2008-12-23

Obama Shows Great Leadership During the Holidays

What a swell guy! Look at the similarities between Obama and regular Americans during Christmas:

Obama outside his ritzy vacation rental in Kailua, HI

Auto Workers outside a closed Chrysler Truck plant in Warren, MI

Obama ready for his golf swing

Americans ready for a Chinook ride in Afghanistan

Apparently, the "I feel your pain" line is too 1992. Welcome to the celebrity presidency!

2008-12-21

53 still suffers from BDS

Remember all of those healing pictures that the 53% who voted for Obama posted on the internet hoping we wouldn't treat their guy like they treated ours (and This Ain't Hell readers responded)? Well, those gracious souls have been found to be somewhat disingenuous by VanHelsing at Moonbattery. This time they're thanking the Iraqi journalist for throwing his shoe at President Bush.



Keepin' it classy there, 53.

2008-12-17

Another Obama Cabinet Appointee Wrapped Up in Blago

It's not just Rahm Emanuel who is hiding the details about his connection to America's least favorite governor. Apparently Attorney General nominee, Eric Holder, was hired by Hot Rod for $300K to preside over investigations of some shady casino deal in Illinois back in '04. Holder conveniently left this transaction out of the vetting process to the Senate Judiciary Committee. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Eric Holder has given hundreds of press interviews," Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement. "He did his best to report them all to the committee, but as he noted in the questionnaire itself, some were undoubtedly missed in the effort to reconstruct a list of them."

Holder signed the questionnaire on Sunday -- five days after Blagojevich's arrest for allegedly putting Obama's U.S. Senate seat up for sale. The Judiciary Committee asked him to provide lists and "copies of transcripts or tape recordings of all speeches or talks delivered by you" and "all interviews you have given to newspapers, magazines or other publications."

The March 2004 Chicago news conference where Holder and Blagojevich spoke was widely covered because of a controversial 4-1 Gaming Board vote earlier that month to allow a casino to be built in Rosemont. That vote defied the recommendation of the board's staff, which had raised concerns about alleged organized-crime links to the Rosemont casino's developer.
For the folks "proud of their country for the first time" since Obama got elected, this whole Blago thing has to be a huge turd in the punchbowl. What a pity.

2008-12-16

Obama's New Education Sec: Heavy on Politics, Light on Teaching

Arne Duncan w/Fancy Suit and Haircut: No Stand and Deliver Here!

Cicero once noted of teachers that "What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?". But, it's unclear what the famous orator would make of a lifelong "administrator" like Obama's pick for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, who has never taught a day in his life. That might be why he has advanced such dunderheaded ideas like paying students for good grades. From US News:
In Chicago, Fryer helped public schools CEO Arne Duncan implement an incentive program for about 3,750 high school freshmen in 20 schools because Duncan expressed concern about the high rate of students who drop out in ninth or 10th grade. At the end of every five-week marking period, Green for Grades participants can earn $50 for every A, $35 for every B, and $20 for each C they receive in English, math, science, social studies, and physical education.
Knowledge can prevent our nation's youth from drooling all over themselves and future generations getting eaten alive by the Chinese in today's competitive world, and you would think that would be enough of a motivating factor to keep these ungrateful youngsters in class. But in a state where even the Senate seat if up for grabs with cash, it's only natural that the youth will expect a monetized value attached to everything.

Speaking of the Blagster, here's a press release from the most unpopular Governor since Pontius Pilate regarding a meeting with Arne Duncan. From Illinois.Gov:
As hundreds of parents, teachers and supporters of public education descended on the State Capitol today to rally for more education dollars, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich met with Chicago Public Schools’ CEO Arne Duncan, Chicago Board of Education president Michael Scott, former Chicago Board of Education president Gery Chico, and several Chicago area lawmakers to discuss his Higher Standards, Better Schools Plan. The Governor’s proposal would boost school funding by $440 million without increasing the sales or income taxes, and increase high school graduation standards so students are better prepared for higher education and the workplace.
Because Hot Rod's got a "really big fucking thing" with these education dollars! I'm sure Arne Duncan was not involved with any of sleaziness in the cesspool of Chicago.

-Famine

2008-12-15

Governor "El Diablo" Richardson Being Investigated for Corruption

File Photo of Bill Richardson Shaking Down a Youngster for Campaign Cash

Isn't one big political scandal a month enough for our country? Apparently, not, as Obama's appointed Commerce Secretary is under a Grand Jury investigation for giving a lucrative contract to a private firm after they ponied up for Richardson's election campaign. From WaPo:
The inquiry is part of a long-running nationwide investigation into "pay-to-play" practices in local government bond markets. In other cities, federal investigators are questioning whether financial firms have lavished politicians with money and gifts in exchange for fee-paying work advising municipal and local governments on investments. Authorities indicted the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., this month on charges of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans from a firm that led the city into toxic investments and massive bankruptcy.

In the New Mexico case, the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating how CDR, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., won lucrative fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 soon after donating $100,000 to two Richardson organizations.
A few weeks back Obama only offered praise for the New Mexico Governor. From NYT:
“Bill has seen from just about every angle what makes our economy work and what keeps it from working better,”
Awarding contracts based on the company's political contributions may not be what's best for "the economy", but it sure is best for "the campaign". With all the funny money that's up for grabs in our bailout bonanza, there's going to be a lot of people getting cozy with the new administration.

-Famine

2008-12-11

Peacenik Obama Turns Into Dr. Strangelove

Obama Promises Full-Scale Nuclear Annihilation!

And you hippies thought you were voting for peace, justice, and free mortgages! A source from team Obama has stated that the U.S. would nuke Iran if Israel gets hit. From Haaretz:
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week. The source, who is close to the new administration, said the U.S. will declare that an attack on Israel by Tehran would result in a devastating U.S. nuclear response against Iran.
This is not 1964 and you can't just go around saying this or that city is getting nuked to get votes and throw dirt in the eye of the commies. Obama is borrowing this foreign policy from Camp Hillary and it's just not a black-and-white issue. What if some Hezbollah thugs sneak a nuke into Jerusulem (god forbid), does that mean millions of Persians need to die for no reason? Besides, the close Russia-Iran ties means they might just get in on the action bringing about the Obacalypse sooner than expected, as ICBMs light up the sky like fireworks on Chinese New Year.
As Allahpundit notes, mutually assured destruction might not be that effective on Iran in the first place.

2008-12-10

The Obama-Blago Intimacy Gets More Steamy

Uh-oh, Gateway Pundit has dug up some articles and press releases that indicate Obama did indeed meet the much maligned Illinois Governor after he won the election. This kind of shatters Obama's claim that he had "no contact" with the soon-to-be-imprisoned governor. The media and prog-blogs are already trying to downplay their messiah's involvement, and Obama has just publicly admonished the corruptocrat governor (under the bus...and on his birthday!).

I say we keep digging into this out of curiosity, like Alice, because you'll never know what we'll find down this rabbit-hole of sleaze and corruption. The mystery of Jimmy Hoffa's body has gotta be down there somewhere.

-Famine

Yes, we did

Claymore sent us this one minute audio, I think it's a message on a repo man's answering machine and I added some graphics. Stick it out until the money shot at the end.

2008-12-09

Are Obama and Blago BFFs?


A Blag of Dogshit on Fire for Obama's Doorstep

Initial reporting suggests that Obama was not involved in the recent scandal with the Illinois Governor, but ABC Political Punch takes a crack at the Obama-Blag connection. Turns out a host of Obamabots were involved in Blago's 2002 gubernatorial campaign:
And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house.

That 2002 endorsement came at the same time that Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client.

According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich's campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm, were the top strategists of Blagojevich's 2002 gubernatorial victory.
I doubt The Obama is dumb enough to get involved with something so...criminal, but sometimes the ACORN doesn't fall far from the tree (wakka-wakka!).

Whoever thought that anything sleazy could come out of Chicago?

2008-12-08

Super Obama World Goes Straight To ROM Pit

That's a screenshot from the newest internet sensation for people bored at work: Super Obama World. It's a parody of Super Mario Brothers 4 interspersed with enough advertising blitzes in between levels to make you grind your teeth. In this level, our hero Obama is in Wasilla to stop those darn book-burning Republicans (a stale reference to Sarah Palin that was debunked months ago). Overall, the game gets boring after about 15 seconds and deserves some space in Something Awful's notorious "ROM Pit".

We are encouraging everyone to pick up a copy of Left 4 Dead, which is a Zombie Apocalypse-themed first person shooter. This is a much more accurate depiction of things to come in "Obama's World".

-Famine

2008-12-07

But Who Is Going to Chair The Department of Unicorns?

Why must Obama keep us in such suspense?

2008-12-06

New Obama Campaign For Green Jobs Sounds Suspiciously Like Al Gore Campaign for $$$

Because America Hasn't Gotten Enough Al Gore

Obama continues to push green jobs as a method for curing the American financial malaise. From his weekly YouTube address [Change.Gov]:
Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.
Nothing wrong with energy-efficiency, but requiring extorted tax-payer dollars to carry it out implies that the whole process is probably going to be unprofitable, inefficient, and mired in endless bureaucracy. Obama's announcement is great news for feel-good greeny businesses that don't stand a chance in the free market. This idea sounds suspiciously like Al Gore's 501 group (We Can Solve It) that has been sucking up commercial time on the major networks. The group is worth at least $300M and might be able to sponsor businesses in the future. From their FAQ:
How do I submit a business proposal or request for funding?
We may consider partnerships with organizations and companies. At this time we are not able to provide funding for product development or scientific research. If you would like to suggest a partnership, please complete the form here.
Just like sheister T. Boone Pickens attempting to rip off Americans so he can get water rights in Texas, Obama is paving the path of the bleeding heart with gold in guaranteed public funds for green businesses. No one liked my previous idea of dumping nuclear waste at Al Gore's house I suppose.

2008-12-04

Economic Devastator Barney Frank Needs Mo'Bama

A Sweaty Mess of a Man Needs a Public Makeover From The Obama

DC Area Boob and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank (D-MA), has his paws all over the economic apocalypse of 2008. After spending the better part of his career taking campaign contributions from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he said there sheisty lending practices were "not facing a crisis". Since over-inflated housing prices helped pay bigger property taxes for the government to waste more money, Barney continued denying culpability in this modern day crime and even defended his shady policy decisions in a testy exchange with Bill O' Reilly. We all know how this disastrous corruption turned out, as most Americans wonder whether or not there is going to be a Christmas this year.

Now, Barney Frank is kissing the ring of the Messiah to try and salvage his shipwrecked career[AP]:
Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. But the dodge is wearing thin. "He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told consumer advocates Thursday. Frank, who has been dealing with both the bailout of the financial industry and a proposed rescue of Detroit automakers, said Obama needs to play a more significant role on economic issues.
Of course, Barney might have trouble schmoozing with a beloved public figure like The Obama, since the guy is apparently a serious asshole according to the Washington Post. But, just getting a head nod from Obama will mean that incompetent yutzes like Frank continue to get elected. A good deal for those in inner DC circles, shitty for the rest of the country.

Iraq Withdrawal Goes Under the Bus

Gateway Pundit, this morning writes that despite Obama's promises to withdraw US forces from Iraq, he has made no definite deadline for withdrawing all forces from Iraq. The status of forces agreement with Iraq mandates complete withdrawal by the end of 2011, but Obama has been unclear on the size and length of deployment for the residual forces. From his campaign website (I've taken to getting screen shots instead of just quotes, because apparently the Obama policy is very fluid on nearly every issue);

2008-12-03

The Hustle continues

Michelle Malkin reports that Team Obama is pushing memorial lapel pins. Well, tonight my email box got hit with this;


It only comes in one color.

2008-11-29

On Preparedness

Whether it be mass famine, a zombie holocaust, or some new civil war, it's always best to be ready for the unexpected. Thanks to Sith by Sithwest for the de-motivator.

Obama Anoints Self-Obsessed Hippie, Samantha Power, to State Department Transition


Despite praise for The Obama that he is intent on governing from the center, much to the dismay of the ultra-crunchy ultra-left base, Jules Crittenden links to a scoop on Obama throwing the perpetually tie-dyed outraged a bone. From Washington Post:
Samantha Power, the Harvard professor who was forced to resign from Barack Obama's presidential campaign last spring after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster," is now advising the president-elect on transition matters relating to the State Department -- which Clinton is slated to head.

Power is listed on Obama's transition Web site as part of the team reviewing national security agencies. Her duties, according to the site, will be to "ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in."
Indeed, Samantha Power once called Hillary a "monster", but that is hardly controversial and occasionally appropriate. However, an examination of issues she has brought up in public indicates an overly-peaceniky agenda in a time of terrorism and rogue states. She spoke at Pitzer-Claremont's graduation this year, and after shamelessly plugging her 2002 book, she implied America has been a disgrace so far:
...and your kids will ask you, "what did you do to meet those challenges?" I hope you can claim prouder ancestry than we can.
Of course, this was better than her spiel against the U.S. military at Santa Clara's graduation two years ago (also involving a shameless book plug):
...none of my yammering was making the US government even a tad more willing to act morally abroad. We had invaded Iraq, which was falling to bits; our soldiers and guards had been revealed to be torturing detainees and, despite the pattern of abuse, only minor "bad apples" were being punished.
Hopefully, Ms. Power understands that working for the State Department involves putting a "happy face" on American foreign policy, and she will drop the tired old arguments preached at institutions of higher education about America being the source of all evil dating back to the days of the woolly-mammoth. Her blog indicates that she did an interview with Democracy Now!, the same group that made apologies for the RNC protesters that wreaked havoc and vandalized the Twin Cities. Perhaps she will ensure that unemployed, low-life hooligans get appointed to key ambassador positions around the world. Now that's the hope and change we were looking for!

2008-11-26

Plutocrats for Obama

It remains unclear whether or not the sock puppet from Pets.com will get his bailout with the incoming administration, but he's got a pretty good shot. Also, Matson forgot to include sleazebag Matthew Lesko in the line up:

Gitmo Two-step

Torture 033

I've been worried that protests against the Guantanamo terrorist resort like the one pictured above would end with the Obama administration since one of his centerpiece proposals is to close the tropical residence for slow and stupid terrorists. But I'm heartened by Michelle Malkin's syndicated piece today in which she describes the dilemma Obama faces when determining the fate of the current clientele at the resort;
Some top legal advisors and supporters of Barack Obama, whose name detainees chanted on election night, are now rethinking the President-elect’s absolutist campaign position on shutting the center down and flooding our mainland courts with every last enemy combatant designee. Yes, reality bites – and Democrats must now grapple with the very real possibility that an Obama administration could potentially release a Gitmo denizen who would turn around and commit mass terrorist acts on American soil or abroad.

But, it seems the Bush Administration is in a hurry to show Obama what a mistake it would be to release prisoners by releasing bin Laden's former driver to his home country of Yemen (AP link);
Salim Hamdan, the first man to go before a U.S. war crimes trial since the end of World War II, was flown from the U.S. Navy base in Cuba to Yemen.

Hamdan was convicted on Aug. 6 of providing material support to terrorism, and the military said it could keep him locked up indefinitely if it considered him to be a continued threat. Instead, he was sent home early.

A Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the decision was made by the White House.

Hamdan was sentenced at the war-crimes trial to 5 1/2 years in prison. Being credited with five years and one month for time already served means his sentence ends on Dec. 27, according to the Pentagon.

“As part of a transfer agreement with the United States, the remainder of Hamdan’s sentence will be served in Yemen,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

So he has a month left on his sentence and his return to the terrorist flock is being expedited by sending him to Yemen. The main problem with Yemen is at the center of the plan to release Gitmo alumni, as it's described a few weeks ago by McClatchy;
President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces a major obstacle: Yemen.

The Bush administration has transferred hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to the custody of their home countries, but it's been unable to win assurances from Yemen — whose approximately 100 prisoners are the largest group still jailed at Guantanamo — that the men, if they're returned, won't pose a threat to the United States.

I guess Hamadan is a good test for Yemen to see if they can hold him for a month. If he shows up on the battlefield before Christmas, we'll have our answer. The Boston Globe outlines the debate within the Obama administration;
However, divisions have emerged among Obama allies on how to proceed. The civil libertarians, legal scholars and lawyers who were united in condemning the Bush administration's policies differ on what to do with the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

All agree that a crucial first step is to review each detainee's case thoroughly to see how many could be put on trial in US courts and how many could be released to their home countries.

"There are 20 to 30 people in Guantanamo that present serious, serious problems," said Donald J. Guter, a retired rear admiral who formerly served as the Navy's top uniformed lawyer and was an adviser to the Obama campaign. "If you can't take them to a court and get legitimate convictions, what do you do with them? Do you hold them, or do you release them?"

Imagine that, lawyers who can't agree on a solution. Seems impossible doesn't it?

So I guess the folks at Amnesty International should hold on to those orange suits a bit longer since the question of what to do with the thugs housed there is just one more thing Obama won't solve in his first term.

2008-11-25

Funny Lede of the Day: Obama Vows to Cut Back on Bad Programs

Obama might've gotten a customary fist bump for picking Gates as his SECDEF, but his economic policies are still sketchy. A lede in Politico summarizes the mass confusion behind how he's going to pay for all the things he promised:
President-elect Barack Obama is vowing to watch spending carefully even as he plans to push for a stimulus package of $500 billion or more.
The article expounds on Obama's rhetoric that he's going to cut "wasteful spending" and hold back "special interests", but never provides an example. Cruising over to the NYT, they can't even justify their guy's politician-like distractions:
Mr. Obama cited, as an example of the sort of cuts he expects Mr. Orszag and Mr. Nabors to find, a recent government report showing that farmers whose incomes exceeded $2.5 million had probably wrongly been paid some $49 million in government subsidies over a three-year period.

But he did not offer any other specific targets, and by itself, correcting the problem with the farm program would make only a trivially small dent in the budget deficits the federal government will face for years.
$49 million is no small chunk of change, but considering that Obama's entitlement obligations are wracking up well into the trillions, he's going to have to start slashing and burning government spending a little further.

The Obama T-shirts are still selling well amongst college students, perhaps the President-Elect's advisors can start selling this wardrobe for the coming hard times to generate a little revenue.

Obama's double talk on taxes

Barack Obama had his second press conference since his election yesterday in which he outlined his economic plan - somehow it turns out to be a whole lot different than what he campaigned on. Remember how he was going to give everyone a tax cut? Well, we just got thrown under the bus according to the Washington Times;
President-elect Barack Obama's campaign promise to cut spending has been waylaid by the reality of the economy, and he warned Monday that the deficit is going to grow and spending cuts will have to take a back seat now to stimulating the economy.

He also signaled he may forgo immediate tax increases on high-income families and instead wait for the Bush tax cuts to expire.
See, that's fine with me, tax increases should be postponed in any economic climate. If tax increases would hurt the economy now, why was he still promising them just a scant three weeks ago? What has changed? Other than the fact that he was elected by mouthing the platitude about tax cut for 95% of Americans and raising taxes on the 5% who make too much money in his estimate? Of course, it was just rhetoric three weeks ago, 21 months ago, and I warned that the tax cuts would be the first thing he threw under the bus.

Probably more importantly, if tax increases might damage the economy now, why is it that they're being considered in the future? Why are they planning on letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Don't they understand that the economy today is based on predictions for the future? If there's a tax hike in our future, that will stall the economy, too.
He also said he would announce "meaningful cuts and sacrifices," though it was not clear whether that would include specific line items or broad principles.
Yeah, well, I expect that that Obama's backers don't have much to worry about. When a Democrat talks about "cuts and sacrifices", it means the military is about to pay the price. It's easier to waylay defense advances than it is to cut truly useless government programs that buy votes in the inner cities - that's why Republicans get called "big spenders" because they have to make up for the cuts of their Democrat predecessors in the military spending area. Up-armored HMMVs should have been a priority after Mogadishu, not after Baghdad. Fielding M1s and M2s should have started after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan not four years later.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Obama's plan to create 2.5 million jobs with taxpayer money is drawing fire from the few Republicans left in Congress;
The plans brought a quick retort from House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. He said lawmakers "should start listening to the American people, who do not believe increasing government spending is the best way to put our economy back on track." He proposed eliminating the capital gains tax, which is currently 15%, as well as other tax cuts.

Other Republicans said some large-scale economic intervention is inevitable. "We clearly need a stimulus initiative, and it's clearly got to be a big one," said Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and a budget hawk. "The question is, 'Is it just going to be walking-around money for the usual liberal constituencies that does nothing?"'
Yeah, well, we already know that answer. The Democrats aren't interested in building a constituency in the Pentagon.

Of course it could be worse - Barbara Mikulsky could be in charge.

2008-11-24

Santa Claus Part of Obama's Economic Team

Melody Barnes, VP of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, has been selected to chair the Domestic Policy Council. As the name implies she will be in charge of things like dishing out free housing, welfare, and education so that the new administration can stay in power. She survived being plunked in the drink while she was Ted Kennedy's adviser, so socialized health care is probably going to be one of her big issues. A review of some of her pre-Obama publishings may reveal what type of plans she has in store. She wrote a mock "State of the Union" address in January 2007, blaming everything wrong with America on the Iraq war (a popular sentiment at the time), before revealing her socialized health plan. From WaPo:
To restore fairness to our system, I will embark on a multi-faceted approach including increasing our investment in public education, promoting genuine health care reform, and backing a higher minimum wage.

Domestically, no need is more urgent than fixing our broken health care system. Today, nearly 47 million Americans have no health insurance. And those lucky enough to be insured are seeing the cost of their premiums soar. At the same time, the uninsured cannot afford screening for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or even get a flu shot -- and our health care system as a whole places far more emphasis on treatment than it does on preventing disease in the first place. As a nation, we dedicate only three percent of our health dollars to health promotion, but over 20 percent of our health care dollars to care in the last year of life. We must guarantee affordable coverage for all Americans.
Just like when you asked Santa Claus for a pony, Americans put their confidence in Obama for outrageous promises, like free health care, that the government does not have the money to pay for. But there's not just going to be disappointed faces like on Xmas morning when The O takes power, it's probably going to be a whole lot worse. Get ready for a wild ride.

-Famine

Obama To Probe Your Embarrassing Teenage Diary As Part of Vetting Process

Your Awkward Adolescence to come Full Circle

There was some outrage over the Obama team asking potential employees if they owned firearms, but that unnecessary snooping into potential appointees has morphed into downright silliness as they are asking about people's personal diaries and text messages. Reason unearthed a copy of the questionnaire [PDF] for employment at Obama Inc. (which looks like a bigger pain in the ass than getting a security clearance). Check out question #14 on pg. 2:
Diaries: If you keep or have ever kept a diary that contains anything that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you or your family, or the President-Elect if it were made public, please describe.
It's understandable that the Obama team is trying to prevent websites like Wonkette from soliciting teh lulz by digging in the dirt, but is it really necessary to have this as a job qualification for The O? Who had a diary that wasn't embarrassing? At 13 years-old, I bet you never thought that writing about your fantasy where you gallop off on a unicorn with Joey Lawrence would ever prevent you from getting a job. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

2008-11-23

Drug Warriors Holder and Rambo: Fighting the Wrong War At the Wrong Time

Obama's top pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder, has been going through the wringer for the Marc Rich pardon and the Elian Gonzalez debacle during his Clinton daze. But, the only major media publication that has been grilling him on his failed drug policies are those pesky libertarians at Reason. How far did he go with national drug policy? He coerced the city of Washington D.C. to "get tough" on that great scourge of our society, marijuana. From a 1996 Washington Post article (h/t Eric):
In addition, U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. said in an interview that he is considering not only prosecuting more marijuana cases but also asking the D.C. Council to enact stiffer penalties for the sale and use of marijuana.

"We have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not important," Holder said, referring to current attitudes toward marijuana use and other offenses such as panhandling.
Ever since Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, we have seen the explosion of meth and crack, continuous erosion of our civil liberties, and a string of lousy federally-funded PSAs of McGruff jamming out to 80s music. Our War on Drugs goal has even hampered the fight against terrorism as President Bush actually gave the Taliban federal aid to halt heroin traffic prior to 9/11. Don't expect Obama's pick for Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, to distinguish between the high-priority War on Terror as opposed to the War on Pink Floyd as evidenced to a press release he issued back in 2006:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Representative Rahm Emanuel released the following statement in response to reports that Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’ called the war on terror a real war, not like the war on drugs.

“Thanks for the white flag. From the United States’ most senior law enforcement official, the man who should be leading the war on drugs, this white flag of surrender will not be reassuring to the millions of parents trying to protect their kids.”
To help out Obama's Chief of Staff, here's a couple of photos to emphasize the priorities based on the current threats to our democratic society.

Islamic Terrorists, seeks to wipe out Western civilization, a high-priority

Marijuana Users, seek to eat a whole bag of Doritos while watching Scooby-Doo, a low-priority

2008-11-22

SGT Freedom Not Taking Obama Presidency Very Well



The extremely enthusiastic and extremely funny SGT Freedom is back with a post-election YouTube rant. Like the Four Horsemen, he respects people's decision to vote for Obama, but don't expect him to go quietly in the night.

2008-11-21

What's Your Flavor of Apocalypse?

Menacing Zombie Hordes is one option

The Sniper asks a very pertinent question that other bloggers are too scared to ask: What type of apocalypse would you prefer? Somehow, that post and the theme of this blog could be remotely related.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell goes under the bus

The Washington Times this morning reports that Barack Obama wasted no time tossing the DADT promise he made during the campaign aside;
President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said.

I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just saying.... So far Obama has tossed the anti-war crowd and women aside and now the gays. I guess the "95% of Americans will get tax cuts" is next. Who would have thought that he's just another Democrat politician who thinks it's fine to ignore campaign promises.

Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure someone will tell me "they all do it", however, when George Bush took office he made clear what he was going to do and he did his best to keep to those promises. The tenets of the Contract With America put forward by the Republicans in 1994 were 95% enacted as law. What about the promises of Democrats since 2006? One promise they made they kept - the minimum wage and that triggered the unemployment rate we're seeing now.

Yet you Democrats keep voting them in hoping they'll change.

2008-11-20

The Rise of Trojan Horse Politics

Easily Fooled Citizens Dragging in the Horse That Will Be Their Demise

The Soros-funded Center for American Progress has been a huge advocate of regulating free speech in their favor via legislation and policy. One example of this brand of regulation is the wretched Fairness Doctrine, which, luckily, went tits up on the house floor last year. If it had passed, you would have to be listening to Praise for Dear Leader on the TV/Radio/Paper, and not just the TV/Paper. So the wonks are trying to find new clever ways to silence the opposition. On the think-tanks website, one of the "Top Features" is an article about the "imbalance of political talk radio", where they desire leveling the playing field by a concept known as "localism", which means you grant "friendly" broadcasters access to the airwaves while imposing heaping mounds of regulations on those nasty wingnuts. Even though it is painfully obvious that this progressive think-tank wants to crush dissenting voices of the mostly conservative airwaves, one of their employees says we're all crazy for thinking it's a return to The Fairness Doctrine! From Yglesias at Think Progress (the blog for the CAP):
Marin Cogan has a great piece on the right-wing’s mobilization against the phantom menace of the fairness doctrine...It’s very strange. Political movements mischaracterize the other side’s general goals all the time. But I’ve never heard of anything like the current conservative mania for blocking a particular legislative provision that nobody is trying to enact.
A phantom menace? It doesn't take a tin-foil hat to be concerned with Obama hiring the head of the Center for American Progress as a leader in his transition battalion, and the case for more regulations of free speech still being up on the CAP website. The fact that a writer employed by the same think-tank calling us Cassandras for dreaming up conspiracies of the collapse of the 1st Amendment is creepy. Just like all this newfound outreach of hugs n' kisses from the left, it seems to be a big ruse to float a bunch of turds through congress while we're off getting shitfaced like Troy.

The One opens Metro's doors



We don't see enough of Obama's face these days, so the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is putting his mug on a fare card available in early January according to the DCist. Funny, but I don't remember seeing any commemoration fare card for anyone else. Ever.

I expect passing through the turnstiles at the subway stations will take longer as holders of the card pause to genuflect when they pull The One's visage from their wallets to swipe the sensors.

I sure hope my card doesn't crap out next month and they force this one on me.
Currently, Metro plans to sell them for $10 per card, with no value added to the card at the time of initial purchase, which would make them $5 more expensive than regular SmarTrip cards. They may also be hard to come by, as Metro will only have an initial order of 35,000 on hand to begin with, though Taubenkibel said the agency hopes to have more available as time permits.

So they'll immediately be targeted by thieves.

Anti-war groups fear pro-war cabinet

I picked this up from some people I don't normally agree with over at The Common Ills. Well, I do agree with them on may things concerning IVAW, but their post today pointed me towards a Paul Richter piece in the LA Times entitled "Antiwar goups fear Barack Obama may create hawkish cabinet". The anti-war clubs think they put Obama in office and they seem disturbed that Obama is moving away from them;
The activists are uneasy not only about signs that both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates could be in the Obama Cabinet, but at reports suggesting that several other short-list candidates for top security posts backed the decision to go to war.

"Obama ran his campaign around the idea the war was not legitimate, but it sends a very different message when you bring in people who supported the war from the beginning," said Kelly Dougherty, executive director of the 54-chapter Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The activists -- key members of the coalition that propelled Obama to the White House -- fear he is drifting from the antiwar moorings of his once-longshot presidential candidacy. Obama has eased the rigid timetable he had set for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and he appears to be leaning toward the center in his candidates to fill key national security posts.

The Common Ills thinks they were foolish to believe him in the first place and foolish to make the war their central case against Hillary Clinton;
...an IVAW contingent already embarrassed themselves publicly in Denver. They staged a protest at the Democratic Party convention. They were getting press attention inside the convention because -- as the press gas bagged -- wasn't Barack the alleged 'anti-war' candidate and here was IVAW protesting him. Phones were buzzing, it was going to be the big story. And Team Obama was being asked to comment. So Team Obama sent Tall Tales from Texas out to the protest to make a lot of meaningless remarks that sounded like promises but were nothing more than standard 'rap session' b.s. ("I know where you're coming from," said Barnes.) They bought into that crap hook, line and sinker. And gave interviews where they were excited about Barack (the War Hawk!) and he was going to do this or that and maybe they'd be onstage tonight during his big speech and . . . . It was all so thrilling people might pee their pants!

Reality check, they were punked and everyone knew it right away (including the press -- not always notorious for grasping reality immediately) except IVAW.

They stopped their protest and there was no story (certainly nothing that would embarrass Barack). Barack turned them into props for the 2008 election.

I said the same thing and several times since. While Code Pink declares that they ended the war in Iraq by electing Obama, while IVAW chirps about meetings with Obama's staff, they still don't realized they're just being strung along. They threw Hillary Clinton under the bus for her vote in 2002, so now they get her for Secretary of State. And they're also getting the Senate Majority Leader who wrangled the vote for the war in Iraq and the airline bailout for his wife's industry in 2001 - Tom Daschle - in the Obama cabinet. Even King of the Dolts, John Kerry, is being considered for a posting. From the Richter LA Times piece;
"It's astonishing that not one of the 23 senators or 133 House members who voted against the war is in the mix," said Sam Husseini of the liberal group Institute for Public Accuracy.

Not really astonishing - I've been saying all along that they were being played by Obama. I remember that Jon DeWald, the IVAW's new intellectual spokesman, came here and explained how this was a genuine gesture on the part of the Obama campaign. So who gets the last laugh?

Would they be better off with Hillary? Not as far as the war is concerned, but at least they knew where she stands on a issue, she wouldn't necessarily intentionally lie as Obama apparently has done.
Kevin Martin, executive director of the group Peace Action, said that although Obama had campaigned as an agent of change, the president-elect is "a fairly centrist guy" who appears to be choosing from the Democratic foreign policy establishment -- "and nobody from outside it."

"So, in the short term, we're going to be disappointed," he said. "They may turn out to be all pro-war, or at least people who were pro-war in the beginning."

So, all that Hope and Change stuff is out the window. So Code Pink and IVAW get tossed under the bus - not that it's a bad thing. I also get word that ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice applied six months ago for protest permits in DC for March 21st and the protest is still on. From a blogging standpoint, an Obama presidency is looking like a lucrative business.

2008-11-19

Cleland at VA?

The Washington Times speculates this morning that former Senator Max Cleland might be in line for an appointment to the VA Secretary in the new administration;
A source familiar with transition planning said Mr. Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, is under consideration for either secretary of Veterans Affairs or secretary of the Army in an Obama administration, and liberal grass-roots support is building for his selection.

That just might make sense - a combat-injured veteran who has, most likely, spent the last forty years in the VA system knows what veterans need and he's probably going to do the right thing more often than someone off the street looking for a cushy job. But if they're considering him to be Army Secretary, not so smart - it would be waste of his expertise.

He voted more often with Conservatives on Homeland Security issues, but as the Army Secretary, he'd only be charged with implementing policy rather than making policy. I'd prefer to see him doing the most good for the troops in the role of VA Secretary.

2008-11-18

Uhoh...New FCC Appointees Big on Network Neutrality

Death of Blogging Imminent

Obama's new honchos on the FCC transition team are huge fans of regulating "teh internet". From Wired (h/t Reason):
"We're not doing at all well for reasons that mostly have to do with the fact that we failed to have a US industrial policy pushing forward high-speed internet access penetration, and there's been completely inadequate competition in this country for high speed internet access," she said.

And in a final introductory statement during her talk (that's likely to send shivers down the spines of telecom company executives) she said that she believes internet access is a "utility."

"This is like water, electricity, sewage systems: Something that each and all Americans need to succeed in the modern era. We're doing very badly, and we're in a dismal state," she said at the time.
Considering something like the internet a "utility" means the door is wide open to any number of regulations from bureau-weenies to stifle free expression. At this rate, the only websites left in America will be Obama-propaganda outlets like The Huffington Post, schnooze-inducing sites dedicated to Obama's Blackberry, and a few municipal websites so you know where to pick up your soup line rations. Buh-bye Obacalypse! The Four Horsemen just don't have the cash to hire a team of lawyers to operate this blog.

Salon Ponders the Magnificence of Michelle Obama's Butt

Salon was once a decent internet journal that had insight into current cultural trends. But, after 8 years of BDS and its newfound religion of Obamunism, it just ain't what it used to be. Let's take a look at their latest top piece "First Lady Got Back":
Compromise, bipartisanship? Don't think so. Here was one clear signifier of blackness that couldn't be tamed, muted or otherwise made invisible. It emerged right before our eyes, in the midst of our growing uncertainty about everything, and we were too bogged down in the daily campaign madness to notice. The one clear predictor of success that the pundits, despite all their fancy maps, charts and holograms, missed completely? Michelle's butt.
While Obama continues appointing former Clinton operatives (and Hillary herself) and Soros-funded wonks to his team ensuring that havoc is wreaked on America, political commentators seemed completely mired in the inane details. This would include Michelle Obama's wardrobe, Ariana Huffington lavishing disgusting praise for her Dear Leader during primetime, and now the rump of the first lady. Get used to 4 years of this crap.

-Famine

2008-11-17

Should America's Youth Be Part of the Obama Brigades?

Young People: Too Cool For Getting A Haircut, But Are They Cool Enough To Criticize Obama?

Even though the youth vote did not come out in record numbers as anticipated (they were too busy updating their Facebook profile, gramps), they still went decidedly for The Obama. But amidst an orgy of support to compensate for their vacuous lives, it's nice to see the cool heads prevail at some of our nation's universities. From The Daily Bruin (UCLA's student newspaper):
After grumbling and groaning for years, we are suddenly dusting off our pom-poms and waving them in favor of the government. Will we step up to the plate when it comes time to call out our hero on any of his mistakes (he won’t make any of course, not Obama, not him) or when policies don’t go as planned?

This is a strange mantle of responsibility for us. We are soon going to be a part of the work force – the actual world where bills, mortgages and babies exist. Can we still be the same Generation Y that had everyone slightly intimidated by our attitude? USA Today featured an article about Gen Y in the workplace and pegged us as the ones who were groomed to take over corporate America.
We are jazzed that young people understand the necessity to keep a watchful eye on the government. Remember, when the administration implements a "Logan's Run" policy to get people off the entitlement dole due to a record federal deficit, it might not be the Hope N' Change you voted for.

Obama's advisor on Iran is confused

Today, Gateway Pundit reports that Obama's chief advisor on Iran, Trita Parsi is about to brief Congress on Obama's prospective new Iran policy. Parsi is Iranian by birth, but without evidence to the contrary, I wouldn't necessarily hold that against him. What I would hold against him is his almost naive approach to the root of the Iran-Israel problem. I wrote two rather lengthy posts about Parsi back in June at my other place This Ain't Hell that can be found with their accompanying references here and here.

Parsi has written only one book in his short life on the subject of Iran-Israel policy. In that book, he makes the point that Iran doesn't particularly like Israel because of politics, not religious differences. Iran doesn't like democracies. I included some of the more bizarre suppositions of Parsi's theories last Summer;
In this interview for the CFR, Parsi actually argues that the Iranians don’t have nuclear ambitions, they just want to look like they do…then stop developing the nukes just short of the actual warheads;
Well, I think they definitely are looking for a nuclear option, being — as you mentioned — like Japan or Sweden or Belgium — having the capability to be able to go for a nuclear weapon, but stopping short of that. And that is exactly the same approach that the Shah took during the 1970s. He wanted to have the option, but he also recognized the strategic disadvantage for Iran to actually go for a weapon.

[...]

So the Iranians do have strong incentives not going for a nuclear weapon, but because of them living in a very tough neighborhood, they definitely want to have the option. And I think that’s what they’re aiming for now. I don’t think they have made a strategic decision to go for a weapon, but if tensions between the United States and Iran were to increase further, then that decision would probably be reassessed.
So I guess we just cross our fingers and hope that even though they go through all of the motions, they stop short of the goal. I guess that’s part of that “Hope” mantra from the Obama campaign.

In this interview on CNN, Parsi waves away Ahmadinejad’s letter to the UN last year condemning liberal western democracies in an attempt to bully the West to delay sanctions. Parsi says it’s a plea for negotiations with the US, when it’s clearly not. He goes on to blame the US for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, when there are a 160 other nations in the UN - why does the US have to talk with everyone?
To get the full dose of delusion from this young scholar, you have to read both of my posts on TAH. It's no wonder that Obama has been half-assed on his proposals to talk with Iran without preconditions if this is the kind of advice he's getting.

2008-11-16

Obama Gussies Up Website to Take Credit For Iraq Withdrawal

Iraqis and an American Soldier Dancing as SOFA is Announced, which Obama had nothing to do with [h/t MadTom]

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Iraq was put together by the executive branch of the current administration and is currently in the approval process by the Iraqi government. It was just approved by the Iraqi Cabinet today [AP], and awaits Parliamentary approval. The agreement requires that Coalition Forces be withdrawn from Iraq by 2012. This is a testament to the effectiveness of the surge in crippling the enemies of Iraq, the improvement of the Iraqi Security Forces, and highlights that the Iraqi people are comfortable that the worst is behind them. Journalists familiar with being on the front lines are saying that the war is essentially over.

Obama has been advocating for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq for quite some time; however, he did so when violence in Iraq was at its peak in 2007 and he even suggested that some level of genocide would be acceptable if troops were withdrawn early. But all is hunky-doory on Obama's website as he is still pushing his own withdrawal agenda, despite the fact that the SOFA is already done being negotiated by the Bush Administration. From Change.Gov:
The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month -- which would remove all of them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 -- more than 7 years after the war began.Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.
This plan sounds closely analogous to the SOFA, and no doubt The Obama is going to be the hero to anti-war lefties who have been clamoring for an end to the Iraq war ever since it began. The original Change.Gov Iraq Agenda called the Iraqi government a bunch of imbeciles for not making enough political progress. I guess "going with the program" and taking credit for other people's hard work is a step up. But, why does Obama feel like he has to cater to MoveOn.Org types who have been feeding us talking points about Iraq that conveniently ignore reality? At least he's not pushing that dumbass Biden plan from 2007 that went over like a lead balloon throughout the Middle East.

Barack and Michelle Say The Election Hasn't "Sunk in Yet"

Un-Fucking-Believable. The future First Family tells 60 Minutes that their election victory has not "sunk in yet". From CBS:



This is not winning the lottery, and I sure hope the guy leading our Armed Forces during a time of war knows what the hell he is doing.

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength!

One good thing for a progressive majority is that when they control the media and the three branches of government, they are able to easily subdue criticism by saying that the opposition are a pack of paranoid liars. Obama's Change.Gov agenda is back online after "retooling", and making the Assault Weapons Ban permanent is still there. Obama is no friend to gun rights, evidenced by his lackluster support for the Supreme Court D.C. vs. Heller ruling and the NRA having to rile up cash on behalf of responsible gun owners this election cycle. But knucklehead Bill Maher is already pointing out that anyone who isn't concerned with Obama's 2nd amendment positions is some kind of yokel. The latest clip from his show he speaks in a spooky monotone to joke:
The one part of the economy that is doing well I swear to god is the gun industry. Since Obama got elected gun sales have shot up because there's a, you know, this is, I read this in USA Today, a survey of Americans, how they felt about Obama's election, 67% proud, 59% excited, 30% pessimistic, 27% afraid. So we'd like to f#%k with those people right now. The people who are afraid. A little something we call Obama World. In Obama World all guns will be confiscated and melted down to make a giant statue of Allah.
Another example of Obama surrogates erroneously labeling the opposition as paranoid is progressive blogger Yglesias, member of the Center for American Progress, stating that no one on the left is pushing to limit free speech via the Fairness Doctrine. This is despite the fact that the Center for American Progress agenda states:
The new president and the Federal Communications Commission should restore the primacy of the public interest standard and our national commitment to diverse voices and diversity of ownership. The FCC should also prioritize including all of our rapidly diversifying population in the mainstream of the technological revolution so that women and members of minority and immigrant communities are not just consumers of technology, but also owners, producers, and creators of content, applications, and facilities.
Obama's agenda is also calling for "diverse" viewpoints in media ownership, which implies shutting down troublesome critics to publicly fund more "politically friendly" outlets under the guise of media ownership looking like a multi-ethnic Burger King Kids club. I have to hand it to Team Obama, they have effectively found a way to squash dissenting viewpoints by denying that their own positions are not really what they seem. At this rate, we'll be hearing about a Soylent Green ration policy for the huddled masses and the Obama surrogates will be denying that its people.

2008-11-15

Obama Begins Weekly YouTube Snooze Session



President-Elect Obama has begun a weekly YouTube address to the nation in an effort at transparency in government. In his first dull monologue, he discusses extending unemployment benefits, using $150B of Chinese money to expand "Green Jobs", and something about free Health Care.

zzzzzzz

YouTube has been around for over 2 years, and if you want to compete for views in our short-attention span world, you need to spice things up a bit. Here's a suggestion from our good friends in India:

That Bollywood Obama could sell anything!

2008-11-14

IVAW gets seat at Obama's table

When he was running to be everyone's president, Barack Obama wouldn't meet with General Petreaus while the general was commanding our efforts in Iraq. But now, it seems his staff will sit down with IVAW. A letter from Kelly Dougherty, the executive director of IVAW;
IVAW has been working to hold a face-to-face meeting with now President-elect and members of his staff. Our hard work has paid off! We’ve recently been contacted by a member of President-elect Obama’s veteran staff and will be meeting with representatives of both his Veteran and Foreign Affairs Committees this month. This is a huge opportunity for IVAW to assert our voice and perspective at a new level and to continue to demand accountability for ending the occupation.

So I'm guessing that the IVAW will be presenting their three demands - immediate withdrawal from Iraq (before we win despite their best efforts), fully funded veteran services (one out of three) and full reparations to the Iraqi people (with what money?). I wonder when the Obama staff will meet with the grown ups.

Dougherty continues;
We have been witness to the horror and violence of war and we are determined to give Americans a real eyewitness account of the occupations.

We? Got a combat veteran mouse in your pocket, Kel? Doughtery's testimony at Winter Soldier was confined to a single incident that involved KBR employees firing bean bags at Iraqi civilians to control the situation at the scene of an automobile accident. Oh, the horror. You know that's the worst incident she witnessed because if she had more she'd have used other stories instead.

Dougherty is also the person who told the House Progressive Caucus that they didn't need to swear in any of the witnesses who testified to the committee because IVAW had already verified their testimony. I wonder if any of the banking CEOs who testified to Congress this morning got the same consideration.

Thanks to my busy little mole for the tip.