The Statue Of Liberty Is Shaking Her Fist

Ross Kaminsky opined at American Spectator:

“While the most anti-American president in American history might not be too unhappy at the downward spiral of his nation’s international standing and economic strength, it is not by his design but rather a result of the sad accident of having (twice) elected a naïve, petulant, self-obsessed non-leader.” 

[One potential caveat: While Obama is not clever enough for his apparent incompetence to be anything but real, some of his advisers/puppet-masters, like David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, are. For those enemies of America, Obama is just their front man, their very own Billy Mays, hawking a radical leftist vision in a pleasant container. The question then is what percentage puppet is our president.]

The day of reckoning is coming.

The Senate Chaplain, Barry Black, had to use the morning invocation to publicly dress down the members of the Senate:

“We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride.  Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.  Remove from them that stubborn pride, which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism.  Forgive them the blunders they have committed.” 

Putting personal politics ahead of what is best for this nation is egregious. These stupid bastards must grow up.

Innocent people are paying the price for their dithering.

Obama Hiding Behind Big Bird

The owners of the children's show "Sesame Street" have asked the Obama campaign to pull down an ad released Tuesday that shows an image of Big Bird and mocks Republican nominee Mitt Romney for holding up the popular children's character as a symbol of unnecessary government spending.

"We have approved no campaign ads and, as is our general practice, have requested that both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials," said Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization that produces and owns the show, in a statement.

The Obama campaign is reviewing Sesame Workshop’s request.

A reporter traveling with the Obama camp asked Jen Psaki aboard Air Force One, “Thinking back to the last campaign of ‘08 and this time, too, the President has bemoaned at times the focus on trivial things.  And even though you made the point about cutting the deficit, a lot of people will read about it, hear about this ad—we‘re a month away from the election and we’re talking about Big Bird.  Is this the kind of focus that the campaign should have?

And from the Left:

And from the brilliant mind of an American Weasel in darkest England:

Athens Riots: Austerity And Anarchy

If you have trouble envisioning what modern day socialism looks like, you need look no further than Athens, Greece.

Aristotle once said, “Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.”

The latest reports from The Washington Post suggest that more than 100,000 rioters destroyed or seriously damaged 93 buildings while police said at least 45 were burned. They included nine listed as national heritage buildings, mostly in the neoclassical style, while dozens of stores and cafes were smashed and looted.

More than 170 people were hurt in the rioting which also broke out in other Greek cities. Authorities said 106 police needed medical care after being injured by gasoline bombs, rocks and other objects hurled at them, while at least 70 protesters were also hospitalized.

In order to stave off a calamitous default, the Parliament voted 199-74 to accept rescue loans amounting to $172 billion.  Part of the agreement means axing one in five civil service jobs over the next three years and slashing the minimum wage by more than a fifth.

Greece has been in a devasting recession for the last five years.  Unemployment is 21 percent and it is rising.  Economists fear that the bailout money will still not be enough to preserve social and political cohesion in the face of growing unrest and political extremism.

Today, the current occupant of the Oval Office unveiled a $3.8 trillion spending plan. The new 10-year blueprint shows annual deficits exceeding $600 billion every year except 2018. And the portion of the debt held by outside investors would grow to $18.7 trillion by 2021, or 76.5 percent of the economy—a full $1 trillion higher.

It took Greece four thousand years to reach the precipice of economic insolvency.  This president is bringing a 236-year-old republic to its knees.  He’s up for re-election.  We cannot afford four more years of his fiscal insanity.

Son Of Stimulus

The Second Coming Of Herbert Hoover

The title of this post was heisted from Howie Carr’s piece at The Boston Herald.  Depending upon whose version of history you rely on, the indisputable truth about President Herbert Hoover was his epic failure to end the downward economic spiral known as The Great Depression.

Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of The Weekly Standard, puts forward the notion that the gelding who currently occupies the Oval Office “has been hurt by the media’s leniency.”

“Both his presidency and reelection prospects have suffered. He’s grown lazy and complacent. The media have encouraged him to believe his speeches are irresistible political catnip, though they aren’t. His overreliance on words hasn’t helped.”

Dean Baker, Co-Director for The Center For Economic and Policy Research, recently chided The Washington Post for the conspicuous absence of expert ridicule of this president when Obama said, “I have to admit, I didn’t know how steep the climb was going to be. Because we didn’t realize—we just found out a week ago that the economy that last few months in 2008 was even worse than we had realized.”

Baker, writing for Business Insider offers his reasoning:

“It is true that the Commerce Department just revised down the GDP data to show that the decline at the start of the recession was even steeper than had previously been reported. However, by far the most meaningful measure of the steepness of the climb needed for recovery is the employment to population ratio (EPOP): the percentage of the working age population with jobs. This is reported monthly and is not subject to substantial revision.”

“President Obama's team always knew exactly how far the EPOP had fallen since the start of the downturn and therefore knows how many people must be put to work to get the economy back to full employment. The lower than previously reported GDP is an interesting piece of information, but tells us almost nothing new about how much ground must be made up.”

“The Post should have included the comments of economists ridiculing the idea that President Obama has just now discovered how bad the downturn was. It might even be worth a separate article or two. If the statement is actually true (i.e. President Obama just realized how bad the downturn was) then it is deserving of far more attention than his comment about working class whites being bitter and clinging to gun and religion before the Pennsylvania primary.”

Clearly, with this president we have moved past Jimmy Carter V2.0, past Herbert Hoover into Nero imagery.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: The King Of Debt

The King Of Debt

 
Via Memeorandum
Cross-posted at The Conservatory

Linked at The Frugal Café.  Thank you so much Vickie.
Linked at Say Anything Blog. Thanks.

The Bus Was A Big Mistake

Doug Thompson, publisher and founder of Capitol Hill Blue writes, “President Barack Obama took his act on the road this week, traveling the Midwest in a $2.4 million armored bus in what his handlers claim was an attempt to ‘interact with real people.’”

“Next? He’s headed to Martha’s Vineyard for a vacation amid the rich and famous.”

“So much for mixing with the masses.”

“Crowds for his highly-hyped bus tour were tepid at best. The enthusiasm is gone from his carefully-staged events. So is his stirring rhetoric. The words that now spill from Obama’s mouth like verbal diarrhea are halted, hesitant and devoid of emotion.”

“For Obama, the magic is gone, along with the swagger that characterized his demeanor early in his presidency.  The man who swept into office with such high expectation now appears worn, tired and unsure of himself.”

I couldn’t have described this pitiful footnote to the errand boy sent by grocery clerks’ presidency better if I had tried.  Bravo, Mr. Thompson.  Bravo!



Obama: It's Not My Fault

Video Hat Tip Gateway Pundit

Obama’s Clowning Achievement

Professor Jacobson of Legal Insurrection adamantly asserts that, “Democrats own the downgrade.  They fought Republicans and Tea Party supporters every step of the way, and forced a deal which was insufficient.  They played class warfare and race politics against arguments that we needed to drastically change our spending habits.”

Jammie Wearing Fool bluntly points to the screw job this president and his lock-step minions in the Congress did on our economy saying, “Heckuva job, Bammy. You've tanked the economy and now wrecked our credit rating. But don't let us interrupt your parties or golf.”

"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal-consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics," Standard & Poors said. S&P had previously warned it would downgrade the credit rating if the cut didn't reach $4 trillion.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said S&P's call was the result of Washington's "out-of-control" spending which "now threatens to send destructive ripple effects across our credit markets."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the decision "reaffirms the need for a balanced approach of deficit reduction."

The unprecedented downgrade of the nation's AAA credit rating by a major ratings agency comes only fifteen months before the 2012 presidential election where the downgrade and the debt will be source of bitter political battles over spending cuts and tax reform.

S&P's assessment was tempered by a decision from Moody's Investors Service earlier this week that confirmed, for now, America’s AAA rating. Fitch Ratings said it is still reviewing the rating and will issue its opinion by the end of August.

Christina Romer, former Chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers seems to think we’re, “Pretty darned fucked.”

The Summer Of Peggy Noonan’s Discontent

For some time now Peggy Noonan has been a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; to me at least.

Her magnificent obsession with America’s Child Emperor felt like a betrayal of her former boss, Ronald Reagan.  By this I mean, how could a woman who fashioned the stirring speech The Boys of Pointe du Hoc or the heart-wrenching address to the nation following the Challenger explosion be so blind in her defense of the current occupant of the Oval Office?

Her swooning came at a heavy price.  Once upon a time her skillful wordsmithing was broadly shared in the conservative dextrosphere.  Now, not so much.

It is clear that her euphoria is dying.  What took her so long to recognize Obama’s gospel of envy and presidential impotence?  As she emerges from her elitist white guilt trip, Noonan succinctly describes the errand boy sent by grocery clerks:

“So he is losing a battle in which he had superior forces—the presidency, the U.S. Senate. In the process he revealed that his foes have given him too much mystique. He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser.”

This president has more to worry about than Noonan’s forceful denunciation.  Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the country’s first self-described socialist, echoed the growing discontent among many on the Left.

While appearing on a radio show, Sanders addressed a caller saying, “Brian, believe me, I wish I had the answer to your question. Let me just suggest this. I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president; who believe that, with regard to Social Security and a number of other issues, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president; who cannot believe how weak he has been, for whatever reason, in negotiating with Republicans and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting what is a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama is doing. [...] So I would say to Ryan [sic] discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”

More evidence of this president’s political impotence is emerging from former confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr. and political activist, Harry Belafonte who said, “Barack Obama and his mission has failed because it lacked a certain kind of moral courage, a kind of moral vision…a kind of courage we are in need of.  When he said ‘Yes, we can,’ it was politically clever, but he never defined what it is we can do. So we filled in those spaces—what we thought he meant—only to find we were disappointed, because none of those points was satisfied.”

So, to Peggy and Harry I would say, you were warned that the most powerful man in the world was impotent.  Your frustration and disillusionment is self-inflicted and Election Day 2012 can’t come soon enough.  Washington is broken; due, in large part, to this regime.  I pray America can survive what will hopefully be Obama’s one and only term in office.

Linked by The Conservatory and The Other McCain.  Thank you.

UPDATE:  Also linked by Mind Numbed Robot.  Thank you, 'Bot.

UPDATE II:  Linked by Say Anything Blog.  Thanks.

You Only Lie When You’re Afraid

This Photoshop™ is the product of an idea floated by Mind Numbed Robot.  He emailed me requesting that I come up with a visual of the errand boy sent by grocery clerks as “Spendgali”—a spin-off of the fictional character, Svengali, in George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby.

A Svengali is one who manipulates or controls another as by some mesmeric or sinister influence.

Over at Memeorandum there is a thread entitled, “Obama:  Public is ‘sold’ on tax increases in a debt-ceiling deal.”  I won’t call that a lie, but it just ain’t so.

The impudence of this president is staggering.  Not since the Carter Administration have we seen a Commander-in-Chief more out of touch with the people than this one.  Gallup says only 16 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction that this regime is taking our great nation.

Proof that the Errand Boy is lying is found in the latest Rasmussen poll.  Most voters oppose including tax hikes in the deal. Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not.

There is a huge partisan divide on the question. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats want a tax hike in the deal while 82% of Republicans do not. Among those not affiliated with either major political party, 35% favor a tax hike and 51% are opposed.

May we survive until January 20, 2013.

Linked by Mind Numbed Robot.  Thanks so much.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: Eat Your Own Damn Peas

“At a moment when we needed leadership the most, we got the least. The financial security of the nation was being gambled on the President’s wager that he could convince people our problems would be solved if we just all agreed to take it out on the guy in the fancy house down the street.”—Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader

Via a thread at Memeorandum.

Linked by Adrienne's Corner and Fleece Me.  Thanks so much.

They Told Me If I voted For John McCain That We’d Have A President Who’d Turn Out To Be Like Jimmy Carter, And They Were Right!

I don’t sense that the battle for fiscal sanity being waged in Washington will end well. John Boehner, Speaker of the House said that he couldn't move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because the errand boy sent by grocery clerks was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase.

Errand Boy is willing to cut current entitlements on the premise that they are unaffordable, but he's taken what may be the most expensive entitlement off the table—ObamaCare—his clowning achievement.

The Wall Street Journal proffers that this was his “spend-and-tax plan from the very first—run up spending and debt in the name of stimulus and health-care reform, then count on Wall Street bond holders and the political establishment to browbeat Republicans into paying for it all. He apparently didn't figure on the rise of the tea party, or 1.9% GDP growth and 9.2% unemployment two years after the recession ended.”

“Last November Republicans won the House and landslide gains in many states in large part because of the deep unpopularity of the stimulus and ObamaCare. Mr. Boehner has a mandate for spending cuts and repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Republicans instead agree to raise taxes in return for future spending cuts that may or may not happen, they will simply be the tax collectors for Mr. Obama's much expanded entitlement society.”

Via a thread at Memeorandum.

Linked by Fleece Me.  Thanks so  much.

Cut, Cap And Balance Petition

 Sign the petition here.