I’ve got how it REALLY might have come down and we must pray, now, for our country.
Plus “cash for clunkers” insight, nineteen pound babies, all the czars you could ever want and the Bad Guys of the Week.
Pic of the Day
So Who Had the Final Say On Sending the President to Copenhagen?
Of course I believe that President Obama has, er, a bit of an ego. It’s pretty much a given that in order to even consider oneself in the position of President of the U.S. one would have to have a mighty sense of self-confidence.
But I look a bit askance at the many assertions by various and sundry who allege President Obama to be a narcissist, that his ego knows no bounds, that indeed his overinflated ego is a danger to the country.
It was this morning, on Fox and Friends, when Dana Perino, Bush’s press secretary, was asked what on earth was the administration thinking when they sent Obama to Copenhagen to risk the prestige and reputation of the American President if the Chicago Olympic locale for 2016 wasn’t a certainty.
Leading up to Obama’s mission to Denmark I too accepted the then conventional and logical wisdom of the pundits that no way would Obama risk going all the way to Denmark, to chance the ire and criticism for leaving the country what with Afghanistan in a mess and the coveted health care bill stumbling, if the Chicago locale was not locked up.
Thus when it was announced early in the day that Chicago was out of the running one could hear the sound of my jaw dropping clear across the state.
Who screwed up, I thought? Who let the President of the United States go to Denmark, to plead for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympic venue, who, who, who…without KNOWING it was in the bag?
Over the weekend I read, again from the various and sundry pundits across the fruited plains, that it was the Chicago Olympic committee who screwed up. No wait, later I’d read or hear, it was Rahm Emmanuel who messed it up. Stop a minute, it went on, David Axelrod, or Valerie Jarrett or even Michelle Obama screwed it up.
All of the guilty, so went the weekend discussions, thought they had it locked up. Poor President Obama is the victim of a bunch of n’er do wells who didn’t do their job.
Dana Perino set me straight just the morning of this writing, 10/5/09. For when Perino was posed with the question of who SHE thought messed up so badly, she didn’t name Axelrod, Emmanuel, or Jarrett. Perino immediately said it was likely the President himself who decided to go to Denmark and suddenly dawn broke like a red ball of truth over my marble head.
OF COURSE!
In fact, for yon reader’s edification, I present a fly-on-the-wall scenario of how it probably went down.
“You know Michelle,” Barack said as his wife bustled about in the west wing, consulting with her staff, approving travel plans, reviewing fashion choices, reading and re-reading prepared speeches. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I should go over to Denmark this week.”
Michelle signed off on yet another invoice for her upcoming trip to Denmark then shot her husband an angry glance. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Barry. Forget it! Don’t even get a notion…” Michelle looked at her husband a bit closer, gave an exasperated sigh, then ran down the hall to get Rahm in here to deal with Barry.
“No way, Bar…no way!” Rahm paced back and forth in the Oval office. He ran his fingers through his wiry hair. “This is a job for the first lady. We’ve got it all arranged. Oprah Winfrey’s going with her. This is NOT something for you to be getting involved with!”
“Barry, look, we’ll set up a live evening TV press conference if Chicago gets the nod. We’ll tell the networks that it’s an address to the American people about Afghanistan. You can talk about that but you’ll have some time to enjoy the Olympic victory, if we get one.” David Axelrod ran his finger through his hair like Emmanuel had just done. It was getting so that these two had perpetually messed hair of late. Axelrod and Emmanuel looked over to Valerie.
“It’s a really bad idea, Barry. I know the Chicago people are telling you that it’s a race down to two cities…Chicago and Rio. But Bar, I think a lot of that assessment is just wishful thinking. If you go over there, and Chicago doesn’t get the nod, you’ll suffer perhaps unreparable harm to your credibility and reputation. The press will ream you a new one. You’ve got health care and what do you think the American public’s going to think about you gallivanting around the globe with Afghanistan in so much trouble…”
“Get McChrystal to meet me in Denmark,” Obama said, cutting off Valerie’s ernest plea in mid-sentence. “That way it will look like I’m working. And even if I don’t win, I’ll congratulate Rio and I’m sure we can spin that Chicago was a narrow loss but we almost pulled it off.”
Rahm and David rolled their eyes to the sky, another action they’d been doing of late. House and Senate Democrats had been burning up the phone lines begging them to get Barry under control, to somehow reign him in, to keep him off the air waves for maybe a day or two. They knew that the senators and representatives would go ballistic over this.
“Get Rachel Maddow to go on Meet the Press,” Obama commanded, walking around, snapping his fingers, issuing orders as he did when he was determined and could not be dissuaded. “Get that Schultz guy on CNN ready,” Obama continued. “If we get Chicago they can celebrate. If not give them some talking points to spin out. Find a way to blame Bush…something about the ill will of the past eight years.”
This time Rahm and David rolled their eyes and ran their fingers through their hair simultaneously. They knew that the “blame Bush” excuse was about to run out. Another thing the party guys in the House and Senate asked them to get Barack to stop doing. Now they were supposed to blame Bush for the loss of a Chicago venue for the 2016 olympics?
President Obama looked out the window of the oval office. A view of the mightiest city in the world panned before him. He had no doubt he could convince the Olympic committee to help him out, to give him a hand, to grant him a bit of glory by giving the 2016 olympic venue to Chicago. As Barack watched Michelle prepare in the lead up, he tried desperately to ignore it all. This was her job, he knew it. But he couldn’t erase the sound of the cheering crowd from his ears. He couldn’t get the vision of the podium, the Danes, the Italians, the Swiss…all nationalities listening to his wonderful speech, the cheers at his careful pauses.
It was an opportunity he couldn’t let pass by. Some day they’ll understand. Some day, as he led this country to glory and greatness, they’ll understand why he had to take control of things, why he had to take risks.
Yes I believe it was President Obama who decided to take that trip. Dana Perino, she’s a political insider. She’s not David Gregory or Chris Matthews or the other blowhards who think they know all about it.
And now I believe that I couldn’t write fiction as scary as the situation this country is now in. For we have a powerful leader whose totally out of control.
Pray. Pray for our country.
And How About This?
I have know idea whose lame-brained idea it was to choreograph innocent little children to sing and recite praises to Obama.
I’m beginning to think it might have been Obama himself. More prayer, folks.
We’ve never had this happen before in the history of our country. Poetry and prose has been written by American presidents, of course, but never WHILE the guy was in office, much less a few months after election.
Children, innocent little children. The president is NOT a king. And they wonder why we got upset over that supposedly “innocent” little speech Obama wanted to give to American school children. Let us not forget that the Department of Education came up with some lamebrain “exercise” that would have had these children writing how they could “help” Obama achieve his goals. Public outrage took that idea off the table but just throwing it out there, who do you suppose might have come up with THAT crazy idea?
Cash for Clunkers
The following came to me via email. The “cash for clunkers” idea was a Van Jones thing…you know that guy who had to resign because he was a “truther”, believing that President Bush and VP Cheney had arranged the attacks of 9-11-01? I thought it worth a thought.
(Remember that 'WE' already gave GM & Chrys a 'Bail Out')
"Cash for Clunkers"
A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles/year uses 800 gallons of gas.
A vehicle at 25 mpg & 12,000 miles/year uses 480 gallons of gas.
So, the average "Cash for Clunkers" transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption per vehicle by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons/year.
About 5 million barrels of oil ¼ of one day's US consumption.
5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.
So, we all consented to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.
And much of the benefit went to foreign car makers....
So, how good a deal was that ???
If that doesn't scare you enough, remember that these same folks will soon control your health care.
19.2 Pound Baby
Well hey, I thought a picture was called for.
ACORN-Bad Guys of the Week
President Obama says he knows nothing about ACORN. Heh.
And now, instead of maybe spending time looking into the deeds of that community organization now known for helping potential home owners claim 13 year old girls as exemptions on their tax return, various local governments are spending their time investigating and prosecuting the two young kids who arranged the sting that made ACORN look so damn, damn bad.
The Baltimore adventure with ACORN started off as a silly idea, both absurd and incredible by all accounts. But it stuck, and quickly escalated into a full blown operation with scripts, method acting, undercover gear, scandalous outfits, fast minds, good hearts, plenty of humor and healthy homemade blueberry muffins. When I pitched the “prostitute goes into ACORN seeking housing” idea to James O’Keefe at the beginning of the summer, I had absolutely no idea how he would respond. He came back with, “Would you be willing to portray the prostitute? And if so, when can you do this?” --Hannah Giles
James O'Keefe is an activist filmmaker. He credits include the "Bailout Prize Patrol" produced for Right.Org in 2009. He also directed, scripted, produced and acted in a series of undercover videos showcasing racism and statutory rape at Planned Parenthood in 2007 and 2008. Before that he served as Publications Coordinator at the Leadership Institute, where he helped initiate 22 independent newspapers and magazines on college campuses nationwide. He also gave lectures on campus strategy and fundraising, preaching the gospel of Saul Alinsky. His most recent project is Veritasvisuals.com, a collection of satirical short films on newsworthy topics, featuring ridiculous situations and demands. These have included straight men with girlfriends getting married to each other in Massachusetts and petitions to adopt Gitmo detainees into American homes. His work has been featured on CNN and Fox News. James got his start producing videos banning "H20" and "Lucky Charms" at his alma mater, Rutgers University, where he founded The Centurion in 2004.
The Obama Czars
Dear Lord, I came across this list of President Obama’s czars and I could not believe my eyeballs.
The length of this list, a group of people given the ability to distribute millions of taxpayer dollars, this with no congressional approval or even a budgeted salary.
A List of Obama Czars (in alphabetical order) AND cronies put into top government policy positions (some of which DO require Congressional approval. The second list gives those who do NOT require approval and are hired directly and work out of the Obama House.
1) Herbert Allison...............Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
2) Admiral Dennis Blair........Director of National Intelligence
3) Ron Bloom ....................Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury Salary
4) Alan Bersin......................Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, US Department of Homeland Security
5) John Brennan..................Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security
6) Carol M. Browner..........Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
7) Adolfo Carrion Jr........... Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy
8) Ashton Carter.................Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
9) Aneesh Chopra................Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States
10) Jeffrey Crowley..............Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy
11) Cameron Davis.................Great Lakes Czar
12) Nancy-Ann DeParle.........Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform
11) Earl Devaney....................Inspector General, US Department of the Interior
13) Joshua Dubois..................Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood
14) Arne Duncan....................Secretary of Education
15) Kenneth Feinberg...........Special Master appointed by the Treasury
16) Daniel Fried......................US Department of State Special Envoy for Guantanomo Closure
17) Scott Gration.................Special Envoy to Sudan
18) Melissa Hathaway.........Director of the White House Office of Cybersecurity
19) David J. Hayes................Deputy Secretary of the Interior
20) Richard Holbrooke........US Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan
21) John P. Holdren .............. Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
22) Gil Kerlikowske...............Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
23) Ron Kirk..........................United States Trade Representative
24) Vivek Kundra..................Chief Information Officer of the United States
25) Kevin Jennings.................Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
26) Van Jones........................In charge of the Obama’s administration’s “green jobs” program
27) Mark Lloyd..................Chief Diversity Officer
28) Douglas Lute...................Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan
29) George Mitchell.............Special Envoy to the Middle East
30) Ed Montgomery..............Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers
31) Dennis Ross.....................Special Advisor for Iran, the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia
32) Lynn Rosenthal............White House Advisor On Violence Against Women
33) Gary Samore.................U.S. government-wide coordinator on the prevention of WMD terrorism and proliferation,
34) Todd Stern...................Special Envoy for Climate Change
35) Larry Summers............Director of the National Economic Council
36) Cass R. Sunstein ..............The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Afairs
37) Michael Taylor............Special Assistant to the FDA Commissioner for Food Safety
38) Arturo Valenzuela.............U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
39) Paul Volker.................Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board
40)Elizabeth Warren..............Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, US Department of the Treasury
41 ??
42) Jeffrey Zients....................Chief Performance Officer
AND A different list with 44 czars
• Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) czar, Richard Holbrooke
• AIDS czar, Jeffrey Crowley [openly gay white man]
• Auto recovery czar, Ed Montgomery
• Behavioral science czar, position not yet filled
• Bailout czar, Herbert Allison Jr., [replaced Bush bailout czar Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability confirmed by Senate]
• Border czar, Alan Bersin
• Car czar, Ron Bloom [Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury , under Senate
oversight]
• Climate change czar, Todd Stern
• Copyright czar, not appointed yet
• Counterterrorism czar, John Brennan
• Cybersecurity czar, position will be vacant on August 21st [upon the departure of Melissa Hathaway]
• Disinformation czar, Linda Douglass [This is a new media buzz since our earlier list, a response •by pundits to the White House request for informants: see Glenn Beck and Lew Rockwell]
• Domestic violence czar, Lynn Rosenthal
• Drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske
• Economic czar, Larry Summers
• Economic czar number two, Paul Volcker
• Education czar, Arne Duncan
• Energy czar, Carol Browner
• Food czar, Michael Taylor [a former Monsanto executive, or, the fox in charge of the henhouse]
• Government performance czar, Jeffrey Zients
• Great Lakes czar, Cameron Davis
• Green jobs czar, Van Jones [who has a communist background]
• Guantanamo closure czar, Daniel Fried
• Health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle
• Infotech czar, Vivek Kundra [Shoplifted four shirts, worth $33.50 each, from J.C. Penney in 1996 (source). His last day in DC government was March 4 but on March 12 the FBI raided his office and arrested two staffers.]
• Intelligence czar, Dennis Blair [Director of National Intelligence, a Senate confirmed position. He is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral]
• Latin-American czar, Arturo Valenzuela (nominee) [although this post is referred to as a czar, he is nominatied to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and so is subject to Senate confirmation. Voting on his confirmation was delayed to clarify his position on Honduras. Watch WaPo’s Head Count to track status of confirmation.]
• Mideast peace czar, George Mitchell
• Mideast policy czar, Dennis Ross
• Pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg
• Regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein
• Religion czar, aka God czar Joshua DuBois
• Safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings [appointed to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, a newly created post (that does not require Senate confirmation); openly gay founder of an organization dedicated to promoting pro-homosexual clubs and curricula in public schools]
• Science czar, John Holdren
• Stimulus oversight czar, Earl Devaney
• Sudan czar, J. Scott Gration
• TARP czar, Elizabeth Warren [chair of the [Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program; note that Herb Allison is frequently called the TARP czar]
• Technology czar, Aneesh Chopra
• Trade czar, Ron Kirk
• Urban affairs czar, Adolfo Carrion
• War czar, Douglas Lute [retained from Bush administration, married to Jane Holl Lute, currently a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security]
• Water czar, David J. Hayes [a Deputy Interior Secretary and therefore subject to Senate oversight]
• Weapons czar, Ashton Carter [actually Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and so subject to Senate confirmation]
• Weapons of mass destruction czar, Gary Samore
I chance to learn that President Bush too had czars, some 37 of them. MSNBC mentioned this fact to defend Obama, as is that network’s job, so I did some investigating.
As indicated here President Bush did have czars but not on quite the same level as Obama.
Let me say here that I think it’s time this czar nonsense stop, no matter who is the president. But Bush’s czars were appointed over a time span of eight years and many of them were replacements for ones that had resigned. Well follow the link, you’ll see.
No congressional oversight by our elected representatives, no budgeted salary so hey, pay them whatever you want. Isn’t this something that needs to be stopped?
Ending With a Smile
So I read a book that suggests, in order to protect one’s self against bad things said on the Internet against one’s own fine self, that Google has a device that allows a user to request an email when a specified phrase is entered either on a web site or a comment on a Blog. So I enter my name, Pat Fish, so I know what evil might be said about me across the Internet.
Almost immediately I get a response. I am excited. They’re talking about me out there, they love me. I open the email from Google:
[...] heat by dropping a little batter into oil. It should bounce to surface almost immediately and be surrounded by little bubbles.3. Pat fish dry with paper towels. Check thickness of batter by dipping in one piece of fish. Batter should be consistency of [...]
I am humbled.
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