Health Reform and Obama’s presidency.

We live in interesting times, our country’s political and financial mood is caught between many different currents and each month the collective wisdom changes and evolves. Admittedly, my disappointment with the outcome of the 2008 elections was overwhelming and my overall faith in the decision making abilities of the American public was shaken to the core. However what is unfolding rapidly in the general sentiment of the public, is a reversal in opinion that makes me inevitably question my previous judgment. Perhaps the very thing that makes this country ever so great, is the uncanny ability to ultimately persevere and overcome great odds.

As of this writing, two trends are moving in opposite directions that at the very least has shaken my original analysis. The stock market is continuing to make yearly highs boosted by better than expected earnings from industry giants and improving economic data, but Obama’s approval ratings continue to plummet. According to Rasmussen, Obama has now lost a chunk of the base that got him elected in the first place and for the first time in his presidency has tilted the scale of disapproval versus approval. 50% now disapprove and 49% approve, a trend that has been deepening in the past several weeks. Most likely his involvement in the Cambridge police debacle over the last several days was a grave error and sent his base reeling, after all, humiliating the unions is not something a Democrat should be doing. Still, the primary reason behind this developing trend, is most likely the frightening speed at which “health reform” is being shoved down the throat of Americans.

Even though Americans are starting to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee, popular opinion alone cannot stop the liberal agenda from unfolding especially while the liberals control Congress. In fact, Obama may very well realize that while Americans were temperamental enough to elect a socialist out of anger over Bush’s policy, the same recipe will yield different results in the 2010 elections. Thus, Obama will attempt to cram as much of his liberal utopia through Congress realizing that time may be of the essence. Of course this speed also prevents anyone from actually reading the legislation and seriously damages the credibility of our lawmakers while scaring the living daylights out of ordinary citizens. In order for radical ideas to die, certain Democrats have to break rank. As you might have heard, these Democrats are called “Blue Dogs” and traditionally hail from the conservative south, known primarily for their fiscal conservatism.

These very same Democrats are now acting as the primary hurdle in getting to a House vote, rejecting the concept of “health reform” that will result in rising health costs for the vast majority of Americans. While Obamacare carries with it more than just a hefty cost, for the time being whatever the logic these Democrats are using, the end result will be the same. If you believe the following:

- Rationing health care is wrong. Whether you are 25 or 75, the government should not be deciding if you deserve surgery.
- Obamacare is misleading. They talk about a government option, but the bill clearly states that private insurance will be phased out.
- National healthcare is ineffective. Our system is not perfect, but should we be adopting an idea that Canada, France and Britain have proven to be broken? Insanity?
- Government’s jurisdiction does not belong on health care. Our society relies a lot on government, but should a bunch of bureaucratic elites decide how to manage our health?

If you do, then call or write to the following Blue Dogs and let them know how much you appreciate what they are doing.

Zack Space (D-Ohio): 1-202-225-6265
John Barrow (D-Ga.): 1-202-225-2823
Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.): 1-202-225-4231
Baron Hill (D-Ind.): 1-202-225-5315
Jim Matheson (D-Utah): 1-202-225-3011
Charlie Melancon (D-La.): 1-202-225-4031
Mike Ross (D-Ark): 1-202-225-3772

Bill alert: American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009 a.k.a Cap and Trade

Henry Waxman of California has pushed this bill through and a vote is expected to take place shortly. According to opencongress.org the bill has massive opposition among the public or the educated voters. With 770 Nays and 103 Ayes putting the bill in the same bucket of dislike as the Stimulus package.

The bill sounds good on paper as it strives to move America from the dependency on oil, but in reality this is nothing more than a Global Warming rescue package. A package that is being put forth on the Americans in time of significant strife and threatens to implicitly raise taxes on every single family. According to Heritage.org if the bill passes, the end result will be “… will lower temperatures by only hundredths of a degree in 2050 and no more than two-tenths of a degree at the end of the century.”

Obviously the Green Fascists will have you believe otherwise and using the term “crisis” or “emergency” will invariably attempt to push this legislation through. Unfortunately for the rest of us, Global Warming is still an issue that most scientists cannot agree on. Yes, warming is happening, but how much of the warming is caused by humans and if we change our behavior in America what will be the net result? As of now, it seems like the fascists are more concerned with feel-good policies than actually considering what the potential costs may be.

Please follow the Heritage.org link for a detailed analysis of how many thousands of dollars this will cost you and me. Ultimately this bill must be squashed in Congress or America could face a very crippling economic hardship.

Update: The bill unfortunately passed the house by a hair, 8 Republicans voted along with the Democrats and it made all the difference. Next step is the Senate and hopefully those opposing massive government takeover of private enterprise will fare better this time.

219-212, should have been 211-220 … sad day indeed.

Obama’s popularity starting to wane?

We live in interesting times and the job of POTUS is probably the most difficult and stressful task in the world. This is of course why so much emphasis is placed on elections, campaigns and public involvement.

Obama rode in a wave of irrational popularity bolstered by the nation’s vehement dislike of George W. Bush, a souring economy and the attraction to a youthful black male. A great many of us in the political “right” and “center” were put off by Obama as we began to learn about his experience, stances and dubious past.

It appears, however, that some sense is starting to creep back into the American public although at a stubbornly slow rate. As of now, the most trusted pollster – Scott Rasmussen suggests that for the first time since Obama’s election the number of people who greatly disapprove of Obama’s performance outweigh those that greatly approve.

Total approval is still outweighing the total disapproval by 9%. I trust Rasmussen more than any other agency because of the significant effort he takes in polling actual voters as opposed to random Americans. Those that vote habitually are more educated and frankly more important in terms of gauging political sentiment.

Gallup, a source I trust much less and has a common history of over blowing their numbers suggest that Obama’s approval rating is at it’s lowest, 57-35.

What may be contributing to Obama’s slip in numbers and what does it mean for the nation?
Several factors are in play here in my opinion.

1. Stimulus: It appears that people are finally becoming aware that frivolous government spending does not promote a healthy economy. The stimulus bill was rushed through congress and jammed down the throat of the American people on the grounds that a crisis must be averted. It turns out that unemployment continued to climb and the amount of money spent out of the stimulus money is marginal.

2. Iran: Iran’s “revolution” is now headline news on all major agencies and the divide between Obama’s handling of the situation is growing. It does not matter what the man does, because it is a lose-lose situation for him. Due to his immature and silly campaign promises of maintaining dialog with dictators and murderers, he is left with two options. He either embraces the opposition in Iran thus breaking his campaign promise or he maintains his campaign promise and permanently alienates the revolting population of Iran.

3. North Korea: Americans are very concerned about foreign policy and Obama’s soft stance on foreign relations and continued reduction in advanced military equipment has emboldened our enemies. Recently North Korea’s sabre rattling has intensified dramatically and as of this moment a Korean ship is being tracked by our military for suspected arms smuggling.

4. National health care: Despite what Obama thinks and says, most Americans do not accept the idea of state run heath care. Worse still, he claims that the government will act as a competitor and NOT crowd the private industry – this is of course not true and cannot be realistic. As this awful policy gains more attention in the media, independents that voted for Obama will break away in droves.

As of now, Obama is still extremely popular, but as time progresses he will become the owner of the economic condition that his policies have created. Unlike FDR, Obama will not be able to pull the wool over people’s eyes in the age of communication and information overload, nor will his policies be directed to Republican strongholds to win over voting constituency a la New Deal. Instead, in the age of the Internet and the collective ADD that plagues the American public – the patience with this youthful new president will run out in record time.

In fact, the stock market will be the precursor to Obama’s popularity. As of now, we are at a critical inflection point and the 2nd sharpest rally in the equities market is about to end. Once the resumption of the bear market continues and the economic reality wipes away the delusional fog clears away – Obama’s popularity will sink.

Hopefully his waning popularity will put a stem on the extremely liberal agenda that is placing this country in back breaking debt and the flow of policies that may permanently change life in America.

Conservatives trashed by Janeane Garofalo, Olbermann nods in approval.

As if the report from the DHS labeling conservatives militia driven psychos was not enough, Janeane Garofalo has been given a public forum to bash and insult the people that make up over half of America’s population. It’s not the power in numbers, but rather the founding fathers and the principles on which this nation was built has been turned upside down and vilified in the most repugnant and awful way possible.

Not only has CNN and liberals used every opportunity to insult and refer to the protests as “tea baggers“, but they continue to demonstrate an utter incompetence to what these protests have been all about! They fail to understand why a group of people could be upset about the influx of illegal immigrants, escalating and skyrocketing debt, inevitable taxation and breakdown of military spending.

The video below demonstrates the truly disgusting mentality of what our political left believes. We are belittled and pigeonholed into a label they sling with ease and dexterity, because it is convenient for them to isolate and destroy those they do not understand. We are called racists, rednecks, primitives and mentally challenged. These terms are used liberally and with vitriol to drive the message home, why discuss the issues at hand when it becomes so much easier to simply label the opposition racist? Conservatives have bemoaned the excesses of the Bush administration, but have tolerated his misgivings as a form of compromise. However the landscape has dramatically shifted into the wrong direction and the current administration provides conservatives virtually no outlet and no hope as they watch their ideologies and their principles systematically destroyed.

We are not racist because we want to secure our borders.
We are not racist because we dislike Obama and equate him to a socialist.
We are not rednecks because we refuse to think outside the box on issues such as war, security and military spending.
We are not stupid because we do not understand the implication of borrowing beyond our means.

We are none of the things that we are accused of and the bitter irony is that the accusations leveled by liberals, are the very same accusations that should be directed to liberals. After all, how can one justify and rationalize the continuation of pursuing policies that have failed. It is certainly no fault of ours that liberals have no ability to learn from history and instead prefer learn from history only those aspects that suits their agenda.

Our nation is growing more divided each and every day, in large measure due to the contributions of people like Janeane Garofalo.

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Homeland Security wages war on conservatives.

In a most stunning display from a high level office that I have ever witnessed, Department of Homeland Security has released a 10 page report titled: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. (click on link to download PDF, courtesy of MM blog).

The premise of this report is to alert the powers that be of a rising threat of rightwing radicalism and extremism within the country as a result of the economic crisis, attack on the 2nd amendment, disgruntled soldiers and of course the election of the first socialist…err…half white, half black President.

I read the document and urge you to do the same, because this is where our tax dollars are being spent, to research and write about a perceived threat that cannot be quantified or measured. What is by far the most vulgar aspect, is not so much the vague generalities and slander, but the complete disconnect between a small handful of nut jobs and the entire conservative movement. The document brashly groups people who are anti-illegal immigration, anti-centralized government and regulation, with neo-nazis, anti-Semites, skinheads and militia members. How can a document so callous be allowed to circulate in the highest echelons of our government is truly frightening and smacks of Orwellian control and Big Brother control.

“Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.” These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs. DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to
accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen.”

I am quite familiar with these conspiracy nuts and they do not represent even one iota of the conservative agenda, but instead belong in the Ron “Dr. Crank” Paul’s revolution – a whose who of paranoid sycophants and the fringe elements of society. Alex Jones and Stormfront.org and their racist/mindless drivel have as much to do with conservatives as Obama has with capitalism.

Equally disturbing, but more ironic is the failure to recognize the sheer hypocrisy of the claims made against rightwing groups meanwhile ignoring the involvement of left wing groups for the very same agendas. Similarly, grouping anarchists and neo-nazis with conservatives is an age old liberal tactic used to smear red blooded Americans. While I am not going to recite all of Goldberg’s book, the idea of coupling together Americans interested in personal liberty, fiscal responsibility and reduced government with those espousing Nazi ideologies of dictatorship, central control, suppressed media/freedom and racist dogma is amateurish and childish. Liberal fascism at it’s finest – observe the following:

“Historically, domestic rightwing extremists have feared, predicted, and anticipated a cataclysmic economic collapse in the United States. Prominent antigovernment conspiracy theorists have incorporated aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and paranoia among like-minded individuals and to attract recruits during times of economic uncertainty. Conspiracy theories involving declarations of martial law, impending civil strife or racial conflict, suspension of the U.S. Constitution, and the creation of citizen detention camps often incorporate aspects of a failed economy.”

Continued use of righwing and the term conspiracy intertwined with unsubstantiated subjective terms like “prominent” serve to drive the message home. Meanwhile completely ignoring that liberal groups and blogs (Daily Kos, i.e.) during Bush’s years espoused martial law, suspension/abuse of the US Constitution and a vast neo-conservative agenda. Once again, being anti-government and being loony-toony conspiracy nut in the eyes of the authors is a difference not worth mentioning. ACORN’s deep link with the new black panthers, lets not forget paramilitary black panthers at a voting booth in Pennsylvania – is obviously ignored, because they are NOT a leftwing organization, NOT implicated in crimes, extortion, fraud and theft and do NOT represent a strong political leaning. No, of course not.

The document goes on with drawing analogies between the Oklahoma city bombing and modern day radicalization and warns that a combination of disgruntled military personnel can be used as a recruiting agent. No numbers or statistics are provided, no real evidence other than isolated events that can be attributed to any political stripe. Furthermore and almost humorous in it’s stupidity, claims are made that certain groups and elements have been growing over the past 5 or 6 years – even though the document’s objective clearly states that the research is being done as a result of the economic downturn and Obama’s election + illegal immigration policies. Seems like the floodgates have been opened and an open war can be waged with blessing from above.

Due to this gross generalization, any individuals propagating the concepts of controlling illegal immigration, shrinking government and criticizing federal involvement with the economy over “Internet chatter” can now be classified as rightwing extremism.

The fact that this comes on the heels of mass tea parties across the nation and Obama’s continued plummeting ratings in the polls is obviously a coincidince. Yes, nothing to see – keep moving folks.