Friday, July 29, 2011

Nobody Loves Obama?

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal has written a piece that paints a sad picture of President Obama... no one loves him. The first third of this article chides and scolds republicans and Tea Party-ers alike, but that she sayshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif, "is not what I want to talk about."


They've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
Obama still has supporters, but theirs is a grim support.
--Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
July 29, 2011

I want to talk about something that started to become apparent to me during the debt negotiations. It's something I've never seen in national politics.

It is that nobody loves Obama. This is amazing because every president has people who love him, who feel deep personal affection or connection, who have a stubborn, even beautiful refusal to let what they know are just criticisms affect their feelings of regard. At the height of Bill Clinton's troubles there were always people who'd say, "Look, I love the guy." They'd often be smiling—a wry smile, a shrugging smile. Nobody smiles when they talk about Mr. Obama. There were people who loved George W. Bush when he was at his most unpopular, and they meant it and would say it. But people aren't that way about Mr. Obama. He has supporters and bundlers and contributors, he has voters, he may win. But his support is grim support. And surely this has implications.

The past few weeks I've asked Democrats who supported him how they feel about him. I got back nothing that showed personal investment. Here are the words of a hard-line progressive and wise veteran of the political wars: "I never loved Barack Obama. That said, among my crowd who did 'love' him, I can't think of anyone who still does." Why is Mr. Obama different from Messrs. Clinton and Bush? "Clinton radiated personality. As angry as folks got with him about NAFTA or Monica, there was always a sense of genuine, generous caring." With Bush, "if folks were upset with him, he still had this goofy kind of personality that folks could relate to. You might think he was totally misguided but he seemed genuinely so. . . . Maybe the most important word that described Clinton and Bush but not Obama is 'genuine.'" He "doesn't exude any feeling that what he says and does is genuine."

Maybe Mr. Obama is living proof of the political maxim that they don't care what you know unless they know that you care. But the idea that he is aloof and so inspires aloofness may be too pat. No one was colder than FDR, deep down. But he loved the game and did a wonderful daily impersonation of jut-jawed joy. And people loved him.

The secret of Mr. Obama is that he isn't really very good at politics, and he isn't good at politics because he doesn't really get people. The other day a Republican political veteran forwarded me a hiring notice from the Obama 2012 campaign. It read like politics as done by Martians. The "Analytics Department" is looking for "predictive Modeling/Data Mining" specialists to join the campaign's "multi-disciplinary team of statisticians," which will use "predictive modeling" to anticipate the behavior of the electorate. "We will analyze millions of interactions a day, learning from terabytes of historical data, running thousands of experiments, to inform campaign strategy and critical decisions."

This wasn't the passionate, take-no-prisoners Clinton War Room of '92, it was high-tech and bloodless. Is that what politics is now? Or does the Obama re-election effort reflect the candidate and his flaws?

Mr. Obama seemed brilliant at politics when he first emerged in 2004. He understood the nation's longing for unity. We're not divided into red states and blue, he said, we're Big Purple, we can solve our problems together. Four years later he read the lay of the land perfectly—really, perfectly. The nation and the Democratic Party were tired of the Clinton machine. He came from nowhere and dismantled it. It was breathtaking. He went into the 2008 general election with a miraculously unified party and took down another machine, bundling up all the accrued resentment of eight years with one message: "You know the two losing wars and the economic collapse we've been dealing with? I won't do that. I'm not Bush."

The fact is, he's good at dismantling. He's good at critiquing. He's good at not being the last guy, the one you didn't like. But he's not good at building, creating, calling into being. He was good at summoning hope, but he's not good at directing it and turning it into something concrete that answers a broad public desire.

And so his failures in the debt ceiling fight. He wasn't serious, he was only shrewd—and shrewdness wasn't enough. He demagogued the issue—no Social Security checks—until he was called out, and then went on the hustings spouting inanities. He left conservatives scratching their heads: They could have made a better, more moving case for the liberal ideal as translated into the modern moment, than he did. He never offered a plan. In a crisis he was merely sly. And no one likes sly, no one respects it.

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.



When was the last time Peggy Noonan called ANYONE a loser? The man who won big in oh-eight, is now a loser? Well, I've near always thought this, and I have for the longest time felt Obama was the most dangerous man in the world, but to read Ms. Noonan calling the president of the Unite States a loser!? I have rarely read her to be so blunt. Even about Obama. She chides and scold everyone, no matter what their political identity, but I don't think I've ever read an article by her wherein she so coldly and deliberately slammed a public figure.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Bruce Lee - 38 Years Ago Today

Artwork by Adrian Hardiman

















In memory of Mr. Lee,

a quote...


"Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light."


Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Old Man Remembers What the Child Once Dreamt

Putting politics aside for a moment....


For everyone of a certain age who loved Edgar Rice Burroughs; who dreamt of being John Carter, living and fighting on Mars...

Here's the movie trailer for Disney's "John Carter" [of Mars]. It's awesome. It's big. And it's out March 9, 2012.



Here's your link to the official site, where a larger version can be viewed in addition to a couple production stills-- hopefully more will follow.

I never imagined, as a sixteen year old [whose face was buried in anything and everything Edgar Rice Burroughs], that I would ever have an opportunity to WATCH "A Princess of Mars". But now, in eight short months, assuming the country hasn't collapsed or I've died, I'll get to see what I never thought possible a short thirty-five years ago.

This is what passes for democracy in Greece…

...and America

[lifted whole from SovereignMan.com]



July 14, 2011
Thessaloniki, Greece

Last night I had quite an unexpected surprise.

You see, at my hotel here in Thessaloniki, there's a delegation from some group of the European Parliament called the Committee on Regional Development. They're here to help... Hey, isn't that what they always say? The Committee wants to supervise Greece working its way out of the debt crisis and make sure that Greece's poor are getting the support they need.

The hotel's restaurant was filled with these sycophantic parasites last night– an entire room full of people with a superiority complex who think that they are entitled to make decisions about other people's lives and money.

They sat at dinner drinking fine wine and polishing up steak tartare making proud, bombastic proclamations about the virtues of foreign aid, the democratic process, and the great progress of Greece's austerity measures.

Coincidentally, not 300 meters down the road, a campsite has been gathering for economic refugees, Thessaloniki's former middle class that has been vanquished by the crisis. Some of the children swung by the restaurant's outdoor terrace begging for change, only to be waved off by one of the delegate's extended pinkie fingers as he sipped his wine.

It couldn't have been more ironic... the perfect image of what passes for democracy today, right here in the country that invented it.

Today's democracy is nothing more than pseudo-authoritarian rule by an elite few, executed by legions of self-deluding freeloaders who have convinced themselves that their current bureaucratic roles are both necessary and honorable... as well as a stepping stone into the next job which will be even more necessary and honorable.

With each successive position up the bureaucratic ladder comes more power, more privilege... until they actually expect to be called "The Honorable..." so and so, or "His Excellency" so and so, etc.

My dictionary suggests a few definitions for 'honor'. One of them refers to a person's chastity... and I doubt it applies in this case given the political establishment's Twitter record. The other definition says, "conferred as a distinction, especially an official award for bravery or achievement."

In the United States, they must be confusing the term 'achievement' with 'destroying the economy and culture of the formerly most powerful nation on earth.' President Obama is apparently so honorable that he can't even be bothered to hold negotiations anymore about debt compromise, arguing that Ronald Reagan wouldn't be doing that...

He seems more concerned about his esteem and rank being respected than facing the grim facts of economic reality.

Simultaneous on Capitol Hill, Comrade Bernanke sent the dollar plummeting once again. Just to put things in perspective, the entire eurozone is on the precipice of a meltdown, and the euro had been falling for days. The second this man opened his mouth, the dollar plunged... indicating that investors would rather take a chance on European insolvency than Bernanke.

It was truly pathetic... and yet another example of what passes for democracy today: One man who has never been elected is essentially given control of the money supply to do with it as he deems best in his sole discretion.

All in all, as usual, it's going to come down to the taxpayers. The bureaucrats will go on enjoying their steak tartare and ignoring the huddled masses. The politicians will go on posturing over title. The central bankers will keep making interest free loans to their friends and destroying their currencies. We get stuck with the fallout.

In the end, the governments will make it a matter of national security and patriotism, ensuring that we 'do our duty to the nation' by coughing up more of our livelihood. I stumbled across this WW2 propaganda video a few days ago in which Daffy Duck tells us all that it's our patriotic duty to give as much as possible to the government.



Should we expect a new video soon suggesting that it's our patriotic duty to buy Treasury bonds...? In what passes for democracy today, you can bet on it.


--Simon Black, SovereignMan.com

As Did Nero, So Too Obama?



Imagine this. According to the White House and leftist pundits everywhere this nation runs out of money on August 2nd. Obama just the other day told CBS' Scott Pelley that he couldn't guarantee that social security checks would go out, or that the military would get paid (a bold-faced lie if ever there was one, from the captain of fear-mongery himself). Now imagine the day after, August 3rd. While all the 'defaulting and mayhem' are supposedly going on what will Obama be doing? Celebrating his 50 birthday.

No big deal right?

Except... he'll be doing it in grand style. $35,000 will get you a private dinner with the Obama's in Chicago during a lavish birthday party cum fundraiser. While the nation is crumbling under the weight of its defaulted debt(according to the White House), Obama will be partying it up, asking folks to pony up 35 G's to eat cake with the president; 35,000 smackaroonies to help him finish the job he started in January of 2009... ruining the economy, and generally destroying what remains of this once great nation. Washington, according to Obama and democrats, will be in chaos! But Obama will be partying it up. "Happy Birthday to ME!"

No one, I'm sure, begrudges Obama a birthday celebration; I certainly don't. But Obama has spent the last few months demonizing the right and predicting all manner of dire consequences if the debt ceiling isn't raised. So Obama has manufactured his farce of a Liberal Noh play. The damage done to himself on August 3rd will be his doing; the crisis is of his making.

What should Obama do? First, unless he intends to come clean on the genuine consequences of not raising the debt ceiling, he should cancel those lavish plans for his birthday bash/fundraiser, and retreat to a more modest private celebration with family and a few friends-- do it the White House, I don't care. Reaching 50 is a milestone in any man's life, so celebrate, Mr. President. But as long as you continue to lie about no checks going out to seniors and the like, stay out of Chicago.

The country will be crashing down around our ears, but Obama will be raking 35 grand a pop in celebration of his birthday.

Rome is burning, Mr. President. Now is not the time to play fiddle. Instead, sackcloth and ashes are in order.


Attend that big party, Mr. President, and demonstrate, yet again, just how out of touch you are with the rest of America; how tone deaf you are to needs of EVERY American.

"What? You say the people are suffering? They have no bread to eat? Well, let them eat cake! It's my birthday, after all, so I decree everyone shall eat cake in celebration of my 50th birthday...... at the cost of 35,000 dollars a head, that is!"

--President Barack Hussein Obama, August 3rd, 2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

From the Washington Times

HURT: Welcome to Jimmy Carter’s 2nd term
Tuesday, July 12, 2011


It has taken three decades, but Americans are finally living through Jimmy Carter’s second term.

Now we’ve got Jimmy Jr. barking at us from the White House about eating our peas and ripping off our Band-Aid. He might not even let us have our Social Security checks.

These are just the latest in a long line of nagging lectures. Already, we have been taught how we should sneeze into the crook of our arm. We need to drive less. And we need to caulk up those drafty houses of ours.

What ever happened to the soaring rhetoric and big bold ideas President Obama promised us in that historic election of his?

Is this what he meant by a new kind of politics? If so, no thanks. Oh, and it is not new. Jimmy already dragged us through all this once and we just barely survived it.

One of the most unpleasant things about Mr. Carter was the condescending disdain he could barely disguise for struggling Americans and their irritating malaise.

Increasingly, Jimmy Jr. is having difficulty concealing that very same disdain for us as the political winds around him turn hostile and all of his bright ideas lie fallow as nothing more than socialist hocus-pocus.

But even Mr. Carter never laid bare so baldly and plainly as Mr. Obama did earlier this week his deep-seated contempt for this whole annoying process we call “democracy.”

The problem with reaching a deal to raise the debt ceiling, he explained in a long sermon, is that there is this huge wave of Republicans who won control of the House in the last election by promising not to raise any more taxes and to cut the absurd overspending that has driven this town for decades.

He bemoaned - in public - that these Republicans are more concerned about the “next election” rather than doing “what’s right for the country.” In other words, he is saying the honorable thing would be for these Republicans to ignore the expressed wishes of voters, break their campaign promises and raise taxes. Wow.

As if the whole problem of Washington spending us into oblivion is the fault of stingy taxpayers and stupid voters. And what we really need is Jimmy Jr., who knows what is best for us despite what we may think.

Continuing his lecture, Mr. Obama then complained about America’s “political process, where folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections.”

How did this man get past sixth-grade social studies, much less Iowa?

When Mr. Obama finished his sermon about the contemptible Republicans keeping faith with their voters like a bunch of chumps, he then turned to his own intentions - and revealed even more of his contempt for us.

All this talk about “raising revenue” - the deceitful line he uses to describe raising taxes - has been most unhelpful, he said. “I want to be crystal clear,” he said. “Nobody has talked about increasing taxes now. Nobody has talked about increasing taxes next year.”

So when would these tax hikes that he is demanding take effect?

In 2013, well after Mr. Obama must face voters for re-election.

Lucky for us, it appears more and more unlikely every day that we will have to suffer through a third term of Jimmy Carter‘s.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Time to Jump Ship

If this is what passes for education today; if this is representative of the mindset of those who govern and manage this economy... we're screwed.



One respondent's remarks:

I think it's time that all Americans realized that government connected people are self interested liars, period. They never say anything because they think it's an important rational, logic or ethical fact-- their only purpose in saying anything at all is to lie the public into further theft and control.

It's transparently ludicrous that more government borrowing will help anyone but rich connected bankers and government people [at] this point.

It's also getting to the point [that] if the American people have become so degenerate that they believe ...ever more debt is a desirable thing, they deserve the slavery that's coming to them.

Make a choice Americans, live free or die in [chains of debt].


I've been around quite a while, and I've never seen this country in such bad shape. I'm even having difficulty giving it equal billing with Carter's administration; Carter, much like Obama, failed miserably in managing the economy, but the difference between the two is ideology. Carter at least believed in American greatness, and exceptionalism (while as president, at least), but Obama has never thought of America as 'exceptional.' What Obama is doing is deliberate.

"The stimulus has worked as planned."

If this be the case, then it was the intention of the Obama administration to break America's economic back. Congratulations, Mr. President. It looks as though you'll get your wish.

Before any of you get your back up because I've insulted/slandered your man, let it be known here and now, that I don't think any better of current Republican leadership. 'A plague on both your houses,' I say.

If the economy is truly in such dire straights that it requires drastic measures to correct, then take drastic measures. Compromise is for weak-kneed, weak-willed, pandering and self-serving politicians. If a Republican truly believes this country is doomed without the taking of drastic measures, then he must not compromise. He must be willing to give something meaningful, something personal, to ensure his nation's survival.

What must that something be?

Personal interest perhaps, any thought to personal/monetary acquisition. A man who would truly seek to save his country will do so without thought of personal gain.

Sadly, there are no such men in Washington. None whatsoever.

It's time to stop playing this game, people. Time to stop playing THEIR game. By THEIR rules. It's time to begin thinking for yourself, and acting in your own best interest. Because neither our government, nor anyone in it have your best interest at heart.

Brand me a Cynic if you wish.