Blog Archives
Another Beer Summit
This idea has been floating out there. Besides the disgraceful “shout-out’s” attached to Obama’s remarks on Nidal Malik Hasan’s act of radical Islamist terrorism in perpetrating the Ft. Hood masacre. Another statement was also interesting:
- We don’t know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.
in contrast to Obama’s words regarding the Henry Louis Gates incident:
- The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.
Notwithstanding the Islamic prohibition of alcohol, maybe Obama should gather some more facts by having Hasan over to the White House for another beer summit.
What has President Obama done to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
After nine months of his Presidency, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama. I have to ask what was the Nobel committee smoking when they made this choice. Obama has not made any significant contribution towards international peace.
Rick Sincere has a great post on Obama’s prize.
The Write Side of My Brain offers a humorous take of this with the SNL clip of the year.
Good Grief…The Indoctrination Continues
Warning: the video you are about to witness shows a New Jersey Elementary School taking things a little too far, when it comes to worshipping our President.
Whatever happened to educating on the subjects of Math, English, or Science?
Another Example of Obama's Chickens Coming Home to Roost?
Since he took office, Obama has gone out of his way to insult several of our closest allies, including Britain. Just to recap these slights: Obama returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the Brits, and Obama was too tired to hold a Rose Garden press conference or host a state dinner when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited early this year. When Brown presented Obama with a priceless pen holder made from the timbers of a British navy ship that fought slave traders, Obama gave Brown a stack of DVDs. Even worse, these DVDs were not compatible with British DVD players–and Brown has been experiencing trouble with his vision. Finally, a State Department official told the Brits that “there’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” The British press was shocked and outraged.
Recently, I began to wonder if the release of the Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi wasn’t a little payback for Obama. From what I understand, the United States had been aware that the Brits were debating letting the terrorist go; and our government had strongly opposed his release. Not only did the Brits allow his release, but, once the decision was made, Washington was only given 10 minutes’ notice.
Let’s hope that Obama learns from this bitter lesson and resolves to treat our allies better than our enemies. I’m certain that there will be times in the future when he’ll want an ally to assist him in some way. But, frankly, I don’t hold out much hope for change on Obama’s part.
Obama Addresses Congress on Health Care
President Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress last night did not yield any surprises. For some, including myself, it sounded more like a campaign speech, rather than moving our country in the right direction. Obama touted a single-payer health care system, modeled after Canada, as his solution to the health care crisis. In addition to his emphasis on the single-payer system, Obama also introduced other parts of his plan, which included the promises of being able to keep your current health coverage, creating an insurance exchange, which would allow one to shop for health coverage, and reforming medical malpractice laws. This will all come to you at a cost of $900 Billion over 10 years.
Let’s look at Obama’s remarks (my emphasis will be in purple). Also, check out Cato @ Liberty, who had a live blog running. In addition, sign the petition to stop the public option at Join Patients First.
Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Washington, DC
President Obama Delivers Speech to Students Today!
Wonder if they will make the kids sing praises to Obama today. Thankfully, the Presidential speech will not be shown in Harford County, Maryland and Loudoun County, and the classroom will be able to focus on the most important things: learning the subjects that matter most, not indoctrination.
How did the White House Kegger go?
This has been a question on the minds of some, as President Obama chose to have a beer summit yesterday with Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley. The Associated Press reports that the meeting was productive, as President Obama with his watered down Bud Light, Vice President Joe Biden sipping on his non-alcoholic brew, Gates with his Sam Adams Light, and Crowley with a Blue Moon (wise choice IMHO) sat down to place aside the arrest issue and discuss how to move forward.
The problem with the beer summit (*kegger*) is that this is not the wise choice to solve the problems or conflicts that face us. Rather, this is an issue that President Obama should have stayed out of. It is not in the President’s job description to interfere in these types of issues. He has much larger and complex issues facing him, like health care reform, improving the economy, etc. Right now, Obama has made our country look like a joke with this beer summit.
Prescription for Disaster: In-Depth Look at Obama's Health Care Plan
Here is how the Obama Administration views health care. A complex chart that shows more regulations that will affect the access and the high quality we already receive. According to the Cato Institute, the President’s plan must rest upon four distinct pillars.
- Mandates for employers and individuals
- Subsidies for the middle class
- Increased insurance regulation
- A government-run health care plan, like Medicare, that will compete with private insurance.
(You can read more here).
This means that employers would be required to provide health insurance or pay a penalty tax to the government. If a small business can not afford to pay for health insurance for two other employees, then the government would assess a tax on the business owner, which will cause for a detrimental impact for this business, possibly driving them out of business. This coverage will be universal, as most Americans would be forced to take the government approved health insurance. Even worse, the government would be managing electronic medical records, which would be intrusive on each individual’s privacy. It is not the business of the government to monitor your medical records, as the physician and patient have the exclusive rights to these records to help determine the right quality of care, treatments, etc.
So, why should we trust Obama’s solution to health care? After all, many Americans have come to see through his mistake laden stimulus plan, which has led our country into a $23 trillion deficit. Health care coverage should not be touched by the government, and after all, there will be great difficulty getting this bill passed due to public dissent. Right now, this health care plan will place more of a threat on employers (especially small businesses) and individual liberties by exposing our medical histories to the government (something that belongs exclusively to the patient and physician).
Talk about a Travesty at Work
CNN reports that the South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered Governor Mark Sanford to accept $700 million of stimulus funds, after he originally refused to accept the funds. Folks, this is a perfect example of judicial activism at work trying to interfere with the executive decision of the Governor.
Sanford wanted to use the stimulus funds to pay down the state debt, which was a wise decision, but the Obama administration would not allow it. Sanford made this statement yesterday regarding the decision:
“We continue to believe that this issue is fundamentally about the balance of power and separation of powers in our state, and our hope is that however it turns out it will serve as a reason for more people to make their voices heard about the outdated and bizarre government structure in South Carolina,” Gov. Sanford said. “Legislative dominance in our state costs all of us in very real terms for the way it breeds duplication and waste. If we ever want to be competitive as a state in the 21st Century, it starts with having a 21st Century government structure.”
This is a true travesty at work.
Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court
President Obama announced today that he will be appointing Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. With Sotomayor’s nomination, there has been a flurry of questions surrounding her nomination, including lots of dissent. Will she be an activist judge or a judge that seeks to uphold the Constitution?
Let’s look at some recent statements that might lend some light into her view of interpreting the law from a speech that she made to La Raza in October 2001.
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
From a Duke University panel discussion in February 2005.
“All of the legal defense funds out there, they’re looking for people with Court of Appeals experience. Because it is — Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know, and I know, that this is on tape, and I should never say that. Because we don’t ‘make law,’ I know. [Laughter from audience] Okay, I know. I know. I’m not promoting it, and I’m not advocating it. I’m, you know. [More laughter] Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating. Its interpretation, its application.
Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic even discussed why Sotomayor might not be a good choice for this position. While many law clerks praised her work, there were a few who cited that she often made oversight onto particular details involving some high-profile cases.
Some former clerks and prosecutors expressed concerns about her command of technical legal details: In 2001, for example, a conservative colleague, Ralph Winter, included an unusual footnote in a case suggesting that an earlier opinion by Sotomayor might have inadvertently misstated the law in a way that misled litigants. The most controversial case in which Sotomayor participated is Ricci v. DeStefano, the explosive case involving affirmative action in the New Haven fire department, which is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court. A panel including Sotomayor ruled against the firefighters in a perfunctory unpublished opinion. This provoked Judge Cabranes, a fellow Clinton appointee, to object to the panel’s opinion that contained “no reference whatsoever to the constitutional issues at the core of this case.” (The extent of Sotomayor’s involvement in the opinion itself is not publicly known.)
I thought Obama was seeking someone with a strong judicial background. I guess strong judicial background is someone who thinks the Courtrooms of America establish policy. Someone better inform Congress that they are out of business if this is the case.
