Santa Clause and Barak Obama

There was an election in November.

It went badly.

Santa Clause, running on a Robin Hood platform, beat the Republican challenger.

The Republican, Mit Romney, promised prosperity through hard work.  This did not sit too well with an electorate that wanted to rob the rich to support the welfare state.

The nation has sold it's soul for ObamaPhones and ObamaCare.

A cheap price for a once rich nation.

Heaven help us.

Is it all over for the Obama Campaign?

This was from a +4 Democrat poll.

According to a CNN/ORC International survey conducted right after the debate, 67% of debate watchers questioned said that the Republican nominee won the faceoff, with one in four saying that President Barack Obama was victorious.

"No presidential candidate has topped 60% in that question since it was first asked in 1984," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Boof!!!

This is not good for the President.

There were more Democrats than Republicans in the sample.

If the poll is to be believed, it is as if Romney won all of the Republicans, all of the Independents, and some of the Democrats.

This may well be the beginning of end of the Obama Campaign.

Debate Transcript: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/2012-presidential-debate-president-obama-and-mitt-romneys-remarks-in-denver-on-oct-3-running-transcript/2012/10/03/24d6eb6e-0d91-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_print.html

Vote for Obama and get FREE STUFF!

About that Free Healthcare, . . .

See: BAD WEEK FOR FREEDOM

Only a deceitful government busybody do-gooder would actually argue that forcing insurance companies to cover millions more Americans and cover pre-existing conditions would result in lower costs for the average family. I wonder what will happen in 2014 when 30 million more Americans are guaranteed “free” healthcare under Obamacare. The saddest part of this oncoming train wreck is that millions of willfully ignorant people actually believed the blatant lies and false storyline fed to them by sociopathic politicians who desire to control every aspect of their lives. These people believe they know what is best for you. They believe they are smarter than you. They do not care what means are required to achieve their ends of absolute domination over your life. Personal freedom, individual liberty and a critical thinking populace are the antithesis to the desires of the governing elite.

And about all of that other Free Stuff that you are being promised . . .

See: Can Obama Win Re-Election by Promising Free Stuff

Mr. Obama says he is not waging class warfare against the wealthy in America. He is, of course. His campaign slogan might as well be: ” Vote for Me … I’ll Give You Free Stuff.” This is enticing. Imagine if you pay no federal income taxes and one of the candidates says, “I’ll take money from rich people and give it to you to pay your mortgage – even if you were irresponsible and bought a house you couldn’t afford. Vote for me, I’ll make sure you get unemployment benefits for almost two full years. And, oh yeah, vote for me and I’ll make sure you get birth control pills — free of charge.

The most important, underreported story in America is the one about who we Americans are becoming. As Bill O’Reilly put it: President Obama is “calculating that the American voter has changed into a person who wants free stuff from the government and is willing to sacrifice some freedoms in order to get the free stuff. And you know what? The President might be right.”

Like Bernard Goldberg, I am not convinced that this election is a slam-dunk for the Republicans. I think that when a large enough portion of the voting population is dependent on the government for their material comforts and wants, our mandate to be "a free people" devolves into pleading to be "a people of free stuff."

We are becoming more and more like the serfs of our feudal past.

The next wave of sin taxes.

See: Multnomah County initiative would tax soda pop, other drinks

PORTLAND -- Backers of an initiative to tax pop and others sweetened drinks in Multnomah County say it will put people to work and give kids opportunities to exercise.

The initiative calls for a one cent per fluid ounce tax on most sweetened drinks including pop.

Another example of progresives cleverly inventing new ways to tax the snot out of everyone living and dead.

Expect this tax to come to your local town in the near future. Bad ideas like this have a way of spreading, like lice.

Damn the constitution! Full Steam Ahead!

From the illegally appointed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Standing Up for Consumers

By John Cordray, Reader Supported News

05 January 12

Today, I was appointed by President Obama to serve as the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I am honored by this opportunity to continue my work on behalf of consumers. And I am energized by the responsibilities and challenges facing the Bureau.

He is a true believer.

The appointment of John Cordray is illegal on two counts.

1) Obama declared this "a recess" appointment. Congress was not in recess. Obama is entitled to his own opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. He can not make this "a recess appointment" by just declaring it so. Congress has to actually be in recess in order for Obama to lawfully make a recess appointment.

2) The Frank-Dodd act, which created this unnecessary office, specifically requires that the appointee be approved by the senate. It is a weird little oddity in the legislation that is most likely due to sloppy legal work on the part of the legislations drafters. But it is there none the less. The Frank-Dodd act does not allow for recess appointment.

More importantly the “recess” appointment of Cordray doesn’t solve the President’s problem. The Dodd-Frank Act is very clear, even a law professor can probably understand this section, that authorities under the Act remain with the Treasury Secretary until the Director is “confirmed by the Senate”. A recess appointment is not a Senate confirmation. Now don’t ask me why Dodd and Frank included such unusual language, they could have just given the Bureau the new authorities, but they didn’t. So even with this appointment, the CFPB won’t be able to go after all those non-banks, like the pay-day lenders and check-cashiers that caused the financial crisis (oh wait, those industries didn’t have anything to do with the crisis).

(Emphasis is mine - Syrah)



See:

Obama’s Constitutional Gamble on Consumer Finance Nomination

Doubling down: Obama follows Cordray recess appointment with three more to NLRB

Obama to Congress: I’ll decide what’s constitutional

Obama Reelection Strategy Seen in Cordray Appointment

Is the Senate in recess? The Constitution says no.

Obama Oversteps His Limits with Cordray Recess Appointment

Cordray's Recess Appointment Sure Doesn't Look Constitutional To Me

No Blank Checks For Obama

See: Speaker Boehner's Debt Ceiling Speech

Speaker Boehner tells President Obama to get stuffed.

The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.

You see, there is no stalemate in Congress. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we will pass another bill - one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate.

Obviously, I expect that bill can and will pass the Senate, and be sent to the President for his signature. If the President signs it, the 'crisis' atmosphere he has created will simply disappear. The debt limit will be raised. Spending will be cut by more than one trillion dollars, and a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress will begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.

The problem is not on the revenue side. It is on the spending side.

Raising taxes only robs the productive of the means and the reason to produce.

Raising spending only feeds the addiction of the looter's to other people's money.

Raising the Debt Limit only increases the already unmanageable levels of debt that are being passed on to future generations.

We might be better off to just shut it all down.

Obama’s Tax Obsession

See: Explaining Obama’s tax-hike obsession

But Obama’s tax obsession becomes understandable when you realize the long game he’s playing: Big Taxes to fund Big Government. Decade after decade. See, it’s an almost universal belief among left-of-center journalists, economists, policymakers and politicians that Americans must pay higher taxes in coming years to cover the medical expenses of its aging population – not to mention all sorts of brand new social spending and green “investment.” Dramatically higher taxes. On everybody. And if we have a debt crisis, maybe those tax increases come sooner rather than later.

And why not? Look at how high taxes and high spending have made Greece such an economic giant.

See Also: Why The Democratic Party Is Doomed

This week’s fight over raising the federal debt limit exposes a key weakness in the warfare-welfare state that has bestowed power onto the Democratic Party: Without an ever-growing share of the economy, it dies. Every vital element of the Democrats’ coalition — unions, government workers, government contractors, “entitlement” consumers — requires constant increases in payments, grants and consulting contracts. Without those payments, they don’t sign checks to re-elect Democrats.

Are we having fun yet?

Recession or Depression?

See: Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks

The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.

Keep a copy of Zuckerman's article tabbed in your files.

Trump Bails, Gingrich Fails.

See: Trump Not Running for President: 'Decision Does Not Come Easily Or Without Regret'

"I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election," Trump said in a statement on Monday. "I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector."

No regrets from me. I was having too much trouble taking Trump seriously as a candidate to begin with.

And in another corner this Sunday, we had the former Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, proving that he is now completely unfit to lead the Republican Party in any capacity.

See: Gingrich Blasts House GOP's Medicare Plan

White House hopeful Newt Gingrich called the House Republican plan for Medicare "right-wing social engineering," injecting a discordant GOP voice into the party's efforts to reshape both entitlements and the broader budget debate.

I have a middle finger here for you Newt.

In the same interview Sunday, on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Gingrich backed a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, complicating a Republican line of attack on President Barack Obama's health law.

And here is the other middle finger for you Newt.

Newt, you're fired!

If you would like to read a transcript of the interview, you can find it here : Meet the Press transcript for May 15, 2011 (The msnbc website is a real POS. It is a huge pain in the ass to navigate but if you would like to go to the original source, help yourself.)

[Additional] See: Gingrich Shifts to Damage Control

"Spike the Ball" Mr. President. It is important.

From: Obama: I won't release bin Laden death photos

In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. Obama said that "we don't need to spike the football." He said that "given the graphic nature of these photos it would create a national security risk."

Uhm. . . yes you do Mr. President.

You need to show "the enemy" that you have contempt for him.

You need to show the world that we are not afraid of "the enemy."

You don't have to let "Islam" be the issue in this case. Osama was "the face" of Al Qaeda. Showing "the face" of Al Qaeda blasted half away with American bullets is a message that needs to be shown to the enemy and to the world.

Spike the damn ball!

Barbara Walters hopes for an Obama reelection effort boost

See: Barbara Walters: I'd "Hate To Be A Republican" Running Against Obama

Babs, you are confusing how much you would hate to be a Republican with how much Osama's execution won't help Obama's reelection effort.

Why Now? About the Timing – The Birth Certificate Circus

The screaming above-the-fold headline story of the Seattle Times today was about Obama's Birth certificate: Why now? Obama decided enough was enough

Why Now? Indeed. It is a good question.

If Obama was a Republican, the Seattle Times reporters and the whole of the MSM might have actually done a little investigating into the why of it all, but since Obama is a Democrat (like them), they merely parroted the President’s lame rationalizations without lifting nary a finger at seriously looking into what changed this month and on that day in particular.

Obama’s “We don't have time for this kind of silliness” explanation fails - save that something has been changing in the legal landscape for candidates for Presidency. The time left that he could continue playing games with his Birth Certificate ran out.

Several states have had bills progressing through their legislatures that would have required Presidential candidates to present their birth certificates as proof of eligibility. On the very same day that Obama released his certificate, the Oklahoma House of Representatives had passed a measure that would have required Presidential candidates to show the Birth Certificate in order to appear on their Primary Election ballot.

Arizona passed a similar law last month, but the Governor of that State vetoed the bill.

Louisiana has a bill of this type working its way through their legislative process.

It was just a mater of time before one or more states passed and signed into law a measure that would require the Presidential Candidates to present their Birth Certificate. The “I don’t have to show you my Birth Certificate – you have to take my word for it” game that Obama has been playing since the first day that the Hillary Campaign brought the issue up, had drawn to an ignoble close.

Obama would have had to present his Birth Certificate, or if he chose to continue with the charade, skip having his name on the ballot in one or more states. That would have been too explosive. The game had thus ceased to serve its purpose of being a side-show distraction to keep people from looking at just how awful a President Obama really is.

The Birth Certificate Circus and con-game is now done and over with.

The next left-Dem game will be to call Trump and everyone that is critical of Obama and his policies a racist.

Trump Wins, Obama Loses - The Obama Birth Certificate Circus

I will Give Trump a win on this. He has managed to get Obama to release his birth-certificate after having made a game of it for the entire length of his short Presidential career.

“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” he said to reporters after the White House released a long-form copy of his birth certificate. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred up the controversy in recent weeks by demanding Obama prove he was born in Hawaii, not Kenya.

Obama, me-thinks though dost protest too much.

The whole of the birther circus was Obama's creation. He stoked and fuelled it from day one. He has no one to blame for it but himself. All that he had to do was release the damnable thing early on. Instead, he kept the controversy alive. Obama was in control of this issue the whole time. Everyone knows it.

Trump, calls Obama on this while taking credit for getting Obama to release the document.

"I'm taking great credit and you have to ask the president, 'why didn't he do this a long time ago? Why didn't he do it a long time ago?' When Hillary Clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why didn't he do it? It's shocking. It's shocking," Donald Trump said at a press conference this morning on President Obama's birth certificate.

And like the proven and expert negotiator that Trump has proven himself to be in his business life, he has upped the stakes on Obama, demanding that Obama now release his college transcripts.

"I'd like to know how does he get into Harvard, how does he get into Colombia if he isn't a very good student," Donald Trump told the press this morning in New Hampshire.

"If he wants to release it that's fine, if he doesn't want to release it that's fine too. But the word is he wasn't a very good student," Trump added.

I don't think that Trump understands foreign policy very well. But it is pretty clear that he knows how to "steal the oxygen" in a political campaign. Trump is driving the campaign, Obama is reacting, and reacting badly.

Trump wins today. Obama loses.

If the vote ends up being between Obama the Community Organizer incumbent and Trump the Side-Show Pop-Icon challenger, I will hold my nose and vote for Trump.

Ron Paul, Donald Trump - Losers

Ron Paul is expected to announce his umpteenth Presidential Campaign today. I expect him to do as well as his last campaign for President, which he lost big.

Ron Paul - doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Donald Trump will be stumping in Nevada at an event billed as “A Return to the Reagan Revolution, from Ronald to Donald.”

Trump has the cajones to go for the jugular in politics, unfortunately, he does not have the judgement necessary to make a good national level candidate for President, much less an actual world leader.

His Birther nonsense is a distraction from how awful Obama is as a President and Donald's remarks about threatening the Saudis and thinking that we should seize Iraqi and Libyan oil fields pretty much proved that he would be as much of a foreign policy disaster as is Obama.

Ron and Don will get a lot of media attention. What they won't get is the GOP nomination.

Democrat Proposes Toilet Paper Tax.

See: Suttle unrolls toilet paper tax

Raising taxes is how Democrats think that their spending problem can be solved.

Suttle has proposed a 10 cent federal tax on every roll of toilet paper.

Mayor Jim Suttle is a Democrat. His Party affiliation is not mentioned in the article about his toilet-paper tax. Funny how that works.

Judge Vinson: "The entire act must be declared void."

See: Judge rules healthcare reform unconstitutional

"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications," Vinson wrote.

Fireworks in the courts today.

About The Republican Redistricting Advantage

See: Will Redistricting Be a Bloodbath for Democrats?

Republicans took control of at least 19 Democratic-controlled state legislatures Tuesday and gained more than 650 seats, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The last time Republicans saw such victories was in 1994, when they captured control of 20 state legislatures.

Republicans haven't controlled as many state legislatures since 1928.

Across the country, the map for state legislatures has turned noticeably red as Republicans now control 55 chambers, with Democrats at 38 and the remaining yet to be decided. At the beginning of this week, Democrats controlled 60 of the country's state legislative chambers and Republicans 36.

Tuesday also was a historic day for many state legislatures. In Minnesota, Republicans won the Senate for the first time ever, while in Alabama, they took control for the first time since reconstruction.

The answer to the headline writer's question is yes! (Sort of.)

There will be a bloodbath, but if the Republicans forget about the future, they will just piss away the brief and ephemeral advantage that redistricting will give them.

Republicans will have a unique opportunity to shape the political landscape for the next decade. Redistricting in the States where Republicans now dominate will help adjust the balance of political power at both the state and the federal levels.

Red States will become more red. Blue states will become more blue.

The end result will be a deeper divide between the Constrained in the Red States and the Unconstrained in the Blue States.

Think San Francisco versus Boise.

Republicans should not get too full of themselves over their truly monumental and historic win. Republicans need to keep in mind that the opposition is still convinced that their Unconstrained world-view is the one that should dominate our nation politically and they still have a sizable following.

The main challenge for Republicans over the coming decade will be to seize this historic opportunity to reshape the political landscape by arguing forcefully and confidently for liberty as the best solution to our nations problems. On the other side, the left will argue for Statism as the solution to our nations problems. They will do so boldly and self-righteously. They will not just wither up and blow away.

Redistricting will help Republicans on the margin, but it is not a long term solution to our nation's problems. Our nations's problems are in our culture. Only by reshaping our culture will we be able to help our nation step away from the Statist precipice that the left has brought us.

With every issue that comes up in our nations future, we must argue for increasing individual Liberty as the best solution. Whenever our counterparts on the left offer Statism as a solution to a problem, we must aggressively challenge them and their assertions that surrendering our liberties to the state will solve our problems. Make them defend their assertions. They aren't used to being challenged on their core principles, so this can be fun too.

This is a long term generational project. Do not expect or even hope for quick results. Changing a culture takes time, patience and persistence.

Look to the future, not to just tomorrow.

A Deep and Wide Loss For The Democrats.

The Democrats received a historic shellacking at the hands of the voters on Tuesday. The Depth of the repudiation can be seen in the results at the State House level.

See: Republicans Won More Than 23 Legislative Chambers in Historic Wave Election

Last night, Republicans won more than 23 legislative chambers and counting, many in the large states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Republicans also won majorities in both houses in the southern states of North Carolina and Alabama and in the New England states of New Hampshire and Maine. We also gained majorities in the West in the Colorado House and Oregon House

That is a big loss.

Note that Oregon is on that list. Oregon is about as deep blue as it is possible for a state to get. Just to the north of Oregon is blue Washington, the Republicans may take the state senate. (And the Race between Rossi (R) and Murray (D) is still too close to call.)

Most of the media coverage about the election will likely focus on the few races that the Democrats one and on a few of the ones that the Republicans one on the Federal level. Reid's win in Nevada looks crooked as all hell but will likely stand. (Something about those machines and the technician that "serviced" them.) Boxer's win in California was not that unexpected. It stinks, but California has some serious issues. Bloody hell, they elected Jerry Brown as Governor. That is seriously deranged.

On the Republican side, Marco Rubio will shake the foundations of the Democrat's race-card political strategies that have helped them divide the country and our politics along racial lines since the civil war. For the Democrats, that is a serious threat to their power at every level. They will probably try to make his life hell. Watch for the Democrats to pull the same kind of stunts against Marco Rubio that they pulled on Clarence Thomas.

For Republicans, there is a danger.

This election was a deep and wide repudiation of Democrats. It was not an affirmation of Republicans.

Republicans now have the best opportunity to make the case for liberty since The Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94. They also risk blowing again.

See: Washington the Biggest Loser as Wave Sweeps Through Congress

Newt Gingrich, the GOP firebrand who helped force Democrats from power in 1994, said Tuesday's results created "a dramatically weaker Democratic Party and a severely repudiated President Obama." He's right about that, of course. But does Gingrich really think Americans gave the GOP a full-throated mandate? He made that miscalculation a generation ago and overreached as the new House Speaker.

That mistake helped reelect Democrat Bill Clinton.

Obama is not on any ballot, but the votes cast are a reflection of how his first two years failed to meet the lofty expectations set in 2008. Liberals accuse him of accomplishing too little. Conservatives accuse him of turning too often to government as a solution.

The Republicans need to take this historic opportunity and make the case for liberty. If they assume they have a mandate, they will be the ones that will get shellacked in the next go-round.

[HT to FinallyFree at c2 - see post 144 for the link to Gateway Pundit]

More then ever, Your vote, Every vote, is important.

See: Republicans Appear Poised to Win Big on Tuesday

PRINCETON, NJ -- The final USA Today/Gallup measure of Americans' voting intentions for Congress shows Republicans continuing to hold a substantial lead over Democrats among likely voters, a lead large enough to suggest that regardless of turnout, the Republicans will win more than the 40 seats needed to give them the majority in the U.S. House.

The results are from Gallup's Oct. 28-31 survey of 1,539 likely voters. It finds 52% to 55% of likely voters preferring the Republican candidate and 40% to 42% for the Democratic candidate on the national generic ballot -- depending on turnout assumptions. Gallup's analysis of several indicators of voter turnout from the weekend poll suggests turnout will be slightly higher than in recent years, at 45%. This would give the Republicans a 55% to 40% lead on the generic ballot, with 5% undecided.

Every Republican vote is an essential vote.

This will be an election decided by turnout.

Even Democrats in the safest districts are now in close races.

Take Norm Dicks in Washington state.

See: Poll shows Cloud leads over Dicks

The most notable results in the poll came in the question that asked “If the election for the United States Congress were today and the candidates were Republican Doug Cloud and Democrat Norm Dicks, for whom would you vote?” The answer options were “definitely for Cloud, leaning for Cloud, definitely for Dicks, leaning for Dicks, and not sure”. Doug Cloud received a combined 609 votes for “definitely for” and “leaning for” while Dicks only received 558 for the 2 answers. 95 were still unsure.

Even Norm Dicks is in trouble.

Get every Republican that you know to the polls.

This time, it really matters.

This time, we could really win this.

[HT JCM at C2 - See post#218]

Time to grow out of the Microsoft "Subscription-Software" Trap

Open Office.

It is free. You can install it for free on a machine running a Microsoft OS. It also works on Linux and other non-Microsoft OS's. (Microsoft Office, not so much.) If your customers are still stuck with the Microsoft products, Open Office can save files to the Microsoft formats.

It takes a little getting used to, but I like it.

And the Gates' are pushing an income tax here in Washington State.

Screw'm.

Whats that?

Need to upgrade your OS too?

Ubuntu is pretty good, and its free. Linux used to be a pain in the ass to use. It was geekware, built by geeks for geeks. Now it is easy enough for anyone to use.

Linux is now no more difficult and no more buggy then the Microsoft products. And you don't have to fight the malware and virus battles that are de rigueur with Micorsoft products. Overall, I have much fewer problems with my Linux machines then I do with my Microsoft machines.

Go Linux. Because it just works.

Did I mention that the Gates's are pushing an Income Tax proposal here in Washington State?

Screw'm and the horse (Microsoft) that they rode in on. Bastards.