Carter Redux is Here… OR Where is Ronald Reagan when you need him?

I mean, seriously. What good is the office of the President (elect) if all he has to offer is doom and gloom?

We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime – a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks. Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a twenty-eight year low. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many families cannot pay their bills or their mortgage. Many workers are watching their life savings disappear. And many, many Americans are both anxious and uncertain of what the future will hold.

How about giving us optimism? How about the much promised Hope? Well, if he has chosen to go on the path laid by Jimmy Carter who made us think the situation in the late 70s was virtually hopeless, another Reagan Sarah Palin is bound to appear by 2012 and take us to the lofty heights we can attain based on nothing but the belief in the American spirit.

Things are bad, but they are nowhere as bad as Obama is making them out to be. His insistance on using scare tactics to get support for his hare-brained economic scheme is only going to backfire on him.
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Thankfully, some in Washington still have some sense OR Spending what we don’t have on what we don’t need…

It is no secret that Obama is completely clueless as to what it takes to revive the economy (hint: lower taxes for individuals and businesses and a reduction in the size of the government), and is hell bent on pushing through a humongous “stimulus” package:

President-elect Barack Obama is laying the groundwork for a giant economic stimulus package, possibly $850 billion over two years, in his first test of legislative give and take with Congress.

Obama’s economic advisers are assembling a recovery plan and reaching out to members of Congress and their staffs.

Obama aides cautioned that they have not settled on a specific grand total. But they noted that economists from across the political spectrum have recommended spending similar or even larger amounts to jolt the worsening economy.

Thankfully, not everyone in Washington is drinking his magic Kool-Aid…

Senators McConnell and Alexander spoke about what an economic stimulus ought to contain:

Senator Alexander: We — as the leader said, we want to be full participants in any kind of stimulus package that actually helps our economy grow, helps create jobs, helps stabilize housing.

We’re not interested in just spending money that we don’t have for projects that we don’t have to have at a time of such high deficits.

 

 

 

There is still hope for the Republic…

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Kudos to Obama II- As a student, it seems Obama was an anti-apartheid activist…

Seems Obama does have a good head on his shoulders… Here’s video about his days at Occidental College, seems he was a student activist fighting for the cause of a Free South Africa. As someone who did same while in College for the cause of a Free Nigeria and a Free Burma, I have to give him his props…

 

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Kudos to Obama… Going to End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy in the Military…

I have personally never understood how a person’s sexual orientation affects his/her ability to serve his/her country properly.

If Obama goes through with this and repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy currently being used by the Armed Forces, then he would definitely bring us one step closer to the modern age. Yahoo

Sixteen years after Bill Clinton tried to end restrictions on gays in the military, the US armed forces under Barack Obama may be forced to give homosexuals the same welcome as non-gays.

Under president Clinton, the policy that once saw homosexuals discharged from US military service evolved to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” allowing gays to remain in the military so long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation.

Obama has pledged to overhaul current law.

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Bush Hosts Living Presidents and the PEOTUS at White House…

Obama’s victory definitely has historic ramifications. It is good to see a bi-racial man in the White House, maybe in the next 50 or so years, there’ll be a black wo(man) in there too…

Senator Dianne Feinstein- Senate Should Seat Senator Roland Burris…

Wow… The soap opera known as the U.S Senate continues its award winning new season…

A key Democrat broke with her Senate colleagues Tuesday to support Roland Burris in his controversial bid to assume Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee that soon could take up Burris’ case, said Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has the right to appoint a senator despite the allegations of corruption against him.

“Does the governor have the power, under law, to make the appointment? And the answer is yes,” Feinstein said, urging the Senate to settle the matter. “If you don’t seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America. … Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician.”

The comments flew in the face of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s assertion that Burris should not be seated in part because the move would be tainted by the Blagojevich scandal. Feinstein’s stance is the latest sign of intra-party tensions over the matter.

Big up Ace

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Barely 48 Hours… Obama Throws Panetta Under The Bus…

Yikes… All I can say is, “Leon, I’m sorry, but there is still lots of space under the bus, in fact there’s a spot right next to Judas Bill Richardson…”

From the NYT

Question: Some are - some are questioning Leon Panetta’s lack of intelligence - lack of experience on intelligence matters. Sorry about that. I know this is tricky for you since you haven’t announced it yet, but what does he bring to the table for you?

Obama: Well, as you noted, I haven’t made - haven’t made a formal announcement about my intelligence team.

(cell phone rings)

Obama: That may be him calling now… finding out where it’s at.

Obama: I have the utmost respect for Leon Panetta. I think that he is one of the finest public servants that we have. He brings extraordinary management skills, great political savvy, an impeccable record of integrity.

As chief of staff, he is somebody who - to the president - he’s somebody who obviously was fully versed in international affairs, crisis management, and had to evaluate intelligence consistently on a day-to-day basis.

Having said all that, I have not made an announcement. When we make the announcement, I think what people will see is, is that we are putting together a top-notch intelligence team that is not only going to assure that I get the best possible intelligence unvarnished, that the intelligence community is no longer geared towards telling the president what they think the president wants to hear, but instead are going to be delivering the information that the president needs to make critical decisions to keep the American people safe.

I think what you’re also going to see is a team that is committed to breaking with some of the past practices and concerns that have, I think, tarnished the image of the agencies, the intelligence agencies, as well as U.S. foreign policy.

Last point I will make, though, on this is that there are outstanding intelligence professionals in the CIA, in DNI, and others, and I have the utmost regard for the work that they’ve done, and we are committed to making sure that this is a team effort that’s not looking backwards, but is looking forward to figure out how we’re going to serve the American people best, OK?

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Obama Appoints Celebrity Sanjay Gupta as Surgeon-General…

It seems Obama’s choice for Surgeon General is Sanjay Gupta, the medical doctor who is also a reporter for CNN. I guess folks like the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding have nothing to offer…

Oh well, the good news is that William Shatner is going to be named head of NASA and that guy from CSI shall be the new head of the FBI…

From WaPO

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

Celebrities need to stand up for one another, and Obama is definitely helping his celebrity friends out big time…

Oh, BTW, wasn’t CNN dubbed the Obama News Network during the campaign?

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Why Harry Reid Cannot Legitimately Refuse to Seat Roland Burris…

Harry Reid is definitely bluffing when he says the Senate won’t sit Roland Burris (or any other person appointed by Rod Blagojevich).

Thankfully, in Powell vs. McCormack the Warren Supreme Court clearly states that the only basis by which Congress can judge the qualification (and thereby the eligibility) of its members, are the qualifications prescribed in the Constitution of the United States:

Further, analysis of the “textual commitment” under Art. I, § 5 (see Part VI, B(1)), has demonstrated that, in judging the qualifications of its members, Congress is limited to the standing qualifications prescribed in the Constitution. Respondents concede that Powell met these. Thus, there is no need to remand this case to determine whether he was entitled to be seated in the 90th Congress. Therefore, we hold that, since Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was duly elected by the voters of the 18th Congressional District of New York and was not ineligible to serve under any provision of the Constitution, the House was without power to exclude him from its membership.

What are those Constitutional requirements, and does Roland Burris meet them?

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators:

1) each senator must be at least 30 years old.

2) must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years.

3) must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they seek to represent.

Roland Burris meets all 3, so either Harry Reid wants to have a Constitutional Crisis pitting him, and bunch of white men (and a few white women) in the Senate against the only Black Senator, a dynamic in which the race card shall supersede all others in the court of public opinion, or he’ll have to pick another battle… I think he’ll pick another battle…

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Blagojevich’s Coup In Appointing Roland Burris to Obama’s Senate Seat…

With Obama moving from the Senate to the White House, the US Senate would have zero black Senators. Since the Republic was founded, only 5 blacks have sat in the Senate:

In Reconstruction era

Senator	Party	State	Term	Lifespan	Former slave
Hiram Rhodes Revels	Republican	Mississippi	1870-1871	1822-1901	No
Blanche Bruce	Republican	Mississippi	1875-1881	1841-1898	Yes

In modern era

Senator	Party	State	Term	Lifespan
Edward Brooke	Republican	Massachusetts	1967-1979	1919-
Carol Moseley Braun	Democrat	Illinois	1993-1999	1947-
Barack Obama	Democrat	Illinois	2005-2008	1961-

I don’t care what nonsense Harry Reid wants to spew about Blagojevich having no integrity or what not, the fact of the matter is that no way, no how would the Democrats hope to retain the Black vote in future Congressional elections if it is perceived that they denied the only Black man (and a qualified one at that too) in the Senate his seat…

Of course the fact that Roland Burris is my fraternity brother, doesn’t hinder his cause in my eyes

Here’s the video of a most interesting press conference.

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