Video: Comedian Cusses Out Obama, “Pay Your $#!@in’ Bills!”
Obama’s Downgrade May Last Until 2029
Ben Johnson, The White House Watch
Obama scored another historical first on Friday, becoming the first president to see the U.S. credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, from AAA to AA+. While we hope his presidential reign lasts no longer than January 2013, Americans may have to live with the consequences of Obamanomics for more than a decade to come. The chairman of Standard & Poor’s sovereign debt ratings, John Chambers, told ABC’s This Week program on Sunday the United States could be stuck with the lower credit rating between nine and 18 years. “We’ve had five governments that lost their AAA that got it back,” he said. “The amount of time that it took for those five range from 9 years to 18 years.” He forecast that digging America out of the debt ditch “could take awhile,” and that it would require two things: “a stabilization of the debt as a share of the economy and eventual decline” and “more ability to reach consensus in Washington than what we’re observing now.”
The president’s commitment to deficit spending and unwillingness to make enforceable budget cuts leave a grim prognosis. But the outlook gets worse. As this author noted Friday, there is a chance America will be downgraded yet again. Chambers placed the odds of a future downgrade at one-in-three. Scoring a AA rating would place the Land of the Free on equal terms with Spain and Qatar.
These realities had Obama in full Alinsky mode during his 1 p.m. speech (which took place at two o’clock this afternoon). He opened by saying, while Tea Party intransigence forced S&P to cut our debt rating, “The markets, on the other hand, continue to believe our credit status is AAA.” To bolster his case, he added, “Warren Buffett, who knows a thing or two about good investments, said, ‘If there were a quadruple-A rating, I’d give the United States that.’” Even as he spoke, the stock market was in free fall. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 634.76 points this afternoon. The slide capped off a string of losses so severe that CNBC reports, on this eighth day of the month, “August is already on track to be the worst month for the S&P [500] and Nasdaq since Oct. 2008,” the first full month of the economic meltdown. And despite earning the Obama administration’s seal of approval, Standard & Poor’s marked down Buffett’s Birkshire Hathaway holding conglomerate from “stable” to “negative” today.
Obama’s Surrogates Savage the Savers
Democratic talking heads did their best to pin blame on their political opponents. This weekend, both David Axelrod and Sen. John Kerry repeated the phrase “Tea Party downgrade.”
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner eschewed presidential responsibility, as well. “Congress ultimately owns the credit rating of the United States,” he said. This would be true in the sense that Obama offered absolutely no leadership during the debate and presented no plan of his own but would overlook the president’s addiction to deficit spending and hostility to fiscal (or political) responsibility. Geithner, suddenly discovering the Founding Fathers, noted Congress has “the power of the purse in the Constitution.” That fact did not keep Geithner from publicly musing about having Obama unilaterally raise the debt ceiling in late June, leading to a chorus of Democrats demanding the president invoke the 14th Amendment to claim the power of the purse as his own.
Not everyone is reading from the same script, though. As usual, Bill and Hillary Clinton have taken the crisis to spin things in their favor. The Hill newspaper reports former Clinton administration appointees, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said Obama….
Obama Puts the Chinese Military on the Move Again
Jim Emerson, FloydReports.com
China has been demanding the U.S. halt all reconnaissance flights over international waters near its border. China’s Defense Ministry told the Global Times newspaper, “We demand that the U.S. respect China’s sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations.” The only problem is that the U.S. surveillance flights have been operating outside of China’s sovereign territory.
Tensions have increased after a pair of Chinese fighters attempted to intercept an American U-2 flying over the Taiwan Strait, which is the waterway separating Taiwan from mainland China. The U-2 was over international waters and not in China’s airspace. In an effort to halt future surveillance flights, Chinascrambled two Su-27s to intercept the unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. During the intercept, one of the Su-27s violated Taiwan’s airspace.
In ground-controlled intercepts, as used by most oppressive regimes, the fighters wouldn’t be allowed to violate Taiwan’s airspace without specific orders. Taiwan launched a pair of F-16s to intercept the Su-27 once the lone Su-27 was aware of the F-16 it headed back to Chinese airspace.
This marked the first time the Chinese crossed into Taiwan airspace since 1999, the last time we had a Democrat in the White House. Ending interceptors to track reconnaissance flights is a routine event. The most famous and tragic intercept occurred….
As China Sells Weapons to Iran and Pakistan, Obama Bows to Beijing
Jim Emerson, FloydReports.com
New documents added to WikiLeaks leaked United States embassy cables revealed that China has been selling missiles and parts to Iran, Syria, and Pakistan in violation of its agreement with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
MTCR was formed in 1987 as an informal, voluntary partnership of 34 countries to prevent the export of long-range weapons of mass destruction to hostile nations. China is not a member but has assured the members it will support the group’s policy of missile non-proliferation. China has not been allowed to join the MTCR because of its non-existent export controls. China has not signed nor agreed to the UN’s “Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.” China always says the right things but has a difficult time honoring its own words.
A September 2009 State Department cable entitled “China’s Ballistic Missile-Related Export Control Record” outlines Chinese missile export transfers to Syria and Iran. As excerpted from the cable….
Barack Obama: Our First Weirdo President
Tom Roeser, On the Other Hand
Many presidents have, on occasion, done weird things—only one president of the 44 is Weird.
Our current 44th.
On the night before his abdication Nixon (the 37th) went from public room to public room in the downstairs White House saying goodbye to the portraits on the wall (“Bye-bye James Madison…John Quincy Adams!”)…He had weird episodes but was not ipso facto Weird with a capital W. In fact he was the cockeyed genius who split in twain the dread Sino-Soviet twin-headed bloc…for which in liberal-written history books he has been given insufficient credit…
Verdict: He could be weird but was not Weird.
And then we get to 44.
The difference: He is—and embodies–Weird.
Previous presidents had no trouble spelling out their belief in God.
Not so Number 44.
No previous presidents bowed to foreign potentates.
Not so Number 44 who bowed deferentially to the King of Saudi Arabia….then after being criticized, bowed waist-down to Japan’s emperor and empress—both rulers of color.
All presidents since Roe v. Wade were either totally against killing babies in the womb or ambiguously compliant urging abortions “safe [sic]… and rare.” Like Clinton.
Except Number 44.
This year in a celebratory statement for Roe he declared it protects women “from governmental intrusion.”
Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a raving pro-abort, ex-ACLUer says catapulting the issue to the Supremes was an act of legal folly, short-circuiting the process by which she hoped legislatures one after another would legalize the procedure so as not to precipitate the national crisis of division we have endured since. By the Court interfering, it preempted the people. Not governmental intrusion?
Ginsburg’s as liberal as one can get.
But she can’t touch Old 44 who’s got a hold on Weird.
As Illinois state senate judiciary chair he killed the Born Alive bill that would have mandated nutrition, medicines and humane comfort be accorded to babies born live from botched abortions. Call him the walking embodiment of King Herod with a light touch.
The fact he’s so remorseless shows he’s unconcerned not unaware of the magnanimity of his deed.
Like a gerbil sans conscience, he had his two daughters show Chinese President Hu Jintao their command of Chinese—their genially smiling father unconcerned that the Chinese government has forced women to have abortions under the “one-child policy” forcing urban dwellers to abort, punishing second pregnancies with forced sterilization with particular disdain to female infants through abortion, purposeful neglect, willful abandonment and infanticide known to be imparted to girl babies.
Later, displaying baleful unconcern he praised Hu: “While it’s easy to focus on our difference of culture, let us never forget the values that our people share: a reverence for family…and, most of all, the desire to give our children a better life.”[Italics mine].
That’s what Weird is, folks.
Weird Attracts Weird at Tucson
And he draws weirdos — as iron filings grovel to a magnet.
Just before Obama was to read his ghost-written Tucson speech on the teleprompter…
Obama Stimulates Indonesia
The Washington Times
On Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee delivered a subpoena to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordering the disclosure of documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee the Department of Energy gave to Solyndra Inc. This firm has been dear to Democratic luminaries, from Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to the president himself…
The committee’s oversight staff has also turned the spotlight on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding of 320 programs that dole out nearly $100 million in U.S. taxpayer cash to stimulate economies overseas. The Chinese government pocketed $718,000 from taxpayers in a grant supposedly to help the Middle Kingdom meet international air-quality emissions targets. Thailand’s government was handed $700,000 to harness the power of pig flatulence as “renewable energy.” The EPA gave Interpol $150,000 to prop up a program to detect “fraud” in Europe’s carbon-trading markets, which were specifically designed to make global warming hysteria profitable. The United Nations took home $1,226,841 to browbeat Third World countries into pumping pointless ethanol into their gas tanks.
After making deeper inquiries, the staff found a public-relations campaign known as “Breathe Easy, Jakarta” had been listed as costing $15,000. The EPA’s actual expenditures on this project will total $1.5 million. The Obama administration’s outrageous spending at home is bad enough. There’s no reason to spend millions exporting American bureaucracy to countries that are better off without it.
The Epidemic of Birth Tourism
Joe Guzzardi, FloydReports.com
A pregnant woman’s journey from a remote village in China to an American birthing center is geographically long and arduous. But skilled middlemen well-schooled in the loopholes of U.S. immigration policy can make her travels much easier. The woman’s mission, to deliver an American-born child with all the privileges associated with citizenship status, is a priceless commodity that makes whatever risks she may take worthwhile.
Wherever people who yearn to migrate to American may reside, eager “consultants” will, for a fee, provide the necessary training to increase their chances of success. Traditionally, these intermediaries have thrived through newspaper advertisements, leaflets distributed in public places and word of mouth. More recently, they offer their services—sometimes above board and quasi-legitimate but often unscrupulous and with criminal intent—over the Internet….
Even the Fed Can’t Save Obama
Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson, FloydReports.com
As chairman of our country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke is expected to put the economy on a sound footing and foster strong economic growth. Unfortunately, Bernanke faces “mission impossible”—partly because the policies implemented by Congress, the president, and bureaucrats account for much of what happens to the economy, and partly because the Fed has already done most of what it can do.
The Fed’s favorite policy for stimulating economic activity is to lower interest rates to encourage individuals and businesses to buy more things and hire more workers. The problem today is that the Fed has already lowered interest rates about as much as it can. Currently, interest rates for U.S. Treasury debt obligations of one-year and shorter durations are at zero percent, and 10-year debt instruments yield only 3.125 percent. Despite these historically low rates, economic activity remains sluggish.
At his June 22 press conference, Bernanke said: “We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is continuing.” His critics have been merciless and vicious in heaping scorn and derision upon him. Some have labeled him an “idiot” or “evil.”
While I am no fan of Ben Bernanke or the Federal Reserve System, the name-calling is revolting. Intellectuals can be blinded by their theories, and one of the blind spots that Keynesians like Bernanke have (one shared by many members of the Chicago monetarist school) is that rapid expansion of monetary reserves is crucial to counteracting a recession. As the quick recovery from the severe economic and….
Video: Washington Could Learn a Lot from a Drug Addict
Tim Pawlenty: We Need More, Bigger Unconstitutional Wars!
Ben Johnson, The White House Watch
In election years, candidates inevitably promise voters they will do more than their opponents. In practice that usually means increased debt-spending and expanding unconstitutional encroachments on liberty. Now one Republican presidential candidate has doubled-down on the most blatantly illegal action of this presidency, saying Barack Obama has not gone far enough in waging war-by-decree in Libya — and those who want to follow the Constitution are bead-wearing hippies bent on dragging America down in disgrace.
On Tuesday, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty gave what he dubbed a “major” foreign policy speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. In it, Pawlenty pouted, “parts of the Republican Party now seem to be trying to out-bid the Democrats in appealing to isolationist sentiments.”
“America already has one political party devoted to decline, retrenchment, and withdrawal,” he said. “It does not need a second one.”
He fleshed out what he meant in the speech — calling on Obama to “commit America’s strength to removing Ghadafi” and recognize the rebels as Libya’s legitimate government. During a question-and-answer session afterward, TPaw agreed with President Obama that the War Powers Resolution “does not apply” to the war in Libya.
In March, Pawlenty told students at Vanderbilt University that getting Congressional authorization for a war, as required by the Constitution and the resolution, is “a very complex matter and it’s not something that lends itself to an easy answer.” He added, “we need to make sure we don’t tie the executive or the commander in chief’s hands so tightly that he or she can’t respond in an emergency quickly or in a situation that deserves and needs a quick response.” Pawlenty told the CFR on Tuesday he would consult with Congress “as a courtesy and gesture of respect.”
His speech and his attack on his fellow Republicans raises (at least) 15 questions this author would like to ask Gov. Pawlenty:
- You have stated the War Powers Resolution does not apply to the war in Libya. However, the administration’s best lawyers disagreed with your assessment. Attorney General Eric Holder reportedly sided with them. The highest legal scholar in the administration to hold to your view is Harold Koh, who advocates “transnationalist jurisprudence,” who once branded the United States a member of the “axis of disobedience,” and who often co-authors articles with members of the Center for Constitutional Rights — a pro-terrorist legal house founded by Marxists. How can a self-identified “conservative” find himself to the Left of Eric Holder? If elected, will you rely on the advice of Koh or others of his ideology?
- The Founding Fathers clearly placed the war-making power in the hands of Congress alone — in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution as well as their deliberations before its passage and their practice following its adoption. Since the Constitution has not been amended, what legal precedent do you believe suspended and nullified the Founders’ intentions?
- Since you do not believe Congressional authorization is necessary to initiate hostilities, at what point, if any, would you consider Congressional authorization necessary to continue military interventions abroad in which American personnel or weapons were killing or attempting to kill foreign nationals (referred to as “hostilities” in the War Powers Resolution)?
