Monday, February 08, 2010

Miss Me Yet Billboard Appears Along Minnesota Highway

‘Miss Me Yet?’ Billboard With Photo Of Bush Is Real; Not An Internet Trick

Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth—nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.

But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he’s seen it with his own eyes:

There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: “Miss Me Yet?”

Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.

Teehee. I love it. And yes, I miss W every single day.

John Murtha Has Died!

And I’m sorry, but I cannot find one good thing to say about this backstabbling man. I almost threw up a few minutes ago when Fox started eulogizing him as a great friend to the military. Yeh, I doubt the Marines feel that way, let’s ask those Haditha Marines he slandered. He was an anti-war moonbat who chose to throw in with the Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink crowd. He was slimey and used the federal treasury like his own private bank, and he wasn’t a very nice person all the way around. My condolences to his family, but that is about as far as I’m willing to go.

Murtha no friend of the militaryy

More from the WaPo

UPDATE:

• Murtha Must Go!: To Our Dear Readers...Our Final Post

Palin Mocks the Libs on HandGate

I have made no secret of the fact that I really like Sarah Palin. She is my kind of woman. An outdoors gal not afraid to get dirty, can carry her own weight on a fishing boat or in a Governor’s office, but most of all I love her smiling sarcasm and the way she so skillfully mocks her critics. Today is no exception.

After her speech Saturday night, a 45 minute speech given without a teleprompter, just some notes she had written out ahead of time and a few main topic items written on her palm. The left went ballistic over the few words. So, Palin, who is brilliant at this stuff, joins in on the joke and today at a rally for Gov. Perry in Texas, she is photographed with “Hi Mom” written on her palm. You gotta love it.

Powerline nails it: “It’s Palin’s secret weapon: she brings out the stupidity in her political opponents.”

Gateway Pundit has more:

• You Betcha!… Palin Campaigns For Rick Perry– Writes “Hi Mom” On Her Hand

Of course, the left is humorless, which makes her good-natured mocking even more delicious.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints and Their Fans

Saints Fans Celebrate Super Bowl Victory on Bourbon Street

If It’s Sunday, It Must Be Time for Funnies

The deficit and NASA cuts are the main topics this week. For all the Funnies, see:

• Sunday Funnies

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Embracing Communist Van Jones

So she is just another tin ear lefty radical Dem after all.

• Ex-Moderate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Embraces Communist Van Jones

Facing what could become a bruising primary battle, appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is embracing one of President Obama’s best known communist appointees, former green jobs czar Van Jones.

The Hill reports Gillibrand will share the stage with Jones at a panel discussion sponsored by the Advocacy Project at the Harvard Club in New York. Jones, a self-described “communist,” was pushed out of the Obama administration five months ago following the embarrassing revelation that he was a 9/11 “truther” who had signed a petition accusing the U.S. government of orchestrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

For a time, Jones had been politically radioactive to Democrats but Gillibrand’s decision to work alongside him appears to bring Jones’s political exile to an end.

Gillibrand, who had a reputation as a moderate Democrat before entering the U.S. Senate, has been steadily tacking to the left since being appointed to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton so it’s no surprise that she is cozying up to her party’s radical left-wing.

Read more

Sarah Palin Tea Party Speech (5 pt Video)

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Have They Finally Found a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Iraq? - Updated

After all these years, look what turned up, buried near Abu Ghraib.

Explosive discovery: Iraqi army officials with the rocket they found

• At last! Have they finally found a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in Iraq?

They have been searching in Iraq for the past nine years, 10 months and 15 days.

Today, the hard work finally paid off as soldiers found one of those elusive ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been hiding.

[...]

The bomb is thought to have been buried by Saddam Hussein’s regime before the UK and U.S. invasion of Iraq started in 2003.

Iraqi guards were as surprised as the rest of us to discover the ‘missile’ during an operation in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib suburb.

It is not yet known whether the seven-metre rocket is armed with a warhead.

UPDATED:

For some perspective, please see Drew’s remarks in the Comments, check the links included and also see:

• Half a Story is Worse than None

Breitbart to Media: “It’s Not Your Business Model That Sucks, It’s You That Sucks”

Andrew Brietbart was on a roll when he spoke this morning to the Tea Party Convention goers in Nashville, TN:

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Corpsman or a Corpse-man?

Oh Barack, didn’t you learn anything at Columbia or Harvard?

Anyone reading a teleprompter might make this mistake once if his thoughts are going faster than his eyes and mouth, but three times indicates the man doesn’t know the difference.

Laugh for the Day: Alfonzo Does Bandstand with Pat Boone (Video)

As one who used to run home from school to watch the original Bandstand, knew the regulars by name, and had a crush on a couple of the cuter guys, this cracked me up. Of course, just about everything Alfonzo does is both funny and timely.

He’s the President who’s always got something to say and somewhere new to say it. On Pat Boone’s Post-American Bandstand, they’re celebrating him with a song. http://www.PJTV.com.

Director - Roger L. Simon
Joe Jones (lead singer) played by Alfonzo Rachel
Backup Singer - Al Sonja Schmidt
Backup Singer- Laura Orrico
Backup Singer- Sharise Parviz
Background Dancer - Jamie Alexander
Background Dancer- Michele Stanton
Background Dancer- Miki Yamashita
Background Dancer- Ivette Badgley
Editor/VFX - Justin Folk
Musical Director - Boris Zelkin
Producer- Jonathan Atlas
Choreographer: Frankie Anne

(H/T: American Digest)

Cool! Danica Patrick Will Make Nationwide Series NASCAR Debut at Daytona

Since I’m a Danica fan, but more a NASCAR fan than an Indycar fan, I’m excited to hear this news.

BREAKING: Danica Patrick will drive for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR Nationwide Series team in 2010, a source close to the situation told Sporting News on Monday.

The formal announcement will come Tuesday in Phoenix, home of GoDaddy, which will sponsor her car. Tuesday’s announcement will end months of speculation about whether Patrick would race in NASCAR.

She will run a limited schedule in the Nationwide Series and will run all 18 races in the IndyCar Series. Details that will be announced Tuesday and in the weeks to come include Patrick’s schedule, car number and crew chief.

Check out Danica’s really hot Official Website.

I should mention that one of the reasons I’m jazzed about Danica driving for NASCAR is because she gets to do what I would love to do myself. 

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) Goes Off on Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag (Video)

Krauthammer: Obama Still Has No Functioning Interrogation Group Ready to Handle Terrorists (Video)

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Obama’s Agenda in One Sentence (Video)

Gerard Vanderleun writes:

Obama’s agenda in one sentence: I made this brief confessional clip because I know it will come in very handy over and over again. Bookmark so you can refer to it whenever you ask yourself, “But… but… why?”

Underwear Bomber Talking Again

Naturally Politico turns the story to make the point that it is bad for Republicans for the Underwear Bomber to be cooperating. This is total partisan BS. This is national security and national security should not wear a party label. If he is talking, this is good for Americans, Republicans, Independents, and Democrats alike.

• Underwear bomber talking again

The “underwear bomber” has resumed cooperating with FBI counterterrorism agents and has provided “useful, current” intelligence, a law enforcement source told POLITICO on Tuesday.

[...]

On Tuesday, intelligence officials told a congressional panel that Abdulmutallab has started talking federal agents again.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein asked FBI Director Robert Mueller if Abdulmutallab’s interrogation was ongoing and if federal investigators were receiving new information from him.

“Yes,” Mueller replied.

US Economy Drops to 8th Most Free

If anything gets the public’s attention, it is freedom or lack of freedom. This is more bad news for the party in power.

Via Instapundit:

CHANGE: “The Heritage Foundation annually ranks the world’s economies in order of freedom. This year, the United States fell to number eight, now classified as ‘mostly free’ rather than “free.” Canada’s economy is now rated as freer than ours.”

TARP Has Created a Looming Disaster - Updated: The Big Tarp Lie (Video)

• Inspector General: TARP Has Created a Looming Disaster

Yesterday the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) released their Quarterly Report to Congress for the period ending 12/31/2009. The executive summary tells us all we need to know about their assessment of the TARP initiatives over the past year. This whole segment is a MUST READ (it’s not a pretty picture):

UPDATE:

The Big Tarp Lie
FED GAVE Banks Access to 23.7 TRILLION DOLLARS NOT $700 Billion!

Monday, February 01, 2010

Licenses and Launches

The world could have come to an end today and I wouldn’t know it. I have not found my driver’s license and I’m so p.o.’d over this, I can’t see straight. The last thing I need right now is a day at the DMV getting a replacement. Not to mention, I discovered it missing when I went to cash my retirement check, which I have yet to be able to do. Fixed income living almost demands you have access to your money the moment it arrives, so it is trouble here in Pal2Pal city.

That said, today wasn’t a total loss. It is LAUNCH DAY, for our new CALPAL, a blog for and about California and Californians. Please check it out and if you are a Californian and want to help us help the right side take back this state, send an email or become a volunteer newshound and/or contributor to the cause. Follow CALPALHQ on Twitter too.

16 Lies in 7 Minutes

I cannot find my driver’s license and the world must stop until I do find it, so here is a quicky.

Via Gateway Pundit:

This was brilliant.  Remember when you view this that this was only a seven minute clip of his 68 minute long speech.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Andrew Klavan: Liberal Fantasies vs. Reality, Can you Spot the Difference? (Video)

Laugh of the Day: Funniest Political Ad Evva (Video)

I ignored the first four times I saw this video linked, but at the fifth link, I decided to take a look. First, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone advertise for coroner, so in that sense, this video may be unique, but even though ghoulish, it is a damn clever ad. As you know, we are alway up for teh funny.

Roger Ailes vs Arianna Huffington Re: Glenn Beck (Video)

Rasmussen: Americans Don’t Believe the President about the Economy

Rasmussen reported:

During his State-of-the-Union address Wednesday night, President Obama spoke about a deficit of trust between the American people and political leaders. New Rasmussen Reports polling on the president’s speech shows just how deep that trust deficit has become.

The president in the speech declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He even chided Republicans for not applauding on that point. However, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that taxes have been cut for 95% of Americans. Most (53%) say it has not happened, and 26% are not sure. Other polling shows that nearly half the nation’s voters expect their own taxes to go up during the Obama years.

The president also asserted that “after two years of recession, the economy is growing again.” Just 35% of voters believe that statement is true, while 50% say it is false.

Obama claimed that steps taken by his team are responsible for putting two million people to work “who would otherwise be unemployed.” Just 27% of voters say that statement is true. Fifty-one percent (51%) say it’s false.

Wait until the Bush tax cuts expire. We are all going to take a big hit.

Are We Really Viruses?

MisterMandM, who has been busy surfing in Costa Rica, brought the following science article to my attention. It is a fascinating article about the new discovery that we are as much viruses as we are human. It talks about symbiotic relationships, RNA/DNA, how viruses have had an effect on our evolution and on mutations that then become part of our DNA passed along through millions of years. If you aren’t into science, you’ll probably want to skip this article, but it really is worth your time.

It made me wonder if I might finally have the answer to why I seem to have a natural immunity to chicken pox, a disease that I’ve been exposed to close at hand at least three times, either with my best friends, who broke out with chicken pox during a week that I was visiting at their home for a week, to my son, who the doctors said had one of the worst cases they’d ever seen, and yet have never contracted it myself. My Mother always thought it was because she had Shingles, a related disease, just a few months before she got pregnant with me. I don’t know, but this article makes it seem that this explanation could have some legitimacy. Of course, I’m not sure it explains why she was ultra-sensitive to poison oak and poison ivy, yet I seem to be also immune to the toxins in those plants. I once fell into a patch of poison ivy with no ill effects, while my husband could break out after being out in the backyard while a neighbor half a block a way was burning brush that included poison ivy vines and the smoke drifting our way was enough to cause him a week’s worth of misery covered in poison ivy.

• I, Virus: Why You’re Only Half human

When, in 2001, the human genome was sequenced for the first time, we were confronted by several surprises. One was the sheer lack of genes: where we had anticipated perhaps 100,000 there were actually as few as 20,000. A bigger surprise came from analysis of the genetic sequences, which revealed that these genes made up a mere 1.5 per cent of the genome. This is dwarfed by DNA deriving from viruses, which amounts to roughly 9 per cent.

On top of that, huge chunks of the genome are made up of mysterious virus-like entities called retrotransposons, pieces of selfish DNA that appear to serve no function other than to make copies of themselves. These account for no less than 34 per cent of our genome.

All in all, the virus-like components of the human genome amount to almost half of our DNA. This would once have been dismissed as mere “junk DNA”, but we now know that some of it plays a critical role in our biology. As to the origins and function of the rest, we simply do not know.

The human genome therefore presents us with a paradox. How does this viral DNA come to be there? What role has it played in our evolution, and what is it doing to our physiology? To answer these questions we need to deconstruct the origins of the human genome - a story more fantastic than anything we previously imagined, with viruses playing a bigger part than you might care to believe.

Read more

RELATED:

Although not about the type of research detailed above, it is related in the sense that breakthroughs in understanding how the HIV/AIDS virus does its thing is leading to some major breakthroughs that will help develop the drugs needed to wipe out this scourge:

• Scientists say crack HIV/AIDS puzzle for drugs
  * Study solves puzzle that eluded scientists for 20 years
  * Finding should help development of new HIV/AIDS medicines
  * Allows scientists to see how Merck and Gilead drugs work

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Scientists say they have solved a crucial puzzle about the AIDS virus after 20 years of research and that their findings could lead to better treatments for HIV.

British and U.S. researchers said they had grown a crystal that enabled them to see the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV and is a target for some of the newest HIV medicines.

“Despite initially painstakingly slow progress and very many failed attempts, we did not give up and our effort was finally rewarded,” said Peter Cherepanov of Imperial College London, who conducted the research with scientists from Harvard University.

The Imperial and Harvard scientists said that having the integrase structure means researchers can begin fully to understand how integrase inhibitor drugs work, how they might be improved, and how to stop HIV developing resistance to them.

When the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects someone, it uses the integrase enzyme to paste a copy of its genetic information into their DNA, Cherepanov explained in the study published in the Nature journal on Sunday.

Some new drugs for HIV—like Isentress from Merck & Co (MRK.N) and elvitegravir, an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences (GILD.O)—work by blocking integrase, but scientists are not clear exactly how they work or how to improve them.

The 9/11 Terror Trials, Where oh Where?

While I have been buried in work trying to get our new blog, CalPal, ready for tomorrow’s launch, there has been some big and very welcome news:

• U.S. Drops Plan for a 9/11 Trial in New York City

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

Several other New York venues have been discussed, as well as talk of Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA, but apparently no one wants the hassle, the expense, and the threats to security that this dumb move of wanting to try KSM and the other 9/11 conspirators in a civilian federal court in an American city would cause.

I was still in bed this morning, when I heard some TV person say that the Obama Justice Dept., a.k.a. Eric Holder, wanted the trial in a civilian court because there was a better chance of these terrorists getting life in prison, where in a military tribunal they might go free. I didn’t yet have my eyes open and the TV sound was coming from another room, so I can’t tell you who made such a ludicrous statement. There is only one reason these clowns want KSM and his cronies tried on American soil and in a civilian court ... because Bush didn’t want to do it that way.

Anyway, it sounds as if finally the message is getting through that this was a bad idea that just kept getting worse.

Now today we get this:

• Bay what? Guantanamo eyed for 9/11 trial

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won’t be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it.

The administration is likely considering Gitmo because Congress is moving to cut off funding for holding the expensive trials in civilians courts.

Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it.

The administration is likely considering Gitmo because Congress is moving to cut off funding for holding the expensive trials in civilians courts.

Read more

Congress should move faster to cut off the funding. There must be a few adults left somewhere in Congress, surely.

Andy McCarthy, a man who has been through terrorism trials when he was a prosecutor for the first World Trade Center bombers, knows of what he speaks:

Reality has yet again dragged the Obama administration, kicking and screaming, toward a more sensible policy. Like the decision to close Gitmo, which was announced without regard for the imperative of detaining committed jihadists, the decision to hold civilian trials for alien enemy combatants was made without regard for security, costs, the prospect of surrendering national defense information to the enemy during wartime, or the betrayal of humanitarian law caused by rewarding the worst war criminals with gold-plated due process. Not holding the civilian trial in New York City is a good thing. Not holding a civilian trial at all would be a far better thing. Since we have not made provisions for a national-secuirty court to deal with the novel challenge of international terrorism, wartime alien enemy combatants should be tried by military commission in the safety of Guantanamo Bay — which is what it was built for, at great expense to the American taxpayer.

But hold on says Sarah Palin, just moving the trial doesn’t solve everything.

• Stay Focused: Relocating Terrorists’ Trial Doesn’t Solve the Main Problem

People are celebrating the fact that the Obama Administration is considering relocating the terrorists’ trial from New York to another American city. Yet there’s still no talk of moving the trial out of our U.S. civilian courts to where it should take place – a military tribunal.

Now the administration is backtracking in order to fix its initially blundered decision to try these dangerous terrorists in New York City despite the great danger and cost to New Yorkers. This scenario is all too common in Washington. The tactic is to propose something so outrageous that the public will rise up and demand common sense, and then the White House “concedes” and changes its initial decision to give the impression of newfound reasonability and moderation. But the problem still isn’t solved! The trial location debate becomes a diversion so that we’ll take our eyes off the ball. The point missed is that our President still wants to give these terrorists U.S. constitutional protections in our civilian courts, allowing them to lawyer-up on our dime.

This tactic is in the same vein as another Washington game: creating the appearance of a “crisis” in order to push for a radical solution. (“The health care crisis must be fixed by government now or we’re all gonna die! The earth’s temperature is fluctuating; government must fix this crisis now or we’re all gonna die! Private businesses made poor decisions and bureaucrats claim they’re too big to fail, so government must fix this crisis now or we’re all gonna die!”) Politicians and lobbyists announce that there is a “crisis,” and never letting a good crisis go to waste, they propose a radical solution to fix it. The public listens intently, and in a sincere desire to help, an alternative to the politicians’ radical solution gets put forward. The politicians then “concede” and mellow out their radical solution. The public’s attention has been diverted to tinkering on the periphery, all the while ignoring the real problem at the heart of the “crisis” that started the whole debate.

I’m in the FDR school, pre-Nuremberg Nazi Trials, just take them out an shoot ‘em. They’ve already stood and pleaded guilty, proud of the what they planned and executed. Why anyone wants to spend $200 million to try someone who has already proclaimed to the world that he is guilty and proud of it?

Michael Hayden, an expert who knows also of what he speaks, blasts the Obama Administration for the way they are handling terrorists:

• Obama admnistration takes several wrong paths in dealing with terrorism

In the war on terrorism, this country faces an enemy whose theory of warfare ends the hard-won distinction in modern thought between combatant and noncombatant. In doing that for which we have created government—ensuring life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—how can we be adequately aggressive to ensure the first value, without unduly threatening the other two? This is hard. And people don’t have to be lazy or stupid to get it wrong.

We got it wrong in Detroit on Christmas Day. We allowed an enemy combatant the protections of our Constitution before we had adequately interrogated him. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is not “an isolated extremist.” He is the tip of the spear of a complex al-Qaeda plot to kill Americans in our homeland.

In the 50 minutes the FBI had to question him, agents reportedly got actionable intelligence. Good. But were there any experts on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the room (other than Abdulmutallab)? Was there anyone intimately familiar with any National Security Agency raw traffic to, from or about the captured terrorist? Did they have a list or photos of suspected recruits?

When questioning its detainees, the CIA routinely turns the information provided over to its experts for verification and recommendations for follow-up. The responses of these experts—“Press him more on this, he knows the details” or “First time we’ve heard that”—helps set up more detailed questioning.

None of that happened in Detroit. In fact, we ensured that it wouldn’t. After the first session, the FBI Mirandized Abdulmutallab and—to preserve a potential prosecution—sent in a “clean team” of agents who could have no knowledge of what Abdulmutallab had provided before he was given his constitutional warnings. As has been widely reported, Abdulmutallab then exercised his right to remain silent.

In retrospect, the inadvisability of this approach seems self-evident. Perhaps it didn’t appear that way on Dec. 25 because we have, over the past year, become acclimated to certain patterns of thought.

Read more

• Sen McConnell: Larry King Better At Interrogating Guests Than Justice Department Was With Christmas Bomber

This comment from JOM would be funny, if it weren’t so true and frightening:

Just for a lark, I decided to google Obama+fight and jot down the topics. 

Here is the first page of the results:
• fight the smears
• fight [the birthers]
• [urges Dems to] fight for his agenda
• fight over jobs
• fight racism
• fight to deliver on climate pledges
• fight supreme court campaign finance decision
• fight with banks
• fight [political opponents]

Not all these are his fault (some are even detractors), but it’s remarkable to me how often we see this administration use the word “fight” to refer to political battles, and how rarely against the actual enemies of America.

Posted by:Cecil Turner | January 31, 2010 at 10:19 AM

Friday, January 29, 2010

Alert - Tea Party Movement Supporters - Beware the SEIU! - Alert

If you support the Tea Party Movement, you are going to want to read this:

• Confirmed: “Tea Party Is Over” Website Is Funded By SEIU

Krauthammer on SOTU: Almost Nothing on Terrorism

Three attacks this year, the Arkansas murder, the Fort Hood massacre, and the Christmas Day Crotch Bomber and nary a word.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Poll: Crisis of Confidence Among all Americans Including Millennials (18-29)

Big Government has more at the link, but I have to say that I find these poll numbers for Millennials surprising.

• Poll: Americans – and Millennials – Lack Confidence in Government and Wall Street on Economy

Among the key findings, Americans and Millennials:

Are not confident in the government’s ability to handle the economic crisis. (59% of Americans;  55% of Millennials)

• Want a free market approach and oppose greater government regulation of business.  (55% of Americans; 53% of Millennials)
• Believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.  (67% of Americans; 60% of Millennials)
• Want the same set of moral standards in business life as in personal life.  (75% of Americans; 66% of Millennials)
• See business decisions based on greed as morally wrong. (74% of Americans; 77% of Millennials)
• Think their careers will be negatively impacted for the long-term by the current economic situation (55% of Americans under 65 years old; 55% of Millennials).

Sarah Palin: The Credibility Gap

Terrific response from Sarah Palin.

• The Credibility Gap

While I don’t wish to speak too harshly about President Obama’s state of the union address, we live in challenging times that call for candor.  I call them as I see them, and I hope my frank assessment will be taken as an honest effort to move this conversation forward.

Last night, the president spoke of the “credibility gap” between the public’s expectations of their leaders and what those leaders actually deliver. “Credibility gap” is a good way to describe the chasm between rhetoric and reality in the president’s address. The contradictions seemed endless.

He called for Democrats and Republicans to “work through our differences,” but last year he dismissed any notion of bipartisanship when he smugly told Republicans, “I won.”

He talked like a Washington “outsider,” but he runs Washington! He’s had everything any president could ask for – an overwhelming majority in Congress and a fawning press corps that feels tingles every time he speaks. There was nothing preventing him from pursuing “common sense” solutions all along. He didn’t pursue them because they weren’t his priorities, and he spent his speech blaming Republicans for the problems caused by his own policies.

He dared us to “let him know” if we have a better health care plan, but he refused to allow Republicans in on the negotiations or consider any ideas for real free market and patient-centered reforms. We’ve been “letting him know” our ideas for months from the town halls to the tea parties, but he isn’t interested in listening. Instead he keeps making the nonsensical claim that his massive trillion-dollar health care bill won’t increase the deficit.

Americans are suffering from job losses and lower wages, yet the president practically demanded applause when he mentioned tax cuts, as if allowing people to keep more of their own hard-earned money is an act of noblesse oblige. He claims that he cut taxes, but I must have missed that. I see his policies as paving the way for massive tax increases and inflation, which is the “hidden tax” that most hurts the poor and the elderly living on fixed incomes.

[...]

He spoke of doing what’s best for the next generation and not leaving our children with a “mountain of debt,” but under his watch this year, government spending is up by 22%, and his budget will triple our national debt.

He spoke of a spending freeze, but doesn’t he realize that each new program he’s proposing comes with a new price tag? A spending freeze is a nice idea, but it doesn’t address the root cause of the problem. We need a comprehensive examination of the role of government spending. The president’s deficit commission is little more than a bipartisan tax hike committee, lending political cover to raise taxes without seriously addressing the problem of spending.

He condemned bailouts, but he voted for them and then expanded and extended them. He praised the House’s financial reform bill, but where was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in that bill? He still hasn’t told us when we’ll be getting out of the auto and the mortgage industries. He praised small businesses, but he’s spent the past year as a friend to big corporations and their lobbyists, who always find a way to make government regulations work in their favor at the expense of their mom & pop competitors.

He praised the effectiveness of his stimulus bill, but then he called for another one – this time cleverly renamed a “jobs bill.” The first stimulus was sold to us as a jobs bill that would keep unemployment under 8%.

[...]

He spoke of supporting young girls in Afghanistan who want to go to school and young women in Iran who courageously protest in the streets, but where were his words of encouragement to the young girls of Afghanistan in his West Point speech? And where was his support for the young women of Iran when they were being gunned down in the streets of Tehran?

[...]

Real private sector jobs are created when taxes are low, investment is high, and people are free to go about their business without the heavy hand of government. The president thinks innovation comes from government subsidies. Common sense conservatives know innovation comes from unleashing the creative energy of American entrepreneurs.

Everything seems to be “unexpected” to this administration: unexpected job losses; unexpected housing numbers; unexpected political losses in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey. True leaders lead best when confronted with the unexpected. But instead of leading us, the president lectured us. He lectured Wall Street; he lectured Main Street; he lectured Congress; he even lectured our Supreme Court Justices.

He criticized politicians who “wage a perpetual campaign,” but he gave a campaign speech instead of a state of the union address. The campaign is over, and President Obama now has something that candidate Obama never had: an actual track record in office. We now can see the failed policies behind the flowery words. If Americans feel as cynical as the president suggests, perhaps it’s because the audacity of his recycled rhetoric no longer inspires hope.

Real leadership requires results. Real hope lies in the ingenuity, generosity, and boundless courage of the American people whose voices are still not being heard in Washington.

- Sarah Palin