Open thread of Obama's Address to Congress

Here are the highlights, or "takeaways" if you will, of Obama's National Address tonight:

Nancy Pelosi is a lot more excited to sit behind this president than the last one...she isn't being rude by reading or having a sour look on her face. If she smiled any wider, I think she'd pop a staple.

The "tax cut for 95% of Americans" will be the whopping $13 per week...too bad they'll be off-set by new taxes.

The Stimulus Bill will create a whopping 3.5 million jobs...wow! Guess what? There are about 400 million Americans, about half of which are working age. So he created an employment increase of 2% (and even that is overstated) at the cost of doubling our national debt. Epic failure...yet the dems are clapping their butts off.

Credit is not available. Bad loans have made banks skittish. So we will make banks give new loans and increase individual debt so the economy can hum again at the expense of America's future. Makes all kinds of sense.

Oh...I was apparently mistaken. The housing recovery act will help RESPONSIBLE home owners. I was under the impression that it was going to help IRRESPONSIBLE home owners since no one I know qualifies. What a joke.

CEOs will no longer get paid for leading large corporations. Those days are over according to Obama. That's not inaccurate, since that happens in a socialist society.

Obama: "Slowly but surely confidence will return" (only to be wiped out by new taxes).

Pelosi's smile is wearing...she can't hold it much more...she looks like she's in agony like someone might while holding their breath.

Obama claims that government helped America emerge in times of previous economic turmoil but he's wrong. We emerged from the Great Depression not because of the New Deal but rather our entering into World War II.

Nationalized health care...Obama is bragging about SCHIP being a model...too bad that model costs four times it should per person compared to the open market.

Preventive medicine is the cornerstone of nationalized health care. So if you don't want to immunize your kids because pharmaceutical companies have amnesty when they fail to ensure the safety of shots before they're given, then too bad for you. If your child dies or is debilitated because of it, they did it for the good of the country. Besides, if you don't put your kids at risk they won't be able to attend public school.

Schools need more reform. They're just not leftist enough. We'll build on current successes like holding back children over and over again so your first grader can go to school with classmates old enough to drive.

By 2020, Obama hopes America has the greatest number of college graduates in the world...after all, with the taxes they'll be paying they all better be doctors.

Alternative energy...nationalized health care...education...who's paying for this again? Oh yes, the magic unicorn. I forgot.

Obama is now talking about cutting earmarks out of the budget. Pelosi suddenly not smiling anymore. She has a blank stare...must have spotted the magic unicorn.

Supposedly, if any family makes less than $250K per year, then taxes will not go up one dime. So what about your planned cap-and-trade energy policy, Mr. President? When you tax the oil refinery for their emissions, the cost will be passed down to the pump. Readers: Don't forget what I said about Carol Browner! It appears that we will hear something very soon from Obama's climate czar.

I don't remember Pelosi clapping so enthusiastically when Bush spoke.

The fake applause for the military lost its magic when some democrats had to be elbowed to stand up and clap.

Obama brags on about closing Guantanamo Bay and bringing the guilty "to justice." Are you going to execute them, because you haven't said where they're going to be put...

I wonder if Obama would be able to speak at all without the teleprompters.

The girl sitting next to the First Lady doesn't seem very into the fake gushing. I'm sorry but I'm not buying that this girl was helped so quickly by anything Obama has supposedly done...can you say, "disingenuous photo op?"

Obama is talking about how great our nation is when we can share ideas and debate. Too bad he has a democratic majority Congress not interested in debate...and want to shut down freedom of speech i.e. fairness doctrine.

It must be confusing to be a socialist in pre-socialist America

On Monday in Baltimore, ACORN activist Louis Beverly was arrested for breaking in to a woman who lost her home to foreclosure by cutting the lock and declaring, ""This is our house now." This sort of attitude can be found throughout history when nations fell to socialism/communism, such as 1917 Russia or 1999 Venezuela. You see, in a socialist state, you can just take from someone else because it doesn't belong to anybody. But although we're well on our way, we're not a full-blown socialist nation yet, as Louis Beverly discovered.

But don't think that this will be an isolated incident. Here is ACORN's web site, asking for volunteers to be "homesteaders" just like Louis Beverly. Here's the best part...when interviewed about the incident, Joe Cox, a Baltimore ACORN "Community Organizer" stated, "People say we're breaking the law, but we don't see how putting a person back in an abandoned property is harming anyone."

Well, Mr. Cox, it wouldn't be an abandoned property if the homeowner had paid their mortgage. And just because the homeowner lost the home, doesn't mean it doesn't belong to someone. That someone would be a bank, and I'm sure that banks are evil, corporate entities in your world, but those banks actually represent your neighbors who put money in, and invest in, that bank. So when you try to steal back a home for the homeowner, you're actually committing theft against that person's neighbors.

While I have your attention regarding ACORN, I thought you'd be interested to know that now that the election is over and all the ineligible votes have been counted that ACORN helped register, ACORN has now moved into the business of filing FREE tax returns. Would anyone like to make a wager as to how many of those tax filers were assisted with claiming Earned Income Credits for children who probably do not exist? After all, ACORN isn't exactly known for accurate fact checking. This is one way for the left to redistribute the wealth, people! WAKE UP! I'm sure the IRS has been unofficially told to keep an eye out for ACORN-assisted tax returns and instructed to do nothing about them.

Speaker Pelosi gets a papal smackdown!

It was reported in Reuters that Pelosi met with the Pope during her tour of Italy and got the words right from the horses mouth: "Thou shalt not support abortion...pinhead."

Let's see what she does in future speeches about the topic, since if she's a true catholic, then she is to regard the Pope's words as being from God's lips.

truthbomber scores that one: Pope 1,000...Pelosi...zippo.

I would have paid cash money to have been in the room to watch that!

Roland Burris is the worst liar ever

I already covered this territory, but it bears repeating since Roland Burris was caught lying about playing in the "pay-to-play" game for his Senate seat from Governor Blago.

I'll just invite you to follow the links in my original post that shows his payments to Blago that he still insists he didn't make. Does this guy not know about the Internet?

Texas Congresswoman wants us to leave illegals alone

While researching a tip that democrats were renewing efforts to quietly introduce legislation that would give illegal aliens amnesty, I stumbled upon this little bill currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. It's known as "H.R. 73: Traffic Stops Along the Border Statistics Study Act of 2009," and it's sponsor is liberal Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas.

At first I thought that this was just an effort to put forth a nationwide version of a racial profiling bill like Obama did back when he was an Illinois legislator. But the problem was that I searched thomas.loc.gov using the key word "immigration"...so I clicked the text to learn more. It's worse than a racial profiling bill...it's an attempt to discourage law enforcement from making traffic stops that involve suspected illegal aliens (pay particular attention to the bold part):

(3) DATA COLLECTION- After completion of the initial analysis under paragraph (2), the Attorney General shall gather the following data on traffic stops from a nationwide sample of jurisdictions, including jurisdictions identified in the initial analysis:

(A) The traffic infraction alleged to have been committed that led to the stop.

(B) Identifying characteristics of the driver stopped, including the race, gender, ethnicity, and approximate age of the driver.

(C) Whether immigration status was questioned, immigration documents were requested, or an inquiry was made to the Immigration and Naturalization Service with regard to any individual in the vehicle and whether any individual in the vehicle was turned over to immigration officials.

(D) The number of stops conducted within 25 miles of the United States border with Mexico compared with the number of stops conducted within 25 miles of the United States border with Canada.

(E) The number of individuals in the stopped vehicle.

(F) Whether a search was instituted as a result of the stop and whether consent was requested for the search.

(G) Any alleged criminal behavior by the driver that justified the search.

(H) Any items seized, including contraband or money.

(I) Whether any warning or citation was issued as a result of the stop.

(J) Whether an arrest was made as a result of either the stop or the search and the justification for the arrest.

(K) The duration of the stop.

Did you catch that back in subsection D? She wants to collect data to compare the number of stops along the Mexican border and compare it to the stops near the Canadian border. This is so that she can claim prejudice when it is revealed that there's simply more "action" down at the southern border. It wouldn't be because of it being a popular spot to cross because Mexicans have more poor than Canadians. No no...it MUST be because we are racists.

Some people may not see a problem with the language as written on the surface, but you have to think about what it will be like in practice. Keeping track of this sort of data may give law enforcement reason to pause during a legitimate traffic stop because they may live in an area that is predominantly hispanic, therefore causing the officer to foolishly attempt to follow some sort of racial quota per month to not appear like he is targeting a specific group of individuals. It is this sort of second guessing that officers do not need to be burdened with.

So in the end, what is likely to happen, if passed, is that officers around the country may end up letting go a group of illegal aliens, or perhaps the next group of terrorists, all because of this stupid quota proposal that was written under the presupposition that police officers are racists.

What I also find interesting about Congresswoman Jackson Lee is that she's an unapologetic democrat who LOVES pork...and no not the kind you eat, but the kind that find their way into spending bills. If you visit her web site, there is a link right under her signature to print and fill out a form for your own earmark project.

It's safe to say that this is one Congresswoman who will not embarrassed to pull up a chair to the trough when the stimulus money starts raining from the sky, with not a care in the world about where it comes from because she is certain to be a big believer in the redistribution of wealth!

Want to know Obama's end game for America? Pay attention to Venezuela

I found an interesting story today regarding the United States State Department congratulating Venezuela for its most recent support of "democracy" by granting Hugo Chavez "president for life" status via a lifting of term limits. I found this support rather excessively warm since 'Hugo Chavez' and 'democracy' are known antonyms, and it started to occur to me that there are parallels to the early years of Chavez's reign that ring familiar when compared to Obama's.

This in turn caused me to realize that there is perhaps an answer of where we are going as a nation in researching the last ten-year history of Venezuela. Right now Obama has America on its heels because it's in reactionary mode, responding with the speed of concrete shoes while he makes lightning fast decisions, not to mention the fact that America has been politically passive for the most part since the 1960s. Things are flying through because he's taking advantage of our defenses being down, especially among the institutions available to pose any challenges. The court of public opinion, run by the media, worships him. The legislative branch (Congress) is from the same party, so he gets, and will continue to get, a free pass. Who is protecting the regular joes? No one.

Yes, there have been rumblings and jokes about the similarity to Obama's politics and that of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. But no one's seriously looking into the matter...and that's where this article comes in. I'd like to draw your attention to some concrete and eerie similarities that these two power-seekers have. My theory is that if you understand what Venezuela has been through since Chavez took over in 1999, we have a better chance to read the tea leaves and see where Obama is trying to take America. With this knowledge, it is hoped that we can be better informed and shed light on this agenda before it is irreversibly put into place.

Let's look at Chavez's rise to power and insert any Obama similarities in bold italics:

Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela in February 1999. One of his first acts was the launch of "Plan Bolivar 2000" which focused on infrastructural improvements such as roads, housing, and health care. Um...hello stimulus bill? He campaigned on the demonizing of greedy corporations and landowners and subsequently overhauled Venezuela's tax system to hit these two groups harder. Another obvious similarity to Obama...I'll admit that this is standard socialist fare, but that's sort of the larger point as well.

Only six months into his presidency, Chavez staged a "legislative emergency" in which he appointed a seven-member committee to conduct the affairs of the National Assembly (the equivalent of our Congress), and prohibited the actual elected members of the National Assembly from meeting, essentially doing away with Venezuela's Congress, as well as its judges under allegations of corruption. This committee then drafted a new Venezuelan constitution, which extended Chavez's term one additional year, introduced a presidential two-term limit (which incidentally was window dressing to appease critics...he would later run for "election" about every year in order to "re-start the clock" on his six-year terms),extended his presidential powers, and most importantly diluted Congress from a two-chamber body (like our House and Senate) to one body. Elections were held the following year and unsurprisingly, Chavez's Socialist Party won most of the seats and judges were appointed to replace the old ones on a "merit-based" system. Here's what it looks like today. All this have eerie similarities to how Obama enjoys his Democratic House and Senate.

But here's another curious thing about Chavez's newly-"elected" National Assembly, according to Wikipedia:

The Legislature under the 1999 Constitution
Under the new "Bolivarian" 1999 Constitution, the legislative branch of Government in Venezuela is represented by a unicameral National Assembly. The Assembly is made up of 165 deputies (diputados), who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote on a national party-list proportional representation system.

An Obama variation of the tactic described above would be to redraw the Congressional districts to put Republicans at a disadvantage with the help of Census 2010 data, thereby helping to pre-determine the outcome of the 2012 elections for House and Senate seats up for re-election or vacant.

Later in 2000, Chavez backed and won a referendum that forced labor unions to hold state-monitored elections. Hello...heard of "Card Check"?

After his first three years, Chavez had implemented land reform (i.e. wealth redistribution), nationalized health care (in the works!!), and free education through college (on the horizon? Don't forget that he wanted to fund college in exchange for public service a few months back). More importantly, by the time the Venezuelan people got fed up with Chavez, they attempted a coup and a recall vote and they could not get rid of him. An example of the fact that you cannot trust even our own democratic organizations to be forth-right and truthful about honesty and fairness, comes in the form of the Carter Center, who claimed that Venezuela's recall election was fair and open, though it was later proven to be anything but (below quote via Wikipedia)...

European Union observers did not attend, saying the government had placed too many restrictions on their participation. While the international observers, and a reluctant Bush administration, endorsed the results, a few critics, including economists Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Roberto Rigobon of MIT, alleged that certain procedures in the election may have allowed the government to cheat. The Carter Center admitted Taylor had "found a mistake in one of the models of his analysis which lowered the predicted number of tied machines, but which still found the actual result to lie within statistical possibility."

For your reading pleasure, here is the final report from the Carter Center regarding the way the Venezuelan Recall Election of 2004 was handled.

Upon his survival from a rigged recall election, Chavez went back to work on his socialist agenda, pushing forward with policies that worked towards wealth redistribution, while finding time to silence his critics through media regulations. Chavez's version of the Fairness Doctrine.

Fast forward to now. Venezuela is in crisis, and the people of Venezuela are about to feel it. They have vested all of their trust and future into this dictator, Hugo Chavez, who has taken the country's resources and distributed them to all citizens...his system provides food, jobs, health care and education. It all sounds well and good in theory, but the Venezuelan people are now completely dependent on this man...and the good times are potentially coming to an abrupt end due to falling oil revenues. He's about to have to make what is likely to be an unpopular decision to cut back on services. Unless of course something unexpected happens, and I think that that unexpected something will come in the form of US aid via the purchase of oil from Chavez.

It all makes sense if you think about it...Obama likely sees a strategic alliance here. What better way to repay the man whose socialist playbook Obama has been plagiarizing from than to help him prevent economic ruin in his country by making some large oil purchases? I regard this recent letter from the US State Department (mentioned at the beginning) actually PRAISING his continued dictatorship as evidence of an attempt by Obama to curry favor with Chavez. Especially in light of the fact that this lifting of term limits is being done because Chavez finds them an obstacle to ruling until he dies (hardly a democratic principle).

This isn't a new relationship by the way. I direct your memory to last year's election season. Anyone else notice how many Hollywood-types visited Hugo Chavez, no doubt in the name of Obama, who most directly identifies with his extreme left ideology? Let's see there was Danny Glover...

Kevin Spacey...

and Sean Penn...whose second visit to Chavez was so well-timed prior to the 2008 American election that you can't help but wonder if he went in the capacity of an unofficial envoy for Obama.

And would-have-been Obama cabinet member Bill Richardson...

Judging by the other company that Chavez keeps...
...it may not be so preposterous for America to unfortunately soon find itself on the same side of global issues with Venezuela and Iran, perhaps (gasp!) even in a strategic partnership if Obama obtains Chavez-size control of the U.S.

I submit to you that it isn't outside the realm of possibility. If we have two politicians who both subscribe to the same socialist ideology, how can we expect two different outcomes?

Cramer (STILL the man!) rips on LSM, democratic Congress, and limpulus bill...all in one glorious clip!

This probably gives unapologetic MSNBC Obamessiah worshippers Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews brain hemmorhages when they think about the fact that he's on an NBC affiliate...and he rips on the New York Times and the democratic Congress as a bonus.

Hats off to Newsbusters for posting it.

Random lines of interest within the "new and improved", 1588-page "stimulus" bill going to vote today

Before we get into the details of this mega-page bill, the most important thing to note and remember four years from now is that the democrats have reneged on a REQUIREMENT as VOTED ON when the stimulus bill made it through the House the first time to make the bill available for viewing and reading 48-hours before it would be voted on.

$100M for the school lunch program the only portion actually with an accurate label -- FREE LUNCHES and we all know that there is no such thing...NOT a stimulus

>$500M for WIC if you don't expand the number of people eligible for this program, how can more be spent? You can only buy so many diapers, milk, and cheese...NOT a stimulus

$650M STILL in there for Analog-to-Digital Conversion boxes NOT a stimulus

NOAA ($377M) and NASA ($450M) are still going forward with "global warming"-seeking satellites (I'm presuming that if there are no details provided, then one is to refer back to the original draft of the bill...)

Is it just me or is the plan to spend only $200M on finishing the border fence while spending $1B on baggage screening equipment telling about Obamessiah's stance on illegal immigration?

$1.5 BILLION for a NEW "Homelessness Prevention Fund" If you are homeless now, or will be because of your bad mortgage, you can be given temporary assistance...but it comes at a price...your personal info will be stored in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) so that you can be reminded how much Obamessiah helped you when 2012 rolls around...or else be blackmailed perhaps? Why a database for this?

Very curiously, there is a LOT of new language related to making medical records electronic. It is clear that there is an elaborate plan outlined and the desire to deploy it immediately...much more time would be required to read through all of it. THERE IS NO WAY someone just put this together in the past few days...this is stuff that Obamessiah and the democrats have had brewing for some time.

It goes without saying that nothing cited above stimulates the economy.

Keep this in your back pocket as these projects are performed to see if they adhere to it:

Sec. 1609. Limit on Funds.

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project.

That's all I can find for now just by skimming this document as the House debates before the vote...


Oh, by the way, today is Friday the 13th...

Good for you, Senator Gregg

It's great to see someone taking a stand against Obamessiah's draconian style of running the country. No, Senator Gregg didn't step down from consideration for Commerce Secretary because of unpaid taxes, like so many other nominees lately. Instead he stepped down because he took a stand for his principles. Unlike the RINOs who are enabling the democrats to put America one step closer to ruin with the "super duper triple-dog top secret" stimulus bill by aligning their votes with the clueless left, he withdrew his nomination over Obama's plan to have the Census chief report directly to the president.

Since the Census would normally fall under Gregg's territory, he decided that he wasn't going to just stand there and let this happen. So he made it a matter of public record that he was stepping down for that reason, and rode off into the sunset. Good for you, Senator Gregg. Hopefully more will follow you instead of selling themselves out for the temporary power they wield because their vote is key to a particular bill that Obama wants passed really, really, really, really badly.



Incidentally, the rest of the Republicans in Congress are not sitting on their laurels about this Census issue either. House leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) put Obamessiah on notice via press conference that they will challenge in Federal court any attempt to have Census controlled or directed by anyone in the White House. See the video. Take a moment (yes now!) and send these two a "You ROCK!" message through their web sites:

House Minority Leader John Boehner

Congressman Darrell Issa


Meanwhile, in typical lapdog fashion, whenever Obamessiah doesn't want to stand in front of a microphone and confirm that what is being alleged is true, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

volunteered to refute Boehner and Issa's claims by trying to merely deny it, apparently thinking that words speak louder than actions (in line with the theory that if a democrat says something is true or false, then it must just be the case). Maloney would be wise to come to terms with the fact that Gregg cited this to be the case and was his reason for withdrawing his name from consideration, so trying to lie to save face for Obamessiah doesn't always work.

I'm sure that the left-wing media will also try to put their spin on it. Perhaps Gregg will be called "Worse Person in the World" by uber-whiner and Obamessiah left-wing bishop Keith Olbermann...but really, who cares? MSNBC is in the ratings gutter...last time I checked, he was flailing behind Larry King...

CABLE NEWS RACE
TUES NITE, FEB 10, 2009
VIEWERS

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,494,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,658,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,370,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,305,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,190,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,847,000
CNN KING 1,761,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,485,000
CNN COOPER 1,286,000
CNN BLITZER 1,246,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,240,000

So the real question is: if Keith Olbermann is ranting like a cuckoo out in woodsy "Low Ratings Land", does anybody here it?

Wow...$13 a paycheck...what a stimulus

I wonder what this woman is thinking right about now, since the stimulus bill that will be voted on as early as today is going to give taxpayers a whopping $13 a paycheck in the form of a payroll tax cut...

If she's anything like the ladies who ride in my car pool, who also gushed and voted for Obama, she is probably a renewed optimist by thinking that the $13 is more than she would have without the stimulus. One of my carpoolers quipped how it would buy a few extra gallons a milk...the other commented on how it will top off her gas tank. Riiiigghhhtttt...you mean you're not just a little bit disappointed that it's not enough to pay your mortgage or your car note? Are you telling me that you're okay with the fact that the national debt has essentially doubled, and will be passed on to your children and your children's children, for those extra gallons of milk and fuel?

I find it nauseating that some folks are still chugging the kool-aid by the gallon despite the fact that this stimulus bill is a nothing more than a stink-bomb spending bill. I believe that there could have been about 1,000 different ways to provide better stimuli to the economy than what is in the current bill, and to give $13 doesn't do squat for anyone. Anyone who can't see that isn't being honest with themselves that Obamessiah woefully failed to deliver on a meaningful economic stimulus...instead he has sought and obtained a very small gain at a very steep price.

By the way, that $13 isn't per week for those of you who get paid weekly...that figure is based on a bi-weekly paycheck...so you'll get $6.50 a week. Don't spend it all in one place.

Senate Republicans who were conference designates shut out of midnight deal making

In another shady, middle-of-the-night move, staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid met with democratic conference members to ink the final details of the "limp-ulus" bill WITHOUT Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and John Thune (R-SD). Who was there in their stead? You guessed it: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Apparently they couldn't get the deal completely worked out and went into Wednesday. Again the official memo to the Republicans was to meet in Conference at 3pm...but it was clear to Representative/People's Hero Tom Price (R-GA) that deals were going on in Pelosi's office and held a press conference there:



I normally don't cite blogs but this is breaking news.

Since NBC refused...

I feel it my duty to post this video since NBC singled out this ad as one not worthy to show during the Super Bowl because it doesn't fit their leftist ideology or their manufactured narrative that is Barack Obama.

It speaks volumes how low this network has stooped since it has an issue with a pro-life message being shown during the Super Bowl, but not bat an eyelash about the commercials with excessive violence and/or explicit sexual references and/or visuals.

You won't read this in the U.S. -- Aussie fire tragedy

Angry survivors of the horrific wildfire tragedy in Australia blame "green" policies for attributing to the spread of the fire.

Angry residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk.

During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner — whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze — criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help or permission to clean up around their properties in preparation for the bushfire season.

more...

Another resident said she had asked the council four times to tend to out-of-control growth on public land near her home, but her pleas had been ignored.

There was widespread applause when Nillumbik Mayor Bo Bendtsen said changes were likely to be made about the council's policy surrounding native vegetation.

But his response was not good enough for Mr Spooner: "It's too late now mate. We've lost families, we've lost people."

In this new age where left is right and dumb is smart, and oh yes, the world is supposedly melting according to a POLITICIAN , I doubt any of us will see that story on CBS, ABC, NBC, or CNN.