Teapot Tantrums

Just Once, Please!

Just once, I'd like to see this new Congress (and the leftovers from the last one) actually think with their heads and use common sense, instead of listening to their baser, craven natures and doing what they think they need to do to keep their cushy jobs.

Last night the House of Representatives pushed through the next portion of the bailout bill, packed tight with Dem/Lib pork ready to be taken to home districts and fried up for the masses ... which is what we all expected of an 'economic stimulus' package, right?

From the AP via the New York Slimes and then the Register Guard "the" newpaper for the Willamette Valley:

House passes stimulus package Prodding from the president helps persuade Democrats to approve it

By Jackie Calmes

The New York Times

Published: Jan 28, 2009 09:37PM

WASHINGTON — Without a single Republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.

As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest in history, reflecting a view in Congress that urgent fiscal help is needed for an economy in crisis.

But the size and substance of the stimulus package remain in dispute, as House Republicans complained that it tilted heavily toward new spending instead of tax cuts.

All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-188 vote came a day after Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on coming issues.

OK, this part I just loved, being from this guy's congressional district:

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who has been critical of the stimulus plan, voted in favor along with Oregon’s three other House Democrats. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., voted no.

DeFazio said he’s unhappy with the package, but hoped it would get better in the Senate.

“I don’t normally depend upon the Senate to improve things, but I’m hoping that they will,” he said.

DeFazio was among a group of lawmakers who folded an additional $3 billion into the bill for mass transit projects.

The congressman said those were the sorts of investments he would like to see more of. “My bottom line is that all this money is borrowed. If you’re going to borrow money you should show a benefit for future generations.”

He doesn't normally depend on the Senate to improve things?? He's hoping they'll "improve things"??? What the heck does that even mean? Does he want them to add even more than the additional $3 billion he and his cohorts "folded into" the bill? Is he hoping they'll vote it down because he didn't have the cojones to vote against it, even though he "was unhappy with it"??

Perhaps the only reason he was "unhappy with it" was because he didn't think it went far enough. Yeah, he probably want ObaMao to bail him out and let him start driving a new car instead of that 1960s POS he drives around the valley. Oh, and he wants to see butterflies and rainbow-farting unicorns shower us all with happy dust while he's at it.

Obama, in a statement hailing the House passage of the plan, did not take note of the partisan divide but signaled that he expects changes to be made in the Senate that might attract support.

“I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk,” he said. “But what we can’t do is drag our feet or allow the same partisan differences to get in our way. We must move swiftly and boldly to put Americans back to work, and that is exactly what this plan begins to do.”

What all the jockeying means at the local level remains uncertain. For example, school districts in Lane County might see a cumulative $30 million over two years as a result of the stimulus plan. Most school officials haven’t determined what the local impact might be.

Brett Yancey, director of business operations for the Springfield School District, said it’s unclear how much bearing his district’s estimated $9 million share of the package would have on a looming budget shortfall for next year. Based on the state’s December forecast, the magnitude of cuts in Springfield would total at least $7.5 million, he said — and there’s good reason to believe anticipated state revenues will diminish further.

“We welcome any resources — in the kind of deprivation we’re in, we need all the help we can get,” he said.

But the federal funds have lots of strings attached, he said. Nearly $3.5 million of Springfield’s share is earmarked for “shovel-ready” construction, which districts typically pay for through capital bonds separate from the general operating fund.

The failure to win Republican support in the House seemed to echo the early months of the last Democratic administration, when President Clinton in 1993 had to rely solely on Democrats to win passage of a deficit-reduction bill that was a signature element of his presidency.

Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had met the night before at the White House with 11 moderate House Republicans, none of whom ended up supporting the bill. “The most important number here for this recovery plan is how many jobs it produces, not how many votes it gets,” Emanuel said.

As Senate Democrats prepare to bring their version of the package to the floor on Monday, Democrats from the House and the administration indicated that they ultimately would accept a provision in the emerging Senate package that would adjust the alternative minimum tax to hold down many middle-class Americans’ income taxes for 2009. The provision was not in the House-passed legislation.

Its cost would drive the overall package’s tally to nearly $900 billion. That would exceed the roughly $850 billion limit that Obama has set for Congress, according to House Democratic leadership aides, and leave no room for other proposals that senators of both parties are sure to seek during Senate debate next week.

While the House and Senate measures are similar, they are likely to differ in ways that could snarl a conference committee and delay getting a measure to the president. House and Senate Democrats are split over how to divide $87 billion in relief to the states for Medicaid, with senators favoring a formula more beneficial to less populous states.

Democrats also are under pressure from the White House to be open to proposals from Senate Republicans who might support the final legislation if their interests are accommodated, and which might draw a few House Republican supporters on a final vote.

The provision on the alternative minimum tax, for example, was a top priority for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who successfully added it during the Finance Committee’s work on the legislation on Tuesday.

Democrats’ goal is to have the stimulus package, which is about two-thirds new spending and one-third tax cuts, to Obama’s desk by Feb. 13.

Democrats voluntarily drop-ped from the package several provisions that Republicans had singled out for derision in recent days, including money to restore the Jefferson Memorial and for family planning programs. But the day’s debate contrasted with the president’s conciliatory gestures.

The House voted down several Republican proposals, including a substitute package made up entirely of tax cuts for individuals and businesses. That tax-cut-only approach was defeated on a mostly party-line vote of 266-170.

By another party-line vote, of 270-159, the House rejected a GOP plan to delete a number of spending programs and to add instead $36 billion for highway construction, more than doubling the $30 billion in the bill, and $24 billion for Army Corps of Engineer projects.

Register-Guard reporter Anne Williams contributed to this report.

“I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan.”

— President Obama

Hmmmm ... the guy got elected shouldn't he finally start saying what he actually means?? Doesn't he mean "I hope we can continue to strongarm this plan through the process"???? Do the Libiots in Congress have any concept that their constituents want this stupid bailout bill because they think it will actually help Americans who've fallen on hard times? Or do they really think their constituents just want them to pass every bit of leftover pork that's been sitting around for the last 40 years as a bone to throw at to them in supposed appeasement?

People start paying attention and start tapping good conservatives and more moderates with decent common sense ... those are the people we need to send to Washington. Let's vote out the current bums and put in some new blood.

2010 here we come!

Bipartisan Cooperation? Wake Up, Sheeple!

Yep, the newly minted Prez is willing to "listen" to Republicans and "consider" their input ... and he's just as willing to totally ignore it and do whatever he wants, with the willing complicity of the Democrats in Congress.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet:

Stimulus Clears House

Score one for Obama! Congress this evening passed his $819 billion stimulus plan, filled with new spending and tax cuts, by a vote of 244-188. The bill is at the core of the Obama administration’s plan for reviving the flailing economy; the president declared earlier today that “we don’t have a moment to spare.” The stimulus now moves to the Senate, where debate will begin this week on a companion measure. Democrats want the legislation ready for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

Read it at The Washington Post

All this without a single Republican affirmative vote.

If you didn't see this coming, you need to stop doing nothing but watching TV and playing video games and pay attention. Unless there is some proposal so heinous as to jar even the Dems, no matter what happens, the Dems will get their way in Congress until the American Sheeple wake up again from their social narcolepsy and start demanding actual representation from the people elected to go to Washington DC, and to their state legislatures.

BTW, I thought I'd maybe finally coined a term, as I hadn't heard it before, but apparently there's a blog called Social Narcolepsy ... so what? I'm using it anyway!  ;^)

Be Careful of the Words You Say ....

My grandma used to caution us kids sometimes when we were being unkind to each other, or making things up:

Be careful of the words you say
Keep them nice and sweet.
You never know from day to day
Which one you'll have to eat.

You'd think that anyone currently in national-level political office would be old enough to have heard this adage at least once. Well, maybe some of them have heard it, but some need to remember it ... particularly President ObaMao.

Remember "back in the day" when he was being critical of the War in Iraq?

"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."

Barack Obama
On US troops in Afghanistan
August 14, 2007

So what happens his first week in office, as the most powerful man in the world? (Please wake me up now and tell me it's just been like a bad episode of Dallas!!!)

Courtesy of Gateway Pundit:

Bombs away...

President Barack Obama air-raided two villages and killed innocent civilians today.
ABC reported:

The CIA's bombing campaign against al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan continued with two more attacks today, an indication, senior officials say, that President Barack Obama has approved the U.S. strategy that has killed at least eight of al Qaeda's top 20 leaders since July 2008.

The two attacks today in Pakistan were the first since President Obama took office on Tuesday.
Asked about it at his daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I'm not going to discuss that matter."

During the campaign, Obama called for cross-border attacks against high-value al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, even before the CIA campaign began.

Pakistani officials and villagers told ABCNews.com that 17 people were killed in two successive strikes against compounds in North and South Waziristan.

It looks like the Barack Obama Administration is determined to start a civil war in nuclear Pakistan.

During the campaign Barack Obama said he would invade American ally Pakistan.
Maybe he's putting that off until week two.

Now let's look at this in a bit of a different way. Courtesy of the Looking Glass News (Posted by Lissa on January 26, 2009), what would have happened if the same thing took place had John McCain gained the office of POTUS:

Within the first week of President-Select McCain’s term, he has proved that his aggressive, unilateral policies will follow in the footsteps of former President Bush.  Like his predecessor, President McCain seems to have little concern for world opinion; he looks to squander international goodwill at a record-setting pace.  The Times of London reports:

“Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since John McCain became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed.

Security officials said the strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into houses in separate villages, killed seven “foreigners” - a term that usually means al-Qaeda - but locals also said that three children lost their lives. ”

Naturally, Op-Eds condemning President McCain as a warmonger have appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post; McCain was excoriated on Hardball by Chris Matthews and declared the “Worst Person in the World” by Keith Olbermann. 

 . . . no?  That’s not how it happened?

Welcome to Through the Looking Glass News. 

Are there legitimate complaints to be made about the Obama government?  Sure.   Will there be impotent kvetching and whining regarding actions by the Obama White House that aren’t really important?  Absolutely!

But what really chaps my ass (besides the fifteen degree weather) is that McCain would not receive one iota of the understanding, the perspective, the nuance that the Obama government enjoys.  Can you imagine that McCain would have gotten an article like this from Reuters?

The News wrote that the ‘rather optimistic assurance” given by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani earlier on that the Predator drone attacks would stop once Obama took charge had been dashed. And it added that it wasn’t clear why or how Gilani made such a statement when he was in no position to issue a guarantee on behalf of the Americans.

The missile attacks, and there have been around 30 over the past year, have caused both physical and psychological damage in Pakistan, it said. But what is the way out? Islamabad must somehow persuade the Americans that fighting the militants on its soil was something best left to Pakistani forces. ”The U.S. decision-makers need to be persuaded of the damage caused by the drone attacks and how they contribute to the growth of militancy,” it said.

Somehow, I don’t think McCain’s treatment for the EXACT SAME ACTIONS would have been as favorable.

(In other news, I think the sun will rise in the East tomorrow, and set in the West.)

Yeah, looks like another new site I need to check regularly, along with The Daily Beast.

Some Interesting Stimulus Package Facts

With a hat tip to Ravelry Bunker mate AllyKatt, who got it via Glenn Beck:

Total Cost of Stimulus Legislation: $825 billion

How does this compare?

·         In 1993, the unemployment was virtually the same as the rate today (around 7%). Yet, President Clinton’s proposed stimulus legislation only contained $16 billion in spending

·         The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

·         This legislation nears a trillion dollars. President Reagan said the best way to understand a trillion dollars is to imagine a crisp, new stack of $1000 bills.

·         If you had a stack four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills would measure just over 63 miles high.

·         In $20 bills, a trillion dollar stack would be 3150 miles high. That’s about the distance between DC and Trujillo, Peru.

·         President Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save 3 million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $42,000 a year.

·         This bill provides enough spending to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.

·         This bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

·         Although this legislation has been billed and described as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, but only three percent ($30 billion) of this package is for road and highway spending.

·         Much of the funding within the proposed stimulus package will go to programs which already have large, unexpended balances.

·         For example, the draft bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already has $16 billion on hand.

·         And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.

·         Deficit spending will not expand the economy. If that were true, then the current $1.2 trillion deficit – the largest in history – would already be rescuing the economy.

·         $800 billion more will not change that.

·         Trade groups state that every $1 billion in highway “stimulus” can be spent creating 34,779 new construction jobs.

·         But Congress must first borrow that $1 billion out of the private sector.

·         The private sector then loses or forgoes roughly the same number of jobs.

·         Japan responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 “stimulus” bills over 8 years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world). Their economy remained stagnant and their per capita income went from the second highest in the world to the tenth highest.

via: glennbeck.com

Do You Know How to Negotiate With a Terrorist? You Can't!

A friend of mine directed me to a web site that I think I need to check often -- HH Blowhard. The post she directed me to, from 2006, is called "How to Negotiate With Terrorists". I hope the author doesn't mind, but here's the text. Please check out his blog for yourself and see what else he has to offer.

How To Negotiate With Terrorists

This brief blog entry takes you through a series of negotiations over time between peacemakers and terrorists:

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of a line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker introduces himself. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks, "why did you kill my friend?" The terrorist kills him and rapes his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "Stop that!" The terrorist kills him, rapes his daughter and kills his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "I'll pay you $1000 if you stop attacking us." The terrorist agrees to the deal, takes the $1000, and kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker appeals to the United Nations. The United Nations says the peacemaker is at fault. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker now has a gun, and threatens to use it. Other peacemakers start chanting the old 60's whine, "Can't we all just get along?" The peacemaker hesitates. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker tries to convince his peacemaker friends that the terrorists aren't going to respond to negotiations, but they insist that if he kills the terrorist it'll just make the other terrorists mad. The peacemaker reluctantly agrees to try negotiating again. The terrorist kills him., his entire family, and his neighbor's family.

A heated debate now ensues between the peacemakers who want to be nice to the terrorists and the peacemakers who believe that there can never be peace until the terrorists are all dead. While they are debating, the terrorists kill 15 more peacemakers.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks himself, "Which is more important: being liked by everyone, or protecting my family?" The terrorist pulls a knife to kill the peacemaker, but the peacemaker pulls a gun and kills the terrorist first. The United Nations condemns the peacemaker's use of unproportional force. Many of his peacemaker friends turn against him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker apologizes for what his friend did to the other terrorist. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbors, and threatens to destroy the city as soon as they develop a bigger weapon.

A peacemaker refuses to meet at the line because every time a peacemaker goes to the line the terrorist kills him. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line and fires rockets into the peacemaker's town. The United Nations condemns the way the peacemaker provoked the terrorist by refusing to come to the line and meet with him.

Generations pass and not much changes until one day when the son of a peacemaker decides that the old strategy simply won't work. He walks up to the left side of the line a little early. As the terrorist approaches the right side of the line the peacemaker shoots him. Another terrorist approaches to replace the first, and the peacemaker shoots him too. This scene plays out several more times. Then a terrorist approaches carrying a white flag, but he also has weapons. The peacemaker shoots him. A terrorist next approaches with a ceasefire resolution from the U.N. The peacemaker shoots him also. A large group of terrorists approach and the peacemaker shoots them all and drops a nuclear bomb on the city they came from. The peacemaker continues killing the terrorists until the terrorists are all dead.

There is finally peace on earth and the United Nations takes the credit.

(No peacemakers or terrorists were harmed during the writing of this blog.)

Obamaland -- Our Future Doesn't Work ... Just Ask England

A compatriot of the great Mark Steyn has written a book that deserves notice and purchase.

Written by James Delingpole, it's called "Welcome to Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work" ... you can buy it at WND.com.

If the election of Barack Obama fills you with dread rather than elation, you're not alone; in fact, pull up a chair next to James Delingpole who has seen this all before and knows exactly where America is heading: into a morass of sprawling government that will slowly start suffocating our economy, our liberties, and our culture. You might as well call it socialism, he says, because that's what it is. In Britain it came in under the smiling face of Tony Blair and has left the British bulldog castrated, whimpering, and sick; in America it's coming under the vibrant, youthful guise of Barack Obama. But the result will be the same: the brave, independent American eagle will become the American turkey, oven-basted by the nanny state of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.

James Delingpole, whose coruscating wit and laugh-out-loud asides have earned his fame as a British political commentator, is here to tell us how bad things could really get. From the socialized medicine that will make us want to avoid going to the doctor even when our hand is on fire (as his literally once was); to eco-fascism that will have us spending millions, if not billions, if not entirely ruining our already shattered economy, to protect un-endangered, man-eating polar bears; to immigration non-reform that will leave us wondering what country we're living in anyway; to a further dumbing down of an already execrable school system, with more PC inanities, such as banning "competitive games" because it might disturb children's self-esteem; to so many symptoms of decline and fall that we might as well all move to Albania to enjoy the high life.

Hilarious, witty, impassioned, and perceptive, "Welcome to Obamaland" will have you laughing through your tears and taking courage from the eternal truth of conservative convictions.

Praise for "Welcome to Obamaland"

In 1997, Britain elected a young, charismatic, inspirational leader, and the entire nation was filled with hope. For the next ten years, we suffered the pain of gradual disillusionment as Tony Blair failed to live up to every single one of our expectations. Why not save yourselves the trouble of slowly having your hearts broken and fast forward straight to the bitter and cynical phase? James Delingpole, one of Britain's most astute political journalists, is here to give you a quick reality bath. He has seen the future--your future--and it doesn't work.

• TOBY YOUNG, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People Totally brilliant. As funny as St. Mark Steyn.
• ANDREW ROBERTS, historian and author of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900.

From "Welcome to Obamaland" Think of me as the hero of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, bursting into your present, my clothes all tattered and torn, and on my face an expression of dire horror and impending doom. For I am afraid I have a terrible message to impart. I have just seen the future. Your future. And I'm sorry to say it sucks. This new president you've elected. You think he's going to make everything okay, right? Even if you didn't vote for him, you're kind of hoping that some good must surely come of it. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. That's the sound of me laughing darkly, by the way. So what, if any, consolation do I have to offer you in these dark and difficult times? Precious little, I'm afraid. Virtually nothing in fact, save the warm, self-affirmatory glow you get when someone tells you you're right, that some day your beliefs will be vindicated, that however long it takes, reality will win out.

NOTE: Purchasing "Welcome to Obamaland" from WND's online store also qualifies you to receive three FREE issues of WND's acclaimed monthly print magazine, Whistleblower. Watch for the FREE offer during checkout.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing (January 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596985887
• ISBN-13: 978-1596985889

Lie To Me ... Required Viewing??

As I sit here blogging, I'm listening to the new show called "Lie To Me" ... an interesting show, all about the close examination of expressions and gestures to determine the truth.

I suggest that this show should be required viewing for anyone who doesn't have social narcolepsy. For example, in the case involving a basketball player, they watch footage of the guy and note the chin thrust, which is an indicator of anger.

And it dawned on me .. this is something that ObaMao does **a lot** ... when he makes speeches about how we have to be responsible, how we have to get along with bipartisanship ... lots and lots of chin thrusts.

I may have to watch this show on a weekly basis so I can learn to discern what's going on with the politicians I see all the time. We have to learn the classic signs of deceit, etc.

Little Blue Book?

One of my fellow Ravelry Bunker mates, TravelingGal, posted about an item earlier this week about a new book about ObaMao (as if there weren't enough of them already).

"Why a little blue book", I initially wondered? "Shouldn't it be a "little red book"?? "

Well, it may as well be a "little red book" but blue is the new color of communists progressives after all, so it kind of makes sense, I guess.

Why do I think the current day's little red .. er .. blue book could be a problem? Well, unless the authors have their tongues firmly on the inside of their cheeks, it has all the makings of something that could go from "an unofficial requirement for every citizen to own, to read, and to carry this book at all times", as the editors of The History Company say about their new book "Pocket Obama", to an official requirement. With the way President ObaMao keeps showing clear signs of trying to edge us closer and closer toward "democratic socialism", can you think something like this could be far behind?

Pocket Obama (10 copies)

$49.50

Printed in a size that easily fits into pocket or purse, this book is an anthology of quotations borrowed from Barack Obama's speeches and writings. POCKET OBAMA serves as a reminder of the amazing power of oratory and the remarkable ability of this man to move people with his words. His superb and captivating oratory style has earned comparisons to John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and this historic collection presents words that catapulted his remarkable rise to the American Presidency. It is an unofficial requirement for every citizen to own, to read, and to carry this book at all times.

The little blue book includes themes of democracy, politics, war, terrorism, race, community, jurisprudence, faith, personal responsibility, national identity, and above all, his hoped-for vision of a new America. POCKET OBAMA is a portable, everyday primer for readers who want to examine the substance of his thought and reflect on the next great chapter in the American story.

SAVE $10.00 on the purchase of this exclusive 10-copy pack.

For single copy purchase of POCKET OBAMA go to Amazon.com.

Pocket Obama (10 copies)

As one friend's husband said when he heard about this and the editors' comment:  "Papers, please?"

If you want to buy the book from the History Company, you have to buy them in quantities of 10. If you want to buy single copies, you can order them from Amazon.com ... but you might want to read the comments first. As of this posting, there are currently seven (7) pages of comments.

A couple of my favorites:

The only thing they missed was the hammer and sickle and "The Thoughts of Chairman Obama" on the cover. Here is "Change you can believe in". May God have mercy on us.

and

Truly am thankful --this is a bargain---when hyperinflation hits and it costs $30 for a roll of toilet paper---i can be happy knowing that I can use Obama's nuggets of wisdom to wipe my nuggets in the crapper. See I'm going to reduce global warming by helping to recycle the garbage!

and

One reviewer said that if you looked inside, you would see this is a joke. Well, I looked inside and it doesn't look like a joke to me. This is an actual collection of Obama quotes. They aren't mocked or changed. It's not delivered tongue-in-cheek in any way that I can see.

The preface/description could be viewed as being parody. Or, if the publisher actually is an Obamaton and zealot, it could be serious. I've certainly heard many Obama supporters, from the regular person off the street all the way to Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, espouse far more extreme embracements of Obama. So this could very well be serious.

I certainly hope it is a joke. If it isn't, this is not a good sign of things to come. With the cultish behavior of Obama supporters all across the country, though, it has become very hard to discern what is a joke and what is actual idol worship.

Why do I compare it to Chairman Mao's "little red book"?

Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (simplified Chinese: 毛主席语录; pinyin: Máo zhǔxí yǔlù), better known in the West as The Little Red Book, was published by the Government of the People's Republic of China from April 1964 until approximately 1976. As its title implies, it is a collection of quotations excerpted from Mao Zedong's past speeches and publications. The book's alternative title The Little Red Book was coined by the West for its pocket-sized edition, which was specifically printed and sold to facilitate easy carrying. The closest equivalent in Chinese is 红宝书 (hóng bǎoshū), literally "The Red Treasured Book", which was a term popular during the Cultural Revolution. "Little Red Book" in Chinese would be 小红书 (xiăo hóngshū).

The most printed book in history, Quotations had an estimated 5 to 6.5 billion copies printed during Mao's attempt to transform Chinese society. The book's phenomenal popularity may be due to the fact that it was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, to read, and to carry it at all times during the later half of Mao's rule, especially during the Cultural Revolution.

During the Cultural Revolution, studying the book was not only required in schools but was also a standard practice in the workplace as well. All units, in the industrial, commercial, agricultural, civil service, and military sectors, organized group sessions for the entire workforce to study the book during working hours. Quotes from Mao were either bold-faced or highlighted in red, and almost all writing, including scientific essays, had to quote Mao.

To defend against the theory that it would be counter-productive, it was argued that understanding Mao's quotes could definitely bring about enlightenment to the work unit, resulting in production improvement to offset the time lost.

During the 1960s, the book was the single most visible icon in mainland China, even more visible than the image of the Chairman himself. In posters and pictures created by CPC's propaganda artists, nearly every painted character, except Mao himself, either smiling or looking determined, was always seen with a copy of the book in his or her hand.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the rise of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the importance of the book waned considerably, and the glorification of Mao's quotations was considered to be left deviationism and a cult of personality. The original books now became a collector's item and some editions are highly sought after. ^[1]

Mao's quotations are categorized into 33 chapters in the book. Its topics mainly deal with Mao's ideology, known in the West as Maoism and officially as "Mao Zedong Thought."

Somehow I don't think we're that far off the mark on this one. God forbid this should become required reading ... but if it were to, I'd say study up and be able to tell 'em what they want to hear. They've been doing it to us for so long they won't recognize it when it's reversed, will they?

You Know What's In the Bailout Bill, Right? Think Again!

So you think you finally understand what President ObaMao and his cohorts in Congress have planned for this next part of the "economic stimulus package", right? It's all for jobs creation, right? There's going to be transparency and accountability, right? It's all necessary, right? And the Republicans are going to have  say in how the thing's crafted, right?

Think again.

My cousin sent this to me this morning, horrified at what she'd read. Unless you're an ObaMao supporter, I have a feeling you might feel the same.

A 40-Year Wish List

You won't believe what's in that stimulus bill.

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.

AP

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make "dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy." Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.

Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren't likely to help the economy immediately. As Peter Orszag, the President's new budget director, told Congress a year ago, "even those [public works] that are 'on the shelf' generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy."

Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) that have a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systems are so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of their costs. However, the people who operate these systems belong to public-employee unions that are campaign contributors to . . . guess which party?

Here's another lu-lu: Congress wants to spend $600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator?

Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren't job creators.

As for the promise of accountability, some $54 billion will go to federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have already criticized as "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits. These include the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, the 10 federal job training programs, and many more.

Oh, and don't forget education, which would get $66 billion more. That's more than the entire Education Department spent a mere 10 years ago and is on top of the doubling under President Bush. Some $6 billion of this will subsidize university building projects. If you think the intention here is to help kids learn, the House declares on page 257 that "No recipient . . . shall use such funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools." Horrors: Some money might go to nonunion teachers.

The larger fiscal issue here is whether this spending bonanza will become part of the annual "budget baseline" that Congress uses as the new floor when calculating how much to increase spending the following year, and into the future. Democrats insist that it will not. But it's hard -- no, impossible -- to believe that Congress will cut spending next year on any of these programs from their new, higher levels. The likelihood is that this allegedly emergency spending will become a permanent addition to federal outlays -- increasing pressure for tax increases in the bargain. Any Blue Dog Democrat who votes for this ought to turn in his "deficit hawk" credentials.

This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living -- or dead -- Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election. We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.

Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

UPDATE:  More information from Northwest Republican. Check him out often.

Read the stimulus bill. Creating jobs? Really?

Oh and how bout some highlights.
-- pg 14: None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.

-- pg 19: Establishment of an "Accountability Board" and several pages discussing the powers of that board. Reminiscent of Roosevelt's NRA.

-- pg 36:For an additional amount for ‘‘Salaries and Expenses,’’ $245,000,000, for the purpose of maintaining and modernizing the information technology system

-- pg 36: (How bout this for stimulating jobs) For an additional amount for ‘‘Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations’’, $350,000,000, of which $175,000,000 is for necessary expenses to purchase and restore floodplain easements

-- pg 44: (How many "jobs" from this expenditure?) For an additional amount for the special supplemental nutrition program, $100,000,000, for the Secretary of Agriculture to provide assistance to State agencies to implement new management information systems or improve existing management information systems for the program.

-- pg 52: For an additional amount for ‘‘Procurement, Acquisition and Construction’’, $600,000,000, for accelerating satellite development and acquisition, acquiring climate sensors and climate modeling capacity, and establishing climate data records: Provided further, That not less than $140,000,000 shall be available for climate data modeling.

-- pg 53/54: (Science jobs?) For an additional amount for ‘‘Science’’, $400,000,000, of which not less than $250,000,000 shall be solely for accelerating the development of the tier 1 set of Earth science climate research missions recommended by the National Academies Decadal Survey. For an additional amount for ‘‘Aeronautics’’, $150,000,000.

For starters.

Bin Laden's Message to Obama

After numerous rounds of ‘We don’t even know if Osama is still alive’, Barack Obama has now been telling everyone he will capture Osama Bin Laden when elected.

So, Osama himself decided to send Barack Obama a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game. Obama opened the letter and it contained a single line of coded message: 370H-SSV-0773H

Obama was baffled, so he emailed it to Howard Dean. Dean and the DNC and his aides had no clue either, so they sent it to Joe Biden. Joe Biden could not solve so it was sent to the FBI and the CIA.

Eventually they asked John McCain and his Staff to look at it. And within minutes McCain’s Staff emailed Obama with this reply: ‘Tell Obama he’s holding the message upside down’.