100 days, 1,360 days to go oh my!

I have never known someone who loves the limelight as much as Obama does. This guy seems to be on television about every week. In fact, he has caused American Idol to change its airing night during his last two press conferences. He was on again last night on American Idol night, but American Idol was not postponed. I realize Barack Hussein Obama (who is mad I said Hussein?) is America's and Europe's Idol, but I would prefer to watch the original American Idol on Fox not the George Soros created American Idol Barack Obama.

With baited breath, Americans sit in anticipation to see their American idol bloviate about how he is saving the world and parting the red seas. Obama enters the room as the press sits with gaping mouths wide-open. The reporters know they are sitting in front of greatness. A deafening silence permeates the room as the press awaits the master's voice. Barack Obama makes a short speech and then begins to take questions. The rejoinder of each question posed to the "one" took an average of ten minutes. I wonder how he did on timed tests in high school – probably not very well. My guess is by the time he finished one question, the rest of the class was done. He once again enlightens us to the fact that he closed Guantanamo Bay but he neglects to tell us that he has no idea what to with the detainees. He tried to off-load them on his trip to Europe because he believed the Europeans would not only shower him with praise but they would acquiesce to his demands. They did shower him with praise, but they offered little. France offers to take one detainee, Spain offers to take six. Beyond that, Europe gave nothing. So what to do - we will probably give the rest of the detainee's citizenship, ask them not to be bad, and send them on their ways. Obama was then asked if the influenza outbreak would cause him to close the borders. He hummed and hawed, and then said he can't do that. I mean – "come on" Had he done that it would be more difficult to grant the illegal Mexicans citizenship, and he needs them to completely obliterate the Republican Party.

I loved his response on torture. Let me make this perfectly clear, waterboarding is torture. Somehow I don't think he convinced many people, because it was the only question where there were follow-up questions. Did you not hear me; waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I could care less if it might save tens of thousands of lives, I will not use waterboarding, we are better than that. I would rather you die than to violate my ideals. The Field Manual allows me to yell at the prisoners, so that is what I will do.He stamps his feet a few times in hopes we believe him. He might have to waterboard us to get us to really believe him. Okay, so I used artistic license with what he said. I was reading between the lines. Obama says we could have gotten the information by other means, but how does he know that? The CIA memos state exactly the opposite. George Tenet and other intelligence officials all say that we could not have obtained the information any other way. Who cares anyway? The fact is we gathered the necessary information to stop attacks and save lives, and that is the issue. Obama also admitted to the fact that there were additional documents to which Dick Cheney had referred that showed the efficacy of enhanced interrogation methods, but he would not talk about them because they were still classified – so much for Obama's transparency. Transparency is good only if it shows how evil the United States is. He then moves on to Britain.

It was interesting that he invoked the name of Winston Churchill as his example of a reason not to torture. Barack Obama unceremoniously returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the British that was given to President Bush from Tony Blair after the attacks of 9/11. Britain also used extremely tough interrogation methods against the IRA. Britain's Special Air Service, (SAS) is a feared organization by terrorists. I am not sure where he is getting his information, but Britain was not a very good example.

Barack Obama says he will not have a rubber-stamp senate. Huh? I beg to differ. Both houses of congress had just passed a 3.5 trillion dollar budget which amounted to broad support for his healthcare plan and climate change bills – sounds like a rubber stamp to me.

And then with a straight face, the president said this:

And -- and that's why I'm always amused when I hear these, you know, criticisms of, "Oh, you know, Obama wants to grow government." No. I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with, but that's not the hand that's been dealt us".

Does he actually think people are going to believe that?

Barack Obama still continues the myth that he won't continue with Bush's eight years of failed policies. Bush's tax cuts spurred the economy after the dot-com crash and 9/11. What didn't work was the corruption and greed of those involved with the housing crisis and his excessive spending. The excessive spending is what Obama wants to continue. So, Obama takes what didn't work from Bush and puts it on steroids.

Of course, then we have to ask ourselves, if Barack Obama says that he is not going back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration, is he not reverting back to the failed anti-terrorist polices that were pre 9/11.

Obama says he will reduce the deficit in half in the middle of his first term. My question is how? In the dot-com bubble, investors said valuations no longer mattered – the bubble popped. In the housing crisis, seemingly intelligent people said housing prices will always go up (including my brother). They were wrong – the bubble popped. In today's scenario, it appears we can just print money without any consequences, but history is a guide. Argentina has tried it, Germany has tried it, and the list goes on. It will cause hyperinflation.

I thought I would jot down of few notes on Barack Obama's first 100 days. And, Just to show that I am not totally against everything Barack Obama has done, I have bolded the items which I think are good or semi-good.

1. Obama spends one trillion dollars on a stimulus bill that he says will create 2 to 3 million jobs. Joe Biden says there is 25% chance we will get it wrong. The first quarter of this year, the economy retracted 6.1%. How is the stimulus package working again? No bother - it's still Bush's fault.
   
   1. The Stimulus Bill contains a "Buy American Provision" clause, and the EU threatens to retaliate.
      
   2. Obama says there is no pork in the bill, but the entire bill is pork. It is a Democratic wish list put together months before Barack Obama was president by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
      
   3. Barack Obama promised congress and the voters five days to read the bill. They reneged on their promise, and rammed down our throats the 778 page, pork-laden monstrosity that no one read in less than 40 hours. This was his call for transparency.
      
2. The Spending bill contains 9,000 earmarks. Barack Obama tries to justify it and says it was unfinished business from the Bush administration. Fails to remember the definition of veto.
   
3. Obama talked of change but begins to appoint all Clinton retreads.
   
4. Janet Napolitano is appointed secretary of homeland security and issues a propagaganda hit piece on the rise of Right Wing Extremism. The belief now is that right wing extremism is more dangerous than Radical Islam.
   
5. Hillary Clinton is appointed Secretary of State.
   
6. Barack Obama appoints Tim Geithner as treasury secretary even though he neglected to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes plus $8,000 in interest giving him the name turbo tax Geithner, but then other appointments who failed to pay taxes begin to come out of the woodwork, Nancy Kellefer, nominated to a top budget post who has a tax lien on her DC home, and Tom Daschle nominated for secretary of state who failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes and interest (he withdrew his name). There were others I can't recall. Moral: If you want Democrats to pay their taxes, appoint them to a position in the administration.
   
7. Obama campaigned against lobbyists, but it came to light that Tom Daschle was a lobbyist. Obama tries to excuse his lobbying saying he wasn't a registered lobbyist. Of course, he was paid two million dollars by a lobbying firm. Obama exempted another high profile lobbyist named William Lynn as the number two man at the Pentagon.
   
8. Governor Bill Richardson was to be appointed commerce secretary but he withdrew his name after it was discovered the Grand Jury was looking into him because a major California company was making major political contributions for his political activities. We are to wonder once again about Barack Obama's vetting process.
   
9. Eric Holder is appointed attorney general. He is notorious for being soft on crime. He does not believe individuals have the right to bear arms.
   
10. Mercedes Marquez is appointed as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. Marquez was willing to pay Norma Wong a former legislator from Hawaii thousands of dollars to a Zen Buddhist Priest for training sessions in Zen Buddhism. Mercedes became a high priestess. Marquez was alleged to have purchased a condominium for herself and her partner that her department financed. She spent 5 million dollars on a computer for her department she later threw away.
    
11. Barack Obama reveals his middle class tax cut (for 95% of the people.) It amounts to 13 dollars a paycheck to be reduced to eight dollars in January. Of course, those who live in California find out that the tax rebate will be reduced to -0-or less when the terminator increases fees and taxes on just about everything in his attempt to counter profligate spending by the California legislature.
    
12. Barack Obama says he opposes the Fairness Doctrine, but there is speculation he might just call it something else.
    
13. Barack Obama snubs the Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown when he gives the Prime Minister a set of DVDs of 25 classic American movies. The Prime Minister gives Obama a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa. Obama was also given a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.
    
14. On their trip to England, Barack Obama apparently didn't learn his lesson. The narcissist Obama gives Queen Elizabeth an Ipod filled with his speeches. Now she can hear how Obama intends to part the seas.
    
15. Barack Obama authorizes the use of lethal force in the death of three pirates by Navy Seals who kidnapped the crew of an American Vessel.
    
16. Barack Obama supports Bush's use of wiretapping.
    
17. Barack Obama follows through on one of his campaign pledges by decimating our military.
    
18. Ben Bernanke appears on 60 minutes to tell voters how fast the government is printing money.
    
19. Obama travels to Europe as an apologist for the United States, and effectively convinces the continent that we do indeed torture. He comes back with virtually nothing. In the same trip, he says Turkey should be part of the European Union. This angers French Prime Minister Sarkozy. Adding Turkey would add 70 million Muslims to the EU which the EU can ill-afford. Sarkozy begins to doubt Obama's leadership, and effectively tells him to butt out of EU's affairs.
    
20. Barack Obama continues his trip to Latin America where he cozies up to Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Chavez gives him an anti-American book and Ortega spews out a 50 minute anti-American diatribe, and Barack's answer is that he was glad he was only three years old when it happened.
    
21. Barack Obama begins withdrawal of Iraqi forces, and to the consternation of the far-left, sends troops to Afghanistan.
    
22. The idiocy of Barack Obama's appointment of Timothy Geithner was proven when Geithner announced his non-economic plan for financial institutions. Investors were waiting on pins and needles to hear his economic plan, but when he had no specifics of what he was intending to do, the market immediately dropped 200 points.
    
23. Radical Leftist activist Rosa Brooks is appointed as a top advisor in the Pentagon with access to top military secrets.
    
24. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO that has driven GE into the ground, and who has continuously done business with Iran, was appointed as a top economic advisor to Barack Obama's team. General Electric is poised to garner millions of dollars from Obama's stimulus package for green energy at a time when General Electric is flailing. NBC and MSNBC owned by General Electric has been a mouthpiece for Barack Obama. Barack Obama and Jeffrey Immelt are definitely in bed together.
    
25. CIA memos are released detailing enhanced interrogation methods and the efficacy of the program. He does not release additional documents that proved how effective these interrogation methods were. The release of these documents demoralizes the CIA. He states that he is going to succumb to ACLU's demand by releasing photos of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay to further show how evil the United States is. It is discovered that Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats knew about the enhanced interrogation methods including waterboarding.
    
26. In less than two days, Barack Obama wavered from he wouldn't prosecute agents of the CIA to he would leave it open for prosecutions back to he wouldn't prosecute.
    
27. To top off his 100 days, Barack Obama decided to scare the daylights out of New Yorkers by flying a 747 with two jets near the twin towers at a low altitude at a cost to taxpayers of more than $300,000. I think there is more to the story than we are being told.
    

What is next ---

1. Cap and trade that will dramatically increase energy prices
   
2. Nationalized health care which will dramatically reduce the quality of care. We will also see rationed care.
   
3. More spending
   
4. Inflation
   

I only have this to say - It sure feels a lot longer than 100 days, but no - we have 1,360 more days of this lunacy assuming its only four years.

Now where are the counter voices and leadership of the Republican Party? Where is Ronnie?

The Theft of America by Barack Obama

An era of progressive change is within reach, no longer an idle dream, just look at the new lay of the land, a friend of labor and its allies sits in the White House. Sam Webb, Chair of the Communist Party, USA

Lie of the day: "This Bill does not have a single earmark in it." Barack Obama

We are about to witness one of the greatest tragedies in American History – the fleecing of America. We are witnessing a government out of control, a government that cannot tell the difference between welfare and tax cuts or a government that cannot tell the difference between economic stimulus and government spending. This government is broke yet the government wants to spend almost one trillion dollars on a stimulus plan that will do absolutely nothing. Does anyone really believe this plan will raise 2 to 3 million jobs? Of course, in Obama's press conference that figure went to four million jobs. He keeps changing the goal post. Barack Obama tells us if we do not pass this stimulus plan, we may not be able to reverse this economic slowdown. Watch me pull a number out of my hat? The truth is, if history is our guide, and we pass this stimulus plan, we may prolong this recession possibly making it longer and deeper.

On Fox News, Joe Biden said, "there is a 30% chance we will get it wrong." We are spending almost a trillion dollars $1,000,000,000,000 with only a two-thirds chance of getting it right, hmmm, we are in trouble. Imagine you are a financial analyst, and you tell your boss, "I have the revenue numbers but there is a 30% chance we will not hit them." I think he would tell you to start over. I will say this to Joe Biden - we have a virtual 100% chance of getting it wrong if we pass this theft act. If one trillion dollars is suppose to give 3 million people a job, why doesn't Obama just give 3 million people 300,000 dollars (which equals three trillion dollars for the mathematically challenged) to start their own businesses. How is that for getting the economy started? That would have a better success rate then throwing money at every pet project under the sun.

Obama tells us economists across the nation tell us that we need to pass this stimulus plan or we will end up in another Great Depression. When President Hoover was about to pass the Smoot-Hawley act, (a tariff on foreign imports), one thousand twenty-eight economists wrote a letter to Hoover urging the president to veto the legislation. Countries around the world threatened to retaliate. Hoover proceeded undaunted and signed the legislation, Smoot-Hawley became law, and all the predictions came true. By 1934, world trade had declined 66% at a time when we needed the trade. The United States became an isolationist country, and the effect was to deepen the Depression. As with Hoover, hundreds of economists and here have signed a letter warning against Obama's stimulus plan, but Obama and his co-conspirators Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have ignored the warnings because it doesn't match up to their preconceived ideas. As with Hoover, it will prove to be their downfall.

Here are just a few provisions of this bill. The entire bill is similar to the items enumerated below.

1. Tax cuts – 100 billion dollars of these so-called tax cuts are in the form of checks for people who do not pay taxes. If you do not pay taxes, how is this a tax cut? Checks are also not tax cuts no matter how you slice it even if you did pay taxes. President Bush gave tax rebates twice and they did not work. President Bush also required social security numbers to be eligible for the tax rebates. In the stimulus bill, you only need a tax ID number. Tax ID numbers are issued to illegal immigrants so they can pay taxes. Illegal immigrants have been going home because of the economy. This is the reason for the decrease in remittances to Mexico as reported by Western Union. So, now we are going to encourage the illegal immigrants to stay by sending them checks. Most of these checks will be sent to Mexico anyway. How is this supposed to stimulate the economy?
   
2. Buy American – Whether the Buy Provision stays in the bill is yet to be determined. The Buy Provision is similar to the Smoot-Hawley act in that it requires iron, steel and manufactured goods to be purchased in the U.S. The European Union has already promised retaliatory action if the provision stays in. Where have we seen that before?
   
3. E-Verify - Harry Reid has blocked e-verify, the program that ensures that legal Americans obtain jobs from the stimulus package, not illegal immigrants. So, on the one hand, the government tries to keep American jobs in the U.S. by cutting off global trade, and on the other hand, we block a program designed to ensure that Americans are the ones being employed by the so-called stimulus plan, not illegal aliens.
   
4. Health Information Technology - 20.2 billion dollars goes to automating medical records. My first question is why is the government involved in this? Automation is a good thing if you are trying to make an office more efficient, but how does it create jobs? Automation actually eliminates jobs. Automation in private enterprise is part of the creative destruction process of capitalism. It displaces workers – it does not create jobs. This is a database for the government to begin its socialized health care - the trojan horse.
   
5. Global Warming – There are all kinds of provisions for unproven technologies for the man-made global warming myth. There is even global warming research. How is that suppose to stimulate the economy? For all Obama's rhetoric, there is nothing about nuclear energy even though he said he was supposed to be pro-nuclear during the campaign, the cleanest form of energy. Of course, anyone with sense should have known he was lying. Sweden is the latest country to lift its ban on nuclear power. And, what about natural gas which we have in abundance?
   
   Dr Bill Wattenburg estimates that all the wind, water and solar energy would only amount to 10% of the U.S. energy needs.
   

Obama says we cannot continue the failed policies of the last eight years. That was part of Obama's campaign rhetoric – did he forget he is now president? President Bush was reelected because the economy and the country were going strong. The economy was going strong because of his tax cuts. The economy continued to grow for six years. Bush's tax cuts worked and the recession that began in the US economy after the dot-com crash and the tragedy of 9-11 was quickly reversed. This economic crisis began with the mortgage crisis from lenders lending to people who couldn't afford to buy a house and had no business in buying a house, and the government encouraging such practices. It was because of fraud and deceit on both the lender and borrower egged on by federal laws such as the community reinvestment act and quasi-government agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Even Barack Obama said during his press conference that it was due to exorbitant and wild risks by the banks. So, does Barack Obama really know what he is talking about?

Recently we have heard a lot about deflation concerns. Deflation is when currency becomes more valuable every day, rarer and scarcer. We see deflation right now in the housing industry. Credit has become tighter, and consumers believe prices will continue to fall so they hold on to their cash. As more and more houses foreclose, housing inventories rise and consumers hold on to their wallets. Hence, currency becomes more valuable relative to houses. This was the problem in the Great Depression but on a much wider scale. Money virtually ran out. Hoover's economic policies at the onset of the Great Depression were devastating. He kept tightening the money supply preventing banks from lending money. He kept wages high at a time when wages wanted to come down. This ate into the profits of companies and the eventual result was more layoffs. He then cut off global trade with the Smoot-Hawley act. All these actions resulted in shutting off the currency valve allowing deflation to take hold and the economic downturn to deepen.

Inflation of course is the converse of deflation where products become more valuable than currency. In a growing economy, inflation of a couple of percentage points is not only acceptable but desirable, because it is indicative of a growing economy. The Fed can control inflation by tightening or loosening the money supply. By keeping a strong dollar and government spending in check, inflation can be controlled. There are three ways a government can raise revenue; taxing its citizens, borrowing money, or printing money. The government should not raise taxes in a faltering economy because that will deepen an economic slowdown. The government lends money by issuing treasury bills. China and India are the two biggest borrowers of U.S. debt but those economies are slowing down rapidly. China currently holds 1 trillion dollars of US debt, and it has shown signs of slowing down its purchasing of U.S. treasuries. That of course doesn't even account for what it costs to service the debt. The other alternative is to print money. If you don't have the money, you print it. When times are tough financial institutions, companies, and individuals hold on to their cash because they feel uneasy about the future. When the economy does right itself, and companies begin to spend, and individuals begin to spend, any excess capital the government has printed will cause rapid inflation. Too few products will be chasing too much capital resulting in hyperinflation and higher interest rates (high interest rates are imposed in vain attempts to curb the inflation). This is no different than what happened in Argentina or in Germany's Weimar Republic. You cannot keep printing money without consequences.

Huge infrastructure spending has been tried to no avail to lift up economies. Both Hoover and Roosevelt poured money into infrastructure and it did little to lift the economy out of the Depression. Herbert Hoover spent more in infrastructure during his four years than in the 20 years prior. In 1931 the unemployment rate was 17.4% and in 1940 the unemployment rate was 14.6% - virtually the same. Obama says the lessons of the Great Depression have been resolved, then why is he repeating the same mistakes? The question of the Great Depression should not be did World War 2 get us out of the Great Depression? The question should be should be why did it last ten years? Japan is the most recent case of infrastructure spending throughout the 1990s, and it's spending did nothing. The 1990s in Japan is referred to as the lost decade. In 1989, the Nikkei 225 index stood at 38,916, by April 2003 it bottomed at 7830, and today it stands at 7969. Barack Obama even mentioned the lost decade of Japan at his press conference. This should have been an argument against spending not for spending. He said Japan never did any bold action to reverse its recession. Huh? Japan quadrupled their debt on infrastructure. The spending and borrowing in Japan did absolutely nothing. The idea that the government throws money at indiscriminate projects in hopes of lifting an economy is a pipe dream. It has never worked. We do not learn from history or the experience of other nations.

We should not be surprised of this outcome however. When Barack Obama was elected president I hoped against hope that he would indeed be a different kind of president than his campaign suggested. But, he is proving to be the socialist he has always been. We knew who Obama was, and he made no qualms about it. He is a populist leftist president with extraordinary oratory skills and that is the danger. This is truly Bush's legacy. By Bush's own actions, we have been left with a neophyte who understands nothing of history or the fundamentals of economics, and he will in the end leave this country in shambles. This so-called stimulus act is not intended to grow the economy. The purpose is to spread the money around to every kind of special interest group to keep the Democrats firmly entrenched in power. If you are receiving money from the government dole, why would you vote that party out of office? What will this generational theft act of 2009 do to your savings? When hyperinflation sets in, and it will certainly be guaranteed to do so. Your 401ks, your savings and anything else you counted on in retirement will devalue at unprecedented rates. Your children will have the burden of paying this off. Our country will no longer be the country it once was. Barack Obama says "doing nothing is not an option." That is where he is wrong. Doing nothing is probably the best option if this stimulus package is an example of government intervention.

The Dow Jones fell 358 points as of this writing. The market does not like this stimulus package

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