"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
President Ronald Reagan
Remember John Danks, who is now a starter for the White Sox?
You don't trade lefties!
Remember Chris Young? You don't trade young righthanders either!
According to Richard Durrett, the Rangers are heavy into the Halladay negotiations.
Team President Nolan Ryan has confirmed that the Rangers are talking and willing to move some of their top prospects, such as Neftali Feliz or Justin Smoak.
Health care reform has come up against the rocks and the cop and prof race debacle has also likely taken some toll.
Then there is the unemployment rate, almost assured to soon reach double digits."
The PEW poll was done after the police-Gates matter.
Without a doubt, Pres BO was hurt by attacking a policeman doing his job and supporting a friend:
"Three factors have likely contributed to more negative views of Obama.
First, criticisms of the government’s economic policies are mounting.....
Secondly....many of the health care proposals being debated in Congress are sparking negative reactions, especially from those following the debate most closely....
Thirdly, Obama’s comments on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. appear to have played some role in his ratings decline."
Americans love their police. They will always stand with the police, specially when the opponent is a college professor with a very high opinion of himself!
"The National Endowment for the Arts may be spending some of the money it received from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances, Saturday night "pervert" revues and the airing of pornographic horror films at art houses in San Francisco." (FOX)
How is that for stimulating the US economy?
We did oppose the stimulus. We couldn't believe that Pelosi forced BO to pass it so quickly or without anyone debating its contents:
"When you spend so much money in a short amount of time ... you're going to have nonsense like this, and that's why the stimulus should never have been done in the first place," said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste."
Back in '93, a new Dem president came in with lots of flair, lots of promises, and lots of talk of change!
Did I tell you that a guy named Bush was flying back to Texas in 1993? (41 went to Houston and 43 lives in Dallas!)
Two years later, Pres Clinton lost the Congress and threw all of those campaign promises, and the liberals, out the window.
Pres Clinton's collapse began with health care.
Nobody understood the plan. It was too confusing and too expensive!
Everybody is in favor of universal care in the abstract. It gets a lot more confusing when you have to write a plan!
Ditto GITMO, taking troops out of Iraq, etc! It's easy to make campaign promises, specially to people who are madly in love with the speaker! It's also very easy to make promises to people who are looking at your eyes rather than listening to what you are saying!
They just put this off until September because "Blue Dogs" are scared to death to go home and carry BO's water!
BO is in for a terrible August and September and October and so on.....the Dems won't be able to reconcile the differences between the left wing and the blue dogs!
We are watching the same movie that we saw in 1977 (Carter and a Dem Congress) and 1993-94 (Clinton and a Dem Congress).
By the way, did I tell you that we need to send more troops to Afghanistan?
Why? Because "hope and change" has not persuaded our allies to fulfill their NATO obligations.
It looks like the US, Canada and the UK will do the fighting for the time being.
What happened to all of those Euros who wept at the sight of BO?
They are not sending troops to Afghanistan but the US Mediterranean Fleet is still protecting Europe.
Let me scream it: BO is a fantasy!
Here is the bad news: We heard generalities and feel good talk from candidate BO!
"But it turns out that Obama is not so good at argument.
Inspiration is one thing, persuasion another.
He created the impression on the campaign trail that he was familiar with major issues and readily ticked off his positions on them.
But he has not proved so good at legislating.
One reason, perhaps, is that he has had little practice.
He served as a legislator for a dozen years before becoming president, but was only rarely an active one.
He spent one of his eight years as an Illinois state senator running unsuccessfully for Congress and two of them running successfully for U.S. senator.
He spent two of his years in the U.S. Senate running for president.
During all of his seven non-campaign years as a legislator, he was in the minority party.
In other words, he's never done much work putting legislation together -- especially legislation that channels vast flows of money and affects the workings of parts of the economy that deeply affect people's lives.
This lack of experience is starting to show."
He can talk but he can't persuade or govern! Did I tell you that his party has a majority in both houses of Congress?
I think that we are looking at a one term president, unless there is a radical change in BO's style!
"During his campaign for the presidency, Obama looked prone to capitalize on these newfound majorities by fusing his undeniably liberal worldview with a spirit of outreach towards moderates of both parties.
But as his administration passes the six-month mark and his approval ratings slip below 55 percent for the first time, it is becoming obvious that the center is not holding.
And Obama is perilously close to breaking the coalition that was built for him."
Who would have believed this a few months ago?
In fact, Pres BO is turning out to be tone-deaf on political reality.
I can't believe that he let the Congress write the stimulus bill. He allowed a liberal Congress to load up a bill with payments to states rather than with anything that stimulates the economy.
I can't believe that he let the left wing run his GITMO policy. BO is now stuck between an angry left that wants GITMO closed and a country that likes GITMO just the way it is.
Wait until we get to October! Wait until reality, i.e. the $2 trillion deficit, ties his hands for much of his presidency.
As I posted before, BO is going to be the most frustrated president in recent memory. He can't do anything. He will be more and more unpopular. And the Euros are not sending troops to BO's war in Afghanistan!
When will Dems beg GW Bush to come back to the White House?
Bush was the only thing that held the Dem party together!
We take a moment to wish Beatriz a very happy birthday. The first picture is undated. The second picture is with her sisters. The third picture is a month after # 1 was born. The fourth picture is from Christmas 1991. The fifth picture is at the Texas vs Texas A&M football game. We take that game very seriously in our home! The last picture is Christmas 2008!
Of course, we observe rule 101: no age disclosed!
Over the years, our three sons and I have been blessed with such a wonderful mother (and wife!)
So please take a minute and say happy birthday to Beatriz!
In the meantime, we think that The Temptations' "My Girl" is a perfect song:
"A (white) neighbor called the police when she saw two men she thought might be breaking into the professor's house, a police sergeant arrived and got into an argument with the professor when he tried to find out what was going on and the argument grew to a public entertainment for a growing crowd of neighbors watching from the street.
The professor was black, the cop was white, and alas, that's all it takes to get something started in America, circa 2009.
But what seems to be about race isn't always about color.
Mr. Gates accused the cops of asking impertinent questions simply because he's black (or "African-American," in the current fashion).
President Obama agreed.
In the endless retelling of the tale, the white neighbor who called the cops told the police dispatcher that "two black guys" were trying to break into the Gates abode.
A review of the police 911 tape revealed Monday that the caller actually told the dispatcher that "two gentlemen" were trying to get into the door; she subsequently referred to one of them as a "gentleman" and to both of them as "individuals."
Nothing about color."
That's right!
No color here, unless your name is Prof Gates and you don't think that a police officer should ask you to identify yourself.
"The professor needs to stop calling what happened to him a "teaching moment."
We're not his students.
More importantly, we're not the ones who let our ego get the best of us and went ballistic over a simple and harmless request to provide identification."
Secondly, Pres BO should apologize to the police officer, and every other police officer in the country.
"Purely from a marketing point of view, Obama’s knee-jerk identification with Professor Gates when he didn’t have all the facts was terrible strategy."
Yes, it was a bad move!
BO needs to lock up his "inner Rev Wright"!
What about that teachable moment? It won't teach anything!
Indeed, while Obama is so famously cautious and deliberative it took him months to decide on the family dog, his now-infamous off-the-cuff comment on the stupidity of the Cambridge police made it clear that on this issue, the former community organizer wholeheartedly embraces the black victim/racist cop trope."
No teachable moment at all!
Finally, Pres BO is now the national CEO. He is responsible for protecting and defending the Constitution of the US.
What lesson did the police officers across the country learn from Pres BO?
The lesson is this: BO is not looking out for the police officers! He is too quick to line up with Harvard professors who have a very high opinion of themselves!
Doesn't that sound like the guy who said that "people cling to their guns and religion"?
We haven't had so much baseball fun around here since 2004. (Texas won 89 games that year and was eliminated in the 159th game of the season)
Time will tell about 2009.
However, the Rangers are proving all of the experts wrong.
They are 56-42 and only 2 and a half behind the Angels!
Why the success?
First, it's all of the young pitching. Give Mike Maddux a little credit here.
Second, the Rangers finally showed patience with their young pitchers, like Scott Feldman (26 yrs old and pitching great!) and closer C J Wilson who has been lights out in the 9th inning!
We did not understand her resignation. I didn't get that!
At the same, we found the attacks on her family totally wrong.
We can disagree with the candidate. At the same time, let's leave the finally alone, specially a 1-year old baby or teen daughter?
Shame on the critics! Shame on you for doing that!
Why did this woman generate so much hatred from the left?
The answer is simple: abortion, guns, a lady from the rural areas and a Reagan-esque love of country!
My guess is that Palin will take some time off, write a book and be a popular speaker for the 2010 elections.
By the fall of 2010, Palin's message of small government, energy independence and states' rights will be very popular between LA and NY City!
What about running for president?
I don't see it in 2012 but anything is possible after that.
P.S. Let me say this about Sarah Palin. I love the way that she talks about her son, and all of the other sons, in Iraq and Afghanistan. I love the way that she speaks about her baby and abortion. No one does it better than Palin:
"With their health care plans in a holding pattern — and no George W. Bush to kick around anymore — Democrats are casting about for somebody to blame."
As the article points out, the Dems are coming to terms with a harsh reality.
They won The House in 2006 and 2008 by persuading a bunch of conservative Dems to run for office.
What happened?
They won.
What happens now?
These guys have to be reelected.
Guess what?
You don't get reelected between NY City and LA by making abortion a part of health care, for example! (Abortion Haunting Obama By David N. Bass)
You don't get reelected in conservative districts by promoting a tax on small businesses. And you don't score points by calling the police 'stupid"!
"Those who were shocked at President Obama's cheap shot at the Cambridge police for being "stupid" in arresting Henry Louis Gates must have been among those who let their wishes prevail over the obvious implications of Obama's 20 years of association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Anyone who can believe that Obama did not understand what the racist rants of Jeremiah Wright meant can believe anything.
With race-- as with campaign finance, transparency and therest-- Barack Obama knows what the public wants to hear and that is what he has said.
But his policies as president have been the opposite of his rhetoric, with race as with other issues."
Now, here is Professor Sowell's clincher:
"To think that someone who has spent years promoting grievance and polarization was going to bring us all together as president is a triumph of wishful thinking over reality."
In 2008, BO told a lot of people what they wanted to hear.
"The United States must keep its focus on securing our southern border and do all it can to assist President Calderon in his efforts against these violent drug cartels.
The prosperity and success of Mexico is essential to the prosperity and success of our own country.
We share a border, our economies are intertwined and we are major trading partners with each other.
The US must show its support for our neighbor to the South and support the Mexican people and the Calderon administration in this fundamental struggle against lawlessness and corruption."
Pres BO and Sec Clinton made a loud visit to Mexico. (Hillary asked "who painted your virgin"?)
Unfortunately, little has been done to follow up on key areas, such as The Merida Plan and living up to NAFTA.
Incredibly, Pres BO has not found the time to take an interest in Mexico.
We are not one of those who think that Mexico is a failed state. However, there is a huge war going on south of the border.
Last, but not least, we should be thankful that the Mexican Army is taking these cartels head on. Otherwise, our sons will have to do it!
The Congressional Budget Office judges that the legislation in the House would, through expanded Medicaid and subsidies for private insurance, cut the uninsured to 17 million in 2019 from 46 million in 2007.
But the cost would be $1 trillion over a decade; of that, $239 billion would add to the budget deficit.
Worse, the costs would rise faster than the sources of financing, including a tax on the wealthy.
In 2019, the projection's last year, the deficit would be $65 billion. Assuming that deficit rises 4 percent a year, the cumulative shortfall in the second decade would total about $800 billion."
"As these facts have become clear, Obama's standing has fallen and public opinion has grown decidedly less enthusiastic for the administration's approach.
The trend is likely to continue, because the details of the plan reveal that its two most serious drawbacks--its cost and the prospect of government rationing--are worse than even most of their critics have grasped."
Wonder why they don't want you to read the bill?
This is not reform. We don't think that reform means turning the US into a failed Euro welfare state!
"He criticized the behavior of police officers without knowing the facts, then he compounded the error by seeming to suggest that the arrest was part of a larger narrative of racial profiling by white police officers in the United States."
That's right! It is not always about racism!
By the way, wasn't there a black officer in the picture? And wasn't there another officer named Figueroa on the scene?
Of course, Pres BO turned this into a racial matter.
Now, he should apologize to the police and get back to the economy and explaining what the health care plan is going to cost!
"For the second time this month, congressional budget analysts have dealt a blow to the Democrat's health reform efforts, this time by saying a plan touted by the White House as crucial to paying for the bill would actually save almost no money over 10 years."
During the presidential primaries and campaign, we were always amazed at how some voters reacted to candidate BO.
It was not logical.
It made no sense.
It was like watching 14 year old girls reacting to Paul McCartney and The Beatles singing "All my loving" back in the heights of Beatlemania.
What were these people expecting from BO anyway?
How could they expect so much from a man who had never run anything? never a mayor? never a governor? never an executive? never managed an agency or department?
How can you see so much in a man who had never done anything, except write two books about himself?
"Obama supporter Kathleen Geier writes that she's "getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama's supporters.....
Joe Klein, writing at Time, notes "something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism" he sees in Obama's Super Tuesday speech.....
The always interesting James Wolcott writes that "(p)erhaps it's my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria.....
The Holy Season of Lent is upon us.
Can Obama worshippers try to give up their Helter-Skelter cult-ish qualities for a few weeks?"
Where are we? Where are we 6 months into Obama-mania?
According to last week's polls, Pres BO is sinking and sinking very fast!
"All presidential candidates promise more than they can possibly deliver.
This sets them up for failure.
But because the Obama cult has stoked expectations among its devotees to such unprecedented heights, he is especially likely to disappoint.
Mr Healy predicts that he will end up as a failed president, and “possibly the least popular of the modern era”."
Let's check Niles Gardiner. He was one of those few voices overseas who never bought into Obamamania. He wrote this today:
"As recent Gallup surveys have shown, the United States remains a largely conservative nation, and Obama’s brand of high spending, high taxing neo-socialism is increasingly rejected by the American public.
While much of Europe, including Britain, is moving rightwards, America is the only major country in the Western world whose leadership is dramatically moving to the left.
Although he ran for the presidency largely as a centrist, Obama’s government is without doubt the most left-wing administration in American history."
"BARACK Obama is discovering the downside to being portrayed as a miracle worker.......
But the bubble had to burst some time and Obama must wish it hadn't been so soon as he is yet to tackle the big policy challenges of his first term.
Opinion polls have started to slide as American voters wonder whether their saviour after George W.Bush is all he was cracked up to be."
We did warn the "yes we can screamers" that their guy was only human and could not do miracles.
It's going to be a very lonely and frustrating term for Pres BO, specially when Fed Chairman Bearnake has to find $2 trillion to close our federal budget deficit on October 1st!
He is slowly coming to terms with the reality that he can't do much. Even the teleprompter collapsed the other day! Let's see:
1) He can't close GITMO because the Dems don't want the inmates over here. It will be Bush III on GTIMO;
2) He implemented the Bush policy in Iraq. It will be Bush III over in Iraq;
3) He can't persuade anybody to send troops to Afghanistan.
At the same time, he is going to have to increase our presence in Afghanistan.
Get ready for a huge Dem fight over Afghanistan. The anti-war wing will soon start calling for a withdrawal from Afghanistan;
4) North Korea is firing a missile a day. I guess that no one heard about "hope and change" over there;
It's hard to think of rock music without Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones.
Along with Keith Richards (2nd photo above), Mick Jagger wrote some great rock tunes, and a couple of ballads here and there. (We saluted Keith Richards last December: Happy # 65 to Keith Richards)
Happy birthday Mick! You look great for a 66-year old rocker!
Thanks for all of those great tunes! Thanks for turning out to be "the greatest rock'n roll band in the world"!
This is "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and "As tears go by".
They were written by Mick and Keith, his childhood friend:
Kennedy-Johnson could not work with a Dem Congress. Why do you think that Pres Kennedy was touring Texas in November '63?
Eventually, Pres LBJ had huge problems with the Dem Congress. It led to the party rebellion that gave us 7 Republican presidential victories in the next 10 elections! (1968, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 & 2004!)
Carter could not work with a Dem Congress.
It led to the huge Republican comeback of 1978 and Reagan's 1980 landslide!
Clinton could not work with a Dem Congress.
It led to the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress and Clinton signing a bunch of Republican legislation.
As you may remember, Clinton reacted to the Republican Congress by putting an apron on Hillary and taping her mouth for the balance of his presidency. He also locked up Jesse Jackson and the liberal wing overboard to win reelection in 1996! (The liberals got even by voting for Ralph Nader in 2000!)
Now, it's BO turn!
Who is at war with Pres BO over health care?
Can you say Democrats?
Yes, all of those so called blue dogs (i.e. Dems elected in congressional districts that voted for Bush or McCain!)
Why do "blue dogs" matter? Check the map above! Do you see all of that "red" between the coasts? Look at the picture above!
They are also the ones who gave the Dems their current congressional majority!
They are also the representatives most vulnerable to conservative challenges in 2010 over deficits, BO-Care, abortion and others!
I should add that most of these Dems did not support "cap and trade" and many checked out on the stimulus!
In other words, "blue dogs" matter!
Again, we have seen this movie before.
The Dems are great at blaming Bush and making campaign promises.
They are not as good at closing GITMO, shifting policy in Iraq, getting our allies to send troops to Afghanistan, or reducing deficits!
Yes, BO is still sitting at Rev Wright's church! He needs to check out and move in with the rest of us, specially all of those Dems living between LA and NY City!
On Thursday night, Adryana Boyne and I spoke with Richard Rios, Chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of California and Candidate for National Chairman of the RNHA.
"A coalition of anti-abortion groups is set to open a new front against Democrats’ efforts to restructure American health care, claiming the plans open a back door to publicly financed abortions.
The groups, which are launching a broad campaign on the issue this week, claim that existing health care proposals constitute a stealth “abortion mandate” that will spend taxpayer money on abortions and require insurance companies to cover abortions — allegations that health care reform supporters call misleading."
This is insane.
We understand that Roe v Wade made abortion legal in the US. However, it did not provide for the taxpayers to pay for abortion.
This is a bad piece of legislation, specially for the unborn baby who doesn't get to vote on it!
Peter Roff has an unpleasant note for "the yes we can" screamers:
"A 55 percent approval rating at this point in time puts him in 10th place over all among presidents who have served since Gallup began tracking presidential approval and disapproval in the 1940s."
Beyond the "horse race" comparisons, Pres BO is falling apart on issues:
"The decline in Obama's approval numbers is being driven by a lack of confidence in the way he is handling four key domestic issues: the economy, taxes, the aforementioned healthcare, and the federal budget deficit.
And, says Gallup, "The biggest drop has been on his handling of the economy, down 12 points since February; his disapproval is up 19 points."
"Suddenly, six months into his presidency, Obama is beginning to look overmatched by events, on almost every front.
More than 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs since Obama took office.
Unemployment is significantly worse than Obama told us it would be, and it’s going to get worse still.
The deficit and debt are bursting like exploding stars, with no end in sight.
The stimulus package was a three-quarters-of-a-trillion-dollar bust.
The cap-and-trade legislation, ill-conceived and unpopular, will probably never become law — though House Democrats who voted for it may well pay a high political price for having done so.
And Obama’s bailout and management of the auto industry looks increasingly unwise.
The signature initiative of his first year, his health-care plan, gets more and more unpopular with every passing day, as even Democrats are voicing concerns and beginning to rebel.
The central claims made by Obama about his plan, from containing costs to people not being forced to give up their current coverage, are being shredded.
In international affairs, Obama has changed the mood music but achieved very little else"
What's going on?
First, expectations were too high.
Too many people got invested in the "it's all Bush's fault" bandwagon. As Wehner points out: "a cult of personality" was created around him!
We, and specially the people who voted for BO, are finding out that this is a lot more complicated than just blaming Bush!
After all, didn't Sen BO vote for all of those high ticket items that created the deficit he "inherited"?
Second, the "stimulus" was a credibility killer.
It did perform as promised.
Worse than that, it was sold as a stimulus but everyone is now coming around to the reality that it was not an economic proposal.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
"Rather than endorse such big-government overkill, pro-freedom members of Congress should promote a simple concept: Let every American own and control an individual health-insurance policy that can be transported among jobs, self-employment, graduate school, and life’s other twists and turns."
That's right!
Try ownership, or personal responsibility.
It's our responsibility to purchase and own a health insurance policy.
It's "my job" to provide health insurance for my family. It's "my job" to own life insurance so that my family is protected against life's surprises. In other words, it's my responsibility!
What happens to those who lose their jobs or confront other difficulties?
Provide these people with some cash payments or temporary coverage until thy can find a job. Isn't that what the safety net is all about?
What about "those millions uninsured"?
Let Mr. Murdock explain that one:
"From those 45.7 million uninsured, subtract 17.5 million who earn more than $50,000 annually.
Though they can afford coverage, they evidently have other priorities.
Of the remaining 28.2 million uninsured, some 14 million are eligible for, yet have not enrolled in, the Medicaid and S-CHIP programs.
Meanwhile, as many as 10 million uninsured may be illegal aliens.
All told, Pipes estimates that only about 8 million Americans are uninsured due to chronic illness or working-poor status.
The latter have incomes too high for assistance and too low for insurance.
Why not help these 8 million rather than overturn medicine for all 300 million of us?"
Again, the answer is to expect people to take care of themselves.
Ownership not dependence is the American way!
P.S. O'Reilly gets it, which is probably why he has the largest cable news audience in the country:
The apology tour suffered another setback. First, Pres BO took the apology tour to Europe. They jumped up and down and said "yes we can". However, no one decided to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan. They are not crazy about BO's protectionism over in Europe either! Like Mexico and Canada, the Euros are not in love with the protectionist tone coming out of the Dem Congress! Where are we after the apologies? It will be the US, UK and Canada doing the fighting. Bush is gone. Obama is in. Yet, it's the same three countries fighting in Afghanistan.
Have you seen the headlines about casualties in Afghanistan?
Now, we have Sec Clinton going to India and apologizing for our "carbon print"! The Indians listened and said no to any climate change agreement: "The rejection of the U.S. proposal was made in the middle of Mrs. Clinton’s first visit to India as secretary of state and came just as the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is gearing up to push for a new global pact on climate change." (Greenwald) India needs jobs and growth. Like China, they are in no mood to listen to prosperous Western liberals lecture them about "climate change". We were told that Obama would make every one love and cooperate with us.
Yes, we have a new president but there are no Euro troops in Afghanistan or much appetite for climate change regulations in India or China.
Why is "hope and change" so unpersuasive here, there and everywhere?
P.S. David Brooks has an interesting analysis of BO's problems with his own party:
"Machiavelli said a leader should be feared as well as loved.
Obama is loved by the Democratic chairmen, but he is not feared."
I think that Mr. Brooks' analysis extends to the world.
Professor Samuelson puts one more nail in "the fairy tale's" casket:
"The program crafted by Obama and the Democratic Congress wasn't engineered to maximize its economic impact.
It was mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes." (Robert Samuelson)
Today, Pres BO got more bad news:
"The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape." (AP)
What does it all mean?
First, the stimulus is not stimulating. In fact, it is having the exact opposite result.
Second, the federal budget deficit will be even bigger than we thought.
Wonder why BO is delaying the release of the new budget figures?
BO can't get the ball over the plate. Did you notice that Pujols saved the pitch from hitting the ground? Check the video and you will see that "hope and change" did not reach the plate! Also, Pujols was not behind the plate like a regular catcher! (Video)
Beyond baseball mechanics, BO is threatening to wreck the world's best economy.
"The proposal to impose a penalty of 8 percent of payroll on all but the smallest businesses is particularly onerous and unworkable -- especially in South Florida where small businesses are the backbone of the area's economy.
In the first place, it's a job killer.
To understand why, it is necessary to understand both the nature of small businesses and the essential role they play in the American economy.
According to the Small Business Administration, the nation's 6 million small employers represent 99.7 percent of the total number of businesses that provide jobs, and 50.2 percent of private-sector employment.
Small businesses create about 70 percent of new jobs.
Although this includes all businesses with fewer than 500 employees, the typical operation is far smaller.
According to SBA figures, 89 percent have fewer than 20 employees, and 98 percent fewer than 100."
That's right!
Our economy has created millions of jobs over the years!
Why?
Because we don't have all of those "regulations" crippling Euro economies.
Why is the BO administration so determined to bring the "Euro welfare state" over here? I don't know which is why I voted for McCain!
"A funny thing happened to Barack Obama on the way to immortality.
He ran into facts and reality, those two curses of fast-hustling politicians."
From the stimulus to his weak reaction to the killings in Iran, Pres BO is heading toward a miserable presidency.
It won't be fun, specially when the "yes we can" screamers find out that BO can't get "cap and trade" and "health care" through a Senate run by Democrats!
Let me repeat: A Senate with 60 Democrats!
The Dems are scared to death of heading into 2010 with BO's deficits and big government on their shoulders!
After all, the Dems read the same polls that we read!
Mr Van Dyk wants BO to do a lot more governing and a lot less speaking, for example.
He also wants BO to stop blaming Bush!
And he comes down hard on the stimulus:
"You have ceded content of your principal proposals to Democratic congressional leaders who in large part have yielded to special-interest constituencies and excluded Republican leaders from policy formulation.
This certainly was the case with the stimulus plan."
Van Dyk wants Pres BO to shake up his team.
My question is, and continues to be, is Pres BO tough enough to shake up his team?
Has BO ever stood up to anybody?
Can you cite an example from BO's life where he stood up to anybody?
Beyond managerial changes, I think that BO & Dems misunderstood the 2008 election.
In other words, "change" did not mean a massive expansion of government!
"A recent Gallup poll found 40 percent of Americans described their political views as conservative, while only 21 percent as liberal. Gallup also found that Americans, by a two-to-one margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal.
And a Pew survey released in May found that since the election, there has been "no consistent movement away from conservatism, nor a shift toward liberalism."
What this means, I think, is that Obama's victory in 2008, while impressive, did not represent an ideological shift."
It's going to be very tough for Pres BO! It's going to be horrible for the "yes we can" screamers who thought that their guy walked on water!
"Summer wine" was a great song recorded many summers ago.
It's a song about a stranger who meets a stranger. I guess that I will leave the rest of the story to your imagination.
I love the song because it lends itself to a male and female vocalist.
The woman repeats the chorus over and over again. ("Strawberry cherries and an angel's kiss in spring....my summer wine is really made from all these things.")
The man tells the story.
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood recorded the original version of "Summer wine":
Natalie Avelon & Ville Valo recorded a more recent version:
"Next year's elections are going to produce a political earthquake.
That is because we currently suffer the most left-wing government in our nation's history.
After just 6 months in office, the flower children that rule Washington in overwhelming numbers are already smashing through all records regarding federal taxes, spending, deficits, and debt."
First, and foremost, our current liberal Congress is just reckless and irresponsible.
They are rushing legislation.
Remember the stimulus that was not a stimulus?
Now, they want to rush "health care" without hearings or any proper discussion!
I agree with today's WSJ editorial:
"Democrats want to ram through one of the greatest raids on private income and business in American history." (WSJ)
What's the Dems' philosophy: Tax, tax and turn everybody into a victim!
Again, the good news is that the Dems are turning against all of this "tax and spend Obama-mania":
Again, the winds are starting to blow in our direction. Nevertheless, this is a good time to stand up, fight, and return Pres BO to Rev Wright's congregation in 2013!
"After nine straight days of triple-digit temperatures, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is expected to have a slight cool-down for the next few days." (DMN)
Thank you Mother Nature!
Here is another great summer tune.
This is "Summer Rain" by Johnny Rivers:
"Summer Rain taps at my window,
West wind soft as a sweet dream.
My love, warm as the sunshine,
Sitting here by me, yeah. She's here by me.
She stepped out of a rainbow, Golden hair shining like moonglow.
Warm lips, soft as her soul,
Sitting here by me, now. She's here by me.
All summer long we were dancing in the sand,
Everybody just kept on playing, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
We sailed into the sunset,
Drifting home, caught by a gulf stream.
Never gave a thought for tomorrow,
Let tomorrow be, yeah. Let tomorrow be.
She wants to live in the Rockies,
She says that's where we'll find peace.
Settle down, raise up a family,
One to call our own, yeah. We'll have a home.
All summer long we were grooving in the sand,
Everybody just kept on playing, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
We are now into the second half of the Calderon presidency.
What will happen? Time will tell but I'm still betting on Calderon.
However, part 2 will be a lot more dangerous than part 1!
Why is that?
Because the cartels may feel emboldened by Calderon's defeat.
They may interpret Calderon's defeat as a sign that Mexico is tired of a very difficult and complicated war.
This is a critical moment for Mexico. It's time for the US Congress to step up and provide much needed assistance to the Mexican military.
At the same time, I hope that Pres Calderon's supporters keep an eye on articles like "We Bring Fear" By Charles Bowden.
He tells the story of abuses in Mexico, i.e. abuses by the Mexican army.
I think that Bowden exaggerates the abuses. How do you fight people who kill policemen and cut their heads off? What does Bowden expect the Mexican army to do in a war against people with zero concern for human life?
Nevertheless, it's important for Calderon's administration to remind members of the US Congress that these soldiers represent a small segment of the Mexican army.
You can't expand government without a major tax increase!
It's great to talk about the Euro welfare state. It's a lot less persuasive when you explain that the Euro welfare state comes with extremely high income taxes.
Aren't the Europeans rejecting that welfare state anyway?
Over here, Obama-mania is going through a bad case of "sticker shock"!
That's right. Health care comes under personal responsibility! It's your responsibility to buy and provide health insurance to your family!
Government does not owe us anything more than those rights outlined in the Constitution. Again, it's "my responsibility" to provide health insurance to my wife & sons!
Can you find "right to health care" somewhere in The Bill of Rights?
"Obama understands that the country needs a better and stronger intelligence agency.
He wants more information than he gets in his daily intelligence briefings, and he has discussed with Panetta the challenge of building a tougher, smarter, more aggressive CIA.
That's a righteous goal, but it begins with depoliticizing the agency and ending the culture of permanent scandal.
If Obama means what he has said about looking forward rather than backward, then he should stick to his guns -- and hope that the attorney general and House speaker agree that it's time to stop kicking this football."
How do you stop this politicizing of the CIA?
First, we need a president who will tell the angry left to take a shower and cool off.
Second, someone needs to remind the Dems that they won the election, i.e. they need to govern!
As we posted before, all of this "CIA bashing" is a big distraction from the disastrous stimulus rushed through Congress earlier this year.
However, the CIA-bashing is also killing morale over the agency. Let's not forget that many of these people risk their lives everyday all over the world.
P.S. John Yoo is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an official in the Justice Department from 2001-03 and is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"Our Constitution created a presidency whose function is to protect the nation from attack. Gathering intelligence -- including intercepting enemy communications -- has long been a key aspect of war.
Our military and intelligence agencies cannot attack or defend the nation unless they know where to aim.
As we confront terrorists who remain intent on attacking the U.S., using weapons we cannot anticipate, we should be skeptical of those who insist that we radically change the way this country has always made war."
"I'm surprised and disturbed by how many times today Sonia Sotomayor has backed off of or provided less-than-convincing explanations for some of her more controversial speeches about the role of gender and ethnicity in judicial decision-making."
At some point, taxing the rich is not enough to fund this massive expansion of government or the creating of more entitlements:
"Pretending that "the rich" alone can fund government, let alone the kind of activist government that the president and Congress envision, is bad policy any way you look at it."
Makes sense to me! (Of course, I voted for McCain!)
We continue to support a health care program that combines the greatness of our private sector (quality and innovation) and the generosity of our public sector (provide cash payments to people who can't pay for one reason or another).
We do not support a system that turns our amazing health care system into another government bureaucracy.
Why? Because government can not do what the private sector can do!
Nevertheless, government can provide private sector policy cards to those below a certain income level or who have lost their jobs.
The bottom line is this: We can't afford BO-Care!
It's nice to see that the Dems are figuring it out!
He was managing director and chief emerging market economic strategist at Salomon Smith Barney and a deputy director in the International Monetary Fund’s policy and review department.
"Less than six months into his term, President Obama already faces difficult economic policy choices.
He can choose, as he now seems to be doing, to counsel patience and assure us that all is well at considerable cost to his credibility on economic policy management.
Or he can own up to the facts that he misread the economy in January and that his economic team now needs to go back to the drawing board.
For the sake of the U.S. economy, one has to hope that he has the courage to review the overall coherence of his policy approach before it is too late."
I love the new stadium. (I actually saw it in person last Thanksgiving when we were up in St. Louis!)
It is one of the best downtown facilities in the country.
I loved the pre-game show. I generally do! I love all of that history stuff.
Wasn't it great to see Stan Musial? Bob Gibson? Lou Brock?
The game was very crisp. The AL bullpen shut down the NL hitters. Rivera was unhittable! The NL did not a chance once the AL rolled out all of those closers down the stretch.
Beyond all of that, who was that man throwing the first pitch?
This is strange....or is it? This is the weirdest presidential happening since Pres. Carter was attacked by a wild rabbit during a weekend vacation!
Jack Tapper of ABC reports on the sudden explosion of Pres BO's Teleprompter:
"Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces.
It made quite a ruckus.
“Oh, goodness,” a startled President Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.”
He then proceeded on with his remarks,
“To pull our economy back from the brink, including the largest and most sweeping economic recovery plan in our nation's history…”
Accidents happen. Teleprompters blow up, although I must confess that I don't recall a previous president going through anything like this!
Of course, the TelePrompter may have been sending all of us a message.
Maybe the Teleprompter can't take it anymore, specially after stories like these:
"My favorite law professor, Cornell’s William Jacobson, sounds an adult note on the issue which, despite my baser instincts, sounds right:
The Dems are swinging in the dark.
They will hit someone, it’s just not clear who that someone will be.
My guess is that it will not be the Bush administration.
As I predicted months ago, the Dems will devour Obama’s agenda, and damage at least some of their own along the way for going along with programs they now claim were illegal.
Politically I’d say “go get ‘em,” except that the consequences will be severe in terms of our intelligence capabilities.
So I’ll ask the Democrats to be mature leaders, not vindictive brats who are trying to settle political scores at the price of damaging our intelligence agencies.
There, I said it.
Next time, I’ll just say “I told you so.”
Well written.
Here is the challenge: Can we expect the party of Barney Franks and Maxime Waters to behave like adults rather than brats?
Again, "this investigation talk" is about 2 things:
1) Distracting the country from the very bad economic news:
"This recovery cannot work, other than a brief spurt that results from trillions in printed money, because we are rewarding unproductive areas of the economy (federal money for more wind farms, federal hurdles for pumping more known natural gas or nuclear power construction; more of the community-organizing model , less of the productive small business model) and punishing the engines of the economy."
So what do you do when you continue to break campaign promises, such as withdrawing troops from Iraq or closing GITMO?
What do you when you "hype" a stimulus that doesn't stimulate the US economy?
What happens when more and more Americans are starting to blame BO, not Bush, for the current state of the US economy? What about OBAMA'S BROKEN TAX PROMISES?
What happens when the homosexual wing is angry because you broke the "don't ask, don't tell" promises?
The answer is to blame Bush-Cheney!
Let's go after Cheney again!
Today, we heard that the "CIA lied again" and that Cheney was involved in "another evil act".
"With the falling poll numbers endangering Obama initiatives on cap trade and health care reform, the President needs to fall back on his hobby horse from the Presidential campaign - big bad George Bush (and the need for "change").
This, I think, explains the New York Times story today on a secret intelligence program after 9/11 that was never divulged to Congress, the new charges by Nancy Pelosi that the CIA lied to Congress, and the threat of a new investigation by Attorney General Eric Holder into alleged acts of torture during the Bush years."
So here is my advice to BO & Dems: Go ahead and let's have an investigation!
Let's call their bluff.
Put them all under oath.
My guess is that the Dems won't go for the investigations.
Why?
Because this is not about finding the truth.
This is about distracting the public from the upcoming "10%" unemployment and the $2 trillion that must be borrowed to pay for the federal budget deficit.
Again, let's have the investigations.
Let's get to the bottom.
Force Nancy Pelosi to get specific. Who lied? What lies did anyone tell?
Come on Dems!
Show me some courage and do something other than just going back to the campaign tact of blaming Bush and Cheney!
It's amazing what a difference a year and a "failed stimulus" can make.
Larry Kudlow, of CNBC and one of the nation's top economic voices, now writes this:
"We're going the wrong way.
That's why stock markets are not voting for the United States any more."
Sorry BO!
"Hope and change" was all hype!
Let's get back to NAFTA and Ohio. Please check Bloomberg:
"A new poll found that President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped by 13 percentage points from two months ago in Ohio, traditionally a critical swing state in presidential elections."
Ohio was a state that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004.
In 2008, Ohio, and the unions that spent millions to get voters out to vote, gave BO a slim victory.
A year ago, the Obama campaign decided to appeal to union voters in Ohio by unleashing a campaign against NAFTA!
In other words, blame Mexico for Ohio's structural problems.
China and India are going full speed ahead on job creation. They are more than happy to take all of our factories, specially all of the ones that we are driving out of the country with over-regulation and high taxes.
How are you going to deal with climate change if China and India do not play along?
"All Americans like to be liked — and like to think they are confident enough to admit mistakes.
But Obama is beginning to be predictable, boring even, in his once sincere, but now serial apologies about America’s past and present — to almost everyone from Latin Americans and Europeans to Turks and Muslims in general.
And why are we more worried about the feelings of a hostile Ahmadinejad than of a friendly Maliki or Netanyahu?"
We are not complaining. It may be unbearable but our economy is doing a lot better than the rest of the country.
Today, we remember one of the best "summer heartbreak" songs!
This is a story of a couple of teen lovers who say goodbye at the end of the school year.....("Will I see you in September or lose you to a summer love....")
Actually, "See you in September" is a tune that goes back to the "doo wop" days of rock, i.e. the age of amazing harmonies.
The first version was recorded by The Tempos in 1959. It was revived in "American Graffiti", the 1970s movie about a bunch of teenagers spending their last summer before college:
The second version was by "The Happenings" in 1966. It was more upbeat and the harmonies are great:
"I'll be alone each and every night
While you're away, don't forget to write
Bye-bye, so long, farewell
Bye-bye, so long
See you in September
See you when the summer's through
Here we are (bye, baby, goodbye)
Saying goodbye at the station (bye, baby, goodbye)
The new Rasmussen Reports is very bad news for the majority:
"Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key electoral issues, including, for the second straight month, the top issue of the economy." (RR)
Beyond the partisans, the Dems are having problems persuading independent voters:
"Voters not affiliated with either party trust Republicans more to handle the economy by a 46% to 32% margin."
What happened?
First, and foremost, governing is hard. (It's a lot easier to give speeches and tell people what they want to hear!)
Second, the Obama candidacy was based on a fantasy or fairy tale. They promoted false expectations. They blamed everything on Bush but did not give voters an idea of what they would do to govern.
It's early but 2010 is looking better and better for those of us who did not subscribe to the "fairy tale"!
"Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows.
That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college."
I guess that we are not going to get a lot of money in Texas, unless you live down on the border that voted for BO!
"Andruw Jones has hit nearly 400 home runs in a big-league career that started in 1996, and he was cruising toward the Hall of Fame before an abysmal 2008 season put the breaks on a splendid career.
But those who have been around him every day since spring training, watching his swing return and seeing him improve at the plate, aren’t surprised by what he has done this season with the Texas Rangers."
I saw it on TV. I saw him all 3 homers. I saw him fail twice to hit the magical 4th homer!
Who did that last? I don't recall.
I do remember that Mike Schmidt of the Phillies did it years ago!
