I hope this stock market changes soon. So far the stock market has recoiled at each of Obama’s financial moves. If Obama would only talk about something else for a few days we might have a chance of recovery. On the one hand, Obama doubles the deficit to stimulate the economy. On the other hand he raises taxes on businesses. (I have this vision of Lucy pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown tries to kick it.) What could be Obama’s reasoning for instilling fear in the American people with his constant references to catastrophe (this word hasn’t seen this much usage since the symposium of Jimmy Carter biographers). He couldn’t talk down this economy any more than he has. Also, Obama is not bashful about reminding us about the economy he inherited from the Bush administration: “Look at the horrendous deficit and recession I inherited”. I think he is trying to talk down the economy as far as it will go and then when it does comes back as it always has with or without stimulus, he gets the credit for single-handedly reviving the economy and assuring his reelection.   

He also knows that by inflating the deficit as he has with the Stimulus Bill, there is only two meaningful ways to do it in spite of all his assurances that he will go line by line through the budget to cut out the fat. The two areas he can focus on are 1) increased taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and 2) cutting our national defense budget. You know he is just chomping at the bit to satisfy his buddies on the left by dumping the “Evil” Bush tax cuts and by lopping off 25% of our national defense budget. That would be the ultimately pay back to his far left constituencies. He’s already has done a good job of paying back the left: the promise to close Gitmo, his order striking down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions. So he’s off to a great start as far as his lefty friends are concerned. Oh sure, he could do more but all in due time, my pretty.  

So I think all of this talking down the economy is all part of the grand plan to satisfy his far left buddies. 

This bill is nothing more than a payback to all the constituencies that voted for Obama. In other words, not the HOPE and CHANGE he promised but just more of the same old politics. So now after having his fondest wishes come true with passage of the Stimulus Bill, he now has to make it work. Or at least one would think he would.

But what are we hearing today?  Obama’s people have leaked out plans to cut the budget deficit that he just doubled with the stroke of pen.  Within four years, Obama now says he wants to cut his newly double budget in half, right back to the deficit that he inherited.

So how does he plan to do it? By de-stimulating the very economy that he is trying to stimulate. How does this make sense? Only to Democrats who have no understanding of what really makes our economy go. The stimulus was supposed to create spending by all of us slugs who are hanging on by the fingernails. So the slugs get out there and spend a few more bucks and our corner store is now getting more sales and may need to increase its inventory to meet the new demand and maybe, just maybe, the need to hire another person may be there. This is a costly venture but hey, if it helps the business bring in more sales needed to service customers, the business owner may be able to justify it. But now, just as Mr. Business Owner is about to make this key decision, Obama approaches the business owner’s newly inflated balloon with a giant pin. That pin is a new tax on the very profits that were to be generated by the stimulus. So now is Mr. Business Owner going to make that new hire? Not likely.

Conservatives believe that reduced taxes are the real stimulus for an ailing economy empowering and incentivizing people to work harder so they can keep the fruits of their labor. Democrats feel the need to punish life’s achievers. Envy and the urge to “spread the wealth” is always uppermost in their minds. But hey, give the Obama Administration points for consistency. The stimulus is a huge redistribution of wealth program taking from the achievers and giving to non-achievers and now this new tax accomplishes the same thing.

If this is what Obama calls change,  what is his definition of continuity?

What else might Obama have said along those lines? These were left on the cutting room floor: 

“I won’t challenge McCain’s associations with known terrorists if he won’t challenge mine.” 

“I won’t challenge my opponent’s 20 year association with an America-hating pastor if he doesn’t challenge mine.” 

“I will not attack Cindy McCain’s pride in America if you won’t challenge Michelle’s pride in her country.”  

“I will not challenge my opponent’s Muslim heritage if you won’t challenge my shady Muslim past.” 

“I will not challenge McCain’s position on the surge and it’s results if he won’t challenge mine.” 

“I will not challenge McCain’s 20 year career in Washington and lifetime of service to America if he won’t challenge my incredibly weak resume.”  

Obama continues to make any challenge to his record, his past associations, his wife, his name and heritage completely off limits for inspection. The patriotism issue raised this week by surrogate, Gen. Clark, is a preemptive strike to attempt to eliminate Obama‘s unpatriotic stances i.e. flag pins and most importantly his position of wanting the United States to lose the Iraq war.  It won’t work.

For about a year now, Michelle Obama has been out there ripping the Bush administration, tearing down American values, talking down the American dream,  dragging poor, hapless Americans who have been mesmerized by the Obama charm and charisma down into the mire of self pity. She has told us that for the first time in her adult life she is proud of being an American. She had made herself a central figure in the Obama campaign but now, somehow, by messianic fiat, Barak has waived his magic wand and declared that the upcoming political campaign is a “Michelle Free Zone”.  

How pathetic, especially in a very tough race against a female candidate to suddenly pull out the “sex card” and declare his wife an “untouchable”.  She now joins a gaggle of unspeakable topics: Rev. Wright, Obama’s middle name, his religion, his white mother and grandmother, his schooling in a madrassa,  his association with numerous shady characters.  If you dare bring up these topics, there will be hell to pay and the main stream media will be more than happy, not only just to comply but to demonize anyone who does.

 On May 18, 2008 while campaigning in Oregon, Senator Obama said "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

Folks, this is exactly where we are heading when the liberal elites get control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate. Better wake up !!   When the Dems are empowered,  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are concepts nowhere to be found in their platform.  Most of those on the Left thought that Bush seized all your rights under the Patriot Act. After one term with Obama as President, you’ll be begging for the Patriot Act by the time Obama is finished with us.  The very idea that he uses the locution "expect that the other countries are going to say OK" indicates that we will need to seek other countries' permission to drive our SUVs, eat what we want and keep our homes at the temperature we want. Good Lord, what else won't we be able to do?

It’s about time. 7 years we have been waiting for you fight back. But today in Israel, you finally told it like it is. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said:"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is—the false comfort of appeasement, whichhas been repeatedly discredited by history."

Of course, Obama took this as a slam against his statements that as President he would meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. Guess what, Senator Obama, you have every right to take it as a slam because that is exactly what it was intended to be. Just last week, Obama in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic said this when asked about his reaction to the endorsement of Obama by Ahmad Yousef of Hamas:  

Goldberg: Were you flummoxed by it?

Obama: I wasn’t flummoxed. I think what is going on there is the same reason why there are some suspicions of me in the Jewish community. Look, we don’t do nuance well in politics and especially don’t do it well on Middle East policy. We look at things as black and white, and not gray. It’s conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, “This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he’s not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,” and that’s something they’re hopeful about. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they’re not confused about my unyielding support for Israel’s security.

So Obama has no problem at calling Bush’s policies in the Middle East “cowboy diplomacy” but let President Bush defend himself and call the “hat in hand crowd” exactly what they are ….APPEASERS… and suddenly the Left is all up in arms about Bush’s untoward comments. BULL!!! 

I say Bully for Bush and if the Left is offended, then tough.  If anything, I was more disappointed by White House press secretary, Dana Perino’s, statement denying any link of the President’s remarks to Obama. I wish her reaction would have been “Senator Obama, if the shoe fits…… wear it”.  

I think this entire issue is red meat for John McCain and he has appeared, initially at least, ready to take up the charge against Obama’s soft foreign policy stances.  Conservatives are waiting for McCain to throw them a bone of any kind these days.  

Every pundit I have heard for a month or more has said that Hillary has no chance at all to win and all she can accomplish is to damage the party and help John McCain in the process.  Now here we are heading into the West Virginia primary tomorrow and tonight Hillary has a lead in the polls of 60% to 24%. In Kentucky, Hillary has a similar lead of  27%. But even so, the lead that Obama has over Hillary cannot be overcome by big wins in those two states, so why bother? I think that Hillary plans to embarrass Obama in the next two primaries and show the super delegates that “hey, this guy can’t win in November.”  He may be ahead in the some of the big population areas where blacks, who overwhelmingly vote for Obama, are a dominant voting force.  But when push comes to shove, white middle Americans are not going to pull the lever for this guy and West Virginia and  Kentucky are prime examples.

Hillary is betting that by Tuesday, May 20, 2008, after two stunning losses (and probably one big win in Oregon for Obama where the far left reigns supreme) that the messianic one may become mere mortal in the eyes of not only his adoring fans but also the fawning media. She’s hoping for a major case of buyer’s remorse on the part of pledged delegates and still uncommitted super delegates. She also hoping that the Dems will finally realize that they may be on the verge of a stunning loss of staggering proportions in November, a loss that may make both McGovern and Dukakis feel good about their races.

Obama’s relationship with the unrepentant terrorist,  Bill Ayers,  a 20 year relationship with the loony Rev. Wright, still to come revelations of his Tony Rezko connections in Chicago, an embarrassing endorsement from the terrorist group, Hamas not to mention his total lack of experience will make him unelectable to main stream Americans in the Fall.

 I disagree with Tom Freidman’s article  “Who Will Tell the People?” on so many levels, I hardly know where to start.

One thing I do agree with is that the American people do want to see “American Nation Building” but we can’t have everything all the time. As much as Dems try to ignore it, we are in two wars at the moment: a war in Iraq, which the Dems will not acknowledge or support and the other one they say they support, the war in Afghanistan. By the way, did we do a lot of American Nation building during WWII? I think not and we didn’t even have the enormous weight of the current day entitlements to be concerned about. But we are fighting a very unique and difficult war against a shadowy enemy that does not fight in conventional ways. We saw first hand what happened to the American economy in the wake of 9-11. A similar strike or greater blow would have another serious impact on our economy and the daily life of every American could be changed forever. We have very short memories in this country and even shorter attention spans and our enemies have the patience of Job.  If we give the enemy any slack they will strike us. That is a given. But Dems are against the war, against the Patriot Act, against electronic surveillance, against aggressive interrogation, against Gitmo,  you name it. Anything to help the enemy.  They’ll vehemently deny that accusation, of course.  

So here we are in the middle of two wars and whining about our own infrasturcure.  Why don’t we just win the wars we are in and get them over with instead of pulling against each other and going nowhere.  

Friedman was gaga about the airport in Singapore. Does he expect that the federal government rebuild every American airport to that standard?

It’s true that the wealth transfer from America to the Middle East is unprecedented and dangerous but whose fault is that? We haven’t been able to drill for our own oil anywhere for decades. Every effort to allow drilling in ANWR is blocked, off shore sources of oil are stiff-armed by Dems at every turn, even now when oil prices are at levels where its economically feasible to seek out these oil sources, we can’t get permits to drill.  We haven’t built a new refinery for over 20 years and every year when one or more go down for repairs, the price of gasoline spikes.  Freidman complains when Bush goes to Saudi Arabia begging for more oil and lower prices. I agree, this is bad form for an American president but who put us in the situation?  You can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim we should be energy independent when you are not willing to allow the oil companies to drill for our own.  

Then, I love this line from Freidman’s column “Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents.” Nice of Mister “Down the Middle” Freidman to assume that all Republican attacks or criticisms are lies.  

So, “Who will tell the people”, Mr. Freidman, that:

• we can’t be all things to all peoples at all times?
• the role of government is not to wipe every butt of every American but to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic?
• unless we are strong and beat this evil enemy that we won’t have a vibrant economy that we have come to enjoy?  
• when al-Qaeda comes a calling again, neither Singapore nor anyone else for that matter will be helping us as we would if the shoe was on the other foot?  
• if we are not safe from terrorism, there is no economy, no jobs or anything else that goes with it?
• the terrorists, if left to their own devices will do everything in their power to bring us down and our taking our eye off the ball, like the Dems want us to do, is exactly what the terrorists hope we’ll do?

It won’t be a Democrat, that for sure.

These are all good uses for the stimulus checks but if you make over $75,000 and Obama gets elected, you just might as well put it the bank, get a dollar or two interest on it and get ready to send it back to the Feds when our taxes go up because that is exactly what is going to happen. Obama told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday today that he will roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans and will further cut the taxes on those under $75,000 which will increase taxes on those above that level. So in case Obama, or Hillary for that matter, win the election in November, just tuck it away for a year until Uncle Sam comes a-calling in 2009 because those checks are just an interest-free loan, folks.  

The recent endorsement of Barak Obama by one of the most hated terrorist groups has nearly filled McCain’s war chest for the general election should Obama prevail and win the Democrat Party nomination.  In an interview with Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas, on WABC radio, this terror monster had the “Audacity to Hope” that Obama will win the nomination and go on to win the Presidency  because he feels that Obama has the “vision to change America.” Obviously his idea of “American Change” may be a bit different from the average American seeking change.  So I would imagine that this audio tape will be heard many times this political season. McCain is typically loath to sensationalize missteps by his opponents. Even now, in North Carolina, he has been critical of the North Carolina Republican Party for running an ad which focuses on Rev. Wright’s anti-American rants and Obama’s 20 year association with the Rev. Wright. But even McCain won’t be able to pass up having the Hamas endorsement of Obama in his backpack as he heads out on the general election trail.

My feeling is that many Americans already knew which political party groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda would prefer to be in office. Many of the tapes we hear of Osama bin Laden come straight from the Democrat talking points of the day.  The Dems have fought President Bush at every turn in the War on Terror in this country, the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan.  They have tried to overturn the Patriot Act. Harry Reid once crowed in the Senate “We killed the Patriot Act”.  He also said “the Iraq War was Lost”.  The Dems have not acted like they want to protect our country first and protect our national interests worldwide. So it has not been difficult to guess which of the political parties our most hated enemies would rather see in power.

No matter which one, Obama or Hillary, wins the Dem nomination, McCain will have a treasure trove of material to trot out against the Democrats this Fall.

Liberals have increasingly used the poor excuse of worrying about spoiling our environment rather than drill for more oil. With the technology that we now have, drilling for oil nearly anywhere is as safe as it has ever been. The misplaced and melodramatic concern about the environment is akin to not walking across your lawn to help an elderly lady who fell on the sidewalk in front of your house for fear making footprints in the lawn. The search for alternative fuels has lead us down the path of using our own food crop to burn in our cars. The race to convert corn to ethanol has also increased corn production to the exclusion of other grain crops particularly wheat, creating even more shortages of these world feeding grains. What we have now done in diverting the corn crop for ethanol fuel use has unintentionally created a world food crisis. According to a column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning written by liberal think tank director Anuradha Mittal, world food prices have increased by 39% in the last year. Food riots have erupted in Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. There surely are other causes besides the conversion of the corn crop to ethanol of this world food crisis but this is one chief cause. The third world must look at us as some kind of monsters. On the one hand we are the envy of the world in our capacity to provide food for the world but we are now appearing like some gluttonous ogres by converting corn that could feed starving millions to fuel for the automobile.

Nevermind that the benefits of using ethanol in our cars is very suspect. It’s less efficient than gasoline, more expensive than gasoline, it takes more energy to produce than gasoline, but this conversion makes the Liberals feel as though they are doing their part taking us off the oil dependency so the cause and effect of this conversion doesn’t appear to matter to them.

Make no mistake that that this world food crisis rests squarely on the shoulders of liberals who always tell us that they know better than most of us and that if only we would listen to them, their solutions will lead us all to the promised land. Problem is the road to the promised land has left us in a parched dustbowl of unintended consequences.

The Pope’s Visit with week is such a positive influence on our entire society.  We are blessed to have him here and to listen to him reinforce the values of America:  freedom, truth, and a culture of life.  We have been so accustomed over the last few years by the political process in this country to tear each other down but the Pope’s message has been uplifting and gives us a chance to take stock of the blessings this wonderful nation provides to us all.

Of course the freedom we enjoy also gives some the freedom to make idiots of themselves as we have seen exhibited by the likes of Bill Maher and Joy Behar.  The Pope will be the first to forgive them for their ugly comments. Just one more good example for all of us.

The far left has shown us once again that they are good at dishing it out but they are far from ready to take it. The Hillary/Obama debate was a good example of this.  The hue and cry from the far left press and blogosphere when they thought that golden boy Obama was questioned harder than necessary was deafening.  It is as plain as the nose on your face that the real problem the far left has is not that these were trivial questions, but rather that the doggone truth about who Obama really is may just leak out. And this is a fate worse than death for the far left.

Obama’s answer to Stephanopoulos question about the William Ayers connection was revealing in a few ways. He said that “He’s (Ayers) is not someone that he exchanges ideas with on a regular basis.” What does that mean?  Does he exchange ideas on an irregular basis? How irregular? What are these ideas that are exchanged on an irregular basis with this unapologetic terrorist? When someone in Obama’s position learns that a known terrorist sits on a board with you, one should either ask him to resign or failing that, resign yourself and certainly you don’t go to his house for meetings.

The comparison of terrorist William Ayers and Tom Coeburn was nothing less than scurrilous and he ought to be ashamed of himself for equating the two.  Obama’s association with questionable characters, past and present, such as Rev. Wright, Ayers, Farrakhan, Tony Rezko speak to the character and judgment of Obama and all of these associations need to be explored.

Jimmy Carter’s disgusting performance with week by meeting the head of Hamas, laying a wreath at the tomb of the terrorist, Yasser Arafat, and his plodding forward on this mission of shame after his own country and Israel asked, and perhaps begged, him not to meet with Hamas is as shameful as I have ever seen of any U.S. dignitary, not to mention former President, in my lifetime. His irrelevance has no bounds.

 Each day that passes, the importance of the Hillary staying in the race becomes more pronounced. Without the upcoming Pennsylvania Primary, Obama may never had said this:

 “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them... it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

 This is no doubt the influence of 20 years of Rev. Wright brain washing. Now we know that Obama thinks all of us po’ Midwestern white folk are nothin’ but gun tottin’, bible thumpin’,  tobacco chewin’, gap-toothed, haters of all people non-white who are only this way because of the poor economy. How can a man who thinks this way govern this country?   

We know that the Main Stream Media will never probe Obama sufficiently nor will John McCain do the kind of dirty work that only Hillary can do. So hang in there Hillary, all the way to Denver. By that time, we may finally know enough about Barak Obama to keep this dangerous character out of the White House.

He’s an ACE alright.  If Barak Obama ever becomes President, (God forbid) we could expect President Obama to name Ted Turner to a newly formed cabinet position - Secretary of the Department of ACES – (Abortion, Castration, Euthanasia and Sterilization). Why?

Where is General Anthony McAuliffe when we really need him?  

The timing of John McCain’s “Service to America” Tour couldn’t have been better. Many of us who follow the political trail to the presidential election in November are beginning to question the inner workings of relative newcomer Barak Obama and we are just now beginning to get our first look at the “real” Obama. We don’t know what formed his ideals and his thinking but the mis-adventures of Rev. Jeremiah Wright have begun to shine light on what was otherwise a mysterious past.  John McCain’s tour hopes to show the American voters what it is that has helped form his political views and thinking and to reveal that the contrast between him and his opponents is very sharp indeed.  

McCain started his tour on March 30 at McCain Field in Meridian, Miss which was named for his grandfather, an admiral, where he focused on his family’s military service. From there the tour moves to his high school in Alexandria, Va., where like most of us he sowed his wild oats. Today he makes two stops: first at the Naval Academy in Annapolis where he admittedly did not distinguish himself academically but followed his forbearer’s footsteps in service to our country. Second, is a stop in Pensacola, Fl. where he attended flight school.

The tour then proceeds to Jacksonville, Fl. where his wife and children lived while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Then on to Memphis where he will deliver a speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death which occurred when McCain was still a prisoner of war. The tour ends in Arizona where he began his political career.  

This tour accentuates and confirms what we know about John McCain and that is he is first and foremost a firm believer in the goodness of the United States of America and the opportunities that our country provides not only to all Americans but to millions around the world who wish to become part of the American experience. As for Obama, not so much.

There have been more and more tipoffs about how Obama really feels about this country. The issue he made over the wearing of an American flag lapel pin for one. He said that wearing a US Flag lapel pin “became a substitute for I think true patriotism” in effect calling those who wear a lapel pin false patriots. If he doesn’t want to wear one, that’s fine with me. But he should not denigrate those who do.

We have heard Michelle Obama’s wife say that for the first time in her adult life she is proud of America even in spite of all our glorious achievement during her adult life. This statement sounds like it was inspired by poisoned rantings of Rev. Wright. We’ve seen Obama, a presidential candidate, not use the proper protocol during the National Anthem by not placing his hand over his heart as Americans and especially candidates for the highest office in the land, are supposed to do.

Where does he learn such behavior? I think I know where and he’s been going there nearly every Sunday for 20 years.

What is a concern, however, is that the latest generation of American voter has been dumbed down so badly by our public education system that few of them even notice these failings by Obama and worse yet many of them concur with his line of thought. McCain is far and away the superior candidate for office of the three remaining candidates but McCain will have trouble getting his message out over the MSM. If McCain is to win, we’ll all have to do our share to help the cause.