A Good Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Before Obama was even sworn into office, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, made a statement that should go down in the annals as one of the most nakedly cynical statements ever made by a politician. “Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” he told the New York Times. “They are opportunities to do big things.” Little did we know at the time that this would become the new administration's motto.

Not only did the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, repeat this "rule 1," but the president himself repeated it in his Saturday radio and Internet address: "there is great opportunity in the midst of the great crisis” befalling America.

It is incredible enough that the "mainstream press" hasn't made much of this malevolent "Rule 1" and is further proof that the supposed "4th branch of government" is in the tank for Obama, but I don't want to address that here. Instead I'd like to analyze the administration's actions in light of this "rule".

First Obama leveraged the crisis to prophesy gloom and doom ("impending disaster" he called it) if his "stimulus" ("porkulus" more like it) wasn't promptly passed. Then the "porkulus" bill was jam-packed with things that had absolutely nothing to do with the causes of the crisis (Does anyone think that the lack of health care caused the economy to tank? Anyone? Anyone?). Obama not only leveraged the crisis but tried to stoke fears ever higher so that no one would notice that he had forced his socialist agenda onto the country without one word of debate.

Fresh off his success in ramming through his "porkulus" bill, Obama was asked by the press for details on his plans for the bank bailout plan. He dodged the question, promising that his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would unveil the plan when he testified before Congress. During his testimony, however, Geithner spoke only in vague generalities and gave no details about what the administration planned to do to shore up the struggling banks. The market promptly dropped like a lead balloon.

At the time, most thought that this was just a rookie mistake by what I like to call "our affirmative action president," but as the days have gone by, I'm not so sure. I think it was planned to extend the crisis as long as possible. The longer the crisis, the longer the administration could foist its leftist program on a public that was too frightened to object.

This conclusion is reinforced by other Obama actions. Every time that someone from the administration spoke publicly about the economy, the stock market plunged. Then the president told the press, "The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. ... if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong." Unfortunately for the president, investors knew that the market hadn't been bobbing up and down as he contended, but had steadily declined since his inauguration. The statement was also taken as a sign that the administration totally ignored the market which sent it tumbling further.

Since Obama's inauguration, this country has lost over $1.6 Trillion in wealth in the market and we have lost over 600K jobs. Obama's statements have been so negative during that time that even former president Clinton had to chide him on his constant negativity. Beside the negative statements, Obama refuses to focus on the economy, instead proposing some new initiative that is totally unrelated to the causes of the economic crisis. Thus we have a "health care summit" followed by an "education summit" etc. This combination of negativity and complete neglect, is an effective one-two punch that has succeeded in keeping the economy on the canvas.

FDR said, "all we have to fear is fear itself." But for Obama, the saying should instead be, "all we have to fear is the fear that the crisis will pass too quickly." His actions and statements seem directed towards prolonging this economic malaise while the Democrats in Congress are working on furthering the country in its left-ward slide. While the president is trying to "remake" this country in his leftist image, real Americans are suffering as markets plummet and unemployment skyrockets. That makes the actions of this administration not only cynical, but evil.

With Obama in the WH, the World Will Love Us

You silly Brits, I spit in your general direction

Obama is sure acting as if he can do without one of our closest allies, England.

First, Obama rudely returned the bust of Winston Churchill that was loaned to President Bush by the British embassy. When Obama came into office, the embassy offered to continue the loan for another four years. The Obama Administration response? Thanks but no thanks. The Brits of course saw this as the snub that it was.

Next, Gordon Brown visited the new president amid great expectations. First Obama slapped down the Prime Minister's expectations and didn't even hold the customary activities of a usual state visit. Then he added a little spittle to the slap with the customary gift exchange.

Here is the list of very thoughtful gifts that Brown had for Obama:

• A pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa.


• A framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.


• A first edition of Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.

Here is the list of very thoughtful gifts that Obama had for Brown:

• A gift set of American classic movies on 25 DVD's.

Do you seen any problem as you compare these two lists? Brown's gifts were well-thought-out and intrinsically valuable. Obama's has the feel of a gift from a lazy boyfriend on Valentines Day that runs out at the last minute to buy the last-remaining wilted flowers. Brown, even if he is a movie buff - which is doubted, could've bought the same DVD's from Amazon.

Don't think that the British Press hasn't noticed the snubs. Just Google the terms "obama british snub" and see the fuss Obama has caused.

Just when is the world supposed to start loving us again?

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 3)

Some Obama supporters hoped that, despite his ultra-liberal voting record in Congress, he would govern as a centrist. The early months of the Obama administration has shown this hope to be vain as he has incessantly pursued the radical leftist agenda that he has in mind for this country. While the leftist nature of the administration is alarming, even more alarming is the corruption and dishonesty of many of the administration's early actions.

Below are some of the more egregious Obama actions that I have noted over the weeks. I am not listing the actions in any particular order and I doubt that the list is exhaustive since the abominable actions of this administration are coming so quickly that they are hard to keep track of. I will revisit some of these in later blogs to flesh them out but I wanted to at least list them now.

Corruption of Obama Administration

• Forced American taxpayers to finance foreign abortions (via executive order)


• Nominated 4 tax cheats to cabinet (one confirmed)


• Nominated (and confirmed) one (honestly) card-carrying Communist to cabinet


• Nominated (and confirmed) Attorney General that facilitated pardons of Mark Rich and Puerto Rican terrorists. (I'll probably follow up with a blog about this slime-bag's latest assertion about Americans being cowards because we aren't blathering on about race.)


• Nominated Bill Richardson for Commerce Secretary (later had to withdraw because of a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to a political donor)


• Forced passage of a 1000+-page bill that *not one Congressman* read that is little more than a leftist wish-list (I'll list the more outrageous provisions of the bill that we are currently aware of below.)


• Politicized the census bureau (brought it into the White House)


• Lie – Promise: “I will not sign a bill until it has been posted 5 days on the internet for everyone to view it.” Real Life: “Stimulus” pork bill is never posted to the internet and is signed the Monday after it is passed by both houses on Friday. The only reason it wasn’t signed immediately is because the first couple was off on vacation.


• Lie - Assertion: The "stimulus" bill must be passed and signed quickly in order to avert impending "disaster." Real Life: Most of the spending in the "stimulus" bill will not take place until after this year so will have no affect in averting immediate "disaster."


• Lie - Obama crowed proudly that the “stimulus” package contained no earmarks when it contains at least 9,000 earmarks.


• Appointed numerous “czars” (high level administration officials) in order to get around Senate approval of administration appointments.


• Appointed board of economic advisors that includes a union executive that twice plead the fifth in a money laundering probe (11 of 15 board members donated more than $1 Million to the Obama campaign – pay to play anyone?)


• Lie – Claimed that he never discussed the replacement of his Senate seat with Illinois Gov. Blagojevich when there exists a news report from the time period that says that Obama was meeting with Blagojevich for that very reason. David Axelrod, a high-ranking campaign official said that Obama discussed his replacement with Blagojevich. He later said that he was “mistaken.” Right.

Contemptible "Stimulus" Bill Provisions

• Rolls back the Clinton welfare reforms so that we will once again pay poor women to have kids without a father. These types of payments have been shown to be a major force behind the enormous black illegitimacy rate and the destruction of the black family. In fact, since the Clinton welfare reforms became law, the black illegitimacy rate has dropped from 70.4% to 68%. Well, watch for that rate to go back up.


• Creates a medical information czar (whole bureaucracy actually) to second-guess your doctor.


• Gives over $4 billion to ACORN, a group under investigation for vote fraud in almost every state in the union. Obama's ties to this evil group deserve a blog of their own; hopefully I'll have time to do it.


• As Rick Santelli (CNBC financial reporter), puts it, it promotes bad behavior. See his report here.


• Puts us further down the road towards socialism (read Ezra Taft Benson to see the evil socialism)
  

Hypocrisy of Obama (we follow the rules but he doesn't have to)

• Gave speech during election that said that Americans must learn that we can't keep our thermostats at 72 year round and then keeps the thermostat in the White House high enough that, according to one administration insider: "it's so warm in there that you could grow orchids."


• Talks about everyone needing to take responsibility but he refuses to do so, constantly blaming the Bush administration for the current mess. Plus, ramming through a bill without giving it the time to be debated is responsible government?


• He and his wife lectured us that we need to be more charitable and involved with the community when he and his wife gave less than 1% of their riches to charity and did no community service without being paid for it.


• Signed executive order forbidding any former lobbyists in high administration posts, and then nominated/appointed more than a dozen such lobbyists.


• Decried "pay-to-play" Chicago politics when he participated in them. Of course, his Chicago mansion and Michelle's 6-figure hospital job had nothing to do with politics. Never mind the Rezko connection with the mansion and the fact that since Michelle left her job, it has not been filled to this date. (This definitely deserves its own blog.)

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 2)

Note: I remain totally amazed at the number of LDS Church members that voted for and still support Obama. Without trying to be condescending, I really believe that this is because of ignorance. I think the media in this country has been derelict in it's duty and given Obama a pass so that anyone depending on the "main-stream" media for their information is ignorant of the shady side of Barack Obama. See here... Because of this, before I look at his current actions, I will rehash some of the actions Obama has taken in the past. This post looks at one such past action.

He's Just a Guy I Knew in the Neighborhood

During the Democratic primary campaign, a British newspaper reported on a connection between Obama and former (and unrepentant) Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. As was his wont whenever information damaging to his campaign surfaced, Obama lied and evaded. He claimed that Ayers was merely a "guy he knew in the neighborhood."

As more information trickled out about the Obama-Ayers connection, however, the Obama team changed tactics from lying to bullying. After the University of Illinois - Chicago was forced to release documents (140 boxes worth) pertaining to Obama's and Ayers' involvement with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), Stanley Kurtz went on WGN radio to detail what he found as he sifted through those documents.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. The campaign then followed up with another email urging supporters to call the radio station to complain. "Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse. It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves," the note continued. "At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies." Interesting, however, that the note didn't disclose that WGN had requested an Obama campaign representative to be on the same show but the campaign declined. Who's the liar and smear-merchant here?

In spite of the Obama campaign's lying and obstruction, the following facts finally emerged (although the "main stream" media mostly ignored them):

• When Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer decided to retire in 1995, she hand-picked Barack Obama as her successor. In order to introduce Obama to influential liberals in the district, she held a function at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This was the beginning of Obama's political career.


• Ayers founded CAC and was on the panel that picked Obama to serve as the chairman of the board of CAC


• While Obama/Ayers worked for the CAC, the group poured in more than $100 Million to community organizers and radical education activists.


• Ayers's steered CAC's agenda, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.


• Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down by CAC. Instead money was disbursed through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn - the same Acorn that has been prosecuted in many states for voter fraud)


• While Ayers/Obama worked at CAC, it gave $175K to Mike Klonsky, a confirmed Maoist, to set up a school dedicated to infusing Marxist ideology in students.


• During the tenure of Obama/Ayers at CAC, Chicago area test scores (of course) didn't improve one iota


• Not only did Obama serve with Ayers on the CAC, but also served three years with him on the Woods Fund.


• While Obama/Ayers worked for the Woods Fund, it granted $75K to the controversial Arab American Action Network, whose founder spoke supportively of Palestinian terror.


• Obama and Ayers appeared together on multiple panel discussions that were organized by Michelle Obama.

After the above information trickled out, the Obama campaign realized that they could no longer deny the Obama/Ayers relationship, so they changed tactics. They produced a "Fact Sheet" to try to downplay Ayers' radicalism. The "Fact Sheet" claimed this about Ayers: a) All charges against Ayers were dropped, and b) Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, are actually pretty "mainstream" these days.

Yes, the charges against Ayers were dropped but not because of lack of evidence. Ayers himself crowed upon his release, "guilty as sin... free as a bird." The charges were dropped only because federal authorities overstepped their legal bounds while pursuing Weather Underground members.

Hmmm, so Ayers is mainstream now? True, he is a college professor but does that connote mainstream? Has Ayers disavowed his radical philosophy or methods? No. In fact, in a newspaper interview that was printed on 9/11/2001 (yes that 9/11), Ayers is quoted as stating that he regretted not having performed more terrorist acts. Even more recently, Ayers and Dohrn appeared in a radio interview in 2007 where Ayers supports Mao and Dohrn calls the US the "belly of the beast." In fact, Ayers activities today are even more dangerous for American society than were his terrorist acts. That is because today he is passing on his hateful, radical philosophy to our children via his "education reform" attempts.

So tell me, is lying and bullying good fruit or evil fruit? Is working with radicals to tear down American society good or evil fruit?

By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them (Part 1)

Note: I remain totally amazed at the number of LDS Church members that voted for and still support Obama. Without trying to be condescending, I really believe that this is because of ignorance. I think the media in this country has been derelict in it's duty and given Obama a pass so that anyone depending on the "main-stream" media for their information is ignorant of the shady side of Barack Obama. See here... Because of this, before I look at his current actions, I will rehash some of the actions Obama has taken in the past. This post looks at one such past action.

Three Four Cheers for Infanticide

Everyone should know by now that Barack Obama is an unabashed defender of abortion rights, no matter the gestational period. NARAL has consistently given him a "perfect" grade on his legislative record with respect to abortion since he has never voted to limit abortion. He was also a cosponsor (and has promised to sign into law if it passes while he is president) of the Orwellian-named "Freedom of Choice" bill that would declare abortion to be a fundamental right. This alone should be enough to disqualify him as a suitable candidate for any LDS voter, but his support of infanticide should definitely put him out of the running.

Obama voted four times against bills in the Illinois Senate that would've protected infants that were delivered alive after a "botched" abortion attempt. When this information first came to light, the Obama camp tried to float the excuse that these bills were back-door attempts to limit abortion. That excuse had to be shelved, however, when it came to light that the fourth bill was equivalent to a bill that passed the US Congress on a unanimous vote. With that excuse out the window, Obama then tried to say that Illinois law already protected infants born after "botched" abortions. A brief look at the Illinois events that caused these bills to come up will blow that last excuse out of the water.

In 1998, Jill Stanek, a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, held a 22-week old infant boy with Down Syndrome and sadly watched him die. The baby had been born alive after an induced-delivery abortion. This was not an isolated occurrence. Stanek says that she is personally aware of 4 infants that were born alive and allowed to die and hospital spokeswoman Sue Reimbold confirmed that the hospital performs 10-20 induced-delivery abortions a year and that 10-20 percent of those abortions result in live births.

An article detailing the above events in the Chicago Sun-Times contained a quote from the District Attorney that said the he could find no law that was broken by the hospital as it allowed unwanted infants to die. If the DA knows of no law that enforces the protection of these infants (I could no longer find the Sun-Times article online but I did find a reiteration from the DA here that no law was broken), what law is Obama talking about?

There is an Illinois statute that requires that an infant born alive as a result of a failed abortion attempt be given medical attention if, in the opinion of the aborting physician, the infant is viable. The idea that this flimsy law would protect these infants stretches credulity. In order to address the obvious shortcomings of this law, a companion bill to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act was introduced in the Illinois legislature. This bill required that when an infant is born alive after a failed abortion, another physician must be brought in to determine the viability of the infant. Obama voted against both bills and argued against the companion bill on the floor of the Senate. The audio clip of his argument can be found here. So, a matter of life and death is not important enough for Obama to "burden" the mother or the aborting doctor. How is this any different than supporting infanticide?

The Savior said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. ... A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." So what were the reasons again for supporting Obama?

Obama as Giddianhi

The day after Pres. Obama's pseudo "State of the Union" speech, I was reading the text of the speech and was amazed at the chutzpah he displayed. It was as if the words he was speaking held no meaning for him. That was the only conclusion I could draw as one prevarication followed another in a steady stream.

As I read further, I remembered that I had read such audacity a few days prior as I was reading 3 Nephi, chapter 3. This chapter contains a letter from Giddianhi, leader of the Gadianton Robbers (a secret society of thieves and cutthroats that were largely the cause of the downfall of the Nephite civilization) to Lachoneus, governor of the land of Nephi. In his letter, Giddianhi weaves a number of falsehoods together that astound the Nephite governor.

Although there are no obvious parallels between Obama's speech and Giddianhi's letter, the general content of falsehood in the former closely mirrors that of the latter. Above the falsehoods involved, however, there is one rather sinister parallel that I will discus at the conclusion of this post.

The president couldn't get past the second paragraph before unleashing his first whopper:

I have come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.

The dictionary defines "frank" as: open and honest; straightforward; free from reserve, disguise, or guile. As I will show below, this speech was anything but frank.

Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

Much of the speech echoed Giddianhi's flattery of Lachoneus, but this paragraph displays it well. Giddianhi's flattery was surely meant to persuade Lachoneus to accept the lies that were to follow and Obama's flattery seems to have the same goal. You might be thinking: "Give the guy a break. He's stating things that conservatives have contended for years. You should be happy with his rhetoric. He's showing that he's a moderate." This of course would be true if Obama meant a word of what he said in that paragraph, but he doesn't.

The lie is put to the "pull together" rhetoric when he says this:

A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future.

If we are to "pull together" we *all* need to unite, whether rich, poor, or in-between. Obama has no desire to have us "pull together," but is more interested in playing the wealth card which plays well to the human tendency towards envy and covetousness.

The "responsibility" part is clearly discredited by Obama's gargantuan "stimulus" bill. I will touch more on this later, but the particulars of the stimulus bill (which not a single congressman read before its passage - great bit of legislative responsibility, right?) clearly show that whatever amount of "responsibility" that will be required will only be required of a select few. It certainly won't be required of the government or of the vast array of governmentally-chosen "special" groups.

Speaking of the "stimulus" bill, Obama used this next line as he attempted to justify the legislative travesty that he pushed through:

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't.

How anyone in that chamber could listen to that line and not laugh out loud is beyond me. Obama had just spent more with a single signature than any president in history but the amount wasn't the only problem. Along with all that spending came numerous new bureaucracies and the undoing of government reforms accomplished during the previous four administrations. That is not the handiwork of someone that doesn't believe in bigger government.

Finally, the president couldn't resist making claims that very few economists believe and which will be impossible to prove wrong:

Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector...

Barry knows that "saved" jobs are impossible to tally, but only the most Obama-addled kool-aid drinker would believe that 9 private sector jobs will be created for each new government job that this pork barrel bill will create.

Feeling overly confident it seems, Obama rolled out a few canards just to prove he could get away with them:

And that's why I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe.

Yeah, nobody messes with Joe because they're too busy laughing at him. If we ever need a national plagiarist, ole Joe would be the first to call but a tough overseer? Give me a break.

I could go on like this for the entire speech but I'm getting tired and I think I've made my point. Although I've had a good bit of fun punching holes in Obama's alphabet soup of lies, I promised a discussion of one parallel between Obama's speech and Giddianhi's letter that isn't a laughing matter. That parallel is this: both collections of lies have the same goal.

Giddianhi expects to leverage his lies to form the basis of his demand that Lachoneus and his people give up possession of the land and allow the Gadiantons their rightful place of governance. Obama expects to leverage his lies to sweet-talk us into going along with his massive expansion of government that will infringe on our rights and control huge portions of our lives. The goal of both is to gain control and power over others. The goals of both men are insidious and evil.

This is why it is of utmost importance that, like Lachoneus, we see through the lies and pretty, conservative words. We need to realize that when Obama espouses conservative values, his actions amply prove that the words mean nothing to him. We need to resist the hypnotic quality of the rhetoric and urge our congressional representatives to fight him as vigorously as possible.