WINDOWS OF CHEER

With all the grim hard news descending on our heads, take a moment of respite:


Article: "Colorful murals keep a daughter’s memory alive."

OBAMA'S STALE MESSAGE

Dana Milbank opines:

A warmed-over jobs message

“I don’t normally do this,” President Obama’s senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer wrote in the subject line of an e-mail blast to reporters Sunday night.

This was tantalizing. What would this top White House official be doing? Singing karaoke on the North Lawn? Getting a “POTUS” tattoo on his arm?

Reality was rather more prosaic. Pfeiffer was announcing the rollout of a series of economic speeches Obama would begin on Wednesday — roughly the 10th time the White House has made such a pivot to refocus on jobs and growth. What would set this one apart is that Obama would be reprising a speech he made eight years ago, when he first became a senator; Pfeiffer included a link to clips from that speech, set in part to mood music from the Canadian electronica group Kidstreet, the same music used in an Apple ad last year.

But even a reincarnated Steve Jobs would have trouble marketing this turkey: How can the president make news, and remake the agenda, by delivering the same message he gave in 2005? He’s even giving the speech from the same place, Galesburg, Ill....

Obama — epic fail.

OBAMACARE FAIL

Forget the hope of those high-risk pools for health insurance:

Funds run low for health insurance in state ‘high-risk pools’

Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.

Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday [February 16] and no later than March 2, depending on the state....

A delay in applying to a high-risk pool has been inevitable for some:

[T]he pools are open only to people who have gone without insurance for at least six months.

One of my dearest friends in my small circle of friends lost his health insurance (employer based) on January 1. The health insurance company stated that federal regulations precluded the company's viability to operate, so the company went under.

The end result for my friend: after decades of having health insurance coverage, he now is forced to go without any coverage for six months so as to be eligible for a high-risk pool.

Catch-22.

Obamacare is a scam, the goal of which is the redistribution of wealth.

Welcome to the gulag.

MYTHS ABOUT MILLIONAIRES

From the Washington Post, notice the following two myths:

3. Millionaires pay proportionately less income tax than poorer people.

In a speech on Monday, Obama said raising taxes on millionaires isn’t class warfare, but “math.” His math may be off: According to the IRS, those with adjusted gross incomes of more than $1 million paid an average of 23.3 percent in federal income taxes in 2008; those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 paid 12.7 percent; and those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 paid 8.9 percent. Half of American families don’t make enough money to pay income taxes at all....

[...]

5. Obama’s “millionaires’ tax” won’t seriously limit investment.

That’s the line of reasoning that the administration is using. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters that the president’s plan wouldn’t hurt growth. “I am very confident that the modest changes we’re suggesting in terms of revenues . . . would make the economy stronger in the long term, not weaker in the long term,” he said.

Geithner’s confidence is somewhat misplaced. According to a 2001 congressional study that confirmed a basic tenet of macroeconomics, “each $1 of marginal tax rate cuts would save the private economy at least $1.25 as deadweight losses fall and economic efficiency increases.” Taxes distort investment decisions. Why throw money into productive assets — corporate securities, a rental property or new employees for a small business — if the income they generate will be taxed away?

Taxes on the rich are taxes on people who create jobs. And jobs are an unalloyed good thing for an economy. Excessively taxing the capital that makes the economy go is poor public policy. And we have a recent example of how the opposite works well: Unemployment declined by a third in the four years after the Bush tax cuts were fully implemented in 2003, dropping to 4.2 percent from 6.2 percent. Meanwhile, federal revenue increased 44 percent in those years. If these tax cuts put people to work and generated money for the government, shouldn’t Obama consider the possibility that tax increases should be avoided?

Obama will, of course, continue to push his tax-the-rich theme. He is trying to play the populist.

OBAMA CARE AND FAMILY-INSURANCE PLANS

Much ado was made of Obama's warning health-insurance companies not to raise costs.

And I personally know of several people who supported ObamaKare because they believed that ObamaKare would help them to keep their children on the family's health-insurance plan until those children reach age twenty-six. Quite the attractive carrot for Obama's health-insurance reform, apparently.

Surprise! There's no such thing as a free ride!

From this June 27, 2010, article in the Washington Post:

It is among the top early selling points of the health-care overhaul -- a new rule that has particular appeal for middle-class, middle-age voters: Young adults who lack health insurance will soon be able to remain on their parents' plans until age 26.

But although Obama administration officials note that the provision will help millions, the benefit is proving less immediate than many families expect.

The administration's success in convincing dozens of insurers to comply with the provision earlier than the law requires has left many parents with the impression that their adult children will be eligible for continuing coverage far sooner than is likely to be the case, experts said.

Furthermore,

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

The years to come could bring further rude awakenings for parents as employers and insurance companies look for ways to offset the added costs of covering these workers' children longer into adulthood, experts say.

For instance, roughly half of employer-based insurance plans currently charge a blanket family rate regardless of how many children are included on the plan. But the survey by Mercer found that one in five are now strongly considering or likely to start charging on a per-child basis.

Similarly, while Mercer found that on average employers cover more than two-thirds of the cost of family plans, 16 percent said they are strongly considering or likely to require their workers to start contributing a greater share.

ObamaKare - smoke and mirrors, and utopian fantasy that cannot possibly be fulfilled.

And now that the bill has been passed, we who bear the burden of the costs of ObamaKare are finding out more and more of the ugly details. More such ugly details to come. Quite the reality check is looming.

CHEFS TO REFORM SCHOOL LUNCHES

Are you kidding me? School lunches need chefs?

From the Washington Post:

More than 500 chefs gathered at the White House today to join Michelle Obama's newest effort to fight childhood obesity, Chefs Move To Schools.

The chefs, including national stars such as Rachael Ray, Tom Colicchio and Cat Cora, and an army of unknowns who work in restaurants, food banks and culinary schools, hailed from 37 states. Each has accepted a White House mission to adopt a school in his or her community and work with parents, teachers and cafeteria workers to educate children about food and nutrition. That might include developing healthful recipes for cafeterias, offering cooking lessons or helping a school to plant a garden.

"You are all at the heart of this initiative because if anyone understands nutrition and food, it's the folks sitting here in their whites today," Obama said, referring to the traditional chef uniform. "You know more about food than almost anyone – other than the grandmas – and you've got the visibility and the enthusiasm to match that knowledge."

[...]

"You'd never think of implementing a salad bar as guerrilla warfare. But that's what it is. Kid by kid. School by school," said [New York Public Schools Executive Chef Jorge] Collazo.

...Chefs said they were undeterred by the hard work ahead....

Whatever happened to "Too many cooks spoil the broth"?

From another WaPo puff piece on the same topic:

..."What we are feeding our children is an outrage. We should be marching with picket signs and pitchforks in revolution," said Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria....

[...]

In the months since [the January 2010] meeting, the chefs have taken the first steps to make real the lofty goals of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative, which aims to end childhood obesity within a generation. [Chefs] Gray and Mendelsohn began teaching cooking classes to hundreds of students and parents...

What? They can't open a cookbook on their own? Sheesh!

From cradle to grave is upon us!

Continuing now with an excerpt from the WaPo article:

At the very least, the combination of chefs and reality-style makeovers is smart marketing by the White House. But if the nearly 1,000 chefs who have signed on to the program catch the same fever as their Washington counterparts, the hope is that the program could spark a real "Food Revolution," Jamie Oliver-style. A thousand forks of light, if you will.

"A thousand forks of light"? Consciously or unconsciously trying to make a connection to this 1988 speech given by George H.W. Bush, I guess.

MEDITATION FOR MEMORIAL DAY

An exquisite essay appeared in the Washington Post for Memorial Day. Please take time to read and meditate upon the words and sentiments below:

I stand under an aged oak, and the rows of simple white headstones extend in their heart-stopping sweep across the Virginia hills of Arlington National Cemetery. Each stone sentinel is dressed and at attention, calling to mind both the life and the death of the soldier who lies beneath. Solid, steady and unyielding, the markers stand in counterpoint to the soft green earth and capricious light that dances across their faces.

One weekend in May, each of these white uniforms is decorated with a small American flag, placed there by a living soldier's hand. These flags are brilliant in the afternoon sun, and it is my privilege to walk among these honored ranks to remember those who died in service to me.

But the men and women who sleep in these rolling hills didn't know it was for me that they fought in the forests of the Ardennes or in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. They didn't know it was for me that they left behind wives, husbands and sweethearts, children and parents, friends. I, too, didn't know until life's experience began to teach me how precious my freedom is. Only by examining my life -- taking stock of all the blessings and opportunities that have been mine because of the freedoms I can count on as an American citizen -- could I begin to understand the purpose of their service and the meaning of their sacrifice.

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

A Few Choice Words About BHO

Robert Kagan in yesterday's Washington Post, in a commentary that has garnered some ten pages of comments:

...Who has attracted attention in the Obama administration? The answer, so far, seems to be not America's allies but its competitors, and in some cases its adversaries. If there were a way to measure administration exertion in foreign policy, the meter would show the greatest concentration of energy, beyond the war in Afghanistan, has been devoted to four endeavors: the failed first-year attempt to improve relations with Iran; the ongoing attempt to improve relations with Russia; the stalled effort to improve cooperation with China; and the effort -- fruitless so far -- to prove to the Arab states that the United States is willing to pressure Israel to further the peace process. Add to these the efforts to improve relations with Syria, engage Burma and everything with Af-Pak, and not much has been left for the concerns of our allies.

[...]

This administration pays lip-service to "multilateralism," but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies. Rather than strengthening the democratic foundation of the new "international architecture" -- the G-20 world -- the administration's posture is increasingly one of neutrality, at best, between allies and adversaries, and between democrats and autocrats. Israel is not the only unhappy ally, therefore; it's just the most vulnerable.

In less than two years in office, BHO is alienating the world much more than GWB did in eight years.

RELIAPUNDIT HAD SOMETHING ON THIS YESTERDAY.

BRING ON 2010!

From this February 10, 2010 article in the Washington Post:

In poll, Republicans gaining political ground on Obama

Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so in 1994 and 2006, the last times that control of Congress shifted.

The opportunity to rock this administration is just a few months away.

BHO IS "TONE-DEAF" WHEN IT COMES TO TERRORISM

From this column by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:

[T]he paramount civil liberty is a sense of security and this, sad to say, has eroded under Barack Obama. Repeatedly, the administration has shown poor judgment.

Cohen even praises George W. Bush, albeit in a backhanded fashion:

No doubt George Bush soiled America's image abroad with what looked liked vigilante justice and Dick Cheney's hearty endorsement of ugly interrogation measures. But more is at stake here than America's image abroad -- namely the security and peace of mind of Americans in America. Bush stands condemned by the facts for Sept. 11 -- his watch, his responsibility -- and in all likelihood he bent over backward to ensure that nothing like those attacks would happen again.

The entire essay by Cohen is an indictment of the BHO administration and reads much like Krauthammer's work. An interesting turn because Cohen and Krauthammer typically express antithetical ideas.

PETTY TENSIONS IN AIDING HAITI

Rushing to self-glory:

There were growing tensions over which country's planes were allowed to land here first, with each nation insisting its aid flight was a priority, according to an official involved in the relief operation.

France, Brazil and Italy were said to be upset, and the Red Cross said one of its planes was diverted to Santo Domingo, the capital of neighboring Dominican Republic.

Digusting.

What about compassion for the suffering masses in Haiti?

TRUTHFUL HEADLINE IN TODAY'S WASHINGTON POST

The big headline below the hard-copy fold reads "Arrests suggest U.S. Muslims, like those in Europe, can be radicalized abroad."

True enough.

And one of the stories below the fold begins as follows:

The five men from Northern Virginia under arrest in Pakistan had exchanged e-mails written in code for months with a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban and had a map indicating they were bound for the tribal area where al-Qaeda is thought to be based, Pakistan officials said Friday.

But both of the two stories dance around the radicalization from within of American Moslems, in spite of the other of today's stories beginning as follows:

A spike in terrorism cases involving U.S. citizens is challenging long-held assumptions that Muslims in Europe are more susceptible to radicalization than their better-assimilated counterparts in the United States.

Both stories mostly ignore the seriousness of the internal threat from the fifth column, and both stories do not mention any of the radical Wahhabist imams preaching at mosques all across America.

Furthermore, the other of today's two stories in the WaPo is calling upon two dangerous groups to curb the radicalization of Moslem youth within the United States:

...[T]wo major groups -- the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- said this week that they would launch counter-radicalization programs aimed at young people...

Half-awakened in the media is not necessarily better that not awakened at all.

The second story, as one might expect from the WaPo, blames the United States for radicalization:

Several U.S. and international terrorism analysts say that American Muslims, as a group, remain more prosperous, assimilated and moderate than those in Europe. But the analysts also note that immigration trends, the global spread of a militant Islamism and controversial actions by the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks increase the chances that U.S. Muslims could carry out a domestic attack.

It is beyond the capabilities of liberals to blame the tenets of Islam, and the media continue to dance around those jihadist tenets.

Reliapundit points out in the post below this one that the New York Times is taking the same position as the WaPo.

Until the media tell the truth, Americans will continue to snooze or half-snooze. It is more comfortable not to recognize the truth about Islam.

OBAMA TRYING TO SET A WORLD RECORD?

Sure looks that way:

Faced with the worst domestic economy in decades, the president has responded -- by setting a record for foreign travel. An Asian swing that began Thursday will bring his total this year to 20 countries in eight trips, according to CBS News's Mark Knoller, official statistician of the White House press corps.

That easily bests the previous record-holder, George H.W. Bush, who hit 14 countries in his first year. By the time he returns next week, Obama will have spent more than 12 percent of his presidency overseas -- and he still has another trip or two in the works for this year....

BHO is stroking his own ego on the American taxpayers' backs:

By some measures, in fact, foreigners have a more favorable view of Obama than Americans do.

Eighty-six percent of Britons, 88 percent of Canadians, 91 percent of French and 93 percent of Germans say they have confidence in him. So do 85 percent of Japanese, 88 percent of Nigerians and 77 percent of Indians. All those figures trump Americans' confidence in their own president -- 74 percent when the poll was done in the spring.

That could explain why Obama seems to enjoy spending so much time with the foreign media....

State Sovereignty

On November 3, Virginians will go to the polls to elect various state officials, including a new state attorney general.

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general of Virginia, has a rather unique vision for the office.

From this article in the October 19, 2009 edition of the Washington Post:

Cuccinelli's bid puts focus on a job often off the radar
Va. attorney general candidate says there's power in the post

Republican Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a state senator from Fairfax County, hopes to be an entirely different attorney general than what Virginians have grown accustomed to.

...He is ready to sue the federal government if it restricts emissions or expands union powers.

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

A TALE OF TWO COLUMNISTS

Numerous bloggers and columnists have written reams about BHO's Olympic fail. Many of these writers have pointed out the personality flaws the Obamas showed in Copenhagen.

Despite all the noise about this recent failure, we do need to remember that BHO's Olympic fail is not an impeachable offense.

Nevertheless, the attitude of both BHO and his wife last week in Copenhagen does reveal traits which should cause all but the most dedicated Kool-aid drinkers to take notice....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

PSYCHING UP THE HOPEY CHANGERS FOR FAILURE

But failure is success!

From "If Obama Fails, It's Not His Fault" at Right Klik:

It looks like the Demokrat MSM are preparing for what might be the inevitable failure of their Messiah's health care plan. Some amazing damage control memes are beginning to emerge:

1. Failure is good!

[...]

2. Obama's failure is really a failure of the national press corps, the left wing and the Demokratic party.

[...]

3. Obama is bogged down because he has been working so hard to accommodate Republicans.

[...]

4. Obama is failing because he's too nice.

To support those four points, Right Klik cites various sources....Read the rest at Always On Watch.

BHO'S TEFLON COATING CONTINUES TO FRACTURE

From today's commentary by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:

...More and more Obama is being likened to Lyndon Johnson, with Afghanistan becoming his Vietnam. Maybe. But the better analogy is to Jimmy Carter, particularly the president analyzed by James Fallows in a 1979 Atlantic magazine article, "The Passionless Presidency." "The central idea of the Carter administration is Jimmy Carter himself," Fallows wrote. And what is the central idea of the Obama presidency? It is change. And what is that? It is Obama himself.

Unlike Carter, Obama brims with energy and charm. His brilliance is not brittle but supple. Yet, another teachable moment is upon him and he seems lost. The country needs health-care reform and success in Afghanistan, and both efforts are going in the wrong direction. The message needs to be fixed, and so, with some tough introspection, does the man.

What Cohen fails to recognize, of course, is that BHO cannot be "fixed." In fact, earlier in his essay, Cohen states as follows:

This is because of an insufficiency I have noted previously -- his distinct coolness, an above-the-fray mien that does not communicate empathy.

The Democratic Party, or at least some in the Party, are starting to recognize that BHO is a liability.

THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA'S CONSTANT GUSHING OVER BHO

Today, the Washington Post offered this front-page puff piece, presented as historical analysis. The following paragraph appeared above the fold:

President Obama will bring his notably calmer, cooler demeanor to the Vineyard when he arrives Aug. 23 for a family vacation....

The WaPo couldn't resist adding this barb, also on the front page:

The president who preaches bipartisanship has chosen to stay at the private estate of a prominent Republican....

According to the article, BHO is paying for the vacation himself - at least $25,000 to rent the estate, then goes on to gush about how wonderful it is that BHO is paying for his own vacation:

Obama's public vow to pay his family's portion of the rent on Martha's Vineyard is unusual, several historians said.

If BHO were the family man he claims to be, he'd give the $25,000 to one of his poverty-stricken relatives. No mention of any of those relatives in the WaPo, of course. Mustn't put "The One" in a less-than-perfect light. **snerk**

DISSENTERS ARE "POLITICAL TERRORISTS"

(graphic courtesy of GM's Place - disseminate freely)
According to business columnist Steven Pearlstein, who wrote the following August 7, 2009 essay in the Washington Post:

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

[...]

Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs.

As one who always reads Pearlstein's columns, which typically often sound financial advice, I have to say that I'm astounded as the position he has taken in this essay.

Those with concerns about ObamaCare are "political terrorists"? Perhaps Pearlstein is a covert disciple of Cass Suntein and Zephyr Teachout....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

BHO VOTER: "I FEEL LIKE I'VE BEEN PUNKED"

Graphic credit

Excerpt from an article which appeared above the fold in the front page of the Washington Post on August 5, 2009:

The coffee was still brewing when Chris Ann Cleland got her first reminder of the day that voting for Barack Obama might have been a mistake.

The Prince William County real estate agent was sitting at a long wooden table covered with paperwork. Her clients, a young couple who had brought their 2-week-old baby, were finalizing a short sale on a townhouse that they were anxious to unload, even if it meant ruining their credit, because they had maxed out their credit cards trying to make the payments.

For Cleland, it was another example -- one of many this day -- of the broken promises of a president who she thought would be different. Obama pledged to change a Washington culture that favored corporations and the connected and instead lift families such as the one sitting next to Cleland out of their economic funk. Rather, she said, Obama has backed billions of dollars to banks that continue to "act like they're broke" and started the country down a path that Cleland said she thinks will lead to more grief for the middle class.

"He's just not as advertised," she said. "Nothing's changed for the common guy. I feel like I've been punked."...

Ms. Cleland isn't the only voter with remorse covered in the WaPo article:

Stephanie Slater, 44, a neighbor of Cleland's who leans Republican, voted for Obama on the strength of his character and because of his positions on education, energy and health care. She recalled brimming with confidence after Obama's historic inaugural address.

"When he gave that speech that day, I was in awe. I was really inspired and thought, 'Wow, this is a guy who can do it,' " said Slater, a medical transcriptionist and mother of three.

But she has been disturbed by the large Wall Street bonuses that Obama doesn't seem to be able to halt and his inability to rein in credit card companies that raise rates even on those with good credit. Although she is trying to be patient, she said she is losing faith in the Democrats running Washington.

"Honestly, at this point, I have to say I'm worried. I haven't come across one person that seems to have been helped," she said. "If I don't see a spark, a light at the end of the tunnel, I may be voting Republican [for governor]."

In November, we Virginians will head to the polls to elect a new governor. The present governor, Tim Kaine, is a Democrat Obamabot and, according to the our state constitution, cannot succeed himself. Furthermore, this gubernatorial election is regarded by most as a barometer for the 2010 midterm elections.

Creigh Deeds, the Democratic Party's candidate for November, is walking a fine line and, overall, trying to distance himself from BHO's policies. And that strategy might work - except that BHO insists upon injecting himself into the race:

The president will make his first appearance in the campaign Thursday, when he headlines a fundraiser for R. Creigh Deeds (D) in McLean..."The mood is becoming just as lousy for the Democrats as it has been for us the last couple of years," said J. Kenneth Klinge, a longtime Virginia GOP strategist. "It's evening the playing field."

No matter where you live, keep an eye on this November's race for governor of Virginia.