Monday, October 22, 2012

Political Potpourri

Biggest Laff Line of Last week:
"You know, Barack doesn't have a big ego," Michelle Obama said in an excerpt from an interview with CNN that aired Tuesday. (Politico)
Does she remember those grand speeches amid Greek columns and pompous pronouncements about making the seas recede and healing the planet? The Big O’s overinflated ego shows even in one-on-one interviews:
“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” (Obama WikiQuote)
Random Thoughts

Michelle has also said that multiple voting is key to her husband’s victory. Wait, maybe she said early voting… I can’t remember…

Many Americans are justifiably asking what Obama’s plans are for a second term. I know he’s hiring an army of teachers to go invade or attack something…

Is there some law somewhere that says all presidential debates must be moderated by liberal democrats?

Another Obama Oops
“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system.” -- President Obama
Except we didn’t…
“The cost to the federal government of the TARP’s transactions (also referred to as the subsidy cost), including grants for mortgage programs that have not yet been made, will amount to $24 billion,” said the CBO report, which was released on the same day Obama spoke. (CBO Tarp Report)
In fact, CBO reported that as of now $65 billion in TARP funds remain outstanding. (CNS News)
The statement from CNS can be verified by looking at page three of the CBO report.

His reelection prospects crumbling, he’s now resorting to bald-faced lies that can be easily fact-checked against published government documents.

More bad news for the venture socialist in chief...
Another green company that received Obama largess ($249 million) has gone bankrupt.
A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249.1 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would sell its automotive business assets to Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) (Bloomberg)
Bailing out the World
GM is spending more and more of its taxpayer-enhanced cash pile to shore up its faltering foreign divisions. In fact, according to an analysis of GM’s SEC filings, the company is likely to incur over $6.5 billion in losses and expenditures overseas in the 2011-2014 period, not counting over $1.6b in foreign potential legal liabilities or several other incalculable expenses that could add up to billions more.
Not only are these expenses a challenge to GM’s overall financial health at a time when it also faces billion-dollar expenditures on pensions in the US, it shows the basic problem with national bailouts of global companies. Taxpayers who were told they were saving an American company are now seeing their tax dollars flowing overseas by the billions. (The Truth about Cars)
Finally, Victor Davis Hanson has summed up Obama’s first term beautifully:
What, then, was Obama’s first term? Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means. (VDH)
Salve for our wounds: The Economic Case for Romney-Ryan

48 comments:

Constitutional Insurgent said...

"Is there some law somewhere that says all presidential debates must be moderated by liberal democrats?"

A valid assumption only if we allow that the right gets to make the determination of who is a liberal.

KP said...

CI, your point is understood. Who defines 'liberal' will see the definition move on the political spectrum. For example, the same people on the far left who point to Kucinich as a progressive liberal might call Obama a moderate.

But if we toss out the far left and far right, and use a more centrist definition of 'liberal', would you call Sheiffer's career as a CBS correspondent and anchor that of a conventional establishment liberal?

Maybe you could answer that for the first three moderators as well.

My view, I enjoy listening to all four and think they are relatively fair when reporting; but conventional establishment liberal leanings leak out over time.

A second question could be; did they show any trace of bias in the debates? I thought Leher was pretty neutral. I didn't watch the VP debate. I thought Crowley did a reasonable job, but showed the President slight favor in time (about 9%) which generally resulted from less interruption when speaking or train of thought. I am not sure the successful or unsuccessful attempt at fact checking about the word 'terror' in the Rose Garden was motivated in Obama's favor as she followed up citing the two weeks of misdirection about the video. It was however, a bit out of place.

I expect Sheiffer will attempt to be fair in the same way and with similar success as Crowley.


Rational Nation USA said...

Fact Check This.. Fact Checker
Facts! If Obama gets re-elected, we are so screwed!
We got rid of some Arab leaders, who yes, wern’t the best in the world but who were at least our allies and what did we do? We replaced them with this Muslim Brotherhood gangsters, who are murdering our Ambassador and burning down our Embassies. Fact! Ours was the last flag flying in Libya, and now thats gone!
October surprise?
Fact! So, we went to war with the UN’s blessings and threw some of our Arad allies under that crowded undercarriage of the Obama bus like. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Pakistan, and who knows who else, of these Arab leaders and of what countries went with them, yes, admiringly they weren’t all our best of friends in the figurative sense of the word, but they were at least stable, better than the alternative Muslim Brotherhood that replaced them! We now know just who they are loyal to.
Fact! The Obama Administration flat out lied to the American People, and the rest of the world to cover their tracks.
Fact! Any sort of “deal with Iran is one heck of a surprise. I think that it’s on heck of bizarre sunrise to even think of dealing with Iran at all. But it shouldn’t be any surprise coming from this LIAR at this late date before the election. What it is, is amazing how many people are going to believe this! So what exactly are we going to do, let them continue building their bomb until Romney gets out of the way!!! There aren’t enough words that I can use on this post to show my hatred of this man without having this post deleted..
Fact! What genius foreign policy was put into place that turned,
As for these BS “Talks” with Iran, how many time have they promised that they wouldn't use their nukes for harmful purposes, and he wants to believe that! Talk about throwing Israel and ourselves under the bus.
So now we have “Secret Talks going on with Russia and Iran, anyone else want to join? How about North Korea and the Palestinians? Where is the “Open Microphone” when we need it!
Remember those words.....“I CAN BE MORE FLEXIBLE ONCE I'M RE-ELECTED” STUPIDITY is what this all is. And the sad part is Obama will get away with this.
Russia takes care of Russia, China takes care of China, Iran take care of Ira, N. Korea, takes care of N. Korea, and none of them gives a damn about America, so stop peeing down my let and tell me that it raining!
Romney has so much to cover in tonight's debate, I just hope to God that he uses them all. All the Obama people are incompetent stooges, from Hillary Clinton on down, I can’t understand why more voters don’t see that. These “Fact Checkers are double down on Stupid! If nothing else, they’re consistent.

Anonymous said...

What about in the second debate when Obama was pretending to be an oil man and lying through his teeeth. Just the week befor:

"The Obama administration’s plan to lock up nearly half of the National Petroleum Reserve from energy production has drawn criticism from key Alaska officials and Iñupiat Eskimos who say the plan is unacceptable and should be canceled."

From this source

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/05/obama-administration-to-withdraw-millions-of-alaska-acres-from-development/

It is a shame that Romney didn't call him on that little point.

Constitutional Insurgent said...

KP - I agree with your assessments of the Moderators; all three could be described as moderately liberal, though not enough to cause concern over bias.

The Rose Garden 'correction' is most often repeated sans her next line about Romney also being right; but also without mention of Romney's accusation of Obama 'sympathizing with the attackers'...as well as his repeated use of the 'apology tour' meme. So while Crowley made a probably inappropriate correction, the fact that a biased Moderator could have used Romney's words against him, gets lost.

KP said...

Thank you, CI, for those thoughtful observastions.

Ducky's here said...

@Redneck -- We replaced them with this Muslim Brotherhood gangsters, who are murdering our Ambassador and burning down our Embassies. Fact! Ours was the last flag flying in Libya, and now that's gone!

--------------
There is no evidence that the Brotherhood had anything to do with the Libyan assault and it would have been foolish for them to have been.

I know it's tough for the right to see a complicated area like the Mid East without having a single well delineated enemy but try educating yourself.

What does the flag have to do with this? More fringe right jingoism?

Z said...

CI, the point is that Crowley DID show bias enough to be concerned about. Odd that all 3 times the liberal got at least 3 more minutes to speak and I believe Romney was interrupted about twice as many times by the moderators?

KP, I wish I had the time to link some of Schieffer's bias lately. I had thought he was liberal but fair in the past. Recently, not so much.
maybe tonight

Ducky's here said...

"Is there some law somewhere that says all presidential debates must be moderated by liberal democrats?"

--------
When you are so far to the right as Silver & Friends anything looks like a liberal despite the near disappearance of any progressive voice in American politics.

Constitutional Insurgent said...

RR's post follows the theme that Obama is somehow at fault for the Arab Spring, but I've yet to hear a cogent summary of how 'we' overthrew the heads of state in question, much less how 'we' installed the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.

Bunkerville said...

I only hope Romney manages to stay out of the trap regarding the afghan war...we need to come home now. Libya is far too complicated for many voters. Unless one is a news junkie,the timeline may be of little interest.

Ducky's here said...

I think the fact that the Obummer's are big fans of Beyonce is more damning than anything Silver has listed.

A123 is an unfortunate case. Local company that employs quite a few and makes a well reviewed product.
The problem is demand and economic conditions rather than their development ability.

Constitutional Insurgent said...

Bunkerville - Romney has endorsed the 2014 withdrawal from AFG, so I'm not expecting him to go off script. What I'm hoping to hear is some sort of vision for his statement regarding arming Syrian rebels.

skudrunner said...

Lets see
You have one moderator that called Romney-Ryan a “death wish” another who's husband was a classmate of BHO, another who has a career with PBS and now Bob who has openly admitted he is a democrat.

Nope, no biased in any of these debates.

Rational Nation USA said...

Quackster, If the "Flag" is ALL that you got out of my post then I'm afraid that you are a lost cause just like the rest of your "Fact Checking" friends.
The Benghazi fiasco is just part and parcel of the last 4 years of Obama's disastrous, failed policies.
For four years, Obama, and his administration along with the news media have been covering up for him and his dishonest acts. Especially when it come to his defending Islamist terrorism as if this last attack had nothing at all to do with terrorism, or any connection to Al qaeda. When in this case as in every other case, these attacks were perpetrated by Muslims hell bent on killing Americans an on world domination.
The manner in which Obama handled the Benghazi attack and the way that he acted in response to it is nothing less than scandalous; and showed that he has a complete LACK of leadership and that Barack Obama has failed test, period.
The big lie in this case, and there is NO getting away from it, is that piss-poor excuse internet about a video clip, promoting a movie that may not even exist. And even Candy Crowley can’t help his get out of that one. Even with Hillaty Clintoon’s loyalty.
And let’s not let U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s controversial comments on Libya days and days after the attack where she blamed the film as well go unanswered either, she should have been TOLD to step down a long time ago. . . Obama and America’s favorite Smirking Chimp Joe Biden have been lying through their teeth for the path 2 months and must be held accountable.

Stanley Kowalski said...

There is no evidence that the Brotherhood had anything to do with the Libyan assault and it would have been foolish for them to have been.

The were too busy tearing up the US Embassy in Cairo over a film nobody ever saw at the time...

Stanley Kowalski said...

Oh wait, in the military, it's called, "running a diversion." How can THAT ever be construed as complicity?

Thersites said...

The problem is demand and economic conditions rather than their development ability.

...given unlimited time and funding, there is no "technical" problem that can't be overcome...

...it's no wonder ducky hates capitalism... it's so "constraining".

Thersites said...

You and your socialist friends need to return to their roots... and leave economics to those who "can".

Ducky's here said...

Viburnum, are you also guilty of seeing the Muslim Brotherhood bogey man every time there is a demonstration in the mid East. I'm surprised.

Any reason not to believe these were the local equivalent of the black shirts that regularly show up at left wing demonstrations and were largely responsible for the violence tag put on #Occupy?

I'll say it again, a salient feature of the right is this need to have a monolithic enemy whose only goal in life is to invade the U.S. and take Radical Redneck's TV is astonishing. With so many conservatives capable of more nuanced thought (not you Radical) why do they fall into this?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that Ducky would like to ignore Libya

Ducky's here said...

No, I'm sure Ducky would like to have you explain the situation, delineate the parties involved and explain why desiring an accurate presentation constitutes "ignoring" Libya.

As I said, unless the narrative involves fighting the Muslim hordes who are coming to take your Bud light and flat screen TV the right gets more than a little lost in their own blatant bigotry and ignorance.

Rational Nation USA said...

Obama knows he is going to lose this election. Only God knows what this narcissist will do next.

Joe Conservative said...

Any reason not to believe these were the local equivalent of the black shirts that regularly show up at left wing demonstrations and were largely responsible for the violence tag put on #Occupy?

Simultaneity? World-wide. This was Syria on 9/11/12.

Joe Conservative said...

...and this was Yemen the next day.

Why were ALL the local Muslim blackshirts around the world ALL protesting at the same time?

Coincidence?

Really?

Joe Conservative said...

Even the "local" blackshirts in London were out.

But then, perhaps the "Black Bloc" aren't the only organized thugs in the world affiliated with a larger and supposedly more "peace loving" parent organization.

The Debonair Dudes World said...

A U.S. ambassador is missing and his diplomatic team is desperately fighting off terrorist attacks. Our commander-in-chief and his national-security team in Washington are listening to the phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from a drone circling overhead. Yet the U.S. military sends no aid. Our diplomats and the few people they had for security purposes fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans were brutally murdered while the Obama national security team and the members of our Secretary of State passively watched and listened.. Why?
Where was Obama when that telephone rang at 3:00 AM?
An American Ambassador, and 3 other American citizens under attack and our Leaders are all watching this LIVE real-time from a drone circling overhead. Yet the U.S. military sends no aid. Why? And our President and his Secretary of State and his UN Ambassador are standing right in front of the TV cameras lying to us for 5 days about it! How freaken shameful could they get? And this Guy is asking us to re-elect him for another 4 years? What a freaken joke that it. And better yet, half of the country is going to!

FreeThinke said...

DON'T FORGET TO WATCH THE DEBATE TONIGHT!

viburnum said...

Ducky: "When you are so far to the right as Silver & Friends anything looks like a liberal ..."

IDK Ducky. I guess it all depends on your perspective. I tend to think of myself at the center of the political see saw balanced, somewhat precariously, on the fulcrum of the Constitution.

Finntann said...

@ "all three could be described as moderately liberal, though not enough to cause concern over bias."

Moderates are not capable of bias?

@ "A123 is an unfortunate case"

We've had too many "unfortunate cases", there is definitely a negative trend here.

A123: $132M
Abound: $70M
Beacon: $39M
Ener1: $118.5M
Solyndra: $535M

Pending -

Fisker: $200M
Nevada Geothermal Power: $98M

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/22/news/economy/obama-energy-bankruptcies/?source=cnn_bin

The problem isn't also necessarily the failures, although there is obviously a flaw in the evaluation criteria, it's the Chicago-style political machinations behind them:

In the 1705 government-backed-loan program, for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.

The GAO called the entire process "Arbitrary and lacking in transparency". Gregory Freeman, the DOE IG and also not a political appointee has testified that contracts were "steered to friends and family".

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/11/13/how-obama-s-alternative-energy-programs-became-green-graft.html

Cheers!

Trekkie4Ever said...

This post would almost be comical if it weren't true.

Especially how Obama and his wife believe they could heal the world, really? Good grief.

Finntann said...

@"When you are so far to the right as Silver & Friends anything looks like a liberal ..."

Ducky, I'd be curious to hear what your definition of "far right" is.

@ "Viburnum, are you also guilty of seeing the Muslim Brotherhood bogey man every time there is a demonstration in the mid East."

Not sure why you directed that at Viburnum, as he hadn't posted previous to your comment, but...

Are you discounting the Muslim Brotherhood presence in Libya? Try googling the Justice and Construction Party (Hizb Al-Adala Wal-Bina), the Muslim Brotherhood party in Libya or Suleiman Abdelkader.

Admittedly they didn't fare all that well in the election: "A senior member of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood has conceded that its Justice and Construction party had fallen short of expectations, after early election results gave victory to its more secularist rival, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/10/muslim-brotherhood-expectations-libyan-election

But they definitely have a presence there.

Overall, the results have been highly variable for the Islamist parties, earning a victory in Egypt, a plurality in Tunisia, and losing in Libya. Perhaps more surprising is that 33 women were elected to the 200 member National Assembly (17%).

The JCP only won 17 of the 80 party seats available.

And what's wrong with you anyway? Don't you keep up with current events? It was the Mormon Mafia operating from a secret CIA base in Bengazi that staged the attack:

BE FOREWARNED- That's an Iranian internet address below folks:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/14/266560/benghazi-attack-cia-mafia-in-action/

ROFLMAO

Perhaps we're not as naive as you'd like to think Duck.

Cheers!

Ducky's here said...

Are you discounting the Muslim Brotherhood presence in Libya?

----
No, I am stating that I do not discount the fringe right's tendency to lump anything under the Muslim Brotherhood rubric without any granularity whatsoever.

It gets pretty simplistic in Right Wing World.

Finntann said...

Apparently, given your comments Ducky, it gets pretty simplistic in the Left Wing World too.

As I was unaware that one persons comments constituted a quorum. The only people talking about the Muslim Brotherhood is me, you, RR, and CI.

CI and I self-identify as libertarian, I presume RR is some kind of conservative, and we all know your political positions.

Hardly the monolithic right wing bloc you imply we are.

I'm still waiting for your definition of "far-right" or "right-wing"... which near as I can tell, if I had to guess, would be anyone opposed to big government and entitlement programs.

C.I - Great taste in music by the way. Don't run into many Celtic Punk fans these days.

R.R - Probably not best form to repost your own blog as comments in another.

Steve - Great effort at remaining (mostly) civil.

Cheers!



Les Carpenter said...

What planet does the canine doo dropper live on? Could the progressive puppy pound be getting nervous?

And the progressive collectivists call conservatives and libertarians whiners.

LMAO...

Les Carpenter said...

What planet does the canine doo dropper live on? Could the progressive puppy pound be getting nervous?

And the progressive collectivists call conservatives and libertarians whiners.

LMAO...

Les Carpenter said...

What planet does the canine doo dropper live on? Could the progressive puppy pound be getting nervous?

And the progressive collectivists call conservatives and libertarians whiners.

LMAO...

Les Carpenter said...

What planet does the canine doo dropper live on? Could the progressive puppy pound be getting nervous?

And the progressive collectivists call conservatives and libertarians whiners.

LMAO...

Les Carpenter said...

Damn phone again. :-)

Finntann said...

Well folks... the debate is over, what are your thoughts?

I initially thought... how much more can Romney agree with Obama on foreign policy. I even remarked to my wife that it seemed that Romney/Obama were closer together on foreign policy than perhaps Obama/Biden were.

After giving it some thought, I would have to say Romney won... not because he out-debated Obama on foreign policy, but because he controlled the agenda, virtually eliminating foreign policy as an election issue.

IMHO I would say Obama failed in drawing a distinction between himself and Romney in the foreign policy arena. Obama needed to alienate Romney from moderate independents and failed to do that.

This election is now clearly about economics. As Carville said in 92 "The economy, stupid".

Cheers!

Les Carpenter said...

Finntann, your analyisis? Spot on. This thing may just move rightward.


(((Thought Criminal))) said...

When you are so far to the right as Silver & Friends anything looks like a liberal despite the near disappearance of any progressive voice in American politics.

Don't be a tool, Ducky. Mitt Romney legalized gay marriage, funded abortions with taxpayer money, socialized health care, shut down a coal plant in the name of "global warming," and in tonight's debate proposed the course towards de-radicalizing the Islamic world begins and ends with the United States forking over cash.

Even Jimmy Friggin' Carter could give this leftist dirtbag Romney lessons in conservatism.

Anonymous said...

Romney won, and the leftist a are so blind they can't even see that Romeny didn't let Obama get his way. He has the lead and the momentum and the election is his to loose, but it didn't work, Romney didn't fall into his trap.
Obamaooled vert childish trying so hard , and once again lying his way through the whole debate. Did you see the results of the "fact Checks"
Romney was right 3 out of 3 times...

Les Carpenter said...

The results of the three debates? The progressives panties are tied in their collective knot and it is showing.

Now, if only the opposition party had a REAL candodate.

Joe Cameltoe said...

Wes gots ta go now, Steverina... da cross burnin's in ten minutes! You don't wants ta be late fo dat!

Titan Uranus 2 said...

btw - Stevena... next time you borrow my vibrator, please replace the batteries AND disinfect it BEFORE you return it to me.

- Thanx

*kiss-kiss*

Grung_e_Gene said...

"Come on our website. You look at how we get to a balanced budget within 8 to 10 years. We do it by getting — by reducing spending in a whole series of programs." - Mitt Romney

"The president hasn’t balanced a budget yet."

The awesomeness of Romney's Economic Plan!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Newt Gingrich balanced the budget in less than a year. Four years in a row.

Just sayin'