Joe Biden: The anti-Dick Cheney
I have to give my brother credit for this one. He came up with the phrase a couple of weeks ago, before the current Sunday talk show shots by the former VP and the twit who currently holds the office.
First off, let us review some history. How did Dick Cheney become Vice-President of the United States of America? Well, while George W. Bush was cleaning up in the GOP primaries for the 2000 Presidential election, his team started thinking about a VP pick. First they looked at the man at the top of the ticket. A popular governor of one the largest and most populous states, a successful business career in the private sector, a former fighter pilot (flying an all weather interceptor, with a reputation for being tricky to fly, in the Gulf of Mexico during the Cold War), and was the son of former Vice-President and President, George H.W. Bush. Given all that, the thought was that he could be stronger in foreign policy, so the decision was made to shore that up with the VP pick. That leads us to Dick Cheney, with a very impressive foreign policy resume, including serving as Secretary of Defense.
Ok, now let us skip ahead about eight years. The democrats are about to turn the conventional wisdom on its ear and nominate, not Hillary Rodham Clinton, but some unknown first term Senator from a fly over state, as their Presidential candidate. Let’s review the resume of Barack Hussein Obama. Harvard Law, pretty good there, but what did he do with it? Well, he never held a private sector job. He was elected to the Illinois state senate after getting his two opponents in the primary removed on a technicality at the last minute. Once in the state senate, his most common vote by far was “present.” Then he was elected to the US Senate after the sealed divorce records of his opponent were “somehow” obtained and leaked to a pro-Obama journalist. Once in the Senate, he immediately started his run for the President’s office, spending less than 200 days actually performing his $175,000 a year job as a US Senator. The democrats had a candidate with a painfully thin resume, and absolutely zero foreign policy experience. So who did they pick for his running mate? Yup, Joey Biden. The Senator who was washed out of the primaries as soon as the first batch of voters got to express their views on the subject. The same Senator Biden whose last run for the President’s office was derailed when his history of plagiarism was exposed. Joe Biden, the one US Senator who only served in the leadership roles he could not be denied because of his time in office.
Joe Biden, who has singular reputation in Washington, D.C. for embarrassing himself, and his party, pretty much every time he opens his mouth (although the teleprompter adlib at the Air Force Academy was pretty good). Joe Biden, who as a long and spectacular career of being flat out wrong on just about anything he opens his mouth about.
So what did Joe Biden add to the ticket? The only thing that makes sense is that Barack Hussein Obama was secure in knowing that Joey Biden would never, ever upstage him. Obama is a more than a bit like the fictional character, Zaphod Beeblebrox, who said,” If there’s anything around here more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now!” Where Dick Cheney was selected as Vice-President for his experience and gravitas, Joe Biden was selected for his lack of experience and lack of gravitas. He is the Anti-Dick Cheney.
Is Obama going Nuclear?
Filed under: economy, energy, Environment, Nuclear Power, Our Dear Leader, Politics
It seems that our Dear Leader may actually keep one of his promises. According to Townhall.com:
The Obama administration’s planned loan guarantee to build the first nuclear power plant in the U.S in almost three decades is part of a broad shift in energy strategy to lessen dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of other fossil fuels blamed for global warming.
President Barack Obama called for “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” in his Jan. 27 State of the Union speech and followed that by proposing to triple loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. He wants to use nuclear power and other alternative sources of energy in his effort to shift energy policy.
Obama in the coming week will announce the loan guarantee to build the nuclear power plant, an administration official said Friday. The two new Southern Co. reactors to be built in Burke, Ga., are part of a White House energy plan that administration officials hope will draw Republican support.
Yup, safe, clean nuclear energy. Plentiful electrical energy completely free of greenhouse gases.
Also good for the economy, as Dr. Pournelle stated:
I have to say it again: cheap energy will cause a boom. The only cheap energy I know of is nuclear. Three Hundred Billion bucks in nuclear power will do wonders for the economy. We build 100 1000 MegaWatt nuclear power plants — they will cost no more than 2 billion each and my guess is that the average cost will be closer to 1 billion each (that is the first one costs about 20 billion and the 100th costs about 800 million). The rest of the money goes to prizes and X projects to convert electricity into mobility.
Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore also thinks it is the ecologically sound thing to do.
I am not alone among seasoned environmental activists in changing my mind on this subject. British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory, believes that nuclear energy is the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change. Stewart Brand, founder of the “Whole Earth Catalog,” says the environmental movement must embrace nuclear energy to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. On occasion, such opinions have been met with excommunication from the anti-nuclear priesthood: The late British Bishop Hugh Montefiore, founder and director of Friends of the Earth, was forced to resign from the group’s board after he wrote a pro-nuclear article in a church newsletter.
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Over the past 20 years, one of the simplest tools — the machete — has been used to kill more than a million people in Africa, far more than were killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings combined. What are car bombs made of? Diesel oil, fertilizer and cars. If we banned everything that can be used to kill people, we would never have harnessed fire.
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the 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of CO2emissions annually — the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million automobiles. Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
Imagine the media outcry if G.W. Bush had made this mistake.
By way of Resist Tyranny comes this video:
As RT notes:
The teleprompter apparently displayed the word speled correctly: c-o-r-p-s-m-a-n. But he pronounced it “corpse-man.” Twice. Conclusion? Barack Hussein Obama is militarily illiterate.
This is just another example of how deep our Dear Leader‘s lack of experience runs, and how bad his teleprompter addiction is.
Update: Hot Air makes the probably spot on Ron Burgundy comparison.
Obama “Budget”: $1.1 Trillion in new taxes
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics, Taxes
BOHICA America! Our Dear Leader is proposing $1.1 Trillion in new taxes. Kiss any idea of an economic recovery anytime soon goodbye!
Before you Fiscal Conservatives start complaining, remember that democrat House “leader” Nancy Pelosi needs your money so her family can fly on Air Force jets to avoid dealing with rabble like you.
Update: To go with that $1.1 Trillion in new taxes is $1.6 Trillion in new debt! Is this the Change you were Hoping for? Probably not.
Obama goes Carter
Our Dear Leader had a choice to make. As I pointed out before, he could have followed the path of former two term President Bill Clinton, or the path of former one term President Jimmy Carter.
Obama decided to go Carter, big time. In last night’s State of Barack speech (it was much, much more about Barack Hussein Obama than it was the United States of America), our Dear Leader, in the face of rapidly declining popularity, and faith in, both him and his far left agenda, decided to double down on his two most unpopular programs. Those are his so-called “health care reform” package, better known as Obamacare and the job killing “Cap and Tax” bill.
Here is all you need to know about Obamacare, Howard Dean, a medical doctor, former chair of the DNC and general al laround far left extremist barking moonbat, wants it killed. When the far left and the majority of the Right thinks something is a bad idea, it usually is. There is also the case to be made about having to bribe US Senators, with tax payer money, to vote for it. Senator Nelson of Nebraska was actually looking out for his state. He knew that Obamacare would bankrupt his state with unfunded federal mandates.
Barack Hussein Obama needed to act Presidential and show the nation that he is a leader. Instead, he gave the longest SOTU speech in over 40 years, spending most of it blaming former President Bush and lecturing the American people on how we needed to support his socialist agenda.
He failed to address how he failed to deliver on multiple campaign promises, including transparency and openness in the federal government. He also failed to deliver on his no lobbyists in government pledge, hiring over a dozen in his administration. He failed to “change the tone” in Washington, D.C., except to make it worse. The Reid/Obama/Pelosi run federal government is even more hyper-partisan than it ever was, and they plan on making it even worse in the future. BHO opened up a new front by attacking the Supreme Court during the SOTU speech.
Our Dear Leader rounded out his speech by repeating a bunch of promises he made on the campaign trail that he failed to keep. Even if he does follow through on some of them, people are still going to be asking why he waited an entire year to do anything about the economy, instead wasting it on socialized medicine that the American people don’t want.
Obama: Billions for ACORN, but not for the Exploration of Space!
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Politics, The Peoples Commonweath
This isn’t new news, I ran the same headline back in September.
Well it’s back in the news, including a link at Instapundit.
When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.
There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.
So no money for the exploration of space, but our Dear Leader still wants to give billions of tax payers dollars to the crooks at ACORN.
This is yet another really bad move on the part of Team Lightbringer. As I said in back in September.
One thing that is clear from the American space program is that it created high paying, high tech jobs that contributed to the health of the American economy and spin off technology that has not just benefited America, but humanity as a whole. I’m not talking just Tang and Velcro here folks. The GPS system and satellite TV just two examples of space program spin off technologies that are still driving growth industries today. The weather satellite system that makes it possible to produce enough food to make famine obsolete is also a product of the US space program.
Ya, I said enough food to make famine obsolete. Let’s be honest here people, any wide spread famine on this planet in the last couple of decades has been the result of politics and not the lack of ability to produce or deliver the food.
To recap, an additional $3 billion a year to NASA would once again put Americans on the Moon. It would also be highly beneficial to the US economy by fueling the high tech industry, putting skilled American engineers back to work and producing a very noticable “trickle down” (more like a monsoon) effect on the industries that support that high tech economy. It would also spark an renewed interest in the sciences in American schools and universities, and promote a sense of adventure in America in a positive and constructive endeavor.
Instead, our Dear Leader and the s0-called democrat “leadership” in Congress would rather pour that tax payer money down the drain by giving it to their political allies who are under investigation for massive vote fraud in multiple states.
Is this the “Hope and Change” you were expecting?
Mr. Reynolds points out that he spoke to “some folks at the International Space Development Conference a couple of years ago who were really high on Obama — they thought he’d emulate JFK when it came to space policy.” Smart folks, but clearly delusional when it comes to politics. There is nothing in our Dear Leader‘s thin resume that suggests the he is pro-science in general, and he certainly has never been pro-space exploration. The worst part is that these same people would probably vote for Obama and his Socialist policies again, much like a battered wife with a black eye telling a police officer that her abusive husband “really loves her.” Pathetic.
Obama forgot Option #3
Filed under: Our Dear Leader, Politics, The Peoples Commonweath
Yup, Option #3 looks like the right one. Charles Krauthammer also nails the utter cluelessness of the democrats in the wake of the recent miracle in Massachusetts.
To recap the video, Mr. Krauthammer states that our Dear Leader left out option #3 when discussing how his term in office will be seen. His record so far is one of mediocrity at best, and he doesn’t show any indication of improvement. So, he will probably be a mediocre one term President, with ratings that high only because of a fawning press.
New heights in Obama Astroturfing
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics
First we get “Ellie Light.” This devout disciple of our Dear Leader has more homes than democrat billionaire Senator John Kerry. She has written a near idential letter to at least 47 newspapers in at least 23 different states. In each case, she claims to be a local resident. She has made this claim in California, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, Maine, and more, oh so many more. She has even gone international, with her cloned letters appearing in Thailand and Canada.
What is it that hardcore, far left extremist supporters of our Dear Leader have with the truth?
Patterico has additional examples of cloned, Astroturf letter campaigns claiming to be independent letters of support for the far left agenda of the current administration.
Michelle Malkin points out that the “Ellie Light” Astroturf campaign is just the latest example of Obama theater. The entire Obama campaign & administration has been Astroturf trying to pass itself off as “populism.”
Liberal buyer remorse over Barack Hussein Obama
It seems that more and more liberals are figuring out that our Dear Leader is not bringing about the “change” they had hoped for.
First we have admitted Obama voter Mort Zuckerman, editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.
This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.
In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting.
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One business leader said to me, “In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines.”
I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.
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Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”
The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what’s happening in Massachusetts.
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I can’t predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won’t be reelected. In the meantime, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration
Next is the far left liberal “economist” Paul Zuckerman.
I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.
Barack Hussein Obama’s “change” is nothing but warmed over failed socialist ideas. This is why independents, and 20% of democrats, in Massachusetts, who overwhelmingly voted for him in 2008, rejected Obama’s policies very soundly by electing a Republican who’s stated goal was to block BHO’s horrible and budget take over of the American health care system.
Update: Tech Pundit Jason Calacanis, who was a big Obama supporter just said on the latest episode of TWiT that he is very disappointed with Obama’s lack of leadership.
At risk Democrats seeking to extend the GW Bush tax cuts
This bit of news must be like a capitalist stake through Obama’s socialist heart.
The so called “leadership” of congressional democrats and our Dear Leader would much rather see across the board tax hikes place on the American People by letting the G.W. Bush era tax cuts expire.
If Barack Hussein Obama is at all interested in keeping his promise of “no new taxes” for anyone making less than $250,000 a year, he has no choice but to call for an extension of the President George W. Bush tax cuts.