Blown Opportunity

President Obama and his administration have burned through their “bump” over the assassination of Osama bin Laden allowing less enamored analysis of the handling of the event to review what has been done in the days following the attack. Most REAL intelligence people are appalled at the handling of the intel gathered at the bin Laden compound. The Obama Administration claimed to have a treasure trove of information, but that information has been rendered useless by the self-congratulations by Obama in the media. By being so thrilled with himself he was unable to contain information that SHOULD have been played close to the vest.

One of two things happened. Either there was a real gold mine of information there and we missed an opportunity to exploit it because Obama wanted to brag to the world he had killed bin Laden, or there was NOTHING there and Obama has over-reacted and now terrorists know they are safe to continue doing what they were doing with no fear of intervention. Either way, the handling of the event by Obama and his media following the attack has been appalling.

All of the analysis of the information mishandling is far less scathing than is should be of the White House and the people surrounding the Obama Administration. In their attempt to gain glory for themselves they blew the REAL treasure trove of information by running their mouths. The amateurishness of this administration and their heavy-handed political moves indicates they think everyone in the world is an idiot but themselves. They're wrong. Maybe in the world of politics they can see themselves as geniuses because Washington is full of so many morons, but in the world at large they are bumbling, hack politicians.

The "bump" all this lost intelligence got Obama was only 3-6% in the polls and has now evaporated dropping Obama back where he was before the raid and dropping fast. While Obama was busy running around on his "spiking the football" tour, Americans were facing staggering unemployment, generational debt and gas prices that are destroying us. The euphoria we all felt at finally getting bin Laden was lost in the days of reality that followed and will only get worse as the candidates start smelling blood in the water and start their campaigns. In spite of what the media is saying, Obama is imminently defeat-able. And what is more frightening is what Obama is willing to throw under the bus - like this raid and promising new drilling rights that his EPA will never approve - to try to save his own ass. It's sickening to watch.

Turning The United States Into Israel

Last week when President Obama spoke at the annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Awards Gala he ran off a list of peoples who came to this country to form its fabric. The Dutch, French, Brits, Mexicans (to a cheer) and Native Americans. Then he explained that they all worked pretty well together with minor frictions here and there until the formation of the United States as a country. It was THEN that everything went to hell. Maybe the president never studied History, or maybe he likes to make things up as he goes.

In the president’s La-La version of American History here sat a pristine continent populated by loving Natives who were walking through life in some kind of peyote funk communing with nature and having a love-fest with each other. When Europeans came along, they all met the indigenous people and joined them in this peyote smoking bliss strolling through this wilderness paradise like kids in a romper room until the Ugly Americans showed up and destroyed it all. This is not the first time he has plundered history for just enough facts to interlace with his personal hatred of the United States to spin his conciliatory tale. Obama’s not quite clear about where these Ugly Americans came from, but why harsh the mellow?

Pardon my incredulity, but what the HELL is he talking about??

I know he gets a lot of his history from Reverend Wright who loves to bend all Evil in the world back to white America, but a little reality might help break them away from a bad kids’ movie approach to the history of this continent.

In the real world the native tribes of the Americas hated each other and were at constant war. They were famous for slaughtering their enemies, cannibalism, enslaving those who were not killed, pillaging villages, burning huge portions of the country, raping the women and being as base as their European, Asian and African counterparts. When Columbus and his boys came to the New World they got syphilis from the indigenous population and carried it back to Europe creating an epidemic that wiped out millions almost as tragic as The Plague – not the other way around. I have no idea who started all this idealistic history that is based in anger toward the United States, but they are living in another world – probably helped along by that peyote cloud I referenced earlier – and making this stuff up to fit their vision of the world.

The Europeans that came to the New World were at war with each other through most of their history here. They fought whenever they saw each other. If you go to any islands in the Caribbean or travel along the east coast there are old forts from the empires that came here. Those forts were built to fight against other empires who were trying to kill off those who built the forts. I wonder if Obama ever heard of the French and Indian War? Apparently not, or it didn’t fit into his fantasy tale.

I don’t know why I waste my breath, Obama does not care about reality – only his version of it.

The part of the speech that had me rolling my eyes was when he said the Mexicans came here and interacted with the Europeans. Mexicans?? Really? The Spaniards came here, not the Mexicans. In colonial times what is Mexico today was a colony of Spain. For those of you who are a product of our public school system, the United States declared independence from England in 1776. Mexico became a country in 1823. That means the United States had thrown out the empires before Mexico was ever created, so Obama’s version of history is incorrect (charitably speaking). There was no Mexico to come here and interact with the French, Dutch or English like Obama tells the story! Those people were from Spain. In spite of Obama’s fantasyland telling of the story, the Spanish came and destroyed the cultures they encountered in what is now Mexico and Central America. They did not come here and live in harmony with the natives or the other empires.

The problem with the Obama history of America is that it’s convoluted, indulgent and made up to fit the particular group he was speaking to, just as much of his material is ‘spun’ to fit his audience. His whole strategy is to make the United States look like the Israel of the New World. Here we are, plunked down in the New World “imposing” the country in the middle of a paradise that would be great without us. No one wanted us here and we should be removed. Nothing could be further from the truth – but we are talking about Obama who has no room for the truth when it doesn’t fit into his view of the world. It’s not just our history of Manifest Destiny that grew our country, had we allowed ourselves to remain part of the British Empire little would be different, just where we send our exorbitant taxes and where we get our leaders changes.

In Obama’s view the United States is imposed here in the New World and we should be punished for our presence. His view is narrow and racist. The history of the whole world is about conquest and the establishment of countries. That’s the way it is. All this hand-wringing namby-pambiness is nothing more than fantasy imposed over reality to make the country he leads into the bad-guy thus creating more victims. And THAT is what Obama is really about – creating victims and imposing divisions between people so he can carve them up into voting blocks for pandering. Mr. President, quit giving our enemies reasons to hate us and those who want to overrun our borders incorrect history lessons to fan their flames of hatred.

America deserves better.

Learning To Set A Positive Agenda

I watched as much of the President Obama visit to the Republican Meeting last week as I could take – and that was very little. He was back to his ‘professor’ mode talking down to his class full of students, all of whom seemed willing to accept that premise. It was too much to take for long.
This week President Obama has issued a challenge to the Republicans to meet him in an open forum on C-Span to discuss their ideas on healthcare. He CLAIMS he will be open-minded to their proposals. Since he issued the challenge it has come to light that it was a ploy. Once of Nancy Pelosi’s aids leaked to the press that the meeting was a distraction while the Democrats went about passing the Senate bill through the House then slipping in a reconciliation bill behind it to give them the healthcare bill they have been looking for all along. Even before that come to light, I have to ask the Republicans a question: Have you lost your freaking minds?
You HAD to know President Obama was coming to the Republican Meeting for a photo op. That was evident from the time… well, from the time he decided to show up. The man arrived with a sycophantic press corps (or ‘corpse’ if you are an Obama-ite – which might actually be more accurate in describing the press’ ability for independent thought) to dutifully praise every word he utters. Republicans then allowed him to control the conversation and he got the sound bytes he went up there to get. Mission accomplished.
That meeting worked out so well for him he decided to extend the ‘openness’ with the Republicans. Now President Obama wants to meet to discuss HIS healthcare bill. The entire country has rejected it, but he wants to push on with the issue and the best way HE feels to do that is to meet with the Republicans and ridicule them for the whole country to see. He has no intention of listening to any of the suggestions the Republicans make. All he has to do is create the ILLUSION that he took them seriously and the press will run back to their little roundtables to discuss how well he ‘handled’ the ‘harsh’ Republicans.
And he wants to do it on C-Span. Uh… did anyone think to ask ‘why?’ When the REAL discussions were going on NO ONE was allowed in but Obama and the DEMOCRAT Congressional leadership. Now he wants to put it on C-Span? Suddenly ‘transparency’ is the issue? The only reason he wants to put it on TV is so he can control the conversation and hold Republicans up to be ridiculed by HIS media again. Why do it? Answer: There’s no reason to do it. The healthcare issue is dead – the American people have spoken in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as well as all across the country at Tea Parties and Town Hall Meetings and in every poll out there – unless the Republicans allow him to breathe life back into it.
It’s time to move on to finding jobs for the eight million of us who are looking.
Republicans have GOT to wise up. The American people are on YOUR side. It’s not just Republicans, it’s also the Independents who are finding their way home and the Blue Dog Democrats who have had enough. Americans have always been on your side if you had shown any kind of leadership skills and been willing to communicate what you stand for. Or maybe you are just figuring out what that is.
I know you think no one will give you the coverage if you start talking, but that’s because you spend too much time allowing others to control the agenda. The answer is simple. All you have to do is start talking to Fox News and Talk Radio. President Reagan had none of the cable coverage or Talk Radio support we have today, but the American people found a way to get the message out and followed him to landslide victories.
If you start practicing the skills of communicating with Americans and make it a strong Conservative message three things will happen. The majority of American voters will love you, Democrats will be frustrated and start whining attacks making them look weak and the mood of the nation will begin to change to a more positive tone.
The next problem you will have is that the OTHER networks will be screaming because you’re not talking to THEM and giving them time to dissect you. Once YOU own the initiative everyone will want to talk to you.
It’s funny how that works.

The Unemployment Numbers Fiasco Is Really Just Lying

If I did what the Obama Administration did with number manipulation I would be fired. It would be called an ‘integrity problem’ and I would become part of the unemployed faster than you can say ‘security’ – with extremely poor prospects for finding another job. Playing with numbers on the scale the unemployment numbers were manipulated last year to make the White House look better is LYING on a massive scale. Someone should lose their job for this level of LYING.
For leaving out almost a million unemployed – a number that is NOT insignificant – which made the reported numbers look better than they were, heads should have rolled. Someone should be meeting with their boss, answering questions about how it is possible to make such a gross error, the whole time worrying about wetting himself or herself with fear. And the boss who is doing the grilling should be concerned, sweating bullets of their own while trying to get answers because he/she is going to be in on the carpet in a matter of minutes answering to their boss who is going to be repeating the process until someone is in front of the President of the United States answering how this can happen.
Well, that is if we lived in the sane world where accountability is a concept someone in government understood. Let’s face it; no one in Washington has the first idea about holding anyone accountable. The only thing Washington understands is finger pointing, laying blame and rushing to the microphones to put spin on issues.
This recalibration of the unemployment numbers is a perfect example. President Obama should have been in front of the microphones explaining how a screw up of this magnitude could happen and the steps that were going to be put in place to be certain it never happened again. He should also have offered up the names of those fired for this kind of integrity failure and who is going to jail for destroying the trust of the American people. Instead, he was in front of the microphones crowing about bogus unemployment numbers that were based on faulty, manipulated data. Instead of unemployment numbers that reflect the dire state of our economy when taken in their purest unmolested form, President Obama was busy telling anyone who would listen that he was saving us from the Great Depression II. He was crowing about numbers he KNEW were false and manipulated as if they actually were pointing in a direction that was exactly the opposite of where everyone who was listening KNEW they were pointing. The unemployment rate is slowing because we are running out of jobs to cut. We’re down eight million jobs and we are still adding to the number every month. There was a seasonal slowing due to Christmas hiring and there will be an artificial slowing as the Census Bureau puts on people to count heads. The major turnaround that Obama is dislocating his shoulder patting himself on the back over has not materialized. You see, you can play with percentages all day, but the raw data tells the tale – and it is a sad one.
A major part of this equation is that the American press is acting ignorant of the whole situation. Either they are REALLY good actors or they are truly a bunch of clueless dolts. I’m going with the ‘clueless dolts.’ In spite of their high priced educations and ‘old boy networking’ they are not understanding what the average American is getting loud and clear – unemployment is still with us and showing no sign of turning around. It is all over the Internet how the numbers were manipulated and why the results are bogus. It’s not rocket science. And even if it was not, it is easy to figure out. Anyone who understands business or how numbers work understands what happened – and that we are being lied to for political gain. This is a pattern that should have Americans all across the country shuddering in fear – even the press who is studiously trying to ignore the problem. The depths to which Washington is willing to descend just to mislead us is astonishing – and criminal.

President Obama’s State Of The Union Drinking Game

For most of us we’ve heard about as many President Obama speeches as we can take. Four hundred twelve speeches is a little too much of ANY president to take. Since we already know what he is going to say and we can guess what tone he will take after the loss in Massachusetts last week I am proposing a drinking game to keep us interested – at least until we become too wiped out to care. Which is about the only way I can endure another of his speeches.
This is how it works. Choose your favorite alcohol to take as shots and line up the shot glasses. Then all you have to do is listen for the ‘drinking’ words. I’ll guarantee you will be wasted before the midway point of the speech.
The game has three key words – or shot words – to listen for in the speech. The first word is “clear.” It usually comes grouped with “Let me be CLEAR” or “I want to make myself CLEAR.” In any form it comes out it always means the same thing: “I am about to feed you a line of bull” or “I am about to screw you over.” Either way, it is President Obama’s way of ‘butching up’ for the American people so he sounds tough when he delivers whatever he’s about to dump on us.
The second word is “Inherited.” That’s code for “It’s Bush’s fault.” The blame Bush strategy has about worn out with all of us out here in America, but it’s something we can count on hearing in the speech. I can remember NO president that has blamed the previous administration as incessantly as Obama has, and certainly not a year down the road. He took the keys to the White House and the big jets, he needs to grow a set and get on with doing his job. He’s used “inherited” since he got there and we can count on hearing it again in the State of the Union speech. When the going gets tough – Obama whines and blames President Bush.
The third word to look for is “Unprecedented.” This is my personal ‘fingers on the chalkboard’ word every time I hear Obama utter it. There is nothing that has happened in the last year that has been unprecedented except the unprecedented use of the word “unprecedented.” Everything that has happened in his term has happened before and there are answers to solve those problems already available – it’s simply a question of using them.
By the end of the speech you will be BLITZED, so be sure you either have a cab, a designated driver or drink at home. It’s the only way you’ll make it.
And as a little warning, the morning after you’re likely to have a nasty hangover, but it’s much better to wake up with a hangover that will wear off than to have to make it all the way through that speech and have a hangover headache that will REFUSE to go away.
Enjoy the speech!! Cheers!!

The Obama Disapproval Index

We are a year down the road into the Obama Administration and the failures, disillusionments, disgusts and defeats continue to pile up. In spite of relentless rhetoric, soaring speeches and the media pouring on syrupy praise President Obama and his administration have managed to squander overwhelming poll numbers in his favor and make all the wrong moves in spite of historical precedents showing the way out of our economic disaster – which he and his people have managed to make considerably worse than it was when he took the reins. At the same time the Obama Administration seems to be working overtime to find ways to diminish the prestige of the United States.
In the Carter years we were treated to the “Misery Index” to reflect the pain the country was feeling at the failures the Carter Administration inflicted on us. It is about time to roll out our own version of the Misery Index – the Obama Dissatisfaction Index or ODI – to reflect the pain we are feeling now under the Obama Administration. Instead of simply measuring the economic malaise we are in, we need to have a more sweeping index to include his failures on his multiple levels. Though I have no idea how to quantify this index to make it into a rolling number we can track, I think these are some of the areas we need to include in our ODI.

· Economy: The economy has been on the minds of Americans for over eight years now. When the Democrats decided to make the economy into an issue when it was roaring they chose to tell Americans that what we were seeing – what the economic indicators were telling us was a good economy – was not the true picture. Eventually their negativity fulfilled itself, yet they thought it was an easy fix. During the 2008 campaign Americans were promised that if elected Obama would fix the economy. He and his cohorts knew where the economy stood – though they later tried to make us believe it was worse than they were told – yet they promised they had the answers to fix it if only we would elect them. It turns out all they have are a litany of excuses and a lot of whining about what they inherited. This category includes unemployment, the growing deficit, government spending and eventually runaway inflation. The failures of this administration are going to be devastating to the United States if Obama continues as he is.

· National Security: The total lack of understanding of the threat of terrorists against the American people is chilling. The first year of the Obama Administration has been aimed at convincing the American people there is no terror threat against the United States – until there was an attack against us. The White House went so far as to issue a list of words such as ‘terrorist’ which are no longer to be used. That does not solve the problem of terror attacks against the United States as we were shown on Christmas Day. Nor does closing Guantanamo Bay and bringing the inmates to U.S. soil. Then there is the idiotic decision to bring five terrorists to New York to stand trial just blocks from where they destroyed the World Trade Center. Already some of the evidence has been tossed by one of the judges hearing the trial. Every move of this administration appears to place our security in more and more peril.

· International Relations: We were promised ‘a new era’ of international relations in which the United States would be respected. The opposite has been the result of the Obama ‘Apology Tour’ around the world. Our friends and enemies alike now understand that our leader despises his country and will not stand up to protect our allies. Nothing could be more devastating in the international arena. That is perceived as weakness. In his attempt to gain the friendship of such countries as Iran, Venezuela and Cuba Obama has sold out old allies like Israel and after only a year has shown that he is not formidable at all – and has lost the respect of all those he sought to win over. The United States is no longer respected nor is our leader feared in the dens of terror. Our leader is a joke and we are seen as lacking the resolve to finish the job – even by our closest allies.

· Domestic Respect: This should be simply a factor of looking at the nose-diving Obama poll numbers and saying we need to figure out a simple equation to attach to his poll numbers versus where he should be – say against the average presidential approval rating at this point in their administrations. The Obama Administration is lower at this point than any previous president. To get the true measure of the Obama Administration we also have to add his policies and his ability to throw his support to others to get them elected. When he goes out to campaign for candidates he has not been able to push ANY over the goal line. His policies are polling in the thirties and he is 0 for 3 in campaigning. Even though his personal approval is still in the mid-40’s, the policies he is pushing are doing worse.


There are several other areas that could be tracked which would indicate how far out of step Obama and his administration are with the American people, but I find the less complicated a formula the better. The Obama Administration has lost its magic and with it they have lost the approval of the American people – and the world. Now we need to track how far down Obama is taking us and hopefully turn back the tide before he destroys our country.

President Obama’s Transparency

FINALLY we get something that resembles ‘transparency’ out of the Obama Administration. Over the weekend accounts of the minute-by-minute actions of President Obama and his administration were posted for all to see just as he promised. There it was for all of us to see. It was the handling of the Haitian earthquake by President Obama.
From the beginning when President Obama ran to the microphones to tell us what he was going to do for Haiti I felt like we, the American people, were being played by Obama and his people. This is the same President Obama who took months to decide what to do about Afghanistan and DAYS to respond to the Fort Hood attack and the Christmas Day attempted attack on the Northwest flight from Amsterdam. And those turned out to be initially the wrong responses. That’s why I felt the Haitian response was more than a little contrived. Obama was at the microphones in a matter of hours and the response was right down the line – almost like Bush was back. It was way too good to be coming from this group in Washington.
All President Obama had to do was take out the President Bush template for the tsunami in Southeast Asia – including having two former presidents head up the American end of the relief effort – blow the dust off it, add the Haitian name to the file and call up the military. The American military then swung into action and the rest was on autopilot. After that it was just a matter of Obama running around with his sleeves rolled up looking concerned and giving more speeches. THAT part of the plan was pure Obama – the BS Factor.
To me, it felt like Obama’s people already had the plan sitting on the shelf where they put it after Dick Cheney handed it to them, all they were waiting for was a disaster so they could shamelessly trot it out and call it their own. They knew the media was in their corner, so all they had to do was get the ball rolling. They certainly are willing to blame Bush for everything that has happened in the country, but I doubt they will give President Bush the CREDIT he deserves for having the template already set up for them to follow when a disaster hits.
So now that we know the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Washington actually know the meaning of the word ‘transparency,’ can we expect the same level of openness for the legislation they will try to push through Congress this year? Or any other year? How about going back and giving us the minutes from the backroom meetings held on The Hill to push through the healthcare travesty? Or the bribes that had to be paid out to our senators and representatives to get them to go along with the bill their constituents are overwhelmingly against? For some reason, I doubt it.
There are no other instances of moves made by this administration they are proud enough to share with us. It’s that simple. We are looking at a well-scripted stand-alone instance of the ‘transparency’ the American people were promised – and it is a show. Just more broken promises – oh, and out here in the heartland outside the Washington Beltway, we call those LIES.