He's So Vain, He Probably Thinks This Post is About Him

Today, video from an interview with President Barack Obama was released in which he personally endorsed gay marriage, while reserving that it should be up to the states to make any laws regarding marriage.  In other words, the President said nothing, though I will discuss the gay marriage issue and what I believe was indicated today in another post.  The only shocking thing about the announcement (other than his position sounds awful libertarian, which means it's not his actual position and I fully believe he thinks it is a civil right which the courts should protect under the Constitution) was how he referred to the gay troops "fighting on his behalf".  And here I thought they fought for the country.

Now at first blush, this might seem a bit overly critical or nitpicking.  However, viewed in President Obama's own historical context, it is just one more example of the massive ego carried by our President.  Let me first note that most politicians when speaking in the context of the military or law enforcement intentionally tries to avoid using "I" in lieu of giving credit to the guys on the ground.  Police, military and firefighters are incredibly sympathetic figures.  As such, any slight, perceived or otherwise, which tends to remove credit from them in favor of focusing the attention on the politician is typically seen by the public in a highly negative light.

President Obama routinely uses the first person singular when referring to military accomplishments.  In a recent ad released by the Obama campaign to attack Republican candidate Mitt Romney, none other than former President (and all around stand up serial rapist) Clinton remarks about how brave the decision to kill Osama Bin Laden was, noting specifically that if the Navy Seals had been captured or killed, the downside for President Obama "would have been horrible for him".  I kid you not.  Luckily capture and confinement by thuggish regimes usually works out well for our military.  Just ask John McCain.  Don't ask him to raise his arm above shoulder level when you do it, though.  What incredible hubris that a man is so self-obsessed (and the people around him so worshiping) that they don't notice this is the egomania of a tyrant-king.  And then the ad has the nerve to suggest that Mitt Romney would have somehow chosen differently.

But again, even this second slip is not an isolated incident.  In fact, his references to how he killed Bin Laden (must have been a hell of a shot all the way from the White House safe room) are so ubiquitous that Saturday Night Live had a skit about it that was dropped before the show went live this week.  This is not a show particularly noted for making fun of liberal presidents.

The President's tendency to take direct credit for the actions of others is a sign of his massive ego and sense of self-entitlement.  It's a personality trait I noted early on in his campaign for President and even at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.  It's a result of what I believe to be a life directed by others towards the goal of being President one day.  It's how a mediocre student becomes the President of the Harvard Law Review.  How an unknown who lost his first run for the state legislature goes from a first term state legislature with a record of voting "present" to a United States Senator who spends his entire time in office campaigning for President to the surprise Democratic nominee to the first European socialist to hold the office.

Carly Simon, warm up those pipes, I've got a song in mind.

Julia is a Miserable Worthless Dependent Person Thanks to President Obama

Liberals no longer shy away from the description of a cradle to grave welfare state that takes charge of every aspect of a person's life, the Obama campaign is openly embracing the idea.  Enter the launch of "The Life of Julia", a campaign advertisement designed to show how Papa Obama's policies will impact every part of the fictional title character's life.

We first meet Julia at age 3 when the all-powerful and wise President Obama's Head Start program saves Julia from a life of mediocrity by preparing her to do exceptionally well at nap time.  Never mind that Department of Health and Human Services issued a report in 2010 on a multi-year study finding no statistically significant discernible effect by the program in it's ambitious goal of "preparing children to do better at school".  Considering studies going back to 1985 had found the same thing, it's not much of a surprise.  Meanwhile, that mean old Republican Mitt Romney and his cohort Paul Ryan want to take 20% away from the useless program.  So the moral of this first panel is that women should vote for President Obama for spending large amounts of money on a program that has no benefit to them.  Strong argument.

The next time we see Julia, she is 17.  Presumably, Julia has made it the last 14 years without getting knocked up by some random guy because the all seeing, all knowing President Obama made sure that every employer in America paid for contraception as part of the insurance program (which they dumped when they realized it was cheaper to pay the Obamacare fine than comply with the mandate) provided to her parents, which will cover her until she's old enough to get free hot flash medication as a result of menopause.  She's likely about to embark on her future education at a small liberal arts college where every professor is going to teach her the evils of capitalism due to President Obama's Race to the Top program.  The President's Race to the Top program is so perfect that the website The Huffington Post, which openly bemoans the lack of a communist presence in the United States government, posted this article.  Liberals hate the program because it is based on results rather than need.  It is tailored to teaching to standardized tests as a result.  Meanwhile, schools, afraid that their unionized teachers are so incompetent and incapable of firing, along with teachers afraid of school closings, have conspired to manipulate test results to ensure funding.  On the other side, the Great Satan Mitt Romney, is accused of a rather vague "would cut educational funding in exchange of tax cuts for millionaires (who our math-challenged President seems to think is anyone making over $250,000.00).

At 18 President Obama promises more goodies.  Up to a $10,000.00 (according to the site, Forbes puts it at $2,500.00 and awful confusing) tax credit for tuition paid by parents on behalf of their eligible college students.  Never mind that it is far more likely their kid is on financial aid because the tax credit and student loans are so available that everyone goes to college, pushing up the cost.  Then of course, there is the Pell Grants, which the evil Mitt Romney wants to steal from women so they have to stay home and cook, that horrible man.

Next, Julia is 22 and needs surgery.  President Obama has generously ensured that she will remain on her parents insurance up to the age of 26, as noted above, which they lost due to the Obamacare mandate, and it too expensive because the insurance company has to cover everything up to, and including, changing the air filter in you car.  No mention is made that she would have still been covered under the old rules.  Mitt Romney, who wants women to die early and quickly, would repeal Obamacare, causing all women to shrivel away and die, because they are incapable of taking care of themselves without the government.

At 23, President Obama has managed to dictate the rate at which her employer pays her, regardless of her actual skills through the Lily Ledbetter Alliteration Act.  This has made her nothing more than a potential lawsuit to the employer, who sees a person who has relied upon government her whole life for everything she's done and is incapable of accomplishing anything.  That bastard Mitt Romney hasn't said anything about the act President Obama signed.  That's some damning evidence right there.

At 25, the omnipotent President Obama has dictated the market rate for educational loans, making it easier for the government to eventually absorb the vast bulk of her student loan debt that she will never pay back, because she can't get a job as long as she has to make what the government says she has to, making her a lawsuit waiting to happen.

At 26, the benevolent President Obama has ensured that she won't see the direct cost of birth control (i.e. $400.00 or so a year), so she can feel free to screw every man she sees and make sure her employer is forced to cover the cost.  This is what President Obama thinks of as a health care decision because, as with most democrats, the most sacred sacrament is the holy rite (right?) of abortion and pregnancy is a disease men inflict on women.  Mitt Romney, who, as opposed to our constitutional scholar President, has actually read the Constitution, would defend the right of religious people to practice their beliefs rather than being forced to provide morally objectionable services and products.

At 31, Julia got pregnant, apparently having failed to make it to the store in time for the abortive Plan B pill her insurance was forced to cover.  Luckily, Obamacare is ready to start raising the child with her.  Mitt Romney wants to kill women's babies.

At 37, Julia's child is firmly entrenched in the government's programs to raise him with ineffective programs which waste taxpayer money.  Mitt Romney is putting sugar in the school bus's gas tank.  At 42, Julia, who never managed to set aside any money of her own, despite the government providing everything for her, wants to start her own business.  While she qualifies for an SBA loan, no one will give one to her because the Fed has left the interest rate at 0% in a decades long attempt to stave off the effects of government policy which effectively promote the idea that government spending is the only way to stimulate economic growth.  Because of this, the government is the only entity paying out at a decent percentage rate on loans, so the banks have all their money tied up in bonds.  Mitt Romney hates small business and, did we mention, is evil.

At 65, Julia would enroll in Medicare.  However, Medicare went broke went Julia was 4.  Luckily, President Obama successfully demonized attempts to reform Medicare by saying those plans would "change Medicare as we know it", i.e., make it solvent.  Luckily a bankrupt Medicare looks exactly like what Julia has known her whole life.

At 67, Julia retires.  As it was when she was 42, she never set any money aside because everything she has done in her entire life was subsidized by her lord and savior, President Obama.  Luckily, she is eligible for Social Security.  Unfortunately, that went bankrupt when she was 23.  Fortunately, President Obama managed to demonize the idea of means testing, reform, and the option of privatized accounts so that no one ever attempted to make sure the fund stayed solvent.  All this, despite state government employees who have been allowed to use private accounts consistently outperforming Social Security.  Mitt Romney hates old people and wishes they would die.

We have an advertisement by President Obama where he blatantly panders to the idea that his idea of government is to have a cradle to grave entitlement society.  It's disgusting, but it makes sense because the entitlement society keeps liberals in power for the rest of your life.

 

Occupy Paranoia

A representative of the Occupy movement, Harrison Schultz, who calls himself one of the organizers and was one of the people in New York's Zucotti Park is being interviewed by Sean Hannity this evening.  So far, he has accused the New York Police of having sent rapists, people who had sex in public, defecated in public, and used drugs in public to discredit the Occupy movement.  Anyone who takes these people seriously really needs to give up their right to vote.

I Couldn't Agree More Mrs. Obama

Mrs. Obama told a reporter her fantasy was to just walk out the front door of the White House and keep walking.  Assuming she's taking her husband with her on that trip, I couldn't have shared a greater fantasy with her.  Hopefully, in November the voters will make my fantasy come true.

Perpetual War

A video about the atrocities of Ugandan leader of the Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony went viral several months ago, bringing attention to what is rightfully recognized as horrific actions in the abduction of children for sex trafficking and to force them into being soldiers. Prior to the release of the viral video "Kony 2012", President Obama authorized placing United States troops in harm's way on the ground in Uganda to assist regional forces opposed to the LRA. That was October of 2011. As with much of what President Obama does, this is a war being conducted without Congressional authorization. Say what you will about Iraq and Afghanistan, at least President Bush went to Congress for authorization to act (with the approval of then Senator Hillary Clinton (D, Wherever the hell she lives). I'm betting you didn't know we were conducting a small war in Uganda.

I'm also betting you didn't know we are conducting one in Yemen, too. President Obama has authorized the use of drone strikes against targets even when the identity of the target is not known. President Obama's authority to conduct these strikes is also in question, not that he exactly acknowledges Congressional authority anyway. The question isn't whether or not Al Qaeda in Yemen is actively a threat to the United States. They clearly are. The question isn't whether or not the Yemeni government has an issue with the strikes, they don't. The issue is why are we going to war without declaring war or at least having Congressional authorization of the action to legitimize the actions? How are Uganda and Yemen different from the illegal operations in Laos during the Vietnam war? I wonder how the Nobel committee feels about that Peace Prize they gave President I'm Not George Bush Obama. Don't get me wrong, Republicans and Democrats alike have behaved in this manner. They were and are both wrong to do so.

Environmentalists Hate the Blacks!!!

As a counterpoint to Earth Day (which I presume is the day we celebrate our victory over Mars as relayed by Orson Welles) an organization named Free Market America released this video on YouTube which attacks the environmental backlash against hydrocarbon energies such as coal and oil as the strategy which the speaker says he would take if he wished to destroy America.  It has gotten quite a lot of attention.  I doubt they could have known that just a few days after the video's release, another video would surface proving the point.  Today, video surfaced of an EPA official saying that agency's philosophy is to crucify oil and gas companies to make examples of them.  Good to know it's not personal.
I propose the only rational response is to accuse the EPA of racism, as they seem to hate the darker colored fuels, such as coal and oil.  I think that makes as much sense as a government agency determined to demonize the use of an inanimate object as a fuel.

TARP Should Have Been Named CRAP

Many on both sides of the fence, conservative and liberal, hailed the TARP program, started under President George Bush as an absolute necessity and example of when government intervention was both appropriate and good policy.  Many cited how the program would not only pay itself off as the beneficiaries of the bailout would pay back the government loans with interest.  Those of us such as libertarian leaning Congressman Ron Paul (R. TX) who believe that government intervention in the economy is pretty much universally bad were opposed to the creation of the bailout program.  As is usual, it turns out, despite a short-lived General Motors ad campaign claiming it had repaid the funds, TARP is a bit of a turkey (which is a lovely country if you're not an Armenian in the early 20th century, but don't ask President Obama about that, he's kind of vague).  The Inspector General in charge of the TARP funds announced today that $119 billion remains outstanding in TARP funds and the government expects $60 billion will never be repaid.

And that GM loan?  GM remains one of the three worst examples of the program, with the government still heavily invested in equity shares.  Maybe they should stop running those asinine Chrysler commercials that say "Imported from Detroit" reminding us all that Detroit has turned into a third world foreign nation (in my opinion due to unions and Democratic politicians).  I have no idea if what they still owe includes the TARP funds they paid back using TARP funds.  Those GM record profits and claims that President Obama saved the auto industry have less basis in reality than the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.