What's the Matter with America?

Election 2010

Two years ago, America elected a man with no experience in running anything but a campaign and his mouth. It was a momentous occasion to be sure. It was for many Americans a moment of healing. America had elected the first African-American President. It proved that America is not a racist nation. Sure there are still many racists in America, and work still needs to be done with regards to race, but all in all America proved she is colorblind. What happened though, is that all of President Obama's rhetoric was not backed up with results. When he said that he wanted to change America, most people who voted for him thought he meant change for the better. He promised to fix the economy and his policies have made the economy worse. He promised to fix race relations (which his election proved wasn't that bad) and race relations are now worse. He promised to have a transparent, bipartisan administration. It has been neither.


Liberals also have reason to be angry with him. He promised to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, it is fully functioning and I might add, rendition programs have been ramped up. He promised to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has ramped up the war in Afghanistan with very limited success and troops are still in Iraq. Currently, they are in a "support" role. This is an inaccurate description and the only reason it isn't being talked about is the media never tries to destroy a Democratic President on war policy. The President's push for a single-payer health care system has fallen far short of liberal expectations. (even though the American public wanted nothing to do with government health care) His promises of bringing amnesty for illegal aliens and pushing for gay "equality" have fallen short of his promises as well.


I think the reasons for his failures from a liberal perspective are very easy to understand. These liberal agendas are so far outside of what mainstream America wants that it is a tough sell, even for Obama's teleprompters. He did a good job of selling "Hope" and "Change" but Americans do not have hope in his abilities to correct America's economic woes, and his goal of 'fundamentally transforming America' is not what America wanted.


So what do we have two years later? $3 trillion more in debt. New and expanded entitlement programs. 10% unemployment with at least 15% real unemployment. A business community that is scared to death of his economic policies and therefore are sitting on record amounts of capital. Class warfare. And...a new Congress.


President Obama, you had the most lopsided presidential victory in recent history and in two years, your failed policies were responsible for the most lopsided midterm election tidal wave since the 1940s. Republicans now have a 51 seat majority in the House of Representatives. Senate Democrats won only 11 of 37 Senate races. (at the time of this posting, likely to be 12) In short, big government policies got smoked at the ballot box.

However, it wasn't long ago that Republicans had this kind of opportunity...and they screwed it up. Soon to be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was clear in stating that, "We have to deliver." Yes you do, because the TEA Party is watching you. We are not taking your word for it that you have our best interests at heart. When the White House has a new occupant in two years, we DEFINITELY will be watching. Don't screw this up, or the GOP will be gone, and a new conservative party will rise.

Double-Dip Recession

I keep hearing about this "Double-Dip Recession." Here are my thoughts on it. If there is actual growth going on in America right now, we will go back into another recession starting in January. I don't believe the "growth" we have seen over the last few months is so much true growth as much as the wealthy and corporations trying to spend money now before oppressive taxes return next year. Couple that with an economy that has lost millions of jobs over the past two years, a stock market that was cut by 40% (I'll admit that the stock market was probably a little overinflated before the crash) and runaway spending from an Administration and Congress that was so infuriated by the last Administration's spending spree.

The Democrats who control the White House and Congress are so worried about what George Bush did, that they are not leading. The reason why many moderates and independents voted for President Obama is that they saw someone whom they believed to be a leader. They were wrong. President Obama has failed to lead our nation in anything except apologizing for our former greatness.

If President Obama truly wants to help Americans, here is what he'll do. Extend the Bush tax cuts for ten more years. If he does this alone, it will bolster the economy because corporations and the wealthy will feel that they can safely invest their money without being raped by the IRS. This will lead to job growth on it's own. If he TRULY wants to bring us out of this recession (or depression) he will add more cuts in addition to those cuts and couple that with a real commitment to reducing Federal spending. Here's a tip; cutting Federal spending does not mean cutting the military, police or firefighters. It does mean not funding abortion in foreign countries and funding things like pickle research and other immoral and wasteful spending.

He also needs to secure the border. Mr. President, the overwhelming majority of Americans, and a significant number of Hispanics, like me, stand with Arizona in its attempt to enforce Federal Immigration Law. Arizona is trying to protect its citizens, and since you won't do your job, Jan Brewer has to do it for you.

I'll close with this. Support our troops. Not with words, but with action. End the insane rules of engagement. Allow our military to use its full might to quickly end the wars and bring our troops home victorious. Neither President Bush nor yourself have had the guts to fight the wars the way we should be fighting them. If you change that, you'll earn the respect of the troops and the American people.

There are many more things you SHOULD do, but if you did these, America would make a turn for the better and the people would love you. But you're too much of an ideologue for that aren't you? Please Mr. President, stop reacting and lead.

Complete Lives System

This video from a recent Glenn Beck Show talks about two of Obama's advisers, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm's brother) who is a health policy advisor in the Obama administration and Cass Sunstein who is Obama's regulatory czar. From the statements of Dr. Emanuel and Mr. Sunstein, it is clear that they believe in a Darwinist/Eugenics style approach to the rationing of healthcare. I have read other writings of Sunstein which show heavy influence of Marxist thought as applied to taxes. In an Op-Ed, Mr. Sunstein wrote about how taxes are essentially owed to the Government, and property owners owe the Government more than those who don't own property. These are some of the men who have the ear of the President. How can we keep saying that the President may have some bad friends (William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko, Louis Gates, Charles Ogletree, Cornel West, James Cone, Rahm Emanuel, Ezekiel Emanuel, Cass Sunstein etc, etc.) but he's a great guy himself? He may have distanced himself from Wright, but he continues to be surrounded by radicals. He is, plain and simple, a Marxist. I can only hope that enough people wake up to this fact by the November 2010 elections and I hope that the nation hasn't been totally rocked from its foundations by that time.

In his own words: Obama's agenda from before the inauguration

This video from Glennbeck.com throws together a bunch of videos I've posted here in the past with some good commentary mixed in.

Obama's Trojan Horse

He has specifically said that his health care plan is not a "Trojan Horse". This video put together by Verum Serum would seem to refute that claim. Barack Obama in his own words, has said in the past that he wants a single payer (that payer being TAXpayer) system, but it will take time. The first step is getting the government in the business of insuring the uninsured. After that many businesses drop their health care coverage adding millions more to the rolls of government insurance. When the government is the single largest insurer, it can take out the other insurance companies one by one, until you have a single payer system. This is the goal of President Obama and the Ivy League crowd.

Justice Sotomayor

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”

Sonia Sotomayor, from a 2001 speech at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

I think it's a foregone conclusion at this point that Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed as Supreme Court Justice to replace David Souter. (barring any tax problems) But I thought a post on her was warranted. Originally, I believed that she was a good pick, from a certain point of view. She was spun as a moderate, a slightly more liberal version of Sandra Day O'Connor. I thought: "It could be a lot worse." But she seems to be worse than I originally thought. Her racist comment from above shows that to her, in 2001 at least, justice is not blind. Below is a video of her speaking at the Duke University School of Law, and she states that the appeals court, (and eventually the Supreme Court) is a place for policy to be made. Call me crazy, but I've read Article III of the Constitution and it says nothing about policy being made in the courts. But maybe her copy is different than mine.

Why Obama's "Stimulus" is a bad idea

I just caught this article on Yahoo!. The problem I noticed with most of these companies mentioned, which employ over 300,000 employees and includes the giants Rite Aid, Chrysler and Blockbuster is twofold. First, they are suffering from a lack of liquidity. They could probably survive, and eventually thrive, if they can hold out for a year or so. Second, consumer spending is down. Americans have decided, or have been forced, to spend within their means as credit has frozen up. Spending within your means is honestly a good thing, but when most Americans haven't been doing it, and then all do it at the same time, it's bad for the economy. The Bush/Paulson stimulus package has done little to unfreeze the lines of credit and have only made America's credit worse. The answer to this is obvious to real conservatives. Cut taxes. Across the board. Cut corporate taxes, cut the marginal rates, cut capital gains taxes, cut inheritance taxes, etc. By cutting these taxes, corporations and regular Americans, from the poor all the way up to the rich will have more money to spend. If the corporations and the people had more money, consumer spending would tick up slightly, and corporations would have more money to work with, and would be more likely to ride out the recession. Lower taxes would also mean more heavily in debt Americans would be able to pay their debt down faster. This means credit and lending will open up more quickly.

The problem to this of course is government. Government and the liberals believe the answer is more government. If we expand the size of government, which is already obscene, it means we have to raise taxes to cover the cost. If we raise taxes to cover the cost, it means corporations and consumers have less money to spend. If we spend less money, it will turn the recession into a depression. My question is, why doesn't Obama and the left-wing leadership know this? Or do they know this? If we pass the Obama/Geithner stimulus it doesn't provide much for tax cuts, it just provides for a whole lot of programs that do not have lasting impacts on the economy, and provides for the furthering of the liberal agenda. Things like abortion and "green" technology. (I've come to hate that word) I'm all for clean energy, but the government will do a better job of promoting it by removing free market obstacles. By throwing money at the problem we are going to encourage the companies who make "green" technologies (ugh!) to take their sweet time in producing a good product. Look at Cancer and AIDS research, and Education if you want to see how throwing tons of money at a problem with no restrictions works at solving problems.

So far...

I've really tried to be optimistic about President Obama and wait until he does something before I really jump on his case. I've hoped that he would govern as a moderate as the RINO's have said he would. But unfortunately that hasn't been the case so far. He's planning on holding off on the stimulus package, so to speak. As of right now, the plan is to slowly release bits and pieces of the stimulus over the next 3-8 years. The thing about STIMULUS is that it's supposed to STIMULATE. Unemployment continues to rise and the President is not using the money designated to stimulate the economy to stimulate the economy. Over the next few years he plans to slowly release this money into special projects which do not provide long term benefits to the economy. He wants to build infrastructure, which is a one and done type of stimulus. Once the infrastructure projects are completed you will have those people involved in the projects out of a job. If you want LONG-TERM job creation, you need to cut taxes. The problem with cutting taxes is that the liberals will lose power so President Obama is unlikely to do that. But if I were a restaurant owner thinking of expanding my business, (and creating 10-20 new jobs) I wouldn't do it if I knew my taxes were about to go up. The only industry that will not be affected by this increase in taxes and spending will be the government industry which is the only industry that SHOULD be downsizing.

Next, in all of his wisdom, with his military and diplomatic experience the President has decided to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Many of the detainees who have been released from this facility have gone on to return to the front lines against our military forces and have been involved in further terrorist activity. I agree that the detainees should receive a form of due process. They should be given a fair trial by military tribunal as would be given to any enemy combatant or prisoner of war. As terrorists who are not fighting for any nation, these terrorists are not guaranteed protection under the Geneva Convention. With that said, there should still be a trial which would release those held falsely and convict those who are truly terrorists. However, our soldiers and marines should not have to read terrorists Miranda rights, and terrorists do not deserve a trial in US civilian courts at US taxpayer expense. The other question is: What do we do with the guys that we can't convict and can't send back? My proposal is to let them stay at the Obama's home in Chicago. But seriously, the president at the press conference was referring questions regarding this Executive Order to his lawyer. Mr. President, you are the Chief Executive. You shouldn't be asking your lawyer questions about an order you just signed, especially in front of the media. But none of those empty suits called you on the fact that you didn't know what was in your own order did they?

The last thing that burned me up (well there's more, but this is the last one I'll talk about) is that the President signed another order to loosen restrictions on abortion. It allowed US tax dollars to be spent on abortions overseas. I don't really like the idea of my tax dollars going to murder babies. I don't want to say more because blood is about to shoot out of my eyes.

The one bright spot (if you can call it that) is that the President signed an order to freeze high-level executive pay in the government. I like the idea that we are freezing unnecessary spending, but this is a drop in the bucket. So he saves the taxpayers a couple of million (yea) and raises the deficit by about $500 billion and doesn't even get the stimulus where it's supposed to go. So he gets props for the one good measure, albeit a minor one, and a whole lot of thumbs down for just about everything else he did over the past week.