The sequester - once again President Obama fails to lead

 Sequester. Since we are getting bombarded with the word, I decided to look it up to see what it means in the dictionary.

In its noun form, it is a general cut to government spending

In the verb, it means to isolate or hide away. In this case I think it's use is the verb and the truth is hidden away. 

In order to get the Republicans to agree to avert the fiscal cliff/debt ceiling crisis two years ago, the President said he would be glad to cut expenditures…in two years. So the President came up with a deal and it was called sequestration. Well the two years is up and the cuts will occur in two days.

Like all of the other fiscal cliffs and debt ceiling crises we have been exposed to for the past 4 years, nothing gets done until the last minute. There is no leadership, no one at the helm to bring all of the parties together and hammer out a deal.

Obama's sequestration included cuts to the military that he figured would be revolting to Republicans and they would eventually agree to compromise with him. But the Republicans seem willing to go along with these cuts, the wars are winding down and there is less pressure on the military.   

This reaction from the republicans was unexpected to Obama.  In his sequestration he had also included cuts to many social programs his base relies on...cuts he never thought he would have to make.

President Obama has taken to the road to try to drum up outrage against Republicans to pressure them to cave in on the sequestration cuts.

President Obama treats the sequester like it is a red headed step child, as if he was the innocent bystander and had nothing to do with it…But award winning journalist Bob Woodward, blew the whistle & firmly placed paternity rights to sequestration in Obamas corner.

But in this case “sequester” hides the truth.  The truth is that these so called “cuts” are only a pinprick to the growth of government spending.

Both sides are equally guilty of protecting their pet projects and sacred cows which automatically grow fatter each year under baseline budgeting.

Senator Tom Coburn who knows better than most what the game is about, said the other day: “There's easy ways to cut this money in ways the American people will never feel. What you hear is an outrage because nobody wants to cut spending."

Senator Coburn has documented billions in waste and fraud that could be cut from the budget...read his excellent, 2012 Wastebook.  But none of this is being addressed in the “sequester.”

The CATO Institute did an exhaustive study on how we are spending 100 billion on corporate welfare.  But none of this is being touched with the “sequester” either. Here is their excellent report: Corporate Welfare in the Federal Budget.

The people and their children who will have to shoulder the burden of this out out of control spending, are tired of having the truth about the debt and deficit "sequestered" away by their leaders.

Time for the Oscars to have a “best of” politicians category

Michelle Obama presents an Oscar to Ben Affleck

The Oscar ceremonies finally sealed the deal between Hollywood and Washington DC.

In an unprecedented move, Michelle Obama appeared on the Oscar stage via big screen. Direct from the White house, she was there to announce who won best picture. To add even more dignity and state sponsorship to the occasion, Mrs. Obama was flanked by a US military contingent in full dress uniform.

 The winner just happened to be Argo, a movie produced and directed by ardent Obama supporters, Ben Affleck and George Clooney. Was it a coincidence?

Presidential campaigns are heavily choreographed; every word for a campaign speech is carefully scripted and inserted in the teleprompter. Crowds (extras) are bussed in, the locations carefully selected and decorated for maximum impact, including the use of Greek columns…. All hallmarks of Hollywood.

Everything is tightly controlled, including press briefings. Friendly questions are thrown to the President, by eager “journalists” hoping not to offend. If a journalist gets out of line and asks an awkward or difficult question there will be repercussions. Even more so for those who won’t settle for an evasive non answer to their questions. 

President Obama has proven to be remarkable in front of crowds, delivering powerful speeches that have even lead to people swooning in the audience…..and when he brings a tear to his eye during a touching moment, you can hear sobs in his audience.

Of course President Obama isn’t the only politician to use Hollywood props and tactics to help sway public opinion and give Oscar worthy performances.

President Clinton was also very closely tied in with Hollywood and a frequent visitor to the west coast during his presidency.

Mr. Clinton was known for his ability to shed a tear on command and get that raspy sound in his voice we all know so well. But he was caught turning the tears off and laughing when he thought the tape had stopped during a funeral…when he realized the camera was still rolling, he instantly transformed back to his tearful look.

It seems the best politicians are the ones who know how to play the camera. Oscar winning performances in front of millions can transcend them beyond leaders to celebrity status. Sadly, screen manipulation doesn’t transform into a good chief executive, or leader for our country.

Perhaps the best Oscar winning performances actually occur in Washington DC. Maybe in the future Hollywood can honor these performers with a special Oscar.

Dread Scott decision-Florida Governor caves on Obamacare

Gov Scott explains his dreaded decision

Longtime foe of Obamacare, Florida Governor Rick Scott, did an about face and agreed to implement the first step of it yesterday. The Governors decision shocked many republican leaders around the country as many of them jostle with the unpopular health care program.

Many republicans and conservatives derided the governor for his decision. The conservative group, Americans For Prosperity released this statement:

“Governor Scott’s announcement today is extremely disappointing. Governor Scott had been a national leader in the fight against President Obama’s health care takeover. He was elected because of his principled conservative leadership against ObamaCare’s overreach, and led the charge, with Attorney General Pam Bondi, to take Obamacare to the Supreme Court. But today he came out in support of the Medicaid expansion he vowed to oppose.”

But Fox News contributor, Dr. Charles Krauthammer said that Governor Scott sees this as the best decision for his state. Dr. Krauthammer said it was "an honorable decision to make."

Perhaps it was the promise of no cost to Florida for the first three years and then only a 10% payment for it in the 4^th year. 

Perhaps it was the realization he has lost every battle to overturn Obamacare since its unpopular inception and he might as well accept that it has been mandated the law of the land.

Losing the battle in the Supreme Court struck a huge blow against opponents of Obamacare, but Mitt Romney’s loss to Obama in the election basically guaranteed Obamacare was the law of the land.

Although Obamacare is the law of the land and is being heralded as such, there is much doubt the country can actually afford to pay for it.

The nation is already 16 trillion in debt and piling on billions more debt on a daily basis, without adding all of the upcoming expense of Obamacare.

Governor Scott is a pragmatist and no one thinks his motives are anything but for the best interests of his state.  So perhaps his decision is based on a belief that Obamacare will eventually collapse upon itself and he might as well get as much of the free benefits that he can before they are gone.

Governor Scott is only the seventh republican governor to accept the Obamacare mandate, but this might edge the other Governors to follow his lead and add more burdens on the federal government to cover states Obamacare expenses.  This will further strain the already out of control deficit and perhaps hasten a showdown with an economic reality the Obama administration has refused to face for the past four years.

Perhaps the Obama administration will dread the Scott decision. Time will tell.

Sandy aid shows, Irish sit in the back of the Democrat party bus

Rockaways

President Obama cobbled together a new coalition of special interests that he was able to win a 2^nd term with.  Minorities, single women, gays, union members, government employees, etc., helped put him over the top. 

The Irish American coalition used to have great sway in the Democrat party.  But some high profile Irish Americans weren’t even invited to a traditional St Patricks special event dinner in Obamas 1^st term.

If Irish Americans had clout in the Democrat Party, the Sandy devastation in the Rockaway’s would have been dealt with swiftly and surely.

Democrat luminaries were falling all over themselves for photo ops right after the storm. Wearing hard hats and making promises to the cameras, they scored big in the PR dept.

But today, months after the storm, many residents still have no homes to move into and no power for their homes, if they still have one standing.

These neighborhoods are slowly being relegated to back page status in the media and when that happens,  it is as if the problem isn’t there anymore. But it is there.

Federal aid has been slow.  Democrats blame the Republicans for holding up an appropriations bill. But Republicans say the reason for the delay is that the bill put forth by Harry Reid and the Democrats, was loaded with billions in pork that had nothing to do with Sandy relief

Bill Clinton photo op

If Democrats were serious about protecting and aiding their constituency, they wouldn’t have played political games. Evidently they felt, after the media storm died down, they could relegate Sandy to politics and special interests without fear of media or political blowback.

Read Townhalls excellent exposure of the Democrat pork laden Sandy relief bill by Katy Pavlich. It itemizes the billions that have nothing to do with Sandy relief. Article

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the din from the media was ear splitting.  News teams were on the ground at all times.  The damaged city was kept front and center throughout the entire Bush term, as billions upon billions were poured on the city and its residents.

But this disaster in New York is different. The leader in the White house is a Democrat and so are most of those officeholders in this damaged area.

President Bush was blamed incessantly for acting slowly to respond to the disaster that hurricane Katrina caused. But the truth was ineptness by Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, both Democrats that caused the lack of preparedness and response to Katrina. 

Mayor Nagins “chocolate city” as he referred to it, was showered with billions in federal tax dollars to show the media and the rest of America we cared. 

Indicted mayor of New Orleans

The media microscope was kept focused on New Orleans recovery efforts and any delay in aid was headline news. Charges of racism were raised by civil rights leaders for any perceived lack of aid, real or imagined.

As a side note Mayor Nagin is facing criminal corruption charges for misappropriating federal funds destined for the repair of his city. Did you read that in the headline news?

But President Obama & Democrat leaders are held to a different standard. New York’s Rockaway’s are still a disaster area and federal feet are dragging. The quiet desperation of American citizens needing aid from their government is being ignored in the media.

Democrat Irish Americans should take note of the shabby treatment they are getting from the very politicians they help put in office.  Notice what it is like to be relegated to old news by the lap dog media.

Heads roll as the religion of “turn the other cheek,” meets the religion of “peace”

Burning church

The latest casualty in the war against Christianity, is a Tanzanian pastor who lost his head to an outraged Muslim mob.  The incensed mob was demanding all non-halal butcher shops and especially pork butchery, be forbidden

A spokesman said a group of youths believed to be Muslim, assaulted several Christians, including a butcher shop owner, using sticks and machetes.  During the confrontation Pastor Mathayo Kachili, of the local Assembly of God Church, was beheaded.

Besides the Pastors beheading, several other people were injured critically during the incident and taken to the local hospital in Buseresere for treatment. See this and other stories excerpted from link: Tanzanian News

Christians in a small village in southern Egypt are rebuilding their lives and homes after hundreds of Muslims rampaged through their community firebombing houses and businesses, over rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian and a Muslim.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram, a group seeking to impose Islamic law on the country, picked out Christians in a small village, gathered them in a group before massacring them. 15 people died in the attack; many had had their throats slit.

These are not isolated incidents as Muslim extremists attack other religions wherever the two meet, but Christianity seems to be singled out.

Pastor Mathayo Kachili

According to a report named Christiana-phobia, by the think tank Civitas: The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith. Between half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or have been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

Violent oppression of Christians has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations, especially in Africa and the Middle East. In some countries it is government sanctioned violence that burns down churches and imprison parishioners.

In others countries, groups and vigilantes take matters into their hands by murdering Christians and driving them out of regions they have called home for centuries.

One Christian pastor in an affected country described the situation this way: “On the Christian side, strong emphasis is placed on the teaching of Christian love, patience, mercy and forbearance. But in such a situation one wonders what the future of Christianity and of the nation as a whole can be.”

“Muslims believe that if they die in the course of a Holy War (or Jihad) they will go directly to heaven. We are dealing with a religious philosophy where war is a must! The whole weight of the challenge is now on our shoulders. Who can tell how successfully we will respond?”

It seems, the Christian philosophy of turning the other cheek, is on the road to running out of cheeks to turn, in Muslim dominated countries. It seems when it comes to tolerating other religions, the religion of “peace” isn’t so peaceful.

Fox News adds Scott Brown to join Dennis Kucinich - Will Mitt Romney be next?

Republican Scott Brown joins the Fox News team

Where do failed politicians go after they’ve been rejected by their electorate? It seems Fox News is their new destination.

To help ratings, Fox has been shifting the face of its commentators steadily more to the left in order to keep it more “fair and balanced.”

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, lost his gerrymandered district in Ohio and had to try a stab at a re-gerrymandered constituency that would never elect him. 

The far left, camera whore/congressman, was said to have his eye on a new congress gig representing Washington state, but his magic carpetbagger ride was interrupted by lagging poll numbers.

Read more US politics news here

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich

But not to miss a paycheck, or camera time, Kucinich was scooped up by Fox where he can dazzle the viewers with his practiced, non answer answers, on many topical subjects.

Ex-Massachusetts Senator and Playgirl centerfold, Scott Brown, is the latest addition to the Fox contributor stable.

Brown, fresh off a humiliating defeat to a candidate who should have been shamed out of the campaign for abusing the system, rather than being coronated Senator of Massachusetts, can grace Fox viewers with his vanilla views on national politics.

Brown and Mitt Romney, both headquartered in Massachusetts, used the same political playbook as they waged their campaigns.  Both of them seemed hesitant to answer back attacks waged on them and never took advantage of clear targets when it came to their opponents glaring weaknesses.

Read more on the Republican Party here

Brown pulled punches with Elizabeth Warren, by not aggressively going to the source, legally, on how she received her positions in govt/universities by claiming to be a Native American.  Clearly, a fraudulent abuse of federal/state affirmative action laws, as it was found Warren had no legitimate claim for Native American status.

As a result of his vanilla campaign, he lost to Elizabeth Warren and the Senate has another far left ideologue in its midst to wage war on its private sector, and tax and spend the country into oblivion.

Mitt Romney’s campaign was similar to Browns, in that it was hesitant to exploit the failures of Obama and aggressively go after Obama's past…on many levels.  In the few times Romney actually called out Obama on his issues, his poll numbers rose.  

The first Romney/Obama debate showed how America responded to a forceful and pro active stance by Romney when he battered Obama on his many failures.  Romney got a tremendous lift in the polls as a result of that performance.  It clearly showed Romney was willing to fight and that’s what America wanted.

But Romney failed to keep up the attack and soon lost the messaging war in the media to Obama.  Romney failed to punch back at Obama.  Romney failed to play by the same Chicago street rules the Obama campaign played by. 

Romney/Brown preferred to politically box by the Marquess of Queensbury rules, when their opponents in the ring were playing by the, “just win baby” rules.

As a result, these nice guys finished 2nd….and the nation is the real loser.

But Fox’s Roger Ailes knows how to take lemons and make lemon-aid out of them…will we soon see Mitt Romney as a contributor?  Stay tuned.

Will President Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech be like a scene from the movie "Outlaw Josey Wales"?

Clint Eastwood’s 1976 iconic hit, Outlaw Josey Wales, starts out in 1865 Missouri. The civil war had just ended and a small force of confederate guerilla fighters had been persuaded to turn themselves in to federal forces for amnesty.

They arrive at the federal encampment, to be disarmed and then told to assemble in the middle of the camp.  There they are instructed to raise their right hands and repeat the oath to the union, as read by a union officer.

They start to repeat the oath of allegiance:

“I swear to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States.  I swear that I will never again take up arms against the government”

But the script takes a horrible turn as the union officer starts to insult the men, expecting them to repeat his insults; the men grumble that this isn’t what they bargained for.  

The next words from the union officer are:

“I pledge that I will be loyal to the United States of America, and recognize that it is one nation…Though I be murderous, verminous, lying Missouri scum…” [Open fire]

The assembled men, who expected to hear unification and a welcome back into the fold; instead are bushwhacked and massacred.

If the past is any predictor of the future, President Obama’s State of the Union speech set for tomorrow, will have shades of the repatriation scene (figuratively) in Josey Wales.

Democrat operatives have said the intent of the president is to destroy the Republicans, so his party can gain control of both houses of the legislature.

The Republicans have been bushwhacked and massacred on many occasions during sessions like the State of the Union speech by this president; will they again just sit there and take it?

In the past, President Obama has insulted Republicans in Congress, forcing one congressman to blurt out “you lie,” during the presidents speech.

Even the Supreme Court has been targeted.   In an unprecedented breach of propriety, he berated the justices sitting below him for  their decision to give free speech rights to American Corporations in political campaigns.

After Obama slammed them for their decision, Justice Alito shook his head and appeared to say “not true," as Democrats stood and applauded all around the Supreme Court members.

President Obama has shown by his actions in the past he won’t hesitate to use his bully pulpit, to be a bully.

Will the Republicans push back? 

Perhaps tomorrow will mark the beginning of a new strategy to fire back at the president.  Obamas speech will be followed by a rebuttal from Republican rising star, Marco Rubio.

Rubio is well spoken and well respected; he knows how to deliver a powerful speech.  He will not be afraid to call out President Obama for any misstatements or insults he hurls at his party.  He will also do it speaking English as well as Spanish.