat of violence. The problem with the pose is that it is meant to make you look really strong but if you back down it makes you look really weak. I’m not sure, but it might be a “rhetorical device” he picked up from the Left Reverend Wright. If it was sincere signaling we might be looking at a “Samson pulling down the temple to get all those Philistines” moment in our future.
That observation is not meant to cause undo alarm, by the way. The kids around him probably think they are making a music video, and all the violence will be staged and choreographed by them. The fact that two whispered words by a supreme court justice (how many divisions does he command?) sent them back on their heels is a bad sign. Of course, they are making a profession out of not recognizing the bad signs.
Now, if they plan “choreographed conflict” for the election year, they will need the active participation of the MSM (to validate their story line) for any hope of success. I think much of the MSM has been signaling a reluctance to go along, but they may have little choice. They are so closely tied to President Obama they may have to flail and fail with him. And all these folks taken together could be doing High Kabuki while President Obama is re-enacting Macbeth.
The Democrats have long had a problem with Father Figures, because father figures that their figures don’t add up. Father figures we cannot afford all this stuff.
But they’ve smoothed things with the mother figure by letting her figure they are only adding a garbage disposal to the sink. But what if she comes home and sees they are knocking out all the load bearing walls? And only got assurances that it will all work out to put in their place? Who would you rather alienate, the mother figure — or the father figure?
Just as 9/11 focused our attention on the pernicious nature of Islam so has Obama’s maniacal presidency focused our attention on the pernicious nature of progressivism. The objective of each is to solidify the status and position of an overlord class and to make dhimmis of the rest.
It seems clear to me now that Obama’s overarching objective is to create a permanent electorate comprising government unions and social interest groups (like Acorn) and their clients. SEIU is increasing its membership at the largess of the so called stimulus spending which is only expanding government, and by adding workers that although not employed directly by government are employed by organizations that are government funded. Obamacare will add millions and millions of additional members to SEIU rolls.
AFSCME and the Teachers Unions are solid in the Obama camp. Even as we speak, a few union leaders can get together to direct the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars to sway elections towards progressive candidates. Many local SEIU collective bargaining agreements allow members to take several month “leaves of absence” to electioneer for selected candidates.
Once an organization or coalition of organizations can demonstrate their ability to determine elections then actually writing legislation in Congress and state legislatures is a simple matter. As I understand it SEIU is instrumental in crafting Obamacare and who knows what else.
The danger of losing the Republic is very real yet nobody on the national political scene has the courage to identify the dragon never-mind determine to slay it.
He’s going to talk to Republicans once a month! Hooray! Of course, he’ll have to take a long bath afterwards.
Where was Hillary? Did you see the Puff Piece on her? Can you say “Twenty Twelve Run”?
Walt #23: Amazingly good. Your wit is as fast and sharp as a straight razor…I urge you to run with this one. Do a music/sung version and circulate widely. Add more fun lyrics to it. Like the original, it should become part of our national heritage.
Also, please make the Collected Works of Walt available. I’ll take two copies in a fine moroccan leather binding…
PB: Well you nailed it.
This is really the prize, a “soft communist” state whose only goal is to perpetuate the Nomenklatura, and whose chief means of accomplishing this is corruption of the electorate and the election process itself.
Someone need to get out in front of this and out in the open about it. You are right here too.
It seems the greatest danger the nation has ever faced, or at least one of them.
It is a hell on earth that they want to create.
I would think that the whole business with the unions would run against the racketeering laws, but that is just me.
#16 Sirius and #31 Cowboy,
Obama may be TALKING up nuclear but his administration is really trying to kill it. First, they announced that the loan guarantees against government second thoughts on nuclear plant licenses will only be decided AFTER an application is approved by the NRC – that’s over $1 billion in sunk costs. That significantly raises the risk of starting the process.
Second, the White House cut almost all the nuclear power-related funding in the Department of Energy. Not that they did much but it was to help advanced design work.
Personally, I bet that if his buddies at Exelon had been successful in stealing one of the front running projects in Texas, things would be going more smoothly for nuclear.
Just one more case of Obama saying one thing and doing just the opposite.
Regarding the mentions here about the attack on SCOTUS, I don’t ever recall a President ever going after the Supreme Court during a State of the Union address.
Can anyone remember a similar instance? Salt Lick 57 nailed it.
I really wanted to incorporate Buddy’s suggestion from the other thread to use Lyin’ instead of jackal, but how to do it didn’t occur to me until this morning. (Hey, where is Mongo?)
1) Change the title to “The Lyin’ SOTU Night” (or His Lyin’) and make adjustments to the rest of the lyrics. It also makes the new lyrics more recognizable over the long term. (We do have 3 more years unless he resigns you know.)
2) Because weem-a-way and a-weem-a-way can both be heard in the original song by the Tokens, it occurred to me that the refrain can be more precise as “Obama-bum, Obama-bum….” and still carry the tune.
3) Here are my first new suggestions for the many adaptable lyrics possible by those who’d love to demonstrate their disdain for the Bum in Chief.
Hey, what do you want from me? Ease and flourish in my productions? I’m no artist — I’m merely an engineer.
Offensively stupid line of the night:
And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.
Huh.
I make it a point to never listen to the SOTU speech. This one was no exception.
But in January 2002 I did listen to the last part of Pres Bush’s speech. And a line from Winston Churchill came to mind.
He said that the night of 7 Dec 1941 he went to bed, knowing that the U.S. was in the war at last, and knowing that it would all turn out all right, and “Slept the sleep of the saved.”
On that evening in Jan 2002 I too went to bed knowing that the U.S. was in the war at last and that it would turn out all right, and like Churchill I slept the sleep of the saved.
And as Teresita says, we can now be confident. He is going to screw up. The USA can survive an Obama failure but we cannot survive a false Obama success. Sleep well, countrymen.
67. always right:
A clear and present danger.
I couldn’t agree more since I first started ending my contributions six to eight months ago with that warning. NO ONE at that time ever picked up on it. bah, bah, bah….
You can lead ‘em to knowledge but ya can’t mak’em think.
It’s great country when a great portion of the population takes a year to wake up from what was, during the campaign , an obviously inept psycho and finally realise he’s denuded the military of all but PC perfumed princes, disarmed our R&D, and bankrupted the country with the help of Goldman Sachs.
Cultural Wars – “The Tea Party Is Over” site. See http://www.theteapartyisover.org/
In reaction to the SOTU speech, Rush Limbaugh said,
“This must be what it’s like to live in a monarchy when some little kid becomes King due to a premature death.”
Hard to summaraze last night better. For Walt (#23), Brilliant! Perhaps your best ever. Anyone who missed it should take a minute & scroll back up.
Now me, I just can’t wait for that high speed train connecting Tampa and Orlando. And it’s SO necessary because, you know, it’s really painful to make that 75 mile drive from Tampa to Disney World, with the incredible lack of convenience of driving in your own vehicle. How much better to take a high speed train for what, $25 a ticket? A hundred bucks for a family of four? And then get dropped off at some station that will probably be ten miles from Disney World, and then have to get on a bus or something for another five bucks to actually get there, and then have to take a cab if you want to get to your hotel or go out to dinner. And that’s all SO much easier than driving your nasty old polluting death-mobile. And the best part of that train is that every time I take it I will be able to choose from any of the several hundred seats available because ain’t nobody going to be on it other than a couple of drunken college students from U of Tampa.
And all that for only a few billion dollars.
The fact is, the American people have real concerns about Obama’s approach to terrorism. They do question the wisdom of eliminating CIA interrogations, closing Guantanamo Bay, bringing the terrorists held there to this country, putting Khalid Shiekh Mohammed and his cohorts on trial in civilian courts, and giving captured terrorists Miranda rights after 50 minutes of questioning.–Doug@55
Nowhere in all that fervent chest thumping was there any mention of the trial for terrorist conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being transferred to a civilian court. Perhaps that section of the speech was occluded by a smudged teleprompter.
I’m sorry, everybody. I really wanted to watch this thing. Really. And I probably should have. I did flip over to one of the networks to watch, and I intended to watch.
But when Obama stepped up, something just grabbed the hand with the remote and turned the tube off. I just couldn’t. I’ve seen too much of this guy already. I knew enough to know that he wasn’t going to say anything that would pleasantly surprise me, and might well say something that would piss me off. Judging by the commentary I’ve seen so far, I probably made the right decision.
Instead, I picked up “Lucifer’s Hammer” and started reading it. Good story so far.
I was going to watch the SOTU too but I got caught up in a poetry reading program on public radio instead and just couldn’t see tearing myself away.
Re: 91. Habu
That is because some still have ‘hope’ that he is redeemable. Given the three lessons past year.
Post last night, not any more. He’s removed all doubts.
High speed trains? No thank you. Someone just set off an “explosive device” on train tracks in Virginia. Plus, one of the headlines on the local paper yesterday was about reducing the speed of the commute trains (CalTrain) because of the high number of suicides on the tracks.
Didn’t watch the speech here — no TV set. The message was hard enough to get through in the text version; the messenger is too offensive to have in my home. OTOH, I enjoyed reading the opinion LOTM linked to. There are sections that rival Walt’s poetry.
54/Habu. Thank you.
Habu Your right I have seen your posts in the past and where you have been warning of “A Clear and Present Danger” for a long time.
In a Forum I used to post in most were not even reading what I posted. Those that did many disagreed with my warnings. Read just this one.
The above post is just one of many I made there and elsewhere about Obama.
Most would not listen and few understood.
It makes me sick that Americans can not identify a danger to our Republic.
We tried to warn them, we failed.
Papa Ray
Off topic, but the bridge toll to cross the San Francisco Bay bridge from Oakland to San Francisco will increase to $6 during “congestion pricing periods.”
$6 toll PLUS a two drink minimum.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14278742
Whitehall said:
“I was going to watch the SOTU too but I got caught up in a poetry reading program on public radio instead and just couldn’t see tearing myself away.”
I missed it as well… had to drive my daughter to a Girl Scout’s meeting, load the dishwasher, empty the trash, pet the cat…
Nor could I force myself to watch. I appreciate all of you taking the time to post your lack of impression.
SOTU/STFU speech:
We have seen and heard “Hubris”. When will we see “Nemesis”?
I was busy at broadcast time because the daughter was at the house with my new grandson. There are real precedents in life. If I could post pictures here you could see him. I did catch it in Fox rebroadcast later ….. what I could stomach.
Wretchard had it right …. The Zero ‘doubled down’. Or as others might say .. “stuck on stupid”.
Teresita said @ 70:
Are you really that uneducated? Aryan Iknow, I know, it is the Wikipedia but it will get you started. The National Socialists did not cook them up, they did however:
Is that what you are trying to say?
Everyone needs to read this:
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF UNION ADDRESS: CONFUSION AND INDIGNATION By Chuck DeVore
Like he says,:
“This, then, was Barack Obama’s first State of the Union Address. It wasn’t about our Union so much as it was about him, his Presidency, and why it’s floundering. President Obama wants the American people to know that things aren’t his fault: George W. Bush and the power of cynicism thwart his vision. Maybe Democrats believe that. Maybe Barack Obama believes it. There are no lies so powerful as the ones we tell ourselves.”
It’s all that good, read it.
Papa Ray
Try it again:
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF UNION ADDRESS: CONFUSION AND INDIGNATION By Chuck DeVore
If you want it down and dirty:
“About last night” by Jules Crittenden
Papa Ray
When Obama ran thru his ”we all hated the bailouts” riff, Biden and Pelosi nearly turned themselves inside out trying to look nonchalantly distant. –as telling as that moment in the 9/11 commission hearings, when before seating the commish members and day’s witnesses mingled briefly at the front of the hall, and George Tenet and Jamie Gorelick both decided to intently study the ceiling at the moment they had to shake hands. dang cameras!
***
R/104; i took her to mean something like ”aryan master race theology” –and she just used the short-hand one word.
***
rantwise, this at American Thinker –The Affirmative Action President –is excellent at tracing all the ripples of the first innocent tossing of a truth pebble into the pond.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_lesson_of_an_affirmative_a.html
But what does this all mean? I think that everyone, except perhaps Obama himself, realizes that the age of Obama is over. The initial signs of political leprosy are beginning to show, and snake oil is ineffective in treating that disease.
What worries me the most is what will happen when reality catches up to teh Won. The damage he has caused the country thus far has been, in my opinion, grounded more in stupidity than malice. But once he figures out that he won’t be the Queen of the Prom he may decide to set fire to the hall where the prom is to be held. That will show them.
I hope I’m just being paranoid. My shrink says otherwise, but I’m pretty sure he’s part of the conspiracy that is arrayed against me.
Thanks Buddy for the link. Great article full of truths that nobody has wanted to say but is said now.
The telling quote.Which is actually America’s shame in the linked article.:
Was it Churchill that said something like- Americans keep doing something until they finally get it right?
Well we sure reversed the process didn’t we?
Papa Ray
Didnt watch. Had a toenail to trim. There are priorities.
Somebody upthread said it would be impossible to raise exports 25%. The FAIR tax people say that removal of imbedded taxes would lower the price of US goods by somewhere around 25%. That would do it.
This is the romance of Rousseau all over, competence is the state of nature, automatic, takes no effort. And, something like it is the mark of the entire Gen-X, Gen-Y cohort. Competence is – boring. Results are – boring. It’s not that they are not rewarded, it’s that they are not recognized.
(on the other hand, what’s new about it – read the character of Steven Mallory in Rand’s “The Fountainhead”)
Papa Ray, that’s a great line you cited:
BUT, actually, Hillary was loathed by many people, and McCain had many weaknesses, and although I certainly voted for McCain, I can see how a sort of reasonable person would vote for anyone else, even some junior grade nobody, even an affirmative action candidate – what I still cannot stomach is voting for someone named Barack Hussein Obama, especially on top of all that other stuff. That is the element that makes me doubt, a bit, the American experiment.
As the choir shrinks, the remaining few sing ever more fervently.
@ 36 LotM
Something struck me about the Alito clip – it’s being said that he merely mouthed “not true”… I haven’t heard otherwise, but I suspect he actually spoke loud enough to be heard four to five persons away.
Watch the video again – now observe the facial expression on the blonde woman who is seated higher up in the frame than Justice Ginsburg – her reaction is priceless, and suggests to me at least that she actually heard Justice Alito… She’s got a major case of “HOLY SH!TE” eyes going…
Am I reading something into the video that’s not there?
Triton
The first time we see or hear that Obama lacks “gravitas” we will know for sure that he’s lost the MSM – not that I believe it will happen, but even the most exuberant water carrier has to start worrying about his own credibility and career at some point.
Although he and Michelle (an astounding 22 assistants) take full advantage of the trappings of the office, Obama is totally lacking in Presidential decorum. There is not a bit of graciousness about him.
@113 Triton’s
It’s possible she heard it, but I watched it several times, I think she might have known it would strike a chord. Perhaps she turned to gauge his reaction when he mouthed the words.
Tom
Josh if you read the link I left in #100 to a post I left back in early 08, where I left many links to what exactly Obama was and who his friends and affiliations were, I would think that anybody who read those would not have voted for Obama and should have even democrats staying home or voting for McCain.
But sadly no, I think rather than “The American Experiment” it shows the liberal education that has been foisted on our children for the last forty years is to blame. Liberal thinking (and black guilt) made it almost impossible for some to NOT vote for The First Black Presidential candidate.
And look what it has cost this Republic and our grand children and their children.
Papa Ray
Ok– so no “plan B”. Obama’s immediate strategy is more of the same. Implications for the next 8 months (really the only window he has before the mid terms kick in and potentially derail everything)… first, let’s assume some probable overseas crisis of the 2nd magnitude– assume O plays it reasonably well. He gets a short term bump. Other than that, he’ll be looking at gridlock on everything he wants. General ennui and skepticism will undercut any “THEY are the bad guys!” attempt to frame the repubs. Entrepreneurs continue to wait things out and the economy slogs along…unemployment up a half point, down the same a bit later…but it feels like no improvement at all to the middle class. A rump group of terrified centrist/realist dems will drift away and start piling up meallie bags (symbolic “nays” to protect them in Nov). Progressives howl “treason” and go after the “deep pocket special interests who own the republicans”…to no avail. In the meantime, more seats look vulnerable and more ambitious repubs stick their heads up– what the hell? I’ve got more of a shot than Scott Brown did!. There is at least one cabinet goof that underscores the increasingly dominant “incompetency” theme… plus another czar brought to ground by Beck et al. In September, some Hail Mary proposal from O that falls flat (miniHC 2.0, a big stab at “waste” or some such)…
Repubs win big in house and senate regardless with “upsets” seen a mile away. and all without doing anything other than being the anti-Obama— the repudiation the resentful and furious middle is hell bent on sending.
But…what then? And wither the country?
From David P. Goldman on the STFU speech.
Full article at Spengler
“In his attempt to emulate Clinton’s success, President Obama resembles nothing so much a the New Guinea aboriginals who built model airfields complete with straw control towers and airplanes after the Second World War and the departure of the American army. The Americans had summoned cargo from the sky through such magical devices, so thought the aboriginals, and by building what looked like airfields, so might they. But Obama can no more conjure up an economic recovery by doing things that look like what Clinton did, than the natives of New Guinea could draw cargo from the sky with straw totems. Marx’s crack about history repeating itself—the first time as tragedy and the second as farce—comes to mind.”
Papa Ray, great link @#105 to the article by Calif. Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. Wow, he really does get it.
At the link, DeVore said he was delighted to hear Obama say, “It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development…” but noted that Obama’s “recent record brings doubt that word will translate into deed.”
Reading this reminded me of an article I read in the paper the other day about Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s meeting last Monday with reporters in which he was quoted as referring to the oil and gas industry as “essentially the kings of the world” under GWB. That era has come to an end, he said, and he announced that there will be expanded environmental reviews of areas subject to oil and gas leasing. So in spite of Obama’s words (and hopefully more Americans than ever know what value to assign to those words), looks like more of the same doubling-down process, this time making things even more difficult for energy producers. Salazar said this on Monday, before the SOTU, but he’s not out of step. Obama can easily say that there will be “tough decisions to make” but we already know what his answers will be. Salazar knows too, as he showed with his statement that he intends to “manage the nation’s oil and natural gas and other resources in the context of some very important principles that I will not back down from.” Those principles include making sure the American taxpayer gets fair treatment (because oil and gas resources are owned by American citizens) and “not tarnishing the treasured landscapes of America.”
Sylvia,
Thank you.
Triton’sPolarTiger,
My assumption is that if Alito said anything that could be used against him, as opposed to an innocuous “Not so,” then Ginsberg would have leaked it to the Press.
Papa Ray,
The real cost is always the opportunity cost. By pushing for Obama on the basis of race over fitness the Left have made it that much harder for other minority candidates to be judged fairly in the future.
The aim of revolutionaries is always to isolate and exploit minority groups and then to further isolate individuals so that they become naked before the power of the State. The first isolation is that of minority groups (or in the case of women a majority that identifies as a minority) from the greater community and the integrationist culture mediated by civil society independent of the State and the second isolation is that of individuals from all other attachments or means of support.
The Left likes affirmative action because it is racist, and generates racial discrimination against future qualified minorities. It increases the dependence of all members of sub-groups on the benevelonce of the State.
We are all the poorer for the future loss of the talents of qualified minority candidates that the Obama record will result in.
To be blogged under the title “The Price of Affirmative Action.”
Expat@117:
“But…what then? And wither the country?”
That’s something I’ve been thinking about lately, and my conclusions haven’t been exactly encouraging. After all, we saw after 2000 what happened the last time the Repubs took charge. They immediately assumed that they could spend and enlarge government to ever more breathtaking heights, adding all kinds of programs and expanding the existing ones. They threw a few cultural bones to their base (stem cell funding, et al) but essentially became fat cat corporate Republicans.
Would they do better this time around if we gave them the keys? I doubt it. But I hope so. Because we HAVE to give them the keys. The way things are going, we’ll be bankrupt and probably enslaved by a foreign power within 10 years under the current policies. Will they give us longer than that? I don’t know. But I have my doubts.
The need for a third party couldn’t be plainer. Or at least a clean-up of the disgusting, corrupt buffoons that sit in power right now (D or R, doesn’t matter).
#117 Ex-pat in Oz:
I think at least one aspect of your scenario is top optimistic.
unemployment up a half point, down the same a bit later…but it feels like no improvement at all to the middle class.
I think in the next month or so the organic waste is going to hit the rotating airfoil as far as employment is concerned. Businesses hire up for the holidays, and frequently hope that they make enough over the holiday rush to pull them out of any shortfall through the year. Current official unemployment rates are being statistically manipulated, and they are assuming more of the holiday workers are there than actually are, and assuming they will keep their jobs. By the February figures, you are going to either see the unemployment rate jump drastically, or the statistics being manipulated beyond being able to credibly ignore. I also expect a run of bankruptcies. Small business people I know are telling me that this holiday was down 30% from 2008. And 2008 was horrible. the main street in my town is full of empty storefronts; and this is going to slop into the commercial real estate market big time. Another freaking real estate cascade.
I don’t dispute your scenario at all, just think that it will be harder and nastier than you envisage. I’m pretty sure that whatever foreign attack we have to put up with is going to be pretty horrid too. There is not going to be much goodwill and tolerance of other peoples’ politics in the wake of that. Going both ways.
The Republicans have the wind at their backs assuming there are honest elections. That is not an automatic assumption. The Republicans elected are going to be a mixed bag. Some will be TEA Party types, some will be Institutional Republicans. Both had better come up with a way of doing business different than the corruption of both parties in the last couple of decades ; or things are going to get even nastier. No guarantees of survival.
Subotai Bahadur
Projecting his words out, over and away from the Congress and the Courts, with his chin pointing more accurately towards Paris, the President said “I don’t quit!”
Leading me to wonder, what is it that this President won’t “quit?” Is it “cap-n-trade,” or is it “health reform,” or is it closing Gitmo? Or is it some bigger meta project that we Americans simply can’t see?
One notion comes to mind.
A meta-project that I’m convinced he is spearheading is the quiet “subsidiarization” of America to Europe and eventually to the UN. Mark Steyn’s thesis, that Obama is devoted to creating a government healthcare monopoly incrementally, plays into my conviction. The goal is to craft a bloated, bankrupt-able, “essential” national organ that has a nifty “universal” plug-in in the back designed specifically to receive EU/Arab/UN/NGO subsidies.
Debt leads to subsidy leads to subsidiarity: this, the “Gaza Model” of post national governance, would be a desirable turn of events to our new overlords in DC. And, if enacted even piecemeal (as Steyn suggests is likely), Obama’s “reforms” will give the civil service unions the same management responsibilities that United Airlines let their unions have, and with similar, predictable consequences. AND, if the union’s Cloward Piven-ing still works after their GM gambit, they aim to force 1/6th of the American economy into dependency on UN (read the Rothchilds’, Von Clauswitzs’, the House of Saud’s, et al’s) largess.
And if that happens, you can kiss our “improbable experiment in democracy” (Obama’s words), with it’s freedom of speech and its right to bear arms, good-bye.
BTW, “Global Warming” was, in my opinion, Al Gore’s own stab at the same “subsidiarization” game. The Dem’s have used the shot-gun approach to achieve their DeVillepin-ian ends: they fired massed rounds from multiple barrels in many directions to see which would hit the target.
It’s apparent to me that both Gore and Obama (and the Clintons for that matter) bow to masters outside of our Republic, which goes a long way to explaining why Obama always levels his nose towards Brussels when he speaks unequivocally at a national podium.
-Steve
Walt:
BATTLE HIM FOR THE REPUBLIC
—-
Walt, That is an amazing collection of words. Simply brilliant.
I’m slow when it comes to poets. At least I know it.
Wait a minute.
So there are folks here who think that the President did not make impressive academic scores? That he does not posess high IQ? That he did not display leadership in a tough field?
I know all about Affirmative Action and have lived through negative consequences of that. I despise the whole idea, but this guy has talent, intellect, and considerable people skills. Dismissing those, if you oppose him, is just blind idiocy. It is the worst mistake you can make if you want to change our failing political direction.
Racism is as dumb as you can get.
Moving on I still think hyperpace warp drive is a better goal that fast trains if you are going to spend billions of non-real dollars.
Spindok
#121 – Mr. Plumber,
Nothing could be further from the truth – we Do NOT need a third party.
The Republican party is not some machine beyond our control or blind to our interests. Almost all states have primaries and for the example of Chuck DeVore mentioned above, this guy is the one we want in the California primary for Senate. The other two or three are mostly RINOs of the type you’re rightly concerned about.
The answer is get busy for the primary candidates of your choice. If you don’t like what’s offered – WORK for the one you want.
This coming election will serve all politicians, Democrat and GOP, that the ultimate power remains with the citizens and that elected officials serve at the sufferance of the electorate.
That said, a big concern remains the legitimacy of the ballot. Don’t let ACORN or the SEIU steal any elections!
On an earlier thread on the BC a gentleman made an impassioned plea for principled conservatives to strengthen the Republican Party. He was correct. Take on the thankless job of Precinct Captain. Serve on the County Committee. Run for the School Board and attend every public meeting of a community agency, board or social organization in your area. Above all take the job of being a Poll Inspector and ensure that elections are run honestly no matter who wins.
To many Republicans are willing to deign to consider serving as Deputy Under Secretary of State in charge of Policies Plans Proposals and Filing Cabinets from H through M but are unwilling to do the heavy lifting where politics in America happens.
Blogged under the title “Heavy Lifting.”
spindok @ 125:
I could not let this go.
No, No … & No. This guy is a cypher. When someone tells me they are a genius I refer back to this:
Mongo Buddy – Yeah, I know but T is so…… imprecise sometimes when I am sure she does not mean to be. Shows sloppy thinking … but maybe I am just another pot ….
0bumbler ‘doubled down’. Now what? Does he think saying it all more slowly or maybe using smaller words still polish that t-rd? I do believe he does, I DO! I DO!
And he is off to Tampa today to lecture us about bullet trains and jobs. Whoo-Hoo!
I recall it as something along the lines of “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing. After first exhausting all other options.”
And believe me, after 12 months of Obama, I’m pretty exhausted.
BTW, Walt, pure brilliance that Battle Him for the Republic. My own addition:
He is banging on the drums that lead his party to defeat
He is seeking the support of pols who fear they will be beat
Oh, be swift, my vote, to neuter them, take away their seats
Their god has feet of clay.
Glory, glory, etc.
#122 Holy Crap, Subo! You got me rattled with that one. Would it be safer for me to live in New Zealand? What are you doing to prepare? Any suggestions?
Well his attack on the Supreme Court may have been meat for his base, but I question the long term wisdom of it. It is highly likely that there are going to be other cases that effect policy questions that are dear to the heart of the left, going to the Supreme Court. Would you want any of them harboring even a subconscious grudge against you and yours? Do you want the Republicans to get real determined to give you as much hassle as possible on a Supreme Court nominee?
He also displayed his thin skin in my opinion. I think more people are going to mock him ala SNL and John Stewart just to get the hits his response. I hope who ever is carrying the football will get someone to play keep away from Obama when he finally pops his cork.
Today, the Mayor of Orlando issued a real howler.
He said that he hopes that “the government will pay for the entire cost of the high speed rail system so that the taxpayers won’t have to do so.”
Oh, lord, lord, lord… We are not only surrounded by complete idiots but have put them in charge.
Obama and Pelosi and Reid are according to Hot Air going to RAM THROUGH Health Care on the Nuclear option with 51 votes. They’ve decided to go for it, and so have the Dems. They will be adding another $300 Billion on top of the costs.
On a related front, Obama has decided to oppose a bill paying for the medical care of 9/11 volunteers who are now sick and who were at Ground Zero.
Gates and Mullen will testify tomorrow to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Obama is pushing hard for it.
So, one man, one vote, one time. It’s pretty much done. Obama has no intention of running for honest elections — he obviously plans a self-coup like Fujimori. I’m sure he will come up with something to rule like Chavez and the military command will go along with him.
This has been the Democrats dream for generations — rule by Dictator to achieve their Gentry Liberal dreams forever.
Well, having not watched the speech but perused the analysis pretty closely, the things I think are sticking are the Alito moment and the times he got laughed at because of those stupid transparency and budgeting remarks.
I think the mockery is our best weapon and Stewart and Leno will suddenly be on our side. He doesn’t have a thick enough skin to tolerate much of that.
Wishful thinking, maybe. But that speech was a reiteration of his declaration of war on the country. It’s going to be him/them or us, and my money’s on us at the end of the day.
oMan, Patriot Front, Sylvia, Bonzo, JMH – Thanks for the kind words.
oMan – If you click on my name you will be taken to my blog where you can read the collected works at your leisure, and for free, though I concede a fine moroccan binding would be nice.
JMH – Damn good. Do more of it. I believe it may have been LOTM who dubbed those of us who dabble in light verse here at the Belmont Club The Not Quite Dead Poets Society, and you are heartily invited to join.
Walt
#133 Whiskey – I don’t see it. I see the opposite on other sites: http://www.breitbart.tv/pelosi-well-pole-vault-parachute-in-to-get-health-care-passed/
walt, a rival, Obama-supporting group: ‘the dead society poets’
132 RWE
Not fair. How are The Onions and Iowahawk supposed to top that?!
#125 spindok:
One of the curses of living in an affirmative action society is that the rational assumption is that any member of a protected class who is in a favored position has a measurable chance of having gained that position purely based on favoritism derived from political correctness and not on merit. Given that his background details [which all other candidates in recent memory have been forced to publicly reveal] are more classified than the research at Los Alamos; yeah people can be forgiven for holding that belief. The affirmative defense to that belief is to show a record of achievement. But it seems that the specific things which would exonerate him from that belief are the very things he has successfully exerted a tremendous amount of effort to conceal. This raises the index of suspicion on a number of fronts, affirmative action being one of the more benign.
Some may say that at a certain level people would not give a pass for what the Federales call “Bonafied Occupational Qualifications” [EEOC acronym 'BFOQ'] just to fill a quota [Yes, we do have quotas, we just don't admit it.]. Organizations subject to Federal oversight, seeking Federal benefits based on compliance/exceeding with EEOC standards, or even for their own parallel ideological beliefs have absolutely no problem with lowering standards. My old Department explained it as “We are not lowering standards, we are broadening the ‘opportunity pool’.”.
I will give two examples from my old Department.
1) It became policy for a while to increase the numbers of a certain protected class. We did not have a sufficient supply of qualified members of that class as applicants. We did have applicants of those particular classes, just not qualified with the education and/or experience required of everybody else. So we hired them anyway and put them in our Academy, in some cases after they had failed the entrance exam. Some of them were not sufficiently literate to take the written exams while in the Academy. So they were allowed to take the tests orally. They did not last long after they came out into the field. But the members of that protected class [and in normal times members of that class have and still do qualify and excel without problems. I can and have trusted my life with them] still have had to prove that they are not there because of affirmative action, because we literally could not be sure that they were safe to work around.
2) Similar period earlier. It was a directive that for promotions, instead of the top 3 scorers [written test, oral board, personnel record], it became for several years 3 + 3, with the second three being top scoring protected classes. The directive further stated that if the promotion board did not select the protected class, each member of the board would have to submit a written report to the Cabinet level Director of our Department explaining why they did not support the Department’s diversity and affirmative action program. A copy of their report would be placed in the board member’s personnel file for when they went up for promotion. Guess how that worked out.
Reverse racism is also about as dumb as you can get. And it is all too common in government. And it is those who are subject to the results of either who pay the price.
#130 Right Wing Realist:
Hell, that is just the beginning. The appropriate reaction is to be ready for fight or flight. Everyone has to make their own choices.
#133 Whiskey:
IF they do that, it is an absolute indication that there will not be free, honest elections again. It would be one of several tripwires indicating that the Oath is in play. They would not dare face the voters again. If such is the case, that has implications about the concept of “consent of the governed” and something called the social contract. It is time to establish networks outside of this and similar forums. If you do not have texts on tradecraft, it might be time to get them [for cash, mind you] and to engage in study. It CAN happen here.
Be Thou then truly Resolved; that Duty is as heavy as a Mountain, and Death is as light as a Feather.
Subotai Bahadur
Someone turned me on to this multi-media presentation on “Useless Eaters” on a university website.
It shows the historical evolution of the theoretical justification and the implementation of policies resulting in the starvation, deliberate withholding of care, and outright murder of patients in mental asylums, hospitals, and other public institutions, primarily in Germany, starting as early as the 1890′s.
Most folks are at least dimly aware that from the late 1930′s onward, the NAZI regime were rounding up Jews, Gypsies, union shop stewards, priests and nuns, deacons and ministers, communists, homosexuals, and anyone suspected of insufficient enthusiasm for Der Fuehrer.
Some kind of soap shortage or some such thing…
But years before, almost as soon as the National Socialists (“NAZI’s”) gained control of the government, they began to cull the ranks of “useless eaters” in German institutions – patients who took up beds, meals, and care but were judged incurable, untreatable, or otherwise unlikely to ever make any contribution to the national economy or culture.
The presentation is dense, and lengthy – it’s comprehensive. But you don’t have to plow through the whole thing to get the message.
Sure is consistent with the statements of Ezekiel Emmanuel and John P. Holdren, both key advisors specifically chosen by Buraq Hossayn Obama.
Rush made several points today, three of which stood out for me:
1. Buraq was mightily pissed at the American Public for dissing his candidates, and for objecting to ObamaCare and his other legislative agenda. His speech in his delivery, tone and content reflected it.
2. Congress actually laughed ( you can hear it in the audio) when O presented his silly spending freeze.
3. The last five minutes of the speech were a rambling incoherent mess. It’s as if he was so pissed he went off teleprompter.
Then today he informs Congress he won’t support paying for the medical costs for the 9-11 responders. All the NY Dims are appalled and look like idiots for supporting this guy.
I think this is only the beginning.
Poor widdle Buraq is throwing a tantrum. He can’t get his way, and so he is going to show the American people what’s what and who’s got the power.
We the people elected a sociopath, and boy are we going to pay for it.
We need to keep firmly in mind that this President has issued an executive order giving Interpol a free hand to operate within the United States without having to honor or conform to United States laws, after having set up a permanent Interpol department within Eric “Der Verräter” Holder’s Department of Justice.
By the most benign analysis, this means that Interpol can do Buraq’s dirty work, investigating, profiling, photographing, tapping phones, reading email, holding and questioning U.S. citizens, without the restraints that would apply to U.S. Law Enforcement Officers & Organizations.
As it turns out, Interpol for decades has maintained only a token field force of agents, depending instead on “TAD” agents assigned by the agencies of participating signatory host nations.
I wonder how many nations have granted Interpol the sort of unhindered control over citizens that our courageous pRes has done.
So Obama and Holder get to appoint a throng of their own chosen thugs who by this executive order and Interpol assignment, be empowered to ignore Freedom of Information requests, Habeas Corpus, Miranda, et cetera. And from whence will the pusbag-in-chief gather his trusted thugs? ACORN?? SEIU? – these bastards will probably continue officially on payroll at their current places of employment…
I can’t help recalling that Hitler let a lot of murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals out of prison, and gave them specific tasks to target groups Hitler had chosen as scapegoats, to taunt, bully, rape, brutalize, and murder random individuals to terrorize the rest.
Folks, even if we wanted to knuckle under, this country is headed for bloody times.
MF/142; same encroachment, National Guard front, ”states rights rebellion”:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122689
and related:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-national-guard-commander,0,2619531.story
Head of NY National Guard retiring, withdraws as Obama’s nominee to lead Army National Guard
***
also, re Holder, the underwear bomber’s handler, a Yemeni AQ, is almost certainly in contact directly or nearly so, with the legal counsel for the Yemeni AQ in Gitmo. This legal counsel is the law firm of which eric Holder is a partner. This may account for the lightning-fast Mirandizing of the underwear bomber. Holder supporting the legal ploys of his firm –and the American public be damned. jesus H. christ, did i just write what i think i wrote? Yes, yes i did.
Walt, although I’m probably better suited for The Not Quite Dead Doggerel Society, I’d be delighted to accept your kind invitation. Although I’m not a Birther myself, a few lines of the original suggested themselves to this:
In the time of hippie chicks, O was born across the sea
But Kenya or Hawaii? It perplexes you and me
As he lies to make men servents let us fight to keep them free
Obama one and done
Glory, Glory, etc.
These comments bear repeating.”
“We the people elected a sociopath, and boy are we going to pay for it.
________________
“Folks, even if we wanted to knuckle under, this country is headed for bloody times.”
____________
From Obama’s Presidential Order:
January 11, 2010
“President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors
Executive Order will Strengthen Further Partnership Between the Federal and State and Local Governments to Better Protect Our Nation
The President today signed an Executive Order (attached) establishing a Council of Governors to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State Governments to protect our Nation against all types of hazards. When appointed, the Council will be reviewing such matters as involving the National Guard of the various States; homeland defense; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.”
snip…
The formation of the Council of Governors was required by the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act which stated, “The President shall establish a bipartisan Council of Governors to advise the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the White House Homeland Security Council on matters related to the National Guard and civil support missions.” (NDAA FY2008, Sec 1822)”
_________
“Holder supporting the legal ploys of his firm –and the American public be damned. jesus H. christ, did i just write what i think i wrote? Yes, yes i did.”
___________
Here is what I wrote on 10/10/2008 (Link at # 100 on this thread)
“Obama wants you to believe that he is what he says he is. He has offered no proof of what he is or really what he believes other than his books. Well if you believe his words in his books, he has an intense dislike and distrust of white Americans, not as much as his wife but almost. He also says in his books that the black man has been mistreated and is still mistreated and that it is the fault of the greedy white men. He does not love America.
He offers that proof (in his own words in his books) of what he is and how he thinks.
Do you dis-believe him?
If you believe his words there (in his books), why would you believe him when he says he is not a radical socialist who dislikes America and whites?
Use some logic before it is too late.”
Buy more Ammo!
Papa Ray
Glory, Gory Eric Holder
Ties to terror coulda told yer
His law firm dealt the blow
To close Guantanimo
And al Qaeda duly cheered
The administration had two duties regarding the underwear bomber interrogation; to get all the info possible, and to avoid unnecessarily demoralizing the citizenry on the entirely avoidable basis of having raised the question that is so rare we almost cannot even think of it: “who the hell’s side is this administration on, anyway?”
To have blown the latter so comprehensively is just barely deniable as to having been deliberate.
If a bad act is not deliberate, then it is accidental. Accidents raise the issue of competence. This is why we see so many people, whether in the dock or in front of the press, enthusiastically welcoming the notion of their own incompetence.
If this person happens to be a high official of the organization to which the public has lent practically 100% of its defensive assets, then the execution of any demoralization agenda will have been handled exceedingly competently.
***
PS, wonder if the 300 folks on the plane , and anyone who flies or knows anyone who flies, or who has any connection with anything that benefits America and the free world, think the underwear bomber has been handled for their sake or the bomber’s.
I watched. I wretched. Thanks fiddy2, we owe you.