May 21, 2012
FSM HOT TOPICS
Exclusive: Oval Office Watch – Thursday, December 11
by OVAL OFFICE WATCH December 11, 2008
Questions About Obama's Citizenship: Part I - GO HERE.
POTUS Eligibility Dispute, Part 2 scheduled by Supremes - READ FULL REPORT HERE.
Here comes the Great Man complex
James Lewis, American Thinker.com
All Great Men intending to make their mark on history need great monuments. For Barack Obama just a single one won't do. No, this is more like a whole country full of shiny new buildings, an Edifice Complex so splendiferous that future generations will stand in awe.
Mussolini began a vast World's Fair project, the Esposizione Universale Roma, but before it could be completed World War II began. The Fascist architecture buildings were built out in the 1950s, leaving a dystopian mix of unfriendly grandiose structures and uninviting modernist plazas, with weeds growing through the cracks in the concrete. Nowadays, it is noted for crime, graffiti, and brawls.
The New York Times just trumpeted the new splendor to come in the Age of Obama.
According to Simon Rosenberg, president of the "progressive think tank" NDN,
‘This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century . This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s.'
For those who were feeling thrilled last week by Barack Obama's foreign policy picks, like Henry Kissinger, thinking they meant a new, more modest Obama -- here's a big surprise. The Obama of the Styrofoam Greek Temple in Denver is back. The "Citizens of the World!" orator of the Berlin Victory Column is back. The hero of 80,000 fainting fans, promising to end "the riiiising of the oceans!" is here again. And this time it will cost you money. Lots of it.
But it's only the start. He isn't in office yet, but Der Spiegel, the biggest anti-American newsmagazine in the world, has already proclaimed Barack Obama "Der WeltPraesident" --- The President of the World. "Es geht um die Fuehrung der Welt!" (It's all about the Leadership of the World!) They haven't felt this way for decades over there. Read article.
Obamonomics—1930s Style
Sam Staley, NRO.com
Saturday’s video announcement that President-Elect Barrack Obama would unleash a massive spending plan to boost the economy wasn’t much of a surprise. True to form, he used grand images—“We need to act with the urgency this moment demands”—and he seemed to promise the federal government as savior to our economic ills.
Specifically, President-Elect Obama promised an infrastructure-spending program bigger than the investment in the federal Interstate Highway System. It is a proposal that is both grand in words and extraordinarily shallow in substance.
While we have been underfunding roads and highways to the tune of about $70 billion a year, depending on which estimates one uses, Obama’s emphasis on “ready to go” projects belies a naïve faith in government spending as a generator of jobs. Investments in infrastructure have to be the right kind, in the right place, at the right time to have meaningful impacts on long-term economic growth. Massive infusions of government cash in the current system likely will simply reinforce the status quo, dumping money into the current infrastructure black hole that might undermine long-term competitiveness. Read article.
Does It Infuriate Anyone That You Can Now Buy The Presidency?
NoQuarterUSA.net/blog
Certainly, it doesn’t look like we can undo the travesty of this election, so my version of moving forward is to honestly report what happened so it does not happen again. The way to do that is to call those out on the carpet who deserve it. And that includes voters who haven’t been paying attention.
The title issue is much bigger than who got elected. It is about the way this election transpired and what it says about the state of our democracy, our involvement, our knowledge or lack thereof, and the detrimental contributions of a biased press. Most important, it says that money talks and issues, policies and qualifications take a back seat to the almighty dollar and American Idol worship.
I put my country first. I do not want Obama to fail because I do not want our country to fail. As an American citizen, I will respect the office of the President, and if he is indeed inaugurated, I will accord him the same respect I accorded George Bush these past eight years; and you can figure out for yourselves how much or little respect that was. That stated, I will call this man out on the carpet for every trick. I am not done screaming about it.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, right? Read article.
Will Obama Become the Statesman that America Needs?
Janice Shaw Crouse, Townhall.com
In the recent election campaign, the level of political discourse disintegrated shamefully as winning at all costs triumphed with increasing frequency over principled stances. We saw politicians screaming, ranting, attacking America’s foreign policies, and criticizing military decisions in the midst of a war. In the recent election campaign, we heard lies and distortions cloaked as “political spin.” Political rhetoric often disintegrated into demagoguery. Personal attacks and character assassination became routine.
With such rhetoric, demagoguery and personal vilification being accepted as merely “politics as usual,” is it any wonder that trust — a fundamental requirement for democracy to function effectively — is diminishing? Is it any wonder that such “leaders” fail in a basic leadership quality, that of being a symbol to the people, the personification of noble character?
Is it any wonder that such actions by the nation’s leaders fail to provide what James MacGregor Burns called “transformational leadership”? Read article.
Creative Conservatism: A path out of the wilderness
Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard.com
The GOP is shell-shocked from last month's election results. The gains the party made in the years since the 1994 Republican revolution have been erased. Republicans are without a clear agenda. People say that Republicans don't have any ideas, but that isn't entirely true. They have plenty of ideas--but too many of them are about which part of their coalition is to blame for their current misfortunes.
This sort of squabbling is less than useless. It's inward-looking, woolly-headed, and only furthers the perception that the GOP is out of touch. Unfortunately, when Republicans have tried to be in touch, they've been tempted to be irresponsible. In September, more than a few were ready to risk the global banking system's collapse in the hopes that they could ride anti-Wall Street populism to victory.
Meanwhile, liberal Democrats, relatively unimpeded, will move on with their agenda.
That agenda is clear. Conservatives may not have any definite answers to what ails the economy and how to fix it, but liberals do: an enormous Keynesian stimulus--somewhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion over two years.
The good news is that conservatives now have a lot of time on their hands. They can think about the future. They can enjoy the luxury of opposition and explore policy alternatives. They can look for something more substantive than fanciful and nostalgic small-government talk, something more principled than going along with Obama. They can pick their battles. Read article.
Obama's End Run around Congress
Ned Barnett, American Thinker.com
Candidate Barack Obama promised "change we can believe in," but he never hinted that this change would all but circumvent Congress to impose on America the most dramatic liberal social transformation since the New Deal. While promising to lead, he did not suggest that he would create a kind of "imperial presidency" that would horrify the Founding Fathers. Based on their own direct experience with a sovereign, they were rightly concerned with any one man having too much power. This is the kind of power that Obama is now reaching for, following the same kind of "stealth strategy" that helped get him elected.
During the Presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama executed a series of extraordinarily successful "stealth strategies," enabling him to secure the support of key core groups without alienating the larger public. For instance, he made a single observation -- on a Saturday, when the media was sure to be looking elsewhere -- advocating on-demand abortion for minors. With this, he seized for himself what everyone assumed was Senator Clinton's "in the bag" NARAL endorsement, and he did so without making on-demand abortion a controversial election issue.
There were others, but perhaps his greatest stealth strategy was his promise to lower taxes for 95 percent of Americans, while quietly assuring his more liberal supporters that he'd let the Bush tax cuts expire -- which, without fanfare, would amount to a huge tax increase for all tax-paying Americans. Read article.
Paging Joe the Plumber: Obama Still Wants To Spread The Wealth
Mark Finkelstein, NewsBusters.org
After the flap caused during the campaign when he famously told Joe the Plumber that he wanted to "spread the wealth," I figured Barack Obama wouldn't be making such a suggestion again anytime soon. I figured wrong.
Pres.-elect Obama to Tom Brokaw on today's Meet The Press:
I think the important principle, because sometimes when we start talking about taxes, and I say I want a more balanced tax code, people think, well, that's class warfare. No. It turns out that our economy grows best when the benefits of the economy are most widely spread. And that has been true historically.
Got that, you greedy rich guys? Higher taxes are good for you. Paging Joe the Plumber!
Will the MSM pick up on Obama's renewed call to redistribute income via government fiat? Read article.
Will recession mean a toned-down inauguration?
Lisa Tolin, Yahoo.com
Unemployment is on the rise. The stock market is in the tank. Is this any time for a party? For the sake of the masses of people expected for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, let's hope so. While Obama must be sensitive to the nation's time of war and recession, there's still reason to expect a rollicking time.
"We're mindful of the fact that people in this country are hurting, that they're going through hard times," said Linda Douglass, spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "On the other hand, we see this not just as a celebration of an election, but as a time for people to come together and celebrate their common values and shared aspirations and goals."
The committee has disclosed few details of the celebration, but it surely won't come cheap. President George W. Bush raised $42 million to help finance his second inauguration. Millions more were spent by the government on security.
Though costly, an inauguration helps set the tone for a presidency, said Gil Troy, a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The president shouldn't be seen noshing on caviar, but neither should he dispense with glamour entirely, Troy said. Americans want their leader to be a man of the people and a celebrity superstar, both. Read article.
How the GOP Can Court Black Voters
Andrew Walden, Pajamas Media.com
Republicans wondering what happened to cause John McCain’s election defeat got a sharp confirmation of their worst suspicions November 5 from Newsweek magazine. According to Newsweek, McCain and his chief advisors refused to deploy key arguments against Barack Obama’s candidacy.
This may be a harsh revelation for those who contributed to and volunteered for McCain’s campaign, but beneath this failure are the keys to a Republican recovery in 2010 and 2012 — and a strategy which will undermine the Democrats’ grip on black voters.
The Democratic primary contest had exposed the anti-Americanism of Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright. The revelations were timed too late to deliver victory to Hillary Clinton, but had a powerful effect against Obama in the later primaries. Unlike the Clintons, the McCain campaign put Wright and also Michelle Obama off limits. Also off limits according to Newsweek: Obama’s lack of military service, suggestions that an Obama administration will not adequately protect Americans from terrorism, arguments that Obama is soft on crime, and even a video of Obama dancing with Ellen DeGeneres. Read article.
Could Michael S. Steele be the Republican Barack?
Wendy L. Wilson, Essence.com
With the Census Bureau projecting minorities will one day be the majority, some Republicans believe they have a branding problem. As if things couldn't get any worse for the GOP, the Pew Research Center claims White voters are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party. The numbers of White voters calling themselves Republicans have been dropping for the past four years. And there are some Republicans who believe the party needs its own Barack Obama, a political star who can transcend race and party lines.
What few people know is that when Obama first took to the national stage in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, there was another African-American man who was already climbing the political ladder of success within the Republican Party. In fact, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele gave the counterpoint to Obama's speech that year. Now, he's vying for chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, which would make him the most recognized Black conservative in the nation. ESSENCE.com talked to Steele about taking on this monumental task, convincing Black folks to better understand the party, and the possibility of one day stepping into Obama's shoes as president. Read article.
Can This Marriage Last?
Patrick J. Buchanan, Human Events.com
Having savaged each other for a year, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have now formed a rare partnership in power. Not since James Garfield chose James G. Blaine has a new president chosen his principal rival to be secretary of state.
What does this tell us?
First, don't take campaign oratory all that seriously.
Second, unlike Dennis Kucinich, Ted Kennedy, Ron Paul or Jesse Helms, Hillary and Barack are pragmatists. They do not let ideology or past insults get in the way of a mutually beneficial deal.
But this is not some Hitler-Stalin pact of American politics.
Dick Morris has it right. As in a parliamentary system, where Cabinet members come straight off the majority party front bench, Barack, as prime minister, is knitting together a coalition government that allocates its highest honors to its greatest stars.
As Tony Blair named rival Gordon Brown as chancellor of the exchequer, Barack made Joe Biden his vice president, Hillary his secretary of state and Bill Richardson his secretary of commerce. Had John Edwards not fouled his nest, he, too, would be in the Cabinet. Perhaps attorney general. Read article.
Obama’s Afghan War
Greg C. Reeson, NMJ.us
With security gains made over the past 18 months holding and slow-but-steady political accommodation taking root in Baghdad, it appears the United States is growing closer to the end of its active combat role in Iraq. President-elect Barack Obama, who has consistently expressed his opposition to the Iraq War and his desire to end it, has promised to refocus America’s attention on Afghanistan, a conflict he likes to refer to as the “right” war.
In Afghanistan, Obama is inheriting a war that we are, by every measure available, losing. Violence has been increasing at alarming rates since 2004, with nearly 300 U.S. and NATO fatalities this year alone. Significant portions of the country are under insurgent control, and a complex, evolving enemy is becoming more effective and more deadly.
And it’s not just the enemy in Afghanistan that’s the problem. A lack of Afghan confidence in a weak and corrupt Karzai government, a flourishing drug trade that finances insurgent attacks, safe havens across the border in Pakistan that facilitate enemy operations, and an inadequate international commitment that has provided too few troops and too little economic assistance likely mean that the situation in Afghanistan will continue to deteriorate over the next few years. Everyone is frustrated. The Afghan people are discouraged by the lack of progress that has been made over the past seven years. Our NATO allies are struggling to maintain domestic support for a peacekeeping and reconstruction operation that has evolved into a full-blown war. The Pakistanis are increasingly upset over violations of their sovereignty and the destabilizing effect on Pakistan of U.S. actions in Afghanistan. And the United States is finding it more and more difficult to muster the resources required to take on a growing share of the Afghanistan burden. Obama has vowed to take a new approach. Here is what we can expect.
Everyone is frustrated. The Afghan people are discouraged by the lack of progress that has been made over the past seven years. Our NATO allies are struggling to maintain domestic support for a peacekeeping and reconstruction operation that has evolved into a full-blown war. The Pakistanis are increasingly upset over violations of their sovereignty and the destabilizing effect on Pakistan of U.S. actions in Afghanistan. And the United States is finding it more and more difficult to muster the resources required to take on a growing share of the Afghanistan burden. Obama has vowed to take a new approach. Here is what we can expect. Read article.
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Occupy Chicago freakout: The LRAD is coming, the LRAD is coming!
May 21, 2012 00:57 AM
Here is an LRAD. It’s a Long Range Acoustic Device better known as a sound cannon and it’s used to disperse unruly crowds. Here is an Occupy Chicago freakout over the LRAD (led by the same livestreamer who freaked out last night over a brief police stop): Two #LRAD s spotted heading to march.— Tim [...]
Michael Moore spreads hysterical, anti-police fable from his Occupy comrades
May 21, 2012 00:37 AM
The crockumentary film-maker should have read Twitchy first. As we told you Saturday night, the trio of Occupy Chicago livestreamers who freaked out over a brief, Chicago police pullover didn’t have their apartment raided, didn’t have any of their equipment damaged, were not “held at gunpoint,” and had none of their high-priced cameras, phones, and [...]
It will rain: Awww, Occupy Chicago's all wet; finally, free showers for all!
May 20, 2012 11:09 PM
Mother Nature is Chicago law enforcement’s best friend. Tonight, the rabble-rousers’ plans for anarchy got spoiled by rain. Twitter had fun as the Occupiers and their fearless livestream crews ran for cover, while a few of the mobsters hung around to harass officers on duty and break out in senseless chants: Fkin Streamers afraid of [...]
Marion Barry has change of heart after being saved by Filipino hospital staff
May 20, 2012 10:00 PM
In what reads like a bad Hollywood movie script Marion Barry has changed his mind about Filipino nurses. Just a few weeks after complaining about how many Filipino nurses work in Washington DC Barry's life was saved by Filipino nurses. That's right, the same people he wanted to push our of DC hospitals ended up treating his potentially life threatening blood clot.
May 20, 2012 06:15 PM
Violence erupts at the end of the NATO Summit protests. Earlier today, members of Black Bloc were arrested for plotting to attack police stations, Mayor Emanuel's home and President Obama's campaign headquarters. Their violence then turned to the protest; police in riot gear move in, wearing gas masks. Protesters are throwing things at police according to video, live photos and reports from on the ground in Chicago.
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