Presidential "Firsts"

Over at Director-Blue, Doug has been running a post that he updates periodically that highlights all of the “firsts” that have occurred in the ongoing four-year disaster that we call Barack Obama’s first (hopefully only) term as President.

I love this post because it gives you great ammunition to take on those Obama-living liberals. Doug gives you facts, which is something that can completely befuddle a liberal and cause their head to explode. Oh, I’m sorry, was that a violent image? Of course, I am speaking figuratively, not literally. Because if actually exploding heads were really the outcome of fact-based arguments, it would pretty gory out there.

For some reason, the actual page is not loading properly on his site. It could be an issue on my end. So, in the interest of getting this to you I am going put a decent portion here. Hopefully Doug won’t be too upset with me. And here is the link to the entire page just in case it is an issue on my end or Doug is able to fix it.

Because the number of historic “first” keeps expanding by leaps and bounds, Doug has decided to break them down by category. As far as I can tell, this categorization is also a first. Without further ado:

LAW AND JUSTICE:

Barack Obama is the first President…

Why Is It Even Close?

Good Grief!

How is it even possible?

Obama: 48%

Romney: 46%

OK, the recent dem convention probably gave President Obama a bump. But how is it that he has ever been ahead in the polls?

I find it very disheartening.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment is at 8.1%. And this is the rate among those actually LOOKING for work. It does not account for the millions who have basically given up until conditions improve. Real unemployment is closer to 12%.

Think about that number people!

One out every six able body Americans are out of work. In some places like California it is close to every one out of five people can’t find a job.

GOVERNMENT DOLE

45 million people are on food stamps. Yes, Barack Obama is the food-stamp president, Al Sharpton and all the other race-hustler be danged.

The number of people “needing” government assistance through the food stamp program has nearly doubled over the past couple of decades, a significant portion of that increase occurring during King Barack’s reign.

The US population is a bit over 300 million. We currently have about 12% of the population on some sort of food stamp program. And while I might have been a bit cheesy in the above sentence regarding folks “needing” government assistance it is a bit odd that the percentage of real unemployed and the number of folks on food stamps dovetails. Related?

Does Mr. Obama Disrespect the US Flag?

Of course this was NOT reported in the lame stream media but it appears that our First, ahem, Lady, Michelle Obama completely and utterly disrespect the US Flag.

Lip readers have said that it appears that she is saying “All of this for a flag.”

I think what bothers me even more was the response from her husband. He smiles grimly and nods. Almost as if he is agreeing with her stance on the matter.

From the “For the first time I am proud to be an American”, to the “clinging to their guns and religion” comments and his initial refusal to wear the US flag lapel pin and his startling lack of ability to connect with US Troops we keep getting reminds of just how far off the main stream this guy really is.

Why the upcoming election is even close right now is beyond me. I do understand why there is a segment of our country that will vote for this guy no matter what he does. But for all you middle of the roaders out there who just want to live your lives, standing on your own two feet, it completely baffles me why you’d even consider voting for this guy once more.

Someone Is Really Upset

Very good “Afterburner” from Bill Whittle.

Follow the Ideology basically makes a very compelling case why President Obama and US Attorney General Holder developed and/or allowed Operation Fast and Furious to happen.

There is no question the dude is pissed.

Could Schools Ban Cell Phones?

If you haven’t seen the video below, you have most likely been living in a cave. But I am sure, dear reader, that you are aware. But I am not posting this as news, but as a reminder.

Plus, how long do you think it will be before schools ban cell phones in the classroom? The incident above could very well been considered a watershed event, exposing leftist and socialist teachers for what they really are. Now, before I get a bunch of comments from teachers, please note that I do know there are many teachers out there that able to maintain their neutrality and get the bias from the classroom, or have conservative values.

I know that the kind of recording that took place in North Carolina last month could embolden others to do the same thing. And while I think we may be coming close to crossing a line, keeping teachers in line who believe the classroom is for leftist manipulation is a good idea. The possibility of being recorded by a student might go a long way towards these kinds of teachers from spending too much time praising the “Dear Leader”.

But, you and I know that the teachers unions have immense power and will do everything possible to keep these records from happening. How long will it be before a school district bans the phone from the classroom? Has it already happened? How long before it more than just an isolated district here and there?

Crybaby

All I can say is: WAAAAAAAAAAA.

You lie in the world you create.

Chris "The Thrill" Matthews created this world as one of the leftist media’s greatest Obama fans.

In the video he tries to answer an interview question regarding the “thrill” episode back before the 2008 election (coronation?) of President Barack Obama. He spends an inordinate amount of time trying (and failing) to put “the thrill” into context. Matthews should have been a politician. Just like the rest of them he is incapable of just a simple "yes" or "no" answer, which was requested by the host.

Watch the original below. Oh, and please note the slobbering by Keith “I keep getting fired because I’m an Idiot” Olbermann at the beginning of the clip.

I really like this post over at Doug Ross’s site.

He basically takes the word “Totalitarianism” and breaks it down piece by piece to show you how Obama and his administration are functioning. I wonder if people knew this was the “change” that was referred to during his campaign if he would have won the election.

I have had this queasy feeling for quite some time about how Obama does things. Doug really does a good job of putting it together for you.

Obama Thrashes Constitution

Awesome post over at Director Blue showing how much our current is treading on the Constitution.
Here are a few examples:

First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States government.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.

The first President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

There are about more than two dozen other examples of Obama’s thrashing of the Constitution with links to back it all up. If you have a few minutes, please take a gander.

Obama Shafts Military Again

As part of a military retirement ceremony, one of the presentos given to the retiree is a letter “signed” by the Commander in Chief (President). Since I retired in 2010, my Commander in Chief was President Barack Obama. Because of his record towards the military, both as president and as a Senator, I decided not to have the letter presented to me as part of the ceremony. I do have it, but having a letter from him read aloud, thanking me for my service, kind of rang a bit hollow to me. I do have it, but it will never be displayed.

Now Obama has yet again confirmed this decision.

President Obama’s latest policy outrage makes no attempt to hide his contempt for our military, as he is ordering that our troops serving overseas in war zones overseas are no to receive combat pay unless they are being shot at, or at risk of being injured by hostile aggression. A Marine who lives in Florida (also currently serving in Afghanistan) has just posted a note on facebook which stated that he received a letter from his MyPay account that he would only be receiving his Hazard pay (Imminent Danger Pay) if he actually in a hostile area and at the risk of being shot at.

“So I just got a letter from MyPay (the way we get paid in the military), saying that I will only receive Combat Pay while deployed for the days that I take fire or am in a hostile area. Now, as an Infantry Marine, I’m constantly in a combat zone…it may not always be popping off, but for them to take that away from us is bull----. Now the aviation tech who sits on Camp Leatherneck, sure, I can see him not getting Combat Pay, but to take it away from the grunts, that ground pounders, the front line of defense…come on, Uncle Sam. You let the Liberals win a big one here…Marine from Florida” (Name redacted) (Source (Conservative Action Alerts)

The Marine make a very a couple of valid points. While you are “outside the wire” you are in constant danger of getting hit. It could be a sniper taking potshots at your convoy; it could be that improvised explosive device cooking off while on a dismounted patrol; or it could be a group of combatants firing AK’s at helicopters as they fly overhead.

Obama Unveils

From the State of the Union address.

“The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs the of the American people.”

With that one utterance, I truly feel the veil has been dropped. President Obama has completely revealed himself to be a power-hungry far-left zealot.

This is the change that he promised. It wasn’t to make America great again, it was to remake America into his far-left, Sal Alinsky buttered view. The first step in making this happen is to make the other two branches of the government irrelevant. His is already well underway with this task with his “recess” appointments and unprecedented power given to various agencies.

While government inefficiency is a mainstay of nearly every politician’s stated goal to cure, it is most often under the umbrella of reducing the size of the government, not consolidating the power under one branch or another.

Obama’s power grab could not have been more obvious and is the most recently and scary attempt to basically become a dictator.

How this has not become front page news is beyond me. The press sure didn’t have a hard time pointing out President George Bush’s supposed unconstitutional acts.

Volts: Folks Don't Want 'em, Neither Do the Dealers

President Obama and his Green Crew have hitched their wagon to the heavily subsidized Chevy Volt to satisfy the far left environmental extremists in the party. He is also hoping the Volt takes off so that he can justify his continued assault on US energy producers (elimination of the coal industry and no permits for the Keystone pipeline).

It hasn’t quite worked out how they thought it would. General Government Motors had predicted hot sales for the electric hybrid, thinking 10,000 would be a reasonable goal. For 2011 only about 7,600 Volts were sold, not even coming close to the goal.

And now it seems that even the dealers don’t want them. This is from The Foundry:

Automotive News gives an example this morning in the New York City market where last month, GM allocated 104 Volts to 14 dealerships in the area and dealers took just 31 of them, the lowest take rate for any Chevy model in that market last month. The group of dealers orders more than 90% of the other vehicles they were eligible to take…

In Clovis, Calif., Brett Hedrick, dealer principal at Hedrick’s Chevrolet, sold ten Volts last year. But in December and January he turned down all six Volts allocated to under GM’s “turn-and-earn” system, which distributes vehicles based on past sales volumes and inventory levels. GM’s “thinking we need six more Volts is just crazy,’ Hedrick said to Automotive News. “We’ve never sold more than two in a month.” Hedrick says he usually takes just about every vehicle that GM allocates to him. (Source: The Foundry) (h/t: Doug over at Director Blue)

I wonder how long it will be before Obama requires dealership to take possession of all the Volts GM allocates. Does anyone think that the current administration won’t force GM to put together some sort of policy that dealers must take the allocations of the Volts? And I am sure that shortly after this policy is put into place, GM will then begin to publicize the number of Volts sent to dealerships, rather than actual cars sold, as the stats used to show Volt “success.”

El Presidente Obama

Ran across an interesting article on whether this election could be our last if President Obama should win a second term. Please read the article and then read my post. I also recommend you bookmark this site.

Over the past three years as I have watched President Obama with an obviously critical eye, a nagging feeling has been scratching at the back of my mind.

Would President Obama either try to make the 2012 elections null and void if he lost or, if he won, would he takes steps to ensure that he never had to step down, ala FDR (his hero BTW)?

President for Life?

Before you all start sending me tinfoil for my conspiracy hat, please hear me out.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Or rather robbing the American taxpayer to pay our Chinese (and others) debt holders.

This little piece of news goes beyond disturbing. Seems that the Treasury Department is going to dip into the federal pension funds to help pay off the debt.

Sure wish I had a taxpayer fed  pool of money that I could use to get my debt paid off. But considering Obama and his crew think of taxpayer money as theirs and not belonging to the people of the United States of America, it is not surprising this move doesn’t bother them too terribly much. It just amazes (well, maybe not!) me that these people think the supply of money is limitless. I sure when questioned about in the next day or two, Obama and his crew will blame Bush.

Some Things to Think About

Some interesting tidbits picked up today through a friend.

Nearly every president since the turn of the previous century has had people on their staff that had business experience. While some of the progressive democrats had as little as 30% of their staff with business experience it pales in comparison to how much business experience can be found within the Obama Administration. Warp your hands around this figure: 8%. That’s right people; only 8% of Obama advisors have any sort of private sector business experience.

And we expect these people to lead us out of our economic troubles?

To further point out just how inept Obama is when it comes to picking out people to provide him with economic advice take a look below

Franklin Raines was a Chairman of Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae’s accounting activities. Raines left with a “golden parachute” valued at $240 million in benefits. The government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear.

Raines now works for President Obama as his Chief Economic Advisor.

Eric Holder: The Dark Cloud

Over the past few months as the Republican race has heated up and candidates came and went, there has been an uneasiness floating around in the dark recesses of my mind. For a while, I thought much of the disquiet had to do with the fact that we Republicans and Conservatives can’t seem to settle on a candidate. While we kept chasing the flavor of the month (Perry, Cain, Bachmann, et al), the Obama White had to certainly feel both comfort and concern.

Comfort: If I were Obama I’d look at the seeming dysfunction within the Republican Party and rub my hands with mild glee. It has to feel somewhat encouraging to Obama and his crew that we can’t seem to settle on a candidate.

Concern: Somewhere within the apparatus that is the Obama White House there has to be one individual with a level head that looks at the back and forth going on in the Republican nomination process and says to him/herself “This might not be all wine and roses.” Unlike what the mainstream press did with Obama back in 2007/8, our candidate is going to be thoroughly vetted by the same press that swooned over a certain first-dude born in Hawaii. Once the nomination process has run its course and focus switches to denying Obama another four years, there will be little “surprise” news that could derail the Republican nominee, allowing whoever it is to fire away on all cylinders.

Getting back to the main point here, I soon decided that the dark cloud that I could see on the horizon was not the nomination process and the rumble and tumble going on there. What brought clarity for me was the recent spat of suits brought by the Eric Holder Justice Department against cities, towns, and states that were implementing some form of voter identification. Recently Mr. Holder stated that these voter ID laws are taking America back to the days of Jim Crow and “the same disparities, divisions and problems” that affected America prior to the 1965 passage of the Voter Rights Act.

Keep in mind that Obama recently hailed from Chicago and that region has a notorious reputation for bending, to the point of breaking, election laws. After all the term “vote early and vote often” has its roots in Chicago. Any laws on the books that could suppress repeat voting and voting by non-existent and dead persons and is not the “Chicago way.” Based on many recent polls that are not very favorable for his re-election, Obama is going to need all the help he can get in 2012 if he wants to continue to occupy the White House and send Michelle on lavish vacation to the far-flung reaches of the global.

Holder has already proven that he will do anything to maintain his place at the Justice department, including “not remembering” any memos, e-mails, talk, scuttlebutt, rumors, and just plain old news on “Fast and Furious.” I have no doubts that Holder will do everything in his power to redact any laws that will prevent dead people and Mickey Mouse from voting several times over.

Obama has also proven over again that his feeling towards the rule of law and the Constitution are nothing more than lines in a speech.

If Obama wins re-election at the end of this year, I would not be surprised that it happens with many shenanigans at various locations around the nation. Remember, all he has to do is carry certain districts in certain key states to win the Electoral College totals. I think we can safely assume big states like California and New York are already in the bag. Take those and he has a quarter of the electors needed for victory. But in a few others states where the vote could be closer like Illinois, Pennsylvania, and even Texas all that has to happen is districts near the larger cities like Pittsburg, Houston, and Chicago vote early and often in favor of Obama and the tide could change. This might actually be a first. A presidential nominee who is not above 45% approval gaining re-election.

So the dark cloud remains on the horizon and feels menacing.

Any means necessary.

BTW: To all of those who'll call me a racist for putting dark cloud and Eirc Holder in the same sentence I'll say it now just so I don't have to in the comments section. Shut the heck up!

Holder Playing Race Card

Interesting post over at Sister Toldjah about how Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are beginning to play the race card as both the 2012 presidential race and the fast and Furious case heat up.

ST provides several examples of how the race card has been played in the past, noting that when his back is up against the wall like during the 2010 mid-term elections, he really ratchets up the rhetoric.

The longer this guy stays in office, the further the divide is going to get.

Obama Costs US Even More Jobs

To call this anything but tragic would be wrong. Postponing the Keystone Pipeline decision until after the 2012 elections borders on lunacy with the fact that our economy still teeters. President Obama has thrown the American recovery under the bus (yet again). I wonder if the unions are starting to get the message that the only thing the Obama likes is the union money. He cares not a wit about the American worker. (Link via Doug Ross)

Obama Refuses to Enforce Our Laws

Illegal immigration and the Hispanic vote. Just recently President Obama used his Executive privileges to decrease the number of illegal immigrants deported back to their country of citizenship. Under his direction, White House lawyers issued a memo that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting illegal immigrants who have not committed any violent crimes or not considered national security risks. Never mind that they have broken the law by just being here illegally, hence the term “illegal immigrant.”

As Obama has done quite frequently in recent months, he has most likely over-stepped his authority by telling an agency under his control not to enforce the laws of the United States. Our Constitutional Scholar is at it again.

Obama has been issuing these orders over the last few months in an attempt to shore up his declining poll numbers. He knows that he has really lost the middle of the country and since the economy is not showing much in the way of improvement, Obama has to come at his reelection from a different angle.

He has allowed the EPA to run roughshod over energy producers who generate power using fossil fuels. Despite the fact that this will cause the loss of thousands of jobs, will reduce energy production capacity by as much as 20% in the Midwest and East Coast, and will cause energy costs to “necessarily skyrocket”, he still had his EPA chief push these new regulations through. All he is doing is shoring up his radical environmentalist base, the rest of us be danged.

Obama Panders Yet Again

As I pointed out the other day, President Obama is making a bid to make Congress irrelevant. Not that there are not times when the congress-critters don’t deserve a little knot on the head every once in a while, but this blatant power grab by our socialist-democrat president is quite clear for all to see.

As most of you already know, he has decided that he doesn’t need Congress to revamp the student loan program, a program that he took over in 2010 when he signed into law a bill that removes private banks from the government backed student loan program. This bill flew under the radar a bit since it was passed shortly after the health care bill was passed. What might not be known is that as of right now, there is over $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. That is almost as much as the health care bill, yet it received scant attention. Prior to July 2010 the government was on the hook for about 20 percent of the balance by guaranteeing the loans. When this bill became law, that figure jumped to 80 percent (the rest are private loans).

Obama argued for the measure in 2009 as a cost-saving initiative, saying that the old system of privately issued, government secured loans reduced the amount of available money for needy student and also prevents the feds from making the system more efficient, (Source: Fox News)

El Presidente for Life

Over the past year I have blogged several times about how President Obama is increasingly taking Congress out of the mix when it comes to governing our nation through his czars and his unilateral executive orders.

While certainly not the first instance of Obama threatening to bypass Congress, this was probably the one that caught everyone’s attention (of course, except those in the main stream media).

“Believe me; doing things on my own is very tempting.”

That little sentence scares the livin’ snot out of me. How can someone who purports to be a Constitutional scholar really believe this is a good way to govern? What is even scarier is the crowd chanting its approval. Are these people really Americans? Do they really want to live in nation where power is even more centralized than it is now? Maybe they should move to Venezuela or Iran to get a taste of what it is like to live under a dictator.