Please enjoy this article provided by guest blogger Derek Clark from Geek Politics.
Harry Reid has done a wonderful job of showing exactly what is wrong with Washington lately. He is playing politics when we need leaders to guide us through this recession. Last week Sens. Max Baucus and Charles Grassley had a bipartisan jobs plan all set to go that even had the blessing of the White House. At that Reid decided to kill the $85 billion dollar bill in favor of a more focused $15 billion dollar bill of his own.
His reason for killing the bill? Has Harry turned over a new leaf and become a fiscal conservative? Nah that can’t be it. Try this:
One of Reid’s allies said that the Baucus-Grassley bill would have only received three or four Republican votes and that the GOP would have used the bloated initiative to “beat the living s**t out of us” — although Democrats have not had any problem hailing their legislation as bipartisan with as few as three Republican votes.
Harry apparently just figured out he’s going to lose his seat in the Senate this November. He wants to continue painting the Republicans as the “party of no” and allowing this to go through would have stopped that talk. This will have some interesting consequences for him and the Democrats though:
Reid’s decision takes the second stimulus package cost down from $85 billion to $15 billion. That may please fiscal conservatives, but it sets up an embarrassing problem for Barack Obama. No one believes that his $787 billion Porkulus package, now repriced to $862 billion, worked to create jobs, but the Left wing of Democrats thinks it didn’t work because the Democrats didn’t spend enough money.
What this means is that this bill is pretty much a joke from every angle, which means it should pass easily. I don’t think the Republicans will waste time filibustering this pathetic attempt at job creation, but they won’t vote for it either. Harry and the Democrats can continue to paint Republicans as the “party of no”, but I don’t think it is going to matter come November. They’ve accomplished so little while spending so much, Americans are looking for a change. Again. Funny how that works when the change you bring is socialism.
I suspect this will end any chance of Republicans working with Reid and the Democrats this year. This is a little frustrating to me in that everyone will continue playing politics like this. On the bright side, the bill Baucus and Grassley put out was really awful. I guess wasting less money to not create jobs is technically better. Let me know what you think of Reid’s political move in the comments below.
Derek Clark blogs about conservative politics at Geek Politics. You can also follow him on Twitter @clarky07.
This graphic has been making the rounds this week, I switched the axis so I could read the names more easily. What does it display? The length of the line is the percentage of presidential cabinet appointees that had private sector experience prior to their appointment. Look at the bottom: Less than 10% of Obama’s appointees have any.
The point? Barack Obama, one of the most inexperienced men to be elected president, on of the most liberal men to be elected president, has little to no regard for corporate or private sector experience. Less than TEN PERCENT of his cabinet appointees have actual, real-world experience. Why does this matter? Because the world is a complex place and having ANY sort of experience running businesses, managing people, and dealing with the government as a non-governmental entity means something.
Instead of experience at the top of our government we have radical statists running the show. These are people completely out of touch with what you or I deal with on a daily basis. They have led sheltered, secluded lives and are completely out of touch with reality. But… nobody seems to care. We scream, yell and vigorously debate our passion for our favorite sports teams; we are willing to stand in ridiculous lines to save money on crap we don’t really need; and we get all wound up about reality television.
How great could America be if more of its citizens exerted a fraction of the aforementioned attention toward things that actually matter? We may never know.
People sometimes ask me why I dislike our president so much. For starters, I recognized that he was a hollow, unqualified candidate from the start. I acknowledge that his resume includes nothing but running for the next higher office. I understand that he has surrounded himself with very shady and sometimes radical people. However, this usually isn’t enough to convince my peers, so I need to be more specific. It is unfortunate for America that so many people that voted for Obama continue to blindly defend him like parents defending their renegade child, or like the white trash hoe calling 911 over a domestic dispute and then yelling “get your hands off him, pig!” when the police come to arrest him. It’s time to embrace reality and move on.
To help you see through the Kool-aid lenses you wear I’ve created the list below of just a few things that Barack Obama has done that help me form my opinion about him. These are just SOME of my frustration points, there are oh so many more out there.
- The president, thinking that he is hip to Japanese culture, bowed to the Emperor of Japan. Reminder: Heads of state do not bow to one another.
- After the Ft. Hood shooting Obama acts oh so presidential during a meeting with native Americans. He spends 2:30 thanking people and giving a shout out to someone, then eventually gets to the topic. How ’bout starting with the important news before kissing ass at a convention instead?
- President Obama accuses VP Cheney of not focusing on Af-Pak, then leaves the white house the same day to attend three fundraisers and a golf outing. What were you saying about focus?
- White House declares war on Fox News, then wimps out when other networks actually show some spine and defend Fox.
- Obama can’t find time to speak to the General leading our Af-Pak presence, yet can meet weekly with a union president (SEIU). He has met with the union leader at least 22 times, far more than any other group or individual on the guest list.
- Went to Copenhagen to charm the Olympic Committee into hosting the Olympics in Chicago and failed miserably.
- Caved to Russia and scrapped the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland.
- In his speech to Congress criticizes the right for using scare tactics, then 28 minutes later uses scare tactics to support his policies. He c0ntradicts himself in the same damned speech!
- He defended the idea that government-run health care can be successful, then made fun of government run mail in his very next sentence.
- Preaches working together and bipartisanship in a speech than, again, in the same speech, contradicts himself by saying “I don’t want the folks who created the mess do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
- Has the balls to say “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter … I believe it would be too disruptive.” despite having said the exact opposite several times on video.
- In the spirit of being a uniter creates flag@whitehouse.gov for people to report rumors and disinformation.
- Said in 2004 ““When you rush these budgets, that are a foot high and nobody has any idea what’s in them and nobody has read them… it gets rushed through without any clear deliberations or debate, then these kinds of things happen. And I think that this is in some ways what happened to the Patriot Act. I mean, you remember there was no real debate about that. It was so quick after 9/11 that it was introduced that people felt very intimidated by the administration” I wish he felt the same way today.
- Rushes to judgment on the Harvard police situation, takes the side of the black resident without having the facts. This leads to Glenn Beck’s discussion of racism, which leads to a stupid boycott.
- Of course, he bowed to the Saudi King. US Presidents do not bow to anyone, especially leaders of countries that beat their women and kill over little things like religious freedom.
If you want to learn more about these particular items as well as oh so many others, please visit HotAir.com for a running list known as “The Obamateurism Of The Week.” My list above was culled from this ongoing and growing archive.
So, while the left screamed, bitched and beat to death the saying “Bush lied, people died” they apparently are unable or unwilling to recognize when Obama actually lies. Bush never lied, nor was the war illegal. It was voted upon and supported by the vast majority of Congress. But there I go again, assuming that liberals understand the difference between truth and emotions.
I’m not upset with President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, I bet when he first heard about it he probably said “What? What for?” followed by “Oh crap, I don’t need other people creating more problems for me.”
He deserves credit for his modest acceptance speech. He did not ask for the award or campaign for it. He correctley said that he was not worthy. Five Norwegian old farts felt that his campaign rhetoric was worthy of what used to be a true honor. Personally, I think the Nobel jumped the shark when Al Gore won for his farcical scientific rants. Here’s a list of some of the 204 other candidates that were passed over this year.
It should be noted that nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize were due by January 20. This was only twelve days after Barack Obama took office. So, what did he do to earn this prestige? The following list comes from Tommy De Seno at www.JustifiedRight.com:
Nominations for potential winners of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ended on February 1. The president took office only 12 days earlier on January 20. Let’s take a look at the president’s first 12 days in the White House according to his public schedule to see what he did to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize:
January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.
January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an “open house” party at the White House.
January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Gitmo (how’s that working out?)
January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.
January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.
January 25: Skipped church.
January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner’s swearing in ceremony.
January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.
January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.
January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.
January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.
January 31: Took the day off.
February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party.
Again, let me reiterate that I’m not upset with Obama for this craziness. This is truly a premature awarding of a prized based on the hope that he gets something done. I think it actually puts some pressure on the man, which isn’t a bad thing. But the committee dropped the ball big time. I consider it the same as giving someone their high school diploma for simply starting their senior year. After all, isn’t the Nobel committee telling is that it’s the message and intention that matters? That being said, I’ll be looking in the mail for notification of my first Grammy Award for the album I’m thinking about releasing.
Paulie's Polls
Loading ...